Daily Archives: June 10, 2017

Alaska Seafood processors relying more heavily on U.S. workers this year

Seafood employers need to fill many seasonal jobs every salmon season. In general, that process remains the same year to year. Nelson San Juan is the seafood employment coordinator for the Alaska Department of Labor. He says employers are leaning on state labor resources more than usual this year. “A lot of them are depending highly with the seafood unit because of, well they used to use these H-2B visa, and some of them decided not to use it or for some reason they were not able to use that program this year.” The H-2B program allows U.S. employers to hire temporary workers from overseas. San Juan says employers who did decide to use the program ran into a problem. Audio click here to read the story 18:50

Oregon and California Senators seek fishery disaster declaration

Oregon’s and California’s senators called for a federal salmon fishery disaster declaration for both states to support economic recovery for coastal communities, in a letter Friday to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The letter from Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and California Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein follows a request from Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and California Gov. Jerry Brown for the federal government to issue a fisheries disaster declaration to provide economic relief for the loss of coastal jobs due to declining salmon populations. Click here to read the story 17:00

Consultation process questioned for waters off Cape Breton designated as Marine Protected Area

An area three quarters the size of Prince Edward Island has been declared as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) just off eastern Cape Breton and the people who normally fish there aren’t too pleased about it. According to Veronika Brzeski, executive director of the Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association, local fishermen will be losing 15 per cent of their total fishing area. But what’s even worse was the way the Department of Fisheries and Ocean went about setting it up, she says. Fisheries and Oceans Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced the establishment of the St. Ann’s Bank Marine Protected Area as part of World Oceans Day earlier this week. The designation means that most human activities such as commercial fishing will be prohibited in 75 per cent of the area. “St. Anns Bank is the third Marine Protected Area to be designated in Canadian waters in less than eight months,” said LeBlanc. click here to read the story 11:30

A little story about my day at sea yesterday

So we leave to go fishing at 0330 with an observer that the government forces us to take. Now the young man is a likable enough guy who I have no problem with. The problem is we are forced to take these people with no exception. When they tell you they are going to put one on your boat you either take them or you deal with the wrath of NOAA law enforcement. So we go out with the plan of going to catch some scup, fluke and sea bass to unload in Connecticut. We had some nice scup the day before and figured we would get CT’s allowance which is a whopping 1200 pounds of scup, 75 lbs. of fluke and 10 sea bass in count. So we make a couple of tows and come up a bit light on the scup but have the fluke and sea bass. We go and unload ion CT. and on the way there, which happens to be a 2 hour+ steam each way I am informed that the scup that we landed the previous day which had been paying around 60 cents per pound had dropped to 10 to 15 cents per pound. Not even worth the fuel to catch. WONDERFUL. So we go all the way to CT. , unload our catch and head back another 2+ hours for home. After we get back to our dock, I and my crewman are cleaning up the boat and we notice someone on the dock with a camera taking pictures of us as he walks by. No big deal.,,, Click here to read the story 10:24

Nova Scotia Fishermen’s Association Relies on Mustang Survival as Part of Major Safety Investment

Mustang Survival®, the North American brand known for innovative solutions for the most demanding marine environments, is pleased to announce that the Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board (GNSFPB) has made another round of major investments in safety equipment which includes 1,200 Mustang Survival immersion suits. As part of a $1.3 million spend, the GNSFPB is aligning with new safety requirements for commercial fishing vessels introduced by Transport Canada, which will go into effect this summer.,, Leonard LeBlanc, GNSFB’s Managing Director, in partnership with Shippagan Enterprises, spearheaded the purchase of safety equipment for use by 600 inshore fishermen in an area that extends from the New Bruswick boarder to the tip of Cape Breton in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. click here to read the story 08:43

Vaca Key Marina owner’s son: ‘We will rebuild’

Even though the damage caused by a massive fire in Marathon Monday has been devastating to those who lived and work at the Vaca Key Marina, efforts to rebuild are underway. The June 6 fire that tore through the 1-acre bayside marina at mile marker 47.5 destroyed three boats, a house, six forklifts and thousands of lobster traps from 2 to 5:30 a.m. Traffic in both directions was shut down for hours. Capt. Dave Dipre with the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was at the marina Thursday assessing the number of lobster and stone-crab traps lost in the fire and said the actual number is closer to 10,000, contrary to the 20,000 originally reported lost. On the other, unfortunate, hand, what was first thought to be $1 million in estimated damage is now closer to $2 million, said Juan Carlos Berdeal, son of property owner Carlos Berdeal of Miami. click here to read the story 08:21