Category Archives: Pacific
Oregon: State regulators rushing to catch up on market squid fishery
If Joe Mulkey could fish for market squid year-round, he would. The emerging Oregon fishery ticks a lot of boxes for the commercial fisherman from Reedsport: the use of seine gear and electronics, and, of course, the recent profitability. In the past five years, the market squid fishery has moved from almost nonexistent to booming. Now boats that would normally fish for squid in California’s Monterey Bay have headed north and Oregon fishermen are seeing new opportunities in local waters, hunting the small, short-lived animals. >click to read< 18:55
Blown Away: Tucker Carlson Exposes How Wind Energy Is Destroying Landscapes, Jobs
In the episode, “Blown Away: The People Vs Wind Power,” Carlson and his production crew uncover the human cost of wind energy, traveling across the country to find out how turbines have the capability to decimate wildlife and, in turn, peoples livelihood. Three months into his presidency, Joe Biden issued permits to foreign companies for a massive 160,000-acre wind farm, known as Vineyard Wind 1, off the coast of Rhode Island. Rather than tinker with Barack Obama’s scenic view in Martha’s Vineyard, the government decided to place the wind farm 15 miles off the coast. The area is home to one of the most productive fisheries in the country. video, >click to read<. a little more >here<15:01
Leadership – Famous fisherman reels in key leadership lessons
A man of the sea, Keith Colburn has a lot to offer landlocked leaders about staying calm as crises swirl.,,, His first gig? As a greenhorn on the F/V Alaska Trader, a 135-foot crabber/tender. “I went from the bilge to the bridge,” he says, referring to the bottom of a boat to the top. “I worked my way up from nothing. When I got to Alaska I didn’t have a thing.” In 1988 he became a full-share deckhand on the F/V Wizard. Two years later he moved from the deck to the pilot house. Two years after that he was named captain. Outside of performing well under pressure, Colburn refers frequently to the importance of communicating well as a leader. Colburn and I chatted a lot about leading under pressure, by Mark Gordon >click to read< 17:01
Coast Guard had earlier notice about California oil spill
The Coast Guard received multiple reports of a possible fuel spill off the Southern California coast earlier than previously disclosed and asked local authorities to investigate about 15 hours before its own personnel confirmed a large oil slick, which came from a leaking undersea pipeline, records show. The initial reports of a possible spill north of the Huntington Beach pier came into the Coast Guard about 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 1,,, The spill wasn’t confirmed until about 9 a.m. Saturday. >click to read< 13:11
Reaching Out
I am Kimberly Jo Scott and I am looking for my cousin Wayne Willet. 6 years ago we lost contact. He has lived and worked in Newport for the last 30 years. Mostly on boats. There has been a family emergency and so I need to get ahold of him. Please let me know if you have a contact for him or pass my contact information onto him. Thank you so much, I greatly appreciate any information. My number is 541)321-1029
U.S. Coast Guard medevacs a fisherman from a crab boat 200 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor
The Coast Guard medevaced a man from a fishing boat Tuesday approximately 200 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor. A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak hoisted an injured fisherman from the 117-foot, commercial fishing vessel F/V Patricia Lee at about 11:50 p.m. He was flown to Dutch Harbor and placed in the care of LifeMed personnel. >video, click to read< 20:39
Bootstrapping – How Lowell Wakefield Made Crab King
While king crab fishing is among the most dangerous and lucrative activities in the world, it is only recent technology that makes it possible to extract this bounty from the sea,,, This has not always been the case. What is now known around the world as a culinary delicacy did not start out that way. In fact, before the mid-1940s, there were no king crab fishermen, no king crab fishing boats, and nothing that could be called a king crab industry. King crab legs simply were not widely consumed before the Second World War. Essentially, this industry was created through an evolutionary process executed by one man and his company, Lowell Wakefield and Wakefield Seafoods, Inc. A chronology of entrepreneurship. >click to read< 17:30
Dungeness Crab Season Could be Delayed Again this Year – The push for pop-up gear systems
This year, according to NMFS data, there have been 16 confirmed whale entanglements along the West Coast through Sept. 30. That includes 10 humpback whales, four gray whales, one fin whale and a minke whale; 11 other reports could not be verified. The vast majority of these reports came from waters along California. The California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, known informally as the Whale Working Group, was created in September 2015 and is made up of industry players, government officials and environmentalists looking for solutions. >click to read< 09:53
Oregon F&W Commission adopts 1st Dungeness Crab FMP to be developed on the West Coast
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has adopted regulations for implementing the Oregon Dungeness Crab Fishery Management Plan. The FMP describes the status of Dungeness crab and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife management of two commercial crab fisheries, bay and ocean, and the recreational crab fishery in the bays and ocean. While the majority of regulations are already in place for the management described in the FMP,,, >click to read< 10:01
Experts Slam Biden’s Plan To Build Taxpayer-Funded Offshore Wind Farms
