Daily Archives: January 16, 2023
Maine wants to transform how the US manages the lobster fishery.
Patrick Keliher, Maine’s Department of Marine Resources commissioner, has argued that the fishery needs more “tools in the toolbox.” Now, with the most time he’s had in recent memory to sit down and craft new measures, he is hoping that the dawn of “dynamic management” in Maine is here. What is dynamic management? In theory, it’s a simple strategy to keep fishermen fishing, while also making way for whales. The Gulf of Maine would be monitored, with listening devices in the water and planes in the sky, for right whales. If signs of right whales are detected, fishermen would have to clear their traps out of the area. Dynamic management has been pitched by Maine before, and a version of it is being used in parts of the Canadian snow crab fishery. >click to read< 14:35
Why Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a national day of service
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a day which commemorates Civil Rights activist, Baptist preacher and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr. King was known for his activism against segregation and his advocacy for civil rights. Born on Jan. 15, 1929, King is perhaps the most influential civil rights activist in America. He delivered the famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 and was assassinated in 1968 because of his advocacy. Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day of service is a way to commemorate and celebrate King’s influence. >click to read< 11:40
Whale found dead in South Jersey likely struck by vessel
The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said Sunday that preliminary results of a necropsy on the humpback whale that washed up Thursday on the North End Natural Area in Brigantine indicates that the animal had “blunt trauma injuries consistent with those from a vessel strike.” “Injuries and hemorrhaging were observed on the head and thoracic region, as well as along the right side and the pectoral flipper,” the center said in a statement. “These findings will be confirmed through laboratory analysis in the coming weeks.” Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City, has seen two other dead whales on its beaches in recent weeks, among the seven whale deaths in a little over a month in New Jersey and New York. >click to read<10:16
Electronic monitoring comes to Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery
Kiley Thompson knows the fishery well. He has been fishing in Alaska waters for nearly 30 years. After getting a job in college fishing for salmon, this eventually became his full-time profession. Today, he fishes along with three crew members in the Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery on F/V Decision, a 58-foot seiner/trawler based in Sand Point, Alaska. ‘The biggest challenge for us is getting observers, and you can end up losing fishing time waiting for them to arrive,’ Kiley Thompson said. In the face of these challenges, the Gulf of Alaska fleet turned to emerging electronic monitoring technologies. >click to read< 07:48
