Last southwestern N.S. lobster season one for the record books: But not in a good way
From delayed season starts to low shore prices, foul weather and an out-of-control wildfire as a grand finale, the 2022-23 season in Lobster Fishing Areas (LFAs) 33 and 34 has been dubbed the worst season in more than 20 years. The LFA 34 fishery opened on Dec 5, 2022, after a one-week delay to the season start due to weather. The LFA 33 fishery opened on Nov. 29, 2022, after a one-day delay. Both seasons are always scheduled to start on the last Monday of November. The season opened with a $7 shore price, compared to the record-setting opening shore price of $10 to $11 a pound in 2021. The shore price peaked at $13.50 during the slowest part of the season in mid-winter, closing at $8.30 at season’s end on May 31. Photos, >>click to read<< 08:47
Fraserburgh RNLI Crews’ 12-Hour Rescue Mission to Stranded Fishing Vessel
In a daring 12-hour operation, the dedicated crew of Fraserburgh RNLI, under the command of Duty Coxswain Victor Sutherland, successfully rescued a distressed fishing vessel stranded 40 miles off the coast. The 19-metre fishing vessel, carrying a crew of seven, found itself in dire straits when another passing fishing vessel attempted to lend a helping hand. However, the tumultuous sea conditions rendered evacuation unsafe, prompting the Coxswain to make the pivotal decision to attach a tow line. The Fraserburgh RNLI lifeboat, named “Willie and May Gall,” swiftly launched at 12:28pm, racing against time to reach the distressed vessel. >>click to read<< 07:24
Safety paramount for lobster season opening in southwestern N.S.
Opening day protocol for the two lobster fishing districts dictates that any winds above 26 knots will delay the scheduled season start of the lobster fishery. Last season, LFA 33 opened after a one-day delay, while dumping day in the LFA 34 opening was delayed by a week. “The decision on whether to advance or delay the opening date considers weather forecasts provided by Environment Canada and advice from the LFA advisory committees,” says Sankey. Opening day protocol for the two lobster fishing districts dictates that any winds above 26 knots will delay the scheduled season start of the lobster fishery. Last season, LFA 33 opened after a one-day delay, while dumping day in the LFA 34 opening was delayed by a week. Photo’s, >>click to read<< 12:27
Sealing industry protests lack of talks on EU ban at summit in N.L.
Implemented by the EU in 2009, the trade ban on seal products, based on ethical concerns, deprived thousands of seal hunters in Eastern Canada of their most important market. The sealing industry, whose biggest footprint is in Nunavut and Newfoundland and Labrador, has never recovered. Gil Thériault, the head of the association representing Quebec’s seal hunters, said planning two days of bilateral meetings in Newfoundland and Labrador, “the very place Ottawa abandoned,” and not bringing up the seal products ban “sends a message of complete disregard for people in coastal communities.” According to groups representing seal hunters and processors, the EU embargo is the result of an extremely effective lobbying campaign from animal-rights groups, who depicted the hunt as an inhumane slaughter. Sealers say that’s false and that the hunt is sustainable and conducted without cruelty. >>click to read<< 10:53
Nova Scotia government retreats on plan to fast-track wind farms in coastal bays
“We’re pausing any consideration of waters within provincial jurisdiction until the framework for jointly managed offshore areas is in place,” Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton said in a statement issued Wednesday. The decision to focus first on jointly managed waters — in essence a go-slower approach — capped several months of lobbying by fisheries groups concerned that wind farms inside bays would displace already crowded fishing grounds. “I would say that the fishing industry is very, very pleased that the province has listened to the many, many voices both within our industry and other industries,” said Ginny Boudreau, executive director of the Guysborough County Inshore Fishermen’s Association. >>click to read<< 09:57
New tech designed with Cornish fishermen to transform bycatch monitoring
An innovative new tool being developed with fishermen in Cornwall aims to radically transform how by-catch is documented on board fishing vessels and, ultimately, prevent it happening. In a UK-first, Insight360 combines voice recognition and video information to deliver real-time insight and create a 360-degree view of what’s happening at sea during a by-catch event, that continuously improves over time. Refined with fishermen, the technology removes the need to manually review and add notes to footage, offering instead a way for skippers and crews to train a monitoring system to automatically recognise and record bycatch events as they happen. >>click to read<< 08:19
