Swordfish harpooners urged to use hooks, carry passengers
Published onHALIFAX - An environmental group says Nova Scotias commercial swordfish fleet could generate millions in added revenue by bringing tourists along for fishing trips and using different gear. Read more
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Marlin almost spears fisherman in Gulf of Mexico
Published onShocking footage captured the moment a massive blue marlin nearly killed a fisherman in the Gulf ofMexico. Fairhope Fishing Company shared a clip of the freak accident onboard the Jubilee Monday onTikTok. A group of fishermen were reeling in a gigantic marlin when it swiftly jumped on board. Read more.
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Petition to open California MPAs for swordfishing
Published onBlake Herman harpoons swordfish off the coast of southern California and hopes to gain access to the state's Marine Protected Areas off Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara Islands. When the California Fish Game Department offered stakeholders the opportunity to petition for regulatory changes, Herman submitted a petition to open three MPAs for pelagic fishing. If you read the original statements from back in the early 2000s when these MPAs were established, it says very clearly that the MPAs are intended to protect groundfish, and rockfish, said Herman. They said back then that these would not affect pelagics. While Herman believes the rationale for protecting rockfish is sound, he hopes his 36-page petition will convince state regulators that it is equally sensible to allow fishing for pelagic species such as swordfish and bluefin tuna. A rockfish lives on the bottom and can spend its life in a small area ...
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Pacific islands sanctuary debated at House hearing
Published onThe Biden administrations proposal to protect 770,000 square miles with a new mid-Pacific marine sanctuary took center stage Tuesday during a Congressional oversight committee with commercial fishing advocates arguing the process of setting aside ocean waters can short-circuit requirements for public input in fisheries policymaking. The House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee oversight hearing was billed as Examining Barriers to Access in Federal Waters: A Closer Look at the Marine Sanctuary and Monument System. It focused on the plan to expand waters around the existing Remote Island National Monument into a wider sanctuary, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducting a scoping process that included a workshop in American Samoa last week. The prospect of potential future limits on fishing in the region is alarming, said Rep. Aumua AmataColeman Radewagen, R-American Samoa, delegate to Congress. In its potential extent the proposal is about to take ...
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Draft management plan for Northeast Canyons marine monument
Published onA draft management plan lays out proposed rules for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, on the eve of Fridays deadline for commercial lobster and crab fishing in the nearly 5,000-square mile block south of Georges Bank. The draft plan caps years of struggle over the future of the region, long sought by ocean conservation and environmental groups as a marine preserve. Established by former president Barack Obama under the federal Antiquities Act, the monument encompasses an area of the Atlantic nearly the size of Connecticut, ranging south from the Oceanographer, Gilbert, and Lydonia canyons at the edge of the shelf 130 miles off Cape Cod to the Bear, Mytilus, Physalia, and Retriever seamounts, remnants of ancient volcanoes. Monument advocates said the Obama proclamation was needed to protect threatened and endangered marine mammals in the waters, and complex habitat on bottom slopes including deep corals. The ...
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National Fisherman Highliner: Jerry Sansom
Published onFor nearly half a century, Sansom has been the voice for and a face of the individual commercial fishermen in Florida as the longtime executive director of the Organized Fishermen of Florida. His 2022 award as a National Fisherman Highliner recognizes his lifelong work. Growing up in the Pensacola area with its big history of commercial fishing for generations, Sansom says that heritage was the basis for his decades of advocacy. Protect the resource so you always have it there, and guarantee access to the commercial side and consumers, said Sansom. These are public resources, and everyone should have access to it. Fishermen and colleagues say Sansoms efforts are why their community has survived in Florida, despite net ban campaigns of the 1990s and continuing political and development pressures. Whether working with fishermen or politicians, Sansom was always straight-up with his answers and recommendations, as well as outlining options ...
