NCFA WEEKLY UPDATE FOR June 03, 2024
The Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC) meets this week in Riverhead, NY. The meeting starts Tuesday June, 4th and goes through Thursday June, 6th. Meeting Webpage, Agenda, Combined Briefing Book, Join Meeting on Webex. Public comments on agenda items will be allowed during appropriate times of the meeting and general comments will be taken the last day of the meeting. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:31
End of Plymouth Fish Market ‘disastrous for Looe’
Mike “Moogie” Pengelly has been fishing off Looe after leaving school in 1967 and owns the small stern trawler the Ganesha with his two sons. He said things could be “disastrous” after the closure of the Plymouth market “put us in a bit of a pickle”. He said: “We’re relying on Brixham now. That’s it. “We used to land on Looe Market, but that collapsed and we went to Plymouth, which was successful. “Now that’s wrapped up and we’re in a bit of a mess at the moment.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:40
“He passed away doing what he loved;” Local fisherman dies at sea
Mike Bishop and his deckhand, Mark Henderson, set out onto the waters early Saturday morning for the first day of shrimping season. Leaving around 3:00 a.m. to make a three-hour journey to South Mobile Bay. “You know, he’s a hero, he’s a hero. He let someone live and he went down with his ship,” Bishop’s son, Brandon said. Just after 3:00 a.m. the Coast Guard believes a waterspout hit Bishop’s boat, “The Old Navy”, causing them to capsize only 10 minutes from their dock. “The surviving deckhand says the last thing he remembers is my dad handing him a life vest,” Brandon explained. “Telling him to go outside and that was the last time he saw him was up in the wheelhouse.” Video, more, >>Click to Read<< 06:09
Retired Commercial Fisherman Captain Nick Mosich has passed away
For over thirty years the fishing vessel Mauritania patrolled the Eastern Pacific searching for tuna to bring home to market. At the helm was Captain Nick Mosich. He was hardworking, practical, and stoic. Always among the top producers, he was admired for his devotion and skill in his never-ending pursuit for tuna. His father was a fisherman, and his mother a homemaker. In 1949, he left Loyola to join his father in the fishing industry, where they worked side by side for a decade. In 1950, he met and married the love of his life, Barbara. They went on to have two children, and he was a dedicated family man.In 1960, Nick became owner of F/V Mauritania. At the time, the vessel was a bait boat, meaning it fished for tuna using bait and poles. The boat was converted to a purse seiner and for over thirty years he sought schools of tuna from Mexico to Peru. More than a fishing savant, Nick was devoted to his crew, and treated them as family. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:37
Search and rescue operation ended after fisherman found deceased in capsized vessel
Search and rescue efforts are underway for a missing fisherman in Mobile Bay after a storm early Saturday morning. Authorities say he and another man set out on the water around 3 a.m. for the first day of shrimping season. A storm is believed to have hit the area around 3:30 a.m., causing the boat to capsize. One of the fishermen was recovered by nearby shrimpers and taken to a hospital. Story will be updated, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:03
Fishy Business: How Brexit Failed To Help a Dying Industry
Brexit promised fishermen to take back control of the waters and get rid of foreign boats in British waters. But since the UK broke up with the European Union, little has changed. British fishing communities continue to struggle, as big companies, many of them international conglomerates, have bought quotas for the country’s most valuable species, controlling the price of the fish from sea to plate. Fishermen believed that the promised reforms, made possible by leaving what they saw as a restrictive European Union, would revive the national fishing industry, and with it bring back — at least to some extent — the prosperity of the past. They turned out to be empty promises. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:12
Rock star fishery booming in Western Australia, as octopus catch quadruples
In a world hungry for healthy sustainable protein, WA’s western rock octopus is a rising star. It’s wild caught, all natural and has no adverse impact on the environment, according to the Fremantle Octopus company’s general manager Emma Davison. “Octopus has more iron and more protein than red meat,” Ms. Davison said. The Fremantle company dominates the relatively new octopus fishery. About 70 per cent of its current market is for raw tentacles favoured by high-end restaurants. The in-demand mollusc is the rock star of Australia’s commercial fishing industry. Since it was established as a managed fishery in 2015 the annual catch has increased by 400 per cent. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 20:31
Commercial redfish fishery in Gulf of St. Lawrence expected to resume later this month
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the reopening of the redfish fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence could begin as early as June 15 and has announced the total allowable catch will be 60,000 tonnes for 2024-25. DFO announced the changes in a statement Friday. The department had said previously that the minimum allowable catch for the fishery would be 25,000 tonnes, but had not provided a cap. The commercial redfish fishery closed in 1995 over stock concerns. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:26
DFO Doubles Down on Redfish Giveaway: NL MPs Fail to Step-Up for Provincial Fishery
