Daily Archives: October 16, 2017
Western Pacific Fishery Management Council – 171st Council Meeting at American Samoa, October 17-19, 2017
For information, the meeting agenda, and a link to a rare WPFMC webinar, click here 21:29
Global Diving Helps Refloat Boats After Hurricane Harvey
The fishing vessel R&R is floating once again after spending a month at the bottom of Conn Brown Harbor in Aransas Pass, Texas. The 100-ton shrimp boat got entangled with another vessel and sank during Hurricane Harvey. She was refloated by Global Diving and Salvage, which was contracted by the Coast Guard and the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to remove her from the waterway. Approximately 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel and other pollutants were pumped off before de-watering the vessel. images, click here to read the story 21:08
Fishing Rights: Small Scale Fishermen walkout of meeting with ministry over rock lobster suspension
Small-scale and near-shore fishers walked out of a meeting in Cape Town with the deputy director-general for Fisheries Siphokazi Ndudane yesterday, saying her explanations relating to the suspension of the West Coast rock lobster fishing rights allocation were not sufficient. Earlier, angry fishers blocked the entrance to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries offices on the Foreshore again, protesting the outcome of the fishing rights allocation process and blocking entry into the offices. “We are asking for (Ndudane) and the minister to postpone the proposed reductions (of fishing allocations) on the rock lobster and stop the offshore allocations of commercial companies. click here to read the story 20:30
Maine coastal villagers say cables from offshore wind project will wreck their way of life
Opponents of an offshore wind project slated for development off Monhegan Island will take their fight to a new level Tuesday, when they plan to file a petition designed to prevent cables delivering electricity from the project to the mainland from passing through St. George. The group Preserve Our Remarkable Town, or PORT, says it has collected more than 300 signatures from residents of St. George, which includes the villages of Tenants Harbor and Port Clyde, who fear the the project will harm the local fishing industry and undermine the quality of life and property values in their communities. click here to read the story 19:39
Plymouth fishermen to get GPS lifejackets to prevent tragedies at sea
Plymouth City Council has ordered 250 lifejackets with built-in locators, which give off distress signals to help identify the exact location of crews in the event of an emergency. The tragic death of popular fisherman Tony Jones, whose body was discovered after The Solstice capsized about nine miles from Plymouth last month, provided a stark reminder of the dangers of the job. After applying for funding last September, the council has been awarded £77,000 from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Maritime Management Organisation for the scheme, which it is hoped will help reduce loss of life and accidents within the local fishing industry. click here to read the story 16:12
North Carolina: Local shrimpers still competing with the flood of imported shrimp
Shrimp is the second largest commercial fishery in North Carolina, bested only by blue crabs in pounds landed and dockside value. But unfortunately, within the last 30 years or so, shrimp harvesting has been hit the hardest out of all the commercial seafood industries. A study funded by Sea Grant shows the number of seafood processors declined by 36 percent between 2000 and 2011, causing the economic value of North Carolina’s catch to decline from about $109 million in 1995 to $79 million in 2013. One of the main problems with the state’s seafood industry today is the workforce. Older fishermen are leaving the industry faster than younger watermen are joining their ranks. When adjusted for inflation, the price of shrimp has dropped by more than half since the late 1970s and imported shrimp is a big reason why. click here to read the story 15:23
Fish traps for Columbia River salmon get another look
More than eight decades after their demise, fish traps are getting a fresh look from researchers convinced they offer a more sustainable way to catch Columbia River salmon. These traps are formed by nets attached to pilings that gently guide the fish into a kind of underwater corral. Wild fish protected under the federal Endangered Species Act can be released to resume their upstream journey, while their more abundant hatchery brethren are sent to the processors. These traps are formed by nets attached to pilings that gently guide the fish into a kind of underwater corral. Wild fish protected under the federal Endangered Species Act can be released to resume their upstream journey, while their more abundant hatchery brethren are sent to the processors. click here to read the story 12:55
Port au Choix crab fishermen charged with obstruction of justice over May protest
Harvesters who took part in a protest in Port au Choix last May have now been told they will be charged with obstruction of justice and placing crab pots in a wrong zone. Fisherman Dean Olfrey was called in for a meeting Wednesday, Oct. 11, and was informed he and the other harvesters involved in the protest would be facing these two charges. “It was a peaceful demonstration,” Olfrey said. “We just wanted to show that we should have the right to fish in this zone, and now they’re looking to charge us.” click here to read the story 12:14
Captain asks court to throw out blood test in fatal sinking case
The Cushing captain who is accused of causing the death of two crew members when his lobsterboat sank during a November 2014 gale has asked the court to throw out a blood test that showed he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is opposing the motion filed on behalf of 29-year-old Christopher A. Hutchinson. No ruling has yet been issued by the federal judge hearing the case in U.S. District Court in Portland. Hutchinson is charged with two counts of seaman’s manslaughter for the deaths of Tom Hammond, 27, of Rockland, and 15-year-old Tyler Sawyer, who lived in St. George and Waldoboro. They were crew members aboard Hutchinson’s lobsterboat, No Limits, which sank Nov. 1, 2014. click here to read the story 11:52
Drone adds modern twist to an age-old fishing method for fourth generation Eden fisherman
His great grandfather arrived in Eden in the mid 1800s, and each successive generation has entered the fishing industry — from trapping and beach fishing to pioneering the lucrative bluefin tuna fishery using pole and live bait, then later purse seine trawling using light aircraft for fish spotting. After a long career as a commercial fisherman, Mr Fourter has now returned to his childhood passion catching salmon and mullet off the beaches of Twofold Bay and the Eden coast using the traditional beach seine method. He shoots a 300-metre-long net from a 16-foot rowboat around a patch of schooling fish. Excellent video, click here to read the story 10:05
Poor signs for N.L. snow crab
Aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship Vladykov this week, crabs captured in Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) traps were being pulled from the water, dumped into orange, plastic baskets, pulled out, measured and categorized before being dumped back. These were among the last of the crab checked for the 2017 inshore survey, ongoing since May.,,, The official survey results won’t be released until early next year (after going to DFO’s stock assessment branch and peer review), but generally speaking, Mullowney suggested there is continued decline, with ocean warming a significant factor and things like predation increasingly important. click here to read the story 08:59
Caught today, on your plate tomorrow
It is 1:36 a.m. Friday, Sept. 8 and the crew of the small fishing boat F/V Finlander, a 36-foot Northern Bay, leaves the protection of the channel and ventures into the open Atlantic Ocean. The pilot house of the Finlander is dark, illuminated only by a sole Global Positioning System (GPS) display screen showing navigational information and an eastward course plot. The boat begins to pitch as sea swells grow larger and cross winds increase. “Today is going to be a rough one.” says Capt. Tim Rider, a Dover native and owner of the Finlander. “The wind is coming from a different direction than the swells, it’s going to bounce us all over. It’s going to get rougher the farther out we go, but I think we can handle it.” click here to read the story 08:15
Louisiana – 1 missing after oil rig explodes on Lake Pontchartrain
An oil rig explosion on a lake north of New Orleans, apparently caused when cleaning chemicals ignited, injured seven people and left authorities searching for another who was missing. There were “a lot of injuries,” many of them serious, with at least seven confirmed and more expected from the Sunday evening explosion on Lake Pontchartrain, Kenner Police Department spokesman Sgt. Brian McGregor told The Times-Picayune . No deaths were immediately reported. click here to read the story 07:53
