Author Archives: borehead - Moderator
Fishery disaster aid and nearly $500 million worth of Alaska projects included in omnibus budget bill
Aid to Alaska fishermen, companies and communities was included in the year-end omnibus appropriations package that won final passage on Friday. The $300 million in aid funding follows official disaster declarations issued last week by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo for Alaska salmon and crab fishery failures dating back to 2020, as well as some salmon failures in Washington state dating back to 2019. The $300 million in total disaster aid “is a great start for much-needed money to help fishermen and communities pay their bills,” Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, said in a statement. >click to read< 10:01
Message from Commissioner Keliher: Federal Budget Package Includes Pause on Whale Regulations and Needed Funding for Research
Finally, some good news for Maine’s lobster industry. Today, the U.S. House of Representatives followed the lead of the U.S. Senate and voted to approve the omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government. This budget package includes a six-year pause on new federal whale regulations, money to gather needed data including the presence of whales and phytoplankton, and funding for the development of innovative gear technology that will keep the fleet fishing. We expect the President to sign this legislation in the coming days. Here are the major provisions: >click to read< 08:29
Fishermen ready for start of crab season amid price, start date uncertainty
“I’ve been crab fishing since I graduated from high school in 2007,” said Robert Mirante. “This is my fifth season running a boat as an owner-operator.” Robert comes from a family of fishermen; his father fished for decades, and he and all his brothers run their own boats. “That’s what we do for a living,” Robert said. Uncertainty about the start date of this year’s season, pushed back later by low crab numbers just this past Thursday, affects the entire community, said Perry Graham, captain of the Amberlynn. “It’s always stressful — it is — not knowing. It’d be nice to have your set days to know when to work,” Graham said. “You’re rushing, rushing, rushing to get ready and then you might sit there for a month or two.” Photos, >click to read< 19:00
Working Shrimp Boat Returns to Key West Harbor After 30 Year Absence
Ask anyone who remembers Key West in the 1960s what the Historic Seaport looked like back then, when it was still called Key West Bight and was still a rather rough neighborhood of hard-working, hard-partying, and commercial shrimp boats. But those days have long been gone,,, Daniel Smith and James Phelps, who own the F/V Miss Key West shrimp boat and Southeastern Shrimp & Seafood Co., are proud to say they aren’t just a part of Key West history but are making history by bringing back an industry that was as quintessentially Key West as sponging, wrecking, and now, tourism. F/V Miss Key West late last month offloaded for the first time in 30 years, sacks of locally caught Key West pink shrimp onto the docks at the Key West Historic Seaport. Photos, >click to read< 15:39
Nearly 3 years after deadly sinking, debris from F/V Scandies Rose finds its way to a family in Kodiak
Seven men were on board the F/V Scandies Rose when she went down during stormy weather in the waters off Sutwik Island near Chignik, on New Year’s Eve, 2019. Two survivors were plucked from the water in the hours after the vessel sank by Coast Guard rescue crews. But five crew members were never found and presumed dead. Those included the ship’s captain, Gary Cobban Jr. and his son David Cobban, both from Kodiak. The ship, a 130-foot crabbing boat, was enroute from Kodiak to fishing grounds in the Bering Sea and stacked with 198 crab pots when it sank. Now, nearly three years later, those buoys and other pieces of the ship have started washing ashore, bringing closure to Gerry Knagin and some of the other family members of the crew members lost. >click to read< 13:32
Green Groups Ignore Genuine Risks To Whales From Offshore Wind Farms
Environmentalists want to crack down on the Maine lobster industry in the name of protecting endangered whales, but they turn a blind eye to the greater threat to whales from proposed offshore wind farms. The irony is almost as delicious as the lobster dinners at stake. Green groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife routinely target commercial fishing by claiming that it causes ancillary harm to marine species protected under the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws. This includes the North Atlantic right whale, whose population of only 350 or so migrates up and down the Atlantic Coast and can cross prime lobster territory off New England. >click to read< 11:52
CDFW opens commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery statewide Dec. 31, Oregon remains closed until at least Jan. 15,
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) will open the commercial Dungeness crab fishery statewide on Dec. 31, 2022. Fishing Zones 3-6 (all areas south of the Sonoma/Mendocino county Line) will open under a 50 percent trap reduction on Dec. 31, 2022 at 12:01 a.m., with a 64-hour gear setting period to begin on Dec. 28, 2022 at 8:01 a.m. >click to read<
Oregon Season to remain closed until mid January – The ocean commercial Dungeness crab season remains closed until at least Jan. 15, 2023, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). Round three of pre-season testing shows crabs still remain too low in meat yield on the southern and northern coasts. Elevated domoic acid is still detected in some crab viscera (guts). >click to read< 09:30
Is the UK really allowed to catch more fish because of Brexit?
