National Fisherman articles from November 2008

National Fisherman archives from November 2008

November 2008: this month's highlights.(The hail)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... What kind of boat comes to mind when you think about commercial fishing? A lobster boat? Trawler? Troller? Shrimper? A skiff with an outboard? Over the years, the fishing industry has spawned the imagery of dories, trawlers and, most...

Wringing every cent from salmon.(VIEWS from Alaska)
November 1, 2008... We live in an age where technology can revolutionize a particular industry, but in the Alaskan fishing industry, revolution needs to happen to revolutionize the industry. I am speaking specifically of the way we think about the portions of...

Pondering Sarah Palin's impact.(Editor's log)
November 1, 2008... Whatever Sen. John McCain was thinking about when he selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, you can be sure it wasn't the U.S. fishing industry. More likely, he was trying to excite the Republican Party's conservative base,...

Fishing back when.(NF classic)
November 1, 2008... 50 YEARS AGO A week of festivities in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, this fall marks the 40th celebration of the Nova Scotia Fisheries Exhibition. Among the competitions during the world's largest annual fisheries fair is the international double...

Chesapeake Bay historian traces elements of boatbuilding and design.
November 1, 2008... Deadrise and Cross-planked By Larry Chowning Tidewater Publishers, 2007 Softcover, 177 pp., $34.95 www.cmptp.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Urbanna, Va.'s Larry Chowning is a field editor for National Fisherman and has...

Alaska salmon fisherman-professor weaves three decades of netting tales.(Catching the Ebb Drift-fishing for a Life in Cook Inlet)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Catching the Ebb Drift-fishing for a Life in Cook Inlet By Bert Bender Oregon State University Press, 2008 Softcover, 296 pp., $22.95 www.oregonstate.edu/dept/press [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bert Bender recounts 30...

Same-old, same-old getting old for groundfish.(From Another Perspective)
November 1, 2008... The graph accompanying this article shows what's been going on with New England groundfish landings since 1980. Pretty impressive, isn't it? What would be even more impressive would be a representation of the failed businesses, human suffering...

Alaska abuzz with Palin nomination.(Dock talk)(Sarah Palin)
November 1, 2008... My jaw might have dropped less with news that Sen. John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate had I not been living within a couple dozen miles of the epicenter. Though in the past 30 years I have become jaded in a land...

When great isn't good enough.(Consequences)
November 1, 2008... From U.S. Coast Guard reports Even on a boat with a safety conscious owner and operator, accidents will happen. Vessels that are maintained in top condition, have all the latest safety and survival equipment, and have passed a Coast Guard...

Evening the playing field.(From the town landing)(fishery management)
November 1, 2008... Geography is destiny. Maine's 5,000-mile-long coastline is relatively undeveloped and successfully attracts tourists (supporting the state's largest industry), retirees and transplants seeking a higher quality of life than urban or suburban...

Future of fisheries not a Palin selling point.(Mail buoy)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... The October issue of National Fisherman has a full-page advertisement by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute featuring a photo of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska with the implied quote: "Recognized the world over for its effective resource...

Sea Grant programs proudly offer training.(Mail buoy)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... I just read Charlie Ess' article on safety training in National Fisherman ("Deadliest watch" Oct. '08, p. 38). One thing I wanted to point out was that the Sea Grant program has also been a longtime player in safety training. I know that...

Good science still missing from fisheries regulation.(Mail buoy)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... The Mail Buoy letter "Efficiency, not regulations, harming the industry" from the Sept. '08 issue (p. 10) allows regulations and regulators undue praise and respectability for using best science. Best science has a long track record of...

Cap'n Sane says ...
November 1, 2008... Well, the annual cove Harbormaster election is over. We hold it at the church trying t'keep it on civil language 'cause it usually gets outa hand. Every year there are two candidates, Beulah Banning and Shorty Gage. Beul won last year by...

Sant Ocean Hall to foster ocean appreciation.(A letter from James N. Balsiger)(Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... On Sept. 27, here in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History opened the Sant Ocean Hall. You may have seen the comic strip showing Mark Trail touring the new 23,000-square-foot exhibit with its seven galleries...

