Monthly Archives: July 2020
Heard of this Secret Armada? In the Russian exclusive economic zone, a secret war is going on.
Every year thousands of makeshift North Korean boats invade the waters of Japan and Russia to strip their seas of fish. In a desperate bid for hard cash, and to feed his people, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un is forcing his fleets further out to sea to illegally fish, breaking United Nations sanctions. It’s risky business with voyages often resulting in death for the North Korean fisherman. Far out to sea in the Russian exclusive economic zone, a secret war is going on. The Russian coastguard is stepping up its operations against the North Korean armada. >click to read< 14:21
New fishing vessel certifying authority sails into post with familiar face at the helm
The Maritime Coastguard Agency has appointed a new fishing vessel certifying authority. The Society of Consulting Marine Engineers and Ship Surveyors, presided over by Grimsby-based Allan Larsen, has taken over the role from Seafish. The new service launches this month. Larsen, managing director and principal surveyor in his eponymous business, Larsen’s Marine Surveyors and Consultants Ltd, said it was an exciting expansion of the portfolio of technical marine services held by the 100 year old non-profit organisation. Under UK law, it is a legal requirement that every fishing vessel has a coding certificate. >click to read< 12:43
Apalachicola Bay Oystermen to Lose Livelihoods – Supreme Court defers ruling on water war
Florida is poised to close Apalachicola Bay to oyster harvesting in a board vote slated for July 22. The proposed closure is the most dramatic step to be taken by Florida during its longstanding complaint against Georgia. The closure would start Aug. 1 and extend through Dec. 31, 2025. “You’ve got people out there working in the bay,” commission Chairman Noah Lockley Jr., a commercial fisherman said at the commission’s July 7 meeting. “These people need to either get some help or get some retraining, or something. That’s what they’re supposed to do, but they’re just going to come shut the bay down. Possession of an Apalachicola Bay oyster in or on the bay would be banned, as would be possession of the wooden tongs used to harvest oysters. >click to read< 11:09
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 13, 2020
Baywide daily harvest dropped below 2 million for the first time since July 4th. The total harvest is over halfway to the pre-season forecast swimming in at 25.2 million fish. Total escapement throughout the bay is now just over 12 million, and has now passed the pre-season escapement forecast. The total run in Bristol Bay so far this season is 38.4 million fish. Average fish per drift delivery was below 1,000 in every district of the bay yesterday. >click to read< 09:48
1967: Two fishermen feared dead for almost a week were the toast of Portarlington last night.
In their broken down shark boat Veronica, they had won out after a grim, six-day battle against raging Bass Strait seas. Late on Saturday night, after a desperate last signal for help had been sighted by Cape Otway Lighthouse, the 32-ft. Veronica was taken in tow by another fishing boat. Yesterday morning the two crewmen, skipper Len Joseph, 32, and his mate Ron Oldfield, 34, stepped ashore at Apollo Bay, “back from the dead.” The engine had failed only two hours after sailing from Port McDonnell. Last Monday the men ran out of food. Len Joseph kept a log book which spells out the drama of the ordeal. >click to read< 08:49
Ship Conducting Undersea Surveys Ordered to Pause Work Following Conflict With Local Crab Fishermen
After successfully requesting a cease-and-desist order from the California State Lands Commission, local crab fishermen will be able to finish out the last few days of the season without worrying about conflicts with a ship that was conducting surveys off the North Coast. The survey work appears to be connected with proposals for high-speed, transpacific fiber-optic cables linking Southeast Asia to the United States. Cable companies have expressed interest in landing a trunk line stateside via the Harbor District’s wastewater discharge pipe, which runs from the Redwood Marine Terminal II (site of the old pulp mill) out to sea. Ken Bates, vice-president of the Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association,,, >click to read< 20:45
KitchenAid Unveils New Lobster Sedation Kit To Reduce Cruelty Of Boiling Them Alive
“KitchenAid has developed a more humane method of lobster preparation that helps manage the pain a lobster feels upon being dropped into a 16-quart pot of scalding-hot water,” said company spokesperson Carolyn Green, adding that marine biologists and chefs had confirmed the kit’s proprietary blend of powerful anesthesia and rich, hand-churned butter alleviated the pain of a lobster’s blistering hot demise by up to 65%, while also improving flavor considerably. >click to read< 18:23
Lobstermen gather for foggy farewell to Andrew Gove
Dozens of lobster boats gathered off Greenhead on foggy Deer Island Thorofare Sunday morning to remember and pay tribute to “Uncle” Andrew Gove. A fisherman for 82 years, Gove retired from the sea last year at the age of 89 and died late last month at the age of 90. The fog was so thick Sunday morning that it was hard to tell exactly how many boats took part in the tribute, but one estimate was that as many as 50 were on hand. In addition to boats from Stonington, boats came from nearby harbors on the Blue Hill Peninsula and from as far away as Searsport, Vinalhaven and North Haven, home to many of Gove’s relatives. >click to read< 17:44
PHOTO GALLERY: Paying tribute to Andy Gove – >click for photo’s<
Success of NY Offshore Wind Industry Depends on Collaboration with Scallop Fishery – Who’s leaving because of Displacement?!
