Category Archives: Pacific
Tragedy at Sea: Celebrated Fisherman Travis Myer Loses his Livelihood
Ask any restaurateur along the coast from here to San Francisco who Travis Meyer is, and they’ll likely tell you he’s the halibut whisperer. He supplies restaurants from Isla and Crudo e Nudo in Santa Monica to Laquita in Santa Barbara, Industrial Eats in Buellton, Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos, Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos and several in Paso Robles. His halibut, sea bass, and bluefin tuna are the stuff of legend in an increasingly competitive world of commercial fishing. “Travis has connected us directly to the pristine marine life that surrounds the Channel Islands,” Jason Paluska, when we first met, he delivered a beautiful California halibut that was dispatched using the ike jime method. It was hands down the freshest and cleanest bite of raw fish that I had ever tasted.” That all changed about a week ago on a midnight run to Hollister Ranch, when Meyer lost his boat, his livelihood and nearly his life. Here, the seasoned fisherman tells the tale in his own words: >>click to read<< 11:31
Alaska crabbers get creative with pop-up sales, but industry’s fate uncertain
With Alaska’s Bering Sea snow crab fishery shut down for the second year in a row, crabbers are having to make tough decisions and find creative ways to earn income, like selling direct to Anchorage consumers, sometimes in parking lots. A hand-painted sign on an Anchorage street corner and a hanging sign with the words “Live Alaskan King Crab” were enough to draw in customers to a Spenard parking lot that had become home to one of the shellfish pop-up sales. The live crab sale was in its fourth day on Nov. 2 and had already sold more than three-quarters of the 700 red king crabs hauled out from the Bering Sea. In an attempt to make up some lost income, third-generation fisherman Gabriel Prout brought red king crab to Anchorage to sell directly to consumers. Photos, >>click to read<< 09:16
Fish to Families: San Diego fishermen and chefs team up to fight hunger
An innovative program called “Fish to Families” has local fishermen and chefs teaming up to help San Diegans struggling with hunger. The San Diego Fishermen’s Working Group originally spearheaded the program in 2020 to help both the community and the fishermen since the restaurants were shut down. “We were able to work, and they were able to put a high-quality meal for somebody less fortunate, and it blossomed from there,” Arthur Lorton, owner and operator of the “Sea Haven” fishing boat, said. The program was recently restarted, thanks to a grant from The Parker Foundation, to help the growing number of people in need. Video, >>click to read<< 09:26
US Coast Guard Medevacs 64-Year-Old from Fishing Vessel Off San Diego
A Coast Guard Sector San Diego helicopter crew rescued a 64-year-old male passenger from a fishing vessel approximately 40 miles off the coast of San Diego Thursday. Coast Guard Sector San Diego Joint Harbor Operations Center watchstanders received a distress call from the fishing vessel Pride, requesting a medical evacuation for a crewmember at approximately 9 a.m. The injured male was experiencing multiple onset abnormalities. >>click to read<< 07:23
California commercial Dungeness crab fishing season delayed
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced a delay in the season opener for California commercial Dungeness crab fishing off the Central and Southern Coast to protect whales from entanglement. The decision is based on a combination of excessive humpback whale entanglements in California Dungeness crab gear over the last three years and high numbers of recent humpback whale sightings off the central coast according to CDFW’s Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program criteria. Due to number of entanglements, NMFS is proposing to upgrade the California commercial Dungeness crab fishery to a Category I fishery,,, >>click to read<< 08:09
Commercial Fisherman Robert Maxwell “Bob” Salter of Santa Cruz, California has passed away
Family and friends are mourning the loss of beloved uncle and trusted friend, Bob Salter, who passed away at his Santa Cruz home with his loving family at his bedside. Bob was born in Santa Cruz to Frederick Salter and Fern Rianda Salter, he attended Delaveaga, B40, and Harbor High School. His father taught Bob the joy of fishing and love of the Sea. He grew up surfing and fishing with his brother Gary. His former boat was the Francis Jolene in the Santa Cruz Harbor. He fished for many seasons in Alaska and would visit family in Canada along the way. Bob had a lifelong career of commercial fishing and most recently fished out of Santa Cruz Harbor with Rick Ryan and his niece Bonnie Salter. >>click to read<< 10:27
U.S. regulators will review car-tire chemical that kills salmon, upon request from West Coast tribes
