Category Archives: Featured
Application deadline extended for fish harvester benefits program – will have until Oct. 5th
Fishers financially impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic have two extra weeks to apply for the federal government’s Fish Harvester Benefit and Grant Program. The original Sept. 21 deadline is now extended to 3 p.m. on Oct. 5 for self employed harvesters to submit their applications online. In a press release Sept. 18, Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan encouraged anyone who thinks they may be eligible to visit the DFO website and learn how to apply. >click to read< 17:44
Fishermen accused of poaching in a Marine Reserve using gear stolen from fellow crabbers
Two North Coast fishermen face criminal charges after allegedly poaching crab in the protected Cape Falcon Marine Reserve using gear stolen from fellow crabbers. Scott Edward Giles, 39, most recently of Ilwaco, Washington, and deckhand Travis Richard Westerlund, 34, of Astoria, face multiple criminal charges, including theft, criminal mischief, unlawful take and fishing in a prohibited area, following an indictment in August. Given the amount of stolen gear found in his possession, Giles, the captain of the commercial fishing vessel The Baranof, faces felony theft charges. The pots were marked with a variety of paint colors, leading investigators to conclude they had been stolen from other fishermen. The pots were later tracked back to seven different commercial crabbers between Astoria and Newport.,, >click to read< 17:10
A longtime shrimper says he plans to ride out Hurricane Sally
A longtime shrimper says he plans to ride out Hurricane Sally on his boat, just like he has with storms for the past 40 years. “I’m joined now by Ronald Fran who is a longtime shrimper, and you’ve ridden out hurricanes for the last forty years right here on this shrimp boat. WDSU Reporter Jennifer Crockett has his story. >click to watch the video< 08:32
A Stunning Transformation: More Than a New Shell
Like many fishermen, Justin Yager has a strong interest in responsible harvesting. Similarly, he saw the common sense of rebuilding the Gulf shrimper BJ Thomas after the boat had a serious fire at Newport, Oregon. Built in 1976 at Marine Builders in Mobile, Alabama the boat found its way to the west coast where Justin’s wife, Sara’s grandfather, owned it for some time before selling it on to the next generation. Justin fished the boat for a few years with the crab and shrimp permits that the couple also purchased from Sara’s grandfather. The fire was the impetus for the rebuild that the owners had planned for the boat. ‘We cut off the bow, part of the stern, and the house. We took it right down to the engine room and the fish holds he explained. photos, >click to read< 12:05
Longtime shrimper Wayne Magwood identified as pedestrian killed in Mount Pleasant crash
A longtime shrimp boat captain who recently retired from his trade was killed when a dump truck overturned Friday morning in Mount Pleasant, authorities have confirmed. Edwin “Wayne” Magwood, 67, of Mount Pleasant, died at 10:13 a.m. at Coleman Boulevard and Mill Street of blunt force injuries suffered in the crash, according to the Charleston County Coroner’s Office. Magwood was a pedestrian, the Coroner’s Office said. >click to read< 08:14
Longtime shrimper and vessel retire from Shem Creek – Winds are blowing in a new direction for a historic shrimping vessel that has been a fixture on Shem Creek for more than 30 years. The Winds of Fortune, a staple of Shem Creek’s maritime history, has sold. Wayne Magwood, longtime shrimper and captain, originally purchased the vessel in 1987 and hauled it to the Lowcountry from Alabama. Three decades later, it’s now departing from its dock after being scooped up by a seafood distributor from Holden Beach, N.C. >click to read<
NOAA Fisheries Needs to Declare Fishery Disaster for Northeast Fisheries
NOAA Fisheries needs to declare a fishery disaster for the north Atlantic fisheries of the east coast due to complications caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Due to government shutdowns of the primary market for US seafood, the restaurants, the fishing industry has been suffering not from a shortage of fish, but from a shortage of markets to sell them. 70% of the sea food consumed in the United States is sold in restaurants, the Corona pandemic has caused complete shutdowns of indoor dining in many states or reduced capacity seating in others. This has resulted in no demand for fresh local US caught fish, a very perishable product, and the resultant low prices that haven’t been seen in 50 years. By Jim Lovgren, >click to read< 07:38
Coast Guard crew rescues fisherman from surf near South Beach State Park
A Coast Guardsman swam from shore to rescue a fisherman from the surf near South Beach State Park early Tuesday morning after his vessel ran aground and began taking on water. The fisherman was forced to abandon ship after the vessel began breaking apart in 10-foot surf. At approximately 11:40 p.m., Coast Guard Sector North Bend watchstanders received the initial mayday call from a fisherman over VHF-FM radio. The lone mariner aboard a 44-foot commercial fishing vessel, F/V Legend, Commercial Fisherman Matt Davney requested assistance, reporting he was on the south jetty at Newport. >click to read< 14:53
