Monthly Archives: July 2019
Tragic details that have come out about Deadliest Catch
The Discovery Channel’s bracing look at the lives and losses of Bering Sea crab men, Deadliest Catch, has been packing a punch since it debuted in 2007.,, Crabbing is not for the faint of heart or the fragile. The ocean, in other words, offers no safe spaces. Unfortunately for the stars of Deadliest Catch, the drama has not been confined to the high seas. Tragedy has followed the show’s captains and crew members on-shore, landing several of them in court and even in jail cells. And some who have escaped sinking or burning ships have done so only to die in hotel rooms or in their own front yards. >click to read< 15:06
Canastra’s drive helping keep groundfishing alive
Among the grizzled lifelong fishermen sat six-year-old Cassie Canastra. She staked claim to the seat toward the right side of the second table in the small room where thousands of pounds of fish were auctioned off each day. Her spot faced the television and was the closest to the sweets brought by her father, Raymond. Her pastry of choice: Malassadas. Her father and uncle Richie both have fishing running through their blood. The gene was passed down to Cassie. >click to read< 13:56
Legal fight over Open Hydro continues
Local businesses left holding the bag for millions of dollars worth of work installing a tidal turbine in the Minas Passage want the Irish parent company to keep its hands off its bankrupt subsidiary’s remaining asset.,, The company was the Canadian subsidiary of Irish parent OpenHydro that went bankrupt days after a massive tidal turbine was installed in the Minas Passage. The Irish company’s bankruptcy occured after French defence firm Naval Energies, which had been bankrolling the project to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, pulled its funding. >click to read< 12:37
Port Fourchon orders mandatory evacuation
Port Fourchon issued a mandatory evacuation order of all remaining personnel this morning with the approach of Tropical Storm Barry. All of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission’s offices are scheduled to close by noon. Rainfall totals of 10-20 inches have been forecast with a 3-6 foot storm surge. The port’s expecting to see tropical storm force winds today with the potential for isolated tornados. No road closures have been announced so far. The heaviest rain from Tropical Storm Barry is expected to take place between Friday night and Sunday morning. An emergency storm harbor marina is open to commercial fishing vessels on a first-come, first-serve basis. >click to read< 11:52
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for July 12, 2019
Legislative updates, Bill updates, Calendar, >Click here to read the Weekly Update<, to read all the updates >click here<, for older updates listed as NCFA >click here<11:30
New regulations could put added strain on lobster fishermen
The July 4 holiday has always been a busy time for Rob Martin, a commercial lobsterman who steams out of Sandwich Marina.,,, Seasonal gear bans to protect North Atlantic Right Whales in Cape Cod Bay and surrounding waters usually end May 1, but this year lobstermen in the bay were off the water until May 10,,, More than a month later on June 16, several lobstermen were off the water again, but this time not by state edict. They were in district court in Boston to support a fellow lobsterman who was being sued, along with other groups and government agencies, by activist Richard “Max” Strahan. >click to read< 09:50
It’s business as usual! Commercially Caught Wild American Shrimp From Gulf of Mexico Remain Safe to Eat
For the commercial wild-caught shrimp industry in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s business as usual. In spite of reports coming out of the Gulf of Mexico about a freshwater influx due to flooding in the Midwest, along with some resulting, close-to-shore algae blooms, commercial shrimp processors are reporting that this year, though volumes are lower, shrimp quality and size are good as ever. “The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) is continuing to test water and fish samples to ensure seafood safety in Mississippi waters,” said MDMR Executive Director Joe Spraggins. >click to read< 08:41
Canadian company wins approval for new lobster bait fish
The blackbelly rosefish is an abundant species that ranges from Canada to South America. Cooke Aquaculture, a New Brunswick, Canada-based company, requested Maine’s approval to sell rosefish as bait, and the company announced plans to harvest the fish off Uruguay. “We believe this is a solution to address concerns from the lobster fishery on the challenges they are currently facing on account of bait shortages,” said Glenn Cooke, chief executive officer of Cooke Inc., which includes Cooke Aquaculture.>click to read< 22:22
Van Drew co-sponsors fisheries bill to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery and Conservation Management Act
