Ahab's Journal

Test site for wind farm draws varied comments

BY SUSAN WEST | SENTINEL STAFF  Construction of a demonstration wind energy project in Pamlico Sound could begin as early as next year, according to state officials who met with Outer Banks residents to discuss offshore wind energy Friday.

Governor Beverly Perdue, Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, and Representative Tim Spear hosted the meeting at Cape Hatteras Secondary School.

Entrepreneur developing new crab-processing way

Gabe Dough wants to make Washington the “core” of America’s crabbing industry.

His ambitious plan starts with his upstart, biotechnology-based crabbing company, Shure Foods.

Through experimental work with the company, Dough has been using proprietary materials, such as enzymes and proteins, to tweak the consistency of raw blue-crab meat and bind it into medallions and patties.

The company’s extraction and manipulation process is designed to reduce the end cost of producing the delicate blue-crab meat, Dough said.

Read "Entrepreneur developing new crab-processing way"

 

Lawsuit challenges commercial fishing quotas in Gulf

A Houston-based group of recreational fishermen has filed suit in federal court to force Gulf of Mexico fishery managers to drop a plan that grants exclusive rights to a portion of the annual catch of grouper and tilefish.

The Coastal Conservation Association, with 90,000 members nationwide, argues that the federal plan discriminates against sport anglers by giving a majority of the bounty to commercial fishermen.

The management strategy, known as “individual fishing quotas,” is intended to stop overfishing of the species by granting commercial outfits a portion of the harvest rather than having them compete to see who can catch the most during a specified period.

Read "Lawsuit challenges commercial fishing quotas in Gulf"

Seafood market work set to begin

MELFA -- Construction of a state-owned central seafood marketing facility next to the Eastern Shore Farmers Market is set to begin within weeks after more than a decade of planning.

 Funding for the $5.4 million seafood market came through a bond issue approved by the General Assembly last year.

The nonprofit seafood market will follow a similar model as the farmer's market -- space will be leased to private shippers and brokers. Watermen also will be able to rent storage space on a per-package basis.

The idea to build a centralized seafood storage and shipping facility began 11 years ago when the Eastern Shore Marketing Cooperative board of directors, which is responsible for operating the farmer's market, decided watermen would benefit from a similar setup. The farmer's market, since it opened in 1993, has brokered more than $100 million in produce from local farms.   

Read "Seafood market work set to begin"

New rules may force scallop fisherman to old ways

The quota system should get underway next year. "Nobody in the general category wanted IFQs," said Wally Gray.

The huge disparity over quota allotment between big boats and the smaller general category boats has enraged Gray and most of his peers.

"The general category gets only 4.6 million pounds, and the big boat fleet has over 44 million pounds, and they will probably catch 60 million pounds, and they won't get shut down. The big boats go over their TAC (total allowable catch) ever year, and they never get shut down. Big boats run the (New England Fisheries Management) Council, and NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) wants the least amount of boats. That's easy to manage," said Gray.

"They (the fishery powers-that-be) put me out of business. It's a shame. The scallop fishery could support both fleets (large and small boat). My boat is up for sale. If I buy the history (and get additional scallop quota) I need, I will have to spend $200,000, and I can't afford that," Gray said.

Read "New rules may force scallop fisherman to old ways"

 

Floating turbines open wind potential

In the scramble to harness ocean wind power, floating turbine technology may be the holy grail.
Turbines that can be floated into position and anchored in deeper water are the solution to much of the politics that confronts shallow-water projects, according to proponents of the concept.

A pair of announcements this month seems to herald the next step into deeper water. A Norwegian energy company has begun to produce electricity with the first fully functional floating turbine – a project known as Hywind developed by StatoilHydro. 

And less than a week after Hywind was turned on, Blue H USA announced it had applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to install a floating test platform 23 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard.

Read "Floating turbines open wind potential" 

Conservationists call for U.S. action to save bluefin tuna

Citing the failure of the international community to rein in harvest of bluefin tuna, Coastal Conservation Association is urging the United States to proceed with an effort to list the Atlantic bluefin on Appendix I to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and prohibit the international trade in bluefin.

