Monthly Archives: February 2013
Peter Redmayne,Sea Trade : NGOs can’t define sustainability amongst themselves
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The seafood industry has become frustrated with the amount of confusion surrounding NGOs and eco-labels, Peter Redmayne, president and founder of marketing group Sea Trade, told Undercurrent News. “There’s always been the big objection, the frustration that the industry has with the NGO community – that they can’t even define amongst themselves what sustainable seafood is,” he said. “So when you have all these labels, one says one thing, another says another, the industry says ‘oh my god, can’t you guys decide what sustainability is?’” Read more
In Woods Harbour, the healing begins
WOODS HARBOUR — THE COMMUNITY GATHERED in churches Sunday to remember the five young men lost one week ago in a horrific winter storm at sea. “The shortest verse in all the Bible is, “Jesus wept,” ’ Williams told the hundreds gathered, including family members seated in the first few rows of the church. And Jesus weeps with everyone gathered, he said Read more
Fishing community gathers to mourn crew of Foxy Lady II
STONINGTON, Maine — As snow fell outside, tears were falling inside the Island Community Center on Sunday as the tight-knit fishing community of Stonington-Deer Isle gathered to remember two local fishermen lost at sea in December.
Arriving in the snow long before the 2 p.m. memorial service began, Joyce Gray, a grandmother of Wallace “Chubby” Gray II, the young captain of The Foxy Lady II, chose her steps carefully as she made her way down a slippery hill to the community center’s front door. She clutched husband Maynard’s arm with one hand to keep both from falling. In her other hand she clutched a pink box of tissues. Read more
Fisherfolk: Conservation Refugees Reloaded – Environmental Marine Biology Blog
Conservationsists love the word SCIENCE. Brockington and Igoe point out that generally organisations claim this word when they are striving to acquire power and prestige and to suppress opposition. The public find it hard to question “scientific facts” and a variety of techniques are employed by conservation organisations – selective choice of facts to use, using irrelevant but impressive sounding facts and ignoring inconvenient truths.
Fishermen are a bit like indigenous folk. They live, quite literally, at the margins of society, they work irregular hours, have their own social codes, can occasionally be viewed as uncouth,,,,,,,,Read more
Maritime Gloucester hosts fleet diversity forum – the “Who Fishes Matters Tour;”
For the workshop series, a team of fisheries experts from British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and France will join the region’s fishermen and fishing communities to develop alternatives that will ensure a diverse fishing fleet and protect the fish and the fishermen, NAMA and the resource center said in a prepared statement. The groups have titled the workshops the “Who Fishes Matters Tour;” in addition to Gloucester, there will be workshops in Rockport, Maine, Portsmouth, N.H., on Cape Cod and at Point Judith, R.I. Read more
Water Temps & Fish Forum
Not being a scientist, I’m not sure what it means (not that a scientist necessarily would), but a quick check of data collected over the past year by three NERACOOS buoys in the Gulf of Maine – B01, F01 and I01 – show that coastal Maine water temperatures aren’t too different from what they were one year ago. Read more
American Samoa – DMWR moves on abandoned boats
The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources is on a mission to remove vessels which have been sitting idle at the docks for some time. The only response to the misfortune of the longliners? Audio, Read more
Letter: Federal fishing actions an outrage to all, not just the fisherman – Sam Frontiero, Gloucester
Listening to Peter Shelley of the Conservation Law Foundation in a recently recorded interview shows the mentality of conservationists and rule makers within our federal government. He states he can understand why fisherman get mad sometimes. He essentially said that, yes, policies make fishermen lose their jobs _ but who cares as long as I still have my paycheck. Everyone should be outraged, not just the fisherman. Read more07:14
N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission give final amendment approval
The MFC also has on their meeting agenda adoption of the draft amendment to the Estuarine Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan and accompanying rules. Among the proposed changes is a proposal to remove the prohibition on th
e sale and purchase of striped bass taken by hook-and-line gear. Other items on the MFC’s meeting agenda include approval of the goals and objectives for the DMF to development amendments to the Bay Scallop and River Herring FMP’s and a review of the timeline, goal and objectives for development of an amendment to the Shrimp FMP. The commission will also take public comment on any fisheries issue at 6 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. Thursday. Read more
Louisiana Fisheries 2013, will take place at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center, 346 Civic Center Blvd. focuses on commercial fishing
HOUMA, La. (AP) – A program on seafood promotion and marketing for commercial fishermen will be held Wednesday and Thursday in Houma. Sponsors include the LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant. Read more
NOAA eases monkfish limits as ‘alternative’
NOAA Fisheries has announced proposed measures that would loosen controls in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank on monkfish, which is seen as a lucrative alternative to groundfish and is often caught by Gloucester groundfishermen and other New England grondfishermen. Read more
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
Tragically, No bodies found in capsized N.S. fishing boat F/V Miss Ally – Slave Driver skipper says wheelhouse and quarters gone.
Updated Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7:56 p.m. AT
WOODS HARBOUR, N.S. – Hours after police confirmed the military spotted the hull of the Miss Ally intact, the community of Woods Harbour, N.S. is devastated to learn five young fishermen were not found inside the capsized vessel.
Divers aboard a private fishing boat that went to search for the overturned boat and its crew members, surveyed the vessel and found it was extensively damaged.
Global’s Erin Trafford went to a local community hall, where people are said to be in tears after hearing the new information.
RCMP confirmed the latest development, saying the captain of the Slave Driver contacted the Canadian Coast Guard vessel in the area, the Sir William Alexander, to say the Miss Ally’s wheelhouse and sleeping quarters were not attached to the overturned hull. Read it on Global News
February 23, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia…
Local dive teams found no bodies inside the hull of the Miss Ally, the boat that capsized off the coast of Nova Scotia last Sunday in rough weather with five fishermen on board, CBC News has learned. Local fisherman Sandy Stoddard said the dive crew searched the hull, but came up empty handed. He said the vessel is badly damaged. Police are sending HMCS Glace Bay with the Fleet Diving Unit and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to help search the site. Read here
Coast Guard at scene of capsized N.S. fishing boat cnbcnews
The Coast Guard has reached the Miss Ally, the boat that capsized off the coast of Nova Scotia last Sunday in rough weather with five fishermen on board and those at the scene are now trying to determine the safest way to examine it, according to police. cnbcnews here
Big risks for divers on capsized boat –expert
An open ocean dive underneath the capsized Miss Ally would be risky, but could be accomplished with the right equipment, says a commercial diving expert. Shawn MacPhail, the operations manager of Dominion Diving, Canada’s largest diving company, said divers would be in extreme danger underneath or inside the vessel until it was stabilized. Read more
Update: RCMP confirm Miss Ally found – divers readying for mission
RCMP in Woods Harbour confirmed the overturned hull of Miss Ally was sighted by one of the planes patrolling the area around 10 a.m Saturday morning. All the information we have right now is coming from aerial surveillance,” said the source. It’s anticipated the coast guard ship Sir Williams Alexander is now on the site and the condition of the Miss Ally will be assessed The overturned fishing boat was rediscovered after two days of finding nothing but debris and open ocean. Read more Updated Read more
BREAKING – Nova Scotia boat F/V Miss Ally spotted capsized, but still afloat – Last Updated: Feb 23, 2013 11:38 AM
A plane has located the hull of the Miss Ally, the boat that capsized off the coast of Nova Scotia last Sunday in rough weather with five fishermen on board, according to police. 
The Coast Guard and fishing boats are expected to reach the debris soon. Read more
Alaska lawmakers face down GMO salmon – Murkowski asks Alaskans to contact FDA during extended comments
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