Daily Archives: October 20, 2023
Coast Guard searching for overdue fishing vessel 80 miles off Brunswick, Georgia
The Coast Guard is searching for an overdue 31-foot fishing vessel, Friday, 80 miles offshore Brunswick, Georgia. Coast Guard Sector Charleston watchstanders received a report from the owner of the fishing vessel Carol Anne stating he hired a crew of three people that failed to return on Wednesday as scheduled. The owner stated the crew extends fishing trips to maximize their catch but was growing concerned due to their last communication with the crew being six days ago. >>click to read<< 20:05
Offshore Wind Is A Dangerous Pipe Dream Costing Taxpayers Billions
How many times have we heard that wind power, coupled with the sun’s energy, is going to save us from our fossil-fuel-burning ways? Maybe one day it will. But at no time soon will it happen. And by soon, we mean in most of our lifetimes. How can we say this? Look around at what’s happening with wind energy [emphasis, “California’s Central Coast residents work to stop — or at least slow down — offshore wind.”,,, “Orsted Threatens To Abandon U.S. Offshore Wind Projects.” Biden administration guarantees more support.,, “Electricity from wind isn’t cheap and it never will be.” The list above is no more than a start. There are many more stories we could have cited, and there are many more to come. Wind energy is unreliable, and its costs are not competitive at scale. Lots of links! >>click to read<< 18:22
Lifeboat crew return after 18-hour call
Stephen Manson described the seas as “brutal” after the lifeboat was called out to aid the Danish trawler Westbank and her three-man crew. The 17m fishing vessel had broken down, and the RNLI crew launched into difficult conditions in the North Sea, heading into the south-easterly gale which has brought chaos across Scotland. “It was brutal, there were big seas, a lot of rolling and things going walkabout on the boat,” Mr Manson said. “We handled it well and it all ran fairly smoothly, but weather was very much a challenge, especially getting there.” >>click to read<< 10:58
The Night the New Bedford Scalloper F/V Atlanta Sank
Nearly 150 fishermen who sailed from New Bedford have lost their lives at sea since 1912. The website Lost Fishermen From the Port of New Bedford pays tribute to each of them with a brief synopsis of what happened to them. There are many reasons why a seemingly sturdy vessel might set out to sea but not return. Weather is often a factor. Sometimes, mechanical failure or human error will cause a ship to sink. Other times, we never know why. The 72-foot New Bedford-based scalloper Atlanta capsized and sank on Saturday, December 13, 2003, while fishing some 27 miles south of Chatham. Three of Atlanta’s crew of seven were lost that night 20 years ago. >>click to read<< 09:52
Maine Lobstermen Win Giant Carveout From Offshore Wind Development Area
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is rolling out designated offshore wind leasing areas off the lower 48 states at a rapid clip, racing to meet the Biden administration’s target of 30 gigawatts of capacity by 2030. For the latest – a 3.5 million acre parcel in the Gulf of Maine – it has decided to dodge a looming fight with fishing and environmental interests. The newly-released Draft Wind Energy Area for the Gulf of Maine has enough room for up to 40 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, with a focus on floating wind installations in deeper water. The size is notable, but the most conspicuous part is the part that was left out: Lobster Management Area 1, a strip along the coast that is essential to the powerful Maine lobster industry. >>click to read<< 09:08
Alaska pollock trawlers are feeling pressure over salmon bycatch, so this reporter went to see for himself
Bering Sea factory trawlers scoop up tens of thousands of pollock at a time, and pressure is intensifying to avoid catching salmon as populations of chum and chinook have plummeted in recent years, causing closures for subsistence harvesting. The trawlers are not entirely to blame, warming oceans due to human-caused climate change are almost certainly a factor, but they have drawn the ire of salmon advocates from Western Alaska to Washington D.C. This is a 341-foot vessel that I went out on, the Northern Hawk, with a crew of 129 people. And most of them work below the deck in a fish factory that, basically when the fishing is reasonable, operates 24 hours a day. Then there are these incredible fillet machines that will fillet 180 fish a minute, and the job of the human is basically to just feed the machine 24 hours a day. And it’s kind of mind-numbing work. Your hands move constantly to make sure the fish are positioned correctly. >>click to read<< 07:40
