December 2023 – Page 5 – Fishermens News

NOAA Seeks Comment on Federal Management of Cook Inlet Fisheries

NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comment through Dec. 16 on a proposed rule to implement federal management of commercial and recreational salmon fishing in Alaska’s Cook Inlet Exclusive Economic Zone. NOAA published the proposed rule in the Federal Register on Thursday, Oct. 19. Previously, salmon management in the federal waters was deferred to the state of Alaska and fishing occurred without respect for the EEZ boundary. Amendment 16 and the proposed rule would result in separate federal management of salmon fishing in the Cook Inlet EEZ, with the state continuing to manage all salmon fishing within state waters. Federal management would implement new requirements for commercial drift gillnet vessels that are fishing in the Cook Inlet EEZ, which would occur from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mon...

Watertight Door Maintenance

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, flooding and resultant capsizings are responsible for about 50% of fishing vessel casualties. Maintaining a watertight envelope, including watertight doors, is key to keeping the ocean out of your vessel. But what is a watertight door? A watertight door, according to the Coast Guard, is “a space constructed to withstand a static head of water without any leakage.” Whereas a weather-tight door is “a door that water will not penetrate into the unit in any sea condition.” In other words, a watertight door should not leak even when there is a head of water on the opposite side of the door, as opposed to a weather-tight door that is just designed to keep the weather and normal seas from leaking through the door. To give an idea of the water pressure a wa...

Offshore Wind’s Risks, Opportunities Explored in New Report

Offshore Wind (OSW) is a rapidly growing industry and a heightened policy focus under the Biden administration, which is pushing development of OSW around the country, including several planned West Coast projects. Offshore wind is also big issue for the commercial fishing industry, and has been making commercial fishermen anxious for a number or reasons, due to unanswered questions such as how floating wind turbines could affect California’s marine life (including noise from building and running wind farms), as well as whether electromagnetic fields could harm Pacific Coast salmon and other fish stocks. Now, a new report from a global insurer that examines the opportunities and risks of OSW highlights some new concerns with these projects, as well as the developing infrastructure and ...

Arctic Fjord Makes American Boatbuilding History

New pollock-surimi catcher-processor departs Seattle for working life in the Bering Sea. The next time someone glibly states that “America just doesn’t make anything anymore,” you may want to shove this article in their face. The brand new, 99.3-meter (326-foot) Arctic Fjord factory trawler of Seattle-based Arctic Storm Management Group departed Puget Sound in October, bound for her inaugural working season after a harrowing five-year build-and-deliver saga through hurricane and pandemic challenges. The Rolls-Royce-designed vessel, dubbed a Rolls-Royce NVC 336 WP, is touted by the company as the largest fishing vessel ever built in the United States. She’s also the first American-built new vessel for the wild Alaska pollock catcher-processor fleet in over 30 years. Arctic Fjord was b...

Commercial Vessel Deck Machinery: Innovations in the Industry

The innovation of deck machinery for commercial fishing vessels is ever-present in the maritime industry. While a winch will always be a winch, a newer model may pack the same power in a smaller footprint. A crane is always a crane, but the modern version may be all-electric. And the list goes on. Herein some of the deck machinery industry’s major players discuss their newest and best-selling products, as well as industry trends. Markey Machine Seattle-based Markey Machine saw an ownership shift late last year, closing a growth investment with Christian Schiller and Brian Bogen. “The new ownership arrangement offers many advantages, particularly in the area of future growth of Markey,” according to Scott Atkinson, Markey Machine’s vice president of business development. “Markey’s ren...

Redd Zone Supplies a Complete Salmon Hatchery in 40-Foot Container

After a career of over 30 years in the non-profit hatchery movement in Alaska and Oregon, Tod Jones was looking forward to retirement—until he had a “eureka” moment in 2019 while visiting a salmon hatchery near Hood Canal in northwest Washington. He had been invited by members of the Skokomish tribe to advise them on ways to improve their output of around a million salmon eggs per year, but found there was very little room for expansion: the hatchery was built into a steep slope above a creek that provided a reliable supply of gravity-fed water. “That was where I first had the idea of prefabricating a complete hatchery in a 40-foot shipping container,” he told me when I stopped by his workshop on the east side of Astoria, Oregon. Surrounded by containers, incubation boxes and pipes, ...

Coast Guard Responds to Medical Emergency Aboard Fishing Vessel Near San Diego

Coast Guard Sector San Diego personnel on Oct. 12 responded to a medical emergency aboard a charter fishing vessel about 55 miles west of Point Loma. At about 1 p.m. on the above date, Coast Guard Sector San Diego watchstanders received a distress call from the charter fishing vessel Legend, reporting a medical emergency. A 79-year-old male passenger lost consciousness and fell, which was taken by the Coast Guard to be signs of a heart attack. Guard personnel responding to the emergency determined that the passenger required a higher level of medical care as soon as possible, so in response, Coast Guard Air Station San Diego launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew. The helicopter crew arrived on scene, successfully hoisted the patient, and then transported him to Scripps Memorial Hosp...

Coast Guard Establishes IUU Fishing, Environmental Response Centers in Hawaii

The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Environmental Response Regional Activities Center (MER RAC) and the Illegal Unreported Unregulated Fisheries Center of Expertise (IUUF COE) were established during an Oct. 11 ceremony on Ford Island, Hawaii. Coast Guard Pacific Area Commander Vice Adm. Andrew Tiongson and Rear Adm. Jo-Ann Burdian, the Guard’s Assistant Commandant for Response Policy, presided over the ceremony. The IUUF COE is to serve as the international engagements arm for combatting illegal fishing activities in the Indo-Pacific, and further promote regional coordination to combat IUUF and better equip partner nations. “The intent of the IUUF COE is to increase maritime domain awareness, exchange valuable information, increase interoperability, and share best practices related to IUUF ...

Oregon Sea Grant Hires Coastal Water Resources Specialist

Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon State University Extension Service have hired a coastal water resources specialist, Miranda Gray, who started Sept. 12 and is based in Gold Beach. “I saw this position as meeting a huge need on the south coast and as an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up—one that draws on my background in community-based natural resource management,” Gray said. A resident of Gold Beach, she became the coordinator of the South Coast Watershed Council in 2018 and worked with communities on watershed restoration and education projects. She also serves on the leadership team of the Curry Watersheds Partnership and on the board of the Network of Oregon Watershed Councils. “Over the past five years working and living on the south coast, I’ve come to understand many of the wa...

Climate Resilience Specialist Joins California Sea Grant

Climate resilience specialist Alex Harper has joined the extension team at California Sea Grant, CSG announced in late October. In her new role, Harper is expected to focus on strengthening coastal resilience and growing the Blue Economy through high-quality ocean information sharing. Harper joins CSG while also working as a program manager with the Central of Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS), where she oversees the regional ocean observing and spearheads activities related to ocean acidification, hypoxia, marine carbon dioxide removal, as well as tribal and stakeholder engagement and communications. “Ocean observing is being the eyes and the ears of the ocean,” said Harper, who draws data from oceanographic buoys and sensors on piers that measure temperature, salinit...