Home at sea.(In search of the simple life)
November 1, 2008... "Hey, what's this I hear about you getting a new captain's chair?" All the factory longliners have left town for the Bering Sea cod season--looking good, too, a lot of new paint, new engines, new electronics, all signs of a successful...

Roe fishermen sue Tennessee over new regulations: claim restrictions on paddlefish established without public comment, equal protection.(GULF/SOUTH ATLANTIC)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tennessee's commercial roe fishermen are suing the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency over a round of restrictions that they claim violate state and federal laws. The agency passed the rules by a proclamation that...

Watermen's groups unite for clean Chesapeake Bay: five Va. associations join under a new title.(GULF/SOUTH ATLANTIC)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Five Virginia watermen's associations have come together to form a united advocacy group named the Virginia State Watermen's Association. On Thursday, Aug. 14, a group of 24 watermen representing four of the associations met with state...

Value of key N.C. species lower than a decade ago: Sea Grant offers '09 marketing workshop.(GULF/SOUTH ATLANTIC)
November 1, 2008... The economics of fishing just aren't adding up for many North Carolina fishermen. "Fuel prices have certainly shortened our leash," says James Caldwell, a Hatteras Island, N.C., gillnetter. "What used to be a borderline or break-even day...

NMFS threatens to override New England council vote: interim action would nullify 15-1 vote approving 18 percent cuts to groundfish season.(ATLANTIC)(New England Fishery Management Council)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The New England Fishery Management Council's 15-to-1 vote to cut groundfish days at sea by 18 percent drew a warning from the NMFS Northeast regional administrator. Patricia Kurkul, who cast the dissenting vote, declared that the federal agency...

Researcher says plastics aggravate lobster disease: toxin linked to weakened shells in die-off.(ATLANTIC)
November 1, 2008... Hans Laufer, a visiting investigator at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., believes plastics may be a cause of the spread of the shell disease that's been plaguing southern New England and Long Island Sound lobsters for...

Napakiak, Alaska.(HOME PORT: Where we live)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... THE TOWN Napakiak, Alaska, has a year-round population of 375. The town is 11 miles down river of Bethel in the Department of Fish and Game Subdistrict W-1B of the Kuskokwim River. Napakiak's only commercial fishery is salmon. ...

Coalition aims to keep Georges Bank closed to drilling: Norigs 3 concerned Nova Scotia government will support lifting Canada's moratorium.(NATION/WORLD)
November 1, 2008... A coalition of fishermen, aboriginal groups, processors and environmentalists is mobilizing once more in anticipation of debate on whether Canada's moratorium prohibiting oil and gas exploration and development on Georges Bank should end when...

Tuna fish tacos: Jody Hawkins, San Diego.(GALLEY WATCH: AT-SEA CUISINE)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Baja California, and San Diego by association, is famous for its fish tacos. This recipe is a healthy, simple, fast twist on the traditional fried fish taco. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "When they taste these, people will think that you...

Wisconsin town to display donated wooden fish tug: third-generation fishermen switch to steel.(NATION/WORLD)
November 1, 2008... As symbolic as the skipjacks of Chesapeake Bay or the Grand Banks dories of old, fish tugs represent the quintessential commercial fishing boat of the Great Lakes fisheries. When Glenn and Gary Seger, third-generation fishermen out of...

Tom "Picket" Reynolds: Cortez, Fla.(SNAPSHOT: WHO WE ARE)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tom Reynolds--known as Pickett to his friends--took over one of the A.P. Bell Fish Co. longliners about five years ago. He was quite young to be a commercial fishing captain--barely into his 20s. "I think I was...

Voters reject regulations that would block Pebble Mine: ballot initiative is composed to restrict mineral extraction near Alaska's salmon streams.(ALASKA and PACIFIC)
November 1, 2008... Alaska voters got caught between mining and commercial fishing in the form of a ballot initiative during the primary election in August. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The initiative proposed regulations that would block the development of...

