Daily Archives: February 6, 2017
Capt. Michael Joyce gets scare after weather forces him to abandon fishing seiner
Lark Harbour, N.L. — Michael Joyce got a bad scare and was stomach sick for a few days, but he know things could have been much worse for him so he was looking on the bright side of a tough day on the water. Joyce, 49, of Lark Harbour, is the captain of Joyce’s Journey, a 45-foot seiner that he uses to catch herring, mackerel and caplin. Joyce and his four crew members headed out the Bay of Islands on Dec. 18 for the last haul of herring for the season. At the edge of darkness, on what Joyce said was a beautiful evening at the time, they saw fish in the bay and decided to set the sein with hopes of landing a big haul. Within minutes, a strong, steady windy came up in the bay. The crew managed to set the sein, and when it came time to haul it back on board the wind bore down on them. Read the story here 20:35
Ryan Cleary – Russell Wangersky’s column demands a response
I wish to respond to Russell Wangersky’s Jan. 28th column (Fish harvesters have the most to lose), by noting with interest how Wangersky gets along with me, “on and off,” while he has known Lana Payne since the late 1980s when the two worked together at The Sunday Express. Does that mean Wangersky loves Lana more than me? I can’t quite tell. I know that Payne calls me as a “narcissist” and “liar,” and Wangersky spits out the word nationalist when he tackles me on the page. Personally, I see myself more Newfoundland and Labrador first, as opposed to Wangersky, who’s more Canadian first, which, “on and off,” separates us. Wangersky clearly states what he thinks about Newfoundland and Labrador opening the door to out-of-province fish buyers — he’s against it, “damaging the province as a whole by shipping a common resource out of province for the benefit of a few.” The “few” that Wangersky refers to are the few thousand inshore fish harvesters left in this province who can’t survive on 60-cents-a-pound cod, certainly not when there’s little else left to catch. Read the rest of Mr. Cleary’s letter here 19:24
Maine Lobstermans integrity is upheld in court when cleared of unlicensed fishing charge
Every once in a while, a case comes along that serves as a reminder that Maine courts, like the state’s many law enforcement agencies, are a part of what is loosely called the justice system and that most of the people who work in the courts and law enforcement agencies want to see justice done. Last week, Trenton lobsterman Jacob White found himself before Superior Court Justice Robert E. Murray facing a civil violation of the state’s marine resources laws for fishing without a lobster license last October. Also before the court was the state’s seizure of 156 pounds of lobster White landed at the Seal Cove wharf on the day Marine Patrol Officer Jeff Turcotte issued the summons for unlicensed lobstering. White decided to fight the case and, perhaps a surprise, he won. “I take pride in being a good fisherman and an honest fisherman,” White told the judge. Murray evidently agreed,,, Read the story here 17:59
Could N.J. defy summer flounder cuts?
It didn’t take long after the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted to slash summer flounder harvest quotas for the rumblings of anglers calling for New Jersey to defy the regulations to pick up. The ASMFC ordered the harvest cut by 40-percent based on science that indicates the fish is declining in abundance and survey data that reports anglers overreached their quotas last year. The science and angling surveys are at the center of the issue. Many lawmakers in New Jersey and its environmental chief have expressed concern about its accuracy because it relies on random sampling. “We understand the long-term impacts of overfishing a species. But we also know for a fact that fluke are abundant and the population is stable off New Jersey,” said Bob Martin, the Commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Video, Read the story here 16:25
Unhinged NYU ‘Professor’ Whose Hissy Fit Went Viral Turns Out to Be Lobster Porn Artist
There are more lifestyles than you can shake a stick at in modern America. Whether you want to live as an animal, or a six-year-old, or a lizard, there’s just no end to the choices one can make regarding how you live your life these days in the free world. (This may be our penance for the invention of robot vacuum cleaners. With no physical labor left to do, human beings turn insane, apparently.) How exactly do you tell your parents you’ve decided to go into “lobster porn” like social media sensation Rebecca Goyette, whose expletive-filled hissy fit outside NYU went viral (NSFW). I imagine the conversation went something like this via email. Dear Mom and Dad, I know you had high hopes that I would take my art degree and perhaps teach children to paint or create beautiful landscapes to sell to tourists in some tropical location, but none of that is going to happen. I wanted you to know your money was well spent because I have found a niche in the performance art community: Lobster porn. read the rest here, and have a good laugh! 14:48
Alaska’s Female Fishermen (Yes, That’s Really a Thing) On Gender Labels, Finding Zen and Weathering Life’s Storms
There’s a hashtag going around twitter to #DressLikeAWoman. It’s pretty much an invitation to challenge the ideas of how women dress, and how what they wear does or does not define them in life. To that end, I spoke with two Alaskan female fishermen (yes, that’s the correct terminology!) to find out about the challenges of being a woman in an almost exclusively male-run industry. Why Fisherman and not Fisherwoman? When I asked why they prefer the term “fishermen” and not “fisherwoman,” Marsh said, “You earn respect as a male or female fisher, so the gender labels are not necessary. You work hard to be one of the crew and respected, not one of “the guys”—there’s a big difference.” Becker weighed in by saying, “My sense is that both men and women who fish have to prove themselves. It’s not an easy or forgiving industry, because mistakes can be dangerous, if not deadly. To rename the category “fisherwoman” or “fisher” could take away from that elite status that we’ve worked just as hard to attain (and sometimes, harder, as with most occupations in the world).” Read the story here 13:39
