These young black men catch more than lobsters. They also catch a break
At 15, Cristiano Silva thought he might spend the summer working at a McDonald’s near his home on the outskirts of Portland, Maine, and help with household expenses. Instead, he found himself on a lobster boat called the Sea Smoke, out among Casco Bay’s rocky islands. One breezy day on the boat last month, Cris scrunched his nose and placed a fist-size mesh bait bag full of smelly herring inside a wire lobster trap. This spring he and three other Black teens were recruited from area high schools to learn how to lobster in a new program called “Lift All Boats.” >click to read< 11:06
Southeastern fishery closures floated for 2023 federal right whale rule
Don’t call them “proposals,” but four draft packages arose this week in high-level brainstorming sessions among scientists and fishers on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team. The task force’s purpose is to lead the effort to save North Atlantic right whales from extinction. The ultimate goal is a 90% risk reduction to North Atlantic right whales in U.S. waters. “It’s mandated by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, so this isn’t optional,” said Colleen Coogan, branch chief for the Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Team in the Protected Resources Division of the NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “This is a legal mandate.” >click to read< 10:01
Hundreds of thousands without power in Atlantic Canada as Fiona makes landfall
Hundreds of thousands of customers in eastern Canada are without power as post-tropical storm Fiona brings intense, hurricane-strength winds and torrential rains to swaths of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Quebec’s Magdalen Islands. Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia shortly after 4 a.m. AT between Canso and Guysborough. >click to read< – New Brunswick – While the eye of the storm is well east of the province, post-tropical storm Fiona is causing widespread power outages through much of New Brunswick. >click to read< – Prince Edward Island – Tens of thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power in P.E.I. as Fiona passes through the region, with wind gusts hitting 150 km/h and almost 100 mm of rain down. >click to read< – Nova Scotia – Hundreds of thousands of customers in Eastern Canada are without power as post-tropical storm Fiona brings intense, hurricane-strength winds and torrential rains to swaths of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Quebec’s Magdalen Islands. >click to read< – Newfoundland – Homes lost, residents flee as Hurricane Fiona approaches Newfoundland. >click to read< 08:40
‘This is going to be a bad one’: Newfoundland’s hardy fishermen, not usually ruffled, wait in fear for Fiona
Andy Francis points to the sky, where low-lying clouds race north. Francis, like so many Newfoundlanders along the island’s southwestern shore, comes from a long line of fishermen, known collectively as the Port aux Basques’ local meteorologists. They’re used to high winds and stomach-churning waves. But what’s on the way has most of them squinting in worry at the sea and sky Friday morning. Combined with a high tide, rain and winds, Francis says most of what’s close to the water, like docks, boats, fishing stages and even houses could be gone after Hurricane Fiona takes her leave. Dennis Stone spent the morning shoring up his trailer with cinderblocks, hoping the wind won’t tip it over. He, too, doesn’t like the sound of the forecast. If the water rises high enough, it could be costly to fix the damage and get back on the water, he says. Photos, >click to read< 18:06
Canadian Hurricane Centre says Hurricane Fiona will be ‘historic, extreme event’
The Canadian Hurricane Centre says Hurricane Fiona will make landfall in eastern Nova Scotia as a powerful post-tropical storm early Saturday. In a Friday afternoon briefing, Bob Robichaud, a warning preparedness meteorologist with the centre, cautioned people not to focus on the hurricane’s track since its effects will be felt across a swath of eastern Canada. Environment Canada says this includes much of Nova Scotia, P.E.I., southeastern New Brunswick, western and southwestern Newfoundland, and some parts of Quebec bordering the Gulf of St. Lawrence. >click to read< – Current Hurricane Conditions – Environment Canada (weather.gc.ca) 13:54
Plans to increase no-fish zones in Great Sandy Marine Park worry Queensland seafood industry
It is considered a win for conservationists and recreational fishers, but seafood lovers and commercial fisheries will pay the price for proposed changes to one of Queensland’s greatest marine parks, an industry body says. The state government has released the draft for the new Great Sandy Marine Park Zoning Plan, which would see green zones increase from 3.9 per cent to 12.8 per cent. But the Queensland Seafood Industry Association said the expansion of no-fish zones had little regard for local fishers and felt the government had ignored their concerns. “The plan will have a massive impact on the supply of fresh fish … 95 per cent of the net fisheries will be shut down in the Great Sandy Marine Park,” CEO Eric Perez said in a statement. >click to read< 13:07
