Monthly Archives: June 2023
Kotek calls for pause on offshore wind turbines
Gov. Tina Kotek is joining a chorus of voices, including tribes and commercial fishermen, urging the Biden administration to slow down its push for floating wind farms in the Pacific Ocean off the state’s southern coast. Regulators are now preparing a draft report outlining where in the areas turbines may be built safely while minimizing harm to fisheries and marine life. Members of the West Coast fishing industry, however, claim that the bureau is ignoring their concerns. They worry that floating offshore wind farms will displace boats from highly productive fishing grounds and could irreversibly damage the California Current ecosystem. >click to read< 09:20
Eastern Shore fisherman pleads guilty to overharvesting, trafficking of striped bass
A commercial fisherman from the Eastern Shore pleaded guilty Monday to violating a federal law by selling striped bass he caught in Virginia waterways in excess of his quota over the course of three years. Keith James Martin, 52, of Saxis, was legally allowed to harvest 4,010 pounds of striped bass per year from 2018 to 2020 under Virginia code, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia. However, in 2018, Martin sold more than 6,700 pounds of striped bass to a Maryland seafood business and more than 4,300 pounds to the same business in 2019, according to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement. >click to read< 08:33
Cork fishermen find what they believe to be failed Virgin rocket ship motor
While fishing for monkfish, the group of fishermen from Keelbeg, Union Hall hauled what they now believe is a part of the Virgin rocket ship. Virgin Orbit, a company created by business tycoon Richard Branson, made their debut launch of the LauncherOne rocket off the coast of Cornwall in January. The launch was the first of its kind off of UK soil. However, just two hours after the first rocket launch, it was revealed that the Virgin Orbit ship had suffered an anomaly and had crashed into the sea following an engine failure. >click to read< 07:50
Maine Delegation, Gov. Mills asks BOEM to listen to fishermen, remove LMA1 from wind power planning
The Mallett Brothers Band to Headline Event Celebrating Maine’s Lobstering Heritage
Preparations are underway for a day-long festival this summer to celebrate Maine’s lobstering heritage. “Music, Masts, and Lobster Traps” will be held on Sunday, August 27 at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath and culminate in a late afternoon performance by Maine’s own The Mallett Brothers Band. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) which, with support from the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), is working to ensure a vibrant future for Maine’s fishing families and the communities in which they live and work. >click here to read the details< 14:24
Texas Congressmen Call on Biden Administration to Protect American Shrimp Industry
With Texas shrimpers struggling to hold on to market share, a bipartisan group of the state’s congressional delegation is asking the Biden administration to do more to protect the industry from foreign providers accused of dumping cheap and less regulated shrimp into U.S. markets. On Tuesday, Reps. Troy Nehls (R-TX-22) and Randy Weber (R-TX-14) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai requesting more information on the administration’s plans to protect shrimping. “Our nation’s shrimpers are being put out of business because of foreign shrimp being dumped into domestic markets,” said Nehls in a statement. >click to read< 13:20
Why are the whales dying? Sea mammal deaths hit record in New York and New Jersey
As whales wash up along East Coast shores at alarming rates, researchers dissect decomposing carcasses, logging whether ship strikes or fishing gear factored into each demise, while some beachgoers wonder if their favorite coastline will be next. At least 14 humpbacks and minke whales have been found dead thus far in 2023 in waters off New York and New Jersey — up from 9 in the entirety of last year. The most recent deaths were two humpbacks, whose corpses were spotted May 31, in Raritan Bay off Keansburg, New Jersey, and Wainscott on Long Island. >click to read< 11:52
Sunken Brixham boat raised in remarkable harbour rescue
A fishing boat which sank in Brixham harbour last week has already been salvaged and is treading water for repairs. Bleary-eyed Brixham residents were in shock when they saw the half-submerged boat taking on water when they woke up on Wednesday morning and the council has released a statement explaining how it happened and was cleared up. It sparked quite the reaction online with lots of pictures of the scene floating around. One involved in the chatter was John Pepper, who lives right above the harbour and saw it all happen from his window. >click to read< 10:52
Dave Marciano Illness: What Happened To His Health?
