Monthly Archives: May 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
FISH-NL describes price of cod as ‘scandalous’ and another example of FFAW conflict; renews call for province to allow in outside buyers
The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) says the 2017 price of cod recently negotiated by the FFAW is an insult to the province’s inshore harvesters, and renews its call for the province to allow in outside buyers. “That price is scandalous,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. “It’s an insult to already injured inshore harvesters. The FFAW expects cod will save harvesters from shellfish declines, but then the union agrees to a price that will starve our fish harvesters as fast as DFO mismanagement.”The high price of cod this year is up 5 cents a pound. The 2017 price per pound paid to harvesters for Grade A cod has been set at a high of 83 cents, and low of 20 cents. In 2016, the Grade A price paid was 78 cents a pound, with 20 cents as the low mark for Grade C. read the press release here 19:45
Why Alaska’s Favorite Boot Brand Is Becoming a Hit All Over the U.S.
Alaska may not be considered a fashion destination, but a particular brand of rugged waterproof boots is showing up all over the state, on everyone from salmon fishermen to schoolkids. And consumers in the Lower 48 are taking notice. Recognized for its iconic brown Legacy pull-on boot, Xtratuf has been protecting Alaskans since the 1960s against harsh weather conditions, including heavy rainfall, which can average 90 inches annually in the southeast part of the state. click here to read the story 18:45
New calendar check could be needed for shrimp seasons
This year’s brown shrimp season is in full swing, with boats small and large trawling and skimming the bayous, lakes and canals of Louisiana’s central coast since 6 a.m. Monday. Early reports were somewhat encouraging, but there are indications that policy-makers will need to consider more flexibility when charting seasons to come. “If we have another warm February or March we will be giving everybody a heads up,” said Jeffrey Marx, the biologist who manages the shrimp program for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “It is pretty much a year-to-year thing.” click here to read the story 16:07
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 49’11″X 19′ Novi Lobster Boat, 350HP, 6 Cylinder Mitzubishi, Kobota 11000 KW Auxilary
Specifications, information and 19 photo’s click here To see all the boats in this series, Click here 14:29
Shrimpers hoping for relief from foreign worker shortage
Rio Grande Valley shrimpers, faced with a crippling shortage of foreign workers due to Congress’ failure to renew the H-2B Returning Worker Program, may have a glimmer of hope in the federal spending bill signed into law May 5. The bill contains language authorizing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to raise the cap on the number of foreign workers with H-2B visas. U.S. companies can hire in fiscal year 2017 from 66,000 (33,000 for each half of the fiscal year) to nearly 130,000. The question is whether Homeland Security will follow through and raise the cap, and how soon. Andrea Hance, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association, said owners of shrimp fleets and processing plants on the Texas coast are in desperate straits for want of workers, with the Texas shrimp season set to reopen in mid-July, she said. click here to read the story 12:48
Maine – Fishing surveillance bill amended
A bill that would authorize the Department of Marine Resources to conduct surreptitious electronic surveillance of lobster boats drew mixed reviews at a hearing by the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee in April. But at a work session last Wednesday, the committee voted to recommend passage of an amended version of the bill. Introduced by Rep. Walter Kumiega (D-Deer Isle) at the request of the Department of Marine Resources, LD 1379 — as initially formulated — would have given the DMR commissioner authority to approve installation of electronic tracking devices on lobster boats without first getting a warrant from a judge. The approval would have been based on an affidavit from the chief of the Marine Patrol that he had “probable cause” to believe that a civil violation of the laws regulating the placement or hauling of lobster gear had occurred. At its work session last week, the committee scrapped the idea of authorizing the commissioner to approve installation of tracking devices and took a new approach. click here to read the story 11:53
‘Financial predator’ who stole millions from widow and partners sentenced to 5 years
Russell Moore spent nearly 30 years as a Northwest fisherman, investing every dime he had in the company he co-owned with businessman Terrance Cosgrove and three other partners. Cosgrove, it turned out, bilked Moore out of most of his money. He also stole the life savings from the widow and children of his best friend, and raided the trust funds of the family of another close friend, according to a wire-fraud and mail-fraud plea agreement. Moore stood before U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour on Tuesday morning — with Cosgrove standing nearby — and described the theft that had ruined him. “This was my retirement plan,” Moore said in a Seattle courtroom. “I didn’t get much,” he said, explaining the partners got less than $500,000 of the more than $4 million they had lost after Cosgrove declared bankruptcy. Prosecutors say he stole millions from his partners in the Bothell fishing company and at least $335,000 — maybe much more — from the widow and children of a friend, and at least $500,000 from trusts belonging to the family of another longtime friend. click here to read the story 10:57
