Monthly Archives: July 2020
Trump Memo On Lobster Aid Leaves Industry Wondering What’s Next. How about a U.S.Fish Bill?!!
In a memo, the president urged Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to consider taking appropriate action “to provide assistance to fisherman and producers in the U.S. lobster industry that continue to be harmed by China’s retaliatory tariffs.” He also asked the secretary to consider including lobster and other segments of the seafood industry in future assistance to mitigate the effects of the tariffs. But none have heard details on what Perdue might do to offset the impact on the industry of Trump’s trade war with China. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also mostly quiet. >click to read< 10:01 – A reminder from Sam Parisi to those interested in creating and implementing a U.S. Fish Bill – Greetings to all commercial fishermen, fish processors, equipment suppliers, politicians, and citizens, that are interested and supportive of creation of the U.S. Fish Bill. >click to read< 10:06
Could this, like spot prawns, be our next local seafood success? The hake catch is six times the size for wild salmon.
B.C.’s hake, also known as Pacific whiting or Merluccius productus, is a transboundary species that crosses Canadian and American waters. Both countries share management of the short-lived, bountiful species under a joint fishery treaty. “Their stock is healthy,” said Bruce Turris, executive manager of the Canadian Groundfish Research and Conservation Society. Turris, who represents the hake fishery on the joint management treaty and has worked with hake for more than 35 years, notes that Canada only harvested around 60 per cent of its total allowable catch in 2019. “We’re still not fully utilizing the resource,” he says. But “it’s not a resource that’s easily accessible,” said Turris, citing a steep investment requirement into the fishery. >click to read< 08:43
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 4, 2020
A big bump of fish hit the Naknek-Kvichak and Egegik yesterday — those fleets caught most of the bay’s daily harvest of nearly 1.2 million. Total harvest around the bay is now approaching 5 million. Escapement yesterday was 140,000, and 1.8 million fish have escaped around the bay this season. The total run is at around 6.8 million. The Nushagak district’s daily harvest was 60,000 yesterday, bringing the season’s harvest to,,, Breaking that down by river system, audio report, >click to read< 07:25
Seadrift fishermen struggle with shrimp-sized market
Shrimping season arrived in May, but it didn’t bring renewed demand for Gulf shellfish. After restaurants began to close in March, demand for oysters tanked. Some oyster harvesters were able to scrape through the season, but Nevarez said shrimp season has been even bleaker. “After all these outbreaks we’ve been having, they’re probably going to start closing again,” she said of the restaurants that normally buy her husband’s shrimp. She said she’s encouraging her husband, a shrimper of 35 years, to begin considering alternate work. >click to read< 18:34
Scotland: North-east fishermen start selling direct to find new markets in lockdown
Fishermen across the north-east have resorted to selling catches directly off the boat instead of markets to try to make ends meet during the coronavirus lockdown. Orders from restaurants and hotels have plummeted,,,Instead, crews have turned to advertising catches on social media to drum up trade online among local residents to fill up the order book. Macduff-based Salt Water Seafood has been coordinating landings in the town’s harbour as well as from five vessels operating out of Peterhead and Fraserburgh. >click to read< 12:35
Shrimper Steve, the Spot Prawn King
Before the mid-2000s, when the first Spot Prawn Festival took place in Vancouver and The 100-Mile Diet was published, nearly all of B.C.’s spot prawns were sent overseas. The shellfish were brand new to most consumers, explains Steve Johansen, a fisherman with Organic Ocean who sold 100-Mile-Diet author J.B. MacKinnon his first spot prawns and launched the festival with Vancouver chef Rob Clark in 2007. “Even people who lived in B.C. all their lives didn’t know what a spot prawn was, and the other half of those people thought tiger prawns were from B.C., whereas they’re all raised in Southeast Asia.” Spot prawns are the largest of seven commercially harvested shrimp species in British Columbia. >click to read< 09:32
Delaware: Hungry for holiday crabs? Better get out the wallet – “best price that we’ve gotten for crabs in 26 years,,,”
This year’s crabbing season didn’t start out quite so hot for Smyrna’s Brian Hoffecker, Thankfully for Mr. Hoffecker, along with many other commercial crabbers in Delaware, things didn’t stay that cold for too long. With Independence Day coming up Saturday “This weekend is a holiday,” said Mr. Hoffecker. “I’ll tell you what, this will be my 26th year or something on my own (crabbing) and this is the best price that we’ve gotten for crabs in 26 years. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the coronavirus or with the restaurants being shut down,,, >click to read< 17:25
In Tribute – ‘Crabbing brings Florence’s Novelli family together’
