Monthly Archives: May 2015
Louisiana House moves turtle extruder shrimp-net rule moves forward unanimously
The Louisiana House took a great step forward on Wednesday when it unanimously passed a House Bill 688. The measure — if it passes and is signed into law by the governor — would remove a ridiculous law from Louisiana’s books. It is a step that can and should be taken. The current law prevents state Wildlife and Fisheries agents from enforcing federal laws requiring shrimp nets to have turtle excluder devices. The law was passed in the 1980s, when debate over the TEDs was at a fever pitch. Read the rest here 14:14
Marine Sanctuary’s Wrong Science Accelerated Florida’s Coral Reef Destruction
At exactly the time I should have been paying the closest attention, Florida was suffering probably the biggest environmental disaster in its history. It happened on my watch but I wasn’t watching. Billy Causey is the for the National Marine Sanctuary. Causey is the man most responsible for keeping the faulty hypothesis alive and well. Scary when you consider he failed to earn his doctorate, so in 2006 the University of South Florida gave him an honorary one anyway. “Oh, he likes to be called Doctor,” one his staff told me. Read the rest here 11:02
What’s killing off B.C.’s young salmon?
Hundreds of millions of young salmon are emerging from rivers along the B.C. coast, beginning a perilous journey that will take them north into the Gulf of Alaska. What happens on that remarkable migration, which most of the fish will not survive, remains one of the greatest mysteries of ocean science. Read the rest here 10:39
Is fish farming coming to San Diego’s coast?
“My goal is to create seafood everyone can afford,” said Donald Kent, president of the institute. He is also chief executive of Rose Canyon Fisheries, a startup proposing the fish farm backed by Christy Walton, the Walmart billionaire and former resident of National City who Forbes has called the world’s richest woman. Read the rest here10:30
Louisiana Sets 2015 Spring Shrimp Season
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission announced the opening date for the 2015 Louisiana spring shrimp season. The spring shrimp season was set based on information provided by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists and on public comments. LDWF provided projections of the dates when a minimum of 50 percent of the inshore brown shrimp population would reach sizes of 100 count per pound or larger. Read the rest here 17:33
Cherry-picking the facts undermines green groups
What is it with some environmental groups and their appetite to be selective with the facts and not present a true reflection of our fisheries? The Pew Foundation and New Economics Foundation (NEF) appear to be in a league of their own in this department as is so vividly reflected by their two most recent reports. Pew in its ‘Turning the Tide’ report stated that in many cases the EU’s Atlantic nations set fishing limits ‘contrary’ to recent reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and continue to ‘overfish’ for many species. Meanwhile, NEF claimed that many stocks were fished beyond scientific advice and thus endangering fish stocks. Read the rest here 17:20
Battle over blueline tilefish intensifies-SAFMC requested emergency action for East Coast
In a move that’s certain to heighten tensions over the management of blueline tilefish, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has requested emergency action that will extend the regulations governing the fishery in its jurisdiction to the entire east coast. The MAFMC became concerned for the stock when commercial fishing boats out of North Carolina made it known they planned on landing tilefish in New Jersey, which has no limit on catches. There is no fishery management plan — or available science Read the rest here 16:25
P.E.I. lobster fishermen pleased with first catches – Fishermen’s Association confident lobster levy to go ahead
Saturday marks the first day of the year that fresh Island lobster is available for sale on P.E.I. Fishermen along the North Shore started their season yesterday, eight days late, because of ice. Read the rest here 11:01 P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association is optimistic the one cent per pound levy will go ahead as planned. The money will be used for marketing and Island fishermen voted in favour of the levy last fall. Read the rest here 11:04
Should the striped bass be named the U.S. national fish?
