Daily Archives: January 6, 2025
Doc film exploring Lake Erie fishing nets Leamington audiences
A new documentary being screened in Leamington offers a rare in-depth glimpse into Lake Erie’s important and historic commercial fishing industry. In his debut documentary, Netting the Waters, Simcoe-based filmmaker Daryl Granger dives deep into the industry surrounding the commercial catch of pickerel, perch, and smelt from the shallowest of the Great Lakes. “I wanted to show what it was really like on Lake Erie, because there’s a lot of interest in what happens out there,” Over the course of filming, Granger mainly followed two captains and their vessels. Captain George Gibbons, who leads the Eau Clipper and George A, specializes in gillnetting for pickerel and perch. Captain Joe Zimba, who commands the Donna F, trawls for smelt, a small freshwater fish commonly found in the Great Lakes. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:56
Is it 50 per cent of the fishery? What’s fair and what the feds won’t discuss on First Nations rights
What’s fair? What’s a fair amount of Canada’s fisheries to transfer to First Nations to satisfy their moderate livelihood right? What’s fair to individual rights holders but, also, what’s fair to non-aboriginal communities whose cultures and incomes have relied upon fisheries for generations? Is it 50 per cent? That’s what Fisheries and Oceans Canada has gone with in two recent transfers of access to First Nations in Atlantic Canada and British Columbia that occurred without compensation to the commercial licence holders on the losing end. In 2021, Jason and the 33 other commercial fishermen in crab fishing area 24 were informed by DFO that the federal government was taking half the area’s 1,600 traps and giving them to the Five Nations. “It was definitely not fair,” said Voong, president of the BC Crab Fishermen’s Association, in a phone interview. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:07
UPDATED: Justin Trudeau resigns
Breaking: Trudeau to address Canadians as Liberal caucus pushes him to resign– Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make an announcement about his future Monday morning at 10:45 a.m. ET after months of questions about his leadership and a Liberal nosedive in the polls. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:49
Updated: Justin Trudeau resigns as Liberal Party leader: Live updates, reaction after prime minister’s news conference – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resigned as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in a statement made at Rideau Cottage on Monday morning. Trudeau will stay on as Canada’s prime minister until the Liberals appoint a new leader. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:02
UK REACHES DEAL FOR CONTINUED ACCESS TO FISH IN NORWEGIAN WATERS
The UK has struck a deal with Norway ensuring continued access to Norwegian North Sea waters for 2025 The agreement will also secure UK quota for Arctic cod, worth over £3 million based on historic landing prices. This follows the conclusion of the UK’s wider fishing negotiations in recent weeks, which secured 720,000 tonnes of fishing opportunities for the UK fleet in 2025. The UK fishing industry will benefit from continued access to Norwegian waters to catch up to 30,000 tonnes of their whitefish quota in stocks such as cod, haddock and hake, the UK Government has been announced. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:52
That’s a lot of sushi: Tuna weighing as much as a grizzly bear sells for $1.3M in Japan
A bluefin tuna sold for $1.3 million at a predawn auction in Tokyo on Sunday morning, making it one of the most expensive tuna to be sold in the history of sushi. The 608-pound fish, equivalent in weight to a typical male grizzly bear, was caught off the coast of Oma in northern Japan’s Aomori prefecture on Saturday morning, according to Japan’s Kyodo News agency. The fish was sold to a Michelin-starred Japanese sushi restaurant chain for 207 million yen, the Onodera Group said in a statement about its winning bid. The first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Toyosu Market – one of the world’s largest wholesale fish markets – typically reels in eye-watering prices. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:45
From boat sizes to waitlists, what lobster industry changes say about where fishery is headed
Wait times for a lobster fishing license, especially for those not born into a family of fishermen, used to exceed a decade in some parts of Maine, but the queues are getting shorter as fewer young people enter the fishery. Lobster boat captains often struggle to find enough sternmen to help and used lobster boats are taking longer to sell than they used to. The threat of climate change and more restrictive right whale protections, as well as several years of more modest landing totals, have some in the lobster industry second-guessing their future in the business, yielding subtle, but real, changes in the makeup of the fishery. In conversations with fishermen, a sense of uncertainty permeates. “It’s such an unstable way of life and it’s not getting any better,” said Nick Perreault, a fifth generation fisherman who captains a lobster boat out of Jonesport. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:25
