Category Archives: International
Death by a Thousand Cuts – ‘We Have Fish, That’s Our Currency’
Just before midnight, David O’Neill navigated his trawler into the harbor in Union Hall, a small port in southwestern Ireland, the wake from the vessel sending tiny waves slapping against the pier. The crew swiftly unloaded their catch, using a crane to lift ice-packed crates of haddock and hake from the hold of the Aquila under bright spotlights. Less than an hour later, the Aquila would depart for its final trip. Two days later, the crew stripped the vessel’s contents — chains, buoys, ropes, steel cables, and hooks — and ejected them onto the pier, on their way to a shipyard to be scrapped. “This is coming with me,” Mr. O’Neill said as he unscrewed the Aquila’s wooden steering wheel. “It reminds you of all you’ve been through on this boat.” Photos, >click to read< 10:20
‘A’ is for Algrie, end of a fishing era.
A piece of fishing history left through the gaps this week on her way to be scrapped in Ghent, Belgium – the Algrie was the very first trawler purchased by the Stevenson family fishing firm to enter the harbour in 1976 and start was to become the the largest privately owned beam trawl fishing fleet in Europe. In 1982, the 70ft Algrie found her beam trawls attached to the nuclear attack sub HMS Spartan in the waters off Land’s End in 1982 and towed her for quite some time before the sub surfaced. Legend has it that, at first, the Navy via the coastguard, denied there was a submarine in the area! Video, Lots of photos, >click to read< 12:48
A strong seal products industry is good for Canada: Senator Manning
Seal fur and leather are transformed into a variety of clothing items, accessories and home furnishings. Seal fats and oils, high in Omega-3 fatty acids, are used in health supplements. Seal meat is sold in various cuts for human and animal consumption. Encouragingly, new and emerging markets for seal products are being tested, including the use of seal bait in fishing. However, vocal anti-sealing campaigns and Europe’s ill-founded 2009 ban on the importation and sale of seal products have hampered the industry’s growth. Less demand for those products drove down their value. And as sealing became less profitable, participation in Canada’s annual seal harvest decreased. In the meantime, the seal population in the Atlantic has been growing and growing. Canada is now trying to grasp what effect more seals in the sea is having on fisheries, fish stocks and the ocean ecosystem at large. >click to read< 11:30
Blue Float Energy’s offshore wind farm opposed by Port Macdonnell community due to fishing, tourism concerns
A small coastal community in regional South Australia is ramping up its opposition to a proposed offshore wind farm off the state’s south-east coast. Renewable energy company Blue Float Energy has lodged plans for a 77-turbine wind farm off the coast of Port Macdonnell which would generate 1.1 gigawatts of clean energy. The proposal has already met resistance from Port Macdonnell residents where the local economy relies on commercial fishing and seaside tourism. Local fishers say the 
proposed area for the wind turbines, 8-20 kilometres offshore, is where many catch their lobster, with fears any exclusion zone placed around the turbines would make areas inaccessible. They are also concerned about any environmental impacts on lobster, despite no studies yet taking place. >click to read< 10:12
New South Wales: Stop the prawn farming, save the commercial fishermen
I’m Elih Brooks. 5th generation baker fisherman in Yamba. I currently work on ocean trawlers catching king prawns on the FV Little River. I’m starting this petition to help our river fishermen as they haven’t been able to get to work this season or for at least 2 years at this rate, mainly due to prawn farming. Some of these fishermen are family friends and it hurts me to see how much they’re struggling and everyone else is literally in the same boat. These people are like the rest of us, they have mortgages, families to provide for and so much more it’s disgusting to see that our government isn’t doing nothing about it and I want to change that with these signatures so please help our FISHERMEN !!! >click to sign the petition< 10:46
UK fishing industry gets green light to hire more overseas workers
Ministers have quietly agreed to allow more overseas workers to join the UK fishing industry, as the sector struggles with labour shortages and post-Brexit export regulations. Share fishermen, trawler skippers and deckhands on large fishing vessels are to be added to the government’s shortage occupation list, a scheme which allows UK employers to pay overseas workers about 80 per cent of the usual wage in certain industries. The opening of the UK’s doors to more overseas fishermen is a tacit recognition that Brexit has not generated the boom in the sector that had been promised by Boris Johnson and other Leave campaigners at the time of the 2016 referendum. >click to read < 07:52
