Monthly Archives: January 2016
White Glacier’s Arctic 25 – Live Cold Water Immersion Demonstrations at Fish Canada Workboat Canada
White Glacier, the industry leader in protective immersion suits, presents the Arctic 25 hypothermia protective suit to the Canadian commercial marine industry at the Fish Canada Workboat Canada tradeshow, January 22-23 at the Moncton Coliseum Complex in Saint John, New Brunswick. The team displays a 1,000-gallon ice water tank exhibition that grabs attention. For 10 hours each day without exiting the water, a subject will be immersed in the ice tank wearing White Glacier’s Arctic 25 — an operation that exceeds the current standards set by The International Maritime Organization (IMO). Read the article here 16:01
B.C. First Nation, fisheries officials agree to herring management plan
A First Nation on British Columbia’s central coast is applauding what it says is a dramatic move toward science-based, joint management of area herring stocks. The Heiltsuk Tribal Council says a management plan for the 2016 central coast herring fishery has been reached with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett says the plan contains four key improvements including a reduction in the central coast herring harvest rate to seven per cent from 10 per cent. Read the article here 13:58
The Division of Marine Fisheries, and its Commission, use inadequate science to regulate fisheries
What if…humans can’t actually control nature to make it behave the way some humans want it to behave? North Carolina participates in a federally dominated system that attempts to regulate the fishing industry. They do this by setting quotas on when, where, how and how many fish can be harvested from the state’s waters (from the “inland” waters–approximately the tidewater area–to the three mile federal limit off our coast.) The legal premise upon which this regulatory system is based is that the fish and other life forms in those waters are a “public trust” and belong to The People. Read the op-ed here 12:57
Fish stocks for sale – Maurice Adams, Paradise
With the respect to John Gillett’s recent letter (“Fishermen never wanted a big brother”), let me say that with the amendment to the NAFO agreement a few years ago (voted down by the House of Commons) but with the support of the province, industry and the union, passed anyway by the Harper government, NAFO nations are taking over where DFO is leaving off. Since then there have been several attempts to use $400 million in tax dollars ($280 million from Ottawa) to again “rationalize” the inshore fishery (remember the province’s big, $400-million MOU?) — all with the objective of shutting down the plants and the inshore fishery that brought almost a million dollars a year of new money into almost every coastal community. Read the letter here 10:01
Fishermen hope to rescue oysters, as well as their livelihood
Coast fishermen are preparing to make much-needed money in the face of disaster. Beginning at sunrise Monday, fisherman will begin to move oysters to safety away from surging fresh water into the Mississippi Sound. But, it won’t be easy, and the money likely won’t be enough to make up for a disastrous six-year struggle.The Oyster Recovery Program is allowing fishermen to move oysters from the St. Joe’s Reef south of Waveland out of harm’s way. Fresh water from the recently opened Bonnet Carre spillway is threatening their habitat. Video, Read the article here 09:34
Watch: Campaign launched after 88 people injured or killed in fishing vessel accidents
More than 80 people have been injured or killed in accidents involving deck machinery on fishing vessels in the last five years. Fishermen in the North of England are being urged to stay safe by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), after figures revealed the number of people injured of killed in UK waters. Data released by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) shows that four fishermen tragically lost their lives in deck machinery incidents from 1 January 2011 to to 10 November 2015, with a further 84 injuries being suffered by commercial fishing crew. Watch, Read the article here 09:00
Trawler ban plan ‘would finish me’, says Bute fisherman
Proposals for a ‘regulating order’ to limit prawn and scallop fishing around the Clyde are likely to wipe out the whole of the ‘mobile’ fishing industry in the Firth. That’s the grim prediction of Bute fisherman Colin McArthur, who has already decided that if the limits put forward by the Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust (SIFT) are accepted by government, he’ll walk away from the industry in which he has spent all his working life. Colin, who has been a trawlerman for 26 years, following in the wake of his father and grandfather,,, Read the article here 16:47
The risky quest for sea urchins
