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Mayday Parade Announces Dates For Fall U.S. Headline Tour

Making their triumphant return to the stage, Mayday Parade are thrilled to announce their upcoming fall headline tour featuring support from Microwave. VIP pre-sale is available starting tomorrow, June 9 at 10 am local time, with general on-sale beginning this Friday, June 11 at 10 am local time. All tickets and additional information are available HERE .

The run kicks off on September 8 in their home state, Florida. Full routing can be found below. “We are beyond excited to hit the road once again this September,” guitarist Brooks Betts shared. “It’s been way too long, and we won’t keep you waiting any longer!”

Known for their incredibly high energy live shows, Mayday Parade released Live At Screaming Eagle earlier this year. The 4-track EP was recorded during their October 2020 virtual concert event dubbed the Out of Here Sessions. “I love how these songs turned out,” frontman Derek Sanders said. “Playing them live was a highlight of 2020 for me.”

2020 marked a stark departure for the Tallahassee, FL band, who typically play several festivals and hundreds of shows across North America and internationally each year. After spending most of the year apart, the band – Derek Sanders, Brooks Betts, Alex Garcia, Jake Bundrick, and Jeremy Lenzo – got together for two special virtual show events, starting with the Out of Here Session in October, followed by the Anywhere But Here Session which highlighted a front-to-back performance of their 2009 sophomore LP Anywhere But Here. In addition to the headline tour, the band already announced exciting performances at Riot Fest (Chicago, IL), Four Chord Music Fest (Pittsburgh, PA), Furnace Festival (Birmingham, AL), Nova Rock Festival (Austria), Greenfield Festival (Switzerland), Hurricane Festival (Germany), and Southside Festival(Germany), with more to come on the horizon.

Mayday Parade – Fall U.S. Tour Dates:

Sept 8 – High Dive – Gainesville, FL

Sept 10 – Culture Room – Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Sept 12 – Charleston Music Hall – Charleston, SC

Sept 14 – Georgia Theatre – Athens, GA

Sept 15 – Amos’ Southend – Charlotte, NC

Sept 17 – Four Chord Music Festival – Pittsburgh, PA*

Sept 18 – Riot Fest – Chicago, IL*

Sept 21 – Deluxe – Indianapolis, IN

Sept 22 – Mercury Ballroom – Louisville, KY

Sept 23 – Blue Note – Columbia, MO

Sept 25 – Furnace Fest – Birmingham, AL*

Sept 26 – Club LA – Destin, FL (no Microwave)

* festival date

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The Mexican hard rock sister trio’s show kick off at San Diego’s House Of Blues on January 18.

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After a whirlwind year that saw them releasing their explosive ‘Mayday’ EP and a new cover of Metallica’s classic “Enter Sandman” with singer-songwriter Alessia Cara , Monterrey Mexico hard rock sister trio The Warning have announced their debut U.S. headline tour for 2022.

With its Los Angeles shows at the Troubadour already sold out, the ‘Mayday’ Tour kicks off in San Diego on January 18, with the ticket pre-sale launching on December 7, locally on December 9, and to the general public December 10 via the band’s official website.

The Warning, who features sisters Daniela “Dany” [guitar, lead vocals, piano], Paulina “Pau” [drums, vocals, piano], and Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal [bass, piano, backing vocals], are a hard-hitting power trio who has built a global fan following with their infectious sound and unflinching lyrics.

In October, the band released their ‘Mayday’ EP via LAVA/Republic Records that included standout singles “Choke,” “Evolve”, “Disciple”, and “Martirio.” Produced by the legendary David Bendeth (Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon, Breaking Benjamin), the project is an electrifying musical rollercoaster that offers an unapologetic look at issues faced by the younger generation today — from ever-present technology, communication problems caused by generation gaps, love, anxiety, and the overwhelming pressure to suppress emotions.

In addition, the band’s cover of “Enter Sandman” was featured on The Metallica Blacklist , the 30-year anniversary reissue of Metallica’s legendary self-titled album.

It’s a continuation of a musical journey the trio kicked off by building a grassroots fanbase through their powerful online presence — quickly amassing over 120 million YouTube views and 15 million streams. They quickly captured the attention and admiration of a lineup of rock legends and were invited to perform with Alice Cooper , The Killers , Def Leppard , and most recently Metallica at the Welcome To Rockville Festival.

Buy or stream The Warning’s ‘Mayday’ EP .

The Warning’s ‘Mayday’ tour includes the following shows:

January 18 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues January 20 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour (SOLD OUT) January 22 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour (SOLD OUT) January 24 – Berkeley, CA – Cornerstone January 26 – Seattle, WA – Barboza January 27 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore January 29 – Salt Lake City, UT – Complex January 30 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater February 1 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line February 2 – Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge February 4 – Flint, MI – The Machine Stop February 5 – Pittsburg, PA – Jergels February 6 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry February 7 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall February 9 – NYC – Gramercy Theater February 11 – Reading, PA – Reverb February 12 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head February 13 – Richmond, VA – Canal Club February 15 – Atlanta, GA – Hell at The Masquerade February 16 – Tampa, FL – Orpheum February 19 – Austin, TX – Come and Take It February 20 – Dallas TX – The Studio at The Factory February 21 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live Studio February 25 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge February 26 – Santa Ana, CA- Constellation Room

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Mayday Announce 'Mayday [Fly to 2023]' European Tour

Tickets are on sale on Friday 1st September at 10am.

Mayday, the legendary Asian rock band that has taken the world by storm with their electrifying performances and unparalleled musical creativity, is set to grace the stage at The O2 on Tuesday, 28th November 2023, as part of their highly anticipated “MAYDAY [FLY TO 2023] EUROPEAN TOUR”. Tickets are on sale on Friday 1st September at 10am at  livenation.co.uk . 

LATEST NEWS

Mayday's "MAYDAY [FLY TO 2023] TOUR" has already left an indelible mark, garnering unprecedented attention with its groundbreaking online concert production. Filmed in real-time with extended reality technology, the concert combined air, land, and sea crews for a truly immersive experience.

The premiere drew an astounding 40 million viewers and ignited over 1 billion discussions across the digital landscape. As Mayday takes the stage at The O2 fans are invited to join the exhilarating journey and be a part of history in the making.

“MAYDAY [FLY TO 2023] EUROPEAN TOUR” DATES

TUESDAY 28TH NOV 2023 – THE O2, LONDON, UK

About Mayday

With an illustrious career spanning over 25 years, Mayday has been called the Beatles of the Chinese-speaking World. Hailing from Asia, the band has sold a staggering 10 million albums and rocked over 1,200 live stadium concerts across the world, leaving an indelible mark on audiences in Asia, the United States, Europe, and Australia.

The award-winning Mayday was formed with five members who have great musical creativity: Vocalist Ashin, guitarist Monster and Stone, bassist Masa, and drummer Ming. Mayday has released 9 studio albums and has toured globally, and their last international tour featured six sold-out shows in Hong Kong, with stops in Asia and the United States.

Mayday's accolades are a testament to their unmatched talent. With over 150 music awards from around the globe, including the MTV Video Music Awards Japan and multiple Golden Melody Awards, their prowess in songwriting, production, and performance knows no bounds. From conquering the Bird's Nest in Beijing to the historic Madison Square Garden in New York, Mayday has been breaking ground with their incredible live performances at iconic venues across the globe.

Tickets for Mayday's “MAYDAY [FLY TO 2023] EUROPEAN TOUR” UK tour date at The O2 will go on sale Friday 1st September 2023 at 10am. Don't miss this extraordinary opportunity to witness Mayday's unparalleled energy and musical brilliance live in concert. For ticket details and updates, please visit  livenation.co.uk .

   HIPPIE DEATH CULT: Nirvana cover + EU/US tour ...

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Mayday, the legendary Asian rock band that has taken the world by storm with their electrifying performances and unparalleled musical creativity, is set to grace the stage at The O2 on Tuesday, 28th November 2023, as part of their highly anticipated “MAYDAY [FLY TO 2023] EUROPEAN TOUR”.

Tickets are on sale on Friday 1 st  September at 10am at  livenation.co.uk .  Mayday’s “MAYDAY [FLY TO 2023] TOUR” has already left an indelible mark, garnering unprecedented attention with its groundbreaking online concert production. Filmed in real-time with extended reality technology, the concert combined air, land, and sea crews for a truly immersive experience.