“It is clear from the last meetings of International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the failure of the European Union to agree on a ban that we are left with only one option to save bluefin tuna,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “It is time for the United States to demonstrate some leadership and insist that all international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna be halted, while hope for a recovery still remains.”

Proposals would greatly expand sea sanctuaries

Space set aside for protecting sea life on the Southern California coast would more than double under a trio of proposals for marine sanctuaries released to the public this week.

The three strategies would provide from 380 to 413 square miles of near-shore waters as safety zones for species — more than twice the current amount of 182 squares miles. Managers of the state-sponsored project posted maps, comments and related documents on the state Department of Fish and Game's Web site late Thursday.

Read "Proposals would greatly expand sea sanctuaries"

Swirl of global factors drives seafood prices

Alaska's abundant fisheries can make people forget our seafood industry is just one relatively small player in a very competitive world market. And factors driving fish prices occur far beyond the docks.

"Whether you're talking fish or crude oil or timber or minerals, people around the world are producing competing products and selling into the same markets. And they are working very aggressively -- as hard as we are -- to try and increase their share of those markets. So we are always affected by what our competitors are doing, and their ups and downs in supply," said Gunnar Knapp, a fisheries economist at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Read "Swirl of global factors drives seafood prices"

Are Americans concerned about seafood safety?

The National Fisheries Institute convened a consumer focus group on Friday during its annual meeting in New Orleans to discuss seafood food-safety concerns. While the panel discussed a variety of topics, it was clear the focus group was most concerned with buying fresh, local seafood rather than worrying about food-safety issues.   

Read "Are Americans concerned about seafood safety?"

"Montauk" on Ocean Aquaculture in U.S.

You have probably heard of the failure of the sockeye run on the Frazer River. These run failures, and more all the time, are linked to ocean aquaculture. The U.S. is contemplating ocean aquaculture in a big way. Our scientists don't even know how to manage the traditional fisheries with all their knowledge, much less a completely new one.

Norway is demonstrating the true nature of corporate responsibility in environmental protection, and it should give us reason to slow down our rush to privatize all things marine. And naturally that extends to mining and oil extraction. These big companies who invest just have too much power over our policy makers. The folks who fish wild salmon in British Columbia might be asking , "Who are our policy makers, really?"

No-Fishing Zones are being considered in Biscayne Bay

The National Park Service (NPS) is proposing to incorporate marine reserves (no-take fishing zones), as well as recreational use permits, in Biscayne National Park (BNP), located south of Miami, Fla., as part of the park's updated General Management Plan.
 
The NPS is including the no-take fishing zones over the recommendations of a Biscayne National Park working group which did not include marine reserves in its review of the park. The BNP working group represented recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, divers, scientists and environmental groups.

Read "No-Fishing Zones are being considered in Biscayne Bay"

Flounder decision postponed

After extensive public comments and requests that a decision wait until after the upcoming Southern Flounder Advisory Committee meeting, the Marine Fisheries Commission agreed Thursday to wait until at least December to consider the interim rules.

Rob Bizzell, who took over as chairman on the final day of the commission’s meeting, made the motion to delay, noting that the regulations won’t be implemented until 2010. 

Read "Flounder decision postponed"

NCWU Summary of For-Hire Economic Impact Study

The NCWU Board of Directors sent the results of the Economic Impact Study to State and County officials. The Study shows a significant amount of money earned by the For-Hire Charter/Headboat Fishing Fleet -

Bluefin tuna ban rejected

The powerful bluefin tuna lobby has shown its teeth. Six of the 27 EU member states this week blocked a proposal by the European Commission to ban the international trade in this threatened fish species.

Among them is Spain, which two years ago reacted positively on a moratorium on tuna fishing, France, where even president Nicolas Sarkozy supported the trade embargo, and Malta, homeland of the EU fisheries commissioner Joe Borg where illegal trade practices and fraudulent fishery administration have been constantly in the media.

Read "Bluefin tuna ban rejected"

Palau creates world's first shark sanctuary

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The tiny Pacific nation of Palau is creating the world's first shark sanctuary, a biological hotspot to protect great hammerheads, leopard sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks and more than 130 other species fighting extinction in the Pacific Ocean.

