Daily Archives: December 29, 2015

Fishermen ready for crab season

crab%20boatFishermen admit the delay is inconvenient, and came at an inopportune time, but are realistic about the delay, and know it’s just part of the industry. “It’s nothing new to us,” said Brett Webb, a Port Orford port commissioner and fisherman. “Anyone who doesn’t expect a delay should probably reconsider their expectations.” Bernie Lindley, a Brookings-Harbor fisherman, said the season may still prove to be a difficult one for fishermen on the south coast, as much of the crab is expected to be up in the Coos Bay area. Read the article here 22:23

Crab fishermen look to black cod for New Year’s boost

With the crab season shut down since before its November start, there may be another fish in the sea to help the crabbers start 2016 off right: black cod. “Everybody’s going to be fishing black cod now, and there’s only so much quota of black cod to be caught,” Moss Landing fisherman Roger Whitney said. Most local crab fishermen said they’ve never fished for black cod before. But black cod fishermen who call the fish their staple are worried it’s going to have a domino effect on their catch. Read the article here 20:58

El Nino and global warming create a surplus of doomsday headlines

NOAA ScientistAccording to a new NOAA report issued December 28, the current status of the El Niño that is driving the much-hyped ‘extreme weather’ may be the third-strongest since 1950. A far cry from being the worst El Niño in history that numerous media outlets are thundering and desperately trying to tie to global warming. Under NOAA’s El Niño Advisory system, they state that warmer-than-normal equatorial sea surface temperatures (SST) will continue across most of the Pacific Ocean and will “transition to normal SST conditions in the spring or early summer 2016.” In fact, NOAA says the current El Niño event we are seeing has already peaked, and it isn’t the monster many mainstream media (MSM) outlets would have you believe. Read the article here 17:44

Coast Guard rescues fisherman in Oregon Inlet, NC

450x338_q95  fv eagleThe Coast Guard rescued a man suffering back pain Tuesday from a fishing vessel near Oregon Inlet. Coast Guard Sector North Carolina watchstanders were notified Monday at 10 p.m. of the 60-foot fishing vessel Eagle with a 39-year-old man aboard suffering back pain. Due to inclement weather, rescue was postponed until the morning. A 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crew launched Tuesday at 6:17 a.m. from Coast Guard Station Oregon Inlet and arrived on scene at 8:10 a.m. Read the rest here 14:15

Maine’s long lobster fishing season is affecting scallop prices

mkMany New England lobstermen are still fishing deep into December this year because of unseasonably warm weather and an abundance of the critters, and Maine’s beloved scallops are a little harder to come by as a result. The extra fishing hasn’t done much to change the price of lobsters, which are selling in the range of $8 to $10 per pound in Maine, typical for this time of year, when Canada is also hauling in large catches. But some lobstermen in Maine, the biggest lobster-producing state, also fish for scallops and haven’t made the transition to the winter scalloping season because lobster fishing is still strong. Read the article here 11:51

La Creole II skipper praises the work of Whitby shipbuilders

la creole 2Sometimes in life things can work so well, that it’s hard to improve them. Nick Bright, of Brown and Bright Shellfish, feels that way about his new boat La Creole II, recently completed by Parkol. A crab and lobster fishing boat, which is an almost identical build to his first one that Parkol built 10 years earlier. Now he is the proud owner of 14.95m vivier crabber which can keep up to 15 tonnes of shellfish alive. Nick is based in Brixham and fishes mainly from Holland, Denmark, Lowestoft and Scotland. Read the article here 11:31

New England States prepare to review new rules for herring fishery

atlantic herringThe new year will soon be here, and with it comes a new round of significant changes to the rules governing the herring fishery. Next week, the Department of Marine Resources will hold a public hearing on what is known as “Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Management Plan for Atlantic Herring.” Hearings are also scheduled in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. According to the ASMFC, the new rules would affect the inshore Gulf of Maine — called Area 1A — herring fishery to reflect changes in both the herring resource and the fishery itself. Read the article here 08:30

Natural Resources Defense Council and the Ocean Conservancy – Ocean acidification poses threat to lobsters

lobsterThe Nature Climate Change study, which was led by researchers at the environmental groups the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Ocean Conservancy, set out to go beyond global models by identifying local risk factors. “They weren’t previously factored into the conversation,” Lisa Suatoni, senior scientist at the NRDC and a co-author of the report, said. “There are a lot more places at risk than conventional wisdom tells us.” Those places include New England and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific Northwest, where the effects of acidification have already caused serious problems. Read the article here 08:01