The premiere drew an astounding 40 million viewers and ignited over 1 billion discussions across the digital landscape. As Mayday takes the stage at The O2 fans are invited to join the exhilarating journey and be a part of history in the making. With an illustrious career spanning over 25 years, Mayday has been called the Beatles of the Chinese-speaking World. Hailing from Asia, the band has sold a staggering 10 million albums and rocked over 1,200 live stadium concerts across the world, leaving an indelible mark on audiences in Asia, the United States, Europe, and Australia. The award-winning Mayday was formed with five members who have great musical creativity: Vocalist Ashin, guitarist Monster and Stone, bassist Masa, and drummer Ming. Mayday has released 9 studio albums and has toured globally, and their last international tour featured six sold-out shows in Hong Kong, with stops in Asia and the United States. Mayday’s accolades are a testament to their unmatched talent. With over 150 music awards from around the globe, including the MTV Video Music Awards Japan and multiple Golden Melody Awards, their prowess in songwriting, production, and performance knows no bounds. From conquering the Bird’s Nest in Beijing to the historic Madison Square Garden in New York, Mayday has been breaking ground with their incredible live performances at iconic venues across the globe.

Tickets for Mayday’s “MAYDAY [FLY TO 2023] EUROPEAN TOUR” UK tour date at The O2 will go on sale Friday 1 st  September 2023 at 10am.

Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity to witness Mayday’s unparalleled energy and musical brilliance live in concert. For ticket details and updates, please visit  livenation.co.uk .

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Mayday Parade Kicking Off ‘Welcome to Sunnyland’ Tour This Fall

Alt-rock, pop punk staple Mayday Parade are excited to announce that this October they will be kicking off their first North American headlining tour Welcome To Sunnyland Tour in support of their…

By Alessandra Rincón

Alessandra Rincón

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After wrapping up their headlining slot on this summer’s final nationwide Warped Tour, alt-rock staple Mayday Parade are excited to announce that this October they will be kicking off their Welcome to Sunnyland tour, in support of their recently released album Sunnyland .

The trek — their first North American headlining tour — will begin in the band’s hometown of Tallahassee, Florida, on October 2 and cover major cities across the U.S. and Canada before finishing up back in Florida, in Fort Lauderdale, in late November.

Goodbye, Warped Tour: 21 Bands Relive Their Favorite Festival Memories in Their Own Words

Welcome to Sunnyland will also feature acoustic rock duo This Wild Life , former Yellowcard  front man William Ryan Key and alt-rock up-and-comers Oh, Weatherly. 

VIP packages go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time and general admission tickets will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Trending on Billboard

Fans can purchase tickets here and check out the full list of tour dates below.

Welcome To Sunnyland: @thiswildlife , @williamryankey and @Ohweatherly VIP on sale 8/8 @ 10am local time GA on sale 8/10 @ 10am local time — https://t.co/ilW4f4hRYt pic.twitter.com/qTH3k4XAoP — Mayday Parade (@maydayparade) August 7, 2018

Welcome to Sunnyland North American tour dates:

Oct. 2 — Tallahassee, FL @ The Moon Oct. 4 — Birmingham, AL @ Iron City Oct. 5 — New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues Oct. 6 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Oct. 7 — San Antonio, TX @ Alamo City Music Hall Oct. 9 — Dallas, TX @ House of Blues Oct. 11– Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren Oct. 12 — Las Vegas, NV @ Vinyl @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Oct. 14 — San Diego, CA @ House of Blues Oct. 16 — Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues Oct. 17 — Berkeley, CA @ The UC Theatre Oct. 18 — Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades Oct. 20 — Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom Oct. 21 — Seattle, WA @ The Showbox Oct. 23 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex Oct. 24 — Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall Oct. 26 — Chicago, IL @ House of Blues Oct. 27 — Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave Oct. 28 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant Oct. 30 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue Nov. 1 — Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s Nov. 2 — Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre Nov. 3 — Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre Nov. 4 — Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall Nov. 6 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE Nov. 7 — Toronto, OH @ Rebel Nov. 8 — Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom Nov. 9 — Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom Nov. 10 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues Nov. 13 — New York, NY @ PlayStation Theater Nov. 14 —  Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Nov. 15 — Silver Spring, MD @ Fillmore Silver Spring Nov. 16 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Nov. 17 — Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade Nov. 18 — Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works Nov. 20 — Jacksonville, FL @ Maverick’s Nov. 21 — Tampa, FL @ The Ritz Ybor Nov. 23 — Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues Nov. 24 — Ft. Lauderdale @ Revolution Live

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• Add to cal November 18  |  8:00PM

Event Information

Mayday , Asia's top rock band that hails from Taiwan, announced that they will bring their MAYDAY [LIFE] NORTH AMERICAN TOUR to Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Saturday, November 18 . Information regarding tickets for this event will be released soon.

Mayday's [LIFE] WORLD TOUR, the band's 10th large-scale tour, is a spectacular performance with impressive production designed by world-renowned Creative Director LeRoy Bennett of Seven Design Works, who has worked with the likes of Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, and more.

The record-breaking quintet recently celebrated their 20th anniversary in March 2017 with an outdoor concert in Taipei and worldwide live stream of the show. Over 35,000 fans were in attendance but the live-stream received an incredible 101 million hits worldwide. 

Parm, an acclaimed casual Italian restaurant, is the perfect place to start your Barclays Center experience. Make your dinner reservation for Parm by calling 917.618.6340 or online through RESERVE .

For hotel information, please visit New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge . For special rates, check “corporate/promotional code” and then enter W85.

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Taiwanese rock band Mayday returning to National Stadium in January 2025

SINGAPORE – As promised, Mayday will be back for two concerts at the National Stadium in 2025, on Jan 11 and 12.

The Taiwanese rock band last performed two shows at the same venue in January 2024, as part of their Nowhere Re: Live 2024 Singapore tour.

Lead vocalist Ashin revealed on stage then that when the group were given the choice to stage their Nowhere or 25th anniversary #5525 Live Tour show in Singapore, they picked the former so they would have another reason to return.

He added: “The next time we come here, we will be celebrating a new birthday.”

The #5525 Live Tour commemorates the quintet’s 25 years in show business, marked by their debut album, Mayday’s First Album (1999). The band comprise Ashin, bassist Masa, drummer Guan You and guitarists Stone and Monster.

Mayday’s tour kicked off on Dec 31, 2023, in Taichung and has travelled to Kaohsiung, Hong Kong and Beijing so far. The set list includes hits such as OAOA (2011), Sun Wu Kong (2004) and Song Of Battle (2013).

The tour has also featured several guest stars, such as Taiwanese singer Cheer Chen in Beijing, Chinese singer Della Ding Dang in Taichung and Taiwanese boy band Energy in both Hong Kong and Beijing.

Ticketing details to the upcoming Singapore gigs have not been released.

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Mayday Parade tour dates 2024

Mayday Parade is currently touring across 2 countries and has 21 upcoming concerts.

Their next tour date is at The Backyard in Sacramento, after that they'll be at Cal Expo in Sacramento.

Currently touring across

Upcoming concerts (21) See nearest concert

Pepsi Amphitheater at Fort Tuthill Park

Sad Summer Festival 2024 feat. Mayday Parade, The Maine, The Wonder Years, We the Kings

Sad Summer Festival 2024 - Presented by Journeys and Converse

The Palladium

Terminal B at the Outer Harbor

ALT 104.5 Sad Summer Festival

All Your Friends Fest

When We Were Young

Past concerts

So What Music Festival

I Wanna Be Tour

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Recent tour reviews

They visited Manila once again and I was more than lucky to witness them perform live at New Frontier last May 5th. It was surreal like every song hits you to the core, which are my go-to when I want to listen to something so good. Hearing them live is even so better! Mayday Parades is indeed an emotion! I wish they could visit the Philippines again, soon. Or better yet have all my favorite bands come together at Bazooka Rocks!!!!

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It was awesome and lit as hell, I wish it never ended #maydayparade #foreveremotour was the best concert I've ever been to, since the 1st one I went to. The staff was cool - the hype of everyone & everything was soo cool. No complaints here!!!!! Hope they come back again.

Hands down the BEST show I've ever seen. The lighting was perfect and the band was even better. I've been listening to mayday parade since I was in middle school, 13 ish years. To see them live and in person was absolutely amazing. I Can't wait to see them again!

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The Mayday Call: How One Death at Sea Transformed a Fishing Fleet

The opioid epidemic has made a dangerous job even more deadly. And when there’s an overdose at sea, fishermen have to take care of one another.

Hollis Nevells aboard the Karen Nicole, a fishing vessel based in Massachusetts whose owner adopted a Narcan training program because of rising opioid overdoses in the industry. Credit... David Guttenfelder for The New York Times

Supported by

By C.J. Chivers

C.J. Chivers is a staff writer for the magazine. He reported from fishing ports in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey for several months.