Another Senseless Regulation! Northern Red Hake possession limit slashed to 400 Lbs per trip
Seaview Crab Company Expands To Offer Online Ordering
Brothers Joe and Sam Romano and longtime friend Nathan King founded Seaview Crab Company as a simple roadside market along Carolina Beach Road back in 2006. Prior to opening the market, the three worked as commercial crabbers, hustling to sell their catch to other markets. But when a small seafood and tackle shop became available for rent just down the road from where they usually set up shop, the business really began to take off. Since that time, the company has gained a loyal local following, both as a wholesale and as a retail seafood outlet. But many of their customers are also folks who live outside of Wilmington and travel here to spend time at the beach. MacBride said that Seaview began taking orders for shipments over the phone and soon realized the need for online ordering. click here to read the story 08:33
The Fisherman Who Saved Fishtown
Fishtown looks as it did a half-century ago, when it was simply a fishing port. The commercial fishing boats, the Janice Sue and the Joy, bob slightly on gentle wakes left by charter boats heading out of the river. And smoke drifting from the crooked-arm chimneys of a smokehouse beside the white clapboard Carlson’s Fisheries is a sign that the business of fish mongering is well underway. Inside, a second pot of coffee is brewing in the big Bunn coffeemaker, and a hundred pounds of whitefish have just lost their pinbones to the deft hands of four Carlsons: Bill Carlson, owner of the fishery and of Fishtown, his wife Jennifer, his son Clay, and his great nephew, Chris Herman. Clad in suspenderes foul-weather pants, streaked now in blood, the foursome has worked shoulder-to-shoulder for over an hour. They banter as they work—Bill quips that his white hair is really blonde, turned from eating too much fish. Good read, click here to read the story 08:00
PFMC OKs new electronic fisheries monitoring system for certain West Coast groundfish fisheries
The Pacific Fishery Management Council on April 27 recommended new regulations governing the use of electronic equipment to monitor at-sea discards of target, non-target and prohibited fish for certain West Coast groundfish fisheries. If approved by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), this will mark the culmination of a four-year process to develop and implement regulations for electronic monitoring system use in these fisheries. Under the council’s catch share program, every vessel must carry a human observer to help monitor catch that is allocated to each vessel owner, including discards that happen at sea. click here to read the story 18:31
U.S. fishing generated more than $200 billion in sales in 2015; two stocks rebuilt in 2016
Two new reports reveal the nation’s progress in sustainably managing marine resources U.S. commercial and recreational fishing generated $208 billion in sales, contributed $97 billion to the gross domestic product, and supported 1.6 million full- and part-time jobs in 2015—above the five year average, according to NOAA’s Fisheries Economics of the United States report released today. Also out today, the Annual Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries shows that the number of domestic fish stocks listed as overfished or subject to overfishing remain near all-time lows, with two new stocks rebuilt in 2016. The reports highlight the collaborative role of NOAA Fisheries and many partners in making continued progress towards ending overfishing, rebuilding stocks, and realizing significant benefits to the U.S. economy. Click here to read the press release 14:13
Grand Bank protest – “Someone is going to have to listen to the fishermen.”
Fisherman Wayne Meade and a handful of other harvesters burned crab pots and gill nets Tuesday morning outside his home in Grand Bank. “We figured we’d make some smoke,” said Wayne, adding it was a sign of support for crab fishermen in Port au Choix who held a protest fishery there Monday. “All our scallop grounds was took from us. Our 10 per cent halibut bycatch fishery was took from us. So we’re left with nothing, with our hands tied behind our backs. Jesus, we’ve been always treated like dirt. Even in the world wars they put the Newfoundlanders up front to be shot and slaughtered like sheep. So it’s time for us to wake up and be counted.,,, On Tuesday, April 11, FISH-NL made a presentation to the province’s federal Liberal caucus in Ottawa, including recommendations on how to deal with the current fisheries crisis. The presentation was made by Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL, and Richard Gillett, Vice-President. The following are FISH-NL’s recommendations for fishing zone 3Ps click here to read the details 12:41
Lobster catches taking nose dive in southern Nova Scotia
Ashton Spinney, co-chair of the Lobster Advisory Committee for Lobster Fishing Area 34, says only half as many lobsters as usual are being brought ashore this spring. “The water temperature is cold. It hasn’t warmed up. And the lobsters aren’t crawling into the traps,” said Spinney in an interview Friday. With fuel, bait and salaries for deckhands climbing with inflation in recent years, the paucity of lobsters this spring is leaving many fishers wondering if they’ll even be able to break even before the fishery ends on May 31. “There are some that are finding it hard,” said Spinney. “Those that fished 50 miles out last year and would stay out there, this year they’re not finding enough lobsters to stay out there. So they’re coming in close to the shore, hoping to find some lobsters.” The longtime lobster fisherman says it’s just as bad in Lobster Fishing Area 33. click here to read the story 11:24
