Category Archives: South Atlantic
White shrimp Georgia’s official crustacean
Gov. Brian Kemp brought his bill-signing tour to Brunswick Thursday, signing a package of measures related to coastal issues. House Bill 1341 declares the white shrimp Georgia’s official crustacean. White shrimp account for 70% of the state’s annual shrimp harvest, Kemp told coastal Georgia political and business leaders during a ceremony at the state Department of Natural Resources Coastal Regional Headquarters. House Speaker Jon Burns said having an official state crustacean will help promote Georgia white shrimp to consumers at restaurants and grocery stores. “It’s a family business. It’s gone on in our state for generations,” said Burns, R-Newington. “We want to ensure the opportunity continues to exist in the future.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 10:21
Dockside Safety Exam Program – Coast Guard helps commercial fishermen ensure a safe catch
As the nation’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay is a highly valued resource for more than 18 million people who live in its watershed. Producing about 500 million pounds of seafood each year, the Bay supports commercial and recreational fishing and creates one of the most economically significant regions of the Unites States. According to NOAA and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, commercial fishing is one of the country’s most dangerous occupations. “What we do for the local fishing community is support their workplace safety,” said Timothy Diehl, a Coast Guard vessel safety examiner from Sector Maryland-National Capital Region in Baltimore, Maryland. Most of Diehl’s workdays are spent traveling to area marinas where he meets with commercial fishing vessel operators and owners. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:21
Graves, Wicker Urge NOAA to Catch Better Data for Fisheries Management
U.S. Congressman Garret Graves and U.S. Senator Roger Wicker – along with U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (Texas), U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman and 20 other bipartisan Members of Congress – urged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Assistant Administrator Janet Coit to modernize the data used by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and bring better science to the table for fisheries management. “Historically, the federal government’s fisheries data management has been a failure. Their system overestimates what has been caught, which gives us less opportunity to fish. There are real solutions on the table to reverse this trend .“We know that there’s better and more precise fisheries management data being collected by the states than what the federal government can provide, and we want NMFS to use the best data and science,” said Congressman Graves. “Our children and grandchildren deserve sound science and sustainable fisheries management. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:23
Mount Pleasant’s annual ‘Blessing of the Fleet’ honors local shrimp and fishing industry
An annual event that pays tribute to the Lowcountry’s shrimping and fishing industry returns this weekend to Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park. Blessing of the Fleet and Seafood Festival serves as a kickoff to coastal shrimping season, which typically begins in early June. It also serves as a reminder to eat and buy locally caught shrimp to support Charleston’s seafood industry. It happens Sunday, April 28 from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Attendees can enjoy a boat parade, live music, craft show and plenty of free activities with the Ravenel Bridge and Charleston Harbor as a backdrop, organizers say. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:34
Biden administration plans to tee up offshore wind across the nation’s coastlines
The Biden administration is planning to boost offshore wind energy production, announcing up to a dozen opportunities for industry to bid on chances to build wind turbines in U.S. oceans over the next five years. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is slated to announce the lease sales at a conference in New Orleans. The 12 potential opportunities Haaland is announcing include sales in the central Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Maine, Gulf of Mexico, the New York Bight and off the coast of Oregon, California, Hawaii and a yet-to-be-determined U.S. territory. These sales were described as potential sales that could occur rather than ones definitely slated to happen, and if former President Trump wins election, he may want to cancel them. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:56
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 68′ Steel Shrimper/Scallop Dragger, Cat 3406
To review specifications, information, and 5 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 08:41
At start of season, shrimpers are ‘cautiously optimistic’ despite market concerns
Fresh shrimp soon will be hitting the docks as the first stage of shrimp season gets underway the morning of April 19. This stage is limited to certain areas until the S.C. Department of Natural Resources can confirm the majority of female white shrimp have reproduced. “We want them to be able to spawn before harvest, because the current spawn will become our fall shrimp crop,” DNR spokesperson Erin Weeks said. This approach is essential to ensuring the industry remains sustainable, said Bryan Jones, South Carolina state co-director of the U.S. Shrimpers Coalition and a first-generation shrimper based in McClellanville. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:28
Gay Fish Company to hold Blessing of the Fleet ceremony, public welcome
Since 1948, the Gay Fish Company on St. Helena Island has been fishing, shrimping, processing, and selling local seafood to thousands of customers from all over the country, and the world. After 76 years in business, you would be hard pressed to find many other families in the Lowcountry who are more synonymous with the shrimping and fishing industry. To do something special for the commercial fishermen that are docked there, and to raise awareness for the industry to the public, the family-owned seafood company is hosting its first ever Blessing of the Fleet Ceremony on April 27th, and the public is welcome to attend. more, >>click to read<< 06:22
Coastal Georgia Shrimping: A new season of uncertainty, possibilities and hope
