Monthly Archives: March 2019
Once stymied by China tariff, lobster dealer finds a workaround
Tom Adams, CEO of Maine Coast lobster wholesale company in York, said he’s found ways to make up revenue that was lost when a 25% tariff was implemented last July on imports of lobster to China. The tariff has taken a bite out of his company’s sales, Adams said. Previously, China had been Maine Coast’s fastest growing market, but the tariff eliminated 80% of Maine Coast’s sales to mainland China. Overall, the value of live Maine lobsters exported to China dropped 64% in July 2018, compared with July 2017, industry experts said last year. China now gets most of its lobster from Canada. Adams told Mainebiz an aggressive marketing campaign has resulted in significant sales increases in other parts of Asia and in the U.S., and in retention of European sales even though that market was also disadvantaged by an 8% tariff over Canadian competitors. >click to read<21:29
Crab poaching under cover of darkness earns 10-year commercial fishing ban, vessel seizure
A Cape Mudge resident involved in poaching dungeness crabs in Vancouver Harbour under the cover of darkness in February 2019 is banned from fishing commercially for 10 years and had the boat he was using – which didn’t belong to him – and all the crabbing gear in it forfeited to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Arthur Michael Nelson pleaded guilty to fishing for shellfish in a closed time, fishing without a licence and obstructing a fishery officer and was sentenced in Campbell River Provincial Court Thursday. >click to read<18:43
Whales are facing a deadly threat along West Coast: container ships
One day last May, a container ship entered the San Francisco Bay with extra cargo. A 45-foot-long dead female fin whale was draped across the ship’s bow. The impact with the ship had broken her back, ruptured her organs and caused severe internal bleeding. Ten whale deaths were attributed to ship strikes in 2018 – the highest number on record in California since NOAA Fisheries began tracking in 1982. The mortality rate represents an enormous increase from the average 3.4 ship strike victims recorded annually in the five previous years. Five of the 10 whales that died with boat collision injuries in 2018 were endangered or threatened fin, blue and humpback whales. >click to read<15:29
BC’s Herring War, and the Sacrifice of the Salish Sea
Indeed, it sometimes seems blame is about the only renewable resource we can rely upon anymore. There’s certainly been an abundance of it this herring season in the Strait of Georgia, here in the northern reaches of what’s fast becoming the Salish Sewer. At the dock of Hornby Island’s Ford Cove, a world-weary gillnet fisherman, Calvin Siider, squared off against a conservation group advocating for the closure of the last commercial gillnet fishery on the B.C. coast. “You are telling me what I’ve been doing my whole life is wrong,” Siider shouted. “We’re making a little bit of money out of this, and you’re trying to rip that out of our lives!” >click to read<13:44
New Law Would End Most Sport Fishing in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is on the cusp of approving new law governing fishing in the country, and it threatens to spell the end of recreational fishing. Senate Bill 1014, recently approved by the Puerto Rico Senate will replace current fishing law, known as Law 278, with provisions antithetical to the commonwealth’s sport fishermen and its significant recreational fishing industry. The legislation, if approved by the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, will offer greater latitude to the island’s 900 commercial fishermen, while severely and unreasonably restricting roughly 200,000 recreational anglers, effectively ending a sport estimated to contribute $100 million to the country annually. >click to read<12:58
Fisherman: New Jersey shark fin ban bill punishes wrong people
A New Jersey assembly committee will vote on a bill Monday that would prohibit the selling, trading, distribution or possession of any shark fin that has been separated from a shark prior to its lawful landing. The bill is part of a larger national and international movement to crack down on illegal shark finning, but fishing industry members here say this particular bill will also hurt local fishermen not involved in the illegal trade.,,, Greg DiDomenico, president of the Garden State Seafood Association, said the act will harm the legitimate U.S. fishermen. “The U.S. is a leader in shark conservation and this legislation causes waste in U.S. fisheries,” DiDomenico said. >click to read<11:48
ASMFC expected to set stricter regs for harvesting striped bass
A new status review has found the striped bass population to be in worse shape than previously thought, a result that will almost certainly trigger new catch restrictions for the prized species next year in the Chesapeake Bay and along the East Coast. A preview of a soon-to-be-released stock assessment presented in February to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission indicates that the striped bass population is overfished and has been for several years.,,, While most everyone agrees on the need to act, many caution that the stock is nowhere near the crisis level that spurred the previous moratorium. Today’s spawning stock biomass, while declining, is still four times higher than it was in the early 1980s.>click to read<10:53
