Monday, January 14, 2013
WASHINGTON CHANGES GILLNET RULES
The most widespread changes to Columbia River salmon fisheries in decades will be phased in starting this year.
– Longview Daily News
More:tdn.com
Gillnet rules not as bad
The new policy has some significantly softened terminology in it compared to what came out of the last Working Group meeting in Seaside.
– Robert Sudar, a guy who's done a huge amount of work and worry about the matter.
More:pacificfishing.com
More on the gillnet proposal
While winning praise from sport fishermen, the plan is strongly opposed by gill-netters.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.com
Guilty of crabbing in preserve
The captain of a commercial crab vessel was sentenced by the Sonoma County Superior Court for a misdemeanor violation committed while taking Dungeness crab from inside the Stewarts Point State Marine Reserve.
– Lake County (California) News
More:lakeconews.com
Great white shark endangered?
The California Fish and Game Commission will consider a petition to give threatened or endangered species status to the West Coast great white shark population at its meeting early next month.
– Lake County (California) News
More:lakeconews.com
Herring spawn in San Francisco
Just off San Francisco's China Basin, you could see flocks of gulls and pelicans flying, hovering and then crashing into the bay to feed.
– San Francisco Chronicle
More:sfgate.com
B.C. pipeline port too dangerous
"The consequences of a major oil spill along B.C.'s north coast … could be catastrophic and irreversible."
– Victoria Times Colonist
More:timescolonist.com
Sentence after Trident embezzlement
A Kodiak woman has been sentenced to four months in prison on two counts of wire fraud for her role in a scheme to embezzle nearly $500,000 from Trident Seafoods.
– Cordova Times
More:thecordovatimes.com
Remembering the dead
The Coast Guard honored the crews of the 52-motor lifeboat Triumph and the 38-foot fishing vessel Mermaid during a memorial service at Station Cape Disappointment in Ilwaco. Five Coast Guard members and the two-man crew of the Mermaid were lost when severe weather sank both vessels, Jan. 12, 1961.
– Coast Guard
More:uscgnews.com
We goofed
On Friday, we published an item that indicated Prince William Sound produced 44,000 more salmon than Southeast Alaska last year. The number should have been 44. Sorry.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
KEEP ALBACORE BAN FOR ONE MORE YEAR
The Canadian fleet is transitory and most of their catch and income flows back to Canada while their fish compete with U.S. fishermen in a finite market.
– Western Fishboat Owners Association
More:pacificfishing.com/Resources
Boom-bust salmon
Cycles lasting up to 200 years were found while examining 500-year records of salmon abundance in Southwest Alaska.
– Phys.org
More:phys.org
Fishermen angry over gillnet ban
But as the political controversy over gillnetting and the competition with sports fishermen have built to a climax, Kuller and other gillnetters on the Lower Columbia are losing faith that a new Columbia River fisheries plan will leave a place for them and their way of life.
– Yakima Herald Republic
More:yakimaherald.com
Editorial: Get over it!
We hope this legal challenge fails. It's time for the relatively few gillnetters -- only about 200 along the Columbia -- to accept a fate that has loomed inevitable during a dispute that has spanned several decades.
– Vancouver Columbian
More:columbian.com
Cal crabbers begin
After several delays the start of commercial crab season kicks off, and crab fishermen have been out all morning preparing.
– KIEM TV, Eureka
More:kiem-tv.com
Time to save the Coast Guard
Despite its vital and omnipresent role protecting America's shores and our mariners from harm, the Coast Guard's budget has been steadily declining in recent years, even as its role has expanded to include maritime homeland security.
– Baltimore Sun
More:baltimoresun.com
Newport hosts wave energy test site
Newport has been chosen to host the $25 million deep-water Pacific Marine Energy Center wave energy research site.
