Saving Seafood

Overtaken by Frigid Seas, Hours From Help, There Was Little Chance of Survival

January 10, 2020 — On the lumbering journey through squally seas off the Alaska Peninsula, most of the seven crab fishermen aboard the Scandies Rose were resting in bunks on New Year’s Eve when the boat suddenly began listing to the starboard side.

The crew rushed to the cramped wheelhouse and quickly began distributing survival suits, but before they could fully get them on, the boat pitched over so far that they were sliding along the floor. Then the power went out. Two of the crewmen, Dean Gribble Jr. and Jon Lawler, managed to pull themselves out onto the tilted deck, where, through the murk of a north Pacific night, the reality of their situation became clear.

The boat was being tossed in every direction by 20-foot swells, and was sinking fast. Gale-force winds were crusting the ship’s surfaces with ice. Any chance of rescue was 170 storm-churned miles away.

Mr. Gribble could see that he and his shipmate did not have long to live. He shouted to Mr. Lawler over the din of wind and groaning steel, “I wonder what everyone else is doing for New Year’s Eve.”

Read the full story at The New York Times

1 dead, 2 missing after shrimp boat sinks off North Carolina coast, Coast Guard says

January 8, 2020 — The Coast Guard rescued two crew members from a shrimp trawler when it went down in the Pamlico Sound on Tuesday, officials said.

One of them was pronounced dead at the hospital, and two others are still missing.

“This is a rough case and as we continue to search, our thoughts are with the families of the mariners,” search and rescue coordinator Matthew Brooks said in a news release.

The Coast Guard received a distress signal Tuesday night and sent rescuers by boat and helicopter from Hatteras Inlet and the Elizabeth City Air station, according to the release.

Two crew members were located by the aircrew and taken to Sentara Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City. One was hypothermic and the other, who required CPR, was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to the release.

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer

Fishing advocates propose transit lanes for offshore wind

January 7, 2020 — A coalition of commercial fishing groups is calling for 4-mile-wide transit lanes through offshore wind turbine arrays off New England, as federal ocean planners and the Coast Guard consider maritime safety aspects of the projects.

In a Jan. 3 letter to those agencies, the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance proposed six vessel traffic lanes — each 4 nautical miles wide and up to 70 miles long — through wind turbine areas proposed by energy companies south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket off Massachusetts.

Those developers submitted their own proposal Nov. 1 to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Coast Guard, offering a consistent grid layout across their federal offshore leases that would space turbine towers 1 nautical mile apart.

Without endorsing that spacing — opposed by Rhode Island squid fishermen and others who say they cannot not work amid such arrays — the alliance letter is a counter-proposal that superimposes wider transit lanes on the developers’ plan.

“The proposal presented here utilizes the uniform 1×1 nm spaced turbines presented in the Nov. 1 proposal and includes transit lanes of adequate widths to preserve safe and efficient passage along the routes most often used by fishermen,” the letter states.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Fishermen call for 4-nautical-mile lanes between offshore wind turbines

January 7, 2020 — Northeastern commercial fishermen and seafood businesses are calling for transit lanes four nautical miles wide between rows of offshore wind turbines.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a fishing lobby group whose members hail mainly from New England and New Jersey, wrote a letter to the U.S Coast Guard and other federal authorities to make its case for wider lanes, saying they would:

– Allow enough room for a vessel to make a significant alteration of course if needed;

– Provide space for vessels to pass one another;

– Compensate for reduced radar effectiveness; and

– Serve as passageways for marine life.

In November, wind developers proposed spacing turbines one nautical mile apart and laying them out in uniform rows.

With regard to the proposed spacing of one nautical mile, the fishing group wrote, “RODA reiterates, consistent with each of our previous comments on the record, that most fishing vessels will not be able to operate in this array and significant displacement will still occur due to (one-nautical-mile) spacing.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Sinking of crab boat comes after decades-long push to improve safety of commercial fishing

January 6, 2020 — The sinking of the crab boat Scandies Rose, which left five crew members presumed dead off the Alaska Peninsula on New Year’s Eve, comes after a decades-long push to make commercial fishing in Alaska safer. Regulation changes have helped drive more safety measures for the historically lucrative industry, but some dangers remain inherent, said Scott Wilwert, the commercial fishing vessel safety coordinator for the Coast Guard in Alaska.

“The hazards are endless,” Wilwert said. Equipment, distance from other boats and harrowing weather all pose dangers.

The sinking of the 130-foot Scandies Rose sent a shock wave through Alaska’s commercial fishing industry, especially among those in the relatively small group that fishes the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.

Greg Alexander, a veteran of those waters, was a close friend of Scandies Rose captain Gary Cobban Jr. He said Cobban Jr. was a “first-class” captain with a sterling safety reputation who ran with an experienced crew.

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News

5 crew members feared dead after Alaska fishing boat sinks

January 3, 2020 — Five crew members are feared dead after a crab fishing vessel sank in the frigid waters off Alaska. The Coast Guard announced Wednesday that it had called off the search for those working in one of the most dangerous industries in the U.S.