Double Eagle: sardine carrier: Rockland, Maine.(BOAT OF THE MONTH)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A robust 70-year-old that still totes up to 55 tons of herring is something special, even in the historic port of Rockland, Maine. She was named for a brand of sardines packed by the original owners. Today, owner...

Calif. town lines up to try community-based fishery: fixed gear replaces trawls for groundfish.(ALASKA and PACIFIC)
November 1, 2008... Two years ago, the Nature Conservancy bought all the trawl permits and boats from Morro Bay, Calif., fishermen. In exchange, fishermen joined environmentalists to promote three no-trawl areas off the coast. Today, three small Morro Bay...

Alaska closes two more areas to bottom trawlers: nearly 700,000 square miles off limits.(ALASKA and PACIFIC)
November 1, 2008... Alaska's Bering Sea bottom trawlers lost another 178,000 square miles of fishing area in August. Two areas, one stretching west and north of Bristol Bay to the edge of U.S. waters and the other lying northwest of the Aleutian Islands, are...

Caribbean.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)
November 1, 2008... A seasonal prohibition on the possession of black, blackfin, vermilion, and silk snapper in Caribbean federal waters begins at 12:01 a.m., local time, Oct. 1.

New England.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(on the reappointment of John Pappalardo and Rip Cunningham in the New England Fishery Management Council)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The New England Fishery Management Council called for both its chairman and vice chairman to serve in those positions through September 2009. By acclamation the council named current chairman John Pappalardo to that leadership position again...

Gulf of Mexico.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(National Marine Fisheries Service reminder on regulations on red snappers)
November 1, 2008... NMFS would like to remind red snapper IFQ participants of the regulations regarding the use and transfer of individual fishing quota allocation. Regulations state that IFQ red snapper "can only be possessed or landed by a vessel with a Gulf red...

Mid-Atlantic.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recommendation to increase fishing quotas for 2009)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recommended 3 percent increases in the following quotas for 2009, the Cape May County (N.J.) Herald reported. * summer flounder, 18.45 million...

South Atlantic.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(South Atlantic Fishery Management Council)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... As National Fisherman went to press the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council was meeting in Charleston, S.C., to determine a management plan for overfished groupers and snappers. Among alternatives facing the council: Close all fishing...

Pacific.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Pacific Fishery Management Council)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The Pacific Fishery Management Council will pursue management measures for the recreational thresher shark fishery in Southern California. This fishery has rapidly expanded in the last few years and occurs in an area reproductively important to...

North Pacific.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)
November 1, 2008... According to the Federal Register, NMFS has announced a 90-day finding on a petition to list three ice seal species, [ringed (Phoca hispida), bearded (Erignathus barbatus), and spotted (Phoca largha)] as threatened or endangered under the...

Western Pacific.(COUNCIL UPDATES: News from the regional management councils)(Western Pacific Fishery Management Council)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council has reacted coolly to a proposal by President Bush to create sanctuaries around the Northern Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa, and the Line Islands. According to the International...

Hurricanes Ike and Gustav turn off light at the end of oystermen's tunnel.(GULF/SOUTH ATLANTIC: OYSTERS)
November 1, 2008... The oyster supply in the Gulf of Mexico, the country's top oyster-producing region, was finally rebounding from the damage Hurricane Katrina inflicted in 2005. But two more hurricanes, Ike and Gustav before that, blew through the region in...

MSC certification could give shrimpers in Canada advantage in global market.(NORTHEAST: SHRIMP)
November 1, 2008... The Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery still needs a marketing push, and in August their competitors to the north moved in that direction. Atlantic Canada's northern shrimp producers won certification from the Marine Stewardship Council, a global...

Pilot program slows fishing pace, adds marketing flexibility to Alaska product.(NORTH PACIFIC: GROUNDFISH)
November 1, 2008... The second season under a pilot program to manage rockfish in the central Gulf of Alaska has produced a few optimistic twists for trawlers targeting Pacific Ocean perch and dusky and northern rockfish. The rockfish management program was...

