Daily Archives: March 1, 2020
Cormorants damaging fish populations
It is estimated there are about 230,000 double-crested cormorants around the Great Lakes, each eating an estimated 1.3 to 1.6 pounds of fish a day. That equals more than 77 million pounds of fish per year, according to a report from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The birds eat minnows, alewives, shad, round gobies, other prey-fish, and they also devour significant numbers of yellow perch, stocked trout, salmon, walleye, pike, and panfish. “Cormorants are uncontrolled and wreaking havoc on our Great Lakes,” said Lakon Williams, who manages the Bay Port Fish Company. “Since the Zebra Mussel invasion, the lakes and the water are cleaner than ever.” >click to read< 15:43
U.S. Commerce allocates $35M for P-cod, Chignik fisheries disaster relief
Fishermen affected by the 2018 Pacific cod and Chignik sockeye disasters will soon have access to about $35 million in relief funding. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross allocated about $65 million to fisheries disaster relief, about $35 million of which is for Alaska,, about $24.4 million will go to the Pacific cod fishery disaster and about $10.3 million to the Chignik sockeye fishery. The funding was appropriated when Congress passed the 2019 Consolidated and Supplemental Appropriations Act. >click to read< 15:02
Top Gov Aide: Britain doesn’t need Farmers or Fishermen!
One of the most senior Government advisers has said the UK does not need its farming or fishing industries, according to reports. In comments seen by the Mail on Sunday, Dr Tim Leunig is understood to have said the food sector was ‘not critically important’ to the country’s economy, and that agriculture and fisheries ‘certainly isn’t’. The economic adviser to the Chancellor, in his leaked emails, is reported to have said ministers could follow the example of Singapore which is ‘rich without having its own agricultural sector’. >click to read< 13:34
Dirty Wind: State Pier operator notifies occupants it’s time to go
With the offshore wind farms poised to move in, time is running short for the tenants and work crews at State Pier who expect to be displaced as early as next month. The businesses operating at the pier recently received a March 31 deadline to vacate, leaving some scrambling to find an alternate location to stay afloat. Longshoremen, fishermen, DRVN Enterprises,,, At the adjoining Central Vermont Railroad Pier, part of the State Pier property, commercial scallop fisherman Kevin Debbis of Montville is in a similar predicament. He surmised his time was limited but said he was caught off guard by the short notice. He’s trying to find a spot for his 55-foot boat, Lynn Marie, which along with at least two other fishing boats has been working off of the pier. He has called the pier home for nearly two decades. >click to read< 12:56
A pilot program for Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary – Saving Small Boats Fishing into the Future
Back in 1972 when Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary was established, my mother, Lena Novello, who was president of Gloucester Fishermen’s Wife Association was on the committee with local fishermen & their communities that fought to stop oil & mining companies from opening the Stellwagen Bank. Back then I was the captain of F/V Vlncie N who fished Stellwagen Bank regularly with many other Gloucester fishermen & also Plymouth, Scituate & Provincetown fishermen and was told local fishermen will always be able to fish Stellwagen Bank into the future.,, Changing times, with changing oceans have changed the golden words of Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary, as now they want to ban all dragging for Commercial Fishing. Is our future going to be wondering if all fishing will be banned ln Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary? by Captain Sam Novello >click to read< 11:36
Status Check: Assessing Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary – >click to read<
A night with Dave and Bear at Happy Jacks Saloon: The Last Morro Bay Fisherman’s Dive
Dave hated me. Wanted to fight me. Wanted to kick my ass. Felt I upstaged and up-ended him in every way. He was the unofficial leader of the “Brew Crew,” a notorious pack of young fishermen and deck hands who, when they were in town, terrorized Happy Jack’s like wild west cowboys treeing a saloon after a long cattle drive.,,, Nobody else was saying anything. Fishermen love to see a good fight. So, as Dave bristled and continued challenging, berating and threatening me, I spied his at-least-100-pound Rottweiler, Bear,,, >click to read< 08:15
Status Check: Assessing Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary
A submerged extension of the sandy Cape tip, it is a big sandbar rising from the ocean floor to the height of an 11-story building, coming within 65 feet of the ocean surface. Currents swirl around it, lifting organic debris from the ocean bottom up into the sunlit surface waters, kick-starting the marine food chain with plankton blooms that feed grazers like herring and sand lance that are in turn preyed upon by larger fish, whales and seabirds. But, as a new report by the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary shows, human activities in the ocean continue to increase, putting greater pressure on wildlife and habitat within the sanctuary as humans create an increasingly industrialized ocean that is noisier, more contaminated and overfished. (overfished by whom?!)>click to read< 07:33
