Daily Archives: January 24, 2015
Regulations have done little to boost cod in Gulf of Maine: Lobster management offers clear direction
Colonial America’s first true industry, groundfishing, has followed the path of many others. Technology improved as the industrial revolution took hold — it kept improving afterward — and a growing population of fishermen, both domestic and foreign, became more productive as they pursued cod, haddock and other species found near the ocean floor. Yada yada yada! Read the rest here 21:20
Weekend Focus: Marshall decision still ripples through native fishery
Gary Denny is a captain. He wouldn’t likely be a fishing captain if Donald Marshall Jr. hadn’t set eel nets in Antigonish County’s Pomquet Harbour in 1993. Marshall, from Membertou First Nation, sold the 463 pounds of eels for $787.10 and was arrested. He was charged with fishing without a licence, setting illegal nets during a closed season and selling eels without a licence. Nova Scotia’s courts upheld those charges, but then the Supreme Court of Canada surprised everyone in 1999 — everyone except the Mi’kmaq. Read the rest here 17:41
PD Editorial: No more red herrings in water talks – “Without a healthy Bay-Delta system, there is no salmon fishing,”
The delta smelt is an easy target. Substitute “salmon” for “smelt” and try making the case for giving up on an endangered species to secure a water supply for growers who switched from crops like lettuce and tomatoes that can be fallowed in times of drought to almond orchards that need continuous irrigation. You can see why the growers and their allies talk almost exclusively about smelt. Read the rest here 15:53
Lake Manitoba Commercial Fishing In Jeopardy
The local commercial fishing industry is being threatened by the 
into Lake Manitoba. Fishermen have noticed more jackfish, also known as northern pike, since water from the Assiniboine River was diverted into Lake Manitoba during the flood of 2011. Perry Gaudry’s a commercial ice fisherman, and says the increased population is starting to reduce the population of the other fish. Read the rest here 12:27
Alaska’s Flatfish Trawl Fleet is an Important Economic Contributor Committed to Reducing Halibut Bycatch
By Chris Woodley 
– With recent evidence showing a possible decrease in the Bering Sea halibut allocation this year, there has been a growing concern about Halibut bycatch, and discard discard mortality, ad what to do about it. Both groundfish, and halibut fishermen will be affected by the outcomes. Read the rest here 11:43
Gary Griggs, Our Ocean Backyard: Calamari: Still No. 1 after all these years
Dungeness crab and calamari fishermen were happy campers this past year with full nets and pots typically coming back on board vessels. In recent years, these two have been at the top of the state’s commercial fisheries. Calamari, or market squid, has been fished in Monterey Bay for more than 150 years, originally by Chinese immigrants and later by Italians. Their short life span, their reproduction style, and the huge numbers of eggs laid by each female, has made this an historically sustainable fishery. Read the rest here 11:07
‘Unfair sharing’ of shrimp resources at centre of FFAW protest
The 
announced in the fall it would be cutting the inshore shrimp quota by 26 per cent, while the offshore quota would be cut by three per cent. About 30 shrimpers protested against those cuts on Friday. They said the changes will result in the loss of thousands of jobs, resulting in a devastating impact on the coastal communities that rely on the resource. They blocked the offshore vessel Newfound Pioneer from offloading shrimp at Moorfrost. Video, Read the rest here 10:13
OPINION: Halibut waste in the Bering Sea is deplorable – By Pete Wedin
The Bering Sea directed halibut fishery is in a state of crisis. For the 2015 season, IPHC proposes reduction of the catch limits in Area 4CDE by a whopping 71 percent. How many of us could weather such a cut?In the mean time, trawl bycatch caps in the Bering Sea remain unchanged, and millions of pounds larger than the directed fishery quota. The truly sad thing about all of this is that more than 65 percent of the halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea is caused by trawlers targeting two species: yellowfin sole and rock sole. Read the rest here 09:18
Maine Scallop Advisory Council Looks to Keep Rotational Management
Scallop Advisory Council members believe they have found a possible solution to the shortage of plentiful harvests across Maine. Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said, “The focus is to try to move through this first year of rotational management ensuring that we have a good amount of product on the bottom. So when we do close it, it will be closed for 2 years prior to these areas reopening with a good abundance of scallops.” Read the rest here 08:26
NOAA enforcement officers rescue crew members from sunken tugboat
When the tugboat Nalani sank in waters off Oahu’s leeward coast Thursday, safety for some of the crew members came in the form of a NOAA patrol boat. Jeff Pollack and Grant Demesillo are enforcement officers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They were aboard NOAA Patrol Boat F3503 Thursday afternoon. Read the rest here 08:00
