Monthly Archives: January 2014
Fishing aid gets Senate’s final OK – Editorial: Fishing aid still no long-term industry solution
The vote by the Senate, which followed Wednesday’s overwhelming victory in the House, means the federal government now will provide its first meaningful financial assistance to fishermen since the Department of Commerce declared an economic disaster in the Northeast groundfish fishery and elsewhere in 2012. Read more@gdt 04:44
Editorial: The ironic aspect of this disaster aid approval is that, at the start, fishermen and related waterfront businesses never wanted or reached out for government handouts in the first place. Their hands were simply forced by lopsided, heavy-handed fishing limits and enforcement tactics that were cited as excessive by the Department of Commerce’s own Inspector General’s office beginning in 2009, yet still haven’t been adequately addressed by either NOAA or its parental Commerce leadership. Read more@gdt 04:44
The Honeymoon is over – corporate enviros breaking with the administration over its energy policy
The rift — reflected in a letter sent to President Obama by 18 groups including the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund and Earthjustice — signals that the administration is under pressure to confront the fossil fuel industry or risk losing support from a critical part of its political base during an already difficult election year. Read more@wapo 19:58
Mullet Man busted for commercial fishing in Alligator Creek
PUNTA GORDA, Fla.- Charlotte County Sheriff’s Marine Patrol officers arrested Jeffrey Dean May last week on charges of conducting commercial fishing operations in Alligator Creek. Read [email protected] 19:51
Police in Md. Seize Truck Filled With Undersized Oysters
EASTON, Md.- Maryland Natural Resources Police say officers seized a tractor-tractor filled with oysters, many of them undersized, as it traveled through Easton on Wednesday night. Read [email protected] 18:22
A New PCR-Based Method Shows That Blue Crabs Consume Winter Flounder
Abstract Winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) once supported robust commercial and recreational fisheries in the New York (USA) region, but since the 1990s populations have been in decline. Available data show that settlement of young-of-the-year winter flounder,,, Read more here 17:43
Funding: This project was funded by the Saltonstall Kennedy Program of the National Marine Fisheries Service of NOAA
Belhaven Fisherman helps Navy pilot who crashed off Va. Beach
The constant “buzzing” of a fighter jet overhead Wednesday afternoon likely alerted Bryan Daniels that something wasn’t right. Navy fighter jets are a common sight for commercial fishermen who ply the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia Beach. The jets fly back and forth on training runs and have no contact with the watermen below, who also don’t pay them much mind. Read [email protected] 13:45
Washington Bill seeks resolution for ‘Fish Wars’ convictions
OLYMPIA — Nearly half a century after hundreds of American Indians were arrested during the “Fish Wars,” a bill would give those who were convicted a chance to clear their records. The bill would allow those convicted while exercising treaty rights before 1975 to vacate criminal records. A sentencing court would have discretion to decide whether they were using their treaty rights in expunging the misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor or felony convictions.Photo By Ted S. Warren Read more@omackchronicle 13:25
Ottawa opens door to fish farm expansion, and applications flood in
OTTAWA — The Harper government has quietly opened the door to a major expansion of B.C.’s controversial fish farm sector despite warnings by the 2012 Cohen Commission about the effects of net-based farms on wild salmon. Read more@vancouversun 12:55
Scientists Say Stop Worrying About Fukushima Radioactivity In Fish
SEATTLE — Japan’s nuclear disaster released hundreds of millions of gallons of radioactive water in 2011, sparking rampant speculation that a contaminated plume would reach the waters of North America’s West Coast. Three years later, such speculation is alive and well on the Internet. Consider this video shot at a beach in Northern California and posted last month to YouTube: Read [email protected] 12:43
Striped bass died by the hundreds in Blackhall River – Old Lyme fish kill blamed on cold snap
Old Lyme – On the banks of the Blackhall River near low tide, dozens of lifeless striped bass lie helter-skelter amid the mud and marsh grass, their metallic patterned sides still luminous. Read more@theday 10:52
Homage to the late Richard Gaines – Letter: Don’t forget Gaines’ push for fishing justice – Paul Cohan
While everyone’s talking about disbursement, and congratulating elected and non-elected representatives upon the news of the federal fishing aid package, it has occurred to me that there is no individual who deserves more credit for this and many other minor victories than the late Richard Gaines. Without his dogged, investigative, reporting and well-seasoned and honed intuition, the few positive accomplishments, this one certainly included, which we have experienced over the past few years, would not have been possible. Read more@gdt 07:53
Fishing aid gets landslide approval
“Now that the funding for the fishing industry is on the fast track in Washington, it’s critical that we lay the groundwork for its effective use in Massachusetts,” Tarr said. “I’m pleased that DMF is responding promptly. We need to make sure that money is being spent to meet the needs of fishing families and ports and not any particular bureaucracy or collateral interest.” Read more@gdt 06:57
Fishermen in Moss Landing being slapped with too many regulations – 27 percent decline of black cod fish since 2006, regulators say
Because of all the federal regulations over the last several years on the fish, many of the vessels at the Moss Landing Harbor aren’t even untied. “The price went down to where it’s not worth it,” said fisherman John Amaral. “We get less for the big fish now than we used to get for the small, so it cuts the overall price in half.” Read more@kion 06:35
New FOIA emails show EPA in cahoots with enviro groups, giving them special access – NOAA involvement?
