Monthly Archives: March 2019
Southeast pink salmon forecast cause for concern
As the days grow longer and summer plans start to materialize, 18 million is a number on the mind of many across Southeast Alaska, especially those in numerous industries that rely on salmon fishing. Eighteen million is the number of pink salmon the Southeast forecast shows could be harvested in the 2019 commercial fishing season.,, “Salmon is the biggest portion of my income for sure,” said Stan Savland, commercial fisherman out of Hoonah and 20-year seiner. “The forecast is very alarming. I’m worried about this season because our recent odd year cycles are really what’s been carrying the seine fleet to make it.” >click to read<13:00
Near Fish Farms, Lobster Catches Plummet
Lobster fishers catch fewer market-sized lobsters, and see fewer fertile females, in areas close to fish farms in Nova Scotia, according to new research led by Inka Milewski, a research associate at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Lobster fishers working in Port Mouton Bay, Nova Scotia, keep detailed records of when and where they fish and how many lobsters they catch. By analyzing 11 years of fishers’ records, Milewski and her colleagues found that the reduction in catch was greatest in the areas closest to open-net-pen aquaculture sites and lowest in the areas farthest away. On average, the scientists calculated a 42 percent drop in the lobster catch and a 56 percent drop in observed egg-bearing females in years when the fish farms were active in the bay. >click to read<11:20
Another Sand Point fisherman is chomped on by a sea lion
A sea lion lunged from the Sand Point harbor and bit a fisherman’s leg in the Aleutian Islands fishing town that’s now experienced three injurious run-ins with the massive marine mammals in two years. “The sea lion came out of the water on the back of the fishing boat Celtic and bit a male fisherman on the right thigh,” said Sand Point police officer David Anderson.,,, All three attacks in Sand Point have involved fishermen bitten on the leg by a Steller sea lion. >click to read<09:55
Industry funded, peer reviewed study says lobsters unharmed by Atlantic Canada salmon farm
The study looked at an N.B. fish farm that uses pesticides to control sea lice. An eight-year study of lobsters living below a salmon farm off New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island found the aquaculture operation had no impact on the crustaceans’ abundance, size or growth. The peer-reviewed, industry-funded study was published this month in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Its authors say it’s the most in-depth examination of its kind in Atlantic Canada. (eyes roll!!!) >click to read<09:08
Breaching Snake River dams could save salmon and orcas, but destroy livelihoods
THE GROWING Snake River Dam people’s self-defense movement has no written public-relations manual containing a list of cardinal sins. If it did, a new entry at the top might suggest this: DO NOT DISPARAGE THE ORCAS. Not that anyone in Washington’s southeast corner — wheat country, USA — would do that, anyway. Most of them will tell you that they, too, love chinook salmon, cherish orcas and see both as iconic Northwest species.,,, When a state task force on orca survival called for a study widely seen as a means to justify dam breaching (ultimately a federal, not a state, decision), people from the Tri-Cities to Clarkston felt the metaphorical crosshairs trained once again on their backs. While not new, it is a newly uncomfortable position — one that has prompted the people of the lower Snake to issue a simple short-term request: Whoa, pardners. Whoa. Just whoa. 23 photo’s >click to read<21:16
NOAA questions BOEM’s Vineyard Wind environmental impact study
Michael Pentony, the head of NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, warned in a March 15 letter that the report on Vineyard Wind completed by the U.S Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in December included conclusions that were not well supported by data and needed additional analysis of several key angles of impact. “We determined that many of the conclusory statements relating to the scale of impacts for biological and socioeconomic resources are not well supported in the document,” Pentony wrote in his letter to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “Specifically, impacts categorized as major appear under-inclusive, while impacts designated as moderate seem overly inclusive.” >click to read<18:36
Vineyard Wind impact on fish under scrutiny – NOAA Fisheries criticises several aspects of BOEM’s draft environmental impact statement of 800MW project >click to read<
Photos: Remembering the Exxon Valdez oil spill 30 years later
