Monthly Archives: May 2018
Lobster dispute boils over in Guysborough County
“Somebody’s going to be killed,” Austin Chambers hollered at the Mountie, pounding his fist into an open hand. The officer from the Sherbrooke detachment had been waiting on one of Ecum Secum’s wharves Wednesday afternoon to speak to Chambers about an escalating feud over lobster grounds between two sets of fishermen. Chambers arrived at the wharf in a rage, with lobster to unload and a story to tell. “He came right at us, would have split us right in two,” said Chambers. Meanwhile, at a wharf four kilometres away in Marie Joseph, Eric Pace had a different version of what transpired earlier Wednesday on the lobster grounds off Ecum Secum. >click to read<10:20
Fishing for solutions through legislation
The United States Congress is currently considering legislation that could affect the management of fisheries in the Northwest and directly impact local fishing. One of the bills being considered addresses the issue of sea lion predation on endangered stocks of salmon and steelhead. Another would effectively reverse a recent judge’s decision to increase spill at Columbia River and Snake River dams to improve downstream migration. There are also two bills that would amend the Magnuson-Stevens act, which regulates ocean fisheries. The Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act, or H.R. 2083, would amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972., H.R. 3144, H.R. 2023, H.R. 200 >click to read<09:00
Washington must come to grips with offshore wind conflicts
Offshore wind energy developers have momentum building for them in East Coast waters. But other maritime industries want to ease up on the throttle. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management recently held another round of public meetings in New Jersey and New York, gathering information for what could be a future round of lease offerings in the New York Bight. Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke has promised to help fast track future permitting. .,,, Commercial fishermen have a case in federal court over the Statoil lease, and litigation seems certain to reignite. “We have the Magnuson Act (federal fisheries law) because we want to have American fishing grounds for American fishermen,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for fishing company Seafreeze Ltd., North Kingstown, R.I. “BOEM is plowing ahead regardless. They have not slowed down.” >click to read<22:42
South Shore lobstermen finally put traps in water
South Shore lobstermen are back on the water this week after more than a three month ban on lobster fishing, aimed at protecting endangered whales. The ban was supposed to be from Feb. 1 to April 30, but an additional two weeks was added because whales were spotted close to the shore last month. In all, local lobstermen have gone 15 weeks without pulling a trap or making a sale. “We’re going into the season broke, let’s put it that way,” fisherman Dana Blackman said Wednesday morning, the day after lobster fishing resumed.,, The ban affects about 75 lobster boats in Marshfield and Scituate alone. >click to read<17:46
Fishing and seafood industry raises questions and concerns during MPA information session with DFO in Yarmouth
There was a lot of agreement and disagreement when DFO representatives met with the fishing industry to consult and share information about marine protected areas (MPAs) during a recent session in Yarmouth. Many in the room were in agreement that they disagree with aspects of the federal government’s MPA plan and worry about the impact on the fishing and seafood industry. The federal government has committed to putting in place MPAs to help protect species and ecosystems and there national benchmarks have been set out. >click to read<15:53
Northern District king salmon setnetters stay closed
Subsistence fishermen in part of the Susitna River drainage will be able to harvest a few kings, but commercial fishermen in Northern Cook Inlet will remain closed for now. The Board of Fisheries considered two emergency petitions Monday related to the preseason restrictions of king salmon fishing in northern Cook Inlet after preseason forecasts indicated that the Deshka River would not see enough king salmon returning to meet its escapement goals. The board approved an action related to a petition from the Mt. Yenlo Fish and Game Advisory Committee, which requested limited subsistence fishing opportunity for king salmon on the upper Yentna River, and denied another asking for reconsideration of the commercial fishery closure from the Tyonek Fish and Game Advisory Committee. >click to read<
DFO rejects rock crab plan to ease lobster bait shortage
The P.E.I. government has asked for the rock crab fishery to open early to help with a lobster bait shortage, but the request has been rejected by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The province was thinking rock crab could be an alternative for lobster bait. There is a shortage of gaspereau that’s used for bait because of the flooding in New Brunswick. Provincial Fisheries Minister Robert Henderson said herring stock seems to be on the low side right now as well. The request to open the fishery early came from western Northumberland Strait fishermen. >click to read<14:05
