Monday, January 24, 2011
JAIL FOR ALASKA GUIDE
A Wasilla lodge owner convicted of guiding illegal hunting and fishing expeditions was sentenced Friday for what Alaska Wildlife Troopers called the worst pattern of violations ever committed in Alaska by a commercial guide.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Orcas 'ambush' gray whales
The newly discovered group of over 150 "transient" killer whales return to ambush grey whales every spring near Unimak Island, Alaska, as the whales migrate north to the Bering Sea.
– Vancouver Province
More:www.theprovince.com
B.C. halibut split is fine
The fishing lodge and charter vessel interests are seeking to have federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea alter a long-standing allocation policy, and re-allocate the halibut resource from commercial fishermen to the fishing lodge and charter interests. Such a re-allocation would take halibut away from Canadian consumers who enjoy eating commercially-caught halibut in restaurants or at home.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
Halibut commission meets tomorrow
Big week coming up, friends, with the International Pacific Halibut Commission convening its 87th annual meeting on Tuesday in Victoria, B.C.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Full criminal probe needed at NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has no interest whatsoever in reforming its vindictive regulation and enforcement oversight of the commercial fishing industry, and bringing to justice those who shamed the agency and any sense of American justice.
– Gloucester (Mass.) Times
More:www.gloucestertimes.com
Bunch of dead B.C. herring wash ashore
Large numbers of dead herring that washed ashore this week on a Vancouver Island beach have both fishery officials and local fishermen looking for answers.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
Pollock A season begins
The total allowable catch has been set at 1.25 million metric tons, and 40 percent of that is available for harvest during the A season. The trawl fisheries also open today for cod, mackerel, yellowfin, and rock sole.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.publicbroadcasting.net
GOP leader: Kill Bonneville sea lions
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings says killing sea lions is sometimes the only option for managers trying to protect salmon and steelhead at Bonneville Dam.
– Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita reporting in Ecotrope, Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:ecotrope.opb.org
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Groups reaffirm N. Cal reserve support
Tribes and local fishing and environmental groups on Friday repeated their support of a regional proposal for marine reserves along the North Coast before the Legislature's Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture in Eureka.
– Pacific Fishing columnist John Driscoll, reporting in the Eureka Times-Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
ALASKA SALMON INDICATORS GOOD
Final forecasts for the 2011 salmon season won't be out for a few weeks, but early indicators point to another good fishery.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
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National seafood marketing group
More than 50 fishing and seafood organizations from 24 states, including Alaska, have signed on to the National Seafood Marketing Coalition, a group that's working on a national plan to better market American seafood and is hoping for help from the federal government.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Tabloids: Cops eye 'Deadliest Catch' hand
One of the guys on "Deadliest Catch" got in some serious hot water with Alaska law enforcement after officials discovered something fishy on his crabbing license.
– TMZ
More:www.tmz.com
Rare whale enters Gulf of Alaska
A highly endangered whale that spends summers in Russian waters has crossed from the Bering Sea into the Gulf of Alaska.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Another B.C. herring die off
Another beach has been found covered with hundreds of dead herring that washed ashore.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More:www.timescolonist.com
Opinion: Sportsmen deserve more halibut
Our fisheries are a common property owned by every Canadian. That is our history and tradition, and we demonstrated our personal connection to our fisheries last summer when thousands of ordinary Canadian lined the banks of the Fraser River for a chance to catch a fish or two.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
St. Paul halibut fishery grows
Innovations at work in St. Paul have halibut fisherman poised to take advantage of the nation's huge appetite for halibut.
– Dutch Harbor Fisherman
More:www.thedutchharborfisherman.com
New owner braces for snow crab
Dutch Harbor Acquisitions LLC, formed by Siu Alaska Corp. and Copper River Seafoods, is bracing for its first delivery of snow crab Sunday at new processing facilities at Dutch Harbor.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
Imports endanger U.S. catfish farmers
The U.S. catfish business is a $4 billion dollar annual industry, but imported fish has many domestic farmers worried.
– CBS News
More:www.cbsnews.com
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
SIG HANSEN IN GRATUITY PROBE
A state employee for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has been charged with the receipt of an "unlawful gratuity."
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.publicbroadcasting.net
Oregon Dungeness fleet making money
One month into the Commercial Crabbing season, and after a rocky start in December, it is looking the number of landings have snuck up on those keeping track.
– KCBY, Coos Bay
More:www.kcby.com
Kodiak CG rescues fishermen
A Kodiak-based Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew rescued three fishermen from the partially submerged 42-foot fishing vessel Ruffian just north of Latouche Island in Prince William Sound Tuesday at 11:22 a.m.
– Coast Guard
More:www.d17.uscgnews.com
Obama's salmon joke
It's not often, I'm sure, that the word "salmon" finds its way into a State of the Union address. Not to mention a salmon joke!
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Make sport halibut anglers accountable
Increased access to halibut by the Sports Fishing Sector should not even be considered until they have achieved a level of management and accountability comparable to that of the Commercial Halibut Fleet.
– Canada.com
More:www.canada.com
Yukon subsistence rules unchanged
The Federal Subsistence Board made no changes to subsistence salmon fishing on the Yukon River after a group of lower-river fishermen withdrew several controversial proposals at the last minute.
