Monday, March 24, 2014
'SHOCKING' WASTE IN FISHERIES
A shocking new report from the conservation organization Oceana reveals staggering levels of waste caused by U.S. fisheries.
– Mother Nature Network
More:mnn.com
California fisheries 'dirtiest'
In some cases, the amount that is being thrown away can be as high as 70 percent, and California's fisheries are some of the dirtiest.
– Guardian
More:guardianlv.com
Guilty! $20,000 fine
Stan William Steer was found guilty of violations of the Fisheries Act.
– Fisheries and Oceans Canada
More:marketwired.com
Remembering Cordova oil spill
The ship ran aground on Bligh Reef in the early morning hours of March 24, leaking oil into the sound's frigid waters.
– WYSO, Ohio
More:wyso.org
Texas spill hurts economy
With no end in sight to containing a spill that may have dumped 150,000 gallons of fuel oil into Galveston Bay on Saturday, the hit to Texas' economy and environment is already huge — and sure to grow.
– Texas Tribune
More:texastribune.org
Huge Columbia salmon returns
Huge runs of fall Chinook and coho salmon are forecast to enter the Columbia River in 2014, but it appears sport-fishing seasons will be similar to a year ago.
– Vancouver (Wash.) Columbian
More:columbian.com
Jellyfish disappear
Swedish Radio News reports that the Moon Jellyfish, once common in the North Sea, has largely vanished from off Sweden's west coast.
– EyeOnTheArctic, Canada
More:eyeonthearctic.rcinet.ca
Kuskokwim dipnets
The Board of Fish approved the emergency petition.
– Alaska Public Media
More:alaskapublic.org
Alaska may fund mines
Two Southeast Alaska mines could get close to $300 million in state support under a bill moving through the Legislature.
– KTOO, Juneau
More:ktoo.org
Sitka herring: 5,000 tons
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery saw its first opener Thursday afternoon.
The action lasted two hours 35 minutes.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog, Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Herring prices
In B.C., fishermen reported got $400 a ton for gillnet fish, compared to only $350 for Prince Rupert area gillnet herring.
In Sitka, fishermen reportedly got $150 a ton for seines and $200 for gillnet fish.
– Pacific Fishing Magazine
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
NOT USING OBSERVERS
Ten fishing boats - five each from Sitka and Homer - are carrying electronic monitoring equipment as part of a pilot program to see if such tracking is more effective than having observers onboard in gathering data for fisheries management.
– Ventura Star
More:vcstar.com
Columbia gillnets wait a week
The 4.25-inch-mesh nets used for spring Chinook tend to catch a lot of debris and are damaged easily.
– Vancouver, Wash., Columbian
More:columbian.com
Sitka fleet halfway there
After a productive second opening, the Sitka sac roe herring fleet is well over halfway toward its harvest goal.
– KCAW, Sitka
More:kcaw.org
Cal boat sinks
The Robert Croll struck a rock and was taking on water with three people aboard.
– CBS
More:sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com
Alaska earthquake videos
The Alaska Film Archives has posted dozens of film clips from the Great Alaska Earthquake of March 27, 1964, including never-before-seen footage, on its YouTube channel.
– University of Alaska
More:youtube.com
Ammonia evacuates Unisea
An ammonia leak cleared out part of the UniSea complex.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
More Alaska hatcheries
For some years now, processors have lobbied for increased hatchery production to satisfy market demand for Alaska salmon.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog, Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
A lot of you
The study showed that thousands of Alaskan jobs are directly related to the domestic maritime industry and account for more than $1 billion in economic impact.
– Sitnews, Ketchikan
More:sitnews.us
Growing Hanford Reach
The agency has informed the Department of Energy that it wants to study adding newly cleaned-up Hanford Nuclear Reservation land to the monument.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Crescent City tsunamis
As a small coastal town, hundreds of miles from major urban centers, Crescent City is off the radar of your average American, but in a room full of tsunami experts, everyone knows this place.
– Crescent City Triplicate
More:triplicate.com
Tern habitat won't shrink
Federal regulators have decided not to shrink Caspian tern habitat on East Sand Island near the mouth of the Columbia River in efforts to reduce the number of juvenile salmon and steelhead they feed on.
– Coos Bay World
More:theworldlink.com
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
RACING THE SITKA SPAWN
With the herring spawn starting in Sitka Sound, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game is quickly developing plans for a third commercial seine opening.
– KCAW, Sitka
More:kcaw.org
Bird hazing in Oregon
Hazing of double-crested cormorants is set to begin as early as Thursday in several areas along the Oregon coast.
– Salem Statesman Journal
More:statesmanjournal.com
Fibbing in Norway
Fully 40 percent of fishermen and those purchasing their fish think it's acceptable to underreport the size of the actual catch and their sales transactions.
– Views and News from Norway
More:newsinenglish.no
Catching polar fish
The pollock fisheries in the Bering Sea and the cod fisheries in the Barents Sea are among the largest in the world.
– Barents Observer
More:barentsobserver.com
Professional Fish Board
One topic arising in the hearings before the Senate Resources Committee, chaired by Anchorage Sen. Cathy Giessel, is whether it might be time to move to a professional fish board, rather than the appointed, volunteer, and generally layman board we have now.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog, Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Salmon migrate by truck
The drought is causing state and federal fish agencies to take extraordinary steps to save fish. The agencies began to truck 30 million fall-run Chinook salmon from hatcheries to release sites close to the ocean in an effort to save them.