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: Canadian Built 115ft. Steel Dragger, Seiner, Tuna, 830HP MTU 2000 Diesel
Specifications, information and 16 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >Click here<13:18
Community pitches in to help get shrimp boat back out to sea
Five days and still no change. Shrimp boat Big Earl has been stuck on Holden Beach since last week is still there. Captain Virgil Coleman was hoping tonight was the night to get the boat back to sea. he tide this morning didn’t help dislodge the boat from the sand as the captain had hoped. Coleman says they have been digging a trench all around the boat Tuesday but was unsuccessful of getting the boat back out during high tide this evening.>click to read<12:44
MPAs – DFO will stifle lucrative industry by stuffing fishermen into new eco-box
I never thought I’d become a fisherman growing up. I always wanted something bigger. To make a real difference, you know —so after graduating top 10 in my class at Barrington Municipal High School, off to Acadia University I went, with no real direction, just thinking that there’s got to be something better than fishing out there. It took me three semesters, but I figured it out. There wasn’t.,, Our federal government has made some sort of an agreement on an international level to protect important habitat here off our coast. So I’m thinking, “Great, that’s super news, right? Fish forever, right?” >click to read<11:32
First North Atlantic right whale of season seen off N.S. amid fishing concerns
The first North Atlantic right whale of the season has been spotted in waters off eastern Cape Breton amid concerns from fishermen that measures meant to protect the endangered mammals have led to increased fishing activity and greater risk. Fisheries officials said late Tuesday that one of their surveillance flights had reported a right whale sighting in Canadian waters after it likely transited from wintering grounds off the U.S. seaboard. “Based on the information DFO has at this time, there is no immediate plan to implement any temporary measures. At this time fishing will continue, but harvesters should be on alert.”>click to read<10:30
Pesticides Contaminate Fish Farms, Lawsuit in Canada moves forward
Northern Harvest Sea Farms, an ocean-based fish farm in New Brunswick, Canada, was scheduled to appear in court yesterday to answer legal charges stemming from the off-label use of an unnamed pesticide added to its operations to combat severe sea lice outbreaks. The company holds nine licenses for farmed Atlantic salmon cages on the Bay of Fundy, as well as for fish farms off the Newfoundland coast. Sea lice outbreaks are a common at over-crowded, ocean-based fish farms because such facilities afford the optimum conditions for rapidly reproducing and spreading lice. In response, some companies have turned to using illegal and off-label pesticide applications to stave off the problem, which causes huge farmed salmon kills.>click to read< 09:37
FISH-NL calling on labour board to shed thousands from FFAW list
The Federation of Independent Seafood Harvesters (FISH-NL) is arguing that the ranks of inshore harvesters in the province’s fisheries union is swollen to nearly twice its actual size by individuals with no serious connection to the industry. As a result, it wants the labour relations board to strip thousands of card-carrying members of their right to vote in any certification process. “Everybody who pays dues is not a harvester,” FISH-NL president Ryan Cleary told reporters.,,, “We just want bona fide, full-time boots on the deck harvesters to participate in a vote,” >click to read<20:31
Pacific Salmon Treaty 3.0 looms for B.C. fishing industry
It has been nearly 20 years since a renegotiation of the Pacific Salmon Treaty with the U.S. sparked a war between the B.C. government, Ottawa and the U.S. That fight ended with Ottawa trying to expropriate a provincially owned seabed at Nanoose Bay – used for a joint Canadian-American submarine and torpedo test range – and generated such hostility that angry B.C. fishermen corralled an American ferry and held it hostage for two days in Prince Rupert in 1997.,,, The treaty expires at the end of this year. American and Canadian negotiators have been quietly working on its renewal for 18 months, said Brian Riddell, who is a Canadian commissioner to the Pacific Salmon Commission. >click to read<18:49
How stone crab season survived a hurricane
The lobster season ended for many before it really had much of a chance to begin. But for those who fish both stone crabs and lobster, high market prices for stone crabs and steady production this season, which ends this week, was what they needed to stay afloat after Irma. The hurricane had displaced or destroyed anywhere from half to a third of the 350,000 lobster traps fished in the Keys during the season that runs from Aug. 6 to March 31. “It wasn’t a great season, and it wasn’t a terrible season,” George Niles, Lower Keys commercial trap fisherman said,,, >click to read<16:46
