Tag Archives: Bay of Fundy
Bay of Fundy fishermen worried about fish stocks being destroyed by tidal turbine generators
Four companies are planning on placing test turbines at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy. FORCE has a facility on land near Parrsboro that manages and monitors four berths for turbines in the Minas Passage. Kevin Gidney of Digby Neck was one of 50 fishermen who attended an information meeting in Annapolis Royal May 15. “Everybody is scared to death,” says Gidney. “The Minas Basin is the number one spawning ground for the Bay of Fundy. After a lobster lays its eggs on bottom, the larva float around on the surface, drifting around the basin with the tide. Are they going to get beat up in the turbines?” “The only thing they (FORCE) are saying to the general public is these fish can avoid, may avoid, or our studies suggest they will avoid the turbines,” said Porter. “In the hundreds of years we’ve been fishing them, there’s never been a fish who learned to avoid a weir, or a gillnet. Read the story here 20:05
Scallop Fishermen haul ice age walrus skull from the Bay of Fundy
Scallop fishermen have dragged more than they bargained for out of the Bay of Fundy near Saint John, pulling up a walrus skull that dates back to the ice age. “It just came up on the dragger and I just thought it was a piece of stick at first,” said Todd Paul, a fisherman from St. Mary’s First Nation. “It’s pretty cool.” The skull was pulled from the waters about 2.5 kilometres off of Cape Spencer. “We were guessing what it was,” he said. “Once we seen a tusk coming out of it, I knew it was like a walrus of some kind.” Read the story here 09:12
Who ya gonna call? Digby DFO cleans up ghost traps from Bay of Fundy
“Our mandate is enforcement and conservation,” said Digby Fisheries officer Corey Webster. “Just like our compliance blitz in St. Mary’s Bay this summer, this is an important job just to make sure everything is cleaned up. And it’s also important for us to be out on the water, just to see what is happening out there.” Fishermen harvest lobster from weighted traps that sit on bottom. They tie a rope to the trap and a buoy keeps that rope floating at the surface to show them where their traps are. Other fishermen, who may see these errant traps, are not allowed however to haul another fisherman’s traps. Read the rest here 15:22
Weir fishermen struggling to catch herring in Bay of Fundy
Some fishermen in the Bay of Fundy are worried the centuries-old herring weir fishery could be coming to an end because of a lack of fish. Dan Cunningham is one of those fishermen. He says over the past six years he has noticed a steady decline in the amount of herring. Last summer, weir fishermen only landed a quarter of what they caught the year before. They say this year is even worse. Read the rest here 08:44
Fishermen clean up ‘ghost gear’ from Bay of Fundy
The
started dragging the waters off the coast of Saint John and Deer Island seven years ago. More than 500 abandoned traps were hauled up from the bottom of the Bay of Fundy in 2008. “There was concern that there was all this gear down there that was fishing and killing lobsters — could entangle whales. The gear is just fishing and fishing and killing indiscriminately,” said Maria Recchia, the association’s executive director. Read the rest here 08:08
A sudden increase in the number White cross jellyfish in Bay of Fundy
There has been a sudden increase in the number of white cross jellyfish in the Bay of Fundy in recent weeks, and a researcher says the scientific world is trying to figure out if it’s part of a natural cycle, or the result global warming or human activity. Nick Record, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, is building a library of jellyfish sightings based on citizen reports. He said reports of white cross jellyfish started coming in about two weeks ago, first in Penobscot Bay in Maine and then in the Bay of Fundy. Read the rest here 08:54
Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association calls for herring catch study
The Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association is calling for a study on declining herring catches in the Bay of Fundy. The request comes after Connors Bros., Limited announced Thursday it will cancel the second shift at its Blacks Harbour plant this season, citing a decline in the weir fishery and herring catch forecasts for 2015. Over the past three decades, annual herring weir catches averaged 20,000 tonnes in the Bay of Fundy, according to the fishermen’s association. In 2013, the latest figures available, the total catch dropped to about 6,000 tonnes. Read the rest here 11:55
Lobster boom in Bay of Fundy puzzles scientists
The Bay of Fundy’s lobster population continues to grow, but experts can’t figure out why. Lobster represents Canada’s most valuable fishery and boats in the Bay of Fundy are bringing in record harvests, year after year. Read the rest here 15:51
Bay of Fundy lobster season gets off to good start
According to a 2013 report from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, lobster landings in the Bay of Fundy are Each of the past five lobster fishing seasons has yielded a record catch. Read the rest here 09:22
What This Canadian Village Lacks in Size, it Makes Up With Heart and Lobster
“Whether the boats come in at one in the morning or one in the afternoon, you have to make a schedule to have everything lined up so the fishermen aren’t waiting — they’re your babies and you have to keep them happy,” says MacDonald. Read more here 09:41
Scallop boat brought to safety after losing power on Bay of Fundy
A scallop boat and its crew that were adrift on the Bay of Fundy Saturday were rescued despite high winds and a falling tide. The Tide Nova lost power as it approached Halls Harbour, Kings County. “Time was of the essence,” he said. “If this had happened 20 minutes later, that boat would have been lost.” more@cronicleherald 21:25
Sea Squirt Invasion in Bay of Fundy being investigated
Biologists Benedikte Vercaemer and Dawn Sephton, with Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Aquatic Invasive Species program, are looking for creatures that can clog a harbour or shut down a business. The scientists have been gathering the invasive species in plastic collector plates that have been hanging under wharves at 18 sites around southwest New Brunswick since the spring. more@cbcnews 06:47
Absence of right whales in Bay of Fundy puzzles scientists
“Probably because there wasn’t very much food for them,” said Brown. “The plankton, and although we don’t sample that ourselves, our colleagues on Grand Manan did and didn’t find very many plankton in the water at all this year.” more@cbcnews 07:31
A tale of Herring at Digby Neck – No weirs on Digby Neck this year ‘No one gives a damn for these herring’
Herring swim in the Bay of Fundy every spring with one thing on their mind –getting to the various spawning grounds and laying their eggs – or fertilizing the eggs. When they leave the spawning grounds, the poke and dawdle and wander, slowly making their way back out to sea. continued@the souwester
Rare orange lobster caught in Bay of Fundy
A rare orange lobster was trapped in the Bay of Fundy on Friday and is now on display in Alma. continued@cbcnews
