Daily Archives: January 23, 2015
California crab task force recommending a number of changes to the fishery.
The state’s advisory panel on crab fishing has released its report to the state legislature recommending a number of changes to the fishery. The panel was formed according to a 2008 law meant to help make the fishery, which has become one of the most valuable in California, especially to independent commercial vessels. The task force promised to look into changes in the state’s program on limiting crab traps per boat and reactivating unused permits. Read the rest here 19:13
OPINION: IPHC must reduce allowable bycatch – By Curtis Jackson
I first began commercial fishing for halibut along the Aleutian Chain and Bering Sea in 2002. The Aleutian Islands are an incredibly wild and beautiful place to make a living. The halibut we often saw were averaging 100 pounds and we had several trips of thirty to forty thousand pounds caught in just a few days and long hard working nights. The money was good and the work was some of the most difficult and rewarding I have ever done. Read the rest here 17:25
NOAA ’13 report is bleakest yet – Data shows 4-year lows in landings, revenues
The Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fishery hit four-year lows in just about every pivotal category during the 2013 fishing season, including landings, revenues and the number of boats fishing in the inshore day-boat fleet. The findings, contained in NOAA’s final report on the season released Thursday, sketch a pessimistic and dire portrait of an entire fishery under siege from economic, regulatory and environmental pressures during the past four years. Read the rest here 16:26:
Reducing bycatch has been a hot topic in the pollock trawl industry.
Scientists are working with the commercial fishermen to find a solution to the problem. And, at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium this week in Anchorage, they say they are making progress. Ideally, the pollock trawl fleet fishes pelagically – meaning in the water column above the sea floor, but, according to Carwyn Hammond, who is with the conservation engineering group at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, sometimes that’s not where the fish are. Listen, and read the rest here 14:28
Alaska Gov. Walker Touts Fisheries in Pep Talk
Wednesday night’s State of the State address by Governor Bill Walker was as much a pep talk as any thing else to a state facing huge budget deficits. In it, he touted Alaskan’s can-do spirit and the many assets we have to work with. One of those is our fisheries.” And Alaska’s resources aren’t just under our feet—they are also under our boats. Fisheries remain the state’s top employer and we will work with this crucial sector to strengthen sustainable fisheries. In Alaska, every boat is a small family business.” Listen, and read the rest here 13:42
Report Report on the Economic Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery (May 2013 – April 2014)
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center (the fish stock assessment people) has issued an annual report on the economic performance of the fishery since 2010. The results provide indicators of vessel performance, employment, financial viability, and fleet diversity. Unlike the 2010-2013 reports, this year’s uses constant dollars (nominal dollars adjusted for inflation using 2010 as the base year) for information reported in dollars so that figures may be better compared over time. Read the bad news here 13:23
Lobster marketing board meetings provide ‘good feedback’
P.E.I. lobster fishermen have just a few more days to register to vote in the upcoming lobster marketing board plebiscite. The P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association has been holding information meetings across the province about the marketing board, which will be in charge of collecting a one cent a pound harvester levy that will be used to promote Island lobster. Fishermen have already voted in favour of the levy, but now they have to vote on the marketing board itself. Read the rest here 11:04
Clam shortage in Nova Scotia due in part to weak dollar
Craving clams? You’ll probably have to wait until the loonie digs itself out of its hole. Until the Nova Scotia clam season reopens in April, supply will be nearly non-existent across the province, say sellers. The shortage is partly due to the poor exchange rate, with New Brunswick exporters taking advantage of the strong U.S. dollar to sell over the border. Read the rest here 10:43
Our Jobs, Our Resources: Unfair Sharing of Northern Shrimp
The future of our coastal communities is at risk. Thousands of jobs are in jeopardy due to unfair sharing of the northern shrimp resource. The federal government has deliberately chosen to ignore the longstanding principle of adjacency to the benefit of the corporate-owned offshore fleet, to the detriment of our coastal communities. Our northern shrimp resources are being taken out of our waters with no benefit to our province’s economy. Read the rest here 10:10
Commercial King Mackerel Trip Limit to Decrease in the Southern West Coast Florida Subzone
The daily vessel trip limit is reduced to 500 pounds beginning 12:01 a.m., local time, January 24, 2015, for Gulf group king mackerel in the southern Florida west coast subzone. NMFS NOAA Fisheries is reducing the trip limit because 75 percent (or 413,586 pounds) of the 551,448-pound quota is projected to be taken. The 500-pound daily trip limit will remain in effect until the quota is reached or through the end of the fishing year, June 30, 2015, whichever occurs first. Read the rest here 09:39
