Monthly Archives: January 2015
Elver Eel exporters may need new license
The Maine Department of Marine Resources is preparing legislation that would require individuals who ship the baby eels overseas to purchase a $5,000 exporter’s license. The state already licenses both elver fishermen and dealers, so DMR officials said the exporter license will ensure the state is monitoring every aspect of an industry that has drawn poachers and federal scrutiny in recent years. Read the rest here 10:45
Louisiana Fishing Industry Battles Big Oil over Coastline Erosion
Louisiana’s fishermen and the oil and gas extraction industry have co-existed for years. Some fishermen even work on the oil rigs to supplement their incomes. But some are now taking Big Oil to task for ruining fisheries and even the land on which the fishermen live. “We’re paying the price for their greed and irresponsible exploration,” lifelong commercial shrimper George Barisich, whose business and home were badly damaged by the double-whammy of Hurricane Katrina and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Read the rest here 10:31
My Turn: Time to empower and employ the next generation of Alaska fishermen, by Rachel Donkersloot
The lack of young Alaskans entering commercial fisheries is compounded by another troubling trend, the rise in nonresident permit ownership in some fisheries. Together these concerning trends threaten the long-term viability of our coastal communities and state. As we work to better understand the problem, we must also work toward effective solutions. Our aging fleet means many of the rights to Alaska fisheries will change hands in the next decade. What will this transfer mean for the well-being of coastal Alaska and those who call it home? Read the rest here 10:07
The Snobby Neighbors of Beaufort County – Jellyfish Company Files Suit, Video
When jelly-fishers wanted to do business in Beaufort County, not all neighbors were supportive. Groups against the jelly-fishing are still speaking-out against an operation nearly a year later. The groups want to stop a company from unloading and rinsing cannonball jellyfish waste water into Jenkins Creek. However, that company is now suing Beaufort County over an ordinance that makes doing business harder. Video, and read the rest here 07:24
Roger the lobster saved after his date with a dinner plate falls through
A LEVIATHAN lobster has been saved from the cooking pot after fishery bosses took pity on him and gave the king-sized crustacean a last-minute reprieve. The marine monster weighs in at a whopping 12lb and was destined to end up on dinner plates at a swanky London restaurant. The lobster – nicknamed Roger – had been specially shipped from Canada,, Read the rest here 06:56
From: Tom Nies,Executive Director, NEFMC – Sunday, January 25, 2015 4:34 PM
To All – Due to the expected blizzard conditions that will develop in New England late Monday night and extend into Tuesday, the first day of the Council meeting, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 is cancelled. The meeting will tentatively begin Wednesday afternoon (time TBD) but I will publish a revised agenda tomorrow morning after checking the weather forecast again. Please contact me with your questions. Tom Nies Executive Director New England Fishery Management Council [email protected] 978-465-0492 ext 113 18:57
Subsistence gillnets on Alaska’s Kenai, Kasilof rivers get go-ahead
Anglers on the most heavily used river in the state will be joined by another group of fishermen this year after the Federal Subsistence Board voted to allow subsistence gillnetting on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers. Tension between state management and federal management caused frustration among state biologists at the meeting. Read the rest here 18:37
Greenpeace comes to the aid of Britain’s small fishing vessels – Lucky bastards!
There may be plenty more fish in the sea according to some, but local fishermen are banned from catching them. The UK is sending many fishermen into bankruptcy by only offering them a fraction of the nation’s fishing quota, according to Greenpeace who on Friday, launched legal action against the government at the High Court. Sarah North, Greenpeace Head of Oceans campaign, Read the rest here 17:18
Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Meeting January 26 – 29, 2015, Point Clear, AL
Agenda and Summary Documents, Commitees Agenda can be found here Register for the meeting webinar here, and listen live. 15:55
As the scallop fishery rebounds, divers hope for a break
These are tough guys (and at this point, no women hold commercial licenses to scallop dive). There are a lot of ways one could explain that: the plunge into wintry waters of, say, 37 degrees, the even colder temperatures on deck, the solitary nature of this form of fishing. But Sewell? If ever there were a way to take the measure of a man’s toughness, it would be Sewell. He was in a snowmobile accident in 2009, and it cost him dearly. Read the rest here 14:25
Crews receive honors Friday for saving fishermen’s lives
A special recognition ceremony Friday honored those involved in a rescue mission along Carteret County’s coast in mid-December of last year. According to U.S. Coast Guard Marine Inspector and Investigator Chief Warrant Officer 3 Bobby L. Conners, about midday on Dec. 16, 2014, Dunnie L. Smith of Beaufort, owner and captain of the fishing boat Shelly, left Homer Smith Seafood’s docks in Beaufort for a day trip to fish for tuna. Read the rest here 13:38
New Website Bridges Gap Between Local Seafood, Consumers
Coastal Enterprises Inc., or CEI — which works to spur small business development — says the idea is to do for seafood what the locavore and “buy local” movements are doing for Maine agriculture. From an office overlooking Portland’s working waterfront, Hugh Cowperthwaite sits hunched over his computer. At his fingertips, he says, is a wealth of information about Maine seafood — all in one place. Cowperthwaite is the fisheries project director for CEI, which has just launched a website to integrate Maine’s lucrative seafood industry into the local food movement. Read the rest here
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update, January 25, 2015
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 To read all the updates, click here 10:51
Three Lower Keys brothers accused of harvesting lobster from illegal artificial habitats – expected to plead guilty
Charles, Ryan and Tyson Veach face allegations of harvesting spiny lobsters from casitas, catching more than their daily commercial bag limit and falsifying commercial fishing reports to conceal their take. Each was indicted on charges of conspiracy and violating the Lacey Act, which makes it a federal offense to import, export, transport, sell or purchase in interstate commerce any wildlife protected at the state level. Read the rest here 10:10
Federal restrictions hit recreational fishermen
John Bullard, Northeast regional administrator at NOAA, said he believes the scientists working with NOAA and who came to the recent conclusions about cod should be fairly acknowledged by the fishermen. Their studies are peer reviewed, he said, meaning they’ve been examined and approved by scientists familiar with the subject not involved with the study directly. He said he sympathizes with the fishermen and others impacted by the economic hit the regulations are causing, but he believes the restrictions are necessary. Read the rest here 09:34
Upping their groundfish game
Despite more than thirty years of fishing around Alaska, Kasilof fisherman Rob Nelson had never let out a net hoping to catch pollock before December. But the long-time seiner has been learning how to catch the groundfish in Kachemak Bay as part of an experimental fishery this winter. In most of Alaska, pollock are caught by trawlers. But Nelson and other fishermen are hoping that seines could provide a way to safely catch the fish, without worrying about bycatch. Read the rest here 08:39
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
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