Coast Guardsman swims from shore to rescue mariner south of Newport – A Coast Guardsman swam from shore to rescue a fisherman from the surf near South Beach State Park early Tuesday morning after his vessel ran aground and began taking on water. The Coast Guard said the fisherman was forced to abandon ship after the vessel began breaking apart in 10-foot surf. 3 photos, >click to read< 10:36
Teenager helps land Utqiagvik’s first whale of fall season
“Jen, you wanna harpoon?” She hesitated, not knowing where to throw it. While captain Donovan maneuvered the boat closer, Gatten and Adams coached the teenager on where to shoot the darting gun. “Three feet behind the blowhole, straight down,” captain Donovan said. “She just put a money shot right on the whale, which rolled the whale right over,” captain Donovan said later that week. “It was pretty awesome to see.” The catch: a 
36-foot, 1-inch, young male bowhead that community members will subsist on over the next year. When the four boats docked by the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory runway in the evening with a whale in tow, more than 150 cars sat waiting on shore to help butcher the animal and take home a share of meat, Michael Donovan said. “ Whaling is equal opportunity, as far as Michael Donovan is concerned. “The ladies are just as tough as men,” >click to read< 11:13
Why Brexit will be fishing industry’s salvation
When I am out and about in Grimsby, the most commonly asked question I get is: “When are we going to get our fishing waters back, and are we going to get them back?” I say to my constituents: “Yes, absolutely.” Grimsby’s association with the fishing industry goes back centuries, but the modern industry started in the 1800s. By 1900, 10 per cent of all the fish eaten in the UK was landed in Grimsby. What fishing brought to Grimsby was wealth, investment into the docks and a direct train link to London. That was the power of the fishing industry to us. Unfortunately, that industry has been taken away from us, first because of the cod wars with Iceland, impact of the Common Fisheries Policy,,, By Lia Nici >click to read< 08:20
Opening a can of worms: Offshore fish farming in the Gulf of Mexico: Who benefits?
Velella Epsilon – the first fish farm in federal waters off the contiguous United States – would operate in the Gulf of Mexico, about 40 miles from Florida’s coast. Globe-shaped pens would hold fingerling almaco jack, a member of the amberjack genus, that would grow into 4-pound market fish within a year. The White House appears eager to open federal waters to aquaculture. With Executive Order 13921, President Donald Trump on May 7 ordered NOAA to winnow down regulations for both aquaculture and wild-caught fish.,, Ocean aquaculture is not without its environmental costs, such as escaped fish, parasites, and “fish sewage.” To James Bois, a commercial fisherman based here in Cortez, it’s unclear how a massive fish farm operation off the coast of Cortez will change his life. >click to read< 14:52
Hurricane Laura: Shrimpers rescue each other from sinking boats while riding it out
Phillip “Rooster” Dyson Jr., held onto an industrial icebox on the back deck of his 50-foot shrimping trawler and prayed for daylight. He thought of his four children and the rest of his family and realized he might not live to see them again. “It was that point when you know you messed up but it’s too late to turn back,” Dyson, 36, recalled. “It was a living nightmare.” But the shrimpers of Cameron did what they do each time a storm approaches: They motored their trawlers 30 miles inland, tied them to a pier at the Port of Lake Charles and hunkered down in their cabins to ride out the storm. Fifteen shrimping boats tied up to wait out Laura. Only five survived, the rest sinking to the bottom of Bayou Contraband,, >Video, photos, Click to read< 17:25
Peaceful Protest: Hundreds of fishermen protest outside Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jordan’s office
Several hundred fishermen protested Thursday in Bridgewater, N.S., outside the constituency office of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan, demanding her department stop out-of-season commercial lobster harvesting and sales commercial lobster harvesting and sales by First Nations in Nova Scotia. “We are tired of being ignored over and over again,” organizer Colin Sproul of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association told the crowd through a bullhorn from the back of a pickup truck. The protest is over what fishermen say is a blatant abuse of a First Nations communal lobster fishery underway in St. Marys Bay. >click to read< 17:06
Discontent arrives at federal fisheries minister’s doorstep – Roger LeBlanc, on Thursday sporting a Maritime Fisherman’s Union cap and a jacket bearing the name of Beausoleil the Third, his 50-foot lobster boat ,is used to rising early. He didn’t want to miss the big rally in front of the office of Bernadette Jordan,,, >click to read<
