Monthly Archives: October 2014
Politicians blast Scottish Fishermen’s Federation
TWO politicians from the North East of Scotland have urged fishermen to voice their opinions on the future of the industry, as they feel that the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) is failing to engage with key issues, including the Smith Commission. “That is why I am encouraging active fishermen, fish processors, box manufacturers, hauliers and anyone else involved to make their views on the future of the industry known. Read the rest here 14:36
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission may/will shut down Maine shrimp AGAIN!
A technical committee that advises federal regulators strongly recommends extending a moratorium that began in 2014. A draft of the committee’s report says “long-term trends in environmental conditions” are unfavorable for the shrimp. The report pins the decline of the cold-water shrimp on rising ocean temperatures. Read the rest here 13:46
Fishery Convictions – Maritimes Region – October 29, 2014 – Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Maritimes Region, announced today that one company and 52 individuals have been convicted and fined nearly half a million dollars for fishery violations from June to August 2014. The fines total approximately $480,000 and were levied upon conviction for violations that took place in waters from the northern tip of Cape Breton to the New Brunswick-Maine border. Big Halibut numbers! Read the rest here 13:18
PEI Lobster fishermen voting on marketing levy – 1 cent a pound would go toward campaign to increase prices
P.E.I. fishermen vote this week on whether to accept a one-cent-a-pound levy on every lobster landed that would go into a new marketing campaign to push up prices. The levy, a recommendation of the Maritime Lobster Panel, needs a majority vote of support. It would be matched by processors and would raise more than $500,000 on P.E.I. Video Read the rest here 12:34
New chairman at the helm of the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission: commercial fisherman Sammy Corbett
The N.C. Fisheries Association, a nonprofit that supports the state’s seafood industry, is pleased with Mr. Corbett’s appointment. NCFA Executive Director Jerry Schill said Monday he was at the special MFC meeting in Washington when Mr. Corbett’s appointment was officially announced. “I congratulated him and asked if he had unlimited minutes on his cell phone,” Mr. Schill said. “He said ‘yes,’ and I told him ‘good, because you’re going to need it.’” Read the rest here 12:18
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 45′ Fiberglass Scallop/Gillnetter/Lobster, 6 Cylinder John Deere 6081 Diesel
Specifications, information and 8 photo’s click here To see all the boats in this series, Click here 11:39
Portland Harbor lobsterman, wharf owner retires after 75 years hauling traps
Old habits die hard. In David MacVane’s case, they don’t even retire. “I got a built-in clock, I wake at up three o’clock,” MacVane said as he nibbled a breakfast croissant on Oct. 24 at Cia Cafe in the Knightville neighborhood of South Portland. MacVane, 81, is a Cliff Island native, one of three owners of Portland’s Widgery Wharf. He recently retired from a life of lobstering that began when he was 5. “I used to bait the irons when I was a kid. I got seasick every day,” he said. Read the rest here 10:59
SMAST deploys water glider to study ocean temperatures
Scientists from the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology drove up to the Fairhaven Shipyard before dawn Tuesday with a bright yellow, 6-foot torpedo-shaped object they call Blue.Blue is something called a marine glider, an autonomous underwater vehicle named after famed solo mariner Joshua Slocum by its manufacturer. Blue is designed to go to sea for weeks at a time to gather information about the water and send it back to scientists. Read the rest here and here 09:45
The impact of the New England Fisherman in Crisis hits Charley Baker, In Mass Governor race, hard
Martha Coakley and Charlie Baker answered questions about when they had last cried. Right away Baker got emotional, describing what a fisherman told him about his sons who got scholarships to play college football. “I told them no. I said, (pause) you’re gonna be fishermen. I was a fisherman. My brother was a fisherman. My father was a fisherman. And I ruined their lives.” That choked me up, too. Video, and Read the rest here 08:27
Maintaining ‘Rigs to ‘Reefs’ program vital to Louisiana
In 2009 and 2011, a combined $44.6 million was swept from “Rigs to Reefs.” In 2013, the Legislature intervened to stop another sweep. These funds are still currently vulnerable to another diversion going forward if Amendment No. 8 fails. The reason it is important to protect these funds is economical and environmental. This program is funded by private companies whose rigs have been decommissioned. Read the rest here 07:55
Fisheries minister accepts recommendation for no lobster ballot industry vote next year
SOUTHWESTERN NOVA SCOTIA – Usually with less than a month to go before the end-of-November start to the commercial lobster fishery in Yarmouth and parts of Shelburne and Digby counties, the industry would be debating whether changes are needed in an attempt to control landings and better prices. Read the rest here 23:07
NEWPORT: Oregon’s congressional delegation says copter closure delayed 15 days – Its a Start!
