Monthly Archives: August 2015
Washing up on the Florida Coast, Military Ordinance, Unexploded Bombs, Dumped in Gulf of Mexico
Texas A& M oceanographic researcher have reported that unexploded bombs and other military ordnance washing up on the Florida coast has brought more awareness U.S. government materials dumping decades ago in the Gulf of Mexico could pose serious threats. Millions of pounds of bombs and other types of ordnance are scattered over the Gulf of Mexico and also off the coasts of at least 16 states, from New Jersey to Hawaii. The bombs can get caught in fishermen’s nets as they trawl along the ocean seafloor, or wash up on shore such as last week near the Tampa area. Read the rest here 19:24
With court date on ballot measure looming, Kenai setnetters ponder their future
This summer, just as they have done for generations, setnetters are working the shores of the western Kenai Peninsula, stringing out nets and hauling in hundreds of thousands of fish from the abundant sockeye salmon runs of Southcentral Alaska. Last month, the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance submitted 43,000 signatures to the Alaska Division of Elections to certify an initiative that would ban setnets in Alaska’s urban areas. If approved by voters, the initiative would outlaw setnets in the five designated urban areas of Alaska, including Valdez, Ketchikan, Fairbanks — and the Kenai Peninsula. Read the rest here 18:15
Your Definition of Bycatch is Most Likely Incorrect
So why is this important? One reason it’s important is because when the world’s largest ocean conservation organization does not understand what bycatch even is, then we have a very big problem. When ocean conservation organizations do not understand what bycatch is, it can lead to scientifically flawed statistics published in reports such as “Wasted Catch” which only amplify the confusion by spreading misinformation about responsible U.S. fisheries to the mass general public. Read the rest here 16:59
Field Hearing Highlights Draconian Rejection of Science, Local Stakeholder Input with National Park Service’s Plan for Biscayne Bay
Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Small Business Committee held a joint field hearing in Homestead, Florida, on the National Park Service’s (NPS) General Management Plan (GMP) for Biscayne National Park released in June 2015. The GMP, which includes a Marine Reserve Zone (MRZ) that would be closed to all commercial and recreational fishing, conflicts with the position of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the recommendations of the park’s own stakeholder working group. Read the rest here 16:06
ASMFC Summer Meeting – August 4-6, 2015 – Alexandria, Virginia, Listen LIVE!
The ASMFC is holding it’s Summer meeting in Alexandria, Va. Issue’s: American Lobster Benchmark Stock Assessment Action, Jonah Crab Fishery Management Plan for Final Approval Final Action , Atlantic Striped Bass, Atlantic Menhaden, and more. Click here to listen to the meeting live Click here to review the final agenda.
Shrimp Season Anomaly: season interruption, low prices make tough year for Mississippi Fishermen
Mississippi fishermen remain intent on harvesting this year’s shrimp crop in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico despite 
and restarted. Dave Burrage, Mississippi State University Extension professor of marine resources at the Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi, said the shrimp season first opened June 3, closed June 19 when shrimp were too small, and then reopened July 13. “This season has been an anomaly so far,” Burrage said. The Mississippi season opened with 310 boats this year, down from 368 boats on opening day in 2014. Read the rest here 12:43
Would netters OK a flounder buyout?
During the run-up to a June 17 public hearing about southern flounder management, several members of the
N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission asked that the meeting be held in Raleigh. Their chairman, Sammy Corbett, rejected their requests, and the meeting was held in New Bern. The reason for the request was that most of the public hearings the Commission holds are in the eastern part of the state, where commercial fishermen rule the roost (lmao!). So several Commission members wanted recreational anglers to have a better chance to speak. Read the rest here 12:12
Shem Creek shrimpers grapple with impending life raft requirement
With an online effort to collect $30,000 to purchase life rafts for Shem Creek’s shrimpers stalled out around the $2500 mark. Matthew Hooper of the USCG’s Charleston sector says he’s not aware of any Shem Creek boats equipped with life rafts; Shem Creek Fisheries estimates the rafts cost about $3000 each.According to Brunson, the fee represents another hardship for local shrimpers who’ve struggled to stay in business in the face of international competition; meager harvests and the demise of area processors. Read the rest here 11:16
Coast Guard Highlights Importance of Marine Safety