Dave Marciano is one of the most well-known stars of Wicked Tuna. There are some whispers going around that he is sick at this time. These rumors are unconfirmed and appear to be hoaxes. Despite these rumors, Marciano seems healthy and is regularly engaging with admirers on social media. Commercial fisherman Dave Marciano, who stars in “Wicked Tuna,” is selling fresh tuna. Angelica’s Seafoods, Marciano’s new company, sells tuna and other seafood directly to consumers. Marciano’s kid was born during the filming “Wicked Tuna.” Marciano’s Hard Merchandise and other local boats will supply Angelica’s seafood with tuna. The company will sell lobster, scallops, crab, and sushi-grade tuna. Online seafood orders will be delivered to customers. >click to read< 09:37
Greymouth fishing company Westfleet loses multi-million dollar trawler for coral weighing ‘less than half a pound of butter’
A deep sea fishing company has lost its multi-million dollar trawler to the Crown in a case described by a judge as a “cavalier approach to the whole area of compliance”. Greymouth-based Westfleet Fishing Limited was sentenced in the Nelson District Court today on a charge of breaching a condition of a high seas permit and a representative charge of failing to provide a Non-Fish Protected Species (NFPS) Report. Along with losing its trawler Westfleet was also convicted and fined $56,250. Former skipper Stephen John Smith was separately convicted and fined $7500 for contravening a condition of a high seas permit, while first mate Nicholas Taikato was convicted and fined $6000 on a representative charge of failing to provide an NFPS report. >click to read< 09:10
Rockland Council holds off on resolve that supports lobster industry, dismisses right whale concerns
The City Council voted Monday evening, June 12, to postpone for two months a resolve to support the lobster industry out of concern that the language goes too far in dismissing concerns about the impact on the endangered right whale. Councilor Austin was unsuccessful in removing some of the language from the resolve concerning right whales. That vote was 3-2 against removing the language with the mayor supporting Austin’s effort. The statements at issue in the resolve were ones that dismissed the concerns that environmentalists have about the lobster industry’s impact on right whales. >click to read< 08:02
Versatile Trawler Stodig Heads North
Outfitted for shrimp trawling, seine netting and crabbing, F/V Stødig packs a lot of technology and smart thinking into its 39.30 metre LOA, 11.50 metre breadth hull, which is designed by Karstensen and built with a price tag of around NoK200 million. ‘We have been waiting for the yard in Denmark for nine months, and now we’re ready to get started,’ said Asbjørn Selsbane’s manager Andreas Hansen as he and his son Erlend, who sails as mate, brought the new vessel home to Eidkjosen in the north of Norway, with a call in Ålesund on the way to pick up gear. 8 Photos, >click to read< 16:17
Offshore wind encounters turbulence over NJ
The offshore wind industry’s troubles continue to pile up, not only in New Jersey but in neighboring states along the Eastern Seaboard. On Wednesday, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities President Joseph Fiordaliso, perhaps one of the sector’s biggest advocates, let loose with an uncharacteristic rant at a developer in the emerging industry. Fiordaliso expressed frustration over repeated delays in moving forward with the project. “Your delays are intolerable,’’ he said. As was his custom, he had an offshore wind logo pinned on his suit. “We cannot afford any more delays,’’ Fiordaliso said, adding there are no delays in the pace of climate change. “Some of the things that are being delayed are indefensible.’’ >click to read< 14:30
Hero skipper who saved his crew when their boat was blown up killed himself after his rescue left him suffering with PTSD
A heroic fisherman who saved his crew when his boat was blown up by an unexploded Second World War bomb killed himself after suffering from PTSD, an inquest has heard. Lewis Mulhearn, 39, was horrifically injured by the blast as his vessel sailed over a German-made Luftwaffe bomb on the seabed in the North Sea. A crab pot being dragged by the fishing vessel disturbed the deadly 290lb device, triggering a huge underwater explosion that threw the 42ft boat Galwad-Y-Mor into the air. The blast left Mr Mulhearn with head injuries, three broken vertebrae, a broken sternum, knee damage, a broken orbital bone and multiple facial lacerations. Photos, >click to read< 11:06
Commercial Fisherman Captain Ronald Lynn Galloway, Sr. of Baytown, Texas, has passed away
It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Captain Ronald Lynn Galloway Sr. of Baytown, Texas, born October 12, 1950, who passed away on June 4, 2023, at the age of 72, leaving to mourn family and friends. Captain Ron was a beloved member of the commercial shrimping industry. He enjoyed sharing his love for the water, and was proud that his son Ronnie, Jr. followed in his footsteps and worked alongside him for many years. In the spring, you could find Capt. Ron out on the bay catching big shrimp and crabs, and in the winter, you would find him sitting in a deer blind waiting for the monster buck. >click to read< 09:54
DA drops charges against Beverly lobsterman
