Daily Archives: October 13, 2018

A vessel for their dreams: Volunteers work to finish replica of oyster dredge

Out on Oyster Bay on a dreary, drizzly day, the 117-year-old Joseph B. Glancy was raking oysters from the bay floor. At the same time, in a blue-gray metal shed on the southern shore of the bay, volunteers were working with two professional shipwrights to bring to life a reproduction of the Ida May, a sister ship of the Glancy. To ensure that Oyster Bay’s rich maritime history remains living history and not something just learned in school or at a museum, a nonprofit organization has been working for seven years to build a new Ida May. The Christeen Oyster Sloop Preservation Corp.’s initial intention was to restore the original Ida May, which plucked oysters and clams from Oyster Bay from 1925 to 2003. But it deteriorated beyond repair while the restoration effort was being organized and was demolished in late 2010. >click to read<16:23

Ropes are latest flashpoint in tug of war over right whales

The lobster industry is willing to consider switching to weaker rope to protect the endangered right whale from deadly entanglements, but whale defenders say that doesn’t go far enough to help a species that can’t bear even one more death. A team of scientists, regulators, animal rights groups and fishermen met this week in Providence to review proposals,,, The team is advising the National Marine Fisheries Service on how to prevent whales from getting entangled in fishing gear as they migrate, feed and mate as they travel back and forth along the East Coast of the United States and Canada. >click to read<11:54

“It’s always excitement”- Baby lobster numbers point to healthy future for P.E.I. fishery

A cage filled with rocks on the ocean floor seems like a strange place for a nursery, but for baby lobsters, it’s the ideal place to grow — and it’s how the Prince Edward Island Fisherman’s Association (PEIFA) works to study and predict the health of Island lobster stocks. For nine years now the PEIFA, with support from the province and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), has been putting 30 collectors — mesh-bottom cages filled with rocks — at seven sites around P.E.I., to attract baby lobsters and learn from them. Photo’s, >click to read<

Lawmakers to Trump: Keep Marine Monument protections

More than a quarter of state lawmakers wrote to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, urging him not to roll back protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. None of Cape Ann’s representatives — Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, and Reps. Ann-Margaret Ferrante and Brad Hill — were among the signers. Nine of the 38 current state senators and 46 of the 153 representatives signed the letter, which said the monument “does not occur in a major fishing ground” and opening it to commercial fishing would “not help remedy the nation’s seafood deficit.” >click to read<09:23