Daily Archives: November 21, 2021

For B.C.’s salmon, floods represent another challenge to survival

James Reinheller stared down his flooded street in Clayburn on Monday, he said he saw a bizarre sight: a salmon making its way up the water-logged road.  “It was quite the sight to see. You just don’t expect to see salmon swimming up your road.” But the damage from what Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth called a “once in a century” storm could be another stressor for salmon on B.C.’s South Coast after decades of fishing, habitat destruction and development that have sent salmon stocks spiraling into decline, >click to read< 18:12

Deck Boss offers relief for hard-working hands and joints

Blue Hill company Downeast Maine LLC developed the new product line this year, testing its pain balm, recovery stick and hand scrub with commercial fishermen in mind. “After hauling through 800 lobster traps twice a week, I was left with incredibly swollen hands to start the season. Ice nor heat would make me feel comfortable,” Blue Hill sternman Blake Wessel said. “After a few applications the swelling started to recede, and I could get through the day adequately. Deck Boss is the real deal.” Wessel was talking about Deck Boss Pain Balm, which is infused with CBD, the hemp extract whose proponents claim a wide range of health and wellness benefits. Pain relief is a major one. >click to read< 15:01

Dunleavy administration announces formation of bycatch task force

“We’ve had a reduction in or closure of the crab fisheries in the Bering Sea. The [North Pacific Fishery Management] Council is discussing how to deal with halibut bycatch, and I think there’s a lot of perception that there are bycatch issues associated with what’s happened with salmon in Western Alaska systems,” said Alaska Fish & Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang. And, he says, his boss has taken notice. “I think the governor was hearing loud and clear that there was just a lot of noise around the issue of bycatch,” >click to read< 12:52

A “shot across the bow”: Shrimp trawl decision was a close call for consumers

After two days of public hearings during which few participants voiced any support for the proposed closures, the commission voted 5-4 to include an additional 10,000 acres to the existing 1 million acres already closed to shrimp trawling. Ostensibly the proposed closure, had it been approved, would have shut down approximately 119 small independent commercial shrimpers whose vessels, ranging 35-50 feet in length, are too small to trawl in the open ocean. But, as the large number of speakers noted during the Marine Fisheries Commission meeting noted, the closure would have far greater impact. >click to read< 09:19

Sussex RNLI remember F/V Joanna C tragedy on first anniversary

38-year-old Robert Morley and 26-year-old Adam Harper drowned when their boat sank on the 21st of November 2020. The captain of the boat, Dave Bickerstaff, was pulled from the water after he was found clinging to a lifebuoy. The 45ft scalloping boat put out an emergency distress beacon at around 6am, with two RNLI lifeboats and a helicopter joining the search, which at one point involved 17 vessels and was one of the largest ever undertaken on the Newhaven coast. photos, >click to read<08:11