Daily Archives: February 13, 2020
Coronavirus: Florida Keys Spiny Lobster Fishing Industry Hit Hard
Spiny lobster is Florida’s most valuable seafood. But the fishermen in the Keys were already having a lousy year. Then came the coronavirus. “The price crashed $4 in a day,” said George Niles, who fishes out of Stock Island. Bill Kelly from the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association said the price went from about $10.50 a pound off the boat to $6. >click to read< 19:22
Coast Guard suspends search after radio beacon alert, debris found off NC coast
The Coast Guard suspended its search on Thursday after an unregistered emergency position indicating radio beacon alert lead responders to debris approximately 126 miles southeast off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina. There were no additional signs of distress reported or vessels known to be overdue in the area. >click to read< 14:36
Coast Guard search underway after radio beacon alert and debris found off Wilmington, North Carolina -The Coast Guard is searching for a possible missing vessel after being alerted by an unregistered emergency position indicating radio beacon and finding debris approximately 126 miles southeast of Wilmington, Tuesday morning. >click to read<
Another wild night at Happy Jack’s! “Happy Jacks Saloon: The Last Morro Bay Fisherman’s Dive”
Bob “2-Beer” Bullnair refuses to listen to reason, especially if he’s into his third beer. 2-Beer works exclusively for Rafe Monk, captain of the Mary Anne. He is around my height of just under 6 feet, but at least 200 beans of non-defined farm-boy strength that is the awe of fellow fishermen, for 2-Beer will outwork, out-lift and outlast anybody on the waterfront. Editor’s Note: The following series of tales from behind the bar, “Happy Jacks Saloon: The Last Morro Bay Fisherman’s Dive,” >click to read< 13:10
Tom Sewid has applied for a commercial licence to hunt seals and sea lions!
While there is money to be made from selling seal meat and fur, Tom Sewid, a director for Pacific Balance Marine Management (PBMM), said the main reason for resurrecting the hunt in B.C. is to protect salmon stocks. “We’ve all identified that we’re losing our salmon due to overfishing, urban sprawl and many other compounding factors, but the biggest one being the overpopulation of seals and sea lions,”. For years, commercial fishermen have pointed to harbour seals as one of the culprits in declining salmon stocks in the Strait of Georgia and sea lions for declines in herring. A recent scientific study appears to back them up. >click to read< 10:28
The Conservation Law Foundation petition’s NOAA to prohibit Atlantic cod fishing
The petition, filed with NOAA regional offices in Gloucester and with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in Washington, invokes the first article of the Magnuson Stevens Act, the law governing federal fisheries, which stipulates that overfishing must end immediately and that the fish stock be rebuilt as quickly as possible. (MMPA has wrecked that!) “There’s a fairly damning record of the agency (NOAA Fisheries, also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service) approving (New England Fishery Management) Council plans it should have known were not likely to end overfishing, and were not likely to put cod stocks on any rebuilding timeline,” said Peter Shelley, (who supports him) senior counsel for the foundation. >click to read< The image is cod, destroyed and wasted by seals, 08:35
DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher: NMFS didn’t give the state’s plan credit for all of its whale protections
The state Department of Marine Resources believes that its right whale plan, with its range of lobster fishing restrictions meant to avoid gear entanglements, clocks in right around the 60 percent risk reduction target sought by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Federal regulators – who determined that the state plan reduced risk by just 52 percent – failed to give Maine credit for all its proposed protection measures, as well as those enacted since the last federal right whale review in 2014, Marine Resources Commissioner Pat Keliher said Wednesday. >click to read< 07:15
Maine Lobstermen Dismayed By Fed’s Push For More Gear Changes To Protect Endangered Whale – >click to read<
F/V New Age Owner Desperately Trying to Save Sinking Boat
The owner of the New Age, a commercial fishing vessel from Montauk that took on water Wednesday morning, forcing its crew to evacuate the boat 25 nautical miles south of Fire Island, raced to his boat and is now aboard, heading for a New Jersey port in an effort to save it. Chris Winkler of Montauk, the boat’s owner, had just landed at J.F.K. Airport after a two-week vacation with his girlfriend, Tracy Stoloff, when he received a call from the Coast Guard that his crew had been forced overboard. “The first question out of Chris’s mouth when he was talking to the Coast Guard is ‘How is my crew? Where is my crew?’ ” >click to read< 06:03