Board of Fisheries denies petition on hatcheries
The members of the Board of Fisheries agree that Pacific salmon hatchery impacts on wild salmon stocks are concerning, but they aren’t clear on what to do to address them yet. At a meeting Monday to consider emergency petitions, the board declined to consider an emergency petition submitted by the Kenai River Sportfishing Association and signed by a variety of Southcentral Alaska sportfishing organizations expressing concern about a hatchery operation permit. Specifically, the petition asked the board to intervene in a permit modification procedure for the Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation to increase its pink salmon egg take this season by 20 million. >click to read<15:35
Expert questions BP’s drilling plans for offshore Nova Scotia
An engineering expert and former oil industry consultant has raised the alarm on BP Canada Energy Group’s plans to drill off Nova Scotia. “Given BP’s current proposals for exploratory drilling offshore Nova Scotia, the likelihood of an uncontrolled blowout exceeds the upper limits for tolerability of exploratory well drilling risks,” said Robert Bea in his risk analysis of BP’s plans.,, “Based on the information provided by BP, the blowout risk is clearly not acceptable,” Bea said in an interview Monday. >click to read<
Halibut surplus and competition on East Coast drives dock prices down
Halibut prices have fallen about $2 per pound, and decreasing demand has left plenty sitting in the freezer from last year. Billy Sullivan owns a small fish-buying operation in Homer, and he said years of historically high prices – about $20 to $30 per pound at your typical supermarket – have driven consumers away from purchasing Pacific halibut.,, Consumers are reluctant to buy expensive fillets in grocery stores and restaurants. A new competitor also is taking over a large portion of the market. “They went and found alternatives to expensive halibut and the East Coast fish fills in,” Sullivan said. >click to read<12:18
Court dismissal ends lobster dealer’s potboiler
A saga involving allegations of skullduggery by a Mount Desert Island lobster dealer on the waters of Blue Hill Bay reached its final chapter last week in Ellsworth. A Superior Court judge dismissed a single charge against Donald Crabtree of failing to keep required records or not reporting all of his lobster purchases. The story began in the summer of 2015 with an investigation by Maine Marine Patrol officers who had heard complaints that Crabtree was buying lobsters on a barge moored outside Seal Cove in Blue Hill Bay but wasn’t filing the required landings reports with the Department of Marine Resources. >click to read< 11:39
Trap Gear Closure and Speed Limit in Cape Cod Bay Lifted Today (Tuesday, May 15, 2018)
May 14, 2018 Aerial Survey shows that right whales have departed Cape Cod Bay The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS) conducted an aerial survey of Cape Cod Bay yesterday (Monday, May 14, 2018) as part of DMF’s ongoing right whale conservation efforts. Clear weather conditions allowed PCCS’ aerial survey team to complete an entire survey of the Bay and no right whales were observed in the Bay. Consequently, DMF has lifted its emergency regulatory closure on the setting of lobster traps and the speed limit of 10 knots or less on small vessels (smaller than 65’) in Cape Cod Bay effective today, Tuesday May 15, 2018. >click to read<11:03
N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission To Consider Changes To Shrimp Trawling Industry
The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission plans to discuss and possibly vote on new gear requirements in the shrimp trawl fishery at their quarterly business meeting in New Bern on Wednesday and Thursday. A three-year study identified four new gear configurations that reduce finfish bycatch by at least 40 percent. The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, NOAA Fisheries and N.C. Sea Grant worked with commercial fishermen and local net makers to test 14 different trawl net configurations. >click to read<10:09
Working group is confident it’s found ways to cut down on N.C. shrimp bycatch – >click to read<10:50
Estimating similarity in benthic communities over decades and in areas open and closed to fishing in the central Gulf of Maine
ABSTRACT: The ledges and banks of the central Gulf of Maine (i.e. Fippennies Ledge, Jeffreys Ledge, Cashes Ledge, and Platts Bank) have supported groundfish and Atlantic sea scallop fisheries for centuries. The benthic community of Fippennies Ledge was evaluated and compared during 2 time periods separated by more than 2 decades, the first based on a series of photographs collected during manned submersible dives conducted in 1986 and 1987 and the second using photographs collected during drop camera video surveys conducted in 2009 to 2014. >click to read<21:08