– Newport News Times
More:newportnewstimes.com
Protecting NW coho and steelhead
Today we proposed to designate critical habitat for lower Columbia River coho salmon and Puget Sound steelhead, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
– NOAA
More:nwr.noaa.gov
Canada cuts Natives on salmon panel
The federal government has allowed the only two First Nations appointments to a Canada-U.S. commission that manages Pacific salmon to lapse, prompting aboriginal fishermen to accuse Ottawa of shutting them out.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More:timescolonist.com
Cal delta fish dwindling
The latest trawl-net fish count shows the population of California's six species of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fish are dwindling.
– Eureka Times Standard
More:times-standard.com
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
MORE BRISTOL BAY WET BOATS
Over 50 percent of the sockeye caught last year in Bristol Bay were chilled at the point of harvest. That's the first time in history that the 50-percent mark has been achieved.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Renegade drill rig stays put
The Unified Command has not yet announced a timeline for departing for Seattle, the rig's intended destination before going adrift in a Gulf of Alaska typhoon and ultimately washing ashore.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
CG staged in Bering Sea
Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak temporarily deployed two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews to St. Paul, Alaska, to safeguard the crab fleet and other fishing vessels engaged in winter fisheries in Southwestern Alaska.
– Coast Guard
More:uscgnews.com
New sonar for upper Cook Inlet
The new escapement goal is based on the department's DIDSON sonar and will replace the former escapement goal which was based on a target-strength sonar.
– Peninsula Clarion
More:peninsulaclarion.com
Fisherman overboard, missing
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Columbia, in Astoria received notification via VHF-FM radio from the fishing vessel Senja that a crew member had fallen overboard at about 1:30 a.m.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Saying goodbye to gillnetting
But as the political controversy over gillnetting and the competition with sports fishermen have built to a climax, Kuller and other gillnetters on the Lower Columbia are losing faith that a new Columbia River fisheries plan will leave a place for them and their way of life.
– Vancouver Columbian
More:columbian.com
Get over it!
(Our link to this item failed Tuesday.) Fish wheels — which capture fish much like mill wheels convert rivers into power — were outlawed on the Columbia River in the 1930s for a couple of compelling reasons. They represented an outdated system that, essentially, was too efficient in killing some species of fish whose populations were at risk.
– Vancouver Columbian
More:columbian.com
Alaska tanner crab season opens
The catch quota for Tanner crab is a modest 660,000 pounds for the Kodiak District.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
PenAir quits villages
With just one small airplane left, Peninsula Airways is almost completely out of the village air taxi business.
– Pacific Fishing magazine contributor Jim Paulin, writing in the Dutch Harbor Fisherman
More:thedutchharborfisherman.com
Grounding under investigation
Officials have yet to determine a cause in the grounding of a fishing vessel near Charleston earlier this month.
– Coos Bay World
More:theworldlink.com
Managers must be enviros
Fisheries managers should sharpen their ability to spot environmental conditions that hamper or help fish stocks, rather than assuming that having a certain abundance of fish assures how much can be sustainably harvested.
– University of Washington
More:washington.edu
Thursday, January 17, 2013
N. CAL CRAB OPENS
North Coast fishermen are expecting a starting price of $2.50 per pound this season.
— Crescent City Triplicate
More:triplicate.com
Chinook disasters not funded
Not included in the House bill was a provision for $150 million for fisheries disasters that states such as Alaska and Mississippi could have shared.
– Kenai Peninsula Clarion
More:peninsulaclarion.com
Cold storage in Astoria
He talked about Ocean Cold, a 95,000-square-foot cold storage and processing facility in Westport, Wash., and how Astoria could profit from a similar facility.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Renegade oil rig a warning
The grounding of Shell Oil's Kulluk drill rig reminds us again of Alaska's tough maritime conditions and our vulnerability from coastal shipping and oil activities in the Arctic and around Kodiak, the Aleutians and Southcentral Alaska.
