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Tuna Fishing News

26 Feb 2024

US Coast Guard Boards Chinese Fishing Boats Near Kiribati

The USCGC Oliver Henry (WPC 1140) crew pick up Kiribati Police Maritime Unit officers and recruits from the Guardian-class patrol boat RKS Teanoai II (301) in Tarawa, Kiribati, on Feb. 16, 2024, during an exchange. (Photo: Nicholas Haas / U.S Coast Guard)

The U.S. Coast Guard and Kiribati police boarded two Chinese fishing boats during a patrol against illegal fishing in the Pacific Islands nation's vast exclusive economic zone this month but found no issues aboard, a coast guard official said.The United States is seeking a bigger role for its coast guard in helping remote Pacific Islands nations monitor millions of kilometres of ocean - a rich tuna fishing ground - a move that also boosts surveillance as a rivalry with China over security ties in the region intensifies.Reuters reported on Friday that Chinese police are working in Kiribati…

12 Jan 2023

Lobsters Versus Right Whales

© karenfoleyphoto / Adobe Stock

Lobsters versus right whales: The latest chapter in a long quest to make fishing more sustainableMaine lobster fishermen received a Christmas gift from Congress at the end of 2022: A six-year delay on new federal regulations designed to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.The rules would have required lobstermen to create new seasonal nonfishing zones and further reduce their use of vertical ropes to retrieve lobster traps from the seafloor. Entanglement…

27 Jun 2022

Thordon Wins Shaft Seals Order

The Judilily is now fitted with TG100 shaft seals (Photo: Thordon Bearings)

Thordon Bearings’ authorized distributor in Mexico, TZ Industrias, has secured an order to supply the Canadian company’s TG100 shaft seals, equipped with a safe return to port (SRTP) emergency seal, to a quartet of shrimpers operated by Pesquera Axel, one of the country’s leading fishing vessel operators.TZ Industrias will deliver four 127mm (5in) diameter mechanical seals to the Mazatlán-based repair yard Constructora y Reparadora de Buques for installation this June to the 7m (23ft) long fishing vessels Kukulkan…

03 Feb 2021

Shipbuilder in Mozambique Debt Scandal Says It Made Payments to Now-President Nyusi

(Photo: Alexie Morin / Privinvest)

A Lebanese shipbuilder at the center of a $2 billion debt scandal in Mozambique said it made payments to its now-president and ruling party in 2014, but said these were legal campaign donations not bribes, according to a London court filing.Privinvest said payments made to President Filipe Nyusi in the run-up to his election and to the Frelimo party were allowed under Mozambican law, according to the Jan. 15 filing at London’s High Court.The case relates to a series of tuna fishing…

21 Dec 2020

Out-casting and Outlasting the Competition

At the main helm of the FV Pinwheel, the Marex OS III Type 244 control head provides single-lever operation that combines both gear direction and engine speed. (Photo: Emerson)

A captain claims victory at the end of a popular high-stakes fishing competition thanks to help from a new electronic boat control system.When the Summer to Fall bluefin tuna season ends in Gloucester, Mass., it’s only just beginning in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It’s in these rough waters that commercial fishermen compete on the TV show, “Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks.” A spin-off of the original “Wicked Tuna,” this series has run on National Geographic since 2014 and recently completed its seventh season on air in September 2020.Fishing for bluefin tuna comes with unique challenges.

09 Jan 2017

Ships Collide in Philippines Sea

The reefer containership Sevilla Carrier collided with tuna fishing vessel Hsiang Yung No6 in Philippines Sea on 515 nautical miles east-south-east off Eluanbi, Taiwan on Jan 7, 2017, at 3.45 a.m local time. The hull of the fishing vessel was breached with ensuing water ingress, but there was no risk to the crew of 10, another fishing vessel in the area rushed to assistalso the Sevilla Carrier remained nearby. The accident was reported to the local authorities and at the scene were dispatched tugs, which will assist the salvage of the sinking fishing ship. The Taiwanese Maritime Rescue will try to salvage the vessel. At the scene arrived another fishing vessel, which will assist with salvage.

