Monthly Archives: December 2012

Get ready to be Hooked! The story behind the story of a Sitka fisherman found adrift in fish tote. Video

Back in September, there was a news story about a fisherman found adrift in a plastic fish tote following the sinking of the troller he was fishing from.

This true story had a tremendous ending for the fact that both fishermen defied the odds and survived!

This would usually be the end of the story, alls well that ends well.

There is so much to this tale of good fortune, and through a lot of luck for all that read this, and who also watch the video of a wonderful writer, and story-teller who by fate, found herself right in the middle of it along with her life partner Joel Brady-Power and Bear the Boat Cat on board F/V Nerka out of Sitka, Alaska, you will feel like you are there!

Enough out of me, though.

This is Tele Aadsen, and these are her story’s from her blog, Hooked.

 

Read More

 

A nice audio presentation of the NEFMC December 20, 2012 public comments from savingseafood.org

I just got this from savingseafood and am posting it for those interested in listening to the comments without the hassle of listening to the audio recordings posted on fisherynation.com on December 21, 2012 from the nefmc website.

AUDIO: Council Members Face Angry Fishermen  and Threats From Environmentalists at NEFMC Dec. 20 Meeting Click Here

https://fisherynation.com/archives/2747  Click  “COUNCIL AUDIO” Click “Groundfish FW 48 Discussion (AM) (few minutes at the beginning of discussion not recorded)  Listen in its entirety or left click the slider and move it to 1:55.00 to listen to the public comments.

Please forgive my substandard post. I will strive to do better. BH

“It became very apparent that we were in a fight for our industry at that point,”

Every-one together

Every family takes proactive role during summer king salmon disaster

By Rashah McChesney

  Travis Every spent June and July standing at his family’s setnet sites watching the sockeye salmon jump in their rush toward the Kenai River.

But, instead of setting his nets in the water to catch a portion of the season’s estimated 6.2 million sockeye run, Travis — like many other East Side setnetters in the Cook Inlet — remained beached, his nets drying in the sun.

“We didn’t do anything else,” Travis said. “You get up and even though you aren’t fishing, you wake up at five in the morning, drive to the beach site, have coffee, watch all the fish jump, get pissed off, get on the phone and start calling people.”

Read More

 

Hurricane Sandy Aid Bill Includes $150 Million for Alaskan Fisheries – BREITBART (as our industry disasters East and West are marginalized)

One out of every $20 spent in a new bill to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy will go to “non-relief-related pork,” says American Majority Action Spokesman Ron Meyer in an email to Breitbart News. Read More 

 

Challenges abound for Florida Keys commercial fishermen

A limit instituted for yellowtail snapper created a considerable amount of drama for Keys commercial fishermen, as the commercial fishery was poised to close in the Atlantic Ocean in September but analysis showed the fishing stock10172769-large was stronger than originally thought and the season remained open. National Marine Fisheries Service announced in August that the annual commercial yellowtail quota in the Atlantic had nearly been reached, and that the fishery would be closed Sept. 11 through Jan. 1. The Science and Statistical Committee for the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic fishery management councils recommended, federal fishery managers agreed, to an annual commercial harvest of yellowtail snapper that increased the yield from 2.9 million pounds to 4.1 million pounds. Read More

Louisiana – Commercial Fishing Season for Non-Sandbar Large Coastal Sharks Opening January 1

Commercial fishing for Non-Sandbar Large Coastal Sharks will open in Louisiana waters at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, January 1. 

The National Marine Fisheries Service will also open the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico at this time. Read More

ENDANGERED STATUS SOUGHT FOR WHITE SHARK – California

A group of state legislators is urging the California Fish and Game Commission to declare the white shark endangered, warning that the marine predators are in a “perilous situation.”

On Feb. 6, the commission will consider whether to make white sharks a candidate for protection. Within a year of that meeting, it would decide whether to list the sharks as a state endangered species.

Assembly members Paul Fong, D-Cupertino; Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco; Bob Blumenfield, D-San Fernando Valley; Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley; Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont; and Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara; and state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, last week submitted a letter to the commission in support of the listing.

In August, three environmental groups — Oceana, Center for Biological Diversity and Shark Stewards — petitioned….. Read More

“I prefer my Sea Otter in a nice stew, thank you!” In Our View – Santa Maria Times- Ensuring life for all creatures

Good news for the otter, however, is not such good news for fishermen, especial sea urchin divers, who insist that the otters decimate the shellfish population. They’re right about that dynamic, but unfortunately for them, otters were fissrewhing these waters eons before human divers came around.

