January 19, 2021 — Coast Guard officials say man has been rescued from his sunken fishing vessel off the North Carolina coast.
Officials say the man was rescued Monday with the help of a good Samaritan about 20 miles southwest of Kitty Hawk.
Coast Guard officials received a report from the father-in-law of a man whose 18-foot boat sunk at the mouth of Alligator River, near East Lake.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at 13 News Now
January 19, 2021 — A restaurateur on Florida’s Gulf Coast has started a new endeavor designed to bring the region’s seafood delicacies to individuals and businesses across the country.
Charles Morgan launched Gulf to Table to deliver fresh, flash-frozen fish to markets, restaurants, and private homes. The fish are processed at Morgan’s Harbor Docks restaurant and market in Destin, and shipped overnight. Morgan counts markets in New York and Canada among his customers, along with a slew of independent restaurants.
January 19, 2021 — In the selection of Gina Raimondo as the next U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the offshore wind industry would get a champion in Washington.
What influence she could bring to bear for the emerging energy sector remains to be seen, but if confirmed to her new position in the Biden cabinet, Raimondo would oversee federal fisheries regulators who have raised some of the concerns about potential negative impacts of erecting what could be many hundreds of wind turbines in the ocean waters off southern New England.
It’s those concerns that have played a major role in delaying the approval process for the first set of large wind farms proposed in the nation.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an arm of the Department of the Interior, has permitting authority over the multibillion-dollar projects, which are all planned for the Atlantic Ocean waters off Rhode Island and Massachusetts. But both federal fisheries management and coastal zone management are under the aegis of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Department of Commerce.
“I think it’s fantastic to have someone that does have experience with offshore wind and knows the extent of the conflicts,” said Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a group representing fishing interests in the development of offshore wind. “She understands coastal communities and their concerns. I think there is a real opportunity here.”
January 15, 2021 — A lawsuit filed against the Michigan Department of Natural Resources claims the state is withholding reissue of all commercial fishing licenses and calling for gear restrictions that will put the industry out of business.
“The things that were not renewed have been in place for well over 40 years in most cases, and the only the things that are a benefit to commercial fishers are gone,” says Amber Mae Petersen, who runs the Fish Monger’s Wife seafood retail outlet in Muskegon and serves as secretary-treasurer for the Michigan Fish Producers’ Association, which filed the suit in early January. “The answers are conflicting as to why they were not renewed. It seems off.”
January 15, 2021 — Ed Anthes-Washburn is leaving his job as director of the the New Bedford Port Authority for a position in the private sector.
Washburn is joining Crowley Maritime as director of business development for the Northeast and for the company’s work in the offshore wind space. Crowley is a U.S.-owned and operated logistics, government, marine and energy solutions company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, the firm’s website states.
“I’m incredibly excited,” Washburn said. “Crowley’s maritime knowledge and shipping capacity is second-to-none.” He said he won’t be moving, and can work for Crowley from New Bedford.
Washburn has been with the port authority for 11 years, six of those years as director. He said moving on is “bittersweet” but that he’s convinced his new position will help him continue to support the city and the port.
Washburn said Crowley already operates vessels within the Jones Act trade in the Gulf Coast and the Northwest. He said in the Northeast, Crowley will develop business relationship as it grows its shipping and logistics presence within the maritime economy.
January 15, 2021 — In an unusual move, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game has set a large guideline harvest level for the commercial herring fishing in Sitka this spring, on the understanding that the fleet is not likely to hit that mark.
In a news release Monday, ADF&G announced a guideline harvest level — or GHL — of just over 33,000 tons for the upcoming Sitka sac roe herring fishery.
But that much probably won’t be harvested. In the same news release, Fish and Game predicts that the commercial harvest will likely not exceed 20,000 tons. Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis says the state arrived at that number after speaking to processors about the potential market demands.
“Just from our conversations, like what the individual markets want in terms of herring,” he said. “Part of the reason why we put that in the announcement was, I guess just to temper people’s’ expectations for what will likely get harvested in the fishery. “
Dupuis says 33,000 is already a conservative estimate. The GHL is reduced by 20% of what the state would typically allow from the forecasted population of fish, a mature biomass of 210,453 tons. Even so, he says the state is gearing up as usual for a fishery this year.
January 15, 2021 — On 8 January, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy announced the state would take action to appeal the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to deny a permit application for the Pebble Mine.
The Pebble Limited Partnership submitted its plan for a mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region almost two years ago. The 1,500-page document was immediately and widely panned by scientists, fishery managers, fishermen, and many representatives of Bristol Bay’s Native tribes.
January 15, 2021 — There are many details to be worked out regarding the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind’s lease site, which lies 10 to 20 miles off the coast between Barnegat Light and Atlantic City, but the wind energy developer has a message to fisherman: They are welcome to try their luck there.
The clean energy developer assured fisherman Wednesday they won’t be excluded from the roughly 183,000-acre wind farm.
“You’re welcome to fish by the structures; we just ask that you don’t tie up to them,” Doug Copeland, Atlantic Shores’ development manager, told about 75 people who attended a webinar hosted by the developer.
Atlantic Shores, a partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF Renewables North America, is six years from getting its wind farm up and running, according to its own timeline.
January 14, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Harbor porpoises have rebounded in a big way off California. Their populations have recovered dramatically since the end of state set-gillnet fisheries that years ago entangled and killed them in the nearshore waters they frequent. These coastal set-gillnet fisheries are distinct from federally-managed offshore drift-gillnet fisheries. They have been prohibited in inshore state waters for more than a decade. The new research indicates that the coastal set gillnets had taken a greater toll on harbor porpoise than previously realized.
The return of harbor porpoises reflects the first documented example of the species rebounding. It’s a bright spot for marine wildlife, the scientists write in a new assessment published in Marine Mammal Science.
“This is very good evidence that if we can eliminate the deaths in fishing nets, marine mammal populations can come back in a big way,” said Karin Forney, a research biologist with NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center who is based in Monterey Bay.
The State of California managed set-gillnet fisheries for white seabass and halibut in coastal waters off central California beginning in the 1930s. Before the 1980s, there was little solid information about the impacts of coastal set-gillnets on protected species such as marine mammals and seabirds. Harbor porpoises were vulnerable to this coastal fishery because they frequent shallow inshore waters where the nets were historically set.
The scientists estimated, based on a combination of data, that as many as 300 harbor porpoises per year may have been killed in California’s coastal set-gillnet fisheries during the 1980s. One 1994 study (PDF, 4 pages) confirmed the deaths of more than 50 harbor porpoises in Monterey Bay alone, with the authors speculating that the true number was far higher.
January 14, 2021 — When COVID-19 initially struck Asia, many fisheries in Oregon lost their export markets in late January 2020 because of canceled Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. Prices for Dungeness crab stagnated at a time when they normally would be rising.
When the virus spread to the West Coast, Oregon’s seafood industry felt shock waves immediately. Most Americans eat seafood in restaurants, and Oregon’s “Stay at Home, Save Lives,” orders shuttered in-person dining in March. Some vessels cut their seasons short.