September 20, 2019 — A Hawaiian tuna longliner vessel caught fire on the afternoon of 17 September off Oahu, but its crew of six and a NOAA observer escaped uninjured in a life raft, Coast Guard officials said.
The 46-foot, 36-ton Miss Emma, a locally well-known vessel built in 1977 and based at Honolulu, caught fire about 8 miles south of Sand Island. The crew transmitted a mayday call at 4:29 p.m., according to an account issued by the Coast Guard in Honolulu.
September 20, 2019 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
Each year the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council presents its Law Enforcement Officer of the Year award to recognize enforcement personnel that exceed their duty requirements to enforce fisheries regulations in federal waters off the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia and the east coast of Florida. “The Council recognizes the important role that law enforcement personnel play in effective fisheries management,” said Council Chair Jessica McCawley. “Both at the state and federal level, enforcement officers not only enforce fisheries regulations but often act as ambassadors, providing information and educating fishermen and others on a daily basis. This annual award allows us to acknowledge those who go the extra mile – those who demonstrate teamwork, effective communication with the public, excellence and innovation, leadership, and conduct that reflects honesty and fairness.”
For the first time, this year’s award was presented not to an individual but to the twelve active duty crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter CORMORANT, an 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat homeported in Charleston, South Carolina. The crew, consisting of four Boarding Officers, two Boarding Team Members, and two Living Marine Resource boarding officers, exemplify the criteria outlined for the award. The crew conducts a wide array of enforcement missions including search and rescue, counter narcotics, migrant interdiction, and Presidential security zones, as well as living marine resources enforcement and commercial fishing vessel inspections from Little River, South Carolina to Cumberland Island, Georgia. The award was made during the Council’s quarterly meeting this week in Charleston.
September 9, 2019 — The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mellon, including two Canadian fishery officers, returned to Seattle on Sunday after an 80-day patrol detecting and deterring illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean. The patrol was performed under the auspices of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and the North Pacific Fisheries Commission.
Economists estimate that IUU fishing costs the international economy billions of dollars per year. By diminishing stocks, it undermines the livelihoods of legitimate fishermen around the world, with negative effects on food security in developing nations. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, combatting global IUU fishing through international partnerships is a priority for Canada and the United States.
“IUU fishing is one of the greatest threats to the ocean’s fish stocks,” said Capt. Jonathan Musman, Mellon’s commanding officer. “It was an honor to be on the front lines of enforcement efforts of the distant waters fishing fleets.”
September 3, 2019 — Offshore rescuers are sharpening their skills at and near the Block Island Wind Farm, in what are early preparations for the Atlantic Coast’s nascent offshore wind industry.
But a Rhode Island commercial fishing group has said practicing on five turbines, all in a row, can’t be considered a real test for what is expected to be hundreds of wind turbines in grid patterns offshore south of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the coming decade.
“It’s not really a farm,” said Richard Fuka of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance.
The U.S. Coast Guard has completed a case study on the Jan. 1 sinking of the F/V Mistress 3 or 4 miles from the Block Island wind farm to determine if the presence of the five turbines had any impact on the agency’s search and rescue operation. The results of the study are expected to be shared with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the key federal permitting agency for the offshore wind industry. The study has not been released publicly yet.
August 29, 2019 — The number of U.S. recreational boating accidents and fatalities decreased slightly in 2018, but the factors leading to boating casualties and deaths remains disturbingly the same.
On Tuesday, the Coast Guard released its report on 2018 recreational boating statistics that indicate the holy trinity of the factors involved in accidents, casualties and fatalities are lack of life jackets, operator inattention and the use of alcohol.
Let’s begin with life jackets.
According to the Coast Guard’s 2018 statistics, drowning was the cause of 77 percent of the 633 boating deaths in 2018 where the cause of death was identified. That represents a 1 percent increase from 2017.
August 23, 2019 — A 50-year-old Coast Guard cutter is on the front line against illegal fishing on the high seas of the North Pacific, part of a growing international fight.
