Abandon Ship: Tips on Surviving in Cold Water
In our previous articles we’ve discussed some of the things you can do if you find yourself in an emergency situation on the water.
Let’s say you’ve done everything right so far: you’ve told someone your voyage plan before you left dock; registered and triggered your Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB); shot off a flare; called in a Mayday giving your location, the number of people on board and the nature of the emergency and put on your safety gear, providing both ...
Safety Culture Catching on in Nova Scotia Fishery
Various governmental agencies in Nova Scotia have been pushing the safety at sea issue for fishermen for quite some time — and their efforts seem to be paying off, in a big way.
While the commercial fishery remains the most dangerous occupation in Canada and each year claims far too many lives and limbs, the days of sailing without the prerequisite safety equipment aboard are long gone.
I remember when survival suits came out. The resistance was immense — they were too bulky and most ...
Klaus Sonnenberg: One of a Kind
Klaus Sonnenberg died with his boots on.
For those of us who knew Klaus, that was not surprising because he hardly stopped working long enough to take them off.
In fact, Klaus died on the job at a time when everybody else in Atlantic Canada was sound asleep on the weekend.
It was 5 a.m. on Saturday, August 16, 2014, when the plane Klaus was piloting crashed just metres short of the airport runway in his hometown of Grand Manan, New Brunswick. He was returning from an air ambulance ...
New Brunswick Sturgeon Caviar Business Growing
Breviro Caviar has come a long way from its early days of a research project to a company selling a distinct product worldwide.
Jonathan Barry is the president and director of the company, started in the early 1990s by a few scientists at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrew’s, New Brunswick. At the time, studies were being conducted on shortnose sturgeon, the Acipenser Brevirostrum in the St. John River.
This got scientists thinking that maybe shortnose sturgeon could be ...
Better Productivity Necessary for Fishery to Evolve
Last month I talked about quality, probably the biggest issue we face as an industry.
This month, I will discuss productivity, another big issue that must be addressed, if we are going to have a better future. And, as we will see, the two issues are related.
Productivity is measured as a ratio:
Productivity = Output / Input
In other words, it is simply a measure of how much of something we get out compared to what we put in. It is a way to measure effectiveness and efficiency in ...
We’d Have Been Better Off Staying Home
“We’re goin’ birdin’ tomorrow,” an excited Dion Faulkner exclaimed to his wife Sue as he entered their home in Musgrave Harbour on Sunday afternoon, February 2, 2003.
“Birdin,” meant saltwater duck hunting and like most men in rural Newfoundland communities, bird hunting had a huge appeal to Dion for various reasons.
Duck was a delicious food staple and good to have in the deep freeze for great meals in winter, but it was also a thrilling sport. And, it was more than that ...
Attendance Up at Eastern Canadian Fisheries Exposition
Three new N.S. inductees welcomed into The Atlantic Canadian Marine Industries Hall of Fame
Last month, the Mariners Centre in Yarmouth once again welcomed the Eastern Canadian Fisheries Exposition.
Held every two years in southwestern Nova Scotia, this is Canada’s longest-running commercial fishing show.
With exhibitors and attendees from throughout Atlantic Canada — as well as across the country and even the Eastern United States — the current strength of the industry was ...
Chronology of a Deal Gone Bad
Timeline Traces Breakdown of CETA-Related Fisheries Fund
“The provincial fishery is now ideally positioned to capitalize on unrestricted access to European seafood markets and become more globally competitive with the creation of a $400-million federal-provincial fund to support industry enhancements.”
This was how an excited and optimistic Kathy Dunderdale described the now embattled fisheries fund on October 29, 2013.
At the time, the now former Newfoundland and Labrador premier ...
Generic Marketing Plan for Canadian Lobsters Released
One of the biggest complaints against rubber-stamping a levy placed on landed lobsters to fund a generic lobster promotion plan for Canadian lobsters has been the lack of any plans.
Harvesters and processors — especially in LFA 33-34 — are posing the question of planning as other sectors of the Maritimes were agreeing with the idea of a levy.
Until the industry in LFA 33-34 decides where to go on this issue, the Nova Scotia government has its hands tied because this area represents ...
Valuable P.E.I. Oyster Industry Facing Battle for Future
Wild Oyster Harvesters Say Mussel Industry is Eyeing Their Market Share
It was a beautiful Prince Edward Island day at Hurds Point on June 2, 2014, but there were fighting words drifting on the wind.
The shore, opening up to historic Bedeque Bay, was dotted with small oyster dories as men and women unloaded countless boxes of valuable oysters. Out on the water, still more people leaned over the sides of their boats, using oyster tongs to labouriously gather heaping rakes full of red muck, ...
