Towing in the trenches
Maine's 2012 northern shrimp season is short but not so sweet
By Melissa Wood
There's plenty of squawking coming over the radio as we head out of Portland harbor.
"You can't f—king do it three f—king days a week," says one unidentified voice.
But if you're a trawler taking part in Maine's 2012 northern shrimp season, you do have to do it three days a week. We're fishing under new rules for the 2012 season, which began for trawlers on Jan. 2. In an attempt to make the pitiful quota of 2,000 metric tons last longer, the Maine Department of Marine Resources has restricted fishing to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with each day beginning a half hour before sunrise and ending with gear out of the water promptly at 3 p.m.
Today, Wednesday, Jan. 11, skipper Steve Jordan has something else to be unhappy about. Some of those voices on the radio are coming from boats leaving the harbor before us. As he steams the 65-foot trawler Jamie & Ashley away from the dock a little after 4:30 a.m., he points out three distinct lights in the pitch dark ahead.
"I hate having other people go out before me," Jordan says. "It's always a race."
On the previous fishing day, Monday, Jordan had been the leader of the pack in the sense that he was the highliner that day — which is all that really matters in an open-access fishery like this. It's no surprise that everyone else wants to go to the spot where he had scooped up a hefty 7,000 pounds.
It was beginning to look like a good run for the Jamie & Ashley despite the season's limitations. On the previous Friday, which was the crew's first day out shrimping, they had brought back a decent haul of 5,000 pounds.
But Jordan is not overconfident as we head out. A boat next to him on Monday only brought back seven boxes of shrimp, or 700 pounds.
"It's all luck," says Jordan. "Today could be a role reversal."
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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