Daily Archives: January 13, 2013
Govt to review Chinese shrimp imports-Shrimp farmers are preparing for conflict with the U.S.
Hamilton Marine, Maine’s largest marine supplier, started in a Searsport garage
In a funny story told about Hamilton’s early efforts to sell the survival suits, he would walk into a coffee shop or diner on a particularly cold day and offer to jump into the water off a nearby pier, donning one of the suits. When fishermen who agreed to watch the stunt saw how well the suits worked, they began buying them. Hamilton has witnessed informal family reunions at his stores, as fishing families from Stonington and Swan’s Island, for example, plan on meeting at the Searsport store to pick up some items and then head out to lunch at a local restaurant. Read more
From the comments : Wayne and Loraine are the nicest people I have ever known. Bob Peacock
How today’s gillnet policy grounded Skamakowa’s Marty Kuller
SKAMOKAWA — When Marty Kuller was growing up in Seward, Alaska, commercial fishermen walked tall, and little boys like Kuller looked up to them. “Growing up as a young man, the commercial fishermen were the pillars of the community. As a young man, that was my dream. You know how
something like that can take hold in you,” Kuller, 50, said last week. But these days, gillnetting no longer fills his heart with pride and excitement. Read more
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update – JANUARY 13, 2013
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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
NOPC Action Alert: Contact Your Members of Congress!
As the House of Representatives prepares to bring the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 to the floor for debate and an anticipated vote next week, a $33 billion amendment has been offered that includes a provision directing funds to NOAA’s Regional Ocean Partnership grant program.
The provision at issue, which has already received media attention, would direct $150 million for Regional Ocean Partnership grants.
NOAA has noted that the Regional Ocean Partnership grant program “was developed to advance effective coastal and ocean management through regional ocean governance, including the goals for national ocean policy and comprehensive ocean planning set out in the president’s Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, July 19, 2010.”
In response to the inclusion of the Regional Ocean Partnership funding provision in the amendment, Congressman Bill Flores of Texas has filed an amendment that would remove the language at issue.
In order to ensure that federal funds are not used as a mechanism to fund National Ocean Policy activities that Congress has not authorized and previously voted to suspend, we strongly encourage you and others in your network to contact Members of Congress and urge them to support the efforts being led by Congressman Flores to remove the Regional Ocean Partnership funding provision.
Action on the House floor may take place as early as Tuesday, January 15.
Right whale, calf make rare winter appearance near Plymouth Harbor (the article comments are priceless)
A North Atlantic right whale and her calf were spotted outside Plymouth Harbor on Saturday, the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies said — a sighting so early that one scientist called it “mind blowing.” Read more
Yes, mind blowing. Fishermen would recognize this as not good.
Maine advocates criticize quiet rollback of commercial fishing boat safety rules
PORTLAND, Maine — Advocates said they were baffled when one of the first serious attempts at improving fishing industry safety was stripped down in an annual act passed quietly last month. The U.S. Coast Guard Reauthorization Ac
t of 2010 provision requiring all commercial fishing vessels operating more than three miles from the coast to have dockside inspections by Oct. 16, 2012, was extended to Oct. 15, 2015, by the latest 2012 act , which became law on Christmas Eve. Read more