U.S. regulators say they will review the use of a chemical found in almost every tire after a petition from West Coast Native American tribes that want it banned because it kills salmon as they return from the ocean to their natal streams to spawn. The Yurok tribe in California and the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Puyallup tribes in Washington asked the Environmental Protection Agency to prohibit the rubber preservative 6PPD earlier this year, saying it kills fish — especially coho salmon — when rains wash it from roadways into rivers. Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut also wrote the EPA, citing the chemical’s “unreasonable threat” to their waters and fisheries. >>click to read<< 10:14
A business in crisis
After years of choking on record runs of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon and near-record runs of heavily farmed, low-value pink salmon, the Alaska fishing industry is in chaos with processors now pleading for more government subsidies and coddled commercial fishermen demanding yet more disaster aid. One could blame global warming, which has led to historically unprecedented harvests of Alaska salmon despite whatever nonsense to the contrary the mainstream media might have reported, but the industry’s problems are far more complex than just trying to sell high-priced seafood in Western markets where the sales of animal protein are dominated by chicken, beef and pork. Some of the industry’s issues here are rooted in its long history. For most of the years after commercial fishing began in Alaska in the late 1800s, the business dealt almost wholly in canned salmon. >>click to read<< 08:41
Wood and colleagues visit East Coast offshore wind project
“We as state legislators have a critical and essential role in fostering the offshore wind market in California by developing policies that support procurement and development, investment in ports and supply chains, and strategies and policies for maximizing local economic development,” said Wood. “We wanted to visit Massachusetts and attend this conference to learn what needs to be done and how to do it successfully. California has a number of key stakeholders and we need to make sure we are all rowing in the same direction, with the wind behind us, so to speak, avoiding any headwinds.” >>click to read<< 07:57
Steinbeck’s famous Western Flyer sails back to Monterey after years of restoration: Photos, inside and out!
The original captain’s desk sits in the wheelhouse, where legendary author John Steinbeck may have jotted notes for his Log from the Sea of Cortez. A guy wire like the one he wrote would “sing under the wind,” stabilizes the mast. Nearby is the galley ventilator where “the odor of boiling coffee” soothed his senses. Neglected, twice sunk and now painstakingly restored, the Western Flyer – dubbed the world’s most famous fishing boat for bearing Steinbeck and his biologist friend Ed Ricketts down the California coast on an ecological adventure — returns Saturday to Monterey for the first time in 75 years to begin a new life in science education. Now docked at the 
Moss Landing harbor, the Western Flyer will be escorted to Monterey by a decorated boat parade, honoring an end-of-the-season fishing community celebration held the day before Steinbeck and Ricketts headed out on their six-week journey. The event will include tours of the boat, activities and live music. Photos, >>click to read<< 10:15
Fisherman Rescued from Capsized Boat off Santa Barbara Coast
It was the early-morning hours of Thursday, November 2, and Santa Barbara–based fisherman Travis Meyer was asleep aboard his anchored 24-foot Privateer fishing boat Obsessed, which he had just purchased in late August and spent the past few months repairing and restoring for the Central Coast waters, and while he slept, his bait tank clogged and began to leak water for nearly three hours. He woke up in shock to see that his recently refurbished boat was already leaning over to one side, and by the time he stepped on the deck, he said, the corner of the boat began to go under — he was going down fast, and without much time, he made a desperate attempt to call for help. >>click to read<< 06:32
Alaska seafood harvesting jobs decline as fish crashes, pandemic and other factors take toll
Alaska fish-harvesting employment declined in 2022, a continuing yearslong slide caused by a variety of factors, according to an analysis by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Employment for people harvesting seafood dropped by about a quarter from 2015 to 2022, according to the analysis, published in the November issue of Alaska Economic Trends, the department’s monthly research magazine. The industry lost ground compared to other sectors of the Alaska economy, the analysis found. Seafood harvesting accounted for 7.3% of Alaska jobs in July of 2021, but only 5.7% of Alaska jobs were in seafood harvesting in the following July. Fishery work is highly seasonal, and July is the peak month for it. >>click to read<< 16:15
