Monthly Archives: January 2018

Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting in New Orleans January 29 – February 1, 2018

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will meet January 29 – February 1, 2018, at the Hyatt Center, 800 Iberville Street, New Orleans, LA 70112 . View Council Agenda View Briefing Materials, >click here< Register for April Council Webinar, >click here< 15:05

Market your catch directly to the consumer!

We welcome SeafoodPirate.com to Fisherynation! SeafoodPirate evolved to connect all types of seafood buyers and sellers to one another. Whether you are a fisherman, fishing operation, processing outfit, wholesaler, packer, retail market, restaurant or consumer, SeafoodPirate allows everyone to post their products and display them to other potential buyers. SeafoodPirate.com is an online marketplace and seafood marketing service for people to buy seafood products directly from fishermen, fish farms, processing companies, wholesalers, and retailers who list their products on the site. >click here to read<13:45

A green crab’s super power: eating through its gills

The phrase “to inhale your food” evokes images of hot dog eating contests or late night fast food binges. But for the European green crab, the phrase is a bit more literal—these crabs can actually absorb food through their gills.,,, Called the shore crab in its native waters around Europe, the European green crab is an invasive species that began wreaking havoc in New England coastal ecosystems following its introduction in the 1800s. It has no predators or competitors and also a killer appetite—crab, fish, young lobster, and shellfish are no match for its nimble, yet crushing claws. >click here to read< 11:27 

Marine Stewardship Council Under Scrutiny Over Bycatch

On Thursday, a coalition of environmental groups accused the world’s largest certification agency for sustainably sourced seafood of “allowing fisheries with widely unacceptable impacts to be certified.” The coalition, which included Greenpeace and the Environmental Justice Foundation, said that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) urgently needs to improve its Fisheries Standard, a document that specifies which fisheries may be deemed sustainable,,, >click here to read< 09:22

Report detailing enforcement abuses barred from fisherman’s trial

The first criminal trial of a Long Island fisherman charged in connection with a federal probe of a controversial fish-auction program is set to begin, but a report detailing fisheries enforcement abuses by the government has been barred from the trial. Lawyers for Northport fisherman Thomas Kokell, charged in a multi-count indictment with overharvesting fluke, argued in pretrial motions that a 2010 federal inspector general’s report detailing abuses and “overzealousness” by the National Marine Fisheries Service was vital to the defense. >click here to read< 21:35

Letter: The time is ripe for a Fishing Permit Cap

The New Bedford ground fishing fleet as been laboring under a quota system for five of more years now.  Many are  unhappy with the quota system, but it is the system we have to work with.  One of the main concerns of quota system is the concentration of fishing power in very few businesses. Currently the permit situation in New England is in a state of flux >click here to read< 19:13

UNACCEPTABLE! No plans to raise Nancy Glen after Loch Fyne sinking

Marine investigators do not plan to raise the wreck of a ship which sunk in Loch Fyne, with two men thought to be on-board. A fundraising campaign to raise the Nancy Glen from the bottom of the sea loch and recover the bodies of Duncan MacDougall and Przemek Krawczyk has raised more than £150,000.,, In The National yesterday, former First Minister Alex Salmond also called on the UK Government to stop being so “heartless” and raise the vessel.“It is unacceptable in terms of humanity that fishermen should be left aboard sunken vessels within eyesight of the shore.  >click here to read< 15:46

HR 2083 – Inslee beats drum for Herrera Beutler bill, urges U.S. representatives to back plan to protect fish runs

Gov. Jay Inslee is urging U.S. House representatives from Washington, Oregon and Idaho to support a bill penned by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, that seeks to reduce sea lion predation on at-risk fish populations, including salmon and steelhead. Inslee sent a letter to the Northwest delegation asking for support Friday with the support of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter. >click here to read< 13:37  

Fishing on the Dark Side

Cordova is a fishing community, and we’ve all heard stories of seiners or gillnetters being caught plying their trade in closed waters. It is sometimes called “creek robbing,” for the action often involves harvesting salmon inside the protected waters of countless streams around Prince William Sound or elsewhere in Alaska. In the Copper River drift net fishery, the term is aptly named “going over the line,” as the salmon being illegally caught are inside imaginary lines marking closed waters. >click here to read< 12:36

2017 Gulf Shrimp Landings: Louisiana At Historic Lows, Alabama At Historic Highs

NOAA’s Gulf of Mexico Data Management division released information regarding December shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico. In December, the commercial fishing industry landed 6.6 million pounds of shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico, up from 5.8 million pounds in December of 2016. Despite the significant increase from 2016, landings last month were 23.4 percent below the prior seventeen-year historic average for December of 8.7 million pounds. >click here to read< 10:32

