Tag Archives: gillnetting
Chatham Man Dies In Brewster Crash
Edward Footer is being remembered as the consummate Chatham commercial fisherman, the sort who would switch from gillnetting to clamming or another fishery as demand and opportunity dictated. “Everybody in the industry knew Eddie,” said fellow fisherman and neighbor Luther Bates. “He was very resourceful.” The 57-year-old West Chatham resident died Monday in a three-vehicle accident on Route 6 in Brewster. Friends said Mr. Footer was a hard worker who spent most of his time fishing and clamming, sometimes crewing with other fisherman, including his brother James, and sometimes working on his gillnetter Dorothy Ann, named for his mother. “He was down here every day,” said Wharfinger Craig Pennypacker, who supervises the town’s commercial fish pier. “Everybody down here is quite saddened.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:04
The New Multi-Role Leinebris
Longliner Leinebris was built to a Skipsteknisk design at the Tersan yard – and the Fosnavåg company is sticking with the same combination of yard and designer for its new vessel, scheduled to be delivered in 2025. What is different is that the new Leinebris isn’t a dedicated longliner like its predecessor but will be outfitted to be able to switch between longlining, gillnetting and seine netting. This new vessel design gets an ST-158 designation, and it’ll be a vessel with a 64.90 metre overall length and a 15 metre beam, with double cargo decks, covered working decks and a moonpool for hauling static gear. The crew’s accommodation facilties will be of a very high standard. Photos, video, >click to read< 17:10
Days of gillnetting on lower Columbia River may be numbered
Senate Bill 5297 would remove nontribal mainstem gillnet use in the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam to off-channel locations beginning in 2025. Tribal gillnetting in the Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day reservoirs would be unaffected by the bill. “It’s amazing to me that our state would be so incredibly inconsiderate in proposing such a thing,” said longtime gillnetter Irene Martin of Skamokawa. Martin argued that the legislation would jettison the Columbia River Interstate Compact, a bistate agreement between Washington and Oregon that manages commercial fishing on the lower Columbia River. >click to read< 12:44
Aboard the Lake Erie Fishing Tug Lady Anna II (Part 5)
“The challenge to make money. If you don’t catch fish, you don’t make money. Fun’s not the word. I just enjoy it; it’s a challenging and rewarding job. There’s good days and bad days. There’s a different outcome every day.” Mike Mummery, captain of Lady Anna II, responding to the question: “What do you like best about commercial fishing?” I ask Captain Mummery what worries him most about the commercial fishing industry. Eyes glued to the horizon, he replies: “The cost of everything. Everything’s gone up. There’s no stability. Profit margins have gone down. The cost of diesel has doubled. 
Everything’s made of oil, even the nets. Hopefully, it stays good for the established guys. But it’s tough for somebody to get into the business. Just a license costs a million dollars now. That’s almost impossible for the normal guy to do. The well-established guys may stay in; you have to be well established.” >click to read< 09:20
Aboard the Lake Erie fishing tug Lady Anna II (Part 4)
It’s 7 a.m. on Tuesday, March 29, 2022. The Lady Anna II is about 10 miles due south of Kingsville heading north-by-northwest, and home. It’s all hands at the starboard midship “picking” station. The crew – Craig Adamson, James “Marty” Martin, Curtis Mummery and Josh Mummery – carefully remove the 2,000 pounds of pickerel from the nets hauled aboard one hour and 20 minutes ago. The first “set,” and all the hawk-like attention it requires of Captain Mummery, is done. So I take a chance, and walk up the two steps into the wheelhouse. Captain Mummery stands motionless, eyes glued to the horizon, snacking on brunch – a chocolate chip cookie. Laughing quietly, he tells me, “I always have chocolate chip cookies in my pail. It’s a bad day if I don’t have my chocolate chip cookies.” And then he tells me that even though the Lady Anna II is pointed toward home, the work is only half finished. Another “pull” and set will be done before getting back to Kingsville. >click to read< 08:25
Inland Fisheries: ‘It’s in the blood’ for Lake Erie commercial fishermen
It’s about 6:25 a.m. on Tuesday, March 29 on the pitch-black calm of Lake Erie. The Lady Anna II is pointed due south, about 10 miles due south of Kingsville and five miles northwest of the north shore of Pelee Island. In the wheelhouse, Captain Mike Mummery has slowed the Lady Anna II to a one-knot crawl. Craig Adamson and Josh Mummery are at the starboard midship “picking” station, removing 2,000 pounds of pickerel from the more than one-third of a mile of net hauled aboard just 35 minutes ago. James “Marty” Martin and Curtis Mummery stand by at the open sliding doors of the port stern hatch. “Marty” is facing the stern, just forward of the “roller”; a metal spool mounted vertically on a metal pole. At his feet are boxes loaded-up with 160-yard-long sections of empty, clean net. The end of one of those boxes of net is draped over the roller, towards the stern. > Click to read < 10:53
Aboard the Lake Erie fishing tug Lady Anna II (Part 2)
At the end of Part 1 it was 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 29. The Lady Anna II was about five miles due south of Kingsville in 35 feet of 35-degree Fahrenheit Lake Erie water. Captain Mike Mummery had just slowed the Lady Anna II to a crawl. Curtis Mummery and James “Marty” Martin were standing-by in the port bow door, searching – in the white-lightning glare of Lady Anna II’s LED masthead light – for the flagged marker buoy that marked one end of a 640-yard-long (yes, that’s more than a one-third mile) “strap” of gill net. The first “pull” of the day was about to start. >click to read<