Ocean City Presses Fight Against Offshore Wind Farm
The city has intensified its criticism of plans by developer Orsted, a Danish energy company, to run a transmission line under Ocean City’s streets to connect the offshore wind turbines to the land-based power grid at the former B.L. England Generating Station in Marmora. Critics have assailed the project as an offshore “industrial park” that would harm the environment, marine life, the commercial fishing industry and the shore’s critical tourism industry. They also say the towering turbine blades would be a visual blight when viewed from shore. “It affects all of our livelihoods,” said Michael DeVlieger, a former Ocean City councilman who is an outspoken opponent of the wind farm. >click to read< 11:40
Deadliest Catch Vessels Burn Through a Staggering Amount of Fuel During the Season
Andy Hillstrand spoke about his famed “Deadliest Catch” vessel Time Bandit in an interview with Dockworld. And yes, his knowledge of the crabbing ship is very much of the intimate nature, with the Time Bandit co-captain pointing out the ship is a bit of a family heirloom at this point, “The Time Bandit was built by my father, myself and my two brothers at a shipyard in Charleston, Oregon in 1991.” Hillstrand then went into vivid detail regarding the vessel’s stats, noting in particular that, “Time Bandit has a 20,000 gallon fuel capacity.” He went on to say, “Typically she cruises at 8.5 knots and nine knots is top cruise. At speed we burn 750 gallons per day.” >click to read< 10:00
SEA-NL recommends electronic auction pilot project for 2023 fishing season
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador recommends the introduction of an electronic auction pilot project for the 2023 fishing season to address the industry chaos of recent months and help achieve fair market share for the inshore fleet. “This province is the only jurisdiction I know of outside of China or North Korea where electronic auctions and other free-market systems are not used to set the price of fish,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “That alone tells you there’s a problem.” SEA-NL recommended an electronic auction pilot project in its recent submission to a review of the province’s legislated system of fish pricing. >click to read< 09:16
“It’s a step too far for us” – New Jersey lawmakers advance bill to study energy from waves and tides
When it comes to renewable energy, solar power and wind turbines hog all the headlines. Thursday, legislators advanced Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak’s bill that would require the state to study ocean energy potential and set goals in wave and tidal energy generation. The Assembly’s infrastructure and natural resources committee, which Karabinchak chairs, unanimously agreed to advance the bill, which would also require the state to add wave and tidal energy to its energy master plan and authorize pilot projects to test their efficacy. The approval came despite objections from an advocate for commercial fisheries, who warned the “industrialization of our ocean” — already underway with offshore wind projects — will obliterate fishing grounds. “We will not be able to fish in these locations,” said Scot C. Mackey, who represented the Garden State Seafood Association. >click to read< 08:16
F/V Aleutian Isle: Fishing vessel lifted out of orca waters after 5 weeks on sea floor
A salvage team successfully lifted the F/V Aleutian Isle onto a barge Wednesday afternoon, more than five weeks after the fishing boat sank into the depths off San Juan Island. Coast Guard officials say some diesel spilled from the boat as a crane lifted it out of the water. They reported “light sheening” on the surface of Haro Strait near San Juan Island’s Mitchell Bay. The salvage team had to pump out all the seawater from the waterlogged 
vessel to make it light enough to lift out of the sea without breaking apart. Now they plan to remove remaining diesel from the boat before transporting it to a shipyard. The boat sank while fishing for sockeye salmon in critical habit for the Northwest’s endangered orcas. All five crew members escaped onto a small skiff, with no injuries reported. Photos, >click to read< 21:06
Maine lobstermen say ‘red listing’ a threat to their livelihoods without cause
