Daily Archives: May 11, 2017
A Meeting With the Premier.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—Thursday, May 11th, 2017 The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) is pleased that the Dwight Ball administration is onside with a proposal for flexibility in this year’s harvesting rules, including buddying up to help harvesters cut down on expenses. “Governments can’t magically produce more fish, so they must do all they can to make it easier for harvesters to get through the current crisis and keep their heads above water,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL, following an hour and a half meeting with the Premier and Fisheries Minister Steve Crocker. “The premier gets that.” The decision on flexibility is ultimately Ottawa’s, but the Ball administration agrees with the measure, whereas the FFAW does not. Click here to read the press release 20:22
Telling it like it is – Lack of salmon passage hurts fishermen
To keep producing swimming pool water, green lawns and golf courses in the desert you have to kill wild and hatchery salmon and California is not slowing down one bit. I want you to name one dam built in Idaho that has a working fish ladder, or was built with the intent to have a fish ladder but got a senatorial dispensation to forgo that cost. Why shouldn’t Idaho Power and ratepayers pay to keep salmon from extinction? There is no free lunch in energy production, and you fail to mention that Oregon taxpayers are still on the hook for renewable energy tax forgiveness to foreign companies who have so many tax credits they sold them to other mega-national companies to reduce their state taxes. I live here. I have paid my dues. I am going to be asked by the liberal bunch of legislators to cover up their give-aways with higher taxes so they can give raises to the poor public employees whose pension and health care costs have become a considerable burden to everyone who lives and works in Oregon. The money should have been there but the Blue State power broker Democrats sold us out to have environmental cred on the record. No Oregon troller can now fish south of the south Jetty at Florence on the Siuslaw River to the California border. It is impacting all the commercial and recreational fishing from Brookings to Winchester Bay. John Thomas Jr., F/V Solimar, Newport, Ore. Click here to read it. It’s real good, too. 19:31
Lobster prices expected to be ‘highest ever’ for start of season
Prices at the wharf for lobster taken form the waters in the Northumberland Strait are expected to fetch between $7 and $7.50 per lb., said Ron Heighton, president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association. Heighton said the fishermen won’t know for sure what they will be paid until likely sometime this week but based on the higher-than-normal prices being paid elsewhere, wharf prices are also expected to be up along the north shore. At the beginning of last year, processers and buyers were paying about $6.50/lb. for market-sized lobster compared to about $5.75/lb. for the same period in 2015. click here to read the story 17:08
Coast Guard battles fishing vessel fire, saves 2 off Nantucket
Coast Guard crews saved two fishermen Thursday after their vessel’s engine room caught fire in Nantucket Sound. The captain of the 41-foot fishing vessel Jupiter sent out a call for assistance over VHF Ch. 16 at about 8:50 a.m., and the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Oak, a 225-foot buoy tender, answered their call for help. Simultaneously, a commercial aircraft informed the watchstanders at First Coast Guard District command center that they saw smoke coming from a fishing vessel. Within five minutes, the Oak’s small boat crew launched and arrived on-scene with fire extinguishers to help the fishermen put out the fire. A 42-foot boat crew from Station Chatham and a Hyannis Fire Boat crew arrived on scene to assist. The Fire Marshal inspected the vessel to make sure there was no chance of reflash, before the Chatham boat crew put the Jupiter in tow to bring back to Hyannis Harbor. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation. link 15:45
Safety training offered to fishermen next week in Gloucester
Fishing Partnership Support Services will conduct the last of its spring series of safety trainings for commercial fishermen next week in Gloucester. Safety and Survival at Sea is scheduled for Thursday, May 18, at the Gloucester Coast Guard Station, 17 Harbor Loop, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This free program will cover: · Man-overboard procedure· Firefighting and emergency communications · Flood and pump operations · Survival suits· Life raft deployment and boarding · Helicopter hoist procedures · Basic first aid For those fishermen who want to be certified as Drill Conductors, training will continue on Friday, May 19, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the same facility. click here for more detail 13:41
Commercial prawn season opens in Powell River B.C.
Commercial prawn fishers will be heading out to sea on Thursday, May 11, when the annual fishery opens. For the fishers, it is an expensive entry, hard work during the short season, and sometimes lucrative. Few prawn fishers will actually divulge the size of the catch and the association representing them does not have the answer. “It must be somewhat profitable because licensed fishers continue to do it and there is significant interest in the industry,” said Pacific Prawn Fisherman’s Association executive director Steven Richards. “To become a commercially licensed prawn fisher, you need to purchase a commercial prawn licence, which is a commodity traded and available on the open market through brokers.” A total of 247 prawn boats are licensed in the province, 59 of which are first nations. click here to read the story 12:00
Copper River disaster
This is a developing story – No one seems to have any idea what sort of astronomical price a rare and iconic Copper River king salmon from Alaska might demand when the commercial fishing season opens in about a week – if there are any fish to be sold. The Alaska Board of Fisheries is facing an emergency petition to ban the sale of the big fish in the name of conservation. Alaska subsistence fishermen who are supposed to have a fishing priority but have already been told they will be restricted to a limit of two kings each for the entire season are talking about the possibility of a lawsuit if the state allows the commercial king fishery to open. And even if the start of the fishery proceeds as scheduled on May 18, the opening day catch is expected to be no more than a few hundred fish, if that, given that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has already ordered the closure of fishing areas where most kings are caught. click here to read the article. 09:45
‘I’m still shaken up from it:’ Fishing boat captain tells about helicopter rescue
A fishing crew from Esgenoopetitj, N.B., is happy to be high and dry after running into trouble in Miramichi Bay this week. The crew called for help at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday when they developed problems with their boat’s hydraulic system. They were attempting to make it back to port in Neguac with limited steering when they became stuck on a sandbar about three kilometres away. “The rescue helicopter came by, and we could hear it and see it, but they couldn’t see us unfortunately,” the boat’s captain, Buddy Dedam, told Shift‘s Vanessa Vander Valk. “It was very foggy and our flares didn’t shoot off, our LED lights were not bright enough for them to see us.” Video, click here to read the story 08:42
Two federal disaster relief funding bills filed to aid California crab and salmon fishing industry
U.S. Reps. Jackie Speier and Jared Huffman are throwing fishermen a lifeline. They introduced two legislative bills that aim to help people working in the crab and salmon fishing industries by appropriating $140 million in federal disaster relief funding. This follows several difficult fishing seasons that severely affected livelihoods throughout California. The Crab Emergency Disaster Assistance Act of 2017 would secure more than $117 million to provide relief for the California Dungeness and rock crab fishermen and related fisheries.,, In addition, the Yurok Tribe Klamath River Chinook Salmon Emergency Disaster Assistance Act of 2017 would secure nearly $22.5 million to support the affected local community, which holds strong cultural ties to fishing, click here to read the story 07:30
