National Fisherman articles from June 2008

National Fisherman archives from June 2008

June 2008: this month's highligths.(The hail)
June 1, 2008... As a former senior editor of A National Fisherman, I can tell you its a full-time job. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the occasional opportunities to write a feature story for the magazine, even if they meant a few early mornings or late nights....

Raising the value of the harvest.(VIEWS from Alaska)
June 1, 2008... The healthier the seafood industry is, the healthier our economy is. That is the idea behind the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. It is a partnership between the state of Alaska and the seafood industry, and it was restructured just a few...

Challenges east and west.(Editor's log)
June 1, 2008... April was not a slow news month for the U.S. fishing industry. The top story was the industry-backed decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council to shut down most of the salmon fishery. Upward of 1,400 fishermen and their...

Fishing back when.(classics)
June 1, 2008... 50 YEARS AGO Fisherman Edmund Brine in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy uses a horse and wagon to tend his gillnets in the perilous shad harvest. In late June, the fish return to the sea after spawning in fresh water, and this fishery gets under...

Seafood lovers poised for renaissance will slurp down guide to oyster heritage.(Fo'c'sle library)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Geography of Oysters The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America By Rowan Jacobsen Bloomsbury, 2007 Hardcover, 287 pp., $24.95 www.oysterguide.com Simply put, "oysters taste...

Collection of international case studies presents scientific approach to buyouts.(Fo'c'sle library)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fisheries Bubacks Edited by Rita Curtis and Dale Squires Blackwell Publishing, 2007 Hardcover, 288 pp., $154.99 www.blackwellpublishing.com Because "Fisheries Buybacks" is marketed as an...

Flotsam and jetsam.(From Another Perspective)(fisheries management)
June 1, 2008... Texas is off base on menhaden. Jumping on the "they're big boats so they don't belong here" bandwagon, some of the folks in Texas doing what I'll call, for want of a better term, fisheries management, are considering closing state waters...

Certifiable.(From the town landing)
June 1, 2008... In February 2006, Wal-Mart, the world's largest seafood retailer, announced that within five years it would only sell seafood certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. The MSC has developed standards for sustainable...

Bad habitats.(Washington lookout)
June 1, 2008... Over 10 years ago, the Sustainable Fisheries Act directed NMFS to designate and protect essential fish habitat, or EFH. Since then, EFH has evolved from a tool meant to enhance U.S. fisheries to a regulatory regime limiting their success....

Assets trump associations.(Dock talk)
June 1, 2008... After almost 30 years of full-time commercial fishing, I guess I can start looking forward to my pension and retirement. The catch is I have no pension plan and I can't afford to retire. I have realized that if fishermen are going to survive,...

Correction.(Dock talk)(Correction notice)
June 1, 2008... May's Dock Talk, "Rockfish get privatized," should have referred to Rep. Don Young's (R-Alaska) office and Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.).

Breaking the ice.(Consequences)
June 1, 2008... From U.S. Coast Guard reports While the cold weather may seem long gone, the buildup of ice on your vessel, depending on your region, should never be too far from your mind. In January 2007, a fishing vessel and crew of four were lost in...

Save fishing communities, bring back salmon.(Mail buoy)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, has been asked, in response to the salmon closure, what we re going to do and what the public can do. We're certainly not about to quit or go gently into the night. Below is a quick list...

Alaska rockfish trawlers have history on their side.(Mail buoy)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... I am responding to Shawn Dochtermann's letter regarding the rockfish pilot program ("Rockfish get privatized," NF May '08, p. 10). What I am concerned about is not his opinion but his disregard for the facts. Trawlers were the pioneers of...

Cap'n Sane says ...
June 1, 2008... Saturday Cove, Maine When spring time came t'the coastal school houses, a time when boy fishermen gazed across wooden desks carved with student initials of those gone before n'out the old sand-grained window panes t'a field just greening,...

Looking for a job fishing?(In search of the simple life)
June 1, 2008... It's that time of year when you see a lot of young men and women walking the docks at Fishermen's Terminal looking for a job on a fishing boat. Seattle is probably the last place to do that because there are so many dock walkers that skippers...

Catch limits could decide fishing future.(Mail buoy)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... Annual catch limits and accountability measures to prevent overfishing are the future of effective fisheries management. The reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act requires the regional fishery management councils to...

Mass. regulators sway feds to give fishermen $12.5m: NOAA relaxes stipulation to spend half the groundfish aid on fleet reduction, OKs offer.(ATLANTIC)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In April, Massachusetts fishing regulators were grappling with how to distribute nearly $13.4 million in federal aid designated by Congress to bail out the commonwealth's struggling groundfish fishery. A state...

N.J. fishermen make offer to test offshore wind farm: knowledge of the ocean critical for project.(ATLANTIC)
June 1, 2008... As energy companies and venture capital firms rush to propose offshore wind energy projects, New Jersey fishermen want to sponsor a test site to show how turbines can be compatible with other ocean users. The Fishermen's Energy group is one...

