Monday, August 19, 2013
ALASKA SALMON SNUBBED BY GLOBAL COMPANY
U.S. Senator Mark Begich is objecting to a decision by a large food contractor to only serve seafood certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.
– KDLG
More: kdlg.org
Salmon catch tops 200 million
We're having a banner salmon season, led by a blockbuster catch of pink salmon.
-- Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Blaze at Kodiak fishmeal plant
Fire Chief Rome Kamai said the fire was in one of the hoppers at the plant.
– KMXT
More: www.kmxt.org
Fraser closure continues
Daily Fraser River water temperatures have been at record high levels over the past week, which is expected to cause considerable en route and pre-spawning mortality of Fraser sockeye.
– Pacific Salmon Commission
More: www.psc.org
Historic cannery nears collapse
The National Trust says the cannery is worth saving because of the role it played in developing Alaska’s canning industry during the first half of the 20th century.
– JuneauEmpire.com
More: juneauempire.com
Blame heat for salmon deaths
Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association crews conducted their annual egg take of sockeye salmon in Afognak Lake this week and noticed higher than normal mortality rates among the adult salmon.
– Brianna Gibbs, reporting on KMXT, Kodiak
More: www.kmxt.org
Practice safe salmon
Want to share your passion for Alaska's wild salmon, or better still, practice safe salmon? Then click onto www.salmonproject.org and have at it.
– Margaret Bauman, reporting in The Cordova Times
More: www.thecordovatimes.com
Water release demanded
The Board of Supervisors has a message for the federal judge who halted flows meant to protect Klamath salmon: Lawsuit or no lawsuit by Central California farmers, there's water in the Trinity River that belongs to Humboldt County and we want it released.
– Times-Standard
More: www.times-standard.com
Snake River Dams in Doubt
The dams have been operated on provisional approval since the 1990s as plan after plan has been shot down by judges dissatisfied that federal managers are adequately protecting salmon from extinction.
– Seattle Times
More: seattletimes.com
Tribes want control of dams
The Columbia River hydropower system is full of dams that were built over the strenuous objections of Northwest tribes. Now, two of these old projects are changing ownership — one in Western Montana and another in southern Oregon.
– Anna King, reporting for OPB
More: www.opb.org
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
CELL PHONES LINKED TO SALMON DECLINE
The return of big chinook salmon to the Kuskokwim River of Western Alaska is over for the year, and some are wondering how much damage the cellphone might have done to a once-magnificent run of fish.
– Alaska Dispatch
More: www.alaskadispatch.com
Pebble veto authority’s origin probed
The oversight committee in the U.S. House of Representatives is launching a probe into whether the idea of preemptively using section 404-C of the Clean Water Act to stop development of the Pebble Mine actually originated within the Environmental Protection Agency.
– KDLG
More: kdlg.org
Coast Guard shows interest in Unalaska
Commandant Admiral Robert Papp hosted a town hall meeting with city officials and leaders from the local Native corporation. It was the first time a sitting commandant has visited Unalaska.
– KUCB
More: kucb.org
Lonestar’s stuck in the mud
It’s shaping up to be a quiet week at the mouth of the Igushik River, where salvage operations have thus far failed to lift the F/V Lonestar out of the mud.
– KDLG
More: kdlg.org
B.C. video sparks investigation
A video that shows commercial fishermen kicking salmon off a boat’s deck or throwing apparently lifeless fish overboard has triggered a federal investigation into possible violations of the Fisheries Act.
– The Globe and Mail
More: www.theglobeandmail.com
Salmon snared by farm ditches
California and federal wildlife officials are scrambling to figure out how hundreds of endangered salmon recently became stranded in irrigation ditches in the Colusa basin, west of the Sacramento River.
– The Olympian
More: www.theolympian.com
Grounded tender eyed
Monitoring of a grounded 65-foot fishing tender from Astoria, Ore. near Shoup Bay, four miles west of Valdez, is continuing, with a mobilized effort that has removed a portion of the diesel, hydraulic oil and fuel and water mixtures from the vessel.