But with only one boat to patrol 240,000 square miles (621,600 square kilometers) of Palau's newly protected waters - including its exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, that extends 200 miles (320 kilometers) from its coastline - enforcement of the new measure could be almost like swimming against the tide.

Palau's president, who is to announce the news to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, acknowledges the difficulty of patrolling ocean waters nearly the size of Texas or France with a single boat. But he hopes others will respect Palauan territorial waters - and that the shark haven inspires more such conservation efforts globally.

Read "Palau creates world's first shark sanctuary"

Islanders Rail Against Oceans Plan

Citing diverse issues from bird strikes and toxic unexploded munitions to ancient spirituality and hard economics, Islanders lined up on Wednesday night to express their concerns about the possible effects of planned commercial wind farms near the Vineyard.

Well over 100 people attended the public hearing called to receive feedback on the Oceans Management Plan, billed by the state government as a first-in-the-nation attempt to manage all development in Massachusetts waters. But just one issue dominated proceedings: wind generation.

Read "Islanders Rail Against Oceans Plan"

White House task force gets input in R.I. on a national oceans policy

More than 250 people from Maine to South Carolina crowded a public hearing at the Rhode Island Convention Center on Thursday and 70 of them requested time to officially comment on a special Ocean Study Task Force created by President Obama to recommend a new, national ocean policy to better protect the country’s oceans.

Nearly every speaker welcomed and supported the effort. It was a sharp counterpoint to the national health-care debate. In this case, parents, environmental advocates, educators, scientists, fishermen and teachers called on the federal government to do more to protect the oceans.

Read "White House task force gets input in R.I. on a national oceans policy"

Proposed rules could halve fleet

Of the 500 or so commercial boats working in the New England groundfishery today, only half of them — perhaps even fewer than that — will still be fishing in 2011, industry innovator Vito Giacalone predicted yesterday.

Giacalone made his projection a day after the New England Fishery Management Council, in a dramatic reversal of votes taken in June, agreed to tighten fishing constraints on the "common pool," that portion of the fleet that chooses to remain independent and unassociated with the "sectors" that will be served "catch shares."

Even among councilors who approved the pivotal motion 15-0 Wednesday night, late in the middle day of a three-day meeting in Plymouth, the consensus was that the common pool had been consigned to a common grave.

Read "Proposed rules could halve fleet"

Seeing red: Crab company finds home in city

NEW BEDFORD — When Capt. John Brewer and the five crew members aboard the crab boat Krystle James tied up at the South Terminal Wednesday morning after an eight-day trip, they were enjoying a rare glimpse of land.

Once they finished unloading 70,000 pounds of red crab, the 83-foot boat was refueled and steamed out to the fishing grounds the following day to harvest more. "We fish them year-round from the Hague Line right down to Hatteras," Brewer said.

Found along the continental shelf, the Atlantic deep-sea red crab, the Chaceon quinquedens, is steadily gaining appreciation among consumers for its taste and texture. A product of the cold ocean depths, the crabs are taken in wire pots, baited with menhaden and set in water from 350 to 400 fathoms deep (2,100 to 2,400 feet).

Read "Seeing red: Crab company finds home in city"

MORE ON CORRUPTION WITHIN NOAA FISHERIES LAW ENFORCEMENT

AND HOW THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN MANIPULATED TO BENEFIT A SELECT FEW

 

I have been ask recently to elaborate on the issue of fines and penalties as they pertain to NOAA Fisheries Law Enforcement (NOAA LE).   This is a question of…is there justice?    The good news, yes, there is indeed justice. The bad news is that this justice is NOT for those working in the commercial fishing industry.   I have heard it stated within NOAA that “the way to tell if a commercial fisherman is lying is to see if his lips are moving”.   This is a joke, of course, but also a very sad commentary on a system that pretends to have both the fishing industry, and protection of our natural resources, as it’s priorities.  We all know that as with any industry there are both the good and the bad, such is life.  However, Law Enforcement by its very nature should not have that luxury Mr. Jones! Each and every agent needs to be good and well trained and dedicated to the mission of his or her agency, especially management.

