Daily Archives: November 2, 2016
Into the Storm: The True Story of a Harrowing Ocean Rescue
The plane was cold and the engines were loud inside the cabin. Ben Cournia slipped in foam earplugs to drown out the noise. Tendrils of light were just starting to lace the morning clouds as the C-130 Hercules, gleaming white with the U.S. Coast Guard’s telltale orange bands near the cockpit and tail, climbed above Air Station Clearwater into the sky above Florida, heading south, then east. The heavy-browed Minnesotan glanced around the cabin, where guys were settling in for the three-hour flight to what had to be one of the loneliest outposts of the Coast Guard: a glorified sandbar otherwise known as Great Inagua Island, Bahamas. Their home for the last couple of weeks of September 2015. Cournia, 36 and married ten years, palmed his phone and looked at the last text from his wife: “Be safe,” she wrote. Video’s, Read the story here 15:21
Virginia Marine Resources Commission revokes seven commercial fishing licenses at meeting
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission revoked the fishing licenses of seven commercial watermen at a meeting in Newport News on Tuesday, according to a release. VMRC spokeswoman Laurie Naismith said the licenses were revoked for “egregious or repeated violations of Virginia’s fishing laws and regulations.” Richard N. Fluharty of Tilghman, Md., was found to be illegally harvesting oysters and had his commercial license revoked for two years. Fluharty was convicted of four counts of failing to report harvests and three counts of forging public documents in Accomack County General District Court. His convictions led to his license revocation, the release stated. Robert N. Hogge’s commercial license was revoked for one year. Hogge, a Newport News resident, was convicted in Newport News Circuit Court of taking oysters from a public rock out of season, taking oysters with a hand scrape out of season and grand larceny. Anthony D. Hogge of Gloucester Point was convicted of multiple violations Read the rest here 14:40
Dirtbag accused of abducting woman now charged with stealing lobsters, along with some other dirtbag.
A man accused of abducting a woman off the streets of Rockland is now in trouble with the Maine Marine Patrol, charged with stealing lobsters. In September, 29-year-old Shane Hall of Portland was charged with kidnapping a young woman as she walked home late at night. On Tuesday, the Maine Marine Patrol said Hall would be facing additional charges, in connection with a month-long investigation of lobster theft. 34-year-old Troy J. Woodman of Warren was also arrested as a result of the investigation by Maine Marine Patrol. Officials say Woodman is suspected of stealing lobster multiple times during September and October. Video, read the rest here. 13:06
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 45′ Hutt Bros. Lobster boat, 500HP, 6 Cylinder Lugger Diesel
Specifications, information and 26 photo’s click here To see all the boats in this series, Click here 12:29
Oregon Considers Not Implementing Full Planned Columbia Fall Salmon Reallocation In 2017, Sport fishermen unhappy.
Planned Lower Columbia fall Chinook allocation reformations next year could be put on hold and that’s raising alarm bells in the sportfishing community. Oregon fish managers are proposing not moving to an 80:20 recreational: commercial split in 2017, as WDFW and ODFW had agreed to several years ago, and instead want to continue with recent years’ split as well as continue gillnetting in fall above the Lewis River. They’ll pitch the state next Wednesday, Nov. 9, on why, as well as update them on research into alternative commercial gear the past few years, but in the meanwhile have posted a host of documents explaining their thinking in minute detail. Read the rest here 10:17
Whale-safe Fishing Gear?
More and more whales are becoming snarled in fishing gear, often dying slow, painful deaths. Two Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) engineers have invented a lobster trap device that they say could help whales avert entanglements and, at the same time, might allow currently restricted waters to be safely reopened for lobster fishing. In New England’s offshore lobster fishery, long vertical ropes or “lines” connect the traps on the bottom to floats on the water’s surface, so fishermen can locate their trawls and drag them back up. “The number of vertical lines in offshore areas is fairly staggering—about 20,000,” said WHOI engineer Keenan Ball who designed the new device with WHOI engineer Jim Partan. Read the story here 09:49
Last call at Mitch’s
The news that Mitch’s was closing for good arrived with all the notice of a pink slip, hearkening the wisdom of former Red Sox manager Joe Morgan, who could not fathom watching drag racing and described it thusly: “The flag is up, they’re off. It’s over.” So it was with the venerable watering hole and restaurant that has graced the lower end of Rogers Street for more than 40 years. The flag went up late Friday night, when owner Steve Bertolino got news that the owners of the building at 18 Rogers St. — Mark and Jay Salah — were selling the property to Deo Braga, who owns the Azorean restaurant and eight Dunkin’ Donuts franchises on Cape Ann. On Monday, responding to the beating drums of social media and the city’s own intranet of bar gossip, Mitch’s was packed once again in advance of her scuttling. They came for one last beer and one last story, to bask in the sepia-tinged memories that, assembled without directions, still somehow managed to form a reasonable facsimile of life then as opposed to life now. They came to hear fisherman Paul “Sasquatch” Cohan and his band rock the place into darkness. They came to say goodbye. Read the story here 09:01
What’s the future of beached fishing boat at Bodega Bay?
The 54-foot steel-hulled Verna A II has been stranded in the surf zone of South Salmon Creek Beach since it ran aground Sept. 11. For 51 days and counting, the green fishing vessel with its classic silhouette has become the muse of North Coast water color artists, amateur photographers and at least one Halloween costume creator. Stripped of fuels, batteries and other chemicals, the boat is no longer considered an immediate pollutant and there are no plans to remove it from the beach, officials from several agencies said. The boat rests on a Sonoma Coast State Park beach within the boundaries of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, purview of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The fate of the 33-ton commercial fishing vessel is in the hands of its captain, 57-year-old Roy Underwood, who had no insurance, according to federal and state agency officials. Underwood was arrested on a warrant out of Mendocino County shortly after his rescue, according to federal and state agency officials. He served 26 days for violating probation stemming from a burglary case and was released Oct. 11, jail records show. Read the story here 08:11
