Monthly Archives: March 2023
Darien, preparing for the 55th Blessing of the Fleet
The City of Darien is gearing up for their biggest event of the year – that’s the annual Blessing of the Fleet! Every year, local shrimpers drive their boats under the Darien Bridge and clergy members at the top of the bridge bless the boats for a prosperous fishing season. Organizers say they’re looking forward to bigger crowds and some new additions this year. It’s the 55th year of the Darien tradition. The three-day long festival features vendors, musical performances, a worship service, parade through town, and of course, the shrimping boat parade. Video, schedule, >click to read< 18:48
Rye, N.H. fisherman Keper Connell hooks consumer wave with his Gulf of Maine tinned tuna
Each tin of Gulf of Maine Conservas tuna begins with fisherman Keper Connell boarding Figment, his 45-foot Novi, long before sunrise to make the two-hour, 25 mile journey from Rye Harbor in New Hampshire to Jeffreys Ledge. Connell doesn’t catch tuna on every trip to the ledge, but when a giant bluefin does strike his line, he 
still gets a rush of adrenaline. In 2019, he began experimenting with canning some of his catch, getting the right blend of fresh fish, Calivirgin olive oil and salt. He contracted with a cannery in Oregon and launched his business, Gulf of Maine Conservas. “I’m catching the fish, I’m portioning it, I’m cooking it and then I’m containing it,” he said. “All you as the consumer have to do is open it and enjoy it.” >click to read< 16:34
Offshore Wind Farm Company Vinyard Wind Begins Construction
Vineyard Wind hosted a tour on Monday at the Marine Commerce Terminal in New Bedford to show members of the media and the local business leaders of One SouthCoast Chamber the early construction of the Vineyard Wind 1 Project, the first offshore commercial-scale offshore wind project in the United States. The Vineyard Wind 1 project aims to construct an 800-megawatt, 62-turbine wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The project is expected to be completed and delivering power by the end of the year. >click to read< 11:50
Salmon fishermen reflect on causes, future as closure looms
Earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order urging California’s water board to waive environmental laws and reserve water for future agricultural use, that would otherwise be released to help insure the survival of native fish and wildlife species. “The politics of water mismanagement readily and consistently traverses party lines,” Davis said. “So we’re trying to get equitable allocation of the resource to the different sectors, agricultural, residential, and environmental, which supports the salmon.” Tim Obert, a salmon fisherman based out of Santa Cruz, said the ramifications of the closure could be devastating. >click to read< 10:16
Nantucket Scallop Harvest Nearly Doubles Over Last Season
Late Thursday morning, scalloper Keith Day was unloading his catch at the Nantucket Boat Basin, one of the few fishermen still dropping dredges at the end of the season. His assessment? “It’s been the best year I’ve had in 10 years,” Day said. “Even with the price where it is now, if you still fish and you still grind out on it, it equals out or you can make more than you made last year. There was just not enough last year. It’s been a pretty good season. I’m still getting my limit on the second to last day. Overall, it’s been a good season for me.” >click to read< 09:36
No wonder communities are worried
Thank you for your report on fishing industry concerns over the potential loss of fishing grounds to offshore wind developments, which gives rise to several questions: Mr Newcombe of the Orion project boldly demands the equivalent of 67 Viking Energy (VE) wind farms (30GW) be installed on fishing grounds around Shetland so that he can produce humongous amounts of hydrogen at Sullom Voe. Throw in the SNP-Greens’ forthcoming ‘highly-protected marine areas’ (HPMAs) and is it any wonder Shetland’s biggest industry and the communities dependent on it are worried? Is it appropriate to impose development on such a scale on a small, island community that has no control over the planning of it? Does the SIC accept the implied destruction of the fishing grounds, effectively, forever, as a direct result? >click to read< 08:41
French fishermen begin two-day strike to highlight ‘plague of crises’
Many French fishermen have begun a two-day strike to highlight a “plague of crises” hitting their sector, including EU regulation and post-Brexit turmoil. They are being called to walk out on Thursday (March 30) and Friday (March 31) to call for more government support. Industry group le Comité national des pêches (CNP) says the journées mortes (dead days) in French ports would mean no fishing boats going out, no fish sales, and no processing of fish food items. >click to read< 08:00