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DFO wins court victory to prevent corporate control of inshore fishery in Atlantic Canada and Quebec
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has won a court decision upholding its right to prevent the corporate takeover of inshore fisheries in Atlantic Canada and Quebec. “It was a challenge of the government’s power to manage the fishery for all Canadians,” said Graeme Gawn, a lobster fisherman from Nova Scotia’s Digby County and a representative of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union. The federal victory came in a May 5 ruling released Monday from Justice Cecily Strickland of the Federal Court of Canada in the case of Kirby Elson, a fisherman from Labrador. Strickland ruled the federal fisheries minister was entitled to strip a snow crab fishing licence from Elson after he refused to exit a controlling agreement with two fish processors. The federal government contended the agreement was an effort to get around long-standing policies to preserve the independence of the region’s inshore fishery. click here to read the story 08:53
New rules aim to boost herring supply prized as lobster bait
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission adopted many of the same measures that Maine implemented last year to try to “stretch out” the limited quota of inshore Atlantic herring into late summer, when lobster boat captains in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts are clamoring for what many fishermen say is the best, and formerly cheapest, kind of lobster bait. The commission voted to allow regulators to set weekly herring quotas, to limit fishing to certain days of the week, and to give the three states that regulate the inshore herring fishery in the southern Gulf of Maine the ability to limit or ban the use of so-called “carrier vessels” that transfer herring landed by a licensed boat so it can keep fishing instead of heading back to port to unload its haul. click here to read the story 08:35
Fishermen, Conservationists Go Head To Head Over East Coast Underwater National Monument
New England fishermen are hoping President Donald Trump will reverse an undersea monument designation they say has cut them off from nearly 5,000 square miles of valuable fishing grounds off the coast of Cape Cod. Trump last month directed the Department of the Interior to conduct a sweeping review of national monument designations over the last two decades, including the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, which President Barack Obama declared the first undersea national monument in the Atlantic Ocean in September. But Joseph Gilbert, owner of Stonington-based Empire Fisheries, said since the designation, “we’ve been pushed to other areas” creating unnecessary competition and pressure as more boats are fishing in a smaller area. Fishermen, who have been using the area for 200 years, Gilbert said, were given just two months to get out. Though the area represents only 1.5 percent of U.S. waters off the East Coast, Gilbert said it’s another example of fishermen “losing, one nibble or bite at a time, access to historic, productive fishing areas.” click here to read the article 08:01
Massachusetts man nabbed with $21,700 worth of illegal allegedly poached elvers
A Massachusetts man faces up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine after he was caught with an estimated $21,700 worth of allegedly poached elvers, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Joseph Starratt, 51, of Middleborough, Massachusetts, was arrested Friday and charged with possession of elvers, also known as baby or “glass” eels, without a license. The charge is a Class D misdemeanor crime, which is punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a fine of $2,000. Marine Patrol officers, following up on a lead submitted through the Operation Game Thief tip line, located Starratt in Scarborough with 16.5 pounds of elvers and without any license to harvest them. Starratt was arrested and taken to Cumberland County Jail. Each pound contains about 2,500 elvers, click here to read the story 20:55
NOAA to announce annual U.S. fishing economic data, species information in press teleconference Tuesday, May 9, 2017, at 2:00 p.m
On Tuesday, NOAA Fisheries will announce findings from two new reports that measure the nation’s economic impact in commercial and recreational fishing, and the progress made in ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks. Join our press teleconference Tuesday, May 9, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. ET, to hear findings from NOAA’s Fisheries Economics of the U.S. 2015 and Status of U.S. Fisheries 2016 reports, and ask questions of our experts. Click here to read the notice, and instructions to listen. 16:53
3 fishermen in Miramichi Bay hoisted to safety by Cormorant
Three fishermen were rescued early Monday after their vessel ran aground in Miramichi Bay near Neguac. The crew sent a mayday call at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday and were rescued eight hours later. “They were taking on water,” said Alex Roy, a naval cadet from the Joint Task Force Atlantic in Nova Scotia. A search-and-rescue team 14 Wing Greenwood was dispatched in a Cormorant helicopter to locate the boat. “The fishing vessel ran aground on a sandbar,” Roy said. The fishermen were hoisted into the Cormorant and transported to the Neguac ballfield, where an ambulance was waiting. No other details were available Link 15:07
