National Fisherman May 2020

I N F O R M E D F I S H E R M E N • P R O F I TA B L E F I S H E R I E S • S U S TA I N A B L E F I S H Incorporating

May / 2020

NATIONALFISHERMAN.COM

Gear shifts

New crew comforts hit the deck: Boots, bibs and everything in between Fish-eye lens Underwater cameras catch what’s in the net in real time

Deepwater decade The Gulf of Mexico oil spill and its effects on fisheries 10 years later TAG US! #NATIONALFISHERMAN

We Work So The World Sees It Too. We’re bringing to the surface the story of Alaska’s fishing fleet to hook customers all over the globe. Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s robust public relations and social media marketing campaigns show the world every angle of Alaska Seafood from beautiful fillets to hardworking hands.

This is just one example of how Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute puts all hands on deck to tell the story of wild, sustainable Alaska seafood so you and your family can focus on fishing today and for generations to come.

alaskaseafood.org Stay updated via our fleet-focused page!

@ASMINewsAndUpdates

ON DECK

National Fisherman / May 2020 / Vol. 101, No. 1

16

Coast Guard

In this issue

After the fire

20

26

Boats & Gear Keeping the elements at bay The latest innovative, lightweight offerings in layers; rain and foul-weather outerwear; more competing designs and ankle-high footwear from boot-makers.

Features / Boats & Gear Giddings Boatworks

Around the Yards Maryland builder gets own deadrise; four more Bristol Bay gillnetters from Aliotti; rebuilding a Duffy.

34

The new generation of digital net camera systems send catch images and data to the wheelhouse in real time.

On Deck 05

30

Networking the net

Northern Lights

02

Editor’s Log

Bean’s Cafe serves up salmon for those in need.

03

Fishing Back When

04

Mail Buoy

04

A Letter from NMFS

06

Around the Coasts

14

Market Reports

52

Last Set / Dutch Harbor, Alaska

Product Roundup Forgettable flotation; real-time video and data from inside the net; lightweight stowable fenders.

Reader Services 36

Classifieds

43

Advertiser Index

National Fisherman (ISSN 0027-9250), May 2020, Vol. 101, No. 1, is published monthly by Diversified Business Communications, 121 Free St., Portland, ME 04112-7438. Subscription prices: 1 year - U.S. $22.95; 2 years U.S. $43; 3 years U.S. $62. These rates apply for U.S. subscriptions only. Add $10 for Canada addresses. Outside U.S./Canada add $25 (airmail delivery). All orders must be in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. All other countries, including Canada and Mexico, please add $10 postage per year. For subscription information only, call: 1 (800) 959-5073. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Maine, and at additional mailing offices.

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Williamson & Associates

Gulf Coast fishing communities carry on with the lasting legacy of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill after a decade of recovery.

ON DECK

Editor’s Log

Finding the light Jessica Hathaway Editor in Chief jhathaway@divcom.com

hen I sat down to write this letter last month, we were starting to see the effects of coronavirus on fisheries with primary markets in China, other parts of Asia and in Europe.

But it was not yet on our shores, shutting down domestic businesses, gatherings, events, meetings, government offices and distribution chains.

Just a few weeks ago, I had events scheduled for every weekend in March. I made it to the first one, and the rest fell like dominoes. I’m writing this on lockdown at home, where social media has become an even more key lifeline to this industry.

But the most important lesson I am taking from this is just how critical our local communities are to our security and

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safety. The global marketplace is a boundless wonderland. But as thrilling as it is, it cannot sustain us through deeply troubled times.

Diversification of markets should include expanding local distribution points, as well as global ones. And if we, as consumers, want access to our local resources in times of crisis, then we have to keep buying them even when the world opens up to us again.

What I’m hearing is that the buyers are shutting down. Ships aren’t sailing. Planes aren’t flying. Cold storage is filling up.

And of course we have to consider some large-scale fisheries stateside that send raw product overseas for processing before reentry to our own markets and those across the globe.

On the cover XtraTuf makes the boot of choice for Alaska fishermen in Bristol Bay and beyond. Photo by XtraTuf

I’m seeing a lot of comments that we never should have sent product overseas.

We should have kept those jobs here.

It’s easy to say when it’s not your success or failure on the precipice. Blaming companies for making the best business decision at the time, for trying to tighten their margins in a global market where wild product actively competes with cheap farmed imports doesn’t move the dial.

We can Monday-morning quarterback, or we can acknowledge the truth: Overseas processing has kept some fi sheries afloat and even advanced their marketshare.

It might feel good to say I Told You So, but it doesn’t DO any good. What we have to do now is get creative again. And if ever there was an industry that can manage that, it’s commercial fi shing.

You are a resilient bunch. And the more twists and turns you manage to negotiate, the stronger and more strategic you get. We’re going to see some doom and gloom stories, but we’re used to that, right? We know how to fi nd the light and swim toward it.

In partnership with Pacific Marine Expo The largest commercial marine trade show on the West Coast, serving commercial mariners from Alaska to California. www.pacificmarineexpo.com

PUBLISHER: Bob Callahan EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Jeremiah Karpowicz EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jessica Hathaway ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kirk Moore BOATS & GEAR EDITOR: Paul Molyneaux PRODUCTS EDITOR: Brian Hagenbuch ART DIRECTOR: Doug Stewart NORTH PACIFIC BUREAU CHIEF: Charlie Ess FIELD EDITORS: Larry Chowning, Michael Crowley CORRESPONDENTS: Elma Burnham, John DeSantis, Maureen Donald, Dayna Harpster, Sierra Golden, John Lee, Caroline Losneck, Nick Rahaim ADVERTISING COORDINATOR: Wendy Jalbert / wjalbert@divcom.com / Tel. (207) 842-5616 NATIONAL SALES MANAGER: Susan Chesney / schesney@divcom.com / Tel. (206) 463-4819 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: (800) 842-5603 classifieds@divcom.com SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION (818) 487-2013 or (800) 959-5073 GENERAL INFORMATION (207) 842-5608 Producer of Pacific Marine Expo and the International WorkBoat Show Theodore Wirth, President & CEO | Mary Larkin, President, Diversified Communications USA Diversified Communications | 121 Free St., Portland, ME 04112 (207) 842-5500 • Fax (207) 842-5503 • www.divcom.com

2 National Fisherman \ May 2020

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ON DECK

Fishing Back When May

By Jessica Hathaway

1970 — Chevron’s Well #6 blazed for weeks before its flames were blown out to be replaced by a 30,000-gallon-per-day flow of crude oil into Louisiana’s Breton Sound, headed for some of the nation’s richest oyster grounds.

1 9 7 0 Gulf of Mexico swordfish loses its bill after being hauled board the Maine longliner Gulf Stream. The vessel stocked a $20,000 trip in nine nights of fishing off the Mississippi Delta.

Area Worm Diggers to Cooperate with Research: An overwhelming majority of Maine’s Wiscasset area diggers vote in favor of closing a section of the Montsweag Bay flats over a four-year period for a state research program.

Jake Dykstra of the Rhode Island Co-op was noted as a leader in presenting Sen. Ted Kennedy’s bill “to provide certain essential assistance to the U.S. Fishing Industry.”

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

1 9 9 0

2 0 1 0 Rob Foster works the roller aboard the halibut longliner Polaris.

Texas oystermen ride the saltwater rodeo — pay your money, hop aboard and try to hang on! A red tide in 1986 forced the closure of Galveston Bay, which produces about 70 percent of the state’s oysters. In 1988, high salinity led to an invasion of boring clams and oyster drills. Spring 1989 brought a freshwater influx that decimated the harvest.

Alaska’s herring landings predictions are down at 37,449 tons statewide, from 48,929 in 1989. Key slips are in Kah Shakes, Sitka, Kamishak and Togiak.

Signs of fishermen’s frustrations are evident at the United We Fish rally in Washington, D.C. The late-February rally in Washington was attended by thousands of commercial and recreational fishermen. The mission was to demand federal action on the Magnuson-Stevens Act that would allow for flexibility in rebuilding time lines for fish stocks. “I fish, I vote” was the common rallying cry.

Oregon gillnetters barely escape a draconian ban on their gear type in the Columbia River when the Coastal Conservation Association opts to delay its proposed Protect Our Salmon Act.

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 3

ON DECK

Mail Buoy

The crisis of consolidation see in the near future a crisis approaching. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. Money, the power of the country, will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all power and wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few.”These words have been attributed to a wide range of American leaders since the turn of the last century.They can be used today to describe my fear for the future of our industry.

Environmentalism: It is a cause we should all embrace. Being the superior species, a fact that can sometimes be brought into question, we have a duty, an obligation to protect the lesser. I consider myself a rank and file supporter of this cause. I can’t imagine anyone who, like myself, has spent a lifetime interacting with and witnessing nature’s wonders being anything else.

But true environmentalism has been hijacked. As it has done to other industries in its search for income to solidify its power it has, with mendacity, portrayed the New England fishing industry and its people as wasteful and destructive. Nothing could be further from the truth, but in today’s world truth matters little; power rules. The environmental industry, and make no mistake it is a very profitable industry, has used its power to influence the policy and decisions of fisheries management.

Management: Whether in an industry, a profession or a calling, the need for rules and regulation is unquestionable. Management of our industry, as I assume with most, started slow and tentatively with little interest from people outside of it. Both sides, management and industry, were accessible to the other.

There were disagreements and setbacks, but together we were able to turn the corner away from the destructive practices of the past toward a sustainable future.

Over time, others found it profitable to get involved, and the dynamics between industry and management changed drastically. While the industry that fisheries management was, in part, formed to protect (so as to provide “

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4 National Fisherman \ May 2020

fishing opportunities and economic benefits to communities) has become splintered and weak, a shell of what it once was, management has become an industry of its own.

While it remains my belief that management has the best interests of the resource and industry in mind, it has become an agency so large and encumbered by bureaucratic red tape it is unable to react to natural changes.

Half a century ago, foreign factory trawlers and a large domestic fleet roamed the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. The resource was being overfished and was on a path to destruction. Over the past 40 years, through sound management and the sacrifices of a generation of fishermen and women, our industry has rebounded from the brink of collapse to one of sustainability, but this can change quickly. New England’s ecosystem is fragile. It’s a scientific fact that all species cannot be strong at the same time.

Today our country is in peril, but as citizens we have the power of the vote to fix it. Our industry has no such recourse; we must rely on management. It is fact that in the past some from both management and industry have, in order to promote personal agendas, professed ignorance toward a given situation so as to provide themselves a veil of innocence. But I know that the vast majority of both are trying to do the right thing. Environmental groups have already preyed on the prejudices of the people, and the resource is on its way to being aggregated into the hands of a few. Consolidation of power begets greed, and if left unchecked its effects will be irreversible and devastating. I see in the near future a crisis approaching, and it unnerves me. Without some sort of intervention, the clock of progress will be turned back 50 years. All the hard work and sacrifice of management and industry that has brought us back from the brink will be wiped out.

Richard Beal Commercial Fisherman Gloucester, Mass.

A letter from NMFS

Sustainability index updated

By Chris Oliver

OAA Fisheries, in close coordination with the regional fishery management councils and state partners, is responsible for fostering healthy, productive and sustainable marine fisheries.

Since 1996, NOAA Fisheries has reported on the status of U.S. fisheries, as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Reporting on the status of fish stocks provides fisheries managers and the public with an account of how well fisheries management measures are working.

Recently we released the Fish Stock Sustainability Index 3.0 to help the public more clearly understand fishery performance.

The updated index allows for a quick, clear snapshot of the performance of U.S. fishery management.

When the status of an important stock

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improves (when it is no longer subject to overfishing, no longer overfished, or is rebuilt), the total index score increases. There are 175 fish stocks tracked in the new index, down from 199 previously.

The stocks — selected for their importance to domestic fisheries — represent more than 80 percent of total U.S. fishing catch. I am committed to ensuring that U.S. fisheries continue to be the most sustainably managed in the world, and our updated Fishery Stock Sustainability Index will help everyone better track the success of our management.

Chris Oliver is the director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Oliver oversees the federal agency responsible for recreational and commercial fisheries.

www.nationalfisherman.com

Northern Lights VIEWS FROM ALASKA

Soup kitchen thrives on salmon culture

By Scott Lingle

ean’s Cafe is a soup kitchen located in downtown Anchorage. The cafe provides warm and nutritious food, a warm and comfortable physical environment, an opportunity for socializing in an accepting atmosphere, and referrals and social services information to anyone requesting assistance. We exist to fight hunger for all ages, one meal at a time, while providing a pathway to selfsufficiency with dignity and respect. We rely almost solely on private donations to serve nearly 1,000 meals per day, with Alaska seafood and salmon being one of our most used and sought after commodities.

Long before it was called the oil state, Alaska was called the salmon state. Alaskans have a deep, personal relationship with their salmon.

These remarkable fish provide a fundamental source of food, livelihood and identity. They connect generations and communities throughout the state. The clients of Bean’s Cafe are from vastly different backgrounds and all value a salmon way of life. Salmon is often represented in carved totem poles and is a symbol of abundance, renewal, fertility and dependability.

Here at Bean’s Cafe, we remain good stewards of the food items we receive as donations. Understanding what items like salmon mean to our guests is vital to making sure everyone is receiving proper nutrition and portions to aid in fulfilling our cultural and dietary needs.

Bean’s Cafe has found salmon to be one of the pillars of life in Alaska.

Our donations come from a wide range of sources, from private donations such as “I limited out, so here is the extra” to corporate donations from seafood partners like the Pacific Seafood Processors Association and Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Bean’s Cafe accepts 100 percent of all donations and evaluates them. The chefs come together to decide the best way to maximize the products’ potential for service.

Some days this might include a hearty, soul satisfying Alaska salmon chowder, and other days lunch or dinner might consist of a grilled piece of salmon with beautiful red beet and orange relish.

Bean’s Cafe is extremely nimble and resourceful with how we utilize food donations. We feel it is important to recognize that all parts of the salmon can be eaten: the head, skin, stomach, liver, eggs and even the milt. Gone are the days of a soup kitchen being about beans, rice and water. We are trying to touch the lips of guests with flavors from their past as well as introduce flavors of the present. Still, though, we try not to forget that some of the best ways we can honor our Alaska salmon is with a little salt and pepper slathered with some mayonnaise and then baked. Seafood is a definite preference of our guests, and salmon is one of the main food sources that many grew up on.