It was just after midnight on March 24, 1989, when an Exxon Shipping Co. tanker ran aground outside the town of Valdez, Alaska, spewing millions of gallons of thick, toxic crude oil into the pristine Prince William Sound. The world watched the aftermath unfold: scores of herring, sea otters and birds soaked in oil, and hundreds of miles of shoreline polluted. Commercial fishermen in the area saw their careers hit bottom. It’s been 30 years since the disaster, at the time the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Only the 2010 Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has eclipsed it. >click to read<16:16
Working Watermen Commission Takes on Timely Issues at their Inaugural Meeting
The revitalized Dare County Commission for Working Watermen held their inaugural meeting on Wednesday, March 21, and tackled several pressing issues that are connected to the local fishing industry. The commission originally formed in 2008, but quietly ceased meeting in December of 2012 without formally disbanding. After public comments made by journalist and researcher Susan West at the BOC’s August 20, 2018 Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting, interest in reviving the commission was renewed, with County Commissioner Steve House signing on to be the Chairman and county commissioner representative for the endeavor. >click to read<15:13
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 64’ RSW Seiner, scalloper, herring carrier
Specifications, information and 3 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >click here<14:13
FFAW’S March of Madness
The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) describes the FFAW-Unifor’s demonstration Wednesday through downtown St. John’s as a “march of madness.” “FFAW supporters demonstrated to ‘fight for the future of our fisheries’ when it’s the union itself that has been threatening their survival,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. Here are 20 reasons how: 1) The FFAW-Unifor is in a conflict of interest in representing inshore harvesters/plant workers/offshore trawlermen/aquaculture workers/oil tanker workers/cold storage workers/Long Harbour workers, etc. >click to read<12:32
Columbia River Reforms – Both sides on gillnet issue dig in
A crucial vote concerning the Columbia River Reforms regarding gillnets will be taken by the full Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission at a meeting on June 6-7 in Salem It will determine whether the alterations suggested by the joint-state task force will be adopted.,,, Former Washington commissioners and fisheries scientists have also weighed in with a letter to the legislature, and groups that oppose or endorse the changes have rallied the troops. >click to read<10:28
Prince William Sound Tanner crab fishery gives winter season a boost
A rejuvenated Tanner crab fishery in Prince William Sound is showing positive signs of finishing out its second season in 30 years. The fishery opened for the first time since 1988 in 2017, operating on commissioners permits. A test fishery operated as an information-gathering pot fishery in the area in 2016 to a limited number of vessels. Based on Alaska Department of Fish and Game survey data, the stocks were good to go for another season this year, opening March 1 and closing either by EO or on March 31. So far, 11 vessels have landed about 16,850 Tanner,,, >click to read<09:37
Yakama tribal member charged with felony for fishing in the Puget Sound
State authorities allege that a man claiming membership in the Yakama Nation Indian Tribe was fishing illegally in Suquamish Tribe waters near Kingston in an unmarked boat and that a Yakama tribal official knowingly issued his invalid permit. The man is accused of selling 5,600 pounds of chum salmon he caught using a gill net. The October 2017 incident casts light on an ongoing disagreement over who has rights to harvest fish in the Puget Sound,,, Last month, prosecutors filed a charge of first-degree commercial fishing without a license, a felony, against the alleged skipper of the boat, Alexander Robert Somers, 43, of Tacoma. Somers allegedly claimed he had permission from the Suquamish Tribe, but court documents say the tribal council confirmed he did not,,, >click to read<19:08
The two sides of the Strait of Georgia roe herring fishery
The case for – Comox fisherman, Quincy Sample, was laying on the deck of his boat under the warm March sun, waiting for the waves to die down when reached by phone. The fishery opened for gill nets on March 15 in the Strait of Georgia, and Sample was hoping for the right conditions to get his net in the water. The case against – Ian McAllister’s boat, Habitat, drifts lazily on the unsettled water, anchored to a point nearby the mass of commercial fishing boats. McAllister, the executive director of Pacific Wild, had been out on the water since March 9, the first day the fishery opened, to take photos and video, and raise awareness about a fishery he doesn’t think should be open. >click to read<17:29
Murder on the high seas? Complaint says Collier man beat dad to death on fishing boat
