Daily Archives: November 12, 2017

Atlantic Menhaden Management Board Meeting November 13, 2017 1:00 pm to consider approval of Amendment 3

The Board will meet to consider approval of Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. The Commission’s Business Session will meet immediately following the conclusion of the Atlantic Menhaden Board to consider final approval of Amendment 3. In total, there are 3 sets of meeting materials:  main meeting materials, supplemental materials and supplemental materials # 2. The main meeting materials, which can be reviewed pdf click here include the Draft Agenda, Draft Board Proceedings from August 2017, and the Technical Committee Memo on Stock Projections for the Interim Reference Point Options in Draft Amendment 3 (please note this has been revised in Supplemental Materials #2). click here for info and webinar link 20:00

Door control from the wheelhouse

The idea of a pair of trawl doors that can be adjusted at the turn of a dial rather than by shifting attachment points and backstrops has been at the back of many people’s minds over the years – and there have been numerous experiments and trials carried out to get this to work. It has taken a while, and finally the first commercially-produced controllable pelagic trawl doors are available, produced by Esbjerg company MLD, an acronym that stands simply for Multi-Level Door.  click here to read the story    More images click here18:23

THE FORAGE FISH FARCE

December 14, 2012 — The Providence Journal’s “PolitiFact” unit investigated claims made by Pew Environment Group in advertisements they ran in several newspapers asking east coast governors to support their demand for a 50% cut in the menhaden harvest. Pew justified this demand saying “… in recent years, menhaden numbers along our coast have plummeted by 90 percent.”  The newspaper found the claim to be “Mostly False”. The Providence Journal Lenfest is a Marketing/PR/Lobbying arm of Pew Charitable Trusts, Pew Environmental Group. They (Pew, Lenfest, Oceana, EDF, etc.) are presently working on eliminating the East Coast Menhaden fishery (aka Bunker, Pogies) after going after West Coast sardines recently. click here to read the story 11:38

Decision coming Monday on Menhaden management

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will decide on a new management plan for Atlantic menhaden at a meeting near Baltimore on Monday. Fishermen and environmentalists have a lot riding on how much of the resource is set aside for fishing, and how much is left for wildlife predators. Known as Amendment 3, the new rule will set the future course for managing the forage fish species eaten by many other fish, birds like osprey, dolphins and whales. click here to read the story Atlantic Menhaden Management Board – The Board will meet to consider approval of Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. click here to read 3 sets of meeting materials 10:35

Salmon complete 1,000-mile journey, and life

On a morning with biting air in the single digits Fahrenheit, this river smells like sulfur and is splashy and loud. Bald eagles and ravens swoop in the updraft of a nearby rock bluff in what looks like play. In early November, a time when shadows lengthen and deep cold hardens the landscape, chum salmon have returned to spawn in the lower Delta River. In spots, the water is so shallow that dorsal fins wiggle in the frigid air. Some fish get frostbite on really cold days. Now is the peak of one of Alaska’s last great animal migrations of the year. click here to read the story 10:11

Coast Guard tows disabled fishing vessel with 30,000 lbs. catch off New Hampshire coast

The Coast Guard towed an adrift 65-foot fishing vessel to Gloucester Harbor after becoming disabled about 30 miles off the coast of New Hampshire, Friday. Unable to receive help from a sister ship and concerned about the impending weather, the captain of the vessel, Black Beauty, contacted watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, at about 4:45 p.m. He reported their transmission stopped working, there were five people aboard, and they had 30,000 lbs. of catch on board.  click here to read the story 09:29

Maine’s lobster marketing group is facing existential opposition from an unlikely source: the lobster industry.

With lobster prices down, both at the dock and the dealer’s office, some who make their living off the state’s signature crustacean are reluctant to approve another five years of funding to the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, whose $2.2 million-a-year budget is funded by lobster license surcharges. With its state funding about to expire, the collaborative is taking its case to fishermen in fire halls and ferry terminals from Kennebunk to Rockland this month, calling on powerful industry friends to lend their support and touting a new audit that gave the program stellar reviews. But it’s not an easy sell. click here to read the story 08:57