Daily Archives: February 8, 2023
N.S. fisheries loan board sees big demand from new entrants
A rising tide of seafood exports coupled with the retirement of older workers has more young people casting a line into the fishing industry, according to the acting chair of the Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Loan Board. Bob Verge was part of a group who appeared before the legislature’s public accounts committee on Wednesday to discuss the most recent reports from the fisheries and farm loan boards. Nova Scotia exported $2.5 billion in seafood in 2021, an increase of 21 per cent from five years ago, deputy fisheries minister April Howe told the committee. Figures from the loan board show just how many new people are trying to reel in a piece of that seawater-soaked pie. >click to read< 19:29
“Looking Back; “Fishery management; best available science, or politics?” 2009. By Jim Lovgren
I wrote this piece at the beginning of the Obama administration, concerning the politization of fishery science, over fourteen years ago. The rash of east coast marine mammal strandings and the governments response to them, eerily reminded me of this article and the reasons I wrote it. If you
change a few words, Bush to Biden, and big oil to big wind, you get pretty much the same thing, the politization of science to benefit wealthy corporations. >click to read< 17:05
SWFL shrimp company pushing on despite seafood industry’s struggles
Shrimpers tell us it’s been an excellent year for pink shrimp, despite Southwest Florida’s struggling seafood industry. We checked in with Erickson & Jensen Seafood, the only shrimp company with boats in the water right now on Fort Myers Beach. With four boats in the water, E&J has been able to bring back about a fourth of their workers. “We’re desperately trying to sell as much as we can wherever we can,” said Grant Erickson, owner of Erickson & Jensen. “It’s very expensive. It’s very devastating. We’ve got problems at all ends in this business.” Video, >click to read< 14:14
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 41’x15″ Novi Scalloper, Cat 3306
To review specifications, information, and 20 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:18
If You Eat Dungeness Crab, Please Help This Family (or even if you don’t, but can help)
Sunday, February 5th was another day in the long life of the F/V Ethel May, a wooden 46-foot crabber built in 1948 in South Bend, Washington, but it was to be her last. Crews from U.S. Coast Guard Station Grays Harbor and Air Station Astoria responded to the sinking after an emergency beacon was activated and the wife of one of the men called 911 to report an emergency onboard. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from the air station was able to rescue two crewmen from a life raft at about 8:10 p.m. Unfortunately, the Ethel May had a crew of three, so one did not come home, and the official search was called off at 5:30pm Monday after almost a day of looking methodically. The name of the missing fisherman is Bryson Fitch, and he leaves behind a wife and three young children (aged 6, 4 and 4 months). >click to read< 10:03
Despite a pause on new regulations, U.S. and Canadian lobstermen see big challenges ahead
After a two-year hiatus, members of the U.S. and Canadian lobster fisheries met in Portland over the weekend to discuss challenges facing their industry. Top of mind is how the industry will prepare before new federal regulations designed to protect endangered right whales begin in six years. Fisheries in Maine had late last year expressed relief about the years-long delay in the rules change included in a federal spending bill, as it bought the industry more time to research and test new fishing techniques and other measures aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales. >click to read< 09:10
‘We need help bringing him home:’ Family remains hopeful as search for missing crabber continues
After a crabbing boat with a three-man crew sank near Willapa Bay Sunday night, the U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search for the one man who remains missing, but his family won’t give up hope. The Coast Guard rescued two of the three men, but did not find 24-year-old Bryson Fitch, a father of three. The Coast Guard on Twitter posted a video and said a helicopter crew from Astoria, Oregon, hoisted two people from a life raft into the helicopter during rough weather and large waves. It was then that Fitch’s family got the call no one wants to hear. >click to read< 07:43