Being food insecure and then receiving a meal that is lovingly cooked and reminds you of a time that was better for you does wonders for

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To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

your dignity and morale. The more we learn, the more we can see how the fish plays a critical role in every piece of the area’s environment and development.

One time I was asked: “What is it that I wish we had more of?” That is a tough question because my team is here to provide so much for the less fortunate, with no judgement.

We demonstrate to our community that Bean’s Cafe truly Ben Hoffman (far left) of Bean’s Cafe and community volunteers. utilizes their generous donations:Those fish bellies and salmon heads that might otherwise be discarded will provide warm nutritious meals by honoring the product and the people it will serve.We will use it all to fight hunger one meal at a time.

Program Director and Chef Scott Lingle started out in the dish room and has earned every burn and cut on his way to becoiming a certified executive chef.

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May 2020 \ National Fisherman 5

Scott Lingle

ON DECK

AROUND THE COASTS

AROUND THE COASTS

Coast Guard

NEWS FOR THE NATION’S FISHERMEN

A team from the Coast Guard cutter Stratton boards a Chinese Taipei-flagged fishing vessel during a fisheries enforcement patrol in the Western Pacific in October 2019.

Nation / World

“China, with the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet, is one of the worst predatory fishing offenders, engaging in what we call illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing.”

— Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz

Coast Guard, Pacific partners crack down on China fleet First fishing incursions in years spotted in U.S. EEZ near Hawaii and Guam

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oast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz publicly rebuked China as a leading practitioner of illegal fi shing, just weeks after long-range Coast Guard air patrols spotted the foreign vessels violating U.S. waters for the fi rst time in eight years.

The sightings came during what the Coast Guard calls “maritime domain awareness fl ights” by HC-130 Hercules air crews based at Air Station Barbers Point near Pearl Harbor. The crews documented several vessels working in the 200-mile exclusive economic zones around Guam and Hawaii during January and February, and

6 National Fisherman \ May 2020

conveyed that to NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement for action.

Governments that support outlaw fi shing “are actively exploiting other nations’ natural resources, including fi sh stocks, in many cases challenging the sovereignty of smaller or less developed nations,” said Schultz. “China, with the world’s largest distant-water fi shing fleet, is one of the worst predatory fi shing offenders, engaging in what we call illegal, unreported, unregulated fi shing — or IUU.” The Coast Guard by later summer 2020 will issue “a progressive IUU strategic

outlook to counter illegal fi shing around the world,” said Schultz. The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council praised the Coast Guard’s effort.

“We have advised the government over the years that China is an aggressive player in Oceania in search of natural gas, minerals, fi sh and other raw materials,” said Kitty Simonds, the council executive director.

“This aggressiveness is in part demonstrated by its heavy subsidizing of its fi shing fleets.”

“In recent years, China’s South Pacific albacore catch has increased to 40 to 50 percent of the total catch for all countries, while the catch by American Samoa has decreased to 2 percent of the total catch, which has jeopardized the local albacore longline fleet,” according to the council.

In turn the council has recommended allowing the local fleet access to waters from 12 to 50 nautical miles of shore in the U.S. EEZ around American Samoa.

China recently obtained 6,000 metric tons of longline-caught bigeye tuna quota transferred from Japan, while South Korea www.nationalfisherman.com

won a 2,000-mt quota transfer from Japan, said Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association.

“One third of Hawaii effort is in Eastern Pacific,” Martin said, noting that 8,000 mt is equivalent to the total annual bigeye tuna catch of the Hawaii longline fleet in both the Western and Central Pacific and —Kirk Moore Eastern Pacific combined.

U.S. widens ban on Mexican seafood to protect porpoises

Only 10 of the endangered vaquita porpoise may be surviving.

NMFS blocks Gulf of California shrimp

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lmost all Mexican shrimp and fi sh caught from the northern Gulf of California were barred from U.S. trade March 4, as NMFS invoked the Marine Mammal Protection Act in a bid to stop use of gillnets blamed for entangling endangered vaquita porpoises.

The porpoises’ population had already plunged from an estimated 560 animals in the 1990s to 30 surviving by 2017, when Mexican government officials banned most

gillnets in the area.

But the rule was poorly enforced, and the NMFS import ban puts more pressure on the government to carry out blanket prohibition and enforcement that environmental groups and marine scientists say are the only chance for saving the porpoises.

The Mexican government immediately pledged new action, including a permanent ban on gillnets in the gulf, and a “zero-tolerance” regime of inspections and

SavetheWhales.org

AROUND THE COASTS

monitoring by law enforcement and the navy.

Conservation groups filed a lawsuit that in 2018 led to the U.S. Court of International Trade calling on the Trump administration to ban shrimp and certain finfish imports caught with gillnets in vaquita habitat.

One of the smallest cetacean species, the blunt-nosed vaquita is less than 6 feet long at maturity. The species’ sharp decline was widely blamed on a fi shery for totoaba, a fi sh native to the same Baja waters in high demand in Asia for the purported medicinal qualities of its swim bladder.

The Mexican government said it will push both porpoise protections and economic support for fi shermen: “The government of Mexico has the political will and institutional capabilities to ensure the area’s comprehensive, sustainable development, and to offer productive alternatives to Mexican fi shermen, protecting the totoaba and marine vaquita.”

— Kirk Moore

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AROUND THE COASTS

Gulf / South Atlantic

“The spillway openings had a devastating effect on our fisheries in 2011, 2016, 2018, and two in 2019.”

—Ryan Bradley, Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United

Mississippi oystermen still waiting on 2011 disaster aid

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own on the Gulf Coast, oystermen have spent the last decade struggling to stay afloat in the face of massive freshwater runoff events when the Army Corps of Engineers opens the Bonnet Carré Spillway to spare New Orleans infrastructure from floodwaters.

On Feb. 18, the Mississippi DMR approved a request to designate $1 million in the

disaster funds to distribute as direct payments to the affected oystermen.

“The spillway openings had a devastating effect on our fisheries in 2011, 2016, 2018, and two in 2019,” says Ryan Bradley, executive director of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United and a 2018 NF Highliner. “And the only time disasters were declared was 2011 and

Snapshot Who we are Derek Thynes Petersburg, Alaska / Halibut, blackcod, crab, salmon hen Derek Thynes heads out of

Thynes managed to fish near Coff-

the Petersburg, Alaska, harbor

man Cove on Prince of Wales Island,

aboard the Maya T, you might

where he could quickly catch his daily

discern what species he’s going after by

limit and be ready to hop on a float

W

the gear and rigging on deck.

Thynes, 47, a third-gener-

plane back to Petersburg with the imminent arrival of the baby.

ation fisherman born and

“The plan was to fish the

raised in Petersburg,

opener, fly to town for

participates in longlin-

the birth of the baby,

ing fisheries for hali-

and come back by

blackcod,

the next opener,” says

herring roe pounding,

Thynes, adding that he

Dungeness and tanner

learned quickly that the

but

and

arrival of babies doesn’t

crab fisheries, and sein-

always

ing salmon.

What’s

less

ostentatious

coincide

with

the

rhythm of salmon management

about the boat is that it was named

plans. Four days later, he was back on

after his daughter, Maya, on the same

the grounds.

day she was born. Thynes and his wife,

Maya, meanwhile, is 6 this year. And

Jennifer, had wished for children all of

if she’s anything like her dad, she’ll soon

15 years. Just when they had about

be running an operation of her own.

given up, along came little Maya.

Thynes was indoctrinated to the fish-

“She was born on August 17, right in

ing life at just two weeks old aboard his

the middle of the biggest seine season

parents’ longliner and grew to love the

ever,” says Thynes. The year was 2013.

life at sea. He bought a set of Dunge-

Thynes and many in the fleet had been

ness pots and a skiff and set out on his

placed on poundage limits, as proces-

first fishing venture when he was 13.

sors were swamped with product.

8 National Fisherman \ May 2020

— Charlie Ess

An oyster boat working during the 2016 Mississippi oyster relay.

now 2019.”

A freshwater spillover shocks nearshore oyster stocks with a sudden and deadly change in salinity. That water quality change also affects young crab.

The state of Mississippi was awarded $11 million for that 2011 declaration, but fishermen have seen very little of those funds so far.

“It was probably about 2015-16 before we started seeing money from that disaster declaration,” Bradley says.

The funds, he adds, have largely been funneled away from fishing communities.

“The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources took 30 percent of it off the top for indirect,” says Bradley. “That’s essentially a flat rate that they take for handling the money.”

Fishermen and seafood dealers saw some relief with programs designed to lay out cultch material, conduct oyster relays — relocating healthy oysters to depleted grounds — and through derelict crab trap cleanup programs, according to Bradley.

Now almost nine years after the 2011 disaster occurred, oystermen could finally be getting their cut of the funds. The $1 million request, Bradley notes, does not extend funds to affected blue crab fishermen.

— Jessica Hathaway

Final red snapper rule gives states recreational control Commercial, charters stay under NMFS

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long-debated move to give gulf states authority to manage how private anglers fish for red snapper became reality in February with NMFS adopting a final rule. www.nationalfisherman.com

MCFU

Gulf oyster and crab fisheries decimated by repeated Mississippi high-water releases

Recreational fishing groups and their allies in Congress campaigned for devolving more sport fishing management authority to the states, arguing that state managers better understand the economic benefits of their local fishery.

“State management is expected to increase fishing opportunities and economic benefits by allowing each gulf state to establish specific management measures for the private recreational harvest of red snapper in federal waters by anglers landing in that state,” according to a Feb. 5 NMFS bulletin announcing the final rule adoption.

The states have limited authority under parameters established by NMFS, including setting their own seasons and bag limits, and setting minimum size limits between 14 and 18 inches.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and NMFS will continue to set annual quotas and allocate them to the

Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

AROUND THE COASTS

Gulf Coast states now have more management control over private recreational fishing for red snapper.

states under the program, with provisions for “payback” if a state runs over its quota in a given year.

The notion of states managing anglers’ red snapper landings was met with intense skepticism by commercial and some recreational groups. But with the red snapper

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resource growing, more accepted the council’s and NMFS early decisions in 2019.

“This is a prime example of finding innovative solutions to help recreational fishermen that do not hurt commercial or charter/ for hire fishermen,” the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareolders’ Alliance said. — Kirk Moore

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AROUND THE COASTS

Boat of the Month

Atlantic

Mullet boat Merritt, N.C. / Mullet, speckled trout, spots

at-sea monitoring fees, it may drive

his

T

22-foot

some of us out of business.”

—Jeff Kaelin, Lund’s Fisheries

Florida-style

mullet boat, built in 2015, is fiberglass over wood with

Herring fleet files monitoring lawsuit against the council

an aluminum tower. It is the work of Florida-based boatbuilder Albie

Say mandatory industry-funded observers are a regulatory overreach

Burtoft, who has built several boats for North Carolina fishermen. boat

was

N

custom-built

fourth-generation

commercial

fisherman Peter Darna, 72, who can’t remember the time he didn’t own what is commonly known as a kicker boat in Florida. This native Floridian has fished similar boats for more than 50 years.

“This tower boat is ideal for says

living on the water, and recreational

Darna. “It is very maneuverable and

hook and line fishermen, who fished

is

for fun, was a brutal fight fueled by the

shallow-water used

sight

primarily

fishing,” for

run-around

gillnetting as opposed to setnetting.”

Florida Conservation Association.

“I grew up fishing on a mullet boat

While many initially opposed the

with my father, but it wasn’t until I

net ban, the public was won over by

returned from a tour in Vietnam with

widely publicized photographs of dead

the Marines in 1968 that I purchased

dolphins and sea turtles supposedly

my own,” says Darna. “It wasn’t the last

killed by walls of gillnets. The result

— I haven’t been without one since.”

was a state constitutional amendment

These

low-maintenance,

basic

banning the nets.

vessels are the backbone of inshore

In a cruel turn of events, the photos

fishing for many sight fishermen, who

that caused public outrage turned out

depend on the ability to run close to

to be from a research study undertaken

shore and spot fish from the tower.

by the University of Georgia.

For Darna, the boat represents

“The net ban cut out a way of fishing. One day I could catch a mullet,

much more.

“When the net ban hit in 1994,

the next day it was against the law,”

I headed to North Carolina with my

says Darna. “It’s difficult to spend

mullet boat in tow,” says Darna. “For

your life fishing and have it disappear

me, there was no choice. I couldn’t

overnight.”

imagine not running a net overboard.”

The conflict between commercial net

fishermen,

who

made

their

ew Jersey herring fishermen are challenging a new rule forcing them to pay for at-sea monitoring, which they say will cost more than $700 a day for observers and cut their revenue from herring trips by more than 20 percent.

A half-dozen vessels associated with Lund’s Fisheries, based near Cape May, N.J., are named in a lawsuit brought against the New England Fishery Management Council, NOAA and the Department of Commerce.

Regulators have no statutory authority from Congress to impose industry-paid monitoring in addition to a separate, federally-funded observer program, Lund’s Fisheries said in a joint announcement with the Cause of Action Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based legal and free-market advocacy group.

Beginning on April 1, “vessels issued Category A or B herring permits will be required to pay for at-sea monitoring coverage on trips we select for industry-funded monitoring coverage,” according to the notice. “Alternatively, herring vessels will have the option of requesting an EFP (exempted fishery permit) to use electronic monitoring and portside

“The day after the net ban was passed, I left Florida with my boat.”

— Maureen Donald

Lund’s Fisheries

The for

“If our vessels are forced to pay these

Boat Specifications HOME PORT: Merritt, N.C. OWNER: Peter Darna BUILDER: Albie Burtoft YEAR BUILT: 2015 FISHERIES: Variety of finfish, primarily mullet, speckled trout, spots HULL MATERIAL: Fiberglass over wood LENGTH: 22 feet BEAM: 8 feet DRAFT: 1 foot HOLD CAPACITY: 4,000 pounds CREW CAPACITY: 2 PROPULSION: 70-hp four-stroke outboard

10 National Fisherman \ May 2020

The midwater trawler Enterprise is among six herring vessels whose operators are challenging a new NMFS requirement.

www.nationalfisherman.com

sampling instead of at-sea monitoring coverNationalFisherman_ad_May_OL.pdf 1 3/3/20 3:51 PM age to satisfy industry-funded monitoring requirements in 2020.”

