National Fisherman

Paul Molyneaux

Editor

Paul Molyneaux is the Boats & Gear editor for National Fisherman.

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Airmar’s new Medium Ultra-Wide transducers take higher resolution sonar down to 1300 feet and give fishermen a 73-degree view of what may be around their boat. “It’s a fishing tool,” says Airmar’s director of marketing, Craig Cushman. Photo courtesy of Ai

Airmar debuts Medium Ultra-Wide Chirp transducer

Part of its new Pro NX line of sensors, the Marport catch sensor comes in three versions, including the Catch Explorer and the higher resolution Catch Navigator. Both feature a quick-release mechanism for releasing the element. Photo courtesy of Marport

Marport Sensors get an upgrade

The Inuksuk II in Igaluit, Nunavit, Canada, for its official christening on July 29, 2025. The vessel had arrived in Newfoundland months earlier, but had to wait for the ice-out in the north before it could finally make it home. Photo by Tattuinee

Canada’s biggest boat starts fishing in the north

Members of the Skipteknisk team use advanced Revit autocad software to produce 3D models that enable them to give potential clients a virtual walk through of the proposed vessel. Photo by Skipsteknisk

Skipsteknisk designs fishing vessels for the future

After more than 80 years, Columbia River Chinook and sockeye salmon have regained access to 1,000 miles of spawning habitat above the Grand Coulee and Chie Joseph Dams in Washington. Upper Columbia Tribes in the US and Canada welcome their return. Photo c

A homecoming for Upper Columbia River salmon

One of the Port Orford’s two new 50-ton cranes lifts a boat out of the water. Commissioned on November 30, just in time for the December 16 Dungeness crab opening. The new cranes saw a few days of 24-hour-a-day service as the boat got their traps out. Pho

Harborless Port Orford gets new cranes to lift boats onto its “Dolly Dock”

Capt. Rene Hernández’s son, Rene Jr., talks fishing with four-year-old Juan Pablo Molyneaux. The Hernándezes also started at the same age, as do so many kids in the fish business, learning a way of life as much as a way to make a living. Paul Molyneaux photo.

Getting the next generation to sea

Acy Cooper, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, and other members of the organization at an informal 2023 meet-up in Delacroix, La., when shrimp prices were so low they could not cover fuel costs to fish. Paul Molyneaux photo.

Lawmakers seek to protect US fishermen from low-priced imports

Furuno’s GP-170D bears the wheelmark icon on the lower left corner of the front, indicating that it meets U.S. Coast Guard and IMO requirements for use with electronic chart systems ECS. Photo by Furuno

New navigation tools for new navigation rules

After a 5-year moratorium, the state of Florida plans to reopen the Apalachicola Bay oyster fishery on Jan. 1, 2026. Harvesters will be allowed to harvest one bag a day (60 pounds) from reefs in the bay that meet the ecological threshold of 400 legal-size

Return of the Apalachicola Oyster