Daily Archives: December 3, 2016
Court date set for Cove Harbour legal battle
A court date has been set for a legal battle between a community of traditional fishermen and a landowner who wants to evict them from an historic Aberdeen harbor. Vessels have been berthed within the small natural bay of Cove Harbour for generations. But since last summer, the owners of the around 11 boats that still remain have been locked in an ongoing conflict with a surgeon who now owns the land. Pralhad Kolhe, who lives in the white house overlooking the harbour, has put in place a number of preventative measures to obstruct the fishermen’s ability to access their boats, including large boulders, rubble, barricades and signs as part of his efforts to evict them. Read the story here 21:19
Cantwell, Murray Push to Declare Six Fisheries Disasters in Washington State
U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker calling for a declaration of commercial fisheries failures for six pending fishery disaster requests. Fishing communities up and down Washington’s coast have suffered through several years of lower-than-expected catch. A federal fishery disaster declaration would make communities eligible for funding for projects such as fisheries recovery, job training, and infrastructure investments in the communities hardest hit. Commerce Secretary’s designation would provide relief to Coho, Sockeye, and Dungeness fishermen and their communities. Read the press release here 18:06
A mystery at sea unfolds in New Bedford
A mystery is unfolding at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. It all started last month when the fishing vessel Jean Marie out of Newport, North Carolina raised its nets and found pieces of wood, a five-part block with wooden shives, a single block with a hook on it, a knee brace and other pieces of wreckage. The fishing vessel was fishing in 55 fathoms of water (between 250 and 300 feet), just east of the Great South Channel shipping lanes. It is not uncommon for fishermen to find strange objects in their nets, but what is unusual is that the crew of the Jean Marie recorded the location of their find about 50 miles east-southeast of Nantucket, said Victor T. Mastone, director and chief archaeologist with the state Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources. The nautical position is North 41 08.52 x West 69 07.39. On Friday, a few weeks after the discovery, a state official, a university professor, a fishing captain and Heritage Center officials met for a little over an hour to view the materials and to try and figure out exactly what they have on their hands. View more images, and Read the story here 16:48
National monuments should not be one-man shows, must include local input
There is a good argument that one person acting unilaterally should not be able to set aside hundreds of thousands of acres under the guise of conservation without adequate debate or discussion about what makes that acreage so very valuable in its pristine form. Likewise, there is a good argument that one person should not be able to put all those acres back into play without adequate public debate or discussion about why that was the wrong decision. Call it a breakdown of our nation’s system of checks and balances. More specifically, call it a gaping hole in the 110-year-old Antiquities Act. Under the act President Barack Obama has established 28 national monuments –President Bill Clinton designated 19. President George W. Bush created two. Sixteen presidents have used the act to establish national monuments; Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush are the only presidents of either party since 1906 who have not. Read the post here 16:09
D.B. Pleschner: ENGO Extremists manufacture anchovy ‘crisis’ where none exists
When the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently reapproved the 2017 annual catch limit for the central stock of anchovy at 25,000 metric tons (mt), environmental extremists immediately cried foul. Press releases with doomsday headlines claimed that the anchovy catch limit is now higher than the total population of fish in the sea. Environmentalists claim the anchovy resource has “collapsed” and the current catch limit is dangerously high. But is the anchovy population really decimated, or are these alarmists simply manufacturing another anti-fishing crisis? In reality, anchovies are now amazingly abundant from San Diego to Northern California. Scientific data as well as fishermen’s observation bear this out: Read the op-ed here 12:22
A look at the global eel trade reveals widespread fraud – In Japan, 9.6 tons of baby eels magically appeared in 2015
The glass eel trade is coming under international scrutiny. Already, cultured eels account for more than 99% of the world’s supplies. But the farming of these eels is totally reliant on elvers born in the wild. Although techniques to create artificial breeders to allow for the full cultivation of eels have been established, commercial production, as in the case of tuna, remains impossible. A big problem is that much of the glass eel trade essentially takes place in the dark. In Japan, the Fisheries Agency calculates the volume of the country’s eel catches by subtracting the amount of imported baby eels from that of domestic procurement. But the volume of domestic eel catches widely differs from the combined calculations of domestic catches done by prefectural governments, which issue the necessary permits. In the fishing season of 2015, for example, 18.3 tons of baby eels were procured domestically, while 3 tons were imported. The volume of eel caught domestically thus came to 15.3 tons. But data from prefectural governments, once tabulated, puts the total amount of domestic catches at 5.7 tons. The difference suggests that eel farms received 9.6 tons of glass eels from shadowy sources. Read the story here 10:36
ODFW Commission extends Columbia River reform plan by one year
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday voted to extend by one year a reform policy that would ban gillnetting on the main stem of the Columbia River. The extension of the transition period runs through 2017, giving commissioners some breathing room to refine the policy, which was meant to help endangered salmon and steelhead. “The extension will allow for more consideration by commission members and consultation with management partners,” according to a release from commission staff. The Fish and Wildlife Commission has been reviewing whether to rebalance the Columbia River reform policy and allow limited use of gillnets on the river’s main stem rather than phase the practice out entirely. Oregon and Washington state agreed to eliminate gillnetting on the main stem over four years, encourage commercial fishermen to use alternative gear or off-channel areas, and increase opportunities for sport fishing. Commercial fishermen have fought the policy change since 2012 as a potentially devastating financial blow, as well as the end of a way of life for generations who have worked the river. Read the rest here 09:42
Shell report hints giant pipe on sea floor off Nova Scotia will be abandoned
A new report commissioned by Shell Canada shows it would be safer and easier for the company to abandon a multi-million-dollar two-kilometre pipe at the bottom of the ocean, instead of retrieving it. The huge pipe — called a “riser” — crumpled to the sea floor eight months ago off Nova Scotia’s coast. The riser had been used by the Stena IceMAX, a specialized ship hired by Shell Canada, to drill an exploratory well to search for oil. In bad weather and rough seas on March 5, the riser disconnected from the ship. Shell has been weighing its options for whether to retrieve its equipment ever since. Retrieving the riser would “present a considerable health and safety risk to offshore personnel related to the complexity and highly specialized nature of offshore recovery operations,” the report says. (these people cannot be trusted) Read the rest here 08:54
Bodega Bay boats set out for Dungeness crab along Sonoma Coast
The full force and focus of the West Coast crabbing fleet has turned on the waters off Sonoma County, where newly opened fishing grounds are expected to yield the next crop of holiday Dungeness crab. Local fishing vessels left docks in droves before dawn Friday to start setting traps in a fishery whose bounty has made the sweet, succulent crustaceans an important cash crop around the North Coast. Boats from around California, as well as Oregon and Washington, where the crab seasons have been delayed, have also joined in the latest opening, making for crowded, derby-style action that gives the advantage to the very biggest boats, crabbers say. “I’ve never seen this many boats and this much gear north of Point Reyes,” Windsor crabber Ben Platt said by phone Friday off the Sonoma Coast as he deployed traps earlier set in Half Moon Bay, where he started the season. 11 great images, read the story here 08:30
