Wind energy companies Ørsted North America and Atlantic Shores have plans to build offshore wind turbines 10 to 15 miles off New Jersey’s shoreline. Atlantic Shores plans to build at least 111 wind turbines across 183,353 acres at three different sites off New Jersey by 2027. Construction for Danish wind company Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 projects is set to begin next year, with at least 99 turbines fully operational by 2025. Gov. Phil Murphy has said he supports offshore wind for its ability to create jobs, reduce the garden state’s carbon emissions and generate renewable energy. He has set an offshore wind goal for the state of 11,000 megawatts by 2040. But residents and local government officials have been critical of the plans. >click to read< 09:12
Monthly Archives: February 2023
Scottish fishers blast Holyrood for ‘scandalous’ marine policy tantamount to ‘greenwashing’
Mike Park was speaking as the clock ticks down on a Scottish Government consultation on its controversial proposals for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). Another industry leader, Elspeth Macdonald, branded the plans as “greenwashing”. And Banff and Buchan Tory MP David Duguid claimed they were “the biggest threat to the north-east fishing industry for decades”. But the government hailed its proposals as “a step change in the protection of our marine environment”. It aims to have at least 10% of Scottish waters designated as HPMAs by 2026. >click to read< 07:45
Fishing Crew Rescued After 1 month at Sea in Thailand
A Phuket fishing crew survived for nearly one month at sea after their boat, the Soi Sakul Petch, suffered engine failure a week after it departed from the island in southern Thailand on January 19. The Royal Thai Navy (RTN) launched a huge search operation after losing contact with the boat, combining marine and air searches, and reached out to authorities in Malaysia and Indonesia in case the boat has entered their territorial waters. >click to read< 17:51
Concerns over fishing industry risk from proposed offshore wind farm in South East SA
Residents in a small South Australian coastal town are concerned a proposed offshore wind farm could impact on the local fishing industry. Off its coast, the Southern Ocean has some of the most productive southern rock lobster waters in the country. Offshore wind developer Blue Float Energy has announced plans to build a 77-turbine wind farm between 8 kilometres and 20km out to sea, which the company says would generate 1.1 gigawatts of clean energy. Fisher and farmer Brodi Milstead said he was not only worried about his industry. “No matter what their studies say, we know it’s going to affect our businesses, our environment, our whales, everything that lives there,” he said. >click to read< 16:02
Family of Labrador fisherman lost at sea take calls for inquiry into vessel safety to Ottawa
Jeanette and Dwight Russell met with a variety of ministers in a series of meetings earlier this month. Their son, Marc Russell, and his crewmate Joey Jenkins were reported missing Sept. 17, 2021, when their vessel, the Island Lady, did not return to report. The search was clouded with allegations from the families of a lack of co-ordination by governments and that the search was ended too soon. The RCMP called off the search after 10 days. Now the couple has met with several MPs, calling for a federal commission of inquiry into fishing vessel safety. “I don’t think we’re going to get there without an inquiry,” Jeanette said. “This is the hill I’m prepared to die on.” >click to read< 11:16
Calls to salvage Port Lincoln’s historic fishing vessel, the Almonta, as it rots on seabed
When a historic Port Lincoln wooden fishing boat sank on its moorings at Snooks Landing more than a year ago, its owner Mario Antolini cried. He watched from the shore 100 metres away, unable to help as 60 years of stories and memories sank to the seabed. Cars of people soon arrived and in his grief Mario saw they too were crying. The Almonta was an early wooden vessel in the local salmon and bluefin tuna fleets of the 1960s. It was a favourite for those who worked on its rich timber deck and netted huge catches of fish from the rolling southern ocean. Photos, video, >click to read< 10:27
Three Men Cited for Commercial Fishing Violations in East Baton Rouge and St. Martin Parishes
Agents cited Calvin P. Chenier, 22, of Churchpoint, and Calvin P. Simoneaux, 63, of Churchpoint, for taking or selling commercial fish without commercial fishing licenses and taking commercial fish without commercial gear license. Agents also cited Chenier for illegal possession of game fish. Jimmy Fruge, 83, of Breaux Bridge was also cited for buying commercial fish from an unlicensed fisherman and failing to maintain public records.