Herring hauls in a big payday in Alaska's Sitka sound: increased quota and swollen seine nets force processors to reschedule offloading times.(ALASKA and PACIFIC)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Alaska's Sitka Sound herring season in March was a whopper--both in terms of the quota allowed and the catches. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists, expecting a huge abundance of the spawning fish, allowed a quota of 14,723...

Marine Board investigates sinking of Alaska Ranger: four crew dead, one missing, 42 rescued.(ALASKA and PACIFIC)
June 1, 2008... A Coast Guard panel is investigating the sudden sinking of the 184-foot Alaska Ranger in the Bering Sea early Easter morning, March 23. Four of the factory trawler's crew of 47 are confirmed dead and one missing following loss of rudder...

Portsmouth, N.H./Kittery, Maine.(HOME PORT: Where we live)
June 1, 2008... THE TOWN Located near the mouth of the Piscataqua River, Portsmouth, N.H., has a population around 20,600; across the river in Maine, Kittery has about 7,700 inhabitants. Although there is a vibrant lobster fleet, groundfishing has been...

Chuck Wise: Bodega Bay, Calif.(SNAPSHOT: WHO WE ARE)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Chuck Wise, 67, became a commercial salmon fisherman in 1966 so he could catch more salmon than sportfishing permits allowed. He also served as a police officer at the time in the San Francisco Bay area. For the...

Ship pilot pleads not guilty in Cosco Busan federal case: San Francisco spill largest in two decades.(ALASKA and PACIFIC)
June 1, 2008... The pilot of the containership that smashed into the San Francisco Bay bridge last year, causing the largest oil spill in the bay in 20 years, has pleaded not guilty to breaking two federal environmental laws. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Treaty bans use of antifoulant tributyltin in U.S. ports: vessels of 400 gross tons or 78.75 feet in length will be required to show compliance.(NATION/WORLD)
June 1, 2008... Twenty-seven countries have now ratified the International Maritime Organization's treaty to ban tributyltin-based antifouling paints on boat hulls. Tributylin causes severe reproductive effects in aquatic organisms, according to the...

Fishermen in Chile launch campaign against trawling: Canada and Iceland on list of supporters.(NATION/WORLD)
June 1, 2008... In the face of declining local catches of common hake and increasing encroachments by the trawling fleet on nearshore resources, central Chilean fishermen launched an anti-trawling campaign in January 2008. Jorge Chocair, Chile's fisheries...

Lady Louise: shrimp trawler Apalachicola, Fla.(BOAT of the MONTH)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 1978, when Landry Boatworks of Bayou La Batre, Ala., put the finishing touches on J.P. Barber's sparkling white and bluetrimmed Lady Louise, the average ex-vessel price for Gulf of Mexico white shrimp was $1.63 a...

Anglers, commercial fishermen join forces on grouper: allies' scientists finds flaws in assessment, dissuades panel from call for further limits.(GULF/SOUTH ATLANTIC)
June 1, 2008... Recreational and commercial fishing groups in Florida have made history by joining forces to challenge gag grouper management proposals that could shut down the entire shallow water commercial grouper fishery early in the year and severely...

Allocation of stocks looms over South Atlantic council: methodology critical to sports, harvesters.(GULF/SOUTH ATLANTIC)(South Atlantic Fishery Management Council)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... With total allowable catch limits for all federally managed species coming by 2011 at the latest, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is drafting a comprehensive allocation amendment to serve as the framework for dividing total limits...

Honorable Homer halibut: Jeffrey and Jessica Yeoman Homer, Alaska.(GALLEY WATCH: AT-SEA CUISINE)(Recipe)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Winter hardly gives way to the warmth of spring when fishermen fire up their grills on deck or dock. To celebrate the season and the arrival of fresh halibut, Jessica Yeoman, her husband, Jeffrey, and their...

Fishermen unsure about La. $19m rebuilding plan: they wonder where Katrina relief will go.(GULF/SOUTH ATLANTIC)
June 1, 2008... A $19 million package touted as a plan for rebuilding Louisiana's battered commercial fisheries has met with mixed reviews from the state's fishermen. Some will see direct benefits from specific projects, but many say relief from the...

New England.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The following are total allowable catches in the U.S./ Canada Management Area for the 2008 fishing year: * 667 metric tons of Eastern Georges Bank (GB) cod; * 8,050 metric tons of Eastern GB haddock, and * 1,950 metric tons of GB...

Gulf of Mexico.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council met in Baton Rouge, La., in mid-April to consider a public hearing draft of Reef Fish Amendment 29, which proposed rationalizing effort and reducing overcapacity in the commercial grouper and...

Pacific.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Even as the Pacific Fishery Management Council was weighing the question of whether to hold a salmon fishery off Oregon and California, the California Senate in March approved $5.3 million to restore salmon habitat. Advocates say the money...

South Atlantic.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... In preparation for public hearings in May, the South Atlantic council in March was fine-tuning a list of fishery management alternatives to reduce harvest and end overfishing for vermilion snapper and gag grouper. Management alternatives...

North Pacific.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The state of Alaska will not permit charter captains and crews to keep fish caught aboard their boats. The move, for the second year in a row, is to prevent the charter fleet from exceeding its quota, which is set by the North Pacific...

