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Feds: Right whales should remain on endangered list

Feds: Right whales should remain on endangered list

As the North Atlantic right whale nears the end of a year of dangerously high mortality, federal ocean regulators are calling for it to remain listed as endangered, according to a report released Friday. Less than 500 of the right whales exist, and scientists have said at least 15 of them have died since the spring off the coast of U.S. and Canada. Many of the deaths were attributed to vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s five-ye…
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Hawaii boat crash spurs new concerns about foreign fishermen

A boat that ran aground off Honolulu while transporting foreign fishermen to work in Hawaii’s commercial fishing industry has raised new questions about the safety and working conditions for foreign laborers in this unique U.S. fleet. A long, cramped journey to the United States for a group of fishermen from Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and Kiribati ended with a U.S. Coast Guard rescue last week after their fishing vessel smashed into a reef just off Waikiki’s shore. No one aboard the boat called for help after the crash. A 2016 Associated Press investigation revealed the Hawaii fleet exploits a loophole in federal law to employ men from impoverished Southeast Asian and Pacific nations for a fraction of the pay an American worker would get, with some making as little as 70 cents an hour. Under the law, U.S. citizens must make up 75 percent of the crew on most American commercial fishing boats. But in Hawaii, the loophole carved out to support one of the state’s biggest industries exempts commercial fishing boat owners from federal rules enforced almost everywhere else. The men do not have authorization to enter the United States, so they are confined to boats while docked in Honolulu and not eligible for most basic labor protections. The AP report revealed instances of abuse and claims of human trafficking among the fleet. When the Pacific Paradise ran aground just before midnight Oct. 10, eyewitnesses saw the wreck, and authorities raced to rescue the men with jet skis, boats and a helicopter. The 79-foot boat carried 19 foreign men and a captain, who officials say was the only U.S. citizen aboard. The 20 men were at sea for at least 12 days before they crashed, the minimum time it would take to get from American Samoa to Hawaii, according to two fishing industry experts. The Coast Guard would not confirm how long the vessel was at sea. Once rescued, the men met U.S. customs officials and were escorted to a pier to begin work on other boats. Customs and Border Protection said privacy restrictions prevented the agency from “disclosing the names of passengers, crew members and other law-abiding travelers,” spokesman Frank Falcon said in an email. Customs officials deny entry to foreign workers, but Hawaii uses federal forms stamped “refused” as proof that they are legally allowed to work after going through customs and therefore can be given fishing licenses, the AP found. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources provided fishing license records for the vessel, including the captain who was born in Vietnam and is now a U.S. citizen living in Hawaii and four foreign crew members. Hawaii state Rep. Kaniela Ing said he was concerned that only five fishing licenses were registered with the state. The 15 other workers “are completely unaccounted for, and we don’t know where they are and what they’re doing here,” he said. The vessel wasn’t carrying any fish when it crashed, the Coast Guard said. “The issue isn’t whether or not there’s evidence that they’re being trafficked, it’s that there’s no evidence to the contrary,” Ing said. “There’s nothing saying these folks are here legally and aren’t being exploited because there’s no record.” He tried in vain to get tightened regulations passed last year and may introduce legislation again but said the longline fishing industry is powerful because people love sushi. The boat is owned by Honolulu-based TWOL LLC. A man who answered a phone number associated with the company identified himself as part-owner David Tran and referred questions to his lawyer, Brian Ho. Ho refused to answer questions Wednesday. State Division of Aquatic Resources Administrator Bruce Anderson said it was unusual for a fishing boat to be in the crash area, which has no charted shipping lanes and where fishing isn’t allowed. “Either they missed the harbor or perhaps they had some mechanical problems and drifted ashore, or it was just careless seamanship, the captain was drunk or asleep or whoever was at the helm didn’t realize that they were as close to shore as they were,” Anderson said. The Coast Guard would not comment, citing its ongoing investigation. Steve Kokinos, president of Ocean Marine Brokerage Services in Louisiana, said the crash seemed suspicious. “If they’re not calling for help … they didn’t want authorities around them, they were hoping they could probably get it off or they could disappear into the night,” Kokinos said. He also thought it would be difficult to have 20 people on a vessel its size. “I would be surprised if there were more than 10 bunks, unless they had done some modifications to the boat,” Kokinos said, adding the conditions for the foreign workers were “probably deplorable.” Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association, an industry group, said officials closely monitor vessels when departing and returning to pick up crews. Boats must go to designated piers at the direction of state and federal officials and give 120 hours advance notice of arrival when returning from American Samoa with foreign crews, he said. The Hawaii fleet’s treatment of foreign fishermen has led environmental and advocacy groups to file a complaint with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, an autonomous body of the Organization of American States, which works to protect human rights. The U.S. is a member of that organization. The complaint asks the commission to determine the responsibility of the U.S. government for human rights abuses against foreign workers in Hawaii.
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79-foot fishing vessel runs aground off Oahu, 20 men rescued

