Monthly Archives: August 2019
Opinion: Responsible Offshore Development Alliance Statement on Vineyard Wind Federal Review Process
In light of the recent decision by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to perform a cumulative impacts analysis regarding the proposed Vineyard Wind project, and the recently released communications between that agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), RODA would like to clarify certain statements and representations. >click to read< 08:27
100% fishing monitoring is unnecessary, David Goethel
I would like to correct some misconceptions and rebut some of the statements made by Ms. Johanna Thomas in her Aug. 2, 2019 opinion, Monitoring will help improve New England’s fisheries. >click to read< Ms. Thomas sites the West coast Groundfish fleet as a success story. That is not the case as told by the fishermen on the West coast. She also fails to mention that 50% of the fleet was bought out in a $60 million-plus dollar buy out prior to the implementation of catch shares. This alone should have rebuilt stocks. >click to read< 21:28
Cost, timeline for removing Klamath River dams updated
Removing four hydroelectric dams along the lower Klamath River in Southern Oregon and Northern California is expected to cost just under $434 million and could happen by 2022, according to a new filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The nonprofit Klamath River Renewal Corp. submitted plans with FERC in 2018 to decommission and demolish J.C. Boyle, Copco Nos. 1 and 2 and Iron Gate dams, which block about 400 miles of upstream habitat for migratory salmon and steelhead. >click to read< 19:06
Tribes Release 1st Salmon Into Upper Columbia Since Dam Construction
Cheers erupted from the crowd as the first salmon was released since 1955 into the Columbia River above Chief Joseph Dam. It was the first of 30 fish released. A truck transported the salmon up and around the dam in northeastern Washington. A chain of people lined up shoulder-to-shoulder. They passed bags filled with one salmon at a time from the truck to the river. Crystal Conant, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, released the final fish of the day. >click to read< 18:25
Outside buyers allowed in cod market as fishermen protest in St. John’s, Old Perlican
Buyers from outside the province will have a 14-day window to purchase cod from Newfoundland and Labrador harvesters, Gerry Byrne’s announcement comes as members of the The Fish Food And Allied Workers Union set up on the waterfront in St. John’s Monday morning, giving their cod catches away for free to protest what they say is a processors’ refusal to buy it. Union members are also protesting outside the Royal Greenland plant in Old Perlican, and the FFAW said it submitted an official request to Byrne Monday morning, asking that outside buyers be allowed into the market. >click to read< 16:48
Ships are getting speeding tickets in the Chesapeake Bay to protect right whales
Eight years ago the COSCO Nagoya, a giant ship capable of carrying more than 4,000 cargo containers, was motoring around the Chesapeake Bay when it ran into a speed trap. Three months later, the Nagoya got dinged again for speeding, this time near the Port of Charleston. Over the next several months, the Nagoya was caught 13 more times up and down the east coast, from South Carolina to New York. Each speeding violation came with a price tag of $5,750 for a total of $86,250 in fines. >click to read< 13:43
About 70 frustrated fishermen tell feds at a hearing in Machias that Canada, not Maine, is mostly to blame.
