Monthly Archives: October 2013
F/V Fate Hunter successfully refloated, towed to Cordova, Alaska
VALDEZ, Alaska — After almost three months underwater, the fishing vessel Fate Hunter was successfully lifted, refloated and towed to Cordova Tuesday. more@uscgnews Related posts – Coast Guard and State of Alaska personnel are monitoring 65foot fishing tender F/V Fate Hunter grounded near Shoup Bay August 11, 2013 – Coast Guard, State of Alaska monitors defueling of fishing tender F/V Fate Hunter near Shoup Bay, Alaska August 17, 2013 21:17
Maine agrees to reduce lucrative elver landings
Federal regulators have agreed to delay taking action on possible new management rules for the American eel fishery more@BDN 20:49
The Cohen Report, One Year Later – Advocates wonder if pricy probe into 2009 Fraser River salmon collapse has been washed out.
On Oct. 31, 2012, Mr. Justice Bruce Cohen issued his long-awaited report on the disastrous Fraser sockeye run of 2009. It runs to three extensive volumes, including a 70-page chapter with 75 carefully argued recommendations. more@thetyee 18:01
Fisheries of the US report – 13 AK ports make Top 50 list; Report includes species, fish prices This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch
For the 16th year in a row, Dutch Harbor ranked as the nation’s top fishing port with 752 million pounds crossing those docks last year. That’s according to the annual Fisheries of the US report by NOAA Fisheries NMFS more@fishradio 17:24
NOAA’s Fisheries of the United States report spotlights revenue losses
The results of NOAA’s Fisheries of the United States report released Wednesday show what Gloucester fishermen have been saying repeatedly for the past two years: They now have to work much harder to make less money than ever before. The report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which serves as an annual appraisal of American fisheries, shows a national decline in the volume and value of seafood landed by U.S. commercial fishermen in 2012 when compared to the previous year. more@GDT 16:53
Just in: Longliner burning in Glovertown harbour
CBC News has learned that a longliner is burning near Glovertown. The vessel caught fire near the shipyard in the community. A witness said that a fisherman towed the boat away from shore, and the burning boat is now drifting out to sea CBC’s David Zelcer is on the scene, and CBC News will have updates as they become available. cbcnews 12:40
A giant in fisheries science steps aside (and into the forefront!)
Some 200 friends, colleagues and well-wishers gathered at the Century House in Acushnet, MA, on Friday, October 18, to celebrate the remarkable career of distinguished fishery scientist and lifelong friend of the fishing industry, Dr. Brian Rothschild . [email protected] 12:01
November 1 thru 6, 2013 Pacific Fishery Management Council Meeting Internet Live Audio Stream
The November 1-6, 2013 meeting of the Pacific Fishery Management Council will be streamed live in “listen-only mode” (audio) on the internet. The live audio will be broadcast starting on Friday, November 1 at 8 a.m. Pacific time. Get the November meeting agenda. Join the meeting by visiting this link: http://www.joinwebinar.com Enter the Webinar ID – The November 1-6, 2013 Webinar ID is: 153-873-807 Please enter your email address (required) 11:51
Georgia shrimpers planning to petition for disaster status – Black gill disease – up to 90 percent of the shrimp have been infected.
And they’re looking for answers to what’s devastating the catch from Charleston to Jacksonville, a shrimp disease called black gill. The condition, in which shrimp develop black spots on their gills, first showed up in Georgia shrimp in the 1990s. Since then it’s waxed and waned, but the last several years have been bad ones, shrimpers say. This year up to 90 percent of the shrimp in some trawls have been infected. more@independentmail 09:22
Feds keep ban on aquaculture development in northwest B.C
Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea says she will not lift the moratorium on aquaculture development in B.C.’s Discovery Islands for the foreseeable future. more@cbcnews 00:30
Canadian chefs fight against Chefs for Seals boycott
Some chefs are taking exception to the Chefs for Seals campaign, that is asking for a boycott of Canadian seafood in protest of the seal hunt. The Humane Society of the United States says it has signed up about 40 American chefs. The boycott demands the seal hunt be stopped. more@cbcnews 00:23
Feds accused of ignoring Cohen’s steps to save sockeye
“What was hailed by many as a blueprint to sustain sockeye into the future is starting to look a lot more like a government retreat.” Cohen focused in large part on the potential risk to wild salmon from net pen fish farms and urged transparent sharing of disease data by the farms. more@surryleader 23:15
Leon Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford reaffirmed: Enforcement of ‘net ban’ back off for now
Fulford granted a request by attorneys for the Wakulla Commercial Fisherman’s Association, Panacea bait-and-tackle shop owner Ronald Fred Crum and mullet fishermen Jonas Porter and Keith Ward that she lift an automatic stay of her order triggered when FWC appealed it hours after being issued to the First District Court of Appeals. [email protected] 22:15
Progress of Electronic Monitoring Program Scrutinized
“Cost-effective electronic systems that meet both regulatory and scientific demands are nowhere near deployment,” says Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. (Public Employees Union? What’s in it for them?!!) more@fishermensnews 20:31‘Conman’ Shahin, buyer’s remorse at center of Mar-Lees legal battle, claims Lees
The legal dispute between the shareholders of US scallop supplier 
is a case of “buyer’s remorse”, states a legal document from John Lees, who co-founded the company in 1986 and sold 80% to interests controlled by a Lithuanian businessman in September 2010. more@undercurrent 20:07
Wow, man! Crazy, or just plain foolish! – Coast Guard crew terminates unsafe fishing vessel voyage in Navy live fire zone!
