Daily Archives: September 12, 2016
Two lobstermen accused of fishing violations following seven-month DMR investigation
A fisherman accused of trying to secretly catch lobsters and his sternman have been charged with multiple fishing violations, according to state officials. Duston Reed, a 34 year-old lobsterman from Waldoboro, was arrested Aug. 18 by the Maine Marine Patrol and taken to the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. The arrests of Reed and his sternman, Jeremy Yeaton of Friendship, came after a seven-month investigation, according to a news release from the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Reed was charged with fishing lobster traps that were not marked with a buoy, fishing untagged lobster traps, falsifying physical evidence and tampering with a witness. A total of 40 unmarked, untagged traps allegedly owned by Reed were recovered by Marine Patrol officers after an investigation determined where they were being used. Read the story here 21:55
Interview: Nick Tokman, 28, Fisherman. “Deadliest Catch.’ Motivational Speaker.
Nick Tokman hails from Massachusetts, a state whose shoreline once teemed with whaling barks — the homes of men who, seeking fortune in whale oil during the 19th century, ventured to sea for years at a time, each hoping to capture their “lay” or percentage of a catch, while risking their lives in the black squalls of the North Atlantic, the high seas of the Indian Ocean, and the farthest reaches of the remote Pacific and Arctic whaling grounds. But Tokman isn’t from New Bedford or even Nantucket, where as a teenager he caddied to help pay his way through the prestigious MacDuffie School. He is instead from Springfield, nicknamed “The City of Firsts” — an appropriate place for a man of many beginnings. After high school, the then-18-year-old headed to business school at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal, where he learned to speak French while earning his degree and working as a suit salesman, janitor, and pizza delivery driver. It was while visiting his grandfather one summer that Tokman first saw the Emmy Award-winning “Deadliest Catch.” Read the interesting interview here 16:22
Midcoast Maine: Tensions rise with acts of vandalism within the lobster fishing community
Col. Jonathan Cornish, head of , said last week that with 30 registered complaints statewide of trap molestation this year, the number of incidents of territorial disputes are about average for the season. The statewide total, eight of which were from the Tenants Harbor area, is the same as in the past few years, he said. Cornish added, however, the agency has seen a spike in complaints statewide during the past two weeks. Complaints typically rise during the peak harvesting months of September and October, he said, when lobstermen shift their traps to where they are seeing their best catches or to move further out from shore to coincide with the migration of the lobsters as the waters close to shore cool down. The marine patrol chief said there have been complaints received in the midcoast of traps being cut since the latest boat sinking. Read the story here 15:38
Six year US Tuna Treaty, illegal fishing highlighted in Pacific Island Forum report card
Matai Seremaiah Nawalu, Chair of the Forum Fisheries Committee Ministers, told leaders that while there’s additional administrative and individual processes to complete, the Pacific negotiators have delivered against the mandate handed down by Leaders and Ministers. He said the six year agreement that has been reached is an excellent outcome and asked that the leaders join him in thanking and congratulating the region’s negotiators of the US Tuna Treaty. The treaty allows US purse seiners including those that supply the local canneries access to the exclusive economic zones of Forum member countries which cover a wide swath of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean which contains the largest and most valuable tuna fisheries in the world. Many Pacific Island parties depend on fisheries as one of their most imhportant natural resources, and the United States has for decades sought to be a valued partner in developing regional fisheries. The U.S. purse seine fleet operates according to the highest commercial standards and is subject to strict enforcement by authorities. Read the rest here 13:36
Sweden’s lobster game; stick to soccer
Legendary American soccer goalie Hope Solo was rightly suspended for calling the Swedish national team a “bunch of cowards” after the European side beat the U.S. women’s team in the Rio Olympics last month. Playing the more talented and explosive American side, Sweden played a crafty, intelligent, defensive game for 120 minutes. The result was a scoreless tie after regulation and extra time. The Swedes won the shootout that followed. Today, Nova Scotia’s lobster fishermen may be feeling some sympathy for Solo. For Sweden is clearly playing a defensive game as it attempts to get the European Union to ban imported lobsters from Canada and the United States (which for the most part means Nova Scotia and Maine). Read the Op-ed here 11:12
VMRC enforces maximum habitual offender poaching penalties
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission flexed new muscle last month when it stripped a Hampton waterman of his commercial fishing license for five years for poaching oysters and levied a $10,000 civil penalty. It marks the first time commissioners enforced maximum poaching penalties that took effect July 1, 2015. Until then, the maximum was a two-year loss of license with no civil penalty. The new law targets repeat offenders who commit egregious violations of state code, said VMRC Commissioner John Bull. And it can be applied only after convictions in criminal court. While Bull and fellow board members believe the new penalties better fit the crime, not everyone agrees. J.C. Hudgins, a Mathews County waterman and treasurer of the Virginia Watermen’s Association, “I think everybody feels like a habitual offender like that needs to have something done — needs to have some restrictions or some penalties put on him,” Hudgins said. “But, phew, that’s a rough one there. … Five years, that’s a long time.” Read the story here 09:55
Coast Guard, partner agencies respond to fishing vessel aground near Salmon Creek Beach
The Coast Guard and partner agencies responded to a fishing vessel Sunday that ran aground in Bodega Bay, Calif. Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Command Center watchstanders were notified at 1:24 a.m., that a 54-foot fishing vessel, the Verna A II, had run soft aground near Salmon Creek Beach. When the master’s efforts to refloat his vessel were unsuccessful, a motor lifeboat crew was launched from Coast Guard Station Bodega Bay, along with two swimmers and a crew aboard a personal watercraft from Bodega Bay Fire. The master was removed from the vessel and transported to the beach due to safety concerns. The vessel is aground near freshwater wetlands neighboring the highway one bridge. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund has been opened for $50,000 and Parker Diving and Salvage has been hired to conduct fuel and oil removal operations. Link 08:41
Will Obama use the State Departments “Our Oceans” Conference to designate canyons and seamounts National Marine Monument?
The third installment of the Our Ocean forum will convene in Washington, D.C., this week and the betting window is open on whether the Obama administration will use the event to announce the designation of new National Marine Monuments. No one — neither conservationists nor fishing stakeholders — claims to know exactly what will happen when the two-day, international event opens Thursday. But it has not escaped anyone’s attention that the Obama administration has used the same forum in the past to make similar announcements. The Obama administration’s decision not to use the Antiquities Act to designate any portion of Cashes Ledge as a monument validated fishing stakeholders and others who characterized the proposal — which originated with the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Pew Charitable Trusts — as an end-run around the existing fisheries management system and wholly unnecessary given the existing protections already afforded the area. Read the story here 07:55
