Daily Archives: November 16, 2021
Coast Guard urges safety, preparedness for the 2021-2022 Dungeness crab season in NorCal
The Coast Guard urges commercial fishermen throughout Northern California to review their safety equipment and seek out Coast Guard dockside examinations to identify safety hazards in order to prevent maritime emergencies during the Dungeness crab season. California Coast Guard personnel conducted dockside exams and safety spot-checks last week to identify discrepancies aboard fishing boats prior to the Dungeness crab season from Crescent City to Monterey. The checks are part of the Coast Guard’s Operation Safe Crab, which is an annual outreach initiative aimed to reduce the loss of lives and fishing boats in the West Coast crab fleet. photos, >click to read< 19:43
Maine lobstermen appeal to the public to fund legal fight against federal regulations
Without the financial means to fight both the government and environmental activists, lobstermen said their very existence is at stake. Lobstermen speaking at the press conference (today) said they feared the offshore regulations currently proposed would creep inshore, where most of them fish, eventually choking off their livelihoods. They also stressed how much money their industry brings into the state and how it supports communities beyond fishermen. According to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, Maine’s 2020 lobster catch was worth $406 million. That was down from $491 million in 2019. “That’s why we need everyone to step up and help us save the fishery,” photos, >click to read< 17:59
Coast Guard retrieve 5 fishermen from life raft after fishing vessel sinks off Oregon coast
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued five people from a life raft late Monday after a fishing boat sank approximately 20 miles offshore from the mouth of the Umpqua River. The captain aboard the 67-foot fishing vessel F/V Desire, homeported in Neah Bay, Washington, used a VHF-FM marine-band radio to hail Coast Guard Sector North Bend watchstanders at about 9 p.m. Monday and report their vessel was taking on water. He also reported the five people aboard were preparing to abandon ship into a life raft. >click to read< 16:28
California officials vie to improve response after oil spill
California officials on Monday said better communication and detection technologies could improve the state’s response to an oil spill like last month’s crude pipeline leak off the Orange County coast. The hearing came six weeks after the leak in a pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp. that ferried crude from offshore platforms to the Southern California coast. The cause of the spill is under investigation, but federal officials have said the pipeline was likely initially damaged by a ship’s anchor. >click to read< 15:25 Of note, more than 645 square miles (1,671 square kilometers) off the coast are still off limits to fishing pending testing.
Overwhelming Majority Approve 6 Month Moratorium in Gouldsboro on Large Finfish Aquaculture Proposals
The moratorium gives the Planning Board time to shore up its ordinances to address projects as large as the 120-acre salmon farm proposed by American Aquafarms, which is largely made up of Norwegian investors. Veteran lobster fisherman Jerry Potter said that although this vote does not kill the project, it does send a strong message to the company that the majority of residents do not back the salmon farm project. American Aquafarms has said it needs the support of the community. “I have been opposed to this project since the first time I heard about it,” said Potter, 75, who has been fishing in Frenchman Bay since he was a teenager. >click to read< 11:59
‘In the Eye of the Storm’: McConalogue Presents Memo on Seafood Task Force Report to Cabinet
The task force report, published in early October, is recommending just over €423 million be given to the Irish fishing industry to help weather the impact of Brexit. Highlights include awarding €66 million for a whitefish decommissioning scheme, €6 million to reduce the inshore fleet, and €3.7 million to remove inactive or off-register inshore vessels. It also recommends €90 million for seafood processors, and a series of short term measures, including a €12 million annual tie-up of polyvalent vessels over two years. >click to read< 09:55
Watermen tackle offshore wind farm development concerns, company pushes (subsidized) economic benefit
“I just want to be able to go fishing.” Those were fisherman Jimmy Hahn’s words as he is one of many who are concerned about U.S. Wind offshore wind developments. Now with political leaders on their side, watermen hope to see some change moving forward. “Those guys have really stepped up to the plate. “People who buy electricity in the state are paying an extra amount in order to subsidize the windmills. That means that someone should stand up for these taxpayers. If we’re going to spend taxpayer dollars to build these windmills and subsidize them there should be proper oversight,” Representative Harris said. Another concern that came up Wednesday by waterman and Congressman Harris was the possibility of U.S. Wind not being an actual U.S. based company. >click to read< 09:03
FBI papers: The voyage of the Valhalla and its ties to Whitey Bulger and the IRA
The F/V Valhalla left Gloucester harbor in September of 1984 carrying 7 tons of weapons worth $1 million destined for the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland, according to the book “Black Mass.” The Valhalla met up with the Irish fishing boat Marita Ann to transfer the guns and turned back to Boston. The Marita Ann was quickly seized and the Valhalla was discovered in Boston Harbor two weeks later following McIntyre’s arrest when he confessed to being on the boat. An investigator who pieced together Valhalla’s route from “spare slips of paper tossed in the trash” said he recently watched the movie “Black Mass” and finally put together all the deceit and death. “At that time, corruption in a number of federal agencies based in Boston was rampant,”,,, photos, Part 2, >click to read< – FBI file on Boston serial killer James ‘Whitey’ Bulger declassified: photos, Part 1 >click to read< 07:04