>click to read< 9:29
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for February 13, 2023
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. James 1:19 I definitely still have a lot to learn about fisheries management and I certainly do not always listen to what I preach. But one thing I do know is that fisheries management is a slow process and I think James 1:19 is a good way to approach it, especially when it comes down to the people involved. >click to read< 08:50
Fishermen gather in D.C. to press Congress for ‘catch share’ changes
fishermen from each corner of the country descended on the nations capital last week banding together to confront what they describe as a predatory regulatory system that treats fishing rights “like stocks on Wall Street.” The group of more than a dozen fishermen make up a loose organization known as the Catch Share Reform Coalition. They presented a proposal to several U.S. senators, members of Congress and the head of NOAA Fisheries to rework regulations that they say have enabled investors to amass large amounts of fishing permits, cornering parts of the industry at the expense of local fishermen. Members of the group each fish out of different ports, using different types of gear and fishing for different species. But they said they are all united in their goal to keep fishing rights in the hands of local fishermen. >click to read< 07:06
Spanish fishing captain returned for trial – to stay on his boat rather than be held at Cork Prison
A Spanish fishing captain has been returned for trial by a judge and jury after being charged on Monday with 25 alleged breaches of European Union fishing regulations in Irish waters off the southwest coast. Ramon Novo Martinez (57), Master of the Spanish owned but German registered Ortegall Tres, was brought before a special sitting of Bandon District Court following the detention of his vessel by the LÉ Samuel Beckett for alleged fishing offences in Irish waters. Mr Martinez, with an address at Corosopalmeira, Riberia, La Coruna, Spain, was charged with a total of 25 fishing offences on various dates between a date unknown in December 2022 and February 3rd 2023 while fishing within the exclusive fishing limits of the State. >click to read< 19:05
Deadliest Catch Captains Admit They Went to the Wrong Graveyard When Burying Phil
Back in 2010, along with his coworkers, family, and friends, fans of Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch,” were shocked to learn about the untimely death of Captain Phil Harris. Producers of the show were able to capture the emotional and heart wrenching moments of Harris’s hospital stay, eventual death, and how it affected not only his family, but also the entire fleet. Sometime later, when fellow captains came together to memorialize the late leader of the Cornelia Marie, they told a humorous story about the funeral procession heading to Harris’s service. >click to read< 15:01
Last of broken down boats leaving old Port Royal dock. Now new construction can begin
At a Thursday auction, ordered by a federal court, an old shrimp trawler sold for $50. It will be moved shortly, Town Manager Van Willis said. The town previously removed the oil and fuel from the vessel. A sailboat also was up for sale at the auction, Willis said, but there were no bidders. As a result, Willis said, “It’s officially ours now.” The town plans to scuttle the sailboat. The town’s plan to replace one of the few publicly owned commercial fishing docks remaining in South Carolina comes as Safe Harbor Marinas begins its initial work in a major redevelopment that will transform the town’s waterfront. >click to read< 13:23
With a coast guard research vessel facing decommission, N.L.’s fisheries union has concerns
On Thursday, the Canadian Coast Guard announced the research vessel CCGS Alfred Needler is being decommissioned after 40 years in service due to “significant mechanical and structural failures” in late 2022 and early 2023. “The coast guard determined that the ship was beyond repair and further investment would not allow it to return to reliable and safe service,” Gary Ivany, assistant commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard’s Atlantic region, said Friday. The decommissioning causes problems for DFO scientists, whose job is it to determine how much shrimp and cod should be fished each year. >click to read< 12:09
Amputations, broken bones among the injuries caused by winches on fishing boats
For crews working on fishing boats in Alaska, danger lurks in a helpful and possibly innocent-looking device: the winch. Winches are hauling devices on which cables are wound. On fishing vessels, they are used to lift anchors, nets and other objects. The combination of speed, force and close quarters on deck can lead to accidents involving them. In most cases, the injuries happened when body parts were caught in or compressed by winches or the cables attached to them, the study said. Hands, wrists and arms were the body parts most frequently injured, though there were also injuries to other body parts, including skull fractures. Amputated fingers were among the most commonly reported injuries,,, >click to read< 10:10
Biden bureaucrats and woke environmentalists are regulating Maine lobstermen out of existence
Have you been shopping recently and suffered from severe sticker shock on household staples? Sure, inflation and supply chain issues are contributors to soaring costs, but something deeper and more long-term is also going on: regulators and radical environmentalists are working in tandem to turn staple consumer products into luxury goods beyond the reach of most Americans. The flare-up over banning natural gas-powered appliances is a great example of the kind of regulation some would like to impose on ordinary Americans. But similar radical regulatory moves with devastating effects for consumers are already happening across several industries. In Maine, for example, the families who have harvested the iconic seafood commodity from American waters for centuries may soon find themselves regulated out of existence. >click to read< 07:33
