Monthly Archives: March 2015
#CatchOfTheDay – Tony Delahunty, Chairman of the NFFO writes about the idea behind the #CatchOfTheDay campaign.
There is a common misperception that it is just the large trawler boats which supply us with fresh fish. The truth is that the UK has a diverse fishing fleet and smaller boats like my own are just as important for the supply of this sustainable food source. As a fisherman myself, I have seen the industry evolve over the past 40 years with consumers and chefs becoming more adventurous with their choices of fish, although the UK’s top three choices are still unsurprisingly cod, haddock and salmon. Read the rest here 09:50
Salmon Vs. Gold Splits Alaska GOP
There’s gold in them thar…. swamps. A lot of gold, in fact—up to $120 billion of it, lying within the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska. Which is why a Canadian company, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., wants to dig one of the world’s largest open-pit mines to get it. Naturally, there’s a fight. Mines are messy, and this one—the —could threaten delicate salmon spawning grounds. But this fight is different—because there are Republicans on both sides. Read the rest here 09:26
Lionfish are threatening Florida’s economy
Invasive lionfish are a serious threat to Florida’s saltwater fishing industry — the second largest in the nation — and the thousands of jobs it supports, according to an economic commentary from Florida TaxWatch. Some 109,000 jobs tied to recreational fishing, and the more than 64,000 dependent on the commercial fishing industry, bolster the state economy, the report reveals. Read the rest here 08:30
Haida Nation wins injunction against commercial fishery on Haida Gwaii
A First Nation in Haida Gwaii, B.C., says it has won an injunction to block a planned herring roe fishery on its territory. The Haida Nation says a Federal Court judge found there is a risk of “irreparable harm” if a large commercial fishery is allowed to open in the community on the north coast. Read the rest here 13:12
Another Ridicules Main Stream Anti Fishing Article, and a Sound Refutation.
John Roach wrote an industry hit piece that was posted on nbc.com. Oceans Become Killing Field, Fish We Eat Dwindle – The oceans have become a killing field. Thanks to giant trawlers armed with technology and massive nets,,, you’ve seen it all before, nothing new here. Read it here The comments at the article expose the naïve public got his message!- NFI aboutseafood.com refuted it. NBCNews.com Replaces Reality, Regulation and History with Hyperbole. Read the refutation here 12:50
PHAs: ‘Bacteria fat’ that can help us save the Chesapeake – Crab Pot’s, and Shotgun Wads
PHAs are plastics that are made by bacteria. PHAs also are eaten by bacteria. “It’s like fat,” Kirk Havens says. He explained that just as vertebrates store energy in fat deposits, many bacteria synthesize PHAs—short for polyhydroxalkanoates—to store carbon and energy. An individual bacterium will draw on its little dab of polymer reserve to get through the lean days in its microscopic world, unless a bigger microorganism eats it first. Anything made of PHA will biodegrade, simply because bacteria start eating it. Read the rest here 11:53
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update MAR 8, 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 11:35
Maine has a dangerous lobster dependence, without a Plan B
Maine is in the midst of a lobster boom. But Maine’s dependence on the lobster, almost to the exclusion of other species that used to deliver significant value, is cause for concern in the same way as a small town’s heavy dependence on a paper mill for employment and economic activity. Read the rest here 11:25
Unalaska hires Anchorage marketing firm to shed ‘Deadliest Catch’ image
In a move to offset what is seen by some as a negative public image created by the reality television show “Deadliest Catch,” and to encourage oil company workers to make permanent homes locally, the Unalaska City Council is giving money to an Anchorage advertising firm to promote a wholesome image. The city government wants the outside world to know there’s more to life in Unalaska than getting drunk. The 10-year-old Discovery Channel show depicts life on Bering Sea commercial crab boats based in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor. Read the rest here 10:55
Political meddling, entitlement feed Cook Inlet fish wars
While fishery managers on the Kenai Peninsula do their best to balance competing users, over the past several years, interest group from other regions of the state have gained more and more influence over how the peninsula’s fisheries are managed. Read the rest here 10:11
Taiwanese fishing vessel carrying 49 crew missing in South Atlantic
A Taiwanese ship carrying 49 crew has vanished in the remote South Atlantic Ocean without any sign of a mayday call but shortly after its skipper reported it was taking on water, authorities say. “We still don’t know where the ship is and what happened to it,” Huang Hong-yen, spokesman for the local fisheries agency, said, adding that the government launched a search-and-rescue effort “immediately” after the ship’s owners said it had lost contact. Read the rest here 09:36
Future of shrimp fishery debated at Fishermen’s Forum
Commercial shrimp fishermen who already have gone two years without a harvest shared sharply divided opinions about the future of their fishery Saturday at the 40th annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum. “I think there’s too much regulation going on,” Jim Hanscom of Bar Harbor said. “Pitting fishermen against fishermen is just no good. Limited entry, it’s just cutting people out … I think it’s foolish. Maybe just leave it alone, and let it be.” Read the rest here 20:52
Alexandra Morton: Canada is changing its laws for dirty salmon
On the January 10, 2015, hurricane-force winds hit the coast of Norway. Over 100,000 farm fish escaped during the storm, including 63,000 North American steelhead. Sport fishermen, furious that these foreign fish were teeming through the fjords near Bergen, set to work recapturing the oddly disfigured steelhead. They sent samples to a lab at the University of Bergen, where their fears were confirmed. The farm fish were positive for a suite of farm viruses. Read the rest here 20:37
They got Beamer.
