Monthly Archives: May 2016
SMAST founding dean, chancellor medal recipient Brian Rothschild, reflects on state of fisheries science
Dr. Brian Rothschild already had a stellar career in fisheries and marine science when he came to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 20 years ago to head the fledgling Center for Marine Science, now known as the School for Marine Science and Technology. He built that institution from the ground up, recruiting top talent and developing a strong reputation in the field of fisheries, ocean science, and industry regulations. At 81, he is officially retired, but continues his scientific work unburdened, he says, by the demands of management. Read the interview here 12:06
Long Island Commercial Fishing Association opposes offshore marine monument
The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association has joined the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in the latter group’s motion to oppose the designation of an offshore marine monument in the Northeast Atlantic, which environmental groups support. Last week, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program unanimously approved a resolution opposing any designation, but offering recommendations should such a monument be created. Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, released a statement on Friday in support of the fishery commission’s resolution. Read the rest here , Read ASMFC Urges Transparency and Public Input in Proposed New England Offshore Canyons & Seamounts Monument Decision Making Process, Letter to the Obama administration Click here 11:06
9PM TONIGHT ON PBS – ‘Saving New England Fisheries’
South Carolina’s commercial shrimp trawling season opens Monday
In the wake of South Carolina’s historic rainfall event in October 2015, fishermen and biologists were unsure how the unprecedented influx of freshwater would impact the state’s shrimp fishery. Now, local shrimp are back on the menu and contrary to early concerns, S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) biologists are expecting a productive year, with models predicting the largest roe white shrimp crop since 1979. The commercial shrimp trawling season will open in all state waters where trawling is legal at 8 a.m. Monday. Shrimp season normally opens in mid to late May, after the peak spawning period of white shrimp has occurred. Eight smaller provisional areas opened in early April. Several key factors have contributed to 2016’s record shrimp stocks, according to DNR biologists. Read the rest here 23:30
Stone crab season not a good one for crabbers
Daniel Doxsee turns the Miss Chloe Ann toward the docks behind Kirk Fish Co. in Goodland and turns his attention to next year’s stone crab season. This one has been tough. They’ve hauled in plenty of claws in Florida — 2.5 million pounds and still counting — but a combination of weather and lower demand has kept prices down, and crabbers have felt the pinch. “It’s nice to catch the pounds, but if you don’t have the price to go with it, it’s kind of a kick in the ass, so to speak,” said Doxsee, 35, whose commercial fishing family is the namesake of the Doxsee Clam Factory, which opened in 1910 on Marco Island. Kirk Fish Co. handled about the same number of pounds of stone crab claws this season, which began Oct. 15, as they did last season, about 70,000 pounds. But low prices meant fishermen got about $4 less per pound, said Patty Kirk, the do-it-all wholesale manager at Kirk Fish Co. That’s about a 25 percent loss, she said. Read the rest here 17:56
North Carolina Legislation would put a net ban referendum on November ballot
Late last month, state Rep. Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, told a room full of recreational fishermen in Wilmington he would push for a statewide referendum to ban trawling and netting in North Carolina’s estuaries. The room responded with a standing ovation. A month later, Richardson has delivered on that promise — sort of. On Tuesday the Cumberland County Democrat filed a bill that would let voters decide whether to outlaw gill and certain other nets in all state coastal waters. If the N.C. General Assembly supports House Bill 1122, that referendum would appear on the November ballot. Richardson did not return multiple requests for comment. But observers say they think the bill is doomed to go belly-up. Read the rest here 14:02
Dear President Obama – Opposed to expanding Papahanaumokuakea marine monument, Isaac and Shyla Moon, Kalaheo
A group of seven Hawaii residents (William Aila, Kamanaopono Crabbe, Isaac Harp, Kekuewa Kikiloi, Marvin Kaleo Manuel, Victoria Holt Takamine, Nainoa Thompson) recently wrote you a letter asking you to expand the current Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument in Hawaii, from 50 miles to 200 miles. There are no clear promises that the expansion will not encroach middle banks and the buoys that many of Kauai’s fishermen go to. Over the past five years we have attended numerous meetings and hearings. The overall feeling from our community is that we’re being overrun and taken advantage of by the government, regardless of existing state management policies and regulations. Read the rest here 11:48
