Tuesday, September 2, 2014

LAMPREYS FEAST ON FRASER RUN

The parasitic Pacific lamprey is taking a bite out of the estimated more than 21 million sockeye returning to the Fraser River this year — a bumper harvest but short of the unexpectedly high returns of 2010.

– Vancouver Sun

More:vancouversun.com

Puget Sound orcas in decline

The number of whales is the lowest in the last 29 years. No new calves have been born since 2012 and two adult whales are thought to have died this year.

– China Topix

More:chinatopix.com

NOAA assesses impacts of 'derelict traps'

Thousands of fishing traps are lost or abandoned each year in U.S. waters and become what are known as derelict traps, which continue to catch fish, crabs, and other species such as turtles.

– NOAA

More:noaanews.noaa.gov

Alaska candidates in fish debate

The three primary candidates running for governor this year convened at Kodiak's Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium last night for a debate focused solely on topics related to the seafood industry. 

– KMXT

More:kmxt.org

Fishermen were trained to eye Russia

Fearing a Russian invasion and occupation of Alaska, the U.S. government in the early Cold War years recruited and trained fishermen, bush pilots, trappers and other private citizens across Alaska for a covert network to feed wartime intelligence to the military, newly declassified Air Force and FBI documents show.

– Juneau Empire

More:juneauempire.com

Ensnared whale freed

Volunteers moved quickly to help free a humpback whale caught in fishing line in Monterey Bay. 

– ABC7 News

More:abc7news.com

Russian processors grasping for product

Fish processing companies in Russia have found themselves at a crossroad as they need to replace raw fish that is no longer coming in from Norway, Finland and the Baltic states due to the Russian import ban.

– The Fish Site

More:thefishsite.com

CA faces dam dilemmas

How much money drought-stricken California should spend to build new dams was a big part of the debate over the bill that Gov. Jerry Brown signed last month to put a $7.5 billion water bond on the November ballot.

– Times-Standard

More:times-standard.com

$1.1B settlement in gulf oil spill

Halliburton says it has agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle a substantial portion of plaintiff claims arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

– SFGate

More:sfgate.com

Cape Cod short on cod

There aren't enough cod left on Cape Cod. That soon becomes evident to the tourists crowding an observation deck to watch fishermen unload their boats in this picturesque harbor sheltered from the ocean by sandy dunes.

– Los Angeles Times

More:latimes.com

 

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

WATCH LIST REVAMP IN EFFECT

Twenty-one species of fish made the leap Tuesday off a watch list of seafood to avoid as unsustainably overfished, leaving conservationists and many fishermen and chefs celebrating the turnaround of a West Coast fishing ground declared an economic disaster area by the federal government just 14 years ago.

– SFGate

More:sfgate.com

Tracking plastic pollution

Now, according to a newly published study in the journal Chaos by University of New South Wales, researchers have developed a computer model to help figure out where all the trash is coming from. The results are a bit startling.

– Discovery News

More:news.discovery.com

Momentary chaos in Kenai

Tuesday morning saw brief chaos on the Kenai Peninsula and in the borough's Office of Emergency Management as officials hustled to spread the word that an automatic system had cried wolf when it sent a false tsunami warning out across the region.

– Alaska Dispatch News

More:adn.com

Norway weathers Russian ban

The value of exports of Norwegian salmon in August totaled NOK 3.3 billion, an increase of NOK 101 million, or three per cent, compared to last August.

– The Fish Site

More:thefishsite.com

Researchers develop bycatch forecasts

Researchers from the University of Delaware and Delaware State University are developing an innovative daily fishing forecast — similar to a weather report — that could help watermen avoid accidentally catching sharks and sturgeon as bycatch.

– Phys.org

More:phys.org

OR police seize salmon

Oregon State Police Fish & Wildlife troopers cited an Astoria man on several commercial fish-related charges after seizing 748 pounds of illegally caught Chinook salmon on the Columbia River near the Willamette River.

– Tillamook Headlight Herald

More:tillamookheadlightherald.com

Opinion: BOF should meet in Kenai

A measure going before the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, as well as city councils around the peninsula, encourages to Alaska Board of Fisheries to meet in the Kenai-Soldotna area when it next considers Upper Cook Inlet finfish issues in 2017.

– Peninsula Clarion

More:peninsulaclarion.com

Boat fest starts at Salty Dawg

The Kachemak Bay Wooden Boat Society will stage its annual festival from Sept. 4 through 7, starting with an evening of sea chanteys and tall tales at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Salty Dawg Saloon.

– Homer Tribune

More:homertribune.com

Lobbying for Cook Inlet changes

Cook Inlet stakeholders are asking the state Board of Fisheries to consider more changes to area fisheries this winter.

– Peninsula Clarion

More:peninsulaclarion.com

Waters warming in Gulf of Maine

Warming waters have forced commercial fish, like cod, herring and northern shrimp, to leave the Gulf of Maine and find a cooler habitat.