 

NC Seafood Festival Focuses on “How To”

Seafood lovers, cooking aficionados and do-it-yourselfers will want to check out the "Cooking with the Chefs" tent at the 23rd Annual North Carolina Seafood Festival in Morehead City from Oct. 2 to 4.

Master chefs from Raleigh and the coast will prepare seafood dishes using fish and shellfish plucked from nearby waters. Experts also will be on hand to discuss new online resources where people can learn more about locally caught seafood.

"Survey research from past festivals indicates that people want to buy local, and more and more people are cooking seafood at home," says Barry Nash, seafood technology and marketing specialist for North Carolina Sea Grant. "This year, the theme is ‘learn more and do it yourself.' We want to introduce people to the best resources out there for learning about seafood recipes, safe handling and local species," adds Nash, who also serves on the festival board of directors.

Read "NC Seafood Festival Focuses on “How To” "

R.I. fishermen’s foundation wins grant

A local research foundation created and operated by Rhode Island fishermen has won $6.5 million in federal grants to fund fish conservation research and subsidize efforts to convert to fishing gear that poses less of a threat to North Atlantic right whales.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed announced the grants Wednesday afternoon that were awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation. The foundation is based at the University of Rhode Island.

“Obviously, we’re thrilled,” David Spencer, president of the foundation, said Wednesday. “This is a fishermen-run foundation — everyone on the board is a fisherman or in fishing-support businesses. And we’re really proud of the fact that we’re running this in the right way.”

The foundation’s first president was Jim O’Grady. Its earliest supporters were O’Grady and others such as David Beutel, Jonathan Knight and the late Phil Ruhle, who developed the Eliminator Trawl that allows fishermen to continue fishing for haddock without catching cod, which is protected by stricter quotas.

Read "R.I. fishermen’s foundation wins grant" 

CCA Position Statement on Weakfish and Striped Bass

In response to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC):

Ø  Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Weakfish

Ø  Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan

 

Virginia keeps limits on oyster harvesting

NEWPORT NEWS — State regulators agreed Tuesday to continue controversial oyster harvesting rules despite protests from watermen who said the restrictions are ineffective.

The rules, approved unanimously by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission limit where and when oysters can be taken from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

For example, the state will allow watermen to harvest oysters near Tangier Island from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28. Previously, watermen could work that area from autumn until spring.

Put into practice two years ago, commission members hope the rules will prevent watermen from overfishing sensitive areas and, therefore, keep the oyster population steady. The species, once the backbone of the state's fishing industry, has been decimated by disease, pollution and overfishing during the past 50 years.

Read "Virginia keeps limits on oyster harvesting"

Fishermen in pool face tough limits

PLYMOUTH — The New England Fishery Management Council last night authorized a belated crackdown on common pool fishing next year in an effort to prevent a free-for-all fishing derby.

The move strives to preserve the experiment in catch share sector fishing, scheduled to begin next May.

Many councilors voted to request draconian limits on common pool fishing with heavy hearts.

"We've crippled the common pool, we've cut their throats," said Rodney Avila, a councilor and fisherman from New Bedford.

Read "Fishermen in pool face tough limits"

Goliath grouper harvest is discussed

At the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meeting in central Florida, commissioners were talking about reopening the fishery for goliath grouper -- closed for the past 19 years -- to a limited, recreational take.

FWC chairman Rodney Barreto told his colleagues he is under intense pressure from members of the public.

``Can we do a tag, a permit system?'' Barreto asked Mark Robson, the agency's saltwater fisheries administrator. ``I'm getting hammered everywhere I go. You've got to do something.''

Added commissioner Ron Bergeron: ``There's an awful lot of them out there. It's a resource we should look at for the benefit of the fishermen.''  

Read "Goliath grouper harvest is discussed"

MAFMC to Broadcast Meetings

 

Beginning with its October 13-15, 2009 Council meeting in Ocean City, Maryland, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will be broadcasting its meetings.  

Fishing OK near planned wind farms off New Jersey coast

The three companies planning to construct wind farms off the New Jersey coast have agreed to not pursue any restrictions on fishing near the operations, which means commercial fisherman would be allowed to harvest their bounty between the turbines while anglers, pot fishermen and even scuba divers could fish right next to the structures.

