Daily Archives: April 11, 2018
Striped bass population triples in Gulf of St. Lawrence
The remarkable recovery of striped bass in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence reached unprecedented levels in 2017, according to the latest assessment from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Department scientists say the spawning population tripled between 2016 and 2017 and is now estimated at one million fish — a 100-fold increase from the 1990s. In addition to the population rebound, tagged striped bass from the Gulf were recovered from Rimouski, Que., north to Labrador for the first time in 2017. In the Forteau Bay area of Labrador, catches of tens of thousands were reported. >click to read<18:50
PFMC Sets West Coast Salmon Season Dates
This week the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that provide recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the Pacific coast, and achieve conservation goals for the numerous individual salmon stocks on the West Coast. The recommendation will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 1, 2018. “It has been another challenging year for the Council, its advisors, fishery stakeholders and the public as we strive to balance fishing opportunities with the conservation needs we are facing on Chinook and coho salmon stocks, both north and south of Cape Falcon,” said Council Executive Director Chuck Tracy. >click to read<17:52
Lobster shell disease nudges up slightly off of Maine
A disease that disfigures lobsters has ticked up slightly in Maine in the last couple of years, but authorities and scientists say it’s not time to sound the alarm. The disease, often called epizootic shell disease, is a bacterial infection that makes lobsters impossible to sell as food, eating away at their shells and sometimes killing them. The Maine Department of Marine Resources said researchers found the disease in about 1 percent of lobsters last year. >click to read<16:41
SHELL GAME
Saving Florida’s oysters is a shell game. The right answer is under three domes. Try to follow while the cups whizz by, shifting, swirling. Shell 1: An empty oyster bay. Unemployment. Poverty. But also history. Culture. Shell 2: A slick farming industry that could render the Florida oysterman finally, permanently extinct. Shell 3: The government, doling out money and regulations that might do more harm than good. In a place where everybody’s livelihood is yoked to the water, you have to follow the shells. T.J. Ward was born the year after his grandfather had the throat cancer surgery. T.J. never heard his natural voice. The seaman’s single clap would cut through the salt air on the docks of Apalachicola louder than words could. >click to read<15:00
C Toms delivers Our David George
A new twin-rig trawler has been delivered by the C. Toms & Son yard to fishing company North Devon Trawlers, a joint venture between fisherman Scott Wharton and Barnstaple processor Coombe Fisheries. Our David George is designed to alternate twin-rig trawling and scalloping, with capacity to switch over in only a few hours, reports Phil Lockley. The alloy shelter deck can be unbolted and removed within two hours, providing access to the goose-neck to take the derricks. This makes it possible to switch between twin-rigging one day and beam,,, >click to read<13:19
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 45′ Stanley Scalloper with permits, 6 Cylinder Iveco 8210, 8 KW Lister
Specifications, information and 28 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >Click here<12:13
Grand Bank fisherman launches rebuilt boat
Grand Bank’s Jason Matthews, unlike most Fortune Bay fishers, didn’t get much of a break this past winter. Once the 2017 fishing season wound down in late October, he pulled his 40-ft. Cape Island boat out of the water and immediately started to rebuild the craft to a design much more to his liking. For five months he had his “nose to the grindstone” changing the vessel completely. With the help of a couple of friends he cut one foot off the length of the vessel and changed the deck from a “drop deck” to an entirely flat one,,, >click to read<11:18
Bayou Region Shrimpers hope blessings are on the way
A blessing of boats in Chauvin Sunday marked the continuation of a sacred tradition in the Bayou Region, as anticipation grows for word that the fleets of various communities can move out onto the water and lower their nets. If preliminary estimates continue on their course, that could happen sooner than later. Biologists for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reported at a meeting last week that early tests show the potential for a sizeable crop this year. >click to read<10:18
The connection between caplin, cod and seals – Capt. Wilfred Bartlett (retired)
Growing up with my grandfather, every year we would go out in the trap skiff to get a load of caplin for the gardens; no store-bought fertilizer them days. You did not have to search for caplin back then — they would land in the same beaches every year. I returned to the fishery in 1977, spent the winters sealing — good market, good prices, could sell seal meat for canning. You could cut open a mature harp seal and fill a five-gallon bucket with caplin, not anymore. The seal hunt continued until the early ’80s, until the anti-sealing groups descended on this province like a flock of vultures. >click to read<08:48
