Daily Archives: March 24, 2022
Wreck of a 190-year-old Massachusetts whaling ship Industry discovered in Gulf of Mexico
Roughly 15 years before Herman Melville introduced the world to Moby Dick, a whaling ship from Massachusetts sank near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Not much is left of the two-masted wooden brig thought to be Industry, a 65-foot-long (20-meter-long) whaler that foundered after a storm in 1836. An old news clipping found in a library shows its 15 or so crew members were rescued by another whaling ship and returned home to Westport, Massachusetts, said researcher Jim Delgado of SEARCH Inc. photos, >click to read< 21:40
10 fisheries in N.J. may have wrongly received millions in pandemic money
In its first report detailing the waste, fraud and abuse of the distribution of federal COVID funds, a state watchdog agency said nearly $2.4 million in CARES Act funding may have been improperly paid out to fisheries in New Jersey. The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC), which is tasked with tracking the distribution of federal COVID funding, said 10 marine fisheries in New Jersey received more money than they lost because of the pandemic in 2020. The state report did not name the fisheries that received the funds. >click to read< 19:08
Alabama Man Cited For Commercial Fishing Violations in Plaquemines Parish
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement Agents cited an Alabama man for alleged commercial fishing violations in Plaquemines Parish on March 17. Agents cited James R. Owens, 53, of Sumerdale, Alabama, for fishing without a commercial gear license and using shrimp trawls exceeding the size requirements in offshore Louisiana territorial waters. Agents were on a Joint Enforcement Agreement patrol in the Gulf of Mexico inspecting shrimp vessels for Turtle Excluder Device (TED) regulations. They boarded a vessel captained by Owens and found he did not possess commercial gear licenses for each of the four trawls he was actively using. >click to read< 16:00
North Atlantic Right Whales are the Next Victims of Offshore Wind Power Push
The endangered Atlantic Right Whale appears to be the wind industry’s next victim; it already has plenty of offshore industrial activity to contend with. But oil and gas extraction, international shipping, and commercial fishing have obvious embodied economic benefits. Whereas, the only economic benefit derived from wind power is the subsidies it attracts. No subsidies. No wind power. It’s that simple. If America’s crony capitalists get their way, it looks like curtains for the Atlantic Right Whale. Let’s cut to the reality of the proposed 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project, which aims to do just this: put dozens of offshore wind platforms smack in the middle of where endangered North Atlantic right whales congregate. >click to read< 13:15
Regulators say newer new Right whale rules are coming for Maine’s lobster fleet/fixed gear fisheries
Federal regulators said they will soon start a process to create new whale-protection rules for Maine’s lobster fleet that will go beyond the controversial regulations going into effect on May 1. Michael Pentony, the regional administrator for NOAA, spoke to an online meeting of the Maine Fishermen’s Forum today. He said that the initial rules were designed to reduce the risk to whales by 60%, but recent evidence shows that the agency must act more quickly than planned to reduce that risk even more. “But as we got new information late last fall… for the right whale population, we now know that we need a 90% risk reduction,” >click to read< 11:50
Deadliest Catch: Season 18 – The fight to stay in business
“Over the past 17 seasons, audiences have watched the legendary Deadliest Catch captains navigate treacherous seas, intense rivalries and even saw them fight to stay in business last year when the entire fishery almost shut down, but nothing could have prepared these captains for the loss of fishing the lucrative red king crab. For the first time in 25 years, the Alaskan government shut down red king crab catching for the season. Facing financial ruin, each captain is forced to start over and search the Bering Sea for a new way to make a living. Are these captains up for the challenge? Or will they pack up and head home empty handed? Trailer, >click to read< 10:51
Call for tearing out lower Snake River dams gaining support in D.C. and WA state
For more than two decades Eastern Washington residents have heard proposals to tear out the lower Snake River dams, but only recently has the idea gotten bipartisan support in the nation’s capital, said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.,,, In the Puget Sound, he said he sees signs scattered along roadways with an X through the words “Snake River Dams.” That support from people who don’t understand what the dams mean to Eastern Washington is coupled with growing Congressional support and interest from the Biden administration, he said. Because the dams are federal infrastructure, their future is a federal issue. >click to read< 09:40
A Last Stand for Texas Oyster Fishermen
People often ask if Frances and Johny Jurisich had an arranged marriage, the couple jokes. Both come from oyster fishing families that immigrated from the same small village in Croatia to Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, then west to Texas. In fact, Frances’ father, Misho Ivic, is Johny’s godfather, and the shucking house that Frances’ mother, Franka Ivic, founded in the unincorporated Galveston County area of San Leon is just 12 miles from the Jurisich dock in Texas City. The couple started dating in high school. They married in 2004 and today have three children. On the Jurisich side, Johny is part of the fourth generation to go into oyster fishing. He hopes his 5-year-old son will carry the tradition into a fifth generation. Their 15-year-old daughter has a good head for business, Frances said, and may also go into oysters, but only if the business stays profitable. It may well not. >click to read< 08:32
