Monthly Archives: April 2014
Magnuson not a weapon to use against fishing communities! Nils Stolpe/April 2014
I wrote the column below over six years ago. Since then we have gone through two demonstrations in Washington, DC that were enthusiastically supported by recreational, party/charter and commercial fishermen. Thousands of fishermen finally realized that,,,fisheries.org Read more here 17:51
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update April 20, 2014
“The Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance is dedicated to its mission of continuing to help create sustainable fisheries without putting licensed fishermen out of business.” Read the Update here
Fairhaven fisherman dies after apparent fall
NEW BEDFORD — The body of a Fairhaven fisherman was pulled up by divers Friday night, found 28 feet beneath the boat he was scheduled to sail with that morning. Joshua Greaves, 30, was last seen around 1:30 a.m. Friday at a “downtown drinking establishment,” Lt. John Chaves said. “It looked like he slipped getting into the boat and then went into the water,” he said. Read more here 07:03
Bloated Bureaucracy Creating Conflict by Executive Order – NOP Riverhead “Listening Session”
Notice of the Riverhead listening sessions was sent to stakeholders by email and via a listserv, Michael Snyder of the N.Y. Department of State, said after the meeting. Notice was not given to the news media for public dissemination, he acknowledged. A host of nongovernmental organizations were represented in the audience, including: The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Peconic Estuary Program, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, The Nature Conservancy, Sea Grant, Concerned Citizens of Montauk, the Surfrider Foundation and the N.Y. Aquarium. riverheadlocal.com Read more here 17:44
Clogged Oregon Inlet keeps charter boats docked
HATTERAS ISLAND, N.C. — Boat owners are concerned that the start of charter fishing season may leave them high and dry because the Oregon Inlet is clogged with sand. newsobserver.com Read more here 17:13
BP Spill Fines Pay for Inland Cleanup
Four years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, some states have started using fines paid by BP and its partners to clean up inland water pollution. wsj.com Read more here 16:39
Whitefish population healthy in Green Bay, Lake Michigan
Winter weather and state regulations, not a dropping whitefish population, led to some shortages of the popular species this spring. “It’s not a stock problem,” said Wisconsin Commercial Fisheries Association president Charlie Henriksen of Sister Bay, a commercial fishermen who sets nets in both Green Bay and Lake Michigan. “It’s a Mother Nature problem.” doorcountyadvocate.com Read more here 15:54
Red drum season closed for summer after commercial harvest exceeds annual quota – CCA-NC Very Concerned!
Commercial fishermen will go nearly a year without a red drum season following an unusually large harvest in the fall that has prompted a closure. The Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina “obviously very concerned about the significant amount that the commercial red drum quota was exceeded,” said CCA-NC Chairman Greg Hurt. jdnew.com Read more here 11:36
Alaskan claimed ‘unbearable’ physical disability, went fishing
A 56-year-old Alaskan who claimed disability over the course of five years allegedly went dip netting and fishing nonetheless. Now Amancio Zamora Agcaoili Jr. has been indicted for fraud and stealing money from the government. Read more here 08:38
Former fisherman Paul Ciaramitaro pays homage to disappearing industry – Of wooden boats and iron men
Paul Ciaramitaro grew up working on the Gloucester waterfront, in a family where money was hard to come by. His hard-knock life has been marked at various periods by the back-breaking work of both fishing and working on the wharves, by addiction — not uncommon among waterfront workers and fish hands — and the constant struggle to earn enough money to stay afloat. But Ciaramitaro’s lifelong penchant for drawing never waned, and as an adult, he has transformed his childhood passion into a career as an artist. Read more here, watch three video’s 08:01
Fisherynation Introduces – The “Gold Standard” in Monitoring System’s, The Nature Con 2014 with GoPEW Villian 3 Video
Here at Nature’s Conservancy we are very excited about the Nature Con 2014 with GoPEW Villian 3 Video, the latest innovation in environmental defense and monitoring. Surveillance of environmentally dangerous activities like fishing, wood cutting, and cattle ranching occur in environmentally sensitive habitat areas every day. Many of the people involved in these activities are little better than common outlaws. We must have continuous monitoring of these individuals to bring the guilty to justice, and prevent criminal activity by creating an understanding that no environmental crime will go unseen and unpunished. System Equipment here 17:42
Senate draft of fisheries act begins circulating – Molly Dischner
The newest version of the Magnuson-Stevens Act out for discussion adds subsistence users and Tribal governments to the fisheries management law and has the potential to create new Community Development Quota in the Arctic, but it has not yet been made widely available to the public for review. Read more here Senate Draft here 15:50
Former Passamaquoddy representative charged with poaching elvers in New York
A high-profile member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe is one of eight people who have been charged with felony elver poaching in New York, according to an official with that state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Read more here 15:17