Cod fishery plummets to least valuable year since 1960s
Maine’s cod fishery, once one of the most lucrative in the Northeast, has declined to the point that it had its least valuable year in more than a half-century in 2018. The state’s industry harvesting the fish-and-chips staple goes back centuries, and it once brought millions of pounds of the fish to land year after year. But data from the state Department of Marine Resources indicate the state’s cod were worth just over $200,000 at the docks last year — less than the median price of a single-family home in Maine. >click to read<09:56
Report From the Grounds
The bitter blast of winter, ice on salt water and nets straining with cod — a world few of us will witness. It’s everyday sight for Newport fisherman Kelly Bennett, who has spent the greater part of the last decade traveling to Alaska to work on Newport trawlers plying the northern waters for pollock, cod and groundfish. Working aboard the Aleutian Challenger, Bennett is away for up to four months at a time, toiling in a fishery called joint venture, where he — amazingly — doesn’t have to handle fish, except the few that fall out of the net. >click to read<19:00
US-China tariff battle takes a toll on some Alaska seafood processors, according to survey
Seafood processing businesses in Alaska are feeling the hurt from the U.S.-China tariff battle, according to the results of a survey from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Fourteen Alaska seafood processors responded to the survey, and 65 percent of those reported lost sales due to tariffs in China. Half of respondents reported delays in sales, and 36 percent reported lost customers. >click to read<16:54
Canadian, U.S. lobstermen to meet in Maine for annual lobster summit
Members of the lobster industry from the United States and Canada will meet in Maine’s largest city next month for a meeting about the state of the business. The University of Maine Lobster Institute is hosting the 15th Canadian/U.S. Lobstermen’s Town Meeting on April 5 and 6 at the Westin Portland Harborview Hotel in Portland. Video, >click to read<13:57
University of Maine – 15th Canadian/U.S. Lobstermen’s Town Meeting April 5–6 in Portland – >click to read<
Seafood Expo North America 2019 gets underway in Boston
It was a weekend of hard work for global seafood product suppliers and processing vendors, who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in anticipation of this year’s Seafood Expo North American/Seafood Processing North America event, taking place from 17 to 19 March. Considered to be the largest seafood event in North America, the expo saw 1,329 exhibitors from 49 countries in attendance at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for opening day on Sunday, 17 March. >click to read<11:15
Fire engulfs fishing boat at Squalicum Harbor
Fire heavily damaged a commercial fishing boat while it was docked at Squalicum Harbor Saturday morning. >click to read< A 58-foot commercial fishing vessel tied up at Squalicum Harbor suffered heavy damage and created a plume of black smoke visible through much of Bellingham Saturday morning after catching fire. Photo’s, Video >click to read<09:53
UK fishermen take to the water demanding speedy Brexit
NEWCASTLE: Starting off from North Shields, a small town in northeast England that has been a fishermen’s haven since 1225, a dozen ships sailed up the River Tyne to Newcastle on Friday demanding Brexit by March 29. Around 50 fishermen were on board the boats, which were festooned with banners reading “Save Britain’s Fish” and “You’ve Betrayed Us Again” – a day after MPs in Westminster voted in favour of delaying Brexit. The demonstration was to urge the country’s leaders to “ensure we leave on the 29th of March,” the currently scheduled date of departure, according to organisers. It came the day before former UKIP leader Nigel Farage starts out on his March to Leave, from nearby Sunderland to London. >click to read<17:08
Blended Waters: Seeing is believing – Life teaches us…if we let it
Almost everyone who knows the commercial fishing industry and what’s really involved in it would likely confer with what I share with you in Blended Waters. Wives, or girlfriends who try to keep the bills paid when the ocean’s as rough as a cobb or when the nor’easter blows relentlessly for days on end know that the daily forecast can make or break you so, when you’re the primary income producer in a family and you fish, you fish hard. You fish like you mean it otherwise, cut the engine and leave your keys on the washboard. >click to read< by Marsha Brown14:38
Congress Questions US Environmental Group’s Ties To The Chinese Government