79-foot fishing vessel runs aground off Oahu, 20 men rescued

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued 19 foreign fishermen and their American captain from a 79-foot (24-meter) U.S.-flagged commercial fishing vessel that ran aground off the shore of Waikiki Tuesday night. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Muir said Wednesday that officials are working to get diesel fuel off the boat, which carries 13,000 gallons (49,210 liters) of gas and hydraulic oils. There was no sign that any fuel or other hazardous materials had leaked into the water, Muir said. Officials di…
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You won’t need live bait anymore with this invention

Anglers want live bait to catch as much as you can out there. But it’s not always easy to snag a small, live fish, is it? Help is on the way from Boston based startup Magurobotics: Zombait. A play on the words “zombie” and “bait,” this newfangled tool is a robotic fishing lure which makes dead bait look alive and swimming. Just insert a Zombait electronic lure into the mouth of a dead fish, attach your hook, and watch it go. Magurobotics launched the device at the fishing expo ICAST i…
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Zinke: Open up first Atlantic monument to commercial fishing

Zinke: Open up first Atlantic monument to commercial fishing

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wants to open up the first marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing, according to a recommendation he made in a memo to President Donald Trump. Zinke’s memo touches on his recommendations for a host of national monuments, including Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Former President Barack Obama designated some 5,000 square miles (12,950 square kilometers) off New England as the marine monument about a year ago. Obama’s pro…
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Zinke recommendation to cut Cascade-Siskiyou questioned

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s recommendation to President Donald Trump recommending downsizing the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument has several errors, one of the people who was behind the creation of the monument said Monday. A memo from Zinke to the president justifying his recommendation that the boundaries of the monument, which lies mostly in Oregon and crosses over into California, be “revised” says motor vehicles aren’t allowed in it. “There are hundreds of roads inside this monument…
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Interior chief urges shrinking 4 national monuments in West

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending that four large national monuments in the West be reduced in size, potentially opening up hundreds of thousands of acres of land revered for natural beauty and historical significance to mining, logging and other development. Zinke’s recommendation, revealed in a leaked memo submitted to the White House, prompted an outcry from environmental groups who promised to take the Trump administration to court to block the moves. The Interior secretary’s pl…
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Ft. Lauderdale Beach Closed, Broward In Clean Up Mode

Ft. Lauderdale Beach Closed, Broward In Clean Up Mode

#FLPD 🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨The barrier island/Fort Lauderdale Beach is CLOSED to everyone until further notice #HurricaneIrma — Fort Lauderdale PD (@FLPD411) September 11, 2017 FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Now that Hurricane Irma’s wind, rain, and storm surge have subsided, cities have gone into damage assessment and clean up mode so they can get back up and running again. Ft. Lauderdale’s barrier island which has the city’s famous beach remains closed. Irma’s storm …
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Hurricane aftermath: Blumar hopes US imports to be at 100{c6e459f3f8a7f1c6715c33c2c736476ccfdba55c64391dd836a5f8397e034060} by Wednesday; Miami airport …

