Monthly Archives: October 2019
Update on Results and Progress of DMF Gulf of Maine Cod Industry-Based Survey & SMAST Video Trawl Survey
The Gulf of Maine (GOM) Cod Industry-Based Survey (IBS) has concluded three years of surveying, and the SMAST Pilot Video Trawl Survey of GOM cod on Stellwagen Bank has preliminary results. Some findings and implications of the combined results are presented here. Further analyses are underway and are described below as is discussion on the discard dilemma that continues to face the commercial industry while operating under extremely low catch limits for GOM cod. >click to read< 18:27
A Fish Bill Update from Sam Parisi, and a scheduled meeting in Gloucester with all invited!
Dear Fisherynation Readers, I wanted to share some information about a project that I have an interest in seeing advance, a U.S. Fish Bill. I am pleased to let you know that today, a staffer from Senator Markey’s office responded to my request to help draft a Fish Bill. I had a good conversation with the staffer that also requested a meeting with Massachusetts fishermen and local politans to discuss and endorse a U.S Fish Bill. >click to read< 18:07
Port Lincoln prawn pioneer’s discovery recorded
As a new season dawns for the Spencer Gulf King Prawn Fishery, the story of the man who found the first commercial quantity of prawns in the Spencer Gulf. Roger ‘Doc’ Howlett’s story of the founding of the fishery has been recorded which details how he found the first commercial quantity of prawns at an area known as the ‘Gutter’ in 1967. Mr Howlett died in February last year but before his death approached prawn fishery coordinator at sea Greg Palmer with his story. Photo’s >click to read< 16:04
Unalaska declares emergency as ‘desperate’ air service situation grows after fatal crash
Jay Hebert is a Bering Sea skipper trying to get a group of king crab fishermen out of Unalaska’s flight-dependent port of Dutch Harbor, where a fatal plane crash suspended regular air service this month. They’ve agreed to pay $15,000 for eight seats on a flight he chartered, Hebert says. “That’s how desperate it is.” City officials in Unalaska on Tuesday declared a local emergency and asked for permission to organize three round-trip charters a week given the lack of a “fixed, known date” that regular air service will return ,,, >click to read< 13:46
Was a Rare Purple Lobster Caught in Maine?
A Maine lobsterman said he was shocked when he netted a rare purple lobster last week. Keith Potter netted the purple lobster on Tuesday off the coast of Winter Harbor. These digitally manipulated images appear to have first been shared to the private Facebook group All Things Lobstering and show a user named Keith Potter. (I like Keith’s message!) Stop messaging me about that fake purple lobster it was a joke I posted in a closed group and someone took it and shared it, if you read the comments you can tell it was a joke and if you’re butthurt over a photoshopped lobster please get a life >click to read< 11:30
Past, present collide as harbour authority works to revitalize Steveston’s fishing industry
The golden era of Steveston as a fishing village may be over, but that doesn’t mean the trawling industry is a relic of the past. Steveston Harbour is by far the largest small-craft harbour in the county, home to more than 44 per cent of the buildings in the entire national harbour program. Since 2009, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has invested about $23.5 million into the harbour, with additional funding from the province. Now, plans are well underway to make it the commercial fishing hub of B.C., said Robert Kiesman, chair of the Steveston Harbour Authority (SHA). >click to read< 09:15
Giant Bundaberg prawns bigger than a stubby
They can grow bigger than a stubby and are often mistaken for lobsters but these giant creatures are actually prawns and they’re being caught in waterways around Bundaberg. Photos of leader prawns have been circulating social media, with local fisherman comparing their biggest catches from the Burnett River and ocean surrounding the region. Leader prawns are from the banana or tiger prawn family, so named for their massive size and they role they play in a school of prawns. >click to read< 08:16
Marshfield man found on stolen vessel suspected of setting blaze that sank lobster boat
A Marshfield man found on a stolen vessel in a river that runs along Route 3 is suspected of setting a fire that destroyed and sank a lobster boat in Scituate on Wednesday morning, officials said. Officers responding to a report of a large fire on the South River in Scituate around 5:50 a.m. found a 40-foot lobster boat completely engulfed in flames, according to the Marshfield Police Department. David Pongonis, 36, of Marshfield, was later intercepted by a harbormaster’s boat as he traveled east along the North River, police said. >click to read< 07:23
Underproduction? Offshore wind gets a warning from its biggest developer. Orsted
The world’s biggest developer of offshore wind farms issued a reality check to the industry, saying it has overestimated the amount of time its turbines are generating electricity. Copenhagen-based Orsted A/S announced that offshore wind farms wouldn’t produce quite as much power as previously forecast. The adjustment could shave millions of dollars of revenue a year off each project. It’s also a warning to other developers who may have used similar analysis to estimate the economics of their projects. >click to read< 16:44
International expedition answers troubling questions about B.C. salmon runs
