Monthly Archives: April 2022
‘Expensive lobster is good for everyone in N.S.’: Winners and losers as prices of crustaceans skyrocket
Unless you buy it regularly, you may not have noticed lobster prices have quietly skyrocketed over the last couple of years. “Also, people had some more disposable income because the government programs, whether it be Canada, the U.S. or elsewhere, and I think everything has led to an uptick in prices, and the markets have remained strong.” Restaurant demand has now recovered, Berry says, but retail has remained strong and international demand has exploded. Wharf prices now are said to be nearly five times what they were during a slump at the start of the pandemic. Video, >click to read< 09:10
The fisherman and the entrepreneur: How Canadians are helping in Ukraine
One is a Nova Scotia lobster fisherman who delivers supplies to frontline towns. The other is an entrepreneur from Toronto who enlisted in Ukraine’s foreign legion. Lex Brukovskiy and Igor Volzhanin might have different roles, but they are among many Canadians helping Ukraine respond to the Russian invasion. Canadians have been evacuating civilians from areas under Russian attack, housing refugees and keeping hospitals stocked with medicines. They have also been serving in Ukraine’s armed forces, both in combat roles and, like Volzhanin, as administrators. In downtown Lviv, a 34-
year-old Canadian stood outside the national opera house wearing a camouflage jacket and an army green toque. “I was actually, in a way, pleasantly surprised that so many Canadians have come here,” to join the international legion, Volzhanin said. “They’ve come from all over Canada.” >click to read< 07:45
Reflections on herring fishing then and now
Scandinavians are known for their fondness for pickled herring. You’d think that they’d be excited about the herring fishing in the Kodiak archipelago this past week. I know of several Scandinavian fishermen who are on the grounds, but it’s the roe (eggs) they’re after. Japanese buyers have been known to pay top dollar for these delicacies. However, fisherman Luke Lester, skipper of the F/V Crimson Beauty, said that the market for roe has been declining because the upcoming generations in Japan and other Asian countries haven’t acquired the taste for roe that their ancestors had. On the other hand, there’s a demand for the herring itself in European countries. But with rising costs in fuel and other expenses, the cost in shipping the valued fish to those markets is astronomical, Luke said. Back in the early 1980s,,, >click to read< 14:06 Mike Rostad
R.I. Truckers Back $46 Million Plan to Upgrade Commercial Fishing Port
The Rhode Island Trucking Association backs the governor’s request to invest $46 million to add decades to the life of a major East Coast commercial fishing hub in the Port of Galilee while improving freight movements. The port, operated by the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM), occupies 38 acres in the town of Narragansett. It has two port terminals, 240 commercial fishing boats and 40 docks and piers. Businesses that support the commercial fisheries there include seafood dealers, fish processors, fuel, ice supplies, fishing gear and truck transportation. >click to read< 13:02
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for April 11, 2022
A recent study conducted by researchers at LSU shows that Southern Flounder Stocks have declined throughout their entire range from North Carolina to Texas. The study was triggered by dramatic declines in the number of Southern Flounder in Louisiana waters. In 2017, Louisiana’s recreational Southern Flounder harvest declined to a mere 124,000 pounds, down from a high of 624,000 pounds in 2013. The findings of the LSU study fly directly in the face of claims made by the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) of NC and the NC Wildlife Federation (NCWF), who suggests that decline of Southern Flounder is solely a NC issue caused by commercial fishing, specifically gillnetting. >Click here to read the Weekly Update<, to read all the updates >click here<, for older updates listed as NCFA >click here<
‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat’ – monster 6ft cod landed in seaside town
A record-breaking monster cod has been snapped up by punters in a British seaside town. The humongous sea creature weighs a whopping 112lbs (51 kg) and measures almost 6ft (180cm) tall. It was pulled off the coast of Iceland in by fishermen aboard the trawler Bergey and landed on Monday (April 4) in Grimsby, Lincs. The cod, which is believed to be the largest ever hooked in the North Atlantic, and could be 20 years old, was line caught in deep water off Iceland’s North-West coast. >click to read< 09:06
‘Our lobsters are gold plated now:’ Atlantic Canada lobster exports, prices soar
“Our lobsters are gold-plated now. Prices have been the highest in commercial history,” says Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster Co. Ltd, a live lobster exporter on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore. When the pandemic hit, export and restaurant industry demand plummeted. The shore price of lobster, the amount fishers get at the wharf from buyers, sunk as low as $4 a pound. “There was an initial glut of lobsters on the market at the start of the lockdown but then it spun back the other way,” says Colin Sproul, president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association. >click to read< 16:47
Federal court dismisses DFO appeal of ruling in fisherman’s licence fight
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Fisheries and Oceans Canada against a federal court judgment involving a lobster fisherman’s charter rights on Friday. Parkers Cove lobster fisherman Dana Robinson, 60, has a disability that limits his ability to stand on a boat for long periods of time. He was operating his boat in the Bay of Fundy under a DFO provision that allows fishermen to designate a substitute operator once they provide adequate medical proof of their condition. The provision only allows the substitution for five years. An extension was denied in 2019. >click to read< 11:42