The bald eagle has long flown as the national bird of the United States. The oak stands strong and proud as out national tree. Do we now need a national fish to add to our list of national symbols? Legislation in Congress would officially designate the striped bass as the National Fish of the United States. Freshman Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-New Jersey) would make a name for himself if the bill he passes becomes law. Read the rest here 10:10
Committee to consider buying fishermen out of business
A committee to examine a buyback program for the fishing industry could be organized as soon as this year, a federal official said, as fishermen prepare for one of their toughest seasons ever. A portion of federal disaster relief funds announced last year will go to funding a committee to examine the, said John Bullard, Northeast regional administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA is the federal organization that manages fishing regulations. Read the rest here 08:28
Don’t waste NOAA funds on catch share boondoggle, Tom Swatzel
NOAA has spent about $160 million over the last six years pushing its national catch share policy in an effort to privatize fisheries by giving commercial fishermen “shares” in fisheries based on catch history, which can be bought and sold like shares on Wall Street. Catch share programs tend to benefit large corporate fleets that can buy up shares and hurt small fishermen who cannot. Studies have shown that catch share programs hurt fishing communities by destroying jobs, and don’t provide any biological benefit to fisheries. Read the rest here 07:53
Abandoned Fishing vessel runs aground in Katmai National Park
KATMAI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Alaska – The National Park Service says a fishing vessel abandoned after a fire last month has run aground at Katmai National Park. The park service said Saturday the Northern Pride was found between Cape Chiniak and Kaguyak Point along the Shelikof Strait. The 82-foot wooden vessel’s crew abandoned ship on April 21. The Coast Guard rescued the three-member crew. The vessel capsized shortly after and was believed to have sunk. Read the rest here 07:34
Meet the best Florida Keys lionfish killers
“There are places in the Bahamas where, because of lionfish, there are no more parrotfish,” she said. “And we need parrotfish.” “Averaging three dives a day, four days a week, Adolphus, Rachel and their friends [including Chase Grimes, Jonny Schrier and Willie Dominak] brought in an estimated 7,500 fish in 2014, supplying local restaurants with their catch to help promote a commercial lionfish industry and to take pressure off of other species,” the FWC says. Read the rest here 19:28
Pew’s Greenberg and Worm Bomb – When Humans Declared War on Fish
ON Friday we humans observed V-E Day, the end to one part of a global catastrophe that cost the planet at least 60 million lives. But if we were fish, we would have marked the day differently — as the beginning of a campaign of violence against our taxonomic classes, one that has resulted in trillions of casualties. Oddly, the war itself was a great reprieve for many marine species. Read the rest here 13:51
Welcome to Ocean County, Mary Lee. 3,500-lbs. great white shark off Long Beach Island
Welcome to Ocean County, Mary Lee. The nearly 16-foot, 3,456-pound female great white shark (or Carcharodon carcharias, if you prefer the scientific term), which goes by the name Mary Lee, was last spotted off the southern end of Long Beach Island this morning after reaching the coast of New Jersey yesterday. The great white shark appears to trekking its way north along the New Jersey coastline, just a couple weeks away from Memorial Day Weekend and the kickoff to beach season. Read the rest here 12:30
Lobstermen depend on boat hauler Paul McDonald, he’s feeling the heat. Big time.
The way Paul McDonald sees it, lobster fishermen need him, not the other way around. Well, a large percentage of lobster fishermen in the Louisbourg region do, anyway. He’s also half joking. But when the fishery reopens each year, the Birch Grove resident is the man counted upon to drive his transport truck and trailer wherever a boat has been stored for winter, and deliver these vessels to the water — 130 of them to be precise. Read the rest here 12:10
Oregon shuts down razor clam digging on Clatsop beaches
Oregon health officials ordered an immediate and emergency closure of razor clam digging and mussel gathering on Clatsop County beaches Friday afternoon as levels of sea-borne domoic acid grew exponentially. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has ordered commercial diggers to surrender all razor clams taken Thursday. Read the rest here 09:39
Stuck fishing vessel freed from the ice about 45 nautical miles northeast of Gander
A fishing vessel that required assistance last night after becoming stuck in the ice has been freed, says the officer in charge of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC) in Halifax. Maj. Rhonda Stevens said the fishing vessel, the name of which wasn’t released, notified the St. Anthony Marine Communications Centre around 7 p.m. that it was stuck and needed help. “We were then notified and we knew they had four people on board but there was no immediate danger,” she said. Read the rest here 21:44
