Monday, August 1, 2011

FIRE CLAIMS UNALASKA GEAR

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has reduced its initial projection for the total sockeye salmon return to the Kenai River, but it still figures to rank among the top five all time.

– Alaska Journal of Commerce

More:www.alaskajournal.com

Pinks still to come

It's now up to the pink salmon whether we make the forecast of 203 million fish for the season.

– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss

More:deckboss.blogspot.com

Pollock fleet chum bycatch

The Bering Sea pollock fleet continues to struggle with chum bycatch, but impact on subsistence fishing in western Alaska appears to be limited.

– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska

More:www.kucb.org

Taku mine rears its head

The Tulsequah Chief mine is in the news again.

– Juneau Empire

More:juneauempire.com

Willamette River cleaner

For all its problems, the environmental nonprofit Riverkeeper says, the river's really not that dirty anymore.

– Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita reporting in Ecotrope, Oregon Public Broadcasting

More:ecotrope.opb.org

Wave energy buoys coming

Wave energy is coming to the Oregon coast, and the window for local governments to influence where those devices are situated is rapidly closing.

– Newport News Times

More:www.newportnewstimes.com

Dam removal 'promising'

Beginning late this summer, one of the most promising and pure acts of environmental restoration the region and the nation have ever seen will get under way here, experts say, in the form of the largest dam removal project in American history.

– New York Times

More:www.nytimes.com

Saying 'no' to frankenfish

In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, several members of the House and Senate demanded that the agency stop doing some of the very work it is empowered to do on behalf of Americans: regulate food safety.

– Juneau Empire

More:juneauempire.com

 

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

FIRE CLAIMS UNALASKA GEAR

A proposed federal rule changing how the charter catch share of Pacific halibut is allocated could dramatically change the Homer guided fishing business — and the jackpot halibut derby.

– Kenai Peninsula Clarion

More:peninsulaclarion.com

Report: Steller sea lion BiOp flawed

The panel concluded several things, none of which reflect well on the NMFS BiOp.

– Alaska Dispatch

More:www.alaskadispatch.com

B.C. diver tangled in gillnet, dies

By the time emergency responders were able to pull the net to shore, the diver had stopped breathing.

– CTV

More: www.ctvbc.ctv.ca

Arne leaves Murkowski office

Arne Fuglvog has left his job as an aide to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss

More:deckboss.blogspot.com

Permit, quota prices boom

The value of Alaska fishing permits and catch shares has taken a big jump along with fish prices.

– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan

More:www.sitnews.us

Farm salmon price down

Since global farmed salmon prices started to ('unexpectedly') plummet since mid-May, Oslo stock exchange's listed salmon firms have seen their share's value dive accordingly.

– Seafood Intelligence

More:www.seafoodintelligence.com

Coos Bay tsunami czar

When a new emergency preparedness project kicks off this fall, the Coos Bay area will get a tsunami czar.

– Coos Bay World

More:theworldlink.com

Tribes want lampreys protected

Unlike salmon, which have drawn billions of dollars in government funds to modify dams and restore habitat, the lamprey have gone largely ignored. It's the tribes that still eat them that are driving the effort to bring them back.

– The Oregonian

More:www.oregonlive.com

Salmon farms: Too many mistakes

Salmon farming everywhere has repeated too many of the mistakes of industrial farming.

–New York Times

More:www.nytimes.com

 

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

JUDGE: COLUMBIA PLAN NOT GOOD ENOUGH

U.S. District Court Judge James Redden has once again rejected the federal government's plan to operate hydropower dams in the Columbia River basin without jeopardizing salmon.

– The Oregonian

More:www.oregonlive.com

Read the judge's opinion

Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita, reporting for her Oregon Public Broadcasting blog – Ecotrope – has posted Judge Redden's opinion.

Read the opinion:www.scribd.com

Arne broke the law

A fisheries aide to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has admitted in a plea agreement to breaking federal commercial fishing laws and resigned from his job.

– Politico

More:www.politico.com

Fraser fish still coming

Recent purse seine test fishing catches in Johnstone and Juan de Fuca Straits continue to indicate a modest migratory abundance of Fraser River sockeye salmon.

– Pacific Salmon Commission

More:www.psc.org

Kodiak swimming with humpies

Fishermen delivered 279,444 humpies to push the season total over the 2 million mark.

– KXMT, Kodiak

More:www.kmxt.org (scroll down)

Alaska-Russian flights

Russian airline has decided to revive a flight from Alaska to Kamchatka.

– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska

More:www.kucb.org

Pebble company vs. opposition

Mining companies that want to develop a huge copper and gold mine near some of the world's best remaining wild sockeye salmon streams are using the courts in an attempt to silence opposition to the Pebble Mine, an opponent said.

– Canadian Business

More:www.canadianbusiness.com

Using salmon from hake boats

The Ocean Companies, including the independent business units of Ocean Gold, Ocean Cold, Ocean Protein and Ocean Express, is pleased to announce a recent agreement forged with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Makah tribe that will allow the company to donate the salmon bycatch it receives from both state and treaty fisheries during the Pacific whiting (hake) season.

– Ocean Companies

More:www.keepgraysharborfishing.com

 

Thursday, August 4, 2011

LISA SILENT ABOUT ARNE

Murkowski repeatedly declined to answer any questions about Fuglvog by telephone and email on Tuesday and again Wednesday, including when she learned Fuglvog was under criminal investigation and whether she knew he admitted his crime to federal prosecutors four months ago.

– Anchorage Daily News

More:www.adn.com

Editorial: Murkowski should talk

But after April what business did Fuglvog have as a fisheries advisor or a member of Murkowski's staff, drawing a paycheck provided by taxpayers?

– Anchorage Daily News

More:www.adn.com

Safety program faces extinction

Loggers, farmworkers and commercial fishermen die on the job at an astonishing pace.

– iWatch.com

More:www.iwatchnews.org

Oregon gillnetters ready for fight

Oregon's Columbia River gillnet fleet is gearing up for another fight.

– Daily Astorian

More:www.dailyastorian.com

Yukon king escapement met

It appears the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will hold up its end of the bargain by getting enough Yukon River king salmon to the Canada border to satisfy obligations set forth in an international treaty.

– Fairbanks News Miner

More:newsminer.com

Fraser update

Purse seine test fishing catches in some of the marine assessment areas have increased over the past day. At the meeting today (Wednesday), there were no changes to current run size estimates.

– Pacific Salmon Commission

More:www.psc.org

B.C. Natives wait on fishery details

Despite their recent victory in the B.C Court of Appeal, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council (NTC) says five of its nations have yet to engage in talks with the federal government to lay the parameters of an aboriginal commercial fishery.

– Westerly News

More:www.canada.com

Canada taxpayers invest in aquaculture

Parliamentary Secretary Randy Kamp announced significant funding to support innovation and sustainability in the aquaculture industry in British Columbia.

– Fisheries and Oceans Canada

More:www.marketwire.com

Conserve wild salmon habitat

Continued high salmon productivity in Southeast Alaska is directly tied to the health of the watersheds that produce these fish.

– Juneau Empire

More:juneauempire.com

 

Friday, August 5, 2011

OK TO TAKE BIG MOMMAS

Hang out with halibut fishermen of any kind, and inevitably the question comes up: Is it OK to take the big, 200-pound plus halibut, almost always older breeding females?

– Kenai Peninsula OnLine

More:peninsulaclarion.com

 

 

More on Arne's exit

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday that she had no idea for three months that her fisheries adviser had signed a plea deal with federal prosecutors in which he'd admitted illegal fishing and agreed to nearly a year in federal prison.

– Anchorage Daily News

More: www.adn.com

Alaska Fisheries Report

One of the most influential men in fisheries policy will be going to prison after admitting to federal fisheries violations. Seafood.com's John Sackton weighs in on the Arne Fuglvog situation. And, will enough kings reach the border to make the Canadians happy? All that, and the pink salmon season looks strong in Southeast and in Kodiak Island waters.

– KMXT, Kodiak

More:www.kmxt.org (scroll down)

Treaty rights disappear with salmon

Salmon recovery is failing in Western Washington. It's failing because the federal and state governments are allowing habitat to be destroyed faster than it can be restored.

– Seattle Times

More:seattletimes.nwsource.com

Shell can drill in Arctic

Royal Dutch Shell won conditional U.S. approval for its exploration plan in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, a step toward tapping oil leases bought in 2005 and 2007 in which it has invested more than $3.5 billion.

– San Francisco Chronicle

More:www.sfgate.com

Record price for Norton Sound crab

The recently concluded Norton Sound red king crab fishery generated a record ex-vessel value.

– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss

More:deckboss.blogspot.com

Finding a market for slime

Researchers at the University of Alaska's Fishery Industrial Technology Center on Near Island have been hard at work for the last 12 years developing different products and markets for parts of fish that are usually discarded.

– KMXT, Kodiak

More: www.kmxt.org

Editorial: Don't squelch Frankenfish scientists

People tend to respect and believe in science — until it tells them something they don't want to hear.

– Vancouver Sun

More:www.vancouversun.com


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