Monthly Archives: October 2018
Columbia River sanctuary patrols lead to multiple citations and arrests
As a result of numerous complaints of illegal gillnetting on the Columbia River at the Deschutes River Sanctuary, Oregon State Police in conjunction with Columbia River Inter Tribal Fisheries Enforcement (CRITFE) and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Police conducted nighttime boat patrols to address the illegal gillnetting complaints. The operations were conducted on September 12, 13, 19 & 20, 2018. >click to read<10:05
‘Get out of here,’ fishermen tell crew on Northern Pulp survey boat
After a confrontation on the water, a fleet of fishing boats escorted a vessel believed to be conducting survey work for Northern Pulp back to the harbour in Pictou, N.S., on Tuesday morning. Fisherman Allan MacCarthy was the first to reach the survey boat about three kilometres from Caribou, N.S. “I said to them, you better get out of here because the ones that are following me aren’t going to be as nice as I am,” he said. “I just told the guys in the boat, your job is not worth this. Get out of here. Get that boat back to Pictou.” >click to read<
Rep. Joan Meschino creates seat for local lobstermen on fishing closures task force
Rep. Joan Meschino, D-Hull, was able to obtain a seat for the South Shore Lobster Fishermen’s Association on a Legislative working group that was created to examine the economic impact of the fishing grounds closure on local lobstermen. “I am grateful that the South Shore Lobster Fishermen’s Association has been added to the working group,” said John Havilland, association president. “It seems highly appropriate that the lobster fishermen, who are directly impacted by the fishing closures, be able to participate in their evaluation.” >click to read<09:26
Hundreds Of Unexplained Whale Deaths Might Be Linked To Offshore Wind Farms….
“….there is at least a possible link between the proliferation of offshore turbines and the increase in whale deaths. It’s logical, no?” Perhaps a bigger mystery even than the unexplained deaths of up to 100 whales washed up on Scottish and Irish beaches during the past few months, is the fact that much of the media has been strangely quiet over the matter. It’s thought that very many more of the mammals might have perished at sea, meaning that several hundred whales might have died. >click to read<07:25
Coast Guard will help researchers track whales along the West Coast
The Oregon crab industry is putting up money to launch a new research study on where whales swim and feed along the Pacific Coast. The study stems from growing concern West Coast-wide about whales getting tangled in fishing gear. The Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to underwrite the first year of a three-year aerial survey of humpbacks, gray whales and blue whales off the coast. Oregon State University researcher Leigh Torres said the Marine Mammal Institute, which she leads, and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife hope to win a federal grant to cover years two and three. >click to read<22:57
UPDATE: Coast Guard, local agencies recovered the body of missing lobsterman Scott Chandler
Coast Guard and local agencies recovered the body of the missing lobersterman Tuesday off Doyle Island, Maine. At approximately 5 p.m., Maine State Police and Maine Warden Service divers recovered the lobsterman about 200 yards west from where he entered the water. Crews searched 233 square nautical miles. Station Jonesport took lobster boat, Marie Louise II, to their station for further investigation. >click to read<19:34
The body of Scott Chandler, 51, was recovered Tuesday evening off Jonesport after an extensive daylong search, authorities say. >click to read,<
DFO study results on crab stocks bad news for harvesters, Bonavista fisherman comments. Then, theres the Cod.
Fisherman Reg Butler of Bonavista wonders when the cuts will end for the snow crab fishery. After Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) scientists revealed the results of a six-year study of crab biomass last week, which is at a 25-year low,,, “And the fuel is not getting no cheaper, and the bait is not getting no cheaper — that seems to be increasing every year as well — where do I draw the line? Does it come to the point where I have to shorten up the crew because it’s a big expense to run?” >click to read<19:07
Coast Guard, local agencies search for missing lobsterman off Jonesport, Maine
The Coast Guard and local agencies are searching for a person in the water Tuesday near Doyle Island, Maine. A good Samaritan reported to watchstanders at Sector Northern New England that he saw a person falling into the water from a 20-foot commercial lobster boat operating in the vicinity of Doyle Island. Mariners are advised to exercise caution when operating in the area. Anyone with information about the case should contact the Coast Guard Sector Northern New England Command Center at 207-767-0303.>click to read< -USCG-16:18
Portsmouth charter boat captain falsified fishing logs to get disaster funds
A fishing boat captain, with a home port of Portsmouth, agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge stating he provided false fishing logs to state Fish and Game officials to fraudulently obtain fishery disaster-relief funds. The captain, David Bardzik, endorsed the federal plea agreement with his attorney Jerome Blanchard on Oct. 10 and neither could immediately be reached for comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Rombeau is prosecuting the case and a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office did not return a request for additional information. >click to read<14:40
Fisheries minister meets with stakeholders to discuss right whale protections
The federal fisheries minister met with fishermen, industry representatives and marine scientists Tuesday to discuss the impact of restrictions put in place to protect North Atlantic right whales and whether they may be needed for the coming fishing seasons. Jonathan Wilkinson sat down with dozens of stakeholders at a hotel in Dartmouth, N.S., to discuss measures introduced earlier this year that were aimed at shielding the marine mammals against fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes — their greatest threats. >click to read<13:31
