Daily Archives: December 27, 2021
Örfirisey’s skipper Thór Thórarinsson ending a successful 50-year career at sea.
Brim’s freezer trawler Örfirisey docked in Reykjavík before Christmas after a good trip on fishing grounds to the south and west of Iceland and off the Westfjords. This was the final trip for Örfirisey’s skipper Thór Thórarinsson, ending a successful 50-year career at sea. Of this time, he has been on Örfirisey for around thirty years, since the trawler came to Iceland in 1992 from its previous owners in the Faroe Islands. >click to read< 22:35
Lobster fishing being threatened
Commercial fishing, in particular, lobster fishing is an integral part of our local community and the economy of our state. This way of life is being threatened by new burdensome federal regulations. Over time, this will drive many fishermen out of business and forever change the character of the Maine lobster industry and our community. These regulations are championed as a way to help protect the North Atlantic right whale but will fail to do so. We have to fight back against this regulatory onslaught. >click to read< by Troy Plummer and Mark Jones, and please click and donate to www.savemainelobstermen.org, if you can!
Letter: Offshore wind
A lot of important information was omitted from a recent article touting Massachusetts’ commitment to 1600 megawatts of offshore wind turbines (“Bay State Windfall” 12/19/2021). The article failed to mention that the turbines won’t come close to generating 1600 MW day-to-day over a year’s time, falling about 55% short. Or that European experience shows that the winds can stop for up to a week’s time, meaning that the wind turbines cannot replace a single megawatt of conventional power. >click to read<, By Robert Pease 12:57
4 years later, the 4 large fish farms planned for Maine haven’t started construction
This year will be remembered in Maine, at least in part, as when interest in developing four large-scale fish farms on the state’s eastern coastline continued to intensify. It also will be remembered by some as yet another year during which, nearly four years since plans for the first proposal were announced, none of the four separate projects began construction. The projects are at various stages of the permitting process, with some being fully approved and others not yet having any permits. All have shied away from announcing specific timetables for when they hope to start to build. Nordic Aquafarms, Kingfish Maine, American Aquafarms, and Whole Oceans, >click to read< 10:39
Lest We Forget: The USCG Lifeboat Triumph-F/V Mermaid tragedy 60 years ago
At approximately 4:15 p.m., on Thursday, Jan. 12, 1961, Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia River, received a radio call from Roy Gunnari, skipper of the fishing vessel Jana Jo. Gunnari advised that he was relaying a mayday call from the fishing vessel Mermaid, a 34-foot crab-fishing boat from Ilwaco, Wash., owned and operated by brothers Bert and Stanley Bergman. While approaching the mouth of the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean, the Mermaid lost its rudder near treacherous Peacock Spit. Photos, >click to read< 08:41
UK: Fishing industry promised ‘bright future’ with £75m funding boost
The funding, which will be used to modernise UK ports and processing facilities, has been welcomed by industry bodies who have faced challenges in the sector following Brexit. Announcing the funding, the UK Government said it would go towards better infrastructure, strengthened supply chains, new jobs, and an investment in skills. The move will see £65m go to modernising ports and harbours, while £10m will encourage new entrants into the sector, and train and upskill those already working in it. >click to read< 07:47