Buried in the doom-and-gloom headlines about depleted salmon stocks and disastrous spawning returns is this nugget of truth: There are more salmon in the Pacific Ocean than at any time since 1925.,,, The Russian research vessel Kaganovsky set out on a five-week grid-search test fishery in the North Pacific last February with a team of 21 scientists from Canada, Russia, the United States, Korea and Japan. They examined specific questions about the range, feeding habits and condition of adult salmon, and at least some of the answers are trickling in. >click to read< 15:51
Cooke Aquaculture seeks renewal of salmon pen lease
Just weeks after Cooke Aquaculture agreed to pay the state more than $150,000 to settle numerous violations at several of its salmon net pen sites in eastern Maine, the Department of Marine Resources is asking for public comment on the company’s application for a 20-year lease renewal. The renewal is of a lease to grow salmon, other finfish and blue mussels on a 15-acre site located between Black Island and Placentia Island south of Bass Harbor and Great and Little Gott islands. >click to read< 12:29
Notice of Completed Renewal Application and Comment Period – Cook Aquaculture USA, Inc. – DMR has received a completed lease renewal application for the following: >click to read<
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: Price REDUCED! 36′ 2008 Calvin Beal Lobster/Tuna, 350HP, 6 Cylinder Volvo
Specifications, information and 38 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 11:03
Patrick C. Keliher Elected ASMFC Chair
New Castle, NH – Today, member states of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) thanked James Gilmore of New York for an effective two-year term as Chair and elected Commissioner Patrick C. Keliher of Maine to succeed him. “It is both a great honor and huge responsibility to be trusted to lead the Commission for the next two years. >click to read< 09:26
Cull! Plan Mulls Killing More Sea Lions to Save Salmon
Decades of efforts, including billions of dollars spent, to prevent the extinction of 13 species of Columbia River salmon and steelhead were stymied by the resurgence of gregarious mammals who themselves returned from the brink. Now, a new plan backed by Native American tribes and three states would attempt to protect the fish by killing more sea lions. >click to read< 08:54
The Battle Over Menhaden Harvesting in the Bay
“The menhaden issue is a very complex issue the commission is currently facing,” says Toni Kerns, ASMFC’s director of Interstate Fisheries Management Program and Policy Development. The ASMFC is a group that, under federal law, manages and oversees coastal fisheries including the menhaden species. Essentially, the ASMFC has regulatory authority. Video, >click to read< 08:30
British fishermen battle ‘codfathers’, quotas – and Brexit delay
On a crisp October afternoon in a neglected corner of southwest England, the catch of the day was being hauled ashore from the Wharton brothers’ boat. Lobster pots sat stacked around the harbour. Families strolled in the sunshine and seagulls screamed overhead. More than three years after Britain voted to leave the EU, the fishermen of Ilfracombe were thoroughly fed up. “It’s a bloody disgrace,” >click to read< 06:59
Climate Alarmists Propose Feeding Cows Seaweed To Lower Methane In Farts
Environmentalists intent on finding new ways to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions to curb climate change have proposed a novel method: feed cows seaweed to diminish methane in flatulence, belches, and manure. Ermias Kebreab, a zoology professor at the University of California–Davis, led a team in producing a bovine meal regimen containing varying levels of Asparagopsis armata, a strain of red seaweed, and fed it to 12 dairy cows over a two-month period. >click to read< 20:31
How a 20-year-old fishery ruling has redefined First Nations relations in the Maritimes
In September, 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its ruling in the Indigenous commercial fishing case brought forward by Donald Marshall Jr. Mr. Marshall was already well-known in Canada for his mistreatment at the hands of the Canadian policing and judicial system. In this instance, however, the member of the Membertou First Nation wanted the Government of Canada to recognize the continued authority of 18th-century “peace and friendship” treaties between the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and British authorities. >click to read< 16:56
Advisory: 2019 Commercial Fluke Trip Limit to Increase on November 1st
Effective November 1, 2019 through the end of the year, all commercial closed fishing days for summer flounder days will be eliminated thereby allowing commercial fishermen to fish for, possess and land summer flounder seven-days per week and the commercial trip limit will be increased to 1,000 pounds for all gear types (Declaration Notice). This will allow vessels fishing offshore to have greater access to the state’s remaining 2019 commercial summer flounder quota (about 240,000 pounds). >click to read< 15:37
Coast Guard medevacs man 20 miles north of Hatteras, North Carolina
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Monday night, watchstanders at the Coast Guard Fifth District command center were notified that the 56-year-old crew member was experiencing symptoms of a heart attack. The Coast Guard medevaced a man from the commercial fishing vessel Captain Jimmy 20 miles north of Hatteras. >click to read< 14:56
Federal Judge Restores Ban on Fishing Net That Entangles Whale Species
Environmentalists hoping to save the North Atlantic right whale won a federal injunction Monday banning walls of fishing net that entangle the species that has been on the brink of extinction since the 1970s. ,, The decision by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg speared changes made by the National Marine Fisheries Service earlier this year to rules governing New England’s fisheries. >click to read< 12:30
Scallop fishermen raise concerns about impact on fishery of planned oil and gas exploration and windfarm development.