DA Settles Ventura Harbor Hazmat Suit Against Squid Boat Captain
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office has settled a lawsuit with the captain of a commercial squid fishing boat for illegal dumping of hazardous waste in the ocean outside of Ventura Harbor. The DA’s office says that on June 4th last year a State Fish and Wildlife warden saw the squid boat F/V Sea Venture dump squid wastewater into the ocean. The Captain of the F/V Sea Venture is 54-year-old Peter Joseph Ancich of Rancho Palos Verdes. >click to read< 11:04
One of Yorkshire’s last distant water fishermen, Charlie Waddy, retires after half a century at sea
The first mate of Hull’s Kirkella, Charlie, 63, the face of the fight to save what is the UK’s last distant water trawler, has retired, following his final trip fishing for cod off Svalbard. Kirkella’s precious haul, 650 tonnes of fillets, is now heading to fish and chips shops across the land. “It was absolutely atrocious, minus 20C, hurricane winds, icebergs,” said Charlie. Over the weekend hundreds of pals from the many trawlers he has served on – from Germany, Iceland and Denmark too – beat a path to Hull to celebrate the “final settling”. Video, photos, >click to read< 09:37
Kirkella: Take a behind the scenes tour of Hull’s last distant water fishing trawler as it returns to port – The vessel, which returned to port on April 2, is the city’s last distant water trawler, working the Arctic cod grounds and a reminder of better times for the Humber’s fishing industry. >click to read<
Hundreds rally in Plymouth to prevent nuclear wastewater dumping into Cape Cod Bay
A rally against the proposal by Holtec International, the company that acquired the decommissioned Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, was held Saturday afternoon at Plymouth Town Wharf. A spokesperson for Holtec said the company is considering other options to dispose of the nuclear wastewater aside from dumping it into Cape Cod Bay. Those options include evaporating the contaminated water or trucking it to an out-of-state facility. “We have 60 full-time commercial lobstermen here. We have the oyster farms and everything. There’s just too much at stake,” said Tom O’Reilly, owner of the lobster fishing vessel “Karen M.” >click to read< 08:22
High lobster prices push fishermen to take risk, the Captain of an all-female crew pushes for change
The F/V Nellie Row was making her return to Lunenburg, N.S., after a long night at sea, loaded with another haul of lobster, when captain Gail Atkinson lost sight of one of her crew members. When that happens, a fisherman’s mind instantly goes to dark places – out here, off the southern coast of Nova Scotia, a novice deckhand can easily be knocked off their feet, swept overboard and swallowed up by the endless black sea. Ms. Atkinson, skipper of Canada’s only all-female lobster crew, didn’t know her new employee had just gone up on top of the boat’s wheelhouse to get the docking lines ready. “I just freaked out and lost my mind,” she said. “On my boat, I need to know where everyone is at all times. I told her, ‘I’m 57 years old. You almost killed me right now.’” Commercial fishing has always been dangerous work,,, >click to read< 17:02
Aspin Kemp unveiled new diesel-electric hybrid lobster boat model earlier this month
The federal government is giving Aspin Kemp & Associates $340,000 for the further development of a hybrid lobster fishing boat. The Montague-based engineering firm showcased its new diesel-electric hybrid model for the first time earlier this month at a boat show in Moncton. The vessel is designed for inshore lobster fishery. Aspin said the bigger boats often have requirements unique to each vessel that ultimately end up driving up costs. But the company is striving to “totally standardize” things for the lobster boats, which would help lower the price. Aspin Kemp has also been working with another company on a retrofit solution so that older boats can also get the hybrid system installed. >click to read< 13:57
Blessing of the Fleet: Boat blessings return to Terrebonne and Lafourche
After Dulac was ravaged by Hurricane Ida, this year’s shrimp boat blessing holds a special place for the Rev. Antonio Speedy of Holy Family Catholic Church. “Hurricane Ida has turned our community upside down,” he said. “It’s not the first time the people here have been through a hurricane, but this one was different from the rest. Many people have been left homeless, and the fishing season has started off slowly. There was debris all over the water.” After months of recovery, Speedy said blessing shrimp boats was the last thing on his mind. But as April approached, he began getting requests for the annual tradition. Photo gallery, >click to read< 12:24
Wrangell fisherman among the nearly 50 candidates vying to fill Alaska’s Congressional seat
64-year-old Wrangell fisherman Otto Florschutz was up in Kodiak with his grandkids when Congressman Don Young died. Of the nearly 50 Alaskans vying to fill the state’s House of Representatives seat, only one hails from the small Southeast community of Wrangell. Commercial fisherman Otto “Ottie” Florschutz says he figures it’s the people’s seat, so why shouldn’t a small-town commercial fisherman run for Congress? He says he knows it’s a stacked field vying to fill Alaska’s sole seat in the House of Representatives, and that getting his name out will be pretty hard. Made harder because he usually goes by his nickname. “My name is Otto, but most people know me as Ottie,” Florschutz explains, “And in the commercial fishing industry, it’s Ottie on the Adeline, they don’t even know my last name, so here I am, I’ve got an unrecognizable first name and a nickname.” >click to read< 10:42
Quebec crabbers angry at DFO
