Daily Archives: June 12, 2019
Conservationists raise alarm over wild fish killed inside B.C. salmon farms
A conservation charity said it’s concerned by what it calls a “growing trend” of wild fish killed by the salmon farming industry on British Columbia’s coast. Stan Proboszcz, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said nine times as many wild fish were reported inside open-net pen farms in 2017 compared with 2011.,, The society estimates that about 13.2 million wild fish may be held in B.C.’s 65 salmon farms at any given time, and an additional 653 tonnes of wild fish may be hanging around outside the farms because they’re attracted by things like food and lights.,,, “The farms are known to be amplifiers of pathogens, parasites and viruses. Are these things being spread to wild fish?” >click to read<20:47
ACLU Alleges Coast Guard Detained and Abused Fishermen
One night in the fall of 2017, four Jamaican fishermen set out into the Caribbean from the village of Half Moon Bay. As a lawsuit filed today describes it, their quest for tuna and snapper was supposed to last about two days. Then they disappeared. Five weeks later, those men—Robert Dexter Weir, Patrick Wayne Ferguson, Luther Fian Patterson, and David Roderick Williams—reemerged in Miami, covered in burns and blisters, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. United States Coast Guard officers had snatched them off their boat on suspicion of marijuana smuggling, then held them at sea for more than a month, shuffling them among various vessels en route to the U.S. to face trial, alleges the ACLU, which is suing the Coast Guard on the men’s behalf. >click to read<18:47 Weir v. U.S. – Complaint – >click to read<
Cook Inlet fishermen celebrate ‘Return of the Reds’ with hope for 2019
Cook Inlet fishermen are looking forward to their salmon season with high hopes that the sockeye will arrive in better numbers than last year. On June 11, fishermen and processors grilled up some of the first Cook Inlet salmon of the year at the Pacific Star processing plant in Kenai, gathering to build excitement for the coming season. The plant is now receiving salmon from the west side of Cook Inlet, while the fishermen in the drift gillnet and east side set gillnet fleets gear up for their first expected openings in the coming weeks. >click to read<15:24
Leatherback sea turtles likely to go extinct under Trump administration policy, lawsuit argues
Leatherback sea turtles are likely to be “effectively extinct within 20 years” if two new federal permits for fishing off the coast of California go into effect, environmental groups claim in a new lawsuit. In April, the Trump administration granted new two-year “exempted fishing permits” to two California-based vessels in what are currently protected waters.,,, National Marine Fisheries Service,,, the federal agency said the permits “are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat.” The longline fishing will have to halt immediately if “one mortality of a leatherback sea turtle is observed.>click to read<14:03
Get revved up! It’s lobster boat racing season!
There’s gonna be a lot of wake goin’ on this weekend with the start of the 34th lobster boat racing season Saturday, June 15 at 10 a.m. with the Charles Begin Memorial Races right here in Boothbay Harbor. Sign up begins at 9 a.m. Racing fee: $25. Categories include gas classes based on length and cubic inches, diesel classes based on horsepower and length, a wooden boat race, gas and diesel free-for-alls, and four races just for Boothbay region boats. >click to read<11:32
Mark your calendar for the 2019 Maine Lobster Boat Races! – 2019 Maine Lobster Boat Races Schedule – >click to read<
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 47′ Steel Stern Trawler, CAT 3406B, With State, Federal Permits
Specifications, information and 7 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >click here<10:56
Fire destroys storage building at Braun Seafood in Cutchogue
A fire erupted at around 3 a.m. in a rear storage building at Braun Seafood Co. in Cutchogue Wednesday. Firefighters from departments across the North Fork were continuing to pump water on it as of 6 a.m. Braun Seafood owner Ken Homan said the fire destroyed a portion of a building that houses a large freezer for seafood storage. By 6 a.m. the roof of the building had completely collapsed. Cody Homan, the owner’s son, said the freezer is where the company keeps “so much of what we sell all summer.” >click to read>09:41
Our View: Lobster gear changes not yet warranted
A plan to drastically reduce the amount of fishing line in the waters off Maine has lobstermen up and down the coast worried about their future. It is pitting small inshore operators against those who haul in deeper waters. And there’s little evidence it will work. The plan is part of an effort by federal regulators to save the North Atlantic right whale,,,, The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates that fishing rope kills or seriously injures five to nine right whales a year,,, But none of the deaths has been tied conclusively to Maine lobster gear. >click to read<09:20
Big brawl in Little Harbour over lobster fishing grounds
The Eastern Shore’s lobster fishery has once again been marred by violence. On Saturday afternoon RCMP responded to a brawl in Little Harbour stemming from a longstanding dispute between two families over lobster fishing grounds. “The dispute resulted in two men going to the home of another man to confront him,” reads the RCMP account of the fight. “Two more men arrived, and a physical altercation ensued, with some of the parties involved using weapons, including a wrench, a golf club, and a baseball bat.” Video, >click to read<08:48
Groundfishermen not hooked by monitoring alternatives
For more than two years, the New England Fishery Management Council has worked on an intricate groundfish monitoring amendment that could have wide-scale economic and regulatory consequences for groundfishermen. It has been a thorny, winding path that involves a host of groundfish committees, plan development teams and assorted staff within the far-flung fisheries regulatory landscape. Now a group of groundfishermen are weighing in. And they are not pleased. >click to read<07:53
