Author Archives: borehead - Moderator
MPA’s: Scottish island faces being ‘wiped out’ by SNP’s green crackdown on fishing in its rich waters
Tiree, population 653, is known as the Hawaii of the North but islanders say it will become ‘non-viable’ if a Highly Protected Marine Area is imposed by Holyrood ministers. Now the risk is that a new environmental protection area would kill the island’s fishing boat trade, which is one of the few economic growth sectors. Having gone from two boats in 1995 to nine boats today, which provide 20 full time jobs, the annual catch of crab and lobster has a value of £1million. Tiree fisherman Neil MacPhail said: “If this (HPMA) landed on top of us we would be wiped out overnight, with one stroke of the pen on a chart.”He added: “My boat alone puts food on the table for eleven people. One boat’s worth of economic impact is huge in a community such as Tiree. It’s the only industry in the island which has genuinely bucked the depopulation trend.” >click to read< 18:07
Price outlook diverges for Canada’s top 2 seafoods – Snow crab prices plunged by 60 % in 2022
Canada’s lobster industry is poised to claw its way out of a down year, say analysts, while unsold snow crab stuck in cold storage remains an anchor dragging on the bottom line. Snow crab sales sank and prices plunged 60 per cent in 2022, thanks in part to U.S. consumers who stayed away from luxury seafood as they were battered by inflation. Lobster also took a hit last year, with prices down 30 per cent. The value of Canadian live lobster exports dropped as well, but volumes actually ticked up slightly. Kelly Zhuang of World Link Food Distributors in Nova Scotia says 800 tonnes of live lobster is flown to China from Halifax and Moncton per week. And more charters are expected.>click to read< 13:55
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 36′ Northern Bay Lobster/Tuna, portside haul,1200HP MANN Diesel
To review specifications, information, and 11 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:59
Before tuna fishing was ‘wicked’
Before tuna fishing became “wicked,” local fishermen had been capturing and hauling giant bluefin tuna off the coast for years. The dangerous task has gone on to gain notoriety with the popular show “Wicked Tuna,” but the history of catching giant bluefins has deep roots in Newburyport going back generations. Newburyport residents Lee and Bob Yeomans are both experienced at fishing for tuna and hand-lining. “My husband, Bob, and I have a goal to preserve the history of this very dangerous, challenging way of capturing giant bluefin tuna,” Lee Yeomans said. She is leading a project to capture the stories of fishermen. Eighty-eight-year-old Newbury resident Carl Beal Jr. wrote of his experience fishing for giant bluefins with his father off Newburyport in summer 1948 in “Tuna Fishing Peril,” one of many stories about the history of local tuna fishing. >click to read< 11:02
No California salmon: Fishery to be shut down this year
Last year, California’s commercial and recreational fishing fleet, from the Central Coast to the Oregon border, landed about 300,000 salmon. But this year, Davis and other salmon anglers won’t be fishing for salmon at all. Last year, the industry’s economic value was an estimated $460 million for fish sales and related businesses, including restaurants, tackle shops, private fishing guides, campgrounds and other services. Salmon season usually runs from May through October. Only in two previous years — 2008 and 2009 — has California’s salmon season been shut down completely. That closure came as the numbers of spawning fish returning to the Sacramento River, the state’s main salmon producer, crashed to record lows. Now California’s Chinook runs have collapsed again. >click to read< 09:54
Blue-collar lobstermen sue environmental group for defamation: ‘The harm is intentional’
A coalition of lobster businesses and industry groups from Maine filed a federal lawsuit this week, accusing a powerful environmental group that doles out “sustainability” ratings of defamation. The coalition, led by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), argued that the California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation has made defamatory statements about Maine lobster fishing practices, misleading consumers and commercial lobster buyers about the state’s lobster harvest, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Maine. “This harm is intentional: The Aquarium told businesses and consumers to ‘avoid’ and ‘take a pass’ on purchasing Maine-caught lobster and lobster products on the basis of its false statements,” the lawsuit stated. Video, >click to read< 08:58
Ban Mega Trawlers from Irish waters says Sinn Féin as F/V Margiris ploughs seas off Cork coast
