National Fisherman's 2011 Highliners
No one who navigates the complicated web of U.S. fishery management would discount the value of being an innovative thinker and a man (or woman) of action.
The salt of the ocean
The search for our annual NF Highliners begins with lots of phone calls, some emails, a few texts and inevitably results in some hand-wringing along with the sense of satisfaction that we take from the opportunity to pay a little honor to those who give so much to the commercial fishing industry.
ATY Northeast
Trimaran for Maine fishermen? Shop finishes biggest boat yet
If things go as planned, the first fishing boats in this country — possibly anywhere — designed and built as trimarans will be hauling lobster traps for Maine fishermen as early as next year.
The trimaran design is the result of an initiative by the non-profit Penobscot East Resource Center in Stonington, Maine, to develop a more fuel-efficient lobster boat.
Doug Read, a professor of engineering at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, is managing the technical side of the project, and this past spring took a 4-foot 6-inch model to the Webb Institute in Glen Cove, N.Y. to be tank tested.
Northeast Surf Clams
Closed for 20 years, Georges Bank prospect delights struggling harvesters
Surf clam prices remain bottomed out at $12 to $13 a bushel, but the industry is nearing a milestone toward future investment.
In October the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference considered a new protocol for testing clams on Georges Bank for paralytic shellfish poisoning, a biotoxin that closed the area for clam and mussel harvests in 1990. Fishermen and regulators think it is safe now, but need an ironclad testing system to reopen the Georges resource.
Watch out!
From U.S. Coast Guard reports
Just before midnight in mid-October off the coast of Oregon, the skies were clear and the seas were calm. A 45-foot steel tuna boat and its two-man crew were headed back to port. The two-day trip had yielded only seven tuna. The skipper had just taken over the watch and was sitting back in his chair peering out the starboard pilothouse windows. He turned on his 1,000-watt sodium light to illuminate the darkness ahead.
Callifornia crabbing: Here's a fun video shot on the decks of the Majestik while catching Dungeness crab off the coast of northern California.
Over 500 lots of seafood processing equipment formerly owned by Adak Seafood will be sold at auction on Tuesday, June 18, starting at 10 a.m. Hawaiian-Aleutian Daylight Time at the Hilton Garden Inn in Anchorage Alaska.
The equipment is located in a recently updated 250,000 square foot state-of-the-art processing facility in Adak, Alaska. Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Hilco Industrial, which conducts 75 machinery and equipment auctions in a wide range of industries annually, will conduct the auction.
Adak Seafood opened originally as Ada Fisheries in Anchorage in 1986. The facility, updated in 2005, is located on the island of Adak, the southernmost city in Alaska near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. The facility processed cod primarily, as well as halibut, blackcod, crab and pollock, Hilco says.
Alaska fisherman and commercial fisheries activist Kevin Adams was elected chairman at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors meeting on May 9 in Anchorage.
The governor-appointed board consists of seven members: five seafood processors and two industry representatives actively engaged in commercial fishing. Adams was appointed to fill a harvester seat by Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2004.
With 38 years of fishing experience in Bristol Bay, Adams has long been an active member in the Alaska fishing industry, ASMI says. He has worked for both the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation and the Bering Sea Fisherman's Association, and represents Alaska fishermen on numerous boards.
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