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Captain of fishing boat disqualified for ‘mutilated’ marlin says the win was ‘taken away from us’
Published onThe captain of Sensation, the fishing boat that lost out on over $3 million in earnings whentournament officials disqualified its 619.4-pound blue marlindue to mutilation, told CNN on Tuesday he believes they won the tournament fair and square. We worked hard, we felt like what we did was incredible with this fish, we knew we had won the tournament, Capt. Greg McCoy said in a phone call. I knew that fish was gonna destroy the other fish on the leaderboard weight-wise, and thats exactly what it did. We followed all the rules. There was nothing nefarious or cheating or anything like that on our part. Read more.
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NOAA announces advisors for proposed Hudson Canyon National Marine Sanctuary
Published onToday, NOAA announced members of a new sanctuary advisory council for the proposed Hudson Canyon National Marine Sanctuary. The council will provide the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries with advice and recommendations to guide NOAA during the designation process for the proposed sanctuary. Council members also serve as liaisons to their communities, building a strong connection between the sanctuary and stakeholders. The council includes 15 voting members and 15 alternates representing a variety of community interests.Citizens appointed by NOAA to serve on the Sanctuary Advisory Council are: Commercial Fishing: o Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison at Seafreeze Ltd. Point Judith, R.I.; Greg DiDomenico, fisheries management specialist at Lunds Fisheries, Cape May, N.J. o Patrick Knapp, Andrew Minkiewicz (alternates) ● Recreational Fishing: o Alan Lee, John Depersenaire (members) o Deane Lambros, Will Poston (alternates) ● Tourism/Recreation: o Kiera Maloney (member) o Rob Nixon (alternate) ● Conservation: o Noah ...
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The slow death and uncertain future of California’s swordfish fishery
Published onAfter decades of public scrutiny, legal battles, and many regulatory changes that constricted the fishery, large-mesh drift gillnets for swordfish in California will be phased out by 2027. Deep-set buoy gear, now being employed under federal exempted fishing permits, is set to become the primary method to harvest swordfish off the California coast, with harpoons continuing as a supplemental fishery. After years of debate and with plenty of bad blood some between primary stakeholders, there is one thing the fishing industry, fisheries managers, and environmental groups agree on: There will be less bycatch from catching swordfish, but unless new technology can be scaled up there will also be less swordfish landed out of California ports. Its not a replacement fishery for large mesh drift gillnets, says Chugey Sepulveda of deep-set buoy gear. Sepulveda is director and senior scientist at the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research and is ...
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A death in the family
Published onOn the Nov. 1, 2022, a unique fishing vessel, the Irene Alton sank in 160 feet of water off the coast of Maine. In 1976, Bernard Raynes launched the Irene and Alton named for his parents in Owls Head, Maine. Raynes, who came from 11 generations of fishermen from Maine and Nova Scotia, had built the 58-foot wooden eastern rig at a time when everyone else was building steel stern trawlers. Most famous as a swordfish boat, the Irene Alton was generally regarded as the prettiest of the New England harpoon fleet. Brian Rockett bought the boat in 2010 and converted it to a lobster smack. Rockett had recently acquired a new boat, but intended to keep the Irene Alton working. We had plans for her, he says. She started to leak last summer, and I wanted to fix her up. I called Lyman Morse Boatyard in Thomaston to ...
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Hawaii longliners convert gear to reduce whitetip shark bycatch
Published onHawaiis deep-set longline fleet is completing its changeover from wire leaders to nylon monofilament, a process that fishermen started on their own and is expected to reduce bycatch and mortality of threatened oceanic whitetip sharks by 30 percent. A new federal regulation effective May 31 will prohibit the use of wire leaders in the fishery, formally instituting the industry-led initiative. Wire leaders have been used so hooked fish cant break off, and to make gear safer for fishermen. But even the sharp-toothed oceanic whitetip sharks cant bite through them, meaning fishermen must release them, a dangerous process for both fish and fishermen. Switching to nylon means more sharks can break off, or be freed by fishermen simply cutting the leaders close to the hooks. Research suggests cut-off hooks simply work their way out of the sharks mouths or rust away with little consequence to the sharks ...