Energy experts criticized President Joe Biden’s plan to prioritize wind farms, arguing wind power is costly, inefficient, and indirectly produces greenhouse gas emissions.,, On average, however, offshore wind produces just 45% of its energy capacity,,, “It is amazing that they’re touting wind at the very time when the EU is going through an energy crisis, in which they’re shutting down factories, fertilizer production, agricultural processing because their wind isn’t working,” ,,,“That the Biden administration is out there touting it and we want to go in the same direction they’ve gone in, I don’t know, you can’t make this stuff up,” >click to read< 21:08 Britain to Downgrade Renewables, Embrace Nuclear Power – In the wake of Britain’s recent catastrophic wind drought, the Boris Johnson administration appears set to embrace nuclear power as their main strategy for achieving net zero. >click to read<
An inside look at Seattle’s fishing industry
This unique network of professionals, ranging from shipbuilders to pipe fitters to marine electricians and more helps fuel the local economy and offers a range of career options. When fishing fleets, based at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 91 on the Seattle waterfront in Interbay, return laden with their catch, a single ship might carry fillet blocks, loin blocks, surimi, roe, fish meal and fish oil, says Kelli Goodwin, senior manager, Maritime Operations at the Port of Seattle. These products are separated and loaded into export carriers, on-site freezer cold storage, rail cars (for fish oil) or long-haul trucks for domestic distribution. “The next fish stick or fish fillet sandwich you eat, likely was caught by a vessel that calls Seattle home,” >click to read< 14:05
Coast Guard issues “party in interest” designation to owner/operator of container vessel
U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board marine casualty investigators boarded the container ship MSC DANIT, Saturday, in the Port of Long Beach. Prior to the visit, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Braden Rostad, Chief of Investigations, Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach determined that the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) DANIT was involved in a January 25, 2021, anchor-dragging incident during a heavy weather event that impacted the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The anchor-dragging incident occurred in close proximity to a subsea pipeline, which was subsequently discovered to be the source of the Orange County oil spill on October 2, 2021. >click to read< 12:09
Coast Guard, good Samaritan’s rescue 3 from fishing vessel taking on water near Cape Flattery, WA
The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan vessel crew rescued three people aboard a 48-foot fishing vessel taking on water Friday one mile north of Tatoosh Island near Cape Flattery. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound command center received a report at 1:15 a.m. Friday that the 48-foot commercial fishing vessel F/V Garda Marie began taking on water within the Olympic National Marine Sanctuary with three adults aboard. >click to read< 12:17
California oil spill forces fisheries to wait at least 2-4 weeks before restrictions lift
“Nothing,” Terese Pearson, who runs the 50-year-old business with her husband, Tommy, said of the empty state of the tanks, now nearly two weeks after an oil spill off Huntington Beach earlier this month.,, On Wednesday, the response team started collecting samples that will be tested for chemicals found in crude oil. For Pearson, the testing can’t come soon enough.,, This was the first time in the shop’s 50 years it didn’t have lobster to offer on the season’s opening day, which started just as the oil spill shut down local waters. photos, >click to read< 11:37
Would you quit your job for $110,000? This California swordfisherman said no
Fisherman Gary Burke eyed all that’s left of a fleet that once helped satisfy America’s insatiable appetite for swordfish: four old vessels with splotches of rust showing through peeling paint. Decades ago, there were more than 100 such ships in Santa Barbara alone, towing mile-long drift gill nets in choppy seas far beyond the breakwater. Today, there are perhaps a dozen in the entire United States, and they will probably soon be removed from service. “We’ve been whittled down by regulations and old age,” Burke grumbled as he climbed aboard the 50-foot vessel Tytan, which has been his private domain for 35 years. >click to read< 08:39
Biden plans to expand offshore wind farms to all US coasts
The Biden administration has unveiled plans to expand offshore wind energy farms in a move that could see turbines built along much of the US coastline.,,, The plan is expected to meet a backlash from some coastal and fishing communities, and it needs approval from state, local and environmental groups before any construction begins. Commercial fishing companies have argued such offshore wind projects would make it difficult to harvest valuable seafood species, like lobsters. Some conservation groups also fear the large turbines will kill thousands of birds and affect marine life. >click to read< 08:31
Trawler bycatch debate heats up after dismal 2021 returns
Chinook salmon returns were dismal virtually everywhere in Alaska this year, from Southeast to the Bering Sea, with few exceptions. That follows a trend, as abundance has declined over roughly the last decade. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is debating changes in its meeting this month. Trawlers, which use weighted nets to drag either along the bottom or in midwater, are permitted a certain amount of bycatch as they fish for their target species, the largest of which is pollock. Bycatch is always a heated issue, but it is especially so now. >click to read< 07:10
In Jones Act dispute, judge allows backed-up Alaska seafood to move to Eastern U.S.