Mayday – Mayday – Mayday: Tuna boat throws curveballs to new owners
The last thing any fisherman ever wants to do is place a mayday call because their boat is sinking, but for Capt. Adam Hall and the F/V Tommy John, that’s exactly what happened late in the night on Saturday, July 25, about a 20-hour voyage off the south Washington coast. Hall and boat co-owner Greg Surgener of Southern California-based Surgener Fisheries sank big dollars into purchasing the Tommy John, moored at the time in San Diego. The duo wanted to find a boat to tuna and crab fish and felt the 50-footer was the right fit for their needs. Named for retired four-time Major League Baseball All-Star pitcher Tommy John, nicknamed “The Bionic Man,” the vessel was specifically built for tuna 40 years ago. >click to read< 08:48
Maine lobsterman to address Republican National Convention
Eighth-generation lobsterman Jason Joyce of Swan’s Island will address the Republican National Convention on Tuesday as President Donald Trump prioritizes Maine and its most iconic industry in an election year. Joyce, 50, is the only Mainer with a speaking slot at the convention, according to a list provided by the Trump campaign on Sunday. He will speak on the second day of the four-day convention,, Joyce said his address would be pre-recorded from Washington, D.C., but that he couldn’t speak longer with a reporter because of a tight travel schedule. He is expected to speak in favor of Trump’s trade and fisheries policies. >click to read< 16:26
A Letter to NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver about the resumption of Observer coverage
Mr. Oliver. Recently you sent out an announcement about the resumption of Observer coverage set to begin on August 14th in fisheries where coverage had been suspended due to the Corona virus outbreak for the last 5 months. Personally I find your reasons for the resumption of observer coverage to be not only reckless, but dangerous to the health and safety of the American fishermen who make their living from the sea.,, Yet you, in your infinite bureaucratic knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, think that at this time it is vitally important that observers be placed on fishing vessels where they can endanger the health of not only the crewmen but their families. Interestingly, you have not put your own employees at risk. You have cancelled trawl survey’s for the remainder of this year so as not to risk their exposure to this lethal disease. This despite the fact that the NOAA trawl survey vessels are state of the art, and their crew could actually be quarantined before a trip to assure their safety. I’m sure they would be happy to collect two weeks of pay for sitting around watching TV somewhere. >click to read< 15:05
August is Coast Guard Month in Newport
Newport City Council proclaimed August as Coast Guard Month in the city of Newport. Mayor Dean Sawyer read a proclamation honoring the United States Coast Guard at the regular meeting Monday evening, encouraging “all residents and visitors to celebrate and thank the U.S. Coast Guard and Station Yaquina Bay and its individual members for protecting our shores for 230 years.” Sawyer continued, “The United States Coast Guard plays a vital role in the city of Newport and the state of Oregon. Station Yaquina Bay personnel work diligently, keeping safe the commercial fishing fleet, recreational mariners and locals and visitors in their use of the ocean and beaches.” >click to read< 13:14
Boats are blessed on the bayou during the annual St. Bernard Blessing of the Fleet
Shrimp, crab and fishing boats adorned in flags lined up for the annual Blessing of the Fleet in Saint Bernard Parish. Each boat was blessed with holy water by Archbishop Gregory Aymond in front of Robin Seafood Co. The Charlito donates money to the church during the annual St. Bernard Blessing 
of the Fleet in St. Bernard, La., Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020. Decorated shrimp, crab and fishing boats lined up to be blessed by Archbishop Gregory Aymond. The Ellie Margaret shrimp boat travels down the bayou fore the annual St. Bernard Blessing of the Fleet in St. Bernard, La. More photo’s, >click here< 22:36
A Fundraiser: Memorial Expenses for Sig and Helen Decker
On July 28, Julie and Gig Decker learned that they lost both their children, Helen and Sig Decker in a car accident in Petersburg, Alaska. Helen was 19 and Sig was 21. Although both were born and raised in Wrangell, Helen and Sig were in Petersburg fishing side-by-side for the summer to help pay for college. This unimaginable loss comes during an already challenging time. The initial $10,000 in funds raised will go towards funeral costs and related expenses. We are looking to raise $50,000 to fund the rest of the brand new Wrangell Mariner’s Memorial where Helen and Sig will be the first names on the wall. Additional funds raised after that will be used to start a Memorial Scholarship Fund,,, >click to read, and, please donate if you can<21:17
Three generations of the Hamada family have fished British Columbia’s coast. Will the latest outlive the salmon they seek?
