Monthly Archives: September 2015
Big Brother is watching
The growing powers of state management of fisheries – and the introduction of more and more laws, regulations, and other restrictions controlling commercial fishing operations – continue to concoct complex systems of inspection and monitoring. The Orwellian metaphor comes to mind also in view of a recently set up partnership between the NGOs Sky Truth and Oceana with Google in designing and initiating a system aimed at control and possible prevention of pirate fishing operations, employing a technology able to locate, track down and map from space illegal fishing going on in the world’s oceans. Read the rest here 08:11
Caledonian Tragedy Family Relief Fund – For: Wes Hegglund, Keith Standing, Doug White
This fund has been established for the families of the three fishermen who lost their lives on September 5, 2015, when the fishing vessel Caledonian sank off the coast of Vancouver Island. Veteran Skipper Wes Hegglund, age 55, and Engineer Keith Standing, age 48, and Doug White, age 41, were all from Vancouver Island. Their loss has been a heartbreaking tragedy for their families, colleagues, and the entire community. Pacific Seafood, the crew’s employer and owner of the Caledonian, will match 100 percent of all donations made on this site. All proceeds will be donated to the immediate surviving family members. Click here to donate 22:28
‘Why did this happen?’: Tragic deaths of three crew on trawler highlight safety concerns in B.C. fishing industry
It’s hard work, to sift through the wreckage of a sunken fishing boat, investigate what happened and what failed, analyze structural integrity, meteorological conditions, shipyard maintenance records, and, in some cases, a coroner’s autopsy. But, said Glenn Budden, senior marine investigator with the Transportation Safety Board, the devastation back home is harder to deal with than the wreckage at sea. Talking to grieving spouses and children of fishermen who never returned from a voyage, Budden said, is “definitely the hardest part of the job.” “They want to know why? Why did this happen?” said Budden. Read the rest here 22:07
Con groups, fishermen divided over NOAA plan for marine national monument
Hundreds of people filled a conference hall Tuesday night to speak out on a federal proposal to permanently protect a network of deep-sea canyons and underwater mountains off New England by creating the first marine national monument on the Atlantic coast. Terry Stockwell, chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council, said the existing regulatory framework already protects Cashes Ledge and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts area. The council in April voted in favor of keeping Cashes Ledge closed to most fishing. Read the rest here 18:29
More Enviro Quackery – Oasis Earth proposed rafts where walrus can rest off Alaska
In July, Oasis Earth suggested the Fish and Wildlife Service consider the resting platforms for walrus and offered to fund-raise toward the cost. The group proposed a pilot project to anchor at least one barge with appropriate surface material for walrus at Hanna Shoal from July through October. Rafts, the group said, could give walrus more time offshore to access a greater amount of food and could reduce drowning deaths among the animals. Read he rest here 15:04
Maine lobster processor targeted in federal overtime lawsuit
A former employee of Richmond-based 
has filed a lawsuit against the lobster processor, seeking allegedly unpaid overtime and class action certification. Plaintiff Bunthoeun Perez, a Cumberland County resident, claims in the lawsuit she was not paid overtime or for her final day of work during a three-week period in May and June. The lawsuit claims that while Perez was paid a piece rate, based on the weight of prepared lobster meat, she was owed overtime pay under federal law. Read the rest here, 14:17
New bluefin tuna detection equipment tested off P.E.I. coast
New underwater imaging equipment designed to locate and determine the health of bluefin tuna stocks is being tested on P.E.I. this week by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Information gathered by a multi-beam sonar can show the size and number of tuna in a specific area. DFO research scientist Gary Melvin began the study last year. He said the new technology could help set future quotas.”So we’re looking at developing a new survey and using this equipment,” said Melvin. Read the rest here 13:35
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 52′ Crab, Gillnetter, Lobster, Other, CAT, Federal Permits
Specifications, information, and 27 photo’s click here To see all the boats in this series, Click here 12:09
CCA’s small numbers has large grip on N.C. politics, fisheries
Approach any recreational angler wetting a line from the surf, a pier, a bridge or a boat and ask, “Are you a member of the CCA?” It’s far more than an even bet that not only will the response be “No,” but more than likely, “What is the CCA? But visit legislators in Raleigh and ask them about the . Chances are every single lawmaker knows of the CCA and has likely been lobbied by a representative of the group. When Sam Walker and myself traveled to Raleigh in 2014 to interview Sen. Bill Cook and Rep. Paul Tine, we brought with us a basket of questions. Read the rest here 11:37
North Carolina: Fisheries joint enforcement, charter boat logs repealed
A new law passed this summer by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory rolls back a pair of controversial fisheries management measures approved by state lawmakers in 2014. Senate Bill 374, sponsored by Sen. Bill Cook (R – Beaufort), repeals the for-hire coastal recreational fishing licenses logbook requirement and ends a joint agreement that allowed NOAA Fisheries Enforcement to also have jurisdiction in state waters. Read the rest here 10:06
Ocean fish numbers on “brink of collapse”: WWF