British politicians earlier this week praised the results of the EU-UK 2023 Brexit fishing quota negotiations, saying the UK will be able to catch 30,000 more tonnes of fish than if the island nation had remained within the European bloc. The UK fishing industry will be allowed to catch 140,000 tonnes of fish in 2023, instead of 110,000 tonnes if Brexit had not happened, Fisheries minister Mark Spencer said on Tuesday. The amount of fish that the UK can catch in 2023 has actually remained the same or similar to previous years. So why are politicians latching on to it now? >click to read< 08:09
Markey, Moulton push for national fund to compensate fishermen for losses due to offshore wind
With both offshore wind development and dissent from fishing groups ramping up along the East Coast, Senator Ed Markey and Congressman Seth Moulton announced a plan Wednesday to establish a national fund to compensate potential economic loss suffered by the fishing industry. Currently there is no federal framework that requires offshore wind developers to compensate fishermen for potential damages. Those include gear loss, habitat degradation, loss of historic fishing grounds and new fishing restrictions in areas leased for wind farms — all of which compound, fishermen say, to spell serious economic challenges to their industry. >click to read< 19:31
Two East Coast Fishermen Sue Biden Administration Over Mid-Atlantic Fishing Restrictions
The lawsuit comes as legal challenges to the so-called administrative state, which is made up of officials who aren’t appointed by the president or subject to political accountability, become increasingly common. Raymond Lofstad of Hampton Bays, New York, and Gus Lovgren of Brick Township, New Jersey, are both fourth-generation commercial fishermen running small-scale operations in the Mid-Atlantic region. Lofstad has fished off Long Island for more than 45 years. Lovgren, who recently took over his father’s fishing boat, has operated out of New Jersey for more than 20 years. Both have the permits required to fish for flounder, scup, and black sea bass in federal waters in the Mid-Atlantic. >click to read< 13:29
Maine Pols Brag About Stopping Unscientific Lobster Regs in Monsterous $1.7T Omnibus Bill
Maine’s Congressional Delegation and Gov. Janet Mills gave themselves a hearty pat on the back Tuesday for convincing Members of Congress to temporarily halt an unscientific regulatory crusade on the Maine lobstering industry. Maine’s Congressional Delegation has in recent years also voted to massively increase NOAA’s funding, meaning Maine lawmakers helped fund the very crusade they’re now bragging about halting, temporarily. All told, NOAA’s funding has increased by more than $6 billion since President Joe Biden took office, all with the support of Maine’s elected officials. >click to read< 11:09
Defra announces EU fishing deal to increase fishing opportunities to £750m
Defra has announced the UK fishing industry will benefit from 140,000 tonnes of fishing opportunities next year, following the conclusion of negotiations with the EU. The deal, announced yesterday, represented a 30,000-tonne increase on pre-Brexit volumes and would present UK boats with opportunities worth over £280m in 2023 in EU waters. This brought the total value of fishing opportunities secured for the UK fleet in 2023 in the three main negotiation forums to £750m, a £34m increase from last year, Defra said. >click to read< 09:15
Pioneer Seafoods forced out of Redwood City port, leaving its future on the line
The F/V Pioneer, a 76-foot-long seafaring trawler, has left its dock in Redwood City and relocated to Richmond after its permit was terminated by the Port of Redwood City. The boat was where Pioneer Seafoods’ owner, Giuseppe Pennisi, sold his fresh-caught fish directly to customers, an enterprise that is now in jeopardy, he says. Set to replace Pioneer Seafoods is a new commercial fishing tenant that will come to the port in the next few weeks to start selling fish, says Kristine Zortman, executive director of the Port of Redwood City. The reason he hasn’t been fishing, says Pennisi, is that he has been injured and is dealing with complicated hernia problems. “I was just told, basically, if you don’t get fishing, you’re going to get kicked out of here,”, >click to read< 08:26
‘It’s not ‘us versus the whales’’: Delayed crab season weighs heavily on Central Coast fishermen
It was six days before Christmas and the December sun shone brightly off the placid waters of the Santa Cruz Harbor, illuminating towers of empty crab pots stacked on the edge of the docks. Inside a nearby meeting room, more than a dozen fishermen from Santa Cruz, Moss Landing and Monterey grabbed donuts and gray plastic chairs to discuss their most urgent concern: how to deal with the economic impact of a Dungeness crab season that, now more than a month behind schedule, had yet to open. >click to read< 06:47
In Hot Water
So, let’s run a logical thought based on what our governments assumption is on fish stocks with what we know. NOAA says there is nothing wrong with the biomass of white hake, but they cannot find adolescent hake. Ask a lobsterman along the shoreline. They are seeing an abundance of juvenile hake and cod in their traps. Imagine lobstermen and inshore fishermen across a vast area all saying the same thing? NOAA says there’s nothing wrong with the biomass of haddock but same thing, they can’t find small fish. But what do we know?! >click to continue reading< By Jerry Leeman 20:30