Late yesterday evening, DFO released the 2024-2025 Management Plan for redfish. The cowardly move came after the close of NL business hours and doubled down by taking owner-operator resources and handing them off to corporations. Earlier this spring, the original announcement made by Minister Lebouthillier gave away nearly 60% of the Canadian redfish quota to the corporate fleet, despite the inshore, owner-operator fleet having taken the lead on science and sustainability measures in recent years. With the Gulf shrimp fishery all but closed and non-shrimpers waiting for redfish to return, this is another blow to a group that’s been in survival mode for the last several years. “Once again, FFAW-Unifor members have been maligned by our two Ministerial Marionettes, Seamus O’Regan and Gudie Hutchings,” said FFAW-Unifor President Greg Pretty. “Sadly, their strings continue to be plucked by the Offshore Groundfish Oligarchy. >>CLICK TO READ<<11:49
Florida Fish and Wildlife Hosts Commercial Fishing Industry Summit
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) hosted Florida’s first Commercial Fishing Industry Summit in St. Augustine on May 21 and 22. According to FWC, the goal of the summit was to gather representatives from the industry to help develop a vision for the commercial fishing industry for the next five to 10 years. Partnering organizations included Florida Stone Crabber’s Association, Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, Beacon Fisheries, Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, Kathi’s Krabs, Organized Fishermen of Florida, Lampl Herbert Consultants, Southeastern Fisheries Association, Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association, and the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, Inc. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:46
DFO investigates after dozens of lobster traps belonging to Mi’kmaw fisherman damaged
Charles Francis fishes under a moderate livelihood authorization between DFO and Mi’kmaw harvesters, which allows designated First Nations community members to catch and sell lobster during the commercial season without increasing the number of traps licensed in lobster fishing areas (LFAs). “We couldn’t believe it. At first, we thought everything was all right in this area because nobody said anything to us and nobody paid attention to us,” Francis said in an interview after landing his catch at the Louisbourg wharf last week. “All of a sudden, we come fishing Saturday and everything just turned upside down for us.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:17
Seafood restaurants, fishermen say Mary Mahoney’s guilty plea is sign of industry trouble
For years, Mary Mahoney’s Old French House Restaurant, a Biloxi institution known nationwide, bought foreign, frozen seafood from a local supplier and sold it to unsuspecting customers as fresh Gulf seafood, federal prosecutors allege, and the restaurant now has admitted. Between 2013 and November 2019, when the restaurant was raided for unknown reasons, Mahoney’s bought from an unnamed Biloxi supplier and co-conspirator more than 29 tons of lake perch, tripletail, triggerfish and unicorn filefish from Africa or South America and passed it off as premium Gulf red snapper, snapper and redfish, the government’s charging documents say. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:08
The seafood industry is in trouble. Processors and policy makers blame Russia.
Alaska waters produce the most seafood in the country, and many of the state’s coastal communities depend on commercial fisheries to sustain their economy. But Alaska’s fisheries are facing a massive economic slump right now and policymakers are increasingly blaming flooded global markets. The private sector and federal policymakers are teaming up to try to stop the bleeding. Last year was brutal on the seafood industry. Processing companies and fishermen alike suffered amid cratering prices, and they blamed Russia for flooding markets. Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, from Alaska, pointed his finger at the country at a news conference on May 23. “Russians have essentially admitted they’re not just at war in Ukraine, they’re at war with the American fishing industry,” he said. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:03
DFO issues warnings about lobster trap tampering in Nova Scotia
The federal Fisheries Department is investigating reports of gear tampering in lobster fishing areas in eastern Nova Scotia. The department issued a statement late Thursday saying Indigenous fishers taking part in officially sanctioned moderate livelihood fisheries have reported tampering in two fishing areas, as have non-Indigenous commercial fishers. The lobster fishing areas in question are 26A, which includes the eastern half of the Northumberland Strait, and area 27, which extends from the tip of Cape Breton near Meat Cove to an area on the east side of the island near Garbarus. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:55
Fleetwood Lifeboat Station are welcoming former Coxswain Tony Cowell as the new Lifeboat Operations Manager
The station’s previous Lifeboat Operations Manager (LOM), Captain David Eccles, served as a lifeboat crew member for Fleetwood RNLI from 1989 to 2009. After retiring from crew David became LOM and then moved on the become Chairman of the Lifeboat Management Group (LMG), before returning as LOM in 2023. With the new LOM Tony Cowell now in post at Fleetwood RNLI, David he has resumed his position as Chairman of the LMG full time. Tony has had an experienced and extensive past involved in both fishing and saving lives at sea. As an ex trawlerman, he started fishing at the age of 15, with his first trip being to Iceland in 1972. In 1975, he joined the family fishing firm, Northfleet Fishing Co, and became skipper of the trawler Constant Hope. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:00‘You can’t be a fisherman if you’re not an optimist’-Ken Coleman, longtime advocate for the east side setnet fishery, dead at 72
