Author Archives: borehead - Moderator
So, let’s talk about why the assessment surveys by NOAA research vessel data is corrupt.
So, let’s talk about why the assessment surveys by NOAA research vessel data is corrupt. The research vessel only makes computer generated tows randomly prints the tow log for the assessments to take place. The research vessel goes to those designated sights and makes 20-minute tows then on to the next tow. The fall survey lasted 66 days from start to finish. They were supposed to make 377 tows at 20 minutes a piece the vessel started in Virginia and tow logs were to be made all the way to the Gulf of Maine. Only 308 tows were made in this 66-day assessment. 308 tows were accomplished of the 377 supposed to be towed so only 82% of the survey was completed. If you look at the tow areas, only 30 tows were made in the Gulf of Maine. >click to read<, By Jerry Leeman
Walton: Maine lobsters — a coast to coast dispute
Some years back I wrote about my distaste for seafood. If it swims in our oceans or lakes, I don’t eat it. To my surprise, many readers acknowledged they feel the same. So perhaps they are as shocked as I am that I rise to the defense of the Maine lobster industry, which finds itself on a prominent and respected environmental “watch” list, threatening thousands of jobs up and down the Maine coast. Why should a guy who prefers a good burger care? >click to read< 08:19
Texas: Shrimping grinds to a halt as import oversupplies add to ongoing woes
The Gulf shrimping industry, including the Brownsville-Port Isabel fleet, shrinking steadily over the last couple of decades, is now in a state of near total collapse thanks to new, unprecedented challenges in addition to the usual. So says Andrea Hance, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association, who said she and her husband have put their two shrimp boats up for sale because it’s become impossible to make money fishing for domestic shrimp anymore. About 95% of the local fleet is tied up, most fleet owners are cutting their crews loose, and just about everybody Hance knows is trying to sell their boats and shrimping licenses, she said. >click to read< 19:09
Hull’s Quiet Disaster: The Christmas Day Tragedy of St. Finbarr
St Finbarr’s final trip was plagued by bad luck from the start. She took 14 days battling atrocious weather to get to Newfoundland’s Grand Banks, a trip usually done in half that time. Electrical faults reported from previous trips caused three delays before she even set sail from Hull’s St Andrew’s Dock on 16 November 1966. Ironically, it was St Andrew’s Day (the patron saint of fishermen), 30 November, when she reached the Newfoundland fishing grounds on her thirteenth and final trip. She had endured 38 days of foul weather, from Yorkshire’s Spurn Point to the storm-lashed grounds of the Grand Banks. Skipper Tommy Sawyer, a hard taskmaster, pushed his ship and her crew to the limit, 8 Photos, >click to read< 14:22
New Orleans fishing industry suffers sourcing issues
Fishing runs through Merlin Schaeffer’s blood. He has been fishing in Louisiana waters for decades, and before him, so were his father and his grandfather. While primarily a fisherman in Lake Pontchartrain, Schaeffer is also the owner of Schaeffer’s Seafood. Located in Bucktown, a small community that thrives on the fishing industry, Schaeffer’s is a shop that sells anything from crabs to shrimp to catfish. Because fishing is a touch-and-go job, fishermen often lack routine and certainty when they head out to work, he said. “You gotta go with the flow, around the weather, the bite, the tide, it goes off a lot, the sails,” Schaeffer said. “Everything varies.” This variance includes prices as well. >click to read< 11:30
Commercial Fisherman Thomas “Tommy Guns” Blevin, 60, of Wildwood, NJ, has passed away
Thomas “Tommy Guns” Blevin, 60, of Wildwood, NJ, passed away on November 9, 2022 after a brief illness. Tommy is a beloved grandson, son, nephew, brother, uncle, cousin, father, and true friend. He was a proud commercial fisherman for over 4 decades, as close to a true modern day pirate as one would ever meet these days. When he wasn’t on the sea, he was an avid outdoors man and skilled carpenter. He never passed an opportunity to share memories of days gone by scalloping, crabbing, etc. with his mates. >click to read< 10:53
Outgoing FFAW president denies conflict of interest over wife’s work with Nalcor
Keith Sullivan says his departure from the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union has nothing to do with allegations his wife was in a conflict of interest over a controversial agreement with scallop harvesters 10 years ago. Ryan Cleary, the most vocal critic of Sullivan throughout his tenure as FFAW-Unifor boss, posted an article on his blog Thursday evening that raised the allegations publicly for the first time. Cleary obtained documents through access-to-information requests that show Roseann Williams who is married to Sullivan, was part of a four-person negotiating team that worked opposite the FFAW in 2012 and 2013, while Sullivan was an assistant to the union’s president. The two sides negotiated a deal to compensate fish harvesters on the Northern Peninsula over the loss of valuable scallop fishing grounds to a subsea power cable laid by Nalcor Energy. >click to read< 10:03
A Sitka fish processor lost everything in 2020. Now it’s planning a comeback.
