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July 9, 2013 — The captains of the “Wicked Tuna” hit reality television series have started the tuna season with tales to tell — and not all are fish tales. They involve the Red Sox.

Just after the tuna season opened last Monday, a boy from a small Texas town was able to convince his mother to take him tuna fishing in Gloucester after watching “Wicked Tuna” on the National Geographic Channel. Pilgrim Studios crews will begin filming again in the coming days for season three.

“Each year I take my son on a fishing charter — fishing is his passion, so what’s a mom to do?,” said Michelle, Cooper’s mother. “He has caught yellowfin and blackfin tuna but not bluefin. I told him if that is where he wants to go for his birthday, I would try to find us a charter, never thinking we would be able to fish on the FV-Tuna. com.”

But Capt. Dave Carraro emailed her back promptly with the news that he had an opening on Cooper’s birthday on June 7 — when he turned 14.

As luck would continue to flourish for Cooper, he landed three bluefin on that nearly 15-hour trip.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times 

 

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [Seafoodnews.com] – July 8, 2013 — Portland, Maine — The Maine Lobster Council kicked off lobster season with a fundraiser in New York City this past weekend, benefiting Superstorm Sandy recovery.  Maine lobstermen, processors and dealers worked together to donate thousands of pounds of lobster to be sold as part of a lobster roll promotion at Luke’s Lobster, Thursday, June 27 – Saturday, June 29th.

Close to 2,000 Maine Lobster rolls were sold at a discount at select Luke’s locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Hoboken, New Jersey, and the proceeds will support the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City.

“I am glad we were able to kick-off the lobster season with such a fun event, while giving back to so many people who are still in need,” said Maine Lobster Council Acting Director Marianne LaCroix.

LaCroix added, “People were lined up around the block in the summer heat wave for lobster rolls. It’s a clear symbol of New York’s love for Maine Lobster.”

The following local companies supported the cause: Beals Jonesport Co-Op, Beals Lobster, Calendar Islands, Cranberry Islands Fishermen’s Co-Op, DB Rice Fisheries, DC Air and Seafood, FW Thurston, Garbo Lobster, LePage Bakery, Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster, Luke’s Lobster, Miller’s Wharf, Port Clyde Fishermen’s Co-Op, Shuck’s Maine Lobster, South Bristol Lobstermen’s Co-Op, Spruce Head Fishermen’s Co-Op, Stonington Lobster Co-Op, Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound, US Foods, Vinalhaven Lobster Co-Op, and Winter Harbor Lobster Co-Op.

This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

July 8, 2013 — Gloucester Police are teaming up with U.S. Coast Guard officials to investigate the offshore death of a 40-year-old man aboard a 107-foot herring trawler that arrived in Gloucester late Sunday afternoon — and with a small amount of a class A substance found on the vessel, authorities said.

Crew members aboard the trawler Osprey first called in a report of a crew member, Michael Grindle, suffering what they said appeared to be a “severe asthma attack” about 3:45 a.m. Sunday, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Officials have ruled out foul play in Grindle’s death. And Essex County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Carrie Kimball Monahan said Sunday night that the incident “appears to have been the result of a medical emergency; however, the coroner must determine the manner of death.”

Sources close to the case, however, said the death is being investigated as an “unknown medical condition” that killed Grindle, who resides in Blue Hill, a coastal town in Maine, but had been fishing aboard the Osprey for about two months and living at a Mystic Avenue home in Gloucester while working out of the port, said Police Chief Leonard Campanello.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

July 1, 2013 — A fish believed to be at least 200-years-old has been caught in Alaska.

A 39.08-pound rockfish caught by an insurance adjuster from Seattle on June 21 is also believed to be the oldest fish ever caught in the state, according to a local media report.

Henry Liebman reeled in the record setting catch from a depth of about 900 feet, and learned of his achievement when he brought the beast ashore.

'I knew it was abnormally big [but I] didn’t know it was a record until on the way back we looked in the Alaska guide book that was on the boat,' Liebman told the Daily Sitka Sentinal.

The ancient monster measured 41 inches, smashing the old record, set by a 32 and a half inch guppie, Troy Tidingco, Sitka area manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told the paper.

