Daily Archives: December 15, 2016
New Bedford fishing boat finds body near Provincetown
New Bedford fishermen found a human body as they pulled in their nets early Thursday off Provincetown. The gender of the body found in the fishing gear was not confirmed, and the state medical examiner has accepted jurisdiction of the case, Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Tara Miltimore said. Fishermen on the Hera reported at 4:35 a.m. that they had pulled up what they believed was a human body in their nets, state police said Thursday morning. At that time, state police could not confirm if it was a body, state police spokesman David Procopio said. The Hera went to Provincetown Harbor and a state police detective from the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s office went to the town pier to meet the boat, Procopio said. Read the story here 20:14
Commercial fishermen fear for future under NSW Government industry (catch share) reforms
Allan Reed left school at The Entrance at the age of 16, he has overcome many snags in a 37-year career as a commercial fisherman on the Central Coast. But now the 53-year-old and his 79-year-old father, Allan Sr, along with dozens of other commercial fishers in the region, face the “soul-destroying” prospect of it all coming to an abrupt end. Mr Reed and his father will have to pay $370,000 to keep their prawning, mud-crab and meshing business operating in local waters under the State Government’s reforms to the $90 million industry. “We’ll have to buy all these extra shares to keep operating just as we are now. How does that make sense?” In a week when an upper house inquiry into commercial fishing in NSW is hearing submissions from various stakeholders, Mr Reed said the industry overhaul was “all about benefiting a handful of people and driving out the rest of us”. NSW Wild Caught Fishers Coalition president Dane Van Der Neut estimates half of the 100 commercial fishers on the Coast, from Tuggerah Lake to the Hawkesbury, will be “squeezed out” when the reforms kick in from July next year. Read the story here 15:34
Coast Guard hoists injured fisherman from vessel 20 miles off Florence, Ore.
A Coast Guard aircrew hoisted an injured crew member from a 75-foot fishing vessel more than 20 miles off Florence, Thursday. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Coos Bay received the initial notification in a series of incomplete VHF-radio transmissions shortly after midnight. They made contact over phone with the master of the fishing vessel Leann, who confirmed that the crew member was unconscious after he fell and suffered a head injury. While the aircrew readied to launched, the master reported that the crew member was awake but combative, and at the request of the helicopter pilot a 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew, from Coast Guard Station Siuslaw River in Florence, responded as well to act as a safety boat. Once on scene, the rescue swimmer was lowered to the vessel to prepare for the hoist while the remaining helicopter crew left to take on fuel. The MLB crew remained on scene until the hoist was safely completed, at which time they returned to station. An from Coast Guard Sector North Bend safely transported the 50-year-old man to medical personnel at Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay. link 14:34
Controlling Agreements – Future of N.S. fishery hinges on federal court appeal
The president of a Nova Scotia fishermen’s union is hopeful a federal court appeal in early 2017 will fail in its challenge of a ministerial decision to enforce policies insulating Atlantic Canada’s inshore fishery from corporate interests. “It’s also our hope that the policy, as well as the minister’s power to regulate the industry for social, cultural and economic considerations, gets strengthened under the Fisheries Act,” , president of the Maritime Fisherman’s Union Local 9 in Meteghan, told the Chronicle Herald in an interview. Enacted in 2007, the aim of Preserving the Independence of the Inshore Fleet in Canada’s Atlantic Fisheries is to enforce the owner-operator and fleet separation policies established in 1979 by Roméo LeBlanc — father of current fisheries minister Dominic LeBlanc — so that inshore fish harvesters remain independent, allowing the profit of fishing licences to flow to fishers and Atlantic coastal communities. Read the article here 13:19
Transportation Safety Board wants life-vests mandatory for commercial fishermen
The federal government should look at the success of seatbelt laws when it considers a recommendation that would require commercial fishermen to wear a life-jacket at all times while on deck, the head of the Transportation Safety Board says. The recommendation to make life-jackets mandatory was part of a report released Wednesday into the deadly capsizing of a 30-metre fishing trawler last year off the west coast of Vancouver Island. “There was a time when it was OK to drive a car and not wear a seatbelt,” Kathy Fox said following a news conference in suburban Vancouver. Three men died and one survived when the Caledonian turned over and sank shortly after it loaded what was to be its final haul of hake on Sept. 5, 2015. The person who survived was also the only one wearing a personal flotation device. Read the story here 12:15
New super long-lining catamaran being built for Abbott family at Narooma
The commercial fishing industry on the Far South Coast is about to get a big boost with a new 25-metre, state-of-the-art, long-lining catamaran being built for the Abbott family of Narooma. The three siblings, Ryan, Todd and Hayley, still only in their 20s, have invested heavily in the multi-million-dollar vessel because they believe in the sustainability of the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery and the demand for their top-quality fish continues to grow unabated. The new vessel, yet to be named, is currently taking shape in an Adelaide boat factory and is believed to be the first large commercial fishing vessel being built in Australia for the last 12 years. “With only 30 long-line vessels left in the entire fishery and the huge patch of water, the fishery is truly sustainable and much of it virtually untouched,” Read the story, and view 15 photos here 10:10
UPDATED: Charlie Melancon resigns from post as secretary of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Melancon spent most of his brief tenure either pissing people off or running another typical Louisiana corruption scheme. The biggest issue that has arisen in Melancon’s tenure was his opposition to the state taking over red snapper fisheries from the Federal government. Why would the state be opposed taking over red snapper jurisdiction from the Feds? Because as Scott wrote back in September, a JBE (Gov. John Bel Edwards) donor would be hurt. Read the story here About that Sealord donor! Charlie Melancon has resigned Wednesday as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “Charlie and I have agreed that we should move the agency in a different direction,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday. Read the rest here 09:44
Lobster buyer charged
A lobster buyer based out of Seal Cove is facing a year’s suspension of his license and a fine for allegedly violating Department of Marine Resources (DMR) reporting requirements. Donald Crabtree Sr., 48, of Crabtree Seafood in Brewer was summonsed Aug. 10 on a charge of violating the reporting requirements rule Chapter 8, a civil violation. Crabtree is scheduled to appear in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court for a dispositional conference on Dec. 16. According to Jeff Nichols, communications director of the DMR, the charge follows an investigation that began in the summer months of 2015 and continued through much of the summer of 2016. Crabtree is accused of buying lobsters from fishermen and not giving out sales receipts, Nichols said. Lobster buyers are required to report all transactions, including those made with cash. Read the story here 08:59
Alternative Energy Collides With Fishermen’s Livelihood Off Long Island
The federal government on Thursday plans to auction off a parcel of 79,000 acres in the Atlantic Ocean just south of Long Island to build a wind farm over fishing grounds that scallop and squid fishermen say are vital to their trade. Bidders hope to secure a 25-year lease to operate a wind farm, to sell the electricity to energy-hungry Long Island and the New York City region. Offshore wind is a big part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for New York to get half of its energy from alternative sources by 2030. But the commercial fishing industry opposes building wind turbines on this particular stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, which is sandwiched between shipping lanes into and out of the New York harbor. “We are very afraid we are going to lock up an area of the bottom that is definitely favorable for scallop settlement,” said James Gutowski, a scallop fisherman from Barnegat Light, N.J., and chairman of the Fisheries Survival Fund. Members of the fishing industry say the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management didn’t adequately consider what the impact would have on scallop and squid fishing grounds. Read the story here 08:24