The amount of fish in the oceans has halved since 1970, in a plunge to the “brink of collapse” caused by over-fishing and other threats, the WWF conservation group said on Wednesday. Populations of some commercial fish stocks, such as a group including tuna, mackerel and bonito, had fallen by almost 75 percent, according to a study by the WWF and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, told Reuters mismanagement was pushing “the ocean to the brink of collapse”. Read the rest here! 09:23
Boat left at Gloucester Marine Railways arrested for debts
At the beginning of last winter, the owners of the fishing vessel Irish Piper brought their 41-foot wooden boat from Maine to the Gloucester Marine Railways for repair and wharfage, then vanished, never returning to claim their boat or pay for the services rendered by the boat yard. The railways also did something you might not expect: it named the boat as a co-defendant in the suit and requested that U.S. Marshals Service arrest the 46-year-old vessel built in Camden, Maine, in 1969. Read the rest here 09:07
Fish trial alleges lobster imports ‘unfit for human consumption’
A trial began Monday for a local man accused of unlawfully bringing cases of fish and other seafoods into Canada via the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, including an allegation he imported frozen lobster “unfit for human consumption.” Gerald Goldhar and two Windsor companies with which he is associated — Jer-Mar Foods Ltd. and Coldwater Fisheries Ltd. — were charged with 18 counts of illegal importation, falsifying required documents used to monitor the types of foods entering Canada and providing false and misleading statements to government officials. Read the rest here 18:41
An Unnatural History of The McLobster
From Robert Steneck’s home in South Bristol, Maine, his view reaches past the pale granite headlands at the mouth of the Damariscotta River to be swallowed by the open Atlantic. The word “pristine” tends to pop into the heads of visitors, he said, but he prefers a more objective description. “The Gulf of Maine is a highly simplified and arguably domesticated ecosystem,” Steneck, a marine ecologist with the University of Maine, explained. “If you put it that way, are you surprised that we have McLobsters?” Read the rest here 17:48
Promising forecast for fall chinook run on Columbia River
After record-high temperatures and drought decimated summer fisheries, Ervin Leslie only hopes that fish biologists are on the mark in forecasting the fall chinook run now under way as the fifth-largest in recent history. More than 925,000 fall chinook are expected to return to the Columbia River. The largest run number of 1,175,700 was in 1941. But that’s not the only bounty in the forecast. Other healthy runs anticipated include about 200,000 coho and a summer steelhead run estimated to reach about 300,000 by the time it ends later this month. Read the rest here 16:51
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council – Scoping Hearings for Action on Unmanaged Forage Species
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has scheduled a series of scoping hearings to gather public input for a proposed action to protect unmanaged forage species. The proposed action would consider a prohibition on the development of new, or expansion of existing, directed fisheries on unmanaged forage species in the Mid-Atlantic until adequate scientific information is available to promote ecosystem sustainability. Eight hearings will be held between September 15, 2015 and October 1, 2015 in locations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Written comments may also be submitted through October 2, 2015. Dates and locations Read the rest here 16:16
Planning ramps up for SeaFeast, Bellingham’s new waterfront festival
Commercial fishing and seafood processing employ more people in Whatcom County than Western Washington University, more than breweries and more than bike shops. Bellingham is on the water, with a waterfront soon to be redeveloped. But Bellingham’s myriad events, for the most part, ignore the waterfront and the county’s maritime heritage. Deborah Granger is trying to change that. Granger is the lead planner for a seafood and waterfront festival called the SeaFeast, which will be held in Bellingham next fall. Read the rest here 16:02
Eastern Fisheries forms Eastern Fisheries Europe, opens plant in Staphorst, Netherlands
Eastern Fisheries, headquartered in New Bedford, announced on Monday the opening of a sixth wholly owned
in Staphorst, Netherlands and the official formation of a new corporation, Eastern Fisheries Europe (EFE).The new 23,000 sq. ft. processing plant will provide ‘real-time’ support and service to their EU customers, the company said, in a press release. The new facility will focus on the sales and distribution of scallop products and live lobsters, with more than 500 metric tons of cold storage and a 20,000 pound lobster holding tank. “This new processing plant,,, Read the rest here 15:39
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for September 14, 2015
Click here to read the Weekly Update, to read all the updates, Click here 15:22
N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission decisions led to flounder debacle – Allyn B. Powell
I was somewhat disappointed in the lack of research in your Sept. 1 editorial “Fishy business on fish rules” on southern flounder. A recent stock assessment on southern flounder prepared by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries was rejected by independent biologists during the peer review process. Basically, the assessment was rejected because it did not consider that the southern flounder stock is an “open population.” That is, unknown numbers of southern flounder exit North Carolina waters to enter southern (South Carolina, Georgia and Florida) waters, some unknown numbers remain offshore after spawning and some unknown numbers might enter North Carolina waters from the south.,, Read the rest here 11:53
Kitzhaber’s original sin yields a disappointment