Fishing group’s list of over 100 reports of incidents and concerns since 2021 marine die-offs
Since October 2021, fishermen have been battling for the region’s ecosystem after swathes of dead crabs, lobsters, and shellfish washed up on beaches. Environmentalists and fishermen fought for answers – with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs eventually launching a probe.While the initial Defra report said an algal bloom was the most likely cause, further investigations found that a “novel pathogen” was most likely to blame. Independent marine and university experts as well as the fishermen believed dredging on the Tees unearthed historical toxins leading to the mass die off – but this has also been ruled out by the authorities. Incident reports listed by the NEFC, and what a sad list it is, >click to read< 21:34
Coast Guard promises aid to families of 5 Pinoys on capsized Chinese fishing vessel
The Philippine Coast Guard on Wednesday expressed condolences and promised assistance to the families left behind by Filipino sailors who died after a fishing vessel capsized in the Indian Ocean last week. There were 39 sailors aboard fishing vessel Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028—five Filipinos, 17 Chinese and 17 Indonesians. No one survived the incident, according to an initial probe done by China’s transport ministry. Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028 capsized at around 3 a.m., Manila time, in Australia’s search-and-rescue region, around 5,000 kilometers, or 2,700 nautical miles, west of Perth, on Tuesday last week.>click to read< 09:46
SNP must dump the Greens and ditch HPMAs
In England, marine conservationists have persuaded the Westminster Government to designate around 0.53% of coastal waters as HPMAs in a series of pilot projects. But in Scotland, the area is more than 20 times greater, threatening livelihoods and entire fishing communities. Kate Forbes, the former SNP contender for the job of First Minister, says that “if the proposals go ahead as planned, the rarest species in our coastal areas and islands will soon be people.” Scotland’s fishing communities are not alone in their opposition to new marine conservation measures. In Europe, fishers from many countries are staging a series of protests against European Commission proposals aimed at “protecting and restoring marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries”. >click to read< 08:40
Feds play shell game with wind / whale impacts
NOAA is taking public comments on a massive proposal to harass large numbers of whales and other marine mammals by building a huge offshore wind complex. There is supposed to be an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed harassment, but it is not there with the proposal. We are told it is elsewhere but after searching we find that it simply does not exist. Like a shell game where the pea has been palmed, there is nothing to be found. First the bureaucratic background. The wind project is Dominion’s 2,600 MW offshore Virginia facility, which if built would be the world’s biggest. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing to issue a five year harassment authorization for the construction of this monster. >click to read< 07:36
SNP MP urges locals to oppose marine protection plans
The proposals to restrict fishing and other human activities in some coastal areas are designed to protect wildlife and the environment. But fishing industry representatives, along with people in many communities in the Highlands and Islands, have raised concerns – as have several of the SNP’s own MSPs. Mr. O’Hara, an outspoken critic of his party’s plan to introduce HPMAs on the west coast, has urged his constituents to make their opinions known to the Scottish government by contacting his office directly to have their views collated and shared with Holyrood ministers. >click to read< 08:30
Farmers and Fishermen: In the Sweat of Their Brow
I tried to put my finger on the pulse of the world in order to understand what ties these farmers to their land and these fishermen to the sea. I went wherever life erupts: to a pasture where a farmer slowly prods his cattle along, into the shade of a stable… 3PM. I embark for the first time on board of the trawler Alcyon 2. Cézembre and Samy are mending the fish nets, while Thierry begins to maneuver. The anchor is raised. The lights of the port fade away little by little. In the cabin, Samy is brewing 
coffee. The down comforters are laid out for the night. 3AM. The sound of metal clanking under the chains. Samy and Cézembre take a few seconds to slip on their fishing gear before heading back to the stern. Back on land, at the La Vallée café in Quintin. The oldest of the farmers is leaning against the counter, a scarf pulled over his head. He is a regular. This is the local watering hole. The morning light timidly pierces the mist. Photos, >click to read< 17:54
Saving The Whales. The Fight Against Offshore Wind Farms.
