Daily Archives: May 1, 2013

Must be tough for these guy’s when their progressive champions are on the “wrong” side! CLF: New rules could allow ‘full collapse’ of cod stocks

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE – Boston —While many Massachusetts elected officials have lobbied for less severe  reductions in fish catch limits than the cuts set to take effect on Wednesday,  one local group says that even with the new limits there could be a “full  collapse” of cod populations. continued

 

NSC’s policy director Vito Giacalone to appear on “Greater Boston” with Emily Rooney tonight on WGBH-TV

NSC’s policy director Vito Giacalone will appear on tonight’s episode of “Greater Boston” with Emily Rooney on WGBH-TV, Boston’s PBS television station. Giacalone  will be discussing the reality of today’s groundfish fishing industry: where are
we today and what got us to this point? Also to be discussed are the draconian reductions that went into effect today, and the short and long-term needs that will help sustain the industry. “Greater Boston” appears today on WGBH 44 at 6:00 pm, WGBH 2 at 7:00 pm, WGBH World at 11:30 pm, and WGBH 2 at 12:00 am on Thursday. link

Saving Seafood Responds to Eco Ocean Story, “Saving Seafood Offers Red Herring for Groundfish”

The following is an excerpt from the article “Saving Seafood Offers Red Herring for Groundfish,” originally published April 12 by Mike Misner on the blog Eco Ocean. Saving Seafood’s response  to Mr. Misner’s article is below.logo

In favor of opening protected areas in New England, Saving Seafood has offered red herring. continued

Letter to the Editor: VIMS, VMRC caving to commercial interests – Dr. John B. Lapetina Sr., Port Haywood, Va.

Editor, Gazette-Journal: It is with great anguish that I write this letter. It is a letter that I feel in my heart I must write. The Chesapeake Bay is a great national treasure. It was named Chesapeake by the Indians, and it meant “Waters of Many Fish and Shellfish.” My generation and the next generation have just about over-harvested the bay until it is on the edge of its demise. continued

Bering Fisheries Experiments With Shipping Live Crab – Audio

Unalaska Community Broadcasting – It pays not to kill crab. Or at least that’s what Unalaska’s smallest fish processor is banking on for a new business venture. Bering Fisheries started shipping live crab across the globe earlier this month. As KUCB’s Stephanie Joyce reports, initial results have been mixed, but the processor isn’t giving up just yet. continued

Ground fish – Explaining the markets – The Fisheries Broadcast with John Furlong

An experienced fish plant operator explains the glut of cod  on the world market, why the bottom has dropped out of our salt-fish markets and why it makes it so tough for us. An interview with Kevin Wadman in Arnold’s Cove,  and a veteran voice on the seal hunt on where we go from here. continued

Shishmaref making bid to join CDQ club

Alaska Dispatch – Shishmaref, an impoverished Northwest Alaska village, is trying to elbow its way into a lucrative commercial fishing program that helps boost economic opportunity in much of rural Alaska. continued

Kenai fishermen jittery about upcoming season after 2012 disaster

Alaska Dispatch – And last summer, very few of those chinooks showed up. No one is exactly sure why. But in an effort to protect those precious kings — the largest and most prized of all of salmon — fisheries managers shut down the setnetters.   Setnet disaster, driftnet boom.  continued

Maine fishermen resist eel harvest quotas

PressHerald.com – The American eel, at all life stages, is considered a stock for which there is limited scientific and historical data. Taylor acknowledged considerable uncertainty in the stock evaluations from which the commission is drawing information for the management ruling that will cover the Gulf of Maine and other coastal areas. The amount and quality of scientific information on the American eel is “data-poor,” she said. continued

British Columbia Officials net alleged abalone thieves

Victorian fisheries officers have netted  four suspected abalone thieves after uncovering more than 400 of  the lucrative molluscs in raids. The four will be charged for offences including possession of a  commercial quantity of abalone and taking more than twice the legal  catch of abalone, the Department of Environment and Primary  Industries says. Convicted abalone traffickers can spend up to 10 years in  prison. continued

The failed swiftboating of US Commerce Inspector General Todd Zinser – Former commerce agents plead guilty to fraud against inspector general’s office

Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser said Tuesday that the former agents waged a smear campaign against his office while they were under investigation. “In addition to the fraud perpetrated on the U.S. taxpayers, these now former employees also retaliated by carrying out a destructive campaign of disparagement and false allegations against the Office of the Inspector General,” Zinser said in a statement. continued

Fisheries minister criticized over low lobster prices – Conservatives say $50K wasted promoting sales in China, Japan, Alberta

CBC_News_logoThe Progressive Conservatives accused P.E.I.’s fisheries minister of wasting taxpayer money and failing to improve lobster prices during an intense session of the legislature Tuesday. “Why have you failed to improve lobster prices in P.E.I.?” asked Colin LaVie. continued

No surprises in search and rescue critique, locals say – Auditor general’s report shines light on existing concerns, say politicians, fishermen

CBCNews – In St. John’s, Stephen Ryan said he’s fully aware of the problems with search and rescue. He lost his father and uncle when their fishing vessel, the Ryan’s Commander, sank nearly nine years ago. “I don’t feel a bit comfortable, myself personally,” said Ryan. “If it wasn’t for the fellow fisherman around us and boats like that, that’s my comfort, in trusting the people that was fishing with you.” continued

Three years into catch shares, fishing industry faces ‘Day of Reckoning’

sct logoNEW BEDFORD — Sharp new cuts in fishing quotas mark the start today of the fourth year of fishing catch shares and sector management in the Northeast, NOAA’s prescription for rebuilding fish stocks and streamlining the fishing industry. But the fishermen who now see their quotas of some fish cut by more than 70 percent, who see their livelihood evaporating before their eyes, who are losing homes to foreclosure, insist, without contradiction, that they have done everything NOAA Fisheries has asked them to do in the past three years, and years before that. sadly, continued

Editorial: NOAA stand flaunts rogue agency’s lack of accountability – Gloucester Daily Times

Indeed, the most downright offensive aspect of NOAA’s stand amid all of this is the fact that Bullard and Schiffer refuse to release her “legal memorandum” purportedly saying the agency has no choice. And not far behind rests the downrgdt iconight insulting tone taken by the Department of Commerce and the rest of the fishery job-killing Obama administration by recognizing the Northeast fishery as the “economic disaster” it is — the economic disaster they’ve created — without extending a single red cent in aid to fix it. continued

“Today,NOAA has responded to a declared disaster by creating a crisis.” NOAA sticks to cuts in fish limits

gdt icon“Want to buy a boat?” said Orlando, who fishes from the 70-foot vessel Padre Pio. “I put it up for sale. I have no choice.”  “Rather than take the true advice of the New England Fisheries Management Council, the New England states and Congress and go forward with a second Interim Rule, NOAA instead to chose deliver a ‘death’ sentence to an industry, a way of life, and local economies and communities up and down the New England coast,” Ferrante wrote in an email. “I cannot say that I am surprised, but today, we dig in and fight harder.” Damned RIGHT! continued