Monthly Archives: December 2012
New England Offshore Areas Will Reopen for Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Fishing
Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–December 18, 2012. Beginning this January, fishermen will be able to target abundant stocks of Atlantic surfclams and ocean quahogs on portions of Georges Bank that have been closed to harvesting for 22 years.
Coast Guard donates seized fish to turtle group
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, illegal fishing in U.S. waters along the southern Texas coastline has been increasing.
Authorities said a U.S. boater found Mexican fishermen adrift in a lancha — typically an open-hulled fiberglass skiff of about 25 feet in length — within Texas waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The boater tried to help the fishermen, who untied themselves from his vessel and resumed drifting at 1:10 p.m. Saturday after they overheard the boater radio the Coast Guard for assistance, according to a Coast Guard news release. Read More
Dick Grachek writes, ” They are stealing our ocean environment right out from under us.” He’s right!
A lease area of 22 Square Miles which is 12 miles offshore of the Maine coast?
Mainers, better get your activist hats on, that’s on some of your best outside lobsterin’ grounds, I believe.
This 22 square miles ( think about what a lot of near-shore ocean that is) for “Four floating wind turbine generators” and of course they’re known by their requisite acronym WTG’s, “…site conditions and multiple uses within the proposed lease area” —now, what do you suppose those other multiple uses might be?
Now this statement below is typical operating procedure for BOEM (aka Minerals Management Service which “oversaw” the Deepwater Horizon operation in the Gulf—an impressive resume).
They’re going ahead with the lease and just now issuing a notice of intent to prepare an environmental statement—Fire ready Aim?
“Concurrent with the RFI, BOEM also issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that requested comments from the public for the purpose of identifying important issues to be considered.”
They are stealing our ocean environment right out from under us.
BOEM Announces Finding of No Competitive Interest forCommercial Wind
Leasing Offshore Maine Read This!
GET ON THE DAMNED BUS!
Industry Members Urged to Attend Dec. 20 New England Council Meeting;
Bus to Leave from New Bedford at 6:30am
December 17, 2012 — The Northeast Seafood Coalition is urging industry members to attend the December 20, 2012 New England Fishery Management Council meeting during which the Council is scheduled to take final action on Framework 48 to its Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan. The meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Sheraton Colonial Hotel, One Audubon Road in Wakefield, MA.
In order to assist fishermen and industry members from Southeastern Massachusetts who would like to attend, a bus will depart from BASE New England’s New Bedford facility (Whaling City Auction) at 62 Hassey Street, New Bedford MA 02740 at 6:30 am on the 20th. Industry members should let the Council know how will the proposed reductions affect you and your family, your business, your crew, and your community. With proposed cuts in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, every segment of the fleet and industry will be negatively impacted by reductions. Have your voice heard on record if you expect these reductions to have economic and social impacts for you, your crew, your community, and/or the fleet as a whole.
From Deckboss. We’re all doing great!
As noted previously here on Deckboss, the state is conducting a major performance review of the Community Development Quota program. Launched 20 years ago, the CDQ program reserves a share of the lucrative Bering Sea fisheries for the benefit of disadvantaged Western Alaska villages. Six nonprofit companies manage fish and crab harvests on behalf of village groups. Read More
Murkowski Hires New Fisheries, Economics Policy Experts
WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Lisa Murkowski today announced the hiring of Jay Sterne to advise her as she shapes effective federal fisheries policies for the nation – and the hundreds of thousands of square nautical miles off Alaska,,,, Read More
Hot-button issue of king salmon bycatch will come before fisheries council
In the final day of its December meeting, the council also decided to give the commercial fishing industry more time to work on plans to reduce the incidental catch of chum salmon among the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fleet. The council asked for a status report on that effort at its April meeting, and may take further action during its October 2013 meeting in Anchorage. An updated analysis will be released for public comment about three weeks before the council takes up either matter. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/hot-button-issue-king-salmon-bycatch-will-come-fisheries-council
Dec. 20, 2012 NEFMC Meeting and Live Streaming Information
The Council is scheduled to take final action on Framework 48 to its Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan. See the agenda below for details. Webinar Registration: For online access to the meeting, please register by clicking here. Once registered, you will receive an email confirmation with the information you will need to join the webinar. The meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Sheraton Colonial Hotel, One Audubon Road in Wakefield, MA. For further information about the location click here. The webinar will be activated beginning at 8:30 a.m. and end at approximately 5:00 p.m. EST.
