Daily Archives: October 28, 2022
Owl rescued by fishing crew 100 miles out to sea
A long-eared owl shocked crew on board a fishing boat over 100 miles off the north coast of Scotland. The bird was rescued by a crew member who spotted it being attacked by seagulls. It suffered minor injuries but was cared for by the team on board Peterhead-registered Benarkle II for the rest of their trip. It is believed the owl had been blown off its normal course before landing on the boat. The Benarkle II crew said the poorly creature perked up a great deal after being “beefed up” with some chopped steak. Photos, >click to read< 21:51
Cemre delivers Norwegian LNG-powered fishing vessel
Turkish shipbuilder Cemre has handed over an LNG-powered vessel to Norwegian fishing company Teige Rederi. Cemre said in a statement on Friday it had delivered the purse seiner/pelagic trawler, Sunny Lady. Designed by Salt Ship Design and classed by DNV, the 86.5 meters long purse seiner/pelagic trawler is the second in the world to feature LNG-powered propulsion and a battery pack, after Libas, Cemre claims. >click to read< 19:01
Coast Guard, good Samaritans rescue 13 crewmen from sinking F/V Tremont 63 miles southeast of Chincoteague
The Coast Guard and two good Samaritans rescued 13 people from a sinking commercial fishing vessel Friday approximately 63 miles southeast of Chincoteague. Watchstanders with Coast Guard Sector Virginia received a mayday relay call from good Samaritan vessel RV Atlantis at approximately 2 a.m. stating the 115-foot commercial fishing vessel F/V Tremont and the 1000-foot Panamanian-flagged container vessel, MSC Rita, reportedly collided. The fishing vessel reported they were taking on water and sinking with 13 people aboard. 4 images, >click to read< 17:00
Southeast Alaska’s summer Dungeness crab fishery worth $10M less than last year
State managers closed Southeast’s Dungeness summer fishery, which opened June 15, two weeks early by emergency order because of low harvest numbers. It’s been five years since the last time that’s happened. This summer season harvest was just under 1.3 million pounds, nearly two million pounds less than last year. Along with the lower harvest, was a corresponding drop in value. This year the fishery was worth $3.77 million. Last year it was $13.03 million. This year’s price was $2.96 per pound. That’s about average for Dungeness crab over the last decade. >click to read< 11:41
Whale injuries from drift gillnets off California spark lawsuit against U.S.
Environmentalists on Thursday sued the agency overseeing U.S. fisheries, claiming it had failed to protect endangered humpback whales from entanglement in drift gillnets used in commercial fishing off California. The lawsuit accuses the National Marine Fisheries Service of violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing drift gillnets without safeguards and failing to take into account the harm posed to whales already at risk of extinction. >click to read<, – The Center for Biological Diversity sued NOAA Fisheries today to force it to protect endangered Pacific humpback whales from entanglements in California drift gillnets. In the past two fishing seasons an estimated 12 Pacific humpbacks were caught in the California drift gillnet fishery, according to federal reports. >click to read< 10:35
New Brunswick: Only 2% of lobster traps scattered by Fiona retrieved so far
The massive cleanup and recovery operation to find the thousands of traps lost during post-tropical storm Fiona in September has only turned up a small number so far. The Maritime Fishermen’s Union is leading the cleanup taking place in LFA 25, a lobster fishing zone that takes in a good portion of the Northumberland Strait. The union told Radio-Canada that 1,000 traps have been found so far. Video, >click to read< 09:47
NH to join Maine in challenging North Atlantic right whale fishing regulations
Gov. Chris Sununu announced New Hampshire would join the state of Maine in federal court to appeal a Biden administration regulation to protect the endangered north Atlantic right whales that he said would cripple the region’s lobster industry. A U.S. District Court judge last month upheld a National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) regulation environmental groups sought in response to the whale population, estimated to be around 340 animals in the Atlantic waters of the U.S. and Canada. “This ruling, if upheld, would devastate New England’s lobster industry with restrictive regulations brought on by the federal government,” Sununu said in a statement. >click to read< 08:52
Coast Guard license bribery scheme – Pair helped more than 30 merchant mariners illegally obtain licenses
Two former Coast Guard employees were sentenced to prison Thursday for their roles in a bribery scheme that let seamen obtain merchant mariner licenses without completing the required tests. Dorothy Smith, 67, and Eldridge Johnson, 70, pleaded guilty to rigging results of safety and training tests that mariners must pass to serve on vessels, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Smith, a credentialing specialist, accepted bribes to fix exam scores for applicants who often didn’t even show up for their tests,,, In addition to Johnson, Smith and their intermediaries, 32 mariners pleaded guilty to felony charges. >click to read< 07:55