Dungeness crab season delayed again this year, another blow to Santa Cruz fishing industry
Commercial Dungeness crab season had been set to open Nov. 15, but amid concerns about whale safety that have delayed the season in recent years, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife has pushed it back to at least Dec. 1. “For many fishermen, this means there’s no income right now,” one veteran says, “and they’re hanging by the threads.” “It’s really bad,” said Tim Obert of the conditions for local commercial fishermen. “This is the worst year I’ve seen before. We have always had the salmon to back up the crab.” “For many fishermen, this means there’s no income right now and they’re hanging by the threads,” he said. “However, we’re kind of used to it now.” >>click to read << 12:46
Missing Westport fisherman identified after Coast Guard calls off search
Mick Diamond, or Mike, depending on who you talked to, wasn’t everyone’s favorite person. But if you loved him, you liked him, even when he drove you up the wall, according to his son, Joe. Diamond, 63, and a crewmate went missing on the fishing vessel Evening nearly two weeks ago after they departed the Westport Marina in Grays Harbor. Diamond’s crewmate, who has not yet been publicly identified, was found alive by a Canadian fishing family 13 days later, in a life raft 70 miles northwest of Cape Flattery. Diamond has not been found. His family says they were told via a statement from the survivor that the boat capsized after it got caught in a trough between rough swells, and that Diamond told the surviving crew member to get to the life raft while he took control of the vessel. >>click to read<< 07:03
Jim Lovgren: Walking with the Whales at Black Sands Beach, Shelter Cove, Ca.
I was a commercial fisherman for over 45 years on the east coast and have seen hundreds of whales at sea, but there is nothing like seeing a large whale purposely swimming in the surf, while you’re standing thirty feet away. In Shelter Cove, a small fishing town of 700 residents in Northern California, Whales swimming in the surf, is a common occurrence during their spring and fall migrations and right now it is at its peak. My wife and I live just down the street from the famous Black Sands Beach where these Whales dare to get so close to shore and in the last 10 out of 12 days that we have looked we have observed the Whales in the surf. Shelter Cove is remote and only assessable by one infamous road, but the drive is worth it, as most of the area is conservation land or wilderness. A small fleet of fishing boats operate out of there, but the port is limited to mostly smaller vessels, [less the 30 feet] since they must be pulled daily as anchorage is not safe. They’ve been struggling this year after the shutdown of the Salmon fishery and short Dungeness crab season, but the last couple weeks have seen 150 to 200 pound Bluefin Tuna brought home every day. Video, photos, >>click to read<< 17:32
California commercial Dungeness crab season delayed
California’s commercial Dungeness crab seasons will be delayed this year, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife announced Friday. The delays are being enacted in order to protect whales from becoming entangled in crab traps. The opening of the commercial Dungeness crab fishing season will be delayed in Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5, and 6, an area of the state’s coastline that stretches from the Sonoma/Mendocino County line to the U.S.A.-Mexico border. The delay is due to a large number of humpback whales in the area. >>click to read<< 17:33
Fishing crew speaks after finding missing American off B.C. coast
A B.C. fishing crew has found an American fisherman who had been missing off the Pacific coast for weeks. John Planes and his Ucluelet fishing crew spotted an emergency lift raft off the coast of Vancouver Island, Thursday morning. What they found was shocking when they arrived at the life raft — an American fisherman who had been lost at sea for 13 days. The American, who is unnamed at this point, departed from Washington State on Oct. 12. “We were getting near the end of our fishing set and (a crew member) spotted the life raft,” Planes said. “He hugged me right away as soon as he got on board. He was crying, he was just so glad somebody had actually picked him up. Video, >>click to read<< 13:55
Boatyard Offers Assistance to Commercial Fishermen Hampered by Regulations
KKMI Boatyard Offers Assistance to Commercial Fishermen Reeling in the bad taste of lost revenue. KKMI announced today they will be offering free haulouts to commercial fishing vessels, giving this hard-hit industry some much needed financial relief after a cancelled salmon season made it quite difficult to eke out a living. This offer is good at both KKMI locations on the San Franciso Bay – Richmond and Sausalito. We are in a position to help out and we are honored to be able to do so,” said KKMI Founder, Paul Kaplan. >>click to read<< 08:16
