
Wanda Carol Jentry – A Fisherman’s Wife
Surrounded by family, Wanda Carol Jentry, went to her forever home to be with our Lord after a brief battle with cancer. Wanda was born on November 5, 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama,,, Wanda married her high school sweetheart, David Jentry. Wanda and David joined her dad, Miller, in the commercial fishing industry that eventually led them to Washington and then on to Kodiak, Alaska in the late 70’s. Her passion for helping people, as well as, her love for being a fisherman’s wife led her to join Kodiak’s Fishermen’s Wives & Associates when she moved to Kodiak. She is survived by her husband of 55 years David Jentry, her children, grandchildren, family, and friends. >click to read< 21:03

N.S. fishing vessel overloaded with fish, fuel, ice and freshwater at time of sinking
In its investigation report released Wednesday, the board said the Atlantic Sapphire should have been carrying no more than 41 long tons of cargo. When it sank around 11 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2018, the trawler was loaded with over 60 long tons, putting it about 46 per cent over capacity. “On the occurrence voyage, the crew caught a full load of fish in less time than on any other trip that year, so there was more fuel, freshwater, and ice on board than usual,” the report said. “The crew did not appreciate the risk to the vessel’s stability created by this excess weight,,, >click to read< 19:33

Enviros and lobster fishermen are unhappy with proposed federal regulations to protect right whales
In a public hearing Tuesday night, conservationists and fishermen alike roundly criticized federal regulators’ proposed changes in fishing rules to protect endangered whales from fishing gear. Much of the discussion focused on so-called ropeless lobster fishing technology, which allows traps to be located and retrieved using remote-control systems. Conservationists see that as the ultimate solution, But many Maine fishermen scoff at the idea, and Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher agreed it’s not practical for Maine’s diverse fishing grounds. >click to read< 15:33
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 45′ Gamage Trawler with MaCap Permit
To review specifications, information, and 22 photos, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here<11:08

Canada: History shows a path to resolve lobster fisheries dispute
As we reflect on recent violence in Nova Scotia over the lobster fisheries, it’s important to know if there are any precedents around the core issues and if prior instances can help guide us now. The case of the Saugeen Ojibway of the Great Lakes provides some particularly useful insights to help reach a settlement to the lobster fisheries dispute. Conflict between Indigenous peoples along the Great Lakes and the state has been around since the rise of non-Indigenous commercial and sport fishing around the 1830s and 1840s. In the 1990s, things came to a head,,, >click to read< 08:29

More than $200K raised for families of fishermen lost aboard the F/V Chief William Saulis
More than $200,000 have been raised to provide monetary donations to the families of the fishers who went missing off the coast of Delaps Cove, N.S., according to Full Bay Scallop Association and Yarmouth Sea Products. The association set up ‘The Chief William Saulis Benevolent Fund Trust’ in December of last year with funds raised through a GoFundMe page and contributions from the vessel owners and other members of the association following the tragic incident. The association said that contributions can be made to the account at any branch of the credit union, and will cover the following expenses: >click to read< 07:14

Trident reopens Akutan processing plant after month-long Coronavirus closure
An outbreak at the plant forced the fishing giant to close the facility in late January just as the lucrative winter season was set to kick off. In the course of the outbreak, 45% of Trident’s 700-person workforce ultimately tested positive for the virus, company officials said Monday. Multiple rounds of comprehensive testing brought welcome news last week that COVID-19 cases had been isolated on site, Trident said in a statement. Surveillance testing, symptom screenings and the use of PPE and distancing protocols will remain throughout the season. >click to read< 17:40

Who are the Freshwater Five and what did they do? Two of the men will have their convictions considered
In 2011, five men were given a combined 104-year prison sentence for masterminding a £53m drug smuggling operation. On May 29, 2010, a small fishing boat, the Galwad-Y-Mor, left the Isle of Wight on what the crew claimed was a routine trip to catch lobster and crab in the Channel. That night, a large drug operation led by the Serious Organised Crime Agency was taking place,,, Two of the men, Jonathan Beere and Daniel Payne, will have their convictions considered by the Court of Appeal this week. >click to read<
Freshwater Five: Radar evidence suggests surveillance plane and a suspect vessel – The Court of Appeal hearing begins tomorrow for two of the Freshwater Five, where new information will be put before the judge. All five men protest their innocence – following the trial they were sentenced for a total of 104 years; >Click to read<15:10

