Category Archives: International
Salvage of sunken commercial fishing boat in Port of Eden nears completion
The salvage of the Janet, the commercial fishing boat that sank at Eden in the early hours of April 20, is almost complete. It took attempts by two salvors to successfully bring the purse seiner back up to the surface this week, almost a month after it first became partially submerged. The local vessel was carrying 50 tonnes of salmon when it began taking on water at the middle wharf of Eden Port and despite efforts of Fire and Rescue NSW and the owner to try to prevent the partially submerged boat from sinking further, it was inundated with water and went to the bottom. > click to read < 12:44
Fishermen from across North East and Yorkshire in boat protest over mass shellfish deaths
Fishermen have held a protest on Teesside over the ongoing deaths of crabs and lobsters which they say is decimating their industry. Government scientists say natural algae in the water is responsible, but protestors want proof that recent dredging in the North Sea has not also had an impact in creating what they are calling a “dead zone”. Thirty fishing boats from Whitby, Redcar and Hartlepool sailed to South Gare to meet protestors on land to demonstrate about the continuing crisis. >click to read< 08:59
Far North iwi creating fishery pathways for rangatahi in South Island
The fisheries sector in Te Waipounamu (South Island) has a number of career opportunities for both rangatahi (young people) and those with more experience. Two Far North iwi have travelled to Te Waipounamu (South Island) to help establish employment pathways for rangatahi (youth) in the fisheries sector. An iwi delegation comprising Whangaroa and Te Aupōuri members was busy touring Nelson and Motueka last week, exploring opportunities for mahi (work) in both deep-sea fishing and shore-based factory processing. Sealord and Talley’s hosted the group, who were shown around each of the company’s different facilities, including Talley’s Motueka accommodation for shore-based northern workers and a deep-sea fishing school at Westport. Te Aupōuri commercial manager Penetaui Kleskovic said feedback from the sector was there was dire a shortage of workers for New Zealand’s deep-sea fishing fleets. >click to read< 16:22
Best Diesel Marine Engines
It’s difficult to even quantify the importance of a reliable marine diesel engine. Sport-fishing/commercial fishing boats around the world simply wouldn’t have the legs to do what they do without these expertly and carefully crafted diesel machines. Evolving technologies continue to produce highly efficient and advanced engines for marine applications, whether starting new or repowering. Here, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best in the business. >click to read< 10:33
Fish and chips may ‘double’ in price without fuel help
A major figure in New Zealand’s fishing industry warns more boats could be tied up and the price of fish and chips will double unless the sector gets the same fuel assistance given to others. Already Westfleet Seafoods’ 400 tonne trawler Tasman Viking has been tied up at Nelson’s port for a fortnight because of the spiraling cost of fuel. The company’s chief executive, Craig Boote, said that if the government did not play fair and apply fuel discounts to all New Zealand businesses the fishing industry could be on its knees in weeks. “Fuel is a huge component of our commercial operations and without a reduction the price of fish will unfortunately skyrocket,” he said. “The only other option is to tie boats up, which of course has a snowball effect, with onshore jobs in the factory, engineering and more, being negatively affected.” >click to read< 09:02
Snow crab prices plummet in Newfoundland
It wasn’t the news fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador wanted to hear. They’ll get less for their snow crab after today, as the result of a decision by the province’s fish price setting panel. After reviewing a request from the Association of Seafood Producers and arguments by the Fish Food and Allied Workers, the panel went with the processors’ pitch of $6.15 per pound. That’s down nearly 20 per cent from the $7.60 per pound price that was set for the start of the season on April 1. In Nova Scotia, fish harvesters also saw a drop in snow crab prices a couple of weeks ago. They are now getting $8.25 a pound for snow crab, according to Gordon Beaton, local president with the Maritime Fishermen’s Union. >click to read< 11:06
F/V Purbeck Isle: Family mark anniversary of Dorset fishing boat tragedy
The family of a man who died in a fishing boat accident are gathering to remember him on the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy. Robert Prowse, 20, was on the Purbeck Isle along with David McFarlane, 35, and Jack Craig, 21, when it sank off Dorset on 17 May 2012. All three men died. Mr Prowse’s body has never been found. Mr Prowse’s family, including his three daughters, have asked people to gather at a memorial bench in Weymouth Harbour to remember the three men. >click to read< 09:01
Ireland: Seals depleting salmon stocks?
