Tag Archives: Nova Scotia
Most likely Carnival Cruise Lines is responsible for 18+ Right Whale deaths in the past 3 year, at which rate they would soon be extinct.
Human caused Right whale deaths have suddenly, in sync with a plummeting whale birthrate, put the right whale on the path to extinction.,,, There is the simple answer, to halt the march towards extinction. There is an easy way to prevent those 18 deaths and at least bring that -18 up to 0. We can stop the majority of the anthropogenic Whale deaths with a simple Cruise Ship lane modification between PEI and the tip of the Gaspe Peninsula. Prior to 2007 ships were almost solely responsible for Right whale deaths, but since 2008 fishing line entanglement deaths have increased and fishermen have become the main target. However data from the past 3 years indicate many more ship strike deaths than entanglement deaths. >click to read< 12:41
Nova Scotia Lobster Exports: ‘Nothing else in our province comes close to it’.
Thousands of kilograms of live Nova Scotia lobster take off from the Halifax Stanfield International Airport everyday, shipped in bulk across the globe, often destined for customers in the United States, Europe and increasingly, Asia.,, However, the future of Nova Scotia’s lobster fishery isn’t as rosy as some would assume. A combination of historic landing rates, lobster politics and tighter regulations could impact fishers across the province. >click to read< 08:27
All-female lobster crew making waves
The Nellie Row looks just like any other boat slicing through the waves and darkness of the North Atlantic on the first day of Canada’s most lucrative lobster fishery. But the cheerful red and white vessel is distinct from hundreds of other boats racing out to sea Tuesday morning in one crucial aspect: there are no men aboard. Gail Atkinson is captain of the boat, named after her grandmother — a trailblazer like herself — and is leading what they believe to be Nova Scotia’s first all-female lobster crew. >click to read< 08:32
Nova Scotia upping its game on lobster quality
An internationally recognized quality standard for holding lobsters will be among the new regulations for the recently amended provincial Fisheries and Coastal Resources Act. “Nova Scotia will be the only place in the world that has it,” said Minister Keith Colwell in an interview. “We have companies in Europe and Asia that are gearing up to our standard now and they will be buying only from Nova Scotia or anywhere else in the world that meets our standard, so that’s really positive. >click to read< 21:45
Fisheries Minister Jordan to oversee fisheries, coast guard in new federal cabinet
Nova Scotia’s Bernadette Jordan has retained a place in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet. But Jordan, the lone Nova Scotia-based MP in the group, has been assigned new duties. The representative for South Shore-St. Margaret’s will head the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, as well as oversee the work of the Canadian Coast Guard. >click to read< 17:33
Boatbuilders riding wave of demand from lobster industry and other fisheries flourishes
The lobster industry is booming and with it, its boatbuilding counterpart. While it is hard to predict the ebbs and flows of lobster stocks, current numbers show lobsters are plentiful. And as those numbers rise, orders for boats are going up too, according to Nova Scotia Boatbuilders Association (NSBA) executive director Jan Fullerton, who says boatbuilding industry trends almost always echo those of the fishery. >click to read< 14:41
Fall lobster fishery now underway in Digby and rest of LFA 35 district
Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 35 opened at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 14 with the 93 full time and four part-time licence holders in the district heading to the fishing grounds in the upper Bay of Fundy. “When the season opens and the Digby fleet is coming through the gut,” looking from Delap’s Cove, “there’s a false sunset inside the Annapolis Basin,” said Colin Sproul, president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association. “There’s 60 or 70 boats coming out of there with four or five crabs’ lights each. You can see it right over the north mountains. It’s unbelievable. It’s like a sunset coming out of the basin at midnight.” >click to read< 18:40
Nova Scotia premier should cancel China visits
Nova Scotia’s Opposition leader says the premier should stop visiting China – which he has done regularly throughout his mandate to promote local seafood and other industries – because of violent clashes between the state and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and the continued detention of two Canadians whose freedom the federal government has been trying to secure. “He shouldn’t be visiting there, that’s for sure,” Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston,,, >click to read< 17:06
Hurricane Dorian: Crane toppled, buildings damaged, record number in Nova Scotia without power in storm’s wake
A record number of Nova Scotians — over 390,000 customers — woke up without power Sunday morning in the wake of destructive hurricane Dorian. The powerful storm took down a crane, ripped roofs off apartments and uprooted trees as it charged across Nova Scotia on Saturday and into Sunday morning. photo’s >click to read< 07:58
Nova Scotia: More than 306,000 without power as Hurricane Dorian closes in
Hurricane Dorian is a Category 2 storm with winds estimated at 160 km/h and gusts of up to 190 km/h, according to the National Hurricane Centre. Across the province, strong winds are uprooting trees and power lines are coming down. A crane on South Park Street — a busy roadway in downtown Halifax — snapped in several places from the power of the wind. A roof on a building on nearby Queen Street blew off and landed on several cars. In the water, some boats have been damaged as large waves push them against the rocky shore. >click to read< 17:03
For a bunch of video’s of cranes falling and waves crashing, and constant CBC updates >click here< Please stay safe!