‘People helping people’
Some folks in Alaska are going to be very thankful on Thanksgiving. The Lydia Marie, a 44-foot wooden troller, with its captain, Logan Padgett, and his brother aboard, began taking on water on Nov. 13 while in rough waters in Frederick Sound, KCAW.org reported. Padgett sent out a mayday to U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka and headed for calmer waters off Read Island in Farragut Bay. The flooding got under control, but the helicopter was already on the way. “Well, it was dark,” Padgett said. “So we were just looking at the helicopter lights, and there wasn’t really much to see. But we could hear the rotors one second, and then (a) loud crash the next. Then silence.” >>click to read<< 06:53
A Sinking Trawler Is Saved
When Capt. Chuck Morici’s boat was sinking 15 miles from Montauk Point on Nov. 15, he did what people do in 2023: He made a short video. Orange haze from a smoke flare he had thrown in the water swirled around the boat. He pointed the camera below deck to show water, rising rapidly. “There she goes. I just want to cry. We’re going down.” Minutes later, after the Coast Guard had arrived, he made a second video. “You might not like the Coast Guard when they measure your fish, but you sure like them when they show up and save your ass,” he said before panning to a Coast Guardsman descending below deck. “I was fishing next to Capt. Dave Aripotch in heavy currents. I told him I was having trouble and asked him to come pick up my crew. I put them in survival suits immediately. Dave backed up, stern to stern, and he took care of my guys.” >>click to read<< 15:21
F/V Tyhawk: Report says deck modification led to fatal capsizing of First Nation fishing vessel
Canada’s transportation safety agency says modifications to the deck of the Mi’kmaq fishing boat Tyhawk led to the fatal capsizing in 2021. The Transportation Safety Board says in a report released today that Transport Canada needs to better define the rules on stability assessments of fishing boats after vessels undergo “major” modifications. The recommendation is one of three the board released in relation to the capsizing off western Cape Breton on April 3, 2021, which occurred on the first day of crab season. The report says the boat, based in Elsipogtog First Nation, accumulated water as it was struck by waves and that traps shifted on its deck, causing the vessel to roll over. >>click to read<< More, Search Results for F/V Tryhawk >Click here< 12:58
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 83′ Offshore Lobster Boat, Permit, Traps, and Buoys.
To review specifications, information, and 35 photos’, >click here<, To see all the boats in this series, >click here< 11:11
First National Fishing Remembrance Day announced
Today on World Fisheries Day, maritime welfare charities have joined forces to support a new annual National Fishing Remembrance Day for those who have lost their lives while fishing at sea. The first National Fishing Remembrance Day will take place on Sunday 12 May 2024. Fishing to catch, and bring to land, our much-needed seafood is still one of the most dangerous jobs in the UK with recent tragedies at sea occurring in north east Scotland in September and off the south coast of England in October 2023. UK Fisheries Minister Mark Spencer said: “Our fishermen not only help to feed the nation, but are at the heart of communities around our coastline. National Fishing Remembrance Day will give loved ones, coastal communities and the wider public a chance to commemorate the lives lost at sea and pay tribute to their valuable service. >>click to read<< 10:03
3 dead and 3 missing after landslide rips through remote Alaska fishing community
The slide, estimated to be 450 feet (137 meters) wide, occurred at about 9 p.m. Monday during a significant rain and windstorm near Wrangell, an island community of 2,000 people some 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of the state capital of Juneau. Rescue crews found the body of a girl in an initial search and late Tuesday the bodies of two adults were found by a drone operator. Searchers used a cadaver-sniffing dog and heat-sensing drones to search for two children and one adult unaccounted for after the disaster, while the Coast Guard and other vessels looked along a waterfront littered with rocks, trees and mud. >>click to read<< 08:53