In nearly back-to-back days, multiple locations of geographic importance to the seafood industry have been smacked silly by hurricanes and are now struggling to recover. But more trouble could be on the way. Hurricane Irma devastated the Florida Keys, threatening to all but wipe out this year’s expected $50 million harvest of spiny lobsters, and closed down the Miami International Airport – one of the industry’s biggest distribution hubs — before taking strange twists and turns all over …
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Hurricane aftermath: Florida lobstermen spared by Irma, but unsure about traps; Camanchaca …

Enter the email address associated with your account. We’ll send you instructions to reset your password. In nearly back-to-back days, multiple locations of geographic importance to the seafood industry have been smacked silly by hurricanes and are now struggling to recover. But more trouble could be on the way. Hurricane Irma devastated the Florida Keys, threatening to all but wipe out this year’s expected $50 million harvest of spiny lobsters, and closed down the Miami International Airport – one of the industry’s biggest distribution hubs — before taking strange twists and turns all over South Florida and unexpectedly rolling up the western coast of the state. The disruption of Chilean salmon imports alone will prove costly, as the airport is used to transport hundreds of thousands of pounds of the fish every day. Miami’s ports and airports reportedly handle much more than half of all foreign-caught fresh salmon, tilapia and Mahi fillets coming into the US. Miami-based processors and importers told Undercurrent News they tried to slow imports as much as possible to avoid a logjam but are now relying on freezers to preserve some of their supply until transportation disruptions can be resolved.   Days earlier, Hurricane Harvey slammed into the center of the Texas Gulf Coast, once again doing damage to the state’s major shrimp and oyster fishing operations. They are fighting to recover, too, and seeking as much assistance as possible. But bad things come in threes and now sitting on the Atlantic Ocean with a good chance of targeting Florida is Hurricane Jose, the Orlando Sentinel reports.  It’s still early, but Bill Kelly, executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association, said he has not heard that any of his members lost their commercial fishing vessels as a result of Hurricane Irma. That’s the good news. Now that the sea around the Keys has calmed down and winds have dropped to about 20 miles per hour, Monroe County, Florida’s roughly 1,250 licensed fishermen can bring their boats out of the tiny creeks and other safe areas where they tied them to survive the storm. But soon the roughly 650 that catch spiny lobster will have to go out and check on their combined 350,000 traps and also determine if the crustaceans have changed their locations. Many of the traps will be okay, Kelly knows, but he also expects there will be some fishermen who find trap tangles more than 100 feet wide. It’s important to get the gear out of the water as soon as possible to avoid an environmental impact, he said. Kelly hopes Keys fishermen will be able to resume business as usual in a week. As Undercurrent News reported last week, fishermen in the Florida Keys are responsible for 80{c6e459f3f8a7f1c6715c33c2c736476ccfdba55c64391dd836a5f8397e034060} of the spiny lobsters caught in the state and were counting on a 5.2 million pound harvest this season, which started a little more than a month ago.   Chilean salmon farmer Pesquera Camanchaca is reporting that its employees in southern Florida are safe and “no one suffered any major structural damage”, following the recent passage of Hurricane Irma. The company, which said last week that it expected a disruption to its Chilean seafood shipments into the US, said that its supply chain should be back to normal shortly.  “We anticipate that Miami International Airport will be fully operational by Wednesday and as soon as the roads are navigable, we will begin shipping orders out of Miami,” the company said. “Shipments out of New York should not be impacted.” Maryland distributor JJ McDonnell said in a statement Monday, Sept. 11, that given the “hard knocks” the industry is taking from recent hurricanes, it expects both wild-caught and farmed supplies to be affected in the short-term. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are causing supply issues “across the board”, the company said.  “Not only wild caught but, also farmed as transportation is being disrupted and the normal supply chains on farmed products are not as readily available,” the company wrote.  The distributor’s buyers are putting in extra hours to secure alternate supplies but advanced notice about large orders would be appreciated, the company said. “Working together on this, I know we can work our way through it and supply the needs of your customers,” it said. “Everyone keep safe.” Blumar is delivering about 60{c6e459f3f8a7f1c6715c33c2c736476ccfdba55c64391dd836a5f8397e034060} of its usual volumes of Chilean salmon to the US as a result of the disruptions caused by Hurricane Irma, Sebastian Goycoolea Nagel, CEO of the US division of the Puerto Montt, Chile-based producer, told Undercurrent News Monday, Sept. 11.  But Nagel hopes to be back at 100{c6e459f3f8a7f1c6715c33c2c736476ccfdba55c64391dd836a5f8397e034060} by Thursday, and maybe even Wednesday, assuming Miami International Airport reopens for business.  Blumar, which exports between 50,000 and 80,000 pounds of salmon per day to the US, hasn’t slowed production in Chile.  Instead it is converting more of its fresh salmon to frozen, Nagel told Undercurrent. A few shipments that would normally head to Miami are instead going through Dallas, he added.  Nagel said it took him 23 hours to drive his family to a temporary location in Alabama.  He said the eight workers at his Miami operations all report to be safe, though he had not yet been able to reach anyone regarding the status of their warehouse and was concerned about the condition of a cargo unloading areas. “There will be a massive amount of coordination over the next few days,” he said.  The skies were cloudy over the Miami International Airport at noon Monday, but what were hurricane-force winds had diminished to a more pedestrian 18 miles per hour. Still, one of the seafood industry’s biggest transportation hubs wasn’t ready to predict when it would reopen. “MIA will be closed Monday, September 11. After a damage assessment today, we will determine if passenger flights can resume on Tuesday,” the airport said on its website. The website encourages the monitoring of its twitter account: @IflyMIA. Earlier today Emilio Gonzalez, director and CEO of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, tweeted that the airport was “assessing water damage at all concourses, fallen trees, airfield, fuel and other damages.”   Also, spokeswoman Karla Cobreiro reportedly told the Miami Herald: “Some airlines will fly personnel and crew members to MIA in preparation for flights to resume.” The Herald reports that it used the flight tracker website Flight Aware to determine that 4,110 flights were canceled at Florida airports through Wednesday.  “While cancellations are expected to decrease as the week goes on, 152 cancellations were scheduled for Wednesday as of Monday, largely at MIA, FLL, Orlando International Airport, Tampa International Airport and Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers,” the newspaper notes. In nearly back-to-back days, multiple locations of geographic importance to the seafood industry have been smacked silly by hurricanes and are now struggling to recover. But more trouble could be on the way […] You’re missing out. Join the global community relying on Undercurrent News for quality reporting. The cookie settings on this website are set to “allow cookies” to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click “Accept” below then you are consenting to this.
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Hurricane Irma latest photos