‘This is a big deal:’ Hurricane Dorian set to make landfall in N.S. today, do its dance in Newfoundland on Sunday
Some Maritimers woke up to a light breeze and the odd raindrop on Saturday morning, but residents are bracing for the impact of what is now a strong Category 1 hurricane. Hurricane Dorian is barrelling toward the region with winds of 140 km/h and gusts of up to 165 km/h. Most of the Maritimes is under a combination of weather warnings, including hurricane, tropical storm and rainfall warnings for much of Nova Scotia, rainfall warnings for New Brunswick and rainfall, wind, storm surge and tropical storm warnings for P.E.I. >click to read< 07:24
Dorian to do its dance in Newfoundland on Sunday – >click to read< 07:55
Scott Kenneally, the halibut man of Harbourville, reflects on his seafaring life in the waters of Nova Scotia
Scott Kenneally is a hit among the seniors living in Harbourville who want reasonably priced halibut, and want it from the waters they can see from their front steps. Kenneally is happy to help, since fishing for halibut close to home is one of his favourite ways to make a living. He lives Harbourville, the community he loves to serve, with his wife Ashley, son Connor and daughters, Bella and Lariyah. >click to read< 09:02
In Nova Scotia, an economic boom brings all the boats to the yard
A newly finished lobster fishing boat waits on a trailer in a yard at Wedgeport Boats, like a displaced sea creature ready to return. The Porsche-red hull gleams in the Nova Scotia sun. Standing on the ground in its shadow, the vessel’s owner, Mark Rogers, watches with satisfaction as the vinyl sticker – the kind used for race cars – is applied to the bow, revealing a muscled, smiling cartoon lobster. It’s the afternoon before the official launch of the Katie Anne – named, according to custom, for Mr. Rogers’s now-grown daughter. The launch has been planned for a Friday, which, as grizzled fishermen will say, is traditionally a day best avoided for a new voyage. Photo’s >click to read< 09:24
Ocean temperatures off N.S. dip after record breaking year, have moved back to normal
Following a season of record-breaking surface temperatures last year, ocean temperatures in the waters around Nova Scotia have moved back to normal this summer, says the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.,,, In 2018, DFO found winter sea surface temperatures from the Scotian Shelf to the Bay of Fundy were above normal. There were also record-breaking temperatures in August and September. However, DFO’s spring survey conducted in April 2019 differed from last year’s results. “First, the surface was really cold because we had a really cold winter. It takes time for the ocean to heat up,” Hebert said. “The deeper water seemed to be back to the normal temperature.” >click to read< 09:44
Move over Fishermen, Alberta company to try to harness Bay of Fundy’s powerful tides
An Alberta-based company has been granted permission to try to harness electricity from the powerful tides of the Bay of Fundy. Nova Scotia has issued two renewable energy permits to Jupiter Hydro. The Jupiter application says it will use three “floating barge type platforms” carrying its patented technology. The company says it uses helical turbines mounted as if they were outboard motors. .,,,Energy and Mines Minister Mombourquette also authorized a power purchase agreement that allows the company to sell the electricity it generates to Nova Scotia Power for 50 cents per kilowatt hour. >click to read< 10:03
EDITORIAL: Tidal turbines’ troubled waters
For decades, politicians and provincial boosters have been touting the potential of Nova Scotia’s tidal power. We’re steeped in tide lore around here, from the Shubenacadie River’s tidal bore to those time-lapse videos of dockside fishing boats being floated off the bottom by the incoming tide. There’s enormous power in the Bay of Fundy, if only some clever engineer could channel it somehow into our energy grid. It’s clean, it’s renewable and it’s free. Well, it’s proving more complicated, expensive and difficult to harness that energy than even the most skeptical observer could have imagined. And an accident involving a fishing boat is just more bad news for efforts to use the tides to wean ourselves from coal-burning electricity generation. >click to read<13:15
Fishing groups say concerns validated by missing data in Northern Pulp assessment
A working group of Maritime fishermen says a number of concerns regarding Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent pipe have been validated in a report released by the province of Nova Scotia. The fishing groups from P.E.I., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Pictou Landing First Nation are maintaining a stance of “no pipe” in the Northumberland Strait and “no extension” to the Boat Harbour closure date following the April 23 release of a focus report – terms of reference by the province of Nova Scotia. >click to read<
