Daily Archives: June 25, 2018
The impossible journey of the juvenile coho
As a Ph.D. student with the University of Washington’s Alaska Salmon Program, Jonny Armstrong — now assistant professor at Oregon State University’s Fish and Wildlife Department — snorkeled the Wood River in the Bristol Bay watershed. He soon encountered a mystery: juvenile coho as much as a mile from the nearest sockeye spawning ground had sockeye eggs in their stomachs. Sockeye lay their eggs in cold water, where there’s lots of oxygen. A juvenile coho, however, doesn’t best digest sockeye eggs in that water — cold slows its digestion, meaning if it stayed there, it might need a week to process just one meal. >click to read<22:38
Captain of scorched fishing vessel mourns loss of ‘dream’ boat
It’s been three days since Stan Bennett and his crew were rescued safe and sound after issuing a mayday from their burning fishing vessel, and now they’re trying to figure out how to best chart their new course forward. According to the Coast Guard, the 63-foot Challenger Traveler — which Captain Bennett, and his brother Derwin, used as a crab fishing boat — burned to the water line and sank following a dramatic evacuation on Friday.,,, Bennett’s also looking for the fishing gear and cages he left behind on the ocean, where his crew had dropped 500 pots. >click to read<20:24
Wild salmon return to Bay Area markets
Local wild king salmon are back in Bay Area markets and restaurants after the commercial season reopened last week from Pigeon Point (near Half Moon Bay) south to the Mexico border. “The fleet just found a school of beautiful salmon,” San Francisco fisherwoman Sarah Bates said via a text from her boat, the Bounty. This current window of commercial salmon season is scheduled to last from June 19 to June 30. Bates said the fleet had to wait until about the third day of the opener to start fishing, once the school moved south of the Pigeon Point line with the movement of prevailing currents and feed. >click to read<19:43
No, lobsters aren’t actually immortal: The science behind their long lives
In 2017, a massive 22-pound lobster named Louie, estimated by some sources to be 132 years old at the time, was pardoned after spending 20 years at a seafood restaurant in Island Park, New York. He was later deposited in the nearby coastal waters, complete with a ceremonial send-off. This story was revived in a recent Twitter conversation about the longevity of the crustacean, which has only been a dining delicacy in the United States since the mid-19th century, suggested lobsters may be immortal (Technically, Twitter user @JUNIUS_64 theorized the lobsters “made a deal with the devil for conditional immortality and it backfired on them”). The sort of “immortality” of lobsters is linked to telomeres–a structure on the end of a chromosome–that is constantly repaired in lobsters. >click to read<15:58
Stranded fox rescued from iceberg by fishermen who fed him Vienna sausages
An Arctic fox generally isn’t part of a crab fishing boat’s bycatch, but one crew from southern Labrador managed just that last week. Alan Russell of St. Lewis said his ship was about seven kilometres offshore when they spotted something on a nearby iceberg. “We seen something on the ice. Wasn’t sure what it was,” Russell told CBC’s Labrador Morning. “So we got up closer to it. It was a little fox, Arctic fox. And he wasn’t very big. He was soaking wet, and the gulls was trying to pick at him.” >click to read<14:06
A fishermen had his fish stolen at knife-point while three miles out at sea.
A fisherman has been robbed at knife-point while three miles out at sea. Police report a lone man was fishing in the channel of Slapton Sands, off the coast of South Devon, when two men an inflatable boat approached. After the fisherman confronted the men, they threatened him with a knife, cut his nets and stole his catch. Local reports say the fisherman had a quantity of plaice and Dover sole stolen. Both are popular fish, and the latter is high-end: a Dover selling for £40 or more in a restaurant is not uncommon. A theft at sea like this is extremely rare, concerning the fishing community. >click to read<12:09
Fife firm making a splash with lobster pod storage system.
A Fife firm is aiming to double sales over the next two years as it rolls out a shellfish storage system that it believes will revolutionise the fishing industry. Family-owned Todd Fish Tech, which is based in Dalgety Bay, has patented its Lobster Pod product, which is said to increase the survival rate of landed lobsters, crab and langoustine from one or two days to up to six months. Instead of storing the shellfish in polystyrene trays or heavy tanks of water, they are held in individual plastic palettes with chilled and filtered water. These reduce stress and damage and help keep the creatures healthy. >click to read<11:31
US imports record amount of seafood in 2017
The United States imported more seafood last year than at any point in its history, and the nation’s trade deficit in the sector is growing, federal data show. The U.S. imported more than 6 billion pounds of seafood valued at more than $21.5 billion in 2017, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees American fisheries. The country exported more than 3.6 billion pounds valued at about $6 billion. The widening gap comes at a time when Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who heads the federal agency that includes NOAA, has identified reducing the deficit as a priority for the government. >click to read<09:46
U.S. House set to vote on key fisheries bill, HR-200, Tuesday
It’s called the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, or H.R. 200. It’s also referred to as the Modern Fish Act. Its author, Rep. Don Young, says the bill would update and improve the Magnuson Stevens Act, the primary law that guides federal fisheries regulators. “Reauthorizing the MSA will ensure a proper balance between the biological needs of fish stocks and the economic needs of fishermen and coastal communities,” Young said after the House Natural Resources Committee approved his bill in December. “MSA has not been reauthorized since 2006. It is long past time for this Congress to act and support our nation’s fisheries.” >click to read< Read the HR-200 Bill->click here< 08:39