Biden’s Latest Green Energy Victim: The Lobster Industry
One of President Joe Biden’s most disgusting “Nero fiddles while Rome burns” moments came when he hosted his first state dinner for visiting French President Emmanuel Macron. While the president and his guests gorged themselves on 200 live Maine lobsters poached in butter, his administration did everything it could to regulate the Maine fishing industry, particularly lobstermen. out of existence. And they’re making the fishing industry a scapegoat for the actual peril lurking in the waters off New England — offshore wind farms. >click to read < 15:04
$300M in fisheries disaster relief makes it into federal spending bill
A massive congressional appropriations bill made public Tuesday includes $300 million in disaster assistance for fishing families and communities buffeted by downturns in Bering Sea crab as well as some Alaska and Washington salmon harvests. The full House and Senate still need to vote on the spending package. The $300 million in Alaska and Washington fisheries disaster funds is aimed at direct payments to crabbers and fishers and support for research and habitat restoration, according to Washington Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. The Washington and Alaska congressional delegations joined together to press for a fisheries disaster declaration made last week by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.The full House and Senate still need to vote on the spending package. >click to read< 16:06
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 44’11” X 20′ Novi Dragger, 3406 Cat, W/Federal, NJ Permits
To review specifications, information, and 15 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:40
Black Gill: Shrimpers and scientists collaborate to study parasite
Georgia’s shrimpers are already facing plenty of challenges like high gas prices, inflation and international competition. But climate change is exacerbating a new problem: black gill, a parasite that is decreasing shrimp populations and is worsening with rising ocean temperatures. On Dec. 15, the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography invited shrimpers, researchers and other local stakeholders aboard the R/V Savannah to collect samples in the Wassaw Sound and discuss the current research and on-the-water observations of black gill. Black gill is a parasite that lodges itself into shrimps’ gills and feeds on that tissue. It’s a ciliate, a single-celled organism. It gets its name from the shrimp’s immune response to the invader, which turns the gills black as the shrimp’s body tries to fight off the intruder. Photos, >click to read< 10:37
Zero means zero. ‘We’ve been innocent:’ Federal spending bill could provide lifeline for Maine lobstermen
Tuesday, Maine’s congressional delegation moved to block plans for even stricter federal regulations on Maine lobstermen designed to protect the right whale. If approved, the measure would give the U.S. lobster fishery six years before any further action is taken to prevent fishing gear from entangling whales. Lobstermen say there’s no need for new regulations on them, claiming there’s no evidence whales are getting snared in their gear, but environmentalists say this puts right whales on a path to extinction. “Zero means zero. I mean, we’ve had zero entanglements in the last 20 years,” Knight said. “There’s never been a death attributed to Maine lobster gear. We’ve been innocent right along.” Video, photos, >click to read< 09:20
Possible minor allision causes fishing vessel foundering
At about 0530 on 21 September 2021, the German-flagged fishing vessel Ramona set sail from Cuxhaven for the Heligoland Bight. There were five people on board: two crew members and three scientists from the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries Bremerhaven. Since the swell was continuously increasing, everyone on board decided to sail back so as to make further hauls3 in calmer waters for scientific evaluation. At about 0900, the skipper noticed that planks in the fore section were coming loose and the vessel was making water. >click to read< 08:31
Wind industry group says turbine restrictions for whales could threaten commercial viability of projects
An organization that represents and lobbies for the wind industry has warned that a recommendation from federal scientists to limit turbines in offshore lease areas to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale could threaten the commercial viability, efficiency and utilities contracts for some projects. In a letter first published by The Light last month, NOAA scientist Sean Hayes proposed establishing a “conservation buffer” zone or turbine-free area overlapping with wind development planned in Southern New England. But the American Clean Power Association (ACP), which represents the wind industry, said such a buffer would cause the removal of a “significant number” of turbines from several projects. >click to read< 07:29
Maine Lobstermen’s Association Statement on Omnibus Appropriations Bill
12/20/2022 -Today, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, Representatives Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, and Governor Janet Mills announced that they were successful in securing a regulatory pause for Maine’s lobster industry in the Omnibus funding package that is expected to pass the Senate and House this week. Following is a statement from Patrice McCarron, Executive Director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association: “The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) is encouraged that Congress recognizes that the federal rulemaking process intended to protect right whales is broken. Please >click to read the statement< The comment section is open.16:09