A Beverly lobsterman is off the hook on charges that he caught more than 100 illegal lobsters. The Essex District Attorney’s Office has dropped a nearly two-year criminal case against Timothy Birarelli, of Beverly, according to his attorneys. Birarelli was accused by the Massachusetts Environmental Police on Dec. 9, 2020, of catching 103 lobsters that were either too short, too long, or otherwise violated state lobstering regulations. A spokesman for the Essex District Attorney’s Office said the case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. >click to read< 08:57
80-year-old shrimper still selling catch to St. Helena’s Gay Fish Co. ‘Kids won’t do this’
With muscly tan forearms that belie his age, Jim Buchanan hoists a 60-pound basket of white shrimp fat with roe onto the dock at Gay Fish Co. on St. Helena Island. “It’s hard work and, if you don’t like it, good God, it would be absolute misery,” Buchanan says. Buchanan, who is 80, won’t retire, he says with a smile, “Until somebody finds me on the back deck.” He enjoys being on the ocean and the hard work. Buchanan is one of five captains who own boats that dock and sell their catches at one of the surviving docks — Gay Fish Co., a St. Helena Island landmark that turns 75 this year, making it one of the oldest shrimping businesses in Beaufort County. Video, Photos, >click to read< 07:57
Next Level Plotter
The market for marine electronics isn’t short of chart plotters, but Håvard Holm at Norwegian company SailorsMate is certain that he and his team have come up with a set of new approaches that brings a new level of integration to plotting specifically for fishing. SailorsMate is now in use on around 700 Norwegian vessels, plus there are some Faroese users, and the company feels it’s time to branch out and expand its user base to other areas. ‘We’re getting enquiries from Denmark, Canada and the UK. We’re able to offer SailorsMate at an attractive price that currently includes all of the modules that are expensive add-ons with other systems. >click to read< 16:05
British Columbia: Steveston fishermen race against time for spot prawn season
The annual spot prawn season may feel short and sweet to seafood enthusiasts, but it’s even more pressing for the few spot prawn fishermen at Steveston’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The wild spot prawn, known for its eponymous spots, has a four-year life cycle and lives in “crystal clear, pristine waters” deep in the ocean. “By year number two, they transition into a female. And they spawn at year number four, and then they die,” said Frank “Fisherman Frank” Keitsch, who has been catching spot prawns for around 30 years. With the fishing grounds being far away from Steveston, only around four local boats are able to cover the distance. >click to read< 11:35
New England Fishing Culture
In New Bedford, fishing is more than a business—it is a way of life, passed down through generations of families like a tradition instead of an occupation. Born into a family of fishermen, Tyler Miranda grew up on the water, going out on trips in his father’s lobster boat—a wooden vessel about 14 feet long and half-covered in ocean-worn lobster traps—since he was six. Kellen O’Maley, a fisherman from Gloucester, Mass., chose not to pursue opportunities using a business degree. (Gloucester, a town two hours north of New Bedford, is the second largest fishing port in the state.) Instead, he dove into the fishing industry. >click to read< 10:19
Pipe Dream: The wind and solar power myth has finally been exposed
Many governments in the Western world have committed to “net zero” emissions of carbon in the near future. The US and UK both say they will deliver by 2050. It’s widely believed that wind and solar power can achieve this. This belief has led the US and British governments, among others, to promote and heavily subsidize wind and solar. These plans have a single, fatal flaw: they are reliant on the pipe dream that there is some affordable way to store surplus electricity at scale. Wind and solar need to be backed up, close to 100 per cent, by some other means of power generation. If that backup is provided by open-cycle gas or worse, coal, net zero will never be achieved: nor anything very close to it. >click to read< 09:02
The man who changed Canada’s lobster industry and his $1B deal to sell Clearwater
In Nova Scotia, John Risley is arguably a household name, synonymous with the seafood industry and his many conspicuous possessions. On both fronts, his reputation is well earned. In 1976, he and his brother-in-law Colin MacDonald started Clearwater, a dumpy retail lobster shop on the side of a suburban Halifax highway. From that simple start, Risley fundamentally changed the Atlantic Canadian lobster industry — transforming it from a seasonal, afterthought business to a year-round, $3-billion sector where lobsters are shipped overnight by air to customers in Europe and Asia, a premise unheard of before Risley entered the industry. Along the way, Clearwater matured into a global seafood company. >click to read< 07:43
Massive Offshore Wind Project Gets Underway with Permission to ‘Take’ Endangered Whales