Alarmingly warm water in Gulf of Maine bringing changes
Officials have suggested that higher temperatures in the gulf have been a factor in bacterial outbreaks in bivalves and in sea lice infestations in Cobscook and Passamaquoddy bays. Some have put partial blame on the gulf’s warmer waters for a northeasterly shift of cod in the gulf into colder waters, for declining shrimp catches and for the glut of soft-shell lobsters this past summer that plummeted prices lobstermen were receiving for their catch. http://bangordailynews.com/slideshow/alarmingly-warm-water-in-gulf-of-maine-bringing-changes/
Fisherynation Editorial – The Politcal Purging of Dr. Brian Rothschild. What is the Real Reason?
Dr. Brian Rothschild a world-renown fisheries researcher and author, Dean Emeritus of Marine Fisheries Institute, has been removed from his co-directorship of the Institute which he founded and developed over the past ten years. This move by the UMass president’s office will place the Institute under the control of the president’s office and the Institute’s co-directorship will go to the current School of Marine Science and Technology Dean, Dr. Steve Lohrenz, a champion of President’s Obama’s controversial National Ocean Policy and a former Vice-Chair of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership which partners with Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (a program devoted to deep ocean geology exploration associated with oil and gas production) .
The stated reasons for Brian Rothschild’s removal are at best flimsy and at worst they are a Kafkaesque rationale for a political purge.
“… it lacked an oversight board, a budget and annual reports and it wasn’t coordinated well enough to solicit research grants from industry, government and other institutions, said university spokesman John Hoey.”
Really? After ten successful years this Marine Fisheries Institute now isn’t coordinated well enough to get research grants? Grants coming from industry, government, and OTHER INSTITUTIONS. Now who might they be? Could it be Pew or perhaps EDF/CLF/NOAA or the Dept. of the Interior?
Dr. Rothchild’s professional status now, for some reason, isn’t high enough to be co-director of the Institute he founded and has been dean of for many years?
“It’s appropriate that the co-director needs to be a dean or someone of that administrative level,” he [Hoey] said.
Brian Rothschild has forgotten more about fisheries science than entire science departments at government and “other institutions” will ever know. He has used integrity and common sense in his work (rare commodities in the circus of fisheries science). He has benefited fishing enormously, keeping this vital local clean-food producing industry from the clutches of the ignorant faux science of self-serving bureaucrats and corrupt plutocracy-spawned NGO’s.
Dr. Brian J. Rothschild, Dean of the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, has been presented with the 2011 Oscar Elton Sette Award.
That would seem to qualify Brian Rothschild as “…a dean or someone of that level”, wouldn’t it?
Soas the nuisance local fishing industry is systematically dismantled to make way for the energy industry’s March Into The Sea, it is no surprise that one of the fishing industry’s most enlightened intellectuals would be removed and the Institute that he brought to prominence revamped.
BOEM seeks interest in North Carolina offshore wind
DECEMBER 17, 2012 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has published a Call for Information and Nominations to gauge offshore wind industry interest in acquiring commercial wind leases in three areas offshore North Carolina and to request comments regarding site conditions, resources and other uses within the Call areas. http://marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3345:boem-seeks-interest-in-north-carolna-offshore-wind&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=195
Northeast Seafood Coalition Submits Comments to NEFMC on Groundfish Provisions
New England Fishery Management Council
Dear Rip,
The Council is only days away from taking final action on setting the annual catch limits for many groundfish stocks for fishing year 2013. The reductions under consideration by the Council are far more than numbers on a piece of paper – the reductions in the Annual Catch Limits (ACL) for 2013 pose life-altering losses for ALL small businesses that are dependent upon a fishery that is already the subject of a federal Disaster Declaration. Read the rest here
Foxy Lady II Gloucester – Overdue
Photo. Paul Frontiero
BOSTON — The Coast Guard is searching for two fishermen after they were reported overdue Monday, at approximately 8 a.m. Missing is the 50-year-old captain and 25-year-old crewman aboard the 45-foot fishing vessel Foxy Lady II, homeported in Gloucester. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Boston were notified at 8:05 a.m. Monday by the captain’s girlfriend reporting that the fishing vessel had not returned as planned Saturday night, and the last time she had spoken with him Saturday between 6 a.m. and 12 a.m. via text messages. The Foxy Lady II crew had departed Saturday morning. The last known location of the Foxy Lady II is approximately 15 miles north of Provincetown, Mass. Searching are crewmembers from: Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, Mass. (MH-60J rescue helicopter) Coast Guard Station Point Allerton Coast Guard Station Gloucester Coast Guard Station Boston Coast Guard Station Provincetown Coast Guard Cutter Spencer Anyone with information is requested to call Coast Guard Sector Boston at 617-223-3201 or via radio on VHF channel 16. As America’s maritime responder, the Coast Guard is the search and rescue mission coordinator for overdue boater cases, collaborating with federal, state and local partners. In an average year, the Coast Guard responds to more than 100 overdue cases in the Northeast.