His face and lips went numb in seconds, but that was the least of Wayne Hardy’s worries as he disappeared beneath the ocean’s surface, diving to a bed of sea urchins 14 metres below. “There are a lot of things that can go wrong,” Hardy said a few days after he and three other divers collectively hauled in roughly 3,000 pounds of sea urchins from the ocean floor off the coast of Main-a-Dieu. “If things go wrong, there’s not a lot of room for error. There are a lot of bad things that can happen very quickly. Read the article here 13:18
Dungeness crab closure pushes North Coast fishermen to breaking point
A man of few words, Blagg, 70, used his scarred and weathered hands to convey his thoughts on the disaster that is shaping up in lieu of this year’s Dungeness crab season, which authorities postponed last year due to consumer health concerns. Blagg pointed his thumb toward the ground. “The only thing I know is my savings account, going down,” said the grizzled fisherman, his gaze barely rising beneath the visor of his black Marines cap. From across the wooden table, deckhand Andy Macri, 54, declared after a brief stretch of silence, “I’ll be homeless after this month.” Read the article here 12:25
Wild fish advocates threaten to sue over Columbia hatcheries
Funding of chinook, coho and steelhead fish hatchery programs throughout the Columbia River Basin is being challenged by wild fish advocates who contend that hatchery fish adversely affect struggling native fish stocks. On Wednesday, the Wild Fish Conservancy based in Duvall, Washington, issued a 60-day notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Department of Commerce for funding. Columbia Basin hatchery programs under the Mitchell Act without complying with provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Read the article here 10:22
Stuart Vorpahl – Crusader for Rights of Fishermen and Common People
Stuart Vorpahl, a lifelong fisherman, historian, former town trustee, and descendant of one of East Hampton’s oldest families, died on Thursday morning at Southampton Hospital. “He was fighting this fight when the rest of us were in diapers,” Mr. Rodgers said. “Stuart Vorpahl was not born to be a raconteur. He was born first and foremost a man of the sea, a fisherman. It was only through this frustration at bureaucracy and government regulation that he began challenging authority, and he never stopped. He never gave up; he never wavered. You have to admire that about a man. . . . He did this because it was the right thing to do. And he did it for all of us.” Read the article here 09:31
Alaska’s Board of Fisheries votes not to authorize purse seine fishing on Yukon River
Alaska’s Board of Fisheries voted 5-2 Saturday to not approve a new type of commercial chum salmon fishing gear in the lower Yukon River. In one of the board’s most contested decisions of its five-day meeting, the regulatory body was against opening the river to purse seining, a method that involves encircling a group of fish with a net and pulling it closed like a purse. Fishermen from upriver communities like Tanana and Manley Hot Springs opposed the purse seine opening out of concern that purse seiners would injure king salmon inadvertently swept up with the chum salmon. Read the article here 09:12
With ‘graveyard’ find, preserving Delaware Bay’s past
BIVALVE, N.J. – Years ago, when Meghan Wren was hiking through a boat “graveyard” in nearby Leesburg, she discovered the rotting remains of a wooden yawl. The hundred-year-old wreck so intrigued Wren – founder and executive director of the Bayshore Center at Bivalve – that she began studying how these boats were traditionally used as auxiliary craft to schooners and other vessels along the Delaware Bay and elsewhere. Usually rigged as a two-masted sailing craft, yawls often were favored over other types of dinghy in commercial fishing operations,,, Read the article here 08:44
Nova Scotia fisherman concerned about recent thefts of live lobster
A Nova Scotia lobster fisherman says he is troubled by the recent thefts of roughly 2,700 kilograms of live lobster in the province. Hubert Saulnier, a former president of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union Local 9, says the valuable crustaceans were someone’s livelihood and a lot of work and money went into catching them. The RCMP say 48 crates of live lobster, more than 2,100 kilograms, were stolen from an outdoor pound at a business on Cape Sable Island early Wednesday. Read the rest here 18:45
No One in Alaska Died Commercial Fishing in the Past Year
Commercial fishing has been getting safer for decades, for a lot of reasons. The U.S. Coast Guard recently announced a milestone: No one in Alaska died commercial fishing in a vessel-related incident in the past year, for the first time. That’s the federal fiscal year, Oct. 1 2014 through Sept. 30 2015. Although six commercial fishing boats sank in the summer of 2015, no one was killed. Between 1980 and 1988, an average of 31 fishermen died in Alaska each year. Read the report here 15:45
