Six skippers plead guilty to involvement in £37m 'black fish'
By JOHN ROBERTSON
The value of undeclared landings in the biggest scam in the history of Scotland's fishing industry was revealed yesterday to have been at least £37 million.
The figure was disclosed as six skippers pleaded guilty to being involved in the "black fish" scandal.
They had lied about their catches on all but one of 236 landings between 2002 and 2005 at the country's largest processing company on Shetland.ADVERTISEMENTThe herring and mackerel which remained under the radar was worth £15m.
Previously, eight other masters appeared in court in relation to £22m of fish.
One of those in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Laurence Irvine, 64, admitted the largest single amount of undeclared fish, which was worth £5.6m.
The charge admitted by the 14 men does not carry a prison sentence, but exposes each of them to an unlimited fine.
However, the authorities will attempt to strip the men of any illegal profits before they are sentenced.
The six skippers are: Irvine, (master of the fishing vessel Antares), Gary Williamson, 51, (the Research W), William Williamson, 63, (the Research W), and Colin Leask, 37, (the Antarctic ll), all of Symbister, Whalsay, Shetland, George Henry, 59, (the Adenia), of Clousta, Bixter, Shetland, and John Stewart, 55, (the Antarctic), of, Lerwick, Shetland.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
China to beef up protection of underwater cultural heritage
China to beef up protection of underwater cultural heritage
BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The two Chinese central government agencies chiefly responsible for safeguarding underwater cultural heritage on Monday signed an agreement pledging closer cooperation.
Under their agreement, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) will work more closely together in various fields including underwater archaeology and management of underwater relics.
The two agencies will also strengthen cooperation in regular surveys of underwater relics and in preventing damage to the relics, according to the agreement.
SACH director Shan Jixiang said at the signing ceremony that the agreement was a state-level move to ensure the safety of China's underwater cultural heritage amid a worldwide boom in ocean development in recent years.
Sun Zhihui, director of the SOA, said the SOA would actively provide support and assistance in the protection of underwater relics by enhancing cooperation with the SACH in fields such as enforcement of maritime laws and marine disaster forecasting.
The two agencies will also seek to establish a long-term cooperation mechanism by conducting pilot cooperation programs.
BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The two Chinese central government agencies chiefly responsible for safeguarding underwater cultural heritage on Monday signed an agreement pledging closer cooperation.
Under their agreement, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) will work more closely together in various fields including underwater archaeology and management of underwater relics.
The two agencies will also strengthen cooperation in regular surveys of underwater relics and in preventing damage to the relics, according to the agreement.
SACH director Shan Jixiang said at the signing ceremony that the agreement was a state-level move to ensure the safety of China's underwater cultural heritage amid a worldwide boom in ocean development in recent years.
Sun Zhihui, director of the SOA, said the SOA would actively provide support and assistance in the protection of underwater relics by enhancing cooperation with the SACH in fields such as enforcement of maritime laws and marine disaster forecasting.
The two agencies will also seek to establish a long-term cooperation mechanism by conducting pilot cooperation programs.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Goldfish join security team for G20 summit as water testers
Metro.co.uk: Goldfish join security team for G20 summit as water testers
Managers at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Seoul, South Korea, have enlisted the help of the aquatic security guards to check the water purity in the venue's bathrooms, and hope they will be able to alert staff to any fishy goings on.
Something fishy is going on at the G20 venue in Seoul, South Korea
Oh Su-Young, PR manager at the centre, told AFP that the goldfish are simply being used as part of the inspection process ahead of the impending arrival of the G20 leaders, adding: 'The fish also symbolise an eco-friendly water policy, which recycles used water for the restrooms.'
British prime minister David Cameron will be among those benefitting from the unique safety measures when the summit takes place on November 11th and 12th.
But this isn't the first time this year that organisers of a major event have enlisted members of the animal kingdom to boost security.
During the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, police drafted in trained monkeys to patrol the athletes' village and major venues where events were held.
The slender long-tailed Langurs were intended to protect both athletes and spectators from the Common Indian Bonnet monkey, which is known to attack humans.
What will they think of next?
Managers at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Seoul, South Korea, have enlisted the help of the aquatic security guards to check the water purity in the venue's bathrooms, and hope they will be able to alert staff to any fishy goings on.
Something fishy is going on at the G20 venue in Seoul, South Korea
Oh Su-Young, PR manager at the centre, told AFP that the goldfish are simply being used as part of the inspection process ahead of the impending arrival of the G20 leaders, adding: 'The fish also symbolise an eco-friendly water policy, which recycles used water for the restrooms.'