Fishermen and politicians: A lost alliance
It’s a great sound bite. And for men from New Bedford, Chatham, or Boothbay who have had to tie up their boats because of federal regulations, or withdraw from the fishery altogether to make ends meet, it rings painfully true. 1976 marked the moment when the National Marine Fisheries Service actively took over the regulation of fishing, and today’s fishermen have spent most or all of their careers chafing under catch limits, fishing ground closures,,,,,,Read More http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/12/16/fishermen-and-politicians-lost-alliance/IndbdEcJwXIIY0AHcqCs1I/story.html
Peabody Essex Museum
NorCal crab season delayed Daily News
Breaking! Top “Wicked Tuna” Series Boat F/V Hard Merchandise sinks at the dock.
Captain Dave Marciano’s Hard Merchandise sank at the dock in East Gloucester. Details are unavailable at the moment. I would call him, but I’m sure he’s busy, and I’m certain his priority is his boat. There are updates on his Facebook page with much support from well wishers offering their assistance. The origional tip was from GoodMorningGloucester, the premier local blog. She is in the process of being raised.
Dave and his nephew, First Mate Jason Muenzner have become fan favorites. From the website:
Welcome to the website of the F/V Hard Merchandise and Angelica Fisheries!
We are one of Gloucester’s traditional, old school, commercial fishing vessels, working year round to feed the nation.
We are proud to be featured as part of the National Geographic Channel’s show “Wicked Tuna” . We think we are the wickedest tuna boat out there.
A Soap Opera on the High Seas
There are the hits: Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch” (about crab fishermen in the Bering Sea), History’s “Ice Road Truckers” (about truck drivers in the Canadian Arctic) and “Ax Men” (about loggers), all of them among the toprated programs in their networks’ histories. “Motorcycle Mania,” a special that Beers produced for Discovery in 2000, introduced the world to the bike builder Jesse James, proprietor of the now-multimillion-dollar West Coast Choppers brand and then-future-ex of Sandra Bullock. “Storage Wars” — which adapts the high-octane, competition-oriented format of Beers’s earlier hits to the less-rugged world of delinquent-storage-unit auctions — became A&E’s highest rated series ever last year.
Fish Factor: Anchorage tops Alaska for fisherman-per-mile. Compiled by United Fishermen of Alaska
By far, most commercial fishing operations in Alaska are small LLCs or family businesses, and each fishing boat is like an individual store front. Alaska’s harbors can be likened to a “mall in a marina.” UFA is “alarmed” at the lack of public awareness about the economic contributions of the Alaska’s seafood industry, said president Arni Thomson of Anchorage. http://www.thedutchharborfisherman.com/article/1250fish_factor_anchorage_tops_alaska_for
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance – Weekly Update December 16, 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.” http://hosted.vresp.com/1181479/0773d69767/545568053/ad93d20bca/Fiscal cliff debate threatens ASMI int’l marketing budget
Congressional spending cuts could smack the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute with a 40 percent reduction in future federal “Market Access Program” grants that provided more than half of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. “The ‘Farm Bill,’ especially the MAP program, is in the bull’s eye, period. There is no doubt about that,” warned Naresh Shrestha, ASMI’s chief financial officer, during the institute’s “all hands” meeting in Seattle, Nov. 28 to 30. Read more: http://www.alaskajournal.com/Alaska-Journal-of-Commerce/December-Issue-3-2012/Fiscal-cliff-debate-threatens-ASMI-intl-marketing-budget/#ixzz2F9OkYZD0
Commerce secretary: Return $544K in fish fines – Bloomberg
BOSTON (AP) — The acting U.S. Commerce Secretary on Friday ordered federal regulators to return about $544,000 in unjust fines collected from 14 fishermen or fishing businesses, most of whom worked Northeast waters. New Bedford fishing boat owner Carlos Rafael, who will receive $17,500 back after Blank’s order, said he’s pleased to get anything, given the industry’s ongoing struggles. But he said the bigger victory is accountability for fisheries’ officers. “Even if I didn’t get any money, the world is watching them,” he said. “Before nobody was watching them. … Before they were like the Gestapo. Before you were (automatically) guilty, the party was over.” http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-12-14/commerce-secretary-return-544k-in-fish-fines
Feds consider opening New England Closed fishing areas. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would still have to approve.