A House committee is asking the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the U.S.’s most prominent environmental groups, about its ties to the China’s communist government. Top Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources sent a letter to the NRDC asking the group to clarify its two-decade relationship with the Chinese government and question whether the group should register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Lawmakers cited recent reports on China’s “vast influence machine” — through funding colleges, think tanks, advocacy groups and others — which it uses to shape its global image, including on environmental issues. >click to read< Find related material in the post comment section regarding the New England Marine Monument, 11:32
North Carolina Fisheries Commission Forces Gill Net Ban
The state Marine Fisheries Commission voted Wednesday to overrule the director of the Division of Marine Fisheries and ban gill nets upstream of the ferry crossing points in the Neuse and Pamlico rivers. The commission, during what it called an emergency meeting in Kinston that was announced Monday, approved a motion directing Division of Marine Fisheries Director Steve Murphey to implement a year-round closure upstream of the Bayview-Aurora Ferry in the Pamlico River and upstream of the Minnesott Beach-Cherry Branch Ferry in the Neuse River. The proclamation to take effect Monday and the closure were expected to continue for about two years or until an amendment to the state’s Estuarine Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan is adopted. The provision, called Amendment 2, could continue the closure or recommend other management actions. >click to read<10:44
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for March 15, 2019
>Click here to read the Weekly Update<, to read all the updates >click here<, for older updates listed as NCFA >click here<10:26
International buyers find ‘world-renowned seafood’ in New Bedford
NEW BEDFORD — Seafood buyers from 14 countries visited the city’s leading seafood companies on Friday.
Buyers from Asia, Europe and the Middle East toured BASE New England Seafood Auction, Bergie’s Seafood, Atlantic Capes Fisheries and East Coast Seafood. Countries represented on the tour included China, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and Vietnam.,,, The buyers are in Boston for the 2019 Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, the largest seafood trade event in North America. Photo’s, >click to read<19:44
91st annual Blessing of the Fleet, Sunday, March 17th, Fishermen’s Terminal, Seattle
The 91st annual Blessing of the Fleet has been scheduled for Sunday, March 17, 2019 at 2:00 pm at the Fishermen’s Memorial site at Fishermen’s Terminal in Seattle, Washington. Originated by the late Pastor O.L. Haavik of Ballard First Lutheran Church 91 years ago, the service will be conducted by Pastor Erik R. Wilson Weiberg and Pastor Elise Scott, both of Ballard First Lutheran Church. We will offer thanks to God for the fishing community, remembering the risks they take each day to provide seafood for our tables. More details, >click to read<17:40
WBOC’s 65 Anniversary: A Look Back at Seafood in 1954
DELMARVA – As we continue to celebrate the 65th anniversary of WBOC coming on the air, we also continue our look back at what life was like in 1954. Each month we explore a different event or aspect of life from six and a half decades ago. In March, we wanted to explore what the seafood industry was like here on Delmarva 65 years ago. >click to read< 16:45
FISH-NL repeats call for FFAW-Unifor to disclose money paid by oil industry; potential union conflict ‘taints’ seismic research
“The question of conflict of interest taints everything the FFAW touches — including DFO’s recent research into the impact of seismic blasting on snow crab — for as long as the union refuses to open its books,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. A 2018 DFO paper — Effects of 2D seismic on the snow crab fishery — concluded seismic activity does not have a “significant” impact on commercially caught snow crab. The paper used data the FFAW-Unifor helped collect, a contribution acknowledged in the report. At the same time, the FFAW has refused to reveal details of its financial arrangements with the offshore oil and gas industry to address questions of conflict of interest in also representing inshore fish harvesters.>click to read<14:11
Despite tariff impacts, Maine lobster market remains robust
Just over eight months since the start of a trade war between China and the United States, the Maine lobster industry is still coping with the affects of a 25 percent tariff on their goods.,,, The market, which had seen explosive growth in the past few years, suddenly dried up overnight, for reasons completely out of the hands of Maine companies shipping live lobsters to China. Even with the challenges, however, companies that focused on live lobster shipments have managed to make up ground by re-focusing efforts in other areas. >click to read<13:44
Designers of failed toxic waste dam to work on one taller than the Washington Monument. What would the salmon say?
