Commission slashes 2002 shrimp season

The tension between fishermen and policy makers during a Nov. 15 public hearing was evident as a standing-room-only audience heard words not uttered since 1978, the last time the shrimp fishery was closed for a season. The initial recommendation made by the ASMFC Technical Committee based on the estimated size and distribution of current northern

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Yuletide Murder in Eastport

What’s Christmas in Eastport without a good murder? Well, for resident amateur detective Jacobia Tiptree, the holiday season is definitely not complete. And she goes about solving it masterfully in Sarah Graves’ latest mystery, Wreck the Halls. Not surprisingly, this one is beautifully constructed, with a host of suspects, all of them logical and all

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The World According to Pimm

Reviewed by Philip W. Conkling This is a tour de force of almost numbing thoroughness, cataloging the indignities that we have heaped upon the world’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems. It will be hard to dispute David Pimm’s figures Ñ one can only hope that his careful accounting for all the tons of biomass and lost

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GoMOOS system in action

I check the NWS marine weather web site to see if the forecast has changed overnight. Nope. Winds backing through NE to a NW gale by evening. I check the GoMOOS buoy off Owl’s Head and see the wind is still ESE so it’s got some time before it shifts to NW and then some

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Grand Manan has market worries, too

“It just wasn’t the same this year,” Sonnenberg says. “There wasn’t the enthusiasm that there’s been in past seasons. Usually, they’re really pumped; this year it was pretty subdued.” On that same day, the Bangor Daily News published a photo of a Peaks Island lobsterman stacking his traps even though his season isn’t over yet.

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Government approves grant to disease-pressed salmon farmers

The grant will be administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service. Announcement of the initial approval was made jointly by Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. “Approval of strong salmon indemnification funding by the Bush Administration demonstrates that infectious salmon anemia poses a tremendous challenge, and that the Administration takes

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Beware the Clubbed Tunicate!

The creature is officially known as the Clubbed Tunicate, and the official DFO advisory reads as follows: “A large population increase of a marine animal known as a ‘Clubbed Tunicate’ has been detected in the southeastern portion of Prince Edward Island. These organisms present no health or other dangers to the public but rather the

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