The plan would launch the defense fund to help the lobster industry navigate the new rules, laws and regulations that are designed to protect a declining species of whale. Some members of the committee and the lobster industry balked at the idea, in part because it would redirect fees and surcharges the state currently uses to manage the lobster fishing industry. But Republican Rep. William Faulkingham, a commercial lobsterman himself and the sponsor of the bill to create the legal fund, said the industry will need money to win court challenges against new fishing restrictions. >click to read< 16:53
Monthly Archives: February 2022
CDFW Announces a Statewide Fleet Advisory for the Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is issuing a statewide fleet advisory for the commercial Dungeness crab fishery due to a recent humpback whale entanglement, approximately 5 miles west of Cypress Point near Monterey Bay (Fishing Zone 4). The entanglement was first reported in late January involving heavy line from unknown fishing gear and CDFW is encouraging the commercial fleet and all mariners to be on the lookout for any entangled whale in this area and across California waters. >click to read< 08:40
A Spanish fisherman’s life on the high seas: harsh, risky and badly paid
The tragedy, Spain’s worst fishing accident in nearly 40 years which claimed 21 lives and left only three survivors when their ship foundered in stormy waters off Newfoundland, has thrown into sharp relief the risks and harsh working conditions faced by fishermen. Often these deep-sea fishermen will spend months at sea, far from their families. “You’re away for so long: you go out to sea when your child’s just been born and when you come back, he’s already doing his first communion,” jokes Martínez as he takes a coffee at a bar popular with fishermen in Marín. He used to spend six-month stints at sea fishing for cod off Newfoundland but is currently not working after having a hernia operation. commercial fishing. >click to read< 14:04
Historic lifeboat from shipwrecked Maid of Lincoln rescued, restored, and needs a new home
A 137-year-old historic lifeboat rescued from the rafters of an old farm shed is now restored and in need of a public home. The lifeboat, which had hung in the shed’s rafters for decades, came from the Maid of Lincoln which was shipwrecked and sunk off Jurien Bay in the Mid West of Western Australia in 1891. It came to the attention of archaeologist Bob Sheppard who organised its rescue in March last year. Once it was safely removed from the rafters, Jurien Bay local Ron Snook took to lovingly restoring it. With the job now complete, the lifeboat is in need of a home. Video, >click to read< 12:53
N.S. MP Rick Perkins grilled federal fisheries minister over clawback of COVID-19 help paid to fishermen
Conservative fisheries critic Rick Perkins grilled Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray Thursday over her department’s clawback of COVID-19 assistance paid to thousands of fishermen, but the exchange may be more remembered for his “confrontational and aggressive” questions and interruptions than the answers. “Six years I’ve been a parliamentarian, I have never seen a more rude member of parliament to a witness. Ever,” said Dartmouth Liberal MP Darren Fisher. “He was extremely rude.” Perkins pressed Murray at the parliamentary fisheries committee meeting on DFO’s decision to claw back a fish harvester benefit. The benefit was paid to crew members across Canada who are paid a share of the catch. >click to read< 11:01
F/V Villa de Pitanxo: survivors en route to Canadian port of St. John’s
Three survivors from a Spanish fishing trawler that sank hundreds of miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, were en route to this port city on Thursday amid stormy conditions. The Spanish vessel F//V Playa de Menduiña II that is transporting those survivors and seven of the recovered bodies is expected to arrive in St. John’s, capital of Newfoundland and Labrador province, on Saturday, the port authority told Efe. The remains of two other recovered bodies are being transported by the Canadian vessel Nexus, which is expected to reach that same port city on Friday. >click to read< 09:14
FFAW “Shocked” by Federal Fisheries Minister’s Comments on Climate Change
The union says Minister Murray put forward her ideas and vision for the east coast fishery at the Canadian Independent Fish Harvesters Federation annual meeting. She outlined her goal to leave as many fish in the water as possible and to grow as much vegetation in the water as possible so that the Atlantic Ocean can better absorb carbon to combat climate change. She indicated that fish harvesters would have to accept the sacrifice as part of Canada’s commitment to fight climate change and noted that with technological advancements harvesters could change career paths and work remotely from their homes. >click to read< 08:29
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
Newfoundland: Search suspended for missing crew members of F/V Villa De Pitano
After a 36-hour search of the frigid North Atlantic waters, the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre and the Canadian Armed Forces have suspended their search for the missing crew members who were onboard the sunken Spanish fishing vessel. “This is the end of an active search,” said Lt.-Cmdr. Brian Owens, a spokesman for the Halifax Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre via Zoom. “All vessels, all aircraft that were participating in this search and rescue have been returned to home base. The 24-member crew included 16 members from Spain, five from Peru, and three from Ghan. They were fishing in international waters, some 460 kilometres east of St. John’s, N.L. >click to read< 19:01
Retired Commercial Fisherman Dale A. Dorsey of Newport Oregon has passed away
Dale A Dorsey was born in Oakland, CA on January 20th, 1945 to Dale and Josephine Dorsey. He died on February 6th, 2022 surrounded by and in the loving arms of the people that meant the most to him, his family. He started king crab fishing in Alaska for his Father-in-Law and moved his family back and forth from their home in Newport to their home in Unalaska based on his fishing schedule. His family did this for years, his goal was always to have his family close. He spent the next 30 years as crew or the Captain of King Crab Fishing Vessels, side by side with his father-in-law Clifford Hall, brother-in-law Stephen Hall, his son Timothy, many nephews, cousins, and for a short time his daughter Taunette. May he Rest in Peace. >click to read< 13:09
