Monthly Archives: September 2015
Women Fishermen in Alaska: “It’s a Small but Incredibly Strong Pocket of Amazing Women Up Here”
If you’re a fish fan, chances are you’ve eaten wild-caught Alaskan salmon. With one of the most robust (and sustainable) systems in the world, the Alaskan fishing industry is home to more than 78,000 jobs—and brings in more than $5.8 billion each year. Earlier this summer, I took a trip of a lifetime to Juneau, spending four days aboard the MV Sikumi where we (me, our group, and our hosts from Alaska Seafood) learned as much as we could about commercial fishing and even had the chance to board a tender boat (where fishermen offload their catch) and tour processing and canning plants. Read the rest here 15:44
Captain died doing the job he loved
Captain Wesley Lief Hegglund, 55, whose life-long ambition was to be a commercial fisherman, had been living the dream. “Wes graduated with an honours degree in Hard Knocks from Hecate Straight University; an institution reserved for only the toughest commercial fishermen on the West Coast,” read his obituary, written by his sister. “Through hard work and determination he attained his lifelong ambition of becoming a commercial fishing vessel captain — a career he enjoyed immensely.” Read the rest here 11:46
Warring plans delay awarding of fish aid – State to deliver a proposal to NOAA by Oct. 1
The consensus toward developing a plan to distribute the approximately $6 million remaining in federal groundfish disaster aid seems to have degenerated into a contentious melee and now local stakeholders anxiously await the decision by the state Division of Marine Fisheries on which will qualify for assistance. The process for formulating a distribution plan turned ugly at a two-hour Friday afternoon meeting in New Bedford, according to several people who participated, with different Bay State fishing regions — and fishermen of different species — pitted against each other in their respective efforts to influence DMF’s final spending plan. The meeting had been expected to end with a decision,,, Read the rest here 11:19
Sharks Numbers In East Coast At Record High Says NOAA Survey
There are now more sharks off the U.S. East Coast than there have been in a generation, new research suggests. Scientists conduct the survey by putting out baited lines at a series of locations along the East Coast. When they repeat it, every two to three years, they return to these same spots and use the same techniques, Natanson says. To catch sharks, they put out a 2-mile-longline for three hours, and reel it in. They then measure and weigh the sharks that are small enough to be brought aboard, and tag them. Larger sharks must be put into a sling alongside the boat, and then they measure or estimate its length, Natanson says. Read the rest here 10:11
Hampton Beach Seafood Festival Lobster Roll Eating Contest set for Saturday
The 6th annual Lobster Roll Eating Contest will take place this Saturday during the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival. Jude David, chairwoman of the Seafood Festival, inspired the creation of this non-standard eating contest. “(It was) really just creating an event within the festival that would draw people and be exciting,” David said. “You look at Coney Island and what they did with the hot dog competition, so we thought why not lobster rolls.” Ironically enough, it was a hot dog eating contest held in early August that qualified contenders for the lobster roll round. The contest begins at 2 p.m. at the Seashell Stage and will feature 12 competitors. The top three winners will each be awarded a cash prize. Read the rest here 08:42
David Pierce Named Director of Mass Division of Marine Fisheries
The state Marine Fisheries Commission in July rejected the candidate Fish & Game Commissioner George Peterson had put forward to replace Paul Diodati as the director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, but on Thursday, Peterson shifted gears to give the commission what it wanted. He provided an internal candidate from the current pool of DMF senior staff and the commission gave Peterson a new DMF director to succeed the retired Diodati. The commission, in a process that required almost no comment and took about five minutes, voted unanimously to appoint longtime DMF staffer David Pierce as the agency’s new director, effective immediately. Read the rest here 08:03
Life jacket credited for saving man’s life in fish boat tragedy