U.S. Reps. Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd, and Don Young, R-Alaska, introduced a bill to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery and Conservation Management Act on Thursday. The fisheries legislation was first written by Young in 1975, according to Van Drew’s office, and was last reauthorized in 2006. In a statement, Van Drew said H.R. 3697 “ensures that we have healthy fisheries, keep anglers in the water and keep fishermen fishing.” <click to read< 17:31
Congressman Don Young Fights for Alaskan Fishermen, Introduces Bipartisan Magnuson-Stevens Act Reauthorization – >click to read< 13:06, 7/12/2019
Vinnie Grimes Is Montauk’s Fishing Legend of the Year – 90-year-old started Blessing of the Fleet in 1955
In 1951 when Vincent Grimes witnessed a ceremonial blessing of various boats while serving in the Navy at Port Hueneme in Southern California, it made a lasting impression. “During the Korean War, I was stationed out there and I thought it was a very touching moment to see the boats blessed by members of the clergy,” said the 90-year-old Montauker, who is known as Vinnie. He stored that emotional memory for future use. “Given how well it was done, I thought it would be nice if we did something similar here in Montauk,” he said last week, and so, thanks to Mr. Grimes, the annual Montauk Blessing of the Fleet was born in 1955. >click to read< 16:49
Kentucky – Local government leaders and business owners say ‘War on Carp’ is working
For the past several years Asian carp have plagued Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. That’s why about a year ago, the War on Carp initiative was started. Its goal is to get rid of as many Asian carp as possible. Asian carp harm native species and jump out of the water — sometimes hitting boaters. “I think we’re winning the war on these fish,” says Kuttawa Marina owner Wayne Breedlove. Breedlove has seen tourism on Lake Barkley struggle as Asian carp became a problem. He says the carp problem has affected business. >click to read< 15:58
Storm strengthens in Gulf of Mexico as it races to Louisiana
A mass of thunder and rain in the Gulf of Mexico could become Tropical Storm Barry on Thursday and hit Louisiana as a hurricane this weekend, worsening flooding in New Orleans and causing almost $1 billion in damage. The system, which was about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southeast of the Mississippi River’s mouth as of 8 a.m. New York time, has already curbed energy production in the Gulf and helped lift oil prices to a seven-week high. It’s also prompted Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency, while hurricane and tropical storm watches are in place along the state’s coastline. The storm — with current top speeds of 35 miles an hour — may drop as much as 20 inches of rain in some places. >click to read< 15:08
Message to Maine’s Lobster Industry from Governor Janet T. Mills
Dear Maine Lobster Industry Member, In light of pending federal regulations to protect right whales, Commissioner Keliher has held a series of Zone Council meetings to gather feedback from Maine’s fishermen about how these regulations could impact your operations, your livelihood, our economy, and our state. I am grateful to the more than 1,200 fishermen who took the time to participate in these meetings and share their views. Commissioner Keliher has briefed me on what he learned, and it is clear to me – as it is to you – that the federal government’s pending regulations are unfair, unreasonable, and unwarranted. I will not stand idly by as Washington attempts to threaten your livelihoods and our way of life. >click to read< 13:53
Vineyard Wind dealt blows on two fronts: Edgartown commission rejects cables; feds delay EIS
… Meanwhile, federal officials have also put the project’s approval and overall timeline into jeopardy. According to a statement posted on Vineyard Wind’s website, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is not yet ready to issue a final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project. A decision had been expected Friday to clear the way for construction to begin by the end of 2019 on the 84-turbine wind farm.,,, To this point, Vineyard Wind has cruised along beating out two other offshore wind projects with leases south of Martha’s Vineyard. But, more recently, the project has received considerably more pushback as the extent of the project became clear to fishermen and others. >click to read< 12:45
Steuben boatbuilder calls it a day
Mike Light stood in the doorway of his boatshop and watched as a truck hauled the spanking new lobster boat Thai Lady off toward the Milbridge town dock one day before its scheduled launching. On the boat’s starboard quarter, tucked up beneath the rail just forward of the transom and above the federal fisheries permit number, gold lettering outlined in black proclaimed the boat to be “Light’s Last.” But is it? “I’m tired,” Light said as the boat he said is his 79th disappeared down the road on the first day of July. “I’m just tired. I’ve been doing this 34 years, 27 on my own.” If the big Calvin Beal, Jr.-designed 44-footer really is the last boat Mike Light finishes it will end a remarkable career with a perfect Downeast Maine story. >click to read< 12:11