British prime minister David Cameron will be among those benefitting from the unique safety measures when the summit takes place on November 11th and 12th.
But this isn't the first time this year that organisers of a major event have enlisted members of the animal kingdom to boost security.
During the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, police drafted in trained monkeys to patrol the athletes' village and major venues where events were held.
The slender long-tailed Langurs were intended to protect both athletes and spectators from the Common Indian Bonnet monkey, which is known to attack humans.
What will they think of next?
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Replica 600 BC Ship Returns Triumphant After 20,000 Mile Circumnavigation of Africa
Afloat (Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine): Replica 600 BC Ship Returns Triumphant After 20,000 Mile Circumnavigation of Africa
Phoenicia, the replica 600BC wooden ship, has arrived triumphantly back in Syria having completed a 20,000 mile circumnavigation of Africa. The journey was intended to recreate the first circumnavigation of Africa, thought to have been achieved by Phoenician mariners around 600BC. The expedition took over two years to complete, and was approved by the Royal Geographical Society and supported by Raymarine as an equipment sponsor.
Phoenicia was built using traditional Phoenician construction methods and materials, and designed using evidence from shipwrecks and archaeological finds. Advice from scholars ensured she was completely authentic, but on the inside she was equipped with the latest high tech electronic navigational equipment from Raymarine.
The journey was completed in two stages. The first saw Phoenicia depart from Syria in Summer 2008 and sail East as far as Yemen. After a short break, she completed her circumnavigation past Oman and Mozambique, around the Cape of Good Hope, out to the Azores, and through the Straits of Gibraltar via Tunisia, Malta and Lebanon to her final port of Arwad, where she arrived to a crowd of over 2,000 well wishers on 23rd October. The homecoming was celebrated with a gala dinner held at Tartous.
Phoenicia was fitted out with a Raymarine C80 multifunction display, GPS antenna, Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver,, ST60+ tridata, wind system and repeater, DSM300 fish finder and Raymarine LifeTag wireless man overboard system. The systems worked flawlessly, despite facing severe conditions during the expedition including seven-metre waves and gale force winds. Having accurate navigational data also ensured Phoenicia could make the necessary detours to avoid dangerous areas prone to pirate attacks.
The Phoenicia expedition (www.phoenicia.org.uk) was conceived by Philip Beale, a former British Royal Naval Officer and entrepreneur. It is being featured in a national television documentary 'Ancient Worlds' to be shown on BBC2 in the autumn.
Phoenicia, the replica 600BC wooden ship, has arrived triumphantly back in Syria having completed a 20,000 mile circumnavigation of Africa. The journey was intended to recreate the first circumnavigation of Africa, thought to have been achieved by Phoenician mariners around 600BC. The expedition took over two years to complete, and was approved by the Royal Geographical Society and supported by Raymarine as an equipment sponsor.
Phoenicia was built using traditional Phoenician construction methods and materials, and designed using evidence from shipwrecks and archaeological finds. Advice from scholars ensured she was completely authentic, but on the inside she was equipped with the latest high tech electronic navigational equipment from Raymarine.
The journey was completed in two stages. The first saw Phoenicia depart from Syria in Summer 2008 and sail East as far as Yemen. After a short break, she completed her circumnavigation past Oman and Mozambique, around the Cape of Good Hope, out to the Azores, and through the Straits of Gibraltar via Tunisia, Malta and Lebanon to her final port of Arwad, where she arrived to a crowd of over 2,000 well wishers on 23rd October. The homecoming was celebrated with a gala dinner held at Tartous.
Phoenicia was fitted out with a Raymarine C80 multifunction display, GPS antenna, Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver,, ST60+ tridata, wind system and repeater, DSM300 fish finder and Raymarine LifeTag wireless man overboard system. The systems worked flawlessly, despite facing severe conditions during the expedition including seven-metre waves and gale force winds. Having accurate navigational data also ensured Phoenicia could make the necessary detours to avoid dangerous areas prone to pirate attacks.
The Phoenicia expedition (www.phoenicia.org.uk) was conceived by Philip Beale, a former British Royal Naval Officer and entrepreneur. It is being featured in a national television documentary 'Ancient Worlds' to be shown on BBC2 in the autumn.
'Drowned voice' of pristine phonograph found at Yukon site of sunken ship
The Province: 'Drowned voice' of pristine phonograph found at Yukon site of sunken ship
Divers equipped with digital scanners have created a set of ground-breaking, 3-D images of the legendary Klondike-era sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which sank in a Yukon lake in 1901 and was discovered in 2008 by a team of Canadian archeologists.Photograph by: Handout, HandoutDivers equipped with digital scanners have created a set of groundbreaking, 3-D images of the legendary Klondike-era sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which sank in a Yukon lake in 1901 and was only discovered two years ago by a team of Canadian archeologists.