Ken Coleman, the vice president of the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association and longtime advocate for the east side setnet fishery, died recently at the age of 72. His friends remember him as a hardworking man who was resolute in his convictions and who worked to make Alaska better through his final days. Gary Hollier, a longtime commercial fisher in the ESSN, said last week that he met Coleman in high school and counted him as a friend for more than 50 years. The two entered the setnet fishery at the same time and raised their families on their fishing sites. Hollier described Coleman as the “ultimate professional” — whether the fishing was good or not, he always was geared up and ready. Coleman passed those values to his children. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 10:38
Louisiana’s fishermen are aging, but 1 New Orleans chef has a solution
A New Orleans chef has partnered with a Chalmette community college to create a new program to train the next generation of deckhands. Louisiana is the country’s second largest seafood producer, but its commercial fishermen are, on average, among the oldest in the country, and too few people are following in their footsteps to keep the industry going. Many of those jobs are part of long-time, family-owned businesses that have worked in the state’s coastal communities for generations. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:20
Catches up as LFA 33/34 season ends
Catches are up as lobster season comes to a close. Fishers will haul up their traps Friday for the last time until late November. Dan Fleck is the executive director of the Brazil Rock 33/34 Lobster Association. He says prices have fallen to over eight dollars a pound. “The past several weeks, catch rates have increased. It’s believed this is due to the water warming up. We believe the lobsters were there in the fall, but they weren’t crawling because the water was so cold,” said Fleck. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:01
Storm Brewing over French Halibut Fishery in Atlantic Canada
The Canadian halibut industry is accusing France of seeking an exorbitant share of the fishery in negotiations with Canada on quotas for the valuable groundfish that migrate across the jurisdictions of both countries. Canadian fishermen from Nova Scotia to Nunavut would be the losers if France prevails, said Bruce Chapman, executive director of the Atlantic Halibut Council, representing both inshore and offshore Canadian harvesters. French territorial waters extend into the Atlantic from the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, 25 kilometres from the southern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:41
Seacoast fishermen say they don’t support wind turbines in Gulf of Maine
A federal group wants to put wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine, but some Seacoast fishermen said they don’t want them. On Wednesday night, several fishermen said they can’t get on board with the idea of wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine, but the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said they’re trying to be as safe as possible with this potential project. The proposal would allow the state of Maine to build 12 floating turbines about 30 miles off the coast, which some fishermen said would cut them off from where they fish. The project, hoping to protect the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale while supporting the Biden administration’s goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, is on track to be the first floating offshore wind farm in the United States, but more approvals are still needed. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:38
2024 Northeast Spring Bottom Trawl Survey Summary
The 2024 Spring Bottom Trawl Survey began on March 6 and completed operations on May 13 aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. The survey operates on the Northwest Atlantic continental shelf, sampling at stations from Cape Lookout, North Carolina to Canada’s Scotian Shelf. We planned 377 trawl survey stations and completed 367, for a high completion rate of 97 percent. We sampled plankton at a subset of stations. We took 111 bongo samples of 116 planned, or 96 percent. Data collected include fish age, length, weight, sex, maturity and food habits. All are critical data used in regional fish stock assessments. These assessments help inform fishery management decisions by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, as well as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Charts, photo gallery, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:20
Positive signals for Stornoway fishing fleet
With the Stornoway fleet expanding and good earnings available, the industry is again seen as an attractive option while vessel owners need to recruit locally as the supply of migrant labour dries up. The three-week courses will offer a grounding in the industry leading to potential careers. The training includes four mandatory one-day courses which are legally required to enable working on a fishing vessel. These are about sea survival, health and safety, first aid and firefighting. “There are now 12 trawlers working out of Stornoway and landing to Goat Island. That includes four which are completely new to the fleet within the past couple of years”. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:11
A Master Fisherman with a Big Heart, Peter Cabral Dies at 70
Described as “saltier than a Scully Joe” by his daughter, Ashley, master fisherman Peter Cabral, who earned his first full share on a commercial fishing boat when he was eight years old, died on May 13, 2024. The son of Anna (Corea) Cabral and Louis Cabral, his adoptive father, Peter was born on July 17, 1953 in Gloucester. He grew up on Pearl Street in Provincetown, surrounded by the extended Corea family: his grandparents, Joseph and Virginia Corea; cousins Frank Domingos, Bruce, Joey, and Donna; his aunt Florence; and especially his uncle Joseph Corea, who was like a father to him. When he was a boy, fishing was as natural to Peter as riding a bike. He started commercial fishing at eight. “He earned his full share of the catch, the same as the men on the boat,” Ashley said. “He worked on Papa Joe and on Miss Sandy with Louis Rivers. He was a fishing prodigy.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:19