The otter population is far from what it once was. By the time federal agencies began their attempt to relocate otters in an effort to save the species, the count had dropped from an estimated high of more than 16,000 in the late 18th century to less than 3,000. The dramatic depopulation was mostly a result of hunting during the early 19th century, in search of the otters’ luxurious fur.

This was a good year for otters, to be sure, but it looks like some fishermen will have to find a new way to earn a living.

And 2012 has also been a thumbs-up month for California’s marine reserve network, as the final piece of the underwater puzzle fell into place earlier this month in waters off the northern coast. Read More

Yurok Tribe Dispute with State over Coastal Access Entangled in Alleged Embezzlement – “fake marine protected areas” (wow)

Dan Bacher, an environmental writer, calls the South Coast region “fake marine protected areas” that shield the ocean from fishing but fail to protect it from “oil spills and drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wind and wave energy projects.”

The MLPA blue-ribbon task force that developed the marine plans was originally chaired by Susan Golding, ex-two-term San Diego mayor and former CEO of the Golding Group. She has sat on the boards of 1st Pacific Bank, Avinir Pharmaceuticals and Titan Industries. Others on the panel include Bill Anderson, president and CEO at the nation’s largest owner and operator of waterfront marinas, and Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, who has repeatedly called for weaker environmental regulations and new oil drilling off the California coast.

The MLPA also takes its share of flack from the sport fishermen and the political right. California Fish and Game Commissioner Daniel Richards, when he was commission president, said, “These radical, left-wing environmentalists want to put up massive reserves to keep people from fishing. It’s all being funded, this takeover of California’s marine resources, by the Packard Foundation, backed by a billionaire with nefarious intentions. They are anti-fishing, anti-hunting, anti-people.”

Early in 2012, the Yurok Tribe discovered it had another reason to be suspicious of MLPA motives. Arrest warrants were issued for three men, including the co-chair of the MLPA Task Force Science Advisory Team, who were suspected of conspiring to embezzle $870,000 from the tribe. Read More

Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Strategy

http://www.doi.gov/whatwedo/energy/ocs/index.cfm

Dispute rages on over low energy seismic testing – former vice president of the Port San Luis Commercial Fishermen’s Association – lack of an environmental impact report

The former vice president of the Port San Luis Commercial  Fishermen’s Association is resigning over PG&E’S fault line  surveys near Diablo Canyon. He claims some of those tests were carried out without the proper  permits and said he’s owed compensation for lost catches during  the two year low energy testing  From 2010 to 2012, low energy testing was completed in the waters  off Port San Luis and Morro Bay.  The information was used to measure the seismicity surrounding  Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. According to the now former vice president Brian Stacey, the  testing should have required an environmental impact report but  was approved without one. Read More

BOEM Five Year Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil And Gas Leasing Program Under Attack

Thank You, Dick G

The Center for Sustainable Economy, a non-profit public interest consulting firm, filed a lawsuit today against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in an attempt to halt that agency’s first approved five-year Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program since the BP oil spill. The Program, which establishes a schedule for 2012-2017 to be used as a basis for considering where and when oil and gas leasing might be appropriate in both the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, received final approval from U.S. Department of the Interior on August 27, 2012. Read More

Fish aid dollars in limbo – Senate clears package, but House may let it expire

The U.S. Senate Friday easily beat back an effort to drop from the $60.4 billion Superstorm Sandy relief bill a package of $150 million in fisheries disaster aid, including funding for Massachusetts, the other four coastal New England100_1584 states and New York whose fishermen ply the Atlantic for groundfish and face a cataclysm of cuts in catch limits next year.

”This is a big win for our fishermen, but this has been a fight more than a year in the making and there’s still work to do,” said Kerry in an email. “I’ve made their case to the leadership of the Senate, the Appropriations Committee and to the Administration to get this far, and I’ll continue to work with my Massachusetts colleagues in the House to make sure that this funding is enacted into law.”  Read More

Calling All Green Horns – Kodiak Arts Council auctioning week on crab boat – live aboard a Kodiak-based Tanner crab boat!!

sshooboy.

KODIAK, Alaska – “Deadliest Catch” shows up on T-shirts, coffee mugs and even fireworks that try to cash in on the success of the Discovery Channel’s most popular Alaska-based TV series.

Now, the Kodiak Arts Council is hoping to turn that popularity to some good as it auctions a weeklong opportunity to live aboard a Kodiak-based Tanner crab boat.

 “It seemed like a natural way to try to get money for a nonprofit,” said Skip Bolton, a longtime Kodiak fisherman who serves on the arts council’s board of directors.

The auction, listed on eBay, promises “the adventure of a lifetime on an Alaskan crab fishing expedition.” Read More. Hell! Put in a bid!