A Coast Guard Cutter Petrel boarding team terminated the voyage after they arrived on scene to assist the 28-foot lobster boat High Life that had been disabled for two days due to an electrical problem and discovered the vessel lacked required life-saving and safety equipment. The High Life was inside a safety zone where the U.S. Navy performs live fire exercises, did not have a life raft or a throwable floatation device aboard and was missing a fire extinguisher. The boat also had no working means of communication. more@uscgnews 19:31
NC Division of Marine Fisheries looks to public for funding ideas
One of three Division of Marine Fisheries meetings was held at the New Hanover County Northeast Regional Library to ask the public for ideas for funding its sea turtle monitoring program. The meetings were a requirement mandated by Senate Bill 402, passed earlier in 2013, which provided the division $1.1 million to fund its At-Sea Observer Program. more@luminanews 19:16
Dutch leads in Poundage, New Bedford leads in Dollars – NOAA: 2012 U.S. seafood landings remain near high 2011 levels
U.S. commercial fishermen landed 9.6 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2012, valued at $5.1 billion, according to Fisheries of the United States 2012, an annual report released by NOAA today. The value and pounds of fish and shellfish caught remain higher than the average for the previous ten years of 9.2 billion pounds and $4.1 billion, although this represents a small decrease from the high level of landings and value in 2011. [email protected] 18:54
Scary sea stories for Halloween – This is Fish Radio. I’m Stephanie Mangini
Once again it’s Halloween. Kodiak fishermen shared some of their real life scary stories with Fish Radio. more@fishradio 15:31
It’s 2:17 – 1430 and I’m waiting for the public stakeholders “webinar” hosted by the NEFMC to begin promptly at 1:00 – 1300!
The NEFMC has contracted an economic analysis of the Northeast multispecies (groundfish) fishery with the economic consulting firm Compass Lexecon. The purpose is to provide the NEFMC with an analysis that would help determine whether there are excessive shares of fishery access privileges in the multispecies fishery, and if so, what form those excessive shares take. Now, this might not interest everyone, but I’m interested n listening to the webinar that has kept me waiting! I can’t wait to hear why this well publicized webinar about this important issue is not being broadcast! BH Link 14:25
New Global Policy Effort to Tackle Crisis of Plastic Litter in Oceans Urged
Plastic litter is one of the most significant problems facing the world’s marine environments. Yet in the absence of a coordinated global strategy, an estimated 20 million tons of plastic litter enter the ocean each year. [email protected] 13:47
UPDATED: Maine’s elver-fishing industry could be affected by new regulations – harvest to be cut by 25% in 2014
The American Eel Management Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is meeting Wednesday in Georgia to discuss and possibly vote on new regulations. Options range from maintaining the status quo to imposing quotas to closing the fishery. more@kennebecjournal 12:12 new info here
Boat of the Week from TriNav Marine Brokerage Inc. – 50′ Kustom Fiberglass Industries Crab/Shrimp Vessel
Specifications here 11:49
Fisherman medevaced from F/V Jeanette near Kiribati
HONOLULU — The Coast Guard medically evacuated a crewmember from a fishing vessel located approximately 280 miles southwest of Kanton Island, Kiribati, Tuesday. more@uscgnews 07:03
Sea Squirt Invasion in Bay of Fundy being investigated
Biologists Benedikte Vercaemer and Dawn Sephton, with Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Aquatic Invasive Species program, are looking for creatures that can clog a harbour or shut down a business. The scientists have been gathering the invasive species in plastic collector plates that have been hanging under wharves at 18 sites around southwest New Brunswick since the spring. more@cbcnews 06:47
Owners of Mar-Lees Seafood suing founder and former owner, John Lees Jr – alleging racketeering and kickback scheme
The owning company, Delaware-based Seafood Development, published detailed accounts of its allegations in a civil suit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on 25 October. In it, the suit named Lees, Mar-Lees Rhode-Island based attorney, Michael Sweeney, Massachusetts-based seafood company NorAtlantic 21 and New Jersey-based Blue Sea Products as co-conspirators. more@seafoodsource 06:36
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey take different tacks on fishing aid
Warren sees the road to Saltonstall-Kennedy reform going through the ongoing reauthorization process for the over-arching Magnuson-Stevens Act that governs and regulates the nation’s fisheries and fishing industry. Markey’s preference is to pursue Saltonstall-Kennedy reform through the appropriations process for the Department of Commerce, rather than through filing a bill. more@GDT 00:26
Atlantic cod pushing out Arctic relatives?
When I visited the AWI Biological Institute on the German North Sea island of Helgoland last year for a story on how climate change is affecting marine life, the Institute’s Director Karen Wiltshire mentioned to me that cod was disappearing from the waters around the island. The Atlantic cod, it seems, are moving north, more@iceblog 20:03
Conservation groups want to halt sardine fishing
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) – Concerned that the sardine industry is collapsing, conservation groups are calling on federal fisheries managers to halt West Coast commercial fishing to give the fish a better chance to rebound. more@tricityherald 18:36