CAPE MAY – Marine Safety is one of the U.S. Coast Guard’s important 11 statutory missions, and is the area where the Coast Guard interacts the most with commercial vessels. Coast Guard personnel work to ensure commercial vessel safety by inspecting vessels under construction, inspecting vessels in service, investigating marine casualties, and licensing professional mariners. Sector Delaware Bay and its marine inspectors play a pivotal role in this mission. Read the rest here 09:15
Nunavut wins EU exemption for seal hunt
Nunavut sealskins now qualify for an exemption to the European Union’s ban on seal imports, the territorial government announced Friday. The EU has banned the import of seal products since 2009, but allows imports from hunts that certified as being conducted by indigenous people. “This is an important step towards the recognition of sealing as a way of life for Inuit,” said Nunavut Environment Minister Johnny Mike in a release. “We must ensure that communities benefit in a tangible way from this positive development by continuing to promote the recovery of international seal markets.” Read the rest here 08:38
Federal Fishery Disaster Aid Meeting to be held in Gloucester tonight
The distribution of the nearly $33 million in federal groundfish disaster aid has moved through the first two phases — or bins, in the parlance of NOAA Fisheries NMFS and the respective state fisheries directors — in the past year-and-a-half. Tonight, the Gloucester Fishing Commission will take a stab at coming up with what it believes to be the best option for the nearly $7 million earmarked for Massachusetts. The meeting is set for 6 p.m. at Gloucester City Hall. Read the rest here 08:05
American Samoa – Loss of purse seiners will be catastrophic
The Chairman of the Governor’s Fisheries Task Force, Solip Hong, says there will be catastrophic effects for the territory’s economy if the current fleet of US purse seiners pack up due to loss of fishing grounds in near waters. The purse seiners face a bleak future because of a drastic reduction in fishing days under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty in waters near Kiribati that the local purse seine fleet used to ply. Read the rest here 18:57
28 quotes, facts and graphs from the new UN global use of shark products report
The United Nations Food and Agriculture organization just released “fisheries and agriculture technical paper number 590, the state of the global market for shark products” Coauthored by legendary shark conservation researcher Shelley Clarke, this 196 page document is a comprehensive look at, um, the state of the global market for shark products. 18) “The United States of America is an important producer of sharks, a relatively large exporter and a minor importer of shark fins…Read the rest here 17:25
BILOXI: Class of 2015 inducted into Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum’s Heritage Hall of Fame
The number of inductees into the 2015 Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum’s Heritage Hall of Fame wasn’t as large as the first class, but you couldn’t tell by the number of people who showed up for the ceremony Saturday. As the organizers know, big names draw big families. “This is a house of love,” said Kim Ross Bush, board member and emcee. “This is a house that was built by the Gulf of Mexico, by the men, women and children who came here and plied the waters and built an industry that we will forever be known for.” Video, Read the rest here 16:54
Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance Weekly Update, Aug 2, 2015
The Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance is dedicated to its mission of continuing to help create sustainable fisheries without putting licensed fishermen out of business.” Read the update here To read all the updates, click here 11:47
Three Lobster fishermen convicted of robbing lobster traps and possession of undersized lobsters sentenced
Three fishermen convicted of robbing lobster traps and possession of undersized lobsters in June stemming from their September 2011 arrest were banned from commercial lobster fishing for life and two of them were given prison time. The captain of the Marathon-based commercial lobster fishing vessel Classy Lady, Nelson Rojas, was convicted of trap molesting, tampering, possession of undersized lobster and interference with a conservation officer, according to court records. Read the rest here 11:17
Long hours, no breaks, tough competition … he loves being a lobsterman
I got to wondering if many commercial fisherman are left in Newport. You rarely see them now that the waterfront has been taken over by yachts. But it turns out about 30 commercial boats are still holding on. They’re mostly lobsterman and they park at the end of Long Wharf on the way to Goat Island on a big concrete piece of real estate called the State Pier #9. I went down and found one – Denny Ingram, 57, who’s been lobstering for 25 years. It’s hard work, long hours, and you don’t get rich so I began by asking why he’s still at it. Read the rest here (photo Newport Lobster Shack) 10:24
Contentious – An experimental soft-shell clam farm in Georgetown aims to keep green crabs at bay and enrich diggers.