It’s already been banned from Australian waters – now Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on fisheries says the FV Margiris and so called “super trawlers’ like her should not be allowed to fish off the Irish coast. The giant fishing vessel – which is less than 40 nautical miles off the Cork coast this afternoon – has been called the ‘Death Star of the Ocean” and can land up to 250 tonnes of fish a day, 14 times what a regular Irish trawler might take, while often leaving tonnes of unwanted ‘by-catch’, non-profitable marine life, dead in its wake. >click to read< 08:01
Argentinian Yard Launches its First Newbuild Fishing Vessel
Built entirely at the De Angelis yard Nuevo Don Julio is a fresher trawler designed to operate from Caleta Paula port, in Santa Cruz province. The regional standards relating to coastal fishing vessels stipulate a maximum registered length of 12 metres, so that was a crucial factor of this venture from the outset, explained production manager Juan Cruz Rodríguez. ‘The primary requirement presented by our client was that the boat should have the largest storage capacity possible while remaining within the maximum allowed length,’ he said. The 99m3 fish room is considerably larger than would be expected in a vessel of this size. Nuevo Don Julio’s designers had to strike balances between length and internal volume by creating a special configuration of elements to ensure its stability. Photos >click to read< 19:25
The unlikely conversion of the 45m trawler Scintilla Maris
A single-prop fishing trawler is not an obvious choice for conversion into a superyacht, but for the owner of Scintilla Maris it was the only one. We travelled to the Damen Maaskant shipyard near Rotterdam to find out more. Entrepreneur Erik Vonk grew up fascinated by tugboats and trawlers. “In the 1980s and into the ‘90s these steel-hulled boats represented the epitomy of Dutch shipbuilding,” says Vonk. “They were very sturdily built, almost over-engineered, to deal with conditions in the North Sea. I’d been following the Dutch beam trawlers for years and when one became available as part of a decommissioning scheme in 2006 I decided to buy her, basically with a virtual handshake over the phone.” lots of photos, >click to read< 15:32
California crabber accuses processor of price fixing
A Portland, Oregon seafood processor, the country’s largest, faces an antitrust class action over what the lead plaintiff says is an egregious case of price fixing in the West Coast’s increasingly unstable Dungeness crab market. Fisherman Brand Little of Auburn, California, filed a putative class action Monday accusing the $945 million company with fixing the price of the highly sought after Dungeness crab, which is found along the coasts and bays between Central California and Alaska. Little says Pacific Seafood, which is owned by Frank Dulcich, the grandson of the company’s founder, has “for at least the last four years, and likely substantially longer” fixed the prices paid to the region’s crabbers. That has in turn dramatically reduced the amount of money earned by the crabbers and priced out customers during the peak demand period while forcing them to buy frozen crab from the previous year, also supplied by Pacific Seafood. >click to read< 12:21
Fishing industry warns snap lockout of key Northern Territory waters could affect restaurant plates around Australia
The fishing industry says restaurants and fish markets around Australia are scrambling to secure barramundi, mud crabs and threadfin salmon after a snap decision closed key Northern Territory waters. Commercial fishers have been banned from the East Alligator River and Mini Mini-Murgenella Creek estuaries. The lockout has followed a failed attempt by the NT Government to negotiate commercial fishing access with the Northern Land Council, which represents traditional owners. Barramundi fishers and crabbers had been preparing for their season in the rich coastal waters off Arnhem Land, east of Kakadu National Park. >click to read< 10:23
Few benefits seen from close-to-shore wind turbines
It’s beyond offensive for Gov. Phil Murphy to dismiss as “disinformation” the concerns of many of his constituents about a possible connection between wind energy survey work and the almost weekly occurrence of dead whales floating onto the Jersey Shore. Here are some things the governor has repeatedly failed to address: The planned wind farms, particularly those off of Long Beach Island, will have structures up to 1,000 feet tall, and will be close enough to land to be visible from beaches. For the Atlantic Shore project, they will be as few as 9 miles offshore. These hundreds of turbines proposed for three installations could bring devastating results to the state’s commercial fishing and tourism industries. >click to read< 09:19
Maryland seafood locale claps back at PETA in billboard feud before crab season: ‘Brought religion into it’
Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, a seafood restaurant in Maryland, hit back after the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) launched a billboard near the restaurant in February that encouraged people to “go vegan.” PETA’s Lent-themed billboard read, “I never lent you my flesh, go vegan,” according to a video posted to Jimmy’s Famous Seafood’s Twitter page. The billboard included a picture of a cross and a fish. The seafood restaurant, located in Dundalk, Maryland, posted a photo of two billboards on Thursday advertising their restaurant in response. One said, “they died to be enjoyed” and the other read, “it’d be a sin to waste them.” Photos, >click to read< 08:07
Correcting our Lobster Mistake
To Our Heal the Ocean Supporters: This notice is an important correction – and apology – to our HTO members, and to Santa Barbara’s commercial lobster fleet for errors made in our Thursday 3/9 E-Letter “Bad Rap for Lobster Traps.” Due to the numerous traps that landed on our beaches in the last severe storm, HTO had suggested that lobster fishermen pull their traps when anticipating impending storms. Additionally, we proposed the development of a protocol in collaboration with the Department of Fish and Wildlife for managing such storm situations. Our verbiage raised considerable ire amongst the lobster fleet, and for good reason. Pulling lobster traps takes weeks. Our suggestion was one of impossibility. >click to read< 20:44
‘There’s no future in it’: Parry Sound commercial fishers given ever-decreasing catch limits
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry announced it was “modernizing” the commercial fishery, including a move toward fishers digitally reporting their daily catch. “They just keep taking (our quota) away,” said Sandra LePage of Nobel, who owns B. LePage Fishery with her husband, Bernie, (whose father founded the famous fish restaurant Henry’s). In 2018, the LePage Fishery was allowed to harvest 34,559 pounds of whitefish; that has dropped annually. Now, for 2023, they are allowed to harvest 20,470 pounds. For lake trout, the max was 8,128 pounds in 2018, and for 2023, it is 4,894 pounds. Commercial fisher Bill Kalwaski, who is based out of Byng Inlet, said that when the lake trout population is high, the whitefish population is down, and “without the whitefish, there is no commercial fishery in the upper great lakes,” >click to read< 18:30
Coast Guard aircrew medevacs Canadian crewmember from 72′ fishing vessel near Graham Island, British Columbia
A Coast Guard Air Station Sitka aircrew medically evacuated a 24-year-old crewmember from a Canadian vessel located northwest of Graham Island in British Columbia on Friday. The MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew arrived on scene at 7:58 p.m. and safely hoisted and transported the patient to shore in Masset, a village in British Columbia, where he was then transferred to awaiting EMS. >click to read< 17:12
Maine Lobster Fishery Sues Monterey Bay Aquarium, Claims Attack on Maine Lobster Fishing Practices Is Defamatory
Maine lobster businesses and industry trade associations today filed a federal lawsuit against the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (the “Aquarium”) for making false and defamatory statements about Maine lobster fishing practices and for misleading consumers and commercial lobster buyers about the integrity of the Maine lobster harvest. The lawsuit challenges the Aquarium’s claims that “scientific data” show that Maine lobster fishing practices are responsible for harming North Atlantic right whales. The lawsuit asserts that the Aquarium’s claims are in fact not supported by science, and that the Aquarium’s false statements have caused substantial economic harm to plaintiffs, as well as to the Maine lobster brand and to Maine’s long-standing reputation for a pristine coastal environment protected by a multi-generational tradition of preserving resources for the future. Plaintiffs include Bean Maine Lobster Inc., the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Atwood Lobster LLC, and Bug Catcher Inc., owned by sixth-generation fisherman Gerry Cushman of Port Clyde. To continue, >click to read< 12:57
Anti–wind farm petition takes off, nearing 250k signatures
A petition drive that demands a halt on wind farm projects following whale deaths along the coast has collected more than 240,000 signatures so far. (As Monday morning, March 13, the petition had more than 318,000 signatures.) Ocean City wind farm opponent Suzanne Hornick, one of the founders of Protect Our Coast NJ, which began in 2019, said it is time to stop offshore wind acoustic testing. Gov. Phil Murphy, a strong supporter of offshore wind technology, wants New Jersey to become a leader in green energy. So far, New Jersey has approved three offshore wind farms and is looking to add more. But it appears that many New Jersey residents are opposed to the wind farms,,, >click to read< 11:36
Florida man used fake names in six-figure Stanwood crab heist