With the 32 inch minnow being over 200 years old, Tidingco said there is reason to believe Liebman's catch is even older.

Read the full story at Capital Bay

 

July 2, 2013 — The New England Aquarium has undergone some serious renovations in the last 10 months, especially the Giant Ocean Tank that serves as the aquarium's centerpiece and main attraction.

The "Giant Tank" that closely resembles a coral reef and is home to more than 2,000 aquatic animals – more than double the inhabitants it has ever held – just reopened Monday (July 1st). Even Boston's Mayor Menino was impressed: according to NECN.com, Menino was amazed at the vast size of the exhibit saying, "There's much more…  It's a wow," but made sure to mention that "Myrtle the turtle is still my favorite.”

The four-story tank was constructed in the late 1960s and was considered the largest exhibit of its kind in the world for quite some time. The tank just underwent $17.8 million worth of renovations and was given a top-to-botton 21st century makeover: it has a new coral reef, a reflective ceiling dome and clear railings at the top of the tank, and bigger crystal-clear acrylic windows to give vistors a better view. Not to mention the 2,000+ animals that can now call the giant ocean tank home.

Read the full story at BostInno

 

 

July 1, 2013 — Think the fantastic fish of Finding Nemo were just fiction? The oceans are filled with creatures that defy imagination, and you can see many of them up close at aquariums across the USA.

Mandarinfish

Native to the tropical Western Pacific, mandarinfish are some of the flashiest fish species around. Their bright stripes and spots serve as a warning for bigger fish to keep away, as these fish secrete a toxic mucus. If you want to spot these colorful fish without diving in Asia, look for them in the Tropical Gallery at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

Scorpionfish

Scorpionfish, besides being some of the most venomous fish species on earth, are also masters of camouflage. They may be pretty to look at, but don't touch them — their spines secrete a venomous mucus that causes a stinging sensation. Spot them safely at the Dallas World Aquarium.

Leafy Seadragon

Seadragons are one of the most bizarre types of fish, and in this already strange group, the leafy seadragon stands out as one of the strangest. Leaf-shaped appendages covering their bodies help these fish blend in with the surrounding seaweed. While they're naturally found along the southern coast of Australia, you can see them up close at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

Longhorn Cowfish

The longhorn cowfish gets its name from the horn-like appendages protruding from its head. When they get hungry, they blow into the sand on the bottom of the ocean to uncover small prey. The longhorn cowfish on display at the National Aquarium in Baltimore is said to be quite photogenic.

View the entire list at USA Today

 

 

June 30, 2013 — By now, the aquarium staffers have become master animal movers, running something like an overland Noah’s Ark, as they return thousands of ocean creatures from their temporary home in Quincy to a newly renovated 200,000-gallon giant ocean tank.

The $17.3 million project began last fall. Gutting and renovating the tank, the aquarium’s central exhibit, required it to be empty for months, and they needed somewhere to put its residents.

So in 2010, the aquarium bought a brick warehouse in Fore River Shipyard and spent $6 million turning it into a temporary home for sea creatures, including reinforcing the foundation to hold a quarter-million pounds of water.

They then transported 800 tropical fish, four large sea turtles, a southern ray with a 4½ foot wingspan, four electric green moray eels, and 59 penguins down the road to Quincy. Though their aquarium habitat is outside the tank, the penguins don’t cotton to construction noise and dust.

The Animal Care Center, as they call it, is not flashy. It’s made for life support; the tanks look like they were built from an Erector set. Back at the downtown facility, the fish are accustomed to an elaborate underwater landscape. Here, inside the shark’s tank, the décor is limited to a bunch of those rubber strips that drag across your hood in a car wash. The strips are cheap and easy to clean and do a decent job of breaking up the monotony for the residents of the 6-foot-deep tank.

In addition to building five large holding tanks, they moved the aquarium’s marine mammal rescue operation to the facility. Last year, they cared for 242 rescued sea turtles, and the fact that the aquarium now owns this off-site facility increases its ability to build new collections.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

July 1, 2013 — The following was released by the Northeast Regional Planning Body

We want to extend a thank you to everyone who attended any of the ten regional ocean planning meetings held over the last month across New England. We appreciated all of the discussions and time you invested. During these meetings, we heard from several people that it would be helpful to have additional time to provide public comment. Therefore, we are extending the public comment period through July and request comments by July 26.

