Daily Archives: May 6, 2015
Fisheries management reform political, says ex-Mayor Scott Lang
The “middle layer” of the NOAA bureaucracy is not the place to go to seek reforms of a dysfunctional fishery management agency, former Mayor Scott Lang told a meeting of the Center for Sustainable Fisheries Wednesday at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The theme of the meeting was the worsening problems with NOAA survey trawls in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. Fishermen and scientists from the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and technology traded accounts of wildly different results from government-run survey trawls and those conducted by the fishing boats, including a collaboration with SMAST. Read the rest here 23:25
Your Input Needed! Presidential Initiative on Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing and Seafood Fraud
To fight seafood fraud and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the Administration is seeking public input, now through June 8, on the principles to be used in determining fish species “at risk” of these illegal activities. The draft principles list will be used to develop a draft list of species for a risk-based seafood traceability program. Comments can be submitted through the Federal Register or attending one of the following webinars, Click here to read the rest and register 19:07
Securing the supply of sea scallops for today and tomorrow
Good management has brought the $559 million United States sea scallop fishery back from the brink of collapse over the past 20 years. However, its current fishery management plan does not account for longer-term environmental change like ocean warming and acidification that may affect the fishery in the future. A group of researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), National Marine Fisheries Service, and Ocean Conservancy? hope to change that. Read the rest here 17:18
Your Alaskan king crab may not be from Alaska
You see them just about everywhere, those pink and white knobby claws stretched out on a bed of ice. When it comes to crab legs, Alaskan king crabs are … well … king. But what you see in the supermarket may not be what you think. The truth is, there isn’t just one king crab, and yours may not be from Alaska. Read the rest here 16:40
VIDEO: Dredging the Oregon Inlet
The U.S. army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, started recently dredging operations at the Oregon Inlet in order to remove the shoaling that has been obstructing the federal channel passage for commercial fishing vessels. First on the site was cast dredge Merritt that opened the federal channel at the navigation span of the Bonner Bridge to a controlling depth of 8 feet so the hopper dredge Currituck can work to open the channel to as great a depth as possible up to its authorized depth of 14 feet. Watch the video here 15:04
Celtic Explorer departs St. John’s on northern cod fishery mission
A fisheries vessel departed St. John’s Tuesday with a 30-day mission to study the northern cod fishery, part of a five-year research project. The Celtic Explorer is headed to the Hamilton Bank region, which scientists believe was devastated by overfishing and where cod stocks have yet to see signs of recovery. Scientists aboard the Celtic Explorer will make their way up north, weather and ice permitting, to study the old spawning grounds for northern cod. Read the rest here 12:47
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 40′ Fiberglass Webber’s Cove Stern Trawler, Lobster, Volvo 102D
For specifications, information, and 14 photos of the vessel, click here To see all the boats in this series, Click here 12:17
First Nations woman wins discrimination battle over fishing captain licence
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that a Nova Scotia aboriginal community discriminated against a female member by denying her work in the local fishing industry because of her gender. The tribunal also said Tabor was subjected to derogatory remarks, citing an instance when a senior band member said “the only place for women’s breasts on a boat was on the bow as a figurehead.” Read the rest here 11:40
UNDERCOVER OPERATION – Maine elver buyer caught in federal regulators’ net
He drove a super-sized pickup truck with “EEL WGN” plates, carried a bank bag stacked with cash and, as long as you had a bucket full of elvers, William “Billy” Sheldon didn’t care where they came from, according to documents unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland. In a 42-page search warrant affidavit, federal wildlife investigators allege that for two years, Sheldon traveled between South Carolina and Maine ,. Sheldon has not been charged in the case. Read the rest here 11:13
Massachusetts Shoreside businesses can begin applying for federal fishery disaster aid
Shoreside businesses interested in securing a share of the $750,000 in federal fishery disaster aid designated for Massachusetts must submit pre-qualification information to the state by May 31. The state Division of Marine Fisheries is managing the distribution of the financial assistance to those waterfront businesses that have been damaged economically by the ongoing federally declared groundfish fishery disaster. Read the rest her 08:30
Catch cap eased on menhaden, ‘backbone’ of East Coast fisheries
The nearly unanimous vote to lift the catch cap by 10 percent represents a compromise between commercial fishermen, who contend that they can safely harvest many more, and conservationists, who remain worried that there still are not enough menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay to sustain striped bass, known to many as rockfish. “We’re heading in the right direction,” said Robert T. Brown Sr., president of the Maryland Watermen’s Association, who asserted that there are plenty of menhaden in the bay. Read the rest here Menhaden Fishery: Here’s how it’s done 07:55
