Monthly Archives: September 2014
Press Release: New Bedford Fishing Community Fund established to prevent hunger and homelessness for those relying on seafood industry
United Way of Greater New Bedford, Massachusetts Fisherman’s Partnership and High Liner Foods have teamed up to provide short-term emergency aid for individuals and families relying on fishing or the seafood industry for their livelihood. The fund is modeled after a similar fund that High Liner Foods helps to support in the Gloucester area. Read the rest here 16:52
Coast Guard cutter involved in collision with fishing vessel off Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Coast Guard is investigating a collision Tuesday between the Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo and the 42-foot commercial fishing vessel, Sea Shepherd, approximately nine nautical miles east northeast of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Read the rest here 14:59
Wanted: NC fishermen to collect lost crab pots, other fishing gear
The collection is scheduled to begin Jan. 19 in an area from Currituck Sound southward to Oregon Inlet. The federation will pay fishermen $300 a day and their mates $100 a day to retrieve lost and abandoned crab pots and other fishing gear, during a time of year when no crab pots are allowed in the water. Read the rest here 13:16
New restrictions pose threats for local lobstermen – “It will be disastrous for these guys all the way from Sandwich to Hull,”
Since he set his first trap in 1963, Bill Adler’s life has revolved around commercial lobster fishing. But the future of the industry on which Adler and many others have thrived is in peril due to a new federal ban on fishing from January to April in Cape Cod Bay and part of Massachusetts Bay. Some lobstermen are estimating an annual loss between $50,000 and $70,000 due to the ban that is designed to protect endangered whales, Read the rest here 12:53
P.E.I. fall lobster prices are going up and landings are good according to fishermen’s group
Prices in the last week have moved up to $3.50 a pound for canner size lobster and $4.00 a pound for markets, according to the president of the Prince County Fishermen’s Association, Lee Knox. Read the rest here 10:21
Study links changing winds to warming in Pacific – ocean warming period from 1920 to 1940 predates the big increases in greenhouse gases
A new study released Monday found that warming temperatures in Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of North America over the past century closely followed natural changes in the wind, related to global warming. The study compared ocean surface temperatures from 1900 to 2012 to surface air pressure, a stand-in for wind measurements, and found a close match. Read the rest here 09:04
Ship Strikes of Whales are more common than you might think!
Marine biologist Greg Silber is after new insights to prevent US vessels from striking whales. “What we did was build a whale model that was completely to scale,” Silber told Business Insider. “The same density, the same weight, the same size, relative to the size of the vessel model. And then we ran the ship model at the whale.” Read the rest here 08:29
Warm waters strain shared BC-Washington salmon fishery – So what happened this year?
The Memories has been in Chuck Horjes’s family for 54 years. He began as a teenage deckhand in the 1970s, eventually working his way up to his current position as captain of the 54 foot commercial fishing vessel. Over the years he has travelled up and down the West Coast from Alaska to Oregon in search of salmon. This year he decided to fish an area known as the “salmon traps” near the San Juan Islands in Washington, Read the rest here 06:45
Fisherman Finds Exhausted Bald Eagle At Sea, Gives Him A Lift To Shore – Watch the Video
Canadian fisherman Dan Dunbar was cruising in a boat near Nanoose Bay, British Columbia when he spotted a young bald eagle floundering on the surface of the water. Although bald eagles are known to be quite capable swimmers, this particular bird appeared unable to take flight again. Read the rest here 21:54
September 23rd – EPA’s Small Vessel General Permit (sVGP) for Vessels Less than 79 Feet in Length Webinar
For information about this (The Vessel General Permit, i.e., the VGP, provides NPDES permit coverage for ballast water and for other discharges incidental to the normal operation of commercial vessels greater than 79 feet in length.) Click here Webinar Tuesday, September 23, 2014 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT Click here to register 20:28
Coast Guard medevacs injured fisherman near the Mississippi River Gulf
A Coast Guard helicopter crew medevaced one person from a fishing vessel near the Mississippi River Gulf outlet, Monday. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received a report of a crewmember who was reportedly suffering from a head wound,,, Read the rest here 18:50
Boats of Bristol Bay Alaska
The Boats of Bristol Bay Alaska’s commercial fishing fleet, filmed from the Pacific Drifter. Naknek, Kvichak and Egegik Districts.16:49
5 Insane Things ‘Deadliest Catch’ Leaves Out About My Job
Basically, the ocean wants you dead. If you wind up going overboard, the odds are heavily in the ocean’s favor — you’ve got roughly 20 minutes of useful survival time in water under 41 degrees Fahrenheit, even if you’re the world’s best swimmer. And there are just so, so many ways you can wind up in the water. First of all, while it’s not shocking that a fishing boat can sink, what is shocking is that it can happen in seconds,, Read the rest here 15:35
BOEM – You’re Invited: South Carolina Offshore Energy Public Meetings
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) would like to invite you to attend the South Carolina Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting, as well as two open house public meetings on renewable energy. Information is provided below. Sept. 22, 2014 (4:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Conway, SC, Charleston, SC, Sept. 23, 2014 (12:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Charleston, SC Sept. 23, 2014 (5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Click here for information 13:03
Goliath grouper harvest becoming popular idea – Florida F & W Conservation Commission wants the your opinion
