Monthly Archives: November 2018
Coast Guard rescues 4 fishermen 60 miles off Maine coast
The Coast Guard rescued four fishermen Wednesday after abandoning their boat off the coast of Rockland, Maine. The captain of the 76-foot fishing vessel Aaron & Melissa II radioed watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Northern New England at approximately 7:45 a.m., reporting the fishing boat was taking on water. >click to read<18:40
OpenHydro sought over $17 million in tax credits for failed turbine project
The company that placed a 13,000-tonne-turbine at the bottom of the Minas Passage then sought creditor protection has applied for $17,807,391 worth of tax credits. An affidavit filed with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on behalf of Open Hydro Technologies Canada Ltd. states that company has filed for $7,360,751 in provincial tax credits under the scientific research and experimental development program for the fiscal years 2015 and 2016. The company also claims to have filed for $6,318,954 worth of the same credits at the federal level. >click to read<15:26
BP deep water well off Nova Scotia lacks commercial quantities of oil
A third well exploration effort off Nova Scotia has failed to find commercially viable levels of oil in the deep waters of the Scotian Shelf. Hess Corp., the drilling partners on the BP-operated Scotian Basin Exploration Drilling Project, issued a news release Tuesday saying it will write off its share of the well cost, and BP will abandon the Aspy well.,, Environmental, fishing and Aboriginal groups have repeatedly criticized the various drilling programs as lacking sufficient response systems for potential blowouts,,, >click to read<15:14
New Zealand: Man dies on fishing vessel near Banks Peninsula
A man in his 20s is dead after being injured on the factory deck of a Sanford fishing vessel near Banks Peninsula in Canterbury. The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has opened an inquiry into the fatal accident on board the New Zealand-registered factory fishing vessel San Granit. The accident happened about 88 kilometres east of Banks Peninsula about 4am on Wednesday. >click to read< 14:04
Scientists Admit ‘Mistakes’ Led To Alarming Results In Major Global Warming Study
The scientists behind a headline-grabbing global warming study did something that seems all too rare these days — they admitted to making mistakes and thanked the researcher, a global warming skeptic, who pointed them out. “When we were confronted with his insight it became immediately clear there was an issue there,” study co-author Ralph Keeling told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday. Their study, published in October, used a new method of measuring ocean heat uptake and found the oceans had absorbed 60 more heat than previously thought. >click to read<12:46
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 43′ Fiberglass Scalloper with Ma. CAP, CAT 3406,
Specifications, information and 6 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >Click here<MA Coastal Access Permit with the following endorsements: CAP-Squid; Whiting; Dogfish; Scup; Sea Scallop Shucking12:04
As Southern New England Lobster Decline, Fishermen Switch to Jonah Crab
The lobster industry in southern New England has been on the decline for decades. As waters warm, some lobster fishermen are adapting by switching their catch to Jonah crab, a crustacean once considered a trash species. Mike Palombo is captain of a 72-foot lobster boat, but his main catch is crabs. He leaves from the Sandwich Marina for three-day fishing trips, going out over 100 miles to haul traps in the Canyons. One day this fall, he and his crew returned with around 23,000 Jonah crab and 2,000 lobsters in big saltwater holding tanks. “It was a good trip, very productive,” he said. >click to read<10:41
‘Wake-up call’ needed for Canada’s fisheries management: scientific audit
The report found Canada has a lot of work to do to reverse the term decline of its fish stocks, and it needs to pick up the pace. Oceana’s science director Robert Rangeley said he hopes the audit is a “wake-up call” for better fisheries management. “My biggest fear is one of complacency,” said Rangeley. “We’re still hovering around one-third of our fish stocks (that) are healthy, which is very poor performance for the 194 stocks that are so important for coastal communities.” >click to read<09:34
New seating from Transport Seating takes the stress out of being at sea.