Historically high landings and uncertain prices bring a mixed bag ahead of 2019 Lobster season
The springtime lobster season in district 26a is getting ready to launch. “They’re getting the traps ready and bringing them down to the wharf,” said Wright, supervisor at the fish plant at Lismore wharf in Pictou County. “They’ll bait them on setting day, or maybe the day before and at 6 o’clock sharp the majority of them will be out on the water.” Thirty-two boats lined the floating dock at Lismore on a rainy Monday while captains and helpers attended a wharf meeting at the community centre less than a kilometre up the road. >click to read<13:28
‘Can’t get five cents’: Little Harbour fishermen say wharf has big problems
Roddy Conrad’s been fishing out of Little Harbour, N.S., for 28 years. He says over time the wharf’s condition has deteriorated to the point where those who fish from it are concerned about their boats and their safety. Ten boats fish from the wharf near Lockeport. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans owns the structure. “This one here has a rung missing on top, so your first step’s a big one,” >click to read<16:20
LETTER OF THE WEEK: MPAs an insult to our community
My family obtained Gerard Island on the Eastern Shore in the 1750s. They were fishermen, like many other families, and for hundreds of years kept stewardship of the natural habitat until the present day. There is a two-month lobster fishery here, part of Canada’s top seafood exports worth billions of dollars each year and a key player in the Eastern Shore’s economy. Conservation efforts by our fishery are well documented and have been successful for over 30 years in co-operation with Department of Fisheries and Oceans regulation. >click to read<Andre Gerrard, lobster fisherman, Spry Harbour 10:09
Near Fish Farms, Lobster Catches Plummet
Lobster fishers catch fewer market-sized lobsters, and see fewer fertile females, in areas close to fish farms in Nova Scotia, according to new research led by Inka Milewski, a research associate at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Lobster fishers working in Port Mouton Bay, Nova Scotia, keep detailed records of when and where they fish and how many lobsters they catch. By analyzing 11 years of fishers’ records, Milewski and her colleagues found that the reduction in catch was greatest in the areas closest to open-net-pen aquaculture sites and lowest in the areas farthest away. On average, the scientists calculated a 42 percent drop in the lobster catch and a 56 percent drop in observed egg-bearing females in years when the fish farms were active in the bay. >click to read<11:20
Nova Scotia looks to keep redfish quota as other provinces want in
A Nova Scotia seafood company is urging the federal government to wait several years before starting a large-scale commercial harvest for redfish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Also known as ocean perch, the species has made a remarkable comeback after a 25-year moratorium. “This biomass is huge. It’s probably the largest in history,” said Jan Voutier of Louisbourg Seafoods Ltd., a Nova Scotia redfish harvester and processor. It’s believed 3.5 million tonnes of redfish are in the gulf today, setting the stage for a looming interprovincial conflict in Atlantic Canada over who gets a piece of the action.”All of a sudden, everyone wants to rush in and get the pot of gold, as it were,” said Keith Colwell, Nova Scotia’s fisheries minister. >click to read<12:20
Bigger loans, faster turn-around time, by loan board to help N.S. fishing industry and younger fishermen
The fishery industry in Nova Scotia is worth an estimated $2 billion annually and one important area that updated Fisheries and Aquaculture Loan Board regulations are putting a high value on is younger fishermen and new entrants. The updated regulations were announced in Yarmouth on Dec. 6 and include such things as reduced loan approval wait times and increasing lending limits from $1 million to $5 million. The goal is to expand options and to eliminate financial barriers that have prevented people – particularly younger fishermen – from taking a risk in seeking big loans to get into the sector and/or improve their enterprises. >click to read<19:40
Crews re-float sabotaged coast guard ship in Nova Scotia fishing village