Coast Guard responds to report of collision between a fishing vessel and a tanker
The Coast Guard Sector New York is responding to a report of a collision at sea Saturday evening, involving the loaded tankship Tofteviken and the commercial fishing vessel Polaris. The collision allegedly occurred nearly 30 miles southeast of Bridgehampton, New York. The Tofteviken was transiting to New York while the Polaris was transiting back to its homeport in Massachusetts after a night of fishing. The Polaris, an 84-foot steel vessel built in 2007, suffered damage to its bow and outrigger. There were seven people aboard at the time of collision with no report of injuries. The vessel was able to return to its homeport safely. >click to read<20:10
Halibut trash
Only in Alaska, which likes to claim title to the world’s “best-managed fisheries,” would halibut now retailing at prices in excess of $20 per pound be ground into fish meal to feed animals, shrimp and maybe even farmed salmon – the bane of Alaska commercial fishermen. Photos of halibut and other, trawl-caught bottomfish headed for the grinder emerged from Kodiak this weekend as Alaska fishermen started into a fishing season where the targeted harvest of halibut by both commercial fishermen and anglers has been seriously restricted because of conservation concerns. >click to read<18:20
The Age of Petty Tyrannies
“Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers’ enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves.,,,” We labor today under the weight of countless tyrannies, large and small, carried out in the name of the national good by an elite class of government officials who are largely insulated from the ill effects of their actions. We, the middling classes, are not so fortunate.,,, This is the mindset that tried to penalize a fisherman with 20 years’ jail time for throwing fish that were too small back into the water. John Yates, a commercial fisherman,,, >click to read<
British fisherman, 21, is rescued by coastguard helicopter after being bitten by shark off coast of Cornwall
A young British fisherman has been airlifted to hospital with leg injuries after being bitten by a shark off the coast of Cornwall. The 21-year-old, named as Max Berryman, was bitten by the Porbeagle shark after it was hauled aboard a fishing boat yesterday morning. The crew of the Govenek of Ladram quickly sterilised and dressed his leg wound before asking HM Coastguard for medical assistance. The Coastguard search and rescue helicopter was then sent from Newquay to the 23m vessel, positioned about 120 miles from Land’s End. >click to read<13:17
Correction: Lobster Shellshock-Q&A story
In a story May 13 about lobster shell strength, The Associated Press reported erroneously that marine biogeochemist Justin Ries attributed the collapse of the southern New England lobster fishery to shell disease. He attributed it to overfishing and population shifts caused by warming waters. A corrected version of the story is below: Lobster industry fears weaker shells, but evidence is mixed. The globalization of the American lobster business has spurred fears within the industry that lobsters’ shells are getting weaker, but scientific evidence about the issue paints a complicated picture. >click to read<11:24
Senate Should Confirm Barry Myers to Lead NOAA
NOAA – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – needs its leader! President Trump nominated Barry Lee Myers, the CEO of AccuWeather, to the post in mid-October. The Senate Commerce Committee has twice advanced Myers’ nomination to the full Senate. All that’s needed to fill this important job is a majority vote on the Senate floor, which both Democrats and Republicans expect to happen. Unfortunately, partisan politics keeps getting in the way, delaying the vote. >click to read<10:06
Shrimp Boat F/V Big Earl still on the beach, a fundraiser was started to help with expences to pull her off
A shrimp boat stuck on the beach? It’s happening and the saga has reached Day 4. Yes, a shrimp boat dubbed ‘Big Earl’ got stuck in the sand on Holden Beach Thursday. The boat was recently purchased by its owner and was on its first trip out according to a WFMY News 2 viewer. The viewer submitted a video of the boat taken Sunday morning. They plan to try again Sunday evening. A GoFundMe page has even been started for Big Earl to help with damages and towing expenses. >click here for the fundraiser by Tyler Scott Bullock< >click to read< 21:09
‘He just kept the place alive’: Port Hood fire chief mourns colleague’s death
Fire Chief D.F. Beaton said Hugh Watts, 39, was a close friend with a great sense of humour. “Hugh was a very good firefighter. We just loved to see him come through the door because we were always in for a good evening. He’d tell jokes, stories, he just kept the place alive when he was here,” Beaton said. Watts and Glen MacDonald, 58, died Saturday when the fishing boat they were on capsized off the coast of Colindale, N.S., early Saturday morning. Watts’ stepson was also on board the vessel, but the 18-year-old managed to safely make it back to shore. >click to read< 15:28