It looks like there is no Newsday subscription account associated with this login information. If you used an Optimum login, click the Connect Account button to use your Optimum login info to manage your Newsday subscription account. If you used a Newsday login, it looks like it’s not connected to an active subscriber account. To verify your subscription information, click the Connect Account button. Irma became a dangerous Category 5 hurricane on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, with the most powerful …
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Feds looking to trim golden tilefish quota for next 3 years

Federal fishing regulators are planning to cut back the fishing quota for golden tilefish for the next three years. Golden tilefish are prized as food and they are caught by longline and hook-and-line fishermen up and down the East Coast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says proposed quotas for 2018 to 2020 are 14 percent lower than the 2017 quota to prevent overfishing. The fish are not currently experiencing overfishing, but fishery managers recommended reduction based on …
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Decline in numbers of baby lobsters prompts rules talk

Decline in numbers of baby lobsters prompts rules talk

Interstate fishing regulators say the way the lobster fishery is managed needs to be fine-tuned because of a drop in the number of baby lobsters in New England waters. The American lobster fishery is based in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank regions, which stretch from Canada to Massachusetts. University of Maine marine scientist Rick Wahle (WAHL’-ee) has said the population of baby lobsters appears to be declining in parts of those areas. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said …
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Did a Miami Man Really Catch a Fish in South Beach Floodwater Yesterday?

