Monthly Archives: September 2013
New Bedford Working Waterfront Festival features tunes and tales
NEW BEDFORD — Thousands congregated on the city docks Saturday afternoon for the Working Waterfront Festival, getting a taste of the city’s seafood and the death-defying efforts to bring it to shore. New Bedford fisherman Phil Ashworth sat with a bare prosthetic leg and an American flag bandana around his forehead, featured at a music and poetry event titled Storms & Close Calls. more@southcoasttoday 01:22
Another Invasive Species Found in Maine:UM Machias students discover invasive crab in Beals which poses threat to Maine’s shoreline ecosystem
MACHIAS, Maine — A group of students from the University of Maine-Machias made a bittersweet discovery this week. They found an Asian shore crab on Great Wass Island in Beals, the northernmost point where the crab has been sighted. more@bdn 22:52
The American Samoa Government has signed a new lease with StarKist Samoa
The new lease, which has been submitted to the Fono for review, is for 408,203 square feet of land in Atu’u. The old 30-year lease between StarKist and ASG expired last month and it was for 270,126 sq. feet which covers the cannery premises, warehouse net lockers, marine railway, area along the dock, guard shack and below guard shack. [email protected] 18:15
The Big Q: why did Anglo American exit now? The Big A: Could it be that Anglo American believes the EPA will block the mine?
Before pulling out of the Pebble Mine project last week, Anglo American (PINK:AAUKY), 1 of the world’s biggest mining companies invested 6 yrs and at least $541-M in a partnership with Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals (NYSE:NAK) to develop the site in southwestern Alaska. Wait, pause on that number for a sec: $541-M. more@livetradingnews 17:16
DFO seizes illegally harvested fish in Hay River
Yellowknife, NWT – An investigation is underway and charges are expected to be laid after Fisheries officers seized 2.35 tons of illegally harvested fish in Hay River on Saturday. During a Fisheries and Oceans Canada aerial patrol, officers caught four commercial fishing vessels operating in areas that are closed to commercial fishing. more@hqyellowknife 17:03
Slow Start to F/V Lone Star Salvage Ops in the Igushik River
A second, more substantial salvage operation got underway this week, but it seems crews have already run into problems. more@kdlg 13:51
Baker | Alaska seafood: we could learn a thing or three
It’s always been a common way of doing business in eastern Canadian fisheries. When markets take downturns and prices dip, the answer is simple: catch more fish…But what if we did have an option? What if we actually had coordinated marketing for our seafood so that we could drive demand, instead of just increasing supply every time we hit a bump in the road? Seems like it’s working out fine for Alaska. more@cbcnews 09:22
As an avid listener to the Fisheries Broadcast, I find disappointment that the website’s podcast archives have become incomplete since Jamie Baker became the host. There are a number of missing podcasts that I would have linked to fisherynation.com, because they have bearing on New England’s groundfish issues. The basis for Baker’s article today was a discussion with an ASMI representative that would have been linked earlier in the week, and relinked to this post so you could listen to the conversation. I have communicated my concerns. BH
Thanks, But No Thanks OPINION: EPA intervention not in Alaska’s best interest – Ron Bowers, Dillingham, Alaska
I appreciate the EPA Administrator’s efforts to hear the concerns of local residents on a proposed . However I am totally opposed to inviting a heavy handed and out of control federal agency full of unelected bureaucrats to intervene in this issue that needs to be decided by Alaskans. more@bristolbaytimes 09:00
Fishermen reiterated their opposition to any new Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary closed areas.
A Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary working group will reconvene Monday, after holding more public meetings this week to get input on potentially closing more areas to fishing and other hot-button topics. The sanctuary held the extra meetings after fishermen voiced opposition to a series of maps, detailing proposed closed fishing areas, by some members of the sanctuary’s Ecosystem Protection Working Group. more@keysnet 08:46
Research trip sparks big-picture ocean talks – big picture debate
The ideas, he says, had been germinating for a while — big-picture ruminations on alternative and sustainable energy sources, with the future of the oceans and their fisheries serving as a backdrop to the more tightly focused attention on Gloucester and its harborfront and fishing issues. But it wasn’t until this summer, when Camron Adibi took part in a research trip by the Gloucester-based Ocean Alliance to the Gulf of Mexico to study the toxicity of sperm whales after the BP Oil disaster, that it finally crystalized in his mind. more@GDT 08:00
In Honor of Retiring SMAST Dean Brian Rothschild, a Research Fund.
