Daily Archives: September 29, 2017

Members of commercial fishing industry experiencing high levels of psychological distress

Members of the commercial fishing industry are experiencing levels of psychological distress almost double that of the general population, new research has revealed. A survey conducted by Deakin University showed a 19 per cent rate of depression among commercial fishers, compared to the estimated national diagnosis of 10 per cent. Of the 1000 workers that responded to the 13-page survey, only 9 per cent of said they had experienced no bodily pain in the month prior, with 58 per cent saying they had experienced moderate to very severe pain. click here to read the story 16:39

BREAKING: Multi-alarm fire erupts on fishing vessel docked in San Diego Bay

A fire on a 120-foot fishing vessel billowed smoke over the San Diego Harbor area early Friday. Crews from U.S. Coast Guard San Diego, San Diego Harbor Police, and San Diego Fire responded to the multi-alarm fire at 750 North Harbor Drive near G Street, around 9:30 a.m. The fire was contained to the vessel “Norton Sound” as it was docked in the bay. No injuries have been reported and crews are working to determine if anyone was on the ship when the fire began. The blaze began as a two-alarm fire, before growing to a three-alarm fire and forcing firefighters off the vessel. Video, photos, click here to read the story 15:01

Coast Guard rescues 2 fishermen off Nash Island, Maine

The Coast Guard rescued two fishermen off Nash Island, Maine, Thursday, after their lobster boat became disabled when a swell pushed the vessel onto a rock causing them to swim to shore. At 5:40 p.m., a concerned neighbor called watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Jonesport reporting that his neighbors went fishing at 11 a.m. in a 21-foot white lobster boat and were due back by 1 p.m., but they hadn’t returned. click here to read the story 14:31

Death of deckhand in Hurricane Irma leaves void in Tarpon Springs

The boat was 32 feet, white fiberglass, with sails stretching up, up, up. It was, Carl Shepherd decided that day, the boat he would retire in. “What are you going to do?” asked his friend, Michael Ellzey, who drove him to Fort Myers in August to check out the vessel. Sail everywhere, Shepherd told him. Live out the rest of his life on the water. But Shepherd didn’t get to spend his last years peacefully on a sailboat. Instead, he spent his final moments in chaos on a shrimp trawler in the middle of one of the most powerful hurricanes in recent history. click here to read the story 11:28

A lifetime of trawl doors

Atli Már Jósafatsson comes from a family immersed in metalwork and particularly in trawl doors. The son of Icelandic trawl door pioneer Jósafat Hinriksson, he has been involved with trawl doors for practically his entire working life. Atli Jósafatsson and his brothers grew up up around the metalwork and engineering business that his father established, which increasingly focused on trawl doors as its primary activity, starting at the bottom, and all of them were able to weld before they could drive a car.  click here to read the story 11:07

Mi’kmaq chief says there are bigger fish to fry than lobster

A prominent Nova Scotia First Nation chief says he does not blame Mi’kmaq fishermen if they are using their ceremonial fishing licences to try to make a moderate living outside the commercial lobster season.,, Non-Indigenous fishermen have been protesting at wharves, calling for the Department and Fisheries and Oceans to intervene in what they say is the illegal sale of lobster by some First Nations fishermen.,, This year, the Trudeau government has taken conspicuous steps to improve First Nations access to fisheries in Atlantic Canada.  click here to read the story  09:35

Everyone’s Mad About Fugitive Salmon in the Pacific Northwest!

In a giant refrigerated warehouse 90 miles north of Seattle, 43,500 Atlantic salmon were stacked in plastic crates, frozen pariahs in a kingdom where Pacific salmon rule. For weeks, locals used nets to chase down the intruders, not to eat them or sell them, but to get them out of the water. Native fishermen who’ve worked Puget Sound for decades mocked them for looking different. Chefs and foodies refused to so much as lay a boning knife on them. Scientists, for their part, say they’re perfectly edible — a good source of protein in a world where increasing numbers of people could use some. But nobody is listening. click here to read the story 09:01

Strained Fluke Quotas, Hurricanes and Safe Harbor

Less than a month after a bill granting vessels safe harbor in New York was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a fishing vessel bound for North Carolina carrying 6,000 pounds of fluke has tested the new policy, straining New York’s federally designated fluke quotas. The F/V Rianda S., which has long been a part of the Montauk fleet, was in transit to land its fish in North Carolina, where it has fishing licenses, on Sept. 17 after fishing in federal waters when it encountered the rough seas generated by Hurricane José and requested safe harbor in Montauk. New York’s fluke fishery is closed for the month of September,  due to banner fluke landings this summer that strained the state’s already low federally mandated quotas. click here to read the story 08:25