Monthly Archives: February 2018
HR 200 – 24 Fishing Groups from Around the Nation Call for Magnuson-Stevens Act Reforms
Twenty-four members of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC) are calling on Congress to enact broad reforms to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), including allowing for greater flexibility in how stocks are rebuilt and changes to how new management programs are implemented. The proposals, delivered in a letter to Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, would, according to the signers, lead to a reauthorization that “allows for both sustainable fisheries management, and the long-term preservation of our nation’s fishing communities.” >click to read< 13:22
Fundraiser: F/V Queen Ann’s Revenge – Please support my friend
Paul Matos was the owner of fishing boat Queen Ann’s Revenge. Sadly, his boat sank early Thursday morning. They sent out a call for help aroubd 1:20am, and that was the last time they were heard from. Debris has been found, but no bodies. The coast guard has called off the search as of this morning. Paul left behind my very good friend, Amy Romano, and their daughter, Stella. Any money raised would help towards whatever type of memorial the family would throw, plus it would take some stress off of Amy in this extremely hard time. >click to donate if you can<12:34
Point Pleasant Dad Was ‘Married’ To Ocean. That’s Where He Died.
Dennis Smalling was married to the ocean. And that’s where he went missing, and that’s where he’s lost. And that’s where a cross was erected to remember the fisherman whose likely death has a community in mourning. Even as his mom, and his 12-year-old daughter, still hope he comes home. The Point Pleasant native was only 34 when he and his shipmate, Paul Matos, 30, of Bayville, disappeared at sea last week. >click to read< 11:05
OPINION: Fisheries Act changes bring Canada into the 21st century
Despite warnings in your Feb. 1 editorial that changes to the Fisheries Act were “pure madness,” the opposite in fact is true. For the most part, the upgrades are common sense, enable existing policy frameworks and bring Canada into the era of modern fisheries management. Bill C-68 tabled last week is the culmination of not just the past 18 months of consultation, but more than two decades of pressure to modernize the Fisheries Act. It is 150 years old this year – only the British North America Act is more ancient – and it’s high time that Canada updated the contents. >click to read< 09:58
D.B. Pleschner: Is court the right place to determine ‘best available science’?
A U.S. District Court judge recently ruled that the federal government’s catch limit for California’s central stock of anchovy — currently 25,000 metric tons — is far too high. But instead of weighing all the facts, the judge ignored them, shunned the established precedent of deference to federal agencies’ scientific determinations and instead endorsed the flawed arguments of the advocacy group Oceana. So what happened? >click to read< 21:55
‘Dead in the Water’ screened in Gloucester – ‘We knew it was bad, but we had no idea how bad’
There have been almost a half-dozen screenings now of the “Dead in the Water” documentary on the commercial fishing crisis and one things is clear: Most people who don’t fish for a living have no real grasp of the complexities and challenges that fishermen face every day just to keep fishing. That, of course, was one of the motivating forces in the making of the film, both for director David Wittkower, a Rockport native, and stakeholder producers John Bell and Angela Sanfilippo.,, “It’s accurate and it’s painful,” Sanfilippo said Saturday morning before the first of two sold-out screenings at the Cape Ann Museum. “But it’s the truth.” >click to read< 18:25
A Famed Fishing Port Staggers as Its ‘Codfather’ Goes to Jail
Carlos Rafael, whose initials are emblazoned on boats all over this port city, boasted that his fishing empire was worth even more than official records showed.,,Fishermen, ice houses and shoreside suppliers who once did business with Mr. Rafael are anxious, as their own businesses have slowed or stopped. As Mr. Rafael sits in prison, having pleaded guilty to lying about his catches and smuggling cash out of the country, nearly two dozen of his boats have been barred from fishing for species like cod and haddock, grinding part of the centuries-old maritime economy in the nation’s most lucrative fishing port to a halt. >click to read< 16:45
Code of conduct for fishing reinforced by Nelson industry
Nelson’s commercial fishermen have reinforced their backing for an industry-wide code of conduct to stamp out illegal practices. The code was developed by New Zealand’s major fishing companies to reinforce last year’s Promise media campaign to improve catch practices. As part of a 13-port tour, Seafood New Zealand chief executive Tim Pankhurst and Fisheries Inshore New Zealand chief executive Dr Jeremy Helson visited Nelson last Friday. >click to read< 15:19
‘There’s no closure,’ say families of missing fishermen after search ends
In the year before he went missing in choppy waters 40 miles off the coast of Barnegat, Paul Alexandre Matos bought a house, had a daughter and got licensed to commercially fish on his own boat. He had been working as a fisherman for other people, said his girlfriend, Amy Romano, but he decided last summer to strike out on his own.,, Alice Vannote, Dennis Smalling’s mother, on Saturday said she was still trying to process that the 34-year-old son who had lived with her in Point Pleasant is gone. >click to read< 10:19
