Daily Archives: September 19, 2024
Glass fibers – the rest of the story????? by Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet-USA
Floating around (sorry!) is the surprising story that the fiberglass that is being donated gratis to our oceans by the offshore wind industry is harmless because the fibers that make it up are chemically inert. Reassuring, isn’t it? Well, in words made immortal by George and Irwin Gershwin in Porgy and Bess, “it ain’t necessarily so.” To put those immortal words in the proper real world (not NOAA or BOEM scientist’s) perspective, the asbestos fibers that are still being used legally in a whole bunch of manufacturing processes today are chemically inert on their own. You can chomp on and swallow asbestos fibers to your heart’s content, as long as they stay in large chunks, with no ill effects. According to the National Library of Medicine “asbestos fibers are basically chemically inert, or nearly so. They do not evaporate, dissolve, burn, or undergo significant reactions with most chemicals.” So what happens when a huge fiberglass rotor on an offshore generator (300+ feet long and still enlarging as wind generators become larger-and more efficient) delaminates and takes a dive into one of our oceans? more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:52
US Coastal Communities Fight for Space for Small-scale Fishermen
U.S. coastal waters are a public good increasingly at risk of privatization, threatening local economies that have depended on the sea for generations, fishermen and environmental advocates warned. Critics point to efforts to open up waters to industrial-scale fish farms, (offshore wind farms), a federal permit system they say is stacked against small or new operators, and even coastal real estate development squeezing out independent businesses. “There is another real estate grab, but it’s in the ocean,” said Jason Jarvis, a commercial fisherman in Rhode Island who has been fishing for three decades and also sits on the board of the North American Marine Alliance (NAMA), a national network that seeks to boost fishing communities. “This is a gold rush,” said Crystal Canney, executive director of Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation, which has worked on model legislation to help towns push back. The efforts are prompting inquiries from concerned communities in other coastal states, she said. “The questions are really, do we have any rights?” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:30
N.S. fisheries minister renews call to his federal counterpart for help on illegal fishing
Nova Scotia’s fisheries and aquaculture minister says his federal counterpart’s silence in response to calls for action against illegal fishing in the province’s southwestern region sends a message to the industry and communities affected that she does not care. Kent Smith wrote to federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier on Wednesday after receiving no response to a previous letter last month that raised concerns about illegal lobster fishing in the Clare region and public safety concerns tied to that activity. I’m feeling as though there’s not enough priority put on this file from her and her senior leadership,” Smith said in an interview at Province House. Although some First Nations fishers are practising a legal and treaty-recognized food, social and ceremonial fishery in the region, commercial fishing organizations, Smith and other politicians have expressed concern that some people are illegally fishing outside the FSC fishery and that those catches are entering the commercial market. more, >>>CLICK TO READ<< 10:37
Federal Fisheries Minister Chose to Re-Open Northern Cod Commercial Fishery Against Recommendation for Stewardship Fishery
The Union representing fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador have received more documents submitted by the Government of Canada in connection with the federal injunction filed by FFAW-Unifor in July, proving Minister Lebouthillier’s blatant negligence in ending the moratorium on Northern cod. These recent documents show that, despite insistence from NL Liberal MPs and DFO officials, Minister Diane Lebouthillier was presented with three options to decide a management approach for Northern cod in the 2024 season. In a document issued by the office of Deputy Minister Annette Gibbons on May 6, 2024, the recommended option from DFO bureaucrats and scientists was to maintain a stewardship fishery and maximum allowable harvest (MAH) level of 13,000t, reflecting a more cautious approach that would potentially result in less dramatic stock declines in the future and could help to avoid challenges in the management of the stock in the longer term. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:5750 years and counting: Silver Cloud II WK 80
George Carter was born and bred in the Caithness village of Lybster, by the harbour, and he fished straight out of school, getting his skipper’s ticket in 1956 at the age of 21. His father Hugh was a fish curer with small creel boat, and his grandfather had always been keen to say that he’d never earned a penny on dry land! The Carter family have gone down in history with two record catches with the seine-net. In 1964, George’s brother Jack landed a record of 240 boxes of cod in a single drag in the Freswick grounds in the north of the Moray Firth aboard the Maid of Honour WK 30, which was built in 1950 by David Howarth of Scalloway (of Shetland Bus fame). Then George, aboard the Silver Cloud, landed 378 boxes with two drags in 1966. The 47ft Silver Cloud WK 207 was George’s first boat, which he purchased in 1962. That vessel was built at Bolson’s yard in Poole as an Admiralty MFV, and by 1951 was owned by John Watt of Fraserburgh, re-registered as FR 313. In 1952 she was sold to Tom Scott Goodlad of Scalloway and re-registered as LK 217. Tom tragically died onboard in May 1958. His brother John then took the boat. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:38
Against the Wind: Questions About BOEM’s Fisheries Analysis
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the final sale notice for the Gulf of Maine offshore wind project lease areas on Sept. 16. The agency shrunk the overall area by 120,000 acres, removing significant portions of the two northern leases off the coast of Maine, carving a transit lane between the two farthest-offshore southern areas, and shaving small portions off other southern areas. This decision did little to satisfy Jerry Leeman, a Harpswell, Maine-based former commercial fisherman and founder of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), an organization that opposes the Gulf of Maine offshore wind area. NEFSA “remains steadfast in its opposition,” wrote Leeman in a press release, “despite the shrinking of the original areas.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:22
