Author Archives: borehead - Moderator
Kodiak fishermen stand down to protest low tanner crab prices
Kodiak’s biggest tanner crab fishery in nearly 40 years is set to open on Sunday, but the fleet is standing down. Fishermen say they won’t go fishing for the prices offered by local canneries. It’s the latest wrinkle on a winter fishing season already impacted by closures and strikes. Processors in Kodiak offered $2.50 per pound for tanners when negotiations started earlier this month. Kevin Abena is the secretary and treasurer for the Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative, which represents about 120 permit holders in the fishery. He said since then, all of Kodiak’s canneries haven’t budged from their initial price. “We haven’t been given anything to consider. $2.50 isn’t the number that we’ll consider,” Abena said. >click to read< 16:00
A seventh dead humpback whale has washed up on the Jersey Shore
State and marine mammal experts had responded on Friday, Jan 13 to Brigantine Beach a half-mile beyond a former U.S. Coast Guard station. There was much speculation on social media whether offshore testing for wind turbines has played a role in their deaths. The latest whale was described as a 20-foot juvenile. The dead whale washed up just miles from where another whale was found in Atlantic City on Saturday, Jan. 7. It was the seventh dead whale washed up in 39 days. >click to read< 13:45
Kodiak fishermen gearing up for biggest tanner crab season in decades
Kodiak’s tanner crab fishery opens on Sunday, Jan. 15 and it’s a whopper – this year’s harvest levels are the biggest they’ve been in nearly 40 years, and fishermen are gearing up for a big season in more ways than one. Darren Platt owns the fishing vessel Agnes Sabine. It’s a 48-foot seiner – normally, he goes out for salmon – sometimes herring – and this is his fourth season fishing for tanner crabs. He said this year, there’s been a buzz in both of Kodiak’s boat harbors. “It looks almost like pre-salmon season,” he said. “There’s a lot of boats that haven’t fished tanner crabs in a while, or maybe have never fished it and so they’re just getting geared up now. And so the docks have been pretty darn busy for December and January.” >click to read< 12:15
Is the freeport to blame for loss of marine life in Teesside?
The deaths of thousands of crabs on the beaches of Teesside and North Yorkshire has created bitter divisions between the fishing industry and the government. With so much disagreement over the cause, the issue has “set off a row that shows little sign of dying off”, In October 2021, crabs and lobsters began washing up dead on the beaches in the region. The beaches were “piled with hundreds of thousands of dead and dying crabs and lobster” With their catches plummeting, the fishing industry has called for financial support from the government to “save” the North East fleet in the face of the huge losses. >click to read< 11:00
Fishing boats depart for Alaska – Local crabbers begin dropping pots for season opener
A number of the larger commercial fishing boats that call Newport’s Yaquina Bay their home headed out this week for the annual trek to Alaska’s Bering Sea. It can take eight to 10 days for them to make the journey up north, depending on the weather. Boats from Newport will be docking either at Dutch Harbor or Kodiak, where they will be based while fishing for pollack and cod, a fishery that generally lasts for several months. The Port of Newport’s International Terminal was hopping with activity this week as boat owners and their crews made final preparations. In addition to the Alaskan fleet getting ready to head north, local commercial crabbers were busy loading their gear in preparation for the opening of the season this Sunday, Jan. 15. >click to read< 08:40
Restrictions lifted on beleaguered North Bay Dungeness crab fleet
The restrictions were imposed earlier this season to reduce the risk of marine animals becoming entangled in gear. Beginning this weekend, commercial crabbers south of Mendocino County can deploy 100% of their allotted crab pots, instead of operating at 50% reduction, as they have for the past two weeks. Extreme weather and rough seas proved an impediment this season, however, as have prices, which so far have kept the commercial fleet north of Sonoma County tied up at dock. Dick Ogg, vice president of the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Marketing Association, was busy Thursday with his crew prepping gear on a rare clear day so they could try to fish this weekend. >click to read< 07:31