• June 6, 2024

The call from the Atlantic Ocean sounded over VHF radio on a midsummer afternoon. “Mayday, mayday, mayday,” the transmission began, then addressed the nearest U.S. Coast Guard command center. “Sector Delaware Bay, this is the vessel Jersey Pride. Come in.”

Listen to this article, read by James Patrick Cronin

About 40 miles east-southeast of Barnegat Light, N.J., the Jersey Pride, a 116-foot fishing vessel with a distinctive royal blue hull, was towing a harvesting dredge through clam beds 20 fathoms down when its crew found a deckhand unresponsive in a bunk. The captain suspected an overdose. After trying to revive the man, he rushed to the radio. “Yes, Coast Guard, uh, I just tried to wake a guy up and he’s got black blood in his nose,” he said, sounding short of breath on Channel 16, the international hailing and distress frequency for vessels at sea. “I got guys working on him. Come in.”

The seas were gentle, the air hot. In cramped crew quarters in the forepeak, the deckhand, Brian Murphy, was warm but not breathing in a black tee and jeans. He had no discernible pulse. Dark fluid stained his nostrils. A marine welder and father of four, Murphy, 40, had been mostly unemployed for months, spending time caring for his children while his wife worked nights. A few days earlier, while he was on a brief welding gig to repair the Jersey Pride at its dock, the captain groused about being short-handed. Murphy agreed to fill in. Now it was July 20, 2021, the third day of the first commercial fishing trip of his life. Another somber sequence in the opioid epidemic was nearing its end.

“Captain,” a Coast Guard petty officer asked, “is there CPR in progress?”

“Yes, there is,” the captain replied.

About 17 miles to the Jersey Pride’s southeast, the fishing vessel Karen Nicole was hauling back its two scallop dredges and preparing to swing aboard its catch. Through the low rumble of the 78-foot boat’s diesel engine and the high whine of its winches, the mate, Hollis Nevells, listened to the conversation crackling over a wheelhouse radio. Nevells had lost a brother-in-law and about 15 peers to fatal overdoses. When the Jersey Pride’s captain broadcast details of his imperiled deckhand — “His last name is Murphy,” he said — Nevells understood what he heard in human terms. That’s someone’s son or brother, he thought.

Nevells knew the inventory of his own vessel’s trauma kit. It contained bandages, tape, tourniquets, splints, analgesics and balms, but no Narcan, the opioid antidote. Without it, there was little to do beyond hope the Jersey Pride’s captain would announce that the other deckhands successfully revived their co-worker. Only then, Nevells knew, would the Coast Guard send a helicopter.

Murphy remained without vital signs. His pupils, the captain told the Coast Guard, had dilated to “the size of the iris.” The Jersey Pride swung its bow shoreward toward the Manasquan River, where medical examiners would meet the boat at its dock. Another commercial fisherman was gone.

Since the opioid crisis hit the United States in the late 1990s, no community has been spared. First with prescription painkillers, then with heroin after tighter prescription rules pushed people dependent on opioids to underground markets, and more recently with illicitly manufactured fentanyl and its many analogues, the epidemic has killed roughly 800,000 people by overdose since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With fatalities averaging more than 80,000 a year for three years running, it is the nation’s leading cause of accidental death.

The death toll includes victims from all walks of life, but multiple studies illuminate how fatalities cluster along occupational lines. A 2022 report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health noted that employees in fishing, forestry, agriculture and hunting had the highest rates of all industries, closely followed by workers in construction trades. The news affirmed what was visible on these jobs. Federal data had long established that such workers — at risk from falls, equipment mishaps or drowning — were the most likely to die in workplace accidents in the United States. Now opioids stalked their ranks disproportionately, too.

In fishing fleets, the reasons are many and clear. First is the grueling nature of the job. “The fishing industry and the relationship to substance use is the story of pain, mental and physical pain, and the lack of access to support,” says J.J. Bartlett, president and founder of Fishing Partnership Support Services, a nonprofit that provides free safety training to fishing communities in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic.

The risk is also rooted in how fishery employment is organized. Crew members on fishing vessels are typically independent contractors paid a fraction of the profit (a “share,” in industry jargon) after each trip. They generally lack benefits or support common to full-time employment on land, including health insurance, paid sick time and access to human-resource departments or unions. Physical conditions factor in, too. Offshore fishing boats tend to operate ceaselessly. Captains divide crew work into long, overlapping watches that offer little sleep and require arduous labor on slick, pitching decks, sometimes in extreme weather. The work can assume an ultramarathon character. When a valuable catch is running, as squid do in summer south of Nantucket, many boats will fill holds or freezers over several days, return to port to offload, then immediately take on food, fuel and ice and head back out, a practice known as “turn and burn” that can leave crews haggard. Stress, pain and injuries are inherent in such circumstances, including common musculoskeletal injuries and, on scallop vessels, an unusual and excruciating affliction known as “the grip” — caused by constant shucking — that can make hands curl and seize up for days. No matter the suffering, deckhands are expected to keep pace. Those who can are rewarded with checks, sometimes large checks, and respect, an intangible more elusive than wealth. Those who can’t are not invited back.

Its hardships notwithstanding, the industry is a reservoir of human drive and ocean-roaming talent, providing good wages and meaningful work to the independent-minded, the rugged, the nomadic and the traditionally inclined, along with immigrants and people with criminal records or powerful allergies to the stultifying confines of office life. On the water, pedigree and background checks mean little. Reputation is all. In this way, the vessels preserve a professional culture as old as human civilization and bring to shore immense amounts of healthful food, for which everyone is paid by the pound, not by the hour.

Taken together, these circumstances pressure deckhands to work through fatigue, ailments and injuries. One means is via stimulants or painkillers, or both, making it no surprise that in the fentanyl era fishing crews suffer rates of fatal overdose up to five times that of the general population. “This is an unaddressed public-health crisis,” Bartlett says, “for workers without a safety net.”

Commercial fishing in the United States also operates in a gap in the legal framework governing other industries running vessels at sea. The federal regulations mandating drug-testing for mariners on vessels in commercial service — including ferries, tugs and cargo ships as well as research and charter boats — exempt all fishing boats except the very largest. Some companies screen anyhow. But with no legal requirement, captains and crews are generally tested only after a serious incident, like a sinking, collision or death on deck. Toxicology tests are also performed on fishermen’s corpses, when the authorities manage to recover them. “We always find out too late,” says Jason D. Neubauer, deputy chief of the Coast Guard’s Office of Investigations & Casualty Analysis. One of Neubauer’s uncles, a lumberjack, was addicted to heroin for decades. “I take this personally every time I see a mariner dying from drugs,” he says, “because I have seen the struggle.”

None of these employment factors are new. Working fishermen have always faced pain, exhaustion and incentives to work through both. (A weeklong trip aboard a scalloper, among the most remunerative fishing jobs, can pay $10,000 or more — a check no deckhand wants to miss.) Heroin, cocaine and amphetamines were common in ports a generation ago. Veteran captains say drug use was much more widespread then, before smaller catch limits and tighter regulations forced the industry to trim fleets and sometimes the size of crews. Contraction, employers say, compelled vessels to hire more selectively, reducing the presence of illicit drugs.

If use is down, potency is up. Much of the increased danger is because of fentanyl, which the Drug Enforcement Administration considers 50 times stronger than heroin. Fentanyl suppresses respiration and can kill quickly, challenging the industry’s spirit of self-reliance. When offshore, laboring between heaving seas and endless sky, fishermen cook for themselves, repair damaged equipment themselves and rely on one another for first aid. Everything depends on a few sets of able hands. Barring calamity, there exists no expectation of further help. The ethos — simultaneously celebrated and unsettling — is largely the same over the horizon off the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, in fisheries bringing billions of pounds of seafood to consumers each year. When the severity of an ailment or injury is beyond what crews can manage alone, a baked-in math restricts access to trauma care. Fishing vessels routinely operate eight hours or more from land, putting employees in circumstances utterly different from those of most workers in the United States, where response times for E.M.T.s are measured in minutes. The Coast Guard runs a highly regarded search-and-rescue service, but when a vessel’s location is remote or a storm howling, Coast Guard aircraft might require hours to arrive. Urgency does not eliminate distance and weather. A fentanyl overdose can kill in minutes, a timeline no Coast Guard asset can beat.

As the epidemic has claimed crew member after crew member, the death toll has been behind a push to bring harm-reduction strategies out onto the ocean. Chief among them are efforts to train crews to identify and treat an overdose and a push to saturate fleets with naloxone, the opioid antagonist, commonly administered as a nasal spray under the trade name Narcan, that can reverse overdoses and retrieve a fading patient from a mortal slide. The initiatives have made some inroads. But in a proud industry where names are made on punishing work and high-seas savvy, naloxone distribution has also faced resistance from vessel owners or captains concerned about the message carrying Narcan might send. Where proponents have succeeded, they have done so in part by demonstrating that harm reduction isn’t an abdication of fishermen’s responsibility — but a natural extension of it.

