Monday, January 7, 2013
SHAKING IN SOUTHEAST
Southeast Alaska was jarred by a significant earthquake.
– KFSK, Petersburg
More:kfsk.org
Gillnet ban I
An Oregon attorney – Ben Miller – has filed a petition for judicial review with the Oregon Court of Appeals. His goal is "to invalidate Oregon Administrative Rules 635-500-6700 through 635-500-6765" – the state Fish and Game Commission decision to ultimately ban gillnetting on the Columbia main stem.
– Here is a link to a story in the Longview Daily News:tdn.com
Gillnet ban II
They allege that the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission's 4-2 decision in December violated several state laws, including one that requires "optimum commercial and public recreational benefits" in food fish management.
– The Oregonian
More:oregonlive.com
Gillnet ban III
Miller, the Oregon attorney, also has sent a letter to the Washington Fish and Game Commission describing the Oregon petition. On Jan. 12 – this coming Saturday – the Washington panel is expected to consider a Columbia gillnet ban similar to Oregon's. Miller's letter may at least delay the Washington vote. His words: "I anticipate we will have a ruling from the Oregon Court of Appeals on my request for a stay within a few weeks. I suspect knowing whether the rules will actually take effect in Oregon is something that you would want to consider before voting on such a dramatic change to the commercial fishery on the Columbia River."
See the letter:Miller_letter_010713.pdf
Fishing report: Herring
"No landings yet. Gonna be a slow start, it looks like. Marketing drama, Silver Bay Seafoods arrives in big way." (Send your report to editor@pacificfishing.com.)
– San Francisco herring fisherman and Pacific Fishing contributor Ernie Koepf on the San Francisco sac roe herring fishery.
Fishing report: D-crab
The F/V Carter Jon set a new record: Seven days, 9,000 pounds of bait. Some 2,420 traps pulled. A stuffed fish hold and nine totes on deck. Some 85,000 pounds of Dungeness crab. I have only filled the boat twice now in my career. It was great to be back on the ocean.
I will need a long nap when we unload. (Send your report to editor@pacificfishing.com.)
– Coos Bay fisherman Nick Edwards on the recently opened Oregon Dungeness crab season
Oil rig refloated
The barge had been aground on Sitkalidak Island since New Year's Eve after getting away from tow boats in heavy seas.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Shell explains drill rig fiasco
It was the first public briefing made in Kodiak since the rig went hard aground on Sitkalidak Island in a New Year's Eve storm.
– Alaska Public Radio
More:alaskapublic.org
Trawl control date announced
Federal regulators have posted notice of a control date for the Central Gulf of Alaska trawl fisheries.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
No setnets on Naknek
An effort to allow commercial setnetters to fish in the Naknek River was turned down last month by the Alaska Board of Fisheries.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Otters reduce greenhouse gases
Otters eat urchins, allowing healthy kelp forests to grow.
– KTOO, Juneau
More:ktoo.org
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
WANDERING DRILL RIG AT ANCHOR
"We undertake significant planning and preparation in an effort to ensure these types of incidents do not occur. We're very sorry it did."
– KTUU, Anchorage
More:articles.ktuu.com
Congressman demands Pebble papers
A powerful member of Congress is threatening the EPA with subpoenas if the agency does not turn over documents related to the "Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment."
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Fishy bill in Juneau
Deckboss looked them over and found only one of real relevance to the commercial fishing world.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Yule trees for salmon
The Tualatin Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited collected around 250 donated Christmas trees for a salmon habitat project.
– Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita reporting in Ecotrope, Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:ecotrope.opb.org
Censorship over Klamath research?
Seven federal fisheries scientists filed a complaint claiming their supervisor censored their research into the water needs of threatened Klamath Basin salmon.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Crescent City dock repair
Twenty-three fishing vessels were assigned slips on E Dock, the first freshly installed dock in Crescent City Harbor to take on tenants since reconstruction began last summer.
– Crescent City Triplicate
More:triplicate.com
Nanaimo marina for super yachts
The Nanaimo Port Authority announced plans last spring for a 30-year lease with Pacific Northwest Marina Group, a private developer, to build and manage a new, larger marina tailored to accommodate "super" yachts.
– Nanaimo Daily News
More:www2.canada.com
Tribes still not getting fish
Despite all the good intentions, hundreds of millions of dollars spent, lawsuits won and treaty rights affirmed in the highest courts, the battle to save the salmon and the habitat that supports them is being lost — not only here, but all over Western Washington.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.com
Subsistence herring roe on kelp
The Togiak area is somewhat unique in that many subsistence users rely on herring spawn on kelp to supplement their diet.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
A moment for reflection
Had he not died on a toilet eating a peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich 35 years ago, Elvis Presley would have turned 78 today.
– Pitch
More:pitch.com
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
FAMOUS GUY AGAINST PEBBLE
The fishery provides 14,000 full- and part-time jobs, whereas the Pebble Mine promises only 1,000 permanent jobs.
– Robert Redford in Huffington Post
More:huffingtonpost.com
CG safety rules scorned
Advocates said they were baffled when one of the first serious attempts at improving fishing industry safety was stripped down in an annual act passed quietly last month.
