Daily Archives: February 13, 2017
Extensive searches turn up no new sign of missing Bering Sea crab boat or crew
The search is still on for a crabbing vessel and its six crew members missing for nearly three days in the brutal waters of the Bering Sea, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday afternoon. The fishing vessel Destination, a Seattle-owned, Sand Point-based ship with a reputation as a “battle ax” and a crew of veteran Bering Sea fishermen, was on its way to start the snow crab season when its emergency locator beacon activated at 6:11 a.m. Saturday. As of Monday, the boat has not been declared sunk and the men aboard are still considered missing. Search crews had combed an area of 5,073 square nautical miles, following currents southwest of the spot where the only sign of the boat was found, 2 miles off the northwest tip of St. George Island, according to Petty Officer 3rd Class Lauren Steenson. Some of the crew members have already been publicly identified by family members. Read the story here 23:30
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for Februay 13, 2017
Click here to read the Weekly Update, to read all the updates, Click here 22:51
Coast Guard rescues three fisherman from vessel taking on water near Akutan, Alaska
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew rescued three people from the fishing vessel Predator after it ran aground and was taking on water near Akutan Harbor, Alaska, Monday morning.The Jayhawk crew arrived on scene, hoisted the three crewmembers and safely transported them to Akutan with no medical concerns reported. Coast Guard 17th District Command Center watchstanders were notified by Coast Guard Sector Anchorage watchstanders that the Predator ran hard aground resulting in an eight-inch crack in the hull. As a result, the Predator began taking on water and the crew was unable to keep up with the flooding utilizing dewatering pumps. Watchstanders quickly diverted a Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter crew to the scene. “This case is a perfect example of the ever-changing dynamic of search and rescue in Alaska and how well trained our personnel are to respond,” said Lt. Scott Verhage, Jayhawk helicopter co-pilot. “The crew of the Predator was well prepared, having all the safety equipment necessary to help us find them and execute the rescue.” Weather on scene at the time of the rescue was 25 mile per hour winds and 10-foot seas. -USCG- 19:54
Petition: All Against Changes to Current Nantucket Sound Mobile Gear Regulations
This petition has been created to bring awareness to the state of Massachusetts from the people who would like regulations of Nantucket Sound mobile gear to remain at their current status. The town of Nantucket is currently petitioning the right to fish inside of three nautical miles from the coast with mobile gear. This will greatly impact the permit holders, long standing fishermen, and their families who have fished these waters for decades. There is no environmental proof that this closure will have any impact at all. The squid fishery is an ecofriendly industry that supports many fishermen, families, and shore side operations and should remain this way. Throughout the years, Massachusetts has continuously managed mobile gear within Nantucket sound successfully and drastic changes to its regulations will have a detrimental impact on the Fishing Community. Please sign the petition! Click here 17:04
Fisherman and landowners alleging harm from waste pits in lawsuit against owners of San Jacinto River superfund site
Rick Kornele and Charles Rayburn fished and crabbed as small boys on a sand bar near a popular boat ramp on the San Jacinto River- a site today blocked off by an imposing chain-link fence that’s plastered with warning signs in three languages. Rayburn remembers walking barefoot along the sand and wading into the murky water to catch crab. Kornele’s family often drove to the water’s edge in a station wagon and spent days long lazy days camping in the shadow of the highway bridge. As adults, both fished, boated and bought land near the river they loved. It wasn’t until 2005 that both men separately discovered that their favorite 1960s childhood fishing hole sat next to hidden pits where a Pasadena paper mill and its partners had deposited sludge laced with cancer-causing dioxins and PCBs. Continue reading the story here 16:22
American Samoa: Local fishing fleet shocked at killing of navigator
The apparent murder of a navigator on board a vessel docked in Pago Pago Harbor has come as a shock to the close knit fishing fleet. Commissioner of Public Safety Le’i Sonny Thompson would only confirm the death of a fisherman on board a boat, but information gathered from KHJ News shows that the deceased was found dead on board the vessel American Eagle. It’s believed that his neck had been slashed. Nearly all of the crew of the vessel, mainly Vietnamese and Taiwanese, were taken in for questioning at the police station yesterday. The local agents for the vessel is KS Shipping. A veteran stevedore agent was shocked to hear about the apparent killing. He said such a heinous crime is uncommon for this port which is relatively peaceful and friendly. link 12:20
Search continues for Bering Sea fishing vessel missing with 6 aboard
Despite two days of searching, there was still no sign Sunday night of the Bering Sea crab boat or its six crew members that went missing just off St. George Island Saturday. The Destination, a 95-foot fishing vessel based in Seattle but operated mostly out of Sand Point, was on its way from Dutch Harbor to St. Paul Island for the start of the opilio crab fishery when the ship’s emergency beacon activated at 6:11 a.m. Saturday, said Michael Barcott, an Anchorage maritime attorney who is acting as a spokesperson for the ship’s ownership group. On Saturday, a Coast Guard search and rescue crew found the emergency beacon, a life ring, buoys and tarps in a small oil sheen on the water about 2 miles northwest of St. George Island. “The crew had sailed right by St. George within a half-hour of when the beacon activated,” Barcott said. Dylan Hatfield, a fisherman from Petersburg who has been working out of Dutch Harbor this winter, said his brother was aboard the Destination when it went missing. Hatfield did not want to identify his brother or any of the other crew members on the Destination by name on Sunday. The ship itself was a meticulously maintained “battle ax,” said Hatfield, who worked for six years aboard the Destination himself. Continue reading the story here 11:29
Seafood groups pick up $5.9M tab for ADF&G hatchery salmon research
Processors and seven hatcheries have agreed to pony up millions to keep an Alaska Department of Fish and Game research project going. Pacific Seafood Processors Association and Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association Inc., committed $5.9 million to support the Wild/Hatchery Salmon Management Tools capital project. The project is intended to fuel management decisions around Alaska’s 29 salmon hatcheries, as well as secure a more marketable reputation for Alaska hatchery stocks. The program was originally started in 2012 as a collaboration between ADFG, the PSPA and private nonprofit hatcheries. Continue reading the story here 10:18
Nearly 200,000 people ordered to evacuate amid threat of California dam collapse
Authorities ordered the evacuation of nearly 200,000 residents in several northern California towns Sunday evening, as a rapidly eroding section of a dam appeared on the verge of collapse. “Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered,” the Butte County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook. “Operation of the auxiliary spillway,” the sheriff’s office said, had led “to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure. Failure of the auxiliary spillway structure will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville.” The evacuation warning was “NOT a drill,” the sheriff’s office added. Read the story here 08:57
Gov. Kate Brown puts political correctness above jobs
In an astoundingly ignorant and heavy-handed display of putting urban political correctness ahead of rural jobs, Gov. Kate Brown last week dictated that the citizen members of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission reverse their January decision that gave commercial fishermen a minimally fair share of the Columbia River’s salmon allocation. Addressing commissioners as if they are misbehaving children, Brown told Chairman Michael Finley the commission majority’s acknowledgment of reality is “not acceptable” and that “I expect” the commission to acquiesce to her interpretation of the facts by April 3. The commission agreed at a meeting on Friday in Tigard to take up the issue in March. Many of the most important facts are not in dispute: Former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s dictated abandonment of decades of carefully nuanced salmon policy has not worked. Kicking commercial fishermen off the Columbia’s main stem as of Dec. 31, 2016, as Kitzhaber’s plan called for, is manifestly unjust and will hurt the economy of Clatsop County and other fishing-dependent communities. Continue reading the Op-ed here 07:41