DFO justifies Area 6 northern shrimp catch by offshore fleet
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is defending its decision to allow offshore factory freezer trawlers to catch northern shrimp this spring, even though its own scientists say the stock is vulnerable to collapse. Inshore fishermen have criticized the fishing, because 2016 quotas have not yet been set, and could be cut significantly. Glenn Best, who fishes shrimp off Fogo Island, said the so-called “bridging policy” should not have been applied in Area 6 at a time when stocks are under review. “The [cod] moratorium would be a walk in the park compared to what’s going to happen if we lose this shrimp,” he said. “This is the bread and butter. This is what sustains communities from Fogo Island to St. Anthony to southern Labrador. We need this shrimp. Why are we taking chances with it?” Read the rest here 10:10
Alaska salmon prices seem to be rebounding – Chilean farmed salmon takes a hit
Alaska’s salmon season has started with optimism, a far cry from the bleak feelings a year ago when the fishery was blown asunder by a perfect storm of depressed currencies, salmon backlogs and global markets awash with farmed fish. Prices to fishermen fell nearly 41 percent between 2013 and 2015, years which produced the two largest Alaska salmon harvests on record. But in the past six months, those trends have turned around. Another positive turnaround involves salmon supplies. “If you want to see what’s happening with fish prices, look at supply and demand. Look at how much was produced in Alaska and how much our competitors produced,” advised fisheries economist Gunnar Knapp,,, Read the rest here 09:08
Thief busted for stealing crabs from traps near Delacroix
There are at least a couple of ways to catch crabs in the rich waters along Louisiana’s coast. One is to bait traps, set them out, kill some time tending to other tasks and then return hours later to harvest the contents of your traps. The other way is to run traps that were set out by someone else. The only problem is one method is legal, and the other isn’t. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents say a Slidell man went with the latter option Wednesday. Broward Barwick, 26, was cited for removing the contents of crab traps that were not owned by him, failing to mark crab traps and theft of crab traps. Read the rest here 08:45
Port Royal will continue shrimp dock operations, explores building new seafood processing facility
Charles Abner is still docked in Port Royal, finishing some work on his 73-foot shrimp trawler, “Lady Bernice,” before going to work as shrimp season begins. Abner plans to offload most of his shrimp at Benny Hudson Seafood on Hilton Head Island, where he said the money is a bit better. He also likes likes to offload in North Carolina and Georgia, where he said docks will front shrimpers fuel and ice. “I love the conditions over there (on Hilton Head),” Abner said Friday. “It’s a whole lot closer to the fishing ground; there’s quite a few other things. Port Royal wants to keep shrimpers like Abner from going elsewhere, aiming to make the docks off 11th Street on Battery Creek the desired destination in the area. Read the rest here 08:20
Were you living in Unalaska in the 70s or 80s? This guy wants to talk to you!
Were you living in Unalaska in the 70s or 80s? If so, Christian Skovly is looking for you. The Californian wants to make a book of stories of life in Unalaska at that time. Skovly came to Unalaska in 2007 and 2008 to work on Deadliest Catch. While there, he became fascinated with stories of life on the Bering Sea and around town. He grew so interested, he went looking for more tales. “And I couldn’t find any recorded history back from the 70s and 80s in Dutch harbor back when Crab was king,” Skovly said. “So I thought if there was no book about it, I would take on the challenge and write a book myself.” And he’s looking for stories, from everyone: Read the rest here! 20:49
The politics behind the northern shrimp – A quick look at two decades of decision-making
LIFO (Last In-First Out) – The cool thing about the Internet is that it offers up reams of background reports, press releases and historical data related to government policies and political decisions. Sometimes, someone who was there — who was privy to some of the goings on within the inner circle — will pick up the phone to remind a reporter of some of the history of a particular issue.So it was last week that Gerry Byrne, who is the province’s Minister of Advanced Education, gave me a call to talk about northern shrimp. Strange, you say? Wouldn’t the provincial fisheries minister, Steve Crocker, be the one to reach out to a reporter on that ongoing issue? In normal circumstances, yes. However, in this instance, Bryne has the lead on background material. Read the rest here 17:01