28 Oct 2016

Tuna Vessel Operator Convicted on Pollution Charges

An American tuna fishing company that regularly unloaded its catch in American Samoa, was convicted and sentenced today for discharging oil into the South Pacific and for maintaining false records, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden of the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips for the District of Columbia. The company, Pacific Breeze Fisheries LLC, owned the Fishing Vessel F/V Pacific Breeze, a tuna purse seiner that was responsible for the pollution. Pacific Breeze Fisheries admitted that its engineers failed to document the illegal dumping of oily bilge water into the waters off American Samoa without the use of required pollution prevention equipment.

08 May 2016

Mozambique's Tuna Fleet Rusts as an African Success Story Fades

The 24 fishing boats rusting in the harbour of Mozambique's capital were meant to be a modern tuna fleet that would rake in hard currency, create jobs and provide a cheap source of protein for one of the world's poorest countries. Instead, they have become monuments to government mismanagement and heavy lending by Western banks that have buried a promising African economy in a deep debt crisis. The boats, moored in the harbour of Maputo, were paid for out of an $850-million loan arranged in 2013 by Credit Suisse and Russia's VTB to finance "fishing infrastructure". The cash came in the form of a government-backed bond to state tuna-fishing company Ematum.

29 Oct 2015

Fishing Company Charged Over $1 Mln in Oil Spill Penalties

Photo courtesy of Tri-Marine

Tri-Marine Management Co., Tri-Marine Fishing Management and Cape Mendocino Fishing (Tri-Marine) have agreed to pay $1.05 million in civil penalties and to perform fleet-wide inspections and other corrective measures to resolve claims stemming from an October 2014 oil spill in American Samoa and related violations of spill prevention regulations, the Department of Justice and the Coast Guard announced today. In its complaint, filed today along with the lodging of a consent decree in the U.S.

25 Feb 2015

Maersk Publishes Sustainability Report

Photo: Maersk

Having launched a new sustainability strategy last year, the Maersk Group has published its 2014 sustainability report, covering aspects of the group’s 2014 sustainability performance including human rights, anticorruption, responsible procurement, diversity, as well as performance and efforts within safety and the environment. Group CEO Nils S. Andersen said, “Our efforts in sustainability rest on one premise: it must support both society and our business activities. The strategy…

02 Dec 2014

Weather Hampers Search for Missing After Korean Trawler Sinks

More than 50 people remain missing a day after a South Korean fishing vessel sank in the Bering Sea off the coast of Russia's far eastern Chukotka region as severe weather conditions hampered a rescue operation, officials said on Tuesday. Eight people - a Russian official, a South Korean crew member, three Filipinos and three Indonesians - have been pulled from the water although the South Korean died of hypothermia, officials in Seoul said. U.S. rescue helicopters joined the search operation for several hours on Tuesday but failed to make headway, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won told a meeting of government officials. The South Korean government and Sajo Industries…

27 Jun 2014

Zamakona Launches Tuna Freezer Vessel

Ljubica at the Zamakona Yards shipyard in Bilbao. (Photo courtesy of Zamakona Yards)

Tuna freezer vessel Ljubica was launched at Zamakona Yards shipyard in Bilbao on June 16 for Ecuadoran shipowner Pesquera Miriam S.A. The ship has been designed and developed by the technical shipping office CINTRANAVAL - DEFCAR SL  and has a 1,999 m3 fish capacity in its tanks, 90 meters length and 18 knots speed. The Ljubica is designed for tuna fishing trough the fences system in fishing grounds located at the Pacific Ocean. Its delivery is planned for autumn 2014.

10 Sep 2013

Tuna Fisher and Freezer Izaro Set to Launch

Izaro (Photo: Zamakona Yards)

On Saturday, September 7 , the launching of Izaro was held at the premises of Zamakona Yards in Bilbao. This vessel is a tuna freezer of 1,900 m3 and belongs to the Echebastar Group. The investment is 30 million Euros and the delivery is scheduled for January 2014. This is the first ship of a new generation of tuna fishers, designed and developed by the Naval Engineering Department Cintranaval - Defcar SL in cooperation with Echebastar. The ship is designed for tuna fishing by the system to purse seine of fishing grounds in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific ocean.

