Monthly Archives: May 2014
Former Colleagues Fight Over Turtle Data
NORTH PALM BEACH (CN) – A leading marine research center filed for an injunction against its former head scientist, claiming he stole years of research data and used it to carry out unauthorized studies. Read more here 11:16
WTO appeal decision on seal-product ban comes this week
The appeals board of the World Trade Organization is expected to announce its decision this coming week on issues involving the European Union’s ban on seal products. The appealed a decision the WTO made in November. that ruled the ban was acceptable. Read more here 10:35
Is the World Bank among the prophets? – Menakhem Ben-Yami
A new 80-page World Bank report entitled ‘FISH TO 2030: Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture’ – available for free online on the World Bank and FAO websites – represents a global view of fish supply and demand generated by an improved International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT). Based on trends in the production of fishing and aquaculture and in fish consumption, it produced – with the help of a multitude of graphs and tables – projections of global fish supply and demand all the way to 2030. In 16 years from now, my younger readers will be able to see how good it was. The report,,, Read more here 07:16
Cowichan News Leader Opinion – Seeing both sides of a local fisheries blockade
The case for Government officials have ignored or run roughshod over the rights of local Natives for as long as there has been a British Columbia.,,read more,, The case against Historical issues are certainly relevant, but ignoring today’s reality would be foolish. Read more here 18:18
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update, May 18, 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 16:54
Pompano Beach seafood purveyor conspired to sell live spiny lobster caught in the Florida Keys to China
The government alleges in the 6-page document that Eric Berman conspired with at least one other person “known to the U.S. Attorney’s Office” to package and ship live lobster harvested in Monroe County to Hong Kong, China, via Miami International Airport. Read more here 16:39
Unsual lobster catches
As the commercial lobster season winds down in southwestern Nova Scotia, some local fishermen have been hauling up some unusual and eye-catching lobsters in their traps. On May 9, the crew fishing aboard the Ashley Alissa out of Abbot’s Harbour in Pubnico caught a four-clawed lobster in Lobster Bay. Read more here 16:26
Copper River first salmon prices dip
Reports from the first opener at Copper River say it was very slow going. Here’s the news from one highliner: Read more here 10:24
Charles W. Morgan Begins 38th Voyage
NEW LONDON, CONN. — The whaleship Charles W. Morgan made history Saturday as it left the Mystic River in Stonington and safely arrived at City Pier in New London just before noon, well ahead of schedule. Read more here 08:29
The Morgan was built in 1841 and has remained docked at Mystic Seaport since 1941. “There isn’t anybody alive today who has seen a whaling ship with her sails up. Think about that,” said the ship’s captain, Kip Files. Read more here
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Coast Guard Medevacs Fisherman From F/V Kirsten Lee off Virginia Coast Saturday
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The Coast Guard medevaced a 27-year-old crewmember Saturday from a fishing boat approximately 40 miles east of Chincoteague. The master of the fishing boat Kirsten Lee contacted Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads watchstanders at 11:15 a.m. Saturday stating a crewmember was suffering from chest pain and needed medical attention. Read more, and watch video here 23:52
Alaska’s Arctic Policy Commission tackles questions about the state’s role in a changing region
Alaska’s Arctic Policy commissioners were advised to pay attention not only to the happenings in their state’s Arctic waters but around the world as they convened in Anchorage last week to work through the commission’s recommendations to the state and the nation. Read more here 14:53
Lifelines for Cape Pond Ice
This is symbolic posting of GDT. They have changed to a pay access venue. All historic material that we used to promote the industry is on lock down. More to follow.
There were so many times when it just seemed over, when the only remaining course of action left to Scott Memhard was to shut down the ice machines and tell the last cool guy or gal out the door to get the lights. Such was life at Cape Pond Ice withi http://www.gloucestertimes.com/ 14:31
Alaska’s Copper River salmon fly to Seattle
An Alaska Air Cargo plane from Cordova touched down Friday morning and the pilots emerged with a 48-pound king salmon. They carried it down a red carpet and delivered it to three chefs for a ceremonial cook-off at Sea-Tac Airport. The plane carried 24,100 pounds of salmon that were caught Thursday when the commercial gillnet season opened in Prince William Sound. Read more here 12:41
Another positive sign that salmon will be plentiful
“The trollers were thumping the chinook during the first eight days of their fishery, and the boats were loading up,” said Doug Milward, a state Fish and Wildlife coastal salmon resource manager. In fact, the trollers were doing so well that state fisheries officials had to temporarily close it just eight days into the season as they neared the 9,150 chinook catch quota for May and June. Read more here 12:15
New Minnesota environmental law bans triclosan
A University of Minnesota study published in January 2013 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology said increasing amounts of triclosan were found in the sediment in eight Minnesota lakes and rivers, including Lake Superior, the Duluth harbor, Shagawa Lake in Ely, Lake Pepin, Lake St. Croix, Lake Winona and East Lake Gemini, all of which receive treated sewage effluent. Read more here 12:11
Gilles Thériault says New Brunswick should look to systems used in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador
“Clearly, from what we’re seeing in New Brunswick today, the status quo is certainly not working,” Thériault said. “That’s why I’m a bit disappointed and I believe that both the fishers and the processors should give this matter more thought.” Neither the Maritime Fishermen’s Union nor the Maritime fish processors say they are interested in such a method. Read more here 11:29
F/V Arctic Hunter Removal Plan Nearly Done
It’s been more than six months since the F/V Arctic Hunter went aground outside Unalaska. Now, the boat’s insurance company is almost ready to drag it off the rocks. Insurance adjustor Jim Ronning says they’re expecting to sign a deal with a contractor by the end of the week. Read more here 09:55
Spot prawn fleet agrees to voluntarily avoid nine prehistoric reefs in the Strait of Georgia
B.C.’s commercial spot prawn fishermen have, for the first time, agreed to voluntarily avoid nine prehistoric glass-sponge reefs in the Strait of Georgia during this year’s spot prawn fishery. The scientific community was stunned when glass-sponge reefs, described by the Vancouver Aquarium as the “longest living animals in the world.” were first discovered in Hecate Strait in 1987. Read more here 09:45
Alewives counted one-by-one on some Maine rivers
The alewife, which returns from the Atlantic each spring to spawn in lakes and ponds, has had a drastic drop in population from its southernmost habitat in North Carolina all the way into Newfoundland. Scientists believe that alewives’ loss of spawning habitat, to dams and hydroelectric facilities, is a major factor in the decline of the species, along with predators, overfishing and other factors. Read more here 09:20
State permanently closes lower Penobscot River to lobster fishing
BUCKSPORT, Maine — State fishery officials have decided to permanently close 7 square miles of the lower Penobscot River to lobster and crab harvesting. The closed the area in February, citing concerns about elevated mercury levels found in lobsters along that section of river. Read more here 08:43
Full closure of Yukon River chinook salmon fishery is being recommended by the Yukon Salmon Sub-committee.
“At the end of this process, we will put to the minister (federal Fisheries minister) a solid recommendation from the communities, from the First Nations and the committee,” she said. The State of Alaska has already announced it will be implementing a complete closure on the chinook run, including a full closure of the subsistence fishery for the first time in Alaska’s history. Read more here 20:41
Food safety concerns cost Red Cove plant in Cape Wolfe, P.E.I. seafood plant its registration
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has not renewed the registration of a P.E.I. seafood processor, citing food safety concerns. The Red Cove plant at Cape Wolfe in western P.E.I. was registered to process lobster, crab and mollusks. The CFIA says the registration was not renewed, effective May 8, 2014. Read more here 16:48
Guest column: Warnings about seismic testing, Neil A. Armingeon of St. Augustine
The noise is constant, every 16 seconds, 24 hour a day, for weeks on end. Could you read? Communicate with your family? This isn’t science fiction. It could happen near our beaches and our coastal waters. The oil and gas industry want to map oil and gas reserves off the Atlantic coast. To do that, it needs seismic airgun testing. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill taught us there is no such thing as clean oil and gas production. Read more here 16:29
Board of Fisheries rejects Kuskokwim change
The board considered a petition from the Kuskokwim Salmon Management Working Group that would have enabled the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to restrict subsistence fishers to 4-inch mesh setnets, disallowing drift nets on the river. Board chair Karl Johnstone noted that there was not an emergency per say, because the board had been aware that the run this year was going to be poor. Read more here 16:11
Accused baby eel smuggler Matthew Kinney, 30, of Bremen, Maine, charged with assaulting officer
Matthew Kinney, 30, of Bremen, Maine, was indicted this month by a Rockingham County grand jury on three counts of simple assault and one count of being in possession of a controlled drug. The indictment means the grand jury found enough evidence to warrant a trial. Kinney is accused of assaulting a conservation officer after he and his brother, Justin Kinney,,, Read more here 15:45
Feinstein: Environmentalists no help on California drought
Environmentalists “have never been helpful to me in producing good water policy,” the California Democrat said. “You can’t have a water infrastructure for 16 million people and say, ‘Oh, it’s fine for 38 million people,’ when we’re losing the Sierra Nevada snowpack.’ The diversion is already damaging endangered steelhead trout and commercial chinook salmon, said Jon Rosenfield, a conservation biologist at the Bay Institute, a San Francisco environmental group. Read more here 12:21
Appeal panel hears debate over mesh size in Florida fishing net rules
TALLAHASSEE _ A long-running legal battle that sits at the odd intersection of politics and commercial fishing took another step forward Thursday in a Tallahassee appeal court hearing. Read more here 11:52
McAuliffe signs storm-water legislation at VIMS
GLOUCESTER Va— Gov. Terry McAuliffe proved he’s a hands-on governor Thursday when he capped a ceremonial signing of state legislation regulating storm water on the campus of Virginia Institute of Marine Science with a tour on a trawling boat that had him handling live fish and blue crab. Read more here 09:18
Half-shell hopes – Oyster farms opening in Kake, Hoonah
KAKE —Timber, construction and commercial fisheries are down, the cannery closed decades ago, and the salmon hatchery here is closing next month. The Organized Village of Kake, the Hoonah Indian Association and organizers across Southeast have another hope: oyster farming. Read more here 21:12
Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Meeting to discuss spending $10.9 million for damage to oyster and blue crab fisheries
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