Before venturing into commercial fishing, Brian Murphy endured a run of difficult years. He separated from his wife in 2015 and moved to Florida, where he found, then lost, employment before running low on cash during the pandemic. He returned in late 2020 to his wife’s home in Vineland, reuniting their children with both parents and putting himself within an hour or so of commercial fishing docks along the shore. He hoped to find work welding for the fleet as he co-parented and put his life in order. “He was getting there,” his wife, Christina, says. “All he needed was a job.”

The deckhand position looked like the break he sought. It paid roughly $1,000 for three days at sea. The captain, Rodney Bart, seemed more than accommodating. Though he lived about 70 miles away, he agreed to pick up Murphy before the trip. Murphy told his wife he might put his wages toward a car, which could help him find a land job. Christina had reservations. She had heard stories of captains’ working crews past exhaustion and tolerating drugs on board. But she understood that her husband needed work. The back of his neck bore a small tattoo of the letter M adorned with a crown. “King Murph,” he called himself. He longed for that old stride.

What his family did not know was that the Jersey Pride, a boat that formerly enjoyed an excellent reputation, was in decline. Its hull and bulkheads were thick with rust. Its big gray-bearded captain, Bart, struggled with addiction to opioids and meth. A friend warned Murphy the vessel was “bad news,” says Murphy’s father, Brian Haferl. Murphy took the job anyhow.

On July 17, 2021, the evening before Murphy departed, he stayed up playing Call of Duty with a younger brother, Doug Haferl. Christina worked the night shift at a trucking firm. She returned home in the darkness and gave Brian a bag of bedding and clean clothes. When Bart showed up before dawn, Murphy dipped into the bedroom to say goodbye. Christina shared what cash she had — about $15 — to put toward cigarettes. “I didn’t have much else to give him,” she says. Then her husband left, off to make a check.

For two days Christina wondered how Brian was doing and whether he was getting sleep. I hope that blanket was enough, she thought. On the third day, a friend from a boatyard called. He said that Murphy was unconscious on the boat and that the Coast Guard might be flying out to help. Christina chose hope. “I figured they’d probably get the helicopter out there and revive him,” she says. About a half-hour later, a Coast Guard captain arrived at her home to inform her Brian was dead.

The captain shared what investigators gleaned at the dock: Murphy hurt his back, was pacing back and forth and had been in an argument with another deckhand. He got into a bunk to rest, and was soon found lifeless. “They just said he was acting really weird,” she says. The Coast Guard captain also said a small plastic bag had been found with him that appeared to contain drug residue. Christina was suspicious. Her husband had no money to buy drugs, and though he occasionally used Percocet pills and meth in the past, had not been using since returning home.

The same night, a police officer called Murphy’s father to notify him. Haferl was enraged. He told the officer that someone on the vessel must have given his son drugs and that he was heading to the dock with a rifle. “The guys on that boat better duck,” he said. The officer advised against this. If he caused a disturbance boatside, Haferl recalls him saying, “We’re going to be fishing you out of the river.”

Haferl could not rush to the Jersey Pride anyhow. Fishermen are paid by what they catch. Once medical examiners took custody of Murphy’s body, the vessel slipped back out the inlet to continue clamming. Murphy had boarded the boat with a duffel from home. He was carried off in jeans, socks and a T-shirt. Not even his shoes came back. When the Jersey Pride completed its trip, his family started calling Bart, the captain, seeking answers and Brian’s personal effects. Bart did not return calls. Neither did the owner, Doug Stocker. Eventually, Christina said, the friend from the boatyard dropped off her husband’s wallet and a phone. Both were sealed in plastic bags. Silence draped over the case. “No one was telling anyone anything,” Murphy’s father said.

Stocker, the Jersey Pride’s owner, relieved Bart of his position in fall 2021, then died that December. Bart died in 2023. Murphy’s family learned little beyond the contents of the autopsy report from the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s office. Its toxicology results were definitive. They showed the presence of fentanyl, methamphetamine and the animal tranquilizer xylazine in Murphy’s cardiac blood, leading the examiner to rule his death a result of “acute toxic effects” of three drugs. (Xylazine is another recent adulterant in black-market drug supplies.)

The report also revealed a surprise: Murphy’s blood contained traces of naloxone. Why he died nonetheless raised more unanswered questions. There were possible explanations. The crew may have administered naloxone perimortem, at the moment of death, too late to save his life but in time to show up in his blood. Alternately, the fentanyl may have been too potent for the amount of naloxone on board and failed to revive Murphy at all. A more disturbing possibility, which suggested a potential lapse in training, was that after Murphy received Narcan, Bart opted to let him rest and recover, and either the naloxone wore off or the other drugs proved lethal without intervention.

The last possibility was both maddening to consider and hard to fathom, given Bart’s personal experience with the sorrows of the epidemic. His adult daughter, Maureen, became dependent on prescription painkillers after a hip injury, completed rehab and relapsed fatally in 2018. Wracked with grief, Bart, who in 2017 completed an outpatient detox program for his own addiction, resumed use, one relative said. In March 2018 he overdosed aboard the Jersey Pride while it was alongside an Atlantic City dock. Narcan saved the captain that day. His pain deepened. His son, Rodney Bart Jr., followed him into clamming as a teenager and rose to become a mate on another clamming vessel, the John N. In 2020, about a year before Murphy died, Bart’s son fatally overdosed on fentanyl and heroin while towing a dredge off the Jersey Shore.

A federal wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Rodney Jr.’s family in early 2023 sketched a work force in addiction’s grip. It claimed that for more than six months before Rodney Jr.’s overdose, he complained that “the entire crew including the captain were using heroin during fishing operations”; that the captain supplied heroin to the crew, including to Rodney Jr.; that another crew member almost died by overdose on board in 2019; that Rodney Jr. nearly stepped on a needle on the boat; and that he saw “the captain nodded out” in the wheelhouse several times. Immediately after Rodney Jr.’s death, the suit claimed, the captain discussed with the crew “fabricating a story to the United States Coast Guard that decedent had died at the dock.” That night, the suit claimed, the captain falsely told the authorities that Rodney Jr. suffered a heart attack.

The parties settled early this year for an undisclosed sum. In telephone interviews, an owner of the vessel, John Kelleher, said he had zero tolerance for drug use and was not aware his crew was injecting heroin. After the death, he said, “I fired everybody that was on that boat.” Kelleher’s vessels now carry Narcan, though he was ambivalent about its presence. “It says it’s OK to have a heroin addict on the boat?” he asked. “I don’t want to promote that on the boat. We owe millions of dollars to the bank. You can’t have crews out there to catch clams driving around in circles.”

Hours after Murphy died, the Karen Nicole’s mate, Hollis Nevells, used a satellite phone to call his wife, Stacy Alexander-Nevells, in Fairhaven, Mass. The Karen Nicole is part of a large family-run enterprise in greater New Bedford, the most lucrative fishing port in the United States. Alexander-Nevells, a daughter of the business’s founder, grew up in commercial fishing. She sensed something was wrong. “Is everyone OK?” she asked.

“I just heard someone die on the radio,” Nevells said. “It was so close, so close, and I couldn’t help.”

Hearing strain in his voice, Alexander-Nevells was swept with pain. Her brother Warren Jr., a shore worker in the family business, died of a prescription-opioid overdose in 2009. She lived quietly in that shadow. Thinking of Murphy’s fellow crew members, and of other boats listening as the captain publicly broadcast Murphy’s deathbed symptoms, she felt an inner wall fall. “That was the first time I started processing how far-reaching one death could be, especially a preventable one,” she says. “For days I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

In a conversation with a girlfriend, her friend mentioned Narcan. Alexander-Nevells knew of the drug, but thought of it as something administered only by emergency medical workers. That was no longer true. In 2018 Massachusetts authorized pharmacies to dispense Narcan without a prescription to opioid users, their families and “persons in a position to assist individuals at risk of experiencing an opioid-related overdose.” The Alexander fleet, employing more than 100 people in a high-risk industry, qualified. (Last year the Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan for over-the-counter sales, removing more barriers to distribution.) Had the Karen Nicole carried naloxone, Alexander-Nevells thought, Murphy might still be alive. Still she balked. She realized she knew almost nothing about the drug. “I didn’t know dose,” she says. “I didn’t know how to use it.”