Survivor From Lost Fishing Boat Saved After Coast Guard Ended Search
This week, the U.S. Coast Guard ended searches for two commercial fishing vessels that each disappeared without a trace, one in Washington and another in Georgia. The Washington case ended in a miracle: a crewmember was found alive after formal search efforts had ended. On Tuesday, Coast Guard Station Grays Harbor announced that it had launched a search for a 43-foot commercial fishing vessel, the Evening, which was nine days overdue. Miraculously, one crewmember of the Evening survived and was found by a good Samaritan vessel on Thursday morning – a day after the formal search ended. He was floating in a life raft off the west coast of Vancouver Island, near Tofino. The whereabouts of the other crewmember are not known. On Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard suspended a search for a commercial fishing vessel F/V Carol Ann that had gone missing with three crewmembers off the coast of Brunswick, Georgia. >>click to read<< 07:15
Spiny lobsters staying home with local buyers and restaurants
“Prior to 2008, 99% of the lobsters caught in Southern California were sent to Los Angeles before being shipped to China,” said Mitch Conniff, owner of Mitch’s Seafood in Point Loma, who has been involved in San Diego fishing for decades with stints working as a deckhand on commercial lobster boats. “For a lot of years there was a van that drove down from LA every day and bought our lobsters and shipped them to China,” concurred Point Loma lobster fisherman Cameron Cribben (above), an angler since age 14, about recent changes in marketing his lobster take. “Ten years ago, every lobster I caught went to China. Now after COVID, and since some of my business partners opened up TunaVille Market, a lot of my lobsters are being sold locally to the community.” >>click to read<< 11:18
“How can we work together?” Longtime fisherman Dan Barr reflects on his career in Bristol Bay
Dan Barr is eighty-one and a half years old. He fished Bristol Bay for just about half his life. “It’s been just such a great part of my life,” he said. “Every year I came home, it was like [I got] to live out something new that got loose in me.” Barr spent much of his career finding ways to connect different people with each other. For over two decades, he was president of the Bristol Bay Driftnetters Association – an organization formed in the 1980s that aimed to unify the fleet. There, he helped publish newsletters about issues around the fishery, like practices in the Pacific Ocean that affected Bristol Bay. In 1992, he formed a coalition that helped pass the High Seas Driftnet Act, which aimed to restrict large-scale driftnet fishing in international waters. >>click to read<< 09:19
Struggling salmon fishermen getting federal help, but it may be too late
Earlier this month, two years after a request by Oregon’s governor, the U.S. Department of Commerce declared a Chinook fishery disaster for 2018, 2019 and 2020, years when local salmon populations plummeted. Fishing regulators blame the drop on poor habitat conditions and climate change near the California-Oregon border, where thousands of Chinook migrate from the ocean up rivers and streams to spawn. The disaster declaration releases financial assistance for fishermen and possibly for other businesses, along with funding to help restore the fishery and protect future Chinook runs, members of Oregon’s congressional delegation said in a statement. “The powers that be move pretty slowly when it comes to this stuff,” said Ray Monroe, a Pacific City dory fisherman. >>click to read<< 12:00
Offshore Wind Is A Dangerous Pipe Dream Costing Taxpayers Billions
How many times have we heard that wind power, coupled with the sun’s energy, is going to save us from our fossil-fuel-burning ways? Maybe one day it will. But at no time soon will it happen. And by soon, we mean in most of our lifetimes. How can we say this? Look around at what’s happening with wind energy [emphasis, “California’s Central Coast residents work to stop — or at least slow down — offshore wind.”,,, “Orsted Threatens To Abandon U.S. Offshore Wind Projects.” Biden administration guarantees more support.,, “Electricity from wind isn’t cheap and it never will be.” The list above is no more than a start. There are many more stories we could have cited, and there are many more to come. Wind energy is unreliable, and its costs are not competitive at scale. Lots of links! >>click to read<< 18:22
Some Morro Bay Residents Are Dead Set Against CA’s Offshore Wind Farms
