Daily Archives: October 29, 2016
Coast Guard Station Cortez rescues 2 after boat takes on water near Anna Maria Island
The Coast Guard rescued two men Saturday after the 40-foot boat the two men were on began to take on water 13 miles west of Anna Maria Island. At 3:30 a.m., watch standers from Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg received a mayday call via VHF-FM marine band radio channel 16 from the crew aboard the commercial fishing boat Barbara Jean. The crew stated they were disabled due to engine trouble and were taking on water over the sides of the boat. A 45-foot Response Boat-Medium boat crew from Coast Guard Station Cortez launched and arrived on scene at 4:30 a.m. An RB-M crew member and dewatering pump were transferred to the fishing boat to begin dewatering efforts. The RB-M crew placed the fishing boat in tow and transported the two men and their boat to A.P. Bells Seafood in Cortez. No injuries were reported. 18:11
Tuna Vessel Operator Convicted for Oil Discharges Off American Samoa
An American tuna fishing company that regularly unloaded its catch in American Samoa, was convicted and sentenced today for discharging oil into the South Pacific and for maintaining false records, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden of the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips for the District of Columbia. The company, Pacific Breeze Fisheries LLC, owned the Fishing Vessel F/V Pacific Breeze, a tuna purse seiner that was responsible for the pollution. Pacific Breeze Fisheries admitted that its engineers failed to document the illegal dumping of oily bilge water into the waters off American Samoa without the use of required pollution prevention equipment. These discharges occurred on at least two occasions, in 2014 and 2015, before the vessel brought fish to a cannery in the port of Pago Pago, American Samoa. Read the rest here 14:11
Florida-Georgia Water War to be settled in a Maine Courtroom on Monday. Last Chance for the Apalachicola Oyster?
The Flint River, from high atop the bridge on Po Biddy Road, looks nothing like the water-hogging culprit Florida makes it out to be. It’s all rocks with slivers of water barely coursing through. “That’s what paddlers call ‘bony,’ ” said Gordon Rogers, the Flint Riverkeeper. “It should be almost three times as high. And we’re not even in a big-dog drought.” Yet much of Georgia is in a drought — worsening by the day — and the lack of rain, barren streams and dwindling reservoirs buttress the latest “water war” legal battle set to begin Monday in a Maine courtroom. The stakes for Georgia have never been higher. Metro Atlanta’s future rides on the legal opinion of one irascible, no-nonsense Yankee barrister who has warned that neither Georgia nor Florida will be satisfied with his ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court appointed Ralph Lancaster as the “special master” to determine the validity of Florida’s 2013 lawsuit against Georgia and its alleged overconsumption of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers. Whiskey’s for drinking, as the adage goes, but water’s worth fighting over. Read the story here 13:33
Consider the Lobsterman – Sam Rosen, a fisherman from Vinalhaven, Maine, discusses changes in the industry and how they affect the identity of the island community it supports.
Sam Rosen is a lobster fisherman who grew up and lives on Vinalhaven, a town on an island off the coast of Maine with a year-round population of about 1,200 people. According to Vinalhaven’s chamber of commerce, roughly half of the island’s economy comes from lobster fishing and “related support activities.” For The Atlantic’s ongoing series of interviews with American workers, I spoke with Sam about starting his job at a young age and how he is faring with the obstacles currently shaping the industry. The interview that follows has been edited for length and clarity. Jeremy Venook: How did you get into lobster fishing? Sam Rosen: For most people on the island, regardless of gender, if you have a parent that runs or works on a boat, it’s likely that you’ll spend some amount of your childhood working with them. If you don’t have any interest in it you probably won’t, but most kids that age are into boats and living creatures and whatever. You get to play with fish and crash around in a boat all day. In my case, my dad had me hauling a few traps from the time I was 4 or 5 years old. Then you work your way up to more traps as you get older, and eventually get your own boat. For me, my dad built me a boat when I was 11 or 12. Read the interview here 11:40
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Marine deputy gets down and dirty to find resource violators
Willy Guerra keeps a dry uniform ready at home because his clothes are often wet from jumping into Florida Keys waters to catch criminals. Guerra, the chief Monroe County Sheriff’s Office marine deputy who is based in Marathon, is no stranger to hiding out and waiting to catch those who would deplete the Keys’ natural resources — fish and lobster in particular. Since he became a marine deputy in 2005, Guerra’s hidden in a garbage can, on top of a sewer treatment plant and in mangroves, staking out criminal activity at all hours of the day and night. Tuesday, the Marathon City Council commended Guerra with a plaque for his efforts. One particular case from 2015 involving a man from Miami who was prosecuted for stealing lobster in Marathon was highlighted. Bill Kelly, executive director the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association, said George Vargas worked for at least three years in Marathon poaching lobster. In one night, Guerra caught Vargas with 267 wrung lobster tails of all sizes. They weighed out at 225 pounds with a commercial value of $4,205. “He made $723,000 in a year if he worked all year and we know he did that for at least three years, so we’re talking $2.16 million he absconded with from the men and women in the commercial fishing industry,” Kelly said. Read the story here 09:51
South Atlantic Region Offshore oil surveys to start as seismic testing opposition grows
Nearly a half million commercial fishing families have joined the opposition to seismic testing for oil and natural gas in the Atlantic Ocean, according to a South Carolina-based business chamber. Meanwhile, a first, non-seismic survey is set to start. The families, numbering more than 400,000, are part of a coastal residents and business movement that has coalesced into the tens of thousands in South Carolina alone. More than 100 Atlantic coastal communities, thousands of businesses and more than 1,000 elected officials also have called on President Barack Obama to stop the testing, according to South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce and Oceana, an environmental advocate. Meanwhile the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management continues to process permit applications from seven probe applicants, including six that want to search in waters off South Carolina. “BOEM is currently in the process of reviewing those permits. Before the permits can be issued, careful environmental analysis is done to ensure the safety of the marine ecosystem,” spokeswoman Caryl Fagot said. Read the story here 09:26
Alert over salmon deaths crisis on Scots fish farms caused by infectious disease
Conservationists have called for government action after raising concerns that hundreds of thousands of fish have died from an infectious disease in salmon farms in Hebrides and Wester Ross. The Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland has called on Scottish ministers to intervene to protect wild fish after an outbreak of Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD). It is understood that four farm sites have been affected including West Loch Tarbert and East Loch Tarbert on Harris, Loch Greshornish on Skye and the Isle of Ewe in Wester Ross. Marine Harvest salmon farms have been particularly affected, it is said. The news comes just two weeks after Prince Charles visited the Marine Harvest salmon farm in Kinlochleven the Highlands to observe work on its “cleaner fish” project. Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland said that up to 25 per cent of the stock at the afflicted sites are understood to have been lost, with dead fish transported to Wigan in Greater Manchester for incineration. Read the story here 08:53
25 years ago, the crew of the Andrea Gail was lost in the ‘perfect storm’
At the heart of Gloucester, America’s oldest seaport, visitors will find an eight-foot-tall bronze fisherman at the wheel of his ship. Engraved at the base of the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial are the names of more than 3,000 residents who were lost at sea and the following words: “They that go down to the sea in ships, 1623-1923.” Twenty-five years ago, one ship in particular gained national fame when it was lost during the “perfect storm” of 1991. The “storm with no name” claimed the lives of six fishermen and the captain and crew of the Andrea Gail, a disaster that was later chronicled in Sebastian Junger’s bestselling book and a film starring George Clooney. The storm left a trail of destruction from Nova Scotia to Florida, killing 13 people and causing close to $500 million in damage as it lashed the coast from Oct. 26 through Nov. 1 of that year. Read the story here 08:12