The company that wants to mine copper and gold in southwest Alaska at the site of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery hired a firm to design mine waste pond dams that was behind one of the worst mining disasters in Canadian history. The KnightPiésold firm designed a dam that failed in 2014 in Mount Polley, British Columbia,,,, At least 50 mine dams have failed worldwide in the last decade, including a dam that collapsed in Brazil in January, killing at least 186 people; 122 people are still missing. Alaskan fisherman Mike Fricerro told the Alaska Dispatch News, “Modern history has shown us that (catastrophic dam failures) are more likely than they want us to think.” >click to read<12:28
Cause of Action Institute will be at the Seafood Expo North America in Boston. Share your story with us!
Have you been negatively impacted by the government regulations that plague the commercial fishing industry?
Share your story with us! From March 17th – 19th, Cause of Action Institute will be at the Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts. Come visit us in Booth 2667 to learn more about our work defending the rights and economic freedoms of commercial fishermen. Can’t come see us? Contact us at [email protected], or share your story with us here. Our Work, John Yates v. United States, Goethel v. Pritzker, United States v. Black, Omnibus Amendment , >click to read<10:53
Halibut poachers sentenced to jail time
Robert and David Gudgell, former fishing boat operators for Pacific Salmon Charters, will need to update their resumes. At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday in South District Court, Judge Nancy McAllister delivered a stinging rebuke to the brothers, who were recently convicted of numerous halibut-poaching charges. “I really hope your selfish actions do not taint the reputation of the other fishermen in this area,” McAllister said before sentencing the Gudgells to jail time, hefty fees, probation and a one-year ban on being on boats. >Click to read<10:01
Cooling California Current could mean good news for fisheries, ecosystems
Ocean currents off the Northern California coast are cooling down — potentially good news for the region’s fisheries and ecosystems, battered in recent years by warm currents that have triggered a range of disruptions, from faltering salmon runs to a devastated kelp forest and abalone populations. In a report on the California Current, NOAA scientists last week said that cooler water has resulted in improved condition of zooplankton – the foundation of the ocean’s food chain – greater juvenile salmon returns, and bigger anchovy schools, a boon to larger fish and whales. On the other hand, scientists said,,, >click to read<20:24
Brexit flotilla fishing protest planned as part of weekend’s March to Leave Rally
Brexit campaigners are to hold a North East fishing demo tomorrow ahead of the weekend’s March to Leave protest as it sets off to London from Sunderland. Ahead of the March to Leave – which will leave Sunderland on Saturday morning and head for Hartlepool, setting off on the next stage of the walk on Sunday morning – Fishing for Leave plans a River Tyne flotilla and parade. There is a suggestion a further event is part of the fishing protest is planned for Hartlepool on Sunday morning, but no details have been released. >click to read<
Canada and Prince Edward Island fund projects to boost innovation and productivity in the seafood processing sector
With the longest coastline in the world, Canada’s coastal communities rely on the fish and seafood industry as an integral contributor to local and regional economies. This is why the Government of Canada and the Province of Prince Edward Island today announced funding support to three regional businesses through the Atlantic Fisheries Fund. The funding—a total contribution of more than $365,000—will see the implementation of innovative projects and new technologies in the fishing industry. >click to read<14:50
Husky to begin repair work at South White Rose Extension Friday morning
Husky has mobilized resources to the White Rose Field to carry out key integrity work at the South White Rose Extension, it was announced today. The work includes recovering the flowline connector involved in last November’s spill and plugging the open ends of the flowline.,,, Last Nov. 16, 250,000-litres of oil spilled into the ocean after a flowline connector failed near the South White Rose Extension drill centre, about 350 kilometres east of St. John’s. The SeaRose FPSO vessel was attempting to restart oil production after a shutdown due to a storm when the spill occurred. It was the largest oil spill in the province’s history. >click to read<13:47
