Monthly Archives: February 2018
Seabed search in Loch Fyne for lost fishermen
Fresh efforts have been made to locate the bodies of two fishermen lost in a sinking on Loch Fyne. Their vessel, the Nancy Glen, sank on 18 January. One member of the crew was rescued by a passing boat but Przemek Krawczyk and Duncan MacDougall, who both lived in Tarbert, were lost. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) were surveying the site to decide if the wreck can be raised. A candle was lit for the lost men at a ceremony in Tarbert on Saturday. Elaine Whyte of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association said the situation had been hard on the families of the fishermen. >click to read< 22:20
Fishing company eyes up Timaru workforce to crew new vessel
Competition for South Canterbury’s fishing expertise looks set to intensify, with national firm Sealord looking to Timaru to help staff its soon-to-be launched $70 million factory fishing vessel. Sealord public affairs and communications manager Julie North said the company expected to put its advanced new fishing trawler, which includes an highly-automated on-board fish factory, to sea in May. North said advertisements for crew to man the trawler, which would be based out of Nelson but would fish down both coasts of the South Island and as far south as the sub-Antarctic, had reached as far as Timaru. >click to read< 21:52
Commentary: Spread the blame for proposed license change
Jerry Schill, Director of Government Relations for the North Carolina Fisheries Association, offers a response to Russ Lay’s commentary “CCA, GOP to blame for proposed license change”>click to read< on the proposed changes to eligibility rules for commercial fishing licenses in North Carolina. Back in December 2016, the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission sent a letter under the signature of Chairman Sammy Corbett to every member of the General Assembly requesting that they take a look at changes for commercial fishing licenses. >Click here to read the letter< To my knowledge, not one member of the General Assembly made any effort in 2017 to act on the MFC’s request. So where’s the boogeyman here, either Republican or Democrat? >click to read< 20:10
Canadian Environment Minister Predicts Ice Free Canada
Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has demanded climate skeptic Hockey commentator Don Cherry think about all the children who might one day not be able to play outdoors on the ice in Canada. Sunday, February 4, 2018, 6:16 PM – Known to many as the most outspoken man in sports, iconic Canadian commentator and television personality Don Cherry is once again facing criticism,,, Don Cherry calls people who believe in global warming ‘cuckaloos’ >click to read< 16:41 
ASMFC Winter Meeting in Arlington, VA- February 6-8, 2018
Final Agenda >click to read<The agenda is subject to change. Bulleted items represent the anticipated major issues to be discussed or acted upon at the meeting. The final agenda will include additional items and may revise the bulleted items provided below. The agenda reflects the current estimate of time required for scheduled Board meetings.,, Board meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar >click here to listen< beginning February 6th at 9:30 a.m. and continuing daily www.asmfc.org/ 15:28
How cold was it in January? Bad enough to kill a lot of fish
The record-breaking freeze that hit eastern North Carolina the first week of January was so cold that it killed a massive number of fish in tidal creeks and estuaries along the coast. Hardest hit was the spotted seatrout, a fish especially popular with recreational anglers who, along with commercial fishermen, are now banned from fishing for them until the middle of June. The moratorium is meant to give surviving fish a chance to replenish by spawning this spring.,,, >click to read< 13:36
Northern fishing groups want help getting fair share of quotas
A coalition of Nunavut fishing companies has called for the creation of a federal fund to help the territory “catch up” and acquire a fair share of offshore shrimp and turbot quotas. Brian Burke, the president of the Nunavut Offshore Allocation Holders Association, said the territory’s fishing industry needs access to a more equitable share of its offshore resources. Even with a slight increase made to Nunavut’s turbot allocations last year, the territory holds 73 per cent of all turbot quotas and 38 per cent of shrimp—about 50 per cent of the overall allocation. >click to read<12:25
UPDATED: Two Carlos Rafael Vessels Sink Overnight in New Bedford Harbor – will remain submerged until at least Tuesday
