Daily Archives: September 9, 2018

Pro and anti whaling nations brace for battle in Brazil

Pro- and anti-whaling nations are set for a showdown when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Brazil from Monday as Japan leads an assault on a three-decade old moratorium on commercial whale hunting. Tokyo heads into the biennial meeting as chair of the 88-nation body determined to shake-up what it says is a dysfunctional organization mired in dispute and unable to make key decisions. But Japan’s package of proposals, entitled “The Way Forward,” has left conservationists seething even before delegates have taken their seats at the 67th IWC meeting in the Brazilian surfing resort of Florianapolis. >click to read<17:59

The Sago Extreme – Closing the longline snackbar

Sisters on the west coast of Norway have provided the impetus behind the development of a system designed to protect longline catches from predating whales that treat the lines as a free lunch. Ingunn Elise and Linn Solveig Sørvik took an idea their father Omar had originally come up with some years before, and have taken it to the stage of being a commercial product ready for use. Omar Sørvik came up with the idea while he was working on longliners fishing for toothfish in the Southern Ocean, where sperm and killer whales stealing fish from the lines as they are hauled is a serious problem for fishing vessels. >click to read<16:41

Arson probe launched after fishing boat blaze in Sunderland

Police and fire chiefs are today investigating the cause of a blaze on board a fishing boat moored in Sunderland. A member of the public raised the alarm about a fire abroad the Prevail, which was moored at Clark’s Quay, under the Queen Alexandra Bridge, at about 6.30am.  The RNLI and Coastguard personnel were there to provide safety cover to firefighters who were fighting the fire. The operation lasted about three hours, until the crews were satisfied that the fire would not re-ignite. The boat suffered significant damage in the fire, whose cause is being investigated. >click to read<14:10

The Scallop War: Food for Thought

Music may be the food of love, but the quest for food has often been the cause of friction and political insecurity. That friction has been evident throughout history. Ancient Rome was troubled by the increase in the price of bread. In the 15th century, 1482-84, the Salt War took place among papal forces, their Venetian allies, and the Duke of Tuscany over the salt that had been reserved to Venice, the only port allowed to trade in salt. The famine in Ireland in the 1840s still has political overtones in British-Irish relations. The 900-day Nazi blockage of supplies to Leningrad, September 1941 to January 1944, caused the deaths of 1.5 million Russian soldiers and civilians and the evacuation of another 1.4 million.  The Cod War, really a number of interstate disputes in 1950, 1958, and 1972 between Britain and Iceland over fishing rights in the North Atlantic,,,  Now we have an outbreak of a new food war: a Scallop War between Britain and France. >click to read<12:55

Fisheries Minister Wilkinson fires back at enviro groups for suing over killer whales

Canada’s fisheries minister has fired back at environmental groups for launching court action to protect endangered southern resident killer whales instead of working with the federal government on the issue. Jonathan Wilkinson said the groups abandoned discussions shortly after they began with federal officials and representatives from the transportation and fishing industries. “They were the ones who initially asked to convene the multi-stakeholder forum. They effectively attended one meeting and then decided that they would pursue a more adversarial approach rather than a collaborative approach.” >click to read<10:48

Japan fails to win approval to increase tuna catch quotas

Japan failed to win approval at an international fisheries meeting for its proposals to increase overall catch quotas for Pacific bluefin tuna. The proposals were supported by Taiwan and South Korea but opposed by the United States and the Cook Islands. States in opposition said that it’s too early to expand quotas as the numbers of such tuna are still extremely small. They were put forward at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission’s Northern Committee, where any proposal requires unanimous approval.>click to read<10:13

The View From Swamptown: Donald W. Wilcox Sr. was a true man of Narragansett Bay

Don Wilcox was born to spend his days out on the waters of Narragansett Bay. Its harbors and coves were as familiar to him as the streets and lanes are to a postman on his beat. If someone were to tell me that his blood flowed saltier than yours or mine, well, I’d have no trouble believing it. I expect he was never happier than when he was hauling in a full dredge loaded with mussels, seagulls squawking and swinging through the air above him, starfish and spider crabs scurrying around between his feet. That was his world. That was his life. Claimed by two different seaside villages, Wilcox – Apponaug’s most prominent boatbuilder, and Wickford’s king mussel man – was at ease and at home in both places, pleased as punch to be living both lives. >click to read<09:09