Monday, July 16, 2012
MORE SOCKEYE IN BRISTOL BAY
Reds were still surging into the region's five big rivers and should serve to boost the harvest beyond the forecast of nearly 22 million fish.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Oil ship drags anchor in Unalaska
The crew immediately let out more anchor chain to slow the drift and called for a tug assist.
– Coast Guard
More:uscgnews.com
Free gillnets … plus coercion
Coastal Villages handed out 100 legal nets a week after the rebellion at the request of the Association of Village Council Presidents, but the nets were far from free.
– Alaska Journal of Commerce
More:alaskajournal.com
Kenai subsistence closed
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is closing all subsistence fishing for king salmon on the Kenai River.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Chinook disaster declaration
Gov. Sean Parnell today urged Acting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank to declare a fishery disaster for the Chinook salmon fisheries on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Blame Bering Sea king bycatch
From 1980 to 1990, our Kenai River king runs were much more predictable than today.
–Kenai Peninsula Clarion
More:peninsulaclarion.com
Stop gillnetting kings
That said, if thousands of kings are dying in gillnets, it's tough to sell the idea that people shouldn't be allowed to play with a few of them on their spawning grounds, just for sport.
– Kenai Peninsula Clarion
More:peninsulaclarion.com
California has too many kings
So many salmon are being hooked along the Northern California coast that the price of fresh, wild king salmon is plunging, at least for commercial fishermen who are on strike for a better deal.
– Marin (County) Independent Journal
More:marinij.com
Petersburg work to Excursion Inlet
Some of the fish that would have been processed in Petersburg will instead be tendered to the company’s plant at Excursion Inlet, 25 miles west of Juneau, off Icy Strait.
– Juneau Empire
More:juneauempire.com
Monterey to remember lost fishermen
Fishermen, friends, and families will hold their four annual Fishermens Days fundraiser to help develop a memorial in Monterey, Calif., for those who have been lost as sea.
The event will be 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 3, in Gilbert’s Red Snapper at 30 Fishermen’s Wharf No. 1, in Monterey.
The event will feature dinner, live music, and exhibits.
Tickets are $40 in advance and $45 at the door.
Call 831-393-4945 for more information.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
BRISTOL BAY PAYING $1 A POUND
It looks like the base price of the sockeye caught in Bristol Bay this summer will remain unchanged from the dollar a pound that fishermen received last year.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
N. Cal salmon prices
Whole fresh salmon sells for just $2.75 to $3.25 a pound wholesale, from the boat to the processor – half the price commercial fishermen got before the San Francisco fleet started loading up with big catches several weeks ago.
– Mercury News, San Jose
More:mercurynews.com
Kenai sockeye vs. kings
The Upper Cook Inlet driftnet fleet and setnetters on the east end of the Inlet had 12 hours of commercial fishing on Monday, capitalizing on a strong pulse of sockeye salmon.
– KTUU, Anchorage
More:articles.ktuu.com
Dredging Port Orford
Members of Oregon's congressional delegation are taking up the cause of Port Orford residents by asking the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the city's port facilities.
– KLCC, Eugene
More:klcc.org
EPA Bristol Bay comment deadline
The deadline to submit comments regarding the draft "Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment" is coming up on Monday July 23.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Fish waste kills pelicans
Last year, the center saw more than 50 pelicans which had been "Dumpster diving" in fish waste containers and fed by fishermen.
– Eureka Times Standard
More:times-standard.com
Kuskokwim fishermen to trial
About two dozen Kuskokwim River subsistence fishermen will go to trial in the Bethel Court House after pleading not guilty to fishing with illegal gear.
– Alaska Public Radio
More:alaskapublic.org
Kodiak humpies showing
Fish and Game officials switched their management scheme from sockeye to pink salmon around Kodiak Island late last week.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
Alaska Air ponders Adak
Alaska Airlines is back in the running for Adak's Essential Air Service contract.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Snow crab MSC certified
The Scotian Shelf Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) trap fishery, entered into assessment by the Affiliation of Seafood Producers Association of Nova Scotia, has been awarded Marine Stewardship Council certification as a sustainable and well-managed fishery, and snow crab from this fishery is now eligible to display the MSC ecolabel.
– PerishableNews.Com
More:perishablenews.com
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
CAL FISHERMEN BACK FISHING
The commercial salmon fleet is back on the water, hooking a bonanza of wild king salmon.
– Marin Independent Journal
More:marinij.com
Bristol Bay fish keep coming
The sockeye run to Bristol Bay has topped 28 million fish.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Nushagak fishermen wait for pinks
Hundreds of commercial fishermen that might otherwise have quit fishing are hanging around the Nushagak District waiting to move away from sockeye to pinks.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Buck a pound in Bristol Bay
The Alaska Independent Fishermen's Marketing Association reports that Trident Seafoods also is paying $1 a pound for Bristol Bay sockeye.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Kenai River closed
With no letup in the dismal return of king salmon to Alaska waters, the state on announced maximum restrictions for its premiere salmon river: Starting Thursday at 12:01 a.m., all fishing for kings on the Kenai River is over.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
MSC becoming recognized
An independent survey commissioned by the Marine Stewardship Council shows that 30 percent of consumers who buy fish at least once every two months are aware of the MSC ecolabel for sustainable and well managed fisheries – up from 23 per cent in 2010.
