Daily Archives: November 3, 2015
Alaska budget cuts lead to less fishing opportunity
Because of Alaska’s budget crisis, state agencies cut spending this year and are planning additional reductions in the next few years. For the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, those cuts have meant less monitoring of fish runs, a change that will lead to more conservative management and less fishing opportunity. ADFG commissioner Sam Cotten told the board members of the United Fishermen of Alaska at its fall meeting in Petersburg that the department is looking at several years of budget reductions. Read the rest here 17:42
David Bengis to pay $1.5m for role in illegal lobster catching
David Bengis, son of former Cape Town fishing magnate and convicted poacher and smuggler Arnold Bengis, has agreed to pay $1.5 million (R20.6m) to the South African government as restitution for the illegal harvesting of rock lobster in the country’s waters. This is part of the $22.5m restitution a US court ordered Bengis senior, junior and co-conspirator Jeffrey Noll pay in restitution to South Africa for the losses caused by their importation of poached lobster to the US in violation of US law. Read the rest here 14:40
A government working group is to examine allegations of abuse in Ireland’s fishing industry.
MOST UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS trafficked into Ireland’s fishing industry are not eligible for work permits, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton has said. Bruton was speaking following calls by the Irish Fish Producers Association (IFPA) to regularise the employment status of African and Asian migrants allegedly working as cheap labour on Irish trawlers. A year-long investigation published in The Guardian yesterday alleged that undocumented workers often work on Irish vessels for days on end without any sleep or basic safety training. Read the rest here 13:14
Four fishermen are rescued following more than a month adrift in a small boat after running out of fuel
Four fishermen who have spent more than a month adrift in a small boat after running out of fuel off the coast of southern Mexico have been rescued – more than 1,200 miles from where they set off. The fishermen, who set off in late September from a Pacific Ocean port in northwestern Ecuador, were rescued off the coast of Chiapas, just south of Mexico, on Saturday. The night before, a patrol plane had spotted ‘a small boat adrift with four crew waving their arms for help,’ the Mexican navy said in a statement. Photos, Read the rest here 12:47
Seals becoming major problem for many Island fishers
Throughout his long fishing career, Mike McGeoghegan has seen a 
. However, the former president of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association says he has never seen the situation as bad as it has been during the last two years. He wants the new federal Fisheries Minister to commission a study on the issue. “We had to change the size of our rings because they were taking the bait right out of the trap,” says McGeoghegan, who fishes out of the eastern P.E.I. port of Pinette with his sons. “It’s just totally out of hand.” Read the rest here 10:33
Number of West Coast whales caught in fishing line higher than previous years
A 40-foot humpback whale first spotted last week off the coast of Newport Beach became entangled in hundreds of feet of fishing line. Since January, the NOAA said about 50 entangled whales have been rescued, which is about four times higher than previous years. Whale experts say it’s too early to know for sure on the reasoning for the sudden increase in whales along the coast, but warmer water temperatures could play a factor. Read the rest here 10:10
Big groundfish harvest boosts Alaska seafood employment
Employment in Alaska’s commercial fishing sector grew last year, boosted by a swell in groundfish harvests, state labor economists reported today. Driven by large catches of pollock and cod in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Aleutian Islands, the number of commercial fishing jobs in Alaska grew by .7 percent in 2014, according to the Alaska Department of Labor. Jobs specifically tied to groundfish jumped by nearly 25 percent, or about 350 jobs, with gains made during every month of the year. Read the rest here 09:47
A whale of a tale: the dying days of the N.L. whale hunt – 45 years ago Tom Cole hunted giants of the deep
Tom Cole of Avondale is accustomed to perplexed stares and incredulity when he tells people how he earned his living in his youth. “Most people are really surprised when I say I used to work on a whaler: ‘You what?!'” said Cole. “You know, they thought there was nobody even alive today that actually done that.” But for hundreds of years, up until 1972, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians hunted whales for their oil and meat. Now, Tom Cole is one of just a handful of seafarers still around who worked in whaling off the province’s coast. Read the rest here 08:50
Stonington Maine tops state with $60 million in landings
If it seems that there have been a lot of fancy new pickups on the roads of Deer Isle recently, NOAA Fisheries may know the reason why. Last week, the federal fisheries agency issued its annual Fisheries of the U.S. Report for 2014. Among the statistics buried in the 135-page tome was the value of commercial fisheries landings in Stonington during the year: $60 million. That represents an increase of $11 million — 22.4 percent — over the $49 million catch landed in the island town during 2013. Read the rest here 07:53