Miami flooded in Biblical proportions last night, thanks in part to rising seas and a warming planet. This goes without saying, but the deluge devastated Miami Beach business owners, people who own oceanfront property, and anyone who likes driving through streets that aren’t clogged with rainwater. However, the flooding has been wonderful for viral-video content producers and the hapless internet sleuths tasked with separating fact from fiction in the screaming maelstrom that is the 2017 s…
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Oil removed from fishing boat aground on Central Coast

The Coast Guard says all oil and hazardous materials have been removed from a commercial fishing vessel that went aground near Estero Bluffs State Park on the San Luis Obispo County shoreline. The fishing boat Point Estero was reported aground early Friday and contractors were hired to remove the potential pollutants. The Coast Guard says the removal operation was completed Tuesday afternoon. The scenic stretch of coastline is about 10 miles north of Morro Bay….
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Interior won’t change Montana monument designation

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Wednesday he will not recommend changes to Montana’s Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument as he continues to review national monuments for possible elimination or reduction. Zinke said the monument is one of the only free-flowing areas of the Missouri that remains as explorers Lewis and Clark saw it more than 200 years ago. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock had asked Zinke to keep the Breaks monument unchanged as he reviews 27 national monuments designated by previous presidents. President Donald Trump ordered the review, calling many monument designations unwarranted land grabs by the federal government. Monument designations protect federal land from energy development and other activities. The Montana monument is the fourth Zinke has removed from his review ahead of a final report due later this month. Others removed from consideration are in Colorado, Idaho and Washington state. Twenty-three other national monuments, mostly in the West, face curtailing or elimination of protections put in place over the past two decades by presidents from both parties. Monuments under review include Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, Nevada’s Basin and Range and Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine. Zinke, a former Montana congressman, said in June that he was unlikely to recommend changes to the 586-square-mile (1,520-square-kilometer) Upper Missouri monument that President Bill Clinton created in 2001. Zinke’s announcement about the monument in his home state did little to appease his critics, including a hunting and fishing group that supported Zinke’s confirmation as interior secretary but now is expressing frustration over what it calls the “misguided” monument review. The group, the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, launched a $1.4 million advertising blitz Wednesday across Montana to pressure Zinke to retain current designations for all 27 monuments under review. The group is focusing on Montana because “this is where the secretary is from, where he grew up … went hunting and fishing,” said CEO Land Tawney. When it comes to public lands access, “so goes Montana, so goes the rest of the country,” Tawney said.
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Peacock Bass in Miami

ONLY THE BEST FLY FISHING VIDEOS … Peacock Bass in Miami … off his local waters around Miami, where surprisingly big peacock bass swim.
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Tropical Storm Emily: Power outages, rain, fishermen rescued

Tropical Storm Emily: Power outages, rain, fishermen rescued

Tropical Storm Emily weakened to a tropical depression Monday afternoon as it slogged eastward across the Florida peninsula, spreading drenching rains, causing power outages and leaving two fishermen to be rescued from Tampa Bay. The National Hurricane Center said Emily made landfall late Monday on Florida’s Gulf Coast south of Tampa Bay and then began moving east toward the Atlantic coast. Emily spent only a few hours as a tropical storm, losing strength as it marched inland across the central…
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Fishing managers to meet over Trump official’s flounder rule

Interstate fishing regulators are meeting to discuss a Trump administration decision they say has the ability to jeopardize conservation of marine resources on the East Coast. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is meeting Tuesday in Alexandria, Virginia. The commission has disagreed recently with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross over a decision he made about summer flounder fishing. The commission announced in June it had found New Jersey out of compliance with management of …
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New rules to help southern New England lobsters up for vote

A plan to try to slow the decline of southern New England’s lobster population with new fishing restrictions is up for a potential final vote this week. The population of lobsters off Connecticut, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts has plummeted in recent years. The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering a host of new restrictions about lobster fishing at a meeting on Tuesday. Proposed management tools have included changes to legal harvesting size, reduction…
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Man overboard uses prosthetic leg to stay afloat