Almost a year ago today I stepped onto The Aquarius for the first time. Amber and Kyle Novelli were taking me out on their crabbing boat so I could catch a glimpse into their everyday lives as commercial crabbers. Amber and I talked about the water and how dangerous getting out past the bar was; we talked about how unstable crabbing can be economically and how the weather really runs your whole life as a crabber. I asked her why she kept doing it with so much danger and uncertainty to face. She answered by telling me a story about a time they were out on the water fishing. It was early in the morning and, as she woke up, she wandered out to look at the ocean. That’s when she saw it,,, I listened to her and Kyle’s story of how they started fishing together,,, Victoria Sanchez, >click to read< 15:00
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 2, 2020
Fish are picking up around the bay. The run leapt past the 4 million fish mark and is approaching 5 million, and the runs in the Naknek-Kvichak and Egegik both passed 1 million yesterday. Egegik had the largest daily harvest. In the Nushagak, the total run passed 2 million. Coronavirus update (Covid-19), U.S. House and Senate extend application deadline for PPP,Audio report, >click to read< 14:02
N.S. Premier Stephen McNeil: China not ‘reasonable’ requiring lobster shippers to assume Coronavirus liability
“I don’t believe that the requirement to accept liability on live seafood going into that marketplace is a reasonable one,” McNeil told reporters in Halifax Thursday. China is the second largest market for Canadian lobster, with exports of live lobster alone in 2019 valued at $457 million, most of it supplied by inshore fishermen from Nova Scotia. That demand has upended traditional economics in the fishery. Even as landings soared in recent years, the increased demand from China helped keep prices up. Earlier this year, it came crashing down when China shut down because of the Coronavirus pandemic. >click to read< 09:50
Can New England’s cod fishing industry survive? (How can the scientists and regulators ignore the ever increasing seal predation?!)
Gloucester, Massachusetts, grew up around cod. The waterfront teemed with boats and fishermen, heaps of fish thrashing in wire baskets. Boats were inherited from fathers and shipyards boasted of operating since 1684. As late as the 1980s, the cod were so abundant and large (30-50lb each) that the fishermen still brought in big hauls. Cod remains the state fish of Massachusetts., “We’ve been regulated out of existence,” former Gloucester fisherman Sam Sanfilippo said in 2017. “This used to be the biggest fishing community in the world. Ice companies, wharves, fish dealers, truckers, supermarkets … All through high school, I was always a fisherman. And here I am today: recycler, bike seller, furniture-maker. “I’m 50 years old and I don’t know what the hell I am.” >click to read< 07:30
Canada to ban ‘nuisance seals’ killing to keep access to U.S. market – Canada will abolish permits that allow the killing of “nuisance seals” by commercial fishermen and aquaculture in an effort to maintain access to the lucrative U.S. seafood market, Fishery management failure enacted for fish farmers >click to read<
After years of protest, New Waterford man wins fishing quota case
New Waterford fisherman Paul Fraser has finally had his day in court and won. In a written decision released this week, Supreme Court Justice John Bodurtha ruled that Fraser is entitled to receive $264,294.98, plus interest, in compensation for the eight years his quota was used by another company along with $15,000 in punitive damages. “I am convinced after reviewing all the documentation from DFO and hearing testimony of the witnesses, that Fraser’s snow crab license was transferred to the defendant and fished for the defendant’s benefit since 2010,” concluded Bodurtha. “The defendant intentionally refused to pay Fraser for the use of his snow crab allocation from 2011 to 2018. >click to read< 20:12
Fishing community plans tribute to “Uncle” Andy Gove
Andrew Gove began lobstering in the waters around Deer Isle as a boy of 7, fishing with his grandfather off Eagle Island in Penobscot Bay. Last year, at the age of 89, the lobsterman universally known as “Uncle” hauled his gear for the last time and retired to his home on Stonington Harbor with his wife of 73 years, Rose. Gove died late last month and now the lobster fishing community is planning a tribute to the man who was a respected patriarch of the lobster fishing industry. Plans call for a fleet of boats to gather off Greenhead at the western end of the Deer Island Thorofare at noon on Sunday, July 12,,, >click to read< 18:15
Southeast Alaska Dungeness crab catch starts strong again, price drops
It’s not as large as last year’s haul. But the catch from the first week of the fishery has topped 960,000 pounds and is expected to increase with additional landings from that first week still to be tallied. Effort is down substantially. Only 119 permit holders landed crab in that first week, compared to 170 in that first week last year. The recent average is 147 permit holders landing crab. The average price has also dropped from last year. It’s around $1.72 a pound compared to $2.97 a pound in 2019. >click to read< 13:17
In Lobster Town U.S.A., When the industry suffers, the pain ripples.
