Daily Archives: June 29, 2019
Sharks and seals: A success story ?
With five shark attacks on people since 2012 — including swimmers, kayakers, a paddleboarder and a fatal attack on a bodyboarder last year — surfers, swimmers, public safety officials and business owners now worry that the ocean is suddenly not safe. Some see an imbalance that requires corrective measures, like a cull of seals and maybe sharks to reduce risk and bolster fish harvests. But others marvel at a pair of conservation success stories in an era where species extinction is more often the news. >click to read<23:54
Downtime – This year’s Slam’n Salm’n Derby winner is a commercial fisherman who hits Ship Creek on his time off
This year’s winner of the Slam’n Salm’n Derby is an Anchorage angler who spends many of his hours off from commercial fishing at Ship Creek. Robert George III won this year’s Anchorage fishing derby with a 30.35-pound king salmon.,,, After the creekside awards ceremony Sunday, George examined a hefty gold nugget included as part of the prize package valued at more than $5,000. George said he commercial long-lines for Pacific cod out of Dutch Harbor.,,, >click to read< 16:42
A Life-Long Lobsterman Also Works Hard On Ways To Avoid Whales
Rob Martin was five miles out on his boat, Resolve, lobstering with his crew, and made a call on his way back to port. Martin wasn’t calling his buyer. He was joining a conference call for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, of which he is a member.,, The conversation revolved around installing breakaway sleeves in vertical lines from traps to buoys so whales can snap them on contact and not become entangled. Martin wasn’t required to make those changes, but he already had. He has been working for years ,,, >click to read< 14:20
The Swordfishing tradition – Dangers of catching the ‘big fish’ off Cape Breton
The earliest report of a Canadian commercial swordfish industry was in 1903 in the Department of Marine and Fisheries annual report, but the Mi’kmaq fished swordfish long before that time. Between 1909 and 1959, more than half of the swordfish caught in Canada were landed in Cape Breton.,, In order to successfully catch a swordfish, you had to have great aim and a whole lot of skill. Any rattles from the boat would create vibrations in the water that the fish would take as a warning and disappear. If the shadow of your mast landed on the fish, “whoosh he was just gone like lightning.” >click to read< 13:00
Bristol Bay – Why the two main forecasts have a 5 million-fish difference
This year, 44.6 million sockeye salmon will return to Bristol Bay – if you trust the University of Washington forecast. But the University of Washington forecast isn’t the only one out there. “This year’s forecast is 40.18 million,” said Gregory Buck, Fish and Game’s fishery biologist and regional research coordinator for Bristol Bay. Buck says the almost 5 million sockeye difference between the ADF&G and UW forecasts has a pretty simple explanation: an accumulation of small data interpretation differences. >click to read< 10:31
Fishermen face uphill battle in lawsuit over New York wind site
Fishermen and the city of New Bedford are facing an uphill battle in their fight against a New York offshore wind location after losing a lawsuit in September. Attorney David Frulla, who represents the Fisheries Survival Fund and other plaintiffs in the case, said he was disappointed at the court decision but has not given up. “I just don’t think the judge understood that these leases aren’t theoretical, that they actually confer rights,” he said. >click to read< 09:46
Fisheries and Oceans Canada Blunder – Expert says feds should have acted more quickly on right whale migration
Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it has sighted another dead endangered right whale drifting off the Gaspé Peninsula, bringing the total number of deaths in Canadian waters this year to six. The government was still assessing recovery and necropsy options for this sixth whale. The new information late Thursday came as an expert said Canadian officials did not respond quickly enough to this year’s migration of North Atlantic right whales. >click to read< 08:55
Bodega Bay fisherman killed in freak accident off Moss Landing
A veteran of Bodega Bay’s commercial fishing fleet died this week off the California Coast in a freak accident aboard his 33-foot vessel, Amoorea, apparently after his water-protective clothing became snagged in the propeller shaft, pinning him between the shaft and the hull of the boat. Dan Nguyen, a Vietnam native who arrived on the West Coast in the early 1990s with tales of serving as a U.S. scout during wartime, subsequent imprisonment and, later, killing a guard to escape the North Vietnamese, already was unconscious when a deckhand discovered him badly injured in the engine room, the U.S. Coast Guard said. >click to read< 08:25
