Free Republic

Dec 13, 2011 4:10am South Korea Furious Over Illegal Chinese Boats Public anger in South Korea has escalated a day after a Chinese boat captain stabbed a South Korean coast guardsman to death and seriously injured another with a knife. The captain is charged with murder while resisting arrest by coastal police patrolling illegal Chinese fishing boats at the West Sea’s exclusive economic zone. In one indication of South Korean rage, a 34-year-old man smashed his SUV three times into a police bus guarding the Chinese Embassy inSeoul. And South Korean headlines today strongly criticized the increasing number Chinese fishermen...

Maine’s congressional delegation is supporting Gov. Paul LePage’s request seeking a federal fisheries disaster declaration to provide aid to Maine’s groundfishing fleet. ... His request followed a recent report documenting a sharp decline in Maine’s fishing fleet due to changes in federal fishery management plans.

For one New Bedford fisherman, the big one that got away was the one that was taken away -- by federal fisheries agents. Carlos Rafael, owner of Carlos Seafood, has 15 boats that hunt for groundfish like haddock and flounder, but they have tuna permits just in case. So when one of his captains called to report that his crew had caught an 882-pound tuna in their trawling gear about a week ago, Rafael thought he would legally be able to sell the fish. “I called the hotline for tuna to make sure I was doing everything by the books,”...

A catastrophic landslide 22,500 years ago dammed the upper reaches of northern California's Eel River, forming a 30-mile-long lake, which has since disappeared, and leaving a living legacy found today in the genes of the region's steelhead trout...about 60 miles southeast of Eureka. The river today is 200 miles long, carved into the ground from high in the California Coast Ranges to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean in Humboldt County. The evidence for the ancient landslide, which, scientists say, blocked the river with a 400-foot wall of loose rock and debris ... "Perhaps of most interest, the presence of...

Almost impossible to avoid slowing the pace down when you hear these two telling you to take it easy. What I love about the song is the reminder that in this modern world, when so much of our daily life appears to happen in the fast lane, there is a need to sometimes drop down through the gears and just unwind.

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown is calling on President Obama to fire the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, saying she’s worsened the fishing industry’s problems. Brown said Saturday in a press conference at the Gloucester waterfront that Obama should replace Jane Lubchenco. In a statement, Brown said Lubchenco was indifferent to the industry’s struggles and wrongly committed to a new management system he says is destroying fishing jobs.

Wilderness is clean, well-stocked, thanks to outdoor recreation communityIt is sad to admit that hardly anyone knows what the acronyms SCI, DU, NSSF, NWTF and RMEF stand for or what those organizations do. That’s not your fault but rather the hunting community’s dismal failure to conduct fundamental public relations. As public relations go, the hunting community couldn’t sell a blanket to a naked man in a blizzard. The accomplishments of SCI (Safari Club International), DU (Ducks Unlimited), RMEF (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation) and many other hunting/conservation organizations are extraordinary. But because of their failure at relating to the public, the...

Bass Pro Shops have developed a devoted following by packing cavernous stores full of rods and reels, camping and hunting gear, camouflageclothingandanimal trophy-heads. Behind the scenes, the retailer discriminates in hiring, the government said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday. Among the allegations: Bass Pro managers repeatedly refused to hire non-white workers as clerks, cashiers or managers, and used discriminatory language to explain their reasoning, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed its suit in federal district court in Houston. For instance, the government alleged a Bass Pro human-resources executive told federal investigators that the assistant ...

Janet Parker has a clear shot at becoming the first woman to compete in the Bassmaster Elite Series. From Little Elm, Texas, Parker said if she qualifies she won't hesitate to commit for the 2012 Elite Series season. "I am on top of the world," she said. "I can't tell you how excited I am to have this chance." Parker took a big step toward the Elite Series on Sept. 10 with a 10th-place finish on the Arkansas River in the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Central Open division. The high finish jumped her from sixth to second place in the...

Commercial fishermen will no longer have their regulatory cases heard by Coast Guard Administrative Law Judges. Instead, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that as of Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency ALJ’s will preside over all new fishing law enforcement cases. This measure is being taken in response to an inquiry made by the Inspector General into complaints by commercial fishermen that NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service’s regulatory system was being excessive with its penalties and actions. Jerry Slaff, NOAA public affairs officer, said the EPA will provide judges for regulatory cases for the next two years. He said NOAA...

Friends say Dan Dodds of Coupeville, WA, fought the big king salmon nearly 20 minutes, running up and down the beach at Keystone Spit and wading waist-deep into the water before finally landing the 28-pounder he called "the fish of my dreams." Minutes later, Dodds, 62, suffered an apparent heart attack and fell face down in the water. Efforts by fellow anglers to perform CPR failed, and he was pronounced dead at Whidbey General Hospital. "If I have to go, I’d like to go in that manner," said angler and friend Joe Biller. Whidbey News Times.