Beamer was a blue shark that used to enjoy swimming in the chilly waters off Montauk, New York. Last year, Beamer began swimming south towards the Caribbean and made it to the eastern Antilles by Christmas. The shark then made a straight swim towards Puerto Limon in Costa Rica; alas, Beamer ended up hooked on the lines of a commercial fishing boat somewhere between Portete and Moin. Read the rest here 18:52
Sharpen the Harpoon, U.S. study could allow hunting of North Pacific gray whale
A federal agency has released a study that could open the door for hunting of the North Pacific gray whale by the Makah Indian tribe off the Washington coast. The draft report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries division that was released Friday proposes six options that range from prohibiting the annual hunt for North Pacific gray whales to allowing the harvest of up to 24 whales in a six-year period. Read the rest here 17:34
Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative plan will start with upscale restaurants
Collaborative leaders and their advertising agency outlined the new marketing plan Friday at the Maine Fishermen Forum
. The plan starts by focusing on upscale restaurants in the Northeast, and working with well-known chefs to get them to use and talk about live Maine lobster. The prime marketing focus will be to increase demand and price for soft-shell – what the ad agency calls “new shell” — lobsters. Video, Read the rest here 13:33
Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association calls for herring catch study
The Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association is calling for a study on declining herring catches in the Bay of Fundy. The request comes after Connors Bros., Limited announced Thursday it will cancel the second shift at its Blacks Harbour plant this season, citing a decline in the weir fishery and herring catch forecasts for 2015. Over the past three decades, annual herring weir catches averaged 20,000 tonnes in the Bay of Fundy, according to the fishermen’s association. In 2013, the latest figures available, the total catch dropped to about 6,000 tonnes. Read the rest here 11:55
Reverse shrimp quota cuts from last year: Paul Davis
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Paul Davis says keeping the status quo for shrimp quotas is not enough. A new shrimp plan that is being proposed would eliminate quota reductions for one year. Those cuts saw inshore harvesters lose almost 30 per cent of their quota, compared to only five per cent for the big offshore fleets. Read the rest here 11:36
Is the tasty blue crab’s natural range creeping north?
Ephemeral populations of blue crabs have been documented previously in the Gulf of Maine. Johnson notes that in the 1950s blue crabs were observed in the gulf during a time of warmer waters. But once the waters returned to average temperatures, the crabs disappeared. “It’s too early to determine if the current blue crab population in the Gulf of Maine is permanent or ephemeral,” Johnson says. “However, models predict an increasing warming of the world’s oceans and recent observations of blue crabs may be a crystal ball into the future ecology of the Gulf of Maine.” Read the rest here 09:37
NOAA and the fishermen: Across the great divide?