Fishing industry’s fight against offshore wind farms reaches far and wide
Off the coast of Montauk, New York is some of the most fertile fishing grounds in all of North America. It is an area that has been sustainably fished for over 400 years, feeding countless Americans along the way. It also happens to be an area where energy companies, some foreign-owned, are trying to install offshore wind farms. Political agendas and lobbyist pull strings have put that sustainable fishing at risk. As a result, the Vineyard Wind project has embroiled generational fishermen into a lawsuit, and a battle for their own profession. Roy Maynard of the Texas Public Policy Foundation says there has not even been proper checks and balances. >>click to read<< 07:26
MCFA’s Fishermen Feeding Mainers Program has served more than one million meals to families in Maine
In just three years since its inception, Fishermen Feeding Mainers has served more than one million meals to families in communities throughout Maine. The program was launched by the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA), a local nonprofit focused on rebuilding the fisheries of the Gulf of Maine and sustaining Maine’s fishing communities for future generations. Since October 2020, the program has supplied fresh local seafood direct from Maine fishermen to more than 250 food banks and over 30 school districts, providing countless Mainers with a healthy, high-quality and free source of protein. More than $2.2 million has been infused back into the Maine economy through the program to date. The program was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to help sustain fishermen and families in Maine. When the food system and restaurants closed, many of Maine’s fishermen, who had already seen declining value in their fleets, were not able to sell the fish they caught, leaving them unable to support their families. >>click to read<< 18:24
Nova Scotia lobster pound owner wins appeal of ‘grossly disproportionate’ 2-year suspension
The Nova Scotia Supreme Court has overturned a two-year ban from the lobster business imposed on a pound owner caught with lobster harvested under an Indigenous licence that does not permit selling the catch. Justice Pierre Muise said the penalty imposed on Tyler Nickerson, owner of Fisher Direct in Shag Harbour, N.S., was overkill. “The grossly disproportionate severity of the sanction imposed in the case at hand, and the lack of any discernible reasonable justification for it, make it such that the minister’s decision was arbitrary,” Muise said in a decision released Tuesday. >>click to read<< 15:08
Dungeness Crab Season Delayed Again, This Time Until Mid-December
The Commercial Dungeness crab fishing season has been delayed again, this time due partly to poor meat quality found in samples, and due to humpback whales still migrating south. While hopes for Thanksgiving crab were already dashed a few weeks ago with the initial delay, a second delay in California’s commercial Dungeness crab fishing season has been called by the state fish and wildlife authorities. In a Friday announcement, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said that they would reevaluate the fishery on December 7 for a potential opening of the commercial season on December 16. >>click to read<< 12:07
Divers to inspect fishing boat that sank at Jersey Shore during salvage attempt
The F/V Susan Rose is “fully submerged” in 49 feet of water a half-mile off Point Pleasant Beach, approximately a half-mile south of the Manasquan Inlet, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Matthew West said. The company in charge of removing the vessel, Northstar Marine Services, is working with the boat’s owners on a new plan to salvage it. “We will be going out to dive on it — to do a dive inspections, take a look at the current state of it,” Northstar Marine Services President Phillip Risko told NJ Advance Media on Monday. “So we’re planning on that in the coming days, but nothing else particular at this point. I’m not sure what day that’s going to be.” Photos, Video, >>click to read<< 10:03
Taste of US West Coast seafood for Grimsby as Oregon’s eyes are on UK market
Grimsby has been given a taste of US West Coast seafood as new trade routes are explored. Lesser known species from the Pacific could be introduced to the UK market as a result, as work continues on establishing links between a resurrected fishery and the town. Erick Garman, trade manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, has visited the cluster, underlining the gateway status for the UK market. Importers, buyers and distributors have been given an overview of the species available, and the potential volumes, ahead of a tasting session. Trials are now being conducted with pub and restaurant chains, as work continues with major industry operators on securing deals. >>click to read<< 09:09