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 34′ H&H Lobster/Seiner/Tuna/Dive Boat
To review specifications, information, with 10 photos, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:54
Fishermen feeling the squeeze as Scotland’s seas become overcrowded
Fishers are being crowded out of their traditional grounds by a combination of renewable energy developments and “excessive” conservation measures, they said. These pressures may lead to vast areas of Scottish waters being closed off or subjected to severe restrictions, they warned. “Coastal communities currently reap the benefits of the seafood brought back by our sustainable, modern, family-owned fishing fleet. “Profits from offshore windfarms will disappear into the budgets of private, wealthy, multinational energy firms.” >click to read< 10:05
Mayor wants New Bedford voice on NEFMC
The last New Bedford voice on the council was John Quinn who left in 2021 and was replaced by Michael Pierdinock of Plymouth. Eric Hansen is looking to be the New Bedford voice on the council. “We’re the largest valued fishing port in the nation and to not have a voice on the council is just wrong,” Hansen said. Hansen has been a scallop fisherman, like his father and grandfather before him, for 44 years. He doesn’t go to sea anymore but his scallop vessel F/V Endeavor does and these days his son is at the wheel, serving as captain. >click to read< 09:12
Mourning in Galicia following the loss of a trawler off Newfoundland: ten dead and eleven missing
The Xunta of Galicia, the government of the northeast of Spain will declare a day of mourning in the region following the sinking of the trawler F/V Villa de Pitanxo off Newfoundland, with the loss of ten lives and another eleven who remain missing. The tragedy occurred on Tuesday in the midst of a North Atlantic storm, and despite a huge rescue effort only three out of 24 crew members managed to survive under hypothermal conditions. Search operations are ongoing. Marine resources include three fishing vessels, an offshore supply ship, a coast guard vessel, and a Canadian navy frigate. Air resources include three helicopters rotating in and out depending on crew and fuel needs, two Hercules aircraft, and one PAL aircraft. >click to read< 07:59
Search continues off N.L. coast for 11 missing crew members of Spanish fishing vessel – Lt.-Cmdr. Brian Owens of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax told CBC News on Wednesday morning the search and rescue effort is ongoing. >click to read<12:46
UPDATED: Spanish fishing boat sinks off Canada; 7 dead, 14 missing
A Spanish fishing boat sank early Tuesday in rough seas off Newfoundland,,, The 50-meter (164-feet) long fishing boat named F/V Villa de Pitanxo, which operates out of northwest Spain’s Galicia region, sank in the dark (around 0600 GMT, 1 a.m. EST), Survivors include vessel’s 53-year-old skipper and his 42-year-old nephew, according to La Voz de Galicia newspaper. The two men contacted their families by phone, A rescue center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, operated by Canada’s air force and coast guard, dispatched a helicopter, a Hercules-type aircraft and a rescue vessel to the area, which is 450 kilometers (280 miles) off the island of Newfoundland. >click to read< 14:49
While Chignik fishermen wait on 2018 relief funds, some look beyond the fishery to survive
Aloys Kopun sat in the small harbormaster’s office in Chignik Bay last July as a few boats gently bobbed in the harbor’s turquoise water. “When we were fishing like we normally fished here, the whole harbor was always plump full,” he said. “As you can see, now, we had hardly nobody in here. And everybody’s gone tendering or went to other areas to fish, or some of them went broke.” Kopun fished in Chignik, on the Alaska Peninsula, for decades before becoming the summer harbormaster. Significantly fewer boats have returned since the Chignik sockeye run failed in 2018. Fishermen who depend on the salmon closed out that season without making a paycheck. photos, >click to read< 12:02
East Hampton Trustees Will Embark On New Legal Fight For ‘Truck Beach’ Access
The Trustees on Monday night authorized one of their consulting attorneys, Daniel Spitzer, to work with an attorney representing commercial and recreational fishermen in preparing a new challenge to an injunction that has since June prohibited any vehicles from crossing onto the beach east of Napeague Lane in Amagansett. “There are 25,000 residents of your town and every one of them has the right to use that access,” Spitzer said during Monday night’s Trustees meeting, via Zoom. “If you look at it in a smaller class, there are 1,802 people with fishing licenses who are being deprived of the right to use those fishing licenses on property that was expressly reserved for fishing.” >click to read< 10:40
Search Underway for Crew of Spanish Fishing Trawler That Sank Off Newfoundland
International reports indicate a Spanish fishing trawler sank approximately 450 km off the east coast of Newfoundland in the early morning hours and a search is underway for the vessel’s crew. Spanish and American media are reporting that life rafts have been located and at least four people are dead. The Voice of Galicia is reporting that the Villa de Pitanxo, which sank shortly after midnight Newfoundland time, has a crew of 24, and while three survivors have been located, there are a number of fatalities. >click to read<
Several Dead As Spanish Fishing Boat Sinks Off Canada: Coastguard – Rescuers saved three crew members and were continuing to search for survivors after the Spanish fishing sank off Canada’s east coast. >click to read< 09:16
$4.2 million federal grant seeks to help Louisiana seafood processors recoup COVID losses
Louisiana will receive a $4.2 million federal grant to help seafood processors recover losses sustained during the ongoing COVID pandemic. It’s part of a $50 million allocation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to about two dozen coastal states announced Monday. The aid comes from a $2.3 trillion bipartisan bill approved by Congress and then President Donald Trump in December 2020. It combined $900 million in COVID stimulus money with $1.4 trillion to fund various federal agencies. The USDA has not detailed specifics about how the latest aid will be distributed to seafood processors. >click to read< 08:32
A Record Breaker!
