Daily Archives: September 30, 2021

Tastes better

Every day it seems to become just a little more obvious that the future of the commercial salmon business is on land no matter what Alaskans might think about where the tastiest fish are to be found. This week the news is from northern Spain where a company named Norcantabric,,,On its website, the company boasts that its farm will produce salmon that are “fresh, reduces transport time up to 5 days; 100 percent natural, without antibiotics, free of toxins, heavy metals and other artificial materials, without hormones, without sea lice and free of parasites. There are long term implications here for an Alaska commercial fishing industry once the economic mainstay of the territory, and for decades after Statehood, the 49th state’s largest employer. >click to read< 16:50

Offshore wind won’t fish – There is no compatible mixing of wind turbines and fishing!

The endangered species of the Maine fishing family is already dancing around the newly announced National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) restrictions to protect the right whales from gear entanglement. Add several 10,000-ton floating wind turbines, and even more whale restrictions on the NOAA docket (98 percent gear reduction in 10 years), and you have a severely impacted Maine fishing industry.,, I fear NOAA is more a friend to the Green New Deal than to our fishermen, or even our whales. By Rep. Sherman H. Hutchins, >click to read< 14:21

Maine Legislature threatens legal action while Maine Lobstering Union moves ahead – Files Federal Lawsuit

The Maine Legislature is threatening to fight the federal government in court over a set of controversial new seasonal restrictions on lobster harvesting in the Gulf of Maine. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a new set of rules for New England’s lobster fishery aimed at reducing the risk to critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and other whale species. >click to read<  The Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) has filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, seeking emergency relief related to the impending closure by agencies of the federal government of productive lobster grounds utilized by Maine’s lobster fishermen and women. >click to read< 11:04

Maine Man Sentenced for Making Hoax Distress Call

A Rockland man was sentenced today in federal court for making a hoax distress call, Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark announced. U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Nathan Libby, 32, to time served and three years of supervised release. Libby was also ordered to pay $17,500 in restitution to the U.S. Coast Guard. He pleaded guilty on June 3, 2021. According to court records, on December 3, 2020, while at the Spruce Head Fisherman’s Co-op, Libby communicated a false distress call for a vessel and crew reportedly taking on water in the vicinity of Spruce Head. In response, the Coast Guard initiated a search,,, >click to read< 09:43

Four rescued from grounded fishing boat off Point Gammon in Yarmouth

The Coast Guard reports that the Woods Hole station’s 45-foot RB-M boat crew successfully rescued 4 people aboard the grounded F/V Tom Slaughter III that began taking on water last night 1/2 mile south of Yarmouth. No injuries or pollution reported. The vessel owner working with a commercial salvage company.  >click to read< 08:56

Commercial Lobster Industry to be heard at Potlotek First Nation challenge to the Fisheries Act

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia granted the United Fisheries Conservation Alliance application for intervenor status in the court case brought by the small Cape Breton first nation against the Attorney General of Canada. Potlotek is seeking to have the court prevent Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) from enforcing Fisheries Act regulations on its members, which it claims are an infringement on its treaty right to make a moderate livelihood off marine resources.,, Potlotek opposed allowing representatives of the commercial industry to intervene,,, The Supreme Court found that the group representing commercial fishermen should be allowed to be heard. >click to read< 07:50