Governor Cuomo’s 2018 Offshore Wind Master Plan outlines steps for offshore wind development until 2030. A first-of-its-kind document in the 
United States, the plan delineated a study area known as the New York Bight Call Area.. The NY-NJ Bight Call Area is valuable to the Atlantic sea scallop fishery, the largest wild scallop fishery in the world. In 2016, the scallop industry generated $486 million in landings revenue. As a point of comparison, the American lobster was the top species fished in 2016, with $667 million in landings revenue.,, fishermen are concerned that the potential displacement of fishing activity from the wind farms could increase competition for the same scallop resources in the NY-NJ Bight and drive smaller vessels out of business. >click to read< 16:45
Carpe Carp
Clint Carter’s first catch of the day jumps right into his boat before he’s laid an inch of net. Another four or five silver carp make the leap in the time it takes Carter and his partner, Dave Buchanan, to scout out the best fishing grounds on that morning’s stretch of the Illinois River. The motor of their 
steel-sided skiff startles the silvers enough to send them shooting out of the water in unpredictable parabolas. The motor of their steel-sided skiff startles the silvers enough to send them shooting out of the water in unpredictable parabolas. Once the men near a dense shoal of fish, the commotion reaches a fever pitch, like popcorn in a hot pan. Buchanan strategically twists and turns the boat, as Carter lets hundreds of yards of trammel nets off the stern. >click to read, photos< 13:46
Charges laid in 2018 P.E.I. lobster boat collision that took 2 lives
Clarence Barry White of Dover Road, 51, is charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death. He’s also charged with two counts of failing to keep lockout, under the Canada Shipping Act. The two lobster boats collided off Beach Point two years ago. Joel ’98 sank after White’s boat Forever Chasin’ Tail hit it, taking the lives of 20-year-old Justin MacKay from P.E.I. and 59-year-old Chris Melanson from Nova Scotia. An >investigation by the Transportation Safety Board, click< determined Forever Chasin’ Tail was on autopilot at the time of the crash. >click to read< 10:58
Cancel Culture: Michael Shellenberger Censored For Exposing Climate Industrial Complex
The media’s obsession with cataclysmic climate change is matched only by their fixation on unreliable wind and solar power as the only solution. But even among their own ilk, the “only more subsidies for wind turbines and solar panels will save us” narrative has worn thin, of late. Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans lifted the lid on the cynical and manipulative crony capitalists profiteering from the climate industrial complex that they helped to create.,, Michael Shellenberger, once worshipped by America’s green-left, has found himself in the same territory. Shellenberger, obviously no fool, was alive to the tactics employed by the mainstream press to marginalise, de-platform and ultimately cancel anyone deemed to be ‘problematic’, whether for spouting inconvenient truths or simply failing to support the party line. >click to read< 09:36
Coronavirus: B.C. spot prawn prices plummet as Asian markets vanish
An energized crew of a boat named Little Kathy pulled into Ladysmith harbour Friday loaded with live B.C. spot prawns. The crew unloads them as fast as they can, hurrying to get their day’s catch on the next ferry bound for the Lower Mainland. The prawns will ultimately end up in restaurants in Vancouver, one of the few markets remaining for prawn fishermen. “That’s a big change because of what’s going on with export markets,” said fisherman Fraser MacDonald. >click to read< China Says Samples Of Imported Salmon Tested Positive For COVID-19 –, We’ve been paying close attention to Chinese propaganda since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak,,, And on Saturday, Bloomberg signal-boosted local reports claiming that imported shrimp from Ecuador had been found to be carrying traces of the virus,,, >click to read< 08:07
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 11, 2020
