Monthly Archives: December 2013
The 131-foot fishing processor Juno caught fire in Westport, Wash., at approximately 1:30 a.m – Nothing crazy to report yet.
The master of the fish processor was aboard the vessel at the time it caught fire, but no injuries have been reported. The fire was reported out at 4:05 a.m. There is thought to be approximately 5,000 gallons of firefighting water aboard, with 4 1/2 to 5 feet on deck, causing the vessel to list. Members of the incident management division from Coast Guard Sector Columbia River in Warrenton, Ore., were dispatched to the scene. Read more @uscgnews 16:09
Monhegan residents voice concerns over proposed offshore wind project – worry about noise and visual impacts, as well as effects on lobstering.
Some residents of Monhegan aren’t ready to trade their cherished natural sanctuary for cheaper electricity. Residents and visitors to the island have submitted their concerns to the Maine Public Utilities Commission, which is considering the merits of a pilot wind-power project called Maine Aqua Ventus. The project could lead to a 50-turbine wind farm in the Gulf of Maine that could produce enough power for 6,000 homes and slash the cost of electricity on Monhegan, which is 16 miles off the mainland. Read more @portlandpress 12:06
It’s all about the habitat – River-herring restoration booming
Millions of dollars in federal, state and private money have created a small boom in state-of-the-art, fishway construction projects on many Rhode Island rivers and streams. Fish ladders are being put in, dams are coming down. And on the coast, in the port of Galilee in Narragansett, fishermen are working with scientists in new ways to come up with river-herring-avoidance programs. Read more @pbn.com 09:02
Commercial Fishing Video Of The Day | Eddie Hayes | Dungy 2013 from JuneauTek
Dungeness season off the Oregon Coast is just getting started this time of year. Eddie Hayes delivers a super professional edit of the harsh conditions and long hours aboard the F/V Aleutians Isle. The weather looks less than enjoyable, but the payday is the key. Crew members can easily make 30,000 dollars in a winter season of crabbing. This film will be featured in the upcoming 2014 Commercial Fishing Film Festival. Watch Video here 03:10
New Bedford Harbor Development Commission – Request for proposals – Launch Service
The New Bedford Harbor Development Commission is seeking requests from persons interested in operating a launch service (on call taxi service) in New Bedford Harbor for the 2014 boating season. Proposals due, January 27, 2014 Read the details here 22:04
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester files bi partisan Seafood Marketing Program bill
The bill, which calls for the establishment of a Massachusetts Seafood Marketing Program within the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), has drawn the support of 23 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It calls for the establishment of a coordinated program within DMF to market seafood landed in the commonwealth and to take actions to increase consumer demand and preference for the local seafood products and support for the commonwealth’s fishing and seafood industry. Read more@wickedlocal 17:20
Alaska Court of Appeals reinstates fishing charges against ex-lawmaker, two others, forth pleads out.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Court of Appeals on Friday reinstated charges against a former state senator and others for violating conditions of their subsistence fishing permits. A wildlife officer in August 2009 cited then-lawmaker Albert Kookesh, D-Angoon, and others for catching more sockeye salmon than allowed under a subsistence fishing permit. Read more@adn 17:06
Chefs are on guard against crooked suppliers passing off cheap impostors for more valuable species
Douglas Katz is the chef and owner of Fire food and drink at Shaker Square,The Katz Club in Cleveland Heights, and Provenance at the Cleveland Museum of Art. And he’s an environmentalist. The group Entrepreneurs for Sustainability has named him a Champion of Sustainability. His main concern is the health of our oceans and rivers in an era of climate change. And that ties in to his primary passion…fine food. “The wild fish populations are depleting so you have to know whether there’s enough fish to sustain our restaurant.” Read [email protected] 12:01
North Pacific: Revisions to federal fisheries act released for public review
The House Natural Resources Committee released draft legislation Dec. 19 with 30 pages of proposed MSA changes that address several major fisheries issues, including catch share programs, electronic monitoring, rebuilding plans and the term “overfished.” Catch share programs also would be adjusted under the draft legislation. The law would define catch share programs in regulation, and give processors a spot at the table as future programs are developed. Read more@alaskajournal 11:05
Salmon farmer fishing for higher returns
As the co-owner of Omega Pacific Hatchery, near Port Alberni, Ms. Schmitt has been growing salmon for the fish-farming industry for 34 years. During that time, she figures the company has spawned more than 10,000 adult Chinook and reared more than 30 million juveniles from eggs. Along the way, she became convinced the best way to grow young Chinook salmon is to mimic nature by raising them in colder water, for longer and feeding them less than the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) does in its federally run hatcheries. Read more@globeandmail 08:03
NOAA gets low grades among fed workplaces – Patent and Trademark office #1 – The difference between destruction and production?