Companies that haul fish from Alaska to the eastern U.S. can resume shipping what they say is an estimated 26 million pounds of frozen fish that has been stranded in Canada in a battle over a federal maritime shipping law known as the Jones Act, a federal judge ruled on Sunday. The decision is a temporary victory for Kloosterboer International Forwarding and Alaska Reefer Management. The companies last month sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection, asserting that the agency has wrongfully issued more than than $350 million in penalty notices to Kloosterboer and other companies in the transport chain. >click to read< 16:39
A Celebration of Life: Commercial Dory Fisherman Craig Edward Wenrick has passed away
Craig Edward Wenrick was born Oct. 22, 1954 to Clyde and Corinne Wenrick in Oregon City, Ore. He married his wife Susie on September 19, 1986 and went on to have 4 children. The small towns of Pacific City and Woods were his homes away from home his whole childhood and where he decided to raise his family and start his fish company, Sea Q Fish. As a commercial fisherman for more than 20 years, and an official for the Doryman’s Association, Craig was well-known and loved by all of the TCSO Marine Deputies, Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Troopers and Oregon State Park Beach Rangers that had the pleasure of interacting with Craig while working the beach at Cape Kiwanda. >Photos, click to read< 20:58
Fishing Vessel: Engine Room Only Shutoff Valve Let Fire Spread
Fuel shutoff valves outside the engine room might have stopped a fire that destroyed a shrimp boat after an explosion off Louisiana last year, federal investigators say. Other shrimpers saw the smoke and rescued all four people from the F/V Master Dylan. But the $300,000 boat was a total loss, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report issued Tuesday. The report said one of the boat’s two generators exploded while the crew was shrimping off Port Fourchon about 7:45 a.m. on Dec. 1. The boat was registered in Louisiana but had left Port Arthur, Texas on Nov. 29. The captain emptied a fire extinguisher into the engine room without diminishing the blaze. >click to read< 15:14
Fishing and seafood companies sue over oil spill
Redondo Beach market Quality Seafood is among plaintiffs in a proposed class-action suit against pipeline company Amplify Energy Corp. on behalf of commercial fishing, diving and seafood companies seeking damages for expected lost revenue as a result of last weekend’s massive oil spill. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include LBC Seafood Inc., a family-owned wholesaler that purchases lobsters from fishers in Orange County with sales to wholesalers and distributors who distribute the product throughout California and the world. >click to read< 09:28
Orange County Fisherman Devastated By Oil Spill – Big questions loom for local fishing industries.