A state-dictated transition from gillnets to seining gear to harvest Columbia River hatchery salmon continues to fail to meet expectations, according to latest results. And yet fisheries managers continue resisting a formal reassessment of the plan until next year when, supposedly, gillnetting will cease forever on the river’s main stem. The Columbia Basin Bulletin (www.cbbulletin.com) on Sept. 11 reported the latest results from the seine fishery, which was eliminated in Washington in 1935 and in Oregon in 1950, but revived by ex-Gov. John Kitzhaber when he unilaterally,,, Read the rest here 11:13
Maine holding hearings about scalloping cutback
Maine fishery regulators are preparing to hold a series of public hearings about a plan to cut back the number of scallop fishing days in the coming season. The proposal would cut back the number of scallop fishing days in the southern scalloping zone from 70 to 60 days. The hearings will be held on Tuesday in Augusta, on Wednesday in Ellsworth and on Thursday in Machias. The Midcoast and eastern Maine zone would have 70 days, the same as last year. The far eastern zone, which includes scallop-rich Cobscook Bay, would remain at 50 days. The proposal says the upcoming scallop fishing season would begin in early December and end in mid-April. (AP) 10:43
Americas Finest – Follow the construction of this Bering Sea Fishing Trawler from start to finish
Welcome to Floating Steel! July 1, 2015 11am my first look at, “Americas Finest.” Hard to imagine that this seemingly unpretentious beginning will turn into a hi tech ocean fishing trawler destined for the Bering Sea and who knows where. This is my first day on an estimated 36 month journey photographing and documenting the book project to be named, “Floating Steel”. Harry von Stark Photo’s and website here 10:00
Snow crab filled truck, sprayed with dangerous chemical, stolen
Police in Nova Scotia are investigating the theft of a tractor-trailer carrying more than 18,000 kilograms of snow crab in a container sprayed with a dangerous chemical. Police say the 2007 Freightliner was reported stolen from Nova Truck Centre on Barker Lane in Westville on Sunday. Police are warning people that the crab was to be shipped to Japan and is in a container laced with a preservative, which is not harmful to crab but can be lethal if consumed. link 08:21
Nova Scotia salmon farmed on land brought to market
A Nova Scotia company that’s spent eight years developing a system to farm fish in large tanks on land says it’s finally ready to bring its locally-raised Atlantic salmon to market. The company, Sustainable Fish Farming, has a farm close to the Bay of Fundy in Centre Burlington. The facility works on a that recycles all saltwater in the salmon tanks, while waste is drawn out and used as fertilizer. The salmon are fed organic fish food, and since the farm carefully controls any contaminants that enter the tanks, it is not necessary to give the fish antibiotics. Read the rest here 07:55
Deadliest catch: Fisherman hauls in a 50-lb military shell. Not once, but three times!
A retired RCMP officer and gunsmith got quite a surprise last week when a local fisherman asked to show him a military-style shell that had gotten caught in his net. Ray Hynes of Bristol’s Hope, was shown the shell on Thursday after the fisherman asked him to identify the object. “He opened up his trunk and there’s this big five-inch shell in there, about two-feet long,” he said. Hynes said the man had hauled it up in his net not once but three times that day, while he was fishing for crab off Conception Bay. Read the rest here 07:36
Pacific Fishery Management Council and Enviro’s Cripple California Swordfish Driftnet Fleet.
The measure approved by the Pacific Fishery Management Council would cap at two over a two-year period the number of creatures such as sperm whales and loggerhead turtles that could be injured or killed after becoming entangled in gillnets, said Kit Dahl, staff officer with the council. The measure was lauded by environmentalists who have waged a years-long battle with gillnet fishermen who harvest swordfish mostly in Pacific waters off San Diego and Los Angeles. It was unclear how often fishermen capture endangered species in the gillnets. Read the rest here 20:19
Con group buys $1m worth of groundfish quota
The 
(MBFT) bought $1m worth of groundfish quota — 4.2m annual quota pounds — from the nonprofit Nature Conservancy which it plans to use to benefit the area’s fishermen, MBFT said in a release. As part of the agreement, MBFT, which was formed to protect central California fisheries in the Monterey, Moss Landing, and Santa Cruz harbors, plans to retain ownership of the quota. It will lease the fishing rights to fishermen “while working to improve the economic and environmental performance of the fishery,” the group said in the release. Read the rest here 17:08
Decision Soon on Listing Eels Under Endangered Species Act
An environmental advocacy group wants the federal government to list the American eel as threatened, giving the fish protections that would greatly limit fishermen’s ability to pursue and catch them. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision about protecting the eels will likely come toward the end of September, said Steven Shepard, a spokesman for the agency. Only Maine and South Carolina fishermen harvest elvers, and South Carolina’s fishery is much smaller. Several other states have fisheries for older eels, including Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. Darrell Young, who co-directs the Maine Elver Fishermen’s Association and has fished for elvers for more than 20 years, said,,, Read the rest here 16:20
Lobster prices hold steady as demand wavers in US, rises in China
Despite the annual post-Labor Day slowdown in US demand for lobster, high prices, initially caused by a shortage of product after a harsh winter, are unlikely to start dropping anytime soon, bolstered by the growing Chinese demand. According to Peter McAleney of New Meadows Lobster in Portland, Maine, lobster prices are about 50 cents higher than they were this time last year. Neil Zarella of the Boston Lobster Company said that soft-shell lobsters are selling from $4.75 to $5.75 per pound. Read the rest here 12:52