Two Carlos Rafael vessels sank early Monday morning by Leonard’s Warf, according to Ed Anthes Washburn, the executive director of the Harbor Development Commission, Washburn said the fishing vessels the Dinah Jane and the Nemesis sunk at around 1:30 am with no one on board. The vessels were tied to each other. Crews from the Coast Guard and the HDC are on site now investigating the incident. The Massachusetts Environmental Police seized 120 pounds of scallops off the Dinah Jane last week. Story will be updated. >Link< 11:24
Two vessels will remain submerged until at least Tuesday – >click to read the updated story< 14:05
Growing dissent to private marina project is deja vu for Rockland
There is growing opposition to a long-term plan by Yachting Solutions to extending its private pier which would bisect a heavily-used channel and force the relocation of 54 moorings The opposition to the plan is reminiscent to a grass-roots movement that twice blossomed to stop a proposal by the Samoset Resort for construction of a lengthy private pier that would have run parallel to the Rockland Breakwater.,, The first effort came in 2000 when the resort proposed an 850-foot long pier about 200 feet inside the Breakwater to serve up to 40 boats. The project immediately faced opposition from lobstermen, schooner captains, and citizens. A group named “Save the Breakwater” formed to oppose the project. >click to read<10:41
Six years after the oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay collapsed, scientists still don’t agree on what happened.
When Robert Livingston studied Florida’s Apalachicola Bay and River in the 1970s, he marveled at the ecosystem’s health. The bay produced a rich bounty of oysters, shrimp, fish, and crabs. Those animals, in turn, supported a thriving fishing community and seafood industry. But since then, the bay has declined. During a 2012 drought, the oyster fishery collapsed—and has not recovered. In the past, the ecosystem “was like a symphony orchestra,” says Livingston, an aquatic ecologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee. “Now it is not. It is dysfunctional.” >click to read< 09:35
Letter: Fishery corporations kick messaging into high gear
As is evidenced from two recent articles in The Telegram (the letter, Jan. 23 “We need to enhance Atlantic Canada’s fisheries” and the Jan. 26 editorial “Fisheries madness”), the corporate-owned processing and offshore sector is in full fear-mongering and misrepresentation mode. Faced with a minister of Fisheries and Oceans who is willing to speak the truth about the challenges to the inshore fishery, the corporations that have aggressively endeavoured to shape the economics of this fishery for the past 20 years are now being told to play by the rules and they are enraged at the prospect.>click to read< 08:51
Crew Member on Local Commercial Fishing Vessel Was Lost at Sea This Morning, Coast Guard Calls off Search
The Coast Guard suspended its search Sunday for a Dungeness crab fisherman who fell overboard from the 47-foot commercial fishing vessel Chief Joseph approximately eight miles west of the South Spit in Humboldt Bay.,,, Two crewmembers aboard the Chief Joseph reportedly fell overboard while attending to crab pots around1:10 a.m. The vessel captain was able to pull one person back aboard but could not see the other fisherman. The man who was retrieved had no reported injuries. >click to read< 22:06
Coast Guard Calls of Search for Crabber Lost at Sea – According to his family, Bryan Scott Moore was lost at sea. His fellow fisherman pulled from the water 8 nautical miles west of the south spit. >click to read<
Triple trawler tragedy: The Hull fishermen who never came home
In the space of less than a month at the start of 1968, 58 fishermen based in the English port of Hull lost their lives in three separate trawler sinkings. Thanks to the efforts of a group of determined women, the deaths would change the industry, with the ripples spreading from the Arctic Sea to the steps of Downing Street. – “I am going over. We are laying over. Help me. I’m going over,” skipper Phil Gay pleaded in a final, desperate message from the Ross Cleveland, which sank while sheltering from a storm in an inlet near Isafjordur in Iceland on 4 February. The Ross Cleveland was the third vessel to sink, in what became known as the triple trawler tragedy. >click to read< 21:14
Mosquito-control spraying questioned after Gulf barramundi fail to spawn for two years
A remote Queensland Gulf community is concerned their local council’s mosquito control program could destroy the local barramundi industry after the hatchery failed to produce spawn for almost two years.,, Local fisherman Mathew Donald is among those concerned about the impacts of mosquito spraying on the fishing and tourism industries across north Queensland.,, Carpentaria Shire Mayor Jack Bawden told the ABC there were two successful spawns around the time the spraying was stopped, which prompted council to further investigate the effects,,, >click to read< 18:51