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Gulf of Mexico Swordfish: Lingering covid effects, cheap imports depress market
Published onLow production, the ongoing covid-19 health and economic crisis, and a flood of product from Canada are depressing the U.S. commercial swordfish market in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic, according to some industry members. Production levels are the lowest theyve been since the beginning of time, lamented Scott Taylor, operator of Day Boat Seafood in Fort Pierce, Fla. There have been no positive developments whatsoever. I have more boats sitting at the dock than I have fishing. Taylor cited a litany of hits to the fishery: Covids impacts on the restaurant industry which drives U.S. demand for swords; new U.S. government regulations, including gear restrictions and the possible closure by the Biden administration of New Englands fish-rich Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument; a deluge of cheaper product from Canada dumped in U.S. markets recently; rising fuel prices; and a lack ...
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Biden restores Northeast Canyons marine monument
Published onIn another reversal of Trump administration moves, President Biden on Friday reinstated all restrictions to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, including plans to phase out commercial fishing for red crab and lobster by Sept. 15, 2023. Former president Barack Obama originally declared the monument area south of New England on that date in 2016, and former president Donald Trump rescinded the rules with some fanfare including an in-person meeting with fishing industry representatives in June 2020. Environmental groups that had pushed Obama for the monument lobbied hard after Bidens inauguration to flip that Trump order 180 degrees, along with reversing Trumps reductions of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. Late Thursday they got word their wish was granted. Commercial fishing advocates, who mobilized after Biden inauguration to argue against reinstating the monument rules, said the decision shows politics trumped consistent ocean ...
Read MoreHawaii longliners will convert to mono leaders
Published onLongline fishermen based in Hawaii will voluntarily switch to using monofilament leaders on their gear to promote shark conservation, the Hawaii Longline Association announced this week. Based at Honolulu Harbor, the fleet of about 140 active vessels produces 90 percent of U.S. bigeye tuna and 50 percent of its swordfish and was sixth in landed value among U.S. ports with $100 million in 2018. The longline fishery is closely monitored and uses a suite of mitigation tools to reduce interactions with protected species. That includes a 45-gram minimum weight on baited lines so they sink quickly and out of depths where seabirds forage and use of circle hooks to reduce interactions with sea turtles and false killer whales. But sharks are still more likely to be caught by circle hooks, according to the association. Hawaii longline vessels dont retain sharks and most are released alive, but since ...
Read MoreAfter four months in jail, U.S. fisherman free to leave the British Virgin Islands
Published onDuring his trial this month in the British Virgin Islands for the charges of illegal entry, arriving at a place other than a customs port, and operating an unlicensed or unregulated fishing vessel, Michael Foys defense attorney argued that his client was innocent of all charges. On Wednesday the U.S. longline fisherman reversed course, pleading guilty to illegal entry and arriving at a place other than a customs port, after the fishing charge was previously dismissed. On Friday, Magistrate Christilyn Benjamin handed down her sentence for the two remaining charges, ruling that Foy was free to leave the territory after paying a $4,000 fine. Foy, 60, of Manahawkin, N.J., was arrested in June after BVI officers instructed him to follow them into the port of Road Town on Tortola. Foys family and supporters say the captain believed he was legally cleared earlier for entry, as he had ...
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BVI court tosses illegal fishing charge against U.S. longline captain while trial continues
Published onAfter spending months in jail following his June 9 arrest in the territorys waters, on Monday, United States fisherman Michael Foy went to trial in the British Virgin Islands on charges of illegal entry, operating an unlicensed or unregulated fishing vessel, and arriving at a place other than a customs port. But on Friday, following a Tuesday adjournment, Magistrate Christilyn Benjamin threw out the fishing charge, which carried with it a fine of roughly $500,000, while allowing the defense to call additional witnesses to testify against the other two charges when the trial picks up again at the end of the month. The bulk of the prosecutions argument for the fishing charge rested on the testimony of a fisheries official, who described a picture, sent to her by a superior, of Foys vessel the day he was detained. But according to Magistrate Benjamin, this evidence would not suffice before ...
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