Daily Archives: October 1, 2020
Potlotek First Nation celebrates Treaty Day by launching its own rights-based lobster fishery
Potlotek First Nation in Cape Breton marked Treaty Day this year by launching its own Mi’kmaq-regulated rights-based lobster fishery. The celebration in St. Peters Bay on Thursday drew about 100 people and comes just two weeks after another Mi’kmaw community began operating a similar fishery in southwest Nova Scotia. Wilbert Marshall, chief of Potlotek, said launching a fishery on Treaty Day underscores the importance of the Peace and Friendship Treaties that were signed many years ago and still matter today. >click to read< 19:05
Mi’kmaw parliamentarians call for new body to deal with conflict over lobster fishery – Three Mi’kmaw parliamentarians are proposing a new approach to the conflict over the lobster fishery in Atlantic Canada that would bypass the system in use at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. >click to read<
Son of overboard fisherman John McTaggart vows to keep working at sea to ‘make him proud’
Last night his wife Catherine, 39, and four children Caitlin, 21, Chelsea, 18, Craig, 16, and Carly, 10, paid tribute to the fisherman of 28 years. They said he had just become a grandfather for the first time with the birth of little Kayson in May. Young Craig, who recently celebrated his 16th birthday out at sea with his dad, had only started working in the fishing industry alongside his father in the past few months. But despite the tragedy which has “devastated” his family, the teenager said he will do all he can to follow in his father’s footsteps and continue the family trade of working at sea – and he hopes to do so aboard the Acorn. photos, >click to read< 16:47
For Alaska’s seafood processors, the Coronavirus pandemic has cost tens of millions
Heading into the 2020 fishing season, many people were concerned that seafood workers from out of state would bring COVID-19 to rural communities. Processing companies managed to keep the disease under control. but at a big cost. Now, economists are looking at that financial toll. To keep track of how the pandemic is shaping the seafood industry, economists at the McDowell Group have started to publish monthly briefs for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. “It’s interesting to describe a crisis when you’re in the crisis, right? And that’s our situation,” said Garrett Everidge, an economist at the McDowell Group. >click to read< 15:15
Crab industry, Oregon continue plans to avoid whale entanglement
New regulations for commercial Dungeness crab fishermen in Oregon aim to get boats on the water earlier in the season and reduce the amount of gear to avoid tangling with endangered whales. “Our fleet is made up of 400 individual businesspeople who each bring a different perspective to the issue,” said Hugh Link, the executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission. “For over three years, they have been given the opportunity to weigh in on how best to mitigate the whale entanglement risk,” he continued. “But it is an ongoing process. These upcoming meetings are the next important step and we hope they take the opportunity to have their voices heard.”
Bernadette Jordan: Honouring treaties begins with relearning the history behind them
Nova Scotia’s relationship with Indigenous peoples is rooted in Treaties of Peace and Friendship. These Treaties set out long-standing commitments, mutual obligations and benefits between the Crown (now represented by the Government of Canada) and the Mi’kmaw, Maliseet and Peskotomuhkati people. So when people ask what Reconciliation looks like, I suggest that it could begin by honouring the promises made in the treaties. That starts by learning about the history of the treaties themselves. And we all have an obligation to do this, because we are all treaty people. >click to read< 10:36
Opposition mounts against proposed offshore fish farm off the coast of Sarasota
Because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not hold a public hearing on the construction of a controversial fin fish farm 45 miles off the coast of Sarasota, opponents took it upon themselves to be heard. Opponents said the proposed offshore fish farm demonstration pen by a Hawaii-based company, the first such project in the Gulf of Mexico, would create pollution in the form of fish waste, spread diseases to wild fish populations and increase competition with fishing companies that depend on wild catches. >click to read< Floating fish farm in Gulf proposed southwest of Sarasota -The permit is to discharge “industrial wastewater” from “a marine net-pen aquaculture facility.” >click to read< 09:07
Commercial Fisherman Richard “Buffalo” B. Wetherell, Jr. of Jamestown, R.I has passed away
Richard “Buffalo” B. Wetherell, Jr., 70, of Jamestown, passed away Tuesday, September 29, 2020. Born at Quonset Point, he was the son of the late Richard B. Wetherell and Helen L. (Tucker) Wetherell. Richard worked as a commercial fisherman for over 50 years. He enjoyed surfing, skiing, boating, and being on the water. He leaves his brothers, Robert Wetherell, David Wetherell and his wife Susan; his nieces and nephews Chelsea Wetherell Ursillo, Gerek, Bryn, and Spencer Wetherell. Richard was also the uncle of the late Jarod Wetherell. All services will be private. >click to read< 08:17
NEFMC votes to set a future target of 100% monitoring coverage on sector based groundfish vessels
The council, deliberating online via webinar on Amendment 23, overwhelmingly approved the motion for its preferred alternative of 100% coverage level for sector vessels in the Northeast Multispecies groundfish fishery. But the motion, crafted through a morning and afternoon of rulemaking on the fly, included a valuable caveat for fishermen: The region’s commercial groundfish harvesters likely won’t have to pay the full costs for the monitoring for the first four years the amendment is in effect or as long as supporting federal funds last. According to the approved measure, the commercial fishing industry will receive federal reimbursements, or money from other federal mechanisms, for 100% of their electronic monitoring costs and 100% of their at-sea monitoring costs in the first four fishing years the amendment is in effect. >click to read< 07:41