About 70 fishermen came to the first fisheries service public meeting in Maine on the latest round of lobster rule changes being considered to protect the endangered whales. They expressed safety fears and their mounting frustration. The state’s $485 million-a-year lobster industry is facing a federal mandate to lower the number of buoy lines in the Gulf of Maine by 50 percent to protect right whales.,,, >click to read< 12:09
Pebble Mine: Commercial Fishermen, Indigenous People Unite to Fight Mine in Alaska
The Pebble Mine is a large deposit of gold, copper and molybdenum located at the headwaters of Bristol Bay. The deposit was first discovered in the 1980s and multinational corporations began seriously pursuing its development in the 2000s. Those who want to develop the mine say it will create high-paying jobs for locals and reduce America’s dependence on foreign countries for the provision of raw materials. Opponents say toxic discharge from the mine could foul the home of the world’s largest salmon run, bankrupting the mammoth fishing industry and destroying the local ecology. “It’s one of the unique things about this whole fight,”,,, >click to read< 10:40
UPDATED: Body Recovered, Maine Marine Patrol/Maine State Police Dive Team Searching for Bremen Man
The Maine Marine Patrol/Maine State Police Dive Team is searching the waters of Round Pond Harbor for 63 year old Glenn Murdoch of Bremen. Marine Patrol was notified that Mr. Murdoch was missing last night at approximately 9:30 pm and began searching the waters and shoreline of Round Pond Harbor with members of the US Coast Guard and the Bristol Fire Department. The search was suspended last night at 1:00 am and resumed by the dive team this morning at 6:00 am. >click to read< 10:20
8/19/2019 Body of man recovered from cove near Bremen – The Marine Patrol had been searching Round Pond Harbor, nearly 2 nautical miles south of the location of the body, since Aug. 12 for 63-year-old Glenn Murdoch of Bremen. <click to read<
Ocean temperatures off N.S. dip after record breaking year, have moved back to normal
Following a season of record-breaking surface temperatures last year, ocean temperatures in the waters around Nova Scotia have moved back to normal this summer, says the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.,,, In 2018, DFO found winter sea surface temperatures from the Scotian Shelf to the Bay of Fundy were above normal. There were also record-breaking temperatures in August and September. However, DFO’s spring survey conducted in April 2019 differed from last year’s results. “First, the surface was really cold because we had a really cold winter. It takes time for the ocean to heat up,” Hebert said. “The deeper water seemed to be back to the normal temperature.” >click to read< 09:44
2 Canadian Coast Guard ships fined for speeding in right whale slowdown zone
Two Canadian Coast Guard vessels were among the six ships fined Monday after being caught violating speed restrictions aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales. Transport Canada fined the coast guard ships Cape Edensaw and Cap d’Espoir $6,000 and $12,000 respectively for violating the temporary mandatory slowdown in the shipping lanes north and south of Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. >click to read< 09:10
Try, try again: FISH-NL making second push to unseat FFAW
The union, which formed three years ago, has learned from its first failure and adjusted tactics accordingly, said its president. “This has been a long, hard process. and we’ve learned a lot along the way,” said Ryan Cleary. Whereas before FISH-NL spent six weeks campaigning for cards, now it will use the maximum allowed amount of 90 days, submitting the results to the province’s Labour Relations Board on Nov. 8. The board will then verify the submission and rule on whether FISH-NL met the qualifications to trigger a vote among all fish harvesters as to who they want as their union. >click to read< 09:05
Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in Philadelphia, Pa, August 13 – 15, 2019
The public is invited to attend the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s meeting to be held a The Notary Hotel, Autograph Collection*, 21 N. Juniper St., Philadelphia, PA. Briefing Materials & Agenda Overview Agenda >click here< Attend Meeting with Adobe Connect >click here< 17:02
Late Post. Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting in New Orleans, August 12 – 15, 2019
Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting in New Orleans, August 12 – 15, 2019, at Hyatt Centric French Quarter, 800 Iberville Street
New Orleans, LA 70112. >click to read the Agenda and Meeting Materials<, >click to listen live< Our apologies! 16:13
Louisiana fishermen sell directly to survive, hoping for boost from restaurant menu labeling law
Commercial fishing businesses in Louisiana, striving to survive years of low prices for their catch and a safety scare following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, are hoping for a boost in demand when restaurants across the state are required to disclose imported shrimp and crawfish on their menus starting Sept. 1. But already there is doubt that it will have much of an impact. >click to read< 12:15
FISH-NL membership drive. Inshore harvesters offered second chance to break free of FFAW-Unifor
The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) is launching today its second membership drive for inshore harvesters to finally break free of the FFAW/Unifor.,,, “FISH-NL’s first battle is to free harvesters from the FFAW stranglehold, and after almost three long years we’re almost there,” Cleary added. “The second fight will be to end mismanagement of our fisheries, and secure harvesters and the rural communities where they live with a prosperous future as the primary beneficiary of adjacent stocks.” The membership drive starts today, and will conclude on Nov. 8th when FISH-NL will submit the membership cards as part of an application for certification to the province’s Labour Relations Board. >click to read< 11:46
A Fundraiser by Joseph Daughtry for a Florida Statewide Commercial Fishermen’s Reunion
We are raising funds to pay for the pavillion rental, tent, table and chairs, Permits and insurance, Food and beverage, and everything else that will arise to make our reunion on January 11th, 2020 at Sandsprit Park in Port Salerno the best experience we can make of it. We are not doing this to make money, so if any funds are left over, they will be turned into a Fishermen Emergency fund of a sort to be determined by everyone. Please donate if you can.. It has been too long since the fishermen of Florida past and present got together. Please contact me, Joseph Daughtry, [email protected] if you are interested in attending. Thanks. We hope to make this a lifelong memory for everyone…Joe Daughtry >click to read< Party On!
