Monthly Archives: June 2015
With industry bouncing back, Steveston Harbour Authority’s chair shares vision
Former fisherman and current Steveston Harbour Authority chair Robert Kiesman has a grand vision for the future of Steveston. The idea, in a nutshell: consolidate fishing companies, related businesses and retail offices currently scattered across the Lower Mainland, and bring them all to Richmond, and specifically the fishing village that is still Canada’s largest commercial fishing harbour. “What our idea is, is more than a marine park,” Kiesman told The Richmond Review Thursday. Read the rest here 22:55
Maine lobster marketers look to re-brand ‘shedders’ as treat
When Maine’s lobsters start shedding their shells, restaurant owner Steve Kingston goes to the docks with a message for lobstermen: bring ’em to me. Kingston is among a group of people in Maine’s lifeblood seafood industry trying to make the coming season the summer of shedders. The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, a group funded by the state’s lobster fishermen, dealers and processors, is launching a push to re-brand recently-molted lobsters as a regional treat that deserves more attention from chefs, restaurants and vacationing tourists. Read the rest here 11:49
Special Master Questions $8M in Oil-Spill Payouts – Law firms that handled claims against BP settlement also targeted.
A special master tasked with rooting out fraud in BP PLC’s $9.9 billion oil-spill settlement has sought the return of nearly $8 million in awards paid to commercial fishermen and . Former FBI director Louis Freeh has filed clawback motions against more than a dozen claimants and lawyers who drew percentages of the payments in contingent fees. Lawyers targeted in nine motions have repaid fees, and a federal judge has ordered one claimant to return money, Freeh has reported. Read the rest here 11:22
40 years on, Manny Silva remembers towing Jaws behind his boat
At 83 years old, Manny Silva has done a lot — including towing a 22-foot-long mechanical shark around on the set of the movie “Jaws” over forty years ago. The retired commercial fisherman is full of stories from his time working the make the South Coast-based movie, which marked its 40th anniversary June 1. Silva said one of the funniest days was the time he accidentally flipped the cameraman — camera and all — into the water. Read the rest here 11:03
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report June 12, 2015
Tim Sands joins for a discussion on Westside counts and more on his plan to open fishing at 30,000 sockeye up the Wood River. Law enforcement has some thoughts on how fishermen can help make this a fair fishery. Plus a look at some of the industry spinning up in Togiak. Listen to the report here 10:30
Fish War: What does the future hold for setnets?
A one handed clap best describes the reaction to the 43,000 signature drop off by anti-salmon setnet advocates at the Division of Elections last week. The ban is being pushed one-handed by the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance (AFCA), whose board of directors delivered stacks of signature booklets, followed by a press conference rife with talking points, table pounding, bravado and buzzwords.,,, “Setnetting in Alaska is very important to these local coastal economies. They are long time, family based operations ,,, Read the rest here 09:43
Schooner Adventure, one of just five original Essex-built fishing schooners still in existence, to return to sea
The Adventure, built in 1926 and one of just five original Essex-built fishing schooners still in existence, received final clearance to launch charter sailing trips from the U.S. Coast Guard through a final certificate of inspection issued Monday. From the day the Adventure hit the water at the Essex boat yard on Sept. 15, 1926, to the day it returned from fishing Georges Banks for the last time in 1953, the vessel was a workhorse of Gloucester’s historic schooner fleet. The Adventure was the last sailing ship to fish the traditional grounds of the banks from Newfoundland,,, Read the rest here 09:10
The word play of the Environmentalists’
Charles Edwardson, born and raised in Ketchikan with deep roots there, write’s about the environmentalists’ manipulative wordsmithing regarding the proposed old growth timber harvest on Prince of Wales Island.,, Now these Environmentalists groups are just throwing crap out there with no requirement to be factual. On the other hand to be factual is a requirement through federal and state,,, great letter, Read the rest here 08:28
Native American tribes start yearly harvest of eel-like fish, the Lamprey
The jawless, gray fish are a traditional food source for tribal members in the Columbia River Basin, which stretches from the Oregon coast to Canada and into Idaho, Montana and Washington. Lampreys grow to about 2 feet long and are prized for their rich, fatty meat. Tribes have been instrumental in advocating for lamprey restoration, and the government has started paying attention. That’s because lampreys also offer an alternate food source for sea lions and other predators that otherwise would be munching on threatened salmon. Read the rest here 07:58
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for June 12, 2015
Click to read the Weekly Update for June 12, 2015 as a PDF To read all the updates, click here 20:59
Thousands of tuna crabs invade San Diego’s beaches, El Niño could be the culprit
Thousands reddish-orange tuna crabs have been washing ashore along San Diego’s beaches. It’s thought the unusual sight is because of warmer-than-normal waters in the Pacific Ocean near the California coast. The tiny crustaceans have appeared from Point Loma to Newport Beach to Santa Catalina Island since early this year but now the crabs have begun to come ashore in San Diego over the past two weeks. Read the rest here 19:55
Cameras to remedy observer problems in Alaska?
