Fishing Jobs News

Gulf of Mexico fishermen are threatened by a daily wave of foreign illegal fishing vessels and the U.S. fishing industry is calling on Congress to take action, Florida business owners said April 8 at an event hosted by the Gulf Coast Leadership Conference. Mexican fishing boats enter U.S. sovereign waters and illegally poach hundreds to thousands of fish at a time. Although the U.S. Coast Guard and Gulf state maritime law enforcement agencies have taken aggressive action to find and destroy these illegal Mexican vessels, the frequency of such incursions continues to escalate.

The Commercial Fisherman for Bristiol Bay organization has announced that 77 commercial fishing groups from Alaska to Maine have sent a letter to the Obama Administration urging it to protect Bristol Bay, its epic salmon runs and the commercial fishing jobs that rely on them. The groups include the Maine Lobstermen's Association, Gloucester Fishermen's Wives, Maryland Watermen's Association and Southern Shrimp Alliance. In all, they represent more than 16,000 commercial fishermen across the country.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced Friday that, in cooperation with federal and international partners, it has seized a fishing vessel and crew suspected of large-scale illegal high-seas drift net fishing in the North Pacific Ocean and is delivering them to the Alaska Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement for the investigation. Renegade large-scale high-seas drift net fishing indiscriminately kills massive amounts of fish and other marine life such as whales and turtles by means of enormous nets suspended for miles in open water.