Daily Archives: December 16, 2022

How do you show a lobster some love? A Cape Breton researcher has plenty of ideas

Michelle Theriault, a marine biologist at Université Sainte-Anne, tells her students to heap loving care on lobsters destined to markets in Auckland and Athabasca – and everywhere in between. So, how do you dote on lobsters? I dropped in on one of Theriault’s Zoom classes for lobster exporters to get some answers to that question. And while she was narrow-casting her class from the University’s Marine Research Centre at Petit-de-Grat, Cape Breton, lobster fishers were headed to sea to dump their traps on the opening day of the winter season south of Halifax. >click to read< 16:22

Plain Stupid: The Only Thing Dumber Than Wind Power Is Offshore Wind Power

Wind power comes with a staggering price tag, taking these things out to sea sends those costs into orbit: intermittent offshore wind power is six times the cost of gas-fired power that’s always available on demand. Placing giant industrial wind turbines miles offshore is costly enough, but the rising costs of attempting to maintain them (and the transmission cables connecting them) in a highly corrosive marine environment are positively punitive. So much so, that even the grandest of offshore plans have hit the skids, as Robert Bryce details below. >click to read< 14:55

Middletown crabber’s family gets $2.75M settlement after deadly dock fall

The estate of Patrick Shopp, a commercial crabber who died from injuries related to a fall at the Belford Seafood Cooperative dock, won a $2.75 million settlement in a Monmouth County court, the family’s lawyer confirmed. Shopp initially suffered the injury on March 5, 2019. Christopher J. Conrad who represented Shopp said he fell through a broken board on the dock, lost his balance and dropped about eight feet down onto the deck of his crab boat, Scapper. Conrad said Shopp perforated his colon as a result of the fall, which required multiple surgeries over the the next 15 months. Shopp then sued Monmouth County, who owns the property, and the Belford Seafood Cooperative, which leases the property, for negligence for failure to maintain the property. >click to read< 13:03

Louisiana Shrimp Season to Close December 19 in Portions of State Waters

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced that the 2022 fall inshore shrimp season will close in all state inside waters on Monday, December 19, 2022, at official sunset, except for the following inside waters east of the Mississippi River: Chef Menteur and Rigolets Passes, Lake Borgne, Mississippi Sound, Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a section of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Orleans parish from the GIWW East Closure Sector Gate westward to the GIWW intersection with the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, and the open waters of Breton and Chandeleur Sounds as bounded by the double-rig line described in R.S. 56:495.1(A)2. All state outside waters seaward of the Inside/Outside Shrimp Line, as described in LAC 76:VII.370 will remain open to shrimping until further notice. Map, >click to read< 11:08

Disabled AIS Contributes to Fishing Boat Collision off Norway

On the morning of October 4, the coastal freighter Edmy departed the port of Larvik, bound for Copenhagen. The harbor pilot got off at the pilot station off Porsgrunn, and the ship continued outbound in fine, clear weather. The navigator was alone on watch, and after checking the radar and looking out the window, he turned to the computer located aft in the wheelhouse to take care of some paperwork. About half an hour later, the navigator felt the ship hit something, and he saw a fishing boat’s mast passing along the side. The mast belonged to the prawn trawler Tornado,,, >click to read< 09:49

Feds launch licence buyback plan to scale down B.C.’s salmon fishing fleet

Looking to fix the problem of too many boats chasing too few fish, on Wednesday, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) unveiled details on its voluntary commercial licence retirement (LRP) program that will pay salmon harvesters to exit the industry. However, the union for commercial fishers says first impressions suggest the plan is “deeply disappointing” and designed to drive down the value of licences being bought out. DFO is allocating $123 million from its Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative for the licence buyback and two additional future programs. >click to read< 08:30

Tributes to a ‘a hard-working hero’ who died in trawler tragedy off Jersey’s coast

A ‘generous’ man with ‘big dreams’, Larry Simyunn was also the family’s ‘hard-working hero’, according to his aunt Gigi Skye. Mr Simyunn was one of three fishermen who died after the L’Ecume II collided with Condor’s Commodore Goodwill off the west coast last Thursday morning, along with father of two Michael Michieli and Jervis Baligat – also from the Philippines. Two bodies have since been found at the site of the trawler, although their identities have not yet been confirmed. Ms Skye said: ‘His entire life, Larry has always had such a deep love for his family. He was selflessly driven, devoting everything he had to the people he loved most.’ >click to read< 07:28