Government agencies involved with granting permits for the windmills would still have to agree to the proposal, but they are not expected to mount objections.

Read "Fishing OK near planned wind farms off New Jersey coast"

ASMFC Prepares to Sell Stripers "Down the River"; NCDMF, NCMFC Leads the charge

Inside sources report that the ASMFC is prepared to cave in to a small group of commercial fishermen from NC and MA. This group led by the "Working Watermen" from Dare County, NC and NCDMF Director Louis Daniel are pushing hard to create a "black hole" to dump years of recovery work on Striped Bass into for a few commercial fishermen at the expense of the public trust!

Read "ASMFC Prepares to Sell Stripers "Down the River"; NCDMF, NCMFC Leads the charge"

Coastal residents invited to Sept. 25 briefing on offshore wind energy

Sen. Basnight, Rep. Spear, Gov. Perdue to ask for coastal community’s input

Raleigh – Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, along with Governor Beverly Perdue and Representative Tim Spear, will host a briefing for coastal residents to discuss the feasibility and potential for offshore wind energy along North Carolina’s coast at 9 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, in the auditorium at Cape Hatteras Secondary School in Buxton.  The public and media are invited to attend.

Activists want bigger 'critical’ area off coast for right whales

Wildlife activists are asking the federal government to enlarge an area off the Florida-Georgia coast where special efforts are made to protect endangered right whales.

The groups say government research shows that the places the government calls whales’ critical habitat are just fractions of the territory up and down the East Coast that the animals need in order to eat, raise their young and congregate.

“Right now, we have three little boxes of critical habitat. … Right whales are obviously in lots of places beyond those three little boxes,” said Sharon Young, marine issues field director for the Humane Society of the United States.

Read "Activists want bigger 'critical’ area off coast for right whales"

Cargill opens Vietnam fish feed mill

Cargill on Monday announced the opening of its Vietnamese fish feed mill in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.

The mill has an annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons of aquaculture feed, bringing the total production capacity of the company's Vietnam operations to 720,000 metric tons a year.

This is the company's sixth facility in Vietnam.

Read "Cargill opens Vietnam fish feed mill"
 

Waterfront gets $2.4 million in stimulus dollars

The city of Eureka just netted a big catch, and one that it's spent years reeling in.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has announced that the city will receive $2.4 million in stimulus funds through a Economic Development Administration grant to help with the completion of the city's long-planned Fisherman's Terminal Building, the last of 11 city-approved projects aimed at turning a dilapidated waterfront into a thriving fishing port.

”It's just super exciting,” said Eureka City Councilman Jeff Leonard. “This should allow us to go out to bid and really get moving.”

After more than 15 years of planning, it now appears the city has cleared the final hurdle in securing the funding necessary to erect the $3.2 million terminal building, which will include space for smaller niche seafood processors, a cafe, loading docks and a market space.

Read "Waterfront gets $2.4 million in stimulus dollars"

Fishermen volunteer help

Dare County commercial fishermen hope the state will accept their offer to work with fisheries biologists to improve what is known about southern flounder.

The offer is part of a resolution unanimously passed by the Dare County Commission for Working Watermen last week.

The resolution asks the state Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) to postpone a review of southern flounder fishing regulations until September 2010 so that data from this year can be used in determining the health of the flounder population.

Continue reading Fishermen volunteer help »

Report from Day at the Docks

Hatteras Connection fueled lots of fun and mischievous teasing among old friends with its display of photographs of Hatteras Island commercial fishermen taken in 1951 by Sol Libsohn, a photographer who was here working with Standard Oil.

And of course, the bantering between Captain Eph and L.B. drew lots of laughs.

Fishery council must insist on a halt to catch-share conversion

When members of the New England Fishery Management Council gather for a three-day meeting beginning today in Plymouth, they will be looking forward toward 2010, a potential landmark year for the region's fishery and fishermen.

