Tag Archives: Plymouth
Fisherman Launches Petition Against Release of Pilgrim Water
Bourne resident Ryan Collins, whose father and grandfather were fishermen, continues the family tradition. He has now become an advocate as well. Collins has collected more than 214,000 signatures on a petition asking the owners of the former Pilgrim nuclear plant not to release radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay. He said he has been listening to concerns from his fellow fishermen as well as family, friends, and neighbors about Holtec Decommissioning International’s proposed solution to disposing of the water from various systems at the shuttered plant. “Everyone I am speaking to is against it,” he said. Eight weeks ago, he started his online petition at Change.org. >click to read< 11:29
French Master and fishing vessel owner fined at Plymouth Magistrates
The owner and the master of France-registered fishing vessel ‘Felir’ SB918511 were fined a total of £8,000 and ordered to pay £6000 in costs plus £380 in victim surcharges by Plymouth magistrates. The financial penalties were imposed after the vessel’s owner Felir SAS and master Ludovic Fourgault admitted using fishing gear to which was attached a device, namely a piece of diamond shaped mesh placed over the square mesh panel, that obstructed or otherwise diminished the mesh size of part of the towed gear. >click to read< 08:43
Man Sees What He Pulled Out of Water, Frantically Calls Wife
A lobsterman got a major surprise when he caught a bright blue lobster during a fishing trip. Wayne Nickerson is a commercial lobsterman from Plymouth, Massachusetts, and was behind the wheel of his boat when the lobster’s incredible color caught his eye. ABC News reports that the first thing he did was call his wife, telling her to meet him at the dock as soon as possible. “He let out a loud exclamation of excitement,” Oddly, this is Nickerson’s second time catching a blue lobster. >click to read< 08:05
Hundreds rally in Plymouth to prevent nuclear wastewater dumping into Cape Cod Bay
A rally against the proposal by Holtec International, the company that acquired the decommissioned Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, was held Saturday afternoon at Plymouth Town Wharf. A spokesperson for Holtec said the company is considering other options to dispose of the nuclear wastewater aside from dumping it into Cape Cod Bay. Those options include evaporating the contaminated water or trucking it to an out-of-state facility. “We have 60 full-time commercial lobstermen here. We have the oyster farms and everything. There’s just too much at stake,” said Tom O’Reilly, owner of the lobster fishing vessel “Karen M.” >click to read< 08:22
Safety kit saves the life of a fisherman
What had started out as an ordinary working day for commercial fisherman Paul Reed turned into his worst nightmare when he went overboard from the >F/V Sidney Rose<, miles from land. But his decision to put on a lifejacket that morning, equipped with a locator beacon, likely saved his life. He’s been fishing for 38-years and has had just the one man overboard experience. But once is all it takes to never return to shore again. Paul activated his PLB,,, His skipper then raised the alarm with a Mayday, confirming to authorities that the alert they were searching for was, in fact, a man overboard. >click to read< 17:51
Looe-based fisherman’s tweet about dead bass sparks debate over rules
A fisherman’s tweet over a large haul of Bass fish off the Plymouth coast has sparked debate over the current rules on fishing. Andrew Giles took to Twitter with a shocking video which displayed a large haul of fish caught by accident by a trawler, all of which had to be thrown away again. Andrew, who owns the trawler, MFV Guiding Light, wrote: “Just crazy. This could have given the boys a much-needed lift after a very hard winter.” The issue highlighted not just issues regarding commercial rules to protect fish stocks, but also the ongoing thorny issue of Brexit and the British fishing industry as well as food poverty. video,>click to read< 07:35
Plymouth lobster pot tree honors lobsterman Mike Furlong
Plymouth lobster fishermen have turned their popular annual Christmas tradition into a tribute to one of their own. The lobster pot tree that the group assembles on Town Wharf every Christmas season is dedicated this year to Michael Furlong, a 65-year-old lobster fisherman who died after an accident on the water in November. Furlong, or ‘Furley,’ as he was known to fellow fishermen, was a Plymouth native and Kingston resident who had been working out of the harbor for decades. Photos, >click to read< 10:33
Plymouth’s fishing industry is being ‘screwed over
The fishing industry has been “screwed over” by Brexit deals and unnecessary bureaucracy, according to Plymouth MP Luke Pollard. Promises to take back control of British fishing waters were a big part of the Leave campaign before Brexit when the government suggested more than £140 million worth of the fishing quota would be regained from the EU. Analysts suggest the real figures are a small fraction of that. Mr Pollard said a number of factors are hitting the fishing industry in places like Plymouth. >click to read< 08:37
Fisherman dies after being rescued from Plymouth Harbor