Smaller boats in Alaska’s offshore fisheries may no longer have to carry human observers in the future, if a plan to deploy cameras proves feasible. At its Sitka meeting this month, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council gave the green light to an inter-agency effort to develop Electronic Monitoring. The council would like to see cameras in action within three years. “Our observer was on board. And our observer was seasick for about half the days. Conditions were cramped, and I got to sleep on the galley table,” said Steven Rhoads,,, Read the rest here 18:07
Southern Harbour fisherman, Peter Leonard, running for FFAW election
So the Southern Harbour man, who has spent three decades as a commercial fisherman, is serving notice that his name will be on the ballot when the union begins the election process later this year. “I’m not afraid of a fight,” he said. One of his biggest worries is that the inshore fishery is being slowly killed in favour of big business taking over the catching of fish. Leonard says he also wants to make sure fishers have a strong voice at the union table. Read the rest here 15:51
Fishermen oppose New Bedford casino proposal
“No harm is either meant, intended or done by our plan, to the fishing fleet,” Stern said. He cited plans for commercial fishing berths and a recreational marina on the site, and said the removal of oil tanks would keep tankers from using the Acushnet River, freeing space for fishermen. Forty-year fisherman Gabriel Miranda disagreed. “Not on my working waterfront,” Miranda said of a casino. “I can’t see how we’d survive down there.” Jim Kendall, of New Bedford Seafood Consulting, said during the Q & A that “there’s been very little interaction between your people and the fishing industry.” Read the rest here 14:42
Palau burns Vietnamese boats caught fishing illegally
Palau’s president, Tommy Remengesau Jr., said the boats were burned Friday morning. “I think it’s necessary to burn the boats,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunity for illegal fishing and other transnational crime. It’s a challenge,” said Seth Horstmeyer, campaigns director for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Ocean Legacy program. High seas pockets, beyond the jurisdiction of any government, account for nearly two-thirds of all ocean areas. Read the rest here 14:23
Berwick fisherman doing OK after at-sea rescue by Digby ferry
Clayton Joudrey’s sister wrote to the Courier about 1 p.m. June 9 to say the fisherman is very thankful to the crew of the Princess of Acadia, the doctor and nurses on board, and the crew on his fishing boat. “Clayton’s doing ok,” wrote Tammy Naugler of Coldbrook. “Break in his neck, fractured orbital bone and a fractured skull. But he’s awake and enjoying a Tim’s coffee.” Joudrey was injured while scalloping June 7 aboard the Compass Rose II (click here) on the Bay of Fundy. Read the rest here 11:28
NPFMC must strike a better balance on halibut bycatch – Charlie Wilber
This commentary is written for all those who appreciate halibut. If you eat halibut, catch halibut, or have an interest in a healthy halibut resource you need to be aware of what happened at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Sitka this past week. Simply put, halibut stocks in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) area are down, and the problem is slowly affecting all of us. Read the rest here 11:07
What? No Mackerel?? Ocean off Iceland Unusually Cold, No Mackerel
The Icelandic Marine Research Institute’s annual spring expedition from May 18 to 30 concluded that the ocean temperature off Iceland has not been lower in 18 years, or since 1997. The number of krill is below average and not a single mackerel was caught. “In the past years we have always caught some mackerel, and especially last year. But now we didn’t see any,” Read the rest here 10:20
Georgia Shrimp fishermen want a later season opening in state waters
Commercial shrimpers in McIntosh, Glynn and Camden counties have been keeping the Georgia Department of Natural Resources busy lately pleading for it to wait another two weeks before opening state waters for harvesting. If the season opens on schedule Tuesday, they will lose an opportunity to make money this season, they argue. An unusually high number of brown shrimp making their way into the estuaries and into the surf need a couple more weeks to be big enough to fetch a decent price, they say. Read the rest here 08:53
Monsters of the deep: Colossal squid and mighty toothfish waging war in Antarctica
Two giant monsters of the deep are waging a war two kilometres beneath the surface of the Antarctic Ocean, scientists have discovered. The mysterious colossal squid and its foe the Antarctic toothfish have been found to feast on one another in a study published in the Journal of Natural History. Colossal squid were first discovered in 1925, but very little is known about. They are believed to grow up to 14m in length and weigh up to 750kg – although most are probably much smaller. It is a slow-moving ambush predator, using its large eyes to detect prey,,, Read the rest here 08:28
“With one stroke of the pen, they wipe out your livelihood,” Captured sea turtles causes closure of gill net fishing
The capture of five sea turtles in northeastern North Carolina waters has led to a decision to close the gill-net fishing season. Beginning at 5 p.m. today, the closure area includes the Albemarle, Currituck, Croatan and Roanoke sounds for all anchored gill nets, according to a news release from the . The ban will be lifted no sooner than Sept. 1, when the new season is scheduled to begin, but it could continue longer if sea turtles are still abundant in the affected waters, the agency said. Read the rest here 22:02