The wreck of its fish processing barge in Bristol Bay two years ago could have been the end of the newly formed Northline Seafoods, but the Sitka-based operation is planning a comeback in a big way. On Wednesday Northline announced it had received a $40 million federal food supply chain loan, to not only to rebuild its floating processor but also to reinvent the region’s processing industry. The pictures from the wreck of Northline’s SM-3 
processing barge are not pretty. The 150-foot vessel began service in Southeast Alaska as a platform for helicopter logging, with an upper deck originally designed for aircraft. That superstructure collapsed when the SM-3’s anchor buoy parted in a September gale in 2020, and 80-mph winds blew it ashore in Bristol Bay not far from Ekuk. Animated video, >click to read< 09:17
Canada, U.S., Mexico to vote on investigation into U.S. efforts to protect right whales
A complaint, filed under the new North American free trade agreement, will force Canada, the U.S., and Mexico to pass judgment on efforts by the United States to protect North Atlantic right whales. “We recommended an independent investigation. We are looking forward to hearing a response and the position from the governments,” Paolo Solano, legal director for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, said in Halifax this week. The commission is mandated under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) to investigate claims a country is failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws. Last year, an American environmental group, Oceana, filed a complaint against the United States about protections for the North Atlantic right whale. >click to read< 07:51
Fishermen spend night stranded after wild weather claims their vessel
FFAW executive board endorses Greg Pretty as union’s next leader
On the same day Keith Sullivan unexpectedly announced his departure as president of Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest private sector union, the organization’s top ranks endorsed another longtime labour advocate, Greg Pretty, as his successor. At FFAW-Unifor headquarters in St. Johns on Thursday morning, Sullivan announced he was stepping down as president after eight years on the job and just one year into his latest three-year term. Despite Pretty’s strong support from the executive board, Doyle said the union will follow the rules of the constitution and hold a vote if other nominations come forward. The nomination period runs Dec. 15-29. >click to read< 15:01
One-third of Ireland’s offshore fishing fleet apply for decommissioning scheme
Just over 60 trawlers from the country’s 180-strong offshore fishing fleet have all applied to the Government’s decommissioning scheme. Some 19 of the 64 applicants are from Castletownbere,,, If all of those who apply for decommissioning accept it, it will be a blow for Castletownbere, not just for the fishing industry, but also for local businesses that rely on boats for a sizeable income. Alan Carleton, who applied to decommission his family’s trawler Syracuse, says he can no longer afford to be a fisherman. “My income has gone down over the past few years, but my costs have shot up,” he said. >click to read< 12:53
Wind Projects Off New England Put Endangered Right Whales at Risk, Warns NOAA Scientist
Planned wind projects off the New England coast threaten to harm the region’s dwindling population of endangered right whales, according to a US government marine scientist. The warning from a top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, obtained by Bloomberg under a Freedom of Information Act request, underscores the potential legal and environmental perils of offshore wind development along the coast. President Joe Biden has a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind within the decade. Both initial construction of wind projects and decades of expected operation threaten to imperil right whales in southern New England waters, Sean Hayes, chief of the protected species branch at NOAA’s National Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said in a May 13 letter to Interior Department officials. >click to read< 11:26
Crews hope to return pile of shrimp boats on Fort Myers Beach to water within 70 days
“Boats that are all tangled up and the ones that we started on are the ones that are along the edges of the water,” Vice President of Beyel Brothers, Steven Beyel said. So far, of the roughly 45 boats on land, three have returned to the water. And they are mostly in good shape. “We were able to get ours back in the water yesterday afternoon,” James Drigger said. Drigger’s boat is the ‘Miz Shirley’. “Words can’t even explain how thankful we are,” he said.Video, >click to read< 09:34
The most abhorrent occupation in the world?
