Monthly Archives: May 2021
Something Smells Fishy: Allegations of Fraud in Ocean Acidification Research
While on tour in Australia in 2010, my friend, David Archibald said to me “Ocean Acidification is the last refuge of the climate scoundrels”. It appears he may be right. It also appears that James Cook University has a real research integrity problem, that Dr. Peter Ridd has pointed out, and got fired for daring to say it. From Science Magazine: Does ocean acidification alter fish behavior? Fraud allegations create a sea of doubt – In 2009, Munday and Dixson began to publish evidence that ocean acidification, a knock-on effect of the rising carbon dioxide level in Earth’s atmosphere, has a range of striking effects on fish behavior, such as making them bolder and steering them toward chemicals produced by their predators. But their work has come under attack. A group of seven young scientists, led by fish physiologist Timothy Clark of Deakin University, published a Nature paper reporting that in a massive, 3-year study, they didn’t see these dramatic effects of acidification on fish behavior at all. >click to read< 18:37
Fishermen support local legislator’s bill that would ban offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine
The bill, LD 101, was introduced by Rep. William “Billy Bob” Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) who is also a commercial fisherman. “It is time to put a permanent halt to offshore wind development,” Faulkingham said during a hearing with the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee. Dozens of fishermen submitted testimony,,, Lobsterman Jason Joyce said the push by foreign wind companies seeking to industrialize the Gulf of Maine is an “unprecedented attack” on the fishery. “There are many other options of renewable green energy that don’t require the destruction of a hard-working industry,” wrote Nathaniel Snow, a Tremont lobsterman. “Nuclear power, hydroelectric and solar are all much more viable options. >click to read< 16:50
The Last of the Port Clyde Groundfishermen – Once robust, Maine’s groundfishery is on the ropes
When Randy Cushman was growing up in Port Clyde, some 300 trawlers were moored up and down Maine’s coast,,, Today, Cushman is 59 years old and might be Maine’s most knowledgeable commercial fishermen.,, But Cushman is barely scraping by. Prices for cod, flounder, and other groundfish have all but collapsed in Maine. The combination of rock-bottom prices, the need to protect the state’s fish stocks, and a dearth of fishing infrastructure make it harder than ever to be a fisherman here. Today, the robust Maine trawler fleet of Cushman’s youth has been reduced to around 30 boats. photos, >click to read< 14:21
Shorefire fisherman Mark Rochfort feeds Christmas Island with a rod and a reel
For the past 25 years, commercial fisherman Mark Rochfort has navigated open sea off Flying Fish Cove. His company Shorefire has operated since 1994,,, Rochfort, who is nearly 60, says he still reels in fish weighing up to 200 kilograms. “I get out there in my open centre console with just a rod and reel. “People always ask me, ‘How do you do it?’ “But it’s alright — there are worse ways to make a living.” Old men and the sea – Mr Rochfort’s 83-year-old father helps him put the boat in the water every morning at 5.30am., photos, >click to read< 12:51
Who is Vitaly Orlov?