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Fishery Mismanagement: FishNet USA – Choking on good(?) intentions
From the article: We have fisheries that are on the verge of collapse while the fish stocks that support them are healthy. There is a wanton disregard for the health of the businesses that depend of fishing, a disregard that wasn’t really there until the environmental community, funded by a handful of “charitable” mega-foundations (including the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation), started to interfere in the federal fishery management process. Having healthy fish stocks, their supposed goal, is meaningless without healthy businesses benefitting from the utilization of those stocks. Today the economic effects of management actions on fishing and fishing dependent businesses are at best given lip service; the only thing that really matters when management decisions are considered is whether or not “overfishing” will be ended. The argument for the almost total focus on the health of the stocks, a concept that is exemplified by the above four sources of uncertainty from a study that was paid for – surprise, surprise! – by one of the mega-foundation that has spent many millions of dollars on “fixing” fisheries, is that healthy fish stocks are supposed to mean healthy fisheries. The present condition of the New England groundfish fishery shows how wrong that supposition is. Read the full article, click here 11:41
New Man Overboard Prevention and Sea Survival Course for Fishermen
A ground breaking new pilot training course for fishermen aimed at preventing man overboard incidents and improving survival and recovery procedures has just been completed at the RNLI’s Training College in Poole, Dorset. The RNLI, working in conjunction with the UK fishing industry, has developed the two-day training course to better reflect real-life sea conditions so as to ensure fishermen are fully aware of the dangers and challenges of man overboard situations. The training pilot featured a variety of different scenarios, including enabling the participants to compare the differences of being in the water with and without survival gear. The challenges of recovering a man overboard wearing a personal flotation device were also practised, including self-recovery for the single boat fisherman and for those who work as part of a crew. Skipper Peter Bruce from the fishing vessel Budding Rose, who took part in the training, said that the two day course had been incredibly useful. “I hope that I can pass on some of the knowledge gained to my own crew and I believe that fishermen’s training should change to be more in line with the environment we work in,” he said. Read the story here 10:23
Letter: Give inshore fish harvesters a free vote – Peter Leonard, Southern Harbour
On Jan. 31st, at a Labour Relations Board hearing in St. John’s, we saw — yet again — FFAW-Unifor fighting its own members who are openly seeking alternate representation for inshore fish harvesters. With what seems like unlimited financial and legal resources, FFAW-Unifor is trying to string along the process in the hopes of defeating our efforts, while FISH-NL supporters have worked tirelessly raising funds to support our initiatives. As inshore fish harvesters, we are not trying to break up FFAW-Unifor or the other sectors it represents. Inshore harvesters want to break away because we feel that the FFAW cannot and has not been able to properly represent us due to conflicts of interest with the other sectors it represents. How can we expect solid representation when the same union represents plant workers and offshore trawlermen and is receiving funding from both levels of government? How does a union fight for better fish prices for harvesters at the same time that it fights for better wages for plant workers, while in the same breath fighting both levels of government that it’s being funded by? Read the letter here 09:39
The hidden danger of Dumping Day in Nova Scotia
On Dumping Day, the hundreds of fishing boats that hit the water at the start of lobster season to set their traps can act as camouflage for a vessel in distress and hinder search and rescue efforts. In 2015, that camouflage led search and rescue technicians to jump out of a plane and miss a boat that needed their help, according to the Transportation Safety Board (TSB). Back on Nov. 30, 2015, the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre dispatched a Hercules plane and Cormorant helicopter after two boats ran into trouble off Nova Scotia’s southwestern shore. The Cormorant and its crew managed to rescue two men who had fallen overboard from one vessel. In his report, Morrow determined that if rescue crews can’t accurately identify a vessel in distress from above, critical search and rescue operations may be delayed. Read the story here 09:08
Why doesn’t Supervisor Compton support Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary? It IS Federally Funded, you know!
Opinion by Brad Snook, co-chair of Surfrider Foundation – San Luis Obispo Supervisor Lynn Compton, a SLO County Supervisor, is wrong to deny SLO County the federal funding of cultural education, marine research, and a new local stakeholder effort that a Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary could bring. It’s Federal funding! Why wouldn’t a coastal supervisor, like Lynn Compton, support the Sanctuary, too? Supervisor Compton says she is concerned about “local control”. Supervisor Compton’s district, which is the coastal section of southern SLO County, is pivotal in decisions on whether SLO County will choose to protect the quality of its air, water, and county land. Read the rest here 08:20