Marching across the clam flats near the head of Heal Eddy, you notice two things.mFirst, both the seafloor and the sea grass meadows on the shoreline are cratered with holes – the work of green crabs, the voracious crustaceans blamed for the widespread destruction of the state’s soft-shell clams. Then you see Chris Warner’s response: five long rows of what appear to be net-covered garden beds, some 70 patches in all, spread across the exposed ocean bottom at the mouth of a 300-foot-wide cove. But the project has been contentious here in Georgetown, Read the rest here 09:28
F/V Returner: police divers find missing Pilbara trawler, one body
Police divers have located the missing trawler Returner and one body. The boat was located 20 kilometres north of Karratha Nickol Bay foreshore on Friday. The man’s body was recovered on Saturday and has been flown to Perth for formal identification. The families of the three missing men have been notified. Mason Carter, 26, Chad Fairley, 30, and 57-year-old Murray Turner failed to return to Point Samson near Karratha in their 13-metre prawn trawler on July 15. The men were all from the Geraldton area. Read the rest here 08:09
Seismic surveying is non-threatening says President International Association of Geophysical Contractors Nikki Martin
Recent months have brought much discussion and debate about the effects of seismic surveying along the Atlantic Coast as the federal government has approved consideration of permits for seismic operations. Numerous allegations from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) assert that seismic surveys are harmful to marine life and threaten fishing and tourism. These allegations are simply false. Read the rest here 19:50
Trident Seafoods officially opens $40m East Coast plant, which is expected to employ 175 workers
Seattle, Washington-based Trident Seafoods on Thursday officially opened the company’s $40 million value-added processing and research and development plant in Carrollton, Georgia, the company said. The plant comes as the company said it intends to grow business in the eastern United States. With an 88,000-square-foot manufacturing floor, 18,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 square feet of support area, the plant will produce seafood products cut from pollock, cod, salmon, halibut, tilapia, sole and mahi mahi. Read the rest here 13:31
All (fisheries) models are wrong, but some are useful (to indigenous people)
Models do a great job of distilling the essence of how an ecosystem might respond to external forces—such as fisheries—but only under the specific conditions that the modeller assumes to be true in the ‘world’ of the model. Sometimes these assumptions are well-grounded in reality. Sometimes they are blatant but necessary simplifications. Phil is a lively character, a fishery ecologist who runs the Ecosystem Science section of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center The cool thing about Phil, who I have met personally several times, is that he will tell you right off the bat that “models are bogus”. Read the rest here 12:44
Judge throws out phone records in lobster boat arson case
The district attorney’s office is appealing a July 6 ruling by a judge who concluded that cellphone records obtained by investigators were taken without probable cause and thus cannot be used at an arson trial involving a boathouse and fishing vessel in Waldoboro. The ruling came in the arson case of James “Jamie” R. Simmons, 40, and Fredrick A. Campbell, 31, both of Friendship. The two men and Jeffrey Luce, 36, of Whitefield were indicted in September 2014 on arson charges after they allegedly set fire to a Quonset hut-style boathouse in Waldoboro as part of a dispute over fishing territory. Read the rest here 10:47
SEASWAP: How to stop a whale of a thief
Linda Behnken, the Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association was joined by Tori O’Connell, the Research Director of the Sitka Sound Science Center, to provide an update on SEASWAP (The Southeast Alaska Sperm Whale Avoidance Project). As O’Connell explains, the project just secured $311,000 in funding from NOAA’s Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program,, The avoidance network will tag whales in the Chatham Strait black cod fishery and give fisherman devices to communicate where the whales are located. Listen, Read the rest here 09:30
F/V Ferrigno Boy crash in Ventura Harbor caused by loss of power
A commercial fishing boat that crashed into the Ventura Harbor this week lost control, harbor officials said Friday. The crash was reported about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Ventura Harbor Boatyard in the 1400 block of Spinnaker Drive after the 70-foot boat lost propulsion control while maneuvering in the harbor, authorities said. The squid boat struck the docks and a 35-ton Travelift pier, which will now be used to take boats to and from their work sites, officials said. Read the rest here 09:09
House bill seeks state approval of fishing closures
On the heels of the recent announcement to close more than 10,000 acres of Florida’s Biscayne National Park to fishing, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would stop fishing closures from occurring. The Preserving Public Access to Public Waters Act would require the National Park Service and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries to have approval from state fish and wildlife agencies before closing state waters to recreational or commercial fishing. Read the rest here 09:00
Flounder cuts may be phased in following another questionable NOAA NESC stock assessment.
A widely attacked proposal to reduce summer flounder catches by 43 percent next year may be replaced by one that phases in the cutbacks over three years. Koeneke, who has suffered increasing restrictions over the years _ the minimum fish size going from 13 inches in 1985 to 18 inches today _ doesn’t accept the science. “I’m convinced they don’t know what they’re talking about. We see a lot of flounder. We raised the (size) limit and saved a lot of fish. It looks like it recovered and then the next year they say we have a problem,” said Koeneke. Read the rest here 08:29
Fishermen clean up ‘ghost gear’ from Bay of Fundy
The
started dragging the waters off the coast of Saint John and Deer Island seven years ago. More than 500 abandoned traps were hauled up from the bottom of the Bay of Fundy in 2008. “There was concern that there was all this gear down there that was fishing and killing lobsters — could entangle whales. The gear is just fishing and fishing and killing indiscriminately,” said Maria Recchia, the association’s executive director. Read the rest here 08:08