A NOAA spokesman declined to comment on the survey results, instead issuing a statement that did not address the apparent increasing dissatisfaction among the agency’s employees or indicate whether the agency’s management consider the results an accurate barometer of NOAA leadership and its workplace environment. The survey results particularly reflect a continuing trend of disenchantment among NOAA’s employees with the agency’s leadership, which has been a study in instability and upheaval for more than five years, beginning with the tumultuous term of Administrator Jane Lubchenco and into the current term of Kathryn Sullivan. Read more@gdt 00:36
Video Presentation – Fishers Forum: Debunking Fishery Myths from the WPRFMC
Learn what’s fact and fiction in Hawaii’s fisheries: longlines (Jim Cook), lay net (Frank Farm), aquarium fish collecting (Matthew Ross) and SCUBA spearfishing (Makani Christensen). Watch the video here 22:00
No friend of the fishing industry, Sally Jewell at a different kind of summit: Head of the Department of the Interior
Sally Jewell would rather scale the Washington Monument than sit in one more meeting about cutting her budget. This is not just hyperbole. The secretary of the interior has done both and clearly prefers the former. Read more@wapo 16:53
In halibut turf wars, no one’s looking out for the little guy
The time is well past for contemplating why the U.S. government would stick it to Alaska halibut fishermen least able to defend themselves, but that doesn’t make the question moot. Too long it has been ignored, and in that regard I am forced to contemplate the long-ago comments of an acquaintance highly placed in the hierarchy of the bureaucracy dictating the management of fisheries in the north Pacific Ocean. For reasons about to become obvious, this person will remain nameless. Suffice to say, however, that it was a member of a federal bureaucracy that is supposed to protect the interests of all Americans Read more@alaskadispatch 14:08
Ya can’t make this stuff up! – This weird deep-sea worm has a dick on its head – From the good folks at grist
The bone-eating snot-flower worm (or Osedax mucofloris if you wanna get prissy) was just discovered less than a decade ago, on the ocean floor — and it’s hella weird. For starters, 600 or more males can compete for each female. (AW yeah!) Plus, it looks like a fluffy pink cloud. Well, a cloud with a giant dick blossoming out of it: Read [email protected] 11:42
Knitting with Stainless Steel Wire! (get ready to bleed) Grant’s Getaways-Winter Crab – Video
When you’re lucky enough to go fishing with a good friend who knows the water well, you’re sure to learn something new. That’s especially true when the Columbia River is under your keel to carry you toward new adventure. Steve Fick first explored the Columbia River estuary as a kid, so he knows his way around the vast waterway where the river meets the sea. Read [email protected] 09:05
A king without a crown: Chinook vulnerable to ocean forces
Editor’s note: This is the ninth in the Morris Communications series – “The case for conserving the Kenai king salmon.”Alaska’s long-lived monarch — the king salmon — has fallen from its throne. The species, which once thrived as a fabled ruler in state waters, was sought-after by fisherman from all over the world. Their massive presence in rivers like the Kenai, the Yukon and the Taku, to name only a few, brought sport and commercial fisherman to banks and river mouths for a chance to harvest this mighty resource. Read more@alaskastar 08:48
Splitting the S-K NOAA Crumbs: NOAA zeroing in on tariff grants – Editorial: Fishing aid dollars shouldn’t be limited to new appropriations
NOAA zeroing in on tariff grants – The process for determining the successful applicants for Saltonstall-Kennedy grant funds is entering the final stages of technical review and administrators hope to begin the flow of money to successful candidates sometime in January, NOAA officials said Tuesday. The money is drawn from federal tariffs paid on seafood imported into the U.S., and nearly 90 percent of all seafood sold in the U.S. is now imported. Read more@gdt
Editorial: Fishing aid dollars shouldn’t be limited to new appropriations – It’s been 15 months now since Rebecca Blank, then the acting secretary heading the U.S. Department of Commerce, formally declared the Northeast groundfishery an “economic disaster.” Still, with independent fishermen selling off their boats, and in some cases their homes, to find a means of support for themselves and their families, the federal government largely responsible for these death-through-regulation mandates and policies has still not provided a dime of meaningful aid for those on the front lines of the crisis. Read more@gdt 08:26
“We really don’t know if the stock is rebuilt,” Roy Crabtree of the National Marine Fisheries Service – Goliath grouper could be placed back on the hook
The possible future of South Florida fishing rules, including the latest information on Goliath grouper populations, goes before combined panels of federal and state fishery experts convening Jan. 7-9 in Key Largo. “This is really interesting stuff,” said Robert Mahood, executive director of the federal South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Read [email protected]” 01:15
North Carolina could reap a great deal of both the potential rewards and costs if the Atlantic coastline were to be opened up to oil and gas exploration.
