Monday, August 26, 2013
BOYCOTTING ALASKA SALMON
Sodexo, one of the world’s largest food purveyors, said its policy is to only serve seafood certified by (you guessed it) the London-based Marine Stewardship Council. In this case, the fish is targeted to the U.S. troops.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More: sitnews.us
Acid hurts all fish
Rising levels of carbon dioxide are harming all forms of marine life because the oceans are acidifying as they absorb the gas.
– Alex Morales, Bloomberg
More: post-gazette.com
Columbia king fishery begins
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission announced fishers from the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama tribes are on the Columbia River for the gillnet fishery of the 2013 fall commercial season.
– Elida S. Perez, reporting in the StatesmanJournal.com
More: statesmanjournal.com
Cordova fishermen fined
Alaska State Wildlife Troopers note in their online reports seven recent incidents in the Cordova area that involve commercial fish harvesters.
– Cordova Times
More: thecordovatimes.com
Nets seized on Fraser
Fisheries authorities have seized boats and nets as part of stepped-up enforcement of a salmon-fishing ban on the Fraser River.
– Wendy Stueck, reporting for the Globe and Mail, Toronto
More: theglobeandmail.com
B.C. can’t protect Oil Coast
Officials in British Columbia privately warned the province lacks the ability to manage oil spills from existing and future oil traffic, and even a moderate spill would overwhelm their ability to respond, documents show.
– Stanley Tromp, reporting for the Globe and Mail, Toronto
More: theglobeandmail.com
$179,000 fine for illegal cod
Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Dutch Harbor were contacted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which reported that the F/V Blue Ace, a 124-foot catcher-processor, had taken Pacific cod with longline gear in state waters closed to vessels 60 feet or greater in overall length.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Poachers’ nets in Fraser
Conservation officers have seized another five nets from poachers along the Fraser River despite a ban on fishing for all salmon species.
– CBC
More: cbc.ca
Gov makes ASMI board picks
Gov. Sean Parnell has reappointed Kevin Adams and Jack Schultheis to the board of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Pink run slows
The Kodiak salmon season is showing signs of slowing down. Daily harvest counts declined every day this week, though are still in the high-six digits.
– KMXT
More: kmxt.org
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
POLL SHOWS BROAD FEAR OF PEBBLE
Hays Research Group asked 388 likely primary voters their opinions of a possible 2014 ballot initiative that would prohibit the Pebble Mine. More than 60 percent said they favor the measure.
– Peter Granitz, reporting for Alaska Public Media
More: alaskapublic.org
Kenai kings meet goal
The Kenai River kings seem to have met their escapement goal after all, but it was still the lowest return on record.
– Peninsula Clarion, Homer
More: peninsulaclarion.com
That’s Dungeness … with a B
“Last 10 years, Oregon fishermen brought a billion dollars of seafood to the docks. That’s billion with a B.”
– Coos Bay World
More: theworldlink.com
Feel unsafe? Try farming
Farming is still safer than several other occupations, including logging (No. 1), commercial fishing (No. 2), and aircraft pilots (No. 3).
– Angela Bowman, writing in Dairy Herd magazine
More: dairyherd.com
Thank Tongass for salmon haul
This year’s staggering salmon returns are a reminder the Tongass is the country’s preeminent salmon forest.
– Heather Hardcastle, writing in the Juneau Empire
More: juneauempire.com
Medevac off of Coos Bay
The Coast Guard helped a fisherman who had suffered possible internal injuries while working on a boat approximately 40 nautical miles west of Coos Bay.
– Eugene Register Guard
More: registerguard.com
Save Alaska lives
The proposal to build a life-saving road to connect the Alaska Peninsula communities of King Cove and Cold Bay is most persuasive when you listen to the stories of those who live there.
– Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich writing in the Anchorage Daily News
More: adn.com
New aquacultured fish
The first black sea bass and California yellowtail to come from a trial land-based culture method have earned excellent reviews from chefs and consumers.
– Working Waterfront
More: workingwaterfront.com
No sheen from SE tender
A fishing tender that sank in Duncan Canal near Petersburg does not appear to be leaking more fuel.
– KFSK, Petersburg
More: kfsk.org
Medevac to Portland
At approximately 6:34 a.m., Sector Columbia River received a report from the fishing vessel Jackpot that a crew member had been knocked unconscious when a block came apart and struck him in the head.
– Daily Astorian
More: dailyastorian.com
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
GOOD OREGON CRAB SEASON
Crabbers brought in 18.1 million pounds for the season, which is the sixth best harvest in the past 15 years.
– Coos Bay World
More: theworldlink.com
Gillnetters still in court
A decision on enforcing a stay could be determined in the coming weeks by the court, which would be in place during a judicial review of the new Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife policy.
– Ted Shorack, reporting for the Daily Astorian
More: dailyastorian.com
Canadians on Yukon fish
The news is a bright light for Yukon fishing enthusiasts in an otherwise dark summer for fish stocks across the territory.
– CBC
More: cbc.ca
Chum fishery taking steelhead
He has been apologizing to his clients at the Lower Dean River Lodge lately because so few fish are being caught – and many of those are scarred from being entangled in nets.
– Mark Hume, reporting for the Globe and Mail, Toronto
More: theglobeandmail.com
Oil oozing into Columbia
An aging 75-foot boat with several hundred gallons of diesel fuel on board sunk off Willow Grove on Tuesday morning, and the Coast Guard and other agencies worked into the evening to clean up the leaking fuel.
