Daily Archives: February 25, 2015
Individual, commercial fishing interests clash in Alaska Board of Fisheries testimony
Many of the players and stakeholders in Southeast Alaska’s salmon and herring fisheries laid out their positions Tuesday morning (2-24-15), as the 
opened its spring meeting to public testimony. Although the board had already received detailed, written comments on the 107 management proposals, it is in the oral testimony that most people’s concerns and frustrations really emerge. Audio Read the rest here 22:18
Southeast Alaska King Salmon Head North In Search Of Cooler Waters
Some king salmon reared in Southeast Alaska are traveling farther north as 
. The king salmon hatched in Southeast’s four top-producing river systems, the Alsek, Situk, Taku, and Stikine, are going very far afield. “All four of these stocks are considered outside-rearing, or what we term the far-north migrators. This means that shortly after the juveniles enter the marine environment to rear, they essentially take a right and head out to the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.” Audio, Read the rest here 20:01
SW Boatworks builds big boat for big-time tuna hunter, by Stephen Rappaport
For the past several years, Carraro has fished aboard Duffy 38 Tuna.com. This spring, he will move his operations to a new Calvin Beal 44 that will have the same name, but is a much larger boat. The new boat is 44 feet long and has a beam of 17 feet 6 inches — 16 feet 2 inches at the transom — and will weigh close to 35,000 pounds ready to go. The Duffy, now sold, was 38 feet 6 inches long — 35 feet on the waterline — with a beam of 14 feet and a displacement closer to 28,000 pounds — all big differences at sea. Read the rest here 17:59
Fishermen happy with their jobs; Don’t like privatized fisheries
Alaska fishermen are happy with their career choice, but not so pleased with programs that carve up the catch. That pretty much sums up the findings in a multi-year study that aimed to gauge how Kodiak fishermen feel about privatizing the resource through things like catch shares and IFQs. Courtney Carothers, “I was trying to understand also how people thought about privatization compared to other kinds changes in the community and then also looking at how people thought about privatization in terms of its affects on individual and community well being.” Read the rest here 16:31
Coast Guard terminates fishing vessel voyage off central Oregon Coast
The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Cuttyhunk while on patrol off of Winchester Bay, terminated the voyage of a fishing vessel for safety gear concerns found during an at-sea boarding Monday. The three member crew, fishing for crab, aboard the 39-foot vessel Dusky was safely escorted to Winchester Bay, where the vessel was ordered to remain until the crew fixed the especially hazardous safety condition of an expired life raft and replace the expired flares which were found on board,,, Read the rest here 15:32
‘Worst of all possible times’ to gut fish commission, chair says
The three-member commission that oversees Alaska’s lucrative limited-entry commercial fisheries is urging lawmakers not to pursue proposals for elimination for at least another year. The state Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission is under fire as a more than $3.5 billion budget shortfall looms. A critical report by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game makes a case for overhaul, citing permit processing delays and relatively high payroll costs. Proposed legislation, House Bill 112, would repeal the commission and move its duties to Fish and Game. Read the rest here 14:59
Cecil waterman gives up the catch after nearly 60 years
Henry “Pip” Pratt has been a fisherman since he was a junior in high school in 1956. “I went fishing one night on the Susquehanna Flats and caught a mess of shad and sold them for $108,” he recalled. “From that moment on, I knew I wanted to be a fisherman.” Pratt is retiring this year after nearly 60 years fishing the Chesapeake Bay. Read the rest here 14:29
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 39′ BHM Tuna/Towing, 750HP, 6 Cylinder Iveco, Phasor – 8 KW Genset
Specifications, and information and 11 photos of the vessel, click here To see all the boats in this series, Click here 13:58
Florida Fisherman John L. Yates Wins Supreme Court Case, is off the hook in grouper-tossing case
A Florida fisherman convicted of tossing undersized grouper off his boat is off the hook after a divided Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that he should not have been prosecuted under a law targeting accounting fraud. In a 5-4 opinion, the justices threw out the conviction of commercial fishing boat captain John Yates, who was prosecuted under a law passed in the wake of the Enron scandal. Read the rest here 11:02
Two letters from Salvatore Novello, Gloucester, Mass
NOAA HAS TO CHANGE THEIR WAYS AS OUR OCEANS ARE CHANGING!!!, and IN PUT, AS A STAKE HOLDER, IN GULF OF MAINE FISHERIES. Read the letters here 10:52
Former CCA Executive Director Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas Ignores The Fact That Commercial Fishermen Harvest Fish For The People
Liz Pike has written an op ed piece regarding the benefit of turning the fishery of the Lower Columbia river into a “World Class” sports fishing Mecca. Her view is that recreational fishermen are being short changed by commercial fishermen, and the “special treatment” allowed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife should be driven by economics, and the revenue generation contribution of the sport fishing industry. Commercial fishermen provide that resource to the people that own it. Its only right that they get the largest allocation. Commercial fishing ain’t a hobby. Read her Op-ed here 10:00
Fishing bills in Olympia fail the smell test
Yet another volley has been fired in the decades-old conflict between sport and commercial fishing. HB 1660 would change state law so that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife would have to give sport angling precedence over commercial fishing. Under current law, the agency is supposed to “enhance and maximize” both kinds of fishing. The current bill is another example of sport fishing interests blaming commercials, rather than the Columbia River dams and loss of habitat that are also factors, for a lack of fish. Read the rest here 07:50
Fishery fund benefits big players, few fishermen – Only 7 harvesters among 261 project approvals