Man overboard uses prosthetic leg to stay afloat

An Ohio man says his prosthetic leg helped save his life after he went overboard during a fishing trip. Adam Shannon, of Doylestown, says he was fishing on Dohner Lake near his home Monday evening when a seat on his boat broke, sending him into the water. Shannon’s prosthetic leg came off as he went into the lake. The 45-year-old was able to use his prosthetic as a floatation device when it got trapped in his pants and filled with air. Shannon called 911 for help, and his yelling attracted the …
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South Africa searches for 8 missing fishermen after capsize

Maritime emergency teams in South Africa are searching for eight missing fishermen whose boat capsized several days ago, killing at least one crewmember. Seven of the 16 crewmembers were rescued after the accident early Sunday off Cape St. Francis in Eastern Cape province. One body was recovered. President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday said emergency workers “will not rest” until they find the missing crewmembers from the fishing vessel Maredon. South African media reported high waves and strong wind…
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GOP targets Endangered Species Act as protections lifted

Congressional Republicans are moving forward with legislation to roll back the Endangered Species Act, amid complaints that the landmark 44-year-old law hinders drilling, logging and other activities. At simultaneous hearings Wednesday, House and Senate committees considered bills to revise the law and limit lengthy and costly litigation associated with it. The bills come as a federal court lifted federal protections for gray wolves in Wyoming and the Trump administration moved to lift protections for grizzly bears in and near Yellowstone National Park. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also is reviewing federal efforts to conserve the imperiled sage grouse in 11 Western states. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop said the bills would curb excessive litigation and allow officials to focus on actual species conservation. All too often, the endangered species law “has been misused to control land, block a host of economic activities important for jobs … proliferate costly litigation that drains taxpayer resources away from actual conservation efforts,” said Bishop, a Utah Republican. Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, the panel’s senior Democrat, said the law “does not need congressional meddling to work better. What it needs is congressional support.” Despite years of Republican efforts to pass bills weakening the species law and cut funding for agencies responsible for protecting and recovering imperiled American wildlife, “99 percent of listed species have continued to survive, and 90 percent are on schedule to meet their recovery goals,” Grijalva said. Environmental groups called the simultaneous hearings a “one-two punch” on threatened wildlife. “While nine out of ten Americans want to protect endangered species and their habitat, Congressional leaders are spending their time dismantling the ESA in favor of special interests,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife. “Enactment of any of these bills will only hasten the disappearance of endangered and threatened species from our planet.” Five bills were being considered by the House panel, and a sixth bill was being heard in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. One of the bills would allow economic factors to be considered in some species-listing decisions, while another would cap attorneys’ fees in endangered species cases. Both the House and Senate would “delist” the gray wolf as a protected species in the western Great Lakes and Wyoming, with management turned over to state officials in Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The bills also block further judicial review of a 2011 decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove federal protections for the wolves. Gray wolves were once hunted to the brink of extinction in most of the country, but now number over 5,500 in the lower 48 states, including nearly 3,800 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan and nearly 400 in Wyoming. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said the current law prevents Midwest farmers from killing wolves even if they attack cattle or pets. “The states, not the federal government, are best equipped to manage their gray wolf populations by balancing safety, economic and species-management issues,” he said. Sen. John. Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate environment panel, said the bipartisan Senate bill would enhance recreational hunting and sport fishing, ensure common-sense environmental regulation and protect wildlife and wildlife habitat. The bill reauthorizes several environmental programs, promotes public target ranges for recreational shooting and allows fishermen to continue using lead tackle, among other provisions. Gregory Sheehan, acting director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the Trump administration generally supports the House bills, with “some technical modifications.” His agency plays a key role in preventing extinctions and aiding recovery, Sheehan said, “but states and the people on the ground who have long been stewards of the land are in the best position to be the primary caretakers of species over the long-term.”
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Florida's fishing girls of Instagram

