Daily Archives: September 29, 2018
Shark attacks 13-year-old boy diving for lobster at San Diego County beach
A 13-year-old boy diving for lobster was attacked by a shark Saturday morning near Beacon’s Beach in Encinitas, leaving him with traumatic upper body wounds, authorities said. The attack occurred just before 7 a.m. off Neptune Avenue at the foot of Leucadia Boulevard, an hour into opening day of the lobster diving season, authorities said. Chad Hammel was hunting with two friends — an off-duty Oceanside police officer and a state parks lifeguard — when they heard what seemed like a diver’s excited squeals after a catch.,, “His whole clavicle was ripped open,” Hammel said of the victim. ”We told him he’s going to be OK, he’s going to be all right — we got help. I yelled at everyone to get out of the water: ‘There’s a shark in the water!’”>click to read<19:31
“Maritime Women on Swan’s Island” – Swan’s Island honors women who fished
Betsy Philbrook’s grandmother, Melita Staples, was up for anything except cooking and housecleaning. “She used to bait tubs when she was younger,” said Philbrook. “She was much happier driving a dumptruck or working on a dock than staying home.” As a child, Philbrook, whose family goes back on Swan’s Island to its first settlement, learned how to set lobster traps from her grandmother. She went on to become a sternman for her father, went off to college, bought her first little lobsterboat in 2001, and has been sterning for Dwight Colbeth since 2006. >click to read<13:48
Tasmanian fishers star in new documentary series Aussie Lobster Men
A television series about rock lobster fishers working in the oceans surrounding Tasmania will debut in 2019. The producers of Aussie Lobster Men recently finished filming six lobster boats and their crews working at sea. Minster for the Arts Elise Archer said the documentary series explored the “real-life dramas” of fishers willing to “risk it all in search of one of the world’s most prized seafood delicacy”. >click to read<12:37
Killer Whale Populations At Risk from Toxic Chemicals
A paper in the Sept. 28 issue of Science says killer whales are at great risk, but not from climate change, loss of habitat or loss of their prey. It will be due to something that sounds very 1970s – PCB, or polychlorinated biphenyl. PCBs are human-made chemicals used for making plastics, electronics, lubricants, heat transformers and other materials and technology. In the late 1970s, studies showed the harmful effects of PCB on humans and on wildlife, such as birds, otters and seals. According to a 2017 paper, killer whale populations off the coast of the most industrialized parts of Europe are close to extinction. >click to read<12:02
Coast Guard suspends search for man near St. Matthew Island, Alaska
The Coast Guard suspended its search Friday for a man last seen aboard a fishing boat north of St. Matthew Island Thursday. Two Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft crews searched along with the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Munro and the crews of fishing vessels Clipper Epic, Frontier Spirit and Frontier Mariner for more than 24 hours, covering approximately 894 square nautical miles. The search was suspended at 3 p.m., pending any further developments. -USCG- 08:53
UPDATED: Labour relations board dismisses FISH-NL certification application
The Labour Relations Board on Friday dismissed FISH-NL’s certification application. Federation of Independent Seafood Harvesters (FISH-NL) president Ryan Cleary said he’s “absolutely shocked” by the decision. In a news release, FFAW-Unifor wrote they are “pleased” with the decision by the board, which “confirmed FFAW-Unifor’s longstanding assertion that there are nearly 10,000 inshore fish harvesters in our province, which clearly shows that FISH-NL did not have adequate support to warrant a vote.” Both FISH-NL and FFAW-Unifor appear to agree on one point – that the process over the past couple of years has resulted in unrest within the inshore fishery. >click to read<08:08
