Tag Archives: surf clam fishery
Is the Great Fishkill of 1976 About to be Repeated? By Jim Lovgren
In 1976 the United States suffered its largest man-made environmental disaster ever as 2,500 square miles of ocean died, thanks to a hundred years of sewage dumping by New York City and Northern New Jersey communities. This catastrophe awakened the public to this disgusting practice and environmental organizations sprung up to fight it, eventually winning the fight. Proving that the little guy can prevail against the “powers that be”. >click to read< 17:37
Our surf clam fishery is headed for disaster
When it comes to fishery management controversy never seems to be too far away. Last month you may have read about the dubious nature of a decision by the New England Fishery Management Council to close a large area of Nantucket Shoals to fishermen who harvest surf clams there, ostensibly to protect fish habitat. Questionable actions such as these undermine industry confidence in fishery regulators and serve only to alienate, and embitter, fishermen and the many others on the waterfront whose livelihoods are threatened by such draconian measures. >click to read<20:47
Clam controversy – There is much at stake, like a lot of jobs.
In June, at the Intershell dock on Commercial Street, owners Monte and Yibing Gao Rome launched their new 55-foot surf clam boat, F/V Bing Bing, amid the hoopla and happiness associated with a new Gloucester boat going into the water. But on Tuesday, Intershell and the other major surf clammers along the Northeast will find out if they still have a surf clam fishery to call home in the lucrative and historically rich Great South Channel of the Nantucket Shoals. The New England Fishery Management Council, in a trailing action to its Omnibus 2 Essential Fish Habitat Amendment, will decide if a large swath of the current surf clam fishery, 10 to 20 miles east and southeast of Nantucket, will remain open to surf clamming or possibly be closed as part of a protectionist move to designate the full area as an essential fish habitat. >click to read<22:45