CDFW Announces Closure Of Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery Off Central California To Protect Humpback Whales
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham has assessed entanglement risk under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP) and announced a fishery closure for the commercial Dungeness crab fishery in fishing zones 3, 4, 5 and 6 (Sonoma/Mendocino county line to the U.S./Mexico border) effective at noon on April 15, 2023. The take and possession of Dungeness crab is therefore prohibited after noon on April 15, 2023, in fishing zones 3-6. This season closure is being implemented to minimize entanglement risk for humpback whales as they return to forage off the coast of California and in response to several entanglements that occurred during March and April of 2022. >click to read< 06:53
Gloucester eyes higher commercial slip fees but a bad ad postpones the vote
A plan by the nation’s oldest seaport to double what it charges for commercial slip fees has hit a bump. The City Council will have another go to consider the proposed slip fee hike and other changes to Gloucester’s Waterways Administration ordinance ,, The raft of proposals includes increasing the monthly fee from $4 per foot to an $8 a foot for commercial slips at the city-owned St. Peter’s and Harbor Cove (I-4, C-2) marinas. The lack of publicity about the possible changes cropped up when Concord Street resident and I-4, C-2 tenant Arthur “Sookie” Sawyer said he had just found out about the changes that evening. “To increase the rent over 100% on no notice to the tenant is kind of a hard pill to swallow,” Sawyer said. >click to read< 18:43
Dem senators from 4 states ask NOAA to address whale deaths
Democratic U.S. Senators from four states want federal environmental officials to address a spate of whale deaths on both coasts, urging “transparency and timeliness” in releasing information about whale deaths and their causes. The call late Tuesday by New Jersey Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker; Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for action by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marked the first large-scale request for action by Democratic federal lawmakers on an issue that has rapidly become politicized. Thus far, mostly Republican lawmakers have called for a pause or an outright halt to offshore wind farm preparation work, which they blame for the deaths of whales along the U.S. East Coast since December. But in their letter to a NOAA administrator, the Democratic senators conspicuously did not blame — or even mention — offshore wind as a potential cause of the deaths. >click to read< 16:52
SSE’s choice of guard boats ‘a kick in the teeth’ for local fishing crews
A local fishing body has questioned the “community spirit” of SSE (Renewables) after guard work was handed to two vessels “masquerading” as local fishing boats. Shetland Fishermen’s Association (SFA) said SSE’s decision to award the contracts to Genesis and Dauntless – who were both recently registered in Lerwick – “flies in the face” of the companies promises to co-exist at sea with local crews. The Genesis and Dauntless were previously registered in Banff, and are currently guarding interconnector cable work. “Now, we see SSE handing off this work to boats that no longer fish, have never been based in Shetland, employ no Shetland crew and have no Shetland ownership. >click to read< 14:07
Alaska officials prepare for possible commercial fishing expansion into Arctic waters
Bans on commercial fishing in U.S. and international Arctic waters have been lauded as admirable preemptive actions that protect vulnerable resources before they are damaged by exploitation. But now the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is preparing for a time when the 14-year-old moratorium on commercial fishing in federal Arctic waters is lifted. The department is seeking $1 million in state general funds and another $2 million in federal funds to work on research to better understand those Arctic waters in the event that commercial fisheries are conducted there, Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said on Wednesday. >click to read< 12:42
$9.6 million to get all 36 shrimp boats back in the water in less than 6 months from Hurricane Ian
All the captains we spoke with after Hurricane Ian thought this whole process of getting the boats back into the water would take possibly years but it took less than 6 months and that’s because of all of the extensive hard work day in and day out to try to get our shrimping industry back. This comes as The Florida Division of Emergency Management says they’ve been able to refloat the 36 shrimping boats and it cost $9.6 million dollars to get done. Some boats are already back out shrimping while others according to a few of the shrimp boat managers had to be taken to other states because of the lack of docks in the area that Hurricane Ian tore apart. Video, >click to read< 10:37
