With the regulated industry facing a virtual implosion based on a disputed legal ruling, an online petition campaign has been initiated to pressure Congress to close NOAA's nearly new headquarters for the Northeast region in Blackburn Industrial Park and use the annual agency's regional payroll — pegged at about $15 million a year — to provide relief for a recognized "economic disaster" in the groundfishery.
Found at the web site, http://fishermen.wufoo.com/forms/close-the-nmfs-northeast-regional-office/, the anonymous petition writer invites signers by hoisting the Gloucester-based center for fisheries regulation from Maine to North Carolina on the petard of chief regional administrator John Bullard.
The petition pulls from an Associated Press story statements by Bullard at the Jan. 26 meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council to the effect that "fishery managers are ultimately to blame for weak stocks that haven't rebounded.
"We set the rules and clearly the rules have failed, There's no other conclusion," Bullard was quoted as saying during the tense day."
"We commend Mr. Bullard for his honest, direct and accurate description of the current reality," the petition said. The writer opined, however, that "we believe that just as there are consequences for failures in business, so, too, should there be consequences for failures in government."
The petition asks the Senate Appropriations Committee to begin the process of closing the Northeast regional office, which was built to specifications for NOAA and opened at a cost of more than $13 million in in 2009 for about 200 managers and staff, and redirecting the expenses of operating it to the disaster relief of the groundfishery.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times>>
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.
National Fisherman has been the industry standard for over 50 years. Readers from coast to coast depend on it to stay up to date on news, regulations, fish stocks, to research purchasing decisions and to stay informed of the newest vessel and product technology.
