Daily Archives: February 6, 2013
R.I. Fishermen Rally for Counterparts in Alaska
“We’re reaching out to commercial fishermen on the East Coast because we need the nation’s support on this issue,” Carscallen said. “This is not a question of jobs versus the environment, but of protecting a thriving, lucrative established industry that yields high returns, year after year, for local communities in the Bristol Bay watershed, and the country. This is something that all commercial fishermen can relate to, and we appreciate the support of New England’s fleet.”
Read more here Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay
Voices of the exterminators and the exterminated .The New England Ground Fish Fleet
Just three years ago, the industry was told that the Gulf of Maine cod stock was rebounding and was expected to be fully rebuilt by 2014. The following year, they were told the models had been wrong and the stock was actually appro
aching
depletion. Fishermen continued to express concern with the science behind the stock assessments on Wednesday. “We’re not talking about, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to have a tough year next year,’” “We’re talking about, you know, that’s it.’”David Goethel. Read more here
Commercial Crab Harvesters Plead Guilty to Fishing in U.S. Waters
Two commercial crab harvesters from Delta, British Columbia, have been fined a total of $27,000 and banned from participating in the Boundary Bay commercial crab fishing industry for 10 years, after pleading guilty to offences related to harvesting crab in American waters. Read more here
New Documentary ‘Dirty Energy’ highlights dangerous role of dispersants in BP’s cleanup effort
In the movie, marine toxicologist Riki Ott summarized what the oil industry learned from the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989: “We have to control the images. We’ve got to minimize the appearance of damages. That will limit our liability.”
That’s what BP did in the Gulf. “If you disperse it, you don’t see it,” said shrimper George Barisich, who attended the screening of “Dirty Energy” in Port Huron on Jan. 19. “As they dispersed it more and more, the less people saw, the more they forgot about it.” Read more here
Our view: Bay State’s ‘Sacred Cod’ has become NOAA’s sacred cow
Yes, NOAA can show “scientific” data suggesting that these dire cuts — up to 77 percent for the Gulf of Maine cod catch — may be necessary. Yet NOAA also had 2008 survey data that showed many of the cod stocks were already rebuilt. And NOAA’s latest data is off an assessment model that did not include any input from fishermen, meaning it’s no more credible than the admittedly bogus data used in the “Trawlgate” fiasco of 1999-2000, when NOAA conceded its statistics were hopelessly flawed, yet still used them to set stock limits. Read more here
Opinion – Hard realities for New England fishermen
For decades the waters off New England have been subject to some of the most intense fishing pressure and environmental impacts of any body of water in the world. These impacts include shipping traffic, pollution, loss of habitat, and myriad other factors. Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute determined in a study titled, “A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems,” that the Gulf of Maine and environs had suffered an overall degradation of more than 90 percent compared to their pristine state. The worst of this has occurred in the last 50 years. Read more here!
Harmful Red Tide to Sweep Across Southwest Florida
Red tides can also be harmful to marine life. Reports of dead fish have already been received from Charlotte County, Fla. Read more here
Editorial – Save the fish, but also help the fishermen
This newspaper understands the angry response severe restrictions provoked among those whose families have earned their living from the sea for generations – “I’m leaving here in a coffin,” one fisherman from New Bedford, Mass., complained – but the council had no viable options…..We encourage NOAA to adopt the restrictions, as painful as they will be to New England fishermen, since they are the best way to give cod, now on the verge of extinction, a chance to replenish. Read more here at The Day
One fisherman’s tale shows plight of many -Richard Gaines – gloucester daily times
For a gillnet fisherman, these are trying times — with worse yet to come. Captain Don Smith, a 57-year-old transplanted Mainer whose family roots are in Nova Scotia and has fished commercially from Gloucester for more than 30 y
ears, doesn’t need to be prodded to speak to that…… Making life more difficult for the small boats are the big boats; these “trip” boats that traditionally worked offshore on the more distant Georges Bank. But the catch share trading system imposed by federal regulators in 2010 has liberated them to acquire quota from non-participants or day boats, and — no longer limited by daily catch limits —they have been induced to chase the pulses of cod onto Stellwagen, where they flaunt their scale and have their way. Read more here