The Story Behind the Rescue

The sinking of an Alaskan fishing boat last July 24 made news around the world when a video of the crew’s rescue went viral. The ship’s captain, Christian Trosvig, spotted a crewmate who had been trapped inside the sinking boat. Trosvig dove in and rescued his unconscious friend. In media interviews later, Trosvig boldly shared his Christian faith. Here is the story of how Trosvig himself was rescued by Jesus Christ.,,, When I saw Brandon’s limp body pop to the surface, I didn’t hesitate. I jumped into the choppy and frigid water to rescue him. As captain of the Grayling, I would do anything and everything to help save my crew. >click here to read< 10:08

Pebble Mine: In reversal, EPA deals setback to controversial gold mining proposal in Alaska

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced late Friday that he will not scrap the agency’s 2014 determination that a large-scale mining operation could irreparably harm Alaska’s Bristol Bay water­shed.,, The announcement said the decision “neither deters nor derails the application process” for the mine. “It is my judgment at this time that any mining projects in the region likely pose a risk to the abundant natural resources that exist there,” Pruitt said. “Until we know the full extent of that risk, those natural resources and world-class fisheries deserve the utmost protection.” >click here to read< 08:54

State disputes study that predicts sharp decline in Gulf of Maine lobster population

The state agency that oversees Maine’s marine fisheries is questioning the reliability of a new study that predicts a sharp decline in Gulf of Maine lobsters over the next 30 years. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the University of Maine and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration built a computer model that predicts the population will fall 40 to 62 percent by 2030. But Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources, won’t be using the model to help him decide how to manage the state’s most valuable fishery,,, >click here to read< 01:06 

State investigators focus on nets plugged with mussels in Atlantic salmon net-pen failure

Investigators probing the collapse of an Atlantic salmon farm that sent 160,000 invasive fish into the Salish Sea last summer are examining mussels and other sea life coating the nets as cause. Photographs obtained by The Seattle Times under a public records request show portions of the nets at Cooke’s farm were so fouled with kelp, algae and especially mussels that the net was no longer visible.,, Cooke is required under the terms of its lease with the state to maintain its farms in a clean and safe condition. >click here to read< 21:10

International Pacific Halibut Commission disagrees on catch cuts

Commissioners from the U.S. and Canada this week could not agree on the size of catch reductions that fishing fleets in the two countries should take for halibut along the Pacific coast this year. Commissioners from the two countries signaled their intent to make fishing cuts for the valuable bottom fish but not as large as the cuts suggested by staff earlier this winter. The six-person commission has three members from the U.S. and three from Canada. Their annual meeting was in Portland, Oregon January 22nd-26th. >click here to read< 20:21

North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for January 26, 2018

Click here to read the Weekly Update, to read all the updates Click here, for older updates listed as NCFA click here 19:44

Hardworking crabbers deserve support and encouragement

A look back at several years of news about the Columbia River Dungeness crab industry highlights trends and problems that need a better-coordinated response.,, This season is the second in a row in which independent crab boat owners and operators have attempted, unsuccessfully, to exercise cooperative leverage to win better prices from processors. In both years, weeks of unrelated delays beyond the traditional Dec. 1 start left most crabbers in a weakened position. Plenty of family budgets are built around the assumption that some of the year’s biggest paydays will start refilling bank accounts from December through about February. >click here to read< 17:02

In the Maldives, the Virtues and Limitations of Pole-and-Line Tuna Fishing – can it catch on globally?

Kelsey Miller, fisheries researcher with a global advocacy group, wobbled for balance on a 50-foot fishing boat as silvery tuna flew through the air towards her. It was 2014, and as the vessel pitched off the coast of the Maldives, a collection of atolls several hundred miles southwest of the southern tip of India, a dozen or so fishermen working in the stern pulled the fish from the water one by one with fishing poles, flipping their catch towards the boat’s bow. >click here to read< 16:22 

Scuttled! Coast Guard assists Alaska Department of Natural Resources complete response to fishing vessel Akutan

The Coast Guard assisted the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ response to the disabled and abandoned fishing vessel Akutan near Dutch Harbor, Alaska, Thursday. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley assisted Alaska DNR by towing the Akutan to a scuttling site approximately three miles outside U.S. territorial seas where Resolve Marine personnel, contracted by the DNR, scuttled the vessel and conducted cleanup operations for debris in the water. >click here to read< 15:24

NOAA Announces At-Sea Monitoring 2018 Coverage Levels for Groundfish Sector Fishery

NOAA Fisheries announces that for fishing year 2018 the total target at-sea monitoring coverage level is 15 percent of all groundfish sector trips. This target coverage level is a one percentage point decrease from the 2016 coverage level, which was 16 percent. As the target coverage level is set based on an average of at-sea monitoring data from the past three full groundfish fishing years, this level is set based on data from the 2014-2016 fishing years. >click here to read< 14:45