Wicked Rye fisherman adds flavor to bluefin tuna TV show

RYE — Local fisherman Tyler McLaughlin has taken his love for tuna fishing to the television screen.tf

McLaughlin, a 25-year-old captain from Rye, will be among a group of tuna fishermen featured in season two of the National Geographic Channel’s series “Wicked Tuna.”

In the new season, which is set to premiere at 9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13, television crews from the National Geographic Channel follow McLaughlin and his crew — first mates Adam Moser and Alex Whitney — onboard the Pin Wheel as they troll the north Atlantic Ocean looking for bluefin tuna. Read More

Study looks at balancing fishing for and preserving menhaden – Population at lowest point in 50 years? hmm

Fisheries scientists are conducting a study on Atlantic menhaden that will help identify the balance between harvesting and preserving the species. Atlantic menhaden, described as “small, oily fish” that migrate along the East Coast, are the “favorite menu item of prized rockfish,” and have a high commercial value, according to a statement the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Currently, the menhaden population is at its lowest point in more than 50 years due to harvesting and predation, the statement says. But fisheries scientists from UMCES are investigating the balance between fishing for Atlantic menhaden and the value the fish has in the ecosystem, thanks to a grant from the Lenfest Ocean Program. The Lenfest Ocean Program “funds scientific research on policy-relevant topics concerning the world’s oceans and communicates the results of the supported research to decision makers and other interested audiences,” according to its website. Read More

‘Founder of New Bedford scalloping’ dies at 91- Myron Marder – accountant turned fleet owner helped jump-start the industry in the 1960s.

NEW BEDFORD — Myron Marder was a scalloper before shellfish was the city’s biggest industry.

Friends of Marder, who died Dec. 24 at the age of 91, remember how the accountant turned fleet owner helped jump-start the industry in the 1960s.

“He was really one of the founders of the scalloping industry in New Bedford,” Robert Mitchell, of R.A. Mitchell, said Thursday. Mitchell said both he and his father have been friends with Marder since the 1950s.

Marder got his start in the fishing industry when he opened an accounting office on the New Bedford waterfront in 1946 after serving in the Army during World War II.

From there, he built a fleet of up to six wooden-hulled scallop vessels which led the city’s scalloping industry.

“Myron would always have the best captains on his boats because he got to know them when he was doing the books for their boats,” Mitchell said.  Read More

Upbeat NOAA fishery report challenged

liars-all-arounds

NEW BEDFORD — To say that Richard Canastra didn’t quite believe an upbeat NOAA report on the state of the Northeast groundfish industry is to understate it.

“It’s a crock,” said Canastra, who co-owns the BASE seafood display auction. Only a few days ago he was telling regulators that this year might be the fleet’s “last hurrah.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration painted a sunny picture in a Dec. 26 report, saying that even with a smaller fleet, the catch was up, profits were up and total catch was up.

Canastra replied: “The headline looks great but when you look at it it’s just like the science. Everything NOAA does they try to cover up.”

There was also unanimous suspicion about the timing of the report, which was released the morning after Christmas, usually not a big news day. Read More

Local waters were a passion for fisherman who died on the Broad River – Tragedy

Martin Luther Stewart Sr. felt “blessed” to make his living on the river.

He died there Wednesday after the 19-foot skiff he was on with fellow fisherman Vincent Chaplin capsized.

Sea Eagle Market owner Craig Reaves, who hired Stewart a few months ago, recalled gathering oysters with him last Sunday.

“He looked at me and said ‘you know most people go to work because they have to. Me and you are blessed because we get to do something we love.'”

“He’d been in the river his whole life,” Reaves said. “That’s what he loved and that was his passion.” Read More

Cape fishermen dubious of latest catch report –

CHATHAM — A report released earlier this week by the National Marine Fisheries Service shows landings of bottom-dwelling fish were up for the 2011-2012 fishing season in the Northeast, but Cape fishermen say the numbers don’t reflect the current scarcity of fish in New England waters. The report, issued Wednesday, compared the fishing year that ended April 2012 to the two prior. The combination of rising prices paid to fishermen for catching groundfish, which include cod, haddock and flounder, and increased landings meant that revenue was also higher than in the past three years, the report states. Read More

Fishing aid faces Senate floor fight – $336 million for AMTRAK !!

