Monday, September 26, 2011
Sliming PETA
Over the weekend, the headquarters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was vandalized when dead fish and crabs were dumped at the entrance of the building.
– The Examiner, Norfolk, Va.
More:www.examiner.com
La Nina to affect Alaska weather
The National Weather Service confirms that La Nina has re-emerged in the Pacific Ocean and it’s anticipated that it will gradually strengthen and continue into winter.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:www.kdlg.org
Serious halibut bycatch number
Data from the International Pacific Halibut Commission indicates charter halibut anglers fishing from ports in Cook Inlet and the northern Gulf of Alaska could wind up catching fewer of the big flatfish than are wasted in the commercial halibut fishery next year if a plan recommended by the National Marine Fisheries Service becomes law.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:alaskadispatch.com
Fraser endures shoreline seines
All along the river in the Chilliwack area were large-scale shoreline net fishing operations, many with piles of dead fish rotting in the sun on the beaches, hundreds of dead fish drifting in the shallows, in some cases hundreds of yards downstream from the netting location.
– The Globe and Mail, Toronto
More:theglobeandmail.com
Alaska hatchery like Eden
In early August, a few months before this mossy valley will feel the sting of 40-below air, bright red salmon dart through a crystal clear pool amid fragrant green vegetation.
– Fairbanks News Miner
More:newsminer.com
Native corporation against Pebble
In 2007, more than two-thirds of Bristol Bay Native Corp. shareholders opposed the proposed Pebble mine project – a number assuredly on the rise.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Naknek energy plan dead
Naknek Electric Association's troubled quest to find and develop a geothermal energy source appears all but dead.
– The News Tribune
More:www.thenewstribune.com
Klamath deal needs boost from Congress
Two major watershed restoration projects are now proceeding in Northern California. And they couldn't be more different in tenor, spirit of cooperation and potential for success.
– Sacramento Bee
More:www.sacbee.com
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
CREWMEN TRIED TO TURN IN FUGLVOG
Former crew members are coming forward saying they tried to turn Fuglvog in to authorities for years, and felt like they were ignored.
– Alaska Public Radio
More:www.alaskapublic.org
Sporties outraged at Natives' waste
B.C. sport fishermen are set to launch a complaint with federal authorities about the waste of hundreds of pink salmon at a First Nations fishery.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
Pebble 'bloodletting'
Truth bites the dust first in war. So says Sen. Hiram Johnson or the Greek guy, Aeschylus – take your pick. Truth croaked early in the Pebble project bloodletting. Unfortunately, integrity and decency went, too.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Murkowski's new fisheries advisor
Stefanie Moreland will become Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's new fisheries aide starting Nov. 7.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Bird toll by longliners
More than 300,000 seabirds are thought to be killed every year by longline fisheries, threatening 17 of the 22 species of albatross.
– Scotland Herald
More:www.heraldscotland.com
State enters halibut war
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is recommending federal regulators move ahead with a controversial halibut catch sharing plan in Southeast Alaska (Area 2C), but not in Southcentral (Area 3A).
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Bering crabbers' executive director
The Board of Directors of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers is pleased to announce that Mark Gleason has been selected as the new executive director of the organization, effective Oct. 3.
Mark comes to the crabbers from Ocean Peace, a Seattle-based trawl company. In addition to serving as the government affairs representative for the company, Gleason sits on the North Pacific Research Board Advisory Panel and serves as chairman of the Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Committee for the Marine Conservation Alliance.
Prior to working with Ocean Peace, Gleason was a Sea Grant Marine Policy Fellow in the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard.
Gleason holds a master's degree in marine policy from the University of Washington School of Marine Affairs and an undergraduate degree from California State University, Monterey Bay. In addition, he has fished commercially in Alaska and California, including 11 seasons in Bristol Bay.
The current executive director, Edward Poulsen, is expected to continue working with the organization, working on the five-year review and crab science-related issues.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
HALIBUT BYCATCH PROBLEM
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is looking at reductions in the allocation to groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska which catch halibut as bycatch. These trawl and longline fisheries are currently allowed to catch and kill over 5 million pounds of halibut each year.
More:www.fakr.noaa.gov
Back to the future?
Alaska Rep. Don Young suggested he plans to introduce a bill to repeal every regulation that's been put into effect in the last 20 years.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Pebble wins in court
A Superior Court judge has sided with the state in a legal battle over the Pebble Mine project.
– Juneau Empire
More:juneauempire.com
Cal skipper credits crew in fire
It was about 9 a.m. Monday morning and for Gary Waldon, captain of the 75-foot Ocean Joy, the situation looked bleak.
– Eureka Times Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Fraser collapse: Not enough research
Senior officials from the Department of Fisheries have testified that one of the key questions facing the Cohen Commission – whether fish farms could have spread disease to wild salmon – has not been adequately researched.
– Globe and Mail, Toronto
More:www.theglobeandmail.com
Apology to Kenai fish
We have over-fished you and we have badly mismanaged you. As sport fishermen, are we sorry – probably. Will we do anything about it before it's to late – probably not. At least not as long as the last vestiges of your species remains the focus of our almighty tourism dollar.
– Kenai Peninsula Clarion
More:peninsulaclarion.com
Congress must stop deep-sea farming
It's not every summer that a fish lands on the cover of TIME Magazine. But that's just what happened this July, signaling that the future of our nation's fisheries has become a pressing issue to be seriously debated among the federal government, environmental and consumer groups and of course, fishermen.
