Monday, October 3, 2011
HALIBUT, BLACK COD PRICES SKY HIGH
Prices for Alaska halibut are so high they are in the nose bleed area, but buyers continue to compete for all they can get.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
Fraser pink catch down slightly
Fishermen of all sectors this season have caught 7.6 million pink salmon in the Fraser River system out of an estimated run of 18.3 million.
– Vancouver Sun
Read more:www.vancouversun.com
Judge won't stop salmon fleet
A federal judge killed an effort by a group of Central Valley irrigation districts to stop commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts, rejecting claims that the federal government acted improperly when it reopened the season this year.
– L.A. Times
More:latimesblogs.latimes.com
Election: Gold vs. salmon
The battle over a copper and gold mine near one of the world's premier salmon fisheries is headed to the ballot in a vote next week that has turned a normally sleepy local election into a national environmental debate.
– ABC
More:abcnews.go.com
U.S. fish imports rarely inspected
Only 1 percent of all fish imported into the United States is inspected by the FDA and Senator Charles Schumer wants that upped to 50 percent.
– Hudson Valley (N.Y.) News
More:www.midhudsonnews.com
Pirate fishing vessel escorted to Dutch
A fishing vessel and with its crew accused of illegal fishing was escorted to an Aleutian Islands port to await processing by federal authorities.
– Anchorage Daily News
Read more:www.adn.com
Kodiak fisherman hoisted
A 48-year-old Kodiak fisherman needed to be hoisted from his boat by the Coast Guard after suffering a head injury. Jimmy Cook was medevac'd from the 70-foot fishing vessel Van Elliot about 40 miles west of Kodiak City in the Kupreanof Strait.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:www.kmxt.org
Fish oil pills and kid smarts
There is some evidence that taking fish oil pills during pregnancy can help children's brain development, but a Spanish study suggests that the supplements make no difference in measures of intellect when the children are six years old.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More:www.timescolonist.com
Seattle losing Alaska vessels
For more than a quarter century, three Washington-based crab boats named Bering Sea, Arctic Sea and North Sea worked harvest grounds off Alaska, then sent profits south to their Puget Sound owners.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.nwsource.com
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
JACKS ARE A CURSE ON KODIAK
For setnet fishermen at the south end of Kodiak Island, "jack" is a four-letter word in more ways than one.
– Juneau Empire
More:juneauempire.com
NOAA stonewalling
To agency chief Jane Lubchenco and others inside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, how or whether they discipline employees — and how they arrived at those decisions — is obviously nobody's business. And they are dead wrong.
– Glocester Times
More:www.gloucestertimes.com
Hatcheries face budget death
Salmon fishing, shellfish harvesting and safeguards against invasions of nuisance species in Puget Sound would be affected by the proposed 2011-13 supplemental budget cuts offered up by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
– The Olympian
More:www.theolympian.com
Pirate ship crew questioning
Federal authorities were planning to question the 22 crew members from a ship accused of illegal fishing.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
ASMI picks Japan agent
The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is pleased to announce that AVIAREPS Marketing Garden Ltd. of Tokyo was selected and will be its new in-country representative in Japan to market Alaska Seafood.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More deckboss.blogspot.com (scroll down)
Rescue on Columbia bar
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued two men from the South Jetty after their vessel capsized and broke up on the Columbia River bar.
– Daily Astorian
More:www.dailyastorian.com
Alaska drilling back in court
A lawsuit that stands in the way of Shell Oil's plans for exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast is back in the hands of a federal judge.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.nwsource.com
Dam doesn't make sense
The eighth-tallest dam on Earth blasted into Alaska's heart. Dead fish floating down the Susitna River. Big game gone from historic hunting lands.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
BEGICH: SINK RAT-INFESTED FISH PIRATE
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich called on the Coast Guard to sink a stateless, rat-infested vessel accused of illegal fishing.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Halibut bycatch shocking
Despite that, 43 percent of its catch was halibut. All of that halibut, by law, must be dumped back into the sea.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
Big cut in red crab
The total allowable catch for the upcoming Bristol Bay red king crab season will be 7.8 million pounds. That's a 47 percent cut from last season's TAC of 14.8 million pounds.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Guilty in sea otter pelt sale
Richard H. Yates, 53, a resident of Craig, Alaska, pleaded guilty and was sentenced for his conviction of illegal sale of wildlife pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
– SitNews, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
Guv stops Crescent City money
Despite unanimous legislative support, California Gov. Jerry Brown decided to veto the bill that would have released the Crescent City Harbor of financial burdens for March tsunami repairs.
