The limits facing New England fishermen on May 1 are being reported and discussed around the nation. In particular, efforts by those in Congress to compensate fishing families for their projected loss of income are dominating the news.
The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. reports that Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski have co-sponsored a budget amendment that would set aside funds in the fiscal 2014 budget to aid distressed fishermen in New England, Alaska and the Gulf Coast.
Herring and other forage fish are on the minds of those watching Puget Sound. The Kitsap Sun newspaper in Kitsap, Wash. reports on a recent study by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which suggests “forage fish are more valuable left alone. When not caught in nets, they feed other marine animals, including the more valuable salmon.”
Herring harvesting is limited to 10 percent of population estimates, the paper reported. In 2011, regulators proposed closing that fishery altogether, but relented. “At least 18 herring stocks reside in Puget Sound, each returning to the same general areas to spawn,” the paper reports.
And then there is the view far from New England and Puget Sound. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times argues that Congress should not back away from strict catch limits. “When they are imposed and enforced correctly,” the paper asserts, they “stop overfishing and give stocks a chance to recover.” Yet “this year, some Republicans are calling for changes that would weaken the law, including loosening catch limits on the most depleted stocks of fish, such as cod in the Northeast. It would be a mistake to keep fish populations at imperiled levels. Congress should not waver from the long-term goal of healthy fisheries along all of the nation’s coasts.”
Two Cape Cod fishermen, Mike Anderson and Dave Likos, spoke to a rapt group of non-fishermen in a “Meet The Fleet” event and described the day-to-day work of a “scratcher,” the term for those who use different types of rakes to scrape the bottom for quahogs.
“It’s a tough way to make a living, but I enjoy it,” said Likos of Chatham, the Cape Cod Times reported. Anderson said quahogs are “not as numerous” as they were when he started out as a fisherman, but Chatham’s propagation program has ensured the reproduction of shellfish in local waters for the past 40 years, raising more than 2 million each year.
Anderson and Likos described using a 28-foot telescopic pole in waters as deep as 25 feet, the paper reported. “When Likos showed a slide of his biggest catch to date — a 6-inch, 2-pound quahog — the audience gasped.”
Likos “threw it back in the next day because it had 30 growth rings,” he said. The audience applauded and cheered.
Not so happy news on the West Coast: USA Today reports that “Ocean acidification, the shifting of the ocean’s water toward the acidic side of its chemical balance, has been driven by climate change and has brought increasingly corrosive seawater to the surface along the West Coast and the inlets of Puget Sound, a center of the $111 million shellfish industry in the Pacific Northwest. On days in the summer when northerly winds blew, deep ocean water was likely dissolving the fragile young oysters.”
Following the apparent end of a proposal to build a liquefied propane tank in Searsport, here is a sampling, courtesy of Fox Business news, of the sort of activity that such facilities routinely report:
PBF Energy Inc. reported flaring at its Delaware City, Del., refinery April 8 following a power outage.
A coker unit was shut down April 7 at Flint Hills Resources LP’s Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery after a leak was discovered.
Exxon Mobil Corp. reported flaring at its Torrance, Calif., refinery in a filing with the South Coast Air Quality Management district.
Chevron Corp. reported that material from a sulfur transfer line was leaking into a bayou at its 330,000 barrel a day Pascagoula, Miss., refinery in a filing with the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Response Center April 7.
HamptonRoads.com in coastal Virginia reports that the federal government has charged Omega Protein Inc., the company that controls the big menhaden industry in Virginia, with discharging pollutants into state waters from its fishing fleet numerous times between 2008 and 2010. The Coast Guard found problems in how Omega’s fishing fleet handled its oily bilge water and stormwater at home docks in Reedville, the news site reported. The company expects the episode to cost a total of about $7.5 million, which would include fines, community contributions and fleet improvements.
The Jamestown (Rhode Island) Press reports that the local Environmental Rhode Island organization released a list of 10 coastal places in the state worth protecting. Among them are the Block Island National Wildlife Refuge; Prudence Island, the third largest island in Narragansett Bay, but home to just over 200 residents; and Fort Wetherill, a destination for scuba diving, fishing, hiking and cliff jumping, in addition to offering beautiful views of Newport Harbor and Narragansett Bay as well as underground tunnels to explore.