Daily Archives: January 18, 2018

Judge excludes drug test on Maine fishing boat captain facing manslaughter charges

A federal judge has restricted the federal government’s ability to use results of a blood test taken from a Cushing fishing boat captain accused of causing the deaths of two crew members when his lobster boat sank during a November 2014 gale. U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby issued his ruling Wednesday, Jan. 17 in the case of 29-year-old Christopher A. Hutchinson. >click here to read< 16:57

FISH-NL – Solidarity isn’t forever with FFAW/Unifor so much as when it suits them

The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) says Unifor’s reasoning for its break from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is nothing short of ironic and hypocritical. “Unifor, the largest private-sector union in Canada, is splitting from the CLC over a disagreement about the rights of workers to choose what union should represent them, while one of its affiliate unions, the FFAW, has blocked the province’s inshore harvesters for 13 months from voting on their union fate,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. >click here to read< 14:41

Invasive Shrimp Grows to More Than a Pound in TX Waters

Did you know there are shrimp in Texas that can grow to weigh more than a pound? The black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) or tiger shrimp is an aggressive mollusk that can grow to a foot in length and weigh a pound according to Texas Invasive Species Institute. “In addition to it’s unusually large size, it can be identified by black stripes across the dorsal side of the tail. It can also be black in body color with orange stripes on it’s back, resembling a tiger.” >click here to read< 13:06

Lawsuit filed to save North Atlantic Right Whales from death in fishing gear

Today’s lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleges that federal management of the American lobster fishery violates the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The lawsuit seeks to force the agency to sufficiently examine the fishery’s impacts on North Atlantic right whales and adopt additional measures to prevent more entanglements in the future. The lobster fishery is the most active fixed-gear fishery in the northeastern United States. >click here to read< 12:08 

Alaska commercial fisherman who robbed creeks of spawning salmon forfeits boat and gear

An Alaska commercial fisherman who prosecutors say robbed creeks of salmon heading to spawning grounds has lost his fishing vessel, nets, skiff and other gear, under a sentence imposed last week in Prince of Wales District Court. Curtis Demmert, now 32 of Klawock, was fishing in Coco Harbor, on Dall Island to the west of Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, according to the charging document and other court filings. >click here to read< 09:24

On a dangerous trip, New Jersey fishermen struggle to hold on

It was 10 degrees outside, a blizzard was on its way, and Roy Deal was in no mood to fish. Deal sat in the blue captain’s chair in the wheelhouse of the Donna Lynn, his 60-foot fishing boat, and felt cold air penetrating cracks in the glass. He passed the seawall at 3:55 a.m. Three hours to sunrise. Deal gave the wheel a hard half-spin. The Donna Lynn pitched to starboard, away from the lights of Manhattan. Deal held the turn till his bow pointed north and east, into the black Atlantic. This trip would be dangerous. The pay would be low. And Deal was feeling grumpy. >click here to read< 08:37