Daily Archives: April 15, 2020

Coronavirus: Most P.E.I. lobster fishermen want spring season to go ahead

The P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association conducted the survey starting last week, and got responses from 775 of 954 members who fish the spring lobster fishery — a more than 80 per cent response rate. When asked whether the spring season should proceed “considering what you know today on the current spread of COVID-19,” 57 per cent said yes. Then, in a separate question, members were asked whether the PEIFA should request DFO delay the opening of the 2020 season, and 70 per cent said yes. Ian MacPherson, executive director of the PEIFA, said the survey was an effort to gather feedback from fishermen, rather than a binding vote on whether to ask DFO to delay or cancel the season.  “It’s a complicated issue,, >click to read< 17:56

Unmoored and unsure, fishermen make do – Direct boat sales stem the tide for some.

Saturday, folks came to Menemsha to buy directly off the decks of local scallop boats. Business was brisk. Captain Sam Hopkins, aboard the Endurance, mongered to a steady queue of masked customers. Like the nearby Martha Rose, sea scallops off the Endurance sold for $15 per pound. “It was really nice to have some local support and have people who bought scallops right off the boat,” Hopkins said. Lobsterman Jason Gale has also turned to direct boat sales. From the deck of the Watch Out at Lake Street Landing he sold lobsters at $8 apiece, regardless of weight, on Saturday. Gale said he put a 10 lobster cap per customer and sold out. photos, >click to read< 15:59

Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 39′ BHM Dragger/Lobster, 435HP Volvo, Nextgen 3.5 KW

To see specifications, information and 26 photos, >click here< Vessel is in good condition. To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 12:46

Florida warns of Apalachicola River’s ‘doom’ if Georgia isn’t forced to release more water, Looks to US Supreme Court

Warning that a special master’s recommendation would “spell doom” for the Apalachicola River, Florida wants the U.S. Supreme Court to require Georgia to share more water in a river system that links the two states. “The harm to the Bay’s oyster fisheries is undeniable. Apalachicola is renowned across America for its oysters, which account for 90% of Florida’s oyster harvest and 10% of the nation’s,” “What’s more, oysters, and oystering, have created a distinct way of life in Apalachicola passed down from generation-to-generation; whole communities depend on the fisheries for their economic livelihood. The oyster is to Apalachicola what the lobster is to many New England towns.” >click to read< 10:23

Last of the Chesapeake Skipjacks

Over the course of a Chesapeake Bay waterman’s life, big memories tend to swallow smaller ones. So when seventy-two-year-old Harold “Stoney” Whitelock looks back on his childhood now, it’s all misty images of water and boats, and little else. “That’s all my family talked about at Sunday dinner,” he says. “Boat this and boat that.”  Whitelock is one of the bay’s last skipjack captains. Long, shallow wooden boats with tall, wide sails, skipjacks survive as the only commercial sailing vessels left in North America. The nine or so (by Whitelock’s estimate) still used to dredge for oysters all concentrate here on Maryland’s toothy Eastern Shore, kept afloat by a couple of dozen people who speak with a distinctive brogue that’s fading by the generation, too. >click to read< 09:27

Coronavirus: Specter of overescapement shouldn’t influence fisheries decisions

The management of sustainable salmon fisheries in Alaska is based on a ‘fixed escapement policy’ where the goal is to allow enough salmon into our rivers and lakes to fill the spawning habitat, and on average produce maximum or optimum long-term fishery yield. When more fish enter streams than targeted by escapement goals, this is referred to as ‘overescapement’ by fishery scientists and managers. So then, if salmon fisheries are restricted in the summer of 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, will the resulting ‘overescapement’ cause damage this year, or in future years, to salmon or their ecosystems? >click to read< 07:52

Coast Guard completes 13-hr overnight tow of fishing vessel offshore Port Orford, Ore.

A Coast Guard 52-foot Motor Lifeboat crew towed a disabled 68-ton commercial fishing vessel Tuesday morning across the Coos Bay Bar, west of North Bend. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector North Bend received a report at 3:38 p.m. Monday that the 61-foot fishing vessel Pacific Faith, with four people aboard and 10,000 pounds of fish, experienced a loss of power about 9-miles west of Port Orford and were drifting south. A Coast Guard Station Coos Bay 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crew launched at 4:47 p.m. and arrived on scene at 7:13 p.m. The MLB crew towed the Pacific Faith for 12 hours; mitigating fatigue during that time by rotating positions. >click to read< 06:28