Daily Archives: December 29, 2016
FISH-NL leaders to meet with Labour Relations Board, address reporters on Friday
The leaders of an upstart union movement in Newfoundland and Labrador will reveal their strategy for a certification bid Friday, months after launching a bitter and divisive campaign to try and raid the province’s influential fisheries union. Representatives from the Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters (FISH-NL) will visit the Labour Relations Board in St. John’s in the morning, and plans to speak with reporters at their office on Job Street at 11 a.m. “All will be revealed tomorrow,” FISH-NL president Ryan Cleary said. The FFAW has also ramped up its criticism in recent weeks, accusing FISH-NL of having no real plan for the fishery and trying to weaken the bargaining power of harvesters. Read the story here 18:48
Ringing in new round of ‘fish wars’ as ADFG manages budget
In the face of yet another round of budget cuts, Alaska’s largest private employer, the seafood industry, will have entirely new management schemes to sort out and live under in 2017 alongside status quo projections for harvest in key fisheries. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will take another budget cutback responding to the state’s multi-billion dollar deficit that has yet to be patched. Gov. Bill Walker released a proposed fiscal year 2018 budget on Dec. 15. Among other cuts, Walker proposes a budget of $28.9 million for ADFG. This is a 36 percent reduction from the fiscal year 2015. ADFG will have to find ways to deal with budget cuts to monitor key fisheries stocks, including the iconic king salmon that has fallen in abundance beginning in the late 2000s. Further, commercial fisheries management programs will suffer,,, Fish wars renewed – As usual, much of Alaska’s year will center around salmon. Among the biggest items for Alaska’s state fisheries will be the two-week 2017 Upper Cook Inlet meeting of the Alaska Board of Fisheries. Read the rest of the article here 16:25
Georges Bank said to be ‘paved with fluke! Fishermen Assail NOAA Quotas – Schumer fears major job losses
Commercial fishermen on the draggers seen offshore last week took advantage of calmer seas and the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s raising of the daily limit on fluke from 70 to 210 pounds. The higher limit was in effect from Dec. 18 through Friday as the state’s annual quota for the fish, highly sought by commercial and recreational fishermen alike, had not been reached.,, Mark Phillips, who fishes on the F/V Illusion out of Greenport, was once among the largest harvesters of fluke in the state, landing a few hundred thousand pounds per year, by his count. The problem, Mr. Phillips said, is that stock assessments are inaccurate because NOAA conducts surveys — such as with its ship the Henry B. Bigelow, which collects data in waters from Maine to North Carolina — when fluke are migrating from undersea canyons to inshore waters. Read the story here 14:49
Provincial fees could hurt Port Saunders fisherman’s business
Eugene Caines, a commercial fisherman from Port Saunders, hopes to continue operating a cod grow-out site. However, fees being imposed by the province, may shut him down. What was once just a $100 fee for cod grow-out, he says, has jumped to $500 to $2,000 in just a few years. The aquaculture renewal fee for cod grow-out operations, imposed by the province’s Department of Fishery, Forestry and Agrifoods, is $1000 for 2017. Then there’s the new annual fee, established by the province’s Department of Environment and Climate Change. That’s another $1,000. Given the fee increases, Caines hopes to be able to combine his cod quota with another harvester in 2017, to not only have more quota but to possibly reduce manpower costs. Cains also needs to know whether or not he will be able to use traps to catch cod. Read the story here 12:40
South Carolina Working Waterfront: Rural attitude, commercial fishing still embraced in McClellanville
McClellanville stands apart from other working waterfronts in South Carolina in a couple of important ways. Its geographic isolation has helped maintain a rural attitude, and commercial fishing remains the economic driver for the community. These days, the town that got its start as a summer resort for plantation owners has the least touristy feel of South Carolina coastal communities. The small commercial section of the Jeremy Creek waterfront is dominated by two commercial docks—at Carolina Seafood and Livingston’s Bulls Bay Seafood. A public boat landing with limited parking spaces gets crowded on weekends and during the public shrimp-baiting season in the fall, but most of those boats head into the Intracoastal Waterway and leave the working waterfront behind. Read the rest of the story here 12:06
