Author Archives: borehead - Moderator
Deal reached in Newfoundland and Labrador crab fishery, harvesters to start fishing
A bitter standoff that shut down Newfoundland and Labrador’s lucrative snow crab fishery for nearly six weeks came to an end on Friday. The union representing inshore fishers and plant workers announced its negotiating team had reluctantly signed a deal with the group representing seafood processors to start the fishery. The deal guarantees prices would not fall below $2.20 a pound, the price fishers were protesting in the first place. Shortly after the union announced the agreement, the provincial government issued a news release saying the deal was the culmination of a meeting that day between the union, the processors association and Premier Andrew Furey, who thanked the two parties for working together. >click to read< 07:56
Why A Deadliest Catch Deckhand Is Suing Sig Hansen’s Company
A deckhand working on the fishing vessel Northwestern, which frequently appears on the Discovery hit “Deadliest Catch,” has filed a personal injury lawsuit against the ship’s owners. Alaska Public Media reports that deckhand Nick Mavar Jr. filed a civil suit against Hansen Enterprises, Inc. in December 2022 in Washington State’s King County Superior Court. In the brief, as quoted by Alaska Public Media, Mavar Jr. explains that during a December 2020 voyage with the show’s crew aboard the boat, Mavar Jr. began to experience worsening abdominal pain while working. He claims that he was not given adequate medical treatment in time, resulting in his appendix bursting before he was airlifted to a local hospital for treatment. It was later discovered that there was a cancerous tumor within the ruptured organ. Hansen Enterprise’s legal issues don’t end there. In the wake of Nick Mavar Jr.’s suit, Hansen Enterprises Inc. filed a civil lawsuit against Original Productions Inc and Trifecta Solutions LLC >click to read< 19:40
Pass Christian grants temporary relief for struggling seafood industry
This week, the Board of Aldermen voted not to raise the long-term lease payments for the harbor’s commercial fisherman this year, which are contracted to increase by 4% every June. “This few hundred extra dollars will just help offset something,” Harbor Master Russell Holliman said. While shrimp may be fleeting, dealers also said they have not had an oyster season in more than five years. For Darlene Kimball, her tool to unload them has been immobile and rusting as she fights to keep Kimball Seafood afloat after nearly a century in business. Fisherman Gerald Pavolini said the industry he has known for about 40 years is now headed in one direction, and it’s not up. “The fuel prices went up. The shrimp went down, the prices,” he said. “We’ll make it, someway, somehow, I guess.” With a new shrimp season starting on Monday, fishermen will soon set sail with great hope. Video, >click to read< 15:04
3 Alaska trollers contemplate a summer without chinook
Barring a stay, or a successful appeal, or other eleventh-hour legal action, there will be no troll fishery for king salmon in Southeast Alaska either this summer or winter. The fisheries have been canceled by order of the U.S. District Court of Western Washington on largely procedural grounds. According to the ruling they stem from a violation of the Endangered Species Act, and the failure of the National Marine Fisheries Service to fully address the impact of Alaska’s king salmon trollers on an endangered population of orcas in Puget Sound called Southern Resident killer whales. No other salmon species or commercial gear group or sport fishery anywhere on the entire Pacific Northwest coast is affected by the order, just commercial trolling for king salmon in Southeast Alaska. photos, >click to read/listen< 13:39
Newfoundland and Labrador: OFFER SIGNED TO START CRAB FISHERY
This morning, the FFAW Snow Crab Bargaining Committee reluctantly agreed to sign off on a final offer from ASP to start a crab fishery this year. The offer guarantees a minimum price of 2.20 and includes incremental increases as the Urner Barry price increase, which ensures the price will not drop lower regardless of potential market drops. The agreement was made on the stipulation that Premier Furey publicly commit to revamping the final offer selection (Panel) process and work towards a formula prior to the 2024 season. >click to read the press release< 11:56
Minister must stop and rethink on HPMAs, says fisheries leader
In remarks at the opening of the Scottish Skipper Expo at the P&J Live in Aberdeen, the sector’s biggest annual showcase, Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said ministers had failed to make the case for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). She told Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Mairi Gougeon, who attended the event: “I’m sorry to say that our recent experience in engaging with the government on HPMAs has been far from meaningful. We all need to work to protect nature and we all need to act to help tackle climate change. But this is not the way to do it. I absolutely know I am not alone in calling for the government to stop and rethink these proposals, which are causing great concern and anxiety all around Scotland’s coast. >click to read< 11:16
