Daily Archives: February 24, 2013
Nova Scotia fishermen mourned
WOODS HARBOUR, N.S.—Hundreds of people gathered in churches in southwestern Nova Scotia on Sunday as friends and religious leaders
urged their communities to offer support to the families grieving the loss of five young fishermen.
“This is a time of sorrow,” said Sandy Stoddard, a veteran fishermen who was among the last to have radio contact with the captain of the Miss Ally, 21-year-old Katlin Nickerson.
“I’ve lost a piece of me,” he said as he spoke tenderly to crying relatives in Calvary United Baptist church in Woods Harbour, where about 500 people filled the pews.
Stoddard said there will be further efforts to commemorate the five young fishermen, and that he intends to drop wreaths at the site of the Miss Ally.
He said it will be difficult to return to halibut fishing because he will be thinking of the young men he once taught and advised on the North Atlantic.
“I’ll look across that ocean and I’ll always wonder, ‘Why didn’t you just take me God.’”
“Those children still had their lives to live.”
If you can, Read more here.
Cod, NOAA, and Existence by Featured Writer Dick Grachek
This is an expanded response to John B.’s posted comment on a Standard-Times, New Bedford, article by Steve Urbon titled: “Petition seeks closing of NOAA fisheries regional office”, a comment in which John B. states that the New England fishermen’s troubles are due to “over harvesting” and that “NOAA is not the cause of the fishermen’s troubles.”, NOAA’s role he contends, “…is only the bearer of bad tidings” and so NOAA then, quite innocently, didn’t “cause” any of this mess; instead, he warns fishermen that “…unless the [fishing] industry takes an unflinching look at the realities that it is facing” or, “Ignore the realities, and the New England fishing industry may well go the way of Newfoundland’s, which fished itself out of existence some years ago.”
F/V Miss Ally – RCMP, Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Coast Guard: update as of noon local time
This morning at 8:30 a.m. local time, in support of the RCMP, a remotely operated vehicle underwater (ROV) from HMCS Glace Bay entered the water and conducted an assessment of the over-turned hull of the Miss Al
ly. The ROV captured imagery of the over-turned vessel to allow the Fleet Diving Unit to assess the situation. Upon reviewing the images the unit recommended that additional diving operations were not required. The assessment confirmed the Miss Ally sustained significant damage. The wheelhouse and sleeping quarters were not attached to the vessel. Halifax News
The five Fishermen were not located.
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update FEBRUARY 24, 2013
“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.”
DEM reminds Commercial Fishing License holders of February 28th renewal deadline, ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Board Approves Black Sea Bass Addendum XXIII & Initiates Draft Addendum on 2013 Summer Flounder Recreational Harvest Limit, ASMFC Atlantic Herring Section Sets Specifications for 2013 – 2015, ASMFC Approves Smooth Dogfish Draft Addendum for Public Comment, Proposal To Increase Monkfish Catch, NEFMC February 2013 Council Report, RI Marine Fisheries Council Meeting: Mar 4, RI DEM/DFW Public Notice concerning Proposed Regulatory Changes: Mar 13 Read the update here
Alaska’s Board of Fisheries will meet in Anchorage Feb. 26 to March 4 to talk about Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands issues.
The board is tasked with discussing 48 proposals. Those address commercial, sport and subsistence fishing for a wide-swath of state fisheries near the Alaska Peninsula. The majority of the proposals address commercial fishing. Read more
Southern Shrimp Alliance Applauds the Federal Government’s Aggressive Criminal Investigation of Antidumping Duty Circumvention
Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced sweeping criminal charges filed in federal court against two companies and five individuals that facilitated the importation and sale of illegal honey imports evading $180 million in antidumping duties. Read more
Armies of lawyers to face off in Gulf of Mexico oil spill trial
One of the biggest legal circuses on Earth — the trial of BP over the extent of its responsibility for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill — is scheduled to open in New Orleans on Monday, featuring 34 leading lawyers in the jam-packed federal
court and hundreds of others listening to video feeds in rooms nearby. Read more
Gelatinous sea creatures called salps wash up on Peninsula, S. Washington beaches
“Sometimes, fishermen bring us stuff and say, ‘This is really weird,’ but they just don’t see them” often, said Rick Brodeur, an oceanographer known as the “jellyfish person”. The same gelatinous sea creatures that clogged the intake at a California nuclear power plant last spring have shown up this winter on the Olympic Peninsula coast. The harmless jellyfish-like animals are called salps. They’ve been found by clam diggers and turned up in the pots of crab fishermen who have been asking what they are, said state Fish and Wildlife Department biologist Dan Ayres in Montesano. Read more
Tuna caught near California still have traces of Fukushima radiation
Almost two years after a natural disaster ravaged a Japanese nuclear plant, Bluefin tuna that test positive for radiation poisoning continue to be caught off the coast of California. This isn’t likely to be ending anytime soon, either: Burke acknowledges that the plant is still leaking radiation into the ocean, which doesn’t necessarily just disappear. Just last month, a murasoi fish was caught in the vicinity of the Fukushima plant that tested to have around 2,540 times Japan’s legal limit for radiation in seafood. Read more
OUR OPINION: NOAA succeeds only in making fishermen extinct
Simply put, New England fishermen will likely be extinct by 2014. Years of unfunded, unscientific and punitive laws handed down by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have cast fishermen adrift in a sea of regulations designed to drown them. Ostensibly, NOAA’s goal was to protect cod and other groundfish from extinction, yet none of its measures have worked. Read more
Bill pulls sustainability, legality of seaweed harvesting into spotlight
LUBEC, Maine — Proposed legislation that would explore statewide regulation of the commercial harvesting of seaweed along Maine’s 3,000 miles of craggy coastline has re-energized years of debate over whether cutting rockweed and other species of seaweed should be allowed at all. Read more
Study contains good news for bluefin tuna
A research scientist at Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center is in the home stretch of a pilot study showing that substituting two types of fishing gear for pelagic long-lines might eliminate the bycatch of severely overfished bluefin tuna in their northern Gulf of Mexico spawning grounds. Read more
Letters to the editor: Lottery adds to fishermen’s burden
What a good idea the state of Maine has come up with this time. Now the state has decided to make a lottery for the elver/eeling fishery (“Four licenses and 5,200 applicants for Maine elvers,” Feb. 14). Which one will be next? Read more
American Samoa – Marina off-limits to longliners
It seems there’s no end to the bad news hitting the American Samoa longline fleet. Today owners of commercial fishing vessels began moving their boats away from the marina after they were told they could no longer berth there. Read more
Rhode Island Fishermen face Feb. 28 license registration deadline
PROVIDENCE – Commercial fishing license holders seeking new or renewed licenses from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management face a Feb. 28 deadline. Read more
Alaska lawmakers face down GMO salmon – Murkowski asks Alaskans to contact FDA during extended comments
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