So the offer from Theophile Bourgeois was this: How'd you like to go fish Breton and Gosier islands Monday morning? My answer was: Not sure I've got the time Monday. Have an interview I can't miss (with an MRI machine). It's a two-hour drive to Venice, then a 45-minute boat ride. That means if we fish an hour or two, the round trip would total about eight hours. How about another day? That's when Bourgeois, owner/operator of Lafitte's Bourgeois Charters, went a little crazy -- which is a real warning for a guy who's already casting with a half-empty spool....

Recently NLPC reported that Walmart’s top “sustainability” adviser, who provided significant help in getting the company’s “Green” credibility with environmentalist groups in gear, was Jib Ellison – a former wilderness expeditionist and river guide, and author of a guide on whitewater rafting. The story of his relationship with Walmart, which began with the introduction of Ellison by Rob Walton (son of founder Sam) to former company CEO Lee Scott, is documented in the new book Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Walmart’s Green Revolution by Edward Humes.The passion for environmental concerns (which has also included foolish corporate support for...

Annette Gutierrez embarked on her first-ever fishing trip recently out of Valdez, Alaska, and returned with a monstrous Pacific halibut weighing 335.7 pounds and measuring 88 inches from mouth to tail -- or nearly two feet taller than the 5-foot-6 angler. Chalk it up to beginner's luck, or Lady Luck, but Gutierrez, a New Mexico resident who works seasonally in Alaska, has joined the elite few to have landed a "barn door" halibut topping 300 pounds. "It was insane to get such a very big fish my first time," said Gutierrez, in an interview last week with the Fairbanks Daily...

Michael Milken evokes thoughts of financial wisdom at a level far beyond that of an unsophisticated fishing industry essayist like me. So, when one of the sessions at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2009 is titled "Innovative Funding for Sustainable Fisheries and Oceans," I take notice. The panel for the fisheries session was moderated by Larry Bond, a consultant for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the speakers were David Crane, David Festa, Jerry Schubel, and Jason Winship. Two members from EDF and none from the fishing industry, oh, well. The audio of the session is fascinating, particularly that of...

A 4-year-old boy who was fatally shot while fishing with his father in northeastern Indiana was struck in the head by an errant bullet, a sheriff and a family friend said. Wells County Sheriff Monte Fisher told The Associated Press on Sunday that Jacob Michuda was shot in the head late Friday night while he and his father were fishing from a pier at a pond outside Ossian, a rural community about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne. Trisha Ulmer told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a Sunday story that the boy's mother told her the boy was...

Captains issue S.O.S., claiming new rules meant to save the fish are killing their way of life. With the height of the New England fishing season getting under way this week, small family fishermen say controversial new rules are destroying their livelihood — forcing them to sell their boats and instead search for work as laborers on larger vessels. “It’s a death knell. It’s the beginning of the end for small fishermen,” said Rhode Island fisherman Joel Hovanesian, 54, who recently sold his boat. Plymouth fisherman Stephen Welch, 50, a father of two, said: “We’re in a crisis right now.”...

One person was reported dead and eight others were missing Monday after a fishing boat carrying 27 U.S. tourists and 17 Mexican crew members capsized in rough seas in the Gulf of California, officials said. The tourists, most of them from California, were aboard the charter vessel Erik when a storm suddenly struck about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, hurling people into the water off San Luis Island, about 60 miles south of the Baja California port of San Felipe, the Mexican navy said. "The weather was calm, and then a strong wind came," said Dora Winkler, a spokeswoman with the Port...

As a lifelong commercial fisherman from Rhode Island who is involved with the regulatory process, I have one simple question to ask: Just what are we trying to accomplish with fish quotas? Federally, the science that drives the stock assessments and sets the quotas is so bad that industry has taken it upon itself to provide a better snapshot of many stocks of concern. Predictably, the picture is not nearly as dire as our federal scientists would lead us to believe. Recently, a side-by-side comparison was done, using the new multi-gazillion-dollar research vessel paid for with your tax dollars and...

Proposed Budget Cuts Threaten Fish Hatcheries and State Economies Proposed budget decreases at nine federal fish hatcheries could have a devastating effect on already fragile economies in states where these facilities are located. State fisheries managers in affected areas are asking anglers to contact their U.S. congressmen/women immediately to have the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reconsider shutting down mitigation stocking. The President's FY 2012 Budget calls for a reduction of $6.3 million to the USFWS fish hatchery mitigation operations, while its overall funding would be increased by almost $48 million. Mitigation activities will be cut or ended unless full...