Vitaly Orlov returned to Russia from Norway in 2007 with a single vision: to develop a world-class fishing industry in Russia. Today, Norebo Group, the company founded by Mr Orlov, owns and operates one of the world’s biggest fleets of trawlers, suppling fish to MacDonalds, Bird’s Eye and a host of household names. It is said that one in five of the cod eaten in Britain are supplied by Norebo. For Mr Orlov, though, size isn’t everything. >click to read< 09:31
Its National Shrimp Day! The Incredible Health Benefits Of Eating This Seafood
National Shrimp Day is celebrated each year on May 10 to recognize America’s favorite seafood. It is estimated that an average American consumes around 15.5 pounds of seafood annually, out of which 4 pounds is shrimp. There are more than 2,000 different species of shrimp found all over the world from the tropics to the Antarctic Ocean. The most common shrimp species in the United States include Gulf Brown Shrimp, Gulf Pink Shrimp, and Gulf White Shrimp. >click to read< 08:33
U.N. committee takes up racism complaint of N.S. Mi’kmaq fishermen against Ottawa
The April 30 letter of notice from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination asks Leslie Norton, Canada’s permanent representative to the U.N., to respond to allegations by Sipekne’katik First Nation by July 14.,, The letter asks Canada to respond to the allegations and indicate what actions have already been taken to deal with allegations of racism. The notice is signed by Yanduan Li, the chair of the committee and a representative of China. The First Nation’s leader, Chief Mike Sack, said in a news release Sunday that it intends to proceed with a lobster fishery beginning in June, despite the lack of an agreement with the federal Fisheries Department. >click to read< 07:35
UPDATED: RNLI crew save five fisherman aboard 75 foot fishing vessel Maria Magdalena III
A Cork RNLI lifeboat came to the rescue of five fisherman off the coast of Kinsale today after their boat started to take on water in rough seas. The Courtmacsherry RNLI lifeboat was called out at 11am this morning to go to the aid of a 75 foot Fishing Vessel that had got into difficulties 27 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale. Within minutes of being alerted by Marine Rescue Co-Ordination centre in Valentia the volunteer crew were on their way and proceeded at full speed to the stricken vessel. photos,>click to read< 15:21 Five-hour operation after 33-year-old trawler took in water after hull was breached – The 24-metre Maria Magdalena III, fishing out of Rossaveal in Co Galway, got into difficulties some 27 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale in west Cork on Sunday morning when her hull was breached and she began taking in water. >click to read< 07:08
First of this season’s Scottish prawn fleet arrives in Newlyn.
BF191 Vision IV is the first of this year’s visiting prawn fleet to arrive in Newlyn, seen here astern of the Irish twin-rigger Unity, with a hydraulic gear problem to sort. Some of the crew keep themselves busy pressure washing the hull. The beam trawler St Georges is busy putting back together her trawls, and not looking too shabby for her 48 years at sea, >click for 6 photos< 12:51
Mothers Day: A salute to marine mothers, from lobsters to octopus
What makes the she lobster so contemporary is that she goes looking for her mate by tapping and poking the tips of her claws into the male abode, and if she finds the lucky catch, she enters, whereupon the male taps his claws as a welcoming gesture (she hopes). This behaviour is known as “boxing.” It is thought the future husband actually taps her to get a sense of the hardness of her shell and when she may molt, because when she does, the matrimonial action occurs! She will then lie on her back while the male performs his magnificent gesture. >click to read< 12:01
Initial work is being done at the OSU Oregon Coast Wave Energy Project test site
Initial work is being done on the OSU PacWave South wave energy test site, with the onshore components being connected to the offshore facility in this spot. There are two areas off the central Oregon coast where the PacWave testing will be done. Near Waldport is the southern spot, while another near Newport is the northern rigging. The work being done here includes horizontal directional drilling deep beneath the park and ocean shore. Later subsea cable installation work will primarily be between 1 and 7 miles offshore. PacWave South is the first marine renewable energy research lease the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued in federal waters off the West Coast.,, Five power and data cables buried below the seafloor will connect the ocean test site to a shoreside facility southeast of Seal Rock. >click to read<, with links to hearings/meetings 10:23
The last cowboys – a replay of the story of cattle in the American West
Norway, a country less than a quarter the size of Alaska, is on pace to bring 1.2 million tonnes of salmon to market this year, and the technologists in that country are talking about the potential to grow their production to 3 million tonnes per year by 2030. Chile, Scotland, the Faroe Islands, and Canada are all significant producers with lesser production in Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, France, Ireland and Finland. Meanwhile, land-based, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) farms are threatening to lead to an explosion in salmon aquaculture almost everywhere. To truly understand the threat these farmers pose to the future of one of Alaska’s oldest and still largest industries,,, >click to read< 08:52
