Monthly Archives: January 2014
BBC’s six-year cover-up of secret ‘green propaganda’ training for top executives
The BBC has spent tens of thousands of pounds over six years trying to keep secret an extraordinary ‘eco’ conference which has shaped its coverage of global warming, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The controversial seminar was run by a body set up by the BBC’s own environment analyst Roger Harrabin and funded via a £67,000 grant from the then Labour government, which hoped to see its ‘line’ on climate change and other Third World issues promoted in BBC reporting. Read more@dailymail 13:10
PAY UP! BP has lost an appeal to cancel the terms of its multi-billion-dollar settlement with businesses
A US federal appeals court on Saturday upheld the terms of the original 2012 settlement. The UK oil giant has supported compensation for businesses harmed by the disaster. But it argued that the terms of the existing deal meant that some huge sums were being paid for false claims. In 2012, BP agreed to make payments to those who suffered economic losses as a result of the disaster aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which triggered the worst offshore oil spill in US history. Read more@bbc 12:16
Maine offshore wind project faces 1st major hurdle –
“We need to start reaping the benefits of offshore wind, both the economic benefits and renewable benefits,” said Sean Mahoney, executive vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation, who criticized the administration for scuttling Statoil’s project last year. (what benefit is that?!! Irreplaceable ocean bottom that you morons want to remove from Monhegans lobstermen?) Read more@portlandpress” 12:07
Tarr files seafood marketing program bill to protect groundfish industry
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. Read more@wickedlocal 10:30
Three fishermen rescued from sinking F/V Christina Leigh Saturday in the vicinity of Calibogue Sound, S.C. – Video
CALIBOGUE SOUND, S.C. — The Coast Guard rescued three mariners from a sinking vessel Saturday in the vicinity of Calibogue Sound, S.C. Watchstanders in the Coast Guard Sector Charleston command center received a report from Beaufort County Dispatch stating the 62-foot fishing vessel Christina Leigh was taking on water, at 3 p.m. The three mariners aboard had to place the call via cell phone since their VHF radio was damaged. Read more@uscgnews 01:29
EXTRA!!! Weinstein Wins Movie Rights to N.Y. Times Ocean Rescue Story
Harvey Weinstein has won a bidding war for movie rights to Paul Tough’s rescue story “A Speck in the Sea.” The story focused on lobster fisherman John Aldridge, who fell overboard in the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the night, 40 miles from the Long Island shore. “A Speck in the Sea” was published Jan. 2 by the New York Times Magazine. Read more@variety 20:45
[Rimarinefisheries] States Schedule Public Hearings on DraftAddendum XXV: MEETING LOCATION CHANGE
States Schedule Public Hearings on Draft Addendum XXV – Addendum Seeks Input on Management Options for 2014 Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass Recreational Fisheries Arlington, VA – The Atlantic coast states of Massachusetts through Virginia have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on Draft Addendum XXV to the Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plans. Read more @ public notices 20:30
The Western Venture tows partner vessel Osprey to the State fish pier in Gloucester Mass.
The Osprey is being repaired after a blower on her EMD main engine failed after only 7 months of operation. 16:29
Wrecking the Sea Bed with Offshore Wind (Part 3)
This is the third in a series of posts about the damage done to the sea floor by offshore “Wind Parks”. The concept appears to be that the sea bed is variously excavated, levelled and generally dug over and the 7600 Tonnes of spoil from these operations is shipped to the surface. The gravity base structure is then built on top of part of the excavated area. The final coup-de-grace to the area is then executed by rapidly dumping the spoil in the vicinity of the turbine base. Read [email protected] 16:07
Frozen fish more dangerous than knives at Dutch Harbor
According to a report from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Division of Public Health: “It is not surprising that the majority of the non-fatal injuries occurred on catcher processors, as they employ the largest number of workers and process the largest volumes of seafood relative to other vessel types.” Read more@therepublic 15:25
Fate of Atlantic City wind farm in hands of regulators
A Cape May company is awaiting word from state regulators about the future of New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm. The state Board of Public Utilities heard closing arguments late last month from Fishermen’s Energy, of Cape May, a consortium of partners from the commercial fishing industry. (what a crock that is!) Read more@pressofatlanticcity 11:38
Maine lobstermen seek relief from 1950s federal restriction
The Maine Lobstermen’s Association hopes this will be the year it gets relief from a 56-year-old federal restriction that limits what the trade group can say about the management of the state’s largest commercial fishery. The association hopes the U.S. Department of Justice will lift a consent decree that it imposed in 1958 – the year after the group lost an antitrust lawsuit that alleged it was trying to set prices paid to lobstermen. Read more@portlandpress 11:02
Coast Guard medevacs injured fisherman from F/V Prowler near St. Paul, Alaska
