Daily Archives: April 27, 2013
NewHampshire Fishermen collect 35 tons of lobster traps from coast
seacoastonline – RYE — It’s been a harsh winter with many storms ravaging the Seacoast. More than 75 fishermen from Seabrook to Portsmouth and about a dozen community volunteers on Saturday converged on the beaches of Rye and Hampton to clean up nearly 35 tons of lobster traps and fishing gear. “We started at low tide about 7:30 (Saturday) morning,” said Eric Anderson, president of the New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen’s Association. “The cleanup went along quickly with the nice weather. There was a lot more debris this year.” continued
Empty nets in Louisiana three years after the spill
Yscloskey, Louisiana (CNN) – At least he’s got some company. There’s not much else going on at his dock these days. There used to be two or three people working with him; now he’s alone. The catch that’s coming in is light, particularly for crabs. “Guys running five or six hundred traps are coming in with two to three boxes, if that,” said Stander, 26. Out on the water, the chains clatter along the railing of George Barisich’s boat as he and his deckhand haul dredges full of oysters onto the deck. continued
Mine project threatens Bristol Bay salmon fishery: EPA report
The great fishery in Alaska’s Bristol Bay should beware diggers of open pit gold mines, erectors of 685-foot-high tailings dams and builders of haul roads that cross salmon-spawning streams, according to a detailed — and devastating — new federal analysis. continued
Tahoe Lobster Co. Crayfish traps missing from Tahoe – again
Forty traps set by Tahoe Lobster Co. – Lake Tahoe’s first commercial fishing operation in decades – were discovered missing Thursday. That’s in addition to 20 others that vanished March 3 for a total of more than 130 since the first disappeared last August and only a month after the company started operations. continued
WHY WE RALLY – NORTHEAST SEAFOOD COALITION – A PERFECT STORM OF CIRCUMSTANCES
Who are we and why are we rallying? Read it here
1.5 Million Objections to Genetically Engineered Salmon Filed with FDA – Previously undisclosed documents reveal requests by many companies seeking government approval to grow controversial salmon in U.S.
Washington, D.C. – infoZine – Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Center for Food Safety, and Food & Water Watch will join nearly 1.5 million people who have raised vehement objections, based on science, policy and law, to a proposal before the Food and Drug Administration to approve genetically engineered salmon, the first-ever GE animal intended for human consumption. The comment period ended Friday, April 26 at midnight. continued
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary rule groups meet
keysnews.com – Three committees reviewing the rules of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary are closing in on their formal recommendations. continued
Fukushima’s Radiation: BC Health Risk, or Fish Tale?
The debate should be well over in the view of the person entrusted with overseeing public health in British Columbia: public health officer Dr. Perry Kendall. Time and again Kendall has tried to explain that there is, to quote the headline on one of his press releases, “Nothing to fear from radiation in B.C.” continued
Ocean food chains remain elusive
The marine biologist’s cod-food web looks more like the architecture of an acid-tripping spider than a depiction of what cod eat, and get eaten by, on the Scotian Shelf.
Cod eat herring and capelin and sand lance — small eel-like fish that in turn eat cod larvae. Seals eat cod, but they prefer herring and capelin and sand lance. Whales eat everything.
Everything eats everything. And that’s nearly all we know about how the hundreds of species on the Scotian Shelf interact — which is a problem.
“If cod came back, we’d have no idea why, because we don’t know what the interactions are,” Iverson said. We’ve had stock assessments — educated guesses made by scientists on how many of a particular species are out there, based on sample trawls and fishermen’s landings. continued
‘All the predator fish are gone’
Chronical Herald -“All the predator fish are gone — the cod, the pollock, the haddock — but there’s more lobster and more seals. Something’s changed.” The next morning at 7 a.m., d’Entremont was at the Dennis Point Café drinking coffee with Pubnico’s fleet of aging captains. Outside the café that looks over one of the busiest fishing harbours in Atlantic Canada, young crew members smoked cigarettes and talked about women, trucks and landings in their mixture of French and English. Inside, d’Entremont and the other captains talked of the offshore banks as we all speak of the places where we were once young. continued
Cod aren’t coming back — yet
Chronical Herald – The baldheaded buffoon of the popular cartoon (The Simpsons) could have been talking about the Northwest Atlantic. The accusations that followed the destruction of the world’s greatest wild food resource were on land. Some blamed foreign draggers for the 1993 cod moratorium, others blamed politicians, some blamed scientists and a few took a long hard look at ourselves. Popular predictions that cod would rebound without fishing pressure turned out to be wrong. Replacing cod as a dominant species have been seals and bottom feeders — Homer’s tasty crustaceans. Populations of commercially valuable lobster and crab have skyrocketed. continued
Fishing group set to rally in Boston
With fishermen in Gloucester and elsewhere in New England staring at extreme and nearly across-the-board federally mandated cuts in landings of groundfish, the Northeast Seafood Coalition, the region’s largest industry group, is leading a major rally for the industry Monday on the Boston Fish Pier beginning at 11 a.m. The rally will feature U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Attorney General Martha Coakley and Congressman John Tierney among the speakers, all of whom are Democrats, but have failed, like their fellow partisans, to reach President Obama to change administration policy. continued