EU accused of ‘land grab’ by fishermen as they increase use of ‘destructive’ fly-shooting boats in UK waters
The EU has been accused of a “land grab” by fishing groups as it has drastically increased the amount of “fly-shooting” boats in UK waters. Fly-shooting is a controversial fishing method in which multiple nets are used to encircle and capture entire shoals of fish, and heavy ropes drag across the ocean floor, displacing whatever is underneath. There were originally just a handful of fly-shooters in our waters, but now there are 75 high-powered boats using the method all across UK waters to scoop up bass and mullet. >click to read< 20:51
A “heavy mental impact” – Tasmania’s rock lobster industry suffers in trade war
Beijing cancelled the China Australia strategic economic dialogue this week, effectively ending trade relations between the two countries. For Tasmania’s rock lobster fishers this trade war is real and destroying their livelihoods and businesses in less than 12 months. Lobster fisher Kane Ebel said there was a “heavy mental impact” to the trade war. “When you get out of bed in the morning and you’ve got big debts on your boat and your house and effectively can’t go to work, it’s got to take a toll,” he told Sky News. >click to watch< 18:48
Stuck in a Dead End: Jersey fishermen give away lobsters after France bans them from selling in French ports
Fishermen at St Helier Port, which was blockaded by French rivals this week, said they had been left in a vicious cycle due to the dispute. France issued a legal notice to British fishermen last night that they were no longer welcome into French ports after one Jersey boat was threatened with violence and turned back. Fisherman Wayne Auger, 46, said: ‘Nobody really knows how this is going to end. ‘The French want to fish on our waters and had this amnesty from our government after Brexit. ‘But we can pay sums like £60,000 for a licence and they pay nothing to fish alongside us. ‘Many of us are running out of bait for the lobster pots and won’t be fishing because we can’t sell the fish to France and the local need isn’t that big.’ photos, >click to read< 14:15
Retailers post prices for Copper River salmon
As commercial harvesters brace for the famed Copper River salmon fishery set to open in mid-May, with indications of a declining run, they’re hoping for the best, forecasts notwithstanding, and aficionados of the oil-rich fish are lining up to order. “It is that time of year when the phone is ringing off the hook for the Copper River season,” said Hilary Branyik at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle.,, 60° North Seafoods in Cordova has not set its Alaska retail price yet, but for its sales through Sena Sea Seafoods in Washington state the preorder price is $54 a pound for sockeye fillets and $68 a pound for king fillets. >click to read< 12:38
“It was really fun, I was excited.” 7-year-old Trent Collins skipped school to continue the lobster fishing family tradition!
Trent Collins may only be seven years old, but he knew he was ready to be part of his grandfather’s lobster fishing crew this week when the season opened. The Grade 2 Bathurst student has grown up going out on “Pa Daley’s” boat, Daley Catch, but Tuesday was different. It was the first time he went out on the boat with his grandfather, Keith Daley, and the crew without his parents. Daley, 63, remembers going out lobster fishing with his father and grandfather when he was five or six years old. He loved it, and his father bought him his own lobster licence when he was just 13. >photos, click to read< 10:37
Jersey’s historic fishing fleet is missing out on thousands of pounds each week and eventually will collapse
Michael Michieli, owner of L’Ecume II, said that there were now only a small number of Jersey vessels going to sea as the local market was too small to support them. His comments came after harbours in La Manche, which includes the crucial Granville and Carteret ports, were formally closed to Island fishermen. The government says it is raising the issue with the European Commission. The closure happened just a day after a high-profile blockade of the Harbour involving around 70 boats from across Brittany and Normandy, as tensions grow over the issuing of licences allowing European boats access to Jersey waters as part of a post-Brexit trade deal. >click to read< 09:42
‘Some will call it a day’, warns East Neuk prawn fisherman as Coronavirus and Brexit impact bites
It was presented as a “sea of opportunity” that would lead to post-Brexit Britain becoming an independent coastal state and a chance to “take back control” of our fishing waters. But when eighth generation East Neuk fisherman Graham Gourlay reflects on the combined double whammy of Coronavirus and Brexit on his industry, he says that “without a doubt” some prawn fishermen will sell-up unless market conditions dramatically improve soon.,, In depth article, photos, >click to read<08:46
Is Fly Shooting the new Electric Pulse Fishing?
