Fishermen

Five fishermen were missing Wednesday after their wooden boat collided with another boat off south China's Guangdong Province, local authorities said, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. Of the seven fishermen who fell into the water, two were rescued, Xinhua said, citing the Lufeng Municipal Emergency Affairs Office. The unknown vessel fled immediately after the incident, which occurred early in the day off Lufeng City, the agency said.

BP has formally agreed to take responsibility for ensuring fishermen and other contract workers comply with federal safety guidelines as the massive oil spill clean-up continues in the Gulf, according to a letter obtained by CNN. The letter, dated June 16, states that BP is "committed to the safety and well-being of all employees and contractors who are performing clean-up activities in response to the Deepwater Horizon incident." Specifically, the company said it "will comply with all applicable OSHA and (Coast Guard)

Thirty-four fishermen are free four months after the two Egyptian vessels they were on were hijacked off the coast of Somalia, an Egyptian official said Friday. The fishermen were released after Egyptian and Yemeni government officials intervened, according to a statement from Egypt's undersecretary for consular affairs, Ahmad Rizk. He offered no further details. Rizk said no ransom was paid for the 34 men, who will arrive in Yemen later in the day and then be transported to Egypt.

The Queensland government declared a state of disaster as exTropical Cyclone May flooded large areas in the region around Normanton in Queenslands Gulf country, 1,000 miles northwest of the state capital of Brisbane.;The two fishermen were confirmed missing in the Albert River, and poor visibility was hampering the search effort.;The state emergency services only helicopter was being stretched to the limit to rescue people caught by rising waters and to drop food to isolated properties.

Janet Echelman never studied sculpture or architecture, and she was rejected by each of the seven arts schools she applied to after college. Yet in an unlikely turn of events, she has become a pioneering creator of enormous flexible sculptures that are beginning to enliven the world's cities. Inspired by fishermen using nets in India and lace makers in Lithuania, Echelman has created what she calls "permanent, billowing, voluptuous" sculptures made up of flexible fibers that ripple in the wind.

California, fishermen team up for sea bass survival August 25, 1997;

Snaking through the majestic mountains of western China, the Yellow River was once considered to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. Today, 24-year-old Lun Lun combs the very same waters searching not for fish, but for the remains of humans. He sets out from the shores of his home in Shangping village in far-flung Gansu Province on his rusty, hand-made canoe hunting for corpses, a practice that has become a lucrative, though grisly, industry. Lun Lun and his fellow fishermen have dragged more than one hundred bodies out of the river this year alone as they float downstream from the bustling metropolis.

With Monday's start of the fall shrimping season came new worries about the Gulf of Mexico's seafood and the industry's ability to lure not only business but fishermen back in the water. For the past few months, BP contracted with thousands of fishermen to help with the cleanup of oil from the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig. But officials said Monday that many fishermen had yet to jump back in the water to resume their livelihoods. "Right now, part of our challenge is to get the shrimpers back in the water," said Harlon Pearce, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.

Gun-wielding attackers aboard small vessels opened fire on a group of fishing boats in a restive area of the southern Philippines, killing 15 people in an apparent turf dispute between fishermen, the military authorities said Tuesday. The three fishing boats from the large island of Mindanao were near the tiny island of Sibago when they were attacked Monday morning by about six men on three smaller craft, said Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos, a spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

From Correspondent Jim Hill ;LOS ANGELES CNN While it may be difficult for most people to feel sorry for sharks, Congress is considering steps to protect the creatures from fishermen who cut off their fins and then throw the rest away.;If we deplete this resource like we deplete dolphins and we deplete tuna or any other species on this Earth, then we all lose, said Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham RCalifornia at a House subcommittee hearing on the proposed ban.;Shark fins can sell for up to 70 a pound as an ingredient for sharkfin soup.