Crab fishery stalemate creating fear and uncertainty in Newfoundland fishing towns
The days of mounting fear and unease in Humber Arm South, N.L., feel like 1992, when the federal government ended the province’s cod fishery after stocks had collapsed, said Humber-Shears, the town’s mayor. “I was a teenager during that time, but it’s just that eerie kind of feeling. It’s an eerie silence,” she said. “People are really starting to fret over, ‘Where am I going to go to find work? How am I going to feed my family? How am I going to pay my mortgage?”‘ Crab fishers in Newfoundland and Labrador are refusing to fish after prices were set in early April at $2.20 a pound, a sharp drop from last year’s opening price of $7.60 a pound. The fishers say it’s not enough to make a living, and so far they haven’t budged. >click to read< 10:03
New use for A.I.: correctly estimating fish stocks
For the first time, a newly published artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm is allowing researchers to quickly and accurately estimate coastal fish stocks without ever entering the water. This breakthrough could save millions of dollars in annual research and monitoring costs while bringing data access to least-developed countries about the sustainability of their fish stocks. Understanding “fish stocks” – the amount of living fish found in an area’s waters – is critical to understanding the health of our oceans. This is especially true in coastal areas where 90 percent of people working in the fisheries industry live and work. In the wealthiest countries, millions of dollars are spent each year on “stock assessments” – expensive and labor-intensive efforts to get people and boats out into the water to count fish and calculate stocks. >click to read< 09:10
New London: Does Orsted/Eversource charter of NL fishing boats violate city lease?
Many fishermen resent the interference in the waters they regularly use and suggest still-unknown harm will be done to undersea environments and marine life. But I didn’t realize until recently that wind partners Orsted and Eversource actually have a fishing fleet strategy, chartering some fishing boats to “scout” for their wind turbine work in offshore fishing waters. One fisherman I met recently, Rob Morsch, claims the big utilities are driving a wedge between fishermen by “buying off” some of them with thousands of dollars in daily charter fees. Morsch raises the interesting point that the mooring of the boats being used for offshore wind, he calls them “windmill boats”, is a violation of the city’s intent, with its low-cost rent, to have a fishing fleet based there. >click to read< 08:10
Pretty over his head: FFAW leader unaware inshore fishery excluded from Competition Act
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) says the president of the FFAW-Unifor is over his head in calling for the Competition Bureau of Canada to investigate the inshore fishery when much of the sector is excluded from the act. “It’s shocking that Greg Pretty doesn’t know that the only industry in Canada that’s pretty much excluded from the federal Competition Act is the inshore fishery,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “It’s no wonder the six-week tie-up has been such a circus with nothing to show for it.” Only fish pricing in this province is excluded from the Federal Competition Act. SEA-NL wrote Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in May 2022 (letter below) to request that then-proposed amendments to the Competition Act (which were to tackle anti-competitive conspiracies between competitors that hurt workers) include fish pricing. >click to read< with the letter. 20:35
Snow crab harvesters ‘at wits’ end’ during protest outside union building – suggest fisheries minister should resign
Snow crab harvesters say their patience with the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union has run thin, and made their voices heard at a protest outside its St. John’s office Thursday. Around 100 protesters stood in the office’s parking lot to seek response from leadership, tired of a lack of updates from the union. When it was clear that FFAW leadership wasn’t going to make an appearance at the protest, fisherman Jason Sullivan addressed the crowd. “They’re the biggest bunch of cowards you ever see 
in your life. They won’t come and tell us what’s going on…. They’re gonna say ‘sit tight and keep waiting and keep waiting.’ Waiting for what?” Sullivan said. “It just goes to show, you know, the complete lack of ability to negotiate on the FFAW’s behalf. I mean I wouldn’t let them negotiate my phone bill.” 2 Videos, >click to read< 17:47
Dungeness crab fisherman from Half Moon Bay claims hefty fine ‘the most unfair thing’