Orange County, California sea urchin and lobster fishermen were shut down from crude oil leak in Huntington Beach. This happened at the start of the season after gear was deployed and before any resources were harvested. The CDFW has shut down all local fisheries. This is devastating financially and fishermen have nowhere to turn. One local sea urchin divers wife started a Go-Fund-Me campaign to help ease the pain of uncertainty facing them. CDFW will have to go through a process of scientifically testing lobster and sea urchins to see if there are any contamination issues. Although the beaches have opened, the public safety concerns will take precedence over visible observations. Please help these folks get through these uncertain events by sharing or donating to their survival through this Go-Fund-Me campaign organized by Kimberley Crumley. >click here to read<, and please donate if you can. 16:25
Commercial harvesters “financially devastated” – 79 B.C. commercial salmon fisheries closed for the 2021 season
The abrupt closure of nearly 60 per cent of B.C. salmon fisheries this summer has left commercial harvesters “financially devastated,” according to a survey by the United Fishermen & Allied Workers’ Union. The survey, which was open to both members and non-members of UFAWU-Unifor, found the unexpected loss of income to have been the biggest blow to harvesters following the effects of the pandemic on the industry.,, For a lot of commercial harvesters, the retirement plan is their boats, gear and licence. In ideal circumstances, if you are a licence-holder, you can sell your licence with your boat when you are ready for retirement,,, >click to read< 15:16
Tanker/Whale Strike Update: ENGO says number of whales killed by ships each year in the 1000s
We posted a story about a 32-foot whale carcass was found wedged on the bow of a Japanese tanker as it pulled into harbour. Shocking images, wasn’t much there. The article today has information that is useful to commercial fishermen trying to survive the ridiculous, engo inspired rules regarding fishery restrictions, and rule changes. Ship strikes are known to be one of the leading causes of death for endangered and vulnerable whale populations, according to WWF. Michael Fishbach, executive director and co-founder of the Great Whale Conservancy, an environmental NGO based in North Carolina, told Insider that a dozen whales are killed by a ship for each one that is recorded. >click to read< 10:46
Alaska snow crab harvest slashed by nearly 90% after population crash in a warming Bering Sea
The snow crab is a mainstay of the Alaska crab boat fleet, much of it based in Washington, and the 2021-22 catch limit of 5.6 million pounds, announced Friday, is down 88% from the previous season. The 2021 fall harvest of Bristol Bay red king crab, another important source of revenue for that fleet, was canceled for this year because of too few females. The combined impacts of the closure and snow crab cutbacks are a big financial hit to crabbers who in past years have grossed more than $200 million from the two harvests. At a meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council this week, crabbers called for additional restrictions in other harvests. >click to read< 09:30
California oil spill shuts down fishing industry
Commercial fishermen like Seth Dubois are locked inside Dana Point and Newport Beach Harbors where boats cannot enter or exit on what was supposed to be the first day of lobster season. Josh Hernandez started fishing a couple of years ago. His future is tied up in slip fees, insurance and so much more during this crucial time. “I got a thousand dollars worth of bait here,” Hernandez said. “I put ten thousand dollars into the boat. And I’ve got credit cards and a two-year-old at home.” The owner of the Linda Faye, Ivar Southern, is leaving his boat docked and going to Oregon for now. Video, >click to read< 14:21
Brown requests federal disaster relief for Oregon’s commercial salmon industry
The governor submitted the formal aid request Monday to the U.S. Department of Commerce. In her letter Brown said the economic return from commercial salmon fishing along most of the coast since 2018 has been less than one-third of what it was in prior years. This continuing trend, she said in the letter, is having severe effects on already distressed rural communities and businesses that depend on salmon. >click to read< 08:58
‘Deadliest Catch’ boats bring Bering Sea whiskey to Seattle
“We just put it right up in the bow and let the boat do the rest of the work,” said Captain Josh Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie. “The hardest part about the whiskey is not getting into it after a bad day of fishing,” laughed Captain Casey McManus, also of the Cornelia Marie. Barrels of whiskey from Fremont Mischief Distillery ride along in these fishing boats. “It turns out the barrels of whiskey need to be rolled once a month to get the flavor of the barrels in the whiskey. Well on a boat you don’t have to roll it Fremont Mischief co-owner Mike Sherlock was a commercial fisherman before he started making spirits so the causes his company supports all have ties to the sea. The profits from Storm Tossed Rye sales have gone to The Sea Scouts, and the Seattle Fisherman’s Memorial Video, >click to read< 07:47
One Alaska Bay Is Booming With Salmon, For Now
Bristol Bay’s sockeye harvest has long made up about half of the global catch of this species, in a seasonal blitz as short as it is enormous: The fishery lasts a mere six weeks. Each summer, 15,000 seafood processors, boat-based fishermen, and setnetters, including families such as the Bandles, gather here to support an industry worth more than $2 billion in 2019. Some fishermen will net enough cash to live on until the fish come back the next year. And this year, Bristol Bay outdid itself,,, But such riches are localized. Outside of Bristol Bay, salmon fisheries are failing, including those on British Columbia’s famed Fraser River, on Alaska’s Chignik and Copper Rivers, and in Cook Inlet. Five hundred miles north of Bristol Bay, Yukon River salmon runs have totally collapsed. >click to read< 12:35 ADFG: Bristol Bay sockeye runs set all-time record – It’s official: Bristol Bay’s 2021 commercial salmon season was the largest on record. >click to read<
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 72′ Steel Offshore Lobster Boat, 460HP Cat, John Deere 40 Auxiliary
To review specifications, information, and 56, yes, 56 photo’s! >click here< , To see all the boats in this series >click here< 10:40