Before the Caledonian went down, two fishermen clung to the capsized vessel for hours. Only one was wearing a life vest. It saved his life. The unidentified man was the sole survivor when the 33-metre dragger sank to the bottom like a stone Saturday evening, more than six hours after capsizing in chilly waters north of Tofino. His three partners in the ship’s four-member crew — engineer Keith Standing, 48, and deckhand Doug White, 41, of Port Alberni, and 55-year-old skipper Wesley Hegglund of Duncan — died in the waters 55 kilometres west of Estevan Point, near the entrance to Nootka Sound. Notes pieced together from the recollections of the survivor tell a harrowing tale that Joint Rescue Coordination Centre marine rescue co-ordinator Colin Henthorne summarized. It was cloudy; fishermen a few dozen miles away reported two-metre swells. The Caledonian had one “bag” of fish on board. As they brought a second netful, the vessel started to list significantly, finally keeling on its side between 3 or 3:30 p.m. Read the rest here 18:51
Icicle Seafoods sale cancelled
Icicle Seafoods owner Paine & Partners announced Sept. 4 that the sale of the company to buyers Dominion Catchers, LLC and Convergence Holdings, Inc. has been cancelled. The sale was anticipated to close in August and was announced in late June. Company representatives declined to comment further on the reasons for the cancellation. Some online industry sources have speculated that a provision in the American Fisheries Act which requires U.S. citizens to have 75 percent ownership and control of commercial fishing vessels 100 feet or greater in length may have played a role in the sale’s termination. Read the rest here 18:23
BIG STORY! – Prodigy to pariah: N.J. oysterman’s bizarre battle with the state
New Jersey oyster farmers – But what really horrifies them is a more recent tale involving one of their own: Marc Zitter, a rookie farmer who found brief, stunning success growing oysters, only to be brought to his knees in a bizarre two-year battle with the State of New Jersey. The story, laid out in a lawsuit, interviews, emails, investigation reports and other court documents, began in September of 2013, when camouflage-clad NJ Department of Environmental Protection conservation officers began secretly videotaping Zitter’s operations in Delaware Bay and on a barge in Dias Creek, a small tributary in Cape May County. The following month, 10 officers swooped in and shut down Zitter’s operation in a dramatic show of force. Read the rest here 17:10
Who ya gonna call? Digby DFO cleans up ghost traps from Bay of Fundy
“Our mandate is enforcement and conservation,” said Digby Fisheries officer Corey Webster. “Just like our compliance blitz in St. Mary’s Bay this summer, this is an important job just to make sure everything is cleaned up. And it’s also important for us to be out on the water, just to see what is happening out there.” Fishermen harvest lobster from weighted traps that sit on bottom. They tie a rope to the trap and a buoy keeps that rope floating at the surface to show them where their traps are. Other fishermen, who may see these errant traps, are not allowed however to haul another fisherman’s traps. Read the rest here 15:22
Coast Guard crews tow fishing boat from 100 miles off Boston, Editorializes owner responsibility.
The crews of the Coast Guard Cutters Escanaba and Key Largo, and a 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew from Station Point Allerton, assisted four people Wednesday who were aboard a disabled fishing vessel 97 miles east of Boston. This is the in two months. “The Coast Guard should be the last resort for assisting disabled vessels that are not in distress,” said Lt. Samantha Leon, a watchstander at the First Coast Guard District’s command center. ”It is the responsibility of the owner of the disabled vessel to find a commercial salvage company that can assist them.” Having a preventative maintenance plan,,, Read the rest here 12:25
Hypothetically Speaking, Electronic Monitoring Cost Reports Released
Observer Committee members, Herring Committee members, and Herring Advisory Panel members, Please see below for links to reports re. cost information related to electronic monitoring (EM). This information will also be provided as part of the omnibus Draft Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) Amendment, to be released in the immediate future. The second report may be of particular interest, as it compares the costs of a hypothetical at-sea observer program with an electronic monitoring program for midwater trawl vessels to monitor maximized retention in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries. Read the rest here 11:40
$20M for Canada’s lobster industry promised by Conservative Stephen Harper
A re-elected Conservative government would invest $20 million in Canada’s lobster industry, party leader 
announced in P.E.I. Thursday. Spread over three years, the lobster industry investment would be split into $15 million for marketing and promotion and $5 million for research to inform decisions on fishing seasons, licences and harvesting. That research would be done in collaboration with provinces and universities. Harper noted that lobster is Canada’s single most economically important fishery, with annual landings worth $620 million a year. Read the rest here 11:08
Conflict between clammers, wormers comes to a head in Brunswick