NUTFA has been receiving reports of the increasing number of fly shooters operating initially in the eastern Channel but now fishing as far as western waters for a couple of years now. From initial reports of relatively small numbers of these vessels taking significant quantities of Bass, suddenly we seem to have a vast fleet [75] of high powered fly shooters working our waters, everywhere from the eastern Channel through to western waters, all licenced by the MMO, despite the fact that they admit to not having complete catch records for this method in these waters, reliant instead on member state data, including that from France who have been penalized in the past for failures to provide accurate information in this respect. >click to read< 23:06
Video: Coast Guard rescues 3 fishermen from sinking, capsized fishing vessel near Black Bay, LA
The Coast Guard rescued three fishermen from a sinking vessel Thursday night near Black Bay. All three people on board the vessel were safely rescued with no reported medical concerns. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received a report around 11 p.m. that a 40-foot fishing vessel was taking on water in the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet with three people on board the F/V King Dang >click to read/watch< 22:16.
Clarence Dirk Rozema, of Mount Vernon, has passed away. Ran family business, Rozema Boat Works
On Monday, May 3, 2021, Clarence Dirk Rozema, died peacefully surrounded by loved ones, and went to be with Jesus. He attended Emmanuel Baptist Church in Mount Vernon and graduated from LaConner High School. At Emmanuel, he met Barbara Jon Connell of Mount Vernon and they married in 1966. Clarence and Barbara made their home in Bay View near the family boat business, where they worked together and raised their three children. Following his father’s death in 1979, Clarence found himself in charge of the family business. Already a respected yard known for wooden seine skiffs and small aluminum boats, Clarence guided Rozema Boat Works through its next phase of operations, building larger vessels used throughout Alaska and beyond. >click to read< 17:28
New buoy marking changes in the works for Bay State Lobstermen
In late January, the Massachusetts Fisheries Advisory Commission approved a package of new protections for the imperiled North Atlantic right whales, including an extended state-water closure, required breakaway ropes and new rules for applying identifying markings on lobster trap buoy lines. The new gear requirements went into effect May 1, but commercial lobstermen may not want to get too comfortable with the buoy line marking rules. DMF already is looking to change them after this fishing season. The proposed new buoy line marking rules, if enacted, would go into effect Feb. 1, 2022. >click to read< 14:28
“It’s a peaceful protest,,, Why are French fishermen angry about Jersey’s post-Brexit fishing licences?!!
