Daily Archives: November 14, 2017
UPDATED: Northeast Regional Planning Body Data Workshop – Day Two – Nov 16, 2017 in Exeter, NH
RPB meeting continues at the Exeter Town Hall, in Exeter, NH, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This meeting will include important updates from RPB members about plan implementation, and progress to date and priorities for 2018. Remote access via a webinar will be available for this workshop. Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://cbuilding.zoom.us/j/644686345. for details, click here 23:35 updated 11/15 17:23
Washington State Marine Spatial Planning: Are ‘winds of change’ in store for local waters?
Could Pacific Ocean wind farms and fish-rearing net pens in Willapa Bay become future industries in Pacific County? Those are some possibilities being studied among an array of new potential ocean uses mentioned by the Washington Department of Ecology during a public meeting Wednesday, Nov. 8, in Long Beach. Marine Spatial Planning for Washington’s offshore waters was discussed by members of an inter-agency team led by Washington Department of Ecology Senior Ocean Planner Jennifer Hennessey. About 24 community members — including county officials, commercial fishermen and local oyster farmers — attended to listen or provide formal testimony regarding their concerns about new potential ocean uses and possible impacts on existing industries. click here to read the story 21:08
Maine Elver lottery gets under way Wednesday
For the first time in more than four years, a few new Maine residents will get a chance to participate in the elver fishery. On Wednesday, the Department of Marine Resources will open a lottery for at least seven new licenses to be issued for the 2018 elver fishery. The season begins on March 22. Each new license holder will be allotted a minimum of 4 pounds of the state’s aggregate elver quota. Based on the average price for the 2017 season that ended in June, that would be worth some $6,000. click here to read the story, details, and good luck! 17:18
Northern Osprey III named at Tersan
The new Arctic shrimp trawler Northern Osprey III, built at the Tersan yard in Turkey to Skipsteknisk ST-118 design, is close to completion at Tersan Shipyard in Turkey. Owners MV Osprey of North Sidney, Nova Scotia ordered the new vessel at Tersan Shipyard in November 2015 after intense design development with Skipsteknisk. Northern Osprey III is the third vessel built by the Norwegian emigrant Ulf Snarby at MV Osprey based on ST-design. The first was the Northern Osprey (1992) and the second was the newly sold Northern Eagle (1996). click here to read the story 15:01
Fishermen’s union wants draggers out of vulnerable south coast cod fishery
The union representing the province’s fish harvesters is calling for the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to close the south coast cod fishery to offshore vessels. Keith Sullivan, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) union, said the cod stock in the 3PS fishing area along Newfoundland’s south coast is too fragile to handle the pressure.,,, On Friday, DFO issued a notice that the fishery was closing to inshore fishermen on Nov. 15. Another notice announced the fishery was opening Nov. 11 to offshore vessels. The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador is also against the decision to allow offshore fishing in the 3PS zone. click here to read the story 13:23
Nations press panel to raise annual Bluefin tuna quotas
Nations fishing the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea have started assessing how much more prized Bluefin tuna can be caught in the next few years amid signs that stocks of the iconic fish are recovering. The 50-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas opened its year-end meeting Tuesday in Marrakech, Morocco, facing pressure from nations to allow more Bluefin to be caught after years of cuts. click here to read the story 12:19
ASMFC rejects plan to change menhaden management strategy, increases catch limit 8%
The Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission decided Monday not to change the way it manages menhaden, an important species of fish at the bottom of the food chain. At a meeting in Linthicum, the panel rejected a proposal from conservationists that would have considered the effect of the menhaden commercial fishery on larger Atlantic ecosystems. Instead, on Tuesday the commission adopted a revised menhaden catch limit of 216,000 metric tons for 2018 and 2019, an 8 percent increase over the current limit. The limit is intended to ensure the menhaden population remains stable. click here to read the story 11:16
Newport News man convicted for drunken fake distress call to Coast Guard
A Newport News man who drunkenly cried wolf out on the open water now faces up to 12 years in prison. 39-year-old Justin P. Stahmer was convicted by a federal jury on Monday for issuing a fake distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard. According to United States Attorney Dana J. Boente, Stahmer initially denied making the call, before saying he called the Coast Guard because he ran out of gas. When Coast Guard Boarding Officers inspected his boat, Stahmer became belligerent, which led to an arrest for boating under the influence of alcohol. click here to read the story 10:47
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos says NY commercial fishermen ‘getting a raw deal’
New York commercial fishermen are “getting a raw deal” in federal fisheries quotas, and the state will follow through on a lawsuit early next year if meetings in December don’t fix the problem, the state’s top fisheries official said last week. At a meeting at the East Hampton Public Library on Thursday, Basil Seggos, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, listened to two full hours of complaints about state and federal regulations and management of fisheries, including restrictive quotas, inaccurate fish-population data, difficulty in getting and transferring permits, and “Gestapo”-like tactics of federal observers on local fishing vessels. click here to read the story 10:10
Dungeness crab season under way on the North Coast
The commercial crabbing season will start on time off the Sonoma Coast this fall for the first time in three years, putting fresh Dungeness crab in local markets by week’s end and restoring long-held autumn and holiday traditions. Commercial crabbers around Bodega Harbor hustled Monday to load boats with gear and bait and leave port in time to start soaking crab pots off the coast by early Tuesday morning. Their clocks were set for 6:01 a.m., the first moment by law at which they are permitted to put gear in the water. They can start pulling full pots and landing crab at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, the official start of the season. click here to read the story 09:04
Rhode Island Commercial Summer Flounder Fishery Closure
Effective 0001 hours November 14, 2017, fishing vessels issued a Federal moratorium permit for the summer flounder fishery may no longer land summer flounder in Rhode Island for the remainder of the 2017 calendar year. The 2017 commercial summer flounder quota allocated to Rhode Island has been harvested. This closure is concurrent with the State of Rhode Island’s closure of its commercial summer flounder fishery to state permitted vessels and dealers. click here to read the notice 08:42
Premiering Saturday – ‘Dead in the Water’ showing in Rockport to benefit Fisherman’s Fund
When he embarked on his documentary “Dead in the Water” in 2013 as a cinematic army of one, David Wittkower operated with the sense that he was capturing, if not the final act, then certainly the denouement of the Gloucester fishing crisis. He had, on visits to his native Rockport from his home in Los Angeles, seen the atrophying of the once-proud commercial fishing fleet and decided it was a Gloucester story worth telling. Little did the veteran filmmaker know of the national and global nature of what he was witnessing along the waterfront of America’s oldest commercial fishing seaport. click here to read the story Watch the trailer click here 08:06
