Monday, May 10, 2010
Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel dies
Wally Hickel, the former Alaska governor who died Friday, was always thinking big. And so I expect his sendoff will be big, too.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Crew leaps into water in Homer vessel fire
A commercial fishing vessel – F/V Convey – caught fire about a mile out from the Homer Spit, leaving its occupants to jump into the water for safety.
– Homer Tribune
More: homertribune.com
Natives: Protect Fraser kings
Shuswap Nation Tribal Council has joined other B.C. First Nations in calling for immediate and strong conservation measures to preserve dwindling stocks of early-run Fraser Chinook.
– Merritt (B.C.) News
More: www.merrittnews.net
Demur Togiak fishery coming soon
Historically, Alaska's biggest herring sac roe fishery by volume has been in Bristol Bay, near the remote village of Togiak.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Pollock fleet pays for Yukon River study
Bering Sea pollock companies are paying for a study in which scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will try to determine what's behind the decline of Western Alaska king salmon runs.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com
Yukon River salmon receives culinary award
The story of wild Yukon River salmon claimed top honors last week from the James Beard Foundation at a celebrity-studded gala in New York City.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com
B.C. walk for fish ends in Victoria
Nearly 1,000 people crowded Government Street yesterday in the culmination of a 500-kilometre walk to protest fish farms — which they say are killing B.C.’s wild salmon.
– Victoria Times-Colonist
More: www.timescolonist.com
Oil: Spill ends Cal off-shore drilling planning
Sadly, it required an ecological disaster unlike this nation has ever seen to make Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger understand that drilling for oil offshore is a deal with the devil.
– Eureka Times-Standard
More: www.times-standard.com
Oil: More fisheries closed
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced Sunday it will be closing recreational and commercial fishing in further areas of state waters as a precautionary response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
– ESPN
More: sports.espn.go.com
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Drug-resistant sea lice ‘inevitable’
It is almost inevitable that sea lice at B.C. salmon farms will become resistant to the chemical pesticide used to kill them, scientists at an international sea lice conference in Victoria said yesterday.
– Victoria Times-Colonist
More: www.timescolonist.com/technology
For even more information, see this month’s issue of Pacific Fishing. If you’re not a subscriber, click here
Norton Sound herring prices
The prices that Norton Sound herring sac roe fishers receive for their catches this spring will range from $140 to $280 per ton, depending on the percent of roe recovery.
– Nome Nugget
More: www.nomenugget.net
Glacier Fish to end cod effort
Glacier Fish Co. has decided to get out of cod fishing, John Eckels told the Norton Sound Economic Development Corp. at their board of directors meeting April 28 in Unalakleet.
– Nome Nugget
More: http://www.nomenugget.net/#Anchor-Corp-60572
American Seafoods-Coastal Villages split
American Seafoods redeemed all of the outstanding equity interests of Coastal Villages in exchange for the pollock catcher-processor Northern Hawk, the freezer-longline vessels Lilli Ann, North Cape and Deep Pacific and certain fishing rights.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: http://deckboss.blogspot.com
Columbia Chinook numbers moving up
The upper Columbia River's spring Chinook run evidently will be far stronger than the estimates used to set fishing seasons on the lower river but not quite strong enough to reopen sport fishing. Commercial gill-netters, however, may get more time on the mainstem Columbia.
– The Oregonian
More: www.oregonlive.com/sports
Sperm whales cut B.C. fisherman’s harvest
Commercial fisherman Dave Boyes has pulled up his lines to find nothing but the shredded remains of a fish head often enough to know that whales are big fans of a free lunch.
– Winnipeg Free Press
More: www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada
Tribe: Protect Fraser Chinook run
The Shuswap Nation Tribal Council joins other First Nations in calling on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to act now to protect early run Fraser Chinook.
– Clearwater (B.C.) Times-News
More: www.bclocalnews.com
Activists urge Pebble Mine letters
This comes from the Renewable Resources Coalition Inc.
Mining interests are working hard to urge Governor Sean Parnell to veto the independent review of the proposed Pebble Mine site. Please call, e-mail, and write Gov. Parnell NOW. Tell him that objective, third-party research (i.e., research not funded by developing interests) is integral to securing the safety and future of Bristol Bay.
Phone: (907) 465-3500 for Juneau or (907) 269-7450 for Anchorage
E-mail: gov.alaska.gov/parnell/contact/email-the-governor.html
Obama administration looks at
Sacramento River
The Obama administration on Monday set up a new task force to wrangle California water decisions, with long-term hopes of consolidating protections for smelt and salmon.
– Sacramento Bee
More: www.sacbee.com/2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Copper River lunacy to begin
Think of it as Air Force One for some of the most coveted fish around: Alaska Airlines’ first 2010 shipment of Copper River Salmon, touching down Friday morning.
– Anthony’s press release
More: www.businesswire.com
Snow crab price highest in a year
The snow crab leg markets are trading at some of their highest price levels in over a year.
– Food Marketing Institute
More: www.foodservice.com/marketprices
Oregon values stopped Columbia
gas port proposal
Should Oregonians and our elected leaders sit by and watch Texas-based energy companies degrade our farmland, forests and salmon? Of course not.
- Jack Marincovich, executive director of the Columbia River Fisherman's Protective Union, and others writing in The Oregonian
More: www.oregonlive.com/opinion
Chinook fishing banned in part of inlet
Following on the heels of last week's closure of the Chuitna, Theodore and Lewis rivers to anglers, commercial fish biologists at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Tuesday shut commercial king fishing in part of upper Cook Inlet.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com/2010
Togiak herring fishery has begun
With big schools of fish spotted in the area, fishery managers opened the Togiak herring sac roe fishery at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Gillnet boats are free to fish "until further notice," while seiners can fish for 76 hours, the Department of Fish and Game said.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: csfish.adfg.state.ak.us/newsrelease
San Pedro processor hit with charge
In the most recent prosecution, federal agents caught wind of rumors that a cannery located on "Cannery Street" in San Pedro, the sprawling harbor next to Los Angeles, was underreporting fish catches. Agents then audited the cannery, Tri Marine Fish Company, and compared landing receipts with shipping documents sending the catch primarily to Japan, the main buyer of Pacific sardines.
– Courthouse News
More: www.courthousenews.com/2010
Fish farmers, activists work to stop sea lice
Ground zero for B.C.'s fish-farm battles is Broughton Archipelago, where salmon farms are bang in the middle of wild-fish migration routes. But it's also an area where aquaculture companies and environmental groups are tentatively working together for the first time.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More: www.timescolonist.com
Fish farmers, activists talk past each other
There was a face-off in a Parliament Hill committee room a few weeks before Alexandra Morton started her march to Victoria that illustrates how confusing the fish farm issue is.
More: www.timescolonist.com/technology
Salmon farming is good for you
The world's demand for seafood is growing and wild stocks are being stretched to their limit. That's a reality that more and more people understand – and those people see the importance of salmon farming as part of long-term food security.
– fishnewseu.com
More: www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/world
