The city will replace pilings at Gardner’s Basin this month, Mayor Marty Small Sr. said Monday, so boat tours and fishing boats will be able to have a complete summer season there. “We are confident the boats will be able to dock at the site by May,” Small said Monday. On March 24 and 31, the city sent letters to the businesses warning that “2023 seasonal operations under (your) Commercial Dock Agreement … for your Commercial Boat Slip must be suspended until the project is complete.” Video, >click to read< 13:32
Author Archives: borehead - Moderator
Harvester and FFAW frustrations about snow crab prices looming ‘on the eve of the fishery’
It will be a few more days before Newfoundland and Labrador snow crab harvesters will find out what they will be paid for their catches. The province’s price setting panel is still reviewing the latest offers from the Fish Food and Allied Workers and the Association of Seafood Producers. However, it is becoming obvious that fishing incomes from crab this season will be half of what they were last season. The FFAW had promised to provide information about the new offers on Friday, but later backed down. That information blackout has led to more frustration among fish harvesters. >click to read< 13:03
Impact of bait closure heightens
The Atlantic spring herring fishery will not reopen this year, and while no decision has been made on mackerel yet, the stock remains deep in the critical zone. When the closure was announced in 2022, fishers already had bait stored up from the previous year. This year they expect to feel the full effects with the higher cost of sourcing alternatives. Allen Fay, a former bait fisherman out of North Lake who now fishes lobster, tuna and halibut, says the bait bill could double. It will be especially hard on younger fishers just getting into the industry who are already paying a lot for gear. Like many fishers, as well as the PEI Fishermen’s Association, he feels the closure doesn’t make sense because Americans will continue to fish the same mackerel stocks. >click to read< 11:53
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 70″ Steel Stern Dragger with Longfin squid – Tier 1 Permit
To review specifications, information, and 10 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:12
Oregon Fishing Industry Fed Up With Agency ‘Ignoring’ Their Offshore Wind Concerns
The West Coast Seafood Processors Association, the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative and the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission claim their concerns about proposed offshore wind project call areas, areas where the agency is seeking public comment, and their impact on key fish populations due to the turbines’ electromagnetic field (EMF) cables, have been ignored by BOEM. They also worry about the impact offshore winds would have on their businesses and the entire state’s economy. “BOEM has told us that if Oregon doesn’t want this, they will back off and pursue other offshore wind areas, and we’ve made it pretty clear to them that Oregon doesn’t want this, and they’re still pushing forward,” Lori Steele, executive director of the seafood trade group West Coast Seafood Processors Association, told the DCNF. “They are giving us nothing but lip service,” she added. >click to read< 09:43
N.H. Lobstermen Pack Hearing Opposed to Creating License To Take Lobster by Scuba
Lobstermen packed a hearing Tuesday overwhelmingly opposed to a bill that would establish a license to take lobsters by SCUBA in House Bill 442. New Hampshire and Maine do not allow such a practice, but it is allowed in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and other states along the Eastern seaboard. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee scheduled the bill for 15 minutes of testimony but it went on for an hour and a half and heard from more than a dozen speakers, mostly in opposition. >click to read< 08:59
Venture IV – Trawler Designed for Western Scottish Waters
Venture II Fishing Company in the UK recently took delivery of a new trawler built for operations off Scotland’s west coast. Designed by Macduff Ship Design in compliance to Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Bureau Veritas guidelines, Venture IV is the fourth boat built by the same yard for Venture II company owner and boat skipper Mark Lovie. Construction of the hull and the wheelhouse was undertaken in Poland by Finomar Shipyard while final outfitting took place in Scotland. >click to read< 07:55
Meet the Hagfish, the Slime-Spewing Star of Maine’s Nastiest Little Fishery
The first time Vinalhaven lobsterboat captain Frank Thompson trapped hagfish in the Gulf of Maine, the pinkish-gray, snakelike animals popped the hatch off his hold — with their slime. When stressed or attacked, a single 20-inch-long hagfish spews a quart of stringy, suffocating snot in less than a second, and the stuff rapidly expands as it mixes with seawater. It was May 2009, and Thompson’s 48-foot boat was carrying 2,800 pounds of hagfish — that’s roughly 5,000 fish oozing copious slime from their skins. Unable to escape their own goop, many of the fish were dead when Thompson unloaded his catch in Gloucester, Massachusetts. >click to read< 17:24