Half Moon Bay commercial fisherman Paul Toste this week agreed to pay $17,000 in fines after state game wardens caught him fishing illegally for crabs in a marine preserve. But Toste, 52, claims he was unjustly persecuted and punished for a simple navigation mistake. “This was the most unfair thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Toste said. “The original fine was $610,000 — for 15 crab pots. They tortured me for nine months of negotiating. It was one of the most horrible things I went through.” When he moved to the area 16 years ago, fishing was legal in what is now the reserve, he said. “They took that away from us,” he said. “We never were compensated for it, and then … I’m receiving a ticket for $610,000.” >click to read< 14:35
Maine may pay lobster fishers to test new gear as whale protection rules loom
Lawmakers in Maine are getting behind a drive to pay lobster fishers to comply with potential new fishing regulations. Lobster and crab fishermen face the prospect of tough new rules designed to protect vanishing North Atlantic right whales. The rules would require harvesters to use new kinds of gear and change when and where they can fish. Democratic Sen. Eloise Vitelli of Arrowsic proposed a bill that would create a “lobster innovation fund” to pay lobster fishing license holders to test new fishing technologies. >click to read< 13:18
‘A’ season pollock quota back on par after decrease last season
Bering Sea pollock fishermen have almost met their “A” season quota. Since the fishery opened in late January, nearly 100 vessels have caught about 1.2 billion pounds of Alaska pollock. That leaves about 43 million pounds still available to catch. “It’s definitely a lot of fish,” said Krista Milani, a fisheries resources management specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Unalaska. “Sometimes when you think about the amount of pollock that they’re able to sustain in the Bering Sea, it’s kind of mind-blowing how much pollock is actually there.” According to NOAA, fishery managers were dealing with data gaps stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. A population survey also came back lower than expected. “A” season ends June 10 — the same day “B” season starts. >click to read< 11:04
Mother of Man Lost at Sea Renews Call for Dedicated Search and Rescue Services in Labrador
The mother of one of two fishermen lost at sea is renewing her calls for increased search and rescue services in Labrador before a meeting with the federal government. Jeannette Russell, the mother of Marc Russell who, along with Joey Jenkins passed away when their vessel the Island Lady sank while on a fishing trip, will join provincial Labrador Affairs minister Lisa Dempster in a meeting with the Minister of National Defence in an effort to improve emergency response on the Big Land. Russell says if she doesn’t speak out, then who will? >click to read< 10:04
‘We got to go fishing’: More Newfoundland crab boats set sail as FFAW ramps up demands over prices and processing
Rod Rowe and his brother own two boats between them, with about a half million pounds of crab on offshore licences, and 12 crew members depending on these boats for their season’s wages. Before anyone suggests it, he added, their boats, the Atlantic Sound and the Avalon Run, are not “company boats.” While the Rowes and their crew were loading ice and bait today, the executive of the FFAW was preparing for a late-afternoon press conference. The union, in its press release and press conference Wednesday afternoon, accused the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) of trying to break the union. photos, >click to read< 08:59
Fit for a king: First Copper River king salmon of season arrives in Anchorage
It all started with a kiss and, well, kind of ended with a kiss: The first fish were alive just 24 hours before it arrived at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. “First fresh salmon coming out of the state ahead of Bristol Bay,” said Jeff Munro, a cargo operations manager. “The Copper River salmon is a real special salmon. It’s a special breed and species. It has a higher oil content.” Box after box of fresh fish came off the jet in Anchorage Tuesday afternoon. The first one got a special trip down a red carpet laid out for all to see. “Copper River salmon really marks the beginning of Alaska’s summer salmon season,” said Cassandra Squibb with Copper River Seafoods. Video, >click to read< 07:59
Armón Delivers Ultra – Modern Tuna Vessel
The Mexican shipowner Grupomar, owned by the well-known Mexican-Spanish businessman Antonio Suárez Gutiérrez, took delivery at the end of March of the most modern tuna vessel in the Americas. Astilleros Armón built María de Jesús at its facilities in Gijón, Asturias. María de Jesús is a substantial vessel, with a 79.23 metre (259′) overall length and a beam of 13.65 meters (44.7′). It has a top operational speed of 18 knots and tank capacity for 1200 tonnes of frozen tuna and carries a crew of around thirty. photos, >click to read< 21:15
Wind project scope ‘staggering’
