NEW BEDFORD'S OLDEST FISHERMAN

José Soares is truly an old Sea Wolf.

Rijo valiant at 76 years old, still active, he was 9 years old when he was taken to sea in his homeland of Nazaré - Portugal, hidden from the maritime authorities.

He hid among the fishing equipment so that his father would be forced to take him with him. Once out on the high seas, he was tethered to his father in case the boat capsized, which it often did in the frigid seas of the northlands.

The sea only moved away from him when he did military service in Portuguese Guinea.
At the age of 21, he ventured into risky cod fishing in frigid Greenland.

Later, he worked on passenger ships in an adventure that led him, after a few years, to live in Acapulco Mexico.

Since 1989 until today, he has ventured into cod fishing on a 10-hour trip from the whaling town of New Bedford to the Canadian coast.

Married to a Cape Verdean from S. Jorge Fogo, he promises to visit Cape Verde.

Age passes him by and he still has a lot to give to this work, which is profitable and which is, above all, a great passion.

Oh. And there's more. Its stew is to taste and cry for more.

Valdir Alves