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At the time, Solano was running someone else’s
Viking, a premier sport fisherman. Comparing the BHM
to a Viking is like observing an ox beside a bull. The
Viking fiercely slices through the water. The Orion is the
ox: slow, strong and focused. It only travels at eight knots,
and when Solano takes it out he lives at sea on board for
two to five days.
Solano is an ox type of guy. He’s in his 30s and just mar-ried,
yet he is salty enough to be a fisherman from a much
earlier time. He and Orion are one.
The New Jersey native has been fishing most of his life,
and been involved in many aspects of the industry. Solano
received a degree in natural resource management and
fishery science from Rutgers School of Environmental and
Biological Sciences. He worked in the research field and
charter fished through college.
It was in New Jersey, where the water is cold and the
seasons short, that he first started fishing under the water,
beginning recreational diving and spearfishing by swim-ming
offshore to the Shrewsbury Rocks. This is where his
obsession with diving was born. He has the map tattooed
on his arm.
“The more I did it and improved at it, I realized I could
make a living doing it,” Solano says.
He bought Orion, had it shipped to North Carolina,
and began to transform it into an efficient commercial
spearfishing vessel. When he moved to Wilmington, he
bought a state permit that allowed him to sell fish like
African pompano, cobia and sheepshead.
“I didn’t know much about spearfishing here at first,” he
says. “I was more into free diving then. Even to this day, I
like it better, but commercially I realized to make a living
doing it, you have to strap on a tank.”
He also realized he’d have to get a federal permit called
a South Atlantic Snapper-Grouper Unlimited to turn a
profit. These fish are a spearfisherman’s bread and butter,
but a finite number of the permits exist, and they are being
retired at a quick rate. A fisherman must buy a permit that
already exists, and it can run up to $70,000.
This job is a lifestyle eliciting intense dedication. It
calls for diligence and demands a never-ending eager-ness
to learn. Fishermen work even when they’re not at
sea. Solano’s “off days” consist of maintaining the boat or
tackle, watching the weather and tides, and studying chlo-rophyll
levels to determine the visibility of the water. Any
spare time is spent telling fish tales and bending the ear of
other fishermen in an attempt to decipher what’s biting
that day.
“I’ll almost always have the boat ready to go,” Solano says.
The Orion leaves at night because the fishing ground
might be 75 miles away, which with her speed, could mean
a seven-hour boat ride. Solano usually brings one other
diver with him. One takes a shift at the wheel while the
other sleeps. By morning light, they will be anchored up
and diving.
“Although 60 or 70 miles may not seem so far away, out
on the ocean it’s just us, the freighters and the stars,” says
Jonathan Kent, one of the regular diving crew.
Jonathan Kent and Albie Solano with a trophy-sized black grouper and a hogfish, above right. Opposite: Solano’s dogs,
Marlei and Dela, supervise as Josh Brown helps Solano tie up after offloading their catch.
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WBM june 2017
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALBIE SOLANO
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