All around the harbor there were signs of need. For as long as any commercial fisherman could remember, greater New Bedford suffered from widespread substance use. Before recent pockets of shoreline gentrification appeared, some of the city’s former bars, notably the National Club, were the stuff of coastal legend. Older fishermen say there was little in the 1990s like the National during nor’easters and hurricanes, when scores of boats lashed together in port, rain and gales blasted the streets and crews rode out the weather at the bar. Booze flowed. Drugs were easy to find. And fishermen between trips often had wads of cash. “We were basically pirates back then,” one older scalloper says. “The way we lived, the way we fished. It was a free-for-all.” The scalloper, later incarcerated in Maine for heroin possession, says he stopped using opioids before fentanyl tainted the heroin supply. “I got out just in time,” he says. “It’s the only reason I’m still alive.” (His girlfriend’s son, a young fisherman, overdosed fatally the week before; to protect his household’s privacy, he asked that his name be withheld.) Capt. Clint Prindle, who commands the Coast Guard sector in southeastern New England, also recalls the era. As a young officer he was stationed in New Bedford on the cutter Campbell. The tour, he says, “was the only time in my career I was issued puncture-resistant gloves” — a precaution against loose syringes on fishing vessels.

For all these stories, the fishing industry was hardly the sole driver of the city’s underground trade, and drug use there remains widespread independent of the fleet. An investigation by The New Bedford Light, a nonprofit news site, found that one in every 1,250 city residents died of an overdose in 2022, more than twice the rate statewide. (Nationally, about one in 4,070 people died of opioid overdoses in 2022.) The report also found that about one out of eight New Bedford residents had enrolled in drug- or alcohol-addiction treatment since 2012. Such data aligns with the experience of Tyler Miranda, a scallop-vessel captain who grew up in the city. “The people who had money were drug dealers or fishermen,” he says. “When I was young, I knew a few fishermen, but most of my friends were in the other business.” These conditions helped make overdoses part of the local medical routine, prompting the city, with help from organizations like Fishing Partnership, to distribute free Narcan.

The movement has still not been fully embraced. A survey of commercial fishing captains published last year in The American Journal of Industrial Medicine suggested that skepticism about stocking Narcan persisted. Of 61 captains, 10 had undergone naloxone training, and only five said their vessels carried the drug. The survey’s data ended in 2020, and Fishing Partnership says the numbers have risen. Since 2016, the partnership’s opioid-education and Narcan-distribution program has trained about 2,500 people in the industry from Maine to North Carolina, about 80 percent of them in the last three years, says Dan Orchard, the partnership’s executive vice president. But with resistance lingering, Alexander-Nevells was unsure whether she could get Narcan on her family’s fleet. That would depend on her father, Warren J. Alexander.

Alexander is a tall, reserved man with neatly combed white hair who entered commercial fishing in the 1960s at age 13 by packing herring on weekends at Cape May. As a young man he lobstered, potted sea bass and worked on trawlers and clammers before setting out on his own with the purchase of a decades-old wooden schooner. The boat sank near Cape May while returning in a storm; Alexander tells the story of hearing its propeller still turning as he treaded water above the descending hull. Undeterred, he gambled big, having steel clamming vessels built in shipyards in the Gulf of Mexico and bringing them north. By the 1990s he was one of New Jersey’s most successful clam harvesters, and odds were good that any can of clam chowder in the United States contained shellfish scraped from the sea floor by an Alexander dredge. He moved the business to New England in 1993, weathering two more sinkings and a pair of fatal accidents as it continued to grow. In the ensuing years, he left clamming and largely switched to scalloping, and now owns more than 20 steel vessels, which he watches over from a waterfront warehouse, greeting captains and crews with the soft-spoken self-assurance of a man who has seen it all.

His daughter knew him as more than a fleet manager. He was a father who lost his son, Warren Jr., to opioids. He lived the torturous contours of the epidemic firsthand. She pitched her idea with shared loss in mind. Warren listened and ruled. “I’m not going to mandate it,” he said. “But if you can get captains to agree to it, you can give it a try.”

The Fishing Partnership’s program to put naloxone on boats and provide crews with overdose first-aid training began after Debra Kelsey, a community health worker, met a grieving fisherman at an event of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association in 2015. The man’s son fatally overdosed about six months before. “He told me his ex-wife had been instrumental in getting Narcan into the hands of the police in Quincy, where he was from,” she says. Kelsey was intrigued — first by the lifesaving value of naloxone, but also by who was trained and designated to carry it.

She lived with a fisherman. She knew the industry and admired its inviolable code: Out on the ocean, fishing boats rushed to help each other. Whether flooding, fire or medical emergency, they came to one another’s aid, and in many cases were first on the scene. “In a mayday call,” she says, “a fishing vessel will often get there before the Coast Guard.” In the particular conditions of work on the water, fishermen functioned as first responders. Kelsey wondered if this ancient trait could be harnessed to save lives in new ways. Naloxone dispensers felt like a suddenly necessary component in vessel safety kits — just like fire extinguishers and throwable lifesaving rings.

In 2017, in part at her urging, Fishing Partnership introduced overdose education and naloxone distribution into the free first-aid classes it offered to captains and crews. Buoyed by a federal grant to New Bedford, the program expanded in 2019 and found an ally in the Coast Guard, which often hosted the partnership’s training sessions at its stations in fishing ports. Its officers echoed Kelsey’s view that naloxone dispensers had become essential onboard equipment.

Naloxone still faced barriers, often from fishermen themselves. Many captains insisted that they forbade illicit drugs and that carrying naloxone functioned as a hypocritical wink, a suggestion that drugs were allowed. Stigma, too, played a role. “People were like, ‘These fishermen are drunks, they’re addicts, they’re living the wild life,’” Kelsey says. She disagreed — addiction isn’t a moral failure, she’d say, it’s a disease — and pressed her message. Stocking naloxone did not mean condoning drug use. It meant a vessel was more fully aligned with the mariner’s code.

Stigma was not the only obstacle. Fear played a role as well. The Coast Guard, for all its support, is a complicated harm-reduction partner. It operates as both a rescue and law-enforcement agency, which leaves many fishermen with a split-screen perception of the organization — appreciating the former role while bristling at the latter. Worries about inviting police action on a boat already dealing with a crew member down make some captains reluctant to report drug-related medical issues, says Captain Prindle, the service’s sector commander. “Often we’ll get a case where the master of a vessel reports they have a cardiac issue or shortness of breath or anxiety issues,” he says. “They leave out the opioids piece.”

Upon returning to the region in 2021, Prindle began attending the partnership’s Narcan training sessions, at which he assured attendees that if they made a mayday call for an overdose, Coast Guard teams would focus on saving a mariner’s life, not on searching for contraband. His message aligned with the experience of service members who patrol the waters. “I don’t think any of us on this boat, when we have an opioid overdose to deal with, want to arrest anybody,” says Petty Officer Third Class Justus Christopher, who runs a 47-foot motor lifeboat out of Martha’s Vineyard. Christopher recalls a vessel with a deckhand in withdrawal. “We got a call that a guy was afraid for his life, and it was a guy dopesick in his bunk,” he says. Other crew members, seething that the deckhand stopped working for his share, were hazing him. Someone defecated in his hat, Christopher said, and smeared Icy Hot in his bedding. The boarding team removed the man. “It never went through our minds to search the boat for drugs,” Christopher said.

With naloxone now available, converts to harm reduction are becoming plentiful around ports. Nuno Lemos, 50, a deckhand in his eighth year of abstinence, moved to New Bedford from Portugal as a teenager. While in high school he did his first commercial trip, working on a trawler and earning $1,200 in five days. On some boats back then, he said, captains dispensed stimulants and painkillers as performance enhancers. His use grew heavy. Between fishing trips, he smoked crack for days, then snorted heroin to come down. “Chasing the dragon,” he says. The habit consumed his income, so he supplemented wages by pinching cash from fellow deckhands’ wallets and hiding fish and scallops under ice below deck, then retrieving the stolen product at the dock for black-market wholesalers. His professional reputation plummeted. He spiraled at home too. Lemos had a son with a woman also battling addiction. In no condition to raise their child, they both lost access to the boy. Her parents took over his care. “I was selfish and self-centered,” he says. “The drugs ran the show.”

In 2016, Lemos hit bottom. He walked off a fishing boat that was laid up in Provincetown during a storm and binge-drank for hours, then burglarized a home to fund a bus ride back to New Bedford. That afternoon he took refuge in the unfinished basement of a bakery and injected what he thought was heroin. He collapsed. His mother, who rented an apartment upstairs, summoned paramedics, who reversed the overdose with naloxone. Lemos shrugged off his brush with death. “I was in the hospital for a few hours, and I got high right after,” he says. But the experience left its impression. He got his hands on Narcan and kept two other people alive. One was a fisherman named Mario, the other “a kid on Rivet Street,” he says, whom he barely knew. Later that year, ashamed and worried he would die without knowing his son, he checked into rehab. Months later he resumed work, first hanging drywall, then back on scalloper decks. As his sobriety lasted, he reunited with his son. His praise of naloxone now borders on liturgy. “Narcan is a God-given thing that should be part of everybody’s training, especially in the business that I am in,” he says. “It’s a pivotal tool of survival that should be on every boat.”