Rope free traps? Company studies ways for fishing nets and whales to coexist.
“It’s promising and many people are asking why we don’t use it right away — but it’s still in the scientific testing phase, with tests being done in the water and it has not yet been adapted for commercial fishing,” Cormier explained. In some trials, the buoy took up to 30 minutes to surface; in other cases it never surfaced. “There is still work to be done as far as the reliability of the equipment,” he said. “We don’t want to create another problem, that of ghost fishing.” >click to read< 09:49
Sea Gulls make unbearable noises at ungodly hours. Here’s why
I first assumed that gulls make noise during mating rituals. But Richards gave me a much more unsettling answer. “When the gulls first hatch, the chicks start to wander around. And the neighbours next door [i.e., other gulls] will actually try to eat the other chicks,” said Richards. “So, the parents are actually defending their chicks from their neighbours.”,,, “And they swallow them in one gulp.” >click to read< 09:04
Illustration shows room for fishing boats between turbines — but is it enough?
Vineyard Wind has released an illustration designed to portray its wind turbines as far enough apart for fishing boats, but a leading New Bedford fisherman says the distance isn’t safe. The image compares the average distance between the Vineyard Wind 1 project’s 84 turbines, which is 0.88 nautical miles, to the slightly smaller distance between two Boston landmarks, Fenway Park and Trinity Church in Copley Square, which is 0.78 nautical miles. >click to read< 19:20
The internet has discovered the “salmon cannon,” and it has become a sensation
“What is a salmon cannon?” I hear you ask. Gather round, children, and I will tell you.,,, A video on Twitter emerged today that shows officials loading large, living fish into an enormous tube to help them bypass a dam that would take days to traverse otherwise. The pipeline allows fish to get from one side of the dam to the other in just a matter of seconds.,,,The dam in question is the Cle Elum Dam, in Washington state. The cannon has allowed Sockeye salmon to go across the dam for the first time in 100 years, Video >click to read< 17:29
Scientists warn of too many pink salmon in North Pacific
Biological oceanographer Sonia Batten experienced her lightbulb moment on the perils of too many salmon three years ago as she prepared a talk on the most important North Pacific seafood you’ll never see on a plate, zooplankton. Zooplanktons nourish everything from juvenile salmon to seabirds to giant whales. But as Batten examined 15 years of data collected by instruments on container ships near the Aleutian Islands, she noticed a trend: zooplankton was abundant in even-number years and less abundant in odd-number years. Something was stripping a basic building block in the food web every other year. And just one predator fit that profile. >click to read< 15:47
What happened to Pensacola’s commercial fishing industry?
