Daily Archives: March 9, 2022
Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Murder Aboard Commercial Scallop Boat
Franklin Freddy Meave Vazquez, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of murder in the second degree, one count of attempted murder, and one count of assault with a dangerous weapon. U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs scheduled sentencing for June 28, 2022. Meave Vazquez was indicted in November 2018. On Sept. 23, 2018, the scalloping vessel, F/V Captain Billy Haver, was sailing approximately 55 miles off the coast of Nantucket with seven crew members aboard, including Meave Vazquez and the three victims. Inside the shucking house, Meave Vazquez used a hammer to strike Victim A hard in the head into unconsciousness. Meave Vazquez then walked out onto the deck,,, >click to read< 22:17
Lobster fisherman from Ukraine now living in Meteghan, returning home to help family
When the war in Ukraine first broke out, Lex Brukovskiy immediately thought about his mother in the city of Lviv, more than 6,400 kilometres from his home in Meteghan, a small fishing village on Nova Scotia’s St. Marys Bay. The 38-year-old has decided to return to his native land in an effort to help his family and the growing number of refugees entering from Ukraine into Poland. Brukovskiy has no idea how long he will be away from his home in 
Meteghan, where his two teenage boys live. He is a lobster boat captain and is leaving in the middle of the lucrative lobster season in southwestern Nova Scotia. Brukovskiy has now hired a temporary captain to operate his boat for the remaining three months of the season and his crew will remain employed. >click to read< 19:41
Crab crash: Effects of collapsed Bering Sea crab stocks are being felt far beyond the fleet
The crash in Bering Sea crab stocks is translating to serious impacts for fishermen and communities across the Western Alaska coast. From the top, the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery is closed entirely this season for the first time since the 1990s, while the Bering Sea snow crab total allowable catch was reduced by nearly 90 percent. In the meantime, fishermen who depend on crab are dealing with the fallout of those cuts this year. Gabriel Prout of Kodiak was waiting out a storm in the Akutan harbor last week, after finishing up his snow crab season. The F/V Silver Spray, the vessel he owns with his father and brothers, was only able to go out for 100,000 pounds of snow crab. Of that, they only caught about 75,000 pounds because the fishing was so slow; they traded the rest of the quota for bairdi and headed south. >click to read< 17:39
Us against Them
I’ve been commercial fishing since I was 17 and I’m 51 now and I’ve been forced out of several fisheries due to regulations, permits and closures. I would like to make an observation, every time I visit this group, I read several posts about someone else about to lose their livelihood and a part of their soul to another regulation or closure by people who we don’t know and, on most occasions, never even see. Do any of you really think this is the natural way of things or maybe this is planned out? >click to read< 15:42, By Gunner Gause
North Carolina Sports target commercial fisheries – example #3 in 2022
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 68′ Steel Longliner, 500HP Cummins, with Federal Permits
To review specifications, information, and 7 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 12:02
Maine Right whale advocates say they feel sidelined by the powerful lobster industry
As Maine’s lobstermen fight national conservation groups over federal gear rules and fishery closures intended to protect endangered whales, they have found fierce allies among the state’s political leaders. That’s left some local advocates for the whales feeling sidelined by the powerful industry. A few weeks ago, lobstermen joined lawmakers to support a bill that would give nearly a million dollars directly to the industry for its legal battles over whale protection measures. None of Maine’s more well-known conservation groups weighed in, but a handful of local advocates for the planet’s estimated 340 North Atlantic right whales testified against it. >click to read< 10:38
Talley’s subsidiary found guilty of bottom trawling in conservation area
Convictions for bottom trawling in a protected area of the Tasman Sea should send a strong message to the fishing industry, says the Ministry for Primary Industries. Judge David Ruth in the Nelson District Court found Talley’s subsidiary Amaltal Fishing Co breached the conditions of its high seas fishing permit when its vessel, Amaltal Apollo, trawled in a protected area. Both Amaltal Fishing Co and the then-master of the vessel, Charles Shuttleworth, were found guilty on 14 charges. A date has not yet been set for sentencing. >click to read< 10:02
From Sandy Hook to Cape May, rising gas/diesel prices impact the marine industry
California: 3 commercial fishermen rescued off Sonoma Coast by fellow crabbers
Three commercial crabbers whose boat went down several miles off the Sonoma Coast were rescued late Tuesday afternoon through a combination of close communication and sheer luck. The crew of the Susan E already was in the water, clutching floating debris, when another fishing crew arrived, drawn by their frantic calls, and was able to pull them from the ocean in time. “It was f–king scary,” said Kyle Alexander, a deckhand on the 40-foot Argo, which had been harvesting crab from the Timber Cove area earlier in the day and was the only boat coming into Bodega Bay behind the Susan E from up north. “To see my friends floating next to a boat that was going down…” >click to read< 08:15