F/V Privateer salvage operation underway
The U.S. Coast Guard said it has concluded its portion of the response in overseeing the salvage operations of the fishing vessel Privateer off the beach at Ocean Shores in Washington, Wednesday. The Coast Guard’s response concluded when personnel from the Incident Management Division at Sector Columbia River found no recoverable fuel aboard the Privateer during their inspection of the beached vessel. The Privateer washed ashore, Saturday, April 16, after the Coast Guard rescued the three-man crew the night before 1 mile outside of Grays Harbor after the 74-foot fishing vessel started sinking. Additional photo’s, Read the rest here 13:09
Ray Hilborn Responds to the opportunistic attack of Greenpeace
I would like to thank Greenpeace for offering this opportunity to advertise our research and its results. Greenpeace is unable to attack the science I and my collaborators do; science that threatens their repeated assertions that overfishing is universal and that the oceans are being emptied. On the contrary it is clear that where effective fisheries management is applied, stocks are increasing not declining, and this is true in North American and Europe as well as a number of other places. Overfishing certainly continues to be a problem in the Mediterranean, much of Asia and Africa. The timing of Greenpeace’s attack is not random. In two weeks I will receive the International Fisheries Science Prize at the World Fisheries Congress. http://international.fisheries.org/requestfor-nominations-for-the-2016-international-fisheries-science-prize/ This prize is awarded every four years by fisheries science organizations from a number of countries including the U.S., Australia and Japan. In my plenary address I will be showing where overfishing is declining or largely eliminated, as well as where it remains a problem. This is a message Greenpeace seeks to discredit. Instead of focusing on the science, Greenpeace has alleged that I failed to disclose “large amounts of money from the fishing industry and other corporate interests.” Read the rest here 12:43
New Bedford fishing boat runs aground in Sandwich
A 47-foot fishing boat grounded on Town Neck Beach on Thursday morning after a failure of its autopilot system, according to crew members. “It zigged when it should have zagged,” said Mitch, a crew member of the Capt. RM Chase, out of New Bedford, who declined to give his last name. The boat ran aground at about 7 a.m. Thursday after an autopilot error caused the boat to head straight onto the beach instead of turning, he said. Mitch and one other crew member were on the boat, and neither was injured. The boat did not sustain serious damage, they said. Read the story here 10:25
Redistribution of Quota has P.E.I. halibut fishermen disappointed with lowered catch
P.E.I. fishermen will have less halibut to catch this year after a last-minute decision by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to redistribute the quota. The decision means the Island’s share of the allowed catch will drop down to 40 tonnnes from 46 tonnes — a 13-per-cent decrease — in a fishery that opens Sunday. “We’re still in a state of shock,” said the chair of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association’s groundfish advisory board, Tony Carter. “We’re back to ground zero, basically.” All three Maritime provinces saw their quotas drop in the DFO decision Monday, while fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec got an increase. This reverses a decision made last year by former federal fisheries minister and Island MP Gail Shea. Read the rest here 09:35
90,000 gallons of crude gushes Into Gulf of Mexico from a Shell oil facility
Almost 90,000 gallons of crude oil gushed from a Shell oil facility into the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast on Thursday, leaving a 13- by 2-mile sheen of oil on the waves, federal authorities said. The Coast Guard said that the spill had been contained and that two companies were being contracted to begin cleanup operations. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which is part of the U.S. Interior Department, said Shell Offshore Inc. reported that production from all wells that flow to its Brutus platform, about 90 miles south of Timbalier Island, Louisiana, had been shut off. Shell said Thursday night that a company helicopter spotted the sheen near its Glider subsea system at the Brutus platform. No drilling occurs at the site, which is an underwater pipe system that connects to a central hub, the company said. link 09:15
Finally! North Coast crab haul begins in long-delayed commercial opener
Hundreds of crab tumbled into large plastic loading containers on the raised docks of Pacific Choice Seafoods in Eureka early Thursday morning as the crew of the crab vessel Calypso hauled in what may have been the first local commercial catch of the long-delayed season opener. David Helliwell of Eureka, who has been crab fishing for 45 years, said he has never had to wait this long to cast out his pots. “It’s been difficult,” the 71-year-old fisherman said as he helped load some of his 350 crab pots onto his 74-year-old vessel Corregidor. “It’s been difficult for everybody. … This whole season is beyond anyone’s experience.” Read the rest here 08:20
