July 2024 – Page 3 – Fishermens News

Cold Storage Spotlight: Pacific West Refrigeration

One company helping propel the cold storage industry forward is Pacific West Refrigeration, which was founded in Sechelt, British Columbia in 1995. PacWest manufactures skid mounted Refrigerated Seawater Systems (RSWs) and freezer plates. PacWest, which came under new ownership in November 2022, moved to Ontario in June 2023. The company is now owned by Gudgeon Thermfire, an Ontario-based manufacturer of thermal sand reclamation systems for the metal casting industry.. “(Gudgeon Thermfire) was looking to diversify and Pacific West was a very intriguing and impressive company. We saw a lot of technical crossovers between the two companies and thought that it would be an interesting fit. We’ve been at our London facility for 1 year and we are fully operational.” Pacific West Refrigerat...

Ice Cold and Dynamic

Cold storage systems have come a long way since the copper coils of yore that shivering deckhands needed to constantly scrub to keep frost-free. While the layperson may shrug at the sight of a hold of properly chilled fish, the commercial fishing professional sees engineering glory and big-money dollar signs. From the 50-foot salmon seiner to the 300-foot factory trawler, what are fishing vessels if not giant floating freezers? If only our ancestors of hundreds of years ago who kept cod fresh in barrels of salt could see us now. Fortunately, cold-storage technology is a dynamic sector that seems to keep getting better. State of the Refrigeration Business There are many players in the commercial fishing cold-storage game, including Washington state-based companies like Highland Refrig...

Wearables for Commercial Fishing Getting Smaller, Lighter

Watches tend to be useful to commercial fishing crews, with their GPS receivers and touch-screen interfaces. Some even believe they could earn a spot in the broader category of commercial fishing wearable technology regularly donned by crew. Fishermen’s News spoke with experts regarding their thoughts about what should be considered top-of-the-line for both wearable watches and the broader wearable category for commercial fishing. Trends One noteworthy trend in wearables for commercial fishing is what Rich Galasso, North American sales manager for land and marine with Florida-based ACR Electronics and Ocean Signal, calls “unit consolidation.” “We’ve been able to satisfy a long-standing request for combining the global coverage of a PLB (personal locator beacon) and the localized solu...

USCG, Other Agencies Respond to Tar-Like Substance Along Oregon, Wash. Coasts

The Coast Guard and other federal agencies, along with Washington and Oregon state agencies responded in May to a tar-like substance from an unknown source affecting a shoreline near Beards Hollow, Wash., and multiple birds in northern Oregon and southern Washington. The oil spill response organization NWFF Environmental was contracted to clean up tar balls along Benson Beach and a beach at Beards Hollow in Ilwaco, Wash. Responders collected samples of the tar balls and sent them to a lab for analysis. The first reports of tar balls and potentially contaminated wildlife began May 19, and as of 4 p.m. May 21, a total of 10 contaminated birds had been located at various locations extending from Lincoln City, Ore. north to Long Beach, Wash. The Coast Guard conducted a shoreline assessment ...

Coast Guard Honolulu Aids in Rescue of Missing Fishermen

The U.S. Coast Guard recently assisted in the rescue of an overdue 26-foot fiberglass skiff from Kiritimati Island, Kiribati. On May 12, Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) Honolulu received a request from the Kiribati Search and Rescue coordinator asking for assistance locating an overdue vessel with three individuals aboard that had been fishing along the west coast of Kiritimati Island. The JRCC Honolulu search-and-rescue mission coordinator directed the launch of a Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point HC-130 air crew to aid in the search. The crew deployed three self-locating datum marker buoys to calculate the current’s set and drift to develop a search pattern of the area. The Fiji Maritime Surveillance & Rescue Coordination Center, located in Suva, Fiji, also...

Coast Guard Alaska Assists Commercial Fishing Vessels, Crew Members

On May 25, the U.S. Coast Guard assisted a disabled commercial fishing vessel and aided in the medevac of a crew member from another vessel. The first incident involved the rescue of five people near Sitka, Alaska. A 29-foot response boat crew with Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team Seattle, currently operating out of Sitka, responded. Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector Southeast Alaska had received a relayed report from Sitka Dispatch that the 35-foot commercial trawler Kari Ann was disabled, unable to drop anchor and drifting toward rocks in the Western Channel. On May 26, the vessel was towed to Allen Marine, a southwest Alaska tour operator. The same day, the Coast Guard and Alaska Rescue Coordination Center teamed up to medevac a crew member from a fishing vessel 3...

5-Year Review Finds 2 Rockfish Species Need Continued Protection, Recovery

NOAA Fisheries has reviewed the current status of threatened Puget Sound/Georgia Basin yelloweye rockfish and endangered bocaccio and determined that while yelloweye rockfish are making progress toward recovery, Puget Sound/Georgia Basin bocaccio remain so rare that a meaningful assessment isn’t possible. The review was required under the Endangered Species Act. The findings were announced June 7. According to NOAA Fisheries, biologists concluded that both fish should retain their current statuses: yelloweye rockfish as threatened and bocaccio as endangered. The status review also prioritizes recovery actions for the next five years. It calls for reducing fishing impacts, improving habitat and continuing to track abundance and distribution of the species during all life stages. “Whil...

Southeast Alaska Harvester Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Records, Endangering Whale

A 54-year-old commercial fisherman from Southeast Alaska has pleaded guilty to false labeling of fishing records in violation of U.S. law. The fisherman admitted to violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits trade in wildlife, fish and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported, or sold, and illegally taking a sperm whale in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The case was investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement. The U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Alaska said that Dugan Paul Daniels of Coffman Cove is to be sentenced Sept. 16. He faces a maximum penalty of six years in prison. U.S. Attorney for Alaska S. Lane Tucker said June 6 that a federal district court judge would determine any sentence for D...

Higher Pacific Salmon Abundance in Canadian Arctic Linked to Warming Seas

A new study by researchers at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Alaska Fairbanks links higher Pacific salmon abundance in the Canadian Arctic to warming ocean temperatures. The study, published June 5 in the journal Global Change Biology, found that a two-part mechanism was tied to the presence of salmon in the Canadian Arctic. Warm late spring conditions in the Chukchi Sea, northwest of Alaska, drew salmon into the Arctic. When those conditions persisted in the summertime Beaufort Sea, northeast of Alaska, salmon could continue to Canada, researchers said. Canadian and Alaskan scientists, working together with communities in the western Canadian Arctic, connected the salmon booms experienced by subsistence fishermen in recent years with a sequence of warm, ice-free cond...

Calif. Fish & Wildlife Releases More Than 2 Million Chinook Salmon into Klamath River

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife in May released more than two million fall-run Chinook salmon smolts into the Klamath River. On May 15, about 1.3 million fall-run Chinook salmon smolts were released below the Iron Gate Dam and about 800,000 fish were released from the same location on May 22, according to CDFW. Fish & Wildlife said that salmon smolts were trucked about seven miles to the release point from CDFW’s new, state-of-the-art Fall Creek Fish Hatchery. The fish carried coded-wire tags and had their adipose fins clipped to later identify them as being of hatchery origin and provide scientists and hatchery managers with data about their life histories and the success of the release. Although still undergoing the final phases of construction, CDFW’s new Fall Cr...