Daily Archives: April 14, 2020
Coronavirus: Restaurant Closures Put Oregon Seafood Industry In Limbo
Commercial fisherman Clint Funderburg should be on the ocean right now, catching Dungeness crab on his fishing boat, the Widgeon. When crab prices tanked a few weeks ago, he shifted gears to his off-season side gig. So, he’s building a refrigeration system for one of the many fishing boats that are stuck at the dock right now. Mandatory restaurant closures during the coronavirus pandemic have sent shock waves through Oregon’s $700 million seafood industry. The overwhelming majority of the seafood that lands on Oregon’s docks gets eaten in restaurants, and no one knows when that market will return. In the meantime, fishermen are parking their boats as seafood prices plummet. >click to read< 18:04
Council delays vote on at-sea monitoring
Meeting solely via webinar, council members voted 12-5 to postpone final action on Amendment 23 beyond its June meeting, when it expected initially to vote. The amendment will set at-sea monitoring levels in the Northeast Multispecies groundfish fishery. Many of those voting for the postponement expressed concern that fishermen have enough on their plate managing the economic and social impacts of the pandemic without having to deal with the complexities of the amendment and the need to develop public comment. “My day job is working with commercial groundfishermen and I can assure all of you, when I’m on the phone with them, it’s COVID-19 related, not Amendment 23-related,” said council member Libby Etrie. >click to read< 16:10
Court Finds American Lobster Fishery Requires Incidental Take Statement for Impacts on North Atlantic Right Whale
As commercial fisheries across the United States continue to adjust operations in the face of new legal requirements, such as the shift from single-species to ecosystem-based management, one challenge in particular has dominated the courts: the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Recent court decisions have vacated commercial longline fishing permits in federal waters off the coast of California that could endanger the Pacific leatherback sea turtle and restored prohibitions on gillnet fishing gear in a known New England feeding ground for the endangered North Atlantic right whale. This trend continued on April 9, when a federal district court judge in Center for Biological Diversity,,,The American lobster fishery is managed cooperatively by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and NMFS, >click to read< 14:45
Soft-shell crab season is ‘the start of all the good stuff’
One local delicacy seafood is quite popular in the Lowcountry this time of year. Soft-shell crabs, or female blue crabs, are being caught, sold and cooked in homes and restaurants along the state’s coast. Callinectes sapidus or “beautiful swimmers” are more commonly referred to as Atlantic blue crabs. Although they can be caught all year long, the peak molting, or shedding process, of a female crab’s exoskeleton to create the soft-shell normally occurs during the springtime in South Carolina saltwater. “The timing is dictated by the crabs, and when they molt is really dictated by water temperatures. So in our waters, molting can occur year round, but the peak of molting for these females is really in the April-May,, photo’s, >click to read< 13:52
While coronavirus threatens seafood economy, community fisheries find ways to stay afloat
Major commercial fisheries, including the iconic Maine lobster fisheries, have ground to a halt.,, Consider the lucrative Pacific halibut fisheries, which opened in mid-March. These fisheries largely serve fine dining restaurants. Combined with the loss of sales to markets like China, seafood producers from east to west are without a market for their product. Combined with the loss of sales to markets like China, seafood producers from east to west are without a market for their product. But decades of globalization, industrialization and environmental change have brought many coastal communities to the brink, because of coastal development, climate change or they’ve lost fishing rights to industry consolidation. To meet this moment, many need more than just an invigorated customer base. >click to read< 12:16
Smith Island Holds “Boat-in” Easter Service
On Easter Sunday, six boats from the three Smith Island, Maryland communities gathered around Pastor Everett Landon aboard the Miss Maxine, his father’s wooden workboat, in the sheltered waters off Easter Point. Pastor Landon addressed the floating congregation over channel 78 on VHF marine radio as the sun came up over Tangier Sound. Families who were not able to attend the ‘boat-in’ service tuned in through their at-home VHF radios. >Click through the gallery below to see images of the Easter boat-in< 10:20
Lady Sophie – Focus on shellfish
Made to harvest for shellfish for Grimsby company Fastline Shellfish, Lady Sophie has been built in Padstow to a new 12 metre design. Owners Fastline Shellfish are a family-owned business that has bee trading on the Grimsby docks since 2009, although the Kenyon family’s roots in the fishing industry go back a long way. Aiming to supply top-quality fresh shellfish, the focus is on cutting short the supply chain by catching its own crabs, lobsters and whelks, which are processed and supplied through the Fastline shop. video, photo’s, >click to read< 09:42
Coronavirus: Copper River salmon fishery nears without travel restrictions from Cordova City Council
As of Monday, commercial salmon fishing operations in Cordova are moving forward with few protections in place for residents beyond statewide health mandates.,, Although it is not business as usual for fishermen preparing for the mid-May opening, some people in the community fear that not nearly enough has changed to protect the town from a coronavirus outbreak.,, Some fishermen who spoke against the travel hold said that restricting travel would disrupt plans for their crews to travel to the area and complete a 14-day quarantine before the start of the season.,, “Not everyone is going to see the situation the same,” Lange said. “A fisherman by their very nature, one, they’re optimists. Two, they’re very independent. And three, they see the world through a very narrow focus, >click to read< 08:23
State overrules Wrangell, says it can’t add its own COVID-19 restrictions – Wrangell’s proposed restrictions on people arriving at the island community have been shelved after the state said the Southeast city doesn’t have the authority. City leaders had wanted to coordinate the flow of commercial fishermen and fish plant workers expected to arrive for the season. >click to read< 08:56
Distraught UK fishermen face wipe out over coronavirus and EU
The British fishing industry could be “wiped out” because of the coronavirus outbreak keeping fishermen from selling their products to the wider public. The British and Scottish Governments have both issued guidance and rolled out new policies in a bid to help the fishing industry survive the crisis but fishermen have warned their policies may not be enough. Scottish trawler Alistair Sinclair told the Today programme: “We don’t really know what is ahead of us. “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel. We may get to the point where boats are of little value. “Everything we’ve worked for through our life to get where we are today could be erased like rubber on a piece of paper.” >click to read< 07:21