Several members of Oregon’s congressional delegation say the Coast Guard has agreed to keep a rescue helicopter at Newport until Dec. 15. The agency’s Newport air station had been scheduled to close Nov. 30 due to budget cuts. Crabbing season is scheduled to start the next day. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader say they spoke Tuesday,,, Read the rest here 21:40
Whale Protection Rules: Maine Lobstermen Divided Over Whether to Sue – Wait’ll the Cod Protection Rules Kick In!
Maine lobstermen are considering taking the federal government to court over regulations designed to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. The Maine Lobstering Union has filed a notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service over new and existing rules requiring the modification of lobster gear. Read the rest here 18:58
Burnt Church 15 Years Later – where lobster wars became a reality
Time flies. Fifteen years have now passed since the Supreme Court of Canada made its landmark ruling in favour of the late Donald Marshall Junior, a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia.,, docks became a flashpoint, where lobster wars became a reality following the Supreme Court’s decision in the fall of 1999 and which ensued into the summer and fall of 2000. Violent confrontations took centre stage,,, Read the rest here 13:20
Audio Available: Coast Guard seeks assistance in identifying suspected hoax caller in NC
Coast Guard Sector North Carolina personnel are requesting assistance from the public in identifying a suspected hoax caller who is suspected to have made seven false distress calls during the past two years in the vicinity of New Bern. Listen to distress calls here 12:45
I thought we were safe at Fisherynation-Ebola Czar Wife Wants Travel Ban…For Fisherman
The wife of the ebola czar favors a travel ban for…. fisherman, Gotnews.com has learned. Monica Medina, wife of Ron Klain, is the other half of the DC power couple. Like her husband she’s long been involved in political issues and Democratic politics. She successfully worked to pressure the Obama administration to ban large parts of the ocean to commercial fishing. Obama announced a ban on commercial fishing within a 782,0000 square miles of U.S. territorial waters. Read the rest here
Hudson’s GM opens new oyster farm
Carmines has worked tirelessly over the past few years developing relationships with shrimp trawlers, commercial fishing vessels and has also started shedding out soft shell crabs on site at the restaurant. Now he has started the Shell Ring Oyster Company, an oyster farm that has quite the appetite for providing the finest, local single select oysters. Read the rest here 12:06
European Commission proposes fishing opportunities in the Atlantic and North Sea for 2015
The European Commission has today proposed fishing opportunities for 2015 for the Atlantic and the North Sea. This is the annual proposal for the amount of fish which can be caught by EU fishermen from the main commercial fish stocks next year and it is for the first time based on the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Read the rest here 11:31
Oahu fishing vessel master pleads guilty, sentenced for sleeping while ship underway
Oahu resident Kevin Lam pleaded guilty to eight charges of operating a commercial fishing vessel in a grossly negligent manner on Friday and received a sentence of one-year probation and 60 hours of community service from Magistrate Judge Barry M. Kurren. Read the rest here 10:37
Bluefin tuna stocks rebounding – Tuna stocks not ready for increased quotas, say ecologists
Atlantic bluefin tuna numbers are up, according to the latest scientific review of the stocks, and Canada believes an increased catch is possible. The study was done in preparation for meetings of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna next month, which will set fishing quotas for the next two years. Katie Schleit of the Ecology Action Network is hoping ICCAT will,,, Read the rest here 10:14
Stronger restrictions imposed on elvers, frustrating fishermen – Regulators also will keep a new quota system
