Tag Archives: lack of transparency

Photos: On the water with Bristol Bay’s protesting fishing crews

Commercial fishing crews joined together at the mouth of the Naknek River to peacefully protest the low price that processors are offering for this year’s sockeye salmon. They want processors to reconsider the 50 cents per-pound price, as well as more transparency in the fishery. The protest began at 6:00 AM on Thursday, July 20, and lasted through the day. >click to see the photos< 11:33

Bristol Bay fishermen protest low base price, lack of transparency

By 9 am, over one hundred boats are anchored in the Naknek River entrance, some after a night of fishing the Naknek-Kvichak. Ivan Basargin of the fishing vessel Top Notch is one of them. He’s here to join the demonstration against this year’s low price. Standing in the wheelhouse of a boat he built, he says this year’s low-price hits hard. “I’m going to pay my workers. I’m going to pay my bills. As far as living expenses, I haven’t decided yet. This 50 cents that I get, when I get home, it’s going to be a wash. I’m not going to have any money in the bank saved,” he said. Organizers of the protest are calling on processors to reconsider and improve the base price this season from 50 cents per pound, less than half of last year’s price. “If they know we can fish for 50 cents, we’re going to get paid 30 cents next year,” he said. “That will happen if we don’t do anything. Like today – this is a peaceful protest. We’re not trying to block people or anything. We’re just trying to show the world that we’re hurting, and we need some help.” Basargin says processors are claiming they are struggling financially too but he hasn’t seen evidence of this struggle. >click to read< 17:15

LETTER: ‘World class’ means something different in Newfoundland and Labrador. Smoke and Mirrors!

Here in Newfoundland and Labrador we routinely hear politicians and private industry speak of the “world class” qualities of whatever they are promoting. Whether it is megaprojects, various standards or qualities of whatever public or private business is involved — or just about anything it seems — our cup runs over with world class items. Here are a few examples: “The Muskrat Falls project is world class”; “The salmon aquaculture industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is world class” and recently, the new rules touted by our provincial government to regulate the aquaculture industry here are described as “surpassing the world as the place of best practise for aquaculture.” From the now six-week unfolding of the massive Fortune Bay farmed salmon die off,,, by David Downton >click to read< 09:33

Fishtown Local: Something smells fishy

wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-scaled500-e1371562470325Okay, here we go again. Another behind-the-scenes effort has begun behind our backs, the way it happened before. The newest NOAA effort has begun toward creating a marine national monument in the Cashes Ledge area — about 80 miles east of Gloucester — as well as the deep sea coral and seamount area south of Georges Bank, traditional catch areas for our fishermen. Meanwhile, concerned by what it regards as a lack of transparency and undue influence from conservationists,,, Read the rest here 08:03

Could This Be the End for Gulf of Maine Cod?

New England’s cod fishermen are struggling with drastically reduced catch allowances. A new report says the fish are disappearing anyway. <Read more here> 21:50