The run in Bristol Bay is over 30 million fish, 30.8 million to be exact. Total harvest baywide was 2.1 million yesterday, bringing the season’s harvest in Bristol Bay to 20.9 million fish. Total escapement so far this season across the bay is 8.8 million. Fish per drift delivery saw a bit of a swing yesterday. Ugashik fishers averaged over 2,500 fish per delivery, the Naknek-Kvichak saw an average of over 1,000 fish per drift delivery, but other districts were between 180 and 700 fish per delivery. audio report, Messages to the fleet, >click to read< 17:26
More uncertainty for Alaskan fishermen, ‘Devastating,’ meager chum salmon returns worry the fishing industry
“I have 35 years of experience and I’ve never seen a year this poor since 1988,” said Lars Strangeland, a gillnetter based in Juneau. “The market is extremely poor. We were looking at terrible prices wherever it goes.” The shutdown of restaurants and changes in international markets, all complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, is leading to less demand for chum salmon and roe. Strangeland is on the Board of Directors of United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters, and he said chum returns this year have been, “devastating.” “It’s unprecedented and staggeringly poor as well,” he said. >click to read< 13:07
“Why can’t I buy fresh, local fish?” – Locally caught fish are scarce in fishing towns, an irony one Sointula family is working to change
It’s a new way of doing business for Jordan Belveal, a fourth-generation fisherman. Instead of selling to wholesalers, who almost always export the catch, Belveal and his family are marketing their catch directly to consumers in a new community supported fishery venture called Island Wild Seafoods. It could be an answer to the perpetual, “Why can’t I buy fresh, local fish?” question, repeated in fishing towns all over Vancouver Island. “So many people approach us looking to buy seafood, complaining that they just can’t find halibut, or lingcod or spot prawns,, With each inquiry of where to buy fresh fish, the Belveals thought more about selling it direct. >click to read< 09:17
Scotland: Deep concern over failure to use PFD’s after fishing industry deaths
A safety warning has been issued to the fishing industry about the mandatory wearing of lifejackets (PFD’s) as concerns grow about deaths caused by not wearing them, despite moves to supply them free to Scottish boats. New figures show that six of the 12 fishermen who have died at sea in 2018 and 2019 were not wearing lifejackets,, The MAIB has said deaths in the water from those not wearing PFD was of “great concern” and said that “embedding behavioural change” could half the fatality rate in the fishing industry. It comes a year after the end of a scheme to supply PFDs to fishermen on Scottish-registered boats, with the intention of increasing the usage of a flotation garment while working on the open deck. Some 3,500 personal flotation devices (PFDs) were supplied,,, >click to read< 08:55
Coast Guard medevacs injured fisherman 100 miles off Coos Bay
A Coast Guard aircrew medically evacuated a 26-year-old man Saturday morning off the fishing vessel McKenzie Rose 100 miles west of Coos Bay. The fishing vessel’s captain used a marine radio to hail watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector North Bend at approximately 5:30 a.m. to report a member of the crew sustained a head injury and was in need of medical attention. The McKenzie Rose began to transit toward shore to more quickly rendezvous with the Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew. >Video, click to watch, read< 21:55
NOAA Cancels Three Northeast Research Surveys due to Coronavirus Uncertainties
Due to the uncertainties created by the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic and the unique challenges those are creating for NOAA Fisheries, we are cancelling three research surveys off the Northeast United States. The cancelled surveys include those for sea scallop, Atlantic surfclam/ocean quahog, and an advanced technology survey investigating the ocean’s mesopelagic layer—the “twilight zone.” These are difficult decisions for the agency as we strive to balance our need to maintain core mission responsibilities with the realities and impacts of the current health crisis. >click to read< 20:42
In Coastal Oregon, Fishing Gear Makers Strive for Sustainability