From The Washington Free Beacon, Lachlan Markay. Press release follows. Internal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emails show extensive collaboration between top agency officials and leading environmentalist groups, including overt efforts to coordinate messaging and pressure the fossil fuel industry. The emails, obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (EELI) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, could fuel an ongoing controversy over EPA policies that critics say are biased against traditional sources of energy. Read [email protected] 21:52
Environmentalists sue Navy – Earthjustice? Environmentalists??
SAN DIEGO (AP) – Environmental organizations have added the Navy to their lawsuit against the federal government that seeks more measures to protect whales and other marine mammals from the military’s sonar use. Read more@kmph 21:11
Wrecking the Sea Bed with Offshore Wind Part 5
Finally I would like to bring up a topic nobody is talking about although I suspect it is a topic many involved with this project are fully aware of. Sea-bed Methane Release Coastal sediments can potentially hold large quantities of Methane ( see paper Reindl & Bolalek link -) & ( paper Mascharka, Montross, & Pierrehumbert link -) Read [email protected] 18:54
How radioactive is our ocean?
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine chemist Ken Buesseler began sampling and analyzing seawater surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant three months after the 2011 disaster. Today, he launched a crowd sourcing campaign and citizen science website to collect and analyze seawater along the West Coast of North America as the radioactive plume travels 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean. Read [email protected] 17:23
EPA Releases Final Assessment of Bristol Bay Watershed
The EPA’s Region 10 office published the final assessment online Wednesday, but the agency declined to issue any regulatory decisions at this time. – The report concludes, in no uncertain terms, that “large-scale mining poses risks to salmon and the tribal communities that have depended on them for thousands of years.” Read the document here. Read more@kdlg 16:51
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Financing Will Be Key to Next Generation Fleet
I am here to testify today on the necessity of rebuilding the aging North Pacific catcher processor fleet. While my testimony is particular in some respect to Blue North, the points I wish to make are equally important across gear types, sectors and fisheries. The flatfish catcher processors, the pollock catcher processors and the longline catcher processors all will need federal support to rebuild their aging fleets. Read more@fishermensnews 16:14
Eileen Sobeck named assistant administrator for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service
Today, Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, acting NOAA administrator, appointed Eileen Sobeck as assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries National Marine Fisheries Service. (They just can’t seem to get this right!) Read [email protected]> 13:40
UMaine’s offshore wind energy pilot project wins initial OK
The Maine Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday morning approved in a 2-1 vote a term sheet for Maine Aqua Ventus’ pilot offshore wind energy project. Read more@bdn 10:30
Freezing temps put chill on early crawfish season
Last week’s frigid weather put a chill on a promising early crawfish season with retail prices jumping this week to highs of over $6 per pound. The colder water slows the maturity of emerging crawfish, according to Atchafalaya Basin fisherman Jodie Meche. The emerging crawfish shells do not harden during colder temperatures. Read more@dailycomet 10:04
State of Alaska Backs Feds in Lawsuit over Fisheries Management – Video
A group of fish processors, permit holders and crew members are suing the federal government over a measure giving the Department of Commerce broad authority to manage and conserve coastal fisheries. The 312-member United Cook Inlet Drift Association says the state’s salmon management plan is inadequate. The group is suing to make the federal government the lead regulator in state waters. Read [email protected] 08:53
Federal Fishery Failure Funding Articles will be consolidated in this post with headlines and links today
House targets $75M for Fishing Industry – Northeast Regional Office escapes Consolidation Shutdown – Read more@gdt 07:06
Divvying up the money – Declared Fishery Failures from Coast to Coast, and plenty of speculators – Read more@gdt 07:20
Gloucester Daily Times Editorial: Fisheries aid must go directly to our fishermen Read more@gdt 07:36
Mass. Congressional delegation, governor, applaud fishing disaster relief Read more@wickedlocal 08:46
Mass. fishermen among winners in budget deal – Read more@bostonglobe 12:21
Mass. Fishing Industry Catches Federal Aid Haul Read more@newsmax 13:53
Murkowski’s Appropriations Advocacy Reaps Fishery Failure and Tsunami Debris Aid – Read more@alaskanativenews
A Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and commercial fishing boat owner defends crew (subcontractors)
“They absolutely will remain the subcontractors on my boat,” said Martin Fisher, the chairman of two advisory panels with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council — the Reef Fish Advisory Panel and the Coastal Migratory Pelagics panel. “They’re positions are no way in jeopardy.” The men were fishing in a no-take, protected area just north of the Dry Tortugas National Park. “They were basically fishing in a zoo,” Hubicki said. Read [email protected] 06:34
South Carolina’s first jellyfish operation raises environmental concerns
The prospect of a new fishery is tantalizing to struggling shrimpers and entrepreneurs, including a Mount Pleasant man who’s spearheading the first South Carolina foray into the jellyfish industry. Assuming it gets the go-ahead from the Department of Health & Environmental Control and Beaufort County, Carolina Jelly Balls will begin harvesting Cannonball jellyfish in Seabrook next month. Read more@postandcourier 23:30
Boat of the Week from the Athearn Marine Agency: LOADED 36′ Northern Bay Lobster/Charter – 6 cylinder Volvo, Northern Lights 6.5kw genset
Specifications and information here 23:13
“Impact of the Deepwater Horizon well blowout on the economics of US Gulf fisheries”
This is a Pew production from the Fisheries Centre, UBC, an various authors including Daniel Pauly, and the School of Environmental Science, East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Link to the report. 22:48