But the fishermen say there has not been biological justification for the step, and news from NMFS staff that the requirement would be implemented this spring still came as somewhat of a surprise.

“The federal government finalized this regulation despite having no authority from Congress to do so,” said Ryan Mulvey, a lawyer with the Cause of Action Institute.

Packing out groundfish at the Portland Fish Exchange.

NMFS implemented cuts in the herring New England managers are looking for more monitoring. allowable catch limit from 49,900 metric tons in 2018, and again to 15,065 metric tons in 2019. experimental full-retention model that inGroundfish mortality itself is a moving The A and B permit midwater trawlers corporates a combination of full-time cam- target.The data gathered by electronic monisaw their herring revenue fall sharply from eras on the boat, landing all fish that would toring has yet to be included in the ground$13.4 million in 2014 to $7.8 million in 2018, qualify as discards, and dockside monitoring fish assessment model, and there is still no according to NMFS data. Meanwhile the and sampling of those retained discards. time line for its inclusion, according to Jon price of herring shot up 70 percent.

According to Bert Jongerden, longtime Hare, the Science and Research director of “If our vessels are forced to pay these at- general manager of the Portland Fish Exthe Northeast Fisheries Science Center. sea monitoring fees, it may drive some of us change, the Portland boat that off-loads at — Jessica Hathaway out of business, as several boats have already the exchange under been forced out of the fishery through re- the full-retention duced quotas and burdensome regulation,” model lands less than said Jeff Kaelin, director of sustainability and 1 percent of its quota government relations at Lund’s Fisheries. in discards.

— Kirk Moore “Are we going to begin to get back New England groundfish fleet something for that level of accooperates with little return countability?” asked Big jump in monitoring costs is coming Jackie Odell, execuMaine Fishermen’s Forum presentation tive director of the

by Melissa Errend of the New England Northeast Seafood Fishery Management Council in March il- Coalition. lustrated the council-considered options for Several stakemonitoring the Northeast groundfish fleet holders suggested the (Amendment 23). This presentation focused possibility of opening on the effects on the Maine fleet, which is some closed areas as Portland-based. monitoring increases.

With projected costs of each alternative “I’m not sure imranging from about $1 million to more than proved monitoring $5 million across the fleet, the council ex- removes the need for pects the changes to force groundfish boats protection in those with the fewest at-sea days to lease out their areas,” said Tom Nies, quota rather than go fishing. the council’s execuThe council’s preferred alternative is a tive director. He addblended model that allows boat owners to ed that the purpose of choose between traditional at-sea monitor- the closed areas is not ing and electronic monitoring. to reduce groundfish One Portland-based boat is using the mortality.

A

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May 2020 \ National Fisherman 11

Doug Stewart

AROUND THE COASTS

AROUND THE COASTS

Alaska / Pacific

“If you have plants that have product coming in and no workers to fill it, you’re going to get that overflowing cold storage situation. So, it’s definitely a problem on the reprocessing side.”

— Andy Wink, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association

Coronavirus disrupts seafood exports from Alaska Shipping disruptions and quarantines leave freezers full, drive down salmon prices

eafood coming from and going to China is piled up in freezer vans and cold storages indefi nitely as the coronavirus triggered commerce chaos around the world.

Virus precautions mean that many ships could not get into Chinese ports, with others stuck at docks waiting for workers to return, and still more are idling in “floating quarantined zones,” as countries refused to allow crews of ships that have docked at Chinese ports to leave the boat

“ASMI continues to hope for positive news.”

— Hannah Lindoff, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute

until they have been declared virus-free.

Alaska seafood exports to China of nearly $1 billion include products for their own markets, but the bulk goes there for reprocessing and shipment back to the United States and other countries.

“If you have Become a Coast Guard that have prodApproved Marine Safety Instructor! plants uct coming in and no workers to fi ll it, you’re going to get that overflowing cold storage situation. So, it’s defi nitely a problem on the reprocessing side. On the consumption side, if people aren’t going out to eat and goMarine Safety Instructor Training Classes ing out to the marMorehead City, North Carolina, May 4 - 8 ket to buy seafood, New Bedford, Massachusetts, June 1 - 5 that’s going to take Sitka, Alaska, September 21 - 26 consumption down Learn to teach Fishing Vessel Drill Conductor and Vessel as well,” said Andy Stability classes that meet U.S. Coast Guard training requirements for commercial fishermen. Only $995, Wink, director of the scholarships are available for qualifying commercial Bristol Bay Regional fishermen. Information and registration available online Seafood Developat www.amsea.org or call (907) 747-3287. ment Association and Help commercial an economist who fishermen survive has tracked world emergenices at salmon markets for sea. more than a decade.

Alaska Marine Safety Education Association Alaska has 2924 Halibut Point Rd. Sitka, AK 99835 worked hard to

12 National Fisherman \ May 2020

Emma Forsberg

S

Salmon gillnetting in Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

diversify its seafood markets beyond China since trade tariff s imposed in 2018 by the Trump administration cut into sales with its top customer. But the virus scare is causing disruption throughout new and more established sales regions, said Hannah Lindoff, global marketing director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

“Several chef seminars in China designed to boost knowledge of different Alaska species planned for this month have been canceled,” Lindoff said in an email message. “Events in Singapore and Italy were also canceled. ASMI continues to prioritize the health of our overseas representatives and partners in these regions, and hope for positive news.”

— Laine Welch

Coast Guard, NTSB to hold Scandies Rose inquiry Board will study crab boat’s sinking

T

he Coast Guard convened a Marine Board of Investigation — its highest level of official inquiry — into the Dec. 31 sinking of the fi shing vessel Scandies Rose with the loss of five of its seven crew members.

Along with determining the cause of www.nationalfisherman.com

accidents, such boards typically issue safety recommendations to the Coast Guard command and industry. It is the second board of investigation within three years for an Alaska sinking, following the 2017 loss of the Destination, another boat that was likewise outbound for a Bering Sea crabbing trip. It sank suddenly on Feb. 11, 2017, with the loss of all six crew members.

The Destination sinking was the worst Alaska fi shing accident since 2005. As with the Destination inquiry, the Scandies Rose board will be composed jointly of Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board officials.

In the Destination case, investigators reconstructed a likely series of events to conclude that the vessel was operating under unsafe stability conditions. Those included carrying heavier crab pots that exceeded the weight used in the stability instructions; additional weight and stability stress from bait loaded high on the vessel; and excessive ice

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AROUND THE COASTS

The Scandies Rose, a 130-foot crabbing vessel from Dutch Harbor, was carrying a crew of seven when it sank Dec. 31, 2019.

accumulations from freezing spray.

Combined with downflooding from an open hold access hatch, those were the primary factors that led to the capsizing of the boat, the board reported.

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May 2020 \ National Fisherman 13

MARKET REPORTS

AT L A N T I C

G U L F / S O . AT L A N T I C

Herring

Blue crabs

Low quotas and high prices for bait will persist into 2020

Biomass bounces back after hurricane, but new N.C. rules in play

ince the late 19th century, New England’s commercial Atlantic herring fishery was tied to both the canning industry and the lobster fishery. The connections to today’s lucrative lobster industry continue. For this reason, changes in the herring industry have wide-reaching ripple effects.

The 2018 benchmark stock assessment revealed changes to stock health and concerns about trends in recruitment and spawning stock biomass. In fact, 2016 recruitment was the lowest on record at 1.7 million fish.

The 2018 landings, says Kirby Rootes-Murdy of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, were 43,772 metric tons with an ex-vessel value of $23 million. In 2019, the quota was slashed by more than half.

By the end of 2019, preliminary figures say more than 12,700 metric tons of herring were landed, according to Min-Yang Lee of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. The value was $9.45 million.

Suzannah Raber, owner of New England Fish Co., a bait company, says markets have shifted.

“We used to send herring to Canada,” says Raber. “But now, 95 percent of our herring goes to lobster bait. We catch it and distribute it.” These days, Raber’s company targets mackerel this time of year, then goes seining for herring in summer.

“But we want to save the quota we do have. This year, we have a new buffer zone, where we can no longer go midwinter trawling,” says Raber. “We caught about 80 to 85 percent of our herring last year midwater trawling in what is now the buffer zone. It’s a very valuable area.”

“We were in the 35-45-cent-per-pound range off the boat last year, depending on time of year,” says Raber, who expects prices to be similar this year.

“The Northeast Fisheries Science Center is conducting a management track assessment in 2020 — that means they will update the 2018 assessment model with two new years of data (adding 2018 and 2019),” according to Deirdre Boelke of the council. Preliminary results are expected later this spring/early summer.

“Unless the stock assessment later this year shows a different trend from 2018, we anticipate continued low quotas into the future,” says Kirby Rootes-Murdy.

— Caroline Losneck

orth Carolina’s 2019 blue crab season got off to a good start but was slammed when Hurricane Dorian hit in September. Fortunately, it rebounded quickly, making it “one of the best seasons ever,” according to Keith Bruno of Endurance Seafood in Oriental, N.C. “I can only hope that this coming season will be as good.”

While Bruno and crabbers in the central area of the state had an exceptional season, not so for the whole state. According to Corrin Flora of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, 2019 was a mixed bag.

“While Pamlico Sound crabbers had a very good season, the Albemarle area did not. And in the Southern sector, the season was considered average,” says Flora.

But all in all, preliminary figures indicate the blue crab fishery came out better than expected.

“2019 was a great crab year for us,” says Dylan Dunbar, manager of Paradise Shores Seafood in Pamlico County. “Around here, crabbing usually slacks off in early July, but last year’s season lasted longer than most.”

The 2019 Semi-Annual Commercial Landings Bulletin (JanuaryJune) indicates an increase in blue crab landings, up from just short of 6 million pounds landed in 2018 to just over 7.1 million pounds for the same period this year.

Final figures for blue crabs in 2018 totaled 16.4 million pounds at a value of $17.3 million. According to Flora, the final figure for all blue crabs for 2019 is 22 million pounds, with the total dollar value yet to be released.

But as North Carolina’s most valuable commercial fishery, second only to shrimp, blue crab is facing a new set of management measures to end overfishing.

Cutbacks include closed seasons, establishment of sanctuary areas, a 5-inch minimum size limit on female crabs, no possession of immature crabs, and a plan to reduce the crab bycatch allowance for oyster dredges.

The options addressing sustainable harvest are predicted to reduce harvest by 3.1 percent meeting the mandated reductions.

— Maureen Donald

S

14 National Fisherman \ May 2020

N

www.nationalfisherman.com

MARKET REPORTS

PA C I F I C

ALASKA

Spiny lobster

Pacific cod

California fishery takes a double hit from China’s market

Effects from the warm-water blob continue in Gulf of Alaska

oronavirus and Chinese trade tariff s put California’s spiny lobster industry in a stranglehold this past season. If the trade tariff s going into the season weren’t enough, ex-vessel prices plummeted to a third of what they’d been in previous years with announcements that the coronavirus outbreak warranted stopping shipments of live lobsters to primary markets.

Lunar New Year celebrations in China traditionally mark the highest demand for lobsters shipped across the water from the West Coast. But that market defl ated as coronavirus kept Chinese consumers home, slashing demand.

As of mid-March, spiny lobster fi shermen had put in 76.5 metric tons of product, according to data posted in PacFIN. Ex-vessel prices averaged $12.26 per pound. Much of that value was predicated on deliveries and shipments prior to the outbreak of the virus in China. Both production and values were down significantly from the same period in the 2018-19 season, when the harvest stood at 194.4 metric tons and average ex-vessel prices of $17.04 per pound.

Though processors’ reports and other sources of harvest data aren’t usually compiled until later in the year, it isn’t likely harvest numbers will increase.

Landings in the 2017-18 season, meanwhile, hit 271 metric tons. At the average dockside prices of $18.96 per pound, fleet revenues crunched out to $11.32 million.

Even that season suffered its share of foibles: Unacceptable levels of domoic acid made their appearance again in the 2018-19 fi shery and caused closures in a prime harvest area surrounding Anacapa Island in Ventura County.

Fishing there was put on hold for a month, then reopened after acid levels dropped below the threshold of 20 parts per million.

Other developments facing the industry involve the continued process of implementing a 300-trap limit per vessel. In the months ahead, fi sheries managers plan to meet with fi shermen about fi ne-tuning regulations that allow for the replacement of pots that have been lost and salvaging gear belonging to other fi shermen.

— Charlie Ess

he warm-water blob of 2014 took its toll on the Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod fi shery for 2020. Though several thousand metric tons had been recommended for the TAC, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to close it down for this year.

While the industry has been well aware of the declining biomass in recent years, the closure promises to knock the wind out of the economy for fi shing communities rimming the gulf. Fishermen didn’t have much to catch in 2019, either, as the TAC had been set at a paltry 12,368 metric tons.

The TAC for the Bering Sea, meanwhile, has been set at 124,625 metric tons, and for the Aleutian Islands management area it’s set at 14,214 metric tons.

As the gulf continues to suffer from the latent effects of the blob, ocean conditions appear to have reverted to normal in the Bering Sea. For decades a large supercooled dike of water, called an “ice plug,” extended under the southern edge of winter sea ice northwest of Alaska. The frigid waters kept the food chain in check and held species like cod and pollock south of the Pribilof Islands. That changed last year when the waters of the plug warmed enough that forage species — and the cod that feed on them — migrated north and west all the way across the dateline to Russia.

“Well, the plug is back,” says Bob Alverson, president of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association, in Seattle. “And the ice is down just past the Pribs this year.”

Just what that means in the harvest for the coming year — and what Alaska’s cod shortage means in the scope of world markets — remains to be seen.

Ex-vessel prices at the tail end of last year ranged from 33 cents to 40 cents with some ports paying a little higher depending on their connections to markets.