“I truly believe the lobstermen have done everything we’ve been asked by National Marine Fisheries and the DMR,” said Gerry Cushman, who has been lobstering in Port Clyde for 38 years. “We’re not the bad guys here,” he said. “You ask us to do it, we do it. So why are you putting us on the red list? “ The Seafood Watch listing is recommending consumers not buy American lobster from either the U.S. or Canada. Maine is the primary producer of that lobster for the U.S. Cushman said he believes Seafood Watch has taken the action against Maine fishermen to pressure them to stop fighting proposed regulations in court. Steve Train, a lobsterman from Long Island in Casco Bay, echoed those points, saying Maine fishermen have followed all the whale protection rules, even though they have also been challenging them in court. Video, >click to read< 19:37
Shrimp boat found capsized in Lake Pontchartrain; 1 dead, 1 injured
U.S. Coast Guard members found a capsized shrimp boat with two boaters, one dead and one injured in Lake Pontchartrain Thursday morning, according to a social media post by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office. The boat was found between the Interstate 10 twin span bridges near the St. Tammany-Orleans parish line, according to the post. The Sheriff’s Office Marine Division was notified at 5:15 a.m. that a 21-foot blue shrimping skiff that was seen launching at about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Pointe Marina in Slidell was overdue to return, with the truck and boat trailer still at the marina. >click to read< 12:25
LDWF Agents Investigating Boating Fatality in St. Tammany Parish – Victim Identified. The body of Ricky Hodgson, 72, of Pearl River, was recovered from Lake Pontchartrain around 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 22. Agents learned that Hodgson and another passenger on the boat were recreationally trawling for shrimp in Lake Pontchartrain near the twinspans when their trawl was stuck around midnight. >click to read< 17:15
Hurricane Fiona threatens severe impacts across Atlantic Canada
Hurricane Fiona is roaring through the western Atlantic Ocean as a powerful Category 4 storm. The hurricane will brush Bermuda overnight Thursday before threatening major impacts across a large portion of Atlantic Canada. This is already a deadly hurricane. Five people died after Fiona produced devastating flooding across Puerto Rico as the storm traversed the Caribbean Island. Summer’s final sunset saw a powerhouse of a storm in Hurricane Fiona. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) found the storm had maximum sustained winds of 215 km/h on Wednesday evening. Some additional strengthening is forecast through Wednesday night, with some fluctuations in intensity possible on Thursday. Forecasters are keeping a close eye on potential impacts across Atlantic Canada for this weekend. Video, images, >click to read< 10:56
Shetland fishermen on the big screen in campaign to highlight sustainable seafood
Scottish fishermen are playing a starring role in a new television advert for a nationwide campaign to support sustainable fishing practices and promote healthy seafood stocks. The commercial has been created for the Marine Stewardship Council, an international non-profit organisation which sets science-based standards for sustainable practices and runs a globally recognised ecolabel and certification program to help guide consumers. It features fishermen from Shetland who operate an acclaimed local initiative which aims to balance commercial needs with conservation of the marine environment and has been released to coincide the MSC’s annual Sustainable Seafood Week, which runs until Friday. >click to read< 09:58
Lobstermen Don’t Deserve Monterey Bay Rating
This past February Monterey Bay hinted it might consider red listing Northeast lobster, not because the fishery isn’t healthy but because of the danger of entanglement in lobster trap lines for the highly endangered North Atlantic right whales. The announcement, which became official on Sept. 6, has spurred an intense campaign to reverse this classification. Some of the data suggest this recommendation might be an overreaction. Another thing missing from this story is how much our fishermen are doing to avoid entanglements: removing “ghost gear,” doing 10 m.p.h. in the bay, and, most significantly, holding back until May, which keeps their gear out of the water when the whales are here. >click to read< 08:36
Louisiana Shrimpers want lobbyist to help voice their concerns in Washington
The Louisiana Shrimp Association is fighting back against imported shrimp and their goal is to save their livelihood. They want their voices to be heard in Washington D.C. and in Baton Rouge. President of the L.S.A., Acy Cooper, said they have had a lot of issues in the industry. “The prices went from four dollars a pound down to a dollar twenty. It is getting dyer need. We have been screaming and hollering. This task force has been together since two thousand and ten. We can’t get anybody in Washington to do the job that we need.” >click to read< 07:49
Four Generations at Hickey Brothers Fishery