In a word, “difficult,” said Dee Kicklighter of their most recent shrimping season. Kicklighter, who has worked with Mathews for about eight years, has seen first-hand how the unpredictability of the business can be costly. “You plan for something to be one price, and then the next week you come back, and it could be potentially thousands of dollars more, depending on what you’re dealing with,” he said of fluctuating prices, including fuel. Over the years, Mathews said the ever-changing cost of fuel has taken a toll on the number of shrimpers in the industry. It’s not just Georgia shrimpers contending with the negative effects from imports. North Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Florida and other coastal states are also feeling the friction of narrowing profit margins that threaten their way of life. Photos, more, >>click to read<< 09:15
Mount Pleasant invests in improved safety, functionality of shrimp boat docks
Much needed upgrades are coming to an important part of Mount Pleasant’s legacy. Town leaders are allocating money to renovate its shrimp boat docks in preparation for a busy shrimping season. “The more boats, the better the dock needs to be,” Rocky Magwood, President of SC Shrimpers Association said. The process of bringing shrimp from the deck to the table is a vision that’s coming to life as the Town of Mount Pleasant’s budget for shrimp boat docks will allocate funding for an updated look and safety upgrades. Magwood says that the docks are wearing out and it’s necessary for a refresh. Video, more, >>click to read<< 13:01
The One Weird Trick Trump Could Use to Get Away with January 6th
Far from shore after a week at sea, a Florida fisherman named John Yates was buste
d by wildlife officials for catching grouper that were too small. But before returning to the dock a day later, Yates chucked the contraband fish overboard rather than hand them over to authorities. So, the federal government charged Yates with destroying evidence under a law passed in response to the energy giant Enron and its shady financial practices. Called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the law was intended to crack down on financial fraud and evidence destruction. Yates argued that the law governed document shredding and fish aren’t documents. Eight years later, the Supreme Court sided with the fisherman in a precedent-setting 2015 decision that limited prosecutions. Today, that dump of grouper could wind up getting Donald Trump off the hook for January 6th. more, >>click to read<< 10:47
Lawmakers support new fees on Louisiana seafood dealers who import foreign catch
State lawmakers advanced separate bills Tuesday to address the dominance of cheap foreign seafood in Louisiana. One would require seafood dealers to pay higher fees for importing foreign catch into the state, and another would require wholesalers and retailers to obtain a new seafood importer license. House Bill 748, sponsored by Rep. Jessica Domangue, R-Houma, would raise the state’s imported seafood safety fee from a flat $100 per year to a 0.1% assessment on the company’s gross revenue. The proposal marks the freshman lawmaker’s first bill, which Domangue, the daughter of a commercial fisherman, called “very special” for its ability to protect the domestic seafood industry. It cleared the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment with unanimous support and will head to the House floor for consideration. more. >>click to read<< 08:05
Graves and Peltola Urge Biden to Immediately Halt Unsafe Shrimp Imports
U.S. Congressman Garret Graves (South Louisiana) and Congresswoman Mary Sattler Peltola (Alaska) sent a letter to President Biden urging him to immediately halt shrimp imports into the United States from India, following concerning reports of severe food and safety issues and labor violations in Indian shrimp processing facilities. The reports highlight that shrimp imported from India are farmed and they regularly do not meet domestic health standards; the suppliers themselves know this to be true, evidenced by their tactics to evade detection at American ports. Graves and Peltola noted that there is already high-quality, healthy shrimp caught in America that is being pushed out of the market by foreign shrimp sold at artificially low prices and unsafe for consumption. more, >>click to read<< 12:49
Southern Shrimp Alliance: The Outlaw Ocean Project Investigation Regarding Imported Shrimp Supply Chains
On the same day that Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) publicly released the results of its three-year investigation into forced labor practices in the Indian shrimp industry, Hidden Harvest: Human Rights and Environmental Abuses in India’s Shrimp Industry, and the Associated Press published an article and video news story by investigative journalists Martha Mendoza, Mahesh Kumar, and Piyush Nagpal confirming CAL’s findings, The Outlaw Ocean Project has provided a rare view into the inner workings of a major Indian shrimp exporter to the United States, Choice Trading Corporation Private Limited. more, >>click to read<< 09:25
The Future of Florida’s Commercial Fishing Industry Summit 2024
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Division of Marine Fisheries Management is hosting a commercial fishing industry summit called The Future of Florida’s Commercial Fisheries on May 21–22, 2024, in St. Augustine, Florida. We are honored to bring together those individuals and companies providing the world’s finest shrimp, crabs, lobsters, and finfish throughout the globe: the men and women of Florida’s commercial fishing industry! This summit will provide fishermen, dock owners, dealers, and other related businesses an opportunity to network, gain information, and collaboratively envision what Florida’s commercial industry will look like in 5 to 10 years. 09:48
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 74′ Steel Scalloper/Dragger, Caterpillar 3412
To review specifications, information, and 38 photos’,>click here<, To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 08:29
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 68′ Fiberglass Dragger, 3408 Cat, /State and Federal Permits
To review specifications, information, and 38 photos’,>click here<, To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 08:52
Sam Parisi asks, How Accurate is NOAA and NOAA Fishery Survey Science?