Alverson notes that ex-vessel prices for pot-caught cod were averaging 44 cents per pound, while trawl-caught deliveries to Dutch Harbor were fetching 41 cents per pound. — Charlie Ess

C

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T

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 15

FEATURE: RETROSPECTIVE

Beyond the

HORIZON Ten years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the pain remains

racey Trahan was trawling for shrimp on an April morning, during a routine Gulf of Mexico trip, when he heard a news report about an oil rig explosion somewhere in that ocean expanse.

The Deepwater Horizon tragedy on April 20, 2010, claimed the lives of 11 workers. The explosion occurred 60 miles to the veteran fisherman’s south, and neither he nor others had reason to believe it would have such a lasting effect on themselves and their industry.

“I thought it would have been something brought under control in a timely fashion,” Trahan said. “I had no idea the amount of oil there would be and the length of time it would take to stop.”

A leak that took 87 days to seal, resulting in an estimated 130 million gallons of crude polluting the gulf, took a toll that began early and ended late. Ultimately, lawsuits related to the spill, from fishermen as well as processors and people with many other types of businesses, as well as those whose health suffered as a result of involvement with the cleanup and other exposure to chemicals, were consolidated, and settlements resulted.

A decade later, however, some issues are still being heard by

T

16 National Fisherman \ May 2020

appellate courts. That’s only one reason many fishermen maintain that the real winners were the lawyers.

Ultimately the oil giant BP, as well as Anadarko Petroleum were judicially declared the responsible parties for the explosion and the resulting nonstop spilling of oil, and all that occurred because of it, on the basis of federal law.

The effects were devastating, emotionally and financially, to those making a living off the water.

Shutdowns of fishing grounds increased as the oil continued to gush, By June 2, as oil still flowed, a total of 88,522 square miles of federal waters had been ordered closed as a precautionary measure.

Across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, an estimated 1,053 miles of shoreline were affected. The gulf seafood industry struggled for years to win back consumer confidence that its product was safe.

Questions of what effects combinations of oil and dispersants used to clean it up remain unanswered, in regard to the health of fishermen and others who worked to mitigate the effects, as well as on the numbers of and conditions of creatures for whom the Gulf is home. Toxicity was not an issue.

“We had the best-tested seafood in the world,” said Julie Falgout, outreach coordinator for Louisiana Sea Grant, who worked closely www.nationalfisherman.com

NOAA photo

By John DeSantis

FEATURE: RETROSPECTIVE

Coast Guard photo

Offshore service vessels converge on the burning Deepwater Horizon platform in April 2010.

with fishing families in the state. The wife of a former fisherman, she acted as a liaison and advocate for them, communicating their situations — individually and collectively — to oil company as well as government officials.

Her base of operations was a BP headquarters building north of Houma, La., its sleek lines and green glass façade oddly out of place amid acres of sugar cane fields.

“We had the best-tested seafood in the world.”

—Julie Falgout, Louisiana Sea Grant

“It was like being in war: The game was changing every day. There was a new battle every day,” she said. “Every day there was something to overcome.”

The hardest part for Falgout was witnessing the uncertainty that developed for fishing families, which she began to experience herself.

“It was not knowing if our people were going to survive on the bayous,” she said, noting that feelings related to the experience haunt her even in the present.

The disaster occurred at a crucial time for the commercial fishing industry. The opening of Louisiana’s inshore spring shrimp season was To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

to have been less than a month away when the explosion occurred.

State officials attempted to aid fishermen with a special early season so that some money could be made, but it didn’t last long. Although crabs are harvested in the state almost year-round, the spill occurred at a time when the creatures breed, resulting in eggs that develop and are laid.

The potential for financial effects on fishermen and people in other businesses was recognized early on, and the company began setting aside funds for claims that were expected to be made. Attorney Kenneth Feinberg was hired as the company’s claims czar, and he began traveling to coastal gulf communities where mass meetings were held.

Members of fishing families publicly aired their distress. Feinberg explained the claims process.Tracey Trahan was among those who made a claim through the center Feinberg set up. He now regrets the decision.

“I accepted the $25,000 they offered,” he said, noting that many people in the business came out much better with payments from the court settlements after the suits were filed. “I never should have taken that money.”

There were opportunities that came up for fishermen as a result of the spill, although it was not the type of work they would have preferred.

Early one May morning, an armada of shrimp boats left a dock in Cocodrie, La., as part of an effort to clean up what was fouling the gulf.

Led by the Mariah Jade, a sleek 73-foot trawler owned by David and May 2020 \ National Fisherman 17

A shrimping vessel converted for skimming oil. Fishermen were employed in a Vessels of Opportunity cleanup program during the spill response.

Kimberly Chauvin, the vessels headed for waters farther than their captains had ever traveled, in most cases, to do a job none had ever experienced before.

Behind the Mariah Jade were the Miss Connie Ann, Waymaker, Sea Snake, Green Dragon, Oasis, Capt. Stern, Kate Elizabeth, Amanda Marie and Angela Marie. Almost all were named for wives, children or grandchildren. Among those making the trip were the Chauvin’s two sons, Dustin and David Jr., aged 20 and 21.

They and all the others who worked the spill wore white coveralls supplied by BP contractors. The work was hot, messy and grimy; the decks of cleanup vessels were made slippery by oil-tainted sea-spray. The Vessels of Opportunity program developed

U.S. Coast Guard

FEATURE: RETROSPECTIVE

on the fly by BP and its contractors, provided a replacement for lost income for many.

But it was not without its problems, and some families complained of slow or missing payments. Another issue that developed was the effect of the cleanup on the vessels themselves. Fishermen feared that the required scraping and other drydock work — as well as cleaning of boats from top to bottom — would keep them from earning traditional livings if and when the fishery opened again.

“You were hired and got paid but did not get paid correctly in the end,” Kimberly Chauvin said. “There were gaps. and ultimately there was no way to obtain the money they should have paid us. There was no appeal process for what they put out there.”

Tracey Trahan took part in the Vessels of Opportunity program, although getting actually signed on to work took more time than he would Cost effective on-board medical have preferred. supply kit and educational material “It seemed like I to prepare the commercial had a hard time getfisherman for at-sea injuries. ting onboard and getting hired,” Tra- REORDER FORM FOR QUICK ONLINE ORDERS han said. “But then a - TRAINING AVAILABLE FOR THE MOST MARITIME INJURIES - ALL IN HD STORM LIKE CASES friend of mine called - EASY TO USE FOLLOW THE NUMBERS and said I can get you hired on, and I had to TRAUMA - BLOOD LOSE - WOUND CARE report to Venice, La., FOOD POISONING - MOTION SICKNESS-EYE by the next day at 9 INJURIES - BURN INJURIES a.m. It did help. I can remember, once I had 1-800-272 3008 that job, feeling relief.

There were people

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that wanted to work and not have a pity party, and I knew this was what I needed to do.You have to be resilient.”

Fishermen headed out on their boats to aid in the cleanup effort saw the effects of the spill many miles before they reached the sites of their work assignments. And before they saw actual oil.

Dustin Chauvin, aboard the Mariah Jade, was mesmerized by what appeared to be blue-tinged, phosphorescent plastic bags floating on a moonlit Gulf of Mexico surface. To his horror, and that of others onboard, the realization came that what they saw were scores of dead jellyfish.

The work many fishermen did when they were utilized on the gulf cleanup was poignant in its irony. Booms whose nets would harvest sea life were instead connected to big yellow skimmers made of rubber, which moved surface oil to the places where it was to be sucked up or burned.

Despite tragically oiled pelicans and other distressed sea life, seafood safety tests showed no presence of hydrocarbons in shrimp and other seafood, even as the spill continued. But what fishermen feared — along with some scientists — was whether the oil not visible on the top, due to dispersant chemicals, was collecting on the gulf floor, making for a petroleum time bomb that would eventually rise in globules and then kill or directly damage sea life. The theory has never been scientifically proven.

A benefit of the spill — purchased at a heavy price — is the attention that continues to be focused on the effects of oil on sea life.

Gulf fishermen’s workspaces have become a living laboratory for such studies, funded through penalties paid by BP. Acy Cooper Jr., president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, is glad that such studies are being done.

“It’s where we work. It’s important for us to know about effects on seafood, because we catch and sell seafood,” he said. “We do have to understand the dynamics and know the effects long term. They also need to see what these companies are doing on their rigs, with their rigs, because this cannot happen again.We have a hard enough time making a living now, we don’t need something like this on top of it.” www.nationalfisherman.com

Cooper is among fishermen frustrated by how financial elements of the settlements made by attorneys with the oil giant, but without what he sees as proper input from fishermen.

“After the spill and the devastation, it took a lot to rebound back, a lot of people lost everything they had,” Cooper said.

“Some people got sick and some people died before they ever got anything from a settlement. We had no say-so in how the lawyers were settling, we never had a voice in it.”

He and others bristle at suggestions that they somehow made good between working cleanup and whatever settlements came later.The money earned for cleaning up BP’s mistakes, many fishermen say, was deducted from settlement money, which was not near what the dollar amounts discussed when it came to actual cash in hand.Taxes and lawyer fees ate up well more than half the pay-out, Cooper said.

Crabber Tim Luke, Trudy Luke’s husband, still recalls the gut-wrenching stresses he felt when the spill occurred.

“It was not knowing if we had to move out of town, or find something else to do,” he said. “It was a big struggle for a few years, and it still is.”

Luke said he is keenly aware of effects on undersea vegetation essential to the area’s ecology, and which can’t be readily replaced.

“The vegetation is not what it should

NOAA photos

FEATURE: RETROSPECTIVE

Gulf beaches were fouled with oil and tar for more than 1,000 miles after the blowout.

Porpoises swim through an oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon.

be for crabs to stay in some areas,” he said, citing first-hand knowledge gained during and after the spill. “The dispersal of oil killed vegetation. Crabs show up for a little bit and then are gone, and then there’s nothing at all.

If you don’t have the vegetation to keep your proper crabs in your area, the crabs are gone.

We are not as bad as some in our area. We know it killed a lot of little baby larvae. We are very concerned about the genetic effects on the crabs.”

Other complaints persist.

Grand Isle shrimp processor Dean Blanchard says his annual handling of shrimp remains lower that it had been prior to the disaster.

“I went from 12 million to 7 million pounds every year,” Blanchard said. “Nobody even trawls near my place anymore.”

Grand Isle’s only inhabited barrier island was profoundly affected by oil. Its local economy, based on both tourism and shrimp, was knocked off kilter on both counts.

“I try to take one day at a time,” Blanchard said. “I had people come to do a documentary at the shop. I told them the oil spill is like a hurricane. We do whatever we can do to pick up the pieces and move on.”

John DeSantis is an author, veteran journalist and longtime contributor to National Fisherman.

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Email dmagnuson@city.kodiak.ak.us or call 907-486-8080 Visit kodiakshipyard.com May 2020 \ National Fisherman 19

BOATS & GEAR: APPAREL

BOOTS AND GEAR Stay warm, dry and spry with the best foul-weather footwear and threads

By Brian Hagenbuch

20 National Fisherman \ May 2020

Duluth Trading Co.

Commercial fishermen work in every possible climate and are exposed to the harshest elements — sun, rain, wind, sea spray, hot and cold temperature extremes — often all in a single workday.

Building an arsenal of gear favorites is key to your comfort on deck.

www.nationalfisherman.com

BOATS & GEAR: APPAREL

Rain Gear Grundéns is still the undisputed king of foul-weather gear for commercial fi shermen, and it keeps adding to its vast array of options. In business for more than a century, the latest Grundéns catalog lists 13 lines of commercial gear for men and four lines for women, with the latter expanding quickly.

The Neptune gear has been a swift seller over the past couple of seasons because the polyurethane-coated polyester provides four-way stretch and increased mobility and comfort that has resonated with fi shermen. The bibs and full-zip jacket are the cornerstone of this line. But the pullover anorak is popular as well and available in the Neptune Thermo, which adds a fleece lining and is a cozy option to have in your quiver for colder fi shing. The Neptune line is agile, breathable, and a pleasure to wear, but the polyurethane is not as resistant as traditional PVC raingear. Over time, the Neptune gear has a tendency to nick and split; it does not often last more than one season and may require the occasional midseason mend.

For durability, it is good to have a pair of classic Grundéns Herkules bibs, which can be paired with the Balder jacket as a sturdier baseline set of gear, apt for a range of conditions. Both the Herkules and Balder lines are PVC-coated with a polyester/ cotton blend liner, which is more susceptible to mildew but more breathable and supple than double-sided PVC. This set-up will keep you dry while providing enough flexibility to move around, and should hold up in most fi sheries for multiseason use.

Grundéns men’s Neptune jacket and bib

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

Guy Cotten X-Trapper jacket and bib

Duluth Resurrection Bay jacket, anorak, bibs

For abrasive trap fi sheries, check the double-sided PVC Hauler gear or the armored Super Watch anorak and bibs.

Grundéns was a bit surprised when its nylon Weather Watch coat became a hit with commercial fi shermen over the past couple years. It was not exactly built for deck work, but fi shermen bought them up as a lightweight, breathable and quickdrying option for milder weather. The success of the Weather Watch led to the new Full Share line, which is similar but more suited to the rigors of the profession, with a thicker nylon shell and higher durable water resistant (DWR) rating than the Weather Watch.

Guy Cotten has been quietly, consistently producing high-quality rain gear for commercial fi shermen for more than 50 years. While it does not run out as many lines and innovations as Grundéns, the company has amassed numerous styles over five decades in the business For an

all-around multipurpose set of rain gear, the seminal X-Trapper Jacket and Bibs are as durable and functional as they come.

The X-Trapper Jacket’s hood, shoulders and back are sheathed in Guy Cotten’s cap coz fabric, which has a generous exterior coat of PVC backed by interior polyester jersey, providing a nice combination of toughness and flexibility along with water resistance and a bit of breathability.

The front of the coat and arms of the jacket are made of Guy Cotten’s proprietary Nylpeche fabric, a strong rip-stop fabric with double-sided PVC. The X-Trapper bibs employ layered Nylpeche fabric on the front of the bibs and cap coz on the back. The stuff works. Check Guy Cotten’s website, www.guycotten.com, for other lines.