It wasn’t “until the whales and the dolphins started washing up that people’s attention was able to focus” on the offshore wind farms, according to Cindy Zipf, and when people looked beyond the whales, they realized what is happening is “staggering.” “I don’t think ever in the history of mankind have we proposed to industrialize an ecosystem this fast and at this magnitude,” she said. Zipf is executive director of Clean Ocean Action, a coalition of groups dedicated to protecting the ocean. Zipf acknowledges the pace at which the plans are moving forward is making efforts to slow or stop them difficult. “It’s challenging considering how fast-tracked everything is and how limited the permitting process is. It’s kind of under the jurisdiction of two people to make it happen, President Biden and Gov. Murphy,” she said. “Hopefully as more is understood there will be some more caution but as it is right now the (state and federal) agencies are very enthusiastic.” >click to read< 16:29
Shrimp trawling season to be ‘typical’ despite December cold snap
Approaching the opening date for commercial shrimp trawling, one of the South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources (SCDNR) employees sampling the population said there was an initial concern about the cold weather last December, but he doesn’t believe it’s significant enough to affect this year’s season. DNR sets the opening date for all general zones based on shrimp reproduction along the coast, especially making sure white shrimp had enough time to reproduce. Since cold weather affects shrimp migration, this time is especially important to make sure there’s enough for fishermen through the season. >click to read< 14:32
PROVINCIAL PROCESSING SYSTEM BROKEN, OUTSIDE BUYERS FOR ALL SPECIES NOW
Six weeks into a provincial shutdown of the snow crab fishery and no movement on the minimum price from the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP), FFAW-Unifor is calling for a complete overhaul of the province’s processing industry starting with immediately allowing outside buyers for all species. The FFAW-Unifor Snow Crab Bargaining Committee has agreed to sign off to start a crab fishery at the current minimum price on the condition that the provincial government immediately allow outside buyers and permit harvesters to truck-out their own product for all species without restrictions. “This tie-up has become about more than just about a minimum price of 2.20 per pound, it’s about the stranglehold these companies have on our province,” says FFAW-Unifor President Greg Pretty. FFAW-Unifor has requested a response from Premier Furey by 3:00pm today and will hold a press conference at 3:30pm. >click to read the press release< 13:12
Navy Veteran, Commercial Fisherman Thomas Lee Mackie of South Thomaston has passed away
Thomas Lee Mackie, 74, passed away on November 18, 2022, at his home. He was born in Rockland on November 26, 1947, the youngest child of Lawrence and Doris (Eaton) Mackie. In May of 1967, Tom enlisted in the United States Navy. He was initially assigned to the USS T. J. Gary, a destroyer escort. In the spring of 1970, he attended River Patrol Craft Training in California, and then was deployed to Vietnam where he served in River Patrol Force Flotilla Five as both a Boat Engineer and Boat Captain. After his service in the Navy, Tom continued to make his living on the water. He dragged for scallops out of New Bedford, Massachusetts for many years, netted elvers each spring, and was also a successful lobsterman aboard his boat, the River Rat. >click to read< 12:36
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 80’X22′ Steel Scalloper/Dragger, Cat 3412
To review specifications, information, and 31 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:30
3 Mi’kmaw First Nations excited about moderate livelihood fisheries
Three Mi’kmaw communities are celebrating their dramatically increased roles in the lobster fishery around Cape Breton Island this spring. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced Tuesday it has renewed moderate livelihood understandings with Potlotek and We’koqma’q, and now Eskasoni has joined them. Eskasoni Chief Leroy Denny said he is excited because up to 70 fishers will now be out on the water hauling in traps and earning a living. “It’s a really good thing, a really very big deal for us,” he said. Under interim understandings, the bands will fish during the commercial season, which is open now around Cape Breton and closes in mid-July. >click to read< 10:31
NEFMC asking NOAA to increase catch limit for haddock in Gulf of Maine to protect fishermen
In a statement issued April 20, the New England Fishery Management Council, which oversees fishing issues for the region, said the catch limit for the season that began May 1 is 1,936 metric tons, an 84 percent drop from last year. But now the council wants to give fishermen a reprieve, citing a rebound in haddock stock and after hearing concerns at the panel’s meeting last month in Mystic, Conn. “Fishermen have been encountering Gulf of Maine haddock at very high catch rates,” the council said, adding that several fishermen voiced concern “that an early shutdown of the fishery was highly likely and would have wide-ranging impacts.” “Even without targeting haddock, fishermen need haddock quota to account for bycatch while harvesting other species,” the council said. >click to read< 09:43
Lowcountry is the last ‘wild west’ for blue crabs. Crabbers call for change.