Salmon catchers look to crabs to bail them out, if demand is up to challenge.(PACIFIC: DUNGENESS)
November 1, 2008... A firm market and solid demand should continue to make West Coast Dungeness crab an economic bright spot in an otherwise dreary economy. Absent the salmon fishery this summer, says Nick Furman, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness...

A stand on tuna: in the United States, there is broad agreement that ICCAT must do better on bluefin.(International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas)(Cover story)
November 1, 2008... During the summer of 1973 I was working as a deckhand, whiting fishing with Lester Orcutt on his 47-foot dragger Minkette, when the Japanese freezer-longliner Tatsumi Maru showed up in Portland, Maine. The Tatsumi Maru had steamed halfway...

Outboards at the outset: our two-part series begins by chronicling the invention of the 19th century's 2-hp motors and subsequent early 20th-century developments.(Boats & Gear: Engine history)
November 1, 2008... Who invented the outboard motor? If you answer--as many do--that it was Ole Evinrude, driven by the embarrassment of rowing an ice cream cone out to his girlfriend, Bess, who was on an island, only to arrive with liquid ice cream, you'd be...

Fish and catch bait: Southern California gets a new multipurpose 68-footer from Fred Wahl.(Boats & Gear: Boatbuilding)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On Sept. 6, 2008, a new steel fishing boat left the dock at Fred Wahl Marine Construction and headed to its home port. Most boats when they leave the Reedsport, Ore., boatyard turn northerly, to ports in Oregon,...

They shaped boats and fisheries, too: plenty of fishing boats and yachts came from this Maine boatyard.(Boats & Gear: Master's class)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Charles Morse, the brother of the same Wilbur Morse who famously declared in the early 1900s, "A Friendship sloop is a boat built in Friendship [Maine] by Wilbur Morse," constructed a few Friendship sloops himself,...

They shaped boats and fisheries, too: itinerant Chesapeake Bay boatshop was well known for its large boats.(Boats & Gear: Master's class)
November 1, 2008... CoCoMo's is an upscale restaurant located on waterfront property near the end of the road that runs to Broad Creek public dock in Deltaville, Va. Except for the fact that pieces of an old marine railway stretch along the side of the property,...

They shaped boats and fisheries, too: Kachemak Marine was at the forefront of fiberglass boatbuilding in Alaska.(Boats & Gear: Master's class)
November 1, 2008... You could hardly drive along Homer, Alaska's East End Road on a warm day in the 1970s without getting a whiff of curing fiberglass resin emanating from Kachemak Marine. In its heyday, Kachemak Marine's two small shops, owned by George Hamm,...

Maine shop lures Californians; historic schooner being rebuilt.(NORTHEAST)
November 1, 2008... California fishermen seem to have a thing for Down East lobster boat hulls. Back in August 2007, RP Boat Shop was finishing up a 40-foot Willis Beal hull for a crabber in California. It was the second crabber that the Steuben, Maine,...

Boatyard offers prefab houses; skiff features an unusual bow.(WEST)(Yaquina Boat Equipment)
November 1, 2008... If you have been fishing the Gulf of Alaska or Bering Sea this spring and summer, you know the weather has been anything but pleasant. "Snotty" would be a mild term. "The guys would be happy if it would just blow 40," says Doug Alldridge...

An island boatyard stays busy; buy boats get museum passes.(SOUTH)
November 1, 2008... On Virginia's Tangier Island, Jerry Pruitt's boatyard, named--appropriately enough--Pruitt's Boatyard, is one of the busiest maintenance yards on Chesapeake Bay. The island is located in the middle of Chesapeake Bay, and everybody there seems...

Rescue tales inspire EPIRB: ACR's iPro has a digital display and dual GPS technology.(Product roundup)(GlobalFix iPro Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons)
November 1, 2008... If you listen to enough sea survival stories, people will tell you they worried because they didn't know the battery life of their EPIRB; they didn't know if the EPIRB was really working; or they were holding onto the EPIRB's antenna the...