Two other crew members were rescued after the disaster Tuesday, telling authorities they were the only ones who made it into a life raft, the Anchorage Daily News reported. A press release from the Coast Guard identified them as Dean Gribble Jr. and John Lawler. They were hypothermic and have since been released from a hospital.

The Coast Guard also identified the five crew members who remain missing: Gary Cobban Jr., David Lee Cobban, Arthur Ganacias, Brock Rainey, and Seth Rousseau-Gano. The military branch added that it used helicopters, planes and a boat to look for the missing crew members for 20 hours before calling off the search, because they were not likely to have survived.

“The decision to suspend an active search and rescue case is never easy, and it’s only made after careful consideration of a myriad of factors,” said Rear Admiral Matthew Bell, commander of the 17th district. “Our deepest condolences to the friends and families impacted by this tragedy.”

Read the full story at CBS News

Coast Guard Suspends Search for 5 Missing After Fishing Boat Sinks Off Alaska

January 2, 2020 — After a 20-hour search covering 1,400 square miles, the Coast Guard called off a search for five people who were missing after the fishing boat they were on sank off Alaska, officials said.

The search for the missing crew members was suspended at 6:08 p.m. local time on Wednesday, “after exhausting all leads and careful consideration of survival probability,” according to a statement released early Thursday morning.

“The decision to suspend an active search and rescue case is never easy, and it’s only made after careful consideration of a myriad of factors,” said Rear Adm. Matthew Bell, the 17th District Commander. “Our deepest condolences to the friends and families impacted by this tragedy.”

Two crew members were rescued after the boat, a 130-foot-long crab fishing vessel called the Scandies Rose, sank near Sutwik Island around 10 p.m. on Tuesday with seven aboard, the Coast Guard said in an statement.

They were rescued from a life raft by a Coast Guard helicopter, officials said.

The crew members were taken to a hospital and were in stable condition, said Petty Officer Second Class Melissa McKenzie of the 17th District.

Read the full story at The New York Times

U.S. Coast Guard Rescues Four From Grounded Fishing Vessel

December 10, 2019 — On Monday morning, a U.S. Coast Guard aircrew hoisted four fishermen from a grounded commercial fishing boat in Browns Inlet, North Carolina.

Coast Guard Sector North Carolina received a radio distress call at about 0815 hours Monday from a crewmember aboard the fishing vessel Sea Angels. The crewmember reported that they had run aground due to mechanical issues and that the four people on board needed assistance.

A boat crew aboard a response boat from Station Emerald Isle and an aircrew aboard an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Elizabeth City launched to assist. Once on scene, the aircrew hoisted the four crew members and transported them to Coast Guard Station Emerald Isle.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Researchers to explore pre-permitting approach to aquaculture in New England

December 2, 2019 — The labyrinthine process of obtaining the proper permits to establish fish farms in federal waters has been frequently cited as a major obstacle to the advancement of the U.S. aquaculture sector.

Currently, an application to start an aquaculture operation in federal waters is reviewed by a plethora of federal agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA Fisheries, and the Environmental Protection Agency, along with a collection of state agencies if the proposed site is located near state waters. The long review process is often cited as being too complex and costly, according to Hauke Kite-Powell, a research specialist at the Marine Policy Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coast Guard Report Finds Misreporting in Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fisheries

December 2, 2019 (Saving Seafood) — WASHINGTON — Tomorrow, at the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) December Meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, the United States Coast Guard will present a summary of an analysis it conducted from late 2014 through 2016 into potential misreporting in the Northeast Multispecies (NMS) fishery. The analysis identified over 350 trips from 2011-2015 where there is evidence of misreporting.

The Coast Guard analysis claims that several misreporting schemes were utilized from 2011 to 2015, and potentially up to 2.5 million pounds of regulated species were misreported by vessels from multiple sectors in the NMS fishery. The analysis also argues that the current regulation regime is vulnerable to stock area misreporting and limits the ability of enforcement to detect and document misreporting of stock areas.

Since February 2017, fishery managers have been developing Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) FMP, which would implement measures to improve reliability and accountability of catch reporting and ensure an accurate representation of catch (landings and discards). Amendment 23, which is currently in draft form, has been developed concurrently with the Coast Guard study, and is not a response to it. It has been developed by the NEFMC in consultation with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The draft amendment is available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/190905_Draft_Groundfish_A23_alternatives.pdf.

The Coast Guard report was authored by the First District Enforcement Staff and is available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/USCG-Groundfish-Misreporting-Investigation-and-Analysis.pdf.

The species of fish off the New England coast commonly referred to as “groundfish” are managed under the NMS Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and regulated under Title 50, Chapter VI, Part 648 of the Code of Federal Regulations (50 CFR 648). The latest updates on the development of NEFMC Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies FMP are available here: https://www.nefmc.org/library/amendment-23.