As nine European countries sign a declaration to turn the North Sea into a huge industrial wind farm zone, they have effectively committed to wiping out wildlife on a monstrous scale; a mass, indiscriminate, destruction of life forms that have survived for millennia. A shocking opinion? Yes, but also a real possibility – and one thing is very certain, this is nothing to do with ‘green’ energy, ‘net zero’ or climate change. This is everything to do with greed and folly, a lethal combination. Whale Deaths And Wind Farms – An Obvious Connection >click to read< 08:45
HMPAs: Ross Greer put in his place by furious fishermen over ‘contemptuous’ marine ban tweet
Ross Greer made a “contemptuous comment” about the impact of fishing bans on coastal areas amid the ongoing backlash against the proposed Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). “The fisherman in the North Sea of the 1830s could catch one ton of halibut a day. Now the annual halibut take of the North Sea is two tons.” Fifth generation fisherman Kenneth MacNab said: “You know absolutely nothing about fishing or stocks but your welcome to come out anytime you wish just to let you see what actual work is and what fishermen have to do to support their communities to put it into perspective HPMAs will be 10 times worse than Brexit ever was.” >click to read< 07:49
South Shields lifeboat, the Bedford, restored by maritime trust
Constructed in 1886, The Bedford was the last lifeboat to be built by the Tyne Lifeboat Institution – now the Tyne Lifeboat Society. She was launched on 55 occasions between 1887 and 1937 and is of great historical significance to the maritime heritage of South Shields. The Bedford was built in 1886 by Lancelot Lambert at the Lawe Building Yard. It was named by a Miss Bedford, who bequeathed £1,000 – about £468,900 in today’s money- to the Lifeboat Society Trustees for a lifeboat to be named in memory of her brother, Benjamin, who was an engineer with the Tyne Improvement Commission. Photos, >click to read< 17:45
Grill your lobster on the BBQ and your life will never be the same again!
Lobster season has finally arrived! Grilling is a very good alternative for cooking lobster, and it’s easier than you think to do. Whether live or precooked, whole or shelled, there are many recipes to make with grilled lobster. Simply dipped in flavored butter, stuffed in homemade pasta or rolled, lobster stands out with its tender flesh and unique taste. Take advantage of the short season to light the grill and cook magnificent Quebec lobsters with ease. This recipe only takes a few minutes to make, but the flavors will surprise you. Enjoy your BBQ! >click to read< 13:18
Lobstergate: The unintended consequences of Britain’s Freeports
In the distance is Bran Sands, a jut of land perched at the face of the estuary where the river meets the North Sea, and a dredger is passing by, moving tonnes of sediment from the River Tees to be disposed of some miles out. Fishermen Paul Widdowfield and Stan Rennie tell me this sight has become a daily occurrence. To them, it is a salty and unwelcome one. Neither Widdowfield or Rennie have gone out on their day boats for almost 18 months now. Both had fished out of Hartlepool for 40 years or more, catching brown and velvet crabs and highly prized lobsters. Today, in an area synonymous with fine shellfish, there is little or nothing left to land. The Teesside Freeport is, according to the government, the UK’s largest, “driving growth in renewables, advanced manufacturing and the chemicals and process sectors.” >click to read< 07:53
Why A Deadliest Catch Deckhand Is Suing Sig Hansen’s Company
A deckhand working on the fishing vessel Northwestern, which frequently appears on the Discovery hit “Deadliest Catch,” has filed a personal injury lawsuit against the ship’s owners. Alaska Public Media reports that deckhand Nick Mavar Jr. filed a civil suit against Hansen Enterprises, Inc. in December 2022 in Washington State’s King County Superior Court. In the brief, as quoted by Alaska Public Media, Mavar Jr. explains that during a December 2020 voyage with the show’s crew aboard the boat, Mavar Jr. began to experience worsening abdominal pain while working. He claims that he was not given adequate medical treatment in time, resulting in his appendix bursting before he was airlifted to a local hospital for treatment. It was later discovered that there was a cancerous tumor within the ruptured organ. Hansen Enterprise’s legal issues don’t end there. In the wake of Nick Mavar Jr.’s suit, Hansen Enterprises Inc. filed a civil lawsuit against Original Productions Inc and Trifecta Solutions LLC >click to read< 19:40
Minister must stop and rethink on HPMAs, says fisheries leader
