Daily Archives: August 15, 2015
Sport fishermen win greater share of red snapper catch
On Thursday, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council increased the share of the catch going to recreational fishermen — made up of charter boats and non-commercial anglers. The council met in New Orleans. The change gives recreational fishermen 51.5 percent of the total catch and commercial fishermen 48.5 percent. Currently the catch is split 50-50. The change needs the approval of the U.S. Commerce Department. Commercial fishermen opposed giving recreational fishermen a greater share and said the shift would keep red snapper off the tables of restaurants. Read the rest here 19:31
No wonder we keep losing ground! Few attend fishery hearing in Morehead City
MOREHEAD CITY | Few people (yeah. two!)showed up for a public hearing on a proposal that federal fisheries officials say could have a big impact on rebuilding declining stocks in the snapper-grouper fishery. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is holding a series of public hearings this week and next on a proposal that would establish up to nine Special Management Zones from North Carolina to eastern Florida to protect valuable spawning sites. Read the rest here 14:48
The Nova Scotia boatbuilding industry is booming!
The Nova Scotia boatbuilding industry is booming. The order books are filled up for several years or more at most shops, there’s talk of at least one new shop opening on Cape Sable Island and the demand for used vessels is high on both sides of the border. With the Canadian dollar now trading below par with the U.S. greenback, the exchange rate is an attraction for Americans buying Canadian says Tim Edwards, executive director of the Nova Scotia Boatbuilders Association (NSBA). Read the rest here 12:40
In-stream tidal turbines – Fishing organization wary of turbines
The Striped Bass Association is asking provincial authorities to stop the planned placement of in-stream tidal turbines in the Minas Passage. “Currently, there is no evidence that fish can or will avoid (these)devices in this environment,” reads a news release from the group. “Basically, nothing with regards to environmental impacts to fish has yet been demonstrated.” Four companies are planning on placing test turbines at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy. FORCE has a facility on land near Parrsboro that manages and monitors four berths for turbines in the Minas Passage. Read the rest here 11:34
Slanted Journalism – Facebook posts used against candidates pursuing seats on Humboldt Bay Harbor Commission
Ryan Burns, a writer for Lost Coast Outpost, and in this latest article, he dig’s into the back grounds of various candidates running for seats on the Humboldt Bay Harbor Commission. With a board majority up for grabs, this election has the potential to shift the ideological balance of power on the board. Ryan makes sure his readers are well informed of their social media activity. “Balance of Power at Stake With Eight Candidates Pursuing Seats on Harbor Commission” Read the rest here 11:02
Tina Ward was penniless and unemployed – Fish, family and the ties that bind
Tina Ward was penniless and unemployed the day she stepped from the bus in Seaview, Washington, and headed in to apply for a job as a fish processor at the Sportsmen’s Cannery. It was an act that would shape and change her life forever, but of course, she couldn’t have known that then — when you’re only 13 years old, the moving hand of fate can be pretty hard to recognize. More than three decades later, sitting outside the same cannery, now as its owner, she laughs about that long-ago summer day: “It was time to think about school clothes for the fall, Read the rest here 09:54
DRIVE TO DRILL: The growing resistance to Atlantic oil and gas drilling
(The third in a three-part series. To read the first, “Energy lobbyists behind governors’ crusade for Atlantic drilling,” click here. To read the second, “Gov. McCrory goes to bat for Big Energy,” click here.)Monthly town council meetings in Kure Beach, North Carolina, an oceanfront community of 2,000 people located 15 miles south of the port city of Wilmington, are usually quiet affairs, drawing a half-dozen or so residents to discuss mundane matters like board appointments and budgets. But the council’s first meeting last year was anything but quiet or mundane: What happened there on Jan. 27, 2014 is considered the bellwether for the growing grassroots movement against oil and gas drilling in Atlantic Ocean waters. Read the rest here 09:14
Survival of local fleets, communities – Maritime Fishermen’s Union supports DFO owner/operator and fleet separation policies.
The Maritime Fishermen’s Union 
(MFU) has been pushing for stricter enforcement of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans owner operator and fleet separation policies. Squires said that in order for fishermen to get a fair price, there needs to be competition at the wharf level for the purchase of their fish. “If a fish buying company owns the fishing boats, the buying stations and the processing facilities, they have no reason to pay a good price at the wharf level — they just make their profit somewhere along the line.” Read the rest here 08:36
Fishermen reeling over proposal to close famed Georgetown Hole to snapper-grouper fishing
Local fishermen and various organizations are concerned about a proposal that could close areas off the South Atlantic coast to snapper-grouper fishing. The Snapper Grouper Amendment 36 is designed to identify important areas of spawning habitat for snapper grouper species, including deep-water speckled hind and warsaw grouper, that can be designated for protection to enhance spawning and increase recruitment by closing snapper-grouper fishing in those areas. Read the rest here 07:43
The Milford Laboratory is trying to bring back bay scallops
The population of bay scallops, a smaller relative of sea scallops, has been dwindling in U.S. waters for decades. The Milford Laboratory is trying to bring them back by breeding the shellfish that are most likely to survive and reproduce in the wild. Scientists don’t know precisely what caused bay scallops to die off, Dr. Stiles said. Contributing factors could be overfishing, pollution and the demise of eelgrass, an underwater plant that provided bay scallops protection from predators, she said. Read the rest here 07:24
Portuguese Navy honours White Fleet fishermen lost at sea
Portuguese Naval officials returned to St. John’s Friday morning for the annual wreath laying ceremony to honour the crew of the Portuguese White Fleet who died off the coast of Newfoundland. The tradition began in 2012, when the Portuguese Navy searched for the unmarked grave of Dionisio Esteves. Esteves, 26, was a fisherman who sailed on the Santa Maria Manuela and died while fishing in 1966. For centuries, St. John’s was the port of call for the White Fleet — large fishing vessels from Portugal known for their white sails. Video, Read the rest here 07:04