– Fairbanks News Miner
Read more:newsminer.com
Herring die off: Blame sea lions
Brenda Spence, a spokeswoman for the department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, speculated early Monday, before the latest discovery, that sea lions eating through nets used in the ongoing herring fishery in the Georgia Strait is likely the cause of the first incident.
– Vancouver Sun
Read more:www.canada.com
Bill would ban drilling off West Coast
Although Big Oil has enhanced clout on Capitol Hill, six Western senators – including Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, D-Wash. – have reintroduced legislation to permanently ban offshore drilling on the West Coast.
– Post Intelligencer, Seattle
More:blog.seattlepi.com
New bills before Alaska legislature
Gov. Sean Parnell offered some interesting legislation for state lawmakers in Juneau to consider.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Videos focus on Pebble Mine pollution
In November, 2010, the Bristol Bay Seafood Development Association convened an expert panel to address the potential impacts of large-scale metallic sulfide mining in headwaters of the Kvichak and Nushagak River drainages.
– BBRSDA
More:www.bbrsda.com
Thursday, January 27, 2011
LOTS OF HALIBUT IN SOUTHEAST
Halibut are abundant in the North Pacific, even as halibut fishermen face crippling harvest cutbacks.
– Pacific Fishing, February
More:Southeast Halibut
Oops! Obama got it wrong
NPR quotes Damien Schiff from Pacific Legal Foundation saying, in fact, NMFS is legally in charge of protecting salmon from the gravel to the ocean. The Department of Commerce explicitly has legal jurisdiction over salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act.
– Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita, writing in her Ecotrope blog
More:ecotrope.opb.org
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Exxon Valdez money going unclaimed
Lawyers who represented Kodiak fishermen and others hurt by the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill are trying to get payments to hundreds of claimants who have moved or died since the case began.
– Kodiak Daily Mirror
More:www.kodiakdailymirror.com
Death aboard the Ocean Prowler
The Alaska State Troopers has confirmed the death of a crew member on the F/V Ocean Prowler.
– Cordova Times
More:www.thecordovatimes.com
More about Sig Hansen gratuity
Want to know more about accusations that a state Fish and Game inspector accepted $100 from "Deadliest Catch" star and Northwestern captain Sig Hansen after looking over his boat?
– Anchorage Daily News
More:community.adn.com
'Sustainable' aquaculture touted
Aquaculture, long scorned by the environmental community, may play an important role in meeting the world's growing appetite for sustainable seafood.
– Reuters
More:www.reuters.com
Chuitna coal project draws fire
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources held a public hearing in Kenai regarding a petition to declare the salmon streams within the Chuitna watershed unsuitable for surface coal mining.
– Homer News
More: www.homernews.com
Salmon farmers find fish to eat lice
An environmentally friendly way of reducing the amount of salmon lice in Norwegian aquaculture is putting lice-eating wrasse together with the salmon.
– FIS.com
More:www.fis.com
More money, time for Fraser commission
The Cohen Commission investigating the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon stocks has been granted a 13-month extension and an additional $11 million to complete its job.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
Feds investigating B.C. herring die off
A mass of dead herring washed up on two beaches near Nanaimo recently is being investigated.
– Nanaimo News Bulletin
More:www.bclocalnews.com
Friday, January 28, 2011
CALIFORNIANS BUY B.C. FARMED SALMON
Farmed salmon represents more than half of the total fresh seafood sales in California, a market in which British Columbia is slowly establishing dominance.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
First Columbia springers taken
The first springer was reported on Wednesday by a commercial fisherman working the Columbia River downstream of the Cowlitz/Wahkiakum line. The salmon sold for $16 a pound, according to WDFW.
– Longview Daily News
More:tdn.com
'Critical' habitat for smelt
Federal fishery authorities have proposed designating the lower Columbia River and many of its tributaries as "critical habitat" for smelt.
– Longview Daily News
More:tdn.com
Sentencing for threats toward observer
A Kodiak fisherman has been sentenced for making threats to a federal fisheries observer.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Land for Sitka fish waste plant
The Sitka Assembly has voted to sell land to a state agency for construction of a fish waste processing plant.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Next chapter in Adak soap opera
Landlord Aleut Enterprise asks that its most recent tenant, Adak Seafood, be held in contempt of court for failure to pay $215,739.73 in overdue rent!
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Alaska Fisheries News
Coming up this week, we have more indication on seafood's value to the state, a Homer-based crew is safe after taking on water and going aground, and how deep will the IPHC cuts to halibut allocations be? We had help this week from KFSK's Matt Lichtenstein in Petersburg, KTOO's Casey Kelly in Juneau, KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez in Unalaska, KCAW's Ed Ronco in Sitka and KCHU's Tony Gorman in Valdez.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:www.kmxt.org
Another listing for Klamath fish?
Four environmental groups are asking the federal government to impose Endangered Species Act protections for another one of the Klamath River basin's struggling salmon stocks.
– Pacific Fishing columnist John Driscoll, reporting in the Eureka Times-Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Oregon fisherman thanks his rescuers
Eric Petit was trying to loosen a stuck crab pot when it happened.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Deeda Schoeder, writing for the Coos Bay World
More:theworldlink.com
No review of NOAA fines
The federal commerce secretary has denied a request by Northeast lawmakers who lobbied him to allow more fishermen accused of breaking the law to have their cases reviewed for fairness.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