The decision affects the livelihoods of the hundreds of people working in the fishery, which has recently been the second-most valuable fishery in the state, behind only lobsters. This spring, the catch had an estimated value of $8.4 million. Read the rest here 09:30
‘Wicked Tuna’ boat rescues 2 as Miss Sambvca sinks
Dennis Bonazzoli was pretty sure he was about to die. Bonazzoli was standing on the roof of the rapidly sinking Miss Sambvca in numbingly cold and churning water off the southern edge of Jeffreys Ledge on the night of Oct. 19. The water temperature was 58 degrees. The air temperature was 38 degrees and seas were running at a hard 10 to 12 feet. And if it weren’t for the courageous and selfless acts of Capt. Tyler McLaughlin on the Pinwheel, Bonazzoli and his Miss Sambvca captain, Dave Potter, both could have gone to frigid, lonely and watery deaths. Read the rest here 08:44
Gloucester: State sets out second phase of fish aid
The state’s application for the second phase of federal fishery disaster aid includes about $3 million for an expanded group of federal permit holders and another $3 million that represents the first direct assistance to crew members. Read the rest here 08:32
Study claims 2010 BP oil spill left ‘bathtub ring’ on sea floor
The BP oil spill left an oily “bathub ring” on the sea floor that’s about the size of Rhode Island, new research shows. The study by David Valentine, the chief scientist on the federal damage assessment research ships, estimates that about 10 million gallons of oil coagulated on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico around the damaged Deepwater Horizons oil rig. Read the rest here 23:13
Any Wooden Boat Nuts Near Chesterton, MD Nov. 4th Will Want to Attend This Event with Mike Vlahovich
Mike Vlahovich, the founder and former director of the Coastal Heritage Alliance, will share his lifelong appreciation for wooden boats and the watermen’s culture when he visits Washington College on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Hosted by the Center for Environment & Society, he will speak in Hynson Lounge at 6 p.m. with a reception to follow. Vlahovich founded the nonprofit Coastal Heritage Alliance in 2003 to help preserve the vessels, skills and stories of fishing communities in the United States. Read the rest here 18:48
UPDATED: ASMFC’s American Eel Management Section cuts Maines Elver Allocation by 18 percent
A number of public comments were made by elver fishermen who spoke in opposition to any reductions before the vote. The Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the upcoming elver glass eel season will be 9,688 lbs, down from last years TAC of 11,749 lbs. 17:03 UPDATED
Abandon(ed) Pots Can be a Killer
Dive into Women’s Bay, an inlet located on the island of Kodiak and you will find a graveyard of lost or abandoned crab pots or as NOAA’s diving biologist Pete Cummiskey likes to call “Ghost Pots.” “King crab love structure, and that is one of the reasons I think that ghost fishing hits king crab harder then tanner crab; because king crab like to crawl on things and pile up against things. So king crab are a little more vulnerable in that way.” Listen, and read more here 16:10
Alaska lawmakers and seafood companies want the Russians to keep their hands off their name-brand pollock.
Processing of Newfoundland and Labrador’s first half-shell scallops is currently underway.
Employees at Northern Lights Seafood, in Main Brook, are currently preparing 1,600 pounds of local product, as a test product for potential buyers. Unlike regular scallop processing, which is the white meat only and prepared by the harvester, the plant oversees the processing. Read the rest here 12:16
VIDEO: Dredger “Murden” Clears Barnegat Inlet
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District’s project at Barnegat Inlet requires dredging to provide a safe, reliable navigation channel for one of the most dangerous inlets on the east coast. The project is critical to a large fishing fleet consisting of full-time commercial, charter and recreational vessels that contribute to the economic value of the nation. Watch, Read the rest here 11:32
