Daily Archives: July 18, 2014

Coast Guard assists F/V Vernon taking on water near Ketchikan

VernonJUNEAU, Alaska — Coast Guard Station Ketchikan crewmembers assisted the six-person crew of F/V Vernon taking on water near Ketchikan Friday morning.  A Station Ketchikan 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew and 25-foot Response Boat – Small crew rendezvoused with the vessel taking on water, deployed a team with dewatering pumps and escorted the 65-foot purse seiner back into port. Read more here 17:14

Whales may impact herring stocks’ recovery. No! That just can’t be! The Whales are over fishing?

While whales are not to blame for the decline of herring in places like Lynn Canal and Prince William Sound, they may be keeping depleted stocks down. NOAA research fisheries biologist John Moran has been studying whales’ effect on herring; in 2010 he and other researchers co-authored a paper comparing Lynn Canal, Sitka Sound, and Prince William Sound herring stocks and humpback whale predation. Read more here 15:29

A Fresh Look at Iron, Plankton, Carbon, Salmon and Ocean Engineering

Two years ago this month, an edge-pushing environmental entrepreneur and a company formed by a Native Canadian village set off a wave of international protest by dispersing a pink slurry of 100 tons of iron-rich dust over one of the 60-mile-wide ocean eddies that routinely drift across the salmon feeding grounds of the Gulf of Alaska. Lots of links, Read more here 14:52

Obama opens East Coast to oil search

No FishingOpening the Eastern Seaboard to offshore oil exploration for the first time in decades, the Obama administration on Friday approved,,,”No one has been allowed to test anything like this on right whales,” Kraus said of the seismic cannons. “(The Obama administration) has authorized a giant experiment on right whales that this country would never allow researchers to do.” Read more here 11:36

Pressure mounting for US tuna fleet to secure tuna rights after ‘no deal’

A shareholder in the largest U.S. tuna fleet  this week decrying the ‘no deal’ conclusion  of American treaty negotiations with Pacific Island nations that leaves the United States tuna fleet without fishing access to the Pacific Ocean in 2015. Read more here 10:06

New boat design in works for Acadian Peninsula crab fleet

new crab boat designA shipbuilding company on the Acadian Peninsula is unveiling plans for what it’s calling “the next generation of fishing boat.”  “This boat has been designed in order to improve the seakeeping,” said naval architect Didier Marchard, whose company Pantocarène Architecte Naval of France is a partner in the project. Read more here 09:34

Chatham fishermen not impressed with federal aid package – No Buy Back, “Please take care of fishermen first.”

golden towersChatham fishermen at the Thursday meeting were highly critical of the first phase of the aid package, which will soon issue a $32,000 check to each of the 191 qualifying permit holders,,. Diodati said that sentiment was universal at the four meetings he hosted. One state proposal for direct assistance to crewmen stipulated that they needed to show they earned 50 percent of their gross income from fishing. Read more here 08:49

Mississippi’s shrimp season off to a great start – so far about 2.1 million pounds and the price is up!

Mississippi shrimpers have good reason to smile this summer. This season’s catch is impressive. The latest numbers from the DMR show the shrimp harvest is nearly double what it was last year. It appears a large number of shrimpers have been able to enjoy the success of this season. Video, Read more here 07:38