When Hickey’s grandfather, Martin Hickey, sold land to build the town hall, he moved the Kilgore house, built in 1860, to a site across from The Ridges Sanctuary. The Hickey family still owns it. The Hickey family’s history of fishing in Baileys Harbor goes back to the mid-1800s. Martin Hickey Sr. began fishing hooks for lake trout using a 20-foot, wooden, flat-bottomed boat. He later purchased a Burger-built, gill-net boat named the Pathfinder. His son, William, continued in the business, and William’s sons, Dennis and Jeffrey, are the third generation of fishers in Baileys Harbor. They began working with Winegar, fishing alewives during the 1960s after duty in the U.S. Navy. Dennis’ daughter and son-in-law, Carin and Todd Stuth, joined the business after graduating from college in 2000. Photos, >click to read< 15:23
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 74′ Steel Scalloper/Dragger, Cat 3412
To review specifications, information, and 38 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 13:00
Digby County lobster boat wedding adds extra love to bride’s N.S. dream trip
Ontario resident Gypsy Provost-Larocque always had a major dream in life. She wanted to visit Nova Scotia because she wanted to see the ocean. To be near it. To hear it. To feel it. A widow of 22 years, she also had another dream – to be remarried in Nova Scotia not just near the water, but on it. Tamara Frost and her husband Kyle Redden have a dream too. Theirs is to offer passengers on their Bay of Fundy Scenic Lobster Tours the best possible experience they can have. Their tours operate out of Tiverton, Long Island, in Digby County. And so when they heard that Provost-Larocque and her then-fiancé Dennis Larocque wanted to be married on a lobster boat during their visit to the province, they and others made this dream come through. Lots of photos of happy people, >click to < 10:25
Fresh Off the Boat: Dogfish Available to Local Fish Lovers for First Time
For a number of years now, the spiny dogfish has been a mainstay of the town’s commercial fishing fleet. Along with skate, it is by far the largest species by volume landed at the fish pier. Most of that fish, however, is shipped to Europe, where it is used for fish and chips, among other things. But folks can now buy fresh-off-the-boat dogfish filets, which fishermen say if processed correctly will rival the texture and taste of traditional whitefish such as cod. “It’s beautiful white meat,” said Doug Feeney, a commercial fisherman and member of the Chatham Harvesters Cooperative, which is now selling fresh dogfish fillets. The Coop’s permits and equipment allow consumers to get the fish in vacuum-sealed packs for $10 per pound the day after it is caught. >click to read< 09:24
Lobstermen vs Whales?
To: Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. From: Uncle Joe. Subject: The Scientific Method. Dear scientific friends from away, I am not a scientist, although I did get pretty good grades in high school biology and chemistry. I am an old newspaper guy who learned my trade from elderly mentors who sipped cold beers at the loading dock after the giant presses rolled out the last edition. One of the questions I asked them was about verification. The other day, your public relations folks at the Sea Watch program urged the nation’s stores and restaurants to avoid Maine lobsters because they allegedly harmed right whales. Your pronouncement raised a big stink in our neighborhood as it threatens the livelihood of our lobster fishing friends who harvest lobsters in order to feed their families. >click to read< 07:48
Future of right whale safe fishing gear could be in Southern waters
Getting heavy ropes out of the water column in Atlantic Coast saltwater fisheries is key to averting the extinction in our lifetimes of the North Atlantic right whale. Northeastern and Canadian lobstering and crabbing operations are deeply invested in heavy traps and the ropes used to access them, so most of the discussions about ropeless gear technology have a decidedly New England accent attached. However, red snapper hasn’t completely chased out pot fishing for black sea bass in South Atlantic waters, so fishers in this part of the world — albeit using lighter lines — are also in the conversation. >click to read< 19:25
F/V Joanna C: Fishermen deaths were accidental, inquest says
Two fisherman died accidentally when their trawler capsized and life raft failed to inflate, an inquest has concluded. The 45ft scalloping vessel capsized after getting snagged on whelk pots, the inquest at Hastings Coroner’s Court heard. Marine Accident Investigations Branch inspector Joanna Dorman told the jury: “We don’t know what would have happened had the life raft inflated. But we do know that it had an adverse effect on the chance of surviving.” Ms. Dorman also said the vessel had been modified since its last stability analysis in 1997, and that the stability was below the level it should have been. She described the vessel at the time of the accident as being “vulnerable” to capsizing. >click to read< 15:43
This National Lobster Day, Sept. 25th, Help Support the Maine Lobster Industry