The record for the value of fish landed in a single trip at one of England’s busiest fishing ports has been broken. The Enterprise caught the £87,353 haul during an eight-day trip out of Newlyn, Cornwall, last month. Skipper Nathan Marshall said “the stars were aligned” as they broke the previous port record by £11,000. The 43m (141ft) ship is the largest beam trawler in the port, and the newest having arrived in 2021. “Some hauls are better than others but on this trip they were just all good hauls, every single one of them.” >click to read<, More photos of the trip, Boom! Star ship Enterprise lands a record-breaking £87,353 trip. >click to read< 07:32
Maine: 2021 Lobster Harvest the Most Valuable in the History of the Fishery
According to recently updated data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, 2021 was the most valuable year in the history of Maine’s lobster fishery. At $724,949,426, the landed value for the iconic fishery jumped by 75 percent over 2020, by far the single largest increase in value, year over year. Of note, the increase in value from 2020 to 2021, $312,464,172, was more than the total landed value in 2009. “The Maine lobster industry remains a cornerstone of our states coastal economy and identity because of the uncompromising commitment to quality that follows every lobster, from trap to table,” said Governor Janet Mills. “I will continue to work tirelessly to support this vital Maine heritage industry.” >click to read< 17:09
Coast Guard rescues 4 from a life raft 69 miles west of St. Petersburg
A Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew rescued four survivors from a life raft Monday after their fishing vessel F/V Right Stuff sank 69 miles west of St. Petersburg. Rescued were: Matt Whites, 42, Heather Whites, 40, Nicole Mendez, 22, and Mickey Maguire, 26. The aircrew arrived on scene, hoisted the survivors aboard the aircraft and transported them to Air Station Clearwater where Emergency Medical Services personnel awaited. “This event highlights the importance of having proper survival gear and the thorough preparation by the crew of the vessel,” Video, >click to watch< 13″02
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for February 14, 2022
In last weeks newsletter I mentioned a call I received from a local angler and a comment he made during our conversation. The gentleman seemed to shrug off the fact that the NC Wildlife Federation has been lying about Southern Flounder management and told me I couldn’t deny the fact that we’ve failed to rebuild the southern flounder stock or that if we had let them all spawn once we’d all get what we want, which is to harvest more fish. I took this statement as a personal challenge as I believe both claims are absurd and easy to dispute So, let’s give it a try! >click to read< 10:27
Facebook to begin laying cable through fishing grounds off Nova Scotia
Installation of a transatlantic submarine telecommunications cable for tech giant Facebook on the seabed off southern Nova Scotia is set to begin as soon as this week. The Canadian portion of the route will take the cable through fishing grounds and the Fundian Channel, an area being considered for designation as a Marine Protected Area because of its deepsea corals and sponges. Fishing groups in Nova Scotia say their feedback was ignored, including a suggested routing that would avoid key fishing grounds. “The consultation here was largely non-existent,” said Kris Vascotto with the Atlantic Groundfish Council, which represents large fishing companies in the region. >click to read< 09:06
Meta to install controversial sea-floor cable – Canadian fishermen say Mark Zuckerberg’s company has gone over their heads It’s not clear who besides Meta will have access to the 3.8cm-wide (1.5-inches) fiber optic cable, or what they will have to pay the multi-billion-dollar company for the privilege of using it. >click to read<
F/V Winona J: Catching up with ‘Deadliest Catch Dungeon Cove’ crew
Captain Mike Retherford Jr. says he’s never been afraid for his life fishing off the Oregon Coast, but he’s witnessed some close calls in his lifetime of commercial fishing. Retherford, his family and crew were featured in the 2016 “Deadliest Catch” spin-off, “Dungeon Cove.” The F/V Winona J is just one of the vessels responsible for the Dungeness crab season’s record-breaking revenue. Video, photos, >click to read< 16:55