BOSTON (AP) — There are five zones off the New England coast drawn in varying angles and shapes, all rich with fish, or at least they were at one time. It’s why regulators looking to preserve valuable species closed these areas to certain kinds of fishing year-round, beginning in the 1990s. Two decades later, a fishing industry in crisis wants to get back in. http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121215-NEWS-121219828
The myth of California as ‘environmental leader’ exposed! “the state and federal water project pumps that kill millions and millions of fish every year”
by Dan Bacher
2011 was a record year for water exports to corporate agribusiness and Southern California, resulting in the “salvage” of a record 9 million Sacramento splittail and over 2 million other fish including Central Valley salmon, steelhead, striped bass, largemouth bass, threadfin shad, white catfish and sturgeon. In the face of this massive carnage, the DFG and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird did nothing. (http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/07/carnage-in-the-pumps)
An analysis by the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) has found that since year 2000 over one hundred million fish (102,856,027) have been sucked into the delta pumps. This figure includes twenty six million valuable game fish, many of which are endangered.
And Jerry Brown, Natural Resources Secretary John Laird and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar only want to make things even worse by building the peripheral tunnels that will hasten the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt longfin smelt and other imperiled species. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/12/11/18727749.php
Menhaden harvest cut 20% –
By Pamela Wood — The Capital
BALTIMORE — Regulators cracked down on the harvest of Atlantic Coast menhaden, a small and oily fish that has a crucial role in the ecosystem. Meeting in Baltimore on Friday, a multistate fishery board cut the total harvest by 20 percent for at least two years. “This is a gamble, but it’s a good first step,” said Will Baker, president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The bay foundation — and other environmental and fishing groups — were hoping to cut the harvest by as much as 25 percent. http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/environment/menhaden-harvest-cut/article_1d1aaec6-46ff-54d6-8a17-ff280057e0be.html
Panel votes to cut menhaden harvest by 20 percent Baltimore Sun
ASMFC Approves Atlantic Menhaden Amendment 2 savingmenhaden.org
Omega Protein Statement on Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Vote
“Ding Dong! The Witch is dead!” Our View: Hopeful days for area fishermen
Defian
t to the end, she thumbed her nose at the fishermen she put out of business with a departing comment that listed her so-called achievements, including “returning fishing to profitability.” The removal of an extreme environmentalist from this position — and one has to assume Lubchenco was removed, since just a few weeks ago it seemed she was gunning for another four years at NOAA — is a good sign for our long-suffering fishing industry. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121214/OPINION/212140308/-1/NEWS06
Redress for NOAA law cases- Commerce Department on Friday closed the book on past violations
“After months of unacceptable delay and stonewalling of Congress, the Commerce Department has released a report that found serious misconduct by NOAA personnel,” said U.S. Sen. Scott Brown. “Some of this misconduct happened during the current administration, yet no one has been fired or even demoted. This report provides more context to Administrator Lubchenco’s resignation and makes her planned service through February untenable.” http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x520560721/Redress-for-NOAA-law-cases
5-point plan for fishing disaster relief – Mayor Carolyn Kirk
I’d like to get the conversation started about how the fisheries economic disaster relief should be invested. Over the past few months, since the disaster was declared by the U.S. Department of Commerce, many ideas have been circulated. We’ve boiled down our ideas into a 5-point plan that I’d like to share today. Really?!!! http://www.gloucestertimes.com/opinion/x520560693/5-point-plan-for-fishing-disaster-relief