But they should also be looking back on some of the issues that have surfaced since June, when — in a meeting in Portland — they gave their approval to converting the fishing regulatory system to one based on fishermen's "catch shares," a format being pushed hard by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco, by the Obama administration, and by Lubchenco's former colleagues and kindred spirits — the Pew Environmental Group, where the new NOAA chief was a Pew fellow, and the Environmental Defense Fund, where she formerly served on the board.

In line with the old adage "if I only knew then what I know now," the council should indeed revisit the entire catch share agenda before taking a full-fledged plunge into a system that — despite the PR muscle of NOAA and the environmental giants — continues to draw questions, concerns and downright cries of foul from Gloucester to British Columbia and literally around the world.

Read "Fishery council must insist on a halt to catch-share conversion"

EU nations fail to agree on bluefin tuna ban

BRUSSELS — A sharply divided European Union failed Tuesday to protect the threatened bluefin tuna, as the bloc's Mediterranean nations refused to back even a temporary a ban on catching the fish prized by sushi aficionados.

The EU's executive commission urged EU governments to agree to a temporary ban until the stocks recovered but Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Spain, France and Italy — with strong fishermen's lobbies at home — insisted on continuing the hunt despite the precarious state of the species.

Read "EU nations fail to agree on bluefin tuna ban"

Despite quota cuts, Pacific halibut prices slip

One major factor continuing to dog the Pacific halibut market is the steady decline in annual quotas; this year’s quota is set at 54.1 million pounds, down 10.4 percent from 60.4 million pounds in 2008 and 17.7 percent from 65.1 million pound quota in 2007.

As a result, U.S. Pacific halibut landings have dropped gradually each of the past five years, from 79.1 million pounds in 2004 to 47.3 million pounds in 2008. The numbers continue to fall, with 2009’s total catch, as of 17 September, at 34.5 million pounds. There are nearly two months left in the season.

Read "Despite quota cuts, Pacific halibut prices slip"

Rudee Inlet's anglers have blue-flag day for billfish

There were no points for the most unusual catch ever recorded in the Big Money: Haycox's's team flew a yellow flag with black magic marker drawings for a bottlenose dolphin caught by accident and released in good shape.

Read "Rudee Inlet's anglers have blue-flag day for billfish"

Catch-share rejections cloud talks

A move is afoot within the federal fishery management system to increase the protection of cod and pollock from the majority of the groundfishing fleet that has rejected the chance to join a cooperative or sector and participate in the "catch share" experiment now underway here.

The movers behind the tightening of cod and pollock restrictions are described only as "members of the fishing industry" by Patricia Kurkul, the federal regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

By the Sept. 1 deadline for signing on and reserving a place in one of the sectors, only 723 of the eligible groundfish permitholders — or 49 percent — took a place in one of the 17 sectors, while 752 permitholders — 51 percent — opted to stay independent.

Read "Catch-share rejections cloud talks"

Students launch seafood program

Duke University students who organized Walking Fish, the region's first community-supported fishery, delivered their first shipment of fresh North Carolina fish to Durham-area shareholders Thursday.

Students from Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment were to distribute 400 shares -- or roughly 500 pounds -- of refrigerated, fresh-caught fish in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens parking lot on Anderson Street. The students teamed up with local fishermen in Carteret County to launch the project this summer.

"We hoped to sell 250 shares. We knew there was interest, but didn't realize just how much," said student organizer Joshua Stoll, a master of environmental management student at the Nicholas School. "It goes to show you how strong local support is for this type of initiative.

Read "Students launch seafood program"

Pollock survey shows fewer fish than anticipated

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Pollock numbers in the Bering Sea continue to remain depressed despite expectations from government scientists that large amounts of young fish were growing to harvestable size.

Two surveys provide a dim outlook for the bland, white fish that accounts for the largest commercial fishery by weight in the United States worth about $1 billion after processing. The meat is used mostly in fish sticks and fish-fillet sandwiches and to make imitation crab meat.

The 2009 survey data was presented Friday at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Seattle. While preliminary, it confirmed the pollock population remains low.

Doug DeMaster, director of NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, said the pollock spawning biomass has declined below target levels.