To celebrate Rothschild’s career and raise money for the fund, a dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Century House in Acushnet. Tickets, which must be ordered by Oct. 11, range from $100 and $250 for individuals to $5,000 for a table for 10, including recognition in the program and from the podium. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the University Advancement Office at 508-999-8200 or [email protected]. more@southcoasttoday 01:49
Canada Continues to Advance Sustainable Fisheries Management and Protection of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems at the Annual Meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization
Halifax, Nova Scotia – At this year’s annual meeting in Halifax, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) adopted a range of measures to strengthen the conservation and management of key fish stocks and to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME) that form habitat for many of those species. more@dfo 22:37
N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries asking pound net fishermen to be turtle diligent in checking nets
The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries issued a news release Friday in response to last week’s reported interactions with the sea turtles. In addition, the division is asking the public to promptly report turtles entangled or caught in fishing gear. [email protected] 22:24
Wild salmon: Are their best days all behind them?
Chinook salmon returns are setting records on the Columbia this year. But 80 percent are hatchery fish. Thirteen wild salmon populations in the region are listed as endangered and 11 are threatened. The latest threat, warming waters, comes on top of the longstanding dangers of hydropower for salmon. more@crosscut 20:29
Three Fishermen Rescued from Sinking F/V Fjord Mist off the Washington Coast this morning
WARRENTON, Ore. — Coast Guard Station Quillayute River, Wash., crews rescue three fishermen from the sinking F/V Fjord Mist two miles west of James Island, Friday. The fishermen were safely transported to Station Quillayute River by one of two 47-foot Motor Life Boat crews that responded to the sinking 50-foot fishing vessel; the second vessel remained on scene until the fishing vessel sank at 11:23 a.m. in 103 feet of water. more@uscgnews Additional photo’s here 17:53
A safety program created for fishermen and delivered by fishermen test piloted in British Columbia
FISH SAFE has helped to move forward a culture of safety and helped fishermen in British Columbia to see where the safety shortcomings are on their own vessels. But the idea has always been that this is a program that could benefit the fishing industry in all of Canada. With this in mind, this week and part of next week, a version of the program – Safest Catch Nova Scotia – is undergoing a pilot project on the East Coast of the country, with some training and execution of the program happening in southwestern Nova Scotia, including in Yarmouth and Digby counties. more@ycvanguard www.fishsafebc.com 14:16
October 1, 2013 Closure of the New York Summer Flounder Fishery
NMFS announced that the 2013 commercial summer flounder quota allocated to New York has been harvested. Effective 0001 hours, October 1, 2013, fishing vessels issued a Federal moratorium permit for the summer flounder fishery may no longer land summer flounder in New York for the remainder of the 2013 calendar year Click here to read more. 13:51
Back in Black: Black Sea Bass Stock is Rebuilt
The wait wasn’t easy but it’s over. NOAA Fisheries has declared the southern stock of black sea bass successfully rebuilt. With that, the combined commercial and recreational catch limit for this popular species has more than doubled, to 1.8 million pounds. The southern stock of black sea bass ranges from Cape Hatteras, NC to the Florida Keys. For the communities along that stretch of coast, the higher catch limit is extremely good news. [email protected] 13:47
Are rebounding cod numbers really behind the decline in crab? The Fisheries Broadcast with Jamie Baker
We’ll hear more concerns about the salmon escape in Hermitage Bay. listen@the fisheriesbroadcast 13:38
Coast Guard medevacs crewman from F/V Poncho 60 miles south of Intracoastal City
NEW ORLEANS — A Coast Guard aircrew medevaced a 45-year-old crewman from a 100-foot shrimper approximately 60 miles south of Intracoastal City in the Gulf of Mexico, Thursday. more@uscgnews
Haida Salmon Restoration Corp’s work has been described as a “rogue experiment”. Is it? – Company officials find receptive audience in Squamish
