Daily Archives: May 30, 2023
DOJ will appeal court order forcing Southeast Alaska king salmon troll fishery closure
The United States Department of Justice will appeal a federal court order forcing the closure of the commercial king salmon troll fishery in Southeast Alaska. In early May, Washington U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones upheld an earlier recommendation that the Southeast summer and winter king fisheries were catching too much of the food source of a dwindling population of Puget Sound’s Southern Resident killer whales, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The defendant intervenors in the case, the Alaska Trollers Association and the State of Alaska, filed motions earlier this month calling for a “partial stay” of the order, pending an appeal to allow the fisheries to proceed. >click to read< 15:58
Coast Guard responds to boat collision in James River, Virginia
The Coast Guard responded to a vessel collision Tuesday morning near the Newport News Small Boat Harbor. The Coast Guard was alerted at 7:50 a.m. that the pilot boat, Swift, and a 38-foot deadrise fishing vessel, F/V Miss Heather, collided near the Newport News Small Boat Harbor. The pilot aboard the Swift rescued two fishermen from the Miss Heather and brought them aboard the pilot boat as the fishing vessel rapidly took on water. >click to read the report< 14:50
‘A’ is for Algrie, end of a fishing era.
A piece of fishing history left through the gaps this week on her way to be scrapped in Ghent, Belgium – the Algrie was the very first trawler purchased by the Stevenson family fishing firm to enter the harbour in 1976 and start was to become the the largest privately owned beam trawl fishing fleet in Europe. In 1982, the 70ft Algrie found her beam trawls attached to the nuclear attack sub HMS Spartan in the waters off Land’s End in 1982 and towed her for quite some time before the sub surfaced. Legend has it that, at first, the Navy via the coastguard, denied there was a submarine in the area! Video, Lots of photos, >click to read< 12:48
Don’t make this mistake about Maine women who catch lobster
“One hundred percent of the women I talked to called themselves lobstermen, and some people asked me why I used what they said was an inappropriate word,” Farrell said. “I had to explain to them that female lobstermen aren’t lobsterwomen, or lobster fishers. They are lobstermen.” Across the board, lobstermen is the preferred term for anyone who works on a lobster boat in Maine. It doesn’t matter what age, background, sexual orientation or gender you are: If you’re working on a boat, you’re a lobsterman. Same goes for sternman, if you’re prepping bait and sorting through the day’s catch. >click to read< 11:33
USDA will invest $52 million to help fishing industry on the West Coast
The struggling fisheries industry on the West Coast is getting a much-needed financial boost from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it will buy $52 million worth of Pacific groundfish for its food assistance programs. The money is the USDA’s third and biggest investment in the fish in as many years. In 2021, the USDA purchased $16 million of groundfish, specifically rockfish, pink shrimp and whiting or hake, a fish that’s popular in Eastern Europe. It increased that to up to just over $30 million the following year. This year’s $52 million surpasses the $50 million in wholesale sales for those fish last year, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which tracks fisheries in Oregon. >click to read< 09:50
Boat caught fire May 21 in Naknek’s LMI boatyard
The commercial fishing boat F/V Midnight Hour caught fire in Naknek’s LMI boatyard on May 21. No injuries were reported. Boatyard Manager Micaela Emory-Wilson said the fire started around 12:30 p.m. Emory-Wilson said fishermen on a neighboring boat tried to put the fire out with extinguishers and garden hoses while others tried to contact the fire department. But she said GCI customers in Naknek have had trouble calling landlines from their cell phones. “So no one could get through to 911. The call kept dropping,” she said. The fishermen of the F/V Midnight Hour are staying in crew housing for the time being. They still hope to fish on another boat this summer. >click to read< 09:01
North Carolina Joins Effort to Establish Regional Fisheries Mitigation for Offshore Wind Development
Governor Roy Cooper announced that North Carolina has joined other Atlantic Coast states involved with the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind on a coordinated project to support fisheries mitigation in the development of offshore wind along the East Coast. “It is important that we work to meet our state’s offshore wind energy goals while still protecting our marine fishery industry,” said Governor Cooper. “We are committed to collaborating with other states in this effort to make sure we achieve both goals.” Currently, the Initiative is focused on establishing a framework to compensate commercial and for-hire fishermen in the event of economic impact related to offshore wind development. The goal is to develop a regional approach for administration of any financial compensation paid by developers. Economic impacts from coastal fishing in North Carolina top $4.5 billion annually. >click to read< 08:26
Trouble brewing if Royal Greenland doesn’t start buying crab from under 40’ fleet: SEA-NL
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) says enterprise owners in the under 40’ fleet warn there will be trouble if Quin-Sea/Royal Greenland doesn’t start buying snow crab from them, and processing companies are not reined in. “Forget tie-up, someone could be strung up,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “The 2023 crab dispute is not over yet, and tensions will boil over unless the union stands up for its members, and the provincial government supports small-boat fishermen against the foreign country trying to drive them under.” >click to read press release< 07:26
