Daily Archives: November 29, 2017
Fishermen to managers: Our voices are ignored
The New England Fishery Management Council sent its program review roadshow to Gloucester on Tuesday night to gather opinions on the council’s performance and the fishery managers were not spared the lash. The comments delivered Tuesday night at the sparsely attended meeting at the state Division of Marine Fisheries Annisquam Station facility certainly were not new, at least not to anyone who has spent any time speaking with local fishermen about life under the regulatory gaze of the council. They revolved around a strong belief among local fishermen that management decisions affecting the fishery are made well before the council convenes its public meetings and the scientific data and on-the-water-expertise of local fishermen are ignored or demeaned when it comes to forming policy. click here to read the story 21:37
Steady and sustainable cod fishery needed to supply demand
Other than Icewater Seafoods, in Arnold’s Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador isn’t well positioned for large-scale cod processing. And Icewater president – Alberto Wareham – says a sustainable fishery is needed before progress can be made. “Get harvesting right first and processing will follow,” he advises. Wareham’s message followed a series of presentations at the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation (CCFI) cod conference in Gander on Wednesday, which highlighted how Norway and Iceland have streamlined production through automation,,, click here to read the story 20:51
Pacific Halibut numbers could drop
Scientists monitoring halibut say there could be a decline in the bottom fish along the coast of the U.S. and Canada in upcoming years if the current level of fishing continues. The International Pacific Halibut Commission oversees management of the fish along the coast from Alaska to California. Commissioners had an interim meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, November 28-29th in Seattle and heard about this year’s catch and the latest estimates of halibut stocks. Scientists found fewer younger halibut in survey fishing done up and down the coast this year. click here to read the story 16:10
Pacific herring: Fisheries and Oceans Canada seeks herring input from the public
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is drafting its 2018 management plan for Pacific herring and looking for the public’s thoughts. DFO herring resource manager Roger Kanno said the federal fisheries agency is preparing its integrated fisheries plan for the herring, which be available for the public to read and comment on in December. A food and bait herring fishery, the smallest of DFO’s four herring fisheries, is currently open in the Strait of Georgia at Pacific Fisheries Management area 15, the part of the strait around the upper Sunshine Coast, although the main harvesting is happening near Hornby Island and Campbell River. click here to read the story 14:56
UPDATED: Panel recommends reopening New England shrimp fishery – New England shrimp fishing closed for at least 1 more year
An advisory group is recommending regulators reopen New England’s long-shuttered shrimp fishery next year. An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will decide on Wednesday in Portland if there will be a fishery this coming season. The advisory board’s recommendation clashes with an opinion from the commission’s technical committee, which wants to keep the fishery closed. click here to read the story 14:15
New England shrimp fishing closed for at least 1 more year – click here to read the story 17:15
Puget Sound piracy leaves trail of (salmon) blood
Call it Puget Sound piracy. Thieves boarded a floating salmon farm a few saltwater miles from Anacortes on a Saturday night in September. In their wake, they left a trail of blood. Fish blood, that is. The thieves boated out to one of Cooke Aquaculture’s Atlantic salmon farms, a grid of 40-foot-deep net-pens ringed by a floating walkway bigger than a football field. They hauled away an undisclosed number of fish from two of the 10 pens. They killed more by turning off the farm’s air hoses that help oxygenate the water where the domesticated salmon swim by the thousands. click here to read the story 12:53
Newfoundland and Labrador cod stocks rebounding, but still critical
Cod stocks off Newfoundland and Labrador have shown “tremendous progress” in recovery over the past several years, but the species is still in critical shape. That’s what delegates at a cod conference in Gander heard Tuesday, Nov. 28. The conference, titled “Cod: Building the Future of the Fishery” and organized by the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation (CCFI), provided updated figures from the 2016 cod stock assessment. click here to read the story 12:31
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 35′ Duffy & Duffy Lobster/Tuna, 430HP, 6 Cylinder Cummins
Specifications, information and 9 photos click here To see all the boats in this series, Click here 11:59
TINA COMEAU: Am I ready? Another lobster season begins
Usually there’s a convoy of vehicles all heading in the same direction. It makes me grin every year – rush-hour traffic at 5 a.m. in Melbourne, Yarmouth County. This year as I pull out of our driveway it is just them and I – them being my husband Greg and my son Jacob. I watch their taillights ahead of me, driving to the wharf and away from me. When I asked Jacob the night before if he wanted to drive to the wharf with me or his father I could tell by his expression and response that it was a question I shouldn’t have asked. Of course he would drive with his father – he’s part of the crew. click here to read the story 10:53
Grand Manan fisherman finds lobster with Pepsi can imprinted on claw
Karissa Lindstrand had already spent five hours banding lobster claws on a boat called Honour Bound, off Grand Manan, when a blue and red logo she knew well caught her eye. It was a Pepsi can image “tattooed on the lobster’s claw,” said Lindstrand. Being a huge Pepsi fan — she drinks 12 cans every day — this image would have caught her interest anywhere. But this sight was something she had never seen before. click here to read the story 09:22
Positive trends highlighted in fall sockeye market analysis
Bristol Bay’s commercial fishing industry had a smashing good season in 2017. The massive forecast for next year has stirred a lot of excitement, and drift permit prices are up around $140,000. Now an annual analysis of the sockeye market suggests wholesale and retail prices are up, worldwide supply is down, and farmed salmon producers are still struggling to rebound. Only the prospect of Pebble Mine filing for permits has seemed to dampen the mood of Bristol Bay fishermen this fall. Andy Wink, a senior seafood industry analyst at the McDowell Group, authored the “2017 Sockeye Market Analysis” for the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. click here to read the story 08:18
Maine lobster industry braces for impact of Canada’s sweet EU deal
More than 1,700 fishing boats raced out of Nova Scotia ports before first light Tuesday morning on what is known as Dumping Day – the opening of Canada’s biggest and most lucrative lobster fishery. It also signals the start of when their U.S. rivals in Maine and Massachusetts will begin to feel the sting of the 8 percent tariff differential created when Canada signed a new trade deal with Europe, leaving American lobstermen to wonder just how much of that valuable market they are about to lose. click here to read the story 07:51