– The Cordova Times
More: www.thecordovatimes.com
OR crab season tops 18 million pounds
As commercial crab fishermen along the Oregon Coast bring their pots in to the dock, signifying the end of the commercial Dungeness crab season, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reports verify that the 2012-13 harvest ranks sixth in the last 15 years.
– The Daily Astorian
More: www.dailyastorian.com
Tribes start Columbia River gillnetting
During the 2013 fall commercial season, this first gill net fishery can harvest up to 200,000 fish or an estimated 2.5 million pounds of salmon.
– Indian Country Today
More: indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com
Fishing communities wither
As the number of active state-licensed commercial fishing operations dwindles on the Great Lakes, their downward spiral signals a change in culture as well as economics and environment, according to Laurie Sommers, a folklorist and historic preservation consultant.
– Great Lakes Echo
More: greatlakesecho.org
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
BALLOT MEASURE PROPOSES PEBBLE OVERSIGHT
If passed, the initiative would put the proposed Pebble Mine under scrutiny from Alaska’s elected officials.
- KDLG
More: kdlg.org
Alaska salmon catch sets record
Alaska's all-species commercial salmon catch now stands at just over 234 million fish, the Department of Fish and Game reports.
- Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Fraser closure’s effects
They would rather be out on the Fraser River chasing sockeye, but instead local commercial and sport fishermen alike were engaged in their second-favourite pastime Tuesday afternoon – cursing Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
– The News
More: www.mapleridgenews.com
West Coast, Alaska get habitat grants
The National Marine Fisheries Service announced $3.7 million in grants Tuesday for fish habitat restoration in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
– Daily Astorian
More: www.dailyastorian.com
Halibut catch shares explained
As the comment period for a proposal to change the way halibut is divvied up between charter operators and commercial fishermen nears to an end, a teleconference workshop with officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries aimed at explaining the proposed halibut Catch Sharing Plan drew a dozen or so residents last week from the Homer area.
– Homer Tribune
More: homertribune.com
Communities get NOAA, CDQ funding
The Alaska Marine Stewardship Foundation has received a $210,000 grant from NOAA’s Restoration and Marine Debris Program, and has secured the same amount in matching funds from area CDQ groups.
- KMXT
More: www.kmxt.org
Contract rights argued in Klamath water fight
The Board of Supervisors and local tribal officials said Tuesday they are hoping a declaration asserting Humboldt County's rights will be their trump card in a legal battle over Trinity River water after releases to protect Klamath salmon were halted by a Fresno judge.
– Times-Standard
More: www.times-standard.com
Quota system’s track record
A desire to get Alaskans into the fisheries just off its shore was at the heart of the CDQ program when it was developed. Twenty years later, the CDQ groups have accomplished that to varying degrees.
– Alaska Dispatch
More: www.alaskadispatch.com
Too late to save stranded shark
A 6-foot salmon shark appeared to be stranded in Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham Tuesday morning and was dead when Washington Fish and Wildlife officers arrived.
– Seattle Times
More: blogs.seattletimes.com
NZ snapper debate
The country's biggest recreational fishing group has turned up the heat on the snapper debate, accusing commercial fishermen of dumping 2 million snapper each year.
– 3News
More: www.3news.co.nz
Thursday, August 22, 2013
FISHING NETS NO MATCH FOR GREAT WHITES
Marine biologists at Cal State Long Beach have released a study showing that young great white sharks accidentally caught in commercial fishing gillnets have a high rate of survival.
– Press-Telegram News
More: www.presstelegram.com
EPA head tours Pebble Mine
The new administrator is expected to meet with area tribes and tour the site of the proposed Pebble Mine.
– KDLG
More: kdlg.org
Alaska’s salmon culture studied
Alaska is home to a tremendous salmon resource that touches nearly every life in the state in one way or another. A new effort is underway to try and understand that relationship.
– KMXT
More: www.kmxt.org
Klamath decision imminent
The decision of whether to release water from the Trinity River should be reached by around noon today, Judge Lawrence O'Neill announced after a full day of hearing testimonies on Wednesday from tribal officials, fishermen and federal scientists fighting to prevent a massive fish kill.