A Collier County man is facing charges in what the U.S. government says was an apparent murder on the high seas out in the Gulf of Mexico off Marco Island. Casey Lowell Hickok, 32, of Copeland, near Everglades City, was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, while aboard a commercial fishing vessel, Hickok was witnessed bludgeoning a sleeping member of the boat’s crew to death with a spare boat alternator, which he later threw off the vessel. The charges were filed in the Middle District of U.S. District Court in Fort Myers. >click to read<15:27
Tersan launches ST-184 crabber
The Tersan Shipyard in Turkey has launched its first crabbing vessel for Russian fishing operator Arktikservice to fish for Kamchatka and snow crab in North Atlantic waters. The 61.90 metre, 15 metre beam Zenit is the lead vessel in a planned series and now being fitted out following its launch. >click to read<14:35
Fish harvesters, plants workers hold demonstration in St. John’s – ‘Put the crab back on the table,’ fishermen chant at rally
Fish, Food and Allied Workers’—Unifor members held a demonstration today at the Delta Hotel in St. John’s followed by a march through part of the downtown. Fish harvesters, plant workers and citizens attended united, the union says, in their concern for the future of the province’s fisheries. A news release stated that around the province, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) shuts out fish harvesters from science processes and continues to make fisheries management decisions without any meaningful consultation with inshore harvesters. >click to read<13:14
‘Put the crab back on the table,’ frustrated fishermen chant at rally – >click to read<
Lobstermen petition state to tighten aquaculture rules, want a moratorium on large aquaculture leases
A wave of aquaculture operations has swept along the coast in the last few years, sparking concerns from some about waterfront access, aesthetics and interference with other commercial fisheries. “I’m here to let the Department of Marine Resources know that their system of granting aquaculture leases is broken or even worse, non-existent, as far as it pertains to the commercial lobstermen in this state,” said John Powers, a lobstermen who has fished around Brunswick for 40 years, at a press conference in the State House Wednesday. >click to read<12:24
At seiners’ meeting, demonstrators call to ‘Protect the Herring’
Seiners gathered over the weekend in preparation for the Sitka Sac Roe herring fishery, and while they met to hear updates from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on this year’s fishery, they were also concerned about opposition to the fishery leading to acts of civil disobedience on the water. But they didn’t need to look far, after a “Protect the Herring” demonstration interrupted the meeting. >click to read<11:52
NOAA requests partnership with Pacific Fishery Management Council
Citing a declining Southern resident orca population, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is requesting collaboration with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the governing body that creates fishing season regulations from California to Washington. “We are taking many actions to conserve and recover Southern resident killer whales and particularly to address the three main threats, … prey limitation; vessel traffic and noise; and chemical contaminants. Chinook salmon, the whales’ primary prey, are important to SRKW survival and recovery,” NOAA regional director Barry Thom wrote in a letter dated March 6, addressed to Phil Anderson, chair of the council. >click to read<11:17
More fluke could be coming for Connecticut fishermen
Last week, the MAFMC and the ASMFC increased the annual coastwide commercial quota for summer flounder for 2019-21 to 11.53 million pounds. While states will continue to receive allocations based on their historic landings up to 9.55 million pounds, landings after that will be divided equally among mid-Atlantic and southern New England states.>click to read<10:33
West Coast Waters Grow More Productive with Shift Toward Cooler Conditions
The ocean off the West Coast is shifting from several years of unusually warm conditions marked by the marine heat wave known as the “warm blob,” toward a cooler and more productive regime that may boost salmon returns and populations of other ocean predators, though it is too early to say for certain, a new NOAA Fisheries report says. >click to read<09:55
Gone squiddin’ in Galilee
Capt. Kevin Jones has been fishing out of the Port of Galilee, in southern Rhode Island, for a long time. “You know, I’m 63, and I started going when I was six years old,” he said. As a kid growing up near one of Rhode Island’s busiest ports, Jones helped out on other fishing boats as he worked his way up the ranks. Now, he’s captain of a 70-foot trawler. His primary catch, like most captains in Galilee, is squid. Longfin inshore squid, the species brought ashore at Galilee, is a point of pride in Rhode Island. The squid are processed and frozen at the port, and are shipped all across the country and the world for human consumption. >click to read<20:47