The Arraignment: Carlos “Cod Father” Rafael pleads not guilty to all 27 counts
Indicted fishing magnate Carlos Rafael pleaded not guilty to all 27 counts against him Thursday in federal court in Worcester, where a judge added another $1 million to Rafael’s bond and placed a fishing vessel and permit as collateral. “The (U.S.) government has confirmed with the Portuguese government that Mr. Rafael is, in fact, a citizen of Portugal,” in addition to his U.S. citizenship, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling said, explaining the reason for the additional bond request. Lelling said he and Rafael’s defense attorney, William H. Kettlewell of Boston, had agreed to the additional bond conditions before Rafael’s Thursday arraignment in U.S. District Court. Rafael’s bond now stands at a total of $2 million, with his North Dartmouth home on Tucker Lane and Carlos Seafood building, on South Front Street in New Bedford, also as collateral for the bond. Read the rest here 06:53
Sea Hag Seafood’s lobster processing plant shuttered, up for auction
A seafood processing plant that opened less than four years ago with the hope of bolstering the lobster industry is closed and up for auction. Sea Hag Seafood’s plant and 7.5 acres of waterfront property at the mouth of Long Cove in Tenants Harbor will go up for auction on June 17. Kyle Murdock opened the plant in September 2012 when he 23. The project’s financing included a nearly $1.7 million loan from Camden National Bank and a $400,000 grant through the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. The grant money was provided to the company after it created 23 jobs for low- and moderate-income workers and after it met the terms of the federal program, said Maine DECD spokesman Douglas Ray. The town of St. George had sponsored the grant application but the town will not be liable for any repayment because the jobs were created. Efforts to reach Murdock on Wednesday and Thursday by telephone and email were unsuccessful. Read the story here 19:46
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for May 9, 2016
Click here to read the Weekly Update, to read all the updates, Click here 19:17
A lobsterman’s safety training kicks in
It was an unseasonably warm morning on Friday, Nov. 6, 2015, when Sam Allen set out alone from Ipswich Bay on his 28-foot lobster boat, the Dawn Breaker. The temperature was in the low 60s, the sky was clear, the seas flat. A moderate wind was blowing from the southwest. “It was a gorgeous day,” recalled Allen, who is 39 and has been a fisherman all his life. Around 9 a.m., he was working off the southern tip of Plum Island, in a spot known as Emerson’s Pocket, roughly 250 yards from shore, when he confronted a typical problem in his line of work. One of his trawl lines, a long rope running from a surface buoy to 10 lobster traps on the ocean bottom, could not be reeled in. That meant at least one of the traps was stuck below. Read the story here 12:21
Bigelow Breakdown – Fish Survey at Risk of Skewed Data?
Even before mechanics found deeply pitted bearings near crankshafts in its generators, problems that could have led to catastrophic engine failure, the Henry B. Bigelow was running more than a month behind. Now, the government research vessel is embarking on its annual spring voyage later than ever before, a delay that could have serious consequences for scientists’ ability to assess the health of some of the 52 fish stocks they survey, from the waters off North Carolina to the eastern reaches of the Gulf of Maine. The Bigelow typically leaves Newport in March for the spring survey, but this year was delayed by routine maintenance for more than a month. When it finally left its shipyard in Brooklyn, N.Y., last month, it had to return to port to ride out a nor’easter. Then the mechanics discovered the problem in its generators, and the ship didn’t depart until last Friday. Read the rest here 11:28
Monterey Bay squid season a bust
If Monterey had a signature restaurant dish, cioppino and fried calamari would battle it out for the top spot. But the common ingredient in each is squid, those prehistoric looking cephalopods (scientific name loligo) that school in the cool, nutrient-rich waters of Monterey Bay. Then “the boy” arrived. Once El Niño showed up things started to look different in the bay,” said Sal Tringali, president of Monterey Fish Company, who oversees a five-boat fleet that provides local restaurants with most of their fresh seafood, including squid. “There’s no squid,” said Tringali. “No anchovies either. We’ve seen this before during El Niño.” Read the story here 10:37
Hawaii Lawmakers To Obama: Don’t Grow Marine Monument
