Daily Archives: December 9, 2018

Wisdom the albatross: World’s oldest known bird lays another egg

The world’s oldest known bird is set to become a mother again – after raising at least 30 other youngsters. Wisdom the albatross has laid another egg at her nest site in Midway Atoll National Wildlife refuge on a tiny island about 1,200 miles northwest of Hawaii, in the Pacific Ocean. Biologists believe Wisdom is at least 68 years old, forcing them to re-evaluate the age which they expected albatrosses to live to. Albatross mate for life, but will recouple if a partner dies. The current age of her mate Akeakamai is not known, but the pair have been together since 2006. >click to read<21:39

Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in Annapolis, MD Dec.10 thru 13, 2018

The public is invited to attend the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s meeting to be held Dec.10 thru 13, 2018  at the Westin Annapolis, 100 Westgate Circle, Annapolis, MD 21401, Telephone 410-972-4300, Briefing Materials & Agenda Overview Agenda >click here< Attend Meeting with Adobe Connect >click here< Listen Live18:08

Fishing industry says no to net pen finfish

A group of fish harvesters and seafood industry entities is urging Congress to oppose attempts to legitimize open net pen finfish aquaculture, as proposed in fish farming legislation introduced in late September. The target of their Dec. 4 letter to Congress is the Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture Act, or AQUAA Act, introduced in September by Representatives Steven Palazzo, R-Miss, and Collin Peterson, D-MN. The House bill is a companion piece to legislation of the same name filed earlier in the year by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., to give the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regulatory authority over fish farming in federal waters. >click to read<13:53

The calm before the storm – the fishermen waiting for Brexit

Newlyn looks the same as it always has. The Atlantic sweeps into the bay, gently rocking the boats moored there. The scent of fish rises from the docks and the market. St Michael’s Mount sits further round the bay, offering the perfect backdrop for a postcard. It doesn’t feel like a political hub, yet the town has been the subject of countless Brexit stories. It’s the perfect angle: a traditional industry which argues it’s been sold out again and again. Once more, it’s a bargaining chip on the negotiating table. And there are a lot of lives resting on that chip. Fishing was one of the strongest voices calling to leave Europe in 2016. Their demands were some of the clearest,,, >click to read<13:20

Tomorrow’s fishery

While fisheries biologists in the north are hard at work crunching numbers in an effort to develop their best guess at how many salmon will return to Alaska next year, Atlantic Sapphire is getting ready to load it first 800,000 salmon eggs into a massive, onshore “Bluehouse” in Florida. A “successful 90-day, on site hatchery trial has validated water quality and local conditions,” the Norwegian company said in a report to shareholders in mid-November.,,, The implications for Alaska commercial salmon fisheries are significant, but those who suggest the growing competition warrants some serious discussion as to how the 49th state retains value in its salmon resources are generally vilified as commercial fishery haters. >click to read<12:27

Campaign To Return WWI Steam Trawler

A group of trustees are seeking to return one of the only surviving steam trawlers used in the First World War. The Viola was built in East Yorkshire in 1906 and operated from Humber Dock as part of a fleet of boxing trawlers. However, after a career which included being used to defend the UK in the Great War and as a fishing vessel around the world, campaigners are now hoping to return the boat from a South Georgian beach to Hull, East Yorks. The trustees have since teamed up with a distillery, who have named their special brand of gin after the Viola. >click to read<11:24

Jack Spillane: NOAA – A rogue agency gets set to shut down another New Bedford fishery

Scott Lang has been around fisheries issues for a long time. Both when he was mayor and afterwards. In 2013, Lang helped organize the Center for Sustainable Fisheries as a grassroots lobbying group to try to make sure New Bedford fishermen were not totally forgotten by NOAA. He’s worked for the industry for a long time and seen a lot of arguments from both sides back-and-forth over the years. But until last week, he said he had never seen NOAA make a decision to close a fishery with no science behind it. Not even questionable science, as for years NOAA has used for New England groundfishing limits in the opinion of many. >click to read<09:42