The imaging system, similar to one used recently to document the wreck of the Titanic off Newfoundland's east coast, was employed during an expedition this summer to the sunken-but-perfectly-preserved Goddard — a dive that also produced a stunning new artifact: the vintage phonograph used to entertain fortune-seekers on their long, northward steamboat voyage to the Klondike gold fields.
"They're not only stunning and amazing images, they're also an accurate measuring tool," Canadian marine archeologist James Delgado, one of the experts involved in the Goddard project, told Postmedia News.
The precise 3-D model of the wreck was generated with scanning equipment supplied by the U.S. firms Oceangate and BlueView Technologies.
While documenting the boat's pristine condition, the researchers also spotted and collected several relics that were missed during earlier dives to the Goddard, which was declared an official historic site by the Yukon government earlier this year.
Corked bottles with their liquids still intact, leather footwear and other items were added to previous discoveries of tools and clothing.
"There was a bottle with vanilla extract still in it," said Delgado, former head of the Vancouver Maritime Museum and now director of marine archeology with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Talk about the proverbial miner's cabin that you stumble across," he said. "Here's one under water — the Goddard really does represent a time capsule."
But the most remarkable find was the music player and three vinyl discs — one in almost perfect condition.
Experts from the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa are now studying the phonograph and the discs to determine what music was played on the Goddard before it went down in a storm on Yukon's fabled Lake Laberge in October 1901.
Delgado says the phonograph had previously been hidden by a "light dusting of silt." But he says if conservation experts are able to restore the phonograph or its discs, "a drowned voice from 1901 may sing again."
In November 2009, Delgado, John Pollack from the Texas-based Institute of Nautical Archaeology and Yukon museum curator Doug Davidge announced they'd located the "perfectly preserved" Goddard in Lake Laberge, a widening of the Yukon River that served as a key transportation route for gold-seekers in the 1890s.
"The A.J. Goddard is not only a testament to the ingenuity, sense of adventure and determination of those men and women who took part in the Klondike Gold Rush, but also to the key role that the river and sternwheelers played in the economic development of Yukon,'' Elaine Taylor, the territory's tourism and culture minister, said in June in announcing the wreck's historical designation.
The sternwheeler is known to have gone down with three men in the 1901 storm that swept across the lake, a setting made famous by the Robert Service poem The Cremation of Sam McGee. The boat was named for an intrepid U.S. shipping merchant who pioneered Yukon River transport during the wild race for Canadian gold in the 1890s.
In Service's ghoulish 1907 rhyme, a Tennessee gold miner's frozen corpse finds blissful relief from the fatal Yukon cold in the fiery boiler of a sternwheeler stranded in ice on Lake Laberge.
Most of the Klondike miners trudged from Skagway, Alaska — which could be reached by Pacific steamers — across dangerous mountain passes to the Yukon River headwaters in northern British Columbia, where they hitched rides north on sternwheelers and other boats bound for the goldfields.
Goddard took the same arduous route with the materials he used to build his sternwheeler, assembled on the shores of British Columbia's Lake Bennett.
In June 1898, it became the first steamboat to reach Dawson, which at the time was only a tent city filled with fortune hunters.
Goddard's historic arrival at Dawson in his self-named boat — to the thunderous cheers of miners — has become part of Klondike lore, recounted by author Pierre Berton and other Gold Rush chroniclers.
The archeologists had led several searches for Klondike-era wrecks before discovering the Goddard site in 2008 and positively identifying the 15-metre vessel last year.
Divers equipped with digital scanners have created a set of ground-breaking, 3-D images of the legendary Klondike-era sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which sank in a Yukon lake in 1901 and was discovered in 2008 by a team of Canadian archeologists.Photograph by: Handout, HandoutDivers equipped with digital scanners have created a set of groundbreaking, 3-D images of the legendary Klondike-era sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which sank in a Yukon lake in 1901 and was only discovered two years ago by a team of Canadian archeologists.
The imaging system, similar to one used recently to document the wreck of the Titanic off Newfoundland's east coast, was employed during an expedition this summer to the sunken-but-perfectly-preserved Goddard — a dive that also produced a stunning new artifact: the vintage phonograph used to entertain fortune-seekers on their long, northward steamboat voyage to the Klondike gold fields.
"They're not only stunning and amazing images, they're also an accurate measuring tool," Canadian marine archeologist James Delgado, one of the experts involved in the Goddard project, told Postmedia News.
