Tag Archives: crab pots
F/V Scandies Rose: U.S. Coast Guard and NTSB conclude formal public hearing proceedings of the tragedy
The joint investigation board reviewed and considered evidence related to the loss of the fishing vessel, which occurred on Dec. 31, 2019. The board heard from 43 witnesses, who provided testimony into the conditions influencing the vessel prior to and at the time of the casualty. Testimony also focused on weather, icing, training fisheries, the Scandies Rose’s material condition, owner and operator organizational structures and culture, the regulatory compliance record of the vessel, Coast Guard policy, and practices related to vessel design, engineering and inspections.,,, Recordings of the proceedings are available,,, Documents, exhibits, helpful videos, Board biographies, and other hearing information is available >click to read< 15:43
F/V Scandies Rose: Expert witnesses point to flawed stability calculations
When the Scandies Rose sank on New Year’s Eve of 2019, fishermen from all over Alaska were shocked. Five of the crew perished when the ship rolled onto its side, along with the ship’s captain Gary Cobban. Two crewmembers were rescued from a life raft by a Coast Guard helicopter crew.,, This week, the Coast Guard convened a Marine Board investigation into the cause of the sinking. So far, expert witnesses have described serious problems with the boat’s stability report, which is a rating of how stable the vessel is and how much equipment it can bear. And those issues might extend to many other fishing boats around Alaska. >Audio, click to read/listen< 09:54
West Australian crabber invents new pot, triples his catch rate, and has best season in 15 years
It is an industry that has suffered disastrous blows including a marine heatwave in 2011, flood waters that caused the stock to decimate and a local industry shutdown for three years. However, managing director Peter Jecks said this year was the best season in a long time. At the start of the 2019/2020 season the Jecks family, who own and operate the fishery, were faced with a dilemma that saw them invest more than $400,000 into developing a plastic-injection molded crab pot. Mr Jecks said it turned out to be a revelation in catching efficiencies. photo’s, video >click to read< 09:23
In Coastal Oregon, Fishing Gear Makers Strive for Sustainability
Sara Skamser makes and modifies commercial fishing nets in Newport, Oregon. The co-owner of Foulweather Trawl got her start in the commercial fishing business as a crew member on small crab and salmon boats. Net skills, like sewing and splicing, became one more thing to help Sara land a gig. “In the late 70s and early 80s, I was bucking to get on a big boat,”,,, That dream hit a dead end when Sara asked some of 
Newport’s larger operations to let her join their crews. “These guys just absolutely turned purple,” she says. “And so the bottom line to that is I invoice those people now,” she laughs., About a half hour south on the coastal highway, Leonard Van Curler is also making fishing gear. Some of the tools he uses are similar to Sara’s, such as the shuttle-like “needle” he uses to knit mesh. But what he’s making are crab pots,,, >click to read< 15:43
Washington State Ferries vs crab pots: The price of the conflict
The summer season is a very busy time for the Washington State Ferries when several million people are expected to catch a boat. But it is also a busy time for crab fishermen. However, improperly set crab pots can halt ferry travel. “We actually had five ferries damaged by crab pots. Two of them were only superficial damage and it only took them out of service for a few hours,” Captain Scott Freiboth from the Washington State Ferries. “We used a submersible remote-controlled robot to asses that damage and were able to repair them almost immediately. The other three vessels were pulled from service which cut into our available ferries.” >click to read<21:07
Seattle-based Alaska crab fleet alerted to new hazard: They’re carrying heavier pots
Alaska crab boats carry stability reports meant to guide the safe loading of up to several hundred crab pots that may be used to bring in a catch from the turbulent Bering Sea. But Coast Guard spot checks found that most of these documents significantly underestimate the weights of the steel-framed pots. The checks were spurred by a Coast Guard investigation into the Feb. 11 sinking of the Seattle-based Destination and the loss of all six of its crew. One of the vessel’s pots — retrieved from the Bering Sea bottom in July — was found to weigh more than the Destination’s stability report had assumed, according to testimony in a Marine Board of Investigation into the disaster. click here to read the story 10:46
Crooks in a Crab Pot
Most people in the bays and estuaries of coastal South Jersey, including places such as Barnegat Bay, have concerns about someone stealing their crab pots or lifting the blue crabs in it. This applies to commercial fishermen as well as the recreational potters. What neither of these groups realizes is that there are probably thieves in their crab pots as well. And these thieves often go undetected even though they are stealing during the day and night and at all stages of the tide. These thieves are the ones that steal the bait from the crab pots. We learned about these thieves by placing a video camera in one of the mouths (tunnels) of a typical pot for blue crabs and dropping it into Willitt Creek with a feed that was attached to a monitor in my office. This approach allowed real-time observations and recording and also prevented me from getting a lot done when there was interesting behavior in the crab pot. click here to read the story 08:51
Mandurah: men fined $8000 for interfering with crab pots “just having a look”.
Two Halls Head men have each been fined $8,000 for interfering with commercial crab pots. On a Thursday night on November 26 last year, a Fisheries and Marine officer saw two people in a small runabout travelling around the Peel-Harvey Estuary and Cox Bay. Aaron Edwin Pollard (32) and Andrew Michael Collyer (31) were ordered to each pay $8,000 in fines, plus court costs of $169.10, for illegally pulling four commercial crab pots in Cox Bay under the cover of darkness. A recorded interview was heard in Mandurah court last week, where the men admitted to Fisheries and Marine Officers that they pulled the pots with the intention of Read the rest here 08:23
What happened to the crab pots in Wrightsville Beach NC?
WECT6 – David Inscore said he and his fellow fishermen found one missing pot after another Wednesday morning around Wrightsville Beach. Inscore lost almost 20, but some of his colleagues’ losses are double that. continued
