Daily Archives: October 31, 2024
Fishermen, fleet owners hope Trump helps their industry
New Bedford fishermen fly many flags. There is the American flag, the skull and crossbones flag. There are flags expressing resistance to offshore wind development. And there are many — many — flags for former President Donald Trump. But one flag is rarely hoisted on the New Bedford waterfront. “I have yet to see a Harris-Walz flag on a fishing vessel,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney representing the industry’s Sustainable Scalloping Fund. The vast support for Trump among fishermen boils down to a few main points, some specific to the fishing industry, some not. Trump has said that he would overturn the ban on commercial fishing in Marine National Monuments, which was first enacted by the Obama administration, repealed by Trump and then re-established under President Joe Biden. There are frustrations with immigration policy and with inflation, especially with gas and food, which have an acute impact on the profits of a fishing trip. But no issue has swayed the politics of the fishing industry more than offshore wind development. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 18:50
Pollock trawl closure sends economic ripples across Kodiak as fishermen adapt
Cole Hockema has been fishing since he was a teenager growing up in Oregon. Hockema captains the F/V Pacific Storm, a 100-foot trawler based out of Kodiak, which his father owns. The vast majority of the Central Gulf of Alaska trawl fleet is made up of local boats like his. According to the trade group Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, 19 boats were fishing in the Central Gulf of Alaska when the pollock fishery closed on Sept. 25. 15 of those are homeported in Kodiak. Normally, fishermen like Hockema would be out on the water until early November, when the Gulf of Alaska’s pollock B season typically closes. But this fall season ended just three weeks into fishing, when two vessels incidentally hauled in approximately 2,000 Chinook salmon, which exceeded the fishery’s annual bycatch limit. Hockema said the Pacific Storm was offloading its catch on Sunday, Sept. 22 when they first got the news about the bycatch and he knew the fleet would need to stop fishing immediately. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:27
B.C. environmental groups lose bid to stop Alaskan fishery’s sustainable certification
A coalition of Canadian environmental groups has lost its latest bid to prevent Alaska’s salmon fishery from being labelled as sustainable by an international certification body. The groups, including the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Watershed Watch Salmon Society, say an adjudicator has upheld the Marine Stewardship Council’s decision to certify the Alaskan fishery despite what they call “unsustainable” fishing practices that intercept British Columbia’s migrating salmon. Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game says it is pleased that the adjudicator “affirmed the sustainability of Alaska’s fishing practices” based on “sound science,” adding that the salmon fishery in question “has the most robust and comprehensive” assessment program on the Pacific seaboard. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:41
50 years plus: Sheigra SY 7
John Watt started building his boats in 1940 at Gardenstown, in a partnership with his two sons, before taking over the Stephen’s yard in Banff in 1954. Then, in 1966, they acquired the boatbuilding yard and engineering facilities of the Macduff Engineering Company when the previous owner retired. This allowed them to build bigger vessels up to 80ft in length. The name of the business was changed to the Macduff Boatbuilding and Engineering Company – the forerunner of today’s Macduff Shipyards. Lots of photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:54
Top ten RNLI record breakers
The RNLI has amassed a treasure trove of extraordinary stories and fascinating facts during its 200 years of lifesaving. So it’s no wonder our charity and people have notched up a raft of remarkable achievements along the way too. Here are just ten of our favourite record-breaking facts … The rescue of Suevic in 1907 holds the record for the largest number of people saved in a single RNLI operation. On 17 March, the 12-tonne steamship ran aground on a rocky reef off Lizard Point in Cornwall. Sixty RNLI volunteers from Cadgwith, Coverack, The Lizard and Porthleven rowed back and forth in a violent gale for 16 hours to rescue the 456 passengers and crew. Not a single life was lost. Six of the rescuers, including two Suevic crew members, were awarded RNLI Silver Medals for their heroic actions. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 10:37
Fewer fish spills reported after Louisiana pushes pogy boats from coast
In 2022, a menhaden fishing ship and its net boats spilled about a million fish off the Louisiana coast, leaving the floating mass to rot in the summer sun. A few months later, another spill blanketed Louisiana beaches with an estimated 850,000 dead fish. The two incidents pushed the state’s leaders to enact the first significant restrictions on the Gulf of Mexico’s largest but least-regulated fishery. Starting this year, catchers of menhaden, a foot-long fish with a host of industrial uses, must stay a half mile from much of the Louisiana coast and a mile from three ecologically sensitive areas. But the menhaden industry says better nets rather than bigger buffers have played a far bigger role in reducing spills. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:44
Photographer Urs Buhlman captures the ‘dangerous’, ‘dying’ profession of commercial fishing up close
It is an industry that operates in boats kilometres from shore when most people are fast asleep back on the mainland. Now one photographer’s interest in the commercial fishing industry has shed light on the intimate details of this rarely-seen profession and the rugged process it goes through to feed people. Eden commercial fisher John ‘”Jarvo” Jarvis has witnessed big changes during his 44 years in the game. Climate change, fish quotas, stringent environmental laws, government buy-backs of fishing licences, and a lack of willing hands are just some of the challenges he grapples with daily. “Everything in fishing is expensive,” Mr Jarvis said. Comparing the industry to how it looked two decades ago, he said it was “chalk and cheese”. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:19
Four offshore wind-power sites in Gulf of Maine auctioned for $22M
Two energy companies have won leases for 327,096 acres of federal waters off Maine and Massachusetts and hope to install floating wind-power turbines there. On Tuesday, four of eight available lease areas were sold to provisional winners in an auction by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The sales resulted in winning bids of over $21.9 million. The leases include commitments to workforce training and building a domestic supply chain, which would include an offshore wind port and supply chain facilities, according to a separate news release. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:56