– MSC
More:msc.org
Feds stingy with debris money
The federal government is allocating a quarter of a million dollars to Pacific states to deal with debris washing ashore from the Japanese tsunami. Alaska's senators say the amount is astonishingly low, and more needs to be on the way.
– KTOO, Juneau
More:ktoonews.org
Drill ship didn't touch bottom
Divers inspected the hull of Shell's drill ship, the Noble Discoverer, and determined that the rig never touched bottom when it dragged anchor on Saturday.
– KUBC, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Anti-gillnet measure on ballot
The Oregon secretary of state's office says a proposal to ban the use of nontribal commercial gillnets in the Columbia River has qualified for the Nov. 6 state ballot.
– The Oregonian
More:oregonlive.com
Alaska a dangerous place
When it comes to work-related deaths and injuries, Alaska is one of the top five states in the country.
– KTVA, Anchorage
More:ktva.com
Thursday, July 19, 2012
TEA PARTY BLOCKS KLAMATH DEAL
The Tea Party Patriots became a local political force, eventually paralyzing the high-powered deal by defeating many of the local officials who supported it, including all three Klamath County commissioners, and sending a signal to Congress that it lacks enough grass-roots support.
– New York Times
More:nytimes.com
WANTED: More water in Klamath
Federal authorities want to send some extra water to the lower Klamath River in Northern California to prevent a repeat of a 2002 fish kill that left tens of thousands of salmon dead before they could spawn.
– Modesto Bee
More:modbee.com
NW natives worry over salmon
Salmon need the glacier-fed streams of the Northwest to survive, but since 1920, the average annual temperature in the region has risen by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
– PBS NewsHour
More:pbs.org
Tsunami debris … on line
The Maritime Museum of British Columbia in Victoria is curating an online exhibit of debris from last year's tsunami in Japan.
– KTOO, Juneau
More:ktoonews.org
Tsunami radioactivity
Are fish from the Pacific Ocean and Japanese coastal and inland waters safe to eat 16 months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster?
– Straight.com, Vancouver
More:straight.com
Pinks arrive at Kodiak
The Kodiak salmon harvest went over the 2 million mark, with a catch of 203,060 among all species.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
Shell missing drilling window
Shell had planned to start drilling in the Arctic, but persistent sea ice and a number of last-minute stumbling blocks have delayed those plans indefinitely.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Shoppers need more catch info
The European Commission requires that whole or filleted fish must be labeled by its commercial name, whether it is farmed or wild, and the area in which it was caught. But it does not require catch method or the specific catch area to be included.
– The Grocer, U.K.
More:thegrocer.co.uk
CG halts fishing boat
A Coast Guard Station Ketchikan law enforcement team directed the operator of a commercial fishing vessel to return to port after several safety violations were discovered on board.
– Coast Guard
More:uscgnews.com
Tearing down old cannery
The last of the early 20th century salmon canneries on the South-central Alaska road system is being torn down.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Friday, July 20, 2012
BRISTOL BAY HITS 20 MILLION
Bristol Bay's commercial fishermen hauled in another 150,000 sockeye on Wednesday to push the season total harvest to just over 20 million fish.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Black cod fisherman finds 'bomb'
By the time he pulled up the mine, Jimmy Berg had caught as much metal as fish.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Salmon farm disease spreads
A virus linked to the death of farmed salmon has for the first time been found in B.C. fresh-water fish – cutthroat trout in Cultus Lake.
– Vancouver Sun
More:vancouversun.com
No fish? Climate change
Climate change is sweeping indigenous villages into the sea in Alaska, flooding the taro fields of Native Hawaiians, and devastating the salmon population from which Indian tribes in Washington state draw their livelihood, tribal leaders testified Thursday at a Senate hearing.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Alaskans: Where are the kings?
Alaskans again this summer are wondering: Where are the king salmon?
– MSNBC
More:msnbc.msn.com
Anti-gillnet fraud
The initiative will be a huge step backwards. It will not save a single fish.
– Coast River Business Journal
More:crbizjournal.com
Study says preserve helps
But scientific evidence has emerged that supports what was once just an educated guess.
– phys.org
More:phys.org
Piling on Pebble Mine
Recently the project has been featured on Dan Rather's weekly news show, Dan Rather Reports, the New York Times food section, and The Atlantic.
– Huffington Post
More:huffingtonpost.com
Salmon farms open
In a bid to educate the Canadian public about the realities of aquaculture, salmon farmers in the Campbell River region are offering weekly tours of their operations.
– FishNewsEU
More:fishnewseu.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week: We take a sweeping look at the salmon season from one end of the state to the other; the loss of a Haines fisherman recently has prompted his fleet-mates to get as many fishermen outfitted with PFDs as possible, and exactly why copper is bad for baby salmon.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