Helpful Lobsterman Lends a Neighborly Hand by Hauling Other People’s Traps
Stonington – People here in this quiet fishing village are so friendly, one man will even take it on himself to haul other people’s traps when they aren’t around. Neighbors have plenty to say about the man, who’s about as close to as celebrity as you’re likely to find in a town of 1,100 people. “Yeah, I know him. We all do. Slick as a slime eel,” said one admirer, who wished to remain nameless. The helpful lobsterman, in spite of his local fame, prefers to keep to himself, refusing to answer our phone calls. >click to read< 09:40
Editorial: A callous agenda – defining who is a commercial fisherman
Once again defining who is a commercial fisherman in North Carolina is on the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission’s agenda when it meets Wednesday and Thursday at the Blockade Runner in Wrightsville Beach.We say “once again” because as county resident Bill Hitchcock pointed out in a January letter to the editor, the definition “has been clearly defined since 1997 and thoroughly investigated, debated ad nauseam and determined to be properly defined by the commission back in October 2010.” >click to read< 08:57
For longtime Wakulla fisherman, mullet is still the perfect catch
About 8:30 a.m. in 20-degree weather on 2018’s first Saturday, 80-year-old commercial fisherman Jonas Porter was catching mullet along Wakulla County’s coastline. Nothing stops him from fishing for a living, and since 1994, nothing has stopped him from challenging Florida’s net ban that dealt a life-altering blow to commercial fishing. “I told him not to go,” said Jonas’ wife, Bernice, handing him a cup of coffee,“ but he wouldn’t listen and now he’s sick.” And that’s the way it’s been throughout the Porter’s 57-year marriage,,, >click to read< 14:43
Unalaska business owner denounces city position on trawler
The mothershippers are fighting back with the help of a local proxy in a politicized commercial fishing tussle reaching all the way to Washington, D.C. The latest round of the inshore-offshore battle between Fisherman’s Finest’s cod factory trawlers, onshore seafood processors, and a local government, is taking on the familiar feel of the vintage pollock war. An Unalaska business owner is denouncing a city position calling for restrictions on the beleaguered vessel America’s Finest, a brand new vessel stranded in an Courtesan, Wash., shipyard since it ran afoul of the federal Jones Act by exceeding the legal limits of foreign steel in its hull. >click to read< 13:38
Live Well Challenge creator starts another fundraiser to support Digby dad battling rare cancer
Cape Sable Island fisherman Todd Newell says he’s going to make it up to all the people who have said, jokingly, they would have liked to wring his neck after taking the Live Well Challenge in freezing cold water. How? He’s going to let a lobster bite the side of his hand. Why? To help 34-year-old Digby County resident Jordan Morgan, who has a rare form of cancer and needs an expensive chemotherapy drug to help him fight it. The total cost of the treatment he’s looking at is $130,000.,, “Jordan said something to me the other day that really resonated with me,” said Newell. “He said initiative is the only thing standing between the status quo and moving on with living. That is the truth.” >click to read< 12:50
Aground – Crew rescued after fishing vessel suffers significant damage near Witless Bay
Two people aboard the Northern Star fishing vessel were rescued by helicopter after the ship ran aground near Witless Bay early Saturday morning. The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax dispatched a Cormorant helicopter to rescue the two individuals, and Canadian Coast Guard officials are now on the scene with an environmental response team, the CCGS Sir Wilfred Grenfell and a helicopter. >click to read< 12:16
Nova Scotia’s Dirty Secret: The Tale of a Toxic Mill and The Book Its Owners Don’t Want You to Read
The story of Pictou Landing is one of desperation, of corruption and incompetence. So perhaps it’s no surprise that when Canadian journalist and anthropologist Joan Baxter tried to tell it, old forces of power moved in to silence her. The mill’s owners tried to banish Baxter and her book The Mill: Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest from local bookstores. Of course, that backfired in spectacular fashion: The Mill sold out two printings and became the best-selling book in Nova Scotia Chapters and Coles book stores the month it was released. >click to read< 10:14
Missing fishermen from N.J. presumed lost at sea, family says
Two New Jersey commercial fishermen are presumed lost at sea after their boat went missing early Thursday about 40 miles off the coast of New Jersey, according to a family member.,, “They went to where the signal is being emitted, but there is no visual of it,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Seth Johnson said Friday. The Coast Guard sent helicopters, planes and ships for the search. The two men had set out on a multi-day fishing trip on the 46-foot boat late Monday night from what’s locally known as “the clam dock” in Point Pleasant. >click to read< 09:12
Coast Guard suspends search for F/V Queen Ann’s Revenge off Barnegat, NJ.