The Canadian Coast Guard has refloated one of its ships after it was cut from its cradle at a Nova Scotia shipyard over a week ago. The CCGS Corporal McLaren had been partially submerged with 2,600 litres of diesel fuel in its tanks and 400 litres of hydraulic fluid on board after it was allegedly sabotaged in an incident reported to police Nov. 17. Keith Laidlaw, the Coast Guard’s deputy superintendent for environmental response, says the operation started Monday afternoon and was complete by late evening, after the shipyard and salvage team pumped thousands of litres of water out of its hold. >click to read<10:47
Fisheries and Oceans quietly cancels plans to award Indigenous surf clam licence
The federal government says it has cancelled plans to issue a controversial clam fishing licence to a First Nations company with ties to the Liberal party and several sitting Liberal MPs — including the former fisheries minister. A news release from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the process to issue a fourth licence to harvest arctic surf clam off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia was cancelled in early July, and that it won’t be issued this year at all. That multimillion-dollar licence was supposed to go to the Five Nations Clam Co., a company court documents suggest did not initially meet key eligibility requirements spelled out in the government’s tender process. >click to read<15:16
Mightier Than the Swordfish: Nova Scotia’s Harpoon Fishermen
A hundred miles off the coast of Nova Scotia, fishermen are in offseason mode. If it were wintertime, they’d be hauling lobster in closer to shore. But now, in July, they’re far from the familiar topography of Shag Harbor. They’re on the lookout for swordfish, and they’re using a deadly tool rarely seen in Western waters anymore: harpoons.,, He’s looking for one thing: a fin as it “nicks” the surface. The swordfish’s crescent-shaped dorsal fin is distinct from that of a sunfish or dolphin, but more easily confused with a shark’s. If the fin seems worth pursuing, the captain steps on the gas, and the harpooner prepares to “stick” the fish. Video, >click to read<09:04
Squid washing ashore by the hundreds ‘live fast and die young’
An alarming number of squid are washing ashore along parts of Nova Scotia’s coast. Experts say although it’s unusual to see such mass die-offs, the deaths are part of the creatures’ “live fast and die young” reproductive cycle. Kent Smedbol is a scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and works with monitoring fish and invertebrate populations. He said northern shortfin squid are common in the waters off Nova Scotia. They range from the mid-United States right up to around Iceland. “They’re a highly mobile species, highly migratory and they only live for about a year,” said Smedbol. “So, they live fast and die young.” >click to read<10:34
2 dead after fishing boat capsizes in Nova Scotia
Two people are dead after a boat capsized off the coast of Port Medway in the Region of Queens Municipality, N.S. The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax says rescuers responded to a call Saturday morning reporting an overturned crabbing vessel. A woman, 55, was found unresponsive on the beach and was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital. A man, also 55, was found near the boat by a vessel and was also unresponsive. >click to read< 16:04
Nova Scotia Lobster Fishermen Fed Up with Mis-Communication By DFO
Lobster fishermen in Southwestern, Nova Scotia are frustrated and disappointed with the lack of direction, mis-communication, and overall support from Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) regional management. Five separate fishermen’s associations joined forces in 2017 to form the Southwest Lobster Science Society (SWLSS) to work towards a partnership-based approach to fisheries management and conservation; a move which was touted to be a historic partnership between industry, environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) and regulators. Yet, the newly formed partnership has struggled to move forward as the regulators (DFO) >click to read<11:34
Skeptical fishermen briefed on proposed Eastern Shore MPA, ‘could take us out of our livelihood,’
Nova Scotia’s lobster season opens on the Eastern Shore in days, but dozens of fishermen stopped prepping for it Thursday to learn about a massive marine protected area proposed for their fishing grounds. The Eastern Shore Islands, as it’s being called, has been declared an area of interest for conservation by the Trudeau government. It would be the first marine protected area along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia and includes inshore and coastal waters. It would protect hundreds of islands that create an archipelago running from Clam Harbour to Liscomb. >click to read< 16:37