In remarks at the opening of the Scottish Skipper Expo at the P&J Live in Aberdeen, the sector’s biggest annual showcase, Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said ministers had failed to make the case for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). She told Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Mairi Gougeon, who attended the event: “I’m sorry to say that our recent experience in engaging with the government on HPMAs has been far from meaningful. We all need to work to protect nature and we all need to act to help tackle climate change. But this is not the way to do it. I absolutely know I am not alone in calling for the government to stop and rethink these proposals, which are causing great concern and anxiety all around Scotland’s coast. >click to read< 11:16
New use for A.I.: correctly estimating fish stocks
For the first time, a newly published artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm is allowing researchers to quickly and accurately estimate coastal fish stocks without ever entering the water. This breakthrough could save millions of dollars in annual research and monitoring costs while bringing data access to least-developed countries about the sustainability of their fish stocks. Understanding “fish stocks” – the amount of living fish found in an area’s waters – is critical to understanding the health of our oceans. This is especially true in coastal areas where 90 percent of people working in the fisheries industry live and work. In the wealthiest countries, millions of dollars are spent each year on “stock assessments” – expensive and labor-intensive efforts to get people and boats out into the water to count fish and calculate stocks. >click to read< 09:10
New London: Does Orsted/Eversource charter of NL fishing boats violate city lease?
Many fishermen resent the interference in the waters they regularly use and suggest still-unknown harm will be done to undersea environments and marine life. But I didn’t realize until recently that wind partners Orsted and Eversource actually have a fishing fleet strategy, chartering some fishing boats to “scout” for their wind turbine work in offshore fishing waters. One fisherman I met recently, Rob Morsch, claims the big utilities are driving a wedge between fishermen by “buying off” some of them with thousands of dollars in daily charter fees. Morsch raises the interesting point that the mooring of the boats being used for offshore wind, he calls them “windmill boats”, is a violation of the city’s intent, with its low-cost rent, to have a fishing fleet based there. >click to read< 08:10
Armón Delivers Ultra – Modern Tuna Vessel
The Mexican shipowner Grupomar, owned by the well-known Mexican-Spanish businessman Antonio Suárez Gutiérrez, took delivery at the end of March of the most modern tuna vessel in the Americas. Astilleros Armón built María de Jesús at its facilities in Gijón, Asturias. María de Jesús is a substantial vessel, with a 79.23 metre (259′) overall length and a beam of 13.65 meters (44.7′). It has a top operational speed of 18 knots and tank capacity for 1200 tonnes of frozen tuna and carries a crew of around thirty. photos, >click to read< 21:15
Dave Marciano: Unveiling The Impressive Net Worth Of The “Wicked Tuna” Star In 2023
American commercial fisherman and reality television celebrity Dave Marciano works in the industry. He was made in the United States on January 7, 1960, in Ipswich, Massachusetts. As one of the cast members of the reality television programme “Wicked Tuna,” which is broadcast on the National Geographic Channel, Dave Marciano rose to fame. Marciano has won the hearts of viewers with his unmatched expertise and unyielding perseverance as he competes against the weather and his fellow fisherman in a high-stakes game of skill and strategy. >click to read< 11:07
How an historic Hastings fishing boat was saved from being scrapped
She was saved from being scrapped by local writer and historian Steve Peak who writes: She was the first Hastings fishing boat to be built with an engine and was constructed in late 1919 on the beach opposite the London Trader pub for landlord Edward ‘Tiny’ Breeds. She is 22.6 feet long on the keel and 28 feet overall, and was named after Tiny’s daughter Mary and his son Edward (always called Ned) who worked the boat. The Edward and Mary left Hastings in 1957 operating from nearby ports until the early 1980s. By then she was much altered, renumbered and renamed. In late 1982 she was laid up in Eastbourne and stripped of her engine and the rest of her gear. Photos, >click to read< 08:57
Natural Resources Defense Council Announces STATE OF EMERGENCY for Atlantic Whales By Jim Lovgren
