A former shrimper tries to revive Matagorda Bay and its fishing industry with $50 million pollution settlement

January 4, 2025 Featured, Gulf of Mexico, International, International News

Few people still fish for a living on the Gulf Coast of Texas. The work is hard and pay is meager. In the hearts of rundown seaside towns, dilapidated harbors barely recall the communities that thrived here generations ago. But at the docks of Port Lavaca, one group of humble fishermen just got a staggering $20 million to bring back their timeless way of life. They’re buying out the buyer of their catch, starting the largest oyster farm in Texas and dreaming big for the first time in a long time. “We have a lot of hope,” said Jose Lozano, 46, who docks his oyster boats in Port Lavaca. “Things will get better.” It’s all thanks to one elder fisherwoman’s longshot crusade against the petrochemical behemoth across the bay, and her historic settlement in 2019. Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimper from the tiny town of Seadrift, took on a $250 billion Taiwanese chemical company, Formosa Plastics Corp., and won a $50 million trust fund, the largest sum ever awarded in a civil suit under the Clean Water Act. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:47

against petrochemical behemoth, commercial fishermen, commercial fishing industry, Diane Wilson, Formosa Plastics Corp., fourth-generation shrimper, longshot crusade, Matagorda Bay, Plastic pollution, Texas, the docks of Port Lavaca, under the Clean Water Act, won a $50 million trust fund

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Ocean Resource Privatization

Articles Posted by Date
January 2025

M T W T F S S

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

« Dec

January 2025
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

Recent Posts
- Last In-First Out: Todays various articles from the region
  
  ‘More questions than there are answers,’ FFAW says on scrapped LIFO policy – Click here Federal fisheries minister’s decision on dispute in the Atlantic region sure Read More »
- New England Stock Assessments – If it’s the same, it will never be different, Don Cuddy
  
  We are having a serious problem in New England with the performance of the models used in fishery management. To remedy a situation that, along with Read More »
- At Sea, Under the Eyes of Cameras
  
  Chris Brown has grown used to the five video cameras that record every move he and his two crew members make aboard the Proud Mary. Since Read More »
- Tara Marie: Reasons why the “Deadliest Catch” is fake
  
  The Deadliest Catch is yet another reality show that focuses on the blue-collar world of an unassuming job, one that we all know, but none us Read More »
- Seven Years Later, Deepwater Horizon Still Spilling Into Legal System
  
  The BP oil spill has faded from the global headlines, but seven years later, the effects on residents of the Gulf Coast and the legal system Read More »
- The Yemeni fishermen risking everything to feed their families
  
  Catching fish for a living in Yemen isn’t only about jumping in a boat and throwing a net into the sea. You need to also say goodbye Read More »
- Pricetag of Asian Carp Defense Project Climbs to $778 Million
  
  The forecasted pricetag of a planned Asian carp defense system near Joliet, Illinois that would hopefully prevent the invasive species from infiltrating the Great Lakes has Read More »
- North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for April19, 2019
  
  >Click here to read the Weekly Update<, to read all the updates >click here<, for older updates listed as NCFA >click here<09:39 Read More »
- Scania powers up its marine engine range
  
  Scania is launching a new six-cylinder 13-liter inline marine engine. The new engine, which combines new power levels ranging from 650 to 925 hp with reduced Read More »
- Judge hears evidence against the licensed yacht captain that allegedly killed commercial rod and reel fisherman Walter Krupinski
  
  During a six-hour trial at the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal Monday, witnesses and investigators recounted the September 2015 fatal boat collision between a 60-foot yacht and Read More »
- Asian carp could threaten La. fishery
  
  A Louisiana chef is teaming up with wildlife officials to target a big fish that could cause even bigger problems in the state’s productive fishing grounds. Read More »
- Genevieve McDonald — a lobster boat captain and legislator — to graduate with highest distinction
  
  Some people call Genevieve McDonald, Captain. Five months a year, she fishes for lobsters in Western Penobscot Bay. Others know her as Rep. McDonald. The Democratic Read More »
- Here’s why ice was a hot commodity in the Nushagak this summer
  
  Bristol Bay’s Nushagak fishing district pulled in more than a million sockeye on eight separate days earlier this month. Before this summer, it had only done Read More »
- Press Democrat Editorial: North Coast fishers need help
  
  The bad news keeps piling up for the North Coast’s beleaguered fishing industry. Crab season was delayed yet again this winter, and now salmon season may Read More »
- Small-scale fishing families are under threat.
  
  In the UK their vessels make up 80% of the nation’s fishing fleet yet they receive only 4% of the total national fishing quota. On the Read More »
- New Mississippi rule on oysters not based on science, Vietnamese group says in lawsuit
  
  A lawsuit alleges the state’s ban on basket dredges for harvesting oysters was illegally based on “personal opinion and conjecture” and erodes the livelihood of Vietnamese Read More »
- Grand Manan’s lobster season hurt by hard winter – ‘The guys out on deck are freezing’
  
  Weather has all but ended the lobster fishing season in. The season started in November and recent weather has caused most fishermen to miss more than Read More »
- Amid a big fight for cod in the Bering Sea, can remote Adak survive?
  
  A heap of slimy fish heads nearly filled a deep tote. Above, workers finished sorting stacks of decapitated halibut they had run through a grim mechanical Read More »
- Jermaine Owens delivers North Fork seafood to your door, and now he has a restaurant, too
  
  When Jermaine Owens was 12 years old, he remembers watching his father Thomas Reed, hard at work processing fresh fish at Cooper’s, a local retail fish Read More »
- The war over scallops and the future of sustainable fishing in Scotland
  
  Just sixty tonnes of the species were landed at Scottish ports in 1960. In 2019 the equivalent figure topped 15,000 tonnes, down 2% from 2018 but Read More »
- Thriving in Cape Cod’s Waters, Gray Seals Draw Fans and Foes
  
  A survey in 1994 spotted 2,035 seals in Cape Cod waters. In 2011, surveyors counted more than 15,700, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Some scientists Read More »
- Another Sand Point fisherman is chomped on by a sea lion
  
  A sea lion lunged from the Sand Point harbor and bit a fisherman’s leg in the Aleutian Islands fishing town that’s now experienced three injurious run-ins Read More »
- A stronger, modernized Fisheries Act becomes law
  
  This afternoon, Bill C-68 received Royal Assent by the Governor General and has officially become law. This is a victory for the environment, independent fishers, and Read More »
- For offshore wind, expect more delays, review won’t be done until December
  
  The Vineyard Wind project was put on hold indefinitely in August 2019 when the federal government decided to supplement its environmental impact review with a study Read More »
- Northern Peninsula harvesters surprised and disappointed by crab price announcement
  
  Harvesters in the 3K region of the Great Northern Peninsula experienced a slight 2 per cent increase in crab quota this year. But the price designation Read More »