Alaska flatfish catchers take hit after NPFMC bycatch vote
“We are not happy. This is a huge, huge cut,” Chris Woodley, executive director of the Groundfish Forum in Seattle, Wash. “We have already taken a 20 percent cut in the last seven years and now this is a 25 percent reduction.” The Groundfish Forum estimates USD 30 million (EUR 26.6 million) to USD 50 million (EUR 44.3 million) in losses to catchers-processors of Pacific cod, sole, Atka mackerel and other flatfish because of the reduction. Read the rest here 21:24
PERSPECTIVE: trawling for fish and scooping up public opinion
Dr Brett Molony from Department of Fisheries, WA delves into the sensitive topic of untargeted marine species being collected during commercial fishing operations in WA waters and he encourages people to put this issue into the context of what makes up a sustainable fishery. The idea of bycatch, or marine creatures being unintentionally captured by commercial fishing gears, has long proved to be a point of contention for the Australian public. But when considering these issues attached to commercial fishing, people need to bear in mind that the solution is not as simple as closing a fishery—nothing comes free. Read the rest here 19:10
Why This San Diego Fisherman is Selling Pacific Bluefin Tuna For $2.99 A Pound
“It’s a very difficult task to count animals as elusive as tuna,” says Craig Heberer, NOAA. But commercial fishermen like David Haworth, who brought this pile of small, steely gray bluefin to market, say that assessment doesn’t match up with what they’re seeing in the water: a record-smashing abundance of Pacific bluefin tuna. “Our spotter pilots that have been fishing with us for up to 40 years here say they’re seeing the most bluefin they’ve ever seen in their lifetimes, and our government is not documenting any of it,” says Haworth. Read the rest here
“Uncharted Territory” – Marine toxin closes Washington crab season
Washington fishery managers say they are in “uncharted territory” following the closure of a major ocean fishery off the state’s southern coast Friday. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it was closing the recreational and commercial Dungeness crab fisheries after samples of crab revealed unsafe levels of a harmful, naturally occurring marine toxin called domoic acid that has already shut down razor clam fisheries in both Oregon and Washington. Oregon Dungeness crab fisheries are still open. Read the rest here 12:37
Anti-setnet group scrubs site after submitting signatures
After the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance submitted 43,000 signatures on June 10 to the Alaska Division of Elections seeking a 2016 ballot initiative that would ban setnets in urban areas of the state, the organization scrubbed its website to remove a link to a group it has previously claimed isn’t related to the effort. Although the AFCA shares several board members with the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, or KRSA, including the latter’s founder Bob Penney, the group has strenuously denied the two groups are linked based on their different tax-exempt status. Read the rest here 10:34
Red Snapper: management of a public resource gone completely haywire. And we’re paying to have this done to us.
It’s important to note here that the total allowable take isn’t based solely on the feds’ vague guesswork on the number of landings. No, they add in what they believe to be the discard mortality rates — that of fish released and dying sometime later, predominately because of barotrauma. That occurs to differing extents when fish are brought up from depths and their air bladders expand too quickly — and don’t return to normal quickly enough when released. The federal scientists use a number to determine how often this happens. In the case of snapper, they speculate that 40 percent of all released fish die in the recreational sector and 60 percent in the commercial sector. Read the rest here 09:33
Fiancee of skipper lost at sea off the North Shields coast raises funds for charity
Money raised in memory of three men who died at sea will benefit those in the North East who tried to save them. The fiancée of skipper James Noble who was lost at sea with two of his Filipino crewmen when their fishing boat sank off the North Shields coast in November held a fund-raising night in the name of the “kindest, most loving man anyone could meet”. The money will benefit the Fishermen’s Mission there as well as Boulmer Volunteer Rescue Service, the nominated charity of RAF Boulmer’s search and rescue squadron, which rushed 120 miles out to sea when the Ocean Way went down. Read the rest here 09:05
Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted Wednesday to protect deep sea corals
The squid industry, which initially objected to many of the restrictions, worked with scientists and conservationists to establish boundaries for 15 discrete deepwater canyons and other sites where bottom fishing would be prohibited. And in the end, said Gregory P. DiDomenico, the executive director of the Garden State Seafood Association, he supported the broader area that overlaps most of the canyons. He said, “If we stay in business and protect corals, we’ve done our job.” Read the rest here 08:23
Coast Guard rescues 4 from sinking Alaska fishing vessel
A Coast Guard Air Station Sitka MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew rescues the crew of the fishing vessel Kupreanof from the Gulf of Alaska near Lituya Bay, Alaska, June 10, 2015. The aircrew hoisted the four crew members and transported them safely to Sitka. U.S. Coast Guard video by Air Station Sitka. Video,Read the rest here 21:22 Click HOME for more news!
