Category Archives: Pacific
Dungeness crab fleet readies for opener as weather hampers season start for some
A monthlong delay in the opening of the Dungeness season will conclude this weekend, allowing the commercial fleet to get out on the water and start pulling in traps on Sunday.,,, many small-boat captains in the North Bay plan to wait even longer for ocean conditions to calm, so it’s safer to deploy their heavy fishing equipment. “It’s day by day,” veteran Bodega Bay fisherman Tony Anello said. 17 Photos, >click to read< 15:20
Video: Coast Guard medevacs injured Canadian fisherman 50 miles off Washington coast
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound in Seattle received the medevac request from the captain of the 110-foot fishing vessel Ocean Pearl at about 1 p.m. The watchstanders then directed the launch of the aircrew. The aircrew arrived on scene at 2:14 p.m. and conducted the hoist. The aircrew transferred patient care to EMS at 3:23 p.m. >click to read< 06:54
20 Strange But True Things About Deadliest Catch
Deadliest Catch is one of the most popular shows on reality television right now. The premise for this catchy hit seems pretty straight forward. Groups of the toughest men and women travel north to brave the freezing waters of the Bering Sea in order to bring home hauls of king crab, queen crab, and snow crab. Check out these twenty strange but true facts that we could not have guessed take place on our favorite fishing reality show, Deadliest Catch. Photos, >click to read< 14:33
Waiting Game: Gear ready, the North Coast’s commercial crab fleet is on hold
Fishermen are optimistic by nature, but spending $5,000 on new crab gear this year is still a risky proposition for commercial crabbers like Curt Wilson. The equipment is expensive, prone to being lost and there has been no certainty in recent years that the commercial Dungeness crab season will start on time, if at all. “I just want a chance to fish,” said 34-year-old Wilson,,,>click to read< 07:06
FurCanada open house will kickstart campaigns for a seal, sea lion and sea otter commercial fishery in British Columbia
The fur is set to fly in Nanaimo this weekend, with an open house to kickstart campaigns for a seal, sea lion and sea otter commercial fishery in British Columbia. FurCanada, a Vancouver Island company, hopes the event on Dec. 14, will raise awareness about the overpopulation of seal and sea lions which are decimating B.C.’s endangered and threatened chinook salmon stocks. Thomas Sewid, who is President of Pacific Balance Marine Management, which is the organization leading the development of the seal, sea lion and sea otter industry estimates that of the 27 million chinook smolts produced a year in the Salish Sea (wild and hatchery) the pinnipeds are consuming about 24 million of them. >click to read< 19:53
Local skipper speaks at United Nations fisheries conference
At a United Nations sustainable fisheries conference in a posh conference center in Rome three weeks ago, it was “Your Excellency” this and “Minister that” until the master of ceremonies stilled the room to introduce a fishing boat captain. That captain was 34-year-old Rebecca Argo, co-owner of a pair of salmon tenders that operate out of Port Townsend’s Boat Haven, serving southeast Alaska. >click to read< 12:55
Warren proposes ‘Blue New Deal’ to protect oceans. Where Warren’s Blue New Deal Falls Short
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday proposed a “Blue New Deal” plan in what she calls an effort to protect oceans and rebuild the economy associated with oceans. The proposal was influenced by a question from an oyster farmer at the CNN presidential town hall on the climate crisis in September,,,“I said I would, and I meant it,,, >click to read< 11:03
An Environmental Lawyer Explains Where Elizabeth Warren’s Blue New Deal Falls Short – Warren’s plan does recommend folding the US into the United Nations Law of the Sea treaty,,,, Furthermore, the Blue New Deal aims to rebuild America’s fisheries, an effort that “would support an additional 500,000 jobs and generate an additional $31 billion in sales impacts,” >click to read< 11:09
Measure to help protect, enhance working waterfronts passes U.S. House
The measure, introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, D-1st District, would provide $24 million in federal grants and loans to states, which could allocate funding to municipalities, nonprofits and fishing co-ops for projects that preserve or improve working waterfront infrastructure. If approved by the Senate, it also would create a task force at the Commerce Department charged with identifying threats to working waterfronts, including climate change and marketplace pressures. >click to read< 09:02