With the release of the Sea Suspension Seating units, Transport Seating are looking to enter the ever-growing commercial, military, pilot and sport recreational markets. The new suspension units come in two designs that cater to different applications and space limitations. >click to read<Visit >www.seasuspensionseating.com.au<19:06
Spinning Chesapeake Gold
Ten years ago, Johnny Shockley came face-to-face with a future he couldn’t fathom: One day, perhaps soon, he’d no longer make his living as a waterman. The third generation of his family to fish the waters around Hoopers Island, he’d oystered and crabbed with his father from a young age. They gave up on oysters after the Chesapeake Bay oyster populations collapsed, sticking with blue crabs. Those declined too. He spent two decades running the family’s retail seafood market in Salisbury. Then it closed. He discouraged his son from crab-potting and was convinced he couldn’t hold on much longer either. >click to read<17:47
Counting down to Thanksgiving crab? It won’t be long now
This year, state regulators are opening the main fishery on time but only as far north as Bodega Head while they await a second round of test results from sample crabs taken off the mouth of the Russian River, where a single shellfish collected late last month had elevated levels of domoic acid, a naturally occurring neurotoxin. The six-crab sample taken a week later tested well within federal limits for the algae-related substance. A second consecutive round of tests is needed before the area can be declared clean and the rest of the Sonoma Coast opened to commercial crabbing. >click to read<13:01
Ocean Shock: Lobster’s great migration sets up boom and bust
A lobster tattoo covers Drew Eaton’s left forearm, its pincers snapping at dock lines connecting it to the American flag on his upper arm. The tattoo is about three-quarters done, but the 27-year-old is too busy with his new boat to finish it.,,, Eaton belongs to a new generation of Maine lobstermen who are riding high, for now, on a sweet spot of climate change. Two generations ago, the entire New England coast had a thriving lobster industry. Today, lobster catches have collapsed in southern New England, and the only state with a significant harvest is north in Maine, where the seafood practically synonymous with the state has exploded. >click to read<11:54
North Carolina: News for and about commercial fishermen
Governor Roy Cooper has appointed fish dealer/processor and owner of Pamlico Packing Doug Cross of Pamlico County and commercial fisherman and co-owner of Seaview Crab Company, Sam Romano of Wilmington to the Marine Fisheries Commission. They will fill the seats left vacant when former MFC Chairman Sammy Corbett, a commercial fishing dealer, and Alison Willis, wife of a commercial fisherman, resigned from the board just days before the last meeting thus leaving just one of the,,, >click to read< 11:01
Western Australia lobster industry gets boost
The Western Australian government plans to grow the lobster industry and boost local lobster supply. In early-November, the government explained there could be a potential growth of 500 jobs and economic growth within the industry. Fisheries minister Dave Kelly said more than 95 per cent of commercially caught the region’s rock lobster is exported to China. “Little flows into our local market for the enjoyment of Western Australians and tourists.>click to read<
Twillingate continues push for groundfish license/operation
The Town of Twillingate is still making working toward processing groundfish in the area. According to deputy mayor Cyril Dalley, after a discussion at their most recent council meeting, the town’s priority now is to meet with Notre Dame Seafoods president Jason Eveleigh before the year is out. “The fish plant is there, they own the plant and it would be ideal for [Notre Dame Seafoods] to go after government towards a groundfish license,,,, >click to read<09:21
Peconic Bay Scallop Season Off To ‘Decent’ Start
The season, which always begins on the first Monday in November, kicked off last week on Nov. 5, and so far, experts are weighing in and explaining that, with fewer of the beauties available in northern locations, the demand has increased on the East End. Charlie Manwaring, owner of Southold Fish Market, said while the season this year is “okay . . . it’s not as good as last year.” >click to read<21:49
Fundy North Fishermen’s Association votes to delay the start of the season due to bad weather
Brad Small, the president of the association, said all of the harbours under the association — which spans from the American border to Alma, N.B. — voted to stay off the water due to weather Monday. Environment Canada issued a special weather statement for much New Brunswick and some snowfall warnings for northern areas Monday. The weather will also bring another round of strong and gusty winds along with plummeting temperatures — a mixture of things Small said makes the job of setting traps very dangerous. >click to read<19:52
Eating the Most Hated Fish on the Mississippi
The presence of silver carp in the Mississippi dates back to the 1960s, when scientists in Arkansas brought a few different species of Asian carp into the country to see if they might offer a chemical-free way to clean algae out of fish ponds. When funding for the experiment dried up, the fish were released to the waterways and swiftly began outcompeting local fish. Today Asian carp—mostly bighead, silver, and grass carp—make up 90 percent of the biomass in parts of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.,, One of the biggest challenges for Fin, Schafer, and Two Rivers is finding enough fishermen. Commercial river fishing is a dwindling industry along many parts of the Mississippi and Ohio,,, >click to read<14:46
Orcas, fishermen are both endangered species
Orcas and commercial salmon fishermen share a common crisis — both need more adult Chinook salmon to return to the Columbia River; orcas to avoid starvation, fishermen to sustain their livelihoods and families. Northwest orcas are starving and their population is declining — only 74 remain, in large part because their primary prey, Chinook salmon, have been pushed by dams, dewatering and habitat destruction to near extinction almost everywhere.,, Salmon fishermen too are now effectively an endangered species, and for the same reasons as orcas — their Chinook salmon prey. <click to read<