A Florida man faces federal charges in a conspiracy to transport over $430,000 worth of stolen king crab from Stanwood to Florida, according to charges filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. A federal grand jury indicted David Subil, 51, on three counts of interstate transportation of stolen property on March 1. The alleged cross-country crab heist began Jan. 3. Multiple people claiming to represent Safeway contacted the owner of a California-based seafood distribution company called Arctic Seafoods, the charges say. A man who identified himself as Christopher Delgado sent the owner documents to open an account with Albertsons, the parent company of Safeway. >click to read< 10:20
Characters of the County: Jim Jones is Not Done
Time and space are against it, but given the option, Jim Jones said he probably would like to build one more lobster boat. A traditional wooden 30-footer, similar to the kind his father used to make. Jones has built a lot of boats and worked on quite a few more during a 47-year career in the Boothbay region’s maritime industry. Even as he acknowledges he’s thinking about his next chapter, Jones said he is not quite sure how he wants to write the end of this one. “I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up,” he said, with a chuckle. “I am looking at retirement, but I don’t know how you even define retirement at this point in my life. I am not going to one day not go to work and not do anything.” >click to read< 09:07
Ban on Trawling Inside Six Nautical Miles Declared Invalid by Court of Appeal
Two fishermen have won an appeal over a ban on trawling inside the Irish six-mile limit. A judgment issued by the Court of Appeal has ruled that the Government policy directive introducing a ban on trawling inside the six nautical-mile limit is invalid and of no legal effect. The judgment by Mr. Justice Murray relates to an appeal taken by Dingle-based fisherman Tom Kennedy and Castletownbere-based fisherman Neil Minihane over a policy directive introduced by the then Minister for Marine Michael Creed on March 5th, 2019. The ban was temporarily reinstated in 2021 by the Court of Appeal, resulting in another round of legal action by the fishermen. >click to read< 08:09
Pacific Fishery Management Council says Rescind Oregon OSW Call Areas
The Pacific Fishery Management Council acted today to join a chorus of voices recommending the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management rescind the current Oregon call areas designated for floating offshore wind energy development. Heather Mann, Executive Director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative and one of the leaders of the informal coalition Protect US Fishermen said in her testimony, “we hear the climate crisis is so severe that collateral damage to birds, whales, the California current ecosystem, food security, even to fisheries, fishermen and rural community economies is an accepted part of the transition to cleaner energy. That is an unacceptable premise to me, and I hope it is to you as well.” The motion passed unanimously (10-0) with four abstention votes cast by the state representatives for Oregon, Washington, and California as well as the NMFS representative. >click to read< 19:24
Seafood industry urges ‘extreme caution’ on controlling seals to avoid consumer backlash
Canada’s seafood industry is urging Ottawa to use “extreme caution” when considering measures to control the growing seal population, warning they could jeopardize market access and acceptance of Canadian seafood. But according to Conservative fisheries critic Clifford Small, a member of parliament from Newfoundland and Labrador, those concerns are overblown. “It is immensely important that as the government considers potential steps moving forward, its actions do not disrupt either the market access or acceptance of Canadian fish and seafood products, both internationally and domestically,” said Paul Lansbergen, president of the Fisheries Council of Canada. Lansbergen said both the U.S. and the European Union have strict rules regarding the harming of marine mammals during fishing. >click to read< 14:50
Dartmouth fisherman remembered 40 years on
A Dartmouth family is remembering a crabber who was lost at sea 40 years ago today. 28 year old Paul Goddard had been crabbing off Weymouth on March 12 1983. Tragically he and his boat, the Exuberent, disappeared and he was never found. Former crew member Alan Spencer said: “She was a Cygnus Garry Mitchell design 32-foot displacement hull work boat.“ In the winter of 1981 it was decided to move her and her fishing gear to the “Over falls” off Weymouth in Dorset as fishing was rich there at that time of the year. On March 12 1983 she was being brought back to Dartmouth by the” Skipper” alone as the crew moved all the boats husbandry back to Dartmouth by road. “What happened next will never be known exactly. >click to read< 12:11