N.S. First Nations to exercise right to moderate livelihood during upcoming lobster season
For the third consecutive year, four First Nations in southwestern Nova Scotia will exercise their treaty right to fish for a moderate living when Canada’s most lucrative lobster fishery opens next week. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced Monday that it has again issued an interim authorization to Wasoqopa’q (Acadia), Annapolis Valley, Bear River and Glooscap First Nations. DFO insists that moderate livelihood fishing must occur during commercial seasons — a limitation that some Mi’kmaq do not accept. The right to earn a moderate living was recognized — but not defined — by the Supreme Court of Canada more than 20 years ago in the Marshall cases. >>click to read<< 07:53
Family: Life raft from missing Brunswick fishermen may have been spotted
Over a month after the F/V Carol Ann disappeared off the coast of Brunswick, the discovery of debris from the boat and a possible sighting of a life raft has the families of three missing boaters clinging to hope. Dalton Conway, Caleb Wilkinson and Tyler Barlow set off on a fishing trip 80 miles off the coast of Brunswick on October 14 and never came home. A fishing bin from the boat was discovered about 16 miles off the shore of St. Augustine Sunday, a sign that their boat may be nearby. Jones, met up with Wilkinson’s mom, Jennifer Monday evening in Marineland where they suspended the search due to darkness. Monday, a helicopter crew hired by the boaters’ family may have seen a red life raft floating in the water near Crescent Beach. Video, >>click to read<< 06:27
Crisis Hotline: New option for farmers, ranchers, loggers and fishermen in Oregon
A new hotline, the Agristress Helpline, launched in Oregon in September. It is tailored to support those who work in agriculture, forestry or the fishing industry through a phone and text service that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The helpline is free and has trained counselors with experience in those industries who can take phone calls in 160 languages, with English, Spanish and Vietnamese professionals available to respond by text. Experts say the line is sorely needed. Although the 988 crisis line provides a similar service, the Agristress line is specialized to address the needs of farmers, ranchers, loggers and fishermen. They often work in social and geographic isolation and in areas with limited access to health care services. These professions also have to grapple with extreme weather conditions, such as flash flooding or drought, and they face fluctuating commodity prices. >>click to read<< 18:06
Nova Scotia Fishermen happy with aid offer but not with timing of announcement
The largest wildfire ever in Nova Scotia hit fishermen Kasey DeMings hard. “I built something for 10 years and I watched it all get taken from me in about four hours,” he recalled. The Shelburne Forest fire tore through the gear he was storing outside, next to his home in Carleton Village, N.S. He estimated he lost nearly 400 traps, over 100 herring nets and related gear along with this house. “It wiped one fishery right out,” he said. Fishing gear stored outside is not eligible for insurance. Although he still had about 240 traps that were in the water the day the fire swept through his home community, DeMings said he has been unable to head back out on the water since then. >>click to read<< 16:32
North Carolina Fisheries Association Weekly Update for November 20, 2023
The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) met last week in Emerald Isle, NC. I am happy to report there was good turnout from fishermen giving comments and talking with commissioners and staff during and after the meeting. As most of you know the striped mullet was the hot item on the agenda. Specifically, looking at reducing striped mullet harvest by setting seasons and trip limits. If you read the Weekly Update last week you know that the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) has recommended the maximum harvest reduction percentage of 35.4%. DMF recommends:>>click to read<< 13:45
Ringside View: Offshore Wind is a Financial and Environmental Catastrophe