Maine’s congressional delegation asks President Trump to help lobstermen facing right whale regulations
“Dear Mr. President: We write to urge your intervention in a matter of serious economic importance to the State of Maine. The livelihoods of thousands of hardworking lobstermen and women are currently under grave threat from new regulations under development by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),” the letter states.,, “In the past two years, fourteen of twenty-two confirmed right whale deaths were found in Canadian waters,” they write. “So far in 2019, there have been six right whale deaths, all of which took place in Canada. Three of those deaths have been attributed to ship strikes, not fishing gear entanglements.” >click to read< 10:02
FISH-NL calls for immediate halt to all fishing for northern cod outside stewardship fishery; independent assessment of DFO science
“When one of the preeminent fisheries science researchers in the world warns that Fisheries and Oceans may be dramatically overestimating the size of the iconic northern cod stock — which is already classified as critical, and in the 27th year of a commercial fishing moratorium — you listen,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. “From FISH-NL’s perspective, we must also err on the side of caution and take immediate and unprecedented action,” said Cleary. “That means a cancellation of all fishing for northern cod outside of the stewardship fishery — including the sentinel (test) fisheries, cod quality program, recreation/food fishery, and any and all fishing of northern cod by offshore, factory-freezer trawlers, foreign or domestic.” >click to read< 09:02
Vineyard Wind suffers cable defeat
The Edgartown conservation commission, in a 5-1 vote, has denied a permit for cables that would pass through the Muskeget Channel.,,, The cables had been approved by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, but at the Edgartown hearings fishermen pushed back strongly against them saying that the cables might have detrimental marine effects. Vineyard Wind and their consultants, Epsilon, appeared stunned after the vote. No one from the contingent would comment on the decision. >click to read< 22:06
How the blackbelly rosefish from South America could help Maine lobstermen who are short on bait
The state for the first time has approved using fish raised off the coast of Uruguay as lobster bait to help offset a bait shortage that could increase lobster prices. Cook e Aquaculture USA of Machiasport announced the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ decision on Wednesday, saying it could help lobstermen weather a drop in the population of their primary bait source, herring, off the Maine coast. The New England Fishery Management Council in June cut the amount of herring fishermen can catch off the New England coast in 2020 and 2021. >click to read< 21:44
Crab fishermen cashing in during windfall harvest in Northern B.C.
Crab fishermen in Northern British Columbia are pinching themselves to make sure they aren’t dreaming this season. Dungeness crab in the Hecate Strait, a shallow body of water between Haida Gwaii and the mainland, are bountiful this year and ship crews are crabbing around the clock to cash in. For many working on the water, it is the most rewarding harvest in recent memory. Paul Edwards, captain of the Sea Harvest, has been fishing for Dungeness since the 1990s and says it is the best haul he has seen in 25 years. Awesome!!! >click to read< 19:47
Consultant: State should not renew licenses if commercial fishermen can’t show minimum income
New York commercial fishermen would be barred from renewing their licences if they could not prove three years income at $15,000 a year under a recommendation by a state consultant. About three dozen fishermen attended the meeting at Stoney Brook University Tuesday night, where response to the recommendations, one of a series of proposals by consultant George Lapointe, was mixed and sometimes heated,,, >click to read<
Nantucket group protests draft authorization for Vineyard Wind
ACK Residents Against Turbines, a group of more than 100 citizens, claims that federal regulators favor offshore wind over commercial fishing and intend to allow serious harm to endangered North Atlantic right whales. “This process is moving too fast, and everyone needs to slow down and make sure we aren’t creating problems for the North Atlantic right whale that can’t be reversed,” Vallorie Oliver of ACK Residents Against Turbines said Tuesday. “This particular animal is clearly struggling, yet it appears that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, in their rush to clear the path for Vineyard Wind, are forgetting their obligation to protect the whale.” >click to read< 16:42
Cook Inlet salmon fisheries into full swing after rough 2018