Cornish family business Rowse Fishing Ltd fined for illegal lobster fishing
A Cornish family business supplying crab and lobster to local and international markets and a vessel master have been fined big for illegal lobster fishing. On Wednesday (January 11) at Truro Magistrates’ Court, Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) successfully prosecuted Rowse Fishing Limited and Ben Rowse, 26, of Penzance, the respective owner and master of the vivier potting vessel Emma Louise TO60. Rowse Fishing Ltd and Ben Rowse pleaded guilty to the offences of fishing for berried, v-notched or mutilated lobsters. Magistrates sentenced the company to a fine of £20,000 and the payment of prosecution costs amounting to £6,309.90. The master was fined £2,338 plus a victim surcharge of £190. >click to read< 20:30
Hull Maritime gets £250,000 from Foyle Foundation for Arctic Corsair visitor attraction
The grant has come from The Foyle Foundation, a leading UK supporter of learning and the arts, and will help towards developing the new centre at the former North End Shipyard, the future permanent home for the Arctic Corsair. Work to transform North End Shipyard is under way and is expected to open to visitors in 2024. Hull Maritime is a major regeneration project funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the city council. Five key maritime treasures will be transformed to create a new maritime experience for Hull. Elements include the restoration of two ships – Arctic Corsair and the Spurn Lightship – the regeneration of the former North End Shipyard, Dock Office Chambers and the Hull Maritime Museum will be refurbished. >click to read< 17:29
Advocacy Groups Demand Transparent Investigation into Deaths of Six Endangered Whales
Calling the deaths of six endangered whales that have washed up in 33 days on the beaches of New Jersey and New York “alarming and environmentally harmful,” local, state and regional ocean advocacy groups are calling for President Joe Biden to immediately address the unprecedented trend. “The noise from the offshore wind vessel is a potential cause of the recent whale stranding and increased near-shore sightings,” said Bob Stern, president of Save LBI, a nonprofit, non-partisan coalition opposed to the placement of offshore wind farms off Long Beach Island. “The beached whales bear no sign of vessel strike or fishing gear entanglement, leaving natural causes or noise as the potential causes and raising the likelihood that our concerns were well-founded.” >click to read< 16:03
Mississippi Scientists Develop Unique Method Using Sound To Track Sea Turtle Data
Wayne Carpenter, senior research and development engineer, and Bradley Goodwiller, research scientist, are using sound to monitor turtles that exit shrimp trawls through turtle exclusion devices. “Acoustic impacts with TEDs have implications in understanding the population, migration and allocation of the species,” Carpenter said. “All of this contributes to important conservation work.” The project, Acoustic Enumeration of Sea Turtle Impacts with TEDs (Turtle Excluder Devices), was funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program. The federal government has mandated TEDs in the shrimping industry since 1987. They have been shown to be highly effective; however, obtaining information about sea turtle interactions with TED-equipped shrimp trawls has been challenging. >click to read< 14:25
Amid fishing deaths, calls rise for small boats to have stability checks
After the Caledonian capsized off Vancouver Island in 2015 with three lives lost, the Transportation Safety Board called for all small fishing vessels to undergo a stability assessment and adhere to standards ensuring stability information “is adequate and readily available to the crew.” However, seven years later, Transport Canada says on its website that enacting the regulation would be “functionally challenging and prohibitively expensive for the industry.” The department declined a request for an interview with a senior official to provide further explanation. It’s a stance the Transportation Safety Board describes on its website as “unsatisfactory,” while a lawyer for the mother of a deckhand who died when the scallop dragger Chief William Saulis flipped over off Nova Scotia on Dec. 15, 2020 argues the federal government needs to act. >click to read< 11:50 – Search Results for “Caledonian” – fisherynation.com – Search Results for “Chief William Saulis” – fisherynation.com