The agency is not required to compare their results with other independent science. The unproven science may bring concern on the health of fish stocks the industry depends upon. Our Fishermen and Fishing Industry depend on sound science. We need a Magnuson Act Amendment which would require NOAA to compare their science with other independent scientific surveys before any restrictions are placed on, or allocation cuts are enacted. Thank you, Sam Parisi. (click here to comment) 07:22Southern Shrimp Alliance Submits Comments Opposing Request by Government of Vietnam to be Treated as a Market Economy
Over the objection of a large and diverse group of American industries and producers, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) is currently conducting an administrative proceeding to determine whether Vietnam should Government of Vietnam a market economy for the purposes of our antidumping duty laws. Commerce’s current practice treats Vietnam as a non-market economy (NME) and applies special rules to address the distortions caused by the government of Vietnam’s control over the country’s economy. Under these special rules, Vietnamese shrimp exporters that are controlled by the government are subject to a 25.76 percent antidumping duty rate. more, >>click to read<< 11:23
Shrimping: an endangered tradition
The salty ocean air, the smell of pluff mud, seafood restaurants line the streets, yet shrimp boats sit docked at the harbor. This is the scene pictured in the future by local shrimper and president of South Carolina’s Shrimpers Association, Rocky Magwood, as a result of imported shrimp. Shrimping has long been a tradition and staple of the local Charleston industry, with generations of shrimpers selling their product locally and beyond. A proud heritage and position for many shrimpers. However, as a result of increasingly high levels of imported shrimp, local shrimping jobs are at risk, according to Rocky Magwood. “The p rice of shrimp is terrible,” Magwood said. “Most shrimpers are broke right now.” photos, more, >>click to read<< 06:32
From Bubba Gump to bust? American shrimpers face extinction.
On a chilly December morning, the captain of the Miss Patti is ready to throw his lines and go shrimping – well, almost. Brian Jordan’s deckhand is in a foul mood, and it’s no wonder why. Is any of this worth it? Here on the tiny working waterfront of Tybee Island, Georgia, the hesitancy is logical. Shrimp prices cratered this year, and hundreds of boats from Brownsville, Texas, to Harkers Island, North Carolina, remained dockside. The problem hasn’t been a lack of shrimp or the price of diesel. Instead, freezers across the United States are filled to the gills. A glut of imported shrimp has dropped the price to about half of what shrimp boats received in the 1980s. At stake is the livelihood of Mr. Jordan and shrimpers like him nationwide. They can’t compete with overseas rivals who raise and harvest shrimp in lower-cost “aquaculture’’ farms. more, >>click to read<< 13:06
Importer of Belizean Lobster Faces $5 Million Fine and Probation for Labeling Fraud
An importer of Belize’s lobster is facing harsh consequences after a federal judge in Key West, Florida, ordered that Elite Sky International, Inc. pay five million dollars in fines, plus be placed on a 5-year probation. The judgment follows findings that the company was exporting inaccurately labeled spiny lobster and shark fins from Florida to China. According to court documents, the illegal activities took place over a span of approximately one year, from November 2018 to October 2019. more, >>click to read<< 12:06
NTSB Issues Safety Alert on Personal Locator Devices for Mariners
A new safety alert issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to provide each crewmember with a personal locator device. These devices improve a mariner’s chance of rescue during an emergency. During an emergency at sea, a mariner’s chance of survival decreases if search and rescue cannot quickly and accurately identify their location. Personal locator devices, such as personal locator beacons (PLB) or satellite emergency notification devices (SEND), can accurately pinpoint a person’s location. NTSB investigations found that currently available personal locator beacons provide a location accuracy of about 300 feet and a nearly instant search and rescue notification when activated. more, <<click to read<<17:24
Last haul? As Georgetown eyes redevelopment, shrimpers brace for end of working waterfront
Timmy Jordan has spent most of his 49 years on the water. No wife. No kids. Just days and nights of dragging coastal waterway bottoms for shrimp, hoping for a good haul. But over the last few months, he has grappled with the stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining and depression. He’s been preparing to moor his trawler alongside sailboats scattered in the Sampit River because he and this city’s other five shrimp boat owners were told the dock at the end of Cannon Street will close this month. The target date for the closure has been fluid since last year as the Tarbox family worked through selling Independent Seafood, the former wholesale market on the dock that originally opened in 1939. The shrimpers have tried to find open dock space from the North Carolina line toward Georgia but have been told no one has room. For them, an anchor is the only option. “This is my life ending,” Jordan said aboard his Miss Lue. “This is death for us that’s been in the business for so many years. We’re dying. It’s dying, and we’re dying with it.” 63 photos, more, >>click to read<< 11:55
