Daily Archives: January 31, 2018

Coast Guard rescues 5 fishermen from flooding fishing vessel

Coast Guard crews rescued five fisherman, who had to abandon ship due to flooding while west of Cape Alava, Wednesday. A 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew from Coast Guard Station Quillayute River safely took the fishermen aboard and transported them to Coast Guard Station Neah Bay with no reported medical concerns. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound received a report at 1:14 p.m. the 87-foot fishing vessel Sunnfjord was flooding and with all their dewatering pumps running the crew was unable to keep up with the rising water. >click to read< 21:43

Wrangell reflects on the sea, loss with proposed Mariners’ Memorial

A group of mostly fishermen is fundraising to build a mariners’ memorial in Wrangell. Organizers say it’s a way to remember those lost at sea. Gig Decker has been a commercial fisherman and diver for decades. “Every single year, for 33 years of commercial diving, I got the hell scared out of me and I came close to drowning,” Decker says. Decker and others are fundraising to build a $300,000 memorial at Heritage Harbor in Wrangell. So far, they have 200 members offering local support. Board members are soliciting larger corporate and foundation donations as well. >click to read< 21:06

Education key to electronic reporting, monitoring systems

In a perfect world, Steve Kennelly sees the New England Fishery transitioning to electronic reporting within the next year. “There’s no reason why that group can’t be formed pretty soon,” the director of IC Independent Consulting said. The next step would be implementing electronic monitoring within 3 to 4 years. “It’s silly to talk anywhere beyond five years out” because of how fast technology continues to evolve, Kennelly said. The New England Fishery Management Council, which concluded two days of meetings on Wednesday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, resides in an imperfect world, though. >click here to read< 18:34 

For first time in 60 years, spring-run Chinook salmon reproduce in San Joaquin River

As work to restore the San Joaquin River continues, scientists are seeing promising signs that salmon can thrive in the river as hatchery fish reach new milestones. A recent breakthrough came in fall 2017, when spring-run Chinook salmon created their nests, called redds, in the deeper and colder parts of the river below Friant Dam. The fish successfully spawned, laying eggs that incubated and hatched into tiny fry as the sexually mature fish died, part of the species’ unusual life cycle. >click here to read< 15:16

Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 40′ Webbers Cove Lobster/Scalloper, 405HP Cummins QL9 Diesel

Specifications, information and 10 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >Click here< 14:30

A raft of issues makes life harder for important fishery – Crabbers need community support as problems mount

The past several crab seasons can’t be described as all bad. For example, as recently as 2014-15, ex-vessel prices reached $4.50 a pound to fishermen in December, spiking to $9 just before Asian new year celebrations. Levels of the marine toxin domoic acid, which have occasionally been elevated, have not appeared to shake consumer confidence in crab. They remain a coveted culinary treat on both side of the Pacific Ocean. Crabbers in Washington and Oregon totaled $52.4 million in sales last year; crab remain a bright spot for the commercial fishing industry. Poke into this rosy picture a little, however, and serious concerns emerge. >click here to read< 12:53

Kodiak trawl fleet ends protest, negotiates higher price

The Kodiak trawl fleet ended its protest over the price the fleet had been offered for its pollock harvest. The fleet ended its protest on Sunday after successfully negotiating a higher price from processors, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported . After an eight-day stand-down by the fleet, all of the town’s processors offered a price of 11 cents per pound for pollock under a thousand grams. The negotiated price is up from the previous offering of 10 cents per pound for fish a thousand grams and under. >click here to read< 11:06

NEFMC: Final Action on Deep-Sea Coral Amendment; Comments on Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling in North Atlantic

The New England Fishery Management Council has taken final action on its Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment and voted to submit the document to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for review and approval.,,, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is soliciting comments through March 9, 2018 on its Draft National 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which includes the North and Mid-Atlantic Planning Areas. The Council agreed to send a letter to BOEM recommending exclusion of these two areasfrom the five-year plan because oil and gas exploration and extraction activities in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf involve inappropriate risks that “may harm living marine resources,,, >click here to read< 10:45

Highest Hurdle For Deepwater May Be Winning The Trust Of The Region’s Fishing Community

Deepwater Wind faces two years of review by some 20 state and federal agencies, and millions of dollars in scientific survey work covering hundreds of square miles of the ocean, to answer the questions the agencies will pepper them with about the wind farm’s effect on the ocean around it.,, Part of the federal process that the company must follow, in attempting to show that the 15 wind turbines they want to build in the ocean east of Block Island can coexist with those who make a living at sea, requires that they appoint a “fisheries representative” >click here to read< 09:47

Two Bay of Islands men fined for poaching, banned from fishing

Two men from Humber Arm South convicted of illegally harvesting lobster won’t be doing any fishing of any sort for a while. Leonard Stephen Greene, 60, and Paul Locke, 54, entered guilty pleas to poaching crustaceans when they appeared at provincial court in Corner Brook for what was supposed to be a joint trial this week.,, Greene also pleaded guilty to fishing for snow crab, without being authorized by a licence for that species, in May 2016. Locke entered a guilty plea to one offence, namely possessing illegally caught lobster in late June 2017. >click here to read< 08:45