Daily Archives: February 8, 2015

Canneries coping with shipping delays

With the stalemate in negotiations between the union representing dock workers and the Port Maritime Association, and notice of a lockout within a week, there are worries that the shipping situation will get even worse. The biggest employer in the territory, StarKist Samoa, says its operations have been impacted by the slowdown however it doesn’t anticipate any layoffs or changes to its local operations as a result.   Read the rest here 20:36

Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s spiny lobster review panel, Monday, Feb 9, 0:900

GMFMC SidebarOpen to the public in Key West, Florida, and accessible via webinar. Click here for information, and here to access webinar. 19:50

CORPUS CHRISTI – Coast Guard rescues 4 Mexican poachers from sinking boat

Coast Guard crews rescued four Mexican nationals from their sinking boat Saturday, after they were spotted illegally fishing north of the U.S./Mexico maritime border. At approximately 8 p.m. Saturday, a crewmember aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Brant, an 87-foot coastal patrol boat, spotted a Mexican boatcrew poaching fish in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, 30 miles off South Padre Island. Read the rest here 19:17

Meet the fishermen who spend eight months at sea chasing profit, adventure and barramundi

Kooch, 43, has been battling his wits with the metre-long silver-scaled fish since he was a 16-year-old deckhand just out of school. “Everyone likes the idea of fishing,” he said. “They think it’s pina coladas and sun tans. “It’s not like that. It’s dirty, long hours and isolated.” On board his vessel Ruby were a team of three other men, itinerant deckhands from New South Wales, Western Australian and South Australia thrown together by fortune. Like nineteenth century whalers, each was chasing profit and adventure while savouring the serenity and quiet of life at sea. Read the rest here 17:55

Invasive Asian carp fish spawning in Louisville

A highly invasive fish commonly called Asian carp is proliferating in the Ohio River at Louisville, with a spawning area below the McAlpine Locks and Dam. A report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says two species of the fish, Bighead and Silver carp, are spawning at Louisville. State Fish and Wildlife hosted a first-ever commercial fishing contest in 2013 at Kentucky and Barkley lakes to reduce the populations. Read the rest here 14:52

Fisheries bureaucrats made pitches Dragons’ Den-style

Talk about a trial by fire. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans held a “Dragons’ Den”-style event where bureaucrats were asked to pitch ideas to a group of senior managers, a newly released document shows. Unlike the popular TV show on which the exercise was based, where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists, Fisheries and Oceans asked public servants to come up with “creative solutions to policy and operational challenges.” Read the rest here 14:13

Don Cherry’s ‘barbarian’ comments on eating seal creates social media outrage

Sports commentator Don Cherry created a stir on social media after giving his opinion on eating seal during Saturday night’s Coach’s Corner segment on the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. It was in reference to his colleague Ron MacLean, who is in St. John’s for a Rogers Hometown Hockey event. MacLean told Cherry he had eaten a seal burger, which was prepared by Todd Perrin of Mallard Cottage restaurant in Quidi Vidi. Read the rest here 10:25

Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update FEB 8, 2015

rifa2The 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 09:58

For Rockfish, A Tale Of Recovery, Hidden On Menus

 For West Coast commercial fishermen and seafood lovers, there is reason to cheer. “On the East Coast, they call striped bass ‘rockfish.’ You offer them a chilipepper,” Moonen says, citing the name of one rockfish species, “and call it a ‘rockfish’ and they’ll think they’re getting a striped bass.” “I think it’s more interesting to use the real names,” Rorapaugh says. “If you have thornyhead rockfish on the menu, it will start a conversation.” Read the rest here 09:42

Maine’s scallop fishery rebounding, but there’s a catch

Despite the good news, fishermen still struggle to win a premium price for their scallops in the global marketplace. They compete in a market dominated by a large-scale commercial scallop fishery centered in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which controls more than 90 percent of the market and supplies scallops that have been caught by draggers and packed in ice for days. Maine fishermen, conversely, retrofit their offseason lobster boats and drag for scallops on day trips, providing significantly fresher scallops. Read the rest here 07:51

Voracious protected seals starting to overrun waters off New England

seals eat cod 5But what is the cost? Nils Stolpe, a Florida-based fishing industry journalist and advocate, calculated that since each seal consumed 5 percent of its body weight each day in squid, mollusks, crustaceans, and a variety of fish including rockfish, herring, flounder, salmon, hake, and lance, and don’t forget cod, it amounts to q a quarter million pounds daily. Annually he added it up to 450,000 million pounds, about 200,000 metric tons. Read the rest here 07:07 Read Dogfish and seals and dolphin, oh my! by Nils Stolpe here