Comments can be submitted on-line, via e-mail, or traditional mail; see the public comment page for additional information (including links to the draft goals which we have been discussing).

Additionally, we wanted to let you know next steps through the summer leading up to the next Regional Planning Body meeting, which has not been scheduled yet but will be held in the fall. In addition to continuing to develop data and information, we will also be using results of the public meetings and other public comments we received to help revise and refine the draft goals document, and develop a draft work plan specifying the necessary steps. These two important aspects of this regional ocean planning effort—revised goals and the draft work plan—will be discussed at the next Regional Planning Body meeting, and will be available prior to that meeting.

We will be in touch regarding the data and location for the next Regional Planning Body meeting and as additional information is posted on-line (e.g., the summary of the public meetings).

We look forward to continuing our discussions with you, and again appreciate all of your participation to date. Please contact John Weber, Nick Napoli or Katie Lund with any questions.

Again, thank you.

Betsy Nicholson, Northeast Regional Planning Body Federal Co-lead
Grover Fugate, Northeast Regional Planning Body State Co-lead
Richard Getchell, Northeast Regional Planning Body Tribal Co-lead

 

June 19, 2013 — All of these animals dine on vast schools of tightly packed prey fish, commonly referred to as forage fish. Scientists and fishermen are becoming increasingly aware of their singular importance as the fuel that drives productive coastal ecosystems. At the same time, global demand is growing to catch forage fish for secondary purposes such as chicken feed, fertilizer, and bait for industrial longline fishing overseas.

But catching too many of these forage fish can severely disrupt the ocean life that they sustain. A lack of forage fish can have serious repercussions – especially for the fishing industry. Without little fish, there can be no big fish.

That’s why many fishing and conservation organizations – including The Pew Charitable Trusts – are rightly advocating for new measures to safeguard forage fish. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is responsible for managing marine fish on the West Coast, will have the opportunity to adopt some of these safeguards as it meets in Garden Grove, Calif., this week.

At the meeting, these West coast fishery leaders hould decide to prohibit new commercial fishing on saury – a key forage fish – until it can be shown that it won’t harm bigger fish, whales, and seabirds that depend on saury as a food source. Doing so will enable the council to ask important questions before US forage fishing begins rather than waiting until industrial-scale fishing boats are catching these important fish.

Internationally, these forage fish – including sardines, anchovies, and saury – already account for more than a third of the total catch of wild marine fish, with 90 percent of it processed into fish meal or oil.

To its credit, the council unanimously adopted a fishery ecosystem plan that begins to consider how everything is connected in the ocean. The plan’s top priority is to make sure that no new fishing begins on forage species without first evaluating the effect on the larger ecosystem and on other predator fish such as salmon, tuna, and lingcod.

Read the full opinion piece at the Christian Science Monitor

Saving Seafood has conducted extensive analysis on the debate surrounding forage fish. Links to our previous coverage is provided below:

On "Forage Fish", Pew's Peter Baker Misses the Mark

WHAT IS PEER REVIEW?: Criticism of Saving Seafood's Coverage of the Lenfest/Pew "Forage Fish" Report Raises the Question

 

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — June 25, 2013 — A storm that blew through earlier this month might have spurred a rare phenomenon for the East Coast: a tsunami.

The tsunami was observed June 13 at more than 30 tide gages along the East Coast, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The highest peak amplitude was recorded in Newport, R.I, where it reached just under a foot above sea level. Gages in Kiptopeke, Va., and Atlantic City, N.J., recorded similar peaks, according to NOAA.

Brian Coen was spearfishing at Barnegat Inlet in Ocean County, N.J., around 3:30 p.m. on June 13, when he saw a strong outrush of water as the tide went out, according to a description provided by NOAA. He said it carried divers over submerged rocks that serve as a breakwater. The rocks, normally three to four feet deep, eventually were exposed, he said.

Then, according to NOAA, Coen saw an approximately 6-foot wave come in. It carried the divers back over the breakwater and also swept three people off rocks that are usually five to six feet above sea level. Two of them needed medical attention.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CBS Connecticut