Duluth Trading Co. is rolling out its fi rst line of rain gear in the 2020 season as part of a burgeoning Alaskan Hardgear collection. Duluth tested the Resurrection

Grundéns women’s Neptune jacket and bib

Grundéns Full Share

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 21

BOATS & GEAR: APPAREL

Grundéns Deck Boss

XtraTuf Legacy (black) and Legacy 2.0

Bekina SolidGrip StepliteX

Bay rain gear last season with Bristol Bay setnetters who were packing on record loads and found they needed to shore up their seams. With 100 percent welded seams that should hold up, they hit the market in time for the 2020 spring and summer fi sheries. This polyurethane gear may be the stretchiest on the market, and it allows the Resurrection Bay gear — which includes bibs, a full zip coat, and an anorak — to fit a bit trimmer than other raingear. Gussets in the armpits and crouch facilitate movement, and all the pockets are zippered, making them more functional than the typical snap pocket. A brushed polyester interior ups the R-value a bit while allowing for some breathability. It may take Duluth a couple years to completely dial this gear in, but this fi rst iteration is promising and bodes well for the future.

and off over the boots. For some fi shermen, that trade-off is worth the added comfort and durability on deck.

The Deck Boss boots come in insulated and steel toe versions, as well, with a women’s version in the works.

While Grundéns was hard at work developing a new line of boots, XtraTuf mostly streamlined its production process in China, and took advantage of lower costs to crank out a ton of new designs, including a 2018 update on the iconic Legacy boot.

The Legacy 2.0 has a thicker, more comfortable insole, along with a reengineered sole that has an even higher slip resistance rating than the traditional Legacy, which already performed well on slippery decks and docks. Extra layers of rubber along the shin and forefoot of the 2.0 have been added for more protection

and durability, and the top of the boot has a wider calf opening as well as a swale in the back to reduce calf chafi ng. The heel of the 2.0 has a new textured fi nish for easier on and off that is soft enough to avoid snagging in nets. The old Legacy boots are the same design as ever, but for those interested in little menace and style, XtraTuf released a black version this year.

Belgian manufacturer Bekina Boots is also hoping to pick up a piece of the commercial market with its new SolidGrip StepliteX boots. A third-generation familyrun business, Bekina has put its 60 years of experience into making work boots for agriculture, construction and the food industry into developing its fi rst deck boot.

The SolidGrip is made with Neotane, a sturdy, lightweight polyurethane material, and the boots are well-engineered. They

The commercial fi shing boot market has seen some evolution lately. XtraTufs’ transition to Chinese production in 2011 shook its monopoly on the West Coast and Alaska, and opened the door for competition.

Grundéns strolled in. The Grundéns Deck Boss boot features an injection molded upper that aims to eliminate the threat of delaminating and cracking. And the insole of the boot is more built out like an athletic shoe to accommodate long days on your feet.

After some initial slippery outsole issues, Grundéns has hit on a lightweight, durable and comfortable product that some fi shermen are swearing by. The sole is a little bulkier than the XtraTuf Legacy, which makes it a bit harder to slip bibs on 22 National Fisherman \ May 2020

XtraTuf

Workboots

XtraTuf is the boot of choice for Alaska fishermen.

www.nationalfisherman.com

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BUILT FOR THE WORST, SO YOU PERFORM YOUR BEST. The Wheelhouse is a commercial grade version of the Ankle Deck Boot.

Built with an SRC rated outsole for best-in-class slip resistance, a slightly wider fit and reinforcements throughout. A variety of colorways are now available for men and women.

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XTRATUF is a registered trademark of Honeywell Safety Products and Honeywell International, Inc. © 2020

WOMENS MENS

BOATS & GEAR: APPAREL

are light, supple and comfortable, with no snag points and a metal-free toe cap for unobtrusive protection. The footbed has nice absorption without being too soft, and soles are SRC-certified, which means they should have good grip. They are a bit wider than both the Legacy and Deck Boss, and the sizing runs large, so expect to buy down a full size.

Ankle Boots It used to be that fi shermen would cut off the tops of their XtraTuf Legacy boots to create an easy on and off yet waterproof deck shoe to wear when full gear was not needed. Over the past couple years, both Grundéns and XtraTuf have come out with quality ankle boots to fi ll that gap.

The Grundéns Deck Boss Ankle Boot fits nicely to the foot and has a sniped sole that clings to decks. And while it might run a bit heavy and feel slightly plodding underfoot, it will keep you dry and hold up to extended use.

XtraTuf ’s Ankle Deck Boots have been very popular and are great for the boatyard and the bar, but some fi shermen have complained that they had slip issues and did not quite stand up to actual boat work. XtraTuf answered with the new Wheelhouse boot. The construction of these ankle boots is burlier, more in line with the Legacy boot, and includes SRCcertified slip-resistant soles, reinforced pull tabs, a reinforced upper, and a commercial grade fit.

Base Layers Perhaps the most crucial and overlooked

Grundéns ankle boot

XtraTuf Wheelhouse ankle boot

part of commercial fi shing apparel is the foundational layer. In recent years, fi shermen have started to move away from the formerly ubiquitous cotton hoodie and sweatpants, but there is still way too much cotton on fi shing boats. Any quality synthetic layering ski or hunting gear will work better than cotton, and now that fi shing-specific companies have jumped into the base layer game, more fi shermen may come around.

For one-stop shopping, the new Grundies from Grundéns will do the trick.

They come in three different weights, with polyester yarn fibers that move moisture away from the body, an antiodor treatment to keep your deckmates happy, and fl at-lock seams to keep you comfortable.

The heaviest weight, the Grundies Thermal, is a nylon, polyester and spandex mix, and has enough thickness to wear around the galley without offending others.

The trim-fitting pants have a fl at drawcord in an elastic waistband and jogger-style cuff s, and might replace your lucky sweats with a more functional alternative.

Grundies run small. Try them on if you

can. If you cannot, think about ordering a size up.

Duluth Trading Co. also has several good options for base layers, including the Alopex pants and shirts, which are part of its Alaskan Hardgear line. These formfitting, forgiving polyester/spandex blends will fit well under raingear and keep you warm and dry. The Alopex Hoodie top is a particularly nice option to keep the wind off your face. REI-brand layers are usually quality as well, and can often be found for cheap on the spring clearance rack.

Bonus As a bonus layer, rip-stop nylon jackets can be indispensable. They provide a surprisingly effective barrier in the wind and, while they are not waterproof, they will shed moisture and fi sh slime far better than cotton or fleece. They are a great layer underneath raincoats and can be worn for those in-between tasks like delivering fi sh, diving into the engine room, or even hosing down. Grundéns’ Bulk Head coat fits in this category, as does Duluth’s Barter Island Jacket.

And if you’re already at Costco, provisioning the boat, check out the Kirkland Signature Softshell Jacket. It’s a great, affordable alternative in this class, providing a perfect fit under gear and with handy Velcro cuffs.

Socks Do not forget good socks. It’s for you and everyone around you. Darn Tough, SmartWool. Spend the money. It’s worth it.

Grundéns’ heaviest Grundies Thermal

24 National Fisherman \ May 2020

Duluth Alopex hoodie and pants

Brian Hagenbuch is the Products editor for National Fisherman. www.nationalfisherman.com

BOATS & GEAR: CATCH CAMERAS

Eyes on the

A Simrad FX80 sonar/camera package is deployed on an Alaska pollock net. This unit flies above and ahead of the headrope and can run on a single coaxial wire.

Cameras give trawler captains a real-time view of net performance and bycatch reduction

By Paul Molyneaux

n hundreds of years of trawling, fishermen have worked blindly, damaging gear, catching what they don’t want to catch, and taking risks they don’t need to take.The best captains and deckhands developed a sixth sense for setting gear and knowing the bottom. Thanks to underwater trawl cameras, the days of guesswork are coming to an end.

Simrad has led the way with its FX80 live video catchmonitoring systems. According to Simrad engineer David Barbee, the company has been putting live cameras together with sonar in nets since 2012. “This is a system that uses standard 11mm coaxial cable (or equivalent) to send power and telemetry

I

26 National Fisherman \ May 2020

to sensors on the fishing net,” Barbee says, noting that the majority of the FX80-equipped factory trawlers are making use of the system to reduce bycatch and improve fishing effort.

“Bycatch reduction helps us fish longer in certain areas,” says Barbee. “In our Alaskan and West Coast fisheries, bottom trawlers must reduce halibut bycatch, and pollock semipelagic trawlers must reduce salmon bycatch. Both must know exactly how much of some species of rockfish they have left to catch.”

Barbee notes that rockfish bycatch is a particular concern for the Pacific whiting pelagic fishery off the West Coast. “There’s certain species they need to avoid, and with this system they can see the patches of color on the fish.” www.nationalfisherman.com

Simrad

PRIZE

BOATS & GEAR: CATCH CAMERAS

“There’s certain species they need to avoid, and with this system they can see the patches of color on the fish.”

— David Barbee, SIMRAD

Barbee spends time fishing with the boats that buy the Simrad system and has seen how the company’s product performs in the field.

“I think most captains are using this to improve their performance. If, say, they get hung on a rock and they can see the bobbins take the foot rope over it, they can keep fishing,” Barbee says. “Nobody has quantified the

Simrad

Bob Hezel, captain of the US Intrepid, has extensive experience with the FX80 live camera. If he sees any halibut, he will slow down to let them escape, or he will haul back.

time this saves in little things like that. Another time I was on a boat and we could see a bunch of starry flounder lining up in front of the net. Starry flounder stick together and create a big ball in the net, making them very difficult to process. We pulled our net and avoided them. The boat next to us ended up with a net full and spent nine hours dealing

AUTONOMOUS SUBSEA IMAGING + ILLUMINATION

with the damage to their excluder and net.”

According to Barbee, West Coast shrimp trawlers use the system to know when to turn around to stay on shrimp, even though the Simrad acoustic devices will show shrimp going into the net. “Very few shrimp trawlers are aware that our net echosounders will see shrimp,” he says.

Barbee also notes that the package can include a fourth wire to another camera and sonars closer to the cod end, all of which can give a very accurate estimate of how much fish has gone into the net.

www.smart-catch.com

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May 2020 \ National Fisherman 27

“We mount the camera on the headrope where it looks down and back at the footrope on bottom trawls. It does not get obscured by the mud cloud,” says Barbee. As Barbee describes it, a headrope lamp that the captain can turn on and off, and change color, is mounted about six feet from the camera.

“The separation reduces backscatter and creates a stage lighting effect, so bottom trawlers can see the footrope and detect halibut before they enter the net,” he says.

Barbee notes that while some deployments use a fourth wire between headrope and cod end, other users have set up a second coaxial cable “third wire” and winch system for the camera system when used on long pelagic nets.

“And we have add-ons that can help reduce bycatch.”

For years, one of the biggest problems the Alaska pollock fishery has faced has been salmon bycatch, which has threatened to shut down the fishery in some areas. According to Barbee, an add-on to the FX80 package may enable captains to release salmon and reset the release mechanism without hauling the net.

“As it is, the captain can have three triggers that can release bycatch, and we’re mostly talking about salmon. But those triggers have to be manually reset. We are working on equipping the net with motors that will reset the triggers without pulling the net. We have some prototypes that we’ll be field testing this summer,” says Barbee.

Another aspect of the system, Barbee notes, is its potential for data collection. “We can get real-time stock assessment and fish distribution,” says Barbee. “This is not being fully exploited. The NOAA research guys should have this, it could help with stock assessments.”

While Simrad is part of the Norwegianbased Kongsberg Maritime, and is focused on live-feed cameras, the Seattle-based company Williamson & Associates makes recording cameras for a group representing Alaska trawlers. According Rob Millsap, who worked for Williamson for years before buying the company with his partner Max Schlereth, a group of Alaska trawlers approached the company looking for robust recording cameras.

“The North Pacific Fisheries Research Foundation came to us.They’re using them to 28 National Fisherman \ May 2020

Williamson & Associates

BOATS & GEAR: CATCH CAMERAS

A Solo Series Netview mounted on the cod end of a research trawl will record every fish that is caught.

monitor their salmon excluder devices,” says Millsap. “The main thing they wanted was a housing you didn’t have to open.”

While having a housing that can be opened enables users to change batteries, extract data, and send the camera right back over, Millsap points out that there are also risks involved. “When you open that up you create opportunities for leaks,” says Millsap.

“We found that even a hair across an O-ring can create a pathway for water to get into the housing.” Millsap and the Williamson team built the Solo Series III Netview, a 1,000-meter rated camera that gave the industry what it wanted. “Charging and data download are done through an industry-standard waterproof connector,” he says. “So you don’t have to open the housing.”

The Solo Series Netview isn’t solo, though; it’s at least a two-camera system. “If you want back-to-back deployments, you’re downloading and charging one while the other is in the water,” says Millsap. The cameras list for $9,500 each, but the foundation ordered enough to get a discount.

According the John Gauvin, a researcher with the North Pacific Fisheries Research Foundation, the foundation wanted to monitor the performance of salmon excluder devices in pollock nets. “We’re not trying to avoid salmon in real time,” says Gauvin, noting that while the foundation’s researchers don’t need live feed cameras, they need cameras in multiple places on the nets they are testing.

“We were using cameras built by people

at the National Marine Fisheries Service and by a guy in Alaska, but we were having problems with reliability,” says Gauvin. “So we wondered, what if we took this idea to somebody with experience building underwater research equipment?” According to Gauvin, the foundation was excited to find a company willing to do the R&D. “Rob came out with us to understand the challenges. We’ve been through three different versions with them, and we’re happy with what we have now.”

The Williamson camera has lithium-ion batteries good for more than 12 hours. “We use the same cells as Tesla,” says Millsap. “It’s that energy density that makes this possible.”

The camera has a sapphire lens and two LED lights that can be dimmed and set to strobe to illuminate the field for focus for the 1080p camera, and units can articulate 180 degrees.

The housing is anodized aluminum and Millsap reports that with 50 units in the field they have had no housing failures. If users encounter any problems with the cameras, Williamson & Associates can provide service in Dutch Harbor and Kodiak.

“We went through two years of building prototypes and having cameras come back broken. Now we think we have the best, and best supported, product out there.” While the main market for the Solo Series III has been Alaska, Millsap reports sales to vessels in New Zealand, Russia and Japan. “We’re just starting to branch out into the international market,” he says.