South Jersey Times Editorial Board – N.J. whale death mystery may not lead to mighty wind
Depending on who’s counting, at least six whales have been discovered ashore since late fall. Let’s not to jump to conclusions, though, about why these whales died, at least not to the degree that we need to shut down everything that’s going on offshore. Pressure groups are already calling for moratoriums on any work related to offshore wind energy development, even though none of structures related to the turbines system exist off the Jersey coast. (The survey work is happening, though.) The developers of offshore wind, and cheerleaders who include our governor, are finding more pushback against these planned installations than they anticipated. It’s not just Clean Ocean Action that has a beef; commercial fishing groups and others concerned about shoreline aesthetics are weighing in, too. >click to read< 10:48
Opinion: How to Solve the Lobstermen vs Whalers Problem: Water Capitalism
The lobstermen and the whalers are at each other’s throats in Maine. The former need to use strong ropes to pull up their lobster traps from the ocean floor. The latter claim that this gear they use enmeshes their bread and butter, that is, whales, who are needlessly killed in this manner. It would be difficult to name other industries, or commercial interests that contended against one another in any such manner. Yes, those producing peas and those producing carrots compete against each other, as do bicycles and fish, shoes and socks. But none of them are suing the others over infringement of their territory. >click to read< 09:16
P.E.I. fishermen welcome extension on deadline for gear to protect whales
Some members of the P.E.I. fishing community are welcoming DFO’s decision to extend the deadline for break-free fishing gear until 2024. This is when fishers will be required to use gear designed to break under 1,700 pounds to help species like the endangered North Atlantic right whale escape during an entanglement. “I mean, we’re certainly happy to see it extended,” said Marvin Jollymore, a lobster and eel fisher from New London, P.E.I. “There’s so many questions as to, you know, how long does [the gear] last? You put it in, does it last one season? Does it last two seasons, does it last forever? Is it only good for half a season?” >click to read< 07:59
Sanford Goes for Green with Maaskant Order
New Zealand seafood company Sanford Limited has placed an order with Damen Shipbuilding Maaskant for the design and build of a new scampi vessel for operation in the Southern Ocean. This new vessel is expected to contribute to Sanford’s target of reducing the carbon footprint from its direct operations by 25% between 2020 and 2030. The construction of the diesel-electric vessel will take place at the Damen Maaskant yard in the Netherlands, with a delivery date in 2025. Images, >click to read< 20:29
Hull’s fishing community unites to remember victims of the Triple Trawler Tragedy
The fishing community gathered together on the corner of Hessle Road and Boulevard to mark the 55th anniversary of the St Romanus trawler sinking. The terrible incident in 1968 that claimed the lives of 20 men was the first in a series of three disasters at sea, known as the Triple Trawler Tragedy. Every year, former fishermen, headscarf revolutionaries and family members of the deceased gather to remember the 58 men who lost their lives on the St Romanus, Kingston Peridot and Ross Cleveland. The memorial service was an emotional one, with many mourning the loss of old colleagues and school friends. The 20 victims’ names were read out before a minute’s silence. Photos>click to read< 18:39
Fisherman sentenced for ‘blatant and overt’ interference in Membertou lobster fishery
A Cape Breton fisherman has been fined $6,200 and ordered off the water for six months for cutting lobster traps fished by the Membertou band and obstructing fishery officers. The sentence was handed down in a Sydney, N.S., courtroom Wednesday after Bernard Douglas MacIntyre pleaded guilty on two charges. Two other counts were dropped. MacIntyre and others on his boat, Kelsey & Mitchell II, were seen cutting traps in Sydney Harbour on the night of Dec. 3, 2020. The only lawful lobster fishery underway in the area was for food, social and ceremonial licence holders. Members of Membertou First Nation were fishing from the Sydport wharf. >click to read< 14:56
North Carolina Fisheries Association Membership, Southern Shrimp Alliance Needs Your Help!
