Monday, January 6, 2014
WEAR FLOTATION
Hundreds of lives might be saved if more people would wear their PFD's.
– Dave Bedinger, reporting for KDLG, Dillingham
More: kdlg.org
Yukon River seiners
Catch-and-release salmon fishing on the Yukon River is being pitched to the Alaska Board of Fisheries, only this time there's a big twist.
– Alaska Dispatch
More: alaskadispatch.com
Land fish farms looking good
The Canadian fishing industry is on the verge of being able to grow this saltwater fish anywhere – including, hypothetically, in the prairie provinces.
– CBC
More: cbc.ca
More Arctic drilling
Oilmen will in July be ready for a unique drilling operation in the Russian remote Arctic waters.
– Barents Observer
More: barentsobserver.com
B.C. oil port to affect Alaska
Canada's energy authority gave conditional approval earlier this month to the Northern Gateway Pipeline project, which would run through British Columbia and would send hundreds more crude oil supertankers along high-traffic shipping lanes in Alaska waters.
– Annie Ropeik, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More: kucb.org
Bad-mouthing Alaska seafood
The latest wave of misinformation claims Alaska fish has been contaminated by radiation from a Japanese nuclear power plant damaged in a 2011 earthquake.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: adn.com
Sushi tuna price dives
Sushi restaurateur Kiyoshi Kimura paid 7.36 million yen (about $70,000) for a 507 pound (230 kilogram) bluefin tuna in the year's celebratory first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji market on Sunday, just one-twentieth of what he paid a year earlier despite signs the species is in serious decline.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: adn.com
Trident sues to protect name
Trident Seafoods Corp. is suing Triton Seafoods LLC.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog, Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Alaska Dungeness good
Southeast crabbers ended one of their best fall/winter Dungeness fisheries ever.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, reporting in SitNews, Ketchikan
More: sitnews.us
No sales tax on boat
The California Board of Equalization granted the sales tax exemption on the case.
– PR.com
More: pr.com
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
WHALE VS. BOAT
Mexican officials say a boat and a humpback whale collided off the coast of Baja California, injuring a U.S. tourist and three other people on board.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: adn.com
Setnet ban disqualified
Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell today rejected an initiative to prohibit shore gill nets and set nets in nonsubsistence areas of the state.
– Julianne Curry, UFA
More: ltgov.alaska.gov
Pebble Mine nears grave
Bad to very much worse. That sums up the lack of progress in 2013 for the massive Pebble Mine, proposed by a diminishing consortium of foreign mining companies for the headwaters of the Bristol Bay wild salmon fishery in southwest Alaska.
– Joel Reynolds, writing in Huffington Post
More: huffingtonpost.com
Fish farmers feeding tobacco
There is more to tobacco leaves than being rolled into cigars and cigarettes.
– Philippine Inquirer
More: newsinfo.inquirer.net
Southern hake study begins
The project seeks to increase the knowledge available about the use of nursery habitats, life cycle and migratory behavior of this species in coastal waters of south- southern area.
– FIS
More: fis.com
Opening Walrus Island route
Currently, federally permitted vessels cannot transit through the Round Island Walrus Protection Area, routes traditionally taken when tenders leave the Togiak herring fishery for the Nushagak or Naknek-Kvichak salmon fisheries.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More: kdlg.org
BC oil spill would be bad
That severe acute effects on fish and other wildlife populations could result from a spill into a river is indisputable.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More: timescolonist.com
Ban Grays Harbor gillnets
Anglers are asking the Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission to ban commercial gill netting in Grays Harbor and are trying to get at least 300 people to the January 11 commission meeting in Olympia.
– KXRO, Aberdeen
More (scan down): kxro.wordpress.com
NE cod disaster not new
The historical record makes it clear that the current New England groundfish fishery disaster is but one of many disasters that have threatened the industry over its 400-year history.
– South (Massachusetts) Coast Today
More: southcoasttoday.com
NE restaurant cod disappears
It's so bad, many fishermen say, that for the first time, they cannot catch enough cod to even reach shrinking government quotas.
– NPR
More: npr.or
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
POISON SPRAY ON WILLAPA BAY
Last week Ecology began inviting public comment on what to include in an environmental impact study that will examine the use of a nicotine-like pesticide to reduce the huge populations of burrowing shrimp that live in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.
– Chinook (Wash.) Observer
More: chinookobserver.com
Boycotting Canadian fish
The criticism is in a report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is lobbying the U.S. administration to start enforcing a domestic law that bans imports from countries that fail to apply American sea-mammal protection rules.
– CBC
More: cbc.ca
European hypocrites over seal hunt
When the World Trade Organization heard Canada's complaint against the EU ban in November, facts and the rule of law were of little consequence.
– Canadian National Post
More: fullcomment.nationalpost.com
Chasing illegal crabbers
Crabbers have plenty of financial incentive to skirt the set of regulations laid out by the state, especially during the first few weeks of the season when most of the money is made.
– Chinook (Wash.) Observers
More: chinookobserver.com
San Francisco herring
One should not, of course, anthropomorphize, but this right here is a very large group of very fat and happy birds.