Coast Guard Air Station Astoria receives the service’s first centennial celebration painted helicopter
Coast Guard Air Station Astoria received a yellow-painted MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter at its base in Warrenton, Friday, in celebration of 100 years of Coast Guard aviation. The Jayhawk helicopter, the first of all this year’s specially painted aircraft delivered by the Coast Guard to an operational unit, arrived from Coast Guard Aviation Logistics Center in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and will operate out of the Warrenton base for the next 4 years. Read the post here 12:52
Alaskans own dwindling number of Alaska fishing permits
Fishing issues will take a back seat to budget cutting when the Alaska Legislature convenes Jan. 19, but two early fish bills (and one holdover) are getting attention already. One new measure aims to stop the migration of commercial fishing permits out of Alaska. Forty years ago at Bristol Bay, 36 percent of the more than nearly 2,000 permits were held by locals and 64 percent by nonresidents. By 2013, the numbers were 19 percent local and 81 percent nonresident. Similar trends, by varying degrees, are happening in other regions as well. Read the article here 12:33
Video: The Phil Paleologos Show – A Talk About At Sea Monitors and Other Regulations For Fishermen
Phil Paleologos hosts a conversation regarding a lawsuit over a provision that would require fishermen to pay for at-sea monitors. This conversation included David Geothel, a fisherman and plaintiff in the lawsuit; Richard Canastra, of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange or BASE; Don Cuddy, Program Director for the Center for Sustainable Fisheries; and , the Manager of Sector 13. A court hearing will take place January 21. Watch the video here 11:20
Fogo Island codfish making its way to Toronto restaurant plates
Fogo Island codfish has caught the attention of Toronto chefs hook, line and sinker. When construction of the Fogo Island Inn and artist studios was complete, Anthony Cobb turned his focus to something more traditional — codfish. Cobb launched a pilot project, called Fogo Island Fish, whose goal was to put codfish caught by Fogo Island fishermen in the hands of Toronto chefs. “Conditions in the cod fisheries haven’t changed much since the 1960s,” Cobb said. “My father left the cod fishery because he couldn’t get a decent price for his fish, and fast forward 50 years or so and you still can’t get a decent price for fish if you’re a fisherman.” Read the article here 09:57
SpaceX to launch $180 million NOAA ocean satellite, data to be used to aid fisheries management
A $180 million satellite to study the world’s oceans in a changing climate will blast off Sunday atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX will try to land on a floating platform after launch. “That is a significant advantage over our predecessors,” said Jim Silva, Jason-3 program manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The technology will also monitor global sea surface heights, tropical cyclones and help support seasonal and coastal forecasts. During a five-year mission, its data will also be used to aid fisheries management and research into human impacts on the world’s oceans. Read the article here 08:43
Questions schooling around at-sea fishing monitors – NOAA says money to run out in February
The battle over the cost and scope of at-sea monitoring of Northeast groundfish vessels, now being played out on various regulatory and legal platforms, promises a hectic end to the current fishing season and a complex start to the next. There are no shortage of questions. When will the federal government run out of money and shift the responsibility for paying for observers to the permit holders? And what of the Goethel lawsuit filed with the support of Cause for Action, the nonprofit government watchdog agency? Read the article here. 08:10
Coast Guard in Southeastern New England, local partners, good Sam save 5 lives in 3 separate incidents
The Coast Guard, partner agencies, and a good Samaritan teamed up to respond to three separate Southeastern New England maritime emergencies since Thursday evening. At about 4:30 a.m. Friday, the captain aboard the fishing boat Sasha Lee used a VHF-FM radio to contact watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England and relay they were taking on water 11 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard and had four people aboard.,, At about 5 a.m. Friday, a crewman aboard the 57-foot fishing boat Defender Read the post here 18:20
State meets fluke fishermen halfway after barring offload of entire catch