SEA-NL on Pot to Plate, new program to sell crab at the wharf
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) is encouraging the public to buy live fresh snow crab from inshore enterprises when they land at the wharf, and is preparing a “pot to plate” program to connect boats to buyers province-wide. “The 2023 snow crab price to start the season will be half what it was last year, and the lowest in years, which will hurt every last small-boat enterprise around the province,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “SEA-NL is asking the people of the province to step up and buy fresh live North Atlantic snow crab direct from our fishermen and women at a fair price at the wharf.” SEA-NL will consult with owner-operators around the province before recommending a “wharf price” to charge for snow crab and plans to announce a price Thursday. >click to read< 14:05
Environmental groups withdraw lawsuit over last Maine salmon
A coalition of environmental groups said Monday it is withdrawing a lawsuit against a renewable energy giant that it has accused of jeopardizing the last remaining wild Atlantic salmon in the U.S. The groups sued Brookfield Renewable, claiming the company kills salmon on the Kennebec River with its dams. Atlantic salmon only return to a handful of U.S. rivers, all in Maine, and they are protected under the Endangered Species Act. The conservationists were dealt a setback last month when the federal government ruled the salmon can coexist with hydroelectric dams on the Kennebec, as long as upgrades are eventually made to allow salmon to pass through the dams more easily. >click to read< 12:15
Crab Fishermen stay in boats on the north coast
Unsatisfied with the prices offered to them by the mill owners, most of the crab fishermen in 16 areas on the north shore did not go to sea on Saturday when fishing began in their field. 39 owners of 54 fishing licenses in Area 16 feel hurt by the temporary price of $2.25 per pound offered by the mills and accepted by fishermen in other parts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec. According to these fishermen, the only people in the province to group around the marketing group are not honoring the price formula that allows processors to get more than $2.25 a pound. According to their representative Jean-René Boucher, all factories in the province, including the six located on the north coast, have been issued with a watchword by the Fishing Industry Association not to accept crabs from area 16. >click to read< 10:38
Scientists who investigated crab and lobster die off ‘surprised’ politicians have ‘questioned their integrity’
The 13-person panel of experts conducted a review of all the evidence gathered during a government-run investigation into the deaths of the crustaceans, which began washing ashore between Hartlepool and Whitby in October 2021. The panel said it was “unable to identify a clear and convincing single cause” but the “most likely” explanation is an unknown disease or parasite killed the crustaceans, after it was convened by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’s (Defra) Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Gideon Henderson. The findings have been disputed in recent weeks by local fishermen and a number of Labour MPs, with Geraint Davies claiming it was “farcical” to suggest a “phantom pathogen” caused the deaths. >click to read< 09:05
Shrimp boat capt. says fire ‘scary,’ debris washes ashore
Roger “Rabbit” Cummings doesn’t know exactly how long he and the two crew members of the Miss Hopkins shrimp trawler floated in the water after jumping from the burning boat, but it seemed like a while. Cummings, the vessel’s captain, guesses they were adrift for about 45 minutes, donning lifejackets and keeping a tight grip on a hatch from the vessel before a speed boat came by and pulled the trio from the water while the Miss Hopkins was engulfed in flames nearby. They were about four miles off the coast of Jekyll Island. “It seemed like a long time,” Cummings said, “But it might not have been that long.” Eventually, a smaller boat that had seen the black plume of smoke on the horizon while in the Jekyll Sound pulled them from the water. The smoke was visible Friday afternoon on both Jekyll and St. Simons islands. >click to read< 08:07
Supporting Innovation and Business Development in Ocean Technology
To enhance marketing and business development in the ocean technology industry, the Honourable Andrew Parsons, KC, Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology, today announced over $138,000 through the Business Development Support Program for two businesses operating in this sector. Notus Electronics Limited is a privately-owned, St. John’s-based manufacturer of hydro acoustic net monitoring solutions. SubC Imaging, founded by Chad Collett in 2010, designs and manufactures underwater cameras, systems, LED lighting, lasers, DVRs, and remote operations solutions. >click to read< 19:50