Aboard the Lake Erie fishing tug Lady Anna II (Part 1), >click to read<
Commercial fishing out of Wheatley Harbour is like ‘farming on the water’ >click to read< 15:08
Aboard the Lake Erie fishing tug Lady Anna II (Part 1)
It’s 4:35 a.m. in the early-morning pitch-black of Tuesday, March 29, at the edge of Kingsville harbour on the north shore of Lake Erie. The wind whistles in from the north. The thermometer in my truck reads -5°C. It feels more like -20°C. Tied to the dock on the glassy-calm waters of the harbour is the Lady Anna II. I already feel cold. Gazing at the Lady Anna II makes me feel even colder. I imagine that inside must feel like being in a tin can in a freezer turned to maximum cold. I’m supposed to meet Captain Mike Mummery and his crew at 5 a.m. for a day of fishing – to see what the Lake Erie commercial fishery is really like. And then, at 5:05 a.m., a white pickup truck roars up to dock-side and out pour the captain and his crew: Craig Adamson of Leamington, and James “Marty” Martin, Curtis Mummery and Josh Mummery, all of Wheatley. They all are all business. >click to read< 09:46
Commercial fishing out of Wheatley Harbour is like ‘farming on the water’
On a foggy March 9, I followed the 15-mile-long County Rd. 1, the Wheatley Road, due south from Tilbury. Except for two bends, that skinny ribbon of two-lane asphalt shoots arrow-straight and pancake-flat across the see-forever farmlands connecting Tilbury to Lake Erie’s north shore and to Wheatley, the world’s largest commercial, freshwater fishing port. So it was with Lady Anna II. I heard the low purr of a slow-turning diesel engine before I saw her. When I first spotted her, she looked like a small, grey box suspended over Lake Erie. And, before I knew it, her bow slicing the glassy-smooth water at a cruising speed of nine knots, Lady Anna II was at the mouth of Wheatley Harbour. >click to read< 22:00
Despite frustration, observation plan yields new fish data
Gillnet fishermen bristled at a requirement to carry state observers last fall, but what felt like a burden to the fleet may have turned out to be a blessing. Preliminary data collected on the trips show that the number of steelhead fishermen kill while trying to catch other fish may actually be much lower than the historic rate. It’s good news for a fishery that has been under fire for using gear opponents say harms fish runs — and even better timing. Last year’s steelhead run was one of the worst returns in decades. >click here to read< 16:13
Lee County deputies hook 2 fishermen for ‘gillnetting’
Marine deputies arrested two men during an operation aimed at curbing an illegal fishing method known as gillnetting. On Tuesday, deputies say they stopped a commercial fishing boat in Pine Island Sound that was in the process of hauling back its nets. During the stop, deputies say they found fishing nets with oversized mesh, making them gill nets. Gill nets have been prohibited in Florida waterways since 1996 in an effort to protect inshore fish like mullet, redfish, pompano and snook. The fisherman, Wayne Henderson, 25, and Ryan Thompson, 23, were arrested. The Bokeelia men face 29 misdemeanor charges combined. Link 14:33
ODFW Commission extends Columbia River reform plan by one year
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday voted to extend by one year a reform policy that would ban gillnetting on the main stem of the Columbia River. The extension of the transition period runs through 2017, giving commissioners some breathing room to refine the policy, which was meant to help endangered salmon and steelhead. “The extension will allow for more consideration by commission members and consultation with management partners,” according to a release from commission staff. The Fish and Wildlife Commission has been reviewing whether to rebalance the Columbia River reform policy and allow limited use of gillnets on the river’s main stem rather than phase the practice out entirely. Oregon and Washington state agreed to eliminate gillnetting on the main stem over four years, encourage commercial fishermen to use alternative gear or off-channel areas, and increase opportunities for sport fishing. Commercial fishermen have fought the policy change since 2012 as a potentially devastating financial blow, as well as the end of a way of life for generations who have worked the river. Read the rest here 09:42
Salmon gillnetting to resume Aug. 7 in the Columbia River
Nine nights of gillnetting in the lower Columbia River between Warrior Rock and Beacon Rock will begin Aug. 7. The commercial fleet will fish Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. through Aug. 26, according to regulations adopted today in Vancouver by the Columbia River Compact. Nine-inch-minimum-mesh nets will be required. Robin Ehlke, assistant Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the netters are projected to catch 2,200 fall chinook in the first week, 7,500 in the second week and 19,700 in the third week. Read the rest here 10:06
Kitzhaber’s original sin yields a disappointment
A state-dictated transition from gillnets to seining gear to harvest Columbia River hatchery salmon continues to fail to meet expectations, according to latest results. And yet fisheries managers continue resisting a formal reassessment of the plan until next year when, supposedly, gillnetting will cease forever on the river’s main stem. The Columbia Basin Bulletin (www.cbbulletin.com) on Sept. 11 reported the latest results from the seine fishery, which was eliminated in Washington in 1935 and in Oregon in 1950, but revived by ex-Gov. John Kitzhaber when he unilaterally,,, Read the rest here 11:13