Republican Sens. John McCain and Tom Coburn have signaled an effort to strip from a $60.4 billion Hurricane Sandy disaster relief bill today the $150 million targeted for fisheries disaster funding — the bulk of which would go to tmanatthewheelhe five coastal New England states and New York whose fishermen work the Atlantic for groundfish. Read More

Commercial shad fishing season opens two weeks early in Georgetown area

The American shad commercial fishing season will open Jan. 15, 2013 in the  Georgetown area. This is two weeks earlier than the traditional opening in early  February. This change keeps the commercial shad season in compliance with the  Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) American shad sustainable  fishing plan for South Carolina and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)  mandate to reduce by-catch of Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon.
Read More

Rep. Broun: NOAA’s Response to Sandy Service Assessment Inquiry Disappointing (Lubchenco under the weather) !

805562027_qrX5M-M“…I am disappointed that you elected not to answer many of my questions,”

A series relating to NOAA weather problems! It ain’t fishin’ but it’s all Jane!

Lubchenco replied by the requested deadline to Broun’s first letter citing that she understood Broun’s concerns. She left many of his questions unanswered, however.

“…I am disappointed that you elected not to answer many of my questions,” Broun wrote in his most recent letter, adding that her reply also raised ‘additional questions that require explanation.’  Read Lots More!!

Many tanner crab areas closed; quotas reduced

By Cristy Fry –  The bairdi tanner crab season in Kodiak and along the Alaska Peninsula continues its quota yo-yo this year with quotas either down or areas closed entirely when the season begins Jan. 15. On Kodiak Island, only two areas out of eight are open, the east side and southeast sections, for a total of 660,000 pounds, down from 950,000 pounds in 2012 and 1.47 million pounds in 2011. Read More

Florida Seasonal Grouper Closure Starts January 1st

FLORIDA STATE WATERS — Several species of grouper will close  to recreational and commercial harvest  starting January 1st 2013 in Florida state waters of the Atlantic, including  Monroe County. Read More

SitNews – Complaint Filed in U.S. District Court Challenging Fisheries Monitoring Program

(SitNews) Juneau, Alaska – The Juneau-based Boat Company has filed a complaint  in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska challenging the  National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) program for monitoring discard  (bycatch) in large volume trawl fisheries. The complaint, filed on December  21st, requests that the court remand the Final Rule to NMFS for,,,,,,, Read More

A message from Dr. Rothschild regarding what he would do as NOAA administrator. Chris McCaffity

Chris McCaffity
A message from Dr. Rothschild regarding what he would do as NOAA administrator. As you know, a NOAA administrator has many different tasks. Some are well known, but others seem to come from nowhere. The BP spill is a good example. Because of this an Administrator needs to work on a set of principles. Here are some examples.
1. Follow the letter of the law(it seems almost unnecessary to say this, but the past administration would have done a better job if they had studied the laws that govern fisheries management).   2. Focus the scientific effort on critical issues and base management decisions on science.   3. Listen to the folks that are most effected by management decisions.   4. Promote cooperative research.   5. Be transparent and operate in the sunshine.   6. Provide incentives to employees to follow principals   7.Integrate elements of NOAA to be more cost effective(e.g. Sea Grant and NMFS).
Brian J. Rothschild Montgomery Charter Professor of Marine Science and Technology   School for Marine Science and Technology University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 706 South Rodney French Boulevard   New Bedford, MA 02744-1221 USA
Please sign the petition asking President Obama to appoint Dr. Rothschild as the new NOAA administrator. http://wh.gov/RucH

Public Comment Sought on Genetically Modified Salmon

Instructions for electronic submissions are at http://www.regulations.gov. Written comments should be addressed to the Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Comments should refer to the docket number, Docket No. FDA-2011-N-0899.
For further information contact Eric Silberhorn, Center for veterinary medicine (HFV-162), Food and Drug Administration, 7500 Standish Pl., Rockville, MD 20855; 1-240-276-8247, or email [email protected]

Northeast Groundfish Vessel Landings Up, Revenues Top $330 Million in Fishing Year 2011- Northeast Fisheries Science Center

Landings, gross revenues, and  net revenues per vessel reached three-year highs for Northeast groundfish  vessels during the fishing year that ended in April 2012! Read More

Mad Scientist

Digital Vision, Getty Images

 

Salmon or gold: Alaska ballot initiative puts Pebble Mine to a statewide vote

Opponents of the Pebble Project believe Alaskans should get a chance to choose which resource the state prizes most from Bristol Bay — gold or wild salmon — and they’re one step closer to bringing the issue before voters.

A little more than a year after voters out in the remote Lake and Peninsula Borough of Southwest Alaska rejected the Pebble mine project by narrowly approving a ballot initiative to ban open-pit mining in the watershed of Bristol Bay — home to one of the world’s most profitable wild salmon fisheries — mine opponents have submitted another initiative aimed at blocking the megaproject. Read More