The potentially detrimental effect seals are having on salmon stocks has been raised at Donegal County Council’s Fisheries committee. Cllr McDermott said the seal population had quadrupled and he did not think any investigations had been carried out into the amount of salmon being eaten by seals. He added: “The effect on the salmon stock caused by seals is not being taken into consideration at all. The fishermen have grave concerns. It seems to be okay for the seals to deplete salmon stocks but it is not okay for the fisherman who is trying to make a living.” >click to read< 16:30
Kyle Craig of Deadliest Catch Death: The Family and Fans of a Deceased Artist Are Shocked.
As a deckhand on the F/V Brenna A., Kyle Craig put in long hours. Who Was Kyle Craig? An Ocean Springs, Mississippi man named Kyle Craig is 26 years old. December 21, 1994, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, was the date of his birth. Craig Enterprises was owned and operated by Kyle. He became enamored with ATVs and boats, and he enjoyed buying and selling both. He was also capable of repairing a motor while keeping his eyes shut. We posted >his obituary here on August 1, 2021<. He loved the sea, his work, and appreciated his crewmates. There wasn’t a lot of detail on what had 
happened to Kyle. Watching the statistics the other day, we noticed a big spike in traffic with no explanation, but it led back to Kyles obituary. Then we stumbled onto this article which brings the tragic end of his life to light. The cause of Kyle Craig’s tragic death is detailed below. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and his shipmates. >click to read< 17:17
Mysterious killer continues to wipe out North East sea life
Fishing has long been a key part of Teesside’s proud heritage, but locals fear their livelihoods could be wiped out due to a devastating destruction of sea life. “There’s something going into their system that’s killing them and it’s going up and down the coast and nobody is answering our questions,” says lifelong fisherman Paul Graves. “We’ve done this all our life; we know what’s happening and we know when it’s not right.” >click to read< 09:32
Impact of foreign overfishing as bad as seals; must also be addressed
SEA-NL congratulates the Government of Canada for finally recognizing that seals eat fish but reminds Ottawa that foreign overfishing on/off the Grand Banks is as destructive as ever to commercial stocks. “Seals aren’t the only killer of fish stocks,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “It’s still the wild west outside the 200-mile limit in terms of overfishing by foreign factory-freezer draggers.” Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray said Thursday more research is needed on the impact of seals on dwindling East Coast fish stocks in response to a report that said DFO’s science doesn’t go far enough. DFO, however, must consider all factors, including foreign overfishing, on the health of battered East Coast fish stocks. >click to read< 13:16
Ex-Hull fishermen tell Nigel Farage UK has ‘never won an argument over fishing’
Former Hull fishermen have revealed their frustration to Nigel Farage following Brexit. Under a post-Brexit trade deal, UK boats need licenses to fish in waters of EU member states, while EU countries also need similar licenses to fish in UK waters. Prime Minister Boris Johnson previously vowed to “do whatever is necessary” to protect UK fisheries when negotiating, but has since received backlash from the industry who feel let down by the deal. Ron Wilkinson, chairman of fishing charity Stand-Hull Heritage, sat alongside vice chairman Vic Wheeldon, and claimed that the UK “has never won an argument over fishing” as the pair’s anger over the Brexit deal was clear to see. >click to read< 10:50
Scallop dredging kit change could reduce impact on environment
Scientists from the Low Impact Scallop Innovation Gear project, led by Heriot-Watt University, fitted “skids” to the bottom of standard spring-toothed scallop dredges and monitored them during trials with commercial scallop fisheries in Scotland and Wales. They found the skid, which lifts the metal bags a mere 10cm off the seabed, helped reduce damage to bottom-dwelling species and fauna. Due to the metal skids adding weight to the boats, the commercial fisheries involved in the trials closely monitored the amount of fuel consumed during each expedition. >click to read< 10:47
Channel fishermen protest to ban supertrawlers, fly-shooters
Fishermen from the UK and France have met in the English Channel to protest against industrial fishing practices. Boats from Dover, Rye, Newhaven and Boulogne-sur-mer gathered in the Bassurelle Sandbank marine protected area. They called for politicians to ban supertrawlers and fly-shooting from protected Channel waters. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said vessels must follow UK sustainability rules. >click to read< 12:33
Ship strikes a cause of whale shark decline
Scientists are looking to better track whale sharks in New Zealand to determine how vulnerable they are to ship strikes after an international study found it may be the cause of their decline. The report, led by the Marine Biological Association of the UK and the University of Southampton, tracked 348 satellite-tagged whale sharks. The tags showed individual whale sharks, which are an endangered species, moving into shipping lanes and then sinking slowly to the sea floor, hundreds of metres below, backing the theory that they were struck by tankers or cargo vessels. >click to read< 10:36
