Daily Archives: July 7, 2015
Drifters, setnetters to fish at Kasilof River mouth in about, oh, three hours or so!
The emergency order opens set gillnetting within a two-mile area around the mouth of the Kasilof River for a 29-hour period from 6 p.m. on Tuesday through 11 p.m. on Wednesday. The emergency order also opens drift gillnetting in the area from 6p.m. to 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday and from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday. This announcement marks the first time during the 2015 fishing season that fisheries managers will use the special harvest area to control sockeye salmon escapement up the Kasilof River Read the rest here 20:01
Ninth Circuit Skewers Calif. Commercial Fishing License Fee Scheme
A challenge to California’s scheme of 
for commercial fishing licenses went before the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday. Lead plaintiff Kevin Marilley filed the case in 2013, seeking to represent a class of commercial herring fishermen who are not California residents but who wish to make their living there. At the time of the lawsuit, nonresident fees for commercial fishing licenses and for fishing vessel registration permits were three times higher than the fees California residents paid. Read the rest here 16:58
Growers say DFO dragging its feet on approving cultivation of giant clams in B.C.
In recent years, the demand for the giant clam – especially in China – has sent prices soaring. Geoduck (pronounced gooeyduck) has a landed value of about $10 to $11 per pound in North America and can sell for $30 per pound in China. Geoduck has become so valuable, in fact, that illegal poaching is now raising concerns about the geoduck population in Washington state. B.C. has a wild geoduck industry that is already worth about $47 million a year in sales – more valuable than oyster and clam farming ($33 million). But it is exclusive to divers who hold licences for harvesting the giant clam in the wild. Read the rest here 16:08
Crabbers blame the 2010 BP oil spill for Crab Shortage – Searching for Answers
Many crabbers blame the 2010 BP oil spill, which leaked an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The year before the spill, crabbers across the state experienced banner crops. In the Terrebonne Basin, crabbers pulled in more than 14 million pounds, the highest in more than a decade, those in the Barataria Basin pulled in their largest haul since 2006. But landings in the Barataria and Terrebonne basins are down 38 percent and 31 percent, respectively, following the spill, according to recent state data. Across Louisiana, the decrease has been 23 percent. Read the rest here 14:36
Sharks and stingrays in the Pamlico?
The only large shark I’ve ever actually seen in Pamlico Sound was behind Cedar Island. Two large commercial fishing boats were going about setting out a huge “long-haul net” in one of the unusually deep (maybe 9-feet deep) sections of the sound. The two boats gradually played out the net off their sterns as they went in opposite directions, circled around and completed the net-set with the estimated net length of one mile. With the aid of several smaller boats,,, Read the rest here 13:10
The George W. Collier, a 115-year-old oyster fishing skipjack finally getting new life
For a decade, the skipjack George W. Collier lay at the end of a long road in Cape Charles, literally and figuratively. The 72-foot-long boat was built in Maryland in 1900 and was once used as an oyster fishing vessel, able to easily navigate shallow waters. But when engine-powered boats replaced skipjacks, the George W. Collier was left on a mud bank. Fewer than 30 of the traditional boats remain today. On Thursday, the skipjack was finally sent to a shipyard, on its way to being restored in its birthplace on Deal Island in Maryland. 8 photos, Read the rest here 11:25
Commercial Horseshoe Crab Fishery in Del. to Close July 9
Officials say Delaware’s commercial horseshoe crab harvest is approaching this year’s quota of 154,527 horseshoe crabs, prompting DNREC’s Division of Fish & Wildlife to announce that, in accordance with Delaware law and regulations, the horseshoe crab fishery will close at 12:01 a.m., Thursday. Afterward, officials say, it is unlawful in Delaware to harvest horseshoe crabs this year. Read the rest here 11:05
From the UBC “think tank” – B.C. salmon prices set to skyrocket with climate change
The report Out of Stock predicts that by 2050 there could be a 21 per cent decline in sockeye, a 10 per cent decline in chum, and a 15 per cent decline in sablefish. “This is a really tangible way for people to understand the impact of climate change,” says Rashid Sumaila, one of the study’s authors who has been working with the UBC’s fisheries research unit for over 20 years. Alrighty then! Read the rest here 10:40
The distorted view of reality – A Knockout Blow for American Fish Stocks?
Today, in the New York Times, Oceana’s Gib Brogan ignores the facts of the New England fishing industry, a hollowed out shell of what once was an industry of prosperity, dismantled by disgraceful government science, that ignores predator/prey of an out of balance eco system, and of all things, climate change redistribution of certain stocks, Cod, insinuating all fish stocks of the multi specie fishery collapsed. Click the links at the article. Read the Op-ed here. The comment section is open. 09:31
Fisheries board member cited for violating fishery closure
A member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries was cited by wildlife troopers in the commercial fishing hotbed of Dillingham last week for continuing to fish in an area after it had been closed. Frederick “Fritz” Johnson was fishing for salmon using a drift gillnet with Gust McCarr, his fishing partner of six years, when he was cited. The two men thought fishing closed at 6:30 p.m., when the actual closure happened at 6 p.m., Johnson told Alaska Dispatch News on Monday. They noticed an Alaska Wildlife Troopers plane circling overhead shortly after 6. Read the rest here 08:06