Memorial University flume tank being used for critical conservation work

In the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico, gillnets used in the shrimp fishery have received much of the blame for the plunge in the numbers of a rare marine mammal known as the vaquita.,, One of the key challenges is to encourage Mexican fishermen to change from traditional fishing gear — to get rid of the kilometre-long walls of gillnets in the water that entangle and drown vaquita and other bycatch — and use alternative fishing gear that will be more selective and vaquita-friendly. Such alternative gear is being tested this week in the flume tank of the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources at the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University in St. John’s. >click here to read< 13:16

New Bedford–based offshore wind farm gets a ‘no’ for state contract

A New Bedford–based offshore wind proposal by Deepwater Wind has been passed over for a state contract in favor of hydroelectric power from Canada. Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration announced Thursday that Northern Pass Hydro, a joint venture of Eversource and Hydro-Québec, has been selected to provide power to Massachusetts in the first of two competitive bidding processes created by the state’s 2016 energy diversity law. >click here to read< 11:43

Editorial: Fisheries madness

The federal government seems hell-bent on proceeding with ill-advised amendments to the Fisheries Act that pose particular threat to Atlantic Canadian inshore fishermen and processors. The importance of the fishery cannot be overstated — directly responsible for 80,000 jobs and $6.6 billion in exports — while the indirect economic impact is much greater. Yet Ottawa is hinting at major changes — especially with licence allocation — that could turn the industry upside down. >click here to read< 10:49 

Maine’s lobster population will drop but fishery ‘not doomed’

The lobster population in the Gulf of Maine could decline by nearly two-thirds by 2050, according to a scientific study released this week. As bad as that sounds, scientists and industry representatives say the demise of the most valuable single-species fishery in the country is unlikely. “It doesn’t mean Maine’s lobster fishery is doomed,” said Andrew Pershing, chief scientific officer at Gulf of Maine Research Institute and a co-author of the study. >click here to read< 10:17

Chinook action plan a ‘question mark’ for conservation and economics

There will be a lot less fishing for king salmon in Southeast in the coming season, after the Alaska Board of Fisheries took dramatic steps to protect dwindling chinook returns to the region’s major river systems. Before wrapping up its 13-day meeting in Sitka on Tuesday, the Board of Fish passed an “action plan” intended to reverse the downward spiral in Alaska’s wild king salmon.  The plan targets three primary rivers — or stocks of concern — but leaves the door open for similar conservation measures elsewhere, should they become necessary. >click here to read< 09:29

More changes to snow crab fishery not ruled out – minister wants any changes to be fair across all crab fleets

Government is still weighing its options when it comes to more changes to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, says federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc. Immediate rule changes to the crab fishery were announced Tuesday to help protect the whales. At least 17 died in Canadian and U.S. waters last year. Some died from being hit by ships and others from entanglements with fishing gear. Another right whale turned up dead Thursday in the waters off the coast of Virginia, the first to be reported this year. >click here to read< 22:38

‘They want to track us like paedophiles’

Commercial line fishers say a plan to track their every movement on the water like they were paedophiles with ankle bracelets would cost them hard-won information and give away their competitive advantage. The Queensland Government was pushing to implement vessel monitoring systems by 2020 that would electronically record where all commercial fishers were operating at any time. Michael Thompson, one of only nine commercial line fishers still operating from Caloundra to Noosa, said existing government electronic platforms were not secure.  He and colleagues fear fish grounds they have identified and harvested sustainably over decades would be exposed. >click here to read<20:55

Gloucester: Local fishing titans battling in court

Two of the Gloucester waterfront’s heavy hitters are squaring off in federal court in a lawsuit with at least $710,000 at stake — and potentially much more. Kristian Kristensen, owner of the Cape Ann Seafood Exchange auction and Zeus Packing on Rogers Street, is suing longtime Gloucester fisherman Giuseppe “Joe” DiMaio, alleging DiMaio has failed to repay the approximately $710,000 balance remaining on two corporate and personal loans made to him by Kristensen and his related businesses. >click here to read< 20:06 

Deepwater Wind Farm Representatives Face Blowback

As a deadline looms for the submission of applications to federal and state agencies, Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company seeking to construct a 15-turbine wind farm approximately 36 miles east of Montauk, is facing headwinds from commercial fishermen and their representatives, who are concerned that the installation could disrupt the industry and threaten marine life, habitats, or migration patterns. >click here to read< 19:19

Washington State: Council unanimously opposes coastal oil and gas drilling

The Ocean Shores City Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution that opposes offshore oil and gas activities off the coast in response to a pending Trump administration proposal to permit drilling in most U.S. continental-shelf waters. “Our Washington coast is one of the most wonderful places in this entire world,” said Ocean Shores Mayor Crystal Dingler.,, Larry Thevik, the president of the Washington Dungeness Crab Fishing Association and a 47-year resident of Ocean Shores, said he was also speaking on behalf of the Washington Trollers Association and the Westport Charterboat Association. >click here to read< 17:24