Daily Archives: December 12, 2018
Toxic smoke, heavy flames swallow up fishing vessel in Grand Bank
They did everything they could, but firefighters in Grand Bank couldn’t keep the Marcel Angie II above water on Tuesday. The fire started on board the vessel, tied up on a new section of the town’s wharf, just before 10 a.m. Fire Chief Tony Snook said the crew spent the morning fighting the fire on board the boat, but had to pull back due to the chemical smoke coming from melting fibreglass. “The toxic smoke was getting intense and I was losing visibility of some of the firefighters on deck, so we pulled them off for safety reasons and began to fight the fire on shore,” Snook told CBC News. The boat is from St. Pierre but has fished between Grand Bank and Fortune for at least 17 years, Snook said. >click to read<20:24
Fast-expanding seafood giant joins Irvings, McCains as N.B. business royalty
For the Irvings, it was Bouctouche. For the McCains, Florenceville. Now, in tiny Black’s Harbour, in between an Irving gas bar and the local Freshmart, is a small, two-storey brick building that is head office for New Brunswick’s newest family-owned multinational. Cooke Aquaculture Inc. is the world’s largest independent seafood company, with billions of dollars in annual revenue, shipping one billion pounds of fresh seafood annually to 67 countries. And it is about to get bigger. Founded 33 years ago, the firm is set to complete its latest acquisition, growing its global workforce to some 9,000 employees. >click to read<19:23
Fishing vessel sinks, leaks fuel in Seward Harbor
The weekend sinking of a fishing vessel in the Seward Harbor has prompted a cleanup effort as plans to salvage the vessel unfold. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said in a report that it is monitoring the response to the Nordic Viking, which sank at the “T-dock” in the Seward Harbor and was reported to DEC Sunday by the local harbormaster. It’s not clear why the ship sank. >click to read<17:44
Early reports suggest steep decline in lobster catch in southwest N.S.
The lobster fishery in southwest Nova Scotia is only into the second week of its season, but already fishermen are finding a decreased haul compared to last year. Lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 are the most lucrative in the province, with overall exports of nearly a billion dollars last year. But the federal Fisheries Department said preliminary reports from fishermen suggest the catch has declined significantly. >click to read<16:46
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 55′ Fiberglass Dragger, 425HP Cummins, 20 KW Genset, Complete main engine rebuild
Specifications, information and 53 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >Click here< Vessel is in excellent condition. November 2017: Complete main engine rebuild. 14:09
Desperately seeking chum salmon returns
The Squamish, Mamquam, Cheakamus and Elaho rivers sustain four varieties of Pacific salmon: coho, chinook, pink and chum. The latter is popular for smoking and canning. Chum flesh and eggs are often exported, primarily to Asia, while domestic uses include animal food and bait. Regarding value on the market, chum are perhaps the least desirable salmon, but their role in the environment—including sustaining other types of salmon as well as mammals and even vegetation—make them a harbinger of environmental health or crisis. “They make the whole ecosystem tick,” said Dave Brown, chair of the Sea to Sky Fisheries Roundtable and vice-chair of the Squamish Lillooet Sportfish Advisory Committee. “They ask very little of the resource.” While other salmon may remain in the river for two to three years, relying on the largesse of the river ecosystem for sustenance as they grow, chum migrate to the ocean as fry, just an inch or two in length. >click to read<13:41
FISH-NL convention set for Jan. 24th in Gander; nominations open for 2018 Inshore Harvester of the Year
The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) has set Jan. 24th, 2019 as the date for its next convention and election of officers at Gander’s Albatross Hotel. As well, to coincide with the convention FISH-NL is announcing the first ever Inshore Harvester of the Year Award. “It’s full-steam ahead for FISH-NL,” says Ryan Cleary, President. “It’s our intention that 2019 will be the year of the inshore harvester, and they’ll finally get the right to choose their labour future.” Elections will be held for FISH-NL’s executive positions — >click to read<12:02
Barge, diver raise sunken lobster boat
The big winds that pummeled eastern Maine late in November did plenty of damage along the coast, including the sinking of the lobster boat Robin A. II in Prospect Harbor. Last Friday, Bar Harbor scuba diver Ed Monat joined Captain Wid Minctons and his Southwest Harbor-based crane barge Charles Bradley in a salvage operation to raise the 38-footer owned by local lobsterman Gary Jordan from the harbor floor, Minctons said Monday. The salvage operation was successful in recovering the sunken boat but, Minctons said, the vessel was a total loss. >click to read<10:43
Nova Scotia: Nervous days for the lobster fleet
A pair of websites perpetually run on the computer of Stewart Lamont, managing director of Pleasant Harbour’s Tangier Lobster Co., who had a lot on his mind when I called Tuesday. Environment Canada, naturally, is one of the sites he constantly monitors. Lately the offshore winds, which, if overly strong, could disrupt the provincial lobster fishery that opened on Dec. 2, have been relatively tame. The issue, he explained over the telephone, is water temperature. At the critical mid-shore distance, five or six hours from land, the water Tuesday was less than 4 C, which he calls “an almost unfathomable drop” from around 11 C a year ago. >click to read<10:16
Second delay idles Newport crab fleet
The commercial Dungeness crab season has been pushed back — again — this time to at least Dec. 31 as fishery managers wait for pockets of light crab to come up to par. While some crab need more time to reach the meat content target of 25 percent, the wait has disappointed Newport fishermen who question extending delay when so much of the product is ready to be brought to the docks. Crab from Coos Bay north appear ready for harvest. Tests conducted Dec. 6-9 showed Newport crab at 26 percent meat content,,, Newport fisherman Corey Rock called the delay another example of a limited number of fishermen dictating the terms of the season to the larger fleet. >click to read<09:17
Letter: Celebrate efforts to make commercial fishing safer
I appreciated seeing Colin Murphey’s photography feature showing our local commercial fishing crews engaged in safety training on Nov. 30 (“Fishing — the Most Dangerous Game,” The Daily Astorian) >click to read<. However, the headline struck me as somewhat inappropriate for the content. The Coast Guard holds a drill conductor training here in Astoria three to four times a year, and Oregon Sea Grant helps get fishermen signed up. Amanda Gladics >click to read<08:49
