Daily Archives: December 27, 2022
Electronic vessel trackers coming for lobster fishers
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) announced that all commercial lobster permit holders with a federal lobster trap permit will be required to install a vessel tracking device beginning in the spring. DMF will cover the costs of the first three years for the 300 eligible vessels that fish from Massachusetts ports. “We expect to cover the costs of each eligible owner’s purchase, installation, and data plan for around $1,500,” the announcement reads. “Up to five different vendors are expected to offer devices for sale to the industry this winter. Eligible permit holders will be allowed to choose the approved tracking device that best fits their business.” >click to read< 18:33
Lost fisherman: Hearts are heavy as lobster fishery sees tragedy in southwestern NS
Hearts are heavy once again in fishing communities in southwestern Nova Scotia – and throughout the province – as people grieve another tragedy to befall the lobster and fishing industry. A Monday, Dec. 26, fishing trip resulted in the loss of a young fisherman who went overboard that morning off Cape Sable Island. Family members put up posts about their missing loved one as did community members, expressing their heartache and sadness. “Yesterday, Dec. 26th, 2022, the lobster industry lost one of their own. Christian Lee Atwood aged 27 years was lost,” read one post on Tuesday morning. >click to read< 13:45
SEA-NL calls on Ottawa to lift moratorium on Atlantic mackerel
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador is calling on Fisheries and Oceans Canada to lift the moratorium on Atlantic mackerel in 2023 and establish a quota at least equal to the United States. “DFO’s decision earlier this year to slap a moratorium on the Atlantic mackerel fishery while American fishermen continued to fish the same stock — combined with relatively weak science, and then even less data without fishermen on the water — was wrong from the get-go,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s executive director. >click to read< 12:48
Search suspended for fisherman who went overboard off Cape Sable Island
The search for a fisherman who went overboard Boxing Day morning off Cape Sable Island in Nova Scotia has been suspended. The search effort was called off at noon AT Tuesday, according to spokesperson Lt.-Cmdr. Len Hickey of the Halifax’s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre. It will be handed off to the RCMP as a missing persons case, said Lt.-Cmdr. Len Hickey, spokesperson for Halifax’s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre. The man went overboard from a 12-metre fishing vessel — the Little Weasel Too — while fishing for lobster in the Cape Sable Island area. There were three people on board the boat. >click to read< 12:00
California Jobs Boom Anticipated Following Offshore Wind Auction
The efforts are, however, creating clashes with fishing fleets fretful not only of losing hunting grounds, but of broader impacts on their quarry from the new approach to renewables generation. “We’re going to throw billions of dollars into something that we don’t really know what the impact is going to be,” said Dick Ogg, a commercial fisherman of crab, albacore, black cod and rockfish. He’s based out of Bodega Bay but chases salmon from the state’s North Coast south to Morro Bay, which is another quiet part of California where an infrastructure boom is planned to get electricity from offshore wind turbines to land-based power customers. “We’d like to see a project that is smaller.” Fishing fleets nationally are angry about what they say is a lack of consultation with them by wind developers and by the federal government, with hundreds of lobstermen in Maine attending protests about plans there. Tribes, too, say their members are being ignored. >click to read< 11:13
Massachusetts fishermen question impact offshore wind farms will have on their industry
The federal government has established seven wind lease areas for developments, and Vineyard Wind is already under construction, set to be producing energy by late next year or early 2024. And development won’t stop there, said state Rep. Jeffrey Roy, D-Franklin, with Commonwealth Wind and Mayflower Wind joining Vineyard Wind south of Martha’s Vineyard. “We really don’t have a choice,” Roy said. But Edward Barrett, president of the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership, who’s been in the industry for more than 45 years, said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a federal government agency that determines the wind leases, has “a deaf ear” to the concerns of fishermen. “What impact will that have? Well, no one’s really figured that one out and if it has a negative impact,” Barrett said, “then I’m the one who’s gonna have to pay for that through reductions in my catch allocations.” >click to read< 09:14
Iconic fishing trawler with exciting history could return to Grimsby’s waters following restoration
An infamous trawler which played a key role in the fishing industry heyday, bringing home the world’s biggest catch, and then used as the base for a formerly illegal pirate radio station could be brought back to its home waters of Grimsby. Home to independent and now legitimate radio station, Radio Caroline, the Ross Revenge trawler – sister ship to the Ross Tiger – began fishing out of Grimsby in 1963 and brought home record catches of fish, including the world record of 218 tonnes of Icelandic cod in 1976, which sold for over £75,000. Photos, >click to read< 08:19