In the past year, Brunswick Harbor Master Dan Devereaux has seen something he hasn’t found in a while in the mud flats off Thomas Point Beach. A whole lot of clams. When Devereaux reported those numbers to the town’s marine resource committee in the spring, they quickly moved to close the flats as a shellfish growing area. The closing and reopening of Brunswick’s shellfish growing area highlights a long-brewing conflict between clammers and marine worm harvesters. Clam harvesters are regulated by local shellfish ordinances; a town conducts surveys of clam stocks, and distributes licenses based on that number. , on the other hand, falls under state regulation by the DMR. And according to Devereaux, “they’re virtually unregulated.” Read the rest here 09:55
New Maryland director of fisheries named
David Blazer, deputy director of harbor development for the Maryland Port Administration, takes over Sept. 21 as director of fisheries, DNR announced Wednesday.The announcement comes more than three months after the firing of Tom O’Connell, a veteran DNR employee who had been fisheries director since 2008. Hogan administration officials offered no explanation at the time for the removal of O’Connell and three other top DNR officials. While conservationists and even some commercial watermen had urged the Hogan administration to retain O’Connell, the head of the Maryland Watermen’s Association, Robert T. Brown Sr., had pressed for changes, reflecting watermen’s unhappiness with O’Malley administration fisheries policies. Read the rest here 09:41
Carlos Rafael — White House should heed call on burden of at-sea monitors
In a show of bipartisan cooperation that’s all too rare in today’s politics, Massachusetts’ Republican governor and all-Democratic congressional delegation united late last month to call upon the Obama administration to reverse a particularly egregious federal policy: the current plan by NOAA to require the fishing industry to pay the full cost for at-sea monitors for the groundfish fishery. Fishermen will now be required to hire monitors from an approved short list of for-profit companies. This policy will impose a significant burden on area fishermen, and poses a threat to the future of a fishery that is already reeling from a string of onerous federal regulations. Read the rest here 09:05
Whale advocates seek commercial fishing gear ban
Environmental activists want voters to ban commercial fishing nets and gear in state waters to prevent entanglements of whales and turtles, but fishermen and even some animal welfare groups say the move would be ineffective while devastating the struggling fishing industry. The effort is being led by Max Strahan, an activist known in environmental circles as the “Prince of Whales” for sometimes radical campaigns to protect the North Atlantic right whale, one of the planet’s most endangered species. Strahan’s proposal, which cleared an initial hurdle two weeks ago when it was certified,,, Read the rest here 08:3o
ILLEGAL COD FISHING GETS UNALASKA COURT SYMPATHY – NO RIGHTS REMOVED – Ludger Dochtermann, Kodiak
Saturday, September 5, 2015, Deckboss blogspot news [http://deckboss.blogspot.com/
] from the Alaska State Troopers stated, “State secures convictions against three trawlers, wins forfeiture of Pacific cod worth $106,326” — in a set of cases involving commercial fishing in closed waters as reported on February 24, 2015. The violations apparently occurred in the closed waters of Kagalaska Strait, east of Adak Island in the western Aleutians. The combined total of fines levied was, disgracefully, a mere $12,000. Read the rest here 22:33
Biscayne National Park’s management plan is problematic – Capt. Bill Kelly
The special interests Lloyd Brown refers to in his Aug. 26 letter, Park plan will save fish and jobs, about Biscayne National Park’s General Management Plan just happens to be some of the finest commercial fishermen, fish houses, restaurants and fishing guides in the world. All have been harvesting sustainably in the park for decades, supplying millions of consumers with fresh seafood worldwide or treating tens of thousands of visitors to the catch and release of Florida’s most sought after gamefish. Read the rest here 21:32
Coroners service identifies fishermen who died near Tofino
The B.C. Coroners Service has named the three fishermen who died when a commercial fishboat capsized near Tofino on Saturday. The three men, crew members of the commercial fish dragger Caledonian, are skipper Wesley Hegglund, 55, of Duncan; engineer Keith Edward Standing, 48, of Port Alberni; and , 41, also of Port Alberni. The boat was about 55 kilometres west of Estevan Point, north of Tofino, when it capsized and eventually sank, the coroners service said. The three men’s bodies were recovered by the Canadian Coast Guard over the next 18 hours. All were pronounced dead at the scene. Read the rest here 19:22
With sadness – Conservationist Zeke Grader, advocate for fish, dies
