Daily Archives: June 11, 2016
More than 15 fishing boats rush to aid P.E.I. lobster fisherman whose boat caught fire 3 km offshore
About 15-20 fishing boats rushed to the aid of a fellow lobster fisherman when his boat caught on fire Saturday morning about three kilometres off the northeast coast of P.E.I. Joey Hennessey had just left North Lake Harbour on his boat The Lady Jenalee when a fire started in the motor and worked its way to the back of the boat, said fellow fisherman Jeff MacNeill, one of the fisherman who came to Hennessey’s aid. “There were probably 15 or 20 different vessels that rushed right to him,” MacNeill said. Additional images, Read the rest here 17:57
Trawl fleet fishery needs Alaska’s help
In the next few days, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, led by a majority of people with no ties to Kodiak and no experience with our fishery, will be making its recommendation about the future of Kodiak and the Gulf of Alaska’s highly successful groundfish trawl fisheries. The Council has already imposed new restrictions on the fishery to reduce the unwanted catch of species like halibut and salmon. Additional management improvements are needed to address these conditions. This is a watershed moment for coastal fishing towns like Kodiak, King Cove and Sand Point. As a recently released economic study makes abundantly clear, Kodiak and the Gulf of Alaska trawl fisheries have contributed significantly, not just to the economy of Kodiak and the Gulf communities, but also to the state’s economy. Read the rest here 17:13
Is there a monster killer shark on the loose off Perth?
A fisheries drum line hook was snapped by a giant sea creature the day after British diver Doreen Collyer was killed, sparking fears that a monster shark is on the loose off Perth’s coastline. Tony Cappelluti, Fisheries metropolitan regional manager, said that officers saw part of a drum line set off Mindarie submerge at about 3.15pm on Monday, before confirming that the hook had been snapped in half. ‘The hooks being used are the same as those used during research tagging operations that have successfully caught large sharks greater than five metres,’ he told The West Australian. Read the rest here 15:40
Overharvest means changes coming to Louisiana blue-crab fishery
Most bays and tidal lakes in Louisiana these days look like obstacle courses, where the first boater to make it across without wrapping a crab-trap line in his prop wins. Hard to believe that less than half a century ago, the crab trap hadn’t yet been invented. Now, they’re more prevalent in state marshes than mosquitoes. All those wire cages mean it’s getting harder for female crabs to run the gauntlet and make it to the salty waters of the coast to lay their eggs. As a result, Louisiana has seen a concerning decline in its blue-crab population, according to Jeff Marx, a crustacean biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Marx has spent two of the last 10 days explaining to two different boards the challenges currently facing Louisiana’s crab population. The first presentation was to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, the regulatory board that ultimately will make decisions on how to attack the problem. The second was to the state’s blue-crab task force, which serves as a policy liaison between the department and crabbers in the field. Read the rest here 15:11
Lobster fishery propels boatbuilding boom, could see resurgence in Liverpool
Speaking at the Mersey Forum on June 8 at Lane’s Privateer Inn in Liverpool, the executive director of the Nova Scotia Boatbuilders Association said companies from Cheticamp in Cape Breton to Meteghan in Digby County are busy trying to keep up with orders. “It has been very strong in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, just servicing the needs, primarily, of the lobster fishermen,” Tim Edwards told the Queens County Advance. “In addition to that, there is a small handful of yards doing work for the city of Halifax and the Province of Nova with ferries and also small patrol boats for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. When you lump all that together, it is busy times.” Read the story here 11:36
North Carolina: House Bill 1122 – Limit Marine Net Fishing Bill
A bill has been introduced in the state House that, if passed, would put it to a popular vote whether to ban gill nets and other forms of nets from coastal fishing waters in North Carolina. On May 10, Rep. William Richardson, D-Cumberland, filed House Bill 1122, also known as the Limit Marine Net Fishing Bill. The bill is before the House committee on rules, calendar and operations. One commercial fishing advocacy group said while they’ve been assured by legislators that HB 1122 will most likely not pass the rules committee, much like a similar bill submitted in 1995, it comes at a very bad time. Jerry Schill, president of the N.C. Fisheries Association, a nonprofit advocacy group for the state’s seafood industry, said HB 1122 is “almost the same wording” as a 1995 bill also introduced by Rep. Richardson. Read the rest here 10:55
Lobster-trap report draws ire from Florida Keys commercial lobster fishermen
Florida Keys commercial lobster fishermen bristled at a report on traps in protected marine areas being presented at this week’s South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting. The report on small no-trapping areas created to safeguard spots with branching elkhorn or staghorn corals is scheduled for a Spiny Lobster Committee meeting at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Cocoa Beach. “We worked [with fishery regulators] to develop these 60 coral protection areas,” said Ernie Piton, president of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association. “We even proposed more than they asked for.” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission surveys at selected coral protection zones in 2014 and 2015 logged traps and parts of traps spotted in the zones, most of which are unmarked by warning buoys and do not appear on most nautical charts. “Some of the older gentlemen in our industry have been doing this 30 or 40 years and they don’t use GPS; they go by sight,” Piton said. Read the rest here 09:36
Epic 1888 cruise of the USS Albatross netted details of pioneer fishermen
The 1887 to 1889 cruise of the USS Albatross all along the mainland West Coast would have been an awe-inspiring adventure for anyone interested in American industrial and social history. The resulting “Report on the Fisheries of the Pacific Coast of the United States,” by J.W. Collins based on work by W.A. Wilcox and A.B. Alexander, is one of the best first-hand accounts we possess about the people and resources of the West Coast in a pivotal period. The Albatross poked into dozens of “small streams, bays, and harbors along the coast, many of which had not previously been investigated.” The original edition of the report — I recently found one for about $20 — is packed with detailed charts of river mouths and estuaries, showing canneries, fish traps, gillnet drifts, shellfish beds and dozens of other features. The charts of the Columbia River are humble masterpieces, but far too large to reproduce for a newspaper article. View 6 images read the rest here 07:24
