Daily Archives: January 31, 2021
Caught: New Zealand Company faces losing $20m trawler fishing in a protected zone
Sanford Ltd, and two employees, skipper/master Grant Walker and first mate William Lash, used trawl nets on several occasions in a Benthic Protection Area (BPA) in New Zealand seas in 2017 and 2018. The company, along with Walker and Lash, have pleaded guilty to breaches of the Fisheries Regulations and are being sentenced at Christchurch District Court. Sanford is the registered owner of the 64m deep-water stern trawler San Waitaki,, On both trips, 50-year-old self-employed fishermen Walker and Lash, 45, trawled along the Puysegur BPA seabeds on several occasions. Sanford said they relied on the professionalism of the master and crew of their vessels to follow company instructions and be familiar with all the relevant laws. >click to read< 21:35
Scientists puzzled by 30,000 chinook that seem to be missing from Yukon River
Salmon counts on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border in 2020 were discussed recently at a meeting of the Yukon River Panel. One finding stood out. Last year about 77,000 chinook salmon were counted swimming by the Pilot Sonar station near the mouth of the Yukon River in Alaska. About 1,750 kilometres upriver, at the Eagle Sonar station, just before the Alaska-Yukon border, about 49,500 were counted. This could mean fish are dying or being miscounted, or that harvesting is going unreported, though there is no evidence of that. All parties agree that it’s a mystery and requires investigation. >click to read< 19:25
Lake Michigan Commercial Fisherman Robert E. Strege has passed away
Robert E. Strege, age 90, passed away on January 1, 2021. He was born on November 8, 1930 to parents Richard and Amelia (nee. Schultz) Strege in Jacksonport, WI. Robert proudly served in the United States Army during the Korean War, and for his honorable service, was awarded the Purple Heart. Following his military service, Robert owned and operated his own commercial fishing company, called Robert Strege Fish Co., for many years. He caught chubs, perch, and whitefish, on his boat, >“The Palmer”<, on Lake Michigan. Robert will be remembered, as a loving, hardworking man that took care of his family and will be dearly missed. >click to read< 14:47
Disposal of Hazardous Waste: The dark side of ‘green energy’ and its threat to the nation’s environment
Wind farms and massive arrays of solar panels are cropping up across public and private landscapes, (offshore, also),,, President Joe Biden, in fact, has directed the Interior Department to identify suitable places to host 20 gigawatts of new energy from sun, wind or geothermal resources by 2024,, But how green is green? Although countries are feverishly looking to install wind and solar farms to wean themselves off carbon-based, or so-called “dirty” energy, few countries, operators and the industry itself have yet to fully tackle the long-term consequences of how to dispose of these systems, which have their own environmental hazards like toxic metals, oil, fiberglass and other material. >click to read< 12:37
Massive, unexplained bivalve die-off sends many Louisiana oystermen back to square one
Mitch Jurisich, a third-generation oysterman, dropped a long pair of oyster tongs into the Gulf of Mexico and lightly raked the water bottom. When he brought up his catch, all but one were dead. The more resilient hooked mussels, typically found clustered along the area’s oyster reefs, had suffered the same fate. The stench of rotting bivalves filled the air. “That’s the smell of death,” Jurisich said. Early this month, millions of pounds of oysters in leases that line Plaquemines Parish’s west bank were found dead, their mouths agape. It’s unclear why. >click to read< 10:15
Fisheries Advocate Calling for Independent Task Force to Help Rebuild Industry
Gus Etchegary’s involvement in the Newfoundland fishing industry predates Confederation, he’s now with the Fishery Community Alliance.,, Etchegary indicates more needs to be done nearly three decades since the commercial cod moratorium. Etchegary says an independent assessment of stocks needs to be carried out and consideration has to be given to seal predation, threats to the caplin stock and joint management. >click to read< 09:12
Sea Trust, Goodwick, Bangor University and Macduff Shellfish work on bait bag pollution
Sea Trust is working Macduff Shellfish, the largest shellfish supplier in Europe, , and the specialist BioComposites Centre at Bangor University in seeking to find a sustainable alternative to woven, plastic bait bags that are used by shellfish fishermen and in seafood processing factories. The bait bags, commonly used in the whelk fishing sector, are not easily recyclable often ending up in landfill or can sometimes fly away overboard when used at sea, impacting on marine and coastal wildlife. >click to read< 08:15