Zeke Grader, a lifelong conservationist who loved wild fish, wild rivers and the good fight necessary to protect them, has died. He was 68. “You would probably not be eating a wild California salmon today if it were not for Zeke,” said his friend Tim Sloane, the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “He was not afraid of speaking truth to power. He wasn’t afraid of anyone.” Mr. Grader, 68, died Monday night of pancreatic cancer at a San Francisco hospice. Read the rest here 18:19
At the State Department’s Glacier conference, nations urge caution in opening the Arctic to fishing
There are five nations whose borders surround the Arctic Ocean — and each has their respective fishing jurisdictions offshore. But none yet extend into the central Arctic Ocean, or what’s called “the high Arctic.” David Balton is the State Department’s deputy secretary for oceans and fisheries: “No commercial fishing has ever taken place in this area and that is because, of course, at least until recently, it has been ice-covered year round. But that, as most of you know, is changing.” Read the rest here 17:15
Cooling water in the Fraser River system take heat off returning salmon
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is relieved to see water temperatures in the Fraser River system slowly dropping from summertime highs that could have proved lethal to returning salmon. Area director Stu Cartwright says temperatures are now around 15 or 16 degrees, an acceptable range crucial to the health of 1.5-million sockeye due to reach spawning grounds in B.C. over the coming weeks. But despite the good news about cooler river temperatures, Cartwright says there is still concern about the total number of returning fish. Read the rest here 16:28
Battle brewing over fish farming in Great Lakes
Supporters of the idea say Michigan is perfectly positioned to be a world leader in freshwater aquaculture and home to all the science, engineering and manufacturing that would accompany this growing part of the world’s food economy. But critics counter the Great Lakes are no place for so-called net-pen fish farming because of the higher risk of disease and water pollution that accompanies this method. Read the rest here 13:40
Norfolk Commercial fisherman sentenced for illegal fishing
Commercial fisherman Bi Chao Chen on Tuesday was sentenced on seven of eight charges filed in February revolving around an illegal fishing operation in a section of the Elizabeth River known as The Cove. Chen, of Norfolk, pled guilty in July to eight misdemeanors – gill nets exceeding the legal length, improperly marked gill nets, operating a boat with no navigational lights, a vessel with no lights at night, red drum over the limit, oversized red drum, possession of oversized red drum and over the commercial limit for speckled trout. Read the rest here 13:25
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 1985, Shrimp Dragger Fiberglass, Cummins, 540HP – Price Reduced!
Specifications, information, and 28 photo’s click here To see all the boats in this series, Click here 12:38
Bull shark caught in the Potomac
A bull shark was caught last week in the Potomac River in a commercial fisherman’s net. Robert T. Brown, president of the Maryland Watermen’s Association, and his family members pulled the 8-foot shark out of a pound net Thursday evening in the river off Medley’s Neck, south of Leonardtown, near the mouth of Breton Bay. He said he knew the shark was in the net on Wednesday evening, but the tide was running too strong to try to pull it out that day. Bull sharks have “always been here for years and years,” Brown said. “I caught a big one 12 or 14 years,,, Read the rest here 12:14
USDA invites offers to sell canned sockeye
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is now soliciting offers to sell canned sockeye salmon in its plan to purchase $30-million dollars worth. The USDA announced this plan last month after Senator Lisa Murkowski wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him to approve the purchase, which she said would alleviate a surplus inventory and put a nutritious product in food programs around the country. The canned salmon will be distributed to school lunch programs and food banks around the country. Link 11:50
Limited entry for Maine lobster fishery debated
There’s another battle brewing in Maine’s lobster industry, but this is one that likely will be fought in the Legislature rather than on the water. Out to about 12 miles offshore, Maine waters are divided from east to west into seven Lobster Management Zones. Lobstermen are required to declare which of the zones they will fish in based, generally, on where they live. Six of those zones have waiting lists established under the state’s “limited entry” law. People on the list have completed a state-mandated and want a license to fish,,, Read the rest here 11:30
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for September 7, 2015
Click here to read the Weekly Update, to read all the updates, Click here 11:12