A missing fisherman was found unresponsive in the waters of Plymouth Harbor on Sunday afternoon but has since died. The man’s daughter, Kristen Svenson, told Boston 25 that her father, Micahel Furlong, passed away Monday in Plymouth. “We are asking for respect and space at this time. We have nothing prepared. This was very unexpected,” Kristen said. >click to read< 10:22 – Kingston lobsterman dies after he is pulled from the ocean off Plymouth – In a statement Monday, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said the harbormaster had been watching the boat, checked on it and found it unmanned after noticing the boat had not moved in more than an hour. Furlong was found about half a mile from the boat. >click to read< 14:04
Unresponsive fisherman pulled from Plymouth Harbor
A missing lobsterman was found unresponsive in the waters of Plymouth Harbor on Sunday afternoon. The U.S. Coast Guard said they received a report around 1:20 p.m. of an unmanned lobster boat out in Plymouth Harbor. They began searching the area by helicopter. During the search, the Plymouth harbormaster reportedly found the lobsterman unresponsive in the water. >click to read< 19:23
Plymouth fisherman stuck at sea after falling overboard ‘lucky to be alive’
Paul Reed was only rescued thanks to a vital piece of equipment which sent a distress signal to the emergency services. Paul was heading towards Salcombe on the morning of Friday 3 September when the boat he was on, the Sidney Rose, hit a patch of rough weather. He tripped and fell overboard, becoming stuck in the water with no chance of swimming to shore. But his decision to put on his lifejacket would prove crucial. >video, click to read< 21:23
Tight-Knit Fishing Communities Navigate Drugs
Johnnie*, a salt-and-pepper fisherman in his late 50s, is smiling as he tells me what happened one dark night last year. “It was like a movie star, dropping down from the sky off the helicopter to get to my crewmate, pitch of night,” he says. “The Coast Guard—this handsome guy, my wife would’ve loved him, like Rock Hudson—dropped down from the moon. Felt like hours after we had given him all the Narcan we had. The Coast Guard still didn’t carry it back then, did you know that? So they pulled him up into the clouds and we all were left below at sea.”, “It’s not the first time that’s happened on our boat,” Johnnie says. “If we didn’t have that Narcan on board though, kid probably wouldn’t have made it.” >click to read< 19:13
Spiny dogfish eat small Atlantic codfish! DNA may provide some answers
Conventional observations show that spiny dogfish in the western North Atlantic rarely eat Atlantic cod. However, some believe the rebuilding dogfish populations are limiting depleted cod numbers by competition or predation. To find out what is going on, NOAA Fisheries scientists looked to genetic testing to confirm cod presence in dogfish stomachs. >click to read< 13:10
1 in 200 million! Young Massachusetts lobsterman catches a blue lobster! “I was shocked.”
Adam Carpenter couldn’t believe his eyes. As he opened the lobster trap, he could see one of the crustaceans was visibly different from the others. The 13-year-old kept rubbing his eyes to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. Yep, one of the lobsters was definitely blue. “I’d seen YouTube videos of blue lobsters before but never thought I would catch one,” said Adam, who just got his lobster license this summer. “I was shocked.” On Friday, Adam went out to check one of the pots he had missed on his last few trips. When he pulled this one up, he got the surprise of his life. >video, click to read<17:34
Frozen lobstermen face additional winter challenges
With inches of ice covering the harbor and no end of severe winter weather in site, local lobstermen are struggling to keep their boats in the water during the last month of the legal lobstering season. Tuesday and Wednesday saw captains breaking up ice surrounding their boats and trying to move their vessels to safer locations before a storm pummels the region today.,, lobstermen are facing two predicaments: dealing with a cold snap the likes of which hasn’t been seen for the last 100 years, and having to get all traps out of the water by Feb. 1 before a three-month ban on lobstering begins. click here to read the story 16:15 
A Sad Update: Fishermen found clinging to capsized boat after major search and rescue operation
Fishermen have been found clinging to the hull of an upturned boat after a major search and rescue operation was launched last night. Three lifeboats and a rescue helicopter were launched on Tuesday evening in a search for an overdue commercial fishing vessel. The RNLI lifeboats from Plymouth, Salcombe and Looe were joined by the coastguard rescue helicopter from Newquay in the search which began at about 10pm.,,, Fishing boat FV Solstice was reported missing having sailed from Plymouth. click here to read the story 11:46
Man dies as fishing boat capsizes off Devon coast – A fisherman who went missing after his boat capsized off the Devon coast has died, investigators have confirmed. His body was recovered from the Solstice after two men clinging to the hull were rescued, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said. sadly, click here to read the story 20:13
2nd Round of 2017 Groundfish Assessment Port Meetings Scheduled
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center is coming to a port near you! Join us for the second set of port meetings between August 28 and September 7 to discuss the upcoming groundfish operational stock assessments. These meetings will include an informal explanation of the stock assessment process, the cooperative research program, and ways that your concerns can be addressed by the science center. We’d like to talk to commercial and recreational fishermen. We’re listening to what you have to say. August 28-Narragansett RI, August 30-Montauk, September 6-Portsmouth, September 7- Plymouth. See the full schedule of confirmed meetings. Click here 16:27
