Daily Archives: January 31, 2013
The Gulf of Mexico could be the next factory farming zone! Tell the Gulf Council to “Can the Plan”
Ocean fish farming is dirty business:
Fish waste and chemicals can flush straight into the open ocean. Fish can escape from farms and they can alter wild fish behavior, compete with wild fish and spread disease. Farmed fish usually eat food containing small wild fish. These small fish are an important food source for marine wildlife. An increase in factory fish farms can mean less food for marine wildlife. When fishmeal or oil isn’t used in fish feed, genetically modified soy is often substituted. Soy does not belong in the marine environment, and it can have various negative impacts. Tell the Council you want a fair process now. Read more Simply fill out the form here
Oceana hails catch monitoring lawsuit victory
Conservation organization Oceana has announced a “major litigation victory” that it says will require stronger accountability through catch monitoring for the New England groundfish fishery. The agreement reached on Jan. 30, with the federal government will require “accurate monitoring to enforce scientifically-based catch limits and help preserve healthy and sustainable ocean ecosystems,” according to Oceana. Read more
THE ABSURDITY OF FISHERIES MANAGEMENT – PART 1 – WHEN NOAA MEANS NO
Recreational Fishing Alliance. As all saltwater fishermen are aware, President Bush signed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 on January 12, 2007. In the six years since this law governing management of our coastal fishing industry- recreational and commercial alike – was reenacted, the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) has pointed out the complete absurdity of fisheries management stemming from both the rigid and inflexible requirements spelled out in this law, as well as the gross neglect by our federal government to meet Congress’s deadlines and requirements. Read more
Coast Guard Assists F/V Masonic, Medivac’s crewman from F/V North Sea
Coast Guard 17th District watchstanders received a relayed request for assistance from Med Call Assist at 1:57 p.m. reporting that a 23-year-old crewmember aboard the North Sea was suffering from seizure-like symptoms and required medical assistance. Read more
JUNEAU, Alaska — Coast Guard crews and a good Samaritan assisted the crew of a 70-foot fishing vessel taking on water approximately five miles west of Fairweather Ground Wednesday Read more
Drastic groundfishing cuts approved by fishery management agency
UPDATE… 6:27 PM Wed. New England Fisheries Management Council recommends cutting Cod fishing limits in the Gulf of Maine by 77% and in George’s Bank by 55%. This is critical, fisherman say, because catching cod leads to catching other fish like haddock. They say the cuts are devastating. Watch video
Political games are devastating sustainable commercial fishing
Not a single commercial fisherman nor any representative from the food industry sits on the nine member Fish and Wildlife Commission to speak for an industry which accounts for 15,000 jobs in the Seattle area alone, according to a Port of Seattle study. No one speaks for the fish consumers which my family fishing business supplies at King County farmer’s markets, nor for the majority of state citizens who buy their local salmon at the fish counter. While they are excluded, the trophy-hunting Safari Club, the sport gear sales industry, fish farm advocates and other game-oriented groups all find seats at the fish and wildlife table, alongside nominal conservationists. Read more
Officials Back Deep Cuts in Atlantic Cod Harvest to Save Industry –
New York Times “I do not deny the costs that are going to be paid by fishermen, families, communities. They are real. They will hurt.” The problem, he said, is not government inflexibility, as fishermen have suggested, but the lack of fish. “It’s midnig
ht and getting darker when it comes to how many cod there are,” he said. “There isn’t enough cod for people to make a decent living.” But opponents said the limits would not help save the industry.
“Right now what we’ve got is a plan that guarantees the fishermen’s extinction and does nothing to ameliorate it,” David Goethel, a New Hampshire-based fisherman and biologist, said as he cast his vote against the plan.
Fishermen were furious with the result.“I’m leaving here in a coffin,” said Carlos Rafael, who owns a commercial fishing business in New Bedford, Mass. “With all these cuts, I won’t be able to keep half of my fleet working. I’ll have to cut down from 20 groundfish boats to maybe 5or 6.” Read more
Keep the Fishing Ban in New England – CALLUM ROBERTS, YORK, England
Where were the regulators through all of this? Always one step behind and perennially ineffective. Federal law delegated to the New England Fishery Management Council authority to manage the fishery from 3 miles to 200 miles off the coast, but the council didn’t see its job as speaking up for fish. This body was dominated by fishing interests, so when faced with a choice of fishing now or cutting back the catch to assure the fishery’s future, the council’s decisions often favored the short term. With such decisions, collapse of the fishery was inevitable. When it happened in the late 1980s, it was brutal and swift. By the early 1990s, all agreed that something had to be done. The council reinvented its approach to fishery management.Read more
Coast Guard, NOAA seize local boat’s catch
BOSTON — The U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA officials have issued a notice of violation for what they called a “significant fisheries infraction” after a Coast Guard crew boarded a Gloucester-based vessel Tuesday some 100 miles east of Cape Ann. Read more
New England panel approves 2013 cod limits with 77 percent cut
The New England Fishery Management Council voted Wednesday night to cut the Gulf of Maine cod fishery limits by 77 percent for the 2013 fishing cycle and to extend similar cuts for the 2014 and 2015, dealing a dire blow to the region’s fishing industry. Why this should be so became a sub-theme of the day, with the phrase “regime shift” used frequently to suggest a braid of environmental and ecological alterations —including millions of lobster traps that take an unknown quantity of cod as by-catch, large volumes of herring which eat cod eggs and seals which feed on cod, as well as the various forms of global warming that emanate from and absorb into the seas. Read more
