Daily Archives: February 13, 2016
BREAKING- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia found dead at Texas ranch
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found 
Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said. Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa. According to a report, Scalia arrived at the ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people. When he did not appear for breakfast, a person associated with the ranch went to his room and found a body. Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, of the Western Judicial District of Texas, was notified about the death from the U.S. Marshals Service. Read the rest here 17:34
Video – California Commercial Dungeness Crab Season Could Start Next Week
State officials opened the central coast of California to recreational Dungeness crab season on Thursday and commercial season could open as soon as late next week, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said. Some state fishermen have said they want to wait until the whole state tests clean before commercial season opens. The California Dungeness Crab Task Force may make a decision on whether to open commercial crab fishing on Tuesday during a conference call to discuss the matter. Video Read the rest here 16:10
Cotten, council get a bycatch reduction plan earful from Gulf of Alaska trawlers
An administrative push to keep fishing jobs in coastal communities is butting heads with the trawl industry claiming they provide the jobs in the first place. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council will continue studying a bycatch reduction plan unpopular with Gulf of Alaska trawlers. The option, known as Alternative 3, would allocate individual bycatch caps to groundfish vessels in the Gulf of Alaska rather than the target species. The council is making changes at the fleet’s insistence. The council passed a series of chinook salmon bycatch limits and halibut bycatch reductions in 2011 and 2012, leading to bycatch-related shutdowns of the trawl fleet. Read the rest here 13:23
Commercial fisherman moves operation north of Martin County to avoid polluted water
Lake Okeechobee releases continued to flow into the St. Lucie Estuary Friday night, creating another night of worry for local business owners who who rely on clean water to make a living. Commercial fisherman, Chuck Anderson, says the St. Lucie River used to be his ‘sweet spot’ for fishing and crabbing. “I would stay down there all year long, fishing and crabbing. I made a very good living at it.” But in 2013, that took a big turn. Three years later, his business is still not bouncing back. “You couldn’t pay me to go down there now. I don’t want my hands in there.” Read the rest here 11:23
Video – Maine Lobster Sales Surge in Winter for Chinese New Year
In New England, the appetite for Maine lobster peaks in the summer, but halfway across the world, that hunger hits in the dead of winter. Lobster has become a big part of Chinese New Year, which is the week of Feb. 8-12. It;s the nation’s largest celebration, and as Cindy Han, a board member of the and American Friendship Association explains, it is centered around food. “Almost every Chinese New Year meal is going to have fish,” said Han. It’s one dish in particular that’s surging in popularity: Maine lobster. Video, Read the rest here 10:26
Small commercial fishing boats need life rafts this month
Fishermen in Southeast Alaska (and Nation Wide) are learning about new safety requirements for life rafts that take effect later this month. The changes are included in past Coast Guard re-authorization bills and will mean smaller fishing boats will have to have a life raft to go three miles offshore. Coast Guard commercial fishing vessel examiners were in Petersburg this month offering free dockside exams for boats getting ready to go out in a variety of fisheries this month and next. The examiners held a question and answer session to brief fishermen on new requirements and spent a good part of their time answering questions about the new life raft requirement for smaller fishing boats. Read the rest here 09:36
HEADS UP! Kannad Marine has issued a recall of its Kannad SAFELINK EPIRBs emergency beacons
Kannad Marine has issued a recall of its Kannad SAFELINK EPIRBs emergency beacons due to a design flaw that could result in the beacon not operating in an emergency situation. The beacon’s yellow body plastic may prematurely age when subjected to specific environmental conditions. This has the potential to impact on the device’s long term effectiveness in the field. Kannad Marine says it believes the issue would impact beacon effectiveness in only a small number of cases. However, Read the rest here 09:01