In February, David Richardson drove to Columbia from his home in Charleston to speak to a room of state senators about his life as a South Carolina crabber, which, at the moment, “is kind of miserable.” But it wasn’t always miserable. Which is why he drove two hours to the Statehouse, a place he had never been nor expected to visit. The crabber thought about wearing a Hawaiian shirt, then thought twice: “I wore a suit, thank God.” As crab numbers fell over the past decade across the Eastern Seaboard, South Carolina did nothing, but North Carolina increased its management actions. It designated some areas as “no-fishing” spawning sanctuaries. And Georgia decided to limit the number of commercial crabbing licenses to under 100. Photos, >click to read< 08:39
Sanfilippo invited to Rose Garden for salmon fight
For more than a decade Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, has helped advocate for the cause to protect Bristol Bay in Southwest Alaska and the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery from a proposed open-pit gold and copper mining project near the bay’s headwaters. She did so even though Gloucester, the nation’s oldest seaport, and Bristol Bay are some 3,600 miles apart on opposite coasts of the United States. On Thursday at 4 p.m., Sanfilippo attended a celebration in the Rose Garden of the White House that marked the protection of Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine project. Sanfilippo recalls being contacted by Katherine Carscallen of Dillingham, Alaska, who today is the director of the Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay and a salmon fisher as captain of the F/V Sea Hawk. >click to read< 07:33
Premier Intervening – La Scie divided as harvesters wait for resolution to snow crab standoff
Mayor Marlene Regular said Tuesday things are tense, with fishermen wanting to earn money for their families but also wanting to keep their boats tied up in protest of the $2.20 catch price. “We’ve got some that want to get up and go. They want to get up in the morning, they want to go to work,” she said. “We got more that want to stand with their fellow fishermen, which is to be expected, but we don’t know their situation. Like, you can look at someone and say, ‘Oh, they’re well-to-do. They don’t mind having to stay in.’ But there’s other people, you don’t know their situation, when they look at their kids. What do you do? Do I look at my kids, or do I look at my fellow fishermen, right? It’s a big choice.” It’s difficult to see people on opposite sides of the issue, she said. Photos, video, >click to read< 17:37
Crab Negotiations Still Ongoing – Premier Intervenes in Crisis
Negotiations took place all day today, with Premier Andrew Furey intervening between the FFAW and ASP. The Premier’s intervention today signals the extent of the current crisis and the need for action to find an agreeable solution for harvesters. The Bargaining Committee has been clear, as they’ve been over the past several weeks, there is no willingness to fish unless companies move above the 2.20 minimum price. Discussions are planned to continue this evening between the two parties along with Premier Furey. The Premier has committed to make changes to the process and that next season will not be the same – promising to work towards a pricing formula that will ensure fairness, transparency and stability for the industry. However, an immediate solution is still needed to get the fishery underway this year. As noted, work will continue this evening and further updates will be provided when available. Courtney Glode, FFAW-Unifor
Shrimp season in Mississippi to open on May 22
The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) has set the opening date for the 2023-2024 shrimp season in state territorial waters for Monday, May 22 at 6 a.m. All regulations of the MDMR will be in full force and effect, and all boats engaged in catching and transporting shrimp from Mississippi waters must be licensed or permitted by the agency before beginning operations. Staff will continue to sample prior to the opening date. The shrimp season opening date may be postponed if sampling indicates movement of large numbers of juvenile brown shrimp into this area. >click to read< 13:04