2016 hauled in mixed bag for Alaska commercial fisheries
As with any season, 2016 had plenty of winners and losers in the Alaska commercial fishing industry. The year started off with a huge sigh of relief from Upper Cook Inlet salmon setnet fishermen when the Alaska Supreme Court over-ruled a decision by a Superior Court judge that would have allowed a ballot measure to ban setnets in “urban areas,” but was targeted at Cook Inlet. If the ballot measure had been allowed to go to a vote and had won, it not only would have made it more difficult to manage the sockeye fishery, but it also would have eliminated the livelihood of the 700 Upper Cook Inlet setnet permit holders, 85 percent of which are Alaska residents. At the beginning of the year, halibut fishermen were feeling optimistic,,, Salmon fisheries across the state fell far short of expectations,,, Read the rest of the story here 11:33
Police smash cocaine smuggling ring at Sydney Fish Market in Christmas Day raid
A former rugby league first grade player, a Bondi entrepreneur and several fishermen are among 15 men arrested on Christmas Day in a multimillion-dollar cocaine ring bust. Police will allege the syndicate imported more than a tonne of cocaine via NSW ports and included experienced fisherman, marine workers and company owners. Australian Federal Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Sheehan described the alleged syndicate as “robust, resilient and determined”. Several of the men were arrested on Christmas Day on board a shipping vessel named Dalrymple docked at the Brooklyn Marina on the Central Coast. Read the story here 10:36
Baird government commercial “catch share” fishing reform will see Newcastle Fisherman’s Cooperative lose members
The head of the Newcastle Fisherman’s Cooperative says he doesn’t know how many members will leave as a result of the Baird government’s commercial fishing reforms. Robert Gauta has told a NSW parliamentary inquiry that the reforms had led to “uncertainty” over how many of its members “will stay and how many will go”. Set to come into play from the middle of 2017, the government’s reforms to the $90 million commercial fishing industry link fishing rights with catch levels. The government argues the reform will make the industry sustainable, but the introduction of minimum shareholdings will also mean commercial fishers may need to increase their holdings to maintain the same catch level. “The cooperative makes money when the fishers catch fish; it is that simple … fewer fisherman would mean fewer fish.” Read the story here 09:58
Search called off for missing crew member of capsized Belgian-registered fishing boat Assanat Z-582
The Coastguard has called off a search for a crew member missing at sea after a fishing boat (identified here through FiskerForum.com)capsized off the Kent coast. One crew member was winched to safety from the Belgian-registered boat, while another was also rescued from the water later, but has since died the other remains missing. UK Coastguard duty controller, Kaimes Beasley, told Sky News a “passing merchant vessel” had spotted an “upturned hull with a gentleman clinging to it” just after 7.30am. He said a Coastguard helicopter and three RNLI lifeboats, from Ramsgate and Harwich, had been involved in the search, focusing on an area from north east of Ramsgate to the mid-channel. He later told reporters: “This has been an extensive and comprehensive search of the area. “We are standing down the search this evening because of the fading light. “It is unlikely that the search will resume in the morning unless we get further information that will help us find the third crew member.” Link 08:45
Crab fishermen strike for higher price per-pound from Bodega Bay north through Oregon and Washington
Crabbers from Bodega Bay north through Oregon and Washington to the Canadian border went on strike Wednesday afternoon after wholesale Dungeness crab buyers sought to lower the per-pound price fishermen earn for the much sought-after crustacean. Fishermen have agreed to either cease crabbing in areas off the Sonoma Coast where the Dungeness crab season has already opened, or delay the start of their season in hopes of retaining the $3-per-pound price they have earned fishing in Northern California’s rich waters so far this year, according to Lorne Edwards, president of the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Marketing Association, an industry trade group. Read the rest of the story here 07:48
