Daily Archives: April 18, 2021
Listuguj, Ottawa agree to collaborate on regulations, opens door for moderative livelihood fishery
Listuguj First Nation, the Mi’kmaw community in Quebec just across the river from Campbellton, N.B., has agreed to a five-year rights reconciliation agreement with the Minister of Fisheries and the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. It could open the door for additional fisheries access through licences and modified quotas, including the possible establishment of a moderate livelihood fishery. Listuguj Chief Darcy Gray said the framework is a “huge step forward” after holding talks with the federal government over the past 4½ years. The deal aims to improve relations between the government and the First Nation, and includes a commitment to upholding the treaty right to harvest and sell fish in pursuit of a livelihood. >click to read< 18:31
‘Deadliest Catch’ Captain Hospitalized
Captain Keith Colburn has been hospitalized with Coronavirus. Colburn announced in a video posted from his hospital room that he’d had the virus for at least 20 days. He maintains he went 10 days without needing any medication while he self-quarantined, but he still wound up needing to seek medical attention. While the virus has worked its way out of Colburn’s system, he claims he’s still dealing with its after-effects. He’s now battling a case of pneumonia as a result of his coronavirus diagnosis that’s left him in the hospital for the last eight days. Andy Hillstrand was another cast member to contract the virus, Video, >click to read< 17:44
Inland Fisheries: A big fight in Lansing over fishing rules on the Great Lakes
Dana Serafin still hauls in 20,000-pound boatloads of whitefish to supply regional restaurants and markets, Native whitefish, the main livelihood for Serafin and other Great Lakes commercial fishermen, have been in decline for years amid changes to the food web, replaced in Serafin’s nets by healthier populations of walleye and lake trout that he’s not allowed to keep. Chinook salmon, once a favorite of recreational anglers on lakes Michigan and Huron, have also plummeted in Lake Michigan, and all but disappeared from Lake Huron. Battles are brewing over fishing rights from recreational, commercial, Native American, and environmental group meddling. Video, >click to read< 13:41
Call for the return of historic 232 year-old boat Peggy to Castletown
Peggy is the only surviving vessel of its kind and one of the few remaining boats from the 18th Century. Calling for the return of the schooner to Castletown, Tony Brown said there was “no enthusiasm” from Manx National Heritage (MNH) to do so. Built in 1789 for Captain George Quayle, who was an MHK for 51 years, the vessel remained hidden in a walled-up cellar following his death. After being discovered it was given to the Manx Museum in 1941, and the site was opened as a Nautical Museum 10 years later, with the boat in situ. The boat was lifted out for conservation in 2015 amid concerns over the ongoing corrosion of the structure by the incoming tides in the cellar. >click to read< 12:19
Volunteers continue search for missing Elsipogtog fisherman
A large-scale search is underway for any evidence of the Tyhawk fishing vessel or its missing captain. The New Brunswick based boat, owned by the Elsipogtog First Nation, sank off the coast of Cape Breton, N.S. earlier this month. Now friends and family from Mi’kmaq communities in both provinces are pooling their resources and raising money to try and find the boat’s captain, Craig Sock. Volunteer Starr Paul of the Eskasoni First Nation in N.S., said a search team is in Chéticamp, N.S. scouring the shoreline and the water for any evidence of Sock, who was known as Jumbo. Four of the six crew members on the vessel were rescued after it took on water and capsized on April 3. Seth Monahan died and Jumbo was later declared missing and presumed dead. >click to read< 10:18
The Ocean State Says Goodbye to Its Beloved ‘Herring Man’
Paul Bettencourt was called a lot of things, most notably “The Herring Man” and “The Baitman.” The latter appears one word into his obituary. His youngest daughter, Paula Bettencourt, called her dad something else — “a special person.” “I remember being 10 or 11 and going to the dam and this whole community of people would be there moving herring over the dam,” the 35-year-old Stoughton, Mass., resident recalled. “Once he knew the fish were running he would gather his community. It took a lot of work and a lot of time. You had to pass the net up over the dam.” Paul and his brother, Joe, started their herring rescue adventures sometime in the late 1960s or early ’70s depending on whose memory you trust. >click to read< 09:10
‘It’s more than just a fish:’ Scientists worry cod will never come back in N.L.
“Next year will be 30 years since the original moratorium on this stock,” said Robert Rangeley a marine biologist and director of science with Oceana Canada, a non-profit group aimed at protecting the country’s oceans. “It’s time to do something different.” Atlantic cod in the waters off Newfoundland’s northeast coast have been in the critical zone since the early 1990s, shortly before the federal government in 1992 announced a 
sweeping moratorium on fishing the species, instantly eliminating a traditional livelihood for about 30,000 people. There’s now a small commercial cod fishery, known as the “stewardship” fishery,,, The Fisheries Department declined a request for an interview to address criticism that it needs a greater focus on conservation. and a growing seal problem that is ignored in this communication,,, >click to read< 08:01