The sampling remains microscopically thin, so only time will tell whether the compromise forged by the commercial fishing industry and NOAA Fisheries on the Gulf of Maine interim cod measures will stand as a template for the future. Even given that uncertainty of what lies beyond the horizon, the lack of rancor in modifying the emergency cod measures was a refreshing departure from the antagonistic tango federal regulators and the fishermen have danced in the past. Read the rest here 08:59
Study: Bellingham, Blaine commercial fishing fleet plays big part in local economy
While Whatcom County’s economy has diversified in the past two decades, commercial fishing remains a significant contributor of jobs and revenue. That’s the conclusion of a newly released economic impact study that looked at commercial fishing and seafood processing activity in the Blaine and Squalicum marinas in 2013. According to the study, the industry employed 1,781 people, creating 870 jobs through spending money at other businesses, and another indirect 165 jobs. Those 1,781 people earned $94.5 million in 2013, according to the report. Read the rest here 08:17
Almost $12 Million Cut for ADFG
According to Juneau Resources Weekly, the ADF&G budget reductions budget reductions cut across all divisions with sport fishing facing the most personnel losses at 12 seasonal jobs. The Division of Habitat could lose $400,000; commercial fishing programs are set to lose five positions and an additional $2 million in general fund support. Read the rest here 07:40
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for March 6, 2015
Click here Weekly Update for March 6, 2015 20:57
Fishing industry takes PBS to task for misleading promotion
In a letter to Paula A. Kerger, President and CEO of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) which is attached and pasted below, the Seafood Coalition pointed out the inappropriateness of a publicly funded network using glaring distortions to hype an upcoming PBS miniseries. From the letter, “researcher Jeremy Jackson indicted by implication every U.S. fisherman – recreational, commercial, or party/charter – and the federal fisheries management system that we are and have been heavily invested in making the best in the world since the passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976.” Read the letter here An Interview with Jeremy Jackson, Renowned Oceanographer PBS Trailer Click Here 19:49 photo credit ocean.si.edu 19:55
Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Press Release 6 March 2015
The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council will meet March 10 to 12, 2015, to consider and make recommendations on the issues summarized – American Samoa Large Vessel Prohibited Area Temporary Exemption – American Samoa Longline Albacore Catch Limit – 2015 US Pacific Territory Longline Bigeye Specification, Read the rest here 17:11
To Be A Crab Fisherman. by Joe Hall
Fishing is one of the most growing, beneficial forms of hunting, I have found. I was raised in Idaho by a father who would take me fishing on the Owyhee River in Oregon. It was always a fun activity for the both of us, and I’ll never forget the talks and the times spent with him as we patiently learned to be patient, waiting for just the smallest bite, and sometimes coming home with nothing. Unfortunately, fishing with my dad isn’t something that happens very often anymore with me living in Alaska. Read the rest here 16:06
Fish and Game predicts average year for Cook Inlet commercial harvest
Commercial fisheries managers in the Cook Inlet are predicting a run of about 5.8 million sockeye salmon with a harvest of about 3.7 million of those fish by all user groups, according to its 2015 outlook for commercial salmon fishing. Commercial Area Management Biologist Pat Shields said the harvest, if the forecast is correct, would be about average. The Kenai River sockeye salmon forecast is about 3.6 million fish, while the Kasilof River sockeye salmon run is about 1,092,000. On the Susitna River, 276,000 sockeye salmon area expected to return. Read the rest here 15:01
West Coast fishery managers (PFMC) days away from landmark decision on forage fish
West coast fishery managers are poised to make a decision next week that could alter the future of fishing in federal waters off the Pacific Coast, as well as in Oregon’s state-regulated nearshore waters. The Pacific Fishery Management Council is scheduled to vote Monday on a proposal to restrict new forage fisheries off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington unless prospective fishermen can prove harvesting a new species would not damage the ecosystem. Read the rest here 14:21
Connors Bros. confirms cutting second shift at sardine plant due to decline in catch forecasts
Connors Bros., Limited has confirmed it will not recall a second shift at its Blacks Harbour sardine plant this season. The company blames a decline in the weir fishery and herring catch forecasts for 2015 for the decision. About 60 jobs will be affected, spokesperson Dave Giddens said in an emailed statement. 11:08
Tonka brings shrimp back to Petersburg Local company purchased 250,000 pounds over the winter
Tonka Seafoods, Inc., announced last year that it was working to bring shrimp fisheries and processing back to Petersburg after a nearly decade-long absence. Well, it’s delivered. The fishery is closed for March and April, but Chief Financial Officer Seth Scrimsher said they purchased 250,000 pounds of pink shrimp from fisherman at a price of 40 cents per pound over the winter. “There is a lot of interest in this cold water pink shrimp right now, especially worldwide,” he noted. Read the rest here 10:43
