Daily Archives: May 23, 2019

Fishing boat captain fined for polluting Alaska waters

A fishing boat captain who dumped sandblast waste into southeast Alaska waters was ordered to pay $10,000 and perform 40 hours of community service. Federal prosecutors say 32-year-old Brannon Finney of Bellingham, Washington, dumped waste to avoid a $1,460 disposal fee. U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Scoble on Wednesday also ordered 18 months of probation for Finney and a public apology. >click to read<18:50

Search for missing fisherman ‘a needle in a haystack’ say P.E.I. RCMP

RCMP and P.E.I. Ground Search and Rescue wrapped up its search for the day for Jordan Hicken late Thursday afternoon with no sign of the missing P.E.I. fisherman. Hicken went overboard from his fishing boat off Naufrage, on the Island’s North Shore, early Tuesday morning. RCMP Staff Sgt. Howard Fitzpatrick said search and rescue teams are done for the day Thursday, and they are still figuring out how to proceed. >click to read<16:58

Rock lobster industry rejects new WA deal that would increase supply for local consumers

The draft agreement was struck in February after the Government was forced to back down on its previous plan to take control of more than 17 per cent of the industry. But despite three months of negotiations the Government and the Western Rock Lobster Council (WRLC) could not agree on a mechanism to deliver up to 315 tonnes of additional lobster for the WA market. Two proposals to deliver the additional domestic supplies were developed by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and the WRLC, the Government said. ‘Government has destroyed all goodwill’: Nahan >click to read<15:21

New York’s Prized Sea Scallop Faces Off Against Offshore Wind

Developers pushing to install massive wind turbines in the waters off New York and New Jersey have run into a delicate yet mighty foe: the Atlantic sea scallop.,,, “It’s an insane amount of ocean to occupy, and it will leave a trail of destruction,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. >click to read<14:19

Our coastal communities are drowning, largely thanks to tradable quotas and licences.

British Columbia’s coastal communities, long dependent on fishing for their livelihoods, are in serious trouble: population down, youth retention down, incomes down, investment down, infrastructure down, health and well-being down. It’s now almost impossible for young people to enter the fishery because of the high cost of purchasing or leasing the Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) attached to most fishing licences. ITQs are permits to catch a certain quantity of fish, and can be freely traded or leased. Coastal communities that used to have dozens of fishermen now may have a handful at best. The boatbuilding, repair, and gear supply businesses are likewise disappearing.  How did this happen to our once prosperous coast?  East Coast, best coast?>click to read<12:32

The Jacob Pike

The Jacob Pike will be 70 years old this year, just like me. Happy birthday to us. But, unlike me, Robbie Begin, Linc Simmons and a crew headed by Tony Finnocchiaro, the Jacob Pike can be reconstructed. I’m afraid it would take more than a few new planks to help my career! The Jacob Pike is one of a batch of similarly designed vessels that have worked the Northeast coasts over the years. The wooden sardine carrier was built for Moses Bernard Pike of Lubec. Mr. Pike owned the Holmes Packing Company in Eastport. >click to read<11:50

Louisiana Bill Would Require Shrimp and Crawfish Country Of Origin Labeling on Restaurant Menus

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements at 7 CFR Part 60 and 7 CFR Part 65require retailers to notify their customers of the country of origin of covered commodities,,, House Bill No. 335 would require Louisiana restaurants to label menus with the origins of shrimp and crawfish. The proposed law would require all restaurants that use a menu as a standard business practice and sell cooked or prepared crawfish or shrimp that originate outside of the U.S. to display on all menus the country of origin in letters no smaller than one-half inch in size, in English, immediately adjacent to the menu listing of the seafood item being sold. >click to read<10:13

How an invasive species or pig hide could solve Maine’s lobster bait crisis

Gulf of Maine lobstermen are casting around far and wide for new kinds of bait now that federal regulators have cut herring quotas by 70 percent. Possible solutions range from the mass importation of a nuisance fish from the Midwest, to manufactured baits, to pig hides. Fisheries managers estimate a 50-million pound “herring gap” in Maine over the next year. To help close it, they are turning to colleagues in Illinois. >click to read<09:33

From Carp to Pig-Hide: Bait Shortage Means Change for Lobsters’ Diet – (a lot more information in this article) >click to read<