Daily Archives: May 30, 2019
A robotic crab-cutting machine nabbed a U.S. patent — and a St. John’s team invented it
The granting of a patent for a fast — and fancy — way to butcher crab has global fish processors knocking on the door of the St. John’s-based Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation (CCFI). “We’re doing something that nobody else in the world is doing,” said Robert Verge, managing director of CCFI. “It’s a very significant development, not just because of the patent, but because this is a real breakthrough in fish processing technology worldwide.”> Video, click to read<20:20
Morganza opening may drown the livelihoods of thousands of Gulf fishermen
Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser is supporting a Gulf-wide coalition that wants FEMA to declare a state of emergency specific to Gulf seafood and its related industries. This comes as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepares to open the Morganza Spillway, sending fresh water into a fragile ecosystem that is home to a wide variety of Gulf seafood.,,, “The opening of the Morganza Spillway will cause severe damage to the Atchafalaya Basin, our nation’s largest estuary,” said Nungesser. “The opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway earlier this year already has negatively impacted seafood in lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne, as well as fisheries in Mississippi. >click to read<18:31
OUT TO CATCH THE LAST FISH? Fisheries “expert’s” anti-fisherman rhetoric gets taken to task!
“…most fishermen always want to catch more fish, regardless of how many there are.” This quote from the fisheries “expert” in the article, Warming waters spark marine migration, fish wars >click to read<on the warming ocean, and Joel’s subsequent comment, “And here in lies the problem. Look at what this cubical entrenched pencil pushing empty suit thinks of fishermen. Folks like this need to be taken to task”, inspired a re-post of this anti-fishing propaganda article, OUT TO CATCH THE LAST FISH? It’s a few years old, but sadly, as current as ever! To be a fisherman, these days, is to have first-hand knowledge of bias and mindless prejudice. Manipulating commercial fishing to save the stocks from “endangerment” and worse, has often been job justification for the political and personal agenda-driven, obsequious, career-climbing government fisheries “scientists” and managers. “Destructive” commercial fishing is also a handy foil for corporate style environmental groups’ fund raising efforts; and diminishing the importance of domestic commercial fishing is also a necessary step in the energy industry’s march into the sea. >click to read< Thank you, Dick.17:02
Port of Newport Commission aiming higher….
The Newport Port Commission and their new port General Manager Paula Miranda tackled a number of high profile issues during the port’s monthly port commission meeting this week. Topping the agenda was taking on the port’s financial situation – the need for higher revenues in order to help the port grow in stature and market share and to better accommodate the fishing fleet, private recreation boating facilities and R/V visitors – not to mention keeping the NOAA operations and Hatfield Marine Science Center happy as well. First off, the port commission is expected to raise moorage (dock) rates just about across the board. >click to read<11:37
2019 Shrimp season seems promising according to SCDNR
Commercial shrimp trawling opened in all legal South Carolina waters Wednesday morning. Hopes are much higher for this year to bring a plentiful harvest after a disappointing 2018. January 2018 brought an unusually cold period that killed a majority of white shrimp in South Carolina waters. This delayed the opening of shrimp season to mid-June instead of the usual opening of around mid- to late- May. >click to read<11:06
Freshwater in the Mississippi Sound Causing Concern for Shrimp Season
The Department of Marine Resources typically opens our state’s shrimp season during the first week of June every year. What’s different this season? There’s freshwater flushing out into the Mississippi Sound because of the twice-opened Bonnet Carre Spillway to alleviate flooding. Now, local fishermen are concerned over how the reduced salinity will impact Mississippi’s shrimp harvest. >click to read<10:39
Shrimp season comes with fears of uncertainty – Most of the people we spoke with were worried that the freshwater incursion from the Bonnet Carré Spillway would hurt the Mississippi shrimp season. >Video, click to read<
Nancy Glen tragedy: New crane contributed to sinking which killed two fishermen
Experts from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said the horror sinking of the prawn trawler happened on its last trawl of the day near her home port. The report, published today, also details the desperate battle for survival by John Miller, who tried to save his crewmates Duncan MacDougall and Przemek Krawczyk in vain. As a result of the double fatality, the MAIB has made recommendations to introduce stability criteria for small vessels across the industry – which have been accepted by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). >click to read<09:56
Nancy Glen report and flyer published – Capsize and sinking of a prawn trawler in Lower Loch Fyne, Scotland with the loss of 2 lives. Published 30 May 2019 From: Marine Accident Investigation Branch >click to read<
The Western Flyer – Restoration continues on historic boat made famous by Steinbeck book
It’s a story that keeps getting better as it is told. The Western Flyer fishing boat — made famous by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, who chartered it in 1940 for a marine biological collecting trip to the Sea of Cortez in Baja California — is being restored at Shipwrights Co-Op in Port Townsend, Washington. “The historic restoration is well underway,” said Chris Chase, project director for the Western Flyer Foundation, the parent organization for the project. “It’s alive. People are working every day. It smells fresh.” >click to read<09:18
Lifejackets for Lobstermen back on SouthCoast in June
Lifejackets for Lobstermen is making its way back to the SouthCoast. The program travels between ports in Maine and Massachusetts in vans, letting lobster and fishermen try on different life jackets and purchase one at a 50 percent discount. The Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety: Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (NEC) developed the program after a study showed that in a large portion of lobster fishing deaths, recovered victims weren’t wearing life jackets.,,,will be returning in early June on the following dates and at the following locations, >click to read<08:51