Witness Drives Home Marine Vessel Safety Concerns as Offshore Wind Growth Questioned
“Radar interference is a major safety problem for our vessels,” said Megan Lapp, the fisheries liaison for a Rhode Island-based seafood company who has spent close to a decade studying the impact of offshore wind farms on the commercial fishing industry. “Marine navigation without reliable radar is a life-threatening situation.” Lapp’s comments came during the first congressional hearing on the industrialization of the ocean earlier this month. She was one of six witnesses to testify before House of Representatives members Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith of New Jersey, Andy Harris of Maryland and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania on March 16 in Wildwood. >click to read< 09:01
‘Potentially lethal’: Crown wants $2.95M in fines for Richmond ammonia release
A Richmond-based fishing company should pay $2.95 million in fines related to the handling and discharge of ammonia in 2017, a Vancouver provincial court judge heard March 29. Judge Ellen Gordon heard the ammonia was taken from the Viking Enterprise trawler, stored on the Reagle wharf and then transported to the company operations near Jacombs Road and Cambie Road. “This was a horrific incident, a very dangerous incident,” Gordon said. Multiple individual and corporate defendants pleaded guilty to three counts from an indictment of 10 that involved the transportation, storage and then venting of the potentially lethal substance into the air or runoff into a storm drain to a nearby slough. >click to read< 08:05
Mammoet Wins Contracts for Two ‘large’ Offshore Wind Projects in United States
Heavy lift and transport services firm Mammoet said Monday it had secured contracts for two large offshore wind projects for undisclosed clients in the United States, both of which begin in 2023. The contracts set for 2023 have been secured for work on two new offshore wind farms being built off New England’s coast. “In the coming year, Ampelmann’s motion compensated gangways will assist with the hook-up, cabling and commissioning of turbines on Vineyard Wind and Southfork Wind Farm, two of the first commercial offshore wind farms in the USA that will provide clean energy to the region,” Ampelmann said. >click to read< 17:50
Fishing Industry Cautious After Examining Norway – EU Deal
The IFPO and IFPEA has welcomed Norway’s exclusion from the Irish Box but says Ireland still lacks an equitable arrangement. “Norway have been allocated an extra 36,000MT of blue whiting in the Irish EEZ, compared to just 4,800MT extra blue whiting for Ireland,” says Aodh O Donnell, chief executive of the Irish Fish Producers Organisation (IFPO). O Donnell says fishing representatives took time to carefully consider the new deal, ironically struck on St Patrick’s Day, before responding. >click to read< 14:33
After a record-breaking year for Atlantic snow crab, facing huge price cuts is ‘worse than the moratorium,’
“It’s going to be worse than the moratorium.” That’s Jason Sullivan’s gut feeling about the upcoming 2023 snow crab fishing season. He has no doubt that the record-breaking prices of 2022 are a thing of the past. There’s talk of prices starting somewhere around $2 a pound, a nearly 70 per cent drop from last year’s starting price of $7.60. Sullivan said that would translate to a huge loss for the provincial economy. “We had a billion-dollar industry and now we’re taking $500 million out of it right away,” said the Bay Bulls fisherman. “That’s going to be devastating, especially for rural areas.” >click to read< 13:02
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 36′ Ellis Tuna/Lobster Boat, 600HP Daytona Mack E7 Diesel, Price Reduced
To review specifications, information, and 57 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series >click here< 11:52
No federal fishing disaster decision
FEMA has given out more than five billion dollars to help people recover from Hurricane Ian, but none of that money has gone specifically to the fishing industry. Last week the federal government sent a letter saying “It still hasn’t decided if it’s going to declare a federal fishery disaster.” Ian devastated the fishing industry in southwest Florida. Fort Myers Beach the shrimping fleet went from 50 vessels to just 3 after the storm. On Pine Island, 80 percent of fish houses suffered damage. Read the letter, video, >click to read< 10:06
Angry, Breton fishermen on strike!
It would seem that it is not only Uk fishermen that are troubled by the position they find themselves in with regard to quotas, increasingly demanding NGOs, fuel costs and a general increase in what seem unworkable rules and regulations being forced upon them In Brittany, which is home to some of the largest ports in France fishermen – including company boats – are taking action today and effectively going on strike by staying in port. If such action were to be contemplated here in Cornwall say, it would be good to think the company boats would also mirror their Breton cousins and stay in port. Video, >click to read< 09:05
4 lawsuits threaten Vineyard Wind
The lawsuits against America’s first major offshore wind project are coming to a head. Four cases are challenging the federal environmental permit issued to Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine facility being planned for construction in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard. A federal judge in Massachusetts heard arguments brought by landowners in two cases in recent weeks. The other two suits, brought by fishing groups, have been consolidated and will appear before the same judge for oral arguments in Boston on Monday. The cases against Vineyard Wind allege that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management conducted an inadequate environmental review when it approved the project by failing to account for its impact on everything from fishermen to the critically endangered North American right whale. >click to read< 07:32
Willapa Bay crabbers deliver record haul
More than 1.5 million pounds of Dungeness crab have been caught by commercial fishermen in the bay this year, far exceeding previous annual landings records over the past 25 years. Despite a two-month delay in the 2022-2023 season that eventually began Feb. 1, the current commercial Dungeness landings are about 1.54 million pounds as of Monday, March 27, a roughly 23% increase over the previous record of 1.19 million pounds caught during the entire 2010-2011 season. Pinched by inflated fuel and expenses and a low price from processors, commercial crab fishermen would rather put this current season behind them as they prepare for the next fishery. “It’s been above average,” said commercial fishermen Ross Kary. “But with the crab price it’s still not the best year I’ve had. With the price of everything, expenses are really high. We were lucky to not go bankrupt.” Photos, >click to read< 20:20
Hopes dashed for crab-pricing formula as union-producer talks end in failure
It started out six weeks ago as a rare show of unity between the fisheries union and seafood producers, but efforts to agree on a price formula for this year’s snow crab harvest have ended in failure. Jeff Loder, executive director of the Association of Seafood Producers, said in a press release issued Tuesday afternoon that the group couldn’t reach an agreement with the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union, which represents Newfoundland and Labrador’s inshore fishermen. “We negotiated in good faith with our best efforts to find a collaborative solution with the FFAW by defining a formula that works for both parties. Unfortunately, this was not possible,” says the release. >click to read< 15:37
‘What we’re looking for is a fair shake’: Newfoundland inshore crab fishers resume pop-up protests around St. John’s
They didn’t get a clear answer from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on Monday, so inshore crab harvesters are holding “pop-up” protests again today, March 28, in St. John’s. Jason Sullivan and the 3L protestors say the crab stocks in the zone should be assessed as one biomass rather than as separate inshore and offshore stocks. That way, the protestors say, the inshore would be treated the same as the offshore fleets, using the same exploitation rate formulas if the crab stocks are growing. >click to read< 14:52
Offshore Wind Farm Opponents to Rally in Trenton on Thursday
Protect Our Coast NJ, a coalition of groups opposed to offshore wind farms, will hold a rally Thursday at the Trenton State House Annex to demand that Gov. Phil Murphy stop the projects until the cause of a surge in whale deaths is determined. Keith Moore, of Defend Brigantine Beach, another coastal group, said wind farm opponents will deliver an online petition, signed by nearly 500,000 people, calling for the immediate halt of wind farm development. The rally is scheduled at 9 a.m. Numerous advocacy groups, some formed to address what they call the “transformative industrialization” of the ocean, have been speaking out against the construction of offshore wind energy farms. >click to read< 13:30
Norway ‘secure more out of fishing deal than Ireland’
Under the deal, Norwegian fishers can catch 224,000 metric tonnes of blue whiting in Irish waters this year, an increase of 110,000 metric tonnes on how much they were allowed to catch last year. In contrast, Irish fishermen and women are only allowed to catch 52,000 metric tonnes of blue whiting, up from the 28,000 tonnes they could catch last year. While unhappy with the lack of quota parity between the two countries, fishing representatives here say the deal has an upside to it. >click to read< 11:50
Halifax company pilots new technology to track lobster traps, locate and retrieve lost equipment
The company, Marine Thinking, has launched a pilot project that involves tagging the traps with high-tech devices. The tags send signals to specially designed consoles on fishing vessels that allow crews to monitor where their equipment is using their phones or other devices. The company is testing its equipment with three lobster fishers this season. One of them is 63-year-old Jamie Osborne, from Eastern Passage, N.S, who has fished lobster for 40 years. A big reason he’s interested in the technology is because of the financial hit he takes when he loses traps. >click to read< 10:27
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for 3/27/2023
Latent Commercial Fishing Licenses – Something that we keep hearing is only 40% of North Carolina commercial harvesters report landings while 60% never report landings. I heard it at the speckled trout scoping meetings, I hear it at Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) meetings, and I see it written in articles. While technically this is true, it does not address why these licenses do not report any landings. More, >click to read< 10:01
Boothbay Harbor lobster boat parade signals solidarity of Maine lobstermen
On a chilly but sunny March afternoon, on the deck of Brady’s Restaurant about a dozen Mainers, some holding beers, watched a parade of lobster boats travel through the opening of the Boothbay Harbor Footbridge and into the inner harbor, right up to Brady’s deck, horns blaring and people cheering. The lobster boats steamed toward Brady’s and in less than a span of 10 minutes, circled around and headed back through the Footbridge. The photos captured on that day show a scene that will never be reprised again. As of mid-March, Maine lobstermen are fighting back by suing the Monterey Bay Aquarium over the “red list” designation. Lots of photos, >click to read< 09:30