Another fisherman, Justin Souza, 38, started fishing at age 20 and soon was taking opioid pills to manage pain. He moved to heroin when OxyContin became scarce on the streets. When fentanyl entered underground markets, he says, it started killing his friends, ultimately claiming about 20 people he knew, a half-dozen of them fishermen. His first encounter with naloxone was jarringly personal: He was in an apartment with a friend who slipped into unconsciousness and was gargling for breath. “My buddy was dying, and I had a bag of drugs,” he said. “It was either call 911 or my buddy is dead. So I called 911, hid the stuff, and they came and hit him with Narcan.” The man survived. Souza was arrested on an unrelated possession charge in 2017. In jail he changed course. “I cried out to Jesus,” he said, “and he showed up.”

Upon release he entered treatment and has been abstinent since, for which he credits God. Reliable again, Souza was hired by Tyler Miranda, captain of the scallop vessel Mirage, who promoted him to engineer, the crew member responsible for maintaining the boat’s winches and power plant. The Mirage’s crew is a testament to the power of redemption. Once addicted to opioids himself, Miranda has abstained since 2017. He became captain two years into his sobriety, and stocked naloxone onboard shortly after.

Eight days after Brian Murphy died, Kelsey and a co-worker showed up at the Ocean Wave, one of Alexander’s scallopers, to train its crew. The instructors mixed demonstrations on how to administer Narcan — one spray into one nostril, the second into the other — with assurances that the drug was harmless if used on someone suffering a condition other than overdose. The training carried another message, which was not intuitive: Merely administering Narcan was not enough. Multiple dispensers were sometimes required to restore a patient’s breathing, and this was true even if a patient resumed seemingly normal respiration. If the opioids were particularly potent, a patient might backslide as the antagonist wore off. Patients in respiratory distress also often suffered “polysubstance overdoses,” like fentanyl mixed with other drugs, including cocaine, amphetamines or xylazine. Alcohol might be involved, too. With so many variables, anyone revived with naloxone should be rushed to professional care. In an overdose at sea, they said, a victim’s peers should make a mayday call, so the Coast Guard could hurry the patient to a hospital.

After the partnership trained two more Alexander crews, Warren heard positive feedback from his captains. He issued his judgment. “Now it’s mandatory,” he said. Within weeks of the Jersey Pride’s mayday call, Narcan distribution and training became permanent elements of the company’s operation. Alexander-Nevells credits Murphy. He spent about 72 hours as a commercial fisherman, died on the job and left a legacy. “He changed my dad’s fleet,” she says. “I know for a fact that without Brian Murphy, this program doesn’t exist.”

In New Jersey, where Murphy’s family suffered the agonies of sudden, unexpected loss, followed by the humiliation of being ghosted by those who knew what happened to him aboard the Jersey Pride, the changes to the Alexander fleet came as welcome news. His brother, Doug Haferl, recalls his sibling with warmth and gratitude. Their parents divorced when the kids were young, and their father worked long hours as a crane operator. Brian assumed the role of father figure. “He took me and my brother Tom under his wing,” he says. The thought that Brian’s death helped put naloxone on boats and might one day save a life, he says, “is about the best thing I could hope for.”

Deckhands and captains come and go. Naloxone dispensers expire. To keep the fleet current, Alexander-Nevells booked refresher training throughout 2023 and into 2024. At one class, Kelsey met the Karen Nicole’s captain and five-person crew. The group gathered in the galley. Everyone present had lost friends. Kelsey recited symptoms. “If someone overdoses,” she said, “they will make a noise — ”

“It’s a gargle,” said Myles Jones, a deckhand. “I know what it is.”

He stood by a freezer, a compact, muscular man in a white sleeveless tee. “I’ve lost a son,” he said. The room fell still.

“I’m sorry,” Kelsey said. She stepped across the galley and wrapped him in a hug. Jones managed a pained smile. “I lost an uncle, too,” he said.

Kelsey continued the class, then examined the Narcan aboard to ensure it had not expired. The boat headed to sea.

In the wheelhouse, the mate, Hollis Nevells, said that Narcan fit a mentality fishing jobs require. He shared a story of a drunk fisherman who crashed a house party years ago in his hometown on Deer Isle, Maine. To prevent him from driving his pickup truck, other guests took his keys and stashed them atop a refrigerator. Furious, the man produced a pistol, pointed it at Nevells’s face and demanded the keys’ return. Thus persuaded, Nevells retrieved them. The man drove away only to call a short while later, upset. His truck was stuck in mud. He wanted help. Several fishermen drove to him, separated him from the pistol and beat the truck with baseball bats until it was totaled. “Island justice,” Nevells said. In his view, carrying Narcan matched this rough, self-help spirit: On the ocean, crews needed to solve problems themselves, and with Narcan came the power to save a life. Nevells had lost many peers to overdoses, among them the man who leveled the pistol at his face. He remembered feeling helpless as the Jersey Pride broadcast graphic descriptions at the hour of Murphy’s death. He did not want to feel that way again.

The captain, Duane Natale, agreed. He had seen firsthand how delaying death bought time for a rescue. Scallopers tow massive steel dredges that cut furrows through the ocean bottom and snatch scallops along the way. By winch and boom, the dredges are periodically lifted above deck to shake out catch, then lowered again. The procedure is exceptionally dangerous. A swinging dredge, about 15 feet wide and weighing more than a ton, can crush a man in one sickening crunch. In the 1990s, Natale saw a falling dredge shear off a deckhand’s extended right arm. A makeshift tourniquet tightened around the stump kept the man alive until a helicopter lifted him away. Had they not been trained, the deckhand would have died. Natale saw a similar role for Narcan: a means to stop a fatality and let the Coast Guard do its work. “I like it a lot,” he said. “Last thing I want on my conscience is someone dying on my boat.”

In water 45 fathoms deep the boat steamed at 4.8 knots, towing dredges through sandy muck while the crew sweated through an incessant loop. From a hydraulic control station at the wheelhouse’s aft end, Nevells or Natale periodically hoisted the dredges and shook out tons of scallops, which slid out onto the steel deck in rumbling cascades of pink-and-white shells. Working fast, Hollis and the deckhands shoveled the catch into baskets and hustled it to sheltered cutting stations, where with stainless-steel knives they separated each scallop’s adductor muscle — the portion that makes its way to seafood cases and restaurant plates — from its gob of guts. Hands worked fast, flicking adductors into buckets and guts down chutes that plopped them onto greenish water beside the hull. Large sharks swam lazy circles alongside, turning to flash pale undersides while inhaling easy meals. Music thumped and blared: metal one hour, techno the next. When enough buckets were full of meat and rinsed in saltwater, two deckhands transferred the glistening, ivory-colored catch into roughly 50-pound cloth sacks, handed them down a hatch into the cool fish-hold and buried them beneath ice. Everyone else kept shucking.

The deckhands worked in staggered pairs: 11 hours of shoveling and shucking followed by four hours to shower, eat, sleep and bandage hands, then back on deck for 11 more hours. It continued for days. Daylight became dusk; dusk became night; night became dawn. Sea states changed. Fog and mist soaked the crew and shrouded the vessel, then lifted, revealing other boats on the horizon doing the same thing. The work never stopped. As exhaustion set in, people swayed where they stood, still hauling heavy baskets and shucking. To stay awake they downed coffee and Red Bull, smoked cigarettes and spoke little. One man wore a T-shirt stenciled with a solitary word. It read as both a personal statement and command to everyone else: Grind. Early on the fifth day, the Karen Nicole reached its 12,000-pound federal trip limit. Natale turned the boat toward New Bedford, almost a 24-hour steam away, and cooked everyone a rib-eye steak. The crew showered, ate and slept a few hours, then woke to scrub the boat. On shore two days later, each deckhand received his share: $9,090.61.

Within a year of its mayday call, the Jersey Pride entered a transformation. After the death in 2021 of the vessel’s owner, Doug Stocker, the boat passed to the family of his brother, Clint. A recently retired detective sergeant from the Middle Township Police Department, Clint Stocker was not affiliated with the Jersey Pride when Rodney Bart was its captain, and he knew little of what happened to Murphy, whom he never met. His view on opioid use was clear. “I tolerate none of that,” he says. He also needed no introduction to Narcan, having administered it as a police officer. The boat carries dispensers, he says, “just in case.”