Upper Cook Inlet salmon fisheries are now in full swing, with promising sockeye returns finally showing up. East Side setnetters in the sections north of Kasilof opened for their first period July 8, and the personal-use dipnet fishery on the Kenai River opened July 10. They join the drift gillnet fleet and other Upper Cook Inlet setnetters as well as the inriver sportfishery and the Kasilof River personal-use fishery. As of July 8, nearly 80,000 sockeye salmon had passed the sonar in the Kenai River. That’s more than double the number that had passed through on the previous date in 2018, when only 37,513 had passed, according to the Alaska Departm,,, >click to read< 15:31
California chinook returns a ‘game-changer’ – California’s chinook may explain why Southern Resident Killer Whales haven’t shown up in BC
Last week, when southern resident killer whales failed to show up in B.C. coastal waters by the end of June, as they usually do, it caused some hand-wringing among whale watchers and Washington conservationists. But if the orcas are late showing up for dinner in B.C., it may be because they were still at the buffet in California, which is reported to be experiencing one of the best chinook returns in about a decade. “I think the California return was a game-changer this year,” >click to read< 13:24
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 44′ Wedgeport Novi Longliner/Federal Permits, Kubota – 10 KW Genset
Specifications, information and 8 photo’s >click here<. To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 12:20
San Diego-based tuna company selling boats, blames U.S. regulations
A large San Diego-based tuna fishing operation, responsible for a sizable chunk of the tuna eaten by U.S. consumers, says it is slashing the size of its fleet by more than half. South Pacific Tuna Corp. says it is selling eight of its 14 boats to foreign companies, eliminating more than 200 jobs, because of stifling U.S. regulations that it says make it difficult to earn a profit..,, The sale of the boats would mean a reduction of 70,000 tons of tuna from a U.S. company, meaning more Americans would be eating tuna caught by foreign operators, who are often criticized for poor labor practices. >click to read< 10:31
Alaska up to 22 dead gray whales this season with 7 reported over holiday weekend
The state of Alaska is up to 22 confirmed gray whale deaths this season, according to NOAA spokesperson Julie Speegle. Seven additional sightings were confirmed over the long holiday weekend, Speegle said, with one necropsy having been completed.,,, As of June 27, the site reported 14 Alaska whales, and 85 total for the U.S. The total for the U.S., Canada and Mexico this season was reported at 171 by that date. >click to read< 09:03
Searching for Keith – A detective’s quest reveals how one idealistic fisheries observer may have collided with criminals and desperate migrants—and paid for it with his life.
Long before Karsten von Hoesslin first heard the name Keith Davis, before he spent countless unpaid hours tugging at investigative threads and careening into dead ends as he searched for answers about the man’s strange disappearance from a fishing vessel, before he jetted to South America chasing clues, he dedicated his days to dealing with a different sort of challenge—pirates.,,, His first case, which he funded with his own savings, was a 2012 mass murder of as many as 34 fishermen in the Indian Ocean.,,, Davis, a fisheries observer originally from Arizona, had been working on the high seas aboard a tuna transshipment vessel—a ship that collects catches from fishing boats and ferries them to port, saving the boats a long trip to shore. As an observer, his job was to independently monitor the catches and collect data from tuna transfers. He was on deck, watching the crew prepare to hoist loads of tuna into the ship’s hold, just before he went missing on a calm September 2015 day in the eastern Pacific at the age of 40. A 44 minute audio report, >click to read< 22:10
Fishing operations in Whittier back in action after explosion
Commercial fishing operations are resuming with an alternate plan to deal with the backlog of fish after the DeLong dock in Whittier was shut down after Monday’s explosion. Three large commercial fishing operations use the dock to offload fish for processing: Whitter Seafood, Copper River Seafood, and North Pacific Seafood. According to city manager Jim Hunt, the dock shutdown caused several million pounds of fish to sit on the dock for several hours, and many loaded fishing vessels had no way to offload their catches. Now, many fishing operations are using smaller, less-suitable docks to offload fish. They say it is an inconvenience but it’s not going to set them back,, >click to read< 20:12
Stress-free Cape Breton lobsters sought – Quality testing began in 2013 as a way to combat low buyer prices
Some Cape Breton fishermen are working hard to make sure your lobster is stress free. Veronika Brzeski, a marine biologist who works for the Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association, said this helps improve the quality of the lobster meat. Stress causes lactic acid buildup in the meat. Brzeski said she’s read research papers that have attributed high level of lactic acid to less taste and blanching of the meat. This is why Brzeski can often be seen on docks, testing things like oxygen levels in holding tanks, for members of the association. >click to read<17:26
