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Tuesday, January 01, 2008 Read an article about Captain Lou (click
here)
A) Six female rowers from the South Shore will be making history this weekend as members of the first U.S. women's rowing team to compete in a world championship event in England. The 6 rowers are all members of Team Saquish and will be the first women's U.S. team to compete in the 19th World Pilot Gig Championship in the Isles of Scilly, England. The rowers' names are Hilary Moll, 44, of Brockton; Beth Howard, 27, of Hull; Karin Kaczorowski, 43, of Marshfield; Mary-Patrice Ruocco, 50, of Rochester, and Jessica Rowcroft-McKenna, 37, of Boston, and Michelle Hughes, 35, of Hanson.
B) Island Creek Oysters was the overall winner of the Invitational Oyster Tasting Event in Providence, topping a field of 19 "Eastern oyster" varieties. The victory gives the company the right to boast that they have the best oysters in America. The oysters were judged on their shells, shuckability, internal appearance, aroma, flavor, and aftertaste. The event was the first national competition held by the National Shellfish Association and the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association.
C) The First Coast Guard District is launching Operation Paddle Smart to bring greater awareness to canoeists and kayakers in the Northeast. Fifteen canoeists and eight kayakers died last year in the Northeast. Since 1998, canoe and kayak fatalities have averaged 1/3 of the area's boating fatalities. That is more than double the national average. The primary goals of Operation Paddle Smart are to promote the wearing a life jacket, warn of the danger of falling into cold water, and to stress the importance of being a prudent mariner, knowing the rules of the road. Paddlers on the waters of Massachusetts are required to wear a life jacket while underway through May 15, 2008.
D) A Plymouth man is going to jail for damaging lobster pots and gear off Plymouth's harbor last August. A Plymouth District Court judge sentenced the man to 60 days in jail and ordered him to pay $1900 to the two lobstermen whose pots he damaged. According to the state's environmental police, they came upon the man in a boat dragging a grappling hook ruining the lobster pots. At the time, the man told police he was salvaging an underwater cable to sell to a junk yard. Police said the cable was removed many years ago.
E) Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez has declared a commercial fishery failure for the West Coast salmon fishery due to historically low salmon returns. Hundreds of thousands of fall Chinook salmon typically return to the Sacramento River every year to spawn. This year, scientists estimate that fewer than 60,000 adult Chinook will make it back to the Sacramento River. The California Department of Fish and Game will truck nearly 17 million hatchery-raised salmon directly to the ocean in an effort to revive the states salmon population. However, marine biologists worry that trucking salmon smolts from their home river will eliminate the instinct that draws the fish back to their native waters to spawn.
F) The Bush administration wants America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of US coastline and inland waterways. While the United States has so far been spared this type of strike in its own waters, terrorists have used small boats to attack in other countries. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment, the use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain Al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success.
G) In a related story, the Coast Guard will begin operating a new international data exchange center starting January 1st, 2009, to track the positions at sea of about 3,000 ships per day. Under an agreement with the International Maritime Organization, the Coast Guard will run the data center for the Long Range Identification and Tracking system until December 31, 2010. The service's identification and tracking applies to ships on international voyages that come within 1,000 nautical miles of U.S. territories.
H) The U.S. government announced it will conduct a detailed review of the loggerhead sea turtle population in the Atlantic Ocean to decide whether they should be declared "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. government will also determine whether further habitat protections are warranted. These studies are in response to a formal petition filed by the environmental group, Oceana.
I) And last on today's nautical news, a 44 year old New Zealand scuba diver had a long swim after the dive boat he hired left him behind. Officials said the operators of the dive boat were an 18-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man. The young couple told authorities they didn't realize that their boat's anchor wasn't holding after the diver went overboard, and their 14-foot boat actually drifted back to the harbor entrance. They said they tried to return to pick up the diver, but their engine would not start. The young couple then called a relative who in turn notified the police about the scuba diver. Fortunately, after 1 1/2 hours in the water, the diver was found. Police said he was exhausted, but revived pretty quickly once he got on the police boat.
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