Daily Archives: November 1, 2021

Slim pickings for Nantucket scallopers on opening day

Optimism was in short supply as commercial scalloping season opened this morning, but  the dock price, the price paid to fishermen for a pound of shucked scallops, was almost double what it was on opening day last year: $22 per pound, compared to $12 in 2020. At Sayle’s Seafood, scallops were selling retail for $35 per pound this afternoon. Souza’s Seafood had yet to set a price. Bob DeCosta, who has been working the waters here for decades, “I just think there aren’t a lot of scallops. It’s not like last year. But we’ll see. The fleet is small and the price is good. >click to read< 17: 11

Coast Guard medevacs a crewmember from a fishing vessel near Manasquan, New Jersey

The Coast Guard medevaced a fisherman Monday morning approximately 46 miles east of Manasquan. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay received a call from the captain of a fishing vessel that a crewmember was losing and regaining consciousness while having difficulty breathing. A Coast Guard Air Station MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew was launched to medevac the crewmember after it was determined that weather conditions would not allow for a boatcrew to safely transfer him ashore.  The aircrew arrived on scene, hoisted the crewmember, and transported him to Atlantic Care Hospital in Atlantic City. The vessel has been identified as F/V John and Nicholas. USCG 5th District, Mid-Atlantic, 14:03

SEA-NL calls on new federal Fisheries and Oceans minister to investigate allegations ‘pirate’ draggers destroying Grand Banks

“Canada may have the toughest fishery enforcement within its own waters, but as long as it’s a free-for-all once migratory stocks swim over the imaginary line that is the 200-mile limit those efforts are in vain,” says Ryan Cleary, Interim Executive Director of Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. “Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray must investigate the magnitude of the overfishing, and take immediate actions to stop it,” said Cleary. “This is not just about Newfoundland and Labrador, but a national food-security issue, as well as propelling a blue economy. >click to read< 10:33

Britain’s fishing industry: Jim Portus exposes the government’s betrayal of the fishing industry

The UK’s fishing industry was almost universally ecstatic about the referendum vote to leave the European Union in June 2016. Meanwhile, United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage stated at the time that the way the UK would deal with its fisheries would be the acid test for the whole of Brexit. The industry was under no illusion that the vote to leave the EU would be the start, not the end, of a process that could take a decade to complete. Many feared that the UK’s fisheries would yet again be used as a bargaining chip by the government,,, >click to read< 09:42

Cowichan Bay Fishermen’s Wharf Association offering free moorage to gillnetters

Kim Olsen has been a commercial fisherman on the coast for decades and says he’s never seen people like him hurt as much as they are right now. “Families have split up, people have lost houses, they’ve lost boats and I know one fellow who has contemplated suicide because he’s so far in the hole now because of what the government has done to us,” said Olsen.,, Commercial Fishers like Al Ladret travel up and down the coast, spending thousands of dollars on fuel only to get to be told at the last minute there’s no opening for fishing. >video, click to read< 08:49

Berkeley Marina’s last full-time salmon fisherman is quitting the commercial fishing business after 25 years.

The Hudsons’ boat, the 40-foot Cash Flo II, is the only remaining full-time commercial salmon fishing operation berthed at the marina. Their business has no middlemen: Mike Hudson catches the fish himself and his wife sells them directly to consumers at Berkeley and El Cerrito farmers markets.  Commercial fishermen in California are scrambling to stay in business and remain productive. High operating costs and low supplies make it harder and harder to rely on fishing as a viable source of income. Over the past two decades, more than half of the commercial salmon fishermen in California have left the industry, according to a review of 2020 salmon fisheries from the Pacific Fishery Management Council. And the Hudsons will soon join them. >click to read< 07:45