Crisis in Irish Inshore Fishing Sector Calls for Urgent State Support
Fishermen have been denied the ability to fish for pollack, and the prices of crab, lobster, and other shellfish have either halved or collapsed entirely since the start of 2024. The ongoing crisis with shrimp prices since last year exacerbates the situation, leaving the sector in urgent need of support from the State. Despite multiple meetings with Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, the sector has not received the necessary support. “What is happening around the coast is quite heartbreaking,” Mac Lochlainn stated, highlighting the plight of coastal and island communities with generations of fishing experience now struggling to survive. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:47
2024 Shrimp Season kicks off on the Mississippi Sound
Quality, not quantity. That’s the theme for day one of the 2024 Shrimp Season on the Mississippi Sound. As the 2024 season kicked off at 6 a.m. this morning, a total of 46 boats made their way out on the water. While there weren’t many boats, those who did drop their nets found some decent-sized shrimp to sell back at the docks. “We saw about 46 boats from the preliminary estimates,” Mississippi DMR Shrimp & Crab Bureau Director Jason Saucier said. “We did see the largest group of boats inside of Horn Island.” Video ,more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:49
Lobstermen and Scientists See a Fishery in Flux
While overall the fishery seems stable, some lobstermen are seeing changes that have them worried about its future. Scientists are looking into what role the changing climate may be playing in those changes, but they don’t have definitive answers. “It’s horrible,” said Mike Rego, a lobsterman and owner of the F/V Miss Lilly who operates out of Provincetown. “Last year was the worst year I ever had.” Dana Pazolt, another Provincetown lobsterman who owns the F/V Black Sheep, said that the last four years have been slim for lobsters around the Outer Cape. “You’ve got to hunt for them,” he said. “I can’t tell you why that is.” The surface waters of the Gulf of Maine are warming at a rate of about one degree per decade, faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Meanwhile, in other areas, warming has already had an effect — it played a major role in causing the collapse of the lobster fishery in Long Island Sound in 1999. more, >>CICK TO READ<< 21:20
Would offshore wind turbines save or ruin the Jersey Shore? Debaters rumble in Berkeley
Police officers filled Central Regional High School on Tuesday night, where tensions ran high as critics and proponents of electricity generated by offshore wind faced off with impassioned speeches during a hearing held by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Capt. Ed Baxter, a scalloper who docks at Point Pleasant Beach, said dredging to bury the power cables outside of important fishing areas, such as the Manasquan Inlet and Shark River, would have serious impacts on commercial fishermen. Rose Willis, a member of the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative of Point Pleasant Beach, said that not only would local commercial fishing companies be affected by the offshore wind project, but also many small businesses that service or buy from their industry. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:14
ICCAT North Atlantic Swordfish Stakeholder Engagement Session
The Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section to ICCAT is holding a public meeting via webinar session to receive an update and provide input on the development of a management strategy evaluation (MSE) for North Atlantic swordfish. The meeting is open to all interested stakeholders. The virtual meeting will be held by webinar session on June 13, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT. Please register to attend, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:51
A Very Dire Situation: Downward spiral for Atlantic cod continues in Gulf of St. Lawrence
The latest assessment of Atlantic cod fish stocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence continues to paint a bleak picture for the future of the species. Fisheries and Oceans Canada issued a warning five years ago saying extinction of the species in the gulf was not just possible, but probable. The first assessment since then has been released. “We are not seeing any recovery of the spawning stock biomass of that stock. It is still experiencing really high levels of natural mortality, especially at the adult stage of life,” said federal Fisheries and Oceans biologist Daniel Ricard. Between 60 and 70 per cent of cod in the southern gulf do not survive beyond age five and are likely being eaten by the huge herds of grey seals in the region, Ricard said. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:17
United States Navy testing wind-turbine powered aircraft carriers
The United States Navy is currently testing aircraft carriers powered solely by wind turbines announced Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro during a recent appearance at the US Naval Academy. The Secretary proudly spoke to the Midshipmen about the historic change. “We are embarking in a bold green direction, transitioning from the aging nuclear reactors of yesterday to the efficient use of sustainable wind energy, something we’ve never done before!” “The USS Al Gore will be complete with testing in late 2024. Initial testing has revealed a substantial decrease in speed which has only made the already dangerous take-off and landing exponentially more so. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:53
