Daily Archives: January 2, 2018

Letter on Fish Farming – Shame on NOAA

NOAA, of all organizations, knows how destructive fish farms are to the ocean and its inhabitants (“NOAA wants to fund more fish farming to offset trade gap,” Dec. 14). Did they conveniently forget that in 2014 Aqua Bounty was fined for repeated environmental violations of genetically engineered salmon and banned from selling their GE fish in the USA? Or, how about the six storms in 2014 and 2015 in Jordan Bay, Nova Scotia, where 31 bird nets, 90 feet in diameter, and dead fish washed ashore, becoming aquaculture-site sewage and litter? click here to read the letter 20:52

“American lobster larva,” wins people’s choice in Photography category of the 2016 Visualization Challenge

As a master’s student in marine biology at the University of Maine, Jesica Waller spent the summer taking pictures of baby lobsters.,,, This image of a live three-week-old specimen was one of thousands Waller took. It captures the distinct, delicate hairs on the legs. Since lobsters have very poor vision, they rely on their leg hairs for sensory tasks such as finding food. Adults have them too, meaning baby and grown-up lobsters alike taste with their feet. This illustration won people’s choice in the Photography category (click here) of the 2016 Visualization Challenge, now called the Vizzies click here to read the story 18:38

Massachusetts Large Whale Seasonal Trap Gear Closure In Effect from February 1 – April 30

The annual Massachusetts Large Whale Seasonal Trap Gear Closure Area (Seasonal Closure) will be in effect from February 1to April 30. During this period, all pot and trap gear must be removed from the waters within Seasonal Closure. This applies to all commercial pot and trap gear fishermen regardless of whether they are state or federally permitted, as well as all recreational lobster and crab fishermen. click here to read the notice 17:34

Trollers call for chinook management ‘with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer’

Fishermen in Sitka are pushing back against a proposed king salmon conservation plan that could impose deep restrictions on fishing seasons in 2018. The local Fish & Game Advisory Committee instead has offered some strategies of its own for protecting chinook returning to three major Southeast river systems. They’re calling it “management with a scalpel, instead of a sledge hammer.” click here to read the story 16:53 

Follow your dreams – Little Bro teaches this family some life lessons

Let me introduce you to Little Bro. We all know that person struggling to find their passion, right? It’s a common trope, “Office Space,” the lost soul floundering in an unfulfilling job. That was my brother for a great many years. In a culture relentless in its obsession with college and upward mobility, those with gifts and talents outside the curriculum are undervalued. The people who actually make the world function with hands, backs and brains get little in the way of direction. click here to read the story 12:37

Maine: Bills to address commercial license glitches

The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Marine Resources will meet next Wednesday for hearings on three bills aimed at fine-tuning the state’s commercial fishing license system. One bill, LD1652, would allow the Department of Marine Resources to set up a limited entry system for shrimp fishermen in any year when the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission sets the state’s northern shrimp landings allocation at less than 2,000 metric tons. Currently there is a moratorium on shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine.,,, The two other bills are more technical. click here to read the story 11:24

An Inuk Boy Who Caught A Seal With His Hockey Stick Is Peak Canada

Forget gingerbread Parliament Hill and Shania Twain’s Grey Cup entrance on a dog sled — a photo of a grinning Inuk boy who just caught a seal using a hockey stick might be the most Canadian thing we’ve seen this year. Ryder Aviogana, who is from Kugluqtuq, Nunavut, was a water boy at the Kitikmeot Cup hockey tournament two years ago, according to a comment on the viral photo that’s been shared by CBC Nunavut and across Reddit. But, given his recent stick handling, he might be ready to graduate from water boy to on-ice player. click here to read the story 10:29

How cold is it? Texas Parks and Wildlife halts fishing along Gulf Coast during freeze

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has temporarily closed certain areas of the Texas coast to fishing in order to protect fish stocks, according to a statement. The closure is in effect from 6 a.m. on Jan. 2 to 10 p.m. on Jan. 3. “The high mortality that a freeze can cause may deplete fish stocks for years,” said Robin Riechers, director of TPWD’s Coastal Fisheries Division. click here to read the story 10:03