As indicated below, the U.S. International Trade Commission has now issued questionnaires in its sunset review proceeding to the U.S. shrimp industry, U.S. shrimp importers, U.S. shrimp purchasers, and exporters and processors in the Chinese, Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese shrimp industries. The responses to these questionnaires, which are due on or before February 6, 2023, will provide the basis for the Commission’s analysis as to whether to keep the antidumping duty orders on Chinese, Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese shrimp in place for another five years. Thank you, in advance, for your assistance in meeting the U.S. International Trade Commission’s request for information. >Click to read, and access links< 13:11
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 44’x20′ Fiberglass Scalloper, 400HP 3406 Cat
To review specifications, information, and 12 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 12:01
The moment an Ayrshire fishing crew rescue another boat off the coast of Arran in horrific conditions
The moment an Ayrshire fishing crew saved fellow fishermen in horrific conditions has been captured in dramatic footage. The F/V Spes Bona crew from Troon hauled a stricken trawler which had broken down off the coast of Arran on Monday. The failed boat, with three crew members of board, was towed nine miles through ferocious conditions as stormy weather battered the Firth of Clyde. A video showing the hair-raising rescue has gone viral, chalking up more than 4,000 views in just a matter of days, with viewers left stunned by the footage. But Spes Bona captain Donald Gibson says the scenes are a regular occurrence out in the open seas. Video, >click to read< 10:01
A whale of a tale – revisited
Yes, a whale. The carcass of a 30-foot-long juvenile humpback whale washed ashore on Farnham Point. According to Kellee Joost, secretary, Farnham Point Association, on Dec. 23, the storm surge moved the massive carcass from Inner Heron Island, where it had rested for a while, depositing it in the little creek running beside the community shore picnic spot. While the weighty whale (sorry, I couldn’t resist) became an attraction for the few Farnham point winter folk, it would soon begin to decompose with the attendant odors. However, the best news coming out from the Farnham Point whale adventure, especially for our seafaring friends who fish for lobster, was that there was no, I repeat, no lobster fishing line attached to the carcass. In case you have been hiding under a rock, our local lobster fishing community is under attack from a California conservation association which, without any proof, accuses them and their gear of killing northern right whales, an endangered species. >click to read< 09:11
Brixham fish fleet smashes records with amazing £60.8m bonanza
The best ever year of trading in Brixham’s long history of fishing also means a windfall of around £1.5m to Torbay Council. Industry leaders are celebrating their success today, but also warning that the port must expand if that success is going to continue. And the new record comes as a “silver lining” after the UK fishing industry struggled to find ways to cope with the effects of a disappointing Brexit. Brixham Trawler Agents managing director Barry Young said there had been no doubt that Covid, Brexit, record fuel prices and the cost of living crisis meant 2022 would be tough to predict. But, he said, it soon became clear that the value of fish sold on Brixham Fish Market would break existing records. >click to read< 07:59
The Religion of Wokeism. A Fisherman by Any Other Name: Terminology in New Law Sparks Debate
A new law regarding ships’ crews that went into effect at the beginning of the month is sparking considerable debate throughout Iceland, but not because of the content of the law. Rather, critics have taken issue with the choice of wording in it, namely the use of the word fiskari, most easily translatable as ‘fisher,’ in lieu of the term fiskimaður, which literally means ‘fisher+man.’Critics, including some in the industry and current or former politicians, have called the word choice an example of the sterilization of Icelandic, or even an example of the language’s slide into nýlenska, or Orwellian Newspeak. >click to read< 14:41
South Devon College launches fishing apprenticeship
Working alongside regional employers, apprentices on the scheme will learn how to sustainably harvest fish and shellfish as well as learn about fishing methods. Laurence Gilson, who has been working as a fisherman for 16 years, like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him is undertaking the apprenticeship. He is one of around 11,000 fishers in the UK. “I work 12 hours a day in the wheelhouse on six hour shifts,” he said. “I spend my life chasing something just like a video game and I know what I’m chasing is worth money and what I’ve chased I’ve done it all myself.” He added: “If you’ve got the drive to make you want to go into the industry there’s no ends to what you can do in this job. Set a goal and achieve the goal. The sky’s the limit.” >click to read< 11:28
6 beached whales in 33 days — NJ groups say offshore wind may be to blame
Advocacy groups believe they know why the New Jersey region has seen half a dozen beached whales over the span of 33 days: offshore wind energy infrastructure. On Monday, two days after a 30-foot humpback washed ashore in Atlantic City, ocean advocacy organizations sent a letter to President Joe Biden, demanding an immediate investigation into the recent whale deaths and calling for a pause on all ongoing wind-energy activity offshore. “Never have we ever heard of six whales washing up within 33 days,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Long Branch-based Clean Ocean Action. “We don’t know how many whales may have died offshore.” >click to read< 10:14
Maine lobstermen deal with another new rule, and it’s not about right whales
Until this year, only a fraction of Maine’s lobster fishers were required to report what they caught, including details on when, where and how many. The data went to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a coalition of 15 East Coast states that regulates fishing for more than two dozen species. But as Jan. 1, all Maine lobstermen now have to report data on their harvests to the state and to the commission. The fishermen, traditionally wary of new regulations on their industry, aren’t saying much. “All the paperwork is always a hassle, but we need to give up the data and hopefully it doesn’t get used against us,” said John Tripp, a lobsterman from Tenants Harbor. Several other members of the lobster industry declined a request for an interview about the mandate. >click to read< 09:15
A New Bedford fishing boat needed a new engine. Cost: $175K. And that was just the start.
