Daily Archives: May 24, 2022
Commercial fishing deaths in Canada hit 20-year high
Despite improvements in safety training and awareness, commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous professions in Canada. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada reports that 45 workers died between 2018 and 2020, the highest three-year total in 20 years. And fishing safety has been on the board’s watchlist of important safety matters since 2010. But fishing fatalities are preventable. The Transportation Safety Board also reports that 29 workers died between 2015 and 2021 after their boats capsized or sank without personal floatation devices or distress-alerting devices. “You’ve got to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, and that’s where we see that they’re not prepared,” said Glenn Budden. >click to read< 19:03
NOAA Announces Closure of the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area
NOAA Fisheries is closing the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area to all federally permitted limited access general category scallop vessels effective 0001, on May 26, 2022. As of May 26, 2022, no scallop vessel fishing under federal scallop regulations may fish for, possess, or land scallops in or from the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area. The scallop regulations require that we close this area once we project that 100 percent of the 2022 default total allowable catch for this area will be taken. The closure will be in effect until the end of the fishing year, March 31, 2023. To continue, >click to read< 17:52
Local trawler has given his life to seafood industry, says it’s vital to protect our heritage
Next year will mark 50 years that David Dardar has been in the seafood industry, dating back to when he got his first boat as a teenager. The number of captains on the water may be fewer now than when Dardar got his start, but he said it’s vital that we do whatever it takes to keep our Cajun heritage alive. Dardar is captain of the F/V Risky Business, the boat he uses to harvest seafood from the Gulf each trawling season. Dardar said the industry is shrinking, but that it’s vital that it stays alive to protect the Cajun heritage that we all know and love. photos, >click to read< 16:38 Louisiana
After boatyard plan falls through, assembly to reconsider haulout options
Sitka is without a working boat haulout, following the closure of the facility that served most of the fishing fleet at Halibut Point Marine. Last summer, the Sitka Assembly began working with the Sitka Community Boat Yard to develop a haulout at the Park. The group secured a lease with the city in July of 2021, but the plan has since fallen through. At an assembly meeting in early May (5-10-22), Linda Behnken, who was leading the boat yard project with a coalition of local fishermen said they’d been ready for liftoff when the cost of construction jumped. “We did, before we responded to the RFP, have sufficient funds to build a boatyard at GPIP,” Behnken said. “Then cost increased, almost doubled, on us. >click to read < 16:00
Search net widens for owner of San Rosa as boat’s history emerges
Authorities are struggling to contact the owners of a shipwrecked boat almost six weeks after the vessel got into difficulty in rough seas off the East Coast. On April 9, the crew of ex-fishing trawler San Rosa sent out a mayday about 10 nautical miles off Tokomaru Bay, after encountering four-metre swells en route to Marlborough. The boat’s three crew members, plus a dog, were winched to safety by helicopter. San Rosa then drifted unattended 
for six days before beaching on April 15 at a remote section of beach near Tikitiki, two hours north of Gisborne. Thirty-five days later, Gisborne District Council harbourmaster Peter Buell says he still hasn’t been able to reach the owners, despite numerous attempts. “We’re trying every way we can to get in touch with this guy. But no response so far, and I doubt we’ll get any,” Buell said. >click to read< 15:23
Minister Fails to Address Lack of Competition in Seafood Processing
St. JOHN’S, NL – Minister of Fisheries Derrick Bragg announced his decision on important recommendations from the Fish Processing Licensing Board this morning, rejecting numerous recommendations to issue new crab processing licenses and compounding frustrations felt by fish harvesters and communities who have lost out on millions of dollars in potential income this fishing season. A Minister rejecting the Board’s recommendations is both unprecedented and unjustified, as the purpose of the Board is to make unbiased recommendations to protect and benefit the economy of Newfoundland and Labrador. A new crab processing license in St. Mary’s Bay is welcomed news to the region and is an important first step in addressing issues in the province’s snow crab industry. However,,, >click to read< 12:48
SEA-NL on increase in snow crab processing capacity
“More competition in the processing sector should mean more opportunity for inshore boats to land crab quotas faster, with less expense, and safer for all hands,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. The province’s Fish Processing Licensing Board today approved two of four applications for fish processing licenses — including a new primary processing license for groundfish, whelk, and snow crab (2.5 million/lbs) for St. Mary’s Bay Fisheries Ltd., and doubling the amount of crab Dandy Dan’s Fish Market of Argentia can purchase to two million pounds per year. >click to read< 11:29
‘The spot is beautiful’: Chief William Saulis crew remembered with memorial
Lori Phillips was at a loss. She didn’t want to go to just any random cemetery and place a headstone with her son Aaron’s name on it. She would have no relationship to that spot, she says. It would just be a stone on a piece of land. Her son, Aaron Cogswell, was one of six fishermen who lost their lives in the Dec. 15, 2020, sinking of the Chief William Saulis scallop dragger. The others were Charles Roberts, Daniel Forbes, Michael Drake, Eugene Francis, and Leonard Gabriel. Phillips needed a place for her and others to remember the crew. >click to read< 09:01
