Daily Archives: August 31, 2023
Two Friends: A Tragedy In Gloucester
In the summer of 2001, my wife Jan and I lived in a house on the highest point of East Gloucester, known as Beacon Hill. It had once been a visual landmark for ships navigating the approach into Gloucester harbor. One July day as I turned onto East Main, I noticed something that had not been there before, a tall crane behind some buildings. There was the crane and the reason for its presence: a burned-out and rusted fishing trawler pulled up to the shore, its name “Two Friends” still visible on the bow. The boat was being stripped for salvage, and as pieces were severed from above its hull, the crane deposited them in the lot to be hauled away. I found the history of the vessel online, because it had been in the local news and in the courts. 18 Photos, >>click to read<< 18:44
Florida Gov. DeSantis To Seek Aid For Fishing Industry
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday said the state will seek federal help for the fishing industry in the Big Bend region, as cleanup efforts moved into a second day from the devastation caused by Hurricane Idalia. Meanwhile, the state reported its first confirmed death related to Idalia, while utility workers still had about 135,000 customer power outages to tackle from the Category 3 storm, many in sparsely populated areas of North Florida. The governor’s plan to seek help from the U.S. Department of Commerce for the fishing industry followed White House approval of a separate request for a major disaster declaration. >>click to read<< 17:22
Eagle, Eagle, what are you going to do?
Dick and Carl Arvidson had sister ships built in Seattle. Carl named his the “Eagle,” and when they were transiting through the locks out of Lake Washington, Dick was in the lead. Evidently there was confusion for Carl, as over a loudspeaker, he heard an urgent announcement: “Eagle! Eagle! What are you going to do?” Dick and Carl were good friends and had both begun fishing in the Cordova area at a young age. Dick loved to tell the story about the maiden voyage of their matching boats. It was always good for a laugh. The Eagle still sits in the Cordova boat harbor and is used in set net operations by the Kritchens on the other side of the Sound. Seeing it reminded me of another eagle story witnessed from Renner’s Dragonfly. >>click to read<< 15:09
‘Enforce the laws’: N.S. Liberals to feds, province on lobster dispute
As the conflict over Sipekne’katik’s moderate livelihood fishery once again heats up in St. Marys Bay, the provincial Liberal party has split from their federal counterparts. On Tuesday, Nova Scotia Liberal Leader Zach Churchill called for the provincial government to start revoking the licences of any buyers found to be purchasing lobster caught without a licence issued by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). And he called out the federal government for a lack of enforcement of the Fisheries Act. “We are talking about hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars of lobster being landed illegally. There has to be a disincentive. … DFO also has to enforce the laws of the land which prohibit large-scale poaching.” >>click to read<< 12:34
Submerged Rock Led to Fishing Vessel Grounding
A captain’s decision to navigate close to shore in an area with uncharted rocks led to the grounding and capsizing of a fishing vessel in Alaska last year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said. The Challenger struck a submerged rock while fishing for salmon along the shore of Kodiak Island, Alaska on August 7, 2022. The vessel began taking on more water than the onboard pumps could handle. The captain and three crewmembers abandoned ship and were rescued by a nearby Good Samaritan fishing vessel, and the vessel capsized soon after. Another Good Samaritan vessel towed the fishing vessel to Larsen Bay. No injuries were reported. The Challenger was declared a total loss, with damages exceeding $600,000. >>click to read<< 10:51
Catch Shares: Commercial trawlers to transition to quota system for Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands cod harvests
Starting in January, the fleet will fish under a “rationalization” system where each catcher vessel will have a maximum catch limit, which will be assigned through quota. The new regulations will require vessels trawling for cod in the area to form cooperatives, and quota will be administered through each co-op. Previously, the entire fishery had a total allowable catch that had to be caught within a certain amount of time. NOAA said this is the first time a catch share program has been implemented in Alaska since 2012. >>click to read<< 09:31
Offshore wind projects may be cancelled in NJ, according to report
Already facing a series of lawsuits and opposition from state and local officials, Danish wind power developer Orsted is reporting huge financial losses. Those losses, company officials warned, could reach $2.3 billion in the U.S and may force the cancellation of projects of the New Jersey coast. In a conference call with investors, Orsted CEO Mads Nipper told them, “If the walk-away scenario is the economical, rational decision for us, then this remains a real scenario for us.” Orsted is considering “walking away” from or cancelling projects in New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maryland. >>click to read<< 08:48
Forty years since Narooma lobster case that could have transformed Indigenous fishing rights in NSW
Norm Patten’s eyes light up when he talks about lobster season. “When you see that yellow wattle come out mate, you know the lobsters are travelling up the coast,” Mr Patten said. The eastern rock lobster can be found along the continental shelf off Australia’s south-eastern coast. Mr Patten’s mum was a Monaro-Gunai woman and he grew up in Victoria’s East Gippsland region and in Narooma on the NSW far south coast. He and his siblings were taught by their stepfather how to spot lobsters’ horns poking out of the seaweed at low tide. By the time Mr Patten was an adult, a commercial rock lobster industry was established on the far south coast and strict catch limits were introduced for recreational fishers. >>click to read<< 07:54