‘We are rolling over’ – The inquiry into the Bering Sea sinking of the F/V Scandies Rose crab boat opened with a mayday call
Through the buzz of airwave static, a voice can be heard giving coordinates in the Gulf of Alaska. Then four chilling words: “We are rolling over.” This nighttime Dec. 31, 2019, mayday transmission from the Scandies Rose, a Washington-managed crab boat, was played Monday morning as the Coast Guard launched two weeks of public hearings to investigate the sinking that took the lives of five of the seven crew. The Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of inquiry into accidents, and the schedule includes testimony from the vessel’s co-owner, two survivors, former crew, naval architects and people involved in repairs. >click to read< 13:08

Maine Gov. Janet Mills expresses ‘grave concern’ over plans to protect North Atlantic right whales
“The survival of Maine’s iconic lobster fishery, and in fact, our heritage, through the future of Maine’s independent lobstermen and women, depend on your willingness to act,” Mills wrote in a letter filed with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration on Feb. 19. Mills called on NOAA to develop “practical solutions” that protect right whales but allow fishing to continue.,,, Two public hearings to consider amendments to NOAA’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. Those virtual hearings will be held Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. for southern Maine and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. for northern Maine. Both will last about two hours and require pre registration https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4167147282087010060. Anyone unable to participate in the virtual hearings can submit comments to NOAA by March 1. >click to read< 09:54

Commercial fishermen seek intervenor status in First Nation’s lawsuit
A group representing commercial fishermen in Atlantic Canada wants to be part of the lawsuit the Sipekne’katik First Nation has launched against the provincial government. The Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance has applied for intervenor status. In a news release announcing its intention to try to join the court action, the alliance said it supports the Indigenous right to fish and sell their catch. However, spokesperson Colin Sproule said, “We are opposed to anyone, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, selling fish caught outside federal or provincial regulations related to size, season and quota.”>click to read< 09:18

2 dead after fishing boat capsizes at Tillamook Bay
Two fishermen from Warrenton died after a 38-foot commercial fishing boat capsized Saturday at the Tillamook Bay bar entrance. The boat capsized at about 4:40 p.m. All four people on board entered the water and were recovered by 6 p.m. and taken to hospital. Family members said Todd Chase, a 51-year-old Warrenton man, died after he was recovered by jetty rocks. A GoFundMe page was set up to support Chase’s wife and children. The family of Zach Zappone, 41, of Warrenton, said he died after being taken to a Portland hospital in critical condition. Zappone’s family also set up a GoFundMe page. >click to read< 07:21

Cost of Coast Guard ship nears $1B as questions mount over federal shipbuilding plan
The federal government has quietly revealed that it plans to pay nearly $1 billion to build a new ocean research vessel for the Canadian Coast Guard whose original cost was supposed to be one-tenth that amount. The new cost estimate for the offshore oceanographic science vessel represents the latest blow to Ottawa’s multibillion-dollar plan to build new ships for the Royal Canadian Navy and the Coast Guard, first revealed more than a decade ago and beset by problems ever since. >click to read< 06:50

Forfeited: Seafood firm loses $20m vessel after trawling in protected area
Seafood company Sanford Limited has lost a $20 million fishing vessel after it admitted trawling in a protected fishing area off the coast of Stewart Island. The Christchurch District Court has ordered the company to forfeit the San Waitaki, a 64m deep water stern trawler with a processing factory and freezer facilities on board, to the Crown. The company has also been fined $36,000. In February, Sanford pleaded guilty to trawling in a lower buffer zone of a benthic protected area (BPA). >click to read< 21:39

Norwegian Crab Fisherman Renat Besolov
“I like the sea and my job as “deck manager” on board the Northeastern. It is great to be outside, even if it is both stormy and snowy,” says Renat Besolov. For the past five years, he has worked onboard four different vessels. Onboard the Northeastern, the crew varies slightly according to the season, but normally there are 23 people on board. “We go eight hours to work and eight hours off. This is how we go the whole trip, which is normally four to five weeks. And as we usually say when we are at sea – crabs on the tank make money in the bank,” >click to read< 20:35

A Fundraiser to Support Zach & Darby
It is with a heavy heart that we let everyone know about our dear friend Zach. We lost the most amazing man yesterday doing what he loved the absolute most. He took his last trip on the F/V Coastal Reign and now he is fishing with God. We lost an amazing soul just 5 days before his 42nd birthday. He loved what he did,,, Zachs other half Darby is with close family and friends at this time. Zach was the main financial support in their home. Jasmine Sleutel is organizing this fundraiser. >click to read, and please, donate if you can<. 13:55