Blaine Olsen, a lifelong lobsterman, was navigating his 30-foot boat off the coast of Stonington, Maine, when his sternman, who’s also his wife, yelled above the diesel engine’s din about the pittance the local cooperative was paying harvesters. He shot Ginny a doleful stare for a good five seconds. “Holy sh-t, man,” he said. “It costs us $600 a day to go out.” The dock price, $2.25 a pound for soft-shell lobsters, was half what it was a year ago, making it virtually impossible to earn a profit. The novel coronavirus has barely touched the public health of this corner of rural down east Maine, with Hancock County reporting just 16 cases and one death as of June 30. Its economic health is another matter,,, >click to read< 10:50
Environmental Police Investigate Mysterious Menemsha Harbor Lobster Deaths
“It was reported that a commercial lobsterman within Menemsha Harbor discovered what appeared to be motor oil poured on top of several of his lobster crates that were tied along his mooring slip,” the report says in part. According to the report, the contamination of oil resulted in the death of “multiple” lobsters that were stored in the crates. The report also noted that the oil did not appear to have any other environmental impact in the surrounding area. >click to read< 09:09
Fishing brothers hook a whopper
Operating as the Medea Fishing Company Ltd, brothers Adam and Nat Davey have been working in the Northland fishing industry since they left school. From the outset they had expansion plans, and purchased an 8-metre boat, ‘Messina,’ and a commercial quota. In 1998 they upgraded to a 10-metre boat, ‘Moana,’ which enabled them to fish further afield and could hold a 3-tonne catch.,, The brothers considered fishing outside the 200-mile zone, but soon realised their commitment was to the Far North and creating opportunities locally. A new and bigger boat was needed, however, and with an increased fish quota, and fish receiver’s licence, they could expand their operation and sell locally, with future generations of Northlanders in mind. >click to read< 08:38
Honoring a legacy: Commemorative tote honors Maine fishermen who died at sea
When Hayley Brown’s father Captain Joe Nickerson died at sea, she said she was in shock. And while the pain of losing her father is still with her, she’s getting creative to honor his legacy and support the causes he was truly passionate about. Nickerson and his crewmate Chris Pinkham were fishing aboard the boat named after Hayley, the Hayley Ann, off the coast of Portland when it capsized in January., Nickerson was the chairman of the Maine Coast Fisherman’s Association (MCFA), so Hayley teamed up with them and Sea Bags to create totes in memory of her father. All proceeds from the sale of the bags will support MCFA in advocating for Maine’s fishing communities and the next generation of fishermen in Maine. On Father’s Day, the MCFA introduced the totes. >Video, click to read< 18:21
Bureau of Prisons: ‘Codfather’ Carlos Rafael transferred from prison to ‘community confinement’
Community confinement indicates Rafael, 68, is either in home confinement or a Residential Reentry Center (RRC, or halfway house), according to Taylor, which is overseen by the BOP’s Philadelphia Residential Reentry Management Office. According to the BOP’s inmate database, the projected date of his release from custody is March 4, 2021. Rafael was sentenced to 46 months in prison in September 2017 after pleading guilty to 28 offenses, including conspiracy, false labeling of fish, bulk cash smuggling, tax evasion and falsifying federal records. At the time his attorney William Keating requested he serve his sentence at FMC Devens, which is a federal prison for male inmates that need specialized or long-term medical or mental health care. >click to read< 15:30
Fishermen’s News ceases publication after 75 years
The commercial fishing industry has seen dramatic events in the last 75 years, and during that time, Fishermen’s News has been around to document and report those changes. One of the most important changes, at least in the life of this editor, was the acquisition of Fishermen’s News by me and my brother, Peter, in 2000. Former publisher and editor Walt Kisner was ready to retire, and he didn’t want to sell his paper to “the man,” so he reached out to the sons of his former partner, Dick Philips. >click to read< 12:54
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 49’11″x 20′ Lobster, Longliner, 335HP Volvo
To review specifications, information and 35 photos, >click here< Vessel is in good condition. To see all the boats in this series, >click here<11:09
Mark Adams, an Alaskan fisherman and devoted family man
Mark David Adams, an Alaskan fisherman and devoted family man died peacefully on June 3, 2020 in Cordova, AK, at home. He was born in Spokane, WA, to Bonnie and Gene Adams on March 21, 1963 and grew up in Metaline, WA, where he graduated from Selkirk High School in 1981. He was known for his hilarious storytelling, his knack for managing his commercial fishing business with several boats and motley crews, and his unending enthusiasm for coaching basketball. Foremost, he was a loyal and loving family man whose children were his pride and joy >click to read< 09:39
Kiwi longliners meet at Falklands; San Aotea on Thursday leaves for New Zealand
A 25-day slog across the frigid Southern Ocean is finally over for a New Zealand Sanford fishing vessel on a mercy mission to help the crew of a fellow fishing boat who spent months at sea in rough waters near Cape Horn due to the Covid-19 lockdown. The San Aotea arrived in the Falkland Islands on Monday and teamed up with the crew of the San Aspiring, and the two ships are now are berthed together at Port Stanley. The crew on the San Aspiring had been fishing for toothfish and doing scientific research off South Georgia since February. They carried on fishing throughout the lockdown. >click to read< 08:31
