Wednesday, January 2, 2013
CAN THEY SELL DUNGENESS?
Retailers fear it's too late to make up for the revenue lost during the monthlong delay in starting the season.
(Photo of Newport crabbers by Sharon Biddinger of Simply Design Studios)
– The Oregonian
More:oregonlive.com
Mixed forecasts for Alaska fisheries
Depending on their quarry, some commercial fishermen working Alaska waters can expect a productive year in 2013, while others will face tighter limits.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:alaskadispatch.com
Guv killing gillnetting
Unless legislators and state citizens keep Kitzhaber's promises to fishermen, a way of life will end and our area will suffer another hard economic blow at the hands of out-of-town meddlers.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Drilling rig drama ends
The Royal Dutch Shell floating drill rig Kulluk went aground on Sitkalidik Island.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
Another drilling rig cited
The Coast Guard says it found problems with the rig's on-board systems during an emergency inspection in Seward.
– KUCB, Kodiak
More:kucb.org
New UFA leadership
United Fishermen of Alaska, the state's largest commercial fishing organization, made two big announcements.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Laine reviews 2012
Alaska's seafood industry worked hard this year to ramp up its message to policy makers, especially those from rail belt regions who tend to overlook the industry's economic significance.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:sitnews.us
Changing Bristol Bay escapement
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is planning on changing the sockeye escapement goals in Bristol Bay.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Drifting dock looks familiar
A scientist who examined the dock that recently washed ashore on Washington's Olympic Peninsula says it looks just like the one that came ashore on a central Oregon beach last summer, suggesting it also is a piece of tsunami debris from Japan.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Alaska Chinook bycatch
Deckboss was reviewing a recent federal fisheries report and found a very interesting chart (below) on Chinook salmon bycatch.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Klamath deal deadline extended
With the lack of congressional action threatening to void the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, all 42 agencies that originally signed the pact have agreed to a two-year extension.
– Redding Record Searchlight
More:redding.com
Thursday, January 3, 2013
BUM YEAR FOR PEBBLE GUYS
If you're the Pebble Limited Partnership, you have to be relieved to see 2012 fade into history.
– Switchboard, National Resources Defense Council
More:switchboard.nrdc.org
No spill from oil rig
The grounded Shell Exploration drilling rig Kulluk is reported as remaining stable with no oil spill pollution observed.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
Do you trust oil drillers?
The grounding of a petroleum drilling ship on a remote Alaska Island has refueled the debate about oil exploration in the U.S. Arctic Ocean, where critics for years have said the conditions are too harsh and the stakes too high to allow dangerous industrial development.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Arctic foils oil companies
"Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic, but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies."
– Christian Science Monitor
More:csmonitor.com
Foreign salvors for rig
Shell, headquartered in the Netherlands, naturally plans to use a Dutch outfit, Smit Salvage, to try to retrieve that behemoth drilling platform stranded at Kodiak Island.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Greens attack iron dumping
NASA satellite images taken from orbit show a powerful growth of phytoplankton in the waters that received the Haida's iron.
– National Review
More:nationalreview.com
Sheen from sunken vessels
Two fishing vessels sank in Jakolof Bay on Christmas day, and an oily sheen spreading in sensitive oyster farming waters had the attention of federal and state agencies.
– Homer Tribune
More:homertribune.com
Dealing with tsunami dock
Scientists plan treks Thursday and Friday to a dock that washed ashore on a wilderness beach near Forks.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Crab fishermen rescued
The Coast Guard says a crab boat has run aground near Coos Bay, and three fishermen have been rescued.
– The Oregonian
More:oregonlive.com
Cal fishing rep steps down
Brian Stacy has resigned from his post as vice president of the Port San Luis Commercial Fishermen's Association, citing a lack of support from the organization.
– New Times, California
More:newtimesslo.com
Franken salmon contamination
"If the wild population is contaminated by such a modification, the entire species gets pushed closer to the edge if food sources decline. In other words, they could run out of gas quicker."
– Pacific Fishing contributor Patrick Dixon writing about frankensalmon genetic modification in his blog, Gillnet Dreams
More:networkedblogs.com
Friday, January 4, 2013
GROUNDED RIG STILL HOLDS FUEL
A Shell oil drilling rig grounded off an Alaska island since a New Year's Eve storm has suffered damage from waves and flooding but has spilled none of the 155,000 gallons of fuel and other oil products aboard.
– Huffington Post
More:huffingtonpost.com
Rig hemorrhaging water
While the results of two days of inspections by salvage crews remain preliminary, Sean Churchfield, Shell's Alaska operations official, attributed the flooding below deck to open hatches and not to cracks or holes in the hull.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Stop Arctic drilling
Environmental groups are calling on the Obama administration to stop issuing permits for all offshore drilling in Arctic waters.
– Alaska Public.org
More:alaskapublic.org
Professor now fishmonger
Nic Mink has spent the past two summers in Sitka meeting fishermen and learning about the economy salmon trolling. Now, he's launched a business to connect individual boats with consumers in the Midwest.
– Alaska Public.org or check out November's Pacific Fishing.
More:alaskapublic.org
Native setnets stopped
An effort to process salmon in the small Alaska Native village of Levelock suffered a huge setback last month during a regulatory meeting of the Alaska Board of Fisheries.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Copper River forecast
The state has released its 2013 salmon forecast for the famed Copper River.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Sheen from sunken crab boat
A 160-yard-long oil sheen is visible as waves pound a grounded crab fishing vessel off the Oregon coast near Charleston.
– Coos Bay World
More:theworldlink.com
Cut irrigation, save fish
The idea drew protest from water suppliers, including the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, which argue that the reductions would be especially tough in dry years.
– Modesto Bee
More:modbee.com
Alaska aid bill 'ridiculous'
Look at some of what was in the $60 billion bill: $150 million for Alaskan fisheries; $2 million for roof repair at the Smithsonian in Washington; and about $17 billion for liberal activists under the guise of "community development" funds and so-called social service grants.
– Wall Street Journal
More:online.wsj.com
Did observer plan work?
Preliminary information about the fishery's impact on marine mammals is not expected out until the spring.
– KFSK, Petersburg
More:kfsk.org
Subsistence halibut down
Alaska's subsistence halibut harvest has declined over much of the past decade, mirroring the drop in commercial catches statewide.
– KFSK, Petersburg
More:kfsk.org