Although Simrad, drawing on the extensive expertise of the Kongsberg Group, has established a market, a small American company, SmartCatch, hopes to capture some of the trawl cam market with its DigiCatch system. “We’re a Silicon Valley start-up,” says SmartCatch CEO Mark Dahm. “Our pedigree is in high-tech data collection, analytics and networks. We’re fundamentally different,” Dahm says. “We have built a high-speed, realtime network backbone to operate at deep sea levels and will have the ability to collect fish data and environmental data across the range of harvest depths.”

According to Dahm, the DigiCatch has the potential to integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning into monitoring species, stock assessments and other information.

The device could make that data available www.nationalfisherman.com

BOATS & GEAR: CATCH CAMERAS

“So far we have a handful of units deployed in the harshest and most plentiful fisheries. The captains want to innovate with us.” to other markets, such as processors, government entities and even retailers.

“Processors can be ready for what’s coming in, and retailers can buy fish before it’s landed,” says Dahm. He also points out that the DigiCatch technology could enable fishermen to share data with NOAA, which could improve stock assessments and bycatch monitoring.

Dahm believes SmartCatch can deliver fully digital trawl cameras, and more, for a lower cost than other manufacturers. “We have a handful of units deployed in the harshest and most plentiful fisheries,” he says. “The captains want to innovate with us. We have patents on this software and systems. We’re looking for strategic investors to enable us to build and innovate with software.”

Dahm also suggests that SmartCatch may use a subscription service business model, installing and maintaining their equipment on vessels for a monthly or annual fee.

“We have interest from fishing companies like O’Hara, Baader — the processing equipment manufacturer, and others,” says Dahm. “And

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

SmartCatch

— Mark Dahm, SMARTCATCH

The DigiCatch camera in action. So far, five units are in service, and Mark Dahm is working to upgrade the technology.

we’re building our equipment to interface with Wesmar, Furuno and perhaps Simrad.” Dahm is not the only one hoping to capture a slice of the growing trawl-cam market, but he is part of a digital wave that is giving fishermen real-time eyes in their nets, and much more.

Paul Molyneaux is the Boats & Gear editor for National fisherman and the author of “The Doryman’s Reflection.”

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 29

AROUND THE YARDS

Maryland builder completes his own 35-foot deadrise; Virginia yard repowers popular skiff for trailering

Larry Chowning

By Larry Chowning

John Kinnamon of Tilghman Island, Md., has built the Bourbon Street Lady to work in Maryland's blue crab trotline fishery.

ohn Kinnamon of Kinnamon Construction of Tilghman Island, Md., has completed the Bourbon Street Lady, a 35' x 11' glass-over-wood deadrise that he has built for himself.

Kinnamon, 82, built his boat to use in Maryland’s trotline blue crab fishery. The boat was built in his boatshop next to his home, located just before crossing the bridge leading into Tilghman Island.

He built it there so as not to tie up his son’s boatshop, located just on the other side of the bridge on the island. J.C. and John Kinnamon are swamped with work. The past three years they have turned out four or five new deadrise workboats annually, mostly for Virginia oystermen and crab pot fishermen.

The father-son team works together building boats. But during the trotline season, they take off to work their own rigs. John’s new boat is named in honor of his memories as a sailor stationed in New Orleans.

“I joined the Navy in 1954. My last duty was in New Orleans on a DE (destroyer escort vessel),” says John. “We were tied up

J

30 National Fisherman \ May 2020

at the foot of Canal Street, and in evenings these Bourbon Street ladies would come down to the wharf. When I started thinking of a name for my new boat that popped into my head,” he said with a chuckle.

John had the name painter apply “Bourbon Street Lady” in black and had it outlined in pink on the stern. He ordered pink “Kinnamon” decals and placed one on the port side and another on the starboard side just forward of the stern.

J.C. said his father has already had a waterman come by asking if the Bourbon Street Lady was for sale. “I told him it was not for sale,” says John.

“Yeah right!” Says J.C. “Tell him about the cigar box. That boat wasn’t for sale either.”

John spun a tale from 20 years earlier when he had built a deadrise for himself and had a waterman come by wanting to buy the boat.

“I told him no amount of money could buy her,” says John. “Next day, that waterman came back and put a cigar box full of cash money down on my kitchen table. After I counted it, I couldn’t say sold fast enough!”

A glass-over-wood deadrise underway in J.C.’s shop is a 38' x 12' for David Parks of Morattico, Va. Parks is going to use the boat in the Chesapeake Bay oyster and crab pot fisheries. It will be powered by a six-cylinder Cummins diesel. The Bourbon Street Lady will be powered by a 4-cylinder, 150hp John Deere diesel engine.

On Parks’ boat, the bottom and side frames are built with 1 1/2" x 4" fi r lumber. The framing in the bottom and sides is covered with 1/2-inch AC marine plywood.

The hull is coated with four layers of matt and woven, and decks have three layers.

The floor frames are made of 1 1/2" x 8" fi r boards and are placed every 16-inches. The floor or ceiling as it is called in the Chesapeake region is made from 5/8-inch fi r and is covered with three layers of fiberglass.

Moving down to Waycross, Ga., Carolina Skiff continues to turn out commercial fishing boats for inshore fishermen, ranging from New Jersey to Florida. In January, Keith Ruse of Deltaville Boatyard in Deltaville, Va., had a 24-foot Carolina Skiff up on the hard awaiting a new Continued on page 33

Larry Chowning

SOUTH

Deltaville Boatyard has this Virginia crab pot and haul seine Carolina Skiff in for a new engine.

www.nationalfisherman.com

AROUND THE YARDS

WEST

Bellingham yard builds four gillnetters; dragger gets a quick sponson in Oregon

t Aliotti Enterprises in Bellingham, Wash., Tom Aliotti and his partner, Nigel Groom, haven’t wasted any time taking advantage of their 30,000-squarefoot boatshop in Bellingham, Wash., a boatbuilding facility 10 times the size of their previous building.

The Aliotti Enterprises crew built a pair of gillnetters the 2019 Bristol Bay season — the Anna Maria and the North Coast. Currently four 32' x 15' 6" Bristol Bay gillnetters are being built and will be finished in time for the 2020 season. They will be almost identical to the Anna Maria and the North Coast. That includes being powered with a pair 500-hp FPT EVO engines matched up to UltraJet 340 HT water jets, and the 13 fish holds, each packing 2,200 pounds.

Aliotti likes the twin jet arrangement for the maneuverability it gives his gillnetters, as opposed to a single jet, plus the power the FPT engines and UltraJets provide to get up on step with a load of fish. Last season, he says, the Anna Maria and the North Coast got on step with 10,000 pounds onboard, while running at 24 to 25 knots.

There will be a couple of differences between the Anna Maria, the North Coast and the boats being built. The new boats, like the earlier gillnetters, will have Pacific West Refrigeration 10-ton RSW systems, but they will be the keel cooler models. “We are in the sand so much it helps with raw-water cooling,” said Aliotti.

After a number of people had been telling Aliotti the top house “looked a little skinny,” he is widening the top house by 8 inches. At the same time, the windows have been lowered by 4 inches.

“I was able to make the cabin a little bit bigger,” he said, “without sacrificing the visibility that I feel makes my boats really safe.”

For the coming Bristol Bay season one of the four gillnetters is being sold to a Washington fisherman; Aliotti, his nephew and a fisherman who works for Aliotti will operate the other three gillnetters.

After the season those three boats will be sold.

That’s not unusual for Aliotti. “I’ll fish them one season and at

A

Giddings Boatworks

By Michael Crowley

The Collier Brothers is going back in the water after Giddings Boatworks pushed its beam out from 24 feet to 34 feet.

the end of the season sell them.” He reasons that owning the boats he builds “helps us be more efficient in the shop. If we have a bunch of people coming in and checking out their boats and making little changes, it actually slows us down a bit on production.”

The Collier Brothers, an 84' 2" x 24' steel dragger out of Portland, Ore., that was built in 1978 at Gulf Coast Marine Builders in Bayou La Batre, Ala., arrived at Giddings Boatworks on Sept. 18.

A little more than five months later, on Feb. 25, she left the Charleston, Ore., boatyard after being sponsoned out to 34 feet. The boat’s owner “wanted a more stable platform,” says Wayne Garcia, Giddings’ Continued on page 33

Continued on page 43 F/V Collier Brothers

Aliotti Enterprises is building two Bristol Bay gillnetters, a wheelhouse for a third gillnetter and a pleasure boat (lower right).

Aliotti Enterprises

“Master the Waves of your Future, at Giddings Boat Works, turn your vision into sheer reality in just five short months.”

63106 Troller Road | Charleston, Oregon 97420 541-888-4712 | giddingsboatworks@gmail.com www.giddingsboatworks.com

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 31 Giddings_NF20_May.indd 1

3/12/20 10:28 AM

AROUND THE YARDS

NORTHEAST

Rebuilding a Duffy after more than 30 years; repairs and newbuilds at Feeney Boatshop

By Michael Crowley

After basically being rebuilt, the Salty Cod is ready to go back lobstering.

t was better than the day she was built.” That’s what the owner of the Salty Cod told Bruce Farrin after he took delivery of his boat this past fall. The Salty Cod, a fiberglass 35 Duff y lobster boat out of Friendship, Maine, was built in the 1980s, and after more than 30 years of lobstering needed a lot of help when she showed up at Farrin’s Boatshop in Walpole, Maine.

It started with “stripping her right down to the washrails,” says Farrin. That included removing the plywood and oakframed wheelhouse and then building a new one, rebuilding the cuddy cabin and replacing the washrails forward of the steering bulkhead. The hull itself was in good shape. “She had been bumped

I

32 National Fisherman \ May 2020

a couple of times, but never damaged heavily.”

The cockpit deck, which Farrin says,

Feeney Boatshop

Farrin’s Boatshop

Racked by 30-some years of lobstering, the Salty Cod, a 35 Duffy, arrived at Farrin’s Boatshop needing a lot of work.

“for some reason was still good,” only had to be refastened with stainless steel screws.

New shafting was installed, and “there was pretty much all new plumbing, new hoses, new wiring.” The Salty Cod was repowered at Art’s Marine Services in Owls Head, Maine, with a 300-hp John Deere, prior to arriving at Farrin’s Boatshop.

Farrin’s Boatshop has had several older lobster boats similar to the Salty Cod. “I call them complete rebuilds,” Farrin says.

Despite the cost of such a project, “it does save the guys money in the long run.”

A boat as yet unmarked with the daily scars of lobstering is a 45 Young Brothers built as a bare hull at S.W. Boatworks in Lamoine, Maine, before being trucked to Farrin’s Boatshop to be fi nished off.

When launched — probably at the end of March — for a Harpswell, Maine, fi sherman, the 45-footer will hit the water with a 750-hp John Deere and a split wheelhouse. It will be all composite construction with lobster tanks below the deck amidships. Farrin describes it as an “off shore dayboat” whose owner “plans on long days but not overnight.” When she doesn’t get in until late at night or if a night is spent off shore, the crew can take advantage of a 10-kW Northern Lights genset for lighting and running electric pumps in the lobster tanks.

Feeney Boatshop in Cutler, Maine, has a number of boats in for repairs and a couple of new boats to build. Two older lobster boats, a 27-foot H&H and a 31foot BHM — both from Jonesboro, Maine

A 50-foot Dixon (left) is at Feeney Boatshop for deck work, and a 34 Libby is getting a new deck.

www.nationalfisherman.com

AROUND THE YARDS

Around the Yards: Northeast

Around the Yards: West

Around the Yards: South

Continued from page 32

Continued from page 31

Continued from page 30

— are in for new decks. Feeney Boatshop’s Patrick Feeney figures the H&H is about 15 years old. He’s not sure how long the BHM has been fi shing, but long enough in both cases for poor ventilation to have rotted out the plywood and wood-framed decks. They will be replaced with pressure treated framing and plywood and fiberglass decks.

A 50-foot Dixon out of Machiasport, Maine, came in the fi rst week in February.

(It’s 45-foot Dixon with a 5-foot stern extension.) She’s getting a new layer of rubber on the deck and some minor repairs, including fi xing a crack in the exhaust.

A Cutler lobsterman’s 45 Guimond was in having a winterback added to the wheelhouse, a new stuffi ng box and some “little repairs,” says Feeney. (Guimond boats are not that well known in this country, but they have been built by the Canadian company Guimond Marine. For a brief period, starting about 2014, the owner tried building boats for the U.S. market in Eastport, Maine, adopting the name Millennium Marine in the process.

Though the U.S. venture didn’t work out, the name Millennium Marine was retained. It is based in New Brunswick.)

Among the new boats to be built at Feeney Boatshop is a 44 Calvin from S.W. Boatworks that will have a splitwheelhouse and below deck storage tanks.

Feeney isn’t sure what the engine will be, but the owner is “leaning towards a 750-hp John Deere.” Construction should start in late spring.

Then there’s a Mitchell Cove 20 and a Mitchell Cove 35 to build. Both are lobster boats. (Feeney Boatshop has the Mitchell Cove 20, 32, 35 and 37 molds.)

The Mitchell Cove 35 is for a Cutler, Maine, fi sherman and will be completed this summer with a Scania 650-hp engine.

The Mitchell Cove 20 will be powered with a 115-hp outboard. Layup started the second week in February, and she should be completed by the fi rst of May. It’s the sixth or seventh outboard powered Mitchell Cove 20 that Feeney has built.

motor. The boat is used in Virginia’s haul general manager.

The project was initiated in early Au- seine and crab pot fisheries.

The 24- to 27-foot DLX Carolina Skiff gust when the Collier Brothers owner, a longtime customer at Giddings, contacted series are favorites of commercial fishermen the boatyard and said, “I want my boat to and are used in the blue crab, fi nfish, oysbe wider, and I need to have it happen fast.” ter and lobster fisheries. The DLX series is a Giddings agreed, but the manner in which patented hull design with bow splash guards the sponsoning was done, while once com- to help keep the boat dry from splash over bow. The DLX also has positive tracking mon, is relatively unheard of these days.

Seattle naval architect Bruce Culver keels on the running surface, keeping the drew up the plans for the sponsoning. How- boat tracking true while maneuvering withever, instead of lofting, precutting and form- out the typical fl at-bottom slide.