Avoid rock, bottom: FarSounder's sonar detects lurking navigation hazards.(Product roundup)(FarSounder FS-3 and FarSounder FS-3DT)
November 1, 2008... Going bump in the night is never fun. Though that's what a lot of fishing boats do when they make the run up Alaska's Inside Passage. It's especially true in early spring when the rivers are running high, pulling logs off the banks and then...

Ready Freddy is a backpack-style Emergency Preparedness kit that is divided into five compartments: personal; protection; first aid; light, power, communications; and tools, supplies, food, water.(At a glance)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] READY FREDDY is a backpack-style EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS KIT that is divided into five compartments: personal; protection; first aid; light, power, communications; and tools, supplies, food, water. As an example, in...

Ican builds a number of containers designed to make it easier and safer to store and dispense fluids.(At a glance)(iCan)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ICAN builds a number of CONTAINERS designed to make it easier and safer to store and dispense fluids. The containers have three nozzle sizes, quick-fill ports, large operating handles and large carrying handles,...

Davis Instruments has a new radar reflector called the Echomaster, which is made up of 12.5-inch reflector plates that present 13.2-square yards of cross section.(At a glance)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DAVIS INSTRUMENTS has a new radar reflector called the ECHOMASTER, which is made up of 12.5-inch reflector plates that present 13.2-square yards of cross section. The 0.05-inch aluminum plates are thick enough to...

Shakespeare has just come out with the Galaxy SRA-49 satellite radio antenna.(At a glance)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SHAKESPEARE has just come out with the GALAXY SRA-49 satellite radio antenna. It is approved for and can be connected to either Sirius or XM receivers. It has a 25-foot low-loss cable with a quick-disconnect,...

Nortec Marine is now offering HR series boilers for marine heating from the Dutch company Kabola Heating Systems.(At a glance)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NORTEC MARINE is now offering HR SERIES BOILERS for marine heating from the Dutch company Kabola Hearing Systems. Three models are available, HR500, HR400, and HR300, with outputs of 34,000 to 67,000 BTU. The boilers...

Quick has a product that should make it easier to haul in an anchor on a small boat with an electric windlass.(At a glance)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] QUICK has a product that should make it easier to haul in an anchor on a small boat with an electric windlass. Instead of a bulky splice between the chain and anchor line, The SLIM SLICE ANCHOR RODE uses a stainless...

Bulletin board.(Calendar)
November 1, 2008... NOV. 20-22 Pacific Marine Expo Qwest Field Event Center, Seattle * www.pacificmarineexpo.com Pacific Marine Expo is the largest commercial marine trade show on the West Coast. This annual event serves all aspects of the market,...

Christy Gray, of Deltaville Boatyard in Deltaville, Va., is one of four women nationwide to qualify as an American Boat and Yacht Council Certified Master Technician.(ON THE MOVE)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CHRISTY GRAY, of DELTAVILLE BOATYARD in Deltaville, Va., is one of four women nationwide to qualify as an American Boat and Yacht Council Certified Master Technician. Gray's certification counts her among an...

In August, the president of Fairhaven Shipyard & Marina in Fairhaven, Mass., announced that company's purchase of D.N. Kelley & Son, also of Fairhaven.(COMPANY NEWS)
November 1, 2008... In August, the president of FAIRHAVEN SHIPYARD & MARI NA in Fairhaven, Mass., announced that company's purchase of D.N. KELLEY & SON, also of Fairhaven. The purchase consolidates the services of two long-established marine facilities, which...

National Marine Electronics Association.(COMPANY NEWS)
November 1, 2008... The NATIONAL MARINE ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION announced that the International Electro-technical Commission has approved its NMEA 2000 marine electronics serial data networking standard. The IEC is the world's leading organization that prepares...

Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine.(Last set)
November 1, 2008... Lobsterman Christopher Goodale (left) and his nephew and sternman Nick Goodale hauled out in August for some quick underside maintenance to improve efficiency and keep a little more margin between the and the a little more margin between the...