Daily Archives: August 24, 2015
California Gold: The Uni Dynasty of Mendocino County
Uni are shaped like small, golden tongues, and have a custard-like consistency. The sea urchin gonads are the very essence of the ocean, and not an easy sell in the United States, where people often disdain seafood that tastes like seafood. But that’s changing. Tom Trumper and his sons are Northern California sea urchin divers and uni processors who are wooing diners away from shrimp scampi and tuna salad and into their underwater world. I first met Gary Trumper when he handed me a paper cup with a golden hued, perfectly curled little sac of textured goo. He splashed sake into the cup, and said, “Here, it’s an uni shooter.” Read the rest here 21:28
PRAY! The drought’s hidden victim: California’s native fish
Last summer, a narrow, rock-rimmed stretch of the Sacramento River near here turned into a mass graveyard for baby salmon. Upstream releases of water from Shasta Dam were so warm that virtually an entire generation of endangered winter-run Chinook was wiped out. The eggs never hatched, or if they did, the emerging young soon died. A similar disaster could unfold this summer. And if the drought drags on for another year or two, wild populations of some of the state’s most prized fish are likely to vanish. “It would be a major extinction event,” UC Davis professor emeritus Peter Moyle warned. Read the rest here 16:07
Taxpayers foot bill to retrieve sunken tires from failed offshore environmental project
What to do with a million used tires? Dump them in the ocean, of course. As unthinkable as that idea is today, back in 1972, that was what Florida environmentalists chose to do, in an attempt to create an artificial reef. They gathered up old tires, ferried them a mile offshore from Fort Lauderdale’s world-famous beach and tossed them overboard. “Ummmm, seemed like a good idea at the time. Looked good on paper,” said Pat Quinn, Broward County’s environmental resource manager. It wasn’t. Read the rest here 13:31
Kenai River Sportfisherman’s Association Anti-setnet initiative spurs protests
As next Wednesday’s Alaska Supreme Court hearing on an initiative banning commercial setnet fishing in Cook Inlet approaches, tensions grow on the Kenai Peninsula. The Kenai Fisherman’s Association organized two protests this week. Many of those who took part carried signs expressing their opposition to the setnet initiative. But Dave Athons, the retired fisheries biologist who organized the demonstrations, says the main purpose was to express disapproval of the Kenai River Sportfisherman’s Association. “They are a political organization, using conservation as a front,” Athons said. Read the rest here 13:04The storm that forever changed Ocean City
Currently we’re in the middle of hurricane season and although Ocean City hasn’t been hit by one this year, Sunday marked the 82nd anniversary of the hurricane that helped shape the resort town we know today. Forecasters started naming hurricanes in 1950, so the storm had no name other than the storm of 1933. According to historians, the storm officially ended August 23, 1933, but the rain started days before causing the water level to rise in Assawoman Bay. The water level got so high, eventually the bay overflowed near downtown. Read the rest here 12:49:19
New Zealand’s fish stocks up with the world’s best, says top scientist
A top fisheries scientist says New Zealand’s fish stocks are performing as well or better than any in the world and the public perception is wrong. Addressing the Seafood New Zealand conference in Wellington, Ministry for Primary Industries principal fisheries science adviser Dr Pamela Mace said when she looked at fish stocks around the world, New Zealand was “the best success story of all”. Although the situation was “not actually perfect”, New Zealand was a good example of improved sustainability and excellent current status, Mace said. “We need to align people’s perceptions of fishing in New Zealand and the world with reality.” Read the rest here 11:48
USCG Aid Disabled Fishing Boat S.E. of Nantucket
Crews aboard two Coast Guard cutters brought an 83-foot fishing vessel safely to anchorage at approximately 8 p.m. Sunday. Watchstanders at the First Coast Guard District Command Center, were notified at 11:30 a.m. Saturday that the scallop fishing vessel Chaz’s Toy by the Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba crew 120 miles southeast of Nantucket. The cutter took the vessel in stern tow at approximately 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The following morning, the crew of the 110-foot Tybee relieved the Escanaba,,, Read the rest here 09:15
Japanese tsunami victim to reunite with his boat in B.C.
A Japanese fisherman who lost everything in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami will visit B.C. on Monday to take a last ride in his fishing boat. Its owner Kou Sasaki of Ofunato, will visit the tiny village of Klemtu, one of the places where debris from Japan washed up, after huge amounts of it landed all along the B.C. Coast. “It’s especially poignant because Mr. Sasaki lost his wife and son in the earthquake,” said Tim McGrady, general manager of the Spirit Bear Lodge in Klemtu, who now has the boat. “This is a community that lives and breathes boats, for thousands of years. So I think people have a real affinity for someone like Mr. Sasaki. There’s a lot of common ground.” Read the rest here
15 Gloucester shoreside businesses to receive disaster aid
Those Gloucester businesses comprise precisely half of the 30 Massachusetts businesses that will receive groundfish disaster aid. Collectively, they will receive by far the largest portion of the $750,000 set aside to assist shoreside businesses affected by the federally declared groundfish disaster now grinding through its third year. Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said the city’s success in garnering more than half of the available aid earmarked for businesses underlined the city’s prominence at the epicenter of the groundfish disaster, both on the water and on the waterfront. “These businesses (listed) were severely impacted by the groundfish disaster declared in 2012,” Romeo Theken said. Read the rest here 08:07