In the midnight blackness this spring after the Jersey Pride returned to port, the vessel’s mate and deckhands described a job-site turnaround. The mate, Justin Puglisi, joined the crew about two months after Murphy’s death. His personal history in commercial fishing began with a loss that resonated through the industry: His father was taken by the sea with the vessel Beth Dee Bob, one of four clam boats that went to the bottom over 13 days in 1999, killing 10 fishermen. As a teenager Puglisi claimed his place in the surviving fleet. The Jersey Pride, he said, was in rough shape when he signed on. The bunk where Murphy overdosed remained unoccupied, the subject of vague stories about a deckhand’s death. Rodney Bart, still the captain, was using fentanyl onboard. “It was blatant,” Puglisi said. “He was leaving empty bags in the wheelhouse.” Two deckhands were heavy users, too. One wandered the boat with a syringe behind his ear. Puglisi had slipped into addiction himself. He was 32, had been using opioids for 15 years and was regularly buying and snorting fentanyl and crystal meth, which he bought in bulk. “I started with pills like everyone else, then switched to the cheaper stuff,” he said.

Bart was fired in fall 2021. But it was after Clint Stocker’s family took over that the operation markedly changed. Clint and his son Craig, who managed the boat’s maintenance, hired new crew members, invested in new electronics and implemented a schedule that gave crew members a week off work after two weeks onboard. They replaced the outriggers and eventually had the boat’s twin diesel engines rebuilt. Puglisi stood at a wheelhouse window. Around him were signs of attentive upkeep: new hoses, valves and a hydraulic pump; fresh upholstery on the wheelhouse bench; a new computer monitor connected to a satellite navigation system. The owners planned to repaint the boat, Puglisi said, but focused on more important maintenance first. “They put their money where it matters,” he said.

The overhaul was more than mechanical. In summer 2022, Puglisi fell asleep in the galley after getting high. When the Stockers heard, they helped find him a bed at rehab for six weeks, then gave him time to attend 90 Narcotics Anonymous meetings in 90 days. “They were like, ‘Go, and your job will be here when you get back,’” he said. When he returned, they put him straight to work. “It was all business,” Puglisi said. He rolled up his left sleeve to reveal a forearm tattoo — “One day at a time,” it read — and described the Jersey Pride as a good boat and fine workplace, unlike when Murphy was invited aboard. “I’ve worked for a lot of owners,” he said, “and this is the best boat I have been on. They take care of their crew.”

It was 1 a.m. A cold April wind blew hard from the northeast. Below Puglisi, three deckhands labored methodically under spotlights to offload catch. One, Bill Lapworth, was a former opioid user also in recovery now. His story matched countless others: He started with pills for pain relief, switched to heroin when the pills became harder to find and almost died when fentanyl poisoned the supply. He was revived by Narcan twice: first by E.M.T.s in an apartment, then by a friend as he slumped near death in a pickup truck. His friend had picked up free Narcan through a community handout program. Smoking a cigarette in the gusts as a crane swung metal cages of ocean quahogs overhead, Lapworth flashed the mischievous grin of a man pulled from the grave not once but twice, then offered a three-word endorsement of the little plastic dispensers to which he owed his life: “I got saved.”

Read by James Patrick Cronin

Audio produced by Elena Hecht

Narration produced by Anna Diamond

Engineered by Quinton Kamara

C.J. Chivers is a staff writer for the magazine and the author of two books, including “The Fighters: Americans in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.” He won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2017 for a profile of a former Marine with PTSD. David Guttenfelder is a photojournalist focusing on geopolitical conflict and conservation.

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Biggest concerts, comedians coming to Tampa Bay in July, August, September

The biggest names in rap, pop, rock, country, blues and stand-up comedy set to visit the greater tampa bay area over the next three months..

Though it may already feel like summer with Florida's weather, the first official day of the season is Thursday, June 20. That means that the summer blockbuster tour season, which has already started , will soon go into full force through September, when summer officially comes to a close.

Here in the greater Tampa Bay area, two country music stars will headline Raymond James Stadium, while MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre is back open for the summer concert tour season. That does mean this concert and comedy show roundup features more music than jokes, but there are still some big-name comedians visiting us, including a Tampa Bay native filming his new Netflix stand-up special here. That comedian is also one of several current or former Floridians set to perform here over the next three months.

To help keep track of it all, here are the top concerts and comedy shows set to visit Tampa Bay in July, August and September, presented in chronological order. Event details are subject to change.

More: 75+ fun things to do in June in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties

Summer movie preview: Biggest films hitting Florida screens this summer

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Ticket Newsletter: Sign up to receive restaurant news and reviews plus info on things to do every Friday

Bert Kreischer

July 3, 5-7; The Mahaffey, St. Petersburg; themahaffey.com

The St. Petersburg-born, Tampa-raised comedian will return to his hometown for a series of shows where he'll tape his latest Netflix stand-up special. Along with releasing multiple other specials, including last year's "Razzle Dazzle," Kreischer also starred in the movie "The Machine," playing a fictionalized version of himself in an action comedy based on a stand-up routine of his detailing a college trip to Russia.

July 6; Yuengling Center, Tampa; yuenglingcenter.com

The Atlanta rapper who also appeared in the 2013 surrealistic crime film "Spring Breakers," shot in St. Petersburg and Sarasota, headlines this 4th of July Weekend Bash with a lineup that features multiple Florida rappers, including Plies, Yung Miami and Ball Greezy.

KC and the Sunshine Band

July 7; Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Event Center; casino.hardrock.com/tampa

The disco group hailing from Hialeah that is one of the most successful musical acts to ever come from Florida — thanks to their No. 1 hits "Get Down Tonight," "That's the Way (I Like It)," "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty," "I'm Your Boogie Man" and "Please Don't Go" — continue to celebrate their 50th anniversary they reached last year.

The Doobie Brothers

July 11; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa ; midflorida.com/about-us/amphitheatre

The rock band known for hits such as "Listen to the Music," "Jesus is Just Alright" and "Black Water" continue to tour with Michael McDonald, a member who sang lead vocals on their recently Grammy Hall of Fame-inducted 1978 No. 1 hit "What a Fool Believes" before pursuing a successful solo career. McDonald rejoined the group in 2019.

Morgan Wallen

July 11-12; Raymond James Stadium, Tampa; raymondjamesstadium.com

Despite controversies including a video of him saying a racial slur and an April arrest after allegedly throwing a chair off a rooftop, country musician Morgan Wallen remains hugely popular — releasing the No. 1 album "One Thing at a Time" last year, with all 36 tracks landing on the Billboard Hot 100. Further proof of his popularity is him headlining Raymond James Stadium for two nights with support including Jelly Roll, a country star in his own right.

Janet Jackson

July 16; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

The pop singer visits Tampa on her Together Again tour, named for one of her several No. 1 hits, which also include "Love Will Never Do (Without You)," "That's the Way Love Goes" and "All for You." Rapper Nelly of "Hot in Herre" and "Country Grammar" opens the show.

New Kids on the Block

July 19; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

The boy band that rose to fame in the late '80s and early '90s, then reunited in the late '00s, headline a night of nostalgia that also includes "Opposites Attract" pop singer and original "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul, and DJ Jazzy Jeff, half of a hip-hop duo with the Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith.)

Styx and Foreigner

July 20; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

Styx ("Babe," "Show Me the Way," "Mr. Roboto") and recently announced Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Foreigner ("I Want to Know What Love Is," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," "Double Vision") team up for the Renegades and Juke Box Heroes Tour, named after two other hits of theirs. "Missing You" singer John Waite also performs.

Missy Elliott

July 24; Amalie Arena, Tampa; amaliearena.com

The recently Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted rapper will perform with other stars of '90s/'00s hip-hop and R&B including fellow rapper Busta Rhymes, singer Ciara and producer extraordinaire Timbaland. Ciara appeared on Missy Elliott's 2005 hit "Lose Control," and Timbaland has produced her albums dating back to her 1997 debut "Supa Dupa Fly."

Third Eye Blind

July 25; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

The alternative rock band that rose to fame with its six-times-platinum, self-titled 1997 debut album and its Top 10 singles "Semi-Charmed Life," "Jumper" and "How's It Going to Be" perform with "Ocean Avenue" pop-punks Yellowcard from Jacksonville and pop group A R I Z O N A (who, despite their name, are from New Jersey.)