Read "Pollock survey shows fewer fish than anticipated"

Out In The Deep

Fisherman Dale Farrow wrote and read Out in the Deep at the Hatteras Island Blessing of the Fleet yesterday:

 

Lord you hear me saying

For today I give thanks

Other times I cried out in fear

Like the day my boat sank

Aquaculture Boom Raises Concerns

"Hunting and gathering has reached its maximum," said Ronald W. Hardy, who directs the University of Idaho's Aquaculture Research Institute and co-authored a study on the subject in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We've got to grow more."

The drive to bring fish "from egg to plate," as Hardy puts it, has the potential to answer a growing demand for seafood worldwide, as well as reduce some of the imports that compose more than 80 percent of the fish and shellfish Americans eat each year. But without technological advances to improve efficiency, it could threaten to wipe out the forage fish that lie at the bottom of the ocean's food chain and potentially contaminate parts of the sea.

And consumers will have to accept that they are eating a different kind of fish than the ones that swim wild: ones that might have eaten unused poultry trimmings, been vaccinated, consumed antibiotics or been selected for certain genetic traits.

Read "Aquaculture Boom Raises Concerns"

Tuna Town in Japan Sees Falloff of Its Fish

Just a decade or two ago, each boat here could routinely catch three or four tuna a day, fishermen say. Now, they say Oma’s entire fleet of 30 to 40 boats is lucky to bring in a combined total of a half-dozen tuna in a day.

The problem, they say, is that all the fish are being taken by big trawlers that come from elsewhere in Japan, or farther out to sea from Taiwan or China. Some of these ships even use helicopters to spot schools of tuna, which they scoop up in vast nets or catch en masse with long lines of baited hooks. According to local newspapers, there have been repeated incidents of small fishing boats from Oma and other ports intentionally cutting such trawl lines.

“I’m furious at Tokyo’s bureaucrats for failing to protect our tuna,” said Hirofumi Hamahata, 69, the president of the Oma fishermen’s co-op, who has worked as a commercial fisherman since age 15. “They don’t lift a finger against the industrial fishing that just sweeps the ocean clean.”

Read "Tuna Town in Japan Sees Falloff of Its Fish"

As feds push aquaculture, watermen push back

The government is "trying to make big business run the whole thing instead of small independent businessmen," said Larry Simns, longtime president of the Maryland Watermen's Association.

Simns has no problem with aquaculture, defined as the regulation and cultivation of water animals and plants for human use or consumption.

At 72, Simns has spent his working life fishing on the Bay and about half of that time experimenting with aquaculture.

But he makes no secret that aquaculture is not the culture of watermen.

"They're saying they want to help the watermen with aquaculture, but the watermen, they know how to grow oysters," he said. "And if it was going to be profitable they would be doing it. We're about making a living."

Read "As feds push aquaculture, watermen push back"

Fisheries plan to give bottom-fishing option

Regional fisheries managers meeting Thursday in Charleston cobbled together a new option that could preserve some bottom fishing for grouper and snapper off South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

The novel plan, put together during a marathon meeting of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, could carry hefty costs for those wanting to participate in the popular fishery: Commercial and recreational anglers might need to apply through a lottery, and those chosen could be required to pay for and install video cameras and satellite tracking systems on their boats. Bottom-fishing anglers might even be required to carry government observers on board during fishing trips.

Read "Fisheries plan to give bottom-fishing option"

NMFS Law Enforcement Complaint

Posted on the web:

IN the last several weeks there has been an extremely high amount of attention being paid to the Inspector generals investigation of NOAAS National Marine Fisheries Service enforcement tactics in massachucetts, North carolina, and other east coast states I would like to bring to the surface what I believe to be a coverup by the NMFS and NOAA in ALASKA.    

Animal Welfare Groups Unite for Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales

According to Defenders of Wildlife, “the petition filed with NMFS requests that three areas used by North Atlantic right whales for essential life functions be added as critical habitat. The petition seeks to expand critical habitat in the whales’ only known calving grounds off the coast of northern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, and in the whales’ feeding and nursery grounds throughout the Gulf of Maine. The petition also calls for adding the migration route between the calving and wintering grounds as critical habitat.”

Read "Animal Welfare Groups Unite for Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales"