The city will replace pilings at Gardner’s Basin this month, Mayor Marty Small Sr. said Monday, so boat tours and fishing boats will be able to have a complete summer season there. “We are confident the boats will be able to dock at the site by May,” Small said Monday. On March 24 and 31, the city sent letters to the businesses warning that “2023 seasonal operations under (your) Commercial Dock Agreement … for your Commercial Boat Slip must be suspended until the project is complete.” Video, >click to read< 13:32
Daily Archives: April 4, 2023
Meet the Hagfish, the Slime-Spewing Star of Maine’s Nastiest Little Fishery
The first time Vinalhaven lobsterboat captain Frank Thompson trapped hagfish in the Gulf of Maine, the pinkish-gray, snakelike animals popped the hatch off his hold — with their slime. When stressed or attacked, a single 20-inch-long hagfish spews a quart of stringy, suffocating snot in less than a second, and the stuff rapidly expands as it mixes with seawater. It was May 2009, and Thompson’s 48-foot boat was carrying 2,800 pounds of hagfish — that’s roughly 5,000 fish oozing copious slime from their skins. Unable to escape their own goop, many of the fish were dead when Thompson unloaded his catch in Gloucester, Massachusetts. >click to read< 17:24
SEA-NL on Pot to Plate, new program to sell crab at the wharf
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) is encouraging the public to buy live fresh snow crab from inshore enterprises when they land at the wharf, and is preparing a “pot to plate” program to connect boats to buyers province-wide. “The 2023 snow crab price to start the season will be half what it was last year, and the lowest in years, which will hurt every last small-boat enterprise around the province,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “SEA-NL is asking the people of the province to step up and buy fresh live North Atlantic snow crab direct from our fishermen and women at a fair price at the wharf.” SEA-NL will consult with owner-operators around the province before recommending a “wharf price” to charge for snow crab and plans to announce a price Thursday. >click to read< 14:05
Environmental groups withdraw lawsuit over last Maine salmon
A coalition of environmental groups said Monday it is withdrawing a lawsuit against a renewable energy giant that it has accused of jeopardizing the last remaining wild Atlantic salmon in the U.S. The groups sued Brookfield Renewable, claiming the company kills salmon on the Kennebec River with its dams. Atlantic salmon only return to a handful of U.S. rivers, all in Maine, and they are protected under the Endangered Species Act. The conservationists were dealt a setback last month when the federal government ruled the salmon can coexist with hydroelectric dams on the Kennebec, as long as upgrades are eventually made to allow salmon to pass through the dams more easily. >click to read< 12:15
Crab Fishermen stay in boats on the north coast
Unsatisfied with the prices offered to them by the mill owners, most of the crab fishermen in 16 areas on the north shore did not go to sea on Saturday when fishing began in their field. 39 owners of 54 fishing licenses in Area 16 feel hurt by the temporary price of $2.25 per pound offered by the mills and accepted by fishermen in other parts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec. According to these fishermen, the only people in the province to group around the marketing group are not honoring the price formula that allows processors to get more than $2.25 a pound. According to their representative Jean-René Boucher, all factories in the province, including the six located on the north coast, have been issued with a watchword by the Fishing Industry Association not to accept crabs from area 16. >click to read< 10:38
Scientists who investigated crab and lobster die off ‘surprised’ politicians have ‘questioned their integrity’
The 13-person panel of experts conducted a review of all the evidence gathered during a government-run investigation into the deaths of the crustaceans, which began washing ashore between Hartlepool and Whitby in October 2021. The panel said it was “unable to identify a clear and convincing single cause” but the “most likely” explanation is an unknown disease or parasite killed the crustaceans, after it was convened by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’s (Defra) Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Gideon Henderson. The findings have been disputed in recent weeks by local fishermen and a number of Labour MPs, with Geraint Davies claiming it was “farcical” to suggest a “phantom pathogen” caused the deaths. >click to read< 09:05
Shrimp boat capt. says fire ‘scary,’ debris washes ashore
Roger “Rabbit” Cummings doesn’t know exactly how long he and the two crew members of the Miss Hopkins shrimp trawler floated in the water after jumping from the burning boat, but it seemed like a while. Cummings, the vessel’s captain, guesses they were adrift for about 45 minutes, donning lifejackets and keeping a tight grip on a hatch from the vessel before a speed boat came by and pulled the trio from the water while the Miss Hopkins was engulfed in flames nearby. They were about four miles off the coast of Jekyll Island. “It seemed like a long time,” Cummings said, “But it might not have been that long.” Eventually, a smaller boat that had seen the black plume of smoke on the horizon while in the Jekyll Sound pulled them from the water. The smoke was visible Friday afternoon on both Jekyll and St. Simons islands. >click to read< 08:07