State of Washinton cancels lease at site of salmon net-pen collapse
Washington state officials on Sunday canceled a lease with Cooke Aquaculture Pacific at the site where net pens holding farmed Atlantic salmon collapsed last summer, releasing tens of thousands non-native fish into Puget Sound. The decision comes days after a multi-agency state investigation found the Canada-based company negligent for failing to adequately clean its nets, saying that directly contributed to the net-pen failure in August at the facility. >click to read< 17:54
Local fishermen, mining companies divided over fish habitat
Local fishermen and mining companies are picking sides this week over stringent new rules for construction on Alaska salmon habitat. One group did it through letters to a legislator. The other, with paper of a different sort: a $200,000 contribution. The Stand for Salmon initiative and a similar bill known as House Bill 199 establish a new procedure for construction permits on fish habitat issued by Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It’s more complicated than existing permitting, mining companies say, and would be prohibitively expensive for construction,, >click to read<16:49
North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting February 5-12, 2018 in Seattle
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council will meet the week of February 5-12, 2018 at the Renaissance Hotel, 515 Madison Street, Seattle, WA. The Agenda >click here< and Schedule >click here< are available as well as a list of review documents and the dates they are available. Listen Online: Council meeting will be broadcast live beginning February 8, 2018 >notice, click here<13:31
Carl Roby, tuna fisherman
A white scar carved across Carl Roby’s hand tells the story of the time a tuna, a creature he has spent decades harvesting, almost won. It was late. He and his crew were pulling in the miles’ worth of line they strung out earlier that day with hundreds of hooks. It’s methodical work, pulling the line in hand-over-hand and raveling it back onto the spools. The bright spot is when a yellowfin tuna, sleek, strong and worth hundreds, glimmers just under the water. Roby had been fishing for decades at this point. He started as a teenager in the 1970s when regulations weren’t as confining, spending summers working on charter boats out of Captain Anderson’s Marina. He liked it, and eventually he moved on to bigger fish — yellowfin tuna. >click to read< 12:20
Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen asked for input on future of industry
Insight and input from commercial fishing professionals is being sought after for a draft document outlining strategies for the industry’s future. The comment period will last from Feb. 1 through March 16, and an information session for commercial fishing members will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 6 at Whaler’s Brewing from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The document, Rhode Island Commercial Fisheries Blueprint for Resilience, was developed from a two-year process called the Resilient Fisheries RI Project, which included extensive outreach to the commercial fishing industry. >click to read< 10:18 
Three Fishermen and Their Boat Rescued Near Humboldt Bay
The Coast Guard aided three fishermen in distress after the engine room on their vessel began flooding near Humboldt Bay, Saturday. A good Samaritan issued a mayday Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay watchstanders via VHF-FM channel 16 around 10 a.m., reporting that the commercial fishing vessel Gerry B was taking on water and had no electrical power or communications eight miles south of the Humboldt jetties. The fishermen were reportedly donning life jackets and preparing to abandon ship. >click to read< >Video<09:11
Maine men sentenced to probation, fines for trafficking baby eels
Two Maine men were sentenced Thursday to serve federal probation and to pay fines for their roles in an interstate baby eel trafficking ring. Michael Squillace, 40, of Woolwich, and John Pinkham, 51, of Bath, each pleaded guilty last summer to trafficking in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illegally harvested baby eels, or elvers. They are among 19 men charged in federal court in three different states with illegally catching, selling and transporting more,,, >click to read< 21:00
Maine shutting down more scallop areas to protect harvest
Maine officials say the state’s shutting down a few high traffic scallop fishing areas to prevent overfishing. The Maine Department of Marine Resource is closing Sand and Machias bays and Lower Englishman Bay starting on Sunday. It’s also shutting down parts of Cobscook Bay, which is the most fertile scallop fishing ground in Maine. >click to read< 19:13
