Daily Archives: October 16, 2019
Crabbers face another round of harvest cuts
Bering Sea crabbers started their 2019-20 season this week with a mixed harvest bag and an uncertain future for their fisheries. The NPFMC and Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, which collaboratively manage the state’s crab fisheries, announced the catch limits and overfishing limit for the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands and Bristol Bay crab fisheries last week, just in time for the fisheries to open Oct. 15. While the eastern Bering Sea snow crab fishery’s total allowable catch is up, the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery’s is down and there won’t be a Bering Sea Tanner crab fishery at all. >click to read< 21:52
Lifejacket could have avoided Shetland fisherman’s death, FAI finds
The death of a fisherman working off Shetland could have been avoided if he wore a lifejacket, a Fatal Accident Inquiry has found. As a result a sheriff has called for it to be mandatory for all fishermen to wear a lifejacket while working on deck. Scott James Rennie, 31, died on June 23, 2016, at the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick. An hour before his death he was working on the fishing vessel King Challenger. >click to read< 19:55
Salmon disease was present but Northern Harvest denies it was a factor in die-off
The aquaculture company at the centre of a massive fish die-off on Newfoundland’s south coast is on the defensive again after a revelation Tuesday that disease was detected in its sea cages this summer. But Northern Harvest Sea Farms denies that infectious salmon anemia was a factor in the disastrous loss of 2.6 million Atlantic salmon, with a total weight of 5,000 tonnes. >click to read< 17:51
New Maine proposal to protect whales, spare lobster fishing
Maine fishery regulators are unveiling a new right whale protection plan they feel will satisfy federal requirements while also preserving the state’s lobster fishery. Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher says his department’s new proposal would remove 25 percent of the lines beyond an exemption line for inshore fishermen. >click to read<17:16
Maine’s plan to protect right whales will likely affect a minority of lobstermen – “Our goal was to develop a plan that was protective of right whales but is also protective of the economic prosperity of Maine fishermen, and more importantly, for their safety,” said Commissioner Pat Keliher. “We can do that by addressing the risk where it actually occurs.” >click to read<
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 69.3” Steel Dragger/Gillnetter, Cummins KT19-M, W/ Federal Permits
Specifications, information and 5 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 15:12
North Pacific council votes to hike observer fees in 2021
The costs for on-board fisheries observers will be increasing, and no one in the industry is particularly happy about it. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to adjust the observer fee percentage to 1.65 percent of ex-vessel values. It was previously set at 1.25 percent. The increase is intended to cover additional observer services to reach the target coverage rate set out by the council for the various fisheries across the North Pacific region. >click to read< 14:15
Sides battle over Monterey Bay’s anchovy population
A fishing industry group says it has new findings supporting its contention that there is a healthy population of anchovies, which is counter to a nonprofit’s lawsuit challenging how the number of anchovies are determined. Meanwhile, Monterey fishermen say there are tons of the little guys in the local fishery. Gino Pennisi and Neil Guglielmo have been fishing out of Monterey for years, in Guglielmo’s case, since 1956. Both say anchovies are plentiful. But the nonprofit group Oceana,,, >click to read< 13:07
Fishermen urged to remove gear from non-UK waters ahead of Brexit
With two weeks until Brexit, fishermen who have deployed static gear in non-UK waters are being urged to get ready by removing it ahead of 23:00 hours on 31 October. The UK will become an independent coastal state after Brexit and there will be no automatic right to fish in the waters of EU or other states. An agreement on fishing has been agreed with Norway until the end of 2019. However, access to fish in EU waters will be a matter for future negotiation. >click to read< 11:50
Former Deadliest Catch fisherman Jerod Sechrist Arrested, faces heroin possession charge. A Skipper says finding good crew is challenging.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office inmate database, Sechrist, 33, was arrested on Oct. 5 by the Tampa Police Department in Tampa, Florida. He was charged with one felony count of possession of heroin and one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia.,, In an interview earlier this year, Deadliest Catch Captain “Wild Bill” Wichrowski said putting together a good crew in the commercial fishing industry has gotten more challenging. “It’s harder to find excellent guys,” he told the website. “They used to be lined up 12 deep,,,”>click to read< 09:23