It’s about time Californians of all ideological persuasions wake up and stop what is possibly the most economically wasteful and environmentally destructive project in American history: the utility scale adoption of offshore wind energy. The California Legislature intends to despoil our coastline and coastal waters with floating wind turbines, 20+ miles offshore, tethered to the sea floor 4,000 feet beneath the waves. Along with tethering cables, high voltage wires will descend from each of these noisy, 1,000 foot tall leviathans, but we’re to assume none of this will disrupt the migrations of our treasured Cetaceans and other marine and avian life, not the electric fields emanating from hundreds (thousands?) of 20+ mile long live power lines laid onto the ocean floor, nor from the construction, the maintenance, or the new ports, ships, and submersibles. >>click to reafd<< 10:57
Salmon fall run in Mokelumne River sets 80-year record
More fall-run Chinook salmon are returning to spawn in the Mokelumne River this year than in any year since 1940, when wildlife officials first began tracking the population, according to the East Bay Municipal Utility District. EBMUD officials announced Thursday that more than 20,000 fish have so far returned to the river to complete their life cycle. “This year’s historic return highlights EBMUD’s longstanding collaboration in the region and our deep commitment to sustaining this vital fish hatchery and protecting the river’s habitat,” said EBMUD board president Andy Katz. Video, >>click to read<< 09:36
Authorities crack down on commercial lobster fishery inside Halifax harbour
Lobster fishing inside Halifax harbour will be sharply restricted when the season opens next week as federal authorities move to enforce existing prohibitions. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans will not allow traps to be set within 300 metres of any wharf, pier or boat structure inside the harbour. The restriction was included in DFO lobster fishing licence conditions for the first time this year at the request of the Halifax Port Authority, which has the same rule on the books. That’s bad news for Craig Hartlen, a lobster fisherman based in Eastern Passage, a small port on the outer edge of the harbour. >>click to read<< 08:11
‘Catastrophic failure’: Efforts to salvage fishing trawler Susan Rose end with it sinking
The salvage of the Susan Rose, the fishing boat that ran aground in Point Pleasant Beach, was going as planned early Sunday when water started coursing into the 48-year-old commercial trawler with eight crew members on board, the salvage company owner said. The boat ended up sinking about a half mile offshore during the salvage operation. Northstar Marine Services of Cape May County was handling the salvage operation. Photos, video >>click to read<< 07:07
Debris from boat of 3 missing fisherman found off coast of St. Augustine
Debris from the boat of three missing Georgia fisherman was found 16 miles off the coast of St. Augustine Sunday night, according to the United Cajun Navy. The owner of the F/V Carol Ann confirmed the recently found debris, which was a fish box and the buoy balls on the boat. The three missing fisherman, Tyler Barlow, Caleb Wilkinson and Dalton Conway, went on what was planned to be a four-day fishing trip. Video, >>click to read<< 21:31
F/V Susan Rose: Fishing boat that ran aground off N.J. sinks
A 77-foot commercial fishing boat that ran aground three blocks from the Manasquan Inlet in Point Pleasant Beach last week sank while it was being towed from the area, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said Sunday. The Coast Guard received a report of the boat being beached shortly before 5 a.m. Friday. Crews worked all day Saturday to get the boat afloat. As a salvage company was towing it away, the vessel sank in 48 feet of water about a half mile from Manasquan Inlet around 2 a.m. Sunday, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Matthew West said. >>click to read<< 13:39
Resurgence of illegal Indonesian fishers ‘unacceptable’ as companies say stocks are suffering
Fishers say highly organised illegal poaching of Australia’s fish and marine life is having a significant impact on fish stocks in the country’s remote northern waters. Northern Wildcatch Seafood operator Grant Barker, whose fleet of five boats fish remote waters off the West Australian and Northern Territory coast, said it was common to see Indonesian fishing boats operating within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). He was concerned about the impact of illegal fishing on Australia’s fish stocks. “Depending on the time of the year and where our boats are fishing, we might have interactions with them 15 or 20 times a year,” he said. Mr Barker said illegal fishing was highly organised and designed to take as much catch as possible. Photos, video, >>click to read<< 11:59
