Daily Archives: December 10, 2016
Fishermen films millitary jets chasing UFO over Mediterranean Sea
A group of Galician fishermen were taking care of business when they heard some loud noises coming from the horizon. Apparently the footage was captured in late 2009, offering a relatively low quality image but, the streak of events that followed offer a shocking view of a UFO submerging into the Sea with military jets hot on its tail. Turning the camera on with panic and confusion, the fishermen manage to surprise what seems to be two fighting jets coming in from the right side. Over a short period of time, a UFO appears to the right, quickly submerging into the water, followed by the two jets that previously passed by the fishermen’s boat. Panic can be read on the Galician fisherman’s face, unaware of what is happening. While still in shock, the guy holding the camera surprises a military helicopter approaching the boat, with its personnel yelling at the crew to remain in position. You can’t make this stuff up! Watch the video here 15:44
World Wildlife Fund warns planet could be out of fish by 2048
If you’re eating fish just for the halibut, maybe it’s time to rethink your see-food habits. According to the latest World Wildlife Fund
, our oceans are running out of fish. “Unless the current situation improves,” WWF says, citing statistics from a 10-year-old research article, “stocks of all species currently fished for food are predicted to collapse by 2048.” The global fishing fleet, it says, is “2-3 times larger than what the oceans can sustainably support” — meaning the industry is taking more fish out of the sea than the ones it leaves behind can replace. According to international NGO, 53 percent of the world’s fisheries — the places where fish are caught — are “fully exploited,” and another 32 percent are “overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion…. Read the rest here! 15:05
East Coast fishermen file appeal over cost of government-required ‘at-sea monitors’
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, requires groundfishermen — those who catch cod, haddock and other common bottom-dwelling species — to carry on board “at-sea monitors.” The observers, hired by three for-profit companies, are third-party workers whose task it is to observe fishermen’s compliance with federal regulations and ensure annual quotas are not exceeded. The dispute lies in the cost of the monitors and who should pay for them: Fishermen are billed on average $700 a day when a regulator is present. NOAA, meanwhile, says monitors were placed on fishing boats like Goethel’s only 14 percent of the time in 2016 — and claims the fishing industry supported this system of regulation in 2010 when a vote went before the New England Fishery Management Council, an advisory board to NOAA that sets the rules. “At sea monitors were originally supported by the sectors when we went from a days-at-sea form of management to a quota based form of management in 2010,” said John Bullard, the regional administrator for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. Read the story here 14:22
Currituck County debates ordinance change that could save the local crabbing industry
Crab fishermen are seeking a change in the law so they can operate legally in Currituck County even while neighbors complain of clutter, noises and smells. The change would solve an old problem for the county, where crab fishing is a mainstay and crab pots with plastic floats dot the rural waters. Common as it is, county ordinances have never accounted for the way most crab fishermen operate out of their homes, sometimes in small subdivisions with neighbors close by. Mostly it happens under the radar, with county inspectors opting not to cite watermen unless there are complaints. But in April, inspectors visited Wayne Burch’s growing crabbing business near Tulls Bay, south of Moyock. Someone had complained, and the inspectors cited Burch for violating 11 standards of the home business ordinance including outdoor storage, retail sales from the premises and creating traffic, noise and odor. In response, Burch’s friend, business partner and next door neighbor, Lauren Berry, began working with county staff on an ordinance amendment to make it legal for backyard crabbers to operate the way they always have. “Our current zoning laws do not allow for our heritage,” Berry said. “This is an industry we should protect.” Read the story here 13:47
Retiring Senator Boxer stages filibuster to block passage of water bill amendments
In a defiant final act of her long career, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer mounted a filibuster on the Senate floor Friday morning attempting to block passage of water bill amendments she says would harm salmon and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to deliver more water to farmers. Boxer, the California Democrat, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, spent about 90 minutes denouncing the bill. “I ask a no vote on a bill that would undo the entire salmon fishery on the West Coast. Don’t drop this in at the last minute,” Boxer said about amendments that were added at the last minute to an $11 billion water infrastructure bill with projects across the nation. Several environmental and fishermen’s groups back Boxer’s fight against the 11th-hour amendments, which open the door to deliver more Delta water to San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California at the expense of Delta fish and water quality. Video, read the rest here 11:16
Nearby vessel rescues 6-member crew after boat fire off Burin Peninsula
One of the six people onboard a fishing vessel that caught fire Thursday morning off the Burin Peninsula says they’re “all very lucky” and credits a nearby boat for coming to their rescue. Michael Clements said he had been fishing onboard the Cape Mariner and getting ready to haul the boat’s gear back in. “There was an explosion down in the engine room and flames came out and the wheelhouse filled up with smoke and we had to get off the boat,” he told CBC News. Clements said the Southern Mariner was also out fishing about five miles away and responded to the blaze. “We thank them as much as we can, to get there and get us so quickly, ” said Clements. He said there were no injuries, which he credits to the quick rescue, but the Cape Mariner is damaged. Video, more images, read the rest here 10:07
Partial transcript of Carlos Rafael’s meeting with undercover IRS agents
Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston Thursday show seafood mogul Carlos Rafael implicating his whole family in his alleged scheme to smuggle cash to the Azores and turn large catches of protected fish into large amounts of cash by selling them under the table. Rafael is also quoted as boasting that he pressured Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson, into giving Deputy Sheriff Antonio Freitas a raise and promotion, and in turn using Freitas to get large amounts of cash around immigration and customs at Logan Airport. The document is an official response to requests by Rafael and Freitas to be tried separately to preserve their individual rights. Read Carlos Rafael’s motion to sever his trial from the trial of Antonio Freitas. Read the government’s response, which contains Carlos Rafael’s alleged statements to undercover agents about the Antonio Freitas and the Bristol County Sheriff’s Department. The items are contained in a partial transcript of a meeting Rafael had with two men he thought were Russian businessmen but who were actually IRS agents operating under cover to learn how Rafael did business. Read the story here 08:55
New net opens a way to help fishermen and protect cod
Catching the wrong fish, or catching too much of a low-quota fish like cod, can end a season for a commercial fisherman. In recent years, the interstate New England Fishery Management Council has slashed the number of cod that can be landed from the Gulf of Maine from about 1,550 metric tons in 2014 to 280 metric tons now. Fishermen who catch too many, even by accident, can be shut down for the season. A team of scientists and fishermen led by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute has created a new kind of fishing net that can catch popular flatfish like yellowtail flounder without busting strict quotas set to protect the Atlantic cod from overfishing. The net redesign team was led by Eayrs, himself a former commercial fisherman in Australia, and Massachusetts state fisheries biologist Michael Pol. The team included four commercial fishermen from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, two other scientists and a Rhode Island netmaker. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Saltonstall-Kennedy program funded the $265,000 project in 2015, when it awarded $22 million in fisheries grants. Read the story here 07:57