Sara Skamser makes and modifies commercial fishing nets in Newport, Oregon. The co-owner of Foulweather Trawl got her start in the commercial fishing business as a crew member on small crab and salmon boats. Net skills, like sewing and splicing, became one more thing to help Sara land a gig. “In the late 70s and early 80s, I was bucking to get on a big boat,”,,, That dream hit a dead end when Sara asked some of 
Newport’s larger operations to let her join their crews. “These guys just absolutely turned purple,” she says. “And so the bottom line to that is I invoice those people now,” she laughs., About a half hour south on the coastal highway, Leonard Van Curler is also making fishing gear. Some of the tools he uses are similar to Sara’s, such as the shuttle-like “needle” he uses to knit mesh. But what he’s making are crab pots,,, >click to read< 15:43
New Zealand fishing crew pleads guilty to violent Falkland Islands pub assault – Face two years in prison
They were part of a Sanford crew fishing on the San Aspiring in the South Atlantic Ocean since February, and were due to be repatriated when the assaults occurred. The court was told the men, Sonny Ball, Samuel Goldsworthy, and Chassy Duncan, indiscriminately assaulted a group of customers in a bar after they were refused service because the premises was closed for the night. Penguin News deputy editor Roddy Cordeiro was in court and said five patrons were hospitalised, including one with a broken wrist, after the violent assaults. During the attack, one of the defendants struck a woman who was cowering on the floor and another patron was struck with a glass. The trio were denied bail because of the unprovoked nature of the attack and will be sentenced later this month. >click to read< 13:14
Flounder, fluke, and flying by the seat of your pants – Bob Mone’s life as a fish broker.
The origins of Vineyard Co-op go back to a guy named Steve Boggess, who around 1970 ran Boggess Seafood out of Woods Hole on the pier over where the ferry shuttles back and forth to Naushon. Trip Barnes, who did trucking for Boggess, described him as “a college guy, kind of a yuppie. But he had a mind like a steel trap.” But the Steamship Authority, which owned the dock where Boggess’s office was located, put the squeeze on Boggess and forced him to leave. So Ralph Packer agreed to build a dock next to his gas tanks on Vineyard Haven harbor and Boggess moved his business to the Vineyard. Around 1975 Mone answered an ad looking for a manager at Boggess Seafood. At the time he was driving a milk truck on the Island and the only thing he knew about fish was that you buy them at a fish market. photo gallery, >click to read< 10:59
Westport feeling deep loss after fishing tragedy
“You couldn’t get those two boys to sit still for too long, they were real adventurers,” Cole Rutzer, a 22-year-old Westport man whose body was found July 3 on the beach of a remote island near Kodiak Island, Alaska. He and his longtime friend and fishing boat crewmate Dylan Furford had taken a skiff from the larger boat to explore the island. Furford is missing and the Coast Guard has suspended its search. The two were part of a four-man 
crew on the Westport-based Pacific Dynasty, fishing for Dungeness crab. Rutzer’s dad, Greg, is the captain and his cousin, Brent Gilbertson, was the other crew member. The boat had dropped crab pots and had some down time so Cole Rutzer and Furford, also in his early 20s, had gone to Tugidak Island, taking Trigger, Cole’s dog. >click to read< 08:07
Senate Candidate Joe Kennedy was in Gloucester Friday to hear Fisherman and Industry member concerns
This morning in Gloucester at 9 am, Joe Kennedy met with fishermen, industry representatives, and local politicians to discuss with them, their concerns about the fishing industry. Topics of discussion included Offshore Wind Farms, Imported fish from Iceland, Fishery Observers and Monitoring, NOAA science, and the need for a U.S. Farm Bill tailored to the needs of the unique and varied fisheries of the nation, including timely fishery disaster relief aid. Sam Parisi, photo’s, >click to read< 19:19
Setting the New Normal – Point Steele
