Daily Archives: January 11, 2020

Suit targets Alaska salmon management to protect southern killer whales

The Wild Fish Conservancy filed notice on January 9, stating its intentions to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service for violating the Endangered Species Act, and jeopardizing the existence of Southern Resident Killer Whales. The Conservancy argues that an important food supply of the whales, endangered stocks of chinook salmon originating in Puget Sound, the lower Columbia River, the Willamette River, and Snake River is being depleted by the commercial troll and sport harvest in Southeast Alaska. >click to read< 20:51

Lobster fisherman who stole his boss’s pug dog Franky, took it for a joyride, tortured it, shot it in the throat before dumping it at sea is jailed

A man who tortured and killed a dog in Winter Harbor last year has been sentenced to a year in prison. Justin Chipman, 24, appeared in court Wednesday afternoon in Ellsworth. He was convicted in November of a string of charges including aggravated cruelty to animals, burglary and theft in connection with the death of Franky the pug. Chipman and 38-year-old Nathan Burke, of Hancock, were both arrested in the case. >click to read< 15:41

Fishing Money found for at-sea monitors

As part of a $1.4 trillion spending package, the U.S. Senate passed a $79.4 billion appropriations bill that includes another $10.3 million for NOAA Fisheries — once again secured by New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen — to fully fund at-sea monitoring in the Northeast groundfish fishery for the 2020 fishing season that begins May 1. When President Donald Trump signed the bill into law the next day, the mandated shouldering of the full financial weight of at-sea monitoring by the groundfish industry — at a cost of up to $700 per day per vessel — had been deferred for at least another fishing season. >click to read< 12:24

Marine protected areas not all good, says fisherman Lance Underwood, who fears for local fisheries

Underwood, a fisherman in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island, sits on the advisory panel for the creation of the marine protected areas and has many concerns about the need for them on the west coast, and their implications for the fisheries. “It is vast, running from central Vancouver Island all the way to Alaska, that will potentially remove thousands of fishermen from these productive and diverse fishing grounds. But the question is, how will it protect Canada’s oceans?” >click to read< 11:05

Sea lions are cash cows in the Bay Area. Farther south, fishermen say, ‘Shoot ‘em’

Sea lions are increasingly living in parallel universes along the California coast, a disparity best observed amid the noisy, stinking spectacle that rolls out daily at San Francisco’s Pier 39 shopping center. There, hundreds of these enormous, mostly male California sea lions bark, defecate, urinate and regurgitate, but are immensely popular with tourists.,, Officials in Washington, Oregon and Idaho are so irate at marauding sea lions that they have asked for federal permission to shoot certain ones identified as feasting on salmon and steelhead,,, >click to read< 10:01

A graveside service will be held at Soule Cemetery, Saturday, for F.G. Gibbs

Floyd Guy “F.G.” Gibbs, Jr., 66, of Engelhard, died, Tuesday, January 7, 2020. F.G. was born in Beaufort County, October 21, 1953 to the late Floyd Guy, Sr. and Nina Way Cuthrell Gibbs. He was married to the former Beverly Hodges who survives. F.G. worked as a commercial fisherman and was the owner and captain of the vessel Papa’s Girl. A graveside service will be held at Soule Cemetery, Saturday, January 11, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to the online fundraiser for the families here, https://tinyurl.com/PapasGirl   >click to read< 08:44

On this day in 1922, Cape Cod Fisherman lost in weird January Hurricane, 2006: Lady Grace rescued a year before she sank

On this day in 1922 the newspapers reported a January hurricane three months after the normal end of the hurricane season. DROWNED IN HURRICANE; Cape Cod Fisherman Lost; One Dead in Springfield, Mass., On this day in 2006 the Coast Guard towed a 76-foot fishing vessel to safety after the vessel became disabled near Nantucket early Monday morning. Almost exactly a year later, on January 27, 2007, the Coast Guard launched a massive search for the fishing boat Lady of Grace after the 75-foot dragger failed to return as scheduled to New Bedford. >click to read< 07:46