The precise 3-D model of the wreck was generated with scanning equipment supplied by the U.S. firms Oceangate and BlueView Technologies.
While documenting the boat's pristine condition, the researchers also spotted and collected several relics that were missed during earlier dives to the Goddard, which was declared an official historic site by the Yukon government earlier this year.
Corked bottles with their liquids still intact, leather footwear and other items were added to previous discoveries of tools and clothing.
"There was a bottle with vanilla extract still in it," said Delgado, former head of the Vancouver Maritime Museum and now director of marine archeology with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Talk about the proverbial miner's cabin that you stumble across," he said. "Here's one under water — the Goddard really does represent a time capsule."
But the most remarkable find was the music player and three vinyl discs — one in almost perfect condition.
Experts from the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa are now studying the phonograph and the discs to determine what music was played on the Goddard before it went down in a storm on Yukon's fabled Lake Laberge in October 1901.
Delgado says the phonograph had previously been hidden by a "light dusting of silt." But he says if conservation experts are able to restore the phonograph or its discs, "a drowned voice from 1901 may sing again."
In November 2009, Delgado, John Pollack from the Texas-based Institute of Nautical Archaeology and Yukon museum curator Doug Davidge announced they'd located the "perfectly preserved" Goddard in Lake Laberge, a widening of the Yukon River that served as a key transportation route for gold-seekers in the 1890s.
"The A.J. Goddard is not only a testament to the ingenuity, sense of adventure and determination of those men and women who took part in the Klondike Gold Rush, but also to the key role that the river and sternwheelers played in the economic development of Yukon,'' Elaine Taylor, the territory's tourism and culture minister, said in June in announcing the wreck's historical designation.
The sternwheeler is known to have gone down with three men in the 1901 storm that swept across the lake, a setting made famous by the Robert Service poem The Cremation of Sam McGee. The boat was named for an intrepid U.S. shipping merchant who pioneered Yukon River transport during the wild race for Canadian gold in the 1890s.
In Service's ghoulish 1907 rhyme, a Tennessee gold miner's frozen corpse finds blissful relief from the fatal Yukon cold in the fiery boiler of a sternwheeler stranded in ice on Lake Laberge.
Most of the Klondike miners trudged from Skagway, Alaska — which could be reached by Pacific steamers — across dangerous mountain passes to the Yukon River headwaters in northern British Columbia, where they hitched rides north on sternwheelers and other boats bound for the goldfields.
Goddard took the same arduous route with the materials he used to build his sternwheeler, assembled on the shores of British Columbia's Lake Bennett.
In June 1898, it became the first steamboat to reach Dawson, which at the time was only a tent city filled with fortune hunters.
Goddard's historic arrival at Dawson in his self-named boat — to the thunderous cheers of miners — has become part of Klondike lore, recounted by author Pierre Berton and other Gold Rush chroniclers.
The archeologists had led several searches for Klondike-era wrecks before discovering the Goddard site in 2008 and positively identifying the 15-metre vessel last year.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Noted photographer's death will remain a mystery, medical examiner says
Palm Beach Post News: Noted photographer's death will remain a mystery, medical examiner says
According to this story, Skiles left his companions to surface alone. Had he been accompanied by a buddy, he may still have died, but at least they'd know what happened. Heart attack, perhaps?
Authorities will not be able to determine how world-renowned nature photographer Wes Skiles died this summer off the Boynton Inlet.
After weeks of investigation and toxicology tests, "there was nothing to indicate natural causes or outside forces," Harold Ruslander, chief investigator for the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner said this morning. "All we're going to be able to say is that it was an accidental drowning."
The 53-year-old North Florida-based freelance photographer, a regular and award-winning contributor to National Geographic magazine, was shooting video of researchers working around a reef about 3 miles east of the Boynton Inlet when he signaled to his colleagues that he was going to head to the surface to get more supplies, sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said at the time.
Skiles surfaced alone, and a short time later, the other divers found him unconscious on the ocean floor.
They pulled him onto their boat and tried to revive him, but he died later at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
Skiles is survived by his wife, Terri, and children Nathan and Tessa.
A spokeswoman for National Geographic declined to comment.
Calls to Skiles' production company, based in High Springs, near Gainesville, were not immediately returned.
Skiles, a Florida native, was known for his work photographing and videotaping in caves and the deep ocean.
A spokeswoman for National Geographic magazine, whose August issue featured a cover photo by Skiles of Bahamas caves, said at the time that the local assignment he'd been shooting before his death focused on the behavior of high-speed fish off Florida's coast.
Skiles had come originally to shoot the researchers for a "National Geographic Television" documentary, but stayed on his own to continue shooting and observing.