The issue is over fishing licences post-Brexit. Jersey is a British crown dependency, but it’s only 19km off the coast of France and around 250 French boats regularly fish the waters around the island, supporting around 900 families and another 2,000 jobs on shore. As part of Brexit related fishing talks it was agreed that French boats which had habitually fished around Jersey would be allowed to continue doing so, but would need new licences. Because of Jersey’s unusual status, owned by the British Crown but not actually part of the UK, these licences come from Jersey authorities, not the British government in London. But the fishermen say that when they received their licenses they had new requirements and limitations,,, >click to read< 11:29
Expect more clashes like the Nova Scotia lobster dispute as Canadians’ rights collide
The ongoing dispute between a Mi’kmaq community and non-Indigenous lobster fishers in Nova Scotia seems like a throwback to a darker and more racist time. We were supposed to have come a long way since that time. So it might seem like this fishery dispute is a throwback, a sign of how far we still have to go in order to truly end racism towards Indigenous peoples and protect their rights in Canada. But unfortunately this dispute isn’t a throwback; it’s probably a look-ahead. This is because the Canadian approach to equality and Indigenous rights, an approach that is baked into our difficult-to-change Constitution and which has been taken up with gusto by the Supreme Court, is based on two opposing views of rights. >click to read< 09:45
Fishery advocate Robert E. Best Sr. of Belford N.J. commercial fisherman/lobsterman/dealer, has passed away
Robert E. Best Sr., 78, of Belford, passed away April 20, 2021. Robert was born Sept. 20, 1942, in Long Branch, a son of the late Madlyn (Truax) and Frederick Best Sr. He lived in the Bayshore area all his life. Bob proudly served his country in the early 1960s as a part of the U.S. Navy’s construction force, the Seabees. In 1975 he found his true calling and became an independent commercial fisherman/ lobsterman. He and his partner, Jack Baker, opened the Shoal Harbor Lobster Co. in 1975 and ran it for 45 years until Hurricane Sandy destroyed the building. Bob was an advocate for local fishermen and the fishing industry in New Jersey. He worked with marine fisheries and senators. He was also the fisherman responsible for bringing black fish into the New Jersey fish markets. >click to read< 08:36
Fishermen Protest: Aeolus installation vessel surrounded by 70 fishing boats Saint-Brieuc Offshore Wind Farm
Local fishermen have taken their protests against the construction of the French Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm from land to the offshore project site on 7 May, when 70 fishing boats surrounded the Aeolus installation vessel in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc. The protest at the offshore project site is part of organised demonstrations against the project on both sea and land. The fishermen first gathered on Monday, 3 May, in front of the Côtes-d’Armor prefecture and announced that they would go to the offshore site on Friday around 9 a.m. with a rally on land scheduled to take place at Cape Fréhel from 10 a.m. >click to read< 07:20
Tributes to Cove Fisherman Peter Gray, 64, who died at sea ‘doing the job he loved’
Lifeboat crews from Dunbar and St Abbs, a rescue helicopter from Prestwick and local fishing vessels joined the search for Peter Gray, of Cove, south-east of Dunbar. The 64-year-old dad-of-two and grandfather-of-two was located in the sea,,, His wife of 42 years Betty was very grateful to all the fishermen and volunteers who had joined the search for her husband. She told the Courier “he loved a holiday in the sun” but, as a fisherman, had “no time for hobbies”. Rev Dr. Suzie Fletcher said, “Peter Gray was one of the fifth generation of his family to fish from Cove, and had been out to sea doing the job he loved day in and day out for decades. His loss has left his family, the local community, many circles of fishermen and countless friends in shock. >click to read< 20:06
New Jersey: Testa Bill that Exempts Commercial Fishermen from State Unemployment Tax Advances
The bill, S-3501, would exempt commercial fisherman who are paid on the percentage of fish caught or a percentage of the selling price of those fish from the state unemployment law and its costly tax on earnings. “This bill will be a big help for New Jersey fisheries, an industry that has been hit hard by the pandemic and one that the state’s economy depends on,” said Michael Testa (R-1). “It will allow hard working, skilled fisherman to keep more of their hard-earned income, a change that suits the independent nature of the proud individuals who make their living at sea.” >click to read< 18:34
Shell game: Conflict, secrecy cloud battle over SC oyster farming permit
A conflict of interest involving a floating oyster farm in a popular creek has spawned hard questions about government secrecy, insider dealing and the sanctity of public lands in South Carolina. Caged oyster farming has become a growing and potentially lucrative industry in recent years. It offers the promise of eco-friendly jobs and year-round, succulent bivalves for Charleston’s renowned dining scene. But a battle over one such operation sparked a state ethics investigation. That probe found a Department of Natural Resources permit coordinator had used his position to help his brother win approval to grow oysters along a Charleston County creek. The coordinator later quit his job and became a partner in his brother’s company, an Uncovered investigation found. >click to read< 14:11
Share this post