Magnus Johnson, a marine scientist at the University of Hull, published this observation on his blog almost a decade ago, as many readers with good memories may recall, but it remains just as pertinent today. It is reprinted here with a new introduction, in which he reflects on how little has changed in the intervening decade. “Almost 10 years ago, I published this article on my blog. (We posted it on May 18, 2013) It was at a time when it felt like fishing was being vilified through a co-ordinated effort by the NGO industry. In recent times I’ve thought ‘here we go again’ as I read complete untruths about North Sea cod being fished to extinction, the theft of the commons by the industrialization of the sea as wind farms march across it, and clamour for generic exclusion of fishers from traditional grounds in Scottish waters by NGOs. >click to read< 08:06
Biden’s lavish lobster dinner doesn’t change his hostility to seafood industry
Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, commended Golden for calling out Biden on the issue and said that his organization has had trouble meeting with the current administration. Vanasse said that it’s not just lobster, but other seafood industries like tuna and swordfish, are having issues meeting with the White House. “I applaud the congressman for calling out the administration’s hypocrisy when it comes to our domestic fisheries and their policies,” “This is not the first time that something like this has happened, but it is good to see, and particularly a Democrat pointing it out because this administration has frankly not been friendly or helpful to our domestic fishing industry,” >click to read< 20:02
Low prices, high costs face southwest Nova Scotia lobster fishermen
As captains and crews wait for an opening in the weather to drop their gear off southwest Nova Scotia, they’ve also got other big worries: low prices for their catch and historically high costs. The price at the wharf is expected to be somewhere around $6 to $6.25 a pound, down nearly half from $11.25 on opening day for Lobster Fishing Area 34 last season. The neighbouring LFA 33, which runs from about Halifax to Cape Sable Island, opened earlier this week but weather has meant most captains there have only had the opportunity to haul their traps once. >click to read< 16:08
Fisherman Seriously Injured as Boat Runs Aground in Santa Barbara
A fisherman who suffered a serious head laceration was taken to the hospital Wednesday evening after his lobster fishing boat ran aground below the Mesa in Santa Barbara, according to the Santa Barbara City Fire Department. Only one person was aboard the 25- to 30-foot Martha Jane, which ended up on the shoreline below Mesa Lane. A witness, who asked not to be identified, said he found the boat on the sand being battered by the surf, with the prop still running. >click to read< —>updated story< 14:56
A Journey with French Fishermen
Usually, a crew consists of three to four people. The captain, who is frequently the owner of the fishing boat, is the oldest and most experienced. There are often also a few very young crew members. Many Senegalese fishermen find work on the boats. . In particular, I spent a lot of time with the crew of the fishing boat le Petit Maylise. I met Benoit first. It was a Friday morning, a day dedicated to repairing the boat and nets after days at sea. I saw a solitary silhouette from afar, bent over the nets, bathed in the soft light of rare sunny days in Normandy. The scene had something extremely spiritual about it. I introduced myself to Benoit and immediately got a great feeling from him. Then I met the other crew members: the captain, Jean Philippe; Aurielen; and young Mathis and Dylan. Photos, >click to read< 13:46
North Coast Fisherman Fear for the Future of Commercial Fisheries as Offshore Wind Efforts Advance
As plans to bring offshore wind to the North Coast move steadily ahead, commercial fishermen are urging federal and state regulatory agencies to pump the brakes. “I want to make one thing clear: Fishermen are not opposing [renewable] projects up here, we’re opposing the loss of thousands of miles of fishing grounds,” If the offshore wind development moves forward as planned, many local fishermen, particularly the trawl and ground fishing fleets, would lose access to grounds they’ve fished for decades. >click to read< 11:29
Keith Sullivan Steps Down as FFAW-Unifor President
ST. JOHN’S, NL – FFAW-Unifor President Keith Sullivan announced today he is stepping down as President of the Union. Sullivan has served as President since 2014 and has no immediate employment plans. Since the vacancy is occurring between an election period, an election will be held among the FFAW’s Joint Council to elect a new President. >click to read the rest< 10:28
Anger as Faroe Islands renew fishery agreement with Russia
The Faroese granted Moscow the right to catch tens of thousands of tons of blue whiting in a special area shared with Britain despite the war in Ukraine. Ian Gatt, chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association, said: “It is hugely disappointing, if not surprising, that Faroe has concluded a fisheries agreement for 2023 with Russia. The fishing industry spent months calling on the Government to pressure the island country – 200 miles north of Scotland – to maximise damage to Vladimir Putin’s war machine by banning his trawlers. >click to read< 09:12
Dem lawmaker criticizes Biden for ritzy White House State Dinner serving ‘200 Maine lobsters’
A Democratic lawmaker is pushing back on President Biden’s pompous White House celebration, where 200 live lobsters will be served for guests Thursday during a State Dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. The night before the dinner, where guests are expected to enjoy lobster and caviar, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, took to Twitter to urge Biden to meet with the lobstermen his administration is “currently regulating out of business.” >click to read< 07:53
Northline Seafoods Bringing New Innovations to Fishing Industry
Greater Commercial Lending (GCL), which provides loans to businesses and organizations in under-served and rural communities, has completed $40 million in financing for an innovative salmon processing barge in Bristol Bay, Alaska, that will flash-freeze whole salmon right at the fishing grounds. The loan is guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program. Northline Seafoods’ proprietary system for just-caught whole salmon will eliminate multiple days of transport, fuel usage, excess waste and lost product quality, as compared to traditional processing. Bristol Bay is home to the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world. With the “Hannah,” Northline Seafoods’ processing barge, local fishing vessels will deliver their salmon harvest directly to the processing facility. >click to read< 20:11
Are we really going to let them kill our ocean and our fishing way of life?
