Daily Archives: January 10, 2015
Blood on the floor at the butchers’ club
The International Whaling Commission is staring extinction in the face. Sir Geoffrey Palmer talks about its struggle to save itself, let alone the whales. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Portugal next month, in the throes of delicate and difficult negotiations, which might be a metaphor. It has to save itself, before it can save the whales. To understand why, you need a bit of history. Read the rest here 17:36
Blue Dog Bar & Grill opens in Matlacha
“Our logo of Blue Dog has the white boots (locally called ‘Pine Island Reeboks’) that ‘Blue’ wears. This is a nod to the rich past and current fishing history of Pine Island and Matlacha. These boots are worn by commercial fishermen all along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida. “From our family, we’d like to give our thanks to every crabber, fisherman, shrimper, oysterman and all the commercial fishermen on the entire Gulf Coast but particularly Matlacha and Pine Island, for the sacrifices you have made to carry on the traditions of your fathers,” Read the rest here 17:04
Poor market for herring could affect fishery off Sausalito
In the past, boats from ports all along the coast participated, with commercial fishermen snaring herring in gill nets, recreational fishermen using throw nets, and others floating racks of kelp or seaweed on which the 9-inch fish can deposit their eggs. This year, a poor market for herring roe threatens to keep many fishermen on the sidelines. Read the rest here 16:24
High Liner Foods Closing “underperforming” Malden, Mass., Frozen Seafood Plant
High Liner Foods Inc. is moving to reduce excess capacity at its U.S. manufacturing network and cease production at one of its frozen seafood plants in Massachusetts. The leased plant in Malden, Mass., currently has 50 full-time employees and an annual production of about 11.5 million pounds. Read the rest here 15:49
P.E.I. fall lobster landings – Best year ever on record
The steep climb in P.E.I. fall lobster landings in recent years, including a 16.3 per cent increase in 2014, had fishermen talking with optimism during the annual meeting of the Prince County Fishermen’s Association Thursday in O’Leary. The improved landings, coupled with a more than 30 per cent increase in shore price over the previous year, saw the value of the fall lobster fishery shoot up 51 per cent in the past year. Read the rest here 11:46
Fishermen are reporting a very poor scallop season on P.E.I.
Myles MacDonald has been fishing scallops out of Wood Islands for 30 years. “One of the worst that we’ve seen in that 30 years,” said MacDonald, adding a number of factors came together to keep the catch down. Read the rest here 10:56
Support from United Fisherman and Allied Workers Union on BC herring fishery
In support of the Nuu‐chah‐nulth Tribal Council request dated Jan 5, 2015, the United Fisherman and Allied Workers Union – Unifor recommends to all commercial herring fishermen that they do not select WCVI as their seine or gillnet area for upcoming 2015 herring season. The decision to support this request was not taken lightly and based on four factors: independent science review of the herring stocks in the WCVI region; our own fishermen’s assessment of the state of these WCVI stocks; respect for local First Nations insights; Read the rest here 09:30
Fishermen want larger limit for mackerel – Council wants Catch Shares as a condition
In order to get the increase in trip limits, the fishermen may have to go along with a fishery management practice they have long opposed — catch shares. The Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association has staunchly opposed catch shares, arguing they are running smaller mom-and-pop fishermen out of business and giving greater allocations to large commercial fleets. They also create a market for people selling their allocations to the highest bidder. Read the rest here 09:03
For the love of cod, do it right this time: fishermen
Fishermen along the south coast of the province fear lessons learned from years of being under cod fishing moratoriums might be forgotten.And if history repeats itself — as signs of cod stocks growing and talks of quotas increasing make the news — they say the next blow might be the last for the inshore fishermen and many rural communities that have a stake in groundfish stocks. But fishermen are frustrated they cannot land the total cod quota available because local processing companies are not buying the cod when the fishermen are able to fish it. Read the rest here 08:10
