Saving Seafood

1 Person Killed, 1 Injured in Attack Aboard Fishing Vessel Off Nantucket

September 24, 2018 — One person was killed and another injured when a crew member on board a fishing vessel off Nantucket attacked two of his shipmates on Sunday afternoon.

The Coast Guard said they received an emergency call on Sunday afternoon from the Captain Billy Haver, an 82-foot fishing vessel out of Virginia, saying that a member of its crew had attacked several other fishermen.

The Coast Guard would not confirm what weapons were used in the attack.

The fishing trawler was 60 miles east of Nantucket at the time of the incident.

Read the full story at NECN

Purse Seine Fishing in American Samoa ‘Coming to an End’

September 19, 2018 — Members of the purse seine and longline fishing industries have provided a sobering view of the sector in American Samoa.

Frank Barron of Purse Seiner Services told a Chamber of Commerce meeting that the industry had almost gone.

Mr Barron cited several reasons why purse seine fishing in American Samoa is coming to an end.

He said the cost of fishing in Pacific waters was driving boats out of business.

He noted that the cost of fishing licenses had risen from $US100,000 annually to $US1.8 million in some instances.

Mr Barron said operators risked Coast Guard fines ranging from $US1.5million to $US2.5 million and no boat owner could afford that.

Read the full story at Radio New Zealand

 

Fishing vessel catches fire at sea, crewmembers rescued

August 27, 2017 — Three fishing vessels rescued the crew of the Rose Marie, a 77-foot stern trawler, which caught fire at sea Thursday, Coast Guard officials said.

Crewmembers from the fishing vessel Alexis Martina radioed watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England about 1 p.m., reporting the Rose Marie was on fire, according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Nicole J. Groll.

The crew abandoned ship into a life raft, she said. The Rose Marie was about 65 miles east of Chatham when the fire started between noon and 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Seven Seas, another fishing vessel that was nearby, rescued the four crewmembers from their life raft, she said.

The crew transferred to the fishing vessel Gabby G, which has a homeport of Montauk, N.Y., and awaited the arrival of a private tug, she said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Ex-New Bedford fishing captain pleads to hindering Coast Guard inspection

August 24, 2018 — A former New Bedford fishing boat captain pleaded guilty Thursday to interfering with a U.S Coast Guard inspection and faces sentencing Nov. 28, federal prosecutors said.

Thomas D. Simpson, 57, of South Portland, Maine, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of destruction or removal of property subject to seizure and inspection, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Simpson was the captain of the Bulldog, a New Bedford-based commercial fishing vessel and one of several fishing vessels owned by Carlos Rafael, the news release said. On Sept. 25, 2017, Rafael was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Boston, to 46 months in federal prison on charges related to the operation of his commercial fishing business.

On May 31, 2014, the Bulldog was engaged in commercial fishing off the coast of Massachusetts when the USCG boarded the vessel to perform a routine inspection, the news release said. At the time of the boarding, the Bulldog’s net was deployed in the water and the crew was actively fishing.

The USCG boarding officer encountered Simpson in the wheelhouse and instructed him to haul in the fishing net for inspection, the news release said. Instead of hauling the fishing net onto the vessel, he let out more of the cable attaching the net to the vessel.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Coast Guard Rescues Fishermen Clinging to Debris in Water

July 20, 2018 — The U.S. Coast Guard says two fishermen whose boat overturned off the North Carolina coast have been rescued.

A news release said the wife of one of the men called for help Tuesday after reporting that the generator on their boat wasn’t working and the men were trying to find a safe place in deteriorating conditions.

The Coast Guard said the men had departed Ocracoke that morning and were planning to shrimp in Pamlico Sound before unloading their catch in Engelhard.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at US News

Coast Guard medevacs sick fisherman 6 miles off Nantucket

July 19, 2018 — A Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod aircrew medevaced a 40-year-old man experiencing abdominal pain from a fishing vessel Tuesday six miles southwest of Nantucket.

The aircrew hoisted the fisherman to the helicopter and flew him back to Air Station Cape Cod where he was transferred to awaiting emergency medical services personnel, the Coast Guard said.