The Halibut Hook Revival – An ingenious Indigenous fishing technology with spiritual significance
Jonathan Rowan lowers his handmade wooden halibut hook into the tranquil early-morning water off Klawock, Alaska, and urges it to go down and fight: “Weidei yei jindagut,” he says in the Tlingit language. From his skiff, the tribal leader, who is joined by two friends, watches the V-shaped hook about as long as his forearm slowly sink and hopes the imagery he carved on the seafloor-facing arm—a beaver perched on a chewed stick—entices a halibut. >click to read<12:48
Mate killed in Illegal Alien Hammer Attack Aboard F/V Captain Billy Haver
A York County-based fishing boat — the Captain Billy Haver — was 55 miles off the coast of Massachusetts a few weeks ago, dredging scallops from the sea. Then, seemingly out of the blue, a crew member started attacking his shipmates with a hammer.,,, “Mayday, mayday, mayday,” he said in a thick accent. “Can anybody hear me?” “We have a man gone crazy here on the boat, man,” the captain continued after hearing a reply. “One man, I don’t know if he’s dead or what. But one of the crew members went crazy, and he started hitting people in the head with a hammer. I got three men that’s injured now. One I can’t wake him up. ”The boat’s chief mate, Javier Rangel Sosa, 54, of Newport News, lay on the deck nearby, blood rushing from his mouth. >click to read<
Regulators moving to ban exotic bait that could threaten lobster fishery
The American Lobster Management Board took a first step toward adopting regional bait safety rules, voting Monday to develop a resolution to prohibit the use of exotic baits that could introduce disease, parasites or invasive species to East Coast waters.,, The board – which is part of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission – agreed to develop a bait safety resolution based on Maine’s rules that all lobstering states would enact by 2020 – a quick but voluntary fix. >click to read<09:36
Oceana’s Challenge to Bycatch Rule Looks Likely to Sink
The D.C. Circuit appeared primed Monday to uphold how the government counts bycatch — a term for various sea life unintentionally swept up in commercial fishing. Led by the nonprofit Oceana, the challengers take issue specifically with procedures by which the National Marine Fisheries Service monitors for bycatch with less intensity than Congress allowed it. The agency came up with a new procedure to cover the Greater Atlantic region three years ago after a plan from 2008 was found to have improperly given the agency “complete discretion” to depart from procedure. >click to read<09:05
Coast Guard medevacs injured man off Oregon Coast
The Coast Guard medically evacuated an injured crewmember off a commercial fishing vessel, 25 miles west of Brookings, Oregon, Monday morning. A boat crew aboard a 47-foot Motor Life Boat from Station Chetco River safely conducted the medevac of the 64-year-old male aboard the fishing vessel Arctic Storm and transported him to shore for further medical care. >click to read<21:13
Crabber caught poaching, hiding crab in trash cans under water before season opened
A crabber suspected of poaching a large amount of crab before the season began has been busted by wildlife officials. Officers with the stgarbage can full of crab ate’s Department of Fish & Wildlife received a tip from someone stating he had found a garbage can full of crab tied to a crab pot in the waters off Blaine the day before the commercial season began. The tipster stated the crabber was stockpiling recreationally caught crab for sale once the commercial season opened, officials said. >click to read<19:14
NOAA Announces Atlantic Herring Management Area 1B Sub-ACL Harvested
At 00:01 hours on October 24, 2018, the 2,000-lb herring possession limit will become effective and will be in effect until the 2019 fishing year begins on January 1. For the seasonal period from January 1, 2019, through April 30, 2019, there is no Area 1B allocation available, and no vessel may fish for herring in Area 1B under current regulations. >click to read<17:57
Western Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Garapan, Saipan October 23-24, 2018
174th Council Meeting – CNMI Date: October 23-24, 2018 Time: 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Location: Fiesta Resort and Spa, Garapan, Saipan, CNMI – 174th CM Agenda >click to read<17:09
Governments of Canada and Nova Scotia fund projects to boost innovation in the fish and seafood sector
Canada is home to the longest coastline in the entire world – and this resource creates jobs and sustains livelihoods across our country. In the province of Nova Scotia, one in every five jobs is linked to the ocean. Healthy oceans mean a healthy, thriving and growing Canadian economy. That is why the Government of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia today announced funding support to nine enterprises in the Nova Scotia fish and seafood sector through the Atlantic Fisheries Fund. >click to read<15:52
A 14-year-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico verges on becoming one of the worst in U.S. history
Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever. >click to read<13:06
‘If I lose my right, I have nothing’: A Mi’kmaw fisherwoman’s fight for her right to fish
For the last 21 years, Marilynn-Leigh Francis has dropped her lobster traps near Digby, N.S. She said she has a right to fish there as a Mi’kmaw woman in Canada. However, Francis said The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has seized several of her traps, because they said the traps fall outside of Canadian fishing regulations. “They tell me that the fishing I’m doing in their eyes is illegal. But they have no grounds to charge me,”,,, >click to read<
An Intimate Portrait of Louisiana’s Commercial Fishing Communities
Fish Town: Down the Road to Louisiana’s Vanishing Fishing Communities, a new book by J. T. Blatty about life in southeastern Louisiana’s fishing communities, is a compelling and unpretentious document of a region and its people, surviving in the face of economic decline and rising, warming seas. Blatty’s view of the region she photographed over the course of six years is unvarnished and unsentimental: washed and wrung of its color. >click to read<11:27
GoodMorningGloucester: Tremendous Turnout for Faye Passanisi’s ‘Port Bliss’ Book Launch Celebration!
Congratulations to Faye Passanisi for her wildly successful book launch celebration for Port Bliss. The first time author’s party was held in Gloucester at the lovely home she shares with her husband Tony. The Passanisi’s house was overflowing with loved ones and friends and all were there to wish Faye congratulations. The outpouring of community support for Faye as she launches her debut novel was heartwarming! Plenty of excellent photo’s! >click to read<09:38
Drastic cut to herring quota puts Maine lobstermen over the bait barrel
The New England Fishery Management Council voted last month to set the 2019 herring quota at 3.2 million pounds – about 78 million pounds less than what the East Coast herring fleet is permitted to catch this year – to help the population recover from a record-low number of juvenile herring. To put the cut in context, that is about 2,000 tractor-trailer trucks of the industry’s favorite bait that won’t be showing up in New England lobster ports next year. >click to read<06:58
Island Voices: ‘Namgis First Nation – Why land-based fish farms work
We’ve seen the impact of sea lice, farm waste, lights and nets on salmon fry, clam beds, birds, sea mammals and other marine life.,,,the technology does exist today to grow large numbers of fish on land. It didn’t exist 30 years ago, and it took Kuterra, and a handful of other pilots around the world, to show the way to full-scale operations. Now, we have a very large farm being built in Florida, and when all its modules are finished, it will grow 90,000 tonnes of fish a year on a 33-hectare site. That’s almost as much fish as all of B.C. grows right now, on a piece of land much smaller than one square kilometre. >click to read<19:35
Job Opening in Brownsville, Texas – Commercial Fishing Vessel Examiner
The United States government is a massive employer, and is always looking for qualified candidates to fill a wide variety of open employment positions in locations across the country. Below you’ll find a Qualification Summary for an active, open job listing from the Department of Homeland Security. The opening is for a Commercial Fishing Vessel Examiner, GS-1801-12 in Brownsville, Texas Feel free to browse this and any other job listings and reach out to us with any questions! >click to read<18:40
BOEM requires transit corridors for offshore wind energy areas
The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management is requiring offshore wind energy developers to set aside vessel transit corridors, amid intense discussions with the commercial fishing industry. In a notice published Friday in the Federal Register, the agency announced it would offer an additional 390,000 acres south of Massachusetts for lease on Dec. 13.,,, Critics of offshore wind, including a number of commercial fishing groups, urge the Trump administration to put the brakes on development and take a slower approach. But Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke has emerged as a strong advocate off building a U.S. offshore wind industry. >click to read<14:58
Kenai asks the state to declare this year’s upper Cook Inlet fishery an economic disaster
Wednesday night, the Kenai City Council unanimously voted to request that Gov. Bill Walker declare an economic disaster for the upper Cook Inlet fisheries region and support a recovery plan. Clam Gulch resident David Martin spoke in support of the resolution. He’s the president of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association. >click to read<14:27
Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting in Mobile, AL October 22 – 25, 2018
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will meet October 22 – 25, 2018 in Mobile, AL at the Renaissance Battle House, 26 N. Royal Street, Mobile, AL 36602. The Committee and Council Agendas and meeting materials are posted on the Council website at >www.gulfcouncil.org<. Meeting materials will be posted as they become available. Council meetings are open to the public and are broadcast live over the internet. > Register for the webinar<. 12:48
Crew of F/V Time Machine pulls 15 people from the water from unnamed burning vessel
The crew of the 42-foot fishing vessel Time Machine contacted Coast Guard Sector San Diego’s Joint Harbor Operations Center watchstanders around 9:35 p.m. to report seeing a nearby fishing boat on fire and multiple people in the water. The crew aboard the motor vessel Time Machine pulled 15 people from the water, including two who needed urgent medical attention. The survivors aboard the fishing vessel Time Machine reported that three people were still missing. >click to read<10:40
