Daily Archives: June 13, 2021

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency to carry out unannounced inspections of fishing vessels across the UK.

The agency said that inspections are being carried out as part of ongoing work to improve fishing vessel safety in an industry recognized to be one of the most dangerous in the world. Since November 2020 there have been eight deaths in the industry including one in Shetland when a fisherman fell overboard from a local trawler in February. Between 2011and 2020 the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) reported 60 fatalities from UK fishing vessels. >click to read< 21:50

Coast Guard, CDC: We’ll change mask rule, but for now won’t enforce masks on fishing boats, commercial vessels, ferries

The Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Coast Guard, reversing their position from less than a month ago, said the federal agencies will no longer enforce its rule for wearing a mask in “outdoor areas of transportation conveyances or while outdoors at transportation hubs.” That means commercial vessels like cruise ships, ferries, fishing boats, and charters won’t require passengers to mask up for those who are outdoors. And people don’t have to wear masks at “transportation conveyances,” such as train stations. To be clear, the rule still exists, but the agencies will not enforce it. Earlier this year at a fishing conference, Sen. Dan Sullivan called the fishing crew mask rule “stupid.” >click to read< 20: 14

US Embargo Hits Mexican Shrimp Industry Hard

The United States has suspended certification of wild-caught Mexican shrimp, preventing producers from export part of their production to the USA. Already financially weakened Mexican shrimp exporters are confident that the decision will be reversed soon, but have concerns about the severe economic consequences. US inspectors identified non-conformities in the turtle excluder devices (TEDs) in dozens of fishing gears inspected at Sonora, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Campeche ports. News of the embargo was received with concern by the shrimp fishermen all over Mexico. ‘But we haven’t felt any impact yet, given that we had already exported all stocks and we’re now waiting for the next shrimp season to start in September,’ >photos, click to read< 13:13

Doctors and experts are skeptical, doubt lobster diver’s being “swallowed by a whale” claim

A lobster diver has been accused of lying about being swallowed whole by a humpback whale he says spat him back out because it didn’t like how he tasted. One doctor at Cape Cod Hospital, where self-described whale swallowing victim Michael Packard, 56, was treated, said Michael Packard should have suffered hearing loss following the freak accident.,, Other fishermen were also wary of Packard’s whale encounter. ‘People who are in the fishing industry, and people who know whales, are finding this hard to believe. It’s a first-ever that this would happen,’ said another lobsterman. photos, >click to read< 09:50

End of the line? How Brexit left Hull’s fishing industry facing extinction

It was a Wednesday morning and it had been touch and go whether all of them would be able to get time off from their day jobs to make the trip. Seven hours later, they stood on the quayside at Greenwich, as Princess Anne swung a bottle of champagne at the looming yellow hull of the UK’s newest and biggest whitefish trawler. Many of the people gathered that day had voted for Brexit in the EU referendum and hopes were high that it would usher in a new era for a British industry that had been dwindling for years. The Kirkella was the larger of two new boats built by the private company UK Fisheries in 2018, at a combined cost of nearly £59m, landing fish at Hull for the first time in a decade. The Princess Royal summed up the optimistic mood on the quayside when she offered her congratulations “to the owner for their investment in the future of fishing”. As the bottle smashed against the boat, the players launched into a lung-busting rendition of Hearts of Oak. >click to read< 09:02

Fox News, and Maine lobsterman Kristan Porter brings Right whale “conservation” issue to the American public

Jun. 13, 2021 – Cutler, Maine lobsterman Kristan Porter explains how a federal whale conservation push could have a massive effect on the lobster industry >click to watch< 07:50