Letter | Save the salmon through lethal means, if necessary
California sea lions, harbor seals and cormorants have never been in danger of going extinct, but 11 distinct populations of salmon and steelhead are. Common sense should tell us we need to control the number of predators through lethal means. A professed sense of helping undernourished countries tells us we should not waste the meat. Canneries for centuries have been processing all kinds of high protein meat. I am quite sure the canneries would be willing to employ additional help at a lot less than is now being spent for all of our ESA efforts. by Carlisle Harrison >click to read< 11:34
International sea cucumber kingpin implicated in new smuggling case
When Wei Li walked across the southern US border into San Ysidro, California in September, he told US border officers—twice—that he had nothing to declare. He was lying. An x-ray of Li’s bag detected an “anomaly,” and the officers looked inside. According to a search warrant application filed in federal court, they found 46 sea cucumbers weighing about 2.5 pounds. It turns out the illegal sea cucumber trade is a serious problem. >click to read< 17:46
Commercial crab season opening delayed until at least Dec. 31
With Dungeness crab in some management areas including Long Beach and Astoria still lacking enough meat, fishery managers on Dec. 6 decided to delay opening the commercial season until at least Dec. 31 from Point Arena, California to the U.S.-Canada border. > click to read<, Commercial Crab Season Delayed Again – >click to read< , Commercial Dungeness crab season delayed again along Oregon coast – >click to read< 18:49
Randy Babich has been fishing Puget Sound and southeast Alaska for 54 years. A lot has changed in that time.
The Paragon is a 56-foot commercial purse seiner moored at Longbranch Marina, a seagoing workhorse that dwarfs the pleasure boats around it. “I was going to be a dentist,” said the owner, Randy Babich, who just turned 70. “I went through pre-med, pre-dent. My dad always said, ‘Get into a profession.’ ” Babich grew up in Gig Harbor and “got into fishing because my family was into fishing,” >click to read< 07:16
Boat Fire: Cause Still ‘Undetermined’
Investigators said they have yet to find the precise cause of a Brookings Harbor fire Monday morning that heavily damaged the Miss Pacific, an 85-foot commercial fishing vessel. “The cause is undetermined,” Harbor Fire Interim Chief Thomas Sorrentino told The Pilot. “We believe it could be an electrical issue. “The fire started on the port-side rear of the cabin and went out the back to the stern of the boat, >click to read< 06:36
Researchers, marine pilots work to prevent vessel strikes from killing Alaska whales
Over the past decade, federal officials have logged 77 incidents of vessels hitting whales in Alaska waters. About three-quarters of those, were endangered humpbacks. But, it’s not clear why those strikes keep happening. A group of federal researchers and marine pilots have teamed up to combine what scientists know about whale behavior with what marine pilots know about ships.,,, That’s important as NOAA has logged 182 whale strikes in U.S. waters over the last decade. But that’s an undercount: ships aren’t legally required to report when they hit whale. And sometimes they don’t even know it’s happened. >click to read< 12:18
FV Sally J – A Community Restoration Project
This past year, the iconic commercial fishing vessel the Sally J, located in front of the Lopez Island Historical Museum, had her gillnet gear reinstalled. The restoration of the Sally J has been a Lopez community effort from the time she came to the museum until now, and the historical society would like to acknowledge all of the people who have contributed this year and in the past, and give you an update on the progress made this year. >click to read< Lopez Island Historical Society >click to visit< 15:25
New Environmental Defence Fund Report Details Actions Needed to Create Climate-Ready Fisheries
“Even with the necessary actions to control emissions and investments to reduce carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere, changes in the ocean already underway will continue and even accelerate,” said Eric Schwaab, senior vice president for EDF Oceans.,,, The five pathways articulated in the report focus on steps that can and must be taken by governments, NGOs, fisher organizations, academia and multilateral organizations in order to create greater resilience and sustainability of fisheries. The pathways include: >click to read< 06:57
