Tag Archives: Fisheries observer
NOAA Wants More Cameras On Fishing Vessels And Fewer Biologists
John Hankins owns the boat “Courageous,” which he sails out of Warrenton on the northern Oregon coast. He had a smile after returning from 25 days fishing for albacore. “I’m full,” he said. “Both tanks!” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration didn’t assign a fisheries observer to his boat this trip. But he said, it happens fairly regularly. “They’re usually not a problem for us,,, >click to read< 09:20
Searching for Keith – A detective’s quest reveals how one idealistic fisheries observer may have collided with criminals and desperate migrants—and paid for it with his life.
Long before Karsten von Hoesslin first heard the name Keith Davis, before he spent countless unpaid hours tugging at investigative threads and careening into dead ends as he searched for answers about the man’s strange disappearance from a fishing vessel, before he jetted to South America chasing clues, he dedicated his days to dealing with a different sort of challenge—pirates.,,, His first case, which he funded with his own savings, was a 2012 mass murder of as many as 34 fishermen in the Indian Ocean.,,, Davis, a fisheries observer originally from Arizona, had been working on the high seas aboard a tuna transshipment vessel—a ship that collects catches from fishing boats and ferries them to port, saving the boats a long trip to shore. As an observer, his job was to independently monitor the catches and collect data from tuna transfers. He was on deck, watching the crew prepare to hoist loads of tuna into the ship’s hold, just before he went missing on a calm September 2015 day in the eastern Pacific at the age of 40. A 44 minute audio report, >click to read< 22:10
Fisheries scientist takes the spotlight in Fishing Heritage Center’s ‘A Day in the Life’ series
The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center’s A Day in the Life speaker series continues tonight, March 15, with SMAST fisheries scientist Crista Bank. Beginning at 7 p.m., Bank will share her story and discuss the cooperative research she is currently conducting with the commercial fishing industry. Admission to A Day in the Life is free for Fishing Heritage Center members, and $5 for non-members. The Center is handicap accessible through the parking lot entrance. Free off-street parking available. >click to read<22:33
The Mysterious Disappearance of Fisheries Observer Keith Davis
A little over a year before Keith Davis disappeared at sea, he sent an ominous email to friends. In it, he linked to a video that shows four men being shot to death while they cling to debris in the ocean. After the gunshots ring out and blood spills into the water, the camera pans to the boat, reportedly a tuna fishing vessel from Taiwan, where men are laughing and posing for photos. The YouTube video describes the victims as Fijian, killed just beyond Fijian waters. Other commenters claim they were Somali pirates whose attempts at hijacking the tuna vessel off the coast of Somalia backfired. “One way or another, the video depicts murder,” wrote Davis. The 40-year-old was a fisheries observer—a member of a little-known profession tasked with traveling aboard the boats used to fish the world’s oceans to monitor and collect data from the catches—and spent much of his time far from shore. The nature of his work made him an outsider among captain and crew: a tiny, isolated speck in a vast ocean. Davis often confided to friends about his increasing unease over the lack of law enforcement at sea and the mounting dangers facing both fishermen and the observers who monitor them. The video is an extreme example of what sometimes goes on in the middle of the ocean, wrote Davis. “But know that there is other awful stuff that happens out there that goes unpublished.” Read the story here 15:04
Fisheries observer Talilla Schuster – Provincetown upbringing, science and water-based career
Coping with homesickness, eating food that she is not used to, losing sleep with an erratic schedule, “grumpy fishermen and [her own] grumpiness” also are all part of her job. She knows her presence is not always a picnic for the fishermen either. “Having an observer onboard is a bit of a nuisance for the fishing crew. There are certain things I do in order to do my job that disrupts their routine no matter how hard I try not to,” she says. Read the rest here 12:17
Thankful fisherman kept faith after vessel capsized
Even when he was dressed in a survival suit and kneeling on the hull of a sinking ship, veteran fisherman Lee d’Entremont said he was never scared for his life. “I never thought I wasn’t going to make it home,” the 47-year-old said during a telephone interview from his home in Lower West Pubnico, Yarmouth County, on Monday afternoon. He and two other fishermen and a fisheries observer were aboard the 20-metre Poseidon Princess that capsized and quickly sank early Saturday morning about 100 kilometres south of Yarmouth. Read the rest here 16:25
There’s No Crying on a Fishing Boat by Stephanie Boudreau.
My father likes to joke that he comes from a place where “the men are men, and the women are men too”. While my folks moved away from a life on the water, at least during their time with the Armed Forces, I moved towards one. As I was completing my MSc and looking for work, I applied to be a fisheries observer in the North Pacific. Read more here 17:08
Just Now!! The eyes and ears of marine science.
The eyes and ears of marine science. Fisheries observer Lauren samples herring catch off of Cape Cod. A recent graduate of N.E.F.O.P. herring training this was her first tow sample in the herring fishery. 18:27
