Daily Archives: May 8, 2018

Hershel West of Menemsha died peacefully in his sleep at age 94

Hershel was born on March 1, 1924, to his parents Norman and Annie West at his grandmother’s house on Middle Road, close to the West Tisbury–Chilmark town line. As a boy, he delivered mail with his father to Naushon and Nomans islands. He spent most of his life commercial fishing. Besides scalloping, oystering, and lobstering on the Island, he crewed on draggers out of New Bedford. For many years, he crewed aboard the Menemsha swordfish boats owned by the Larsens. . He was well known for his role in the movie “Jaws” as Quint’s mate, along with his beloved dog Tipper. >click to read<21:35

Crew rescued as lobster boat sinks off Escuminac

A lobster fishing boat carrying four men and at least 100 lobster traps capsized and sank off Escuminac Wharf on Tuesday morning. O’Neil Hebert, owner of the Trina Margaret, said no one was injured. He and the three other men were in the water for about 10 minutes before other boats picked them up. The men went to the hospital to be checked out. “At least we didn’t lose [anybody] on the crew,” Hebert said.,, Robert Martin, Port Authority of Escuminac manager, said boats went out to set traps at 6 a.m. Some boats received the Trina Margaret’s distress signal at around 6:10 a.m. >click to read<19:01

Plans For Offshore Wind Energy Draw Criticism At Hearing In Southampton On Monday

“We know the moment [the federal government] gets a taste of wind farms in the Atlantic, we are going to be playing whack-a-mole with energy and oil companies creeping up on our fishing grounds,” Bonnie Brady said at a presentation by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, on Monday night at the Southampton Inn. Ms. Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in Montauk, said that, like other commercial fishermen in the audience, she worries that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, which has jurisdiction over the Atlantic, will lease more ocean for wind energy development and wind up hurting the industry.>click to read<16:01

Gloucester fish seller, supplier earn sustainability certification

Haddock, pollock and redfish — “The Big Three” — are getting a big new marketing edge from a little blue label.  “There’s a lot of them out there,” says Jimmy Odlin from the headquarters of his Portland, Maine-based AtlanticTrawlers Fishing. “We just needed to sell more of it. We knew we needed to expand our market and after researching, we decided that MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification was the best fit.” The other half of Odlin’s “we” is Gloucester’s Nick Giacalone, who, along with brothers Chris and Vito Jr.,,, >click to read<14:10

Tories ask ethics commissioner to probe fishery bid they say favours Liberal insiders

A Conservative MP is asking the federal ethics commissioner to investigate the bidding process that awarded a lucrative Arctic surf clam license to a group with Liberal links. In his letter to Mario Dion, the newly appointed ethics watchdog, Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty alleges the government’s effort to diversify ownership in the fishery — by clawing back part of an existing quota held by Clearwater Foods and handing it to a group with Indigenous representation — violates the Commons conflict of interest code because it enriches the brother of a sitting Liberal MP and a former Liberal MP.>click to read< 12:57

Criminal investigation ordered into sinking of Nancy Glen

A criminal investigation is being held into the sinking of a fishing boat in which two men died. The Nancy Glen went down in Loch Fyne, near Tarbert, on January 18. Duncan MacDougall, 46, and Przemek Krawczyk, 38, who lived in the village, were on board when the trawler sank. It was confirmed yesterday that police have been asked to investigate. A Crown Office spokesman said: “The procurator fiscal has instructed Police Scotland to investigate the circumstances around the deaths of Duncan MacDougall and Przemek Krawczyk >click to read<

Texas Man Claims Cocaine Came with His Fishing License

Being a game warden is an interesting job. A warden just never knows who or what they’ll encounter while out on the job, even on something as simple as a license check. In the Texas Game Warden’s latest roundup of interesting items from warden reports is a particularly peculiar report. An unnamed Willacy County warden came upon an unnamed angler at Port Mansfield’s Stone Pier. As per standard procedure, the warden asked to see the man’s fishing license. This is where things got interesting. >click to read< 11:06

Cuomo Calls for “Citizen Fleet” to Block Offshore Drilling

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has introduced new legislation to ban offshore oil and gas exploration in New York State’s waters.,, Cuomo has gone one step further than his neighbors in advocating for a ban on offshore E&P. On Sunday, when he announced his legislative initiative, he also threated to set up a “citizen fleet” of small boats to physically block drilling activity. “The only way you stop a bully is by standing up and putting your finger in his or her chest,” Cuomo said in a speech at Battery Park. “I’m going to commission a citizen fleet to stop [drilling] just as Winston Churchill did at Dunkirk.” >click to read< 10:03

Injunction sought against lobster buoy lines

On Friday, Richard Maximus Strahan filed the emergency motion in U.S. District Court for a temporary restraining order to stop either the licensing or deploying of vertical bouy lines, arguing they routinely entangle the endangered whales, causing serious injury and death. The restraining order should be in effect until marine fisheries officials and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association could show there are no more right whales, a migratory species, in the states coastal waters, according to the motion. >click to read< 08:58