Monthly Archives: July 2014
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update July 27, 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 09:26
OPINION: ‘Fisher’ falls short of creating gender equality in fishing industry
In this week’s report on Alaska’s fishing industry, fish columnist Laine Welch offered an off-the-dock response by those in the fishing industry about the use of the term “fisher” instead of fisherman. The verdict: a big thumbs down from fishermen of both genders, who say they resent being renamed because of their sex by bureaucrats. The question is, will anyone listen or will the term “fisherman” fade away in a flurry of well-intended-but -off-base political correctness? Read more here 09:14
Nushagak fishermen want to recoup struck down fish tax
“We are asking for our tax payments back,” said J.R. Dull of Dillingham. “I don’t know how much it might come to, but if the tax wasn’t valid, we should get our money back.” Dull indicated there were quite a few fishermen in the Nushagak District fleet who had shown interest in joining the lawsuit. Read more here 09:03
Pacific Fisheries Management Council try fix for persistently inaccurate forecasting methods
Over the past decade the numbers of fall run Sacramento River Chinook salmon predicted to return by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) have been overestimated, sometimes wildly so. Those numbers are used to determine the timing of fishing seasons and how many fish commercial and sports fishers are allowed to take. Read more here 07:58
Coast Guard medevacs fisherman from F/V Ursula off Port O’Connor, Texas – Video
The captain of the commercial fishing boat Ursula made a distress call to Sector Corpus Christi Command Center at approximately 8 a.m., saying one of his crewmembers had been experiencing unbearable stomach pain for several hours. Read more here, click photo for the video 19:41
Prized but Perilous Catch – In Hunt for Red Abalone, Divers Face Risks and Poachers Face the Law
FORT BRAGG, Calif. — Every year, as steady as the tides, lifeless bodies are pulled from the cold, restless water along the rugged coastline north of San Francisco. Most of the victims are middle-aged men. They wear black wet suits, usually hooded. They are often found in small coves framed by crescents of jagged rocks. An abandoned float tube sometimes bobs about nearby. Almost without exception, the victims are found wearing weighted belts that help them sink. Read more here 10:18
Bill Chaprales on the hunt for the elusive great white sharks
Captain Bill Chaprales and his son, Nick, run a commercial fishing business, maintaining 800 lobster traps and hauling in bluefin tuna. As the , they have also become a key part of the Cape’s burgeoning research into the rapid increase of shark sightings in recent years. Read more here 09:00
A call to end misleading labels on crabmeat
There’s a chance that the American crabmeat making your mouth water is American only by virtue of being repackaged in a plant in the United States. The problem that struggling Chesapeake Bay watermen and seafood processors are finding these days is that imported crabmeat is often labeled “product of the United States” when it is repackaged at an American facility. Read more here 08:31
Judge rules Beringia bearded seals improperly listed as threatened
The National Marine Fisheries Service erred in using a 100-year projection as justification for granting Endangered Species Act protections to the Alaska-dwelling population of that seal, U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline ruled. Whether Beringia bearded seals will ultimately retain Endangered Species Act protections was unclear Friday. Beistline ordered NMFS to correct deficiencies in its study of the population. Read more here 08:18
Caught off-guard by 2010’s sockeye record, processing plants have geared up for a repeat
VICTORIA — B.C.’s commercial fishing industry has been building capacity to handle this year’s forecast big sockeye run after being caught off guard by the record flood of the fish in 2010. “In 2010, it was the largest sockeye run in the Fraser we’d seen since 1913, and we hadn’t anticipated it and not a lot of people were geared up to handle it,” Read more here 04:25
Owners of Seized Togiak Bay Fishing Vessels Fined Nearly $90K
The owners of six fishing vessels seized in Togiak Bay for illegal salmon fishing this month have been fined a total of almost $90,000, with Alaska Wildlife Troopers seizing nearly 35,000 pounds of fish. According to Dillingham District Court documents, the Togiak men who own the seized vessels all entered guilty pleas to misdemeanor fishing charges. Read more here 21:44
Bristol Bay fishermen poised to pass on pinks – The price for pinks? About 28 cents per pound
“I haven’t made up my mind yet about pinks, but I’ll tell you, if it was a buck a pound, you bet I’d be out there.” said Fritz Johnson. Prices for pinks are down because of too much inventory, mostly canned, that has yet to be consumed on the world market. Some of that product has been sitting around for years. But there are indications that the situation may be improving. Read more here 19:16
Nova Scotia: Proposed five cent lobster levy is out of bounds says MLA
“I honestly don’t know where Keith Colwell gets off thinking he can impose a five cent a pound tax on lobster without getting the approval of the industry first,” says Belliveau. “Lobster fishers have fought hard to maintain their independence and Minister Colwell has no right to impose anything on them without first getting their permission.” Read more here 18:49
36-year-old fisherman suffering from a head injury medevaced From F/V Lucky JJ – Video
Corpus Christi- Coast Guard rescue helicopter and boat crews medevaced a 36-year-old fisherman. The captain of F/V Lucky J.J. made a mayday call to Sector Corpus Christi Command Center at approximately 7:30 p.m., saying one of his crewmembers had just suffered from electric shock while attempting to change a light bulb in the boat’s rigging and subsequently fell to the boat’s deck. Watch, Read more here 17:46
Here’s a Twist! Parnell hires Pebble PR man as fisheries adviser
ANCHORAGE: Sean Parnell has appointed Ben Mohr, who worked for the Pebble Partnership, as his new fisheries adviser. Mohr worked for years as a Pebble Partnership employee before joining the Dan Sullivan for Senate campaign. Read more here 15:38
Hatching a plan for lobster farming – new approach to sea based rearing systems for European Lobster
AQUACULTURE equipment specialist, Fusion Marine, is participating in a multi-partnership project to develop a sea based lobster rearing system that could ultimately benefit coastal communities. Read more here 15:20
The West Coast Drift Net Guys Can’t Catch a Break!
