Tag Archives: lobster traps
Lawsuit challenges new limits on offshore lobster traps
A New Hampshire lobster boat and a lobstermen’s association have filed a federal lawsuit to stop changes that would decrease the number of traps that can be used. The changes are for Area 3, which is about 30 miles offshore and runs up to the Canadian border down to the Carolinas. “That’s what this is supposed to be about, conservation of the resource,” Arthur “Sooky” Sawyer, president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said. Video, >>click to read<< 07:02
More than 100 lobster traps destroyed by weekend storm
More than 100 damaged lobster traps washed ashore after a powerful storm struck the northeast coast of New Brunswick on Friday. The traps were found mangled and destroyed on the beach at Val Comeau and other nearby areas on the Acadian Peninsula, south of Tracadie, on Sunday morning. James MacEachern, a fisherman who lives in Tabusintac on the north side of Miramichi Bay, saw the storm evolving early Friday morning. “When I went out in the morning, it was already rough,” MacEachern said. “Probably four in the morning, [the storm] had already started.” >click to read< 11:47
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
DFO is responding to allegations from the Sipekne’katik First Nation
On Thursday, the band said they had lobster traps tagged ‘Food, Social and Ceremonial,’ confiscated by DFO officers in St. Mary’s Bay. DFO says of the 10 traps they seized that day, none had FSC tags, and no vessels were seized. The department says respectful, constructive dialogue is the best way to advance reconciliation, and implement rights-based fisheries. They say their officers take a progressive approach on the water, including education, issuing warnings and laying charges, while using discretion as they take situational factors into consideration. >click to read< 08:36
Fisherman loses most of his lobster traps in fire
A Sydney Mines fisherman said he’s looking at a long winter ahead, after a fire caused by kids playing with a lighter destroyed three-quarters of his lobster traps — about a $30,000 loss. “We just finished building a bunch last year,” said Justin Forrest of Crescent Street. “Now we have a long winter ahead of us here to rebuild them.” Forrest said he was sitting on his couch at his home Sunday afternoon when his nephew came in yelling for help. “I went outside, and the traps were just engulfed in flames,” he said, adding he had 300 traps. It was an understandable shock for him. >click to read< 09:22
Cruise Ships: When is Maine and Mass going to ban exhaust scrubbers?
An undue burden is being imposed on the lobster industry by foreign flagged ships that are dumping poisons on our lobsters. This should be a violation of the Jones Act which is in need of a revision to address the exploding cruise industry. It should be viewed as an undue burden inflicted on a Port of Call by a foreign vessel. Cruise Ships were not envisioned when this act was written. Cruise ships anchor all day right next to towns with their engines burning lots of fuel, and discharging sewage and graywater up and down the coast, and even while using scrubbers a cruise ship is still legally allowed to emit a deadly cloud,,, By Jim O’Connell >click to read< 07:58
Hauling lobster traps for the season
TJ Faulkingham, David Black and Lucky Skidgell helped each other load up their lobster traps in Belfast Harbor Dec. 4 to be taken home and stored until spring. After a season of bait shortages, looming restrictions and decreased lobster take, it is impossible to know what next season will bring, they said. Their take was off by 40% this season compared to previous years. Photos, >click to read< 12:41
As Lobster prices soar, Marshfield lobstermen stay docked
Boats piled high with buoys and lobster traps sat moored in Green Harbor on Tuesday. Normally, the 65-degree day would be perfect for fishing, but it’s been nearly three months since the 45 commercial fishing boats in Marshfield have caught any lobster and the harbor buzzed with fishermen eager to get back in the water. Lobster traps are banned from 3,000 nautical miles of waters in Cape Cod Bay and parts of Massachusetts Bay between Feb. 1 and May 1 to decrease the likelihood of endangered North Atlantic Right whales from entangling themselves in lobster lines. The ban takes about 300 lobster boats offline,,,>click to read<08:34
One Month Later: Clearing, rebuilding start at Vaca Key Marina following devastating fire
It has been one month today since an early-morning fire tore through the bayside Vaca Key Marina near mile marker 47.5. In the four weeks since thousands of lobster traps, a house, boats and forklifts were destroyed on the one-acre property owned by the Berdeal family of Miami on June 5, fishermen at the marina have been busy rebuilding. Clearing of the many piles of charred wood and concrete began Monday at the marina, said Juan Carlos Berdeal. Marathon business Discount Rock and Sand did the clearing with front-end loaders and dump trucks. click here to read the story 13:14
How lobstermen gather temperature data from the bottom of the ocean
A few decades ago, Jim Manning wanted to know what was at the bottom of the sea. And after years of studying waterways on the Atlantic coast, he says he’s seen a steady change in ocean temperatures that he calls ‘unprecedented.’ Manning is an oceanographer at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He partners with lobstermen on the Northeast Shelf from Maine to New York, attaching low-cost temperature and depth loggers to some of the millions of lobster traps deployed throughout New England. The project, called eMOLT (Environmental Monitors on Lobster Traps) records and plots . click here to read the story 09:31
Factory Boss Says Fishing Technology Could Improve Controversial US Border Wall
A manufacturing company says skills and technology it developed making lobster traps could help save money on U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Riverdale Mills’ super-tough steel fence already guards 43 kilometers of the border, and the company says its technology has proven to be a cost-effective way to secure airports, prisons and nuclear facilities. The small firm is based in Northbridge, Massachusetts, and CEO Jim Knott says his company came up with a much better way to make lobster traps. The metal mesh is assembled on huge automated machines that weld many joints at once. The mesh can be made of different sizes of steel, with different size openings for different applications. The mesh is run through a huge vat of molten zinc to protect the product from rust. For lobster traps and other marine applications, the product gets an additional coating of special plant-based plastics that protect the zinc. The plastic formula is a trade secret. Lobster traps have to be sturdy, effective and affordable, and Knott says lessons from making them improved the design and production of mesh for other applications. Read the story here 14:56
“It’s been an exemplary season,” – Maine fishermen cash in as lobster cracks $4 a pound
Bob Williams has been hauling lobster traps in Penobscot Bay since 1959 and says this year’s season has been among the most profitable ever. “It’s rare for us to have a fairly good catch and high prices,” said Williams, 78, who lives in Stonington. It’s a combination that seems to defy the laws of supply and demand – a large catch tends to lower wholesale prices. But that’s not happening this year even with Maine fishermen on track,,, Read the rest here 11:39
Lobster traps get eco-friendly changes
Changes are being made to lobster traps this year to ensure lobsters can get out of lost traps. continued
