Daily Archives: August 18, 2017
New wooden lobster boat launched at Billings
As lobstermen have seen higher earnings, they have been keeping Maine boatbuilders busy, ordering new and, generally, larger boats at what seems to be a record pace. Most of the new boats are built of fiberglass, but last Friday Stonington boatbuilder Peter Buxton launched a handsome 32-foot wooden lobster boat for Brooksville lobsterman Kathy Lymburner. Christened Emma G, the new boat is one of just a handful of wooden boats that will enter the lobster fishing fleet. For the past several years Lymburner and her sternman, Meg Carton, have fished out of a 28-foot fiberglass lobster boat. When Lymburner decided she wanted a bigger boat she went to Buxton to build it. click here to read the story 17:21
Feeding the data gluttons
I see the Ministry for Primary Industries is claiming it needs GPS tracking and cameras on commercial fishing boats to better monitor the fisheries and make better and more timely decisions. I say this is rubbish as we already give them tow by tow GPS coordinates and catch estimates in the trawl fishery and they do not use this information now. As for timely management decisions, well that’s a joke. Our elephant quota has been out of balance with catches for over 20 years. I spend more time avoiding fish than I do catching it. click here to read the letter 14:30
What happens in the sea during a solar eclipse?
On July 20th, 1963, three scientists sat on a research ship 200 miles south of Woods Hole, MA, waiting for something remarkable. They were nearly 4000m above the seafloor, and using sonar, they could ‘see’ a line of creatures resting in the deep. By this time, biologists were beginning to unravel the mystery of this ‘false bottom’–a layer in the ocean that looks the the sea floor on sonar but isn’t–which covered much of the ocean. This false bottom rises in up at night and sinks down during the day. This rising and falling is in fact caused by the largest migration of animal on Earth–everything from fish, shrimp and jellyfish, moving hundreds of meters in unison up and down each day. But how and why these animals rose in fell in the ocean wasn’t clear. As the scientists watched their instruments, the light began to fade. Not from the setting sun, but from something else. click here to read the story 13:27
Coast Guard issues order requiring approved salvage plan for grounded fishing vessel in Estero Bluffs State Park
The Coast Guard directed the owner of the commercial fishing vessel, Point Estero, to submit a salvage plan before making any arrangements to refloat the grounded vessel near Estero Bluffs State Park Thursday evening. The Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach commander, Capt. Charlene Downey, instructed the owner to submit a plan detailing actions to be taken by the owner to make the vessel seaworthy for safe transit to a facility to affect permanent repairs for approval by a local Coast Guard representative. After the Point Estero grounded July 28, the Coast Guard removed approximately 91 gallons of oil, 2.5 cubic yards of contaminated material and two marine-grade batteries to prevent pollution. -USCG-
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for August 18, 2017
Click here to read the Weekly Update, to read all the updates, Click here 12:37
WWII veteran reels in one more tuna
Frank Chase became the talk of the dock in Seabrook this week after the 91-year-old landed a 300-pound bluefin tuna and hauled it into Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative. Chase, who lives on Railroad Avenue, landed the catch Saturday afternoon after a 35-minute fight with the fish. He caught the tuna on a 22-foot boat with just one friend to assist. .,,, Chase said it was 1:30 p.m. when he saw his rod on the side of the boat hook up to a fish that pulled so hard he thought it was a shark. Chase grabbed the rod from its holder there and carried it to a holder at the front of the boat so he and his friend could follow the tuna from behind. The tuna became caught at the boat’s anchor, where many fishermen lose their bluefins that are able to use the anchor to cut free from the line. Chase skillfully guided the boat around the anchor without breaking the line, and the battle went on. click here to read the story 12:13
Falklands: Outwitting canny fur seals feasting on abundant Loligo
Falkland Islands Senior Fisheries Scientist Dr Alexander Arkhipkin explains the habits of fur seals and the efforts undertaken to reduce by-catch in the Loligo fishery. Stocks of Falkland calamari (Loligo) are very prolific this year. During the first season, the fleet harvested around 40,000 tons, and two weeks of the second season brought onboard another 10,000 tons of squid. Aggregations of calamari are so dense that fishing vessels worked up to their freezing capacities having an average of 60-65 tons of squid per vessel per day. Very unusually this year, dense squid aggregations also attracted their natural predators, fur seals and sea lions into the fishing area. As the vessels concentrate squid in front of the trawl, seals have their feeding frenzy in the close vicinity of the net, and within the net too. click here to read the story 11:44
Price plunge: P.E.I. lobster fishermen say they’re losing $2/lb
Some P.E.I. lobster fishermen say they were told Thursday they would get $4.50 a pound for market lobster and $4 a pound for canners — a $2 drop. New Brunswick lobster fisherman received similar news, which led a number of fisherman to tie up their boats in protest. Shelton Barlow fishes lobster out of Howard’s Cove, P.E.I., and when he heard of the lobster pricing Thursday he couldn’t believe it. In his 40 years of fishing, Barlow said, this quick price drop is the worst he’s ever seen. click here to read the story 10:44
New Blue Catfish Regulation Threatening Health of Chesapeake Bay and Business
The blue catfish is putting up quite the fight and it’s making Delmarva crabbers like Ryan Crouch frustrated. A new federal regulation will make it harder for those who catch blue catfish to sell them. The more catfish caught – the better off the crab population and the livelihoods of the watermen who catch them. The regulation, which goes into effect in September, requires watermen to hire an inspector before the fish can be sold. Watermen like Crouch and business owners like Joe Spurry Jr. of Bay Hundred Seafood are fighting this new regulation. They say the more catfish out of the bay, the more crabs there are to catch. click here to read the story 10:02
Capital Seafood rising from the ashes – literally
Eastern Passage-based Capital Seafood International is getting ready to rise from the ashes after a fire destroyed its lobster processing and storage building last November. “Last year, it was terrible,” Jiu Chang, vice-president of Capital Seafood, said in an interview Thursday. “Not only did we lose the working area and the equipment but also the production. We just can’t do anything.” The electrical fire that ripped through the two-storey building on Government Wharf Road last year took out processing equipment, damaged lobster holding tanks and burned through two offices. The total loss of last November’s fire is estimated at more than $1 million, including the building, equipment and inventory. click here to read the story 09:16
Hickeys Launch New Commercial Fishing Vessel
The Gunnar J is the new 46-foot aluminum trap net boat powered by a Cummins QSC 660 engine, built by Hickey Bros. Research. The construction was supervised by Todd Stuth at Hickey Bros. Research, with help from Dennis and Jeff Hickey, Steve Warwick and John Tong. The boat will fish Lake Michigan for the Hickey Bros. Fishery. It is named after Gunnar Stuth, son of Todd Stuth and the youngest grandson of Dennis Hickey. link 08:41