All but one of the seven fishing boats that were barred from offloading their catch of fluke, or summer flounder, earlier this week are back fishing, according to Dr. David Pierce, head of Massachusetts fisheries. After fishing on , four boats from North Carolina and three from New Bedford (two owned by Carlos Rafael and one by Mark Bergeron) sought shelter in New Bedford during strong storms of the past week. Read the article here 17:17
To Save Its Salmon, California Calls in the Fish Matchmaker
On a frigid morning in a small metal-sided building, a team of specialists prepared to orchestrate an elaborate breeding routine. The work would be wet and messy, so they wore waders. Their tools included egg trays and a rubber mallet, which they used to brain a fertile female coho salmon, now hanging dead on a hook. Diana Chesney, a biologist, studied a piece of paper with a matrix of numbers, each one denoting a male salmon and potential match for the female coho. “This is the bible,” she said of the matrix. “It’s what Carlos says.” Read the article here 12:57
Fisherman Stuart Vorpahl dies; Amagansett man fought for fishermen’s rights
Stuart Vorpahl, a colorful and dogged fighter for East End fishermen and a central figure in East Hampton’s maritime heritage, died Thursday at Southampton Hospital after a battle with cancer. He was 76. Vorpahl, a resident of Amagansett, used encyclopedic knowledge of East End history to wage a decades long battle against laws he considered an infringement on his lawful right to fish the waters of East Hampton. “He was fighting for the rights of fishermen way before it was fashionable, and he was doing it all on his own,” said his attorney, Daniel Rodgers. “He never, ever gave up.” Read the article here 11:35
Aquaculture review fast-tracked and expanded by federal government – Nova Scotia added to list
The federal government has restarted a process to review how fish farms are regulated, and will now expand the scope of the review to include more provinces. Last December, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans sought contractors to study the legislative and regulatory framework governing aquaculture. The document explained that “nine federal organizations are involved in regulatory roles for aquaculture, involving 10 different pieces of legislation.” There are additional controls at the provincial level. However, the review’s scope was limited to federal regulations and those in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island — no other province. Read the article here 10:47
USM hits it big with almost $73 million in research money
For Dr. Joe Griffitt at University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs, the more money for his discipline, the better. USM struck it big in 2015 with funding for research, receiving nearly $73 million – a 24 percent increase from the previous year. Of that amount, the College of Science and Technology was given $43 million in research money. And a big part of that amount – almost $17 million – is dedicated to studying the oil spill. Read the article here 09:46
Karena Adler, 62, pioneer for women in the fishing industry, dies
Karena Adler, who charted a pioneering path for women in the ownership ranks of the North Pacific fishing industry, died Jan. 1 after a protracted illness. She was 62. Ms. Adler’s death was confirmed this week by an official of Fishing Company of Alaska, the company that she founded and currently operates four factory trawlers that work in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. Ms. Adler was recalled by a former associate as an energetic owner who in her earlier years in the industry was outgoing and relished spending time with the crew that worked aboard the factory ships. Read the rest here 09:10
Will the Fish Rot in the Hold? – Our View: One more fault with fishing rules
Fishing vessels tied up in New Bedford but not allowed to unload part of their catch this week suggest one more weakness in our fishing regulations that is ripe for remedy. State environmental regulations allow a boat carrying fish to an out-of-state port to land fish in Massachusetts when injured crew or severe mechanical issues force the decision. Foul weather, apparently, is not part of the equation. Unfortunately for seven vessels — three home-ported here and four from North Carolina — Read the op-ed here 08:44
Area Boat Prepping For ‘Wicked Tuna’ Television Spotlight
While most of the Ocean City fishing fleet is settling in for the siege with the arrival of frigid temperatures and rough seas, at least one popular resort-based charter fishing boat is quietly preparing for the opportunity of a lifetime. Captain Dale Lisi of the “Foolish Pleasures” based at the Ocean City Fishing Center in West Ocean City has been chosen as one of a handful to participate in and appear on the latest season of “Wicked Tuna.” Read the article here 20:32
