Daily Archives: June 25, 2016
Coast Guard rescues 2 fishermen from disabled vessel near Cordova, Alaska
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Forward Operating Location Cordova rescued two fishermen approximately 17 miles southwest of Cordova, Alaska, after their fishing vessel became disabled and adrift Friday. The Jayhawk crew hoisted the fishermen from the fishing vessel Sunrise and transported them to Cordova. Coast Guard Sector Anchorage watchstanders received a request for assistance from the fishermen after their 26-foot fishing vessel became disabled and adrift near Strawberry Channel. Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and diverted the rescue helicopter crew who were airborne and in the area on a training mission. Marine Safety Unit Valdez has issued a notice to mariners of the disabled vessel and continues to monitor the situation as the owner makes arrangements for retrieval. Click to watch the video 19:56
What are the clams economic impact on Greenwich?
In his denim overalls and Simms fly fishing cap, Ed Stilwagen is where he can be found most days, checking in on his clamming boats and checking out the state of the water in Long Island Sound. “I always say the way to find clams is you go out there and you tell a clam joke. Then you hear ’em laughing, you go in and you get ’em,” Stilwagen said. Stilwagen is like a lot of people in Greenwich. He has two boats, a shiny black Cadillac and a lot of property. His boats, though, are for work and his property is mostly under water. The 4,000 acres he leases stretch about a mile into Long Island Sound. He is the largest clam harvester in Greenwich waters. “Since we been started here (in 2000), I calculate well over 300 million clams we’ve produced,” he said. Stilwagen’s crews are out on his pontoon-like clam boats sometimes seven days a week,,, Video, read the rest here and 31 photo’s. 17:57
Corals Can Be Saved If We Restore Plankton Cooling
Experts at coral reef conference in Honolulu offer little but the same old career safe ideas. Princely paid pundits prefer pitching party lines about perils to presenting practical prescriptions. Solutions proffered are couched in global warming parlance for the coral reefs those propositions will take decades to make progress and then only at a cost of trillions. Corals will be saved by restoring plankton cooling to stop ocean warming, this will produce positive results for coral reefs in a few years time and will cost mere millions. Scientists at the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium in Honolulu this week are palavering about the latest research on our planet’s imperiled reef. With a little more googling instead of oogling they might quickly discover how the most beautiful bathing beauties at the beach the corals can be saved. Read the article here 17:05
Yurok Tribe Files Intent to Sue National Marine Fisheries Service and the Bureau of Reclamation
In response to massive fish disease outbreaks in back-to-back years on the Klamath River, the Yurok Tribe submitted a 60-day notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Bureau of Reclamation. “We cannot stand by and do nothing while our salmon hover over the brink of extinction,” said Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “We will not continue to watch water managers jeopardize the fate of our fish and our river.” 91 percent of the juvenile, Klamath salmon were infected with a deadly parasite in 2015, as were a nearly identical number of fish in 2014. Given the nearly 100 percent mortality rate associated with the disease, approximately 90 percent of the Chinook salmon and likely an equal quantity of coho died in the main-stem Klamath River during those years, according to the notice. This year’s predicted adult salmon run is one of the lowest on record, which forced the Yurok Tribe to make a difficult decision to completely forgo all commercial fishing in 2016. Read the rest here 15:22
After Brexit – Fishermen chart course away from Europe
The EU referendum results marks “a seismic change” for the fishing industry, according to many in it, as it will restore the UK’s long-lost control over the greater part of the northern European fishing grounds. In Scotland the fleet has declined during Britain’s time in Europe. The 2007 workforce of 4,408 fishermen regularly employed on Scottish-based fishing boats, was approximately half that employed in the early 1970s when Britain joined what was then the European Economic Community (EEC). The number of fishing boats over 10m long was 1318 in 1990, 958 in 2000, and only 583 in 2014. The numbers fell as the European Commission exerted more and more control over how much could be caught, in an efforts to conserve fish stocks which scientists warned were at risk. Read the story here 11:47
Alaska Salmon Harvest Nears 5 Million Fish
Commercial harvests of Alaska’s wild salmon have expanded statewide, with total deliveries nearing 5 million fish, including nearly 3 million sockeyes. Preliminary harvest figures compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game show that in the westward region, processors in the Alaska Peninsula have received 950,000 humpies, 883,000 sockeyes, 134,000 chums and fewer than 1,000 cohos. At Chignik, the catch reached 334,000 reds, 16,000 chums, 7,000 pinks and 1,000 kings, and at Kodiak 176,000 sockeyes, 63,000 chums, 8,000 pinks and 1,000 kings. In Prince William Sound,,, Read the rest here 10:25
The Garden State Seafood Association strongly opposes the ‘‘Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016’’
Finning of sharks (the process of removing fins at sea and discarding the shark) is currently illegal in the U.S. and Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) supports that law. The Shark Conservation Act of 2010 (SCA) prohibits any person from removing any of the fins of a shark at sea and discarding its body. The GSSA supports this law and existing associated exemptions for spiny dogfish and smooth dogfish sharks. However, there is a direct federal allowance for the sale and possession of legally-harvested shark fins regulated and supported by NOAA, the U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration. Any effort to overturn this allowance at the federal level is simply not based on fact. Read the rest here 09:58
Antiquities Act abuse heads East – U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah)
Some say cultural trends start on the West Coast and make their way East, but one trend moving eastward is bad news for New Englanders. In my home state of Utah, the federal government owns 65 percent of the land. That is a problem. In the waning days of his administration, President Clinton compounded the problem by mandating the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. With virtually no local support, he locked up 1.7 million acres of Utah, an area larger than some states. This monument designation was an abuse of the Antiquities Act. Passed in 1906, the Antiquities Act was originally intended for presidents to quickly prevent looting of archaeological sites. The executive power exercised under the Antiquities Act has grown far beyond the original purpose.,, The same story threads throughout the West, most recently in February when President Obama — who has designated the highest acreage of national monument land and water of any U.S. president — designated three different national monuments in the California desert. Now the president has his sights set on New England fisheries off the coast of Cape Cod. Read the rest here 08:46