A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak, forward deployed aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Munro, transported the man to emergency medical services in St. Paul after he was transferred to the Munro from the Prowler. The crew of the Munro was notified of an injury to the man’s left eye by the crew of the Prowler, located 74 miles southwest of St. Paul and launched a smallboat crew to transfer the man to the Munro to be examined by a health service technician aboard the cutter. Read more@uscgnews 22:54
Second Second Giant Sea Creature Washes Ashore Along Santa Monica Coastline
SANTA MONICA, CA — For the second time in recent months, a giant sea creature has washed ashore in California. First it was a rare oarfish that had grown to a freakish 100-foot length. This time it was a giant squid measuring a whopping 160 feet from head to tentacle tip. These giants look different but experts believe they share one important commonality: they both come from the waters near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in the Futaba District of Japan. Scientists believe that following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant an unknown number of sea creatures suffered genetic mutations that triggered uncontrolled growth – or “radioactive gigantism.” Read more@lightlybraisedturnip 21:11
Wrecking the Sea Bed with Offshore Wind (Part 1) – Wrecking the Sea Bed with Offshore Wind (Part 2)
Pt 1, As Offshore windfarms go, there is nothing remarkable about Navitus Bay. Most of the data in the following few posts, shocking as it is, will equally apply to similar schemes elsewhere in the country. But before I start, I feel I need to emphasise how poor offshore wind farms are at generating electricity. We need to keep this in mind when we look at the massive environmental damage done by their construction. Read [email protected]
Shrimp Down, Lobster Up: Is There a Connection?
But there’s another part to this story, a somewhat different kettle of fish, but still relevant. A Lobster Tale If Maine shrimp is a delicious coastal treat and a small but important food fish, Maine lobster is world-famous and a point of state pride and identity, even — and an economic force for the state. Read more@huffpo 18:02
A Win for Shark Fishermen is looked at as a Strategic Loss by the Enviro’s
Public passion for shark finning bans is great. How do we channel it towards other issues? – From the article: A recent proposal by the National Marine Fisheries Service that would have altered the minimum size of sharks that recreational fishermen can catch with the goal of reducing illegal dusky shark landings and added a new area closed to shark fishing received almost no public support from conservation activists. There were a total of 122 public comments submitted , and most were strongly opposed; the commercial and recreational fishing industry was organized and vocal in their opposition to this plan. The NMFS withdrew it. Read more@southernfriedscience 16:52
What has Changed? Published: October 27, 1994 – Commercial-Fishing Halt Is Urged for Georges Bank
Faced with a fishery on the verge of collapse, a Federal council today recommended virtually shutting down commercial fishing in the Georges Bank off Cape Code, once one of the world’s richest fishing grounds. While some fishing could continue, the council, the New England Fishery Management Council, directed its staff to come up with measures that would reduce the catch of cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder, the principal species sought on the Georges Bank, to as close to zero as practical. Read more@nyt 16:07
Listen to The Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up on this Elvis Birthday Week edition: The state slaps down the Cook Inlet sports fishing industry’s attempted resource grab, the Board of Fish is meeting right now in Kodiak, and why fish are more anxious than ever. All that, and 2013’s best fishing films, coming up on the Alaska Fisheries Report. We had help from KDLL’s Shaylon Cochran in Kenai, Fish Radio’s Laine Welch in Kodiak, KYUK ‘s Ben Matheson in Bethel and KUBC’s Annie Ropeik in Unalaska. Listen @KMXT 14:49
National Geographic Orders ‘Wicked Tuna’ Spinoff Series From Craig Piligian
National Geographic Channel is building a franchise around one of its highest-rated series, Wicked Tuna. The cable network has greenlighted a spinoff series, Wicked Tuna: North vs. South (working title). Produced by Craig Piligian’s Pilgrim Studios, which is behind the original series, the spinoff will begin filming off the coast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina this winter and will premiere in the U.S. and globally this summer. Read [email protected] 14:25
‘Wicked Tuna’ Season 3 Preview: Hook It, Harpoon It, Repeat [Exclusive Video] Here
Two chefs who worked at a now-closed Santa Monica sushi restaurant will plead guilty to serving meat from federally protected sei whales
Kiyoshiro Yamamoto and Susumu Ueda, who worked at the The Hump at Santa Monica Airport, are charged in a three-count indictment with conspiring to import and sell meat from the endangered species. Read [email protected] 14:01
San Francisco Bay – They’re back – the bay’s herring hordes return
Sea lions, porpoises and tens of thousands of birds are jockeying for position with fishermen this week as the annual herring run splashes into San Francisco Bay, a spectacular marine wildlife showcase that conservationists say is one of the largest in North America. Read [email protected] 12:03
Shrimp Season To Close in Additional Louisiana State Waters
(Jan. 9, 2014)- Today, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham announced a shrimping closure in a portion of state inside waters east of the Mississippi River and in outside waters off of western Terrebonne Parish effective Monday, January 13, 2014 at official sunset. Specifically, those waters that will close to shrimping include: Read [email protected] 09:28
Fisheries and the Green lobby – what’s the real catch?