Western Pacific.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council heard strong testimony from the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands against turning its northern islands into a marine national monument. The Pew Charitable Trusts had urged...

Mid-Atlantic.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Marine Fish Conservation Network in March released a report critical of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's performance between June 2006 and August 2007. The report highlights what it calls the council's failure to follow...

High price of fuel, shaky economy plague an otherwise healthy fishery.(GULF/SOUTH ATLANTIC: TUNA)
June 1, 2008... Tuna fishing in the Southeast sometimes begins to pick up a bit in March after the winter lull. But this year weather was limiting fishing of any kind in the Mid-Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, and tuna fishing hadn't really begun. "Lots...

Domestic calamari demand offsetting dock price hangover in global markets.(NORTHEAST: SQUID)
June 1, 2008... Prices in global squid markets declined thanks to a huge rise in South Atlantic production during 2007. That effect lingered in spring 2008, as South American fishermen glumly contemplated high fuel costs and low opening season prices reported...

'Genuine growth' in market for fresh sockeyes could propel prices upward.(NORTH PACIFIC: SALMON)
June 1, 2008... More salmon to fresh markets should continue to improve gross revenues for Alaska's fleet, particularly for the folks whose sockeye salmon are destined for domestic outlets at the retail end. Last year, Alaska reported that landings of...

Hawaii longliners finding large fish, few turtles as 2008 gets under way.(PACIFIC: SWORDFISH)
June 1, 2008... Hawaii's swordfish fishery has been good so far in 2008--and longliners hope the trend continues. "Good, large fish are being taken," says Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association," and we're still at loggerheads [turtles]...

Shutdown: salmon fishing comes and goes; for 2008, it's gone.(In absentia)
June 1, 2008... There's a standing joke in Fort Bragg, Calif.: When will Tommy Ancona get his 33-foot salmon troller--which has been a work in progress for some time now--in the water? "Probably 2010" Ancona would reply with a laugh. Now the owner of...

A clean bill for health: legislation to create a national insurance plan for fishermen has good vital signs.(Medical necessity)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If there is a poster child for workers going without health care, it may well be the commercial fisherman. After all, fishermen work in the nation's most dangerous civilian profession. Risk of injury alone can make...

Losing ground: New England struggles to find an alternative management regime.(Seeking council)(Conference news)
June 1, 2008... It's late on a Thursday afternoon in April, and traffic has slowed to a crawl somewhere near Waltham, Mass., on Route 128, once dubbed America's Technology Highway. I was on my way back to Portland, Maine, having attended a meeting of the...

Hot spots: boatbuilders in the right places are busy.(Boats & Gear)(Cover story)
June 1, 2008... Chris Van Peer has been fielding numerous inquiries from fishermen who want a new steel boat. "Some of them," he says, "want a boat built right now." Van Peer, who builds boats one at a time at Van Peer Boatworks in Fort Bragg, Calif.,...

A boat for these seasons: the designers of the first New England-built steel dragger in nearly 20 years wanted an efficient hull more than carrying capacity.(Boat & Gear: Boatbuilding)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In September 2007, the 83-foot dragger Elizabeth was launched from Fairhaven Shipyard & Marina in Fairhaven, Mass. There was a crowd there, not a huge one, but a good gathering just the same. The number wasn't as...

It's wood again for lobsterman; Maine yard revives two classics.(NORTHEAST)(Nichols Boat Builder's Lindsay D and Edward Grant's lobster boat )
June 1, 2008... On April 4, Peter Kass said he should have been timbering up the lobster boat he and his crew are building for Scott Dugas of Yarmouth, Maine, except that John's Bay Boat Co. in South Bristol, Maine, along the shore of Poor House Cove, was...

Trawler receives triple rudders; boat is finished after 17 years.(WEST)
June 1, 2008... At Hansen Boat Co. in Everett, Wash., the 110-foot trawler Nordic Fury was in the boatyard's dry dock to have Nautican triple rudders installed behind an existing nozzle, as well as having other work done. With the nozzle, "they had noticed...

Bugeye gets a fiberglass coat; Fantail stern for 1924 logboat.(SOUTH)
June 1, 2008... Small marine railways that serve commercial fishermen are scattered up and down the southern portion of the United States. They are an important part of the infrastructure that keeps fishing boats afloat and the business of catching fish alive....

Carlon is back in the buoy business: new products are PVC free and environmentally friendly.(Product roundup)
June 1, 2008... "It looks just like the old PVC buoy, but it's not. It's special," says Anne Slattery, president of Carlon Flotech Innovations in Waterbury, Conn., a company that is back in the business of manufacturing buoys, especially those used by...

Mooring system is safe on the stretch: chain-free security is also good for the bottom.(Product roundup)
June 1, 2008... When Hazelett Marine devised its elastic mooring system, the original selling points were better security than a mooring ball and chain and less maintenance. Then someone realized a third benefit of the elastic mooring: less environmental...

Point pleasant, N.J.(Last set)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Deckhand Bill Lewis (right) and Paul Koscinski, part-time captain of the 64-foot trawler AtlanticTraveler, owned by John Cole, offload bluefish at the Fishermen's Dock Co-op during a November lull in fluke openings.