Daily Archives: October 12, 2018

Hurricane Michael: Alaska bound factory trawler ripped from mooring, left lying on her side

Hurricane Michael ripped an almost-finished Alaska factory trawler built for a Seattle company from a shipyard mooring in Panama City, Florida, and left it lying on its starboard side in the shallow water of Saint Andrews Bay. “The boat was nearing completion, and because of all the destruction down there we have not been able to survey the vessel,” said Jim Johnson, president of Seattle-based Glacier Fish Co., which is responsible for managing the ship. photo, courier journal>click to read<23:12

‘What Happened in Craig’: Trying to piece together one of the state’s most perplexing murder mysteries

Leland Hale, along with his late coauthor Walter Gilmour, is known for writing the book “Butcher, Baker” about Anchorage serial killer Robert Hanson in the 1970s and early-’80s, which more recently was made into a movie. And Hale went back to 1980s Alaska for the subject of his new book, “What Happened in Craig?”, out this week.,, HALE: Let’s set the scene. It’s in September. It’s the end of the fishing season in Southeast Alaska. There’s a little town called Craig. There’s about a hundred fishing boats in town. So now the population has doubled and people are out celebrating because the fishing seasons over. They’ve made their money and one of the vessels there is actually from Blaine, Washington. >click to read<20:58

Engine shortage slows pace of boatbuilding

Seated behind the desk in his office, boatbuilder Stewart Workman seemed pretty relaxed for a businessman with a big problem that seems to be growing worse.,, Over the past couple of years, as more of the lobster fishery has moved into deeper waters far from land, Workman’s customers have been looking at the biggest boats he can build, but he is finding it difficult to satisfy their needs. The reason is simple. “There are no engines available that are big enough to safely operate our (biggest) boats offshore,” Workman said recently. Fishermen are the customers who are feeling the pinch. The new emission rule exempts non-commercial vessels. >click to read<19:48

Newbuild Research arrives in Whalsay

Whalsay has been welcoming its second brand-new state-of-the-art pelagic trawler in as many months. The new 80-metre long Research (LK 62), said to have cost an estimated £34 million, sailed into Symbister on Friday morning after crossing the North Sea from Norway overnight. The vessel, built for the locally owned Research Fishing Company,,, >click to read<17:46

It’s Official! 62.3 million: Bristol Bay’s 2018 salmon season the largest ever

It is official; 2018 was the largest sockeye salmon run to Bristol Bay on record, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has records dating back to 1893. The 2018 Bristol Bay Season Summary, which ADF&G released in September, reiterates the records this year’s run broke. To start with, the total run to Bristol Bay this summer was 62.3 million sockeye. That is 21 percent above the preseason forecast of 51.3 million fish.,, The ex-vessel value also broke a record – $281 million for all salmon species. >click to read<15:02

North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for October 12, 2018

>Click here to read the Weekly Update<, to read all the updates >click here<, for older updates listed as NCFA >click here<14:24

Five men and the sea: Huge marlin sinks Philippine fishing boat

Like a modern-day take on “The Old Man and the Sea,” five Filipino fishermen were cast adrift for days on a makeshift raft after a huge marlin sank their boat. The men were fishing in the South China Sea when a 6-foot-long (1.8-meter) marlin punctured their boat’s wooden hull with its giant bill, vessel master Jimmy Batiller said on Wednesday. Their 12-meter boat quickly dipped beneath the waves in the early evening of Oct. 3, leaving the crew with little drinking water or food until their rescue by the U.S. Navy on Monday. >click to read<13:27

Devestation – Seven drownings among Nova Scotia fishermen highlight importance of PFDs

Allan Anderson never thought his close friend, “a stellar tuna fisherman” of four decades, would be the latest drowning victim. The Aulds Cove lifelong fisherman learned of the tragic news on Saturday not long after Stevie MacInnis died while tuna fishing off the coast of Port Hood. The father of three was the seventh Nova Scotia fisherman to drown on the job this year. The 68-year-old Arisaig resident was widely regarded as a selfless community man. It’s unclear whether he was wearing a personal flotation device (PFD).,, But Anderson also admits that he and MacInnis also represent an older generation of fishermen reluctant to wear PFDs themselves. >click to read<12:18

P.E.I. lobster fishermen report up and down fall season

Traps across Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 25 came out of the water Wednesday, Oct. 10, marking the end of a mixed bag of a fall lobster season. On the Summerside waterfront, Merrill Montgomery, captain of the Salty Curls, and his crew spent the morning hauling up traps, loading them onto a truck and getting them set for winter storage. All things considered, he was pleased with how his things went. “Season was great, fantastic. Weather was great, catch was great and price was – pretty good,” he said. >click to read<11:33

Feds declare salmon fishery disasters

California’s 2016 and 2017 commercial ocean salmon seasons have been declared as federal fisheries disasters, one of many declarations for the state and the rest of the West Coast. Declared by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce late last month, the West Coast fisheries disasters include the Klamath River fall run Chinook commercial ocean salmon fisheries of both California and Oregon and the 2017 Klamath fisheries of the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes. Those declarations are among a dozen for the West Coast alone and at this point, only $20 million has been appropriated for federal disaster relief. >click to read<09:18

Hurricane Michael Death Toll Rises to 11 Overnight

Hurricane Michael continued its rampage through the mid-Atlantic early Friday morning after ravaging parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas, spawning deadly floods that rose so fast that there was little time to evacuate. At least 11 deaths have been blamed on the powerful storm. Michael made landfall as a high-end Category 4 storm on the Florida Panhandle Wednesday, smashing towns to rubble. >click to read<08:48