Elroy Johnson: Man of the people
Harvey Elroy Johnson was born March 16, 1894, to George Bernard Johnson and Laura Etta (Sinnett) Johnson. He was the third child in a family of seven children that traced their presence on Bailey Island back to the 1740s and their employment as fishermen just as far. An independent and resourceful spirit, Elroy, or “Snoody,” as he came to be called, got an early start in his career. In the summer of 1904, he put out 15 traps without his father’s help. By that fall, he had saved $45. He was only 10 years old at the time. Elroy left school after completing the eighth grade and went on to earn his living from the sea: lobstering, swordfishing, shrimping, sardining, from both small and large boats. Starting when fishermen still pursued their catch by wind, sail and oar, he fished well into the 1960s, when diesel engines and electronic devices made the job easier and safer. >click to read< 13:58
Two dead, one seriously injured and one missing in the shipwreck of a fishing boat off the coast of Santander
The coordination center of Maritime Rescue of Santander received the notice of the shipwreck shortly before five in the morning. The F/V Vilaboa Uno had an emergency six miles off the Cantabrian coast. Immediately other fishing boats that were in the area and maritime rescue personnel have approached the place. They have only been able to rescue seven crew members alive, one of them seriously injured. Two of the sailors have been killed and a third remains missing. After receiving the warning, the alert was distributed among the boats in the area. Several fishing boats, a Maritime Rescue ship and a helicopter have been transferred there at dawn. The fishing vessel F/V Siempre Nécora, the first to arrive, managed to locate seven of the crew. The Phoenix gave with an eighth and a boat of the Pilots of the Port to the ninth Video, >click to read< 11:25
Pelagic industry at loggerheads with government over new landing rules
The industry, consisting of 20 large pelagic trawlers including eight based in Shetland, said it stands to lose millions of pounds in revenue should it be legally required to land 55 per cent of mackerel and herring at Scottish ports. The requirement to demonstrate what is known as “a real economic link” of vessels to the country they are registered and licensed in is nothing new. In the past, fishing companies could comply with the rules by either landing 50 per cent of its quota into UK ports or employing crew of which 50 per cent lived in the UK, or by spending half of its operating cost in the UK. >click to read< 09:44
Canada gives Mi’kmaq 14% of lucrative Maritime elver fishery for 2nd year
For a second year, the federal government is giving Mi’kmaw First Nations 14 per cent of the lucrative Maritime fishery for baby eels — or elvers — without compensating commercial licence holders. The transfer implements the Mi’kmaw treaty right to fish for a moderate living, but also sets the stage for further court challenges by commercial elver licence holders. “I’m quite confident that we will be taking legal action based on this again,” said Michel Samson, a lawyer representing Wine Harbour Fisheries. Wine Harbour is one of several licence holders in federal court trying to overturn the 2022 decision, saying it was unfair and rushed. >click to read< 08:59
Harsh Reaction to Atlantic City Move to Stop Boat Businesses
We “blew the whistle” this past Saturday, April 1, 2023 that the various boat businesses at Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Gardner’s Basin will not be able to open for business. The City of Atlantic City sent letters to the various business owners just days before the season was set to begin. Some of the business owners didn’t receive the letter until Saturday, April 1, 2023. The reaction from the community to this unwanted news has been understandably hyper negative towards the Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small administration. >click to read< 08:10
Jeff Van Drew, others make call to ‘save the whales’ in Ventnor
Standing next to a 30-square-foot sand drawing of a humpback whale and her calf, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew and other speakers made a call to “save the whales” Sunday afternoon. Van Drew, R-2nd, and state Sen. Vince Polistina, R-Atlantic, headlined a half-dozen speakers who once again opposed proposals for wind turbines off the coast of New Jersey and other Eastern states, claiming the sonar testing has led to a rise in marine mammal deaths over the past four months. They spoke to about 500 people on the beach at Suffolk Avenue. “Those whales — and I don’t mean to sound corny — were a divine blessing from God to wake us the hell up and say we’ve got to do something. This is the real thing. We are really in trouble with this and we’ve got to fight,” Van Drew said. Video, and a pile of photos! >click to read< 21:22
