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JULY 2026
I
n the early 1970s, Brian R. D’Isernia made a very unusual career move—he went from prac-
ticing law to building fishing vessels. After falling in love with fishing on long line fishing 
trips, he got a hold of what one of his sons describes as “some leaky wooden fishing boats” 
from Honduras that he retrofitted for longlining swordfish off the Grand Banks. Brian soon 
headed to Florida to explore rumors of a large swordfish population in the Gulf of Mexico, 
making enough money to afford a new vessel that “wasn’t wooden and didn’t leak.”  
PHOTO: EASTERN SHIPBUILDING GROUP

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