– Bangor, Maine, Daily News
More:bangordailynews.com
No toilet aboard, man drowns
Marine accident experts have slammed the “sustained and consistent disregard” for safety displayed by the operators of a Scottish scallop dredger, following their investigation into the death of a crewman a year ago off the Welsh coast.
– The Scotsman
More:scotsman.com
First Carlson checks
Some problems including "accounting issues" took longer to sort out than expected.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Fish Board resignation
Bill Brown of Juneau has resigned from the Alaska Board of Fisheries with nearly a year and a half remaining in his term.
– KTOO, Anchorage
More:ktoo.org
B.C. chum gets MSC certification
Three British Columbia chum salmon fisheries have awarded Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, a significant boost to Canada’s supply of MSC certified seafood.
– World Fishing
More:worldfishing.net
Feds jumping all over Shell
There will be two federal investigations of what went wrong with the Kulluk, the 266-foot Shell drilling rig that went adrift in the Gulf of Alaska and ended up on the rocks of the outer coast of Kodiak Island.
– Alaska Public Radio
More:alaskapublic.org
Shell: Drill, baby, drill
The top oil lobbyist in Washington DC says Shell Oil should not be hampered by the grounding of the Kulluk.
– Alaska Public Radio
More:alaskapublic.org
IPHC opening open again
It seems the government is reopening the nomination process.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Kenai dipnetting: PARTY!
Kenai residents agreed that the city during dipnet season has morphed into a destination or party spot for all Alaskans.
– Kenai Peninsula Clarion
More:peninsulaclarion.com
Gillnet death plan unreasonable
A more reasonable initial approach would have been to include all parties involved in building a plan before public meetings and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission voting.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Battling B.C. super yachts
First Nations people, commercial fishermen, concerned citizens and Protection Island commuters at the two-hour discussion said the port authority hasn't done enough to accommodate their needs, forcing them to create a new multi-pronged action strategy.
– Nanaimo Daily News
More:www2.canada.com
Coho salmon back to Idaho
The Northwest's declining salmon runs have spurred marathon legal battles and inspired billions in spending to save the iconic species.
– Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:earthfix.opb.org
Setnet, drift allocations same
During last month's meeting the members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries turned down proposals to change the harvest allocations for commercial fishermen in the full Naknek-Kvichak District and the Alagnak River Special Harvest.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Alaska tops 100 million fish
Prince William Sound topped all other Alaska regions for salmon catches last year – but not by much.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:sitnews.us
Cook Inlet beluga survey
Scientists from NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center announced that the 2012 abundance estimate for the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale population is 312 animals, a small, but not scientifically significant increase over last year.
– NOAA
More:alaskafisheries.noaa.gov
Cal delta recovery isn't
A very wet 2011 lifted populations and spurred hopes of longer-term recovery, but reality set in last year when less fresh water was available to create the habitat conditions fish need.
– Stockton Record
More:recordnet.com
Friday, January 11, 2013
HALIBUT SHARECROPPERS
The fish are instead the property of a generation of wealthy owners, most of whom did nothing more than fish in the right place at the right time to get a stake.
– Seattle Weekly
More:seattleweekly.com
Prof critical of catch shares
He said assigning individual quota shares, much like what was done in Alaska sablefish and halibut fisheries, is not in the best interest of coastal communities.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
Chinook disaster: Where's the money?
As of now, waiting for help to arrive to Alaska's commercial fishing communities is looking more and more like a bit from Samuel Beckett'sWaiting for Godot.
– Anchorage Press
More:anchoragepress.com
Personal use a priority?
The bill's title says it all: "An act providing priority to personal use fisheries when fishing restrictions are implemented to achieve a management goal."
– Kenai Peninsula Clarion
More:peninsulaclarion.com
Sheen from Homer sunken boats
Two fishing vessels that sank in Jakolof Bay on Christmas day continue to spread an oily sheen in sensitive oyster farming waters while a plan for removing the vessels still isn't formulated.
– Homer News
More:homertribune.com
Prince William Sound gives most salmon
Fishermen in the Sound squeaked by their colleagues in the Panhandle by just 44,000 fish to get the top ranking for the 2012 season.
– Phoenix Log, Seward
More:thesewardphoenixlog.com
Tribes dislike Bristol Bay plan
Initial review of these proposed changes has some residents concerned that the revised plan doesn't offer enough protection of wildlife, subsistence, and public use of wild fish and game.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:alaskadispatch.com
Wandering oil rig … hoh hum
Fewer than 50 Kodiakans turned out to the Kodiak High School Commons for a remarkably quiet community meeting about the Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilling rig Kulluk, now moored in Kiliuda Bay after being pulled from Sitkalidak Island.
– Fairbanks News Miner
More:newsminer.com
High seas fish farming
The new system, recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the Top 25 Inventions of 2012, is a mobile fish pen, or drifting fish cage, which is hooked to a barge that drifts with the ocean eddies.
– Azorobotics
More:azorobotics.com
Another frankenfish?
Through selective breeding programs in Egypt and Ghana, two fast-growing strains of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), an economically important fish that is native to much of Africa, have been developed for farmers.
– African Brains
More:africanbrains.net
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week, a Board of Fish member resigns citing "personalities" as part of the reason; a unique salmon share program out of Sitka is gaining some national recognition; and the Commercial Fishing Film Festival wraps up this weekend in Juneau.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