– Maine News

More:newsmaine.net

 

Thursday, September 4, 2014

B.C. SPILL'S SIZE WAS LOWBALLED

Imperial Metals' estimate of the size of the spill from its Mount Polley mine tailings dam collapse is nearly 70 per cent greater than the initial estimate.

– Vancouver Sun

More:vancouversun.com

Alaska's $13M salmon buy

The move comes at the urging of Senator Lisa Murkowski, who says a strong 2013 harvest led to an excess of pinks, and having USDA purchase the surplus cans from state companies would help prevent a drop in the price paid to fishermen.
  
– KDLG

More:kdlg.org

Bristol Bay salmon netted $197 M

This year's Bristol Bay salmon harvest produced a near-record payoff to fishermen.

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

More:deckboss.blogspot.com

Judge cites extreme negligence in BP oil spill

BP bears the majority of responsibility among the companies involved in the nation's worst offshore oil spill, a federal judge ruled Thursday, citing the energy giant's reckless conduct in a ruling that exposes the company to billions of dollars in penalties.

– CBS News

More:cbsnews.com

Aleutian oil spill plan released

For years, shipping safety advocates have called for better protections against oil spills in the Aleutian chain. Now, the plan for a new prevention and response system is finally finished.

– KUCB

More:kucb.org

Appeals court: no coal in Seward bay

A permit covering storm-water runoff does not apply to coal falling from a conveyor belt into Resurrection Bay at Seward, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

– Juneau Empire

More:juneauempire.com

Salmon inventory struggle

Buyers are having a hard time securing inventories of salmon, with shortages on some king, pink, chum and sockeye.

– The Fish Site

More:thefishsite.com

B.C. poised for radiation monitoring

A University of Victoria researcher is assembling a comprehensive coastal radioactivity monitoring program just as the amount of contaminated debris from the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster is set to peak in B.C. waters.

– Times Colonist

More:timescolonist.com

Saving bluefin tuna

The multi-nation fisheries body that monitors most of the Pacific Ocean has recommended a substantial cut to the catch of juvenile bluefin tuna, a move conservationists say is only an initial step toward saving the dwindling species.

– SFGate

More:sfgate.com

Columbia River's pilot seine fisheries

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber initiated the effort to change management strategies that would shift more of the allowable non-tribal mainstem catch to anglers, and away from commercial fishers.

– The Wahkiakum County Eagle

More:waheagle.com

 

Friday, September 5, 2014

SALMON HARVEST AT 146 MILLION

Alaska's commercial salmon catch continues to climb, reaching 146 million fish through Sept. 2.

– Alaska Journal of Commerce

More: alaskajournal.com

Record value in Norton Sound

As the commercial harvest season comes to an end, Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Jim Menard says strong chum and silver runs drove record-breaking revenue in the region.

– KNOM

More: knom.org

Columbia River hatchery plan released

A federal agency on Thursday recommended the continued operation of hatcheries in the Columbia River Basin, with focus on programs that minimize risks to wild salmon and steelhead.

– SFGate

More: sfgate.com

Research seeks bycatch prevention

Areas such as the Bering Sea have hard limits on the amount of bycatch fishermen may collect, and if they reach the limit, they can't continue fishing there. Enter John Gauvin, the Fisheries Science Director of the Alaska Seafood Cooperative. 

– KDLG

More: kdlg.org

Alaska Fisheries Report

Coming up this week, What were then three candidates for Alaska governor debated fish in Kodiak last week, and even though there are now just two of them, we'll hear from all three. Also, Senator Begich tells us about progress on the latest reauthorization of the Magnuson Stevens Act. 

– KMXT

More: kmxt.org

Reducing Cook Inlet's oil spill risks

After three years of development, analysis and research, a document that aims to provide options to reduce the risk of marine oil spills in the Cook Inlet is nearing completion.

– Peninsula Clarion

More: peninsulaclarion.com

Comments on Navy operations sought

The Navy is currently conducting trainings in the Gulf of Alaska under the project name Northern Edge. It's working on setting up the next phase of that project, to begin in 2016.

– KMXT

More: kmxt.org

Russian company closes due to ban

One of the largest fish processing companies in Russia, Murmansk fish factory, has stopped work due to a lack of raw materials caused by the import ban Russia has placed on many countries.

– The Fish Site

More: thefishsite.com

In search of lost crab pots

Using sonar to find the pots, divers and scientists venture into the waters to clean up and learn why pots are lost.

– SFGate

More: sfgate.com

Fishing on the wane in Japan

The population of Japanese people engaged in marine fisheries dropped to a record low 181,253, which was an 18% decrease from five years ago, according to the Statistics of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries report by the farm ministry released last week.

– Wall Street Journal

More: blogs.wsj.com



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