In a University of Florida survey, 1,518 recreational hook-and-line fishermen, 574 recreational spear fishermen, 697 commercial fishermen and 352 sightseeing divers answered a series of questions about goliath grouper. Among the findings: Commercial fishermen: 68 percent were interested in harvesting goliath grouper; 32 percent said goliath grouper encounters were desirable; 42 percent said the goliath grouper is a nuisance species. Read the rest here 12:39
SILVER CATCH – Coho catch lifts Prince William Sound salmon harvest total
Commercial fishermen in Prince William Sound caught another 142,000 silver salmon over the seven-day period ended Sept. 15, lifting the preliminary season catch of coho to 549,000 fish. The surge in silver salmon harvests,, Read the rest here 12:24
Columbia River fisheries: Expect declines in hatchery production, Kent Martin, Skamokawa
I was interested to see the pictures of beach seining in last week’s Eagle. I was troubled, however, by the third caption which read, “Fishery managers hope the seines will be less lethal to endangered wild salmon than gillnets.” The implication here seems to be that there exists a conservation issue with gillnets. If that were the case, then the projected savings in wild salmon would be credited to spawning escapements. Read the rest here 12:13
These guys are pissed! Apalachicola Bay Oystermen rage at possible bay closure
Frustrated over talk Apalachicola Bay might be shut down to oyster harvesting this winter, Franklin County seafood workers angrily confronted the president of their workers association at a meeting Friday evening. Barraged with catcalls and accusations from the standing-room-only audience, Shannon Hartsfield cut short his presentation regarding details of the upcoming $4.5 million shelling program, funded through a federal fishery disaster grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Read the rest here 12:01
Hard choices for the Chesapeake
The current position of ASMFC for stripers is that “Projections of female SSB (spawning stock biomass) and fishing mortality suggest if the current fishing mortality rate (0.20) is maintained during 2013-2017, the probability of the stock being overfished is high and increases until 2015-2016, but declines thereafter. Read the rest here 11:31
Mendocino Coast fishermen smiling over 2014 salmon returns – Numbers often wrong
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 the rest here 09:15
Most of tuna catch comes from healthy stocks, but bluefin continues overfished
There are 23 stocks of the major commercial tuna species worldwide – 6 albacore, 4 bigeye, 4 bluefin, 5 skipjack and 4 yellowfin stocks. The Status of the Stocks summarizes the results of the most recent scientific assessments of these stocks, as well as the current management measures adopted by the RFMOs. Read the rest here 09:06
Skipper Dave Marciano of FV Hard Merchandise visits ENHA tour at Cape Pond Ice
Celebrity NatGeo Skipper Dave Marciano of 
stopped by Cape Pond during our ENHA Trails & Sails Saturday morning tour, to sign autographs and settle up his ice bill. Read the rest here, and see the stunning ice sculptures from Cape Pond Ice! (The photo’s are much larger at the Good Morning Gloucester Blog!)20:21
Look at ’em all! Thousands of Chinese trawlers head out to sea after three-month ban on fishing is lifted. Where’s Pew?
Thousands of Chinese trawlers rushed out into the East China Sea today after a three-month-long summer fishing moratorium ended. These incredible images of boats setting out from a harbour in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, show just why China harvests more fish than any other country. Read more, and see the rest here 18:35
Sept 22, 2014, Public Meeting- Designation of Critical Habitat for Steller Sea Lions – Listen via Webinar
The first meeting,September 22, 2014 at the NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA 98115, in the Jim Traynor Conference Room. NMFS will make this meeting available by webinar. Pertinent information about this webinar is as follows: Information, link, and password to the webinar, Click here 17:45
NAFO urged to protect deep sea species – Environmentalists working to mitigate damage done by bottom trawling
“We want NAFO to mitigate the effects of bottom trawling and protect areas with coral and sponges,” said Susanna Fuller, marine conservation co-ordinator with Halifax’s Ecology Action Centre, in an interview Friday. Fuller, who is also treasurer of the 70-member Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, plans to be an observer at the 36th annual meeting of the organization that runs Monday through Friday in Vigo, Spain. Read the rest here 14:37
NAFO to discuss TACs at upcoming 36th annual meeting in Spain
Catch limits will take center stage at the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization’s meeting in Vigo, Spain, on Sept. 22-26, said the European fisheries and maritime affairs commission. Read the rest here 14:33
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update, September 21, 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 11:18
In Maine, climate change is taking a toll
On Sheepscot Bay off Georgetown, Jim McMahan prodded his old lobster boat through the smooth waters, methodically lowering a mechanical winch to check on his hundreds of traps. But he has noticed some disturbing trends in recent years. Nearly every day now, he pulls up scores of lobsters with diseased shells. Another concern is the arrival of new, aggressive predators from the south. Read the rest here 10:34
Possible Biscayne National Park fishing shutdown plans get public review Wednesday
“Anybody who cares about fishing, recreational or commercial, in the Upper Keys should attend one of these meetings,” said Bill Kelly, executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association. Kelly said plans to restrict or ban commercial fishing in the southern Biscayne National Park could harm 75 Keys fishermen and about the same number from Miami-Dade County. Read the rest here 09:06
US GAO study: Fish Stock Assessments vary in number, frequency
A bipartisan group of senators, led by Florida Republican Marco Rubio, asked the GAO last year to examine how fish are counted. They want to know how the federal , a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, determines which stocks are healthy and which ones need protection. Read the rest here 08:07