24 Apr 2013

Pevassa Fishes for Efficient Propulsion

Energy efficient solution with 8L32/44CR with reduction gearbox, Alpha Kappel design propeller and Rudderbulb

Spanish tuna vessel opts for fuel-efficient propulsion package. Based in Spain, the Pevasa Group recently ordered a complete propulsion system from MAN Diesel and Turbo for a new tuna vessel. The system is unique in that it comprises a package of three high-efficiency products, including a modern, medium-speed MAN 8L32/44CR engine with common-rail (CR) technology, a Renk RSVL-950 gear unit, and an innovative MAN Alpha VBS1100 CP propeller with Kappel propeller blade designs and rudder bulb.

14 Jan 2013

Fishing Vessel, Engineer Guilty of Environmental Crime

New Zealand Fishing Company and Chief Engineer Sentenced for Environmental Crimes and Obstruction of Justice. A New Zealand fishing company that owned and operated the tuna fishing vessel San Nikunau, and a former chief engineer on the ship, were sentenced in federal court today for environmental crimes and obstruction of justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. Sanford Ltd.

16 Mar 2010

EU NAVFOR Destroys More Pirate Groups

Photo courtesy EU NAVFOR

On March 12, after receiving a report from MV E.R. Lubeck (Liberian Flag, German owner), that pirates in two skiffs had tried to hijack her, COMEUNAVFOR initiated a surge operation to intercept and disrupt the pirate action group (PAG). The EU NAVFOR Flagship ITS Etna tasked the EUNAVFOR Swedish and Luxemburg Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) and EUNAVFOR Warship HNLMS Tromp against the PAG consisting of one mother skiff and two skiffs. The attack on the Lubeck took place almost one thousand miles from the Somali coast and HNLMS Tromp proceeded at best speed to assist.

05 Oct 2009

EU NAVFOR Arrests Pirate Attackers of Fishing Vessel

Late in the evening of 3 October, two of the suspected pirates who gained control of the Spanish tuna fishing vessel Alakrana the day before, were arrested by the EU NAVFOR Spanish warship Canarias. The suspected pirates had left the Alakrana with a small boat that was detected and stopped by the EU NAVFOR warship. During the arrest, one of the pirates was lightly injured, but he was given immediate medical treatment by the doctor onboard EU NAVFOR Canarias and his condition is stable. Both suspected pirates are now on board Canarias. The hijacked Spanish fishing vessel Alakrana has anchored of the coast of Somalia.

14 Aug 2009

SNAME Elects New Fellows

On June 1, 2009, the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers announced new additions to its rank of Fellows. The membership grade of Fellow is accorded to individuals who have contributed to significant achievements in naval architecture, marine and ocean engineering, and related fields in the form of advances in design, research, production, operation, education, and associated management. G. Russell Bowler: As the Chief Engineer/Vice President of the largest and most successful sailing yacht design company in America, Russell has served as the lead naval architect in numerous groundbreaking designs. Mr. Bowler introduced modern composite construction to the Round the World Race of 1985/86 with the outstanding success of the maxi-yacht UBS Switzerland.

23 Mar 2009

Albacora Deploys Stratos FleetBroadband

Stratos Global Corporation, global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, has successfully completed an Inmarsat FleetBroadband field trial with Spain’s Albacora Group. The three-month field trial was conducted onboard the Albacora tuna fishing vessel Albatun Dos in the Indian Ocean. Stratos channel partner Satlink managed the installation of a FleetBroadband 250 terminal manufactured by JRC, which was integrated with the vessel’s local-area network. The successful trial led to Albacora Group retaining the FleetBroadband from Stratos system, which it will use to manage the Albatun Dos’ daily operations at sea.

05 May 2000

Legal Briefs

Avondale Industries, Inc. has agreed to pay $357,750 in penalties for safety and health violations at its shipyard in Avondale, La., and implement a revised safety and health program as part of a settlement agreement announced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). "We are pleased Avondale has agreed to resolve this matter," said Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman. "Avondale's new management has shown they are serious about eliminating safety hazards. OSHA originally inspected the shipyard in October 1998 following union complaints of possible imminent danger from falls, and other health issues. Based on that inspection, OSHA issued 60 citations against the shipbuilder last April and proposed fines of $537,000.