The Coast Guard has suspended its search for the two-person crew of a fishing boat in distress approximately 40-miles off the coast of Barnegat, New Jersey, Friday. Coast Guard first responders searched 4,441 square-miles by sea and air for the crew of the Queen Ann’s Revenge since the search began shortly after 1:20 a.m., Thursday. >click to read< 21:16
FISH-NL condemns DFO’s discriminatory restriction to latest scientific information on commercial fish stocks
The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) condemns a move by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans this year to limit access to the release of the latest scientific information on the status of key commercial fish stocks, and calls for a more fair and open process. “The raw scientific data on the status of commercial stocks such as shrimp, crab, caplin and groundfish should be available for all hands to absorb at one time,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. “This is a huge leap backwards for transparency. >click to read< 19:55
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for February 9, 2018
Click here to read the Weekly Update, to read all the updates Click here, 19:13
F/V Nemesis Pulled from the bottom of New Bedford Harbor
Crews managed to lift the fishing vessel Nemesis out of about 20 feet of water on Friday. The Dinah Jane remained submerged but will be pulled from the water soon. It has yet to be determined when exactly. The two Carlos Rafael scallopers sank around 1:30 a.m. Monday at Homer’s Wharf. On Friday, crews blew air into sunken vessel and used a crane to stabilize it. After examination, the Nemesis will likely remain docked off Homer’s Wharf, according to the Harbor Development Commission. >Photo’s, click to read<18:09
Congress passes spending bill after brief government shutdown
Congress approved a $300 billion, two-year spending bill and an additional $90 billion in aid for victims of hurricanes and California wildfires early Friday and President Trump signed it, ending a brief partial shutdown of the federal government.,,, of interest, tucked in the bill is $200 million for nine declared fishery disasters from Alaska to California dating to 2014. Reps. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, have been urging approval of funds to aid fishermen affected by the 2015-16 closure of the Dungeness crab season and several salmon fisheries going back to 2014. The administration would decide how to allocate the money. >click to read< 15:14
One Year After The Sinking, Crab Fishermen Remember The F/V Destination — And Take Extra Precautions
This Sunday, Feb. 11 marks the one-year anniversary of the loss of the F/V Destination. Its sinking ranks as the Bering Sea crab fleet’s deadliest accident in more than a decade. While the cause remains a mystery, memories of the crew are inspiring fishermen to stay extra safe this winter.,, Almost a year later, the tragedy is still fresh in the minds of many fishermen, especially crabbers who are out dropping pots in the same area the Destination went down. “Do I think about it?” asked Captain Rip Carlton of the F/V Patricia Lee. “Yes.” >click to read< 13:58
US Senate candidate Nardolillo on Sheldon Whitehouse’s Conflicting Positions
State Rep Bobby Nardolillo, himself a candidate for the US Senate, reacted today to an announcement from the incumbent regarding Off Shore Drilling. On Monday, February 12th, Sen. Whitehouse will appear on the Bay Campus of URI to pledge his effort to prevent any off shore oil exploration in New England waters. Mr. Whitehouse will be joined at this announcement by Christopher Brown, President of the national commercial fishing organization, Seafood Harvesters of America. The plan appears to be that the Senator will cite potential degradation of fishing grounds as the driver for preventing oil exploration. “I was surprised to read the notice of this rally.” Rep. Nardolillo said. “Especially in view of our Junior Senator’s full throated support for the Deepwater Wind project, off Block Island.” >click to read< 12:46
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Declares Fisheries Disasters Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria
Today, in conjunction with the requests put forward by the Governors of Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross determined catastrophic fishery disasters occurred in the areas because of impacts from Hurricanes Irma and Maria that made landfall in August and September of 2017. Under the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Governors asked the Secretary of Commerce to determine whether a commercial fishery failure occurred due to a fishery resource disaster, in these cases caused by destructive hurricanes. >click to read< 12:25
‘Let’s go get him’ – Fishermen recover body of captain stranded in vessel off Canso
Fishermen have recovered the body of the captain who was at the helm of a fishing vessel that’s been stranded off the coast of Canso, N.S., for the past three days. Steven Goreham said he and five took a boat out Friday morning when the tide was low to try to recover their friend, Captain Roger Stoddard, who they believed was dead. Stoddard was the last crew member still on board the Fisherman’s Provider II, which became stuck on a shoal about four kilometres offshore on Tuesday. >click to read< 11:20
Changes to act mean more fishing wealth headed back to Pictou County
A local fisherman is cheering proposed reforms to the federal Fisheries Act that he says will bring more industry profits back into Pictou County. The changes mean that fishermen may only hold one licence for each species and must make their own catches, taking wealth away from big fishing corporations in favour of local independent owner-operators. That’s according to Ronnie Heighton, a River John fisherman and president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association. >click to read< 10:40
What the tags tell us: one fluke’s life reveals a lot
How long does it take a fluke to grow a 1/4 of an inch? The answer: about seven months. At least that was the data collected on a fluke that was tagged and released in Narragansett Bay last June and recaptured in January near the Hudson Canyon. The angler Daphne Forster released the fluke on June 15 about 4 ½ nautical miles south of Sakonnet Point, Rhode Island. The fish was then netted Jan. 24 by the Evening Star, a commercial dragger that was fishing in 300 to 400 feet of water. The Evening Star offloaded the fluke in Beaufort,,, >click to read< 09:23
New fish house in Stumpy Point helps keeps a tradition alive
The commercial fishing village of Stumpy Point begins coming alive about 4:30 each morning when captains and crew members head from their homes to the harbor to start another day. Within an hour, a parade of boats head from the docks out into the Pamlico Sound or even offshore. Stumpy Point, first settled in the late 1700s, is 15 miles from the nearest gas station and mostly is confined to just one road that wraps around about a quarter of Stumpy Point Bay, which spills out into the Pamlico Sound.>click to read< 08:53