Generations of fishermen are no longer fishing because of the restrictions and unfair quota from faulty science. Like I said in earlier posts, we went from 400 active boats down to 17 barely active boats. Meanwhile conservation groups will tell you that we are wiping the ocean out from overfishing. That is so wrong on so many levels, it isn’t even funny. Hard to believe New England was considered to be sustainable for haddock and lobsters. Then fishing efforts went down and now we are no longer sustainable. The only thing that’s changed is windmills are on their way to the Gulf of Maine and the management at NOAA and NMFS are allowing it to happen. Why would they not talk to the people who have committed their lives to the job of harvesting our ocean?! Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I have a few hypotheses. By Jerry Leeman. >click to read< 16:38
Atlantic ChiCan investment in Nova Scotia lobster business tops $45M
Clark’s Harbour Seafood is set to open a new $15-million lobster processing facility this month as the China-focused exporter brings its investment on Cape Sable Island in southwest Nova Scotia to more than $45 million. The new plant, located in Clark’s Harbour, will be capable of processing up to four million pounds of cooked lobster a year allowing the company to make money from lobster not hardy enough for lengthy live shipments, says chief operating officer John Crandle Nickerson. The He family, which operates seafood processing companies in China, owns the business. Owner Jim He is a Canadian citizen who splits his time between Vancouver and Nova Scotia. >click to read< 13:54
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 72′ Steel Offshore Lobster/Crabber, 460HP Cat, Price Reduced
To review specifications, information, and 51 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:20
Maine lobsterman blasts Whole Foods over lobster ban
A Maine fisherman slammed Whole Foods’ decision to stop selling Maine lobsters in its stores on Monday, calling on the grocery chain executives to do their “homework” before writing off the livelihoods of hundreds of lobstermen. In an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime” Monday, Maine lobsterman Jason Lorde denounced the decision, arguing that no right whale has died due to Maine lobster gear and that the fishing community in the state has long complied with laws and regulations to protect right whales. “I think Whole Foods maybe should have done a little more homework,” Lorde said. “We have been in business for over 150 years, and we have done our due diligence. We were conservationists before conservationists was cool. I’m sorry they felt they had to jump on the bandwagon with all the rest of the West Coasters.” Video, >click to read< 10:22
Is Sausage the Missing Link in the Great Bait Debate?
Imagine you’ve got a lobster in front of you, bright red and softly steaming. There’s a fish in that picture, too, though you can’t see it—the fish that was tucked into a trap to lure in the lobster that could end up on your dinner plate. There’s no fish visible in the thick sausage Wally MacPhee lifts off the top of a half pallet of cardboard boxes either, even if it smells of the sea and has a piscine give to it when squeezed. But he’s hoping lobsters won’t know that—for the fishers’ sake, and for the sake of the small silvery baitfish this partially frozen cylinder is meant to replace. >click to read< 09:14
Fears capsized trawler is spilling pollutants into Burnett River
A sunken trawler that has leaked pollutants in Bundaberg’s main river could pose a danger to people’s safety and the environment, a commercial fisherman and environmentalist says. The capsized boat was first noticed in the Burnett River last week and the boat owner has been given until December 9 to move it. Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) said it had deployed a floating boom around the trawler to prevent pollutants entering the waterway. It said it was inspecting the vessel twice a day and adjusting the boom to ensure it was effective. >click to read< 08:40