The Carolina Skiff is particularly popuing steel plating for the sponsoning, “this was a stick-built style sponsoning job,” says lar in the spring/summer peeler crab fishery Wayne Garcia, Giddings general manager. in North Carolina, South Carolina, Mary“Straight old-school batten sticks and tape land, Virginia and Georgia. Crabbers work measure.”The batten sticks form the shape of peeler pots to catch peelers, which are crabs the sponsons and then steel is cut by hand to almost ready to molt into soft-shell crabs.

Watermen follow the runs of peelers from meet the shape of the batten sticks.”

The Giddings crew didn’t have any one river to another. Carolina Skiffs can be problem with this building style since some trailered easily, which enables watermen to of them have been at the boatyard for 40 move boats and gear in a timely manner.

The Deltaville, Va., boatyard owner years, and they would tell Garcia how they did it in the past with batten sticks and tape Ruse bends over backwards to accommomeasures: “There was no engineering, just a date commercial fishermen. Whether commercial fishermen work out of large steel couple of drawings,” they told him.

Ten days after work started, bulkheads hull menhaden boats, wooden 42-foot deadfor the new sponson plating had been laid rise boats or a 24-foot Carolina Skiff, Ruse out, cut by hand and welded to both sides always seems to fi nd a spot on his busy boatof the hull. Garcia says the Collier Brothers yard to accommodate watermen. owner “couldn’t believe” how little time it took.

New fuel tanks were built into the sponsons, increasing capacity from 10,000 to 23,000 gallons.

Besides going back to the Alaska and Oregon fish42' Stormi Gayle ing grounds with a more stable hull, Giddings built the Collier Now accepting orders for hulls, Brothers a new gantry kits and complete boats. that Culver designed.

We offer twelve models from 25' to 47' It also has refurbished 932 U.S. Route 1, Steuben, Maine 04680 towing winches from Phone: (207) 546-7477 Fax: (207) 546-2163 Rapp Marine and a www.hhmarineinc.com new net reel.

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

Brian Robbins

H&H MARINE, INC.

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 33

BOATS & GEAR: PRODUCTS

Product Roundup

Unobtrusive flotation Put it on and forget about it

By Brian Hagenbuch he new A/M-33 All Clear Automatic/Manual Inflatable from Kent is designed to be put on and forgotten about — until you need it, which is hopefully never, of course. Kent took pains to make this Coast Guard-approved PFD as unobtrusive as possible.

“We’re trying to continually develop flotation that people will don and never feel like they need or want to take it off because it’s uncomfortable. It’s comfortable whether they are standing, working, leaning over a deck, or sitting. As a result, once they put it on, they will leave it on,” said Bruce Brown, the head of sales at Kent.

The sleek vest is sculpted to the body so the user does not feel any pressure against

T

the neck. A 1.5-inch webbing V-back sits lightly on the body and connects to a simple snap waistband of the same gauge webbing, making it easy to put on. Highly adjustable, it can accommodate chest sizes from 30 to 62 inches, which means it is suited for burly fishermen or for wear over layers of cold weather gear.

“I wore one of these 14 hours a day for 10 days on a Pacific passage this summer, and it was unbelievably easy to put it on and forget about it,” Brown said.

Kent also took design pains to reduce snag hazards. All excess strap ends can be neatly tucked into webbing locks, and the manual inflation is activated by a low-profile clip fixed to the front of the vest.

Kent’s new vest is high buoyancy, low profile.

Kent has replaced snaggy Velcro with a double YKK Quikburst zipper that pops open when flotation is deployed. A new bobbin-based inflation system employs a user-friendly threaded cylinder, and the user can look through a clear window on the front of the vest and see from a single indicator that the jacket is ready to inflate.

If the window shows a green tab, that means the bobbin and CO2 cylinder are ready to go. After it has been deployed, it is easy to rearm and repack to get it back in action.

KENT

www.kentsafetyproducts.com

Advanced tracking Real-time video and environmental data at point of catch

By Brian Hagenbuch DigiCatch keeps a close eye inside trawl nets.

computer in your trawl net? With computers just about everywhere else, start-up SmartCatch thinks it is time the fishing industry caught up.To that end, they have spent years developing DigiCatch, a real-time HD video, lighting, and sensor system that gives captains immediate, granular feedback on what is happening in the net.

There are a ton of advantages to all this, but one of the first, according to CEO and SmartCatch co-founder Mark Dahm, is fishermen’s bottom line.

“The captains love it. It’s better than analog because there are inherent delays with analog sensors. With digital it’s real-time, and they can make the adjustments to improve their catch per unit effort efficiency,” said Dahm,

T A

34 National Fisherman \ May 2020

who founded the company along with entrepreneur and CTO Rob Terry. “It makes that standard equation of fuel consumption, labor and horsepower more efficient.”

The point-of-catch video enables reliable speciation and allows for shorter test tows, letting captains know definitively when they are scooping up bycatch and allowing them to make adjustments on the fly.

After years of beta testing on the West Coast and in Alaska, Dahm said DigiCatch is finding its footing in the trawl fisheries, with several systems sold in groundfish fisheries and mid-ocean pelagics like pollock.

And then there is the data registered by DigiCatch. This data, owned by DigiCatch users, is uploaded to the cloud and can have multiple uses.

“The biomass of protein has the greatest value, of course, but we believe that as we add more data about the catch and the environmental conditions, that also creates an additional value that can be carried forward to the processor and even to buyers who want to get a forward view on what’s being captured,” Dahm said.

Dahm said they have spoken with major processors who expressed they could use the technology to get quick, reliable information from the fleet to optimize their equipment for grading, cutting, heading and filleting.

SMARTCATCH

www.smart-catch.com

www.nationalfisherman.com

AT A GLANCE

High pressure and near-vacuum access plates can be knuckle-busting nightmares and can prevent deckhands from getting a quick a look at what is going in the engine room. The DP60 HIGH-TORQUE ACCESS PLATE from BECKSON MARINE has a clear center that provides a sight line to check gauges and other functions. Then, when the hatches do need to come off, a 1-inch groove accommodates quick and easy opening with any 1-inch round handle. The DP60 is not built to withstand foot traffic.

BECKSON MARINE

www.beckson.com

A compact new receiver and antenna from VERATRON packs GPS, GLONASS and Galileo capacity into a radome just 2.4 inches wide by 0.75 inches high. Despite its size, the VERATRON GO boasts 72-channel reception, a refresh rate of 10Hz, and is compatible with SBAS-WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS and GAGAN. The antenna housing is made of strong thermoplastic, and the unit gets an IPX7 rating for weather. The GO is NMEA 2000 certified, and set-up is easy, with plug-and-play installation into the NMEA backbone.

Japanese maker ASANO has released its updated AUTO SHACKLE TYPE 2S, an improvement over its already solid Type 2 shackle. This model can be opened and closed by a string attached to the main body or by a spike, keeping hands at a distance when the heavily loaded gate releases. A shock absorbing groove takes some of the impact out of the gate as well, and the shackle’s U gate hinge and pin have all been made thicker and square shaped to withstand heavier loads.

FENDERTEX FENDERS provide a lightweight, easily storable alternative to bulky PVC bags. These textile fenders are built to withstand high abrasion and pressure, but are up to 95 percent lighter than PVC fenders and up to 40 percent lighter than other inflatables.

They come with stainless D-rings on both ends and can be hung vertically or horizontally. They can be deflated and rolled for storage, and peersonalized with embroidered neoprene covers or knit graphics straight on the textile.

ASANO

FENDERTEX

www.asano-metal.co.jp

www.fendertex.eu

Another great space-saving and organizing tool from DAVIS INSTRUMENTS: the QUICK FIST and SUPER QUICK FIST. These one-piece, wall-mounting rubber clamps are built to secure a wide range of boat essentials, from fire extinguishers to gaff hooks to paddles and tools. The transportation-grade rubber is UV-resistant and can withstand temperature extremes.

Each Quick Fist can hold up to 22 pounds of gear from 0.5 to 2.5 inches in diameter, while Super Quick Fist can hold up to 50 pounds at 2.5 to 7.5 inches in diameter.

As LED lights continue to revolutionize marine lighting, HELLA MARINE is adding to its line with the NAVILED 360 PRO ALL-AROUND NAVIGATION LIGHTS, a new design of low-profile, high-visibility lights with sturdy Grilamid lenses. As with all LEDs, they use very little power — just 1.5 watts — and are long-lasting, with 10,000 hours of operation. The lights come in red, green or white, and are prewired with 1.5 meters of marine-grade twin-core cable for easy installation.

VERATRON

DAVIS INSTRUMENTS

HELLA MARINE

www.veratron.com

www.davisinstruments.com

www.hellamarine.com

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 35

CLASSIFIEDS

CLASSIFIEDS

BOATS FOR SALE BOATS FOR SALE

1997 Island Hopper 58’ x 24’ Steel Limit Seiner 2018 Equipped with a Cummings C 350 Hpsets.

Engine Twin 8.9 Cummins, 80/40/12KW Gen Removable aft Total hours: approx 3,000 cabin with additional living quarters for charter or family, Large Fishing Wellis 150,000lbs, shallow draft-48”, two fish hold capacity Tacklechillers, Center 7 ton flash freeze system. Sleeps 12 in 6 25ton Stern rooms, Thruster state 4 steering stations, 4 heads/showers, sauna, Much more... hydronic heating. Galvanized cranes, mast, and crows nest, 1000 lb Navy Anchor, vessel weight is 200,000 lbs., 16” Price: $70,000 bow thruster, trans vac pump. Apitong decking on stainless Contact: 631-587-8670 or Email dan@simssteel.com support members. Fully outfitted to seine, tender, or charter, current contracts on vessel.

42 ft Fiberglass Freezer Troller 42 ft Fiberglass Freezer Troller

Reduced Price!! – AKKO CHAN, 42 ft Fiberglass Freezer AKKO CHAN, 42 ft Fiberglass Freezer Troller Very clean, Troller, Very clean, well-maintained. Brand new John Deere well-maintained. Brand new John Deere 240 hp engine in240 hp engine installed 2017, new gear, twin disc, new exstalled 2017, new gear, twin disc, new exhaust and tail shaft; haust and tail shaft; lots of fishing gear included. This vessel lots of fishing gear included. This vessel is ready to fish. is ready to fish.

Price: $180,000 (CDN). Serious inquiries only.

Price: $175,000 (CDN). or 250-637-1997 Contact: 250-559-4637 Contact: Call 250 559 4637 or 250 637 1997

Price: $4,100,000 Contact: 907-717-4427

How to place a Classified ad?

You can place a classified advertisement National SPORTFISH Fisherman by using one of 46 ftinWESMAC 2005 thewith following Cat C18 803 hp 1400 hrs.methods: Extended warranty to 3500 hrs Or March 2021, 18-20 knot cruise @80% load,750 gal. fuel. 9k generator, 3 stations, 4 plotters, 2 1 heat pumps,water maker, 600 lb. ice maker, 3 fighting chairs, Rupp outriggers. ONLINE You can place your ad 24 hours a day, 7 days a week online at www.nationalfisherman.com 2

By Phone or Email You may place your ad, correct or cancel by calling 800-842-5603 or email our classifieds sales rep wjalbert@divcom.com Price: $575,000 Contact: Call Bill @ 252-241-2651 or email at: a1a.bvs@gmail.com 36 National Fisherman \ May 2020 To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

31’ JC East Coast 1979 Lobster Boat Split hull design, Wheelhouse raised about 16”, New B Series, Turbo Road 250h Cummins with 1500 hrs. Two bunks. 12” crab block and davit. Furuno radar model, a 1622 Furuno GPS navigator ICOM, ICOM 45 VHF, Garman GPS map 2006, ComNav auto pilot w/ exterior joystick, AM/FM CD player w/ interior & exterior speakers, Deck lights, new large electrical panel, 3 access points to engine room, two 8D batteries, Dripless shaft packing, Three blade bronze prop. VOLVO ENGINE- CTAMB 63L, 236 HP @2500 RPM, 1450 Bobtail, merries up to a #3 bell house, 7000 plus hours - $12,500. POSSIBLE TRANSMISSION AVAIL- Twin Disc 506- $4300.00 Price: $68,000 Engine: $12,500 Contact: Doug 805-218-0626 www.nationalfisherman.com January 2020 \ National Fisherman 41

CLASSIFIEDS

BOATS FOR SALE

2008 30’ Lobster Boat for Sale

Newly Build 58’ Hogan Steel Seiner

I have a 2008 30ft lobster boat for sale. Its 25ft with a 5ft extension. Its 10ft wide on the outside of the washboards. It has a 4 cylinder 85hp perkins diesel. Boat is in great shape and comes with all electronics. Has autopilot chart plotter radar vhf and CD player. Boat is great on fuel, burns about 50litres a day and goes about 7knot at 2200rpm. Has a 12inch hauler and a electric clutch.

This newly built Seiner/Charter Vessel, semi-displacement steel boat is equipped to be versatile in the fishing industry as well as a research or charter vessel. Built by a reputable builder in Washington and was completed in late 2017. The Twin 350HP Cummins engines and 3 generator all have Low hours. The large deck and 24’ beam make it a great seiner or tender with a 150,000 lb. hold.

Also includes a 24′ x 18′ Removable cabin.

Price: $32,000 (CDN).

Price: $2,350,000

Contact: Pete - Cell 506-650-8816

Contact: Dave – 907-209-6136 or thehelm@alaskaboatbrokers.com

How to place a Classified ad?

You can place a classified advertisement in National Fisherman by using one of the following methods:

1 ONLINE You can place your ad 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. online at www.nationalfisherman.com

2

By Phone or Email

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

You may place your ad, correct or cancel by calling 800-842-5037 or email our classifieds sales rep

LOBSTER TANK ROOM & BUYING STATION Available in Portland, Maine. Lobster tank room & buying station. Concrete tank will float 125 crates. Can be double stacked in tank. Contact Ian Mayo at #(207)210-8335 or call General Marine Construction at (207) 772-5354.

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

Wendy Jalbert wjalbert@divcom.com

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 37

CLASSIFIEDS

LAW

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

BUSINESS FOR SALE BOAT BUILDING & FIBERGLASS FABRICATION Southeast coastal North Carolina.

