Monday, August 27, 2012
ALBACORE 'POPPING' OFF NW COAST
Tuna are plentiful, prices are down, and the weather is nice in Charleston.
– Eugene Register Guard
More:registerguard.com
Fewer chum in pollock nets
The Bering Sea pollock season keeps rolling along, at a faster pace, and with far fewer chum salmon bycatch than last year.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:alaskadispatch.com
Prices good for red king crab
For the Norton Sound red king crab fishermen, it’s been a very good year to date.
– Cordova Times
More:thecordovatimes.com
Finally! Salmon in N. Cal
After six desolate salmon seasons, North Coast commercial and sport fishermen finally are on pace for a decent catch.
– Santa Rosa Press Democrat
More:pressdemocrat.com
Fraser outlook: Grim
With the prospect of yet another year without commercial sockeye fishing in the Fraser River, scientists, ecologists and First Nations members are openly wondering if the fishery will ever recover.
– Coquitlam (B.C.) Times
More:thenownews.com
Waiting on pinks
Salmon season is winding down and it's still a guess if the statewide catch will reach the 132 million fish forecast.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Sustainable halibut
The lucrative halibut fisheries in the North Pacific are currently covered by 2 major eco-labels that annually assess the fisheries for sustainability.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Another rig for Cook Inlet
Now it seems an Australian company, Buccaneer Energy, has brought in a second jack-up rig.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
B.C. mine spews
Concerns and frustration are growing on both sides of the border in response to Chieftain Metals’ closure in June of the water treatment plant at the Tulsequah Chief site.
– SitNews, Ketchikan
More:sitnews.us
More work for MSC Dungeness label
The MSC label requires the industry to study how crab reproduce, their genetics, how many crab there are in Oregon’s ocean, how many there need to be to maintain a healthy population, and whether fishing methods are hurting the species.
– Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita reporting in Ecotrope, Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:ecotrope.opb.org
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
SEA OTTER TALES
The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came to Sitka over the weekend to hear concerns about sea otters.
– KCAW, Sitka
More:kcaw.org
Oregon gillnetters fight for survival
Local gillnetters say Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber's proposal to remove them from the main stem of the Columbia River would send their struggling industry to a certain death.
– Longview (Wash.) Daily News
More:tdn.com
Pollock fleet salmon hard cap
Starting Saturday, pollock trawlers working the Gulf of Alaska faced a strict cap on the number of king salmon they can pull in as bycatch before being shut down by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:alaskadispatch.com
Arctic melt sets record
The sea ice in the Arctic has melted back to a new record.
– Alaska Public.Org
More:alaskapublic.org
Guv likes national seafood board
Begich on Friday in Anchorage announced he intends to introduce legislation to create a national seafood marketing and development effort.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Keeping Bristol Bay permits at home
The Bristol Bay region has lost hundreds of commercial fishing permits since limited entry went into effect back in the mid-'70s.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Sporties block Columbia traffic
This weekend the US Coast Guard and several marine patrol units teamed up for what they call "Operation Make Way."
– NWCN.com
More:nwcn.com
Kodiak sockeye nursery
Bright red buoys bobbing on its waters are part of net pens that will be home to 750,000 sockeye salmon fry until next spring.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Crab's-eye view
Oregon Field Guide crew on a crab boat off the coast of Yachats. It shows a crab pot being pulled out of the water and Dungeness crab whose shells were too soft to sell being tossed back into the ocean.
– Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita reporting in Ecotrope, Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:ecotrope.opb.org
Kodiak thanks seafood workers
The Kodiak City Council held a regular meeting and took the opportunity to thank the various seafood processing workers who've come from all over the world.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
CANADIAN FARMED FISH AT U.S. OPEN
Vancouver Island's Skuna Bay Seafood will be providing its farmed B.C. salmon for the dining rooms at the U.S. Open Tennis Championship in New York this week.
– Vancouver Sun
More:vancouversun.com
Alaska coastal plan rejected
A $1.5 million effort against a ballot measure to resurrect a coastal management program in Alaska paid off.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Pollock fleet salmon hard cap
Starting Saturday, pollock trawlers working the Gulf of Alaska faced a strict cap on the number of king salmon they can pull in as bycatch before being shut down by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:alaskadispatch.com
Protecting Alaska skates
A small commercial fishery for skates developed in the Gulf of Alaska in 2003 and could expand to provide even more economic opportunities in the future.
– FishNewsEU
More:fishnewseu.com
Tsunami dangers threaten coast
Somewhere off the western coast of North America…likely floating around the North Pacific…are two, large, concrete docks.
– KRBD, Ketchikan
More:krbd.org
Fish buyers worry over Pebble
A customer advisory panel of major buyers of wild seafood has told the state's key seafood marketing entity that they trust the Alaska brand, but are concerned about certification issues and fear the Pebble mine could devalue Alaska seafood.
– Cordova Times
More:thecordovatimes.com
Norwegian driller looks to Alaska
Statoil is inching closer to exploratory drilling in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, although the company says not before 2015.
