Dreamboat Turned Nightmare — Part IV
After tossing around in 20-foot seas in the Davis Strait for eight or nine hours, Captain Byron Oxford and his eight crewmembers heard the distinct sound of a ship’s horn. Looking through the canopy opening of their life raft, they saw a large ship in the distance. Approximately an hour later, the ship drew near and attempted to rescue the crew of the Atlantic Charger, but getting a small rubber raft safely alongside a large steel ship in heavy seas was not an easy task — let alone getting ...
Asian Markets Could Lead to Record Opening Day Prices in LFA 33-34
The lobster fishery in LFA (lobster fishing area) 33-34 closed on a very high note at the end of May with harvesters receiving $6/pound for their catch, the same amount paid at the opening of the season in late November 2015 a far cry from the $3.25/pound earned just a few short years ago.
And if landings in LFA 35 (southeastern part of New Brunswick and an area from Digby back to the Minas Basin in Nova Scotia in the Bay of Fundy) are any indication, the fishing season which opens Nov. 29, ...
Short Notice
P.E.I. Fishermen Left Scrambling for Next Year's Lobster Bait After Sudden Closure of Mackerel Fishery
It’s a small fish that’s caused a disproportionately big ruckus in the Atlantic Canadian fishing industry.
The humble mackerel, long sought after in Atlantic waters as both a food fish and inexpensive bait for far more valuable species like lobster, has recently been the subject of unanswered questions regarding the abrupt ending of its commercial fishing season.
The Department of ...
St. John’s Maritime Rescue Sub-centre to Re-open
Above photo: Both federal and provincial politicians were out in force for the announcement to re-open the St. John’s MRSC.
Announcement Part of Broad Federal $1.5-Billion National Oceans Protection Plan
Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc explained that re-opening the St. John’s Maritime Rescue Sub-centre was not only the confirmation of the election promise the Liberals made during the 2015 election campaign, but was a key part of ...
Learning from 40 Years with the 200-Mile Limit – Part I
As we approach 2017, we are also coming to the end of 40 years since Canada’s 200-mile limit came into effect in 1977.
Overall, it has been a tumultuous — and costly — 40 years, as we oscillated between tremendous opportunity and unmitigated disaster.
Forty years ago, we thought the 200-mile limit offered a huge opportunity. But the following 15 years brought little but trouble, culminating in a series of moratoriums on fishing the groundfish stocks that had been the industry’s ...
Groundfish Forum May be Too Pessimistic on Atlantic Cod
The single biggest change in whitefish forecasts presented at the recent Groundfish Forum in Hamburg, Germany was for Barents Sea Cod, where Norwegian and Russian catches were thought to drop 11 per cent in 2017.
However, closer reading of the situation suggests this might not be the case. The forecast was largely based on International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) recommendations and in 2015 the organization recommended a quota of 805,000 tonnes, while the actual TAC was ...
EU Trade Deal the Perfect Christmas Gift for Our Fishing Industry
Christmas is a time for fellowship and giving, where, for a very brief period in time, an aura of peace and goodwill that seems to permeate the psyche of many of us, placing what we perceive as ill winds at bay, at least for a few weeks.
The problem is, when we awake from the festivities, the ever-so-brief lull which is like medication to dull the pain does nothing to solve the cause of the pain.
Free trade deals between nations have become a fact of life and as with most deals there are ...
Fishing for Answers
Fisheries Ecosystems, Stocks and Sustainability Focus for MI Researchers
A group of researchers at the Fisheries and Marine Institute (MI) of Memorial University believe the ocean is of fundamental importance to Canada and the world.
Drs. Noel Cadigan, Paul Winger and Jonathan Fisher are part of the newly created Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI). They will be the principal researchers on projects related to stock assessment, ecosystem assessment and sustainable fishing gear.
“We’re ...
Charting Your Way
Gary Smith - Canadian Hydrographic Service
When Captain James Cook sailed into St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1762, his navigation tools were the heavens above and good luck.
He was a surveyor and a cartographer and the first to chart the treacherous and jagged coast around Newfoundland and Labrador.
He spent five summer seasons here from 1762-1767. During that time, he produced the first large-scale accurate charts and several volumes of Sailing Directions for parts of the island’s ...
Queen of the King Air
Teri Childs spends a lot of time looking for things on or in the ocean.
No, she is not a mariner — Teri is above that — hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet above that.
Captain Teri Childs is a pilot with PAL Aerospace in St. John’s and her job is to keep an eye on both foreign and Canadian fishing vessels, transatlantic shipping, icebergs and even monitoring whales and other marine species. When she is not flying, she’s teaching pilots in New York, which is also part of her ...