But the operators of a B.C.-based company under investigation for possible violations of Canada’s Environmental Assessment Act appear to be making headway in their quest to gain public and scientific acceptance of the iron fertilization project done in the summer of 2012 in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Haida Gwaii. more@thechief 12:17
Coho tangle-net fishing coming to lower Columbia
The Columbia River Compact on Thursday approved eight days of fishing downstream of Warrior Rock on Sauvie Island with 3.75-inch-mesh nets and recovery boxes. The nets can not be in the water longer than 30 minutes at a time. Tangle nets are smaller mesh nets than used traditionally. They are intended to catch fish by tangling in the teeth or jaw, rather than in the fragile gills. Wild fish can be placed in the recovery boxes, then released. more@thecolumbian 11:54
Documentary filmmaker Twyla Roscovich captures the wild life of salmon
It’s a Vancouver International Film Festival first for Ms. Roscovich, who has worked as a director and cinematographer for the BBC Natural History and Discovery Channel. The film raises questions about the salmon-farming industry’s role in the situation. Ms. Morton’s Pacific Wild Salmon Society financed the project. more@globeandmail 10:07
Report: Polluted farm runoff linked to toxic green algae slime in U.S. waters
They call it the green slime, a toxic ooze of algae that covered lakes and other water bodies across the United States this summer, closing beaches in Wisconsin and Kentucky, and killing scores of dolphins, manatees, birds and fish in Florida, a report says. more@wapo 09:45
NMFS is harming efforts to ban the sale of shark fins Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States.
Absolute foolishness– The Shark Conservation Act of 2010 was designed as a statutory shield to protect the world’s troubled shark populations. Any sensible person would deduce this. Few could have anticipated, however, that the National Marine Fisheries Service would pervert the act and use it as a regulatory spear against millions of sharks, against conservation and against common sense. more@wapo 03:56
An open letter from the MSC to Alaska – From the Marine Stewardship Council/9/26/13
An open letter and fact sheet to address negative and inaccurate statements about the MSC program by ASMI, Alaska elected officials and trade journal reporting. more@fishradio via Deckboss 02:37
As someone said Another black eye for real fishermen – Man charged on warrants after raid on boat
Police, acting on a tip, arrested a Maine man on a boat Tuesday on warrants from his home state after a raid on two boats that did not turn up drugs, but signs that crew members had been using heroin. Police first responded to a report of a “brick” of heroin aboard the F/V Orion, which was tied up next to the vessel Capt. Joe at the Jodrey State Fish Pier around 10 p.m. unfortunately, more@GDT 23:58
Cooke Aquaculture’s escaped farmed salmon a major concern, says Opposition critic – Number of escapees estimated to be better than 50,000
Liberal fisheries critic Jim Bennett says a recent incident of Cooke Aquaculture’s farmed salmon escaping from into Hermitage Bay compounds concern over an earlier escape on the Garnish River. Bennett said in a news release, he’s been informed that the number is closer to 50,000 rather than the reported 20,000. more@thetelegram 16:36
Research reveals bottom feeding techniques of tagged humpback whales in Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary
The study further states that the observed feeding behavior also leads to vulnerability to entanglement in bottom set fishing gear, an issue which is a major mortality factor for the species. This finding reaffirms a NOAA Fisheries regulation that mandates the use of sinking line between fishing traps used in the lobster fishery as a way of reducing entanglements. [email protected] 16:21
New policies, and a court ruling, protect whales from ships in SF Bay and along the Pacific coast from the US Navy.
Whales, dolphins, and marine mammals in the San Francisco Bay and along the California coast could be better protected by a federal court ruling on US Navy exercises and new policies being put in place to prevent whales from being struck by ships. US District Court Judge Nandor Vadas issued a ruling late yesterday (Wed/25) finding that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to protect thousands of whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and porpoises from Navy training exercises along the Pacific coast. It requires the agency to reconsider permits and whether they violated the Endangered Species Act. more@sfbg 16:13
