Daily Archives: May 15, 2023
Natural Resources Defense Council Announces STATE OF EMERGENCY for Atlantic Whales By Jim Lovgren
The National Resources Defense Council [NRDC] in a press release has declared a state of emergency for Atlantic Whales. Here are some excerpts from a piece written by Francine Kershaw, NRDC’s leading east coast Marine mammal expert. “Something is happening off our Atlantic coast. Unprecedented numbers of great Whales are washing up dead on our shores.” Over the last few decades, the NRDC has successfully challenged the US Military in regard to sonar effects on marine organisms, while also challenging seismic activity related to oil exploration. Both of these issues have national security implications that require a more robust examination of the possible causes of the legal actions taken, and why they were taken. What’s NRDC’s excuse for ignoring the growing amount of dead Whale carcasses that keep washing up on east coast beaches, while the same research vessels that would have been doing the seismic and sonar research for the oil companies are doing it for the wind factories? >click to read< 17:58
Facing mounting bills and a vanishing season, some crab fishermen are defying the union and heading out to sea
It’s been more than a month since crab fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador decided to keep their boats docked in protest of this year’s catch price of $2.20 and for some, the tie-up has gone on long enough. Terry Ryan of La Scie is one of them. He and his son, who work together, have decided it’s time to head out on the water, defying the advice of the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union. “We gave it the good fight when we supported the tie-up that was orchestrated by Jason Sullivan,” he said. “All we’re getting out of this now is lost fishing time, lost money. We’ve got bills to pay, bank payments to make, and we’ve come to the conclusion that $2.20 is better 
than zero. Zero is your revenue off crab if you don’t fish crab.” Fellow La Scie fisherman Jimmy Lee Foss plans to keep waiting, though, calling $2.20 a “devastating” price. “I’m kinda fighting for my life here. that’s what I feel like,” he said. La Scie is divided, said Foss, and everyone has to make their own decisions — and he plans to keep holding out. Video, >click to read< 17:12
Charges filed against vessel operator for illegal trawling near Kodiak, Alaska
The State of Alaska filed criminal misdemeanor charges May 12 against a vessel operator for operating non-pelagic trawl gear within the Kodiak, Alaska, ground fish registration area. The trawl gear used in the area had attached to it chafing gear and chain rib lines suitable for fishing in contact with the seabed, all devices not authorized for legal pelagic trawl gear. A multi-agency law enforcement team embarked aboard Coast Guard Cutter Naushon boarded the trawler near Kodiak, Alaska, March 16, and issued several significant fisheries violations. “In response to the boarding, NOAA opened an investigation into the vessel for fishing in federal waters closed to non-pelagic trawl gear around Kodiak,” said Phillip Null, supervisory enforcement officer, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement (NOAA OLE). >click to read< 15:27
Letter to Mads Nipper, CEO, Ørsted
Dear Mr. Nipper, We write as concerned citizens and residents of the State of New Jersey, U.S.A. Our groups total tens of thousands of volunteer citizen advocates including more than 500,000 signatories to various petitions supporting our efforts. The NJ Shore is a national treasure enjoyed by millions who live and work, visit and vacation here and have done so for generations. On behalf of all the good people who love and enjoy the NJ Shore and its communities, please treat this letter as public notice that: We oppose your company’s efforts to turn our ocean, coastal ecosystems, and shore communities into industrial electricity generation and transmission power plants; We will protect our shore communities, the environment and the lives and livelihoods of all species including the millions of us that reside, work, visit and vacation here against your thoughtless industrialization; We will not falter, and we will not stop opposing your developments. >click to read< 11:48
Three in one week.
They say a week is a long time in politics, or if you wait ages for a bus, three come along at once – in just one week Newlyn has just seen the loss of three members of its fishing community. First to make his way to the deck of the big fishing boat in the sky was Mr PCCM himself, son of a coastguard, Dick Harvey. Dick epitomised ‘old school’. Talking of HMRC and tax, fish buyer Geoff Davies, seen here with early-days mobile phone hitched to is belt, was a tax inspector in a previous life – that was before he came to fish from Newlyn and then, subsequently went ashore and worked for leading fish merchant Nick Howell when his premises were behind Waghorns. Fishing runs deep in the Stevens family, generations have fished from the port of St Ives. Ernest Stevens, David Stevens father had the second and much larger Rose of Sharon built in 1969 by Forbes of Sandhaven, the first built them back in 1964. Lots of photos, >click to read< 09:45
Morro Bay group plans initiative to block proposed battery storage plant
A group of Morro Bay residents who call themselves Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation has submitted a citizen’s initiative that aims to block construction of a battery storage facility near the old power plant. The 24-acre site for the proposed battery plant is adjacent to a major PG&E substation, where it would connect to the California grid via high-voltage power lines that climb the hills from Morro Bay across SLO County to the California transmission system. Some critics, however, don’t want to see these systems in their backyard. They point to the need to preserve Morro Bay’s fishing village atmosphere. There is another aspect to all this. Many of the same critics don’t want the offshore wind project either and lump their concerns together. >click to read< 08:52
For Atlantic Canada, Fishing Season Brings Yet More Violence
In the early morning dark of April 12, 2023, violence erupted along a Nova Scotia riverbank after a man engaged a woman and a youth in a heated argument. Soon after, seven people arrived. One allegedly assaulted the man with a pipe while another stood nearby wielding a knife and a taser. When the RCMP later arrested two members of the group a short distance away, the officers found two shotguns and a taser. Conflict around elvers is not new, nor is it the only fishery in Atlantic Canada that’s seen so much turmoil. Whether it’s around elvers, lobsters, or something else, “this will continue to play out, and play out, and play out, until the government deals with the issues on the table.” >click to read< 08:05