UPDATED: Breaking: Boat Fire in Port of Brookings-Harbor, Photos, New Details
An 85-foot fishing vessel is on fire at Port of Brookings-Harbor. A Coast Guard vessel is fighting the fire from the water with Harbor Fire, Brookings, Gold Beach and Smith River Fire Departments on the scene. This story will be updated >click to read< 15:45
Photos / New Details: Boat Fire – >click to read<
A dark horizon
If you’re an Alaska commercial salmon fishermen, be forewarned; the farmers in Wisconsin are coming for you. Enter the marketers. “A Better Ocean in Your Backyard” is the new marketing theme of Superior Fresh, a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) farm in America’s Heartland: “Until now, it’s been impossible to get truly fresh Atlantic salmon in the Midwest, not to mention salmon of the incredible quality that Superior Fresh offers. Healthy, delicious, and without the same contaminants you’d find in the wild. And we did it sustainably to boot.” The word that will, or should, jump out to Alaskans (everyone, everywhere) there is “wild.” >click to read< 10:33
Cooke Aquaculture agrees to pay $2.75M to settle lawsuit over salmon net-pen collapse
Cooke Aquaculture has reached a settlement to pay $2.75 million in legal fees and to fund Puget Sound restoration projects, putting an end to a Clean Water Act lawsuit that followed the 2017 collapse of one of the fish-farming company’s net-pen structures.,,, The legal settlement, which awaits federal officials’ review and a judge’s signature, bookends a contentious and litigious chapter in the fight over fish farming in Washington waters that resulted in the termination of some of Cooke’s leases, a $332,000 fine to Cooke from state regulators and a ban on farming nonnative fish, >click to read< 12:09
Ropeless Fishing Gear: New Crab Pot Could Help Reduce Whale Entanglements
Last year 46 whale entanglements were reported off the West Coast, and crab gear was responsible for about a third of them. According to Derek Orner, a bycatch reduction program coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service, this a growing problem,,, His agency recently announced grants for several ropeless fishing gear projects, including a new kind of crab pot developed by Coastal Monitoring Associates of California. >click to read< 09:43
Some B.C. salmon runs face ‘meaningful chance of extinction’ after landslide
The landslide prompted officials at multiple levels of government to organize a rescue mission that saw thousands of salmon, which are very vulnerable to stress, lifted by helicopter across the rocks that blocked their migration route. But despite that effort, prospects are dismal for the salmon in the upper reaches of the river, according to Dean Werk, president of the Fraser Valley Salmon Society. “We’re talking about virtually a collapse — a total collapse — of the salmon stocks above the Big Bar slide,” ,,, >click to read< 12:10
Blessing of the Fleet honors Trinidad’s fishing community
Hundreds gathered on the bluffs above Trinidad’s bay on a clear and crisp Thursday morning for the annual Blessing of the Fleet. As people walked to the site where the ceremony was held at the intersection of Trinity and Edwards streets, lively tunes were pumped through the speaker system.,, “We are so grateful for this glorious, crisp, dry fall day,” she said, “for the opportunity to gather together as a community to celebrate, honor and give thanks for the bounty of the oceans and for those whose livelihoods provide us with its nourishment.” >Photo’s, >click to read< 11:26
The secret Richmond lab where Bay Area crab season annually learns its fate
Each year, the fate of Northern California’s Dungeness crab season is in the hands of a few scientists in a quiet East Bay lab examining a small container of tan goo. At the California Department of Public Health lab in Richmond, the goo is viscera, or the internal organs of a Dungeness crab, and the scientists study it to determine whether a neurotoxin called domoic acid is present.,,, While the commercial Dungeness crab season is on hold for an entirely different reason — a lawsuit,,, >click to read< 07:56
Update: WEATHER DELAY!!! Fishermen Helping Kids with Cancer to hold the Maple Ridge herring sale on Saturday!
