Tag Archives: Small boat fishermen
With little movement on salmon bycatch, Alaska advocates look to Biden administration for executive action
Amid catastrophic shortfalls in salmon harvests in some of Alaska’s rural, Indigenous communities, advocates have pleaded for a crackdown on unintentional catch of those same salmon by the trawl vessels that harvest billions of pounds of whitefish in the Bering Sea. But the politically appointed regional council that manages Bering Sea fisheries has largely resisted those requests. So instead, advocates are now taking another approach. They’re pushing the Biden administration for a workaround: a rewrite of the federal guidelines that tell the regional council, and its counterparts across the country, how to manage all the fisheries under their supervision. >>click to read<< 18:40
‘Until the last fish is gone.’ Cape Cod fishers worry trawling is depleting sea herring.
A number of the Cape’s small boat fishermen, whale watch captains, and fishing charter operators blame midwater trawlers for depletion of herring stock. That depletion, they claim, has had a negative economic impact on their businesses. John Pappalardo, Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance has worked for decades to do just that. He believes midwater trawlers are a big reason for the herring’s population decline. Mary Beth Tooley, government affairs manager for the O’Hara Corporation, The company’s trawlers take a small portion of the fish that are assessed “because we want that population to rebuild,” she said. >>click to read<< 08:38
Iceland: Coastal Fishermen Unhappy With Reduced Cod Quota
Small boat fishermen in Iceland are unhappy with the government’s decision to reduce their cod fishing quota from 10,000 tonnes down to 8,500 for the coming summer season, Last year a total of 670 fishermen held coastal fishing licences. “Certain politicians predicted [coastal fishing] would explode. However, since the current system was implemented, the number of fishermen has fluctuated between 600 and 726. “While handline fishing is romantic, there’s a lot of hard work and sweat and tears mixed in with the romance,” >click to read< 08:55
Support Small Boat Fishermen By Making It Easier To Buy Fresh Off The Boat
The pandemic changed many things in Hawaii, including access to fresh fish. The swift departure of hundreds of thousands of tourists and the consequent closure of many hotels and restaurants eliminated the bulk of the demand for fresh fish literally overnight. One major fish wholesaler resorted to curbside sales at Pier 38 in Honolulu Harbor just to keep the lights on, and some large commercial fishing vessel owners shut down to avoid their extensive costs of operation. Creative solutions for distribution quickly surfaced. >click to read< 08:25
There’s a new fight over Bering Sea black cod.
Record numbers of young black cod, also known as sablefish, are swimming off Alaska’s coast; scientists estimate that this group of fish, which had huge reproductive success in 2014, is twice the size of the next-largest on record, from 1977. The small-boat fishermen who catch black cod, many of whom live in Southeast Alaska, are eagerly waiting for the young fish to grow larger and commercially valuable. But they’re getting frustrated seeing increasing numbers of black cod caught accidentally, as bycatch, by the Seattle-based trawlers that target lower-value species in the Bering Sea, like the pollock that go into McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. >click to read< 16:43
With The Timber Economy Gone, Port Orford Looks To The Sea
Recent decades have not been kind to rural Oregon. As natural resources come under increased pressure — and the economy becomes more globalized — small, resource-based communities have been hit hard. Port Orford, on Oregon’s south coast, is no exception. But now, some people in Port Orford are trying innovative approaches to adapting traditional livelihoods to the new reality so their town can survive – and even thrive – in the 21st Century. click here to read the story 11:30
Out-of-state scallop boats threaten survival of Maine fishermen
After years of waiting for the northern Gulf of Maine scallop population to flourish, small-boat fishermen from Maine say federal mismanagement of scallop stocks in the area could result in larger boats wiping them out. Hancock fisherman James West said that larger boats, most of which are based out of state, should not be allowed unlimited catches when he is capped at harvesting only 200 pounds of meat a day. And he said he’s angry that the New England Fishery Management Council has known about the regulatory disparity for years and has done nothing to address it. “That’s what makes me so mad about it,” West said Sunday. “I’m shocked the council couldn’t figure out a way to fix this. We’re really getting the shaft.” Council officials say protecting the lucrative resource is a high priority that they plan to address in the coming year. But Maine fishermen say a year could be too late to ensure that federal scallop grounds in the gulf stay productive. continue reading the story here 07:36
Massachusetts Lawmakers to help small-boat fishermen qualify for third round of federal disaster aid
This is for the third installment of 
designed in 2012 to help fishermen catch some of the dollars they lost under significant cuts to groundfish catch allocations. The initial proposal limited recipients to only those fishermen who caught at least 20,000 pounds of fish each year for the last three years, said Rep. Jim Cantwell, the Democrat who represents two fishing communities in Marshfield and Scituate. National Marine Fisheries Service allocated in February $8.3 million of a $32.8 million federal groundfish disaster aid package to,,, Read the rest here 10:13
Special Report – Catch Shares: Too often we call the devil by a different name – by Evan Connoly ACFN Contributor
It was a strange sight to see, and one I had not since my childhood. Plymouth Rock loomed majestically over the ocean in the morning sun beside the town’s historic waterfront. Cold and raw; both the day and the feeling in my gut the more I learned about the changes in this town. The streets felt as though they were dying. American sweat and blood now trickled only thinly across those historic streets. In Plymouth I met with a group of men who remain fishing in the area, Read more here 08:39
