Daily Archives: December 23, 2012
Vigil for Captain and Crew Member of Foxy Lady II – goodmorninggloucester (horrible sad)
The families of Captain Wally Gray, Jr. and crew member Wayne Young, of F.V. Foxy Lady II along with dozens of friends and supporters from Maine and Gloucester gathered at the Fisherman’s Memorial to pay their respects to the two men who were declared lost at sea this week.(photos by Marty Luster) link
Fishing regulators delay vote on catch cuts
The council voted 15-2 to delay a vote until its next meeting, Jan. 29-31. Proposed allocations for the year starting May 1 have been cut drastically, 75 percent for some species. A Groundfish Committee proposal that would have replaced those cuts with an across-the-board cut of 10 percent of the 2012 landings was declared out of order by council Chairman C. M. “Rip” Cunningham. He said it wouldn’t satisfy the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act that governs fishing and could never be accepted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The proposal had already been sideswiped by Peter Shelley, senior counsel for the Conservation Law Foundation, for the same reason. He threatened a lawsuit, drawing boos from the packed hall where about 150 New England fishermen faced down the council. About 20 people from Greater New Bedford were among those in attendance.
Much of Thursday’s meeting dealt with the flawed science used to make quota decisions, especially the data collected by the research vessel Bigelow. Seafood consultant Jim Kendall, of New Bedford, along with council member John Quinn, of Dartmouth, ridiculed NOAA for making decisions with nothing but poor science, speculation and guesswork.
The Bigelow’s data on yellowtail flounder has resulted in a dramatic cut in quota for next year, which could well shut down the Gulf of Maine fishery. But the fishermen insisted the Bigelow was taking test trawls in places where they knew there would be no fish and avoided the places where there were fish.
The council did adopt a motion to allow fishing in some areas that have been closed to groundfishing for 22 years. This angered the environmental representatives, both Shelley and Oceana’s Gib Brogan. Read More
Invasive seaweed spreads along New England coast
As it continues to proliferate, Heterosiphonia japonica can create problems for Maine lobstermen as it has for lobstermen in Massachusetts. Last spring, the plant clung to the sides of Skip Ryan’s gear and clogged his traps to the point where he was forced to move his traps from inner Boston Harbor into deeper waters, where the seaweed wasn’t so bad. When Ryan reached inside the traps to remove the seaweed, it would break apart in his fingers, creating a nasty mess. Some of his traps became so weighted down with the stuff that it was hard for him to pull them aboard. “It gets all over the ground line, it’s all over the wheelhouse of the boat, it’s all over the pot hauler,” he said. “The stuff is horrendous.” Some are concerned the seaweed could squeeze out native varieties and smother sea grass beds, which serve as important nursery grounds for fish, lobsters and other marine species. Read More
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update December 23, 2012
“The Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance is dedicated to its mission of continuing to help create sustainable fisheries without putting licensed fishermen out of business.” Read More
Judge OKs Settlement In BP Class-Action Suit – $2.3 billion to cover seafood-related claims by commercial fishing vessel owners, captains and deckhands.
BP will pay $2.3 billion to cover seafood-related claims by commercial fishing vessel owners, captains and deckhands. That fund is the settlement’s only limit, Barbier wrote. He said that it is about five times the average industry gross revenue from 2007 to 2009 and, according to evidence provided, more than 19 times the revenue the industry lost in 2010. Still unresolved are environmental damage claims brought by the federal government and Gulf Coast states against BP and its partners on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and claims against Switzerland-based rig owner Transocean Ltd., and Houston-based cement contractor Halliburton. Read More
Expert: Fishing gear likely killed whale – 30-foot dead whale washed up on Flagler Beach on Wednesday
McLellan said the fishing industry is a partner in trying to reduce the number of animals caught in their gear, and they’re working to try to do that by making fishing gear more visible to whales and strong enough to catch fish, but breakable if, say, a 30,000-pound whale gets caught in it. “Strategic parts of the gear have to be able to break and allow that gear to be released off the animal so the animal can swim away and continue on its normal course of what it wants to do in a day,” McLellan said. Read More
Alaska Delegation Fillets GM Salmon Report – Begich said. “I will fight tooth and nail,,,,,,,”
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska’s congressional delegation was united in its opposition Friday to a draft report from the federal Food and Drug Administration saying that the nation’s health and environment wouldn’t be significantly harmed by genetically modified salmon. The fish, introduced by Massachusetts biotechnology firm AquaBounty, are engineered to grow much larger than wild salmon — but many Alaskans see them as a threat to both the market for and the existence of wild fish. Read More
Alaska – Better alternatives to fisheries observer program story – dwarfed by the public comment!
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) recently approved a restructured observer program that extends observer coverage to Alaska’s small boat fleet. With the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) taking over observer deployment, the industry-funded restructured program increases the cost of an observer day from the current $400 to approximately $1,000.
The Great King Salmon Mystery – You may be wondering why you failed to that king salmon this year? Some are calling it a king salmon crisis but few if any will attempt to answer the mysterious question as to where all of our king salmon have gone to. It’s not a salmon crisis when your neighbor fails to catch a king, it’s a crisis when you fail to catch one. If you ask the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, they will claim that our freshwater rivers and streams are producing plenty of baby king salmon. The mystery…. Read More