Sad Summer Fest

July 27; The BayCare Sound, Clearwater; rutheckerdhall.com/baycare-sound

Those still lamenting the loss of Vans Warped Tour should feel right at home at this daylong festival presented by Journeys and Converse, featuring a lineup of pop-punk and emo bands headlined by Tallahassee's Mayday Parade, with the Bradenton-formed We the Kings also performing along with The Maine, The Wonder Years, Real Friends,  Knuckle Puck, Hot Milk, Daisy Grenade and Diva Bleach.

Jonas Brothers

July 31; Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Event Center

One of the biggest pop acts of the late 2000s and early 2010s before splitting up and pursuing solo ventures, the Jonas Brothers — comprising real-life brothers Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas — reunited in 2019 with the No. 1 single "Sucker" and album "Happiness Begins." They released its follow-up "The Album" last year.

Russell Peters

Aug. 1; Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Event Center

Even without a major sitcom or movie role to his name, Canadian comic Russell Peters ranks among the world's most successful comedians, particularly when it comes to international touring — leading CNN in 2013 to call him "the famous comedian most Americans don’t know."

Limp Bizkit

Aug. 7; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

The Jacksonville-formed nu metal hitmakers of the late '90s and early '00s, whose frontman Fred Durst recently appeared in the movie "I Saw the TV Glow," headline an eclectic lineup that also includes rappers BONES and Riff Raff, synth-punk artist N8NOFACE, and Corey Feldman (yes, the actor.)

Slash S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival

Aug. 10; The BayCare Sound

The Guns N' Roses guitarist who earlier this year released his latest solo album "Orgy of the Damned," performing blues songs with guest musicians including AC/DC singer and Sarasota resident Brian Johnson, will continue to celebrate the genre with this traveling festival. The musicians joining Slash on the Clearwater date will include Larkin Poe, ZZ Ward and Robert Randolph.

Aug. 14; Raymond James Stadium

The country musician landed both a No. 1 album and song last year with his self-titled full-length and its Kacey Musgraves duet "I Remember Everything," which also won a Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Be sure to get there early to see openers Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, a headliner-worthy act in their own right, and Levi Turner.

Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire

Aug. 16; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

Two of the biggest hitmakers of the '70s and '80s team up, as Chicago ("If You Leave Me Now," "Hard to Say I'm Sorry," "You're the Inspiration") and Earth, Wind & Fire ("Shining Star," "September," "Let's Groove") co-headline the Heart & Soul Tour.

Rob Schneider

Aug. 16-17; McCurdy's Comedy Theatre, Sarasota; mccurdyscomedy.com

The comedian from "Saturday Night Live," the movies of "SNL" castmate Adam Sandler and his own film vehicles such as "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" plays two nights at Sarasota comedy club McCurdy's. In recent years, Schneider has gotten more involved in punditry, including his upcoming book "You Can Do It! Speak Your Mind, America" about "the threats to free speech in America," named after his catchphrase in multiple Sandler movies.

Maren Morris

Aug. 17; The Mahaffey

Along with No. 1 country airplay hits such as "I Could Use a Love Song," "Girl" and "The Bones" (either solo or joined by Hozier), and serving as a member of country supergroup The Highwomen alongside Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris also sang on the inescapable Zedd and Grey EDM-pop hit "The Middle."

Train and REO Speedwagon

Aug. 20; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

Three bands named after forms of transportation team up for the Summer Road Trip 2024 tour, with Train ("Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)," "Hey, Soul Sister") and REO Speedwagon ("Keep on Loving You," "Can't Fight This Feeling") co-headlining and Yacht Rock Revue opening.

Aug. 23; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

The country music duo that won three consecutive Best Country Duo/Group Performance Grammys for their songs "Tequila," "Speechless" and "10,000 Hours" with Justin Bieber (and just recently won their latest Duo of the Year Academy of Country Music Award) perform with Winter Haven-born, Vero Beach-raised fellow country musician Jake Owen.

Thirty Seconds to Mars

Aug. 24; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

Though he probably remains best known for his acting career, Jared Leto has played in this rock band with his brother Shannon Leto from the late '90s to now, with their latest album "It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day" coming out last year. Opening are goth rock group AFI and genre-benders Poppy and KennyHoopla.

John Legend

Aug. 25; Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Event Center

One of the few artists to receive the EGOT designation for having won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, the pianist and singer-songwriter will perform "An Evening with John Legend: A Night of Songs and Stories," featuring "intimate reimaginings of Legend's greatest hits" and "unexpected stories from his life and career."

Stone Temple Pilots and Live

Aug. 28; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

This concert should appeal to fans of '90s alt-rock, provided they're not too concerned about original lineups: "The X Factor" contestant Jeff Gutt has fronted Stone Temple Pilots since 2017, though the rest of the lineup is founding members, while Live only features founding frontman Ed Kowalczyk, due to behind-the-scenes drama deep enough to result in a longform Rolling Stone piece . Soul Asylum, still featuring original frontman Dave Pirner, also performs.

Jane's Addiction

Aug. 29; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

It should be easier to keep track of the band members at this show, as it features the "Been Caught Stealing" and "Jane Says" group's classic lineup of Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins and Eric Avery for the first time since 2010. Fellow '80s/'90s alt-rockers Love and Rockets ("So Alive"), featuring their full classic lineup as well, also perform.

Imagine Dragons

Sept. 1; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

After appearing along with country singer Chris Stapleton and R&B singer H.E.R. at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre last year for the Veteran's Day concert Heroes & Headliners, rockers Imagine Dragons return to the venue. The group is among the most successful rock acts in recent years, with multiple diamond-selling (ten times platinum or more) singles including "Radioactive," "Demons," "Believer" and "Thunder."

Sept. 3; Amalie Arena

The rock band will play their 2001 album "Morning View," featuring the singles "Wish You Were Here" and "Nice to Meet You," in its entirety along with "the hits," which will likely include their Top 10 track "Drive." Progressive rock group Coheed and Cambria also performs.

Childish Gambino

Sept. 4; Amalie Arena

Donald Glover — an actor known for his roles on TV shows such as "Atlanta" and "Community," and movies such as "Solo: A Star Wars Story" and "The Lion King" — recently announced he'll release his final album under his hip-hop moniker Childish Gambino after a run that includes five Grammys and the No. 1 hit "This is America," and he's touring as well. He'll be joined by Willow, singer and daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Sept. 12; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

The nu metal band that rose to fame in the '90s with multi-platinum, No. 1 albums such as "Follow the Leader" and "Issues" and songs such as "Freak on a Leash" are still going strong, with new music supposedly on the way later this year. They perform with fellow metal bands Gojira and Spiritbox.

Sept. 14; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

Following the recent season 22 finale of "American Idol," which he's served as a judge on since 2018, country music star Luke Bryan heads out on his Mind of a Country Boy Tour, currently set to conclude in Tampa. Fellow country musicians George Birge, Dillon Carmichael and Larry Fleet will also perform, along with DJ Rock.

Sept. 14; Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater; rutheckerdhall.com

Largely considered the greatest living blues musician, the 87-year-old guitarist and singer visits Clearwater on his Damn Right Farewell Tour. He'll be joined by another living blues legend, the 90-year-old Bobby Rush , along with Guy's longtime collaborator and producer Tom Hambridge.

Sept. 15; Amalie Arena

Maxwell, one of the main musicians of the neo-soul movement starting with his 1996 debut "Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite," would be well worth seeing alone. But even better, he'll be joined by Jazmine Sullivan, whose latest release "Heaux Tales" won a Best R&B Album Grammy and was named album of the year by outlets including Pitchfork.

Herbie Hancock

Sept. 15; The Mahaffey

Herbie Hancock ranks among jazz's most influential figures, both for his time with the Miles Davis Quintet and as a solo performer. He's also won 14 Grammys, including Album of the Year for his 2007 Joni Mitchell tribute "River: The Joni Letters," and is at work on a new album set to feature musicians such as rappers Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Common, saxophonist Kamasi Washington and bassist Thundercat.

Sept. 20; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

The Tallahassee-formed rock band that landed a No. 1 album and single with 1999's diamond-selling "Human Clay" and its Grammy-winning single "With Arms Wide Open" announced their reunion last year, and they'll be joined on tour by another big name in late '90s/early '00s rock: 3 Doors Down, best known for their hit "Kryptonite."

Hootie & the Blowfish

Sept. 26; MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre

Even as Darius Rucker has continued a very successful solo career in country music, he still performs with the group that made him famous: Hootie & the Blowfish, whose 1994 album "Cracked Rear View" is one of the best-selling records of all time thanks to songs such as "Only Wanna Be with You," "Let Her Cry" and "Hold My Hand." They'll be joined by two other big names in '90s radio rock: Collective Soul ("Shine") and Edwin McCain ("I'll Be.")

Email entertainment reporter Jimmy Geurts at [email protected]. Support local journalism by subscribing .