Issues raised over Highly Protected Marine Areas
Scottish Government plans to designate at least 10 per cent of Scotland’s seas as Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) are the “biggest threat to the north-east fishing industry for decades”, a MP has warned. Mr Duguid said the Scottish Government’s plans to install HPMAs and offshore wind, to a larger extent than elsewhere in the UK, is causing concerns of “spatial squeeze” and will be detrimental to the Scottish fleet. It follows concerns from organizations including the Scottish Fisherman’s Federation (SFF) which described the plans as “government greenwashing” while “prioritizing political objectives over good policymaking and decision-taking”. >click to read< 15:45
More Length, Capacity and Space
Once the decision had been taken to lengthen F/V Sara Karin, Oddgeir and Erik-Andre Krag went back to the original designer, Marin Design, for the design work on how this could be achieved – and they started looking for a Norwegian yard that could do the job at a competitive price. The outcome turned out to be that the Hirtshals Yard in Denmark, a thousand miles to the south, was selected as the main contractor, with much of the steelwork carried out by another yard in Hirtshals, Vestkajen. While F/V Sara Karin has been at the yard for almost a year, its quotas have been caught by F/V Mosken 2, which the family bought together with its quotas in early 2022. 8 Photos, >click to read< 12:30
Virginia: General Assembly bill could help end debate of whether menhaden are overfished in the Chesapeake Bay
The state Senate passed a bill Wednesday to fund a study by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to calculate menhaden populations in the state. The study would survey the number of fish over 18 months and the amount of bycatch, the unintended fish caught in the nets. The menhaden population along the Atlantic coast is considered healthy according to the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission, but groups such as the Virginia Saltwater Sport Fishing Association and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation want to know the numbers in the bay. Other fish, including striped bass, dine on menhaden. >click to read< 11:38
The Reason Rock Shrimp Were Almost Never Brought to Market
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That simple saying sums up the story of how a Florida boat builder-turned-fisherman came to introduce the world to rock shrimp. It’s difficult to imagine now, but back in the 1970s, shrimp trawlers hauling catch off the southeastern coast of the U.S. routinely dismissed a particular variety of shrimp as not worth the effort. In 1968, Thompson debuted his state-of-the-art fiberglass shrimp trawler, the R.C. Brent Jr., to little acclaim. Unfortunately, traditional shrimpers at the time weren’t ready to embrace Thompson’s fiberglass technology. With a growing family to support and boat sales on the wane, Thompson set out to prove the superiority of his fiberglass design — by going fishing. >click to read< 09:10
Biden Administration sued by Massachusetts lobstermen for closing waters to protect endangered whales
Massachusetts lobster fishermen have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its closure of fishing grounds done with the intention of protecting an endangered species of whale. The lawsuit stems from the February 1 closure of 200 square miles of the Massachusetts Bay that will prevent lobster fishing until the end of April in a move that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says was necessary to protect the North Atlantic right whales from being tangled in fishing ropes. Video, >click to read< 08:02
Labour slams government over ‘discredited theory’ for mysterious big crustacean die-off
Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon has written to his opposite number in government, Therese Coffey, to criticise her department’s theory that algal bloom caused the deaths. Thousands of dead and dying crustaceans washed ashore along parts of the north-east coast of England between October and December 2021. On 17 January, a panel of independent experts convened by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) chief scientific officer Gideon Henderson concluded: “A novel pathogen is considered the most likely cause of mortality. However, the panel was “unable to identify a clear and convincing single cause for the unusual crustacean mortality”. >click to read< 12:10
Shippers to Pay $45 Million to Settle 2021 California Oil Spill Lawsuits
Companies linked to two cargo ships accused of damaging a pipeline months before it ruptured, sending crude oil gushing into the waters off Orange County, have agreed to pay $45 million to settle lawsuits brought by business owners and residents, attorneys said Feb. 9. The combined settlements, totaling nearly $100 million, will be distributed among three classes: one representing the fishing industry, another for coastal homeowners and a third for individuals and businesses whose livelihoods relied on the use of the ocean for tourism, said attorney Wylie Aitken. Amid 60 mph winds and 17-foot waves, the MSC Danit and Cosco Beijing dragged their anchors “into areas where federal law prohibits anchoring,” including across the pipeline,,, >click to read< 10:04
Have you tried the other white meat? … Swordfish