– AlaskaPublic.org
More:alaskapublic.org
Refinery eyed for B.C. coast
Newspaper mogul David Black … raised eyebrows — and rolled some eyes — earlier this month when he proposed a $13 billion refinery at the end of the Northern Gateway pipeline on British Columbia's coast.
– Vancouver Sun
More:vancouversun.com
New wave energy testing device
Commercial wave energy companies all over the world are trying to come up with proven wave energy designs that work.
– The Oregonian
More:oregonlive.com
Commission against gillnet plan
The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners has gone on record opposing a proposal by Gov. John Kitzhaber to restrict commercial salmon gillnet fishing on the lower Columbia River.
– Coast River Business Journal
More:crbizjournal.com
Mea culpa
We goofed yesterday. We had a headline saying, "Guv likes national seafood board." But the item spoke of Mark Begich, the senator, and not Gov. Sean Parnell. Sorry.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
CARLSON CASE FINALLY SETTLED
The state of Alaska is on the brink of refunding millions of dollars in the Carlson case, an epic class action concerning overcharges to nonresidents for commercial fishing licenses and permits.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Pollock fleet chum bycatch down
The Bering Sea pollock fleet is on track to have a record-low year with chum bycatch.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Medevac off Oregon
The Coast Guard medevaced a 42-year-old man from the F/V Tombo approximately 70 miles west of Pacific City.
– Coast Guard
More:uscgnews.com
Hanging on to fishing fleets
The cities of Monterey and Morro Bay, 110 miles apart on the Central Coast, have both managed to hang on to their family-run fishing operations in spite of rising fuel costs, tighter regulations and foreign competition.
– Monterey County Weekly
More:montereycountyweekly.com
'Supertrawler' battle begins
The 142 meter (465 foot) Dutch-owned F/V Margiris, to be used by Seafish Tasmania to trawl from New South Wales to southern Western Australia, was greeted by Greenpeace as it arrived at Port Lincoln.
– Herald Sun
More:heraldsun.com.au
Pebble Mine review was sound
Standard scientific peer review typically involves three anonymous reviewers. In contrast, a panel of 12 known experts – ranging in expertise from mining to Alaska Native cultures, hydrology, and fisheries – publicly reviewed EPA's draft assessment.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Alaska coastal plan not dead
Despite the failure of Ballot Measure Two, Alaska could still reestablish its Coastal Management Program.
– KFSK, Petersburg
More:kfsk.org
Crescent City marina repairs
Progress on the reconstruction of Crescent City Harbor's inner boat basin is becoming more visible every day.
– Crescent City Triplicate
More:triplicate.com
New England seals come back
They wanted them for their furs and to keep them from eating cod. Massachusetts even paid bounties on seals: $5 per nose.
– KERA
More:keranews.org
Friday, August 31, 2012
FISHING AND TOPLESS BEACHES
The fishing villages have become chic resorts and the yachts of the wealthy dominate the waters of the French Riviera, but the 300 odd fishermen who remain on this sunny coast are determined to keep up a tradition that is also their livelihood.
– APF
More:ca.finance.yahoo.com
Sporties demand more fish
This season they had to cancel 160 bookings because of restrictions placed on the river in an effort to protect salmon heading upriver.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:alaskadispatch.com
A few fish still coming
Harvests by commercial fleets jumped by another 5 million fish for the week ended Aug. 24, pushing the preliminary total to 112,396,000 salmon of all species, with fall harvests of chums and silvers still to come.
– Cordova Times
More:thecordovatimes.com
Subsistence fishermen hurting
It's the end of the fishing season. Winter is coming. And the storehouse is only one-third full.
– Anchorage Press
More:anchoragepress.com
Blame bycatch
While east side setnetters and Kenai River guides had to stop fishing this season because of low king returns, the bycatch fleet keeps on killing Chinooks.
– Cordova Times
More:thecordovatimes.com
Shell closer to Alaska drilling
The U.S. Interior Department said it will allow Royal Dutch Shell to do preparatory work on an oil well in the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea while holding back on a final permit for drilling deep enough to find oil.
– Wall Street Journal
More:online.wsj.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week, Senator Mark Begich gives us more details on his nationwide seafood marketing plan, we also hear from the professor who wrote a history of the University of Washington's long-term study of Alaska Salmon runs. American Seafoods is facing more fines and penalties, and we get an update on the inflatable suspender distribution event in Haines.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:kmxt.org
Visa changes to limit workers
Changes to the U.S. J-1 Visa program have prompted some fisheries around the state to begin looking elsewhere for summer workers.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Aleutian peak rumbling
A remote volcano in the western Aleutians has started rumbling.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Alaska guv makes fishery assignments
Gov. Sean Parnell nominated James Becker, Rod Brown, Arnold Enge, Gary Gray and Dale Kelley to the Transboundary Panel of the Pacific Salmon Commission.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
See ya'
We expect to observe Labor Day by not laboring at all. See you on Tuesday.