State attorneys general are spoiling for a fight over Trump Administration’s offshore drilling plan
As Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke prepared to travel to the Carolinas to discuss offshore drilling, state attorneys general condemned the Trump administration’s plan to expand development of oil and gas in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as “outrageous” and “reckless.” Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D), one of a dozen state attorneys general on the two coasts to co-sign a letter Thursday that called on Zinke to cancel the proposal, said, “We intend to sue if they go forward with this, unquestionably. We’re going to do everything we possibly can to stop it.” >click to read< 17:49
Experts Suck at Predicting the Future
SPOTLIGHT: 50 years ago, Paul Ehrlich made predictions about the future that weren’t slightly wrong – they were off by a country mile. BIG PICTURE: Experts know a great deal, but only about their own area of specialty (and even then, many of their ideas may rest on ambiguous evidence and subjective judgment). American biologist Paul Ehrlich attracted media attention in the late 1960s by forecasting imminent ecological collapse, resource depletion, and widespread famine. >click to read< 13:15 
A new push to deregulate America’s oceans and backcountry
Recent decisions at the Interior and Commerce departments are opening the doors for more commercial exploitation of US fisheries and land resources. Advocates say the changes finally allow local voices to be heard. Critics say science is being ignored in favor of industry.,, But while these lands and waters may belong to every American, some feel particularly invested, including the roughnecks, loggers, fishermen, hunters, snowmobilers, and miners who eke out tough livings from rough but beautiful surroundings. Many of them, like New Hampshire boat owner, biologist, and former fishery council member Ellen Goethel, have watched resources grow increasingly off-limits under what she calls a “one-size-fits-all” conservation approach implemented by the Obama administration. >click to read< 11:48
Cuomo’s latest green-power fiasco
Since 2015, Gov. Cuomo has been hyping his scheme to remake the state’s electric grid so that by 2030 half of the state’s electricity will come from renewable sources.,, In Albany, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority released its “offshore-wind master plan.” Why is the governor pushing so hard for offshore wind? The answer’s simple: The rural backlash against Big Wind is growing daily. The onshore backlash has left Cuomo with no choice but to move his renewable-energy obsession offshore. >click to read< 10:00
Fishing for Felony
Not often do Alaska’s notorious fish wars take a turn toward jail. Usually they are the source of much stomping and snorting at public meetings, and maybe some gunwale banging at sea. Most often they feature angry set-gillnet fishermen snarling at anglers or troll fishermen ranting against purse seiners and drift gillnetters, or subsistence fishermen mad at everyone not a subsistence fishermen. Rarely, almost never, do these battles turn violent. Unprecedented is the only word to describe a violent encounter at sea that features as the villian a friendly young woman who stars in her own music video and is locally known for her prowess as a downhill skier. >click to read< 09:09
GARFO Releases 2017 Year in Review Report
The Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office is proud to announce the release of our third annual Year in Review report. In 2017, we continued to work toward our goals of sustainable use of living marine resources, conservation of the habitats upon which these resources depend, and the protection of endangered species and marine mammals. >click to read< 19:30
Unalaska gets new pollock plant
The city of Unalaska has a big new fish processor, but it’s not new to Unalaska Island. The Northern Victor, owned by Icicle Seafoods, is now inside city limits, on Ballyhoo Road, docked permanently in Dutch Harbor, the famous body of water within the municipal boundaries of Unalaska. Until late last year, the 380-foot-long vessel was located across the mountains, in Beaver Inlet, a bay on the south side of Unalaska Island. >click to read< 18:05
Kayak Rescues Man Who Can’t Swim Off Burning Crab Boat
According to Swinomish Tribal Police Chief Lou D’Amelio, there was only one occupant on the boat and no injuries were reported. So shoutout to that brave woman who was able to rescue that dude. The Swinomish Tribal Police Department and the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office responded with boats and were able to extinguish the fire. >Video. click to read< 16:40