Commercial Fishermen, Sport fishers Divided on Plans for More Offshore Wind
Commercial fishermen say the wind-energy projects planned for southern New England, such as the South Fork Wind Farm, are the latest threats to their income after decades of quotas and regulations “I don’t like the idea of the ocean being taken away from me after I’ve thrown so many big-dollar fish back in the water for the last 30 years, praying I’d get it back in the end,” said Dave Aripotch, owner of a 75-foot trawl-fishing boat based in Montauk, N.Y. Dave Monti of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association said the submerged turbine foundations at the Block Island Wind Farm created artificial reefs, boosting fish populations and attracting charter boats like his. >click to read<10:07
08:45
Coast Guard medevacs sick fisherman 42 miles off Nantucket
A Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod helicopter crew medevaced a sick 54-year-old man from the 87-foot fishing boat Generation Sunday night 42 miles off Nantucket. The captain of the Generation contacted the Coast Guard at approximately 5:20 p.m. and requested assistance for his sick crew member. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew arrived on scene and hoisted the patient to the helicopter. The aircrew flew the man to Massachusetts General Hospital for further care. The patient was reported to be in stable condition at the time of the transfer. -USCG-
Alaska Fishermen Sentenced For Killing Endangered Steller Sea Lions
An Alaska salmon boat skipper who killed endangered Steller sea lions with a shotgun and hindered an investigation has been fined $20,000 in federal court. Jon Nichols, 31, of Cordova, was sentenced Tuesday to five years’ probation, three months of home confinement and 400 hours of community service. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Smith also ordered Nichols to publicly apologize in a national commercial fishing magazine. >click to read<17:19
Shelburne company pleads guilty in fisherman’s death
A Shelburne fishing company has pleaded guilty to three Occupational Health and Safety Act charges in the death of a lobster fisherman last year. Jimmy Buchanan died Jan. 7, 2017, after he fell overboard while setting lobster traps from the back of the vessel Secret Sea, about 50 kilometres southeast of Cape Sable Island. Buchanan, 44, was not wearing a personal flotation device at the time of the incident. >click to read<12:39
California Dungeness crab season faces delays in parts of state
The opening of the commercial Dungeness crab season has been delayed until at least Dec. 1 in the waters north of Bodega Head State Marine Reserve to the Sonoma/Mendocino county line because of elevated levels of domoic acid, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced today. The commercial fishery south of this area will open as scheduled Thursday, however. >click to read<10:51
West Coast Whale entanglement data collected
Whale entanglements off the West Coast and potential solutions to the escalating problem are the focus of a new report including the presentations and observations of fishermen, biologists, and fisheries managers who gathered at an August workshop on the subject.,, The report provides the notes and presentations from the 31 California, Oregon, and Washington experts who attended. Participating were Dungeness crab fishermen; gear specialists; marine mammal biologists and disentanglement specialists; conservation groups; and federal, tribal, and state agency representatives.,, Participants also expressed interest in a gear innovation developed by fishermen in the lobster fishery on the East Coast. >click to read<08:33
Start of stone crab season in Cortez is worst in recent memory
Theories abound but one thing is for sure: The current stone crab season is off to one of its worst starts in recent memory for the oldest active fishing village in Florida. It’s that bad. “There’s nothing. There’s no crabs around because it’s all dead,” said John Banyas, a fourth-generation fisherman from Cortez.“The latest from our 400 trap haul was only 4 pounds, a record low in these local waters,” said Banyas, 52, who is also the owner of Cortez Bait & Seafood Inc., Swordfish Grill & Tiki Bar and Cortez Kitchen. >click to read<07:42
New protections for herring but lobster bait crunch imminent
Fishing managers are considering extending new protections to Atlantic herring, but catch quotas for the important bait fish are still likely to plummet before the end of the year, which is bad news for the American lobster industry.,, An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted last month to initiate changes to try to better protect spawning herring off of New England.,, Lobstermen in Maine, the biggest lobster-fishing state, are on edge waiting for the news, said Kristan Porter, president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. >click to read<13:43
Heavy weather forcasted, Fundy lobster fishermen lose bid to set traps early
An appeal by Bay of Fundy Lobster fishermen to set their traps Monday instead of Tuesday has been rejected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Fishermen on both Grand Manan and along the north Fundy Coast say weather forecasts for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday point to unsafe conditions with boats facing potentially 12-foot (four-metre) seas and winds of 35 to 40 knots. “Basically, the federal employees want their long weekend and they don’t give a hoot about the fishing fleet.” Laurence Cook, Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association >click to read<09:15
Maine: 1,300 fishermen wanted first new scallop licenses since 2009. Only four got them.
The state has chosen four fishermen from eastern Maine from almost 1,300 applicants who sought the first new scallop fishing licenses to be issued in Maine in the past nine years. The Maine Department of Marine Resources held a lottery this week to determine who among the nearly 1,300 applicants would be allowed into the lucrative scallop fishery this coming winter. >click to read<08:22
