Daily Archives: February 23, 2022
Busted: Coast Guard uncovers illegal halibut catch near Kodiak, Alaska
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Bailey Barco, homeported in Ketchikan, Alaska, boarded the 38-foot fishing vessel F/V Competition and discovered 18 halibut and one ling cod onboard that were retained while the season was closed. The crew seized the catch and issued violations for possession of halibut during a closed fishery, operating beyond 3 nautical miles with an expired EPIRB hydrostatic release, and not having a current commercial fishing vessel safety examination. >click to read< 19:24
Regulators hold off on requiring lobstermen to install electronic trackers on their boats
Regulators are holding off on a plan to require lobstermen to install electronic trackers on their boats. Members of the American Lobster Management Board Tuesday considered a raft of industry concerns about the technology’s purposes, its cost, and data-privacy, and then decided to take more time to evaluate the issues. “The lobster fishery is a difficult fishery to enforce rules in, because of the vast area we cover and the number of people,” said Steve Train, a lobsterman from Long Island, Maine, and a member of the regional board. >click to read< 17:05
‘These Waters Are Hot’: U.S. Auction Opens Up Offshore Wind Farm Rush
When the U.S. last auctioned big plots of ocean to companies that wanted to build offshore wind farms a few years ago, it raked in a then-record-setting haul of $405 million. That’s set to be obliterated Wednesday,,, “We expect high bids, potentially the highest on record.” While the Trump administration only held two lease sales for offshore wind areas in four years, President Joe Biden has said he wants enough offshore wind farms to power 10 million homes by 2030 and is planning six more auctions from California to the Carolinas. Not everyone is excited about the prospect of hundreds of new turbines,,, There’s also another potential problem with a record-setting sale: power prices. Since developers will eventually be passing on the costs of building the wind farms to the homeowners and businesses that buy the electricity they generate, bidding wars and high prices for the tracts of ocean could eventually boost the price of that power. >click to read< 13:58
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 40′ Novi Lobster/Scalloper, Cummins 60TA
To review specifications, information, with 13 photos, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:50
Keys commercial fisherman takes off rather than face inspection
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers Daniel Jones and Alex Piekenbrock were conducting vessel inspections at the Vaca Key Marina in Marathon last Thursday. They were waiting at the dock when Roberto Cabrera was pulling in on his commercial lobster boat. Capt. David Dipre, head of the FWC in the Keys, said when Cabrera, 37, saw the officers, he began pulling away from the dock. Dipre said Jones and Piekenbrick told Carbrera several times to stop the boat. He responded to them that he was turning his vessel so he could pull into his slip bow first. “Once the vessel cleared the slip, Cabrera slammed the throttle down and left the marina on plane,” >click to read< 10:37
Maine lawmakers vote against lobstering defense fund idea
A Maine legislative committee has voted against a proposal to create a legal defense fund to help the state’s lobster fishing industry fight new restrictions. The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Marine Resources voted against the idea on Tuesday. The fund would have been designed to help the industry challenge rules and regulations intended to protect the North Atlantic right whale. Republican Rep. William Faulkingham, a commercial lobsterman, proposed the idea. >click to read< 09:40
Government agrees to re-investigate dead crab and lobster after fishermen conduct their own probe
Earlier this month DEFRA announced that after extensive testing following the first reports of mass crab and lobster deaths around the Tees Estuary last autumn, they had traced the cause to toxic algae which had been dispersed naturally by a storm in October. A fishermen’s union called the North East Commercial Fishing Collective, which includes members of the Whitby Fishermen’s Association, had refused to accept the investigation’s outcome and crowdfunded a £5,000 fee to hire marine pollution consultant Tim Deere-Jones to independently analyse samples. >click to read< 08:46
F/V Villa de Pitanxo: Manuel Navarro to his sister, “Don’t tell dad, this is hell, a very big storm”
“Don’t tell dad or mom, but this is hell, a very big storm,” José Manuel Navarro, the biologist at Villa de Pintaxo, told his sister Mónica last Saturday in what was his last communication before the shipwreck of the fishing boat, which occurred on Tuesday. Desperate for the lack of news, José Navarro, the father of the scientist on board, and Mónica, the sister, have asked the Government through Canarian Television to mobilize media to that area of the Atlantic, opposite Newfoundland, to search for the remains of the fishing boat and the missing crew members. >click to read< 07:57