And they claim ’flawed’ surveys suggesting declining stocks have brought the scallop fleet to the brink – and are paving the way for the seismic surveys and gas rigs. Mr Ironside said: ’Government has drastically reduced quotas for queenies to protect “diminishing stocks” but now they’re planning to do seismic surveys for gas and oil where the queenies were. ’Why protect them and then wipe them out building gas rigs on them?’ Total allowable catch for queen scallops was cut by 40% to just 476 tonnes at the beginning of the season in July. >click to read< 10:05
The Gulf of Maine cod fishery is in rough shape. The fishermen aren’t doing much better.
In December of 2011, five days before Christmas, cod fishermen in the Gulf of Maine received a letter from government regulators.,,, Over the next four years, catch limits would decrease by more than 95 percent, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of fishermen across New England. Since 2013, researchers from Northeastern have been working with these fishing communities to understand how the failure of the cod fishery affected the fishermen’s well-being. >click to read< 09:24
Net ban at 25: Still stings, still opposed
Red tide, blue-green algae, global warming, sea rise, sewage spills and oil spills combined don’t antagonize commercial fishermen as much as one single, 25-year-old subject. On election day in 1994, Florida voters passed a state constitutional amendment banning Florida commercial fishermen from using gill nets. The law made any commercial fisherman in the state an outlaw who used a gill net to catch mullet, as fishing families had done for generations. >click to read< 08:30
Observer fees will increase in GOA, BSAI
Fees will increase starting in 2021 for partial coverage observer programs of commercial fishing boats throughout the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands. The boost from 1.25 percent of the ex-vessel value of the fish on board to 1.65 percent was approved during the North Pacific Fishery Management Council ‘s meeting its October meeting in Homer. >click to read< 21:03
Omega Protein Disappointed by ASMFC Vote on Menhaden Fishery Non-Compliance
Omega Protein is disappointed in today’s vote by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Menhaden Management Board to request Virginia’s menhaden fishery be found out of compliance for exceeding a cap on harvest in the Chesapeake Bay. “In the last decade, we have made a concerted effort to fish outside the Bay whenever weather conditions and the location of the fish have made that possible,” said Monty Deihl,>click to read< 18:34
Regulators say Virginia firm caught more menhaden in Bay than allowed. Feds will decide what happens. – >click to read< 19:33
“Our landings are way off ” Maine landed less than 50 million pounds by end of September
As of the end of September, Maine fishermen had landed less than 50 million pounds of lobster, according to Commissioner Pat Keliher of Maine Department of Marine Resources. Keliher told the American Lobster Management Board on Monday that some of the year-to-date decline could be because lobsters molted late this year. The bulk of Maine’s lobster fleet catches new shell lobster, or lobsters whose new shells are just starting to firm up after shedding their old ones. “Our landings are way off. Now that doesn’t mean the sky is falling. That means we certainly had a very big delay in the shed.” >click to read< 15:39
Maryland DNR rescues trapped whale off shore of Ocean City
A trapped whale was rescued recently in the waters off Ocean City, thanks to officers from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Sgt. Andrew Wilson said he and his crew were on patrol near Ocean City on Oct. 24 when suddenly, a transmission came through: a whale spotted offshore was stuck and unable to get free. Upon discovering the animal, officers noticed its tail was entangled by two buoys and a fishing gear line, according to Wilson. >Video, click to read< 13:09
Vineyard Wind Appoints Fisheries Liaison For CT
Offshore wind developer Vineyard Wind has appointed Caela Howard its fisheries liaison for Connecticut. Howard has spent the last decade working closely with fisheries in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and in this role, she will serve as the primary point of contact for fishing industry representatives in Connecticut. She will report to the company’s lead fisheries liaison, Crista Bank. Winning! >click to read< 12:31
Could Columbia River sturgeon become a source of high-end caviar? The Yakama Nation is counting on it
Ancestors of the Columbia sturgeon first emerged more than 200 million years ago, during the Triassic Period. One reason they’ve stuck around so long is they’re built like tanks. In lieu of scales, sturgeon have rows of armored plates called scutes, which run along their body. A long, flat snout conceals a mouth nearer their belly, from which they siphon up prey fish, like shad, lamprey, salmon and smelt. They can live 100 years and grow to 20 feet; big ones tip the scales at 1,500 pounds. One sturgeon could feed an entire village, and for centuries they did. >click to read< 10:50