– Tony Lystra, reporting for the Daily News, Longview
More: tdn.com
Fishermen battle radioactivity
Fumio Suzuki, a third-generation fisherman, sets out into the Pacific Ocean every seven weeks. Not to catch fish that he can sell but to catch fish that can be tested for radiation.
– Daily Astorian
More: dailyastorian.com
Tender still stuck
The 78-foot sunken fishing tender Lone Star is still stuck in the mud in the Igushik River as responders try and figure out a new way to recover the vessel.
– Mike Mason, reporting for KDLG, Dillingham
More: alaskapublic.org
EPA chief in Alaska
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy disembarked in Girdwood, Alaska yesterday for the start of a three-day visit to the state, designated as a “fact finding mission” on two of America’s biggest natural resource issues — climate change and the Pebble Mine proposed near Alaska’s Bristol Bay.
– Shiva Polefka, reporting in ThinkProgress
More: thinkprogress.org
Crab poaching penalty reduced
But it's not much of a crime, a San Francisco appellate panel said, and the penalty must be modest as well – not a fine that ate up a commercial fisherman's profit for the day.
– Bob Egelko, reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle
More: sfgate.com
Tuxedni medevac
A Coast Guard Air Station Sitka MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew medevaced a 44-year-old woman from the 109-foot fishing vessel Tuxedni near Sitka.
– Coast Guard
More: uscgnews.com
Thursday, August 29, 2013
ALABACORE SAFE FROM NUKE
That’s the message an Oregon State University researcher has for those concerned about recent reports that the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan is leaking millions of tons of radioactive water into the ocean every day.
– Crescent City Triplicate
More: triplicate.com
Halibut comments in thousands
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries officials estimated thousands of comments were received on the proposed halibut Catch Sharing Plan.
– Michael Armstrong, reporting for the Homer News
More: homernews.com
Unanimous: Stop Pebble
Over 200 people from Bristol Bay presented a unified front against the proposed Pebble Mine.
– Taryn Kiekow, National Resources Defense Council
More: switchboard.nrdc.org
More protection for baitfish
These species, which include sand lance and various kinds of smelts, are fished extensively elsewhere in the world and are used in a variety of products, such as feed for livestock and farmed fish.
– Lee Crockett, writing for care2.com
More: care2.com
Value of Alaska fisheries
The value of the seafood from Alaska in 2011 was well over $6 billion dollars according to a new report from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
– Mike Mason, reporting for KDLG, Dillingham
More: kdlg.org
Comment on Columbia gillnet plan
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife released a determination of non-significance under the State Environmental Policy Act that says development of a new commercial fishing area along the lower Columbia River's north shore at Cathlamet will likely not have a significant adverse impact on the environment.
– Wahkiakum County Eagle
More: waheagle.com
Court nixes gillnet appeal
Lawsuit challenging changes to Columbia River commercial gillnet policy in Washington has been dismissed in Thurston County Superior Court.
– Daily Astorian
More: dailyastorian.com
Sitka weather buoy back
The Cape Edgecumbe weather buoy, which records observations and reports them on a website from a station off-shore from Sitka, is back in service.
– Ed Ronco, KCAW, Sitka
More: kcaw.org
Oregon waters noisy
The Pacific Ocean off the Oregon Coast is really loud.
– OPB
More: opb.org
Technology fights fish pirates
Ships don’t just accidentally drift into the exclusive economic zones of other countries and stay there for the good part of a week.
– Barton Seaver, National Geographic
More: newswatch.nationalgeographic.com
Friday, August 30, 2013
ANOTHER REFUGEE FROM MSC
Copper River Seafoods, the Alaska-owned seafood manufacturer and marketer with roots in Cordova, will withdraw support of a London-based certification program in 2014, after learning Prince William Sound is still adrift in the assessment process.
– Margaret Bauman, reporting for the Cordova Times
More: thecordovatimes.com
No NW nuke worries
Go right ahead and enjoy that albacore tuna.
– Del Norte Triplicate, Crescent City
More: triplicate.com
Nuke needs fishermen
Tokyo Electric Power Co. ruined the livelihoods of the commercial fishermen who trawled the seas off Fukushima prefecture when its leaking reactors poisoned the fishing grounds. The utility now needs their help.
– Bloomberg
More: bloomberg.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week: Mark Begich stares down Sodexo and Walmart and they both blink first. Have we mentioned pink salmon yet this summer? Because it seems they’re running pretty good. And ASMI promotes from within for its new director of international marketing.
– KMXT, Kodiak
Fishing on the Fraser
An improving run of sockeye salmon returning to the Fraser River has prompted fishery managers to reopen fishing for other salmon species that had been closed to guard against any accidental bycatch of sockeye.
– Jeff Nagel, reporting for the Mission City (B.C.) Record
More: missioncityrecord.com
Fraser numbers up
A population of Fraser River sockeye salmon that had dwindled to such alarming numbers it prompted a federal inquiry is showing signs of improvement.
– CBC
More: cbc.ca
Fishing the Arctic
The trawler found lots of jellyfish, and comparatively small amounts of Arctic cod and opilio crab.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Lauren Rosenthal, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More: alaskapublic.org
Pebble support in Iliamna
Gina McCarthy started her day in Dillingham but spent the afternoon in Iliamna, which is near the site of the proposed Pebble Mine.
– Mike Mason, reporting for KDLG, Dillingham
More: kdlg.org
Dillingham dock repaired
The dock in Dillingham that’s been fully or partially closed since Aug. 8 has been repaired and is now open for business.
– Mike Mason, reporting for KDLG, Dillingham
More: kdlg.org
See ya!
We’ll celebrate Labor Day on Monday by not working. See you on Tuesday.