Florida’s fishing girls of Instagram

Florida fisherwomen can reel in the big ones just like their male counterparts. And they’re taking to social media to prove it. Several female South Florida anglers share their catches of the day on social-media networks, particularly Instagram, attracting thousands of followers. Don’t be fooled by their slim bodies and skinny arms. These girls can fight blue marlin, swordfish, mahi, tuna, sailfish and more. “A lot of people are really doubtful. You definitely have to prove yourself. You …
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Baby eel lottery is a go in Maine, where elver fishing pays

Maine is implementing a new lottery system for licenses to fish for baby eels, which are worth more than $1,000 per pound on the worldwide sushi market. Baby eels, called elvers, are a major fishery in Maine, where fishermen sell them to dealers so they can be sent to Asian aquaculture companies to be raised to maturity and used as food. But industry members and lawmakers have said the fishery needs a way to bring new people into the business because many elver fishermen are nearing retirement …
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Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine tours Florida amid rumors of gubernatorial bid

Tags: Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, miami beach, florida governor, Image…
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Historical Vignettes: Smokehouse Sally, popular restaurateur, Part 1

  Many people through the years have moved to Martin County to retire and enjoy a more leisurely lifestyle. There are some, however, like Sally and Bill Peters who relocated to the little community to establish a profitable business in a small friendly town. ] Actually the couple had owned and operated the popular Mrs. Peters Smoked Fish, an eatery in Miami for decades, but  decided to relocate to Rio, Florida in 1958. Bill’s wife, known as “Smokehouse Sally,” would be the driving force i…
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150 pounds of cocaine found aboard boat in Miami

150 pounds of cocaine found aboard boat in Miami

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US Customs snags major drug bust on Nassau Boat in Miami

Miami, Florida, July 12th 2017: Five people have been arrested in Miami after 150 pounds (68 kilos) of cocaine were found on a fishing boat that was stopped near the Miami River on Tuesday. The find is said to have a street value of $2,720,000.00. U.S. Customs and Border Protection boarded the boat, Wes Win, one of two boats coming from Nassau. During a normal inspection and search, the officers found 70 packages of cocaine in blue bundled boxes that were behind a stack of Junkanoo Punch soda c…
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Japan protests armed N. Korean boat in Tokyo economic zone

Japan has protested to North Korea after a Japanese patrol vessel spotted an armed boat believed to be from there allegedly fishing illegally, an official said Thursday. The crew pointed a gun at the Japanese fisheries vessel, forcing it to withdraw, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. The incident happened last Friday about 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of Japan’s northern coast in an area Tokyo claims as its exclusive economic zone, Suga said. Suga said that Japan…
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150 pounds of cocaine seized from fishing boat along Miami River

Four crew members of a fishing vessel were apprehended Tuesday in Miami after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials seized 150 pounds of cocaine during a routine inspection, authorities said. The boat, named the Wes Win, was one of two arriving from Nassau that was flagged for a regular inspection at the RMK Merrill-Stevens Shipyard at 881 NW 13th Avenue, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Keith Smith. When officers boarded the boat, they found about 70 blue bundles of the drug…
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East Alabama men arrested for illegal lobster fishing of FL Keys

MARATHON, FL (WTVM) – A group of fishermen, some of them fathers and sons from Eufaula and Phenix City, have been arrested for an illegal head start on the lobster season. That’s according to officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The suspects are accused of several crimes, including the illegal spearing of 320 lobster in Marathon, Florida. The 2-day lobster sport season in the Florida Keys starts July 26 and the limit is 6 lobster per person per da…
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Buckhead hunting, fishing businesses stick together in move

Buckhead hunting, fishing businesses stick together in move

Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone “We’ve been friends for many years, and I’m glad we could stay next to each other,” Gary Merriman, the owner The Fish Hawk, said of Chuck’s Firearms. The two sporting businesses have operated side-by-side in Buckhead for over 40 years, and have stuck together through two relocations—the latest in March as they make way for a condo tower. They both moved from Buckhead…
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