Hawaii’s commercial fishing industry is asking Hawaii families to consider (or reconsider) a fish that’s fallen out of favor over the years. While Hawaii is known for its ahi and other tuna, swordfish is actually a big part of the commercial fishing industry in the islands. So much so that the Hawaii Longline Association says its fleet provides about half the country’s demand for swordfish, caught more than 1,000 miles north of Hawaii. But while more than 80% of the fresh fish sold in Hawaii stays here, that’s not the case for swordfish. “It’s kind of reverse, most goes to the mainland instead of retain here locally,” said Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association. Video, >click to read< 08:49
Statement from the Canadian Coast Guard: Decommissioning of the CCGS Alfred Needler
Following over 40 years of service to Canada as a fisheries science vessel, the CCGS Alfred Needler is being decommissioned. In late 2022 and early 2023 the CCGS Alfred Needler suffered a number of significant mechanical and structural failures. Following an evaluation of the condition of the vessel, it has been determined that the vessel is beyond repair and further investment would not allow it to return to a reliable and safe service. The CCGS Alfred Needler has been a key platform for the Department’s fisheries science program, most recently participating in comparative fishing work alongside the Canadian Coast Guard’s new Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels (OFSV). All three new OFSV have been added to the fleet as planned replacements to the older aging vessels. >click to read< 07:58
Fundraising Appeal for Young Family of Fisherman Who Died off Donegal
A fundraising appeal has been issued for the family of the fisherman who died off the Donegal coast last weekend. Madis Lētsārs (37), from the Baltic States, lost his life after falling from the deck of a crab vessel north of the Donegal Island of Árainn Mhór last Saturday evening (Feb 4). His crewmates on the Séimí recovered him from the water and made efforts to revive him but he did not survive. The young crewman was the father of two children, and his cousin Janis Miklasovs has set up a GoFundMe page on behalf of Madis’s wife Liene. >click to read<, and please donate if you can. 20:04
Van Drew and Desiderio Pursue Answers on Whale Deaths, Wind Farm Issues
Congressman Jeff Van Drew and Cape May County Board of Commissioners Director Leonard Desiderio said they will work together on issues surrounding the proposed wind farms off of Cape May County. The Ocean Wind One project off Atlantic and Cape May Counties has petitioned the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to take decision-making authority away from the elected officials of Ocean City and Cape May County and give it to the owner of the project. “It was irresponsible to take home rule away from our towns and counties when it comes to decisions related to the wind farms,” Van Drew said. “Now, an unelected state board is going to push aside the representatives the voters elected. This is a terrible power grab.” >click to read< 17:08
Agents Cite Three Men for Commercial Fishing Violations in Plaquemines Parish
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement agents cited three men for alleged commercial fishing violations in in Plaquemines Parish on Feb. 7. Agents cited Thanh Dang, 45, and Khai Bui, 62, both of Biloxi, Miss., and Phong Thai, 53, of Gautier, Miss., for taking commercial fish without a commercial fisherman’s license. Agents were on patrol when they boarded a vessel with the three subjects on board in the Mississippi River near Pilottown for a commercial license and turtle excluder device inspection. Upon boarding the vessel the Captain, Thanh Dang, produced commercial fishing licenses for another person who was not on board the vessel. Agents also found that none of the men possessed non-resident commercial licenses for the 2023 fishing year. >click to read< 14:24
Major Investment in Shrimp Fishing
Canadian factory trawler American Enterprise has been sold to Norwegian owners, who see opportunities in fishing for shrimp across northern waters. Now renamed Karine H, the trawler has a 1000m2 factory deck and it’s currently at the Karstensen yard in Skagen to be prepared for fishing for its new owners, the newly-established Halstensen Prawn AS. This is in turn owned by Nye Halstensen Holding AS, owners of pelagic vessels Manon, Slaaterøy and Gardar, and 82 metre factory trawler Granit. Photos, >click to read< 12:33
Frustration to embarrassment to shame, patience lost with DFO science: SEA-NL
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) says continued cancellations and delays of critical assessments that survey the health of major fish stocks like northern cod have turned Fisheries and Oceans science into a Canadian shame. “We’re past the point of frustration and embarrassment with DFO science; it’s now Canada’s shame,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. DFO’s science director for the province released a letter Thursday afternoon informing fishing industry representatives that the Canadian Coast Guard science ship Alfred Needler has been deemed “beyond repair” and decommissioned. >click to read< 09:01
‘This injustice must be reversed’: N.B. lobster Class B fisherman, family make plea for rule change
Michel Arseneau’s family would say his relationship with the ocean is a love story. He has been a fisherman for as long as his granddaughter, Maryse Arseneau, can remember. He bought his first lobster fishing licence in 1953. In 1976, his licence was made a Class B by the federal government in an effort to improve sustainability and conservation. It came with strict limits on the number of traps that can be set and the licence cannot be transferred or sold. He isn’t the only one fighting against the decades-old policy. A law firm, Cox and Palmer, is representing the remaining 70 Class B fishers in the Maritimes, who have taken the federal government to court. >click to read< 08:36