Remembering the Milford Knight crew
This week in TRM “Old Trawler Corner” is the Milford Knight M127 (see photo) built in Selby in 1950, a steel-sided, diesel, crabber class trawler, that sailed out of Milford from 1950 to 1955, when it moved to Lowestoft and became the Trinidad. We’ve also got a snap of one of her crews (see photo) which Ethel Clark described as follows: “Genial Skipper Thompson was affectionately known as “Womps” in the Milford industry. A member of a well-known Lowestoft born fishing family, with five brothers, all Skippers.”It was in the Second World War that Skipper Thompson won the MBE, after his trawler the Slebech saved Skipper Billy Burgoyne and his crew when his ship, the Fort Rona, was bombed and sunk in the Irish Sea. Photos, >click to read< 17:39
Blue Lobsters Have Better Luck, so PETA Releases Dye Kit to Save Them All
Because many fishers have chosen to spare rare blue lobsters after catching them off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, and New Jersey and around the world, PETA is releasing a new dye kit that makes it possible to give all lobsters the same blue hue. Now available for sale, the chemical-free dye binds to lobster shells for up to six months when squeezed into water—making it look like the animals have a rare genetic trait that occurs in just one out of an estimated every 2 million lobsters. >click to read< 14:28
The Case: Defamation suit marks shift in fight over lobstering – MLA says Seafood Watch assessment intentionally misstates facts
A University of Maine Law School professor says it’s unlikely a judge or jury will actually settle the science around lobstering’s impact on North Atlantic right whale mortality in a recently filed defamation lawsuit against Seafood Watch and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation. Instead, Dmitry Bam explained, the case—if it ever reaches trial—will probably turn on whether the aquarium’s seafood sustainability program was negligent or reckless about the evidence it actually used to claim that scientific data demonstrate that lobstering harms the endangered whale species. Last fall, Seafood Watch put American lobsters on its red list of foods to avoid because it “is caught or farmed in ways that have a high risk of causing harm to wildlife or the environment.” >click to read< 11:45
Up to 70 North Atlantic right whales were spotted in Cape Cod Bay
About one-fifth of the world’s entire population of North Atlantic right whales were all spotted hanging out in Cape Cod, Mass., heading into the weekend. Between 60 to 70 right whales, including a mother and calf, were seen feeding outside the east end of the Cape Cod Canal in the Cape Cod Bay on Friday, according to the Massachusetts Environmental Police. The wildlife officials sent out two patrol vessels to protect the whales from boat traffic. By Saturday, the whales had seemingly moved on. >click to read< 11:00
Atlantic City, N.J. Tells Boat Businesses That They Can’t Operate
Last Spring, 2022 Atlantic City, New Jersey Mayor Marty Small had Dredgie Wood’s Fish Heads Restaurant towed away from Gardner’s Basin. This was despite the fact that New Jersey Senator Vince Polistina had successfully negotiated with the state of New Jersey to keep Fish Heads open for the 2022 season. Small waited until a rain-soaked, blustery Saturday to do this dirty deed. It was political retaliation by Small against Wood. Like a bad horror movie, Marty Small now strikes again on April Fool’s Day, 2023. All of the Atlantic City businesses that utilize the water at Gardner’s Basin have received letters from the Small administration that they will not be permitted to open for business. >click to read< 09:13
“Dead Days” In French Ports To Protest Against Fuel Prices And The Limitation Of Fishing Areas
Not a boat at sea, not a fish sold, no fish trade, no processing. For the first time, the National Fisheries Committee calls for dead days in French ports to demand from the government answers to a series of“attacks” weakening the sector, in a climate of tensions never seen since the Brexit crisis. From Boulogne-sur-Mer to Sète via Brest, hundreds of fishermen angry at the regulations launched an unprecedented “dead sector” operation on Thursday. For several days, the anger has been mounting: muscular demonstrations in Rennes or even Lorient, blockages in Boulogne-sur-Mer since Sunday then closure of the auction, awareness-raising operations, with distribution of fish in Capbreton … >click to read< 07:49
Three rescued as shrimp boat catches fire off Jekyll
Three people were rescued about 4 miles off shore of Jekyll Island Friday after jumping from a burning shrimp boat that sent a plume of black smoke across the horizon visible from the beaches of Jekyll and St. Simons Island. U.S. Coast Guard Sector Charleston called the Brunswick station around 12:30 p.m. to report that a shrimp boat, the Miss Hopkins from Darien, was burning and three people were on board, a Coast Guard representative said Friday. >click to read< 14:44