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for May 8, 2015
Click to read Weekly Update for May 8, 2015 as a PDF To read all the updates, click here 20:50
26A Lobster season still delayed
Ron Heighton, president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association, said the ice is gone from the local area but the start was delayed until Monday at 6 a.m., because fishermen from the southern portion of P.E.I. were opposed.“They were worried about a little bit of ice,” he said. “We’re ice free but they (DFO) wouldn’t let us go ahead of them. I mean, we don’t share the same bottom so there’d be no impact, right? “We got bullied into it,” he said, because Fisheries Minister Gail Shea is from P.E.I. Read the rest here 19:40
Cooke Aquaculture says vandals cut fish pens loose in St. Marys Bay
Nova Scotia RCMP are investigating a vandalism complaint filed by New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture after the company says vandals cut loose some of its fish pens. Nell Halse, a spokeswoman for Cooke Aquaculture, says the company received reports from the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre on Thursday that a salmon pen was floating free from a fallow salmon farm in St. Marys Bay, near Digby. Our guys have been out there last night and have brought it back to the site and resecured it,” said Halse. “It was clearly cut away from the site.” Read the rest here 16:12
Brownsville company pleads guilty to relabeling Mexican shrimp as domestic
Federal prosecutors say a Brownsville shrimping company has pleaded guilty to relabeling 35,000 pounds of hard-to-sell Mexican shrimp as wild-caught American crustaceans. U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite’s office said in a news release that Garcia Shrimp Co., of Brownsville, Texas, admitted Thursday to a violation of the century-old federal Lacey Act. Polite said the company created false bills of lading and sold the shrimp to a New Orleans-based distributor. Read the rest here 15:14
A bright idea could help eliminate a fishing problem
If there’s too much bycatch, the fishermen sometimes have to dump their entire catch back into the ocean, says Bob Hannah of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. And dumping 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of shrimp is an economic and environmental problem for commercial fishing. But Hannah and a team of government scientists may have found a simple, affordable solution. Local shrimp fishermen are eliminating bycatch by lighting up their nets with LEDs. Audio, Read the rest here 14:30
Could salmon sharks be factor in declining Bering Sea king salmon numbers?
Given their name, it’s not surprising that salmon sharks eat salmon. But Alaska researchers are now asking whether the animals might have any impact on declining numbers of Bering Sea king salmon. “It’s too early to tell if salmon sharks have any impact on abundance on king salmon in the ocean, but it’s certainly another factor that should be investigated,” Seitz said in a phone interview from Fairbanks Wednesday. Read the rest here 11:42
Guest Opinion: State needs to push for halibut protection – by John L. Beath
The Pacific halibut may be an icon of our region, but over the past 10 years in the Bering Sea, it’s become increasingly obvious that we aren’t doing as good a job of protecting them as we should. A total of 62.6 million pounds of halibut were caught as bycatch, harvested unintentionally and thrown overboard dead. To compare, the hook-and-line fishermen targeting halibut only caught 69.7 million pounds in the same area over the same period of time. Read the rest here 10:52
Red snapper season dates finalized
Last week NOAA Fisheries published a rule implementing an increase to the commercial and recreational quotas for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico through 2017. For 2015, the red snapper allowable catch is increasing from 11.0 million pounds whole weight to 14.3 million pounds. The commercial and recreational sector quotas will be based on the current 51 percent commercial and 49 percent recreational allocation. The commercial quota will increase to 7.29 million pounds the recreational quota will increase to 7.01 million pounds. Read the rest here 09:32
Longliner FV Charles T brings in “rare” deep-sea skilfish 200+ miles south of Juneau
In 35 years as a fisherman, Jim Eastwood has only seen seven skilfish. On Wednesday morning, Eastwood and his crew brought in five of them, caught while longlining more than 200 miles south of Juneau. The largest of the mottled gray fish weighed in at about 110 lbs. and looked to be a little more than 5 feet long — bigger than Eastwood. “Oh yeah, well, that doesn’t take much,” he laughed, but he’s heard of larger skilfish, too. Read the rest here 06:34
Court orders new safeguards to prevent fish farm disease spreading to ocean
The federal government has been ordered to shore up its regulations to ensure diseases aren’t transferred from fish farms to the ocean. A Federal Court judge in Vancouver has struck down rules around transfer of fish between acquaculture farms and has given the Department of Fisheries four months to fix the regulations. The decision comes after a biologist accused a fish farm operator of moving diseased salmon smolts from its hatchery to a open pen fish farm on the British Columbia coast. Read the rest here 19:21