Meet the next generation boatbuilder taking over the family business – Jaxen Doucette has been an entrepreneur since age nine
“I always wanted to do something with business and never, ever wanted to work for somebody else. I always wanted to do my own thing. And here we are.” Now, he runs the fibreglass boat-building business in Miminegash, P.E.I., with his family’s name over the door. Doucette’s Boat Building builds 45-foot fibreglass fishing boats and employs 12 people year-round, though they take an extended break in the summer due to the heat. The company usually has four boats on the go, Doucette said, and finishes one per month. The company was founded in 1990 by Jimmy Doucette, Jaxen’s grandfather. He took over earlier this year after the elder Doucette died. “He built six or seven of his own wooden boats and then they took a mold off the last wooden boat, which gives us our fibreglass boat.” Photos, >click to read< 10:39
UK fishing industry ‘on its last legs’ as Tories accused of ‘betraying’ coastal towns
Fishing rights for EU vessels have proved to be a major bone of contention for the industry since leaving the bloc more than three years ago. Brexit fury has exploded after claims the UK fishing industry is “on its after legs” with Boris Johnson and the Tories accused of “stabbing fishermen in the back” over the deal with the European Union. The former Prime Minister had promised to protect the industry and insisted the UK would “take back control” of its waters before signing a trade deal with Brussels more than three years ago. The fishing agreement states there would be a five-year transition period that would see EU boats continue to gain access to UK waters until 2026. At the time, Mr Johnson admitted some concessions had been made in talks with the EU. >click to read< 09:43
NC Catch Summit, Outer Banks Feast will be held March 20 in Nags Head
With 79% of North Carolinians wanting their seafood purchases to support fishing families, NC Catch, the state’s leading cooperative for local seafood, brings together consumers and commercial fishers to feast on local catch and share valuable education about North Carolina’s vital seafood industry. Misinformation about commercial fishing in North Carolina keeps growing, and confusion persists over whether seafood is sustainably harvested. Panels will dig deep into major myths, real seafood trends, and innovative efforts of young people entering all aspects of the state’s seafood industry. This day of education and real-life stories of commercial fishing families will teach attendees how to stand up for local seafood. >click to read< 09:05
New demersal trawler COPIOUS LK 985 delivered to 60 North Fishing
The vessel is the first of a pair of sister vessels for the company and was built in Croatia by Tehnomont shipyard to a full design package supplied by Macduff Ship Design. The vessel completed her delivery trip to Shetland, through the Mediterranean, up the west coast of Portugal, Spain and Ireland, arriving in Shetland on the morning of the 14th January just in time for the islands fire festival Up Helly Aa. The second vessel to be named ‘Prolific’ is set to be delivered later in the year. Photos, >click to read< 08:01
Found debris of a plane and a human skull end up in the net
The crew of Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson GK-255 received part of the plane debris and human remains in the trawler on Wednesday while the ship was fishing in Jökuldýpi, about 50 miles west of Reykjanes peninsula, southwest Iceland. Vísir.is reported the matter first. Captain Kristján Ólafsson tells mbl.is that it is a part of the tail, part of the plane’s exterior and another motor. “It’s not a whole plane, there are no interiors or anything like that. Just parts of the debris,” he says. The debris brought up the human remains, a large part of a skull, according to Ólafsson. “It’s unusual and people started to speculate what it was and then what airplane it was. So when we started to process the fish, there’s more to comes up like airplane parts. There’s also a bag, along with this body part. >clck to read< 18:07
Lawsuit threatens Washington’s commercial fishing families | Opinion
While Alaska might be more than 1,000 miles away, Washington shares a lot more with the 49th State than most people realize. This is especially true in the fishing industry where the relationship between Washington and Alaska runs deep and ripples throughout Washington’s economy and communities. We are seeing the complexities and the nuances of this relationship play out right now in a lawsuit that the Seattle-based Wild Fish Conservancy brought against the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2020 with the goal to shut down southeast Alaska’s small boat, hook-and-line Chinook troll fishery in the misguided name of saving the Southern Resident killer whales. >click to read< 14:57
