Daily Archives: November 17, 2015
Lobster diversity startles fisheries research group
The Canadian Fisheries Research Network, a collaboration between academic researchers, the fishing industry and government, recently wrapped up several research projects that began in 2010, shortly after the group was founded. One of those projects included an exhaustive look at lobster stocks in 17 locations from Newfoundland all the way to Rhode Island. There were five components to the research, including a genetic study — the first of its kind in the world — in which researchers sequenced more than 10,000 little stretches of DNA on lobsters from each of those locations. What they found took them by surprise. Read the rest here 19:35
Entrepreneurs Pitch Sustainable Seafood Ideas. Investors Take The Bait
Entrepreneurs presented ideas that ran the sustainability gamut: Licensing schemes designed to keep local family fishermen on the water; developing consumer-friendly, ready-to-cook sustainable seafood products; collecting old nylon fishing nets to recycle into skateboards and sunglasses; cutting-edge technology to monitor everything from a fishing fleet’s location to the storage temperature for its catch; land-based aquaculture solutions; and programs designed to create both jobs and sustenance for tiny remote fishing communities in the Pacific.Read the rest here 17:30
Wesmac 46 Battle Wagon prepares to battle tuna
Wesmac Custom Boats launched its latest Super 46 last week, and though it has celebrity owners it is hard to imagine a more serious fishing machine than Battle Wagon. TV talk show host Maury Povich and his wife, newswoman Connie Chung, ordered the boat nearly two years ago for their son Matthew to use, primarily, in the commercial offshore canyon fishery for bigeye and yellowfin tuna, the fish often marketed under the Hawaiian name “ahi” in restaurants. Read the rest here 15:07
Bristol Bay fishermen to land 2 billionth salmon in 2016
Next July, a commercial fisherman will land the 2 billionth salmon caught in Bristol Bay’s 133-year fishing history. Since the inception of Bristol Bay’s canned salmon industry in 1884, its fishermen have landed 1.99 billion salmon, 93 percent of which were sockeye. Fishermen will achieve the 2-billion-salmon milestone when they catch another 9.5 million. This will happen next season, based on the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s recently released forecast for a harvest of almost 30 million sockeye in 2016. Read the rest here 13:58
For Shetlanders the sea is a natural environment, but never a friendly one
Most people in Shetland live and work within sight and sound of the sea. On clear summer days – almost 20 hours long, in June – it lies flat out to a distant horizon and children play on great wide beaches; from the cliff-tops, fish and diving birds are clearly visible even several metres below the surface. It’s not like that now. At this time of year and into the winter, during the great gales that sweep across the Atlantic, the sea climbs steeply into the howling wind as it hits land, and sheets of spray sweep across our fields and moors. Read the rest here 11:34
Crab season: West Coast Fishermen scrambling to pay bills
This was supposed to be the winter Braeden Breton finally realized his dream of running his own crab fishing boat. After putting down $7,500 in April toward a commercial permit, he was counting on earning enough money as a deckhand this fall to pay off the rest and begin setting his own traps after the new year. Now the indefinite postponement of the commercial Dungeness crab season has thrown that plan into disarray. Like hundreds of other fishermen in the Bay Area, Breton finds himself scrambling to pay the bills. Read the rest here 10:36
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for Nov. 16, 2015
Click here to read the Weekly Update, to read all the updates, Click here 10:03
International angler caught up in DFO bluefin tuna sting
It’s a picture that captures a moment of pure joy: a young woman in sunglasses and a wetsuit straddling the back of a huge Atlantic bluefin tuna. Like a cowboy at a rodeo, she grips a rope that straps the fish to the side of the boat. In her other hand, she hoists a bottle of wine high in the air in celebration. A CBC News investigation has learned the wealthy woman may be one of the best female anglers in the world. The tuna was hooked off the shores of Antigonish County in October 2014. And according to court documents, fisheries officials say it was caught illegally. Read the rest here 09:39
2014 study shows haddock is booming and cod remains in decline in the northeast
U.S. government scientists reporting on fish stocks off New England are reaching the same conclusions as their Canadian counterparts who have found that haddock is booming and cod remains in decline in the northeast. On Monday, the Northeast Fisheries Science Centre at Woods Hole, Massachusettes released an assessment of 20 northeast ground fish stocks from 2014 surveys. “The rapid increase in haddock, redfish, pollock and white hake contrasts sharply with the decline of cod and the flatfish species,” the report states. Read the rest here 09:13
New nationwide coalition seeking to unify commercial fishing interests
A Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group with strong New Bedford ties is creating a national coalition of commercial fishing interests to boost outreach and communication for the industry, which supporters claim often can be overmatched by unified environmental groups that promote competing interests. “We’re aiming to bring the entire supply chain of fishermen, shoreside businesses, processors, markets and restaurants together to join this effort to move the national conversation in a positive direction.” Read the rest here 08:43