Amid the flurry of final votes on hundreds of bills last week, Hawaii lawmakers privately weighed whether to sign a letter to President Obama that Rep. James Tokioka was circulating during the last few days of the legislative session. The letter called on the president not to consider expanding the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, stating that “there is no scientific justification or conservation benefit in doing so.” In all, 30 House lawmakers, including Speaker Joe Souki, signed the May 3 letter. Just days earlier, Hawaii Senate President Ron Kouchi sent Obama a nearly identical one. This opposition, which lawmakers kept out of public view, has been overshadowed by a strong public push to expand the monument, officially designated by President George W. Bush as Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in 2007. Read the rest here 08:27
Greenpeace attacks University of Washington fishery scientist Ray Hilborn
Ray Hilborn, a prominent University of Washington fishery scientist, is under attack from Greenpeace for sometimes leaving out mention of industry funding he receives in articles published in academic journals and elsewhere.In a letter sent Wednesday to university President Ana Mari Cauce, Greenpeace filed a complaint against Hilborn’s research practices, and asked for an investigation. Hilborn, over the years, has been a critic of Greenpeace as well as other environmental groups and researchers he accuses of overstating the impacts of fishing on marine resources. In the letter to Cauce, Greenpeace unleashed a broadside against the scientist. Greenpeace is attempting to label Hilborn an “overfishing denier,” comparing the professor to so-called climate-change deniers who are a minority in a scientific community that overwhelmingly accepts that fossil-fuel combustion contributes to global warming. Read the rest here 07:45
NatGeo renews ‘Wicked Tuna’ as Season Five closes
As the fifth season of the hit National Geographic Channel series “Wicked Tuna” comes to a climax Monday, May 16, with the finale, NatGeo announced that the show will continue with a sixth season. The Gloucester-based reality television series, which has fans all over the world, will begin filming this summer for another season of tension on the high seas as the captains compete to bring in the most lucrative hauls of the gigantic bluefin tuna. This has been the most competitive season yet with four of the five boats in close contention to make the win with a “monstah” catch, and the fish are biting in the final episode as they fish within sight of each other. Read the story here 07:21
Another push for catch shares – Nils E. Stolpe, FishNet-USA
Don’t get the idea from this that I oppose any fisheries management regime. What I do oppose is having the future of particular fisheries determined by people and/or organizations and/or corporations with no meaningful ties to and no concern about the existing industry and the people in it. Irrespective of whether the decisions have their roots in in corporate, ENGO or foundation board rooms, the halls of academe or “investment” seminars, as the ongoing debacle in the New England groundfish fishery so clearly and tragically demonstrates, if the fishing industry doesn’t have final say in the imposition of measures that its members will be working with, the affected communities will suffer.) With talk in the air of an upcoming Magnuson Act reauthorization which is coincident with the 40th anniversary of its passage, the proponents of catch shares in general and individual transferable quotas in particular, are mounting a public relations barrage in a continuation of their efforts to “privatize” our fisheries. Most recently, the April 19 New York Times Opiniator column How Dwindling Fish Stocks Got a Reprieve by freelance journalist Sylvia Rowley, touted the benefits of catch shares by citing the example of the West coast groundfish fishery. It also quoted catch shares proselytizer and NOAA ex-head Jane Lubchenco, back on the Environmental Defense board after her brief sojourn in the almost-real world of the federal bureaucracy, on catch shares: “If you have 5 percent of the pie, you’d like to see the pie grow.” Read the rest here
Ottawa’s hiring wave to bolster federal science at sea
The federal government is about to do something it hasn’t done much of for years: hire scientists – a lot of them. At an event scheduled for Wednesday morning in Ottawa, Hunter Tootoo, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, is expected to announce that his department is looking to add 135 science-related personnel. The new hires would boost science staff at the department by about 15 per cent, its largest increase since the seventies and early eighties, when international agreements expanded Canada’s exclusive control of its ocean resources out to the 200-nautical-mile limit. “This level of hiring will almost certainly strengthen the capacity of ministry staff to provide high-quality science advice to decision-makers,” Jeff Hutchings, a fisheries scientist and professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said.Hang on Fishermen! Read the rest here 14:16