With concern over the 2020 Bristol Bay salmon season and Covid-19, there was only optimistic excitement at Washington State’s Velocity Marine as the yard’s latest newbuild headed for sea trials.,, With a capacity of 18,000 pounds (8165kg) in RSW, Point Steele will deliver to the tender multiple times in an opening. Even loaded, the boat can be expected to make roughly half the light boat’s speed. Lenco trim tabs help optimise performance under different load conditions. To make these speeds Point Steele is powered with a pair of Cummins QSC8.3 engines. photo’s, >click to read< 17:01
UPDATED: American fisherman detained entering British Virgin Islands – New Jersey delegation aware
An American longline fishing boat captain has been in jail for a month after he was detained in the British Virgin Islands on June 8 for traveling into BVI waters during coronavirus border closures. Now he is facing criminal charges and a monthslong wait in a sweltering island prison cell. Michael Foy, who lives in Puerto Rico and left the island May 29 on a fishing expedition, was initially detained for illegal entry into the British Virgin Islands, but at his June hearing he was also unexpectedly charged with illegal fishing. >click to read< 13:21
New Jersey Senators write Deputy Governor on fisherman’s arrest – “We are aware that our constituent, Michael Foy, has been detained in Tortola and have been in communication with the State Department and the [United States] Embassy in Barbados regarding the case,” according to the June 30 letter signed by Senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez and Congressman Andy Kim. >click to read< 10:09 7/11/20
North Atlantic right whale – from Endangered to Critically Endangered
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced Thursday it has changed the status of North Atlantic right whales on its Red List from endangered to critically endangered, IUCN’s highest risk category for wild species. This means the population has or will decrease by 80 per cent within three generations and is facing an extremely high risk of extinction. According to Canadian conservation group Oceana, at least 31 North Atlantic right whales have been killed since 2017 — 21 of them in Canadian waters. >click to read< 11:45
The International Union for Conservation of Nature changed its Red List Category for North Atlantic right whales from Endangered to Critically Endangered – >click to read<
SURVEY: Please Help Extreme Gloucester Fishing: Restructure, Retool, Retrain, Revive and Reunite the U.S. Commercial Fisheries
Extreme Gloucester Fishing Commercial Industry Training Center is doing a U.S. Commercial Fisheries Survey – Please help Extreme Gloucester Fishing with our efforts to Restructure, Retool, Retrain, Revive and Reunite the U.S. Commercial Fisheries Take the Survey. 1. Do commercial fishermen care about their industry? 2. Should fish be owned before they are caught?, 3.,,, >click to read<, and please leave comments or suggestions, and connect with others to get things started! Thank you, Captain Joseph Sanfilippo 10:30
Commercial Fisherman George Roy Hutchings Jr. of Kodiak, Alaska and Damariscotta, Maine
George Roy Hutchings Jr., 60, of Kodiak, Alaska and Damariscotta, passed away peacefully on Friday, July 3, 2020 at his home here in Maine with family at his side. He attended Nobleboro Central School and Christian Academy during his grammar school days. He attended Lincoln Academy, while working in South Bristol clamming, and later earned his GED. He left Maine in his teenage years to start his adventures in fishing in Point Pleasant, N.J., then on to more adventures scallop dragging in New Bedford, Mass. At the age of 20, George headed for an even greater and larger adventure in Homer, Alaska, where, after some tough times, he became a king crab and scalloping fisherman for many years. >click to read< 09:09
Boat parade to honor Andy Gove, July 12th event to memorialize well-known fisherman
On Sunday, July 12, a day when Andy Gove might have been racing his fishing vessel—and winning—his friends and family will stage a boat parade in Stonington Harbor. Gove, a well-known and well-liked fisherman, died June 20 shortly after celebrating his 90th birthday at his home on the harbor. “He didn’t want a funeral and all his friends and the fishermen felt terrible,” said Gove’s daughter, Myrna Clifford. The plan is for boats coming from the east, south and west to slowly come together and form a line from the point of Greenhead and then down toward the Fish Pier. >click to read< 07:13