The captain of the fishing vessel Provider notified Coast Guard watchstanders shortly after 2 p.m. of the sick crew member, the Coast Guard said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Alaska-based Coast Guard cutter detains Chinese-flagged vessel for suspected illegal fishing

June 25, 2018 — An Alaska-based U.S. Coast Guard cutter on Saturday detained a Chinese-flagged vessel on suspicion of illegal fishing using driftnets, the Coast Guard said in a news release Friday. Custody of the 164-foot fishing vessel, Run Da, has since been transferred to the Chinese government.

After a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft spotted the vessel last week, the crew on the 282-foot cutter Alex Haley responded. Both U.S. Coast Guard and Chinese Coast Guard members aboard the Alex Haley — which has its home port in Kodiak — boarded Run Da, where they found 80 tons of chum salmon and one ton of squid.

The Alex Haley and its 105 crew members are on a North Pacific multinational fisheries enforcement patrol. The crew detained the fishing vessel in international waters about 860 miles east of Hokkaido, Japan, for suspected illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing activity, the Coast Guard said.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

DON CUDDY: Late New Bedford scalloper never got justice he deserved

June 25, 2018 — It probably passed unnoticed by most people but an obituary for Larry Yacubian appeared in this newspaper on June 13. He died in Punta Gorda, Florida on May 18. But most fishermen still shake their heads when his name comes up. I don’t know if he died a bitter man. I hope not, although he had every reason to feel that way after the treatment meted out to him by federal law enforcement. Larry was a New Bedford scalloper and boat owner. In December 1998 his boat, the Independence, was boarded by the Coast Guard while fishing offshore and he was accused of fishing in a closed area. What followed can only be described, euphemistically, as a miscarriage of justice. The fines imposed on him by an administrative law judge working on behalf of NOAA were so excessive that he was forced to sell his boat, his permits and the Westport farm that had been in his wife’s family for 350 years — all of this to satisfy the greed of some ‘bad actors’ who considered themselves above the rule of law because they were carrying a badge. This particularly malicious prosecution ran Yacubian, a founder of the Fisheries Survival Fund, out of the fishing business and brought financial ruin on his family.

After a torturous legal process some justice was served when Yacubian was refunded $400,000 and received an apology in 2012 from NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke although that sum did not even cover his legal fees. But the details of this shakedown make exceptionally grisly reading. Yacubian’s case was just one of dozens, but by far the most egregious, uncovered by a special master appointed by the Department of Commerce to investigate excessive fines imposed on our commercial fishermen for relatively minor infractions. Thirteen of these originated from the Northeast Regional Office in Gloucester. Upholding justice was the proffered reason for assessing these fines but plain old money was the motivator. These huge fines went to swell the Asset Forfeiture Fund which allowed NOAA agents in the Office of Law Enforcement to purchase luxury vehicles and boats. It is all well-documented if anyone cares to look it up.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Coast Guard busts Keys fishing vessel with shark fins

June 20, 2018 — A Coast Guard crew from Station Islamorada stopped a commercial fishing vessel in the Upper Keys Tuesday morning that was loaded with dismembered sharks and 11 fins.

Federal law has prohibited the practice of shark finning — where the fin is cut off the shark and the rest of the body discarded — since 2000.

The 40-foot vessel, the Miss Shell, was stopped near South Sound Creek, which is near John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon Murray. The initial stop was for improper display of navigational lights, according to a Coast Guard press release.

Crew from a Coast Guard patrol boat, which included an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, boarded the Miss Shell and found the fins and shark carcasses.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has taken over the investigation into the case. There is no immediate information about arrests.

Read the full story at the Florida Keys News

 

New Bedford fishing boat collides with oil tanker off Long Island

May 16, 2018 — A New Bedford-based fishing boat collided with another vessel in waters approximately 30 miles southeast of Bridgehampton, N.Y., on Saturday night, the US Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard officials said the commercial fishing vessel Polaris was traveling back to its home port in New Bedford when it collided with the crude oil tanker Tofteviken, based out of the Bahamas.

“The Polaris, an 84-foot steel vessel built in 2007, suffered damage to its bow and outrigger,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. “There were seven people aboard at the time of collision with no report of injuries. The vessel was able to return to its homeport safely. The Tofteviken suffered an approximate 30-foot gash along its portside hull. There were no injuries reported to the crew aboard the tankship.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe