Latest news with #fishing
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A Team Won Thousands in a Bass Tournament. Then Their Checks Bounced
American Bass Anglers, a fishing tournament organization based in Alabama, is getting some backlash from fishermen who claim they haven't been paid their proper winnings. Several anglers who fished an ABA military tournament this spring say their prize checks bounced, and according to WAFF-48, those fishermen are still waiting to get paid. That includes the tourney's winners, who were looking at a $1,900 payout for their first-place finish. 'They never reached out to me after that return check; I actually reached out to them,' Rick Bradley, who placed second in the tourney and was owed around $400, told the local news outlet Thursday. Bradley also said, however, that the ABA had contacted him to confirm his address and make sure another check would go to the right place. The ABA's president, Morris Sheehan, released an official statement that same day and chalked up the problem to a banking error. Sheehan explained that an 'unexpected system issue resulted in some tournament payout checks not clearing as intended,' and he assured anglers that they were working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Outdoor Life reached out to the ABA Friday for comment but did not hear back by press time. Read Next: Marlin Anglers Win $6 Million in Largest Fishing Tournament Payout of All Time But Slick Johnson, an influencer (and instigator) in the competitive bass-fishing space, says the ABA's payment problem goes back further than the most recent military tournament. In a video he posted to Facebook Friday, Johnson claimed this issue has been going on for months. 'They're taking money from the anglers … about 90 percent of the checks are bouncing,' Johnson alleges in his video. 'There's people that have been [waiting for] two months. When it happened at Eufala, [we] thought it was a one-time thing when all the checks bounced … Several of those checks cleared, but some still haven't.' The Military Team Bass Tournament that Bradley and others competed in was held on West Point Lake in LaGrange, Georgia, from April 30 to May 2. Johnson claimed in the video that, according to the anglers who fished that tournament and have since contacted him, there was around $8,800 paid to the ABA (mostly through entry fees) for that event. Read Next: The Best Bass Fishing in America Is Happening on the College Circuit 'They only paid out like $4,000-something, but every one of those [checks] bounced,' Johnson said. 'They're saying, 'Well, we're waiting to get money from this city so that we can pay the payouts and make the checks.' But I'm getting calls every single day [from] people who aren't getting paid.'
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Golden Retriever Lands Job As 'Fishing Guide' and Totally Nails the Role
Is there anything that Golden Retrievers can't do? These gorgeous, remarkably intelligent dogs almost never fail to impress. And the Golden Retriever in this video, who shows that he is a grade A "fishing guide," is no exception. From catching fish, to steering the boat, jumping off a cliff, and even taking on a scorpion - there's nothing this "fishing guide" can't do. Not to mention that when this good boy's cheeks flap in the wind as the boat cruises along, it's pretty much as adorable as can be!Obviously, this particular Golden Retriever is an exceptionally talented dog. He can drive and park a boat for crying out loud. Is there anything this guy can't do? As this other video shows, not only is this amazing golden retriever highly competent out on the water, but he is also easily the "coolest guy out in the parking lot." Before they even hit the water, it's obvious that this canine is the real deal. Just look at the way he comes face-to-face with that duck or how he catches so many fish with ease. And once the ride gets rough and bumpy out on the water, this handsome dog is not fazed at all, taking each and every bump in stride as he lays back and relaxes on the backseat, just chilling and enjoying the boat ride. There are good boys, good dogs, and then there are dogs that are professional good boys, just like this guy. He should really be the star of his own commercial or movie. He doesn't always catch fish, but when he does, he prefers to catch them in the open water, because he's the most interesting dog in the world! Looking for more PetHelpful updates? Follow us on YouTube for more entertaining videos. Or, share your own adorable pet by submitting a video, and sign up for our newsletter for the latest pet updates and tips. Golden Retriever Lands Job As 'Fishing Guide' and Totally Nails the Role first appeared on PetHelpful on May 21, 2025
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump cuts threaten safety training for workers in America's most dangerous jobs
By Leah Douglas NEWBURYPORT, Massachusetts (Reuters) - By the time Robbie Roberge spotted the fire consuming his boat's galley last August, he knew he had just minutes to evacuate his beloved Three Girls fishing vessel, named for his daughters. As the flames spread up the boat's walls, he helped his crew into safety suits, deployed a life raft and made a mayday call to alert nearby mariners and the U.S. Coast Guard that he was abandoning ship more than 100 miles offshore. Roberge, a commercial fisherman from South Portland, Maine, learned how to handle such an emergency just three months earlier at a workshop held by Fishing Partnership Support Services, a nonprofit that has trained thousands of East Coast fishermen in safety practices. On May 20, Roberge cut a fishing trip short to bring the six-man crew from his remaining boat, the Maria JoAnn, to another FPSS training in Newburyport, Massachusetts. "I have years of experience, but not dealing with emergencies," said Roberge, whose handling of the fire led to a successful rescue with no injuries. "I make it a point to be here." Such safety trainings - aimed at fishermen, loggers, farmers and other workers in America's most dangerous jobs - could be scaled back or wound down entirely as soon as July, according to Reuters interviews with a dozen health and safety experts and organizations, as a result of President Donald Trump's drive to slash the size and cost of the federal government. Those cuts have fallen heavily on the federal government's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that is a key funder of workplace safety training and research. WINDING DOWN The Trump administration on April 1 terminated about 875 of the roughly 1,000 employees at NIOSH, including most of the staff who provide technical advice and support to a dozen Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health focused on fishing, farming and logging workers. Although Trump this month reinstated about 300 NIOSH employees, they do not include the office overseeing the centers, according to data compiled by government worker unions seen by Reuters. Reuters spoke to staff at seven of the centers who described preparations to close down when their current funding cycles run out in the coming months. J. Glenn Morris, director of the Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at the University of Florida, said his team had already begun winding down work in anticipation of losing their NIOSH grant on September 29. "We're shutting down the direct education to the workers, we're shutting down the research," he said. NIOSH funding for the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association's fishermen safety trainings could run out as soon as July 1, said executive director Leann Cyr. FPSS also expects to lose NIOSH funding in September, potentially leading it to cut back on trainings, said Dan Orchard, the group's executive vice president. The loss of the trainings could put more burden on federal marine rescue services when fishermen face emergencies at sea, said John Roberts, an FPSS instructor who spent 31 years in the Coast Guard doing search and rescue. "The return on investment of the government is huge," he said. "If they give us this money to do this training, it's going to lessen how much money has to be spent to rescue the untrained." Asked to comment on the NIOSH job cuts, an HHS spokesperson said: "The work will continue. HHS supports America's farmers, fishmen, and logging workers." Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in March that the staff reductions are necessary to reduce bureaucracy and improve efficiency and that NIOSH would be combined with other sub-agencies into a new Administration for a Healthy America. The scope of the impact on these centers and their potential closures have not been previously reported. RISKY WORK The nation's 442,000 fishing, farming and logging workers make up just a fraction of America's workforce, but they have the highest fatal injury rate of any U.S. occupation - 24.4 per 100,000 workers in 2023 or seven times the national average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These workers do dangerous tasks from rural outposts where it might take hours to receive medical care. Fishermen risk falling overboard. Farmers and farmworkers could be crushed by equipment or contract bird flu. Loggers face chainsaws and falling limbs. That fatality rate has decreased over the last 20 years, BLS data show, with advances in mechanization and tightening federal safety regulations. Safety research and training supported by the centers have helped improve outcomes as well, said Matt Keifer, professor emeritus of occupational safety at the University of Washington, who has worked for two of the centers. Reuters could not verify the total number of workers trained by all of the centers, but the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety in Cooperstown, New York, trained more than 5,600 workers in 2024, said director Julie Sorensen. Some industry groups offer safety training without federal funding, like the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, which hosts 11 annual trainings on equipment and worksite safety, according to executive director Dana Doran. In addition to worksite risks, the NIOSH-funded centers and programs often tackle mental health challenges, drug addiction and diet-related disease. In the fishing sector, for instance, opiate addiction is a significant enough concern that fishermen at the FPSS training were taught to administer the overdose reversal drug Narcan. Staff at the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health at the University of Iowa have trained rural healthcare providers on risks farmers might face, like hearing loss from exposure to loud noises, said director T. Renee Anthony. Erika Scott, deputy director of the Northeast Center, set up mobile health clinics at logging sites with the PLC to research high rates of hypertension among the state's 3,000 loggers. It took years to convince loggers of the importance of public health research, said Doran. "We've built that trust together. And that trust will potentially be lost," Doran said. 'LEFT BEHIND' At the FPSS safety training, more than 50 fishing captains and crew learned to put out fires, make mayday calls, plug leaks, and deploy safety suits. Attendees cheered each others' efforts to light flares and use water pumps and traded stories of nightmarish near-misses on slippery decks or sinking boats. For Al Cottone, a fourth-generation fisherman in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and a FPSS instructor, cuts to the trainings would be "tragic." In the decade he has been involved with FPSS, Cottone said the number of attendees at an average training has doubled to 40 to 50 from 20 to 25. "There are so many people who are going to be left behind, because getting this in the private sector, this type of training, it costs a lot of money," he said.