A California battle over swordfish — and gill nets
Conservationists are pushing a $1 million effort this summer to change the way swordfish are caught off the California coast by phasing out the use of gill nets. They are the mile-long nylon nets used to catch swordfish but that also ensnare other species, causing conservation organizations to seek an end to their use. Commercial fishermen can use gill nets now, with a drift gill net shark and swordfish permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. But a new California law will officially ban gill nets as of January 2023.,,, Organizations representing commercial fishermen opposed SB 1017 by state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), the bill that became the new law phasing out the use of gill nets. >click to read<17:08
Wednesday demonstration – FFAW has done worse damage to fisheries than harp seals or seismic blasting: FISH-NL
The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) says the FFAW-Unifor has done worse damage to the province’s commercial fisheries than harp seals or seismic blasting. “Fishermen are nothing but a cash cow to the FFAW,” says Peter Leonard, Vice-President of FISH-NL and an inshore harvester from Southern Harbour. “The FFAW is working hand-in-hand with oil companies, the federal and provincial governments, and the aquaculture industry, and we’re being played for fools,” he added.,,, The FFAW-Unifor has scheduled a demonstration for noon Wednesday at the Delta Hotel in downtown St. John’s to “fight for the future of our fisheries.” >click to read<15:25
Fake lobster-tag case leads to arrests in Florida Keys
Florida fisheries investigators have made at least two arrests following a long inquiry into the sale of counterfeit lobster trap tags required by law for commercial anglers to do business in the state. The suspected ringleader is a Palmetto Bay woman who is the registered agent of more than 50 active and inactive commercial fishing operations in Florida. She was arrested Monday in the Florida Keys on racketeering and fraud charges. Elena P. Reyes, 67, is being held in Monroe County jail on a total bond of $892,500. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigators also arrested Michael Enrique Sanchez,
Coast Guard airlifts ailing fisherman 50 miles off Gloucester
An USCG Air Station Cape Cod MH-60 Jayhawk helipcopter crew medevaced an ill 40-year-old fisherman off the fishing boat America, Sunday, approximately 50 miles east of Gloucester. The man was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital for evaluation. >click for video<13:10
Lobster Boat Skipper Sentenced for Manslaughter
United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Christopher A. Hutchinson, 30, of Cushing, Maine was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Judge D. Brock Hornby to four years in prison and three years of supervised release for Seaman’s Manslaughter for causing the death of two crewmen who were then 26 and 15 years old. Hutchinson pleaded guilty on September 25, 2018. According to court records, on November 1, 2014, after smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, Hutchinson took his lobster boat, the No Limits, out into a predicted storm with two crewmen aboard. After he had ingested oxycodone, the boat capsized. The two crewmen were not wearing personal floatation devices or survival suits. >click to read<11:44
Fair Weather Fleet? How some coast guard ships stayed tied up when they could have been at work
There is more evidence suggesting Canadian coast guard mid-shore patrol vessels are a fair-weather fleet. Documents obtained by CBC News show that during a one-year period, two mid-shore patrol vessels based in Nova Scotia were tied up for 151 days in weather conditions when they were supposed to be operable. Last month, CBC revealed the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is looking at installing stabilizers — blades that counteract the motion of waves — on its nine coast guard mid-shore vessels. This followed widespread complaints from crew about excessive rolling at sea. >click to read<10:20
NOAA/NMFS Seeks Comments on Proposed Measures for the Jonah Crab Fishery
NOAA Fisheries seeks comments on proposed measures for the Jonah crab fishery that complement the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Jonah Crab.,,, Proposed measures include limiting Jonah crab harvest to those who already have a limited-access American lobster permit, a minimum size, protection for egg-bearing females, and incidental catch limits.These proposed regulations do not expand trap fishing effort. They propose to regulate the catch of Jonah crabs that is already occurring in the American lobster fishery. >click to read<13:20
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