Pedro Cura had a decision to make. Last September, Paulo Valente was coming through Butler’s Flat, heading back to the dock, when suddenly the engine blew in the dragger he captains for Cura and his business partner. The wear and tear from the many fishing trips aboard Fisherman, as she’s called, had caused the damage, Valente said. The engine had already been rebuilt a few times over the years. One of the options Cura was entertaining was cutting up the boat for scrap metal and just calling it a day. Another was using parts from another old engine he found to rebuild it. Instead, he decided to buy a new engine from Windward Power Systems in Fairhaven a month later. 19 Photos, >click to read< 08:01
Shrimp and Grit: Fighting to save the Fort Myers Beach shrimping fleet after Ian’s devastation
The Perseverance sunk. The Penny V was crushed. The Pleiades cracked in half. Aces & Eights had five holes. The Babe took a beating. The Capt. Ryan was boxed in. The Kayden Nicole tipped. Boats were scattered along the San Carlos Island waterfront in clusters. Six boats were flung into bushes, sea grape trees and dead mangroves not far from Trico Shrimp Company, the other major shrimp player on the waterfront. Ten floated maybe a quarter mile west, up into an RV park and a boatyard. Most of these boats were old before Ian arrived. They had been built to last one decade but stretched for five, held together with the glue of ingenuity, by owners and mechanics unwilling to concede to those who called it a dying industry. Right after Ian, just one boat was fit for sea. It was the F/V Malolo, the namesake of the boat Anna’s great-grandfather had first brought to Fort Myers. Photos, >click to read< 21:30
Another dead whale washes up on Jersey Shore beach
A third humpback whale in about a month washed up at the Jersey Shore over the weekend, concerning both residents and conservationists. Atlantic City officials say the 30-foot adult humpback whale was discovered on the beach near South Mississippi Avenue Saturday, only a few blocks from where another whale washed ashore on Christmas weekend Spectators watched as scientists began a necropsy on Sunday. Some protesters on the beach Sunday speculate an offshore wind turbine project may have something to do with this. “We’ve never had this number of whale deaths and beaching’s ever as far as I recall,” said Frank Leone from Protect our Coast New Jersey. Video, >click to read< 13:29
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update 01/09/2023 – Fisheries Monitoring and Data Collection/Legislative Update
The number of commercial fishermen in North Carolina has definitely been on a downward trend for some time. We have gone from 4,588 active commercial licenses in 2001 down to 2,170 active licenses in 2021 according to DMF’s most recent statistics. Although numbers of participants in our state have decreased by almost half in the last 20 years commercial fishing monitoring and data collection has not and NC commercial fishermen continue to provide a wealth of useful data that has created a permanent record showing where we came from and how we got there. The first commercial fishing data collection system I will talk about is the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) fish house trip ticket program. This program started in 1994 and since then it has grown into one of the leading fisheries data collection programs in the country. >click to read the update< 12:20