The cooperative effort targets uncontrolled distant-water fishing vessels, and tracks the business networks of carrier ships and fuel bunkering tankers that support them. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, or IUU, operates outside the territorial waters jurisdiction of coastal nations.
But not beyond the reach of international law and cooperative regulation by fishing nations. In the North Pacific, that is what the North Pacific Fisheries Commission does.
The youngest of world’s ocean-spanning management groups, the NPFC only got started in 2015. It includes representation from Canada, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Chinese Taipei, the United States of America, and Vanuatu.
August 23, 2019 — The former Coast Guard waterways management chief for New England has joined offshore wind energy company Ørsted, as the emerging U.S. industry comes to grips with pushback from commercial fishermen and other interests.
Ed LeBlanc, a former Coast Guard officer and most recently chief of the Waterways Management Division for Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England, will be manager of marine affairs for Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind, the Denmark-based energy company’s American division.
In his last position of 16 years with the Coast Guard First District, LeBlanc was in the forefront of planning to how the newly arriving offshore wind industry could coexist with commercial fishing and maritime transportation traffic in the Northeast. An element of that will be safe vessel transit lanes through planned wind turbine arrays off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
August 20, 2019 — For the first time in more than a decade the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has revised its guidelines for assessing the effects of offshore wind projects on commercial shipping, an indication that such projects are gaining momentum as a renewable energy option.
The new guidance, made public earlier this month, identifies navigational safety information the agency will consider when reviewing permit applications to build and operate an Offshore Renewable Energy Installation, including wind farms. It updates and replaces guidelines originally issued in 2007.
The USCG advises the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the U.S. Department of Interior, on offshore leases, and can recommend that project developers conduct a Navigation Safety Risk Assessment, which includes an evaluation of marine traffic information based on vessel movement data.
July 24, 2019 — Glenn Reed is retiring after more than 20 years as president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, a nonprofit trade association representing seafood processing companies.
Reed’s retirement will become effective at the end of 2019, with the PSPA announcing on 22 July that Christopher Barrows, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, will become the organization’s new president beginning 15 August.
“I am honored to be selected by PSPA to carry forward these important messages. I enjoyed my time in the U.S. Coast Guard patrolling the waters off Alaska and in the North Pacific Ocean as well as living in Juneau and traveling throughout Alaska to coordinate Coast Guard activities and develop lasting partnerships,” Barrows said in a press release. “I look forward to the opportunity to address future challenges facing the industry as well as to help ensure the continued sustainable management of fisheries resources.”
Barrows represented the United States Coast Guard as part of the North Pacific Anadromous Fisheries Commission, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, the U.S.-Russia Intergovernmental Consultative Committee on Fisheries, the U.S.-Canada Bilateral meetings on Ocean and Fisheries, the United Nations’ Consultative Process on the Oceans and the Law of the Sea, and in meetings of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Barrows has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a master’s degree in marine affairs from the University of Rhode Island. Once he assumes the presidency, he will be based in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
June 26, 2019 — A well-intended new Alaska law has gone awry from a botched rollout that has turned thousands of Alaskan fishing vessel, tender, barge and sport fish operators into lawbreakers.
Since the start of 2019, all vessels over 24 feet are required to be registered with the state at a Department of Motor Vehicles office. Previously, vessels that were documented with the Coast Guard were not required to also register with the state. The state registration costs $24 and is good for three years.
“You need to get down to the DMV whether you’re documented or not,” explained Frances Leach, executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska. “If you’re documented you have to register, and if you’re not documented, you have to register and get a title.”
The new rule stems from Senate Bill 92, the Derelict Vessels Act introduced last year by Sen. Peter Micciche (R-Soldotna) and passed by the Legislature. It is intended to help harbormasters and others track down owners of abandoned vessels.
But virtually no mariners know about the new registration requirement.
“We found out about it from a DMV personnel in Haines who told one of our gillnetters, and he told me. And we both called the troopers and they didn’t know anything about it,” said fisherman Max Worhatch of Petersburg. “Later they got back to us and said it was indeed the law.”