PEI Snow crab season delayed by ice in Gulf – expected to start on May 1
Snow crab fishermen on P.E.I. are anxious to get out on the water since ice conditions have delayed the season. cbcnews Read more here 14:28
How BP turned a whole community into an endangered species
The reason: the BP oil spill disaster of 2010, which dumped over 205 million gallons of oil and another 2 million gallons of possibly toxic dispersants into the Gulf, devastating the area that’s responsible for 40 percent of the seafood sold commercially across the U.S. grist.org Read more here 10:57
Dolphin Expert Stephen McCulloch Fired By FAU, Seeks Reinstatement
Stephen McCulloch wants his job back. A prominent master of the arcane art of dolphin rescue, for more than a decade he was a leader and key force at the Marine Mammal Program at FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI). Last February 14 he was fired. browardpalmbeach.com Read more here 10:41
PEI fall lobster fishermen remain opposed to further carapace increases
The PCFA strongly resisted a push last year from the Maritime Fishermen’s Union to have the minimum carapace measure increased to 77 mm by 2015. There was a one mm increase in minimum carapace size last year, moving it to 72 mm, and that is where the P.E.I. fishermen insisted it should remain. journalpioneer.com Read more here 10:27
Japan aims to resume whaling in Antarctic – A Sustainable Natural Resource
Japan’s eventual goal is to resume commercial whaling. What Tokyo calls “research whaling” is aimed at collecting scientific data to prove that catching whales commercially would not dent sustainable use of the whale stocks. The government also decided to continue its whaling in the Pacific Ocean this fiscal year, with whalers set to depart later this month. abs-cbnnews Read more here 10:07
Two Massachusetts men arrested in Portland for illegal elver possession
Joshua P. Medeiros, 30, of South Dartmouth, Mass., and Andrew P. Cournoyer, 43, of West Wareham, Mass., both were charged with possession of elvers without a license, a Class D crime punishable by,,, Read more here 07:38
Massachusetts Department of Public Health aims to shut down Joe’s Lobster Mart
In the wake of last month’s guilty plea by Joseph Vaudo to selling stolen oysters in his fish market, the state Department of Public Health now seeks to revoke his license to sell and distribute seafood, a spokesman for the agency said Thursday. Read more here capecodonline.com 07:18
“Ask Any Mermaid You Happen to See…” Whats her name? Catalina the Mermaid from Chicken of the Sea!
Chicken of the Sea Picks Name for Its Mermaid after 60 Years of Anonymity . Today, though, she finally swims home with her own name. After seafood fans submitted more than 49,000 entries in a nationwide contest to christen the brand’s beloved icon — and earn a chance to win a $10,000 grand prize — one perfect name floated to the top: Catalina. Read more here reuters.com 06:55
“Hot doggin’ lobsterman.” Small boat capsizes off Cape Elizabeth
CAPE ELIZABETH (WGME) — A small lobster boat capsized off the coast of Cape Elizabeth early Thursday afternoon. The boat broke into pieces, but at the last second, the lone lobsterman on board jumped out, right before it flipped over. Read more here wgme 21:05
Fishermen say impacts still linger from BP oil spill – video
“We believe this disaster has greatly impacted the ability of fisheries to spawn. And that’s why they’re not seeing the fisheries they used to. They’re not catching what they used to. We believe that the spawning ability has been greatly impacted,” said Thao Vo, an advocate for fishing families. Read more here wlox 20:02
Alaska Legislature confirms fish board incumbents
Three incumbent members of Alaska’s Board of Fisheries were unanimously confirmed, after a Chugiak representative withdraw his objection to the two commercial fishers on the board. Read more here 19:43
Former Minerals Management Service director, Elizabeth Birnbaum,: US ‘on a course to repeat’ Gulf oil spill
In an opinion piece in the New York Times, the former Minerals Management Service director, Elizabeth Birnbaum, says the Obama administration “still has not taken key steps . . . to increase drilling safety.” Birnbaum, who was ousted from her job overseeing offshore drilling just weeks after BP’s Macondo well blew out in the Gulf, penned the op-ed with Jacqueline Savitz, vice president for U.S. oceans at the conservation group Oceana. Read more here NOAA Inaction in the Gulf of Mexico -In her September 21, 2009 twenty-six page response to Lisa Birnbaum, Director of the Mineral Management Service on the Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2010-2015. Ms. Lubchenco Read more here 18:43
Alewives and Blueback Herring haven’t rebounded
But like many fish, herring face a veritable Pandora’s box of pressure. Habitat degradation, the damming of rivers, overfishing and pollution have cut their numbers drastically, by as much as 95 percent by some esitimates. Read more here capecodonline 13:13
4 icebound CF/V Double N sealers safe after airlift off Fogo Island
Major Martel Thompson of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax said the Double N was stuck in ice about 125 kilometres off Fogo Island. Read more here cbcnews 10:13
Closely watched Maine elver season marked by slow start, low prices
Tim LaRochelle sat in the bow of a 16-foot canoe, scanning the murky river water by the light of a headlamp and a nearly full moon. “There’s one,” LaRochelle said, pointing at a squiggle created near the water’s surface by a tiny, translucent immature eel – an elver. LaRochelle kept looking, but nearly a minute passed before he pointed to another squiggle. Read more here portlandpress 09:52