Kathryn Stack, Senior Political Advisor to Struan Stevenson MEP, Senior Vice-President of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee, writes on the influence of the Green lobby/NGOs in EU fisheries policy decision making. Somewhat surprisingly, dismay over the state of commercial fishing has been propelled to the forefront of middle class dinner party conversation across the country. Venting over the rapidly declining fish stocks seemingly on the brink of collapse has suddenly become “du jour”.Read [email protected] 22:48
Coast Guard medevaced a 50-year-old man from the 150-foot F/V Pavlof near Cold Bay, Wednesday night.
Watchstanders at the Coast Guard 17th District command center in Juneau were notified of the man’s injury by the crew of the Pavlof. It was reported he was suffering from a staph infection, and the watchstanders consulted the duty flight surgeon who recommended the medevac. Read more@uscgnews 20:53
Lawsuit prompts feds to act on species at risk
VANCOUVER – A federal government lawyer says the ministers responsible for protecting endangered species took action on four critically threatened species because they were facing court proceedings. The Wilderness Committee, Sierra Club, David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace and Wildsight are asking the court to order Ottawa to complete final recovery strategies for the four species, which are up to six years overdue. Read more@chroniclejournal 17:58
Friday, January 10, 2014 9:30 AM, Oversight Hearing on “The Science behind Discovery: Seismic Exploration and the Future of the Atlantic OCS”
This Subcommittee hearing will focus on the cutting edge technology currently used in the field of seismic research and the fundamentally important role seismic research plays in moving forward with future offshore energy development in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Watch live 09:30 here 17:31
NRDC Seafood squall irks experts – Lobster and crab fisheries on Canada’s East Coast are unfairly maligned
The Canadians don’t seem to understand the shit storm the NRDC has started. This is not about the Right whales. It’s about ALL marine mammals under the US dysfunctional MMPA, and blocking imports of non compliant exporters. The Citizens of Canada appear to believe this action to be American Arrogance, rather than the continuous ENGO assault on fishermen on a global basis. BH
Lobster and crab fisheries on Canada’s East Coast are unfairly maligned in an American report condemning them for endangering the North Atlantic right whale, some industry observers in Halifax said Wednesday. “A call for a boycott of Canadian seafood is misplaced and would be ineffective if ever implemented,” said Robert Rangeley, a marine expert for the Atlantic region with World Wildlife Federation Canada. Read more@chronicleherald 17:06
Donald Clattenburg, a retired New Bedford fisherman, recalls the rescue of his fishing vessel, the Venture I, on Jan. 9, 1966.
NEW BEDFORD — The year was 1966, four years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Cold War tensions between the world’s superpowers — the Soviet Union and the United States — remained high. Against a backdrop of political gamesmanship, the Venture I found itself in troubled waters. The New Bedford fishing boat was floundering in the middle of the ocean, disabled by a wall of water that crashed into the vessel and caved in the pilothouse. The Venture I’s crew, which included Donald Clattenburg of New Bedford, feared for its safety. Read more@southcoasttoday 15:39
New Poll Finds Strong U.S. Consumer Support for Alaska Seafood, Disapproval for Marine Stewardship Council Policies
In addition to showing that Alaska remains the premium name in sustainable seafood, the poll found that that there is equal if not more consumer comfort with the UN FAO-based RFM certification program over MSC, whose policy of conditional certification of unsustainable fisheries was met with widespread disapproval. Read more@sacbee 15:22