This notice announces that, through rulemaking in the Federal Register, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is closing the Pacific Loggerhead Conservation Area, prohibiting fishing with large-mesh drift gillnet (DGN) gear (>14 inches mesh) off the coast of southern California east of 120º west meridian through August 31, 2014. Read more here 15:11
RI One Step Closer to Seat on Mid-Atlantic Fishery Council
Senator Reed wrote the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Fairness Act (S. 713) to add Rhode Island to the list of seven states with voting representation on the MAFMC, a regional management board that establishes fishery management rules for stocks primarily caught in federal waters adjacent to the mid-Atlantic coast., included in the latest version of the Senate Commerce Committee’s draft Magnuson-Stevens Act . Read more here 11:07
Owner insists nothing’s fishy, Says seized pickerel bought properly
The owner of a fish and seafood shop at The Forks at the centre of poached pickerel sting last Friday said he and his business play by the rules. It’s alleged three commercial fishers from Lake Winnipeg were delivering the fillets. Because some of the fillets were fresh, it means they were caught outside the summer commercial fishing season, which is over on Lake Winnipeg. “I can’t comment on what they were doing. I don’t want to get into that while it’s before the courts.” Read more here 09:59
Column: Manage recreational fishing to protect stocks – Brad Kenyon
As the owner of a boat dealership, I’m an avid angler. So much so, I even dabble in commercial fishing as another way to expand my opportunities to fish, though I bring these fish to market for others to enjoy. Some say I’m a strange duck, but I don’t think so. I respect our fishery resources,,, Read more here 09:30
Kuskokwim fish wars heat up again as silvers enter the river
Kuskokwim River villagers say they accepted early summer fishing restrictions that cost them a chance at treasured king salmon in order to boost the struggling run. But they are outraged over state-approved commercial openings over the past week, before upriver villagers have caught enough fish to store for winter. Read more here 09:13
Drought starting to kill salmon in Klamath Basin
Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, which represents California commercial salmon fishermen, said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was meeting minimum flows in the Klamath River set under a biological opinion for threatened coho salmon. “This is the sort of situation we are all going to have to cope with through the summer,” he said. “And it’s going to be a white-knuckle ride, there is no doubt about that.” Read more here 08:51
New England’s live lobster prices set to fall to seasonal lows as new shell product hits market
Live American lobster prices out of New England are poised to fall sharply this summer–albeit a bit little later this year compared to recent seasons–as new shell product out of Maine is hitting the market at a more historical pace. Average wholesale prices for live, 1¼ quarter lobsters in New England are this July compared to last year according,,, Read more here 06:55
Judge lifts ban on advocacy by Maine Lobstermen’s Association
A federal judge signed an order this week removing a ban that kept the Maine Lobstermen’s Association from discussing management of the lobster fishery. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby signed the order July 21,,, Read more here 06:19
Senate Commerce Committee approves S 2094, the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act
Incidental discharges by commercial vessels less than 79 feet, all commercial fishing vessels including seafood processors. Read more here 17:36
Flooding 60-foot F/V Endeavor contact Coast Guard for assistance at 09:15 this morning, tied up 12:20 this afteroon
NORTH BEND, Ore. — A Coast Guard boatcrew from Station Yaquina Bay, in Newport, assisted three men aboard a commercial fishing vessel taking on water about 10 miles north of the Yaquina Bay bar, Thursday. The crew of the 47-foot Motor Life Boat was able to safely pass portable dewatering equipment to the vessel and provided escort to the Port of Newport. Read more here 17:14
Important facts about the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) savory, beautiful swimmer
Of all the edible crabs, the blue crab is the most abundant and popular. Many Americans prefer crab meat to any other kind of seafood, and yet, these leggy crustaceans were once believed to be poisonous. Crab fishing is one of the largest shell fish operations in the U.S., employing thousands of fishermen and processors. According to the latest figures,, Read more here 16:09
Mind Boggling – Wild Salmon Harvests in Alaska Top 71 Million Fish
Commercial seafood harvesters in Alaska delivered some 71,053,000 salmon to processors through July 21, and the catch keeps growing. Preliminary harvest figures from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game put the catch at 38,485,000 sockeye, 26,011,000 humpies, 5,775,000 chum, 624,000 coho and 384,000 Chinook salmon. Read more here 14:54