The Hamadas tell me this story on a November night in 2019 in their one-story home built by Satoshi, tucked away in the heart of Richmond, a city that borders Vancouver. They moved into the house five months after Dereck was born. Huddled around a kitchen table better suited for two people, Satoshi, Dereck, June, and I peer over fishing catch receipts, dated newspaper clippings, and black-and-white photographs scattered across the tabletop, illuminated by bright-white kitchen lights overhead. Our conversation was supposed to have happened at sea aboard the Three generations, the family boat built by Satoshi in 1967. Dereck and Satoshi had invited me to join them on a chum fishing trip to mark Satoshi’s 66 years of fishing on the BC coast. Instead, we have gathered indoors, to look back on 2019, the year that everything changed. >click to read< 10:34
Coronavirus: COVID-19 and mandated on-board fisheries observers during the pandemic resurgence
The NOAA/NMFS “Navy’s” at-sea surveys in the Northeast region were cancelled at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and will not be resumed for at least the remainder of this year. “Since March, we have been rigorously analyzing various options for conducting cruises this year and are taking a 
survey-by-survey, risk-based approach. After much deliberation, we determined that there was no way to move forward with these surveys while effectively minimizing risk and meeting core survey objectives,” according to officials at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in a statement issued July 10.,,, But mandatory on-board observers pose no COVID 19 threat to commercial captains or crew?,, the mandatory on-board observers are scheduled to be back aboard commercial fishing vessels come August. >click to read< By Nils Stolpe, http://fishnet-usa.com/ 21:08
There is Nothing Like a Lobsterboat Race
As a sports reporter, I’ve covered just about every big championship the sports world has to offer. But none come close to being as hardcore as the annual lobsterboat races in Jonesport. One weekend a year, fishermen and women, who usually use their boats to haul lobster traps, empty out their cabins, trick out their engines, and see how fast those babies can go. The reckless beauty of fishing vessels charging through the Atlantic takes your breath away. It quickens your pulse. How, you think, are these clunky boats going so insanely fast? By Charlotte Wilder >video, click to read< 09:36
Fishing Dragger Struck and Sunk by recreational boat in dense fog near Montauk Inlet
Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound received a report of a collision about a quarter-mile from the inlet at about 6:30 a.m. The commercial fishing vessel F/V Petrel, based out of Montauk, had been hit by the sailing yacht Chaos, a 40-foot powerboat, according to Petty Officer Anthony Pappaly, a Coast Guard public information officer. The crash occurred just north of the Bell buoy, where the commercial fishermen were getting ready to put out their net. The two people aboard the Petrel, the captain and his first mate, were taken aboard the Chaos as their boat began to sink into the harbor. Friends of the commercial fishermen said the other boat was going 30 knots, which is just under 35 miles per hour on the road. >click to read< 13:53
Jonathan Meyer a.k.a. JonnyFresh, has been in wholesale fish for 25 years. Now he’s bringing fresh catches to your doorstep.