Strait of Georgia: DFO sets herring fishing quota at 20 per cent, cons call for ban
Herring fishermen Quincy Sample in Comox look forward to being back on the water after the Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced a 20 per cent harvest rate for this year’s return in the Strait of Georgia. For Sample and many others, it’s an important part of their livelihoods. “It’s a very important part of our year,” said Sample. “It supplies a good income for us, our families, and our deckhand’s families. It probably accounts for 35-40 per cent of my overall year.” >click to read< 09:15

From boat to table: Family starts direct-to-consumer scallop business
At the beginning of the pandemic and over 1,000 miles from New Bedford, Britt St. George and Madison Lees quarantined in Florida with their father, John Lees, founder of Mar-Lees Seafood and current president of New England Marine; their mother; and their significant others, Zack St. George and Edward Smith. It was a time in which scallops were a part of nearly every conversation, Madison Lees said, and not just because their father is in the business. It was because the family business was growing. They also figured it would be the perfect time to sell scallops directly to consumers online as restaurants were either closed or running at limited capacity, he said. “Now or never, now is the time to do it,” >click to read< 07:57

U.S. lobster exports to China rebounded in 2020
While the coronavirus pandemic tanked U.S. lobster exports overall in 2020, international trade data suggests the industry’s once-thriving U.S. to China trade pipeline may be making a comeback. International sales of U.S. lobster fell by 22 percent last year, from $548.4 million in 2019 to $426.9 million in 2020. The market saw declines in sales to each of the country’s top 10 international buyers, with the notable exception of China, which bought more than $127 million of U.S. lobster, or a roughly 49 percent increase over 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. >click to read< 10:34

“What if the dams came out?” – Snake River dams proposal draws accolades, criticism – It will take an Act of Congress
It’s a “pinch me, this is real” moment, said Amy Grondin. So when she heard Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho announce a proposal to breach all four Lower Snake River dams, infamous for blocking salmon passage, she saw a ray of hope. Titled the Columbia Basin Fund, the plan calls for replacing the dams’ hydroelectric energy production with other sources. The fund also would ensure that flood control, farm irrigation and grain transportation are addressed, all to the tune of $33 billion. >click to read< 09:24

Interior of Tacoma commercial fishing boat still burning – Photos
A fierce fire on a moored commercial fishing boat at the Port of Tacoma that took three fireboats to battle is still burning in the interior of the vessel, officials reported Saturday. The fire started near the 400 block of East Alexander off Marine View Drive around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. A crew on Tacoma fireboat Destiny was the first to arrive and found heavy flames coming from the pilothouse of the boat Aleutian Falcon, owned by Trident Seafoods. >click to read< Photos: Tacoma fishing boat fire burns for hours – >click to view< 08:36

Is politics getting in the way of rebuilding a sustainable fishery in Newfoundland?
The sentinel program, created after the cod moratorium in 1992 to monitor fish populations, is run exclusively by the Fish Food & Allied Workers, the powerful union that represents around 15,000 fishermen, fish plant employees and other workers in the province. DFO relies on data from the sentinel fishery to help assess fish stocks, and has paid the union millions to run the program. “The FFAW and the DFO are cheating the fishermen out of a resource that belongs to the people of Newfoundland,” said Jason Bateman, a former enforcement officer with DFO. Ryan Cleary, a former member of Parliament for St. John’s-Mount Pearl and an outspoken critic of the FFAW, said the union has found a way to prosper since the collapse of cod by integrating itself into fisheries management, acting almost as a regulator, while becoming a vocal industry voice that contradicts science. >click to read< 17:55
Its Deadline for Comments Day on South Fork Wind Farm Environmental Report
BOEM, which recently finished its draft environmental review of the South Fork Wind Farm, gave the public a chance to weigh in on the document at three virtual public hearings in mid-February, and is accepting further written public comment through midnight tonight… Meghan Lapp of Seafreeze Ltd. in Narragansett, Rhode Island, “Our vessels will have to fish in the area, which will be impossible if this goes through as planned,” she said, adding that the DEIS “does not contain any cumulative impact analysis” of how the offshore wind industry will affect the fishing industry. Bonnie Brady of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, based in Montauk, agreed with Ms. Lapp, adding,,, >click to read< 12:05
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