— Alaska Journal of Commerce
More:alaskajournal.com
Begich still likes off-shore drilling
Alaska Senator Mark Begich has been a strong proponent of Arctic offshore drilling – some even credit him with winning White House support for the program.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Stephanie Joyce, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Crabbing around runaway rig
Nothing has spilled from the rig, but state and Coast Guard officials are being extra cautious to make sure the Kulluk and various response vessels don't cause a problem for the crabbers.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Raising Homer boat
The Coast Guard plans on overseeing work to get the sunken F/V Leading Lady to the surface, weather permitting, but more than two weeks has now passed as fuel spilled into the sensitive waters of Jakolof Bay.
– Homer Tribune
More:homertribune.com
CG inspections delayed
A new dockside safety exam requirement for many commercial fishing boats has been postponed for a couple of years.
– KFSK, Petersburg
More:kfsk.org
Suspected poachers claim religion
State prosecutors are disputing religious protection claims by Alaska Native fishermen cited for illegal fishing.
– KTOO, Juneau
More:ktoo.org
Alaska permit prices mixed
There's lots of movement in Alaska's salmon permit markets, but sales of catch shares are in a stall.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:sitnews.us
Overboard search ends
The Coast Guard suspended the active search for a fisherman who fell overboard from a commercial fishing vessel approximately eight miles northwest of the Queets River, Wash., Wednesday.
– Coast Guard
More:uscgnews.com
Women discuss fishing
Women in Fisheries will be the topic of the Sitka Marine Heritage Society's annual meeting/presentation, beginning at 6 p.m. Feb. 7 in Centennial Hall. Tele Aadsen, Linda Behnken, Pat Kehoe, Marie Laws, Coral Pendell, and Linda Danner will be featured. Eric Jordan will moderate the panel. The evening is free and open to the public.
– SMHS
More:sitkamaritime.org
Friday, January 18, 2013
MODERN MINES LEAK
Modern mines can and do fail, often with devastating environmental consequences.
– Natural Resources Defense Council
More: switchboard.nrdc.org
Fines for illegal halibut
Two boats that regularly fish out of Unalaska were prosecuted in 2012 for illegal halibut fishing.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More: kucb.org
Gillnet ban flawed
It only takes about 10 minutes of conversation with an actual gillnetter to learn that Kitzhaber's plans are deeply flawed in numerous ways.
– Herald and News, Klamath Falls
More: heraldandnews.com
Where's gillnet ban money?
"This is going to be a very, very difficult budget year. There will be lots of demands on limited resources."
– Daily Astorian
More: dailyastorian.com
New McFish bites
The Fish McBites, which are made of Alaskan pollock, will be available in three sizes: "Snack" (3 oz), "Regular" (5 oz) and "Shareable" (10 oz).
– Huffington Post
More: huffingtonpost.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week, King salmon is again the topic du jour in two parts of the state – and in Washington, D.C. We get an update on the Southeast crab fishery. And wouldn't you like to be on the International Pacific Halibut Commission?
– KMXT, Kodiak
More: kmxt.org
New fish tax on Adak
Voters in Adak approved the first raw fish tax in the city's history.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More: kucb.org
Officials mum over oil rig future
The Unified Command still isn't releasing any details about future plans for Shell's Kulluk drill rig, which ran aground near Kodiak on New Year's Eve.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More: kucb.org
Oregon ready for wave power
Five years after a moratorium on permits for wave energy facilities in Oregon's territorial sea, the state appears ready to approve a plan spelling out how and where they may be placed.
– The Oregonian
More: oregonlive.com
MSC renewal for albacore
Consumers in the United States and in markets around the world can continue to recognize and reward sustainable fresh, frozen and canned albacore tuna from the American Albacore Fishing Association, based in San Diego.
– MSC
More: msc.org
Community grants available
The Community Advisory Board (CAB) of American Seafoods Company announced it is now accepting applications for its Alaska community grant program. The deadline to submit applications is February 6, 2013.
– American Seafoods
More: americanseafoods.com