A large offshore wind farm development project is underway off the Massachusetts coast nearly two years after the project’s developer received 20 “take” permits in June 2021 for the endangered right whale from environmental bureaucrats and regulators. Vineyard Wind began offshore construction of the 62- wind turbine project Thursday, according to WBUR. During this summer’s construction of the offshore wind farm some 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, the company is permitted to incidentally kill up to 20 endangered right whales, according to the Federal Register entry for the project. >click to read< 12:41
Fishery observer accused of falsifying record in N.S. halibut fishery
Brian Richardson is a dockside monitor with Barrington Catch Centre Monitoring Association, a non-profit that provides third-party observers to record catch data for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The department alleges that in January, Richardson falsely recorded that a vessel’s fish hold was checked before and after a halibut offload in Sambro and falsely recorded that all the catch was accounted for. He was arraigned in Halifax provincial court this week on charges under federal fishery regulations. Richardson pleaded not guilty and a trial is scheduled for February 2024. >click to read< 11:17
Coast Guard investigating fishing fatality
A fishing accident has once again claimed the life of a Stonington lobsterman. Authorities say Thomas Ciomei, 58, died Friday, June 2, after entering the water east of Isle au Haut. According to Stonington Assistant Harbormaster Dana Webb, Not Enough, Ciomei’s Duffy 35, was found by fellow fisherman Lawrence Bray III about three-quarters of a mile away on Way Ledge, also known as White Ledge. Webb cautioned that much of the information he had was secondhand and subject to correction. Like others in the tight-knit community of fishermen, he was hoping for answers about the cause of the accident. >click to read< 10:27
Shrimp season may be slow, opens June 20
Georgia’s shrimp season should start well when it opens June 20, but scientists and shrimpers expect it will taper off as fall settles in the Golden Isles. That has been the case the past couple of years when shrimpers are allowed to trawl in state waters, which extend to three miles offshore, said Frank Owens, owner of City Market in Brunswick. He expects to see the same thing this year when unloading boats at the market’s docks in Brunswick. There are some of the desirable, plump, white roe shrimp being caught already. But how good those catches are and for how long that quality lasts is hard to tell, Owens said. “Today I unloaded some boats that were about half white shrimp and half brown shrimp,” Owens said this week. “These last few years, spring has been good, but fall has been a bit off.” >click to read< 09:18
The Emerging American Offshore Wind Industry is Impacting the Community of New Bedford
The Port of New Bedford is home to the wealthiest commercial fishing industry in the country. As the dominant port on the east coast, New Bedford has one of the best industrial working waterfronts with services that completely support marine industrial businesses. Fisherman are concerned that these wind developments will harmfully impact the fishing economy. With commercial fishing at the core of New Bedford’s economy, there are concerns regarding management and maintenance of both industries cohabitating. “I was adamantly opposed to having them offshore, to be honest with you. I don’t feel it’s a good environment for them,” said Captain Jim Kendall, a retired scalloper. “I think it’s going to be real problematic for them, plus it’s parking these towers right where these boats fish.” >click to read< 08:06
Fairness in Scheduling and the Targeted Elimination of the Small-Boat Fleet
Three weeks into the snow crab fishery and dozens of attempts made to work out a fair arrangement for fish harvesters, FFAW-Unifor is calling on the provincial government to better regulate processing companies, issue additional processing licenses, and open the province up to outside buyers immediately to allow inshore harvesters to sell their catch. “Processing companies are engaging in unethical business behaviour to the targeted detriment of the small boat fleet in our province. The fishery may be open with a price agreement in place, but with no avenue to sell, harvesters are still in crisis,” says FFAW-Unifor Secretary-Treasurer Jason Spingle. “Our Union has made every effort this year to work out a fair proposal to ensure all fleets have a fair opportunity to participate in the fishery, but at every turn we’ve only been met with the same fish merchant-style tactics,” he says. >click to read< 15:10
New Twin-Rigger’s Efficiency and Comfort
Looking for a modern trawler with more comfort for the crew, as well as better steaming speed and fuel efficiency when towing, while staying largely with the successful and familiar layout of their previous vessel, Derek Watt and his son Philip went back to Macduff for their new Excel BF-100. Designed to operate from Fraserburgh, fishing primarily for nephrops in the North Sea, the new F/V Excel replaces vessel of the same name that Macduff delivered to the family in 2010 and which has served them well since. Staying with the general internal layout and working arrangement that has shown itself to work well over the years was a key factor in the design, developed by the owners with the yard and Macduff Ship Design, which would make the transition to the new vessel a painless process. Photos, >click to read< 13:23