Offshore development would require the construction of a massive support infrastructure, which could certainly negatively affect the important inland waterways and wetlands across Eastern North Carolina. And oil spills and drilling rig accidents are a fact of life in the coastal waters where offshore drilling is allowed in other parts of the country. Read more@rockymounttelegram 01:03
Maryland assigning commercial fishermen catch shares – will have individual quotas of striped bass
State fisheries officials say they’re not trying to hurt watermen. “Whenever you have a major change like this … you have winners and losers,” said Tom O’Connell, state fisheries director. “It sorts itself out.” Read more@baltimoresun 00:57
Effects, lessons of 1983 freeze evident on Texas ecosystem
Ed Hegen still shivers at the memory of the frigid morning 30 years ago this week when the Rockport-based coastal fisheries biologist boarded commercial fisherman Bucky Vannoy’s skiff at Flour Bluff and they beat their way across miles of a leaden Upper Laguna Madre to Baffin Bay. Read [email protected] 00:37
Moms talk about their kids choosing a fishing career – This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch
You’ve heard the song “Mommas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” You’ll hear how Kodiak moms feel about their kids growing up to be commercial fishermen after this – Listen and more@fishradio 23:10
These Dweebs never question the science unless its THEIR crusading issue. How many sharks in the sea? Enviros want feds to reconsider endangered status
MONTEREY — Environmental groups are appealing a federal finding that West Coast great white sharks aren’t teetering on the brink of extinction. With concerns that the numbers of white sharks was dangerously low, last year Monterey-based Oceana and the San Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to look into special protections for the species. Read more@santacruzsentinal 22:59
Lobster gets lift despite ice storm – Weekend shipment involving four planes largest ever for Halifax airport
A massive airlift of lobster out of the Halifax airport was declared a success over the weekend. The lobster took flight despite an ice storm that stranded many travellers at the airport. “We completed our largest-ever weekend airlift of almost 280 tonnes in four aircraft under some very challenging weather conditions,” Doug McRae, a director of Gateway Facilities ULC, said Monday. Read more@chronicleherald 11:54
Vancouver: Top story of ’13? Fish
For three days in late August, a series of unexpected visitors came calling on Squamish. The sight of commercial fishing vessels that dropped their nets near the mouth of the Squamish River was, in fact, so novel that more than one person phoned The Chief on Aug. 22 report an obvious breach of commercial fishing regulations. Read more@thechief 10:38
Company launching seafood processing business in Eastport Maine
A company known as Campobello Holdings is investing a half million dollars to start a seafood processing business in Eastport, Gov. Paul LePage announced Monday.The company will process, freeze, package, store and export lobster and other seafood products to customers around the world, according to state officials. Read more@bdn 09:59
Boat of the Week from the Athearn Agency: Price Reduced, 44′ Fiberglass Trawler/Lobster, 6 Cylinder Lugger 6140 Diesel
Specification’s and information here 09:34