Reuters
11 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Trump cuts threaten safety training for America's most dangerous jobs
NEWBURYPORT, Massachusetts, May 31 (Reuters) - By the time Robbie Roberge spotted the fire consuming his boat's galley last August, he knew he had just minutes to evacuate his beloved Three Girls fishing vessel, named for his daughters. As the flames spread up the boat's walls, he helped his crew into safety suits, deployed a life raft and made a mayday call to alert nearby mariners and the U.S. Coast Guard that he was abandoning ship more than 100 miles offshore. Roberge, a commercial fisherman from South Portland, Maine, learned how to handle such an emergency just three months earlier at a workshop held by Fishing Partnership Support Services, a nonprofit that has trained thousands of East Coast fishermen in safety practices. On May 20, Roberge cut a fishing trip short to bring the six-man crew from his remaining boat, the Maria JoAnn, to another FPSS training in Newburyport, Massachusetts. "I have years of experience, but not dealing with emergencies," said Roberge, whose handling of the fire led to a successful rescue with no injuries. "I make it a point to be here." Such safety trainings - aimed at fishermen, loggers, farmers and other workers in America's most dangerous jobs - could be scaled back or wound down entirely as soon as July, according to Reuters interviews with a dozen health and safety experts and organizations, as a result of President Donald Trump's drive to slash the size and cost of the federal government. Those cuts have fallen heavily on the federal government's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that is a key funder of workplace safety training and research. The Trump administration on April 1 terminated about 875 of the roughly 1,000 employees at NIOSH, including most of the staff who provide technical advice and support to a dozen Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health focused on fishing, farming and logging workers. Although Trump this month reinstated about 300 NIOSH employees, they do not include the office overseeing the centers, according to data compiled by government worker unions seen by Reuters. Reuters spoke to staff at seven of the centers who described preparations to close down when their current funding cycles run out in the coming months. J. Glenn Morris, director of the Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at the University of Florida, said his team had already begun winding down work in anticipation of losing their NIOSH grant on September 29. "We're shutting down the direct education to the workers, we're shutting down the research," he said. NIOSH funding for the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association's fishermen safety trainings could run out as soon as July 1, said executive director Leann Cyr. FPSS also expects to lose NIOSH funding in September, potentially leading it to cut back on trainings, said Dan Orchard, the group's executive vice president. The loss of the trainings could put more burden on federal marine rescue services when fishermen face emergencies at sea, said John Roberts, an FPSS instructor who spent 31 years in the Coast Guard doing search and rescue. "The return on investment of the government is huge," he said. "If they give us this money to do this training, it's going to lessen how much money has to be spent to rescue the untrained." Asked to comment on the NIOSH job cuts, an HHS spokesperson said: "The work will continue. HHS supports America's farmers, fishmen, and logging workers." Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in March that the staff reductions are necessary to reduce bureaucracy and improve efficiency and that NIOSH would be combined with other sub-agencies into a new Administration for a Healthy America. The scope of the impact on these centers and their potential closures have not been previously reported. The nation's 442,000 fishing, farming and logging workers make up just a fraction of America's workforce, but they have the highest fatal injury rate of any U.S. occupation - 24.4 per 100,000 workers in 2023 or seven times the national average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These workers do dangerous tasks from rural outposts where it might take hours to receive medical care. Fishermen risk falling overboard. Farmers and farmworkers could be crushed by equipment or contract bird flu. Loggers face chainsaws and falling limbs. That fatality rate has decreased over the last 20 years, BLS data show, with advances in mechanization and tightening federal safety regulations. Safety research and training supported by the centers have helped improve outcomes as well, said Matt Keifer, professor emeritus of occupational safety at the University of Washington, who has worked for two of the centers. Reuters could not verify the total number of workers trained by all of the centers, but the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety in Cooperstown, New York, trained more than 5,600 workers in 2024, said director Julie Sorensen. Some industry groups offer safety training without federal funding, like the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, which hosts 11 annual trainings on equipment and worksite safety, according to executive director Dana Doran. In addition to worksite risks, the NIOSH-funded centers and programs often tackle mental health challenges, drug addiction and diet-related disease. In the fishing sector, for instance, opiate addiction is a significant enough concern that fishermen at the FPSS training were taught to administer the overdose reversal drug Narcan. Staff at the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health at the University of Iowa have trained rural healthcare providers on risks farmers might face, like hearing loss from exposure to loud noises, said director T. Renee Anthony. Erika Scott, deputy director of the Northeast Center, set up mobile health clinics at logging sites with the PLC to research high rates of hypertension among the state's 3,000 loggers. It took years to convince loggers of the importance of public health research, said Doran. "We've built that trust together. And that trust will potentially be lost," Doran said. At the FPSS safety training, more than 50 fishing captains and crew learned to put out fires, make mayday calls, plug leaks, and deploy safety suits. Attendees cheered each others' efforts to light flares and use water pumps and traded stories of nightmarish near-misses on slippery decks or sinking boats. For Al Cottone, a fourth-generation fisherman in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and a FPSS instructor, cuts to the trainings would be "tragic." In the decade he has been involved with FPSS, Cottone said the number of attendees at an average training has doubled to 40 to 50 from 20 to 25. "There are so many people who are going to be left behind, because getting this in the private sector, this type of training, it costs a lot of money," he said.
Times of Oman
12 hours ago
- Climate
- Times of Oman
Oman Authorities recover missing fisherman's body in Taqah
Muscat: Rescue teams from the Civil Defense and Ambulance Authority have located the body of the missing citizen along Khor Rori Beach in the Wilayat of Taqah, Dhofar Governorate. The man had gone fishing with his brother last Tuesday when their boat was overturned by high waves. While his brother managed to swim to safety and was taken to Taqah Hospital for medical treatment, the missing individual could not be located until today. The search operation was a collaborative effort involving the Royal Oman Police, the Civil Defense and Ambulance Authority, the Royal Air Force of Oman, and local citizens. Authorities express their condolences to the family and continue urging caution for those engaging in marine activities, particularly in rough sea conditions.