Quebec crabbers who frequent the southern Gulf fishing areas, including large area 12, planned to leave during the weekend. Everyone was ready, on the Islands as in the Gaspé, assure with one voice the president of the Association of Gaspesian crabbers, Daniel Desbois, and Paul Boudreau, representative of the traditional crabbers of the Islands. The factories too, adds the director of the Quebec Association of the fishing industry, Jean-Paul Gagné. According to Paul Boudreau, Fisheries and Oceans informed them that the Coast Guard was not ready and that there was still ice in the gulf. The crabbers and processors of Quebec, who are campaigning for an early opening of the fishery in the spring to avoid interactions with the right whale, are outraged. >click to read< 09:17
Blood pressure surging, waves swelling, Coast Guard airlifts F/V Captain John fisherman
A commercial scallop fisherman facing a medical emergency was safely airlifted from a vessel by the U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday evening. The rescue was made even more daring by the fact that the wind was blowing 35 knots and the waves were seven to 12 feet high, according to statements the boat’s crew made to the Press. The fisherman, Chris Vanbergen, 46 of Lacey, told the Asbury Park Press on Friday that he was feeling better a couple days after the ordeal. He was a few days into a 10-day scallop trip on board the F/V Captain John, which docks at Viking Village here, when he began to fill chest pain and his blood pressure rise. >click to read< 08:01
Scottish fishing chief blasts latest Good Fish Guide as ‘blatantly anti-fishing’
Jimmy Buchan has branded a prominent marine preservation group as a “blatantly anti-fishing organisation” after it urged consumers to stop buying crab and lobster landed in the north-east. It is its latest Good Fish Guide, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) found that Shetland brown crab was the only “best choice” option in the UK. Now Scottish seafood processors have launched a scathing attack on the charity over misleading advice given in its latest guide to sustainable fisheries. >click to read< 17:49
SmartNet Technology Under Development in Yarmouth
“The goal is to give the fishermen a better tool to assist catching fish, that is more efficient and is also aligning with what DFO wants to do with environmental issues with gear that is sustainable and that can achieve those goals well,” said SmartNet Technology Marc d’Entremont, founder and CEO of Katchi Technology in Yarmouth. The idea behind the SmartNet technology is that it eliminates the use of traditional trawl doors and uses a set of hydrodynamic blocks to open and fly the net at different levels in the water column, lessening the impact to the seabed floor and the ecosystem and enabling more selective fishing. >click to read< 15:33
Online Event: Have your say on the fuel crisis!
This event will present an overview of the current fuel crisis from a number of perspectives and look to the future of fuel in the industry. Fuel prices are currently presenting a major challenge to the viability of the UK fishing fleet. The price of diesel and other fuels has risen considerably in recent months, meaning that many vessels are considering the feasibility of a range of strategies to remain profitable. The All Part Parliamentary Groupon Fishing event will present an overview of the current crisis from a number of perspectives, to include suggestions for how support from the government or other bodies could help the sector. >click to read and sign up to the event< 13:38
California takes step toward first offshore wind farm
The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to pave the way for the West Coast’s first offshore wind farm that if ultimately approved and built would occupy roughly 206 square miles of ocean about 20 miles west of the town of Eureka, Calif. “This is truly historic,” said commission chair Donne Brownsey just before the unanimous vote was taken. Not everyone agrees. Specifically, commercial fishermen said the waters off of Eureka are some of the most valuable on the entire West Coast and cordoning more than 200 square miles will have a dramatic impact on their business. >click to read< 11:44
ODFW releases first-of-its-kind crab fishery plan
The Oregon Dungeness Crab Fishery Management Plan is a 177-page document released last week by ODFW, which spent the last four years developing it to be the most comprehensive catalog of Oregon’s ocean commercial, bay commercial and recreational crab fisheries to date. It includes overviews of the fishery’s history, regulation, sustainability and more. “The purpose of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Fishery Management Plan (FMP) is to provide management transparency and facilitate good governance,” a statement accompanying the plan’s release reads. >click to read< 10:18
NTSB: Hot Work Failures Led to Fire on Aleutian Falcon
The fire was reported on the commercial fish processor Aleutian Falcon on Feb. 17, 2021 while the vessel was docked for repairs at a shipyard in Tacoma, Washington. The Tacoma Fire Department responded and extinguished the fire four days later. No one was on board the vessel at the time of the fire, and there were no injuries reported. An estimated 20-30 gallons of hydraulic oil leaked into the water but were captured by a containment boom. The vessel was declared a total loss with an estimated value of nearly $16.5 million. >click to read< 09:38
Scarborough crab boat owner backs call for gas to be extracted from North Sea
A Scarborough crab boat owner says gas in two fields off the North Yorkshire coast needs to be extracted to prevent the country being “dependent on everyone else”. The Resolution gas discovery was an early North Sea discovery made by Total in 1966 and extracted from North Sea of The Well Dressed Crab Company, said he could remember seeing its rig off the coast in the 1980s. Mr Roberts said: “It’s not only about fishing, the population is an interested party too. “I’m part of UK PLC and I want to know where gas is coming from. “There will be people opposed to it but they will be the same people who expect to go home and turn on the gas boilers and expect to put a pan of stew on the stove.” >click to read< 08:05
Port Royal ousting old shrimp boats from dock.