– The Hill
More:thehill.com
Big run = sanitation problems
A huge run of coho salmon returning to the Big Quilcene River has attracted plenty of fishermen.
– ptleader.com, Port Townsend
More:www.ptleader.com
Another Hood Canal fish kill?
Low-oxygen in the waters around Hood Canal may again trigger a massive fish kill.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.nwsource.com
Irrigators take page from tobacco
The agribusiness oligarchs of the western San Joaquin are at it again. blog.sfgate.com. This time they've taken a page from the Big Tobacco and Big Coal playbook by using pseudo-science to undermine solid data they find inconvenient.
– San Francisco Chronicle
More:blog.sfgate.com
Thursday, September 29, 2011
TRIDENT TO PAY $2.5 MILLION FINE
A Seattle-based seafood company will pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated clean water law at processing plants in Alaska, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department announced.
– Forbes
More:www.forbes.com
NOAA reconsiders Alaska halibut plan
A sigh of relief and a fair bit of skepticism about the future seemed to be the reaction of Alaska halibut charter operators as they heard news that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service was reconsidering a plan to crack down on their harvests.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
Gillnetter rips Columbia seines
Fearing eventual elimination of their livelihood, Columbia River gillnetters have ripped Washington and Oregon officials over a program to test seines and other alternative commercial salmon fishing methods.
– Vancouver (Wash.) Columbian
More:www.columbian.com
Fishermen oppose Cal otter measure
Commercial fishermen and representatives of the seafood industry spoke against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed rule change that would end the official "no otter zone" prohibiting sea otters south of Pt. Conception. Members of conservation groups spoke in favor of it.
– Ventura Star
More:www.vcstar.com
B.C. stiffs Fraser panel
After sitting for 125 days, listening to the testimony of 173 witnesses and receiving nearly 2,000 exhibits, the Cohen Commission has ended its evidentiary hearings in Vancouver on an ironic note – with the federal government refusing to release a key piece of evidence.
– Globe and Mail, Toronto
More:www.theglobeandmail.com
NOAA ship working in Southeast
NOAA Ship Rainier has begun a month long survey of the sea floor near Alaska's Prince of Wales Island as part of a multi-year effort to update nautical charts for the area.
– SitNews, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
N. Pacific Council talks sea lions
While bycatch of halibut in the Gulf of Alaska and the rebuilding of the Pribilof Islands' king crab stock are the biggest issues at the meeting, the status of Steller sea lion management received some discussion this morning.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.kucb.org
Big donor in Pebble fight
Records filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission show Robert Gillam as the sole contributor to Alaskans for Bristol Bay-Vote Yes on the Save Our Salmon Initiative.
– Forbes
More:www.forbes.com
Are Alaskans eating fish?
Soon, if they haven't already, 1,500 Kenai Peninsula residences will receive a post card from the University of Alaska Fairbanks asking them to answer six questions like these as part of a new study about food security on the Kenai Peninsula.
– Homer News
More:www.homernews.com
Friday, September 30, 2011
PETA'S FISH FIGHT BACK
The ad shows a human "drumstick" hanging out of a shark's mouth next to the words "Payback Is Hell. Go Vegan."
– PETA
More:www.peta.org
Sporties seek Kenai management
Kenai River Sportfishing Association is asking the Board of Fisheries to take up king salmon management outside the normal cycle in response to a late-run return that might have fallen below the lower end of escapement goals.
– Alaska Journal of Commerce
More:www.alaskajournal.com
Barge owner indicted
The owner of the "Davy Crockett" barge, which broke apart during a salvage operation and leaked oil into the Columbia River, has been indicted on charges that he violated environmental laws.
– Seattle P-I
More:www.seattlepi.com
CDQ villages fight back
The appeal's authors contend Alaska, which holds six of the 11 voting seats on the council, has used its majority to the detriment of Oregon and Washington. And they focus on Alaska's growing Community Development Quota program to make their argument.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
New fisheries gain MSC certifications
Since mid-May 2011, six fisheries in the Americas region, comprised of 13 Units of Certification, were certified. They include the largest volume fishery in Mexico, the Gulf of California sardine fishery. Also certified were the world's first spiny dogfish fishery and the world's first anchovy fishery – located in British Columbia and Argentina respectively.
– MSC
More:www.msc.org
Mark Begich on halibut plan
Announcement of a delay in the implementation of the halibut catch sharing plan will please some Alaskans and disappoint others but in the end there's a lot more work to be done on this longstanding, divisive issue and some tough decisions to be made in the interim.
– Mark Begich
More:begich.senate.gov
Suit against northern drilling
More than a dozen Alaska Native and environmental organizations sued to block offshore oil drilling in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast.
– Juneau Empire
More:juneauempire.com
Cargo ship drips fuel oil
A cargo vessel spilled a small amount of fuel oil into Dutch Harbor.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.kucb.org
CG medevacs fisherman
Jimmy Cook sustained head injuries from a crab pot while working aboard the 70-foot fishing vessel Van Elliott 46 miles west of Kodiak in Kupreanof Strait.
– Coast Guard
More:www.d17.uscgnews.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week, we're focusing on one story: the events leading up to the downfall of Senator Lisa Murkowski's fisheries aide, Arne Fuglvog. We air Libby Casey's econo-size XXL version in two parts, and run with the item on Wesley Loy's Deckboss Blog about a potential replacement for Fuglvog in Murkowski's office.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:www.kmxt.org