Portuguese dragger again accused of illegal fishing on Grand Banks; NAFO can’t enforce quotas
A Portuguese offshore factory-freezer dragger has been accused for the fifth time in six years of illegal fishing on/near the Grand Banks, hammering home, yet again, that the enforcement regime that oversees foreign fleets outside Canada’s 200-mile limit is a joke (on Newfoundland and Labrador). The latest accusation (not actual court charge) against the F/V Nova Virgem Da Barca was issued on March 28th when enforcement officers from the Canadian Coast Guard ship Cygnus boarded the dragger on the tail of the Banks (fishing zone 3N) where she was fishing redfish. The officers issued a “notice of infringement” against the captain for misreporting catches, with “supporting documentation from the inspection and infringement forwarded to the European Union for investigation and follow-up.” Canada cannot charge a foreign dragger with illegal fishing. >NAFO<, >click to read< 15:42
Donegal Sinn Féin TDS call for urgent intervention in Killybegs fishing debacle
Speaking today, Deputy Pearse Doherty said: “The Taoiseach promotes the ‘Shared Island’ brand, aiming to provide public money to break down the borders and barriers to trade on this island. How then can he stand over the situation in Killybegs? “The SFPA (Sea Fisheries Protection Authority) have punished the fishing community there by removing in-factory weighing permits because landings happened to take place in Derry and, according to them, ‘outside of Ireland’? “This obviously comes after a series of vessels have been turned away from Killybegs harbour over the last number of weeks which had already caused widespread outrage. >click to read< 14:19
Prawn trawler Orion in Newlyn
Orion, also known as the ‘sailor’s star’ is actually a constellation and so named as it is visible the whole world over and therefore when looked at provides a constant connection between loved ones at home and a sailor wherever they may be,,, photos, >click to read< 11:00
Wooden Hull Scalloper built in Paimpol
‘For me, a boat is made of wood. That’s what I prefer,’ said Normandy fisherman Lilian Guadebois, who has been skipper for eleven years. Sainte-Thérèse was launched in Paimpol at the end of January, after eighteen months of work. This 11.98 metre long, 6.55 metre beam shellfish vessel will be worked with a crew of four to fish for scallops in the Bay of Seine. To build this new vessel, which will be based in Honfleur (Calvados), the young 
skipper turned to Fabien Hémeury’s yard in Kerpalud. ‘The boat is made from 100% French oak because we want to support the local timber industry,’ said Fabien Hémeury, who works with a team of six carpenters. According to him, wooden newbuilds are coming back into fashion, particularly because of their long-term solidity. Excellent photo gallery, >click to read< 17:41
San Fernando fishermen call for nationwide strike over gas hike
With several fishermen going out of business in San Fernando, San Fernando Fishing Cooperative president Salim Gool is calling for an island-wide fishing strike in the hope that this will force the Government to reduce gas prices for fisherfolk. If Gool’s call is successful, this could mean no fresh fish in any fishing depot or marketplace across the country. “We do not think the Government is taking us seriously. Since April 22, we called for a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture Land and Fisheries and he has not responded. We are now calling for a strike of fishing islandwide.” >click to read< 09:58
Aloncar Launches Largest Trawler in 40 Years
After two decades of inactivity, the Aloncar shipyard at Necochea in Argentina, has been resuming projects over the past five years, since engineer Hugo Obregozo became one of its owners. On 20th April, this new phase of activity resulted the launching of BP Skipper, a 28-metre fresher trawler entirely built by Aloncar. BP Skipper is entirely funded by its owner, the fishing company Ocean Fish. Its design was inspired on Norwegian and 
Icelandic vessels, with a double deck and an inverted bow, he explained. ‘Both of these features are not common in Argentina. The double deck allows the catch selection, washing and handling to be carried out under shelter. The inverted bow is especially important in rough sea conditions, as it reduces resistance and vessel movement, and makes it handle more efficiently,’ he said. photos, >click to read< 21:20
Radar Revitalized
Solid-state drive (SSD) technology has made electronics faster, from smartphones to marine electronics. SSDs boot up almost instantly and have a minimal load period because they don’t have to “find” data like on a hard drive. Now, solid-state radar is finding its way onto boats where magnetron radar has long dominated. Solid-state radar offers a much clearer picture while using less power and emitting much less harmful radiation. It offers excellent resolution at both long and very short ranges. >click to read< 10:30
Fishing company loses bid to avoid paying $500k to dead men’s families