The Maine Lobster fishery is one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world, thanks to the hard work by generations of lobstermen to protect both the lobster resource as well as Maine marine environment for more than 150 years. This includes decades of proactive changes to protect endangered right whales, including weakening lines, removing thousands of miles of rope from the water, and converting all ‘floating’ rope to safer ‘sinking’ rope. Yet, this month, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program placed Maine Lobster on its “Red List” of seafoods to avoid, citing protection of right whales, ignoring decades of good faith conservation management and despite a lack of evidence of Maine Lobster fishery’s impact on the species. In fact, zero right whale deaths or serious injuries have ever been attributed to the Maine Lobster fishery. Here’s what you can do to do support the independent, hardworking fishermen of Maine: >click to read< 12:00
Fishing No Longer a Viable Career for Aran Islanders
Several leading Aran Island fishers have spoken of how impossible it is for family businesses to continue fishing due to Brexit-related quota losses and escalating fuel costs. Interviewed on RTÉ Radio 1 Countrywide, John and Mary Conneely outlined the struggle involved, and said they would be considering applying for the Government’s decommissioning scheme. A 60 million euro scrappage scheme, where vessel owners who agree to surrender their licenses and have their vessels broken up, is being rolled out by the Government with EU backing. Stevie Joyce, also an Aran islander, said he hopes to remain in the industry. Joyce, who fishes the 27-metre Oileáin an Óir,,, >click to read< 10:39
1 of every 70 jobs in Louisiana is in seafood. Many of those in them are still struggling a year after Ida
Stacks of crab traps and fishing nets lay idle on the shoreline. Occasionally, there is the whir of a propeller, which barely registers above the sound of wildlife, puttering as it pushes a boat around debris on the bottom of the bayou. Gone, for the most part, is the constant sound of diesel engines turning over and the salty language of the fishermen loading and unloading the catch of the day. Many of the docks, including the 200-foot dock that has been in Randy Nunez’s family for 71 years, won’t return. “It looks like a ghost town. It’s hard to see. The bayous are empty. The boats are tied up. The shrimp prices are too low,” Nunez said as he sat on the side of the bayou near what used to be one of the largest docks in the area. “Before you’d see boats coming out and boats coming in. Boats were constantly passing on the bayou.” >click to read< 09:33
Coast Guard responding in wake of Hurricane Fiona, continues monitoring storm impacts
Personnel from the Seventh Coast Guard District in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, Monday. Crews from Coast Guard Sector San Juan and Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen conducted initial storm damage assessments throughout the region and are prepared to support urgent search and rescue needs. Fast Response Cutter crews conducted storm avoidance to prevent damage in port by heading out to sea and returned to San Juan today for fuel and logistics before resuming patrol missions. Photos, >click to read< 08:54
FFAW, N.L. government team up in push back against lobster, snow crab being labeled foods to avoid
Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program which runs what it calls a science-based seafood recommendation list to inform consumers, chefs, and business professionals, placed all Canadian lobster and snow crab on an “avoid” list because of what the group calls a potential impact for North Atlantic right whales to become entangled in fishing gear. But Jason Spingle, secretary treasurer of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW), says the snow crab and lobster recommendation is “totally unfounded.” Spingle said of the hundreds of harvesters he has heard from, none have actually seen a right whale while fishing. What’s more, Spingle said, he only knows of two sightings in Newfoundland waters, neither during lobster fishing season and zero reports of entanglements. >click to read< 07:37
Fishermen sentenced for poaching paddlefish in MS lake
Two commercial fishermen from Kentucky illegally harvested paddlefish and paddlefish roe from a Mississippi lake, and it cost them their livelihood for five years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi announced. James Lawrence “Lance” Freeman, 27, of Eddyville, Kentucky, and Marcus Harrell, 34, of Murray, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Lacey Act,,, According to prosecutors, Freeman or Harrell would take roe they harvested from paddlefish in Moon Lake back to Kentucky to sell to commercial processors, falsely claiming that the paddlefish had been caught in the Ohio River,,, >click to read< 17:34