Joey Racano used to have a dining room table. Now the sunlit nook off the family kitchen more often than not serves as a conference room. The table is covered with maps, thick binders bulging with tech reports, towers of meeting minutes, abandoned coffee mugs — the accumulation of years of community vigilance. On this day, his home is a lively place where a handful of locals are discussing one of California’s most complex and audacious initiatives — loading the Pacific Ocean with sprawling wind farms that float 20 miles from shore. “This is just another attempt to industrialize the coast,” said Rachel Wilson, who lives in Cayucos, a tiny, old-fashioned beach town, and regularly attends public meetings about the wind projects. “I can just see Port Hueneme with cranes and lights and a huge wharf in my charming little coastal community. No way.” >>click to read<< 08:37
With salmon at risk of extinction, California begins urgent rescue effort
Typically, now is the time when creeks along the Sacramento River are filled with young spring-run Chinook salmon preparing to make their journey downstream to the Pacific Ocean, where they will mature, and eventually make their return to California spawning sites. This year, however, the salmon population has plummeted alarmingly—what officials call a “cohort collapse”—and biologists are taking urgent measures to save them from extinction. For the first time, biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have begun capturing the juvenile spring-run salmon so that they can breed them in captivity, and hopefully prevent them from disappearing from the wild. For the first time, biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have begun capturing the juvenile spring-run salmon so that they can breed them in captivity, and hopefully prevent them from disappearing from the wild. >>click to read<< 13:25
“A massive enterprise’: California’s offshore wind farms are on a fast track
The tantalizing possibility of capturing wind energy from giant floating ocean platforms is considered essential to achieving California’s ambitious goal of electrifying its grid with 100% zero-carbon energy. The state’s blueprint envisions offshore wind farms producing 25 gigawatts of electricity by 2045, powering 25 million homes and providing about 13% of the power supply. The projects will be a giant experiment: No other floating wind operations are in such deep waters. From China to Rhode Island, about 250 offshore wind farms are operating around the world, mostly in shallow waters close to shore and secured to the ocean floor. But the areas off California with the strongest winds are far from shore and too deep for traditional platforms, so developers are planning clusters of floating platforms about 20 miles off the coast, in waters more than a half-mile deep and tethered by cables. Photos, >>click to read<< 10:49
Oregon fishing disaster declared after failure impacting Chinook Salmon
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek announced Friday that a fishing disaster has been declared following a three-year commercial fishery failure in the state. The declaration comes after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo determined that a commercial fishery failure occurred in 2018, 2019 and 2020 because of a fishery resource disaster impacting Oregon Chinook Salmon Fisheries, the governor said. The determination comes after a request from former Gov. Kate Brown in October 2021. Fisheries with disaster determinations are eligible for funding from fishery disaster appropriations to help with community recovery, fishery restoration and prevention of future disasters. >>click to read<< 17:00
A Southern tradition, fresh from the Snohomish River
It’s a far cry from the bayous of Louisiana, but the crawfish look right at home in the metal trap as Ithamar Glumac hoists them out of the water. “They’re bottom feeders, so they’re perfectly happy to hang out in this trap for as long as I’ll leave them there,” Glumac said. “Food floats right on by and predators can’t get them, so it’s probably like a nice vacation home for them more than anything.” A huge plastic bucket, full of crawfish loosed from similar traps just minutes before, awaits on Glumac’s boat. He unlatches the wire cage and shakes the most recent handful of tiny lobsters out into the tub with their brethren. Then it’s on to the next stop, another one of the hundreds of traps up the Snohomish River pinpointed by Glumac’s GPS-powered fish finder. Photos, >>>.click to read<<< 15:42
New California law aims to speed up offshore wind development
A law signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday aims to speed up the process for new offshore wind development. The law requires California’s Coastal Commission to process consolidated permits for coastal development, which the law’s main sponsor says will streamline permitting. His district includes Mendocino, Trinity and Humboldt counties. McGuire said in a press release that this law will slash five years off the normal permitting timeline for offshore wind projects. He said it will help the state meet its goals in terms of climate change and renewable energy. >>click to read<< 09:31
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 35′ H&H Osmond Beal Lobster Boat, Cummins QSL9 Diesel
To review specifications, information, and 14 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 10:23