– Times-Standard
More: www.times-standard.com
Drones test oil spill response
The Coast Guard icebreaker Healy is on its annual mission in the ice pack north of Barrow. Next month a group of technology specialists will come aboard with drones and submersibles to test arctic oil spill response capabilities.
– Alaska Public Media
More: www.alaskapublic.org
Coast Guard auxiliary’s safety work
The operation was unveiled in 2002, a year after the deaths of seven fishers during Buoy 10, and has helped prevent any fatalities since then.
– Daily Astorian
More: www.dailyastorian.com
CA Fugitive arrested at Alaska cannery
Alaska State Troopers on Tuesday arrested a seasonal worker at a cannery in Excursion Inlet as a fugitive from justice from California.
– Juneau Empire
More: juneauempire.com
Marine engineering job boom
Jensen Maritime, Crowley Maritime Corp.’s Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering company, continues its hiring boom with the recent addition of eight new naval architecture, marine engineering and administrative professionals in the company’s Seattle, New Orleans, and Jacksonville offices.
– SFGate
More: www.sfgate.com
Alaska reality show seeks cast
"Life Below Zero" just finished its first season, and depending on what the network chooses to do, may be looking to add more cast members for future seasons. And if you think you're living the kind of life they like to portray, the producers would like to hear from you.
- KDLG
More: kdlg.org
Split vote on Astoria pier plan
When it came down to a decision Tuesday on whether the Port of Astoria Commission should allow Bornstein and Da Yang Seafoods to expand on Pier 2, its members came out evenly split.
– Daily Astorian
More: www.dailyastorian.com
Friday, August 23, 2013
EAST COAST FISHING DEADLIER THAN ALASKA
Unlike conventional wisdom that the most dangerous place in the most dangerous industry is Alaska, the Center's report says this: "no place … is more deadly for commercial fishermen than the East Coast."
– The Oregonian
More: www.oregonlive.com
Nuke meltdown a fish threat?
Concern is growing that radioactive water from a damaged nuclear plant in Japan could affect fish in B.C.
– Times Colonist
More: www.timescolonist.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week: Mark Begich isn’t shy about getting tough with multi-national corporations when it comes to Alaska Seafood, the folks in Kake are trying hard to save their landmark cannery, and you know what happens to your gear when you lose it? It winds up on a beach somewhere, and we talk with one of the people who help clean it up.
– KMXT
More: www.kmxt.org
Senator: serve Alaska seafood to U.S. troops
U.S. Senator Mark Begich sent a letter to a major international food contractor today urging them to reconsider the decision to serve only Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified seafood to federal agencies like the Department of Defense.
– Alaska Business Monthly
More: www.akbizmag.com
Opinion: Make hydropower safe for fish
Affordable electricity helps fishermen throughout the state meet their bottom line. We just have to ensure that Hydropower development in Alaska is safe for fish.
– Alaska Dispatch
More: www.alaskadispatch.com
Judge allows water release for Klamath
Trinity River water will be released to protect salmon after a federal judge lifted his order Thursday afternoon, finding the additional flows critical to preventing a repeat of the massive fish kill from 2002.
– Times-Standard
More: www.times-standard.com
Editorial: Treaty should support fish habitat
Northwest Indian tribes have been pushing ecosystem-based functions as a third basis of the treaty. They suggest that the U.S. and Canada should see if there are ways to improve the reservoirs behind dams and the river’s flow to improve fish and wildlife habitat.
– Daily Astorian
More: www.dailyastorian.com
Fisherman’s bycatch excluder
With today’s tricky fishery laws, keeping the wrong fish out of your nets has become as big a challenge as finding the right fish in the first place. That’s where Kevin Dunn comes in.
– Coast River Business Journal
More: www.crbizjournal.com
Fishermen monitor U.S. to China cable
The council, a non-profit that funds fishing related projects that benefit the fishing industry, sent two fishermen representatives to monitor the survey.
– The World
More: theworldlink.com
Celebrate fishing in Astoria
The Commercial Fishermen’s Festival returns with tales of the sea, competitions, demonstrations, fresh seafood, vendors and more.
– Coast River Business Journal
More: www.crbizjournal.com