– NatureBay.org
More: baynature.org
Senator and Walmart salmon
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich is joining a growing list of fishermen and lawmakers calling on WalMart to change its policy in regards to stocking sustainably caught salmon products.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More: kdlg.org
Acidification changing fish
Ocean acidification is changing behavior in fish.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More: kucb.org
State cuts dam funding
A massive dam proposed for the Susitna River faces deep funding cuts after the Alaska Energy Authority failed to get access to thousands of acres of Alaska Native village corporation lands in the project area.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: adn.com
Idaho irrigation scheme
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter aims to build billions of dollars' worth of new and expanded dams as part of his dream of capturing more water in the drought-stricken southern desert of Idaho to irrigate potatoes, grow cities and industry, and flush endangered salmon to the sea.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: adn.com
Wild seafood market
With the expected growth of the U.S. economy, and continued weakness in many other parts of the world, 2014 looks to be a rough year for seafood traders whose fortunes are tied to foreign currencies.
– Cordova Times
More: thecordovatimes.com
Thursday, January 9, 2014
BLACK MARKET DUNGENESS RING
Washington State Fish and Wildlife officers and Lummi Tribal police teamed up this week to bust an alleged illegal seafood ring that involves distributors, commercial outlets and fishermen in three counties.
– KGW.com
More: kgw.com
Dungeness crabbers busted
In the notoriously competitive commercial crabbing industry, crabbers have plenty of financial incentive to skirt the set of regulations laid out by the state, especially during the first few weeks of the season when most of the money is made.
– Chinook (Wash.) Observer
More: chinookobserver.com
Cal boat afire
Master Jere Kleinbach, remained under investigation, but there was suspicion it may have been ignited by someone seeking refuge from the cold overnight.
– Fort Bragg Press Democrat
More: pressdemocrat.com
Hopes for Columbia king split
Hopes of Eastern Washington anglers to shift a larger share of the spring chinook allocation to the Columbia Gorge and lower Snake River appear to be going nowhere.
– The Vancouver Columbian
More: columbian.com
Alaska geoduck fishery closed
State officials say the geoduck fishery in Southeast Alaska will not be opening this week because of elevated levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning.
– KTOO, Juneau
More: ktoo.org
Halibut commissioners named
President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts.
– WhiteHouse.gov
More: whitehouse.gov
Sardine crash alarming
The decline has prompted steep cuts in the amount fishermen are allowed to catch, and scientists say the effects are probably radiating throughout the ecosystem, starving brown pelicans, sea lions and other predators that rely on the oily, energy-rich fish for food.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: adn.com
Conserve Kenai kings
I am very concerned by the downturn in the fishery, and the lack of cooperation between user groups.
– Peninsula Clarion
More: peninsulaclarion.com
Polar mercury declining
A team of scientists from the U.S., Russia, and Canada has compared mercury concentrations in burbot from 20 locations along the Pasvik river on the Norwegian-Russian border and along the Mackenzie River in Canada with findings from the Lena and Mezen rivers in Russian Arctic.
– Barents Observer
More: barentsobserver.com
Trash in the sea
Tales have abounded throughout history of fearsome creatures lurking in the depths of the seas, but none of those creatures, mythical or otherwise, is as frightening as the plastic monster that humans have created by dumping trash in the ocean.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More: timescolonist.com
Friday, January 10, 2014
SUN STORM ERUPTS
These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground and make for some nice aurora.
– SitNews, Ketchikan
More: sitnews.us
Training to sink
Instructors Torie Baker and Troy Tirrell will give participants hands-on training with emergency equipment that should be onboard any commercial fishing vessel, such as PFDs, life rafts, immersion suits, EPIRBs and fire extinguishers.
– Alaska Dispatch
More: alaskadispatch.com
Constitutional right to farm fish
Indiana voters may be asked to decide whether to add one more to the list: the right "to engage in the agricultural or commercial production of meat, fish, poultry, or dairy products."
– Bloomberg
More: businessweek.com
Saving big fish
Before it lands on our plate, any wild fish should spawn at least once.
– TheFishSite
More: thefishsite.com
Brewing beer with dead whale
According to one Icelandic brewery, drinking their beer made with ground up whale bones will do the trick just fine.
– The Spec, Canada
More: thespec.com
Fish farms safe
While many mainstream media articles spread the notions that coastal aquaculture is not safe for its surrounding environment, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released a new report dispelling those myths.
– Seafood Source
More: seafoodsource.com
Charming Walmart
They visited Alaska Glacier Seafoods; they talked with state biologists; and they ate a catered meal of — what else? — Alaska salmon.
– Alaska Public Media
More: alaskapublic.org
Kodiak medevacs
A distress call came in from the 150-foot fishing vessel Pavlof around 11 p.m., reporting a 50-year-old man had taken ill.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More: kmxt.org
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up on this Elvis Birthday Week edition: The state slaps down the Cook Inlet sports fishing industry's attempted resource grab, the Board of Fish is meeting right now in Kodiak, and why fish are more anxious than ever.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More: kmxt.org
To improve Bristol Bay quality
One of the proposals seeks to offer up a simple solution to a problem that might be impacting the quality of sockeye harvested in Bristol Bay.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More: kdlg.org