The Court of Appeal has thrown out a second bid by a fishing company to avoid paying half a million dollars in total to the families of three fishermen who drowned when their trawler sank. Terry Donald Booth, 55, of Nelson; Paul Russell Bennett, 35, of Motueka and Jared Reese Husband, 47, of Timaru died when the Jubilee, a 16 metre trawler, sank off the coast of Canterbury in the early hours of 18 October 2015. It is believed the crew were asleep in the wheelhouse when the trawler’s fish room began filling with water and there was no high water level alarm to alert them. >click to read< 08:14
N.S. lobster fishermen feel pinch of rising diesel prices
Merrill MacInnis is a lobster fisher in Victoria County. He said the price of diesel is an ongoing conversation in the community, since most fishing boats in his harbour run on diesel. “It’s going to have a big impact on the profit margin, of course,” MacInnis said. “But you need to have it. MacInnis estimates fishers will be hit with a fuel bill about $4,000 to $5,000 higher compared to the same period last year. “It’ll be a big bill,” he said. >click to read< 10:21
Scotland: Fishermen stunned after catching monster 7ft halibut
Lewis Thompson, 30, and his crew pulled the huge fish onto their trawler boat from Scottish waters in the North Atlantic Ocean over the weekend. Weighing in at 120kgs, or 260 pounds, and longer than any crewman, the catch was one of the biggest ever brought in by the team. Lewis and his crew filmed the moment they lowered the huge catch onto the packaging area of the boat. The brilliant footage shows a stunned Lewis, standing proudly next to the fish. video, photos, >click to read< 09:26
Trip limits must be addressed in Newfoundland and Labradors snow crab fishery
SEA-NL is demanding Premier Andrew Furey address trip limits in the snow crab fishery or his government may have blood on its hands before the end of the fishing season. “The inshore fleet has one of the most dangerous jobs without trip limits adding to the risk,” says Ryan Cleary, Executive Director of SEA-NL. “Trip limits put pressure on enterprise owners — who are also dealing with the threat of a price drop, and fishery closures in the case of molting or soft-shell crab — to fish in weather they would not ordinarily fish in,” he said. “If government stands idly by and lives are lost this crab fishing season the province will have to answer for them directly.” >click to read< 15:09
‘I’ve been here all the time’
Elusive mariner David Atkinson has told a court he wasn’t hiding during the months he was out of contact with the justice system. However, he still has not spoken to his lawyer about charges laid by Maritime NZ over a trawler that grounded on a beach near Christchurch in 2019. Atkinson appeared on driving matters before Judge Russell Cooper in the Hastings District Court today. Discussion soon turned to an arrest warrant issued in the Christchurch District Court last month after it heard that Atkinson had been off the radar since September last year. >click to read< 07:58
‘Boris, where’s your Russian sanctions?’ asks F/V Altaire’s First Mate
The first mate of local pelagic trawler F/V Altaire has written to prime minister Boris Johnson urging the UK Government to act over Russian factory ships fishing for blue whiting in UK waters around 100 miles to the west of Shetland. Colin Leask said there were 11 Russian vessels presently in the UK’s shared zone with the Faroe Islands fishing for a “ridiculously inflated” quota of 75,000 tonnes of blue whiting. The crewman’s appeal is the latest attempt by the industry to get the government to close a loophole that enables Russian vessels to fish inside UK waters at a time of “supposedly strict sanctions” against the country in response to the invasion of Ukraine. >click to read< 16:50
Rising fuel costs: British fishermen are being forced to tie up their boats
The rise has left fishermen struggling to cover their costs, with some reportedly resorting to leaving their boats in port. June Mummery, ex-MEP and founder of the Renaissance of the East Anglian Fisheries, tweeted: “Fisherman tying up, fuel so expensive, not worth going to sea.” Britain’s fishing industry has issued a number of warnings in recent months that the spike in fuel costs could force them to tie up their boats and have a devastating impact on the UK’s food supply. The Shetland Fishermen’s Association issued a plea for help in March warning that the war in Ukraine had seen the cost of marine diesel in the islands more than double compared to the previous year. >click to read< 08:05
Scottish Governments “senseless” ban on Firth of Clyde ‘ruining generations of business’
Furious fishermen have accused the Scottish Government of devastating their historic Firth of Clyde industry with a “senseless” ban. Boats in the area support more than 600 jobs, many of which are in small family businesses keeping the way of life alive for remote communities. But fishermen were left shocked when ministers implemented an 11-week ban in February, leaving them unable to earn a living. The move is designed to encourage the resurgence of cod stocks, but previous restrictions allowed vessels which didn’t interfere with their habitat to continue working. >click to read< 08:10
