Daily Archives: June 16, 2015
New England Council Votes to Open Up Parts of George’s Bank to Commercial Fishing
NEWPORT, R.I. – Regional fishery regulators meeting in Rhode Island have voted to open up parts of George’s Bank – off of Massachusetts – to commercial fishing. The New England Fishery Management Council has approved a plan that it says will allow fishing opportunities on healthy stocks for the economically strapped groundfish fleet. In a statement, the council says the plan also allows greater access to a portion of the Georges Bank sea scallop resource that has not been open to the fishery since 1994. CLF crowd feeling bummed. Read the rest here 20:51
Marine Harvest Canada appeals recent aquaculture regulations court decision
The company cites errors in fact and law as grounds for the appeal. The appeal has been filed on a number of grounds, including significant factual errors Justice Rennie made in his findings, according to a Marine Harvest press release. In its appeal, the company says that Justice Rennie erred in law by not placing the evidentiary onus on the applicant to show that the aquaculture license conditions were unreasonable, and the judge applied the wrong standard of review, replacing the Minister of Fisheries’ view of what may be harmful with his own. Read the rest here 20:33
Coast Guard hoists 3 after fire engulfs boat off the Georgia Coast
Three people were rescued in a cooperative effort between a good Samaritan fishing boat and the U.S. Coast Guard, Tuesday, approximately 118 miles east of Brunswick. Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector Charleston command center received a Mayday call over VHF Channel 16 stating that the 95-foot vessel, Windy 1, had suffered an engine fire which had engulfed the vessel. The Coast Guard issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast, stating the location and nature of the emergency to other vessels in the area. Read the rest here 18:53
Omega Protein Vessel, Barataria Bay, Given New Purpose as Artificial Reef in Gulf of Mexico
The 
is the latest Omega Protein vessel to be sunk for the purpose of creating a new reef, as the company is a regular ecological collaborator with the Mississippi DMR. In November 2009, Omega Protein sunk another one of its retired long-time fishing vessels, the Great Wicomico, off the coast of Mississippi for a separate reef project. A third Omega Protein vessel, the von Rosenberg, was sunk in May 2000. Read the rest here 17:08
Setnet numbers, bycatch rates refute sport claims
Salmon setnets are not outdated forms of fishing gear that indiscriminately kill everything in their paths. That’s the main talking point of sport fish advocates aiming to ban setnets in six regions of Alaska. “I believe now more than ever that Alaskans want to end the devastating and outdated mode of commercial fishing called setnetting. I spent six years as a setnetter in Upper Cook Inlet and during that time I caught a lot of red salmon. However, my nets also caught sharks, birds, ducks, flounders, dolly vardens and a lot of king salmon. Setnets are decimating other species in Alaska.” But the data don’t back up the deadly claims that the gear indiscriminately kills and threatens other species. Listen, Read the rest here
Lobster Mac and Cheese, an Economist’s Perspective
The Canadian lobster industry has experienced price volatility in recent years due to an unexpectedly high volume of lobster. In Canada, environmental regulation was so successful at protecting the stock of lobster that the supply well exceeded historical landings. This unanticipated influx of product to the market along with lack-lustre demand dragged prices so low that the Maritime region experienced adverse socioeconomic effects,,, Read the rest here 15:14
Seafreeze Ltd, defrauded of more than $200,000 – Insurance agent arrested
John Sexton, 61, was charged with two counts of second-degree grand larceny, three counts of first-degree falsifying business records, and first-degree scheme to defraud, the DA said. Between January 2010 and July 2013, Sexton created invoices that inflated insurance premiums for Seafreeze, Ltd., a client of Ocean Marine Insurance Agency who was a client of Sexton’s, the DA said. Sexton forwarded the bills to OMIA and pocketed a total of $58,000, officials said. He also pocketed more than $200,000 from the insurer between 2012 and 2014 by withholding payments meant for the seafood producer, the DA said. Read the rest here 14:46
With Maryland crabs scarcer than usual, prices from Louisiana and Carolina rise
Though locally caught crabs are rarely plentiful this time of year, a scarcity of mature Maryland crabs has been driving up prices for all sources of crabs for Maryland restaurants, say many in the industry.”We’ve got a really slow start in Maryland,” said Davis. There were fewer crabs to harvest at the start of the season in April, she said, because last winter’s bitter cold killed a lot of the adult crustaceans that slumbered on the bottom in Maryland waters. The annual winter survey of the crab population found,,, Video, Read the rest here 11:58
Deadly catch: The raw fish that can cause liver cancer
The practice of eating raw fish is causing life-threatening health issues in certain areas of north-east Thailand. Local fish populations are infected with a type of worm known as a fluke which, once consumed, migrates to the human liver. Over many decades, the infestation causes inflammation and tissue damage that can eventually lead to liver cancer. In men, liver cancer makes up less than ten percent of cancers worldwide. But in affected areas of Thailand, it accounts for more than half. Video, Read the rest here 09:42
Small Filipino fishermen losers in sea dispute
While the Philippine government has taken the territorial dispute to the United Nations’ arbitral tribunal, the livelihood of small fishermen on the western coast of Luzon has become collateral damage in the escalating feud between the Philippines and China in the West Philippine Sea. It was the first time that Chinese coast guards drove Filipino fishermen away from the shoal, Lopez said. “It happened while we were taking refuge in the shoal. The weather was so bad at that time but what those Chinese did to us was even worse.” Read the rest here 09:13
NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center to gauge unprecedented West Coast toxic algal bloom
The bloom stretches from the Central California Coast north to Washington and possibly Alaska, and involves some of the highest concentrations of the natural toxin domoic acid ever observed in Monterey Bay and off the Central Oregon Coast. In early June elevated toxin levels led shellfish managers to close the southern Washington Coast to Dungeness crab fishing, the largest-ever closure of Washington’s multi-million-dollar crab fishery. Read the rest here 08:29
Scientists, Fishing Fleet Team Up To Save Cod — By Listening
In the ocean off of Massachusetts, an unlikely alliance of scientists and fishermen is on a quest. They’re looking for mating codfish. The goal is not only to revive a depleted fish population, but to save an endangered fishing community as well. Frank Mirarchi, a fisherman in the area for 52 years, was one of those who came forward. “We know the fish are spawning somewhere in this fairly large area of several hundred square miles,” he told the scientists. “Help us find out where.” “We’re trying to fish but not catch cod,” says Mirarchi. “That’s the new strategy.” Read the rest here 08:20