This industry began when it became possible to put in use a series of key elements which together made such a traffic practical and profitable. The “elements” began, of course, with the fish themselves, some of which had been a part of the economic backbone of the community from the beginning. The open sea was home to the fish, and while some of the works had to be performed some distance from land, netting and icing all were practical for the proper vessels. >click to read< 13:08
Government says there is “a lot of uncertainty” over no-deal Brexit fishing patrols, email mistake reveals
The government has said there is “a lot of uncertainty” about the UK’s ability to patrol fishing waters in a no-deal Brexit, a memo has revealed. The document was emailed by mistake to the BBC. The memo said there are only 12 ships tasked to “monitor a space three times the size of the surface area of the UK”. It was mistakenly sent to the BBC from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs while discussing media stories.
>click to read< 11:13
Childhood ended early in Cohasset
In the 19th century, it was not unusual for Cohasset children to work in the fishing industry.,,, We know of one boy, Francis Pratt, who at age 8 went to sea as a ship’s cook. His father, Dr. Ezekiel Pratt, Cohasset’s only doctor at the time, was very poor and struggled to feed his eight children. He told them, “I can’t have you gnawing at my ribs any longer,” and in 1826 sent young Francis off to sea on a Cohasset fishing schooner. >click to read(short)< 09:19
Maine lobsterman John McInnes seems to have a knack for catching colorful crustaceans
Last month, he hauled in a rare cotton-candy-colored lobster in Casco Bay, near Portland. That would be remarkable story on its own, but McInnes said this is the second time he’s caught this particular lobster. “I caught it last October, and it was too small to keep, and then I caught it again,” McInnes said. “I caught it last October, and it was too small to keep, and then I caught it again,” McInnes said. “It was probably a mile and a half away from where I let it go. It didn’t go far.” >click to read< 08:42
Michael Moore-Backed Doc Tackles Green Energy’s ‘False Promises’
What if alternative energy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? That’s the provocative question explored in the documentary Planet of the Humans, which is backed and promoted by filmmaker Michael Moore and directed by one of his longtime collaborators.,,, Director Jeff Gibbs takes on electric cars, solar panels, windmills, biomass, biofuel, leading environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club, and even figures from Al Gore and Van Jones, who served as Barack Obama’s special adviser for green jobs, to 350.org leader Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist and advocate for grassroots climate change movements.,,, But when he started pulling on the thread,,,, >click to read< 19:32
55th Annual Winter Harbor Lobster Festival and Boat Races
A video of friendly happy people and fast boats! For 55 years, the Winter Harbor Community have come together to celebrate lobstermen! “It’s big you know it’s big for the lobster industry. It gets lobsters name out there it gets people buying lobster it gets people interested in lobster, it’s good for the state of Maine. The whole boat racing scene is good for the state of Maine,” said Kristin Porter from the Maine Lobsterman’s Association. >click to read<18:13
Environmental officers outnumbered by complaints of poaching.
Using two undercover officers posing as fishermen, environmental police focused their efforts on the canal, and on Sunday they seized 50 illegally caught striped bass and issued $8,000 in citations to 14 anglers. “The violators are both recreational and commercial fishermen,” said Environmental Police Maj. Patrick Moran, who said the sheer numbers for a one-day action were incredible. “Poachers are becoming more daring, devious and furtive, and it’s a daily struggle to figure out the newest scheme to skirt the fisheries laws,” Moran wrote in an email. >click to read<17:11
To Mike Gambardella, Get Well Soon!
To all the good people who visit us here at Fisherynation, we would like to let you all know our good friend and major supporter of our commercial fishing communities and our heritage has just come through a major surgery at Mid-State Medical Center hospital in CT. He will be on the mend for a while but we know that although he is down now, he’ll be back at it soon enough and continuing what he started with his Make Commercial Fishing Great Again Campaign! Mike, you know we all love you and are behind you 110%. You’ll be back on the front lines of this battle soon enough. Until then, we encourage our Fisherynation supporters to give Mike a shout out and let him know how much he is appreciated. >comment here!<16:34
For those that don’t know Mike, here is a bit about him: Fishermen hope bumper sticker gets Trump’s attention, Stonington fish wholesaler calls on Sen. Blumenthal for help, and others! >click to read<