Update (November 29): Fishermen Helping Kids With Cancer (FHKWC) announced that due to inclement weather conditions, the sale has been postponed and rescheduled to December 7.
A herring sale will take place Saturday, Nov. 30, in the front parking lot at Bruce’s Country Market, 23963 Lougheed Hwy. in Maple Ridge, starting at 8 a.m. and continuing until the fish run out. The idea for the fundraiser was sparked by the three-year battle a B.C. fisherman’s daughter had with cancer. She helped in the planning of the event, but died at the age of 17, just a few days before the inaugural sale. To date, Fishermen Helping Kids with Cancer has raised more than $650,000 for children being treated for cancer at B.C. Children’s Hospital. Video, >click to read< 13:04
Hope, history and redemption abound at the boatyard
There’s the frugal albacore fisherman gearing up for another go on a Canadian boat named after an American animated film. There’s the historic fishing vessel from a famed fishing family that last graced local waters more than 50 years ago being fully restored and ready to return. There’s an all-aluminum commercial vessel being rebuilt and repurposed into a bigger, faster and more-capable craft. Stories of hope, history and redemption abound at the Port of Ilwaco Boatyard, where the sole public boatyard on the Pacific Coast of Washington draws a unique clientele each season. >click to read< 13:56
The Port of Toledo is busy and doing well
“We’ve been operating from a plan all along,” said Port Manager Bud Shoemake. “Ports in Oregon are required to have a business plan and an investment plan, too.” The board voted unanimously to award the foundation and the erection contracts to industrial general constructor JH Kelly, the Washington company the port purchased the building through. JH Kelly was the only company to bid on the erection of the building and was also the lowest of three bids for the foundation job. Shoemake explained. “We’ve got big boats stacked up in the boatyard right now and not much room. >click to read< 13:27
Bumble Bee Foods to File Bankruptcy, Sell Assets to Taiwanese Firm
Bumble Bee Foods announced Thursday it will file for bankruptcy and sell its assets to a Taiwanese company for $925 million. The bankruptcy sale comes in the aftermath of criminal fines and civil lawsuits against the San Diego company in the wake of a federal price-fixing case. “It’s been a challenging time for our company but today’s actions allow us to move forward with minimal disruption to our day-to-day operations,” said Jan Tharp, president and chief executive officer. >click to read< 16:53
Wave Energy Tech Is Ready to Plug Into a Real Grid
In Hawaii, the OceanEnergy Buoy is slated to connect to the island of Oahu’s electric grid next month. The 749-metric-ton device was recently towed from Portland, Ore., to the U.S. Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site, where the bright yellow buoy will undergo a year of performance tests. The project builds on a decade of research and several smaller iterations, including a quarter-scale model that was tested for three years in Ireland’s Galway Bay. >click to read< 08:22
California agrees with crabbers to postpone Dungeness crab season
Bodega Bay’s commercial fishing fleet succeeded Wednesday in persuading state wildlife officials to postpone the opening of Dungeness crab season to safeguard protected whales species still lingering in the fishing grounds. In a move at the behest of the crab industry, Chuck Bonham, the state fish and wildlife director, agreed to push back the season opener to Dec. 15. Crab fishing was slated to open Friday along the coast from Sonoma to San Mateo counties. The decision is subject to two days of public comment ending Friday afternoon. >click to read< 07:17
Bodega Bay crab fleet to sit out Dungeness opener to avoid whales, urging other ports to do same
Bodega Bay’s commercial crabbing fleet has agreed to voluntarily forgo Friday’s scheduled Dungeness crab season opener, an extraordinary step aimed to avoid potentially harmful encounters with endangered humpback whales,, The Bodega Bay fleet, which was unanimous in its decision Tuesday, is hoping to persuade nearby ports to follow suit, resisting the urge to get out on the water for the time being,,, >click to read< 08:00