Maine delegation adds 6-year pause on lobster rules to federal spending bill
Maine’s congressional delegation has inserted a six-year pause on new regulations intended to protect endangered right whales into a key federal spending package as it seeks to protect a lobster industry that says it is under siege. The provision will help a vital Maine industry that had been hit with too many regulations despite its lack of threat to the endangered whales, Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden and Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement. The late-breaking move comes just days before Congress is expected to approve a massive $1.7 trillion spending bill that would fund the government through next fall. >click to read< 13:34
Jersey Shore Mayor Says Murphy Offshore Wind Farm is Hot Air by Funded by Political Lackeys
“One day in the not-too-distant future, you’re going to wake up, look out onto the beach and see armies of gas-powered ships starting to erect “clean” windmills not too far off the coast of Ocean County,” Kanitra said. “It will be the industrialization of the last pristine resource we have in New Jersey… and it will destroy our tourism economy. It’s being sold as an environmentally friendly initiative by Shell Energy and their lackeys, but it’s anything but that. It’s simply a money grab for the BILLIONS these multinational corporations stand to make. That’s why our fishing industry is against it.” If Murphy’s offshore wind farm is environmentally friendly, then why are so many environmental organizations in the state against it? >click to read< 11:52
Wrangell woman recounts how she survived sinking that claimed her boyfriend and parrot
Last month, Kelsey Leak lost a lot. First she lost her pet parrot, Petrie, of seven years. Then she lost her boyfriend, Arne Dahl, when his fishing boat sank and they tried to swim to safety. She also spent a harrowing 24 hours wet and cold, waiting for rescue. Dahl was a fisherman, a power troller. His boat, the 39-foot Randi Jo, was like a second home to the couple. Dahl and Leak had been dating for about a year, but their love had bloomed quickly. “He came for dinner, and he didn’t leave for six months,” Leak said. “It was just a whirlwind.” It was a clear, sunny day near Point Baker on Nov. 27. Leak says there was calm wind and the waters were foam. She and Dahl took the Randi Jo to gather firewood. What happened next was sudden. >click to read< 10:20
Fishing deals expected to net £750 million-plus catch for UK fleet in 2023
An earlier agreement between the UK, European Union and Norway covered six key North Sea fish stocks, including cod, haddock and herring, and access to other waters. The outcome of those talks was expected to deliver additional quota worth £213m to the UK fishing industry. Separate discussions with fellow north-east Atlantic “coastal states” will deliver an extra £256m of quota, while a deal with Norway adds another £5m, according to the government. >click to read< 08:54
Mi’kmaq drop civil lawsuit, shift legal tactics in moderate livelihood fishing battle
The decision represents a shift in legal tactics, not an end in their battle with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. In a news release issued Monday, the assembly said it will put its resources into the defence of a Potlotek harvester fishing under a plan approved by the community. The lawsuit was seeking an injunction to prevent the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) from interfering with Potlotek’s self-regulated moderate livelihood lobster fishery. The release said the assembly and Mi’kmaw communities have limited resources and cannot afford to be involved in a civil action while also defending against fisheries prosecutions. >click to read< 07:52
Alaska crab fishery collapse seen as warning about Bering Sea transformation
Less than five years ago, prospects appeared bright for Bering Sea crab fishers. Stocks were abundant and healthy, federal biologists said, and prices were near all-time highs. Now two dominant crab harvests have been canceled for lack of fish. For the first time, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in October canceled the 2022-2023 harvest of Bering Sea snow crab, and it also announced the second consecutive year of closure for another important harvest, that of Bristol Bay red king crab. What has happened between then and now? A sustained marine heat wave that prevented ice formation in the Bering Sea for two winters, thus vastly altering ocean conditions and fish health. “We lost billions of snow crab in a matter of months,”,,, >click to read< 18:54
L’Ecume II: Unmanned craft carries out ‘extensive search’ below deck at wreck site
An unmanned craft has started work to access and search the last remaining areas of the trawler which sank after colliding with a Condor freight ship. The underwater robot has been surveying the wreck site following the collision between L’Ecume II and Commodore Goodwill which claimed the lives of three fishermen. Ports of Jersey says that areas of the trawler’s deck and accommodation structure have been removed and that the final stage of the search is now under way. >click to read< 16:06
