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Since mid April Chinese naval vessels have been circling a pile of rocks situated 124 miles off the coast of the Philippines that barely qualifies as an “island”. The rocks are called the Scarborough Shoal and save for there position, and rumors of oil and gas under them, they have no value to anyone. Nevertheless it is precisely because they are so far from their own shore that the Chinese are trying to pressure the Filipinos into relinquishing their long held claim (since 1734) to Panatag as they call them. Moreover since the Scarborough Shoal at just 124 miles off...

Rogue N.Korean Soldiers Suspected in Hijack of Chinese Boats Three Chinese fishing boats that were seized by a small North Korean Navy boat on the West Sea on May 8 returned to Dalian Port at around 7 a.m. on Monday. The fishermen were given a health check immediately after they arrived. Three complained of extreme dizziness, and three others showed clear signs of external injuries, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Twenty eight Chinese fishermen had been abducted, not 29 as reported earlier. The owners of the Chinese fishing boats said the crew were taken to the coast of...

A record number of fish populations have been rebuilt in U.S waters, even as problems continue to threaten the future of the high-profile New England fishing industry, according to a federal report released Monday. Six species that were once considered overfished have rebuilt to optimal population levels in waters from the Bering Sea to the Atlantic Coast, according to the annual report to Congress by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries arm. The report also said just 45 of 219 fish populations (21 percent) were considered overfished in 2011. Still, 13 of those stocks are in New England. That's...

Nguyen Thanh Nhan in Binh Minh district, the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long last Friday caught a 2 kilo fish that has a jaw looking like a duck beak. According to Nhan, he was sitting on a boat on Hau River when he saw two strange fish rising up from the water. He used a net to catch one. Hearing about Nhan with the strange fish, locals throng his house to watch but no one could tell what kind of fish it is. Although having a body of a fresh water fish, it has a head looking like an...

BOSTON (AP) — Fisherman Lou Williams sees plenty of harbor porpoises, usually swimming in small pods well away from his boat, unlike the herds of lookalike dolphins that get close enough to ride his vessel's wake. A place Williams doesn't see many porpoises is his nets. "It's a rare occasion," said Williams, 55, who fishes out of Gloucester. "I don't think more than a couple this year." But federal regulators say far too many porpoises in the Gulf of Maine are drowning in fishing gear, specifically the stationary nets that Williams and other fishermen use, called gillnets. The estimated fatalities...

Wildlife officials in Maryland have put a bounty on the snakehead, the so-called "fish from hell" that can migrate on land and devastates the eco-systems of lakes, ponds and streams. The state will give out $200 gift cards for Bass Pro Shops as well as other prizes for catching and killing the fish, which is native to Africa and Asia but is believed to have made its way to America through Asian seafood merchants.

Bloopers during production of Bill Dance's show

Two commercial fishermen in Mexico received the surprise of a lifetime Sunday when they hauled up a great white shark measuring nearly 20 feet and weighing about 2,000 pounds, according to local news reports. The rare catch of such a large white shark -- at 20 feet it'd be among the longest ever recorded -- was made in Mexico's Sea of Cortez near Guaymas, by fishermen who thought they had merely scored a large haul of much smaller fish as they hoisted up their net."We were amazed and immediately realized that we had a huge, dead, great white shark, and...

MATAGORTA BAY, Matagorda County - For hours after their boat sank, Ken Henderson and Ed Coen treaded water in the Gulf of Mexico, talking about life and death while struggling to survive. For more than 30 hours, it worked. Then Henderson was forced to make a decision that would save his life, but not his best friend's. "This is the last-ditch effort, but I'm going to go for help or you're not going to make it," Henderson told Coen, just before cutting the strap that connected them in the deep, cold waters off the Texas coast. "I understand," Coen responded,...

Democratic Assemblyman Ben Hueso said Friday that he is dropping his effort to oust Fish and Game Commission President Dan Richards. Richards recently came under heavy fire from animal-rights groups and Democratic lawmakers after a photo in a hunting publication showed him posing with a mountain lion he shot in Idaho. Unlike in California, where voters banned killing cougars in 1990, Idaho allows the animals to be hunted. Critics said his actions, while not illegal, raised doubts about his ability to lead the commission. But hunting and fishing groups, as well as GOP lawmakers, have come to Richards' defense. Hueso,...

Bonus Stupidity: teasing your African Bullfrog FAIL: [YouTube] Those things tip the scales at 4-5 lbs! Video/more at Reaganite Republican h/t Robert

BOSTON(AP)— The federal government is paying Massachusetts sport fishermen to give up their fishing licenses for a year. Federal officials tell The Boston Globe that the offer isn't about reducing fishing, but is part of an experiment to calculate the loss if an environmental disaster forced sport fishing to stop.

Pat Judge, an avid sport fisherman, has been walking around with a $500 check in his pocket for a week, trying to decide whether to cash it. That’s because the money comes with a catch: Judge must agree to turn in his $10 recreational saltwater fishing license for the year. In an unusual experiment being conducted only in Massachusetts, the federal government is surveying anglers to figure out how much it would cost to persuade Judge and 1,899 others not to fish off the coast. But officials say the purpose is not to actually reduce fishing. Instead, they say, the...

Congrats on a new world champion from the Red River event just a minute ago. World champion and a cool $500,000 to go with it.

Last week saw the launching of this Weekly FR Boating Thread. 15 posts with 6 boating links – nice start! Launching ~ Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 1 ~ Jan. 27, 2012 Everyone is welcome to come aboard – come on it, the water is fine!This time of year almost all boaters are mired in the midst of ‘off-season’. What do you do to survive your ‘off season’? Listen to boating music, watch boating movies, surf boating YouTube and blogs, busy yourself with Winter boat upgrade and maintenance projects, catch up on non-boating stuff? Where you do your boating...

http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=8642

… Commercial fisherman Jonathan Robinson took issue with that. “Those resources belong to the public,” he said. “They’re not just exclusively for the rich, who can afford boats and trips to the coast. Commercial fishing is a channel that provides access to these resources for all the citizens — for the blacks in the cities and the poor working people in farm towns in North Carolina.” Commercial fisherman Chris McCaffity of Morehead City echoed his sentiment. “I recently had a disabled veteran thank me for defending his freedom to eat the fish he once caught himself,” McCaffity said. Over the...

SARASOTA, Fla. (CBS TAMPA) – A man fishing from his kayak a half-mile from Point of Rocks off Sarasota was shocked when a dog that was involved in a deadly DUI crash swam up to his boat terrified. Once pulled to safety, Barney shrunk into a corner of the small craft, shaking and traumatized over the event. He sustained minor injuries, including one to his paw and several cuts. The man brought Barney to a local vet, who used a tracking chip implanted in him to discover his owner was Donna L. Chen, who was struck by a Nissan Altima...

The giant Black Tiger shrimp that Ron Pockrus caught off the Texas coast might be the biggest threat to the $700 million Gulf shrimp industry to come along in years, marine biologists said. Pockrus, the owner of a 13-vessel shrimp fleet operating out of Brownsville, caught the 12-inch, 13-ounce specimen last week. Pockrus said he’s been aware of the species for about three years but hadn’t seen one. Now, he has turned in two to marine and wildlife officials this season. “I have another boat coming in with one on it now,” Pockrus said. “That makes the third one we’ve...

New England lawmakers are asking the U.S. Commerce Secretary for an emergency assessment of the abundance of cod in the Gulf of Maine. ... The six lawmakers also are asking Bryson to freeze the cod catch limit at its current level until the study is complete. Fishermen are facing devastating cuts in cod catch next year