According to this story, Skiles left his companions to surface alone. Had he been accompanied by a buddy, he may still have died, but at least they'd know what happened. Heart attack, perhaps?
Monday, November 1, 2010
Mom-daughter dive team find golden bird worth $885,000
WOAI.com: Mom-daughter dive team find golden bird worth $885,000
FT. PIERCE, Florida (NBC News Channel) -- Bonnie Schubert and her 87-year old mother have hunted treasure along Florida's coast for decades.
Most days they wind up digging dozens of holes, diving in the murky water, and coming up with a fishing lure or a beer can.
"I spent a whole season and only came up with a musket ball," says Bonnie.
But one day this August, the Schuberts were diving near Frederick Douglass Beach when they made the find of their lives.
"The first thing that came into focus was the head of the bird and the wing...and it was something I never imagined...just didn't expect at all.." recalls Bonnie.
They discovered a 22-carat solid gold bird, a relic which they believe dates back to the lost Spanish Fleet of 1715. The fleet of Spanish galleons wrecked near Ft. Pierce, littering the ocean floor with what divers believe to be millions of dollars in gold and jewels.
"It's truly been amazing. It's not something we could have ever predicted," said Brent Brisbane, a principal with 1715 Fleet-Queen's Jewels, LLC, the corporation that holds the rights to treasure hunting in the region.
Brisbane asked a local historian to study the relic and learned it is a "Pelican in her Piety," a symbol of Christ.
"It's a symbol of the sacrifice of Christ that the mother pelican would beat her breast and draw blood when times are bad," said Bonnie Schubert.
The golden bird is missing a wing and no one knows what it once held in its center, which is now a small square opening. Brisbane had the item appraised by Dubose and Sons Jewelers in Vero Beach.
"They came back with an appraisal of $885,000," said Brisbane.
Brisbane's teams have had a bountiful summer, uncovering dozens of gold and silver coins and a bronze canon from the wreck sites, but he says Bonnie and Jo's golden bird is clearly the biggest prize of all.
"Bonnie and Jo are amazing. This is a male-dominated industry and to have these two ladies come up with what is truly one of the top 5 artifacts ever found from the 1715 fleet is just incredible," he said.
Dividing the spoils could be the tricky part. As contractors, Bonnie and Jo typically get half of what they find. Brisbane, who holds the rights to treasure hunting in region, gives 20% to the state of Florida.
If the state decides it wants the golden bird, then Brisbane says there may be some "treasure trading" to make it all come out right.
FT. PIERCE, Florida (NBC News Channel) -- Bonnie Schubert and her 87-year old mother have hunted treasure along Florida's coast for decades.
Most days they wind up digging dozens of holes, diving in the murky water, and coming up with a fishing lure or a beer can.
"I spent a whole season and only came up with a musket ball," says Bonnie.
But one day this August, the Schuberts were diving near Frederick Douglass Beach when they made the find of their lives.
"The first thing that came into focus was the head of the bird and the wing...and it was something I never imagined...just didn't expect at all.." recalls Bonnie.
They discovered a 22-carat solid gold bird, a relic which they believe dates back to the lost Spanish Fleet of 1715. The fleet of Spanish galleons wrecked near Ft. Pierce, littering the ocean floor with what divers believe to be millions of dollars in gold and jewels.
"It's truly been amazing. It's not something we could have ever predicted," said Brent Brisbane, a principal with 1715 Fleet-Queen's Jewels, LLC, the corporation that holds the rights to treasure hunting in the region.
Brisbane asked a local historian to study the relic and learned it is a "Pelican in her Piety," a symbol of Christ.
"It's a symbol of the sacrifice of Christ that the mother pelican would beat her breast and draw blood when times are bad," said Bonnie Schubert.
The golden bird is missing a wing and no one knows what it once held in its center, which is now a small square opening. Brisbane had the item appraised by Dubose and Sons Jewelers in Vero Beach.
"They came back with an appraisal of $885,000," said Brisbane.
Brisbane's teams have had a bountiful summer, uncovering dozens of gold and silver coins and a bronze canon from the wreck sites, but he says Bonnie and Jo's golden bird is clearly the biggest prize of all.
"Bonnie and Jo are amazing. This is a male-dominated industry and to have these two ladies come up with what is truly one of the top 5 artifacts ever found from the 1715 fleet is just incredible," he said.
Dividing the spoils could be the tricky part. As contractors, Bonnie and Jo typically get half of what they find. Brisbane, who holds the rights to treasure hunting in region, gives 20% to the state of Florida.
If the state decides it wants the golden bird, then Brisbane says there may be some "treasure trading" to make it all come out right.
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