Daily Archives: August 11, 2018
Book to be published! PORT BLISS – Five men, one woman, each going to sea seeking answers.
Imagine if you will, a paraplegic who traded his position as captain of a commercial shrimping vessel for a wheelchair at the tender age of 22 – now in his 60’s. For Bill Allen, a spinal cord injury from 40 years ago was life changing to say the least…”Why God?” Along came Faye Passanisi, who accidentally joined a commercial fishing group. A few months later, she was noticed by Bill for her inspirational daily posts on social media – as well as the fact that she grew up in the oldest seaport in America. Bill saw all the right emotions in her and invited her to co-write PORT BLISS, along with another fantastic story teller – JW Gooding. John has authored a book, Pack your Seabag and has many years working in and on the water with lots of stories to tell. And he tells them well, keeps you wanting more.PORT BLISS is the writing debut for both Bill Allen and Faye Passanisi. This was a dream of Bill’s for several years and has finally come to fruition. >click to read<19:29
Local fishermen like to clean up on the water. This certainly wasn’t what they had in mind.
Red tide is still hanging around Manatee County’s coastline, making waters murky and beach conditions unpleasant. There are a lot fewer dead fish floating in the water, though. That is thanks in part to local fisherman Nathan Meschelle, who operates a commercial fishing operation called Inseine Fish Harvest out of Palma Sola. Knowing that he would be temporarily out of work when red tide arrived, Meschelle called Manatee commissioner Carol Whitmore and offered to help clean up in the aftermath. Dean Jones, public works manager for the city of Anna Maria, reached out right away.>click to read<16:43
Fisheries and Oceans quietly cancels plans to award Indigenous surf clam licence
The federal government says it has cancelled plans to issue a controversial clam fishing licence to a First Nations company with ties to the Liberal party and several sitting Liberal MPs — including the former fisheries minister. A news release from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the process to issue a fourth licence to harvest arctic surf clam off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia was cancelled in early July, and that it won’t be issued this year at all. That multimillion-dollar licence was supposed to go to the Five Nations Clam Co., a company court documents suggest did not initially meet key eligibility requirements spelled out in the government’s tender process. >click to read<15:16
The Blessing is more than the race
I have been a commercial fisherman in and out of Point Judith for going on 50 years. I was there in 1972 for the first Blessing Of The Fleet, and I’ve hardly missed one since. In those 40 odd years I’ve watched Galilee and Point Judith both undergo radical transformation. We went from being a small fishing port where Captains lived along the docks, to a massive powerhouse in the 80s, to the near collapse in the early aughts and now back to something of a revival. And of course, in that time, we became a parking lot for Block Island. But the one thing that has remained constant has been the tight knit community of fishermen and their families. I am writing because I feel that the fishing boats, the basis of the entire event, are slowly falling by the wayside in the media. >click to read<11:19
‘Gorgeous fish’: Steveston fishery workers haul in sockeye salmon bounty
Trung Nguyen, selling sockeye off his boat at the Steveston Pier for $8 a pound, has been waiting four years for this moment. Nguyen and other commercial fishery workers returned to the Richmond harbour Thursday with coolers full of salmon after being allowed out on the Fraser River Wednesday to catch salmon. The 2018 run is expected to be the biggest since 2014 and fishery workers had 24 hours to take advantage of the bounty. Strong runs come in four-year cycles and this year’s could eclipse 20 million fish. “Nice and firm. Gorgeous fish,” Nguyen said, showing a potential buyer an example of his haul. “We haven’t had an opening for four years, so this is a big year.” >click to read<09:46
New England/Mid-Atlantic – Illex Squid Directed Fishery Closes August 15
Effective at noon on August 15, 2018, vessels are prohibited from fishing for or landing more than 10,000 lb of Illex squid per trip per calendar day in or from federal waters through December 31, 2018. Landings information analyzed by NOAA Fisheries projects the Illex squid fishery will meet 95 percent of the annual quota for the 2018 fishing year by August 15, 2018. NOAA Fisheries is closing the directed fishery in federal waters through the end of the fishing year, December 31, 2018. >click to read<09:18
Large pogy catch good news for Maine lobstermen who feared bait shortage
All of the landings have yet to be counted, but officials say it is likely that an unusually large pogy fleet will have caught almost 7 million pounds of the fish, which is more than double last year’s landings. This comes as especially good news for Maine lobstermen, who use pogies to bait their traps when the herring supply runs low, as it is expected to this year. “Every pogy used was herring not used,” said Kristan Porter, a Cutler lobsterman and president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, which has been working with its members to prepare them for the herring shortage. >click to read<07:09
