Daily Archives: February 17, 2022
Booker, Blumenthal, Carper, Whitehouse Introduce Legislation to Protect North Atlantic Right Whale
U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced the Right Whale Coexistence Act, legislation that would establish a new grant program to fund collaborative research between government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and maritime industries to reduce human impacts on North Atlantic right whales. Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA-06) is introducing companion legislation in the House. The Right Whale Coexistence Act has been endorsed by the following businesses and organizations, listed here. (It’s quite a list!)>click to read< 16:37
Coast Guard Releases Results of Crab Pot Icing Study
Vessel icing, including the possibility of asymmetrical icing, was suggested as a causative factor in the F/V Scandies Rose loss of stability and, ultimately, its sinking. The Coast Guard has released the results of a study of ice accretion and ice accumulation on fishing pots, specifically crab/cod pots used in the Alaska/Bering Sea fishery. In December 2020, a Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation requested Coast Guard Research and 
Development Center (RDC) assistance for the study following icing factors involved in the loss of the fishing vessels Scandies Rose in 2019, and the F/V Destination in 2017. The MBI also noted the investigation into the 2017 loss of the Destination revealed that excessive icing directly contributed to the vessel loss of stability and rapid capsizing. >click to read< 14:46
Local Group invites Salmon Farm Developer to Engage in “Real Community Conversation”
Prospect Harbor, Maine – A local citizens’ group today delivered a letter to American Aquafarms inviting the company to participate in an open meeting to hear area residents ’concerns about the company’s proposal to build a massive industrial salmon farm in Frenchman Bay next to Acadia National Park. In their letter, Friends of Schoodic Peninsula called out the company for pledging months ago to meet with area residents but instead releasing a video recently of CEO Keith Decker and project manager Tom Brennan being interviewed by the company’s lawyer and calling it a “community conversation.” >click to read< 12:14
Bycatch task force works to refine mission ahead of November deadline
Bycatch is when fishing vessels catch something they’re not targeting. It could be tanner crab caught in a black cod pot, or halibut scooped up in a pollock trawl net. It’s been an incendiary issue in Alaska’s fisheries for decades. Now, as stocks of crab, salmon and halibut decline, trawl fisheries have come under fire for their role, which represents the vast majority of incidental catch in and around Alaska. The governor’s office took notice. Gov. Mike Dunleavy established a task force to review bycatch late last year with a deadline of November to submit its recommendations. But during that time, the Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force also has to establish its own priorities, break into subcommittees, and decide what it’s going to focus on before its mandate expires in just nine months. And there’s a lot of information to sort through already as it plays catch-up. >click to read< 11:01
F/V Villa De Pitano: ‘Please keep looking’, families beg as hunt for Spanish shipwreck crew ends
“We have to keep looking for the bodies, we can’t leave 12 people stranded in the sea,” said John Okutu, uncle of Edemon Okutu, one of the crew members from Ghana who is among the missing. “If Canada can’t keep on looking, the Spanish must go, that’s what the families want,” he told journalists in Marín in the northwestern region of Galicia where the vessel was based. Standing at his side, Kevin Franco, the son of Regelio Franco, one of the missing Peruvians, agreed. >click to read< 09:15
The problems our fisherman are facing
The first issue of concern is NOAA fishery surveys and the agency’s science that needs to be compared to independent fishing surveys and science. Presently, NOAA by law does not have to compare independent results before being added to the Magnuson – Stevens Act. The next issue is, we are losing our rich fishing grounds off of Cod Cape, and in Maine. We need to oppose ocean industrialization and compose a letter addressed to our local, state, and federal officials and our elected politicians, declaring our opposition. Looking at these problematic issues, it is easy to recognize that the loss of commercial fishermen, and fishing industry jobs and businesses will continue to evaporate and disappear, unless we take an offensive and unified stance. I suggest we consider implementing a U.S. Fish Bill. >click to read< By Sam Parisi, Gloucester, Mass 07:36