– CapRadio, Sacramento
More:capradio.org
Value of Alaska hatcheries
Alaska's salmon catch of 273 million salmon set a record last year– and so did the number of salmon returning home to state hatcheries.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:sitnews.us
Exxon Valdez: No justice
On the anniversary of the disaster, we checked in with Bob Stoll to ascertain what, if anything, has changed since the Exxon Valdez began leaking.
– Portland Business Journal
More:bizjournals.com
Russian catch record haul
This is the biggest volume in the whole post-Soviet period.
– Barents Observer, Norway
More:barentsobserver.com
BP oil hurts tuna
Researchers have also found evidence of potentially lethal heart defects in two species of tuna and one species of amberjack — all economically important species for commercial fisheries.
– The Verge
More:theverge.com
Thursday, March 27, 2014
BAN ON FISHING
The Pacific island nation of Palau is close to kicking all commercial fishing vessels out of its tropical waters.
– The Guardian, U.K.
More:theguardian.com
Remaking Magnuson-Stevens
Leaders of the recreational fishing industry say they don't have anything against commercial fishing, but they contend there needs to be a national policy for recreational fishing as well.
– Jacksonville Business Journal
More:bizjournals.com
Bristol Bay jobs
The new career guide was prepared by the Bristol Bay Native Association.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Quick Sitka opener
The opening lasted one hour and ten minutes, starting at 2:30 p.m. and closing at 3:40 p.m. As of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Department of Fish & Game had not yet issued an estimate of how much was caught.
– KCAW, Sitka
More:kcaw.org
Mexico's shrimp management
The Fisheries Management Plan also generates direct benefits for fishermen and their families, by ensuring a sustainable source of employment.
– TheFishSite
More:thefishsite.com
Ukraine chill felt in north
The official visit from Murmansk was to strengthen relations between Norwegian government and the neighboring Russian region. Instead, it all ended up as another example of the current east-west chill.
– Barents Observer
More:barentsobserver.com
Roadless Tongass
A federal appeals court issued an opinion today saying the roadless rule should not apply to Alaska's Tongass National Forest.
– Alaska Public Media
More:alaskapublic.org
Earthquake science matures
Just five years after statehood, Alaska endured the largest earthquake recorded in North America before or since.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
Not all like dredging plan
The Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with the annual dredging of the Dillingham boat harbor, which takes at least a month to do and costs upwards of three quarters of a million dollars.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Eagles defend Unalaska nests
The eagles are nesting on the rocks across the street from the Iliuliuk Family & Health Services Clinic, on the S-curves of Airport Beach Road and behind the Dutch Harbor post office.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Fishermen disturbed at herring market
Some fishermen are apprehensive.
– Alaska News
More:aknewsfeed.com
Hatchery fish abundant
Alaska's salmon catch of 273 million salmon set a record last year; so did the number of salmon returning home to state hatcheries.
– Homer Tribune
More:homertribune.com
Friday, March 28, 2014
CORDOVA READY FOR TSUNAMI
The Prince William Sound town of Cordova last week was added to the list of Alaska communities that are designated "Tsunami Ready" under a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration safety program.
– Alaska Dispatch
More: alaskadispatch.com
Kill fish-eating birds
Operators of five dams on the Columbia and lower Snake rivers will start killing birds that eat migrating juvenile salmon.
– Daily Astorian
More: dailyastorian.com
Fighting Navy over testing
A Fort Bragg crowd once again shouted "NO" at the United States Navy at a public hearing March 7 on a new plan for increased weapons testing and training from Alaska to Cape Mendocino.
– Fort Bragg Advocate News
More: advocate-news.com
Canadian court irks feds
Several decisions of the Federal Court in relation to endangered species issues or other regulatory matters, like pest management, have highlighted serious deficiencies in decision making or actions from the federal government's ministers.
– Mondaq
More: mondaq.com
Offshore wind power
After years in which solar power has gone from little more than an ember to a common source of energy, offshore wind power may be just over the horizon for Long Island as well.
– libn.com, Long Island
More: libn.com
Hydro power in Alaska
Come summertime, three river energy projects will be tested in Southcentral and Interior Alaska, aiming to test drive some new technology.
– EyeontheArctic, Canada
More: eyeonthearctic.rcinet.ca
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week, one fisherman remembers that beautiful Friday evening 50 years ago when life in coastal Southcentral Alaska was turned upside down; others remember that chilly morning 25 years ago when life in coastal Southcentral Alaska was turned upside down again. And is it possible to restore one of the biggest salmon runs in history after so many years? All that and more, coming up on the Alaska Fisheries Report.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More: kmxt.org
Sitka herring scorecard
We've now had three openers in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery, and seiners have taken an estimated 13,500 tons, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog, Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Fishermen support clean water act
Senators Joe Manchin (WV) and David Vitter (LA) introduced legislation that would eliminate the EPA's ability to protect Bristol Bay from mines like Pebble by curtailing the agency's clear authority under section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act.
– BBRSDA
More: bbrsda.com
Fighting B.C. mines
Swift action by the U.S. State Department is warranted to protect U.S. interests.
– Alaska Trollers Association
More: aktrollers.org