Charter/Commercial Fisherman Gilbert R. “Moon” Tillett of Wanchese, N.C., has passed away
Gilbert R. “Moon” Tillett crossed the bar for the last time on January 21, 2024. A native of Wanchese, he was born on December 17, 1929, to the late Leslie R. “Billie” Tillett and Lennie Basnight Tillett. Known as one of the original charter boat captains, Moon helped pave the way for what charter fishing is to the Outer Banks today. He ended this career in 1965 when he bought his first trawler, the Captain John Duke. He fished commercially up and down the East Coast from Massachusetts to Georgia. In 1975, he purchased another trawler, the Linda Gayle, and in 1977, he began a seafood business, the Moon Tillett Fish Company, selling seafood all over the world. In 1979, Moon purchased another trawler, the Gallant Fox. A strong advocate for the stabilization of Oregon Inlet, Moon spent many tireless hours alongside others trying to promote this cause. In 2012, he received the Living Legend Award. more, >>click to read<< 15:40
Do You Know Your Lowcountry? The Mosquito Fleet
For more than two centuries before refrigeration, these Black fishermen braved the winds, waves and weather to supply Charlestonians daily with fresh fish and seafood, a mainstay of local diets. The fleet’s work was hard and dangerous, requiring perseverance in the face of all kinds of weather, as memorialized in America’s first native opera, “Porgy and Bess.” So critical was their role, Revolutionary War Gen. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney donated a parcel of his waterfront property at the east end of Market Street to serve as their wharf. Believing there was safety in numbers, the boats departed, fished and returned together. Though undocumented, folklore credits one of Pinckney’s daughters with giving the fleet its nickname, as she noted one morning that the boats looked like a swarm of mosquitos coming over the horizon. photos, more, >>click to read<< 08:12
Recreational, commercial shrimp season closes in state waters
Georgia’s commercial and recreational food shrimp season closed on Thursday, Jan. 18, and will open again in May. This season saw 184 licensed shrimp trawlers in Georgia’s water, 117 of which were Georgia residents. On average, these shrimpers harvested 16.788 pounds of shrimp tails per hour spent trawling, the highest catch per unit effort on record. The closure affects Georgia’s territorial waters three nautical miles out to sea. This year’s is the highest CPUE CRD has recorded. Diesel fuel prices continue to challenge Georgia’s shrimping industry, with the national average price of No. 2 diesel fuel sitting at $4.214, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. more, >>lick to read<< 19:20
Preserving our heritage and livelihood – A shrimper’s stand against unjust regulations
I’ve been a shrimper for over 45 years. It’s more than just a job; it’s a legacy that’s been passed down through generations in my family. Since I was 15, I’ve been working in the waters of Plaquemines Parish, my workplace, my passion, and my source of livelihood. Today, as I continue to bring the finest Gulf shrimp to your tables, I find myself fighting not only for my job but for the very soul of Louisiana’s shrimping heritage. The recent rule by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) mandating the use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) on skimmer trawl vessels longer than 40 feet is a real threat to our community. This rule, though it may seem well-intentioned, is an example of overreach and disregard for our industry’s reality. more, >>click to read<< 13:44
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 75′ Steel Shrimp Dragger, 3412 Cat
To review specifications, information, and 21 photos’,>click here<, To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 08:10
Op-Ed: Engineering insights when building a trawler
Constructing a new factory trawler fishing vessel in the United States is not an undertaking for the faint of heart. Thinking back to an article written about 10 years ago, industry scholars predicted a boom in shipbuilding to replace the Alaskan fishing fleet. While naval architects, shipyards and equipment suppliers saw a boom in their immediate future, the renewal of the fishing fleet has barely begun. In fact, less than 5% of the fishing trawlers in the Alaskan fishery have been replaced. The refrigerated seawater (RSW) catcher fleet has seen one large conversion join the ranks. The Amendment 80 fleet has seen three new construction vessels, along with one sponsoning and one conversion project. The American Fisheries Act (AFA) fleet has seen one new-build project completed. Vessels in all three fleets have seen significant upgrades in this time, but the underlying hulls still date from the 1980s and 90s with some going back as far as the 1960s and 70s. more, >>click to read<< 10:16