Longtime veterans of the fish industry, including Marlboro resident Jonathan Meyer, saw their industry struggling to keep up. The businessman and entrepreneur, who has spent the last 25 years serving as a wholesaler for top distributors, suddenly found himself out of work. Yet, it was during the coronavirus pandemic that Meyer viewed an opportunity to reinvent himself and his business into a more intimate experience for customers. “At the beginning of Coronavirus , people were asking me for fish, ‘where can I get fish?’ You couldn’t get any groceries in April,” photos >click to read< 11:12
Lobstermen gather for foggy farewell to Andrew Gove
Dozens of lobster boats gathered off Greenhead on foggy Deer Island Thorofare Sunday morning to remember and pay tribute to “Uncle” Andrew Gove. A fisherman for 82 years, Gove retired from the sea last year at the age of 89 and died late last month at the age of 90. The fog was so thick Sunday morning that it was hard to tell exactly how many boats took part in the tribute, but one estimate was that as many as 50 were on hand. In addition to boats from Stonington, boats came from nearby harbors on the Blue Hill Peninsula and from as far away as Searsport, Vinalhaven and North Haven, home to many of Gove’s relatives. >click to read< 17:44
PHOTO GALLERY: Paying tribute to Andy Gove – >click for photo’s<
UPDATED: American fisherman detained entering British Virgin Islands – New Jersey delegation aware
An American longline fishing boat captain has been in jail for a month after he was detained in the British Virgin Islands on June 8 for traveling into BVI waters during coronavirus border closures. Now he is facing criminal charges and a monthslong wait in a sweltering island prison cell. Michael Foy, who lives in Puerto Rico and left the island May 29 on a fishing expedition, was initially detained for illegal entry into the British Virgin Islands, but at his June hearing he was also unexpectedly charged with illegal fishing. >click to read< 13:21
New Jersey Senators write Deputy Governor on fisherman’s arrest – “We are aware that our constituent, Michael Foy, has been detained in Tortola and have been in communication with the State Department and the [United States] Embassy in Barbados regarding the case,” according to the June 30 letter signed by Senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez and Congressman Andy Kim. >click to read< 10:09 7/11/20
Bob Guzzo Talks Quotas, Offshore Wind, Coronavirus, and Fishing out of Stonington, Connecticut
“We’re giving up traditional fishing grounds that we’ve had for hundreds of years, that have fed the country, that are now going to light a light bulb and it’s not going to be worthwhile,” Guzzo said of the proposed wind farms located in federal waters. The location of the wind farms also destroys longtime fisheries, said Guzzo. “They’re taking away places that we’ve fished for this country over hundreds of years and we’re losing that ground,” he said.,, Quotas and Coronavirus, “I got tired of throwing fish overboard, I could never stand it. I started too long ago and never had to do this. The way they make you fish today is a crime,” >click to read< 08:01
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 6, 2020
The run is late this year, but it’s ramping way up across the bay. The total run passed 11 million fish yesterday, with some of the biggest harvests we’ve seen yet this season in 3 of the bay’s districts. Total run in the bay jumped by over 3 million fish yesterday, to almost 11.5 million. Total catch bay-wide is 8.4 million, total escapement is 2.5 million, and there are an estimated 515,000 fish in-river in the bay’s combined rivers. Fish per delivery from the drift boats also jumped by an average of 500 fish per delivery bay-wide. All the districts that fished yesterday delivered more than 1,100 fish per delivery yesterday, and in Ugashik… that number was almost 2,000 fish per delivery. audio, report, >click to read< 14:39
Could this, like spot prawns, be our next local seafood success? The hake catch is six times the size for wild salmon.
B.C.’s hake, also known as Pacific whiting or Merluccius productus, is a transboundary species that crosses Canadian and American waters. Both countries share management of the short-lived, bountiful species under a joint fishery treaty. “Their stock is healthy,” said Bruce Turris, executive manager of the Canadian Groundfish Research and Conservation Society. Turris, who represents the hake fishery on the joint management treaty and has worked with hake for more than 35 years, notes that Canada only harvested around 60 per cent of its total allowable catch in 2019. “We’re still not fully utilizing the resource,” he says. But “it’s not a resource that’s easily accessible,” said Turris, citing a steep investment requirement into the fishery. >click to read< 08:43
Two die after fishing vessel sinks near Florence
A well-known Florence couple has died when the fishing vessel they were on sank in the Siuslaw River bar early Monday morning., The two who died were reported to be Kyle and Amber Novelli of Florence. In addition to commercial crabbing, their business was Novelli’s Crab and Seafood in Florence. “With a heavy heart I am saddened to to inform the many award-winning crab chowder followers of the passing of Kyle and Amber Novelli,” Novelli’s Crab and Seafood reported on its Facebook page. “Sharing their love of crabbing was always their dream. Their personalities will forever leave a lasting impression on anyone who met them. >click to read< 19:26
Lucky 13, and the Latest Fishfinding Tech
Delivered from its Danish builder to owners in Orkney, Aalskere is the third trawler for Iain Harcus with the same name and number – keeping to the Orkney preference for a registration number that adds up to 13., Iain Harcus has fished for 20 years with the 33.90 metre Aalskere that was acquired in 2000, built as Vandal, photo’s, >click to read< Aalskere’s wheelhouse has an uncluttered layout a single E Vejvad Hansen skipper’s chair at the centre 
of Aalskere’s wheelhouse, facing a bank of 55-inch 4K monitors, supplemented by an overhead row of seven Neovo X24 monitors, plus six 19-inch screens at the aft wheelhouse trawl console. There are ten monitors altogether integrated into the Woodsons Quad view system, controlled using a trackball with a cursor that moves seamlessly from one screen to the next. Photo’s, >click to read< 15:46