The National Resources Defense Council [NRDC] in a press release has declared a state of emergency for Atlantic Whales. Here are some excerpts from a piece written by Francine Kershaw, NRDC’s leading east coast Marine mammal expert. “Something is happening off our Atlantic coast. Unprecedented numbers of great Whales are washing up dead on our shores.” Over the last few decades, the NRDC has successfully challenged the US Military in regard to sonar effects on marine organisms, while also challenging seismic activity related to oil exploration. Both of these issues have national security implications that require a more robust examination of the possible causes of the legal actions taken, and why they were taken. What’s NRDC’s excuse for ignoring the growing amount of dead Whale carcasses that keep washing up on east coast beaches, while the same research vessels that would have been doing the seismic and sonar research for the oil companies are doing it for the wind factories? >click to read< 17:58
Letter to Mads Nipper, CEO, Ørsted
Dear Mr. Nipper, We write as concerned citizens and residents of the State of New Jersey, U.S.A. Our groups total tens of thousands of volunteer citizen advocates including more than 500,000 signatories to various petitions supporting our efforts. The NJ Shore is a national treasure enjoyed by millions who live and work, visit and vacation here and have done so for generations. On behalf of all the good people who love and enjoy the NJ Shore and its communities, please treat this letter as public notice that: We oppose your company’s efforts to turn our ocean, coastal ecosystems, and shore communities into industrial electricity generation and transmission power plants; We will protect our shore communities, the environment and the lives and livelihoods of all species including the millions of us that reside, work, visit and vacation here against your thoughtless industrialization; We will not falter, and we will not stop opposing your developments. >click to read< 11:48
Three in one week.
They say a week is a long time in politics, or if you wait ages for a bus, three come along at once – in just one week Newlyn has just seen the loss of three members of its fishing community. First to make his way to the deck of the big fishing boat in the sky was Mr PCCM himself, son of a coastguard, Dick Harvey. Dick epitomised ‘old school’. Talking of HMRC and tax, fish buyer Geoff Davies, seen here with early-days mobile phone hitched to is belt, was a tax inspector in a previous life – that was before he came to fish from Newlyn and then, subsequently went ashore and worked for leading fish merchant Nick Howell when his premises were behind Waghorns. Fishing runs deep in the Stevens family, generations have fished from the port of St Ives. Ernest Stevens, David Stevens father had the second and much larger Rose of Sharon built in 1969 by Forbes of Sandhaven, the first built them back in 1964. Lots of photos, >click to read< 09:45
How warming waters around P.E.I. could affect snow crab and lobster
Research scientist Joël Chassé says as the atmosphere warms, the ocean waters around P.E.I. are also heating up. “Changes are happening. It’s not deniable anymore. And if the these changes don’t slow down, we will have to adapt to these changes.” Chassé said there are implications for some fish species, some positive and some negative. Fisheries and Oceans biologist Tobie Surette said that while lobster is a warm water coastal species, snow crab prefer deeper, colder waters. “Lobster has largely benefited from the warming climates, at least so far,” he said. Surette said they don’t know exactly why that is. (Snow Crab) And for now, they are doing well: “We’re at the third-highest biomass in the history of the survey right now.” But Surette knows that could change. He has been in contact with snow crab scientists from Alaska. Photos, >click to read< 18:51
New Norwegian combined trawler, purse seine and crab vessel heads north
It is the Norwegian fishing company Asbjørn Selsbane who, after a few months delay in delivery from Karstensen Shipyard in Skagen, has now been handed over their new combined and very versatile trawler and purse seine vessel, which can also be rigged for crab fishing. The vessel is named ‘Stødig’ and will have its home port in Tromsø. It is rigged with shrimp trawls and Danish seines as well as for crab fishing and also packed with massive high-tech equipment, with smart solutions incorporated into the 39.30-metre-long and 11.50-metre-wide vessel. >click to read< 11:08
HPMAs: Tiree’s economy could sink unless plans are scrapped
In Tiree, there are good years and bad years. Years when crab and lobster are plentiful, years when they are not. Small boats work using fixed-line, static gear. Tiree fishermen place their creels with the precision afforded by sonar technology. There is no bycatch. Anything which will not be landed is thrown back alive. Many are voluntarily notching lobsters to ensure future stocks. Now, with the government’s proposals for statutory HPMAs, we are being told that our seas must be even more highly protected – from the people who live and work here. From us. >click to read< 10:01
