Daily Archives: December 2, 2016
Winter Blue Crab season starts
Fresh blue claw crab is available for retail purchase at the Belford Seafood Cooperative in Middletown. The commercial dredge season for blue claw crab started Thursday and the first harvests have been reaped from crab grounds in Sandy Hook Bay and elsewhere. The Dutch Girl returned about noon to the co-op dock with its haul of about a couple dozen bushels of crab — a mix of females, small and large males. About eight co-op boats in total crabbed on opening day. While a portion of the crab harvest loaded at the co-op will be trucked out to other markets and restaurants, plenty will be kept for retail sale at the Belford seafood market counter. The crab dredge season goes from Dec. 1 through March 31, (except in Delaware Bay where the season is Nov. 15 through April 15). Short video, Read the story here 19:48
Fish harvesters raise industry concerns at Fish-NL meeting in Marystown
Harvesters from around the Burin Peninsula had an opportunity to raise their concerns about the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW-Unifor) union during a series of meetings held in the region last week. Additional meetings were held in Bay L’Argent, Fortune, Lawn and Petite Forte. Wayne Meade, who fishes out of Grand Bank, was one of the attendees at last weeks meeting in Marystown. “I fished scallop on St. Pierre bank for a number of years and in 2006 they (FFAW) give away the middle (scallop) bed and the southern bed to the big offshore companies,” he said. “I held a license for that area for the last 25 years and overnight I had it took from (me), so there’s nothing fair about that.” Ryan Cleary, president of FISH-NL said the harvesters at the Marystown meeting are not alone in their feelings. Read the story here 18:24
Princess Cruise Lines To Pay Largest-Ever Criminal Penalty For Deliberate Vessel Pollution
Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. (Princess) has agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges stemming from its deliberate pollution of the seas and intentional acts to cover it up. Princess will pay a $40 million penalty– the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel pollution – and plead guilty to charges related to illegal dumping of oil contaminated waste from the Caribbean Princess cruise ship. The U.S. investigation was initiated after information was provided to the U.S. Coast Guard by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) indicating that a newly hired engineer on the Caribbean Princess reported that a so-called “magic pipe” had been used on Aug. 23, 2013, to illegally discharge oily waste off the coast of England. The whistleblowing engineer quit his position when the ship reached Southampton, England. The chief engineer and senior first engineer ordered a cover-up, including removal of the magic pipe and directing subordinates to lie. Read the story here 17:42
New Satellite Communications System For Workboats
McMurdo has announced a new global satellite communications system, McMurdo OmniCom, the first in a family of products that will be rolled out over the next six months to provide complete worldwide fleet management and vessel monitoring solutions for the workboat, commercial fishing and artisanal fishing industries. McMurdo OmniCom is an integrated solution for commercial fleet operations that combines worldwide satellite coverage for constant communications to and from remote vessels with PRISMA Connect, McMurdo’s proven fleet management platform to provide a robust suite of vessel tracking, two-way messaging, asset/document management and Automatic Identification System (AIS) display. Features of the OmniCom solution include: Read about it here 16:30
Fishing vessel energy audit aims to cut costs for fishermen
Commercial fishermen are largely at the whim of the seafood market. Prices can vary wildly, while operation costs stays the same — That is, until now. An energy audit aims to help Sitka’s fishermen increase their profit margins. It’s a sunny morning in Sitka. Usually Steve Fish — yes, that is his real name — would be out on his boat the Kariel, trolling for salmon or longlining for black cod or halibut. But today, the 66-foot fishing vessel and its captain are parked in the harbor. Fish has surrendered the Kariel to a swarm of engineers, who can’t help but ask about how his gear works. They’re all aboard the Kariel to conduct an energy audit of the vessel. Fish, along with 17 other fishermen in Sitka, volunteered for the audit. “It’s dollars and cents,” Fish says. For Fish and most others in the industry, each year those dollars and cents are spent at the pump. Audio, read the rest here 14:32
US tuna boats seek level playing field