Port Royal is moving ahead with a plan to demolish the town-owned dock,,, “I think we all want to see a working waterfront,” Town Manager Van Willis says of the effort. “We’re hoping with a new dock and state-of-art processing facility we’ll become a location to offload.” Owners of the old boats tied up at the dock have been given until April 15 to move. The town, however, will be responsible for moving abandoned boats or those that have sunk. Most of the boats never leave the dock. “Unfortunately, almost every single one doesn’t actually shrimp,” Willis says of the shrimp boats, some of them barely seaworthy, that are tied to an equally dilapidated dock. >click to read< 16:33
Minister Murray Shirks Responsibility in Setting Gulf Shrimp Quotas
A group representing Indigenous shrimp harvesters as well as shrimp harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and New Brunswick are calling on the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to set a total allowable catch (TAC) for the 2022 gulf shrimp fishery. This coalition, which represents approximately 100 shrimp enterprises employing over 500 harvesters and thousands of plant workers in Atlantic Canada, says there is no excuse for interim quotas set by Minister Joyce Murray and the delayed decision is a financial threat to their sustainability, and in many cases, their business’s survival. >click to read< 15:25
How to Be a Paid Extra in New Bedford-Based Movie ‘Finestkind’
In between major stories about the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge getting a redesign and parking at the Noah’s Place Playground remaining free for another summer, the Paramount Pictures film Finestkind is quietly staying in the headlines here on the SouthCoast Finestkind is, in fact, looking for some local people to help fill in some busier scenes. The movie’s casting agency is accepting submissions. In part, Kendall Cooper Casting is looking for authentic New Bedford-area fishermen with real-life experience. The post asks for “experienced commercial fishermen and local New Bedford people of all ethnicities who are interested in working as extras on the film. >click to read< and access the “Extra” sign up page. Best of luck. Remember us when you hit it big! 13:04
P.E.I. alternative bait manufacturer sees increased interest amid Mackerel and Herring fishery closure
In 2017, Mark Prevost and Wally MacPhee had an idea to create an alternative, sustainable bait to fish lobster with. With experience in lobster fishing and buying, the pair saw a need for an alternative bait after noticing fluctuations in cost of bait, decreasing fish availability and increasing waste from the use of traditional baits like mackerel and herring. With a few barrels welded together and a hand-cranked meat grinder, the pair experimented with ingredients and field-tested their new product in the waters of P.E.I. and Nova Scotia. >click to read< 11:36
Political pressure for an early opening of the Gulf crab fishery
Quebec urges Ottawa to authorize the opening of the snow crab fishing season as soon as possible in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, in which crabbers from the Magdalen Islands, Gaspé and New Brunswick participate. In a letter sent on March 28 to his federal counterpart Joyce Murray, a copy of which was obtained by the QMI Agency, the Quebec minister responsible for fisheries, André Lamontagne, points out that the early opening of the snow crab fishery in the Gulf is, so far, “the most effective adaptation measure that reconciles the protection of Right whales and fishing activities”. >click to read< 10:17
CDFW to close the commercial Dungeness Crab fishery in response to Humpback Whale entanglements
California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham has assessed entanglement risk under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program and announced the closure of the commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Fishing Zones 1 and 2 (Sonoma/Mendocino county line to the Oregon state line) effective at noon on April 20, 2022. This closure is being implemented in addition to a closure of Zones 3 through 6 announced on March 25 because of three recent humpback whale entanglements involving California commercial Dungeness crab fishing gear. >click to read< 08:18