Complete operation. 15 thru 22ft.

In active production owner retiring.

Call Pete at: 910-675-1877

Business for Sale!!

Myrtle Beach S.C.

Long term established seafood restaurant in Myrtle Beach South Carolina.

Private event room, lots of seating with two full commercial kitchens.

843-267-3473 ⬧ mrfish@mrfish.com

HELP WANTED

South Pacific Tuna Corporation is currently seeking qualified and experienced individuals for the following positions aboard a Class Six purse seine fishing vessel: MASTER CHIEF ENGINEER CHIEF MATE For details, please refer to our webiste www.sopactuna.com or contact: Robert Virissimo bobbyv@sopactuna.com

Place a Help Wanted Ad! Call Wendy (207) 842-5616 wjalbert@divcomcom

**LOOKING FOR A USCG LICENSED CHIEF ENGINEER** For an uninspected fishing vessel, a Tuna Purse Seine operation with 4000HP and 1500 MT Cargo Capacity. Must hold a current USCG Engineer’s License, have a minimum 3 years experience with this type of operation. This Full Time position operating out of American Samoa and several other Western Pacific Ports and Requires experience and working knowledge of EMD and CAT engines, R717 Refrigeration / Freezing system, Hydraulic Systems, etc.Please submit Resume and license info to PPFisheries@gmail.com

MARITIME INJURIES LATTI & ANDERSON LLP

Over 50 years experience recovering multimillion dollar settlements and verdicts representing Fishermen, Merchant Seamen, Recreational Boaters, Passengers and their Families nationwide.

CALL 1-800-392-6072 to talk with Carolyn Latti or David Anderson

www.lattianderson.com HELP WANTED Seeking potential US Licensed Chief Engineers and Mates

MATES/CHIEF ENGINEERS WANTED Tradition Mariner LLC is looking for qualified Mates and Chief Engineers to serve aboard their fleet of 1000 ton to 1400 ton capacity High Seas Tuna Vessels for extended voyages at sea.

For more information, please visit our website:

www.traditionmariner.com

38 National Fisherman \ May 2020

That have experience operating and maintaining large scale tuna purse seiners operating in the South Pacific. Carrying capacity of the vessel is 1600MT of Tuna and trip lengths vary from 30 to 60 days. Contract is on a trip by trip basis.

Please contact: schikami@westpacfish.com www.nationalfisherman.com

CLASSIFIEDS

MARINE GEAR

Got Crabs?

Keel Coolers Trouble free marine engine cooling since 1927!

THE WALTER MACHINE CO, INC Tel: 201-656-5654 • Fax: 201-656-0318 www.waltergear.com

NETTING

Spotted Prawns? Lobsters?

Call for Volume Discount!

The Trap can't rust, won't rot, resists marine growth, and is not subject to electrolysis.�

Fathoms Plus, Inc.

Phone: (619) 222-8385

Used Notus Trawlmaster!!

◼

Email: FathomsPlus@cox.net

www.FathomsPlusTraps.com

In Service 2014—2015 (2 years)

Net monitoring system for Commercial Trawling. Unit uses a hydrophone and two door sensors to monitor temperature, depth, obstacles and net capacity/ haul. $23,000

Used Furuno Marine Radar:

Model 1942 Mark-2. In service 2009.

In good condition with only 1600 hours of transmit time.

RSB-0070 Antenna included. $1500.00

CALL 931-626-1250 —Alaska

HART SYSTEMS, INC. THE TANK TENDER The Original Tank Measuring System Made in the USA by Hart Systems, Inc. Since 1982 ACCURATE tank measurement made easy when just one TANK TENDER measures from 1 to 10 water, diesel and holding tanks.

Pneumatic, long term reliability, no electricity, no batteries.

Easy installation and operation.

THE L ARGEST

COMMERCIAL FISHING SUPPLY IN USA.

253-858-8481 - www.thetanktender.com

Since 1982 we are a leading provider in quality commercial fishing supply in the United States. We warehouse a huge selection of ready to ship products

SHOP NOW AT WWW.LEEFISHERFISHING.COM For further questions, please call 800.356.5464 or email graymond@leefisherintl.com

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 39

CLASSIFIEDS

MARINE GEAR Working Fishermen

®

Our Goal is to Exceed Your Expectations

OceanMedix® The Source For Medical, Emergency & Safety Equipment - Since 2006 http://www.OceanMedix.com 1-866-788-2642

Fishing Vessel Medical Kits

●

Coastal & Offshore Configurations

Available in Three Sizes

PARTS ● SALES

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432 Warren Ave Portland, ME 04103 Phone (207) 797-5188 Fax (207) 797-5953

90 Bay State Road Wakefield, MA 01880 Phone (781) 246-1811 Fax (781) 246-5321

N-Virodredge™ USA N-Viro scallop dredge… Anything else is a drag!

• Cleaner catches • Less bottom impact (207) 726-4620 office (207) 214-3765 cell ◼

• Saves fuel • Protects junvenile stock 736 Leighton Pt. Rd., Pembroke, Me. 04666

www.n-virodredgeusa.com ◼ tim@gulfofme.com Protected under International patent application No. PCT/GB2009/002002

COMMERCIAL GEAR Catalog Available

 Exsum Monofilament  Siltlon & Marinmax Monofilament  Dexter Russell Knives

1112 Main Street Sebastian, FL 32958 (772) 589-3087 Fax (772) 589-3106

www.snlcorp.com

 Grundens ® Foul Weather Gear  Mustad ® & Eagle Claw ® Hooks  Chemilure Lightsticks

◼

Email: snlcorp@bellsouth.net

Inshore and Offshore Fishing Gear (800) 330-3087 AK, HI, PR, US VI (800)824-5635

Same Day Shipping!!

40 National Fisherman \ May 2020

CONCH Processor for Sale

Two individual motors for cracking conch, 3-phase or 220, ready to go.

Asking $20,000 firm.

CALL WAYNE

252-725-3129 www.nationalfisherman.com

CLASSIFIEDS

MARINE GEAR PARACHUTE SEA ANCHORS From PARA-TECH,the NUMBER 1 name in Sea Anchors Sea Anchor sizes for boats up to 150 tons Lay to in relative comfort and safety with your bow INTO the weather Save fuel, save thousands due to “broken trips”

PARA-TECH ENGINEERING CO.

On Sale!

1580 Chairbar Rd. • Silt, CO 81652 (800) 594-0011 • paratech@rof.net • www.seaanchor.com

P-Sea WindPlot II

DEPENDABLE 12 VOLT ELECTRIC TRAP HAULERS

ELECTRA-DYNE CO.

This Windows program turns any IBM computer into a chart plotter that displays our library of bathy. charts, FREE NOAA BSB raster charts, Navionics and C-Map MAX vector charts with tide and currents. Interfaces with GPS, ARPA radar, AIS, temp. or depth. Track and record other vessels paths with the ARPA/RADARpc option. Features include: virtually unlimited waypoints, marks and tracks. NOAA Fishing Logbook. Boundary builder for setting fishing zones. Vessel and cursor positions can be set for either TD’s or Lat/Long. with TD grid overlay TD to Lat/Long conversions with optional ASF correction table for GPS/TD accuracy. See the sea bottom in 3D with the 3D option or rebuild the bottom in 3D with the P-SeaBed Builder option. Record bottom hardness, roughness, biomass and temperature down to one hundredth of a degree with the new P-Sea FishFinder option and the Koden 1000 watt dual-frequency sounder module. See for yourself all of the latest features and download the online demos via our website now or call for a mailed CD or dealer referral at 800-88-RADAR.

quick

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BEST BRONZE PROPELLER Sick of pitted and pink props after one session?

Ours hold the pitch longer and recondition more times than the brand name props you have been buying and reconditioning every year for the few years they last. Built to your specs not taken off theshelf and repitched or cutdown.

(781) 837-5424 or email at twindiscgears@verizon.net

TWIN DISC MARINE TRANSMISSIONS, CATERPILLAR & CUMMINS ENGINES & PARTS. New and rebuilt, Biggest selection of used ENG & Gear parts in the world.

Worldwide shipping.

Best pricing. Call Steve at Marine Engine & Gear 781-837-5424 or email at twindiscgears@verizon.net

NEW! P-Sea FishFinder with Hardness and Roughness

P-Sea Software Co.

P.O. Box 1390, Morro Bay, CA 93442 USA Ph. order dept: (800) 887-2327 • Ph. Info: (805) 772-4396 • Fax: (805) 772-5253 E-mail: info@p-sea.com • Internet: www.p-sea.com

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STRONGEST Rope Eye 2,0 bre 00lbs + stre aking ng th

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To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

(New) SpinClearView S-300 Commercial grade marine clear view 12V window. Used on yachts, fishing, police, military, commercial vessels. The SpinClearView S-300 keeps a glass disk free of rain, snow and sea water by a nearly silent and fast rotation of 1500 rpm. $1,995.00 view more on www.ebay.com/ itm/172755728984 or Contact: david@satinbiz.com 707-322-9720

CATCH A DOORMAT THIS SEASON.These lifelike, beautifully detailed coarse bristled mats will catch anyone’s eye on home/business doorstep, dock or cockpit.

Ideal fisherman, boaters gift. Fluke (brown, black) small (30”) $19.95, Large (43”) $36.95, Stripers (38” grey, black) $27.95, Red snappers (43” red, black) $28.95, Largemouth bass (43” green, black) $29.95, scallop (24” brown, black) $27.95. Send check or MO to A. McDonald, 629 Main St. Greenport, NY. 11944. MC or Visa accepted. Add $5.95 S&H to all orders. $10.95 Gulf/ West Coast, AK, HI. Retailers welcome. (631) 377-3040 May 2020 \ National Fisherman 41

CLASSIFIEDS

MARINE GEAR

Over 150 Floats to Choose From!

Regarded as the Best Floats in the Industry •

Consistent in size, weight, and buoyancy shipment after shipment.

•

Variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and buoyancies.

•

LIFESAVING MAN OVERBOARD EQUIPMENT START UP SEEKING PARTNERS. Ohio startup company with innovative patented technology seeking business partners, joint ventures, or other collaborative terms to commercialize lifesaving equipment for onboard marine and public safety agency water and ice rescue. Willing to relocate. Contact Phil Gerwig REDE Rescue Systems LLC pgerwig@rederescue.com or tel. 419-571-6591.

PVC, EVA, ABS, Styrofoam, and more.  Manufacturers of Hydraulic Deck Equipment: Pot Launchers, Crab Blocks, Trawl Winches, Net Reels, Sorting Table, Anchor Winches

1-800-332-6387 ext. 107 floats@fitecgroup.com www.fitecfloats.com

 Dockside Vessel Conversions and Repairs  Machining, Hydraulics and Fabrications  Suppliers of KYB Motors, Rotzler Winches, Pumps, Cylinders,

Hydrocontrol Valves, Hoses

Phone: 541-336-5593 - Fax: 541-336-5156 - 1-800-923-3625 508 Butler Bridge Road, Toledo, OR 97391

COMPETITIVE PRICES!!

Commercial Longline, Troll and Tuna fishing hooks

PERMITS PERMIT FOR SALE Longline permit, Tuna, incidental sword & shark 91' 166 ton. Call George 804-691-7021 $9,000.

Fresh Spot Prawns

WANTED: MA Tautog Permit Call Gregg at: 508-991-1299

All of our hooks are stainless steel and SHARP right out of the box!

Hooks Tested & Approved

by Alaskan fishermen!

For a list of distributors or to become a distributor go to:

www.qihooks.com

BLACK SEA BASS PERMIT: New Jersey Black Sea Bass Permit for pots. For boats up to 44’ and 300 hp.

Also federal posts and rod/reel. For more info please call or text Tom @ 732-322-7471 Area 1 Lobster Permit for Sale. $42,000 or best offer Call Dave at 207-557-6161

SERVICES

Ocean run spot prawns caught in southeast Alaska.

PLACE YOUR ORDER TODAY FOR THIS FRESH DELICACY!!!

100 lb. minimum

907-401-0158

SERVICES

Complete vessel documentation service to USCG regulations NMFS ◼ Permit Transfers

(207) 596-6575

342 Gurnet Road, Brunswick, ME 04011

coastaldocumentationii@gmail.com

WANTED Wanted To Buy. Offshore Live Lobsters.

Top Dollar $$ Paid.

Call Pier 7 (located on Gloucester waterfront)

John (617)268-7797

42 National Fisherman \ May 2020

www.nationalfisherman.com

CLASSIFIEDS

ADVERTISER INDEX Alaska Marine Safety Education Assn.........12

Simrad Fisheries ...........................................29

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute ......... CV2

La Conner Maritime Service ..........................9

Asano Metal Industry Co Ltd. ......................11

Marine Hydraulic Engineering Co Inc ............9

Duramax Marine LLC .....................................7

Marine Medical Systems ..............................18

Furuno USA ............................................... CV4

NET Systems Inc ..........................................13

Giddings Boat Works ...................................31

Pacific Marine Expo .................................. CV3

Grundens/Stormy Seas ................................25

R W Fernstrum & Company ...........................5

H & H Marine Inc...........................................33

SmartCatch, Inc. ...........................................27

Kinematics Marine Equipment Inc...............13

Williamson & Associates ..............................27

Kodiak Shipyard ...........................................19

XTRATUF.......................................................29

To subscribe, call 1-800-959-5073

May 2020 \ National Fisherman 43

Last

set

DUTCH HARBOR, ALASKA Taylor Strout and Ross Noy pick and mend the net in Dutch Harbor on the 150-foot pollock midwater trawler F/V Northern Defender for Global Seas out of Seattle.

Photo by Taylor Strout / www.ruggedseas.com

44 National Fisherman \ May 2020

www.nationalfisherman.com

Be a part of the largest and longest running commercial fishing and commercial marine tradeshow on the West Coast.

Source new products, catch up with old friends, and stay up-to-date on the latest industry news.

2020 DATES COMING THIS SPRING! Stay tuned for more details. pacificmarineexpo.com

NOVEMBER 2020 CenturyLink Field Event Center

Seattle, WA

Presented by:

Produced by:

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