(NECN: Marnie MacLean, Portland, Maine) - The world first learned about Linda Greenlaw in "The Perfect Storm". She's the only female swordfishing captain in the country, perhaps the world. Now, she's featured in a Discovery Channel show about swordfishing and using her name to brand her fish.
After three months at sea, Linda Greenlaw is finally back home in Maine, and back with the boat she captained through the perfect storm back in 1991, a true story that became a book and a hollywood movie.
She took a ten year break from swordfishing after that, writing books and trying her hand at lobstering, but swordfishing is her true passion.
Greenlaw: "I like the way I feel when I am at sea...and I'm passionate about catching fish. Swordfishing is a huge adventure...traveling so far from land"
Linda and her crew made three trips to the Flemish Cap this season, bringing in more than 75 thousand pounds of swordfish.
The fishing hasn't changed much...it's still one fish against one man...or woman in this case...but Linda has found a way to strike a new deal for selling her catch.
Linda is working directly with specialty markets like Browne Trading Company in Portland. Her fish just came off the boat...is already being cut and sold to consumers with her name on it. It's a new concept in "branding"
One of the reasons Linda like the idea of branding her fish is because it means more money for her and her crew.
Local
Rod Mitchell-Browne Trading Company: "We buy the swordfish directly so we cut out all the middle men but we give them top dollar we would have paid after all the middle men have gone through so the boat is making much more money than it used to."
And consumers, many of whom recognize her name are hopefully more eager to buy the product.
Linda believes this kind of branding is the future of the fishing industry.. and she wanted to be ahead of the curve.
"I'm having a blast...I love my life...people ask me what are you going to do next. Going to do this for awhile...working pretty well."