Going into next week’s meeting of the organization called the Western and Central Pacific fisheries Commission, aka Tuna Commission, the body which regulates the fishing of tuna in the Pacific Ocean, US tuna boats are hoping for better outcomes than what has been achieved in the best. The meeting takes place December 5-9 in Nadi, Fiji and American Samoa is sending several representatives. While much focus has been on the canneries and helping them stay competitive and keep them here, the tuna boats that deliver the fish which are processed and canned at the Starkist and Samoa Tuna Processors plants, have not received much attention. Regulations initiated by the Tuna Commission and the United States in recent years have hit the US tuna boats hard and subsequently affected the supply of fish for the local canneries. Read the story here 12:02
Large swells delays North Coast crab hauls in season opener
Rough waters put a damper on the opening of the North Coast’s commercial Dungeness crab season Thursday, but Friday is expected to provide a window for some crab hauls to hit local ports. Wild Planet Foods Eureka processing plant manager Jeff Huffman said no crabs were unloaded at his facility as of Thursday afternoon. “The weather was so bad we didn’t have any of our boats fishing,” Huffman said Thursday. “Tomorrow we should have most everybody out. Everyone should get some gear in the water.” Stepping out of a meeting on Thursday afternoon, Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association Vice President Ken Bates said nobody had reported in any hauls. “The ocean is really crummy again,” Bates said, referencing Monday’s and Tuesday’s high swells. “The swells are pretty big. It’s not 24 feet like it was, but it’s still pretty big.” Read the rest here 10:52
Georgia-Florida water fight now in hands of special master, Supreme Court to decide
A month long trial aimed at settling a high-stakes water dispute between Georgia and Florida ended Thursday with a special master imploring both sides to negotiate a settlement. Special master Ralph Lancaster reminded both parties that there’s much to be lost by booming metropolitan Atlanta or by residents of tiny Apalachicola, Florida. “Please settle this blasted thing,” Lancaster said. “I can guarantee you that at least one of you is going to be unhappy with my recommendation — and perhaps both of you.” Florida blames the booming Atlanta metropolitan area and agriculture in Georgia for causing low river flows that have imperiled fisheries in Apalachicola Bay. Georgia contends there’s not enough evidence to support drastic action that could imperil the state’s economy. The lawsuit played out for a month with dozens of witnesses and hundreds of exhibits in Portland, Maine’s largest city, more than 1,000 miles from the disputed watershed. Georgia’s attorney, Craig Primis, and Florida’s attorney, Phil Perry, declined to comment after Lancaster implored them to return to the negotiating table. Read the story here 10:27
DFO cracking down on deals that flout rules to keep inshore fishery in local hands
Two Maritime fishermen have lost their fishing licences following a Department of Fisheries and Oceans investigation into the use of so-called controlling agreements in the past year. They haven’t released the names or location of the fishermen. “We’ve concluded five cases. Of those cases, two were in agreements that were contrary to our policy,” said Morley Knight, DFO’s Maritimes regional manager. The department said other licence reviews are ongoing as it ramps up efforts to combat controlling agreements — the side deals where a fisherman hands control and use of a licence to a third party, usually a company. The agreements are seen as an end-run around policies to keep the inshore fishery in local hands, like the owner-operator policy that fishing licenses are held only by owner-operators, and fleet separation, which prevents companies from being both harvester and processor. Read the rest here 09:13
Formal Coast Guard investigation of F/V Alaska Juris sinking begins on Monday
A public Formal Marine Investigation will take place next week in Seattle to look into the sinking of the fishing vessel Alaska Juris in July. The formal investigation is being held by the Seventeenth Coast Guard District commander. It will begin Monday, Dec. 5, at 12:30 p.m. at the Henry Jackson Federal Building in Seattle. It will last until 4:30 p.m. and is expected to continue through Friday, December 16. The Alaska Juris, a 220-foot-long factory trawler, went down in the Bering Sea nearly 700 miles west of Dutch Harbor. It started taking on water on July 26. Forty six crew members and fishery observers were rescued from life rafts by Good Samaritan vessels. The boat was owned by The Fishing Company of Alaska, based in Renton, Washington. Read the rest here 08:05