– Crescent City Triplicate
More:www.triplicate.com
Did salmon 'dodge a bullet'?
Biologists are hoping wild spring Chinook in the Rogue River "dodged a bullet" after a break in an irrigation ditch sent suffocating muddy water coursing over millions of freshly laid eggs that represent a big chunk of future runs.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Natives take Pebble message on tour
Alaska Natives, commercial fishermen, sportsmen and seafood processors are heading south on the Save Bristol Bay Road Show to raise awareness and build support for protecting Bristol Bay Alaska, which is threatened by the proposed Pebble gold and copper mine.
– Press release
More:www.savebristolbay.org
Certify farmers protecting salmon
A new eco-certification program that ensures B.C. ranchers, farmers and winemakers adopt practices that protect salmon and salmon habitat will officially launch.
– Vancouver Sun
Read more:www.vancouversun.com
Good news for New England fishermen
Fish stocks are rebounding after years of decline and that the economically depressed fishing industry is showing signs of a comeback.
– Boston Globe
More:www.boston.com
Thursday, Oct 6, 2011
WATERSPOUT ON COOK INLET
A 30-foot-diamater waterspout, whirling to life mid-inlet and sweeping toward shore, gorging itself on water sucked from the surface, spewing spray 40 to 50 feet in the air.
– Homer Tribune
More: homertribune.com
King crab fleet safety inspections
The Coast Guard is conducting dockside exams in Western Alaska and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will deploy observers aboard participating crab vessels to safeguard the fishing fleet for the 2011 Bristol Bay red king crab season.
– Coast Guard
More: www.d17.uscgnews.com
Pacific Seafoods buys oyster company
Pacific Shellfish Company, a subsidiary of the Pacific Seafood Group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Coast Seafoods Company of South Bend, Wash.
– Press release
More: www.businesswire.com
Fish fraud and Spanish hake
What Spaniards probably don't know is that the fish they take home for dinner might not be hake at all.
– Center for Public Integrity
More: www.iwatchnews.org
Welcome otters, lose shellfish
If the endangered species is once again allowed to swim in Southern California waters as is currently being proposed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the commercial shellfisheries along the mainland coast from Point Conception to Carpinteria — namely spiny lobster, sea urchin, crab, and sea cucumber — are likely to be decimated within a decade.
– Santa Barbara Independent
More: independent.com
Final Bristol Bay tally
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has issued the post-season rundown of the 2011 Bristol Bay salmon season, putting numbers to what fishermen have acknowledged was a relatively poor run, but also quantifying the salve that good prices put on the season.
– Homer News
More: homernews.com
Enviro sees fishing subsidies
U.S. taxpayers doled out more than $6.4 billion in subsidies to the commercial fishing industry between 1996 and 2004, possibly accelerating the ongoing collapse of fish stocks worldwide and adding to the devastation of large ocean fish species.
– Environmental Working Group
More: www.ewg.org
Pirate ship to lose its rats
A Dutch Harbor company has been hired to get rid of the rats on a ship whose crew is accused of illegal fishing.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com
Dirt farmers certified for helping salmon
A new eco-certification program that ensures B.C. ranchers, farmers and winemakers adopt practices that protect salmon and salmon habitat has been officially launched.
– Vancouver Sun
More: www.vancouversun.com
Feds take step toward sea lion kill
Now federal lawmakers took the first step Wednesday toward making it easier for states and Indian tribes to kill some of the California sea lions that feast on endangered and threatened salmon in the Columbia River.
– The Oregonian
More: www.oregonlive.com
Friday, Oct 7, 2011
Alaska divers fight otters
Southeast Alaska’s commercial dive fishing seasons are underway this month for red sea urchins, sea cucumbers and geoduck clams. The dive fisheries continue to see
impacts from the region’s expanding population of sea otters.
– Alaska Public Radio
More: www.alaskapublic.org
Background: Arrest of fish pirate
The Seattle-based U.S. Coast Guard cutter Midgett, on a September Bering Sea fishing patrol, got the call for an abrupt change of course.
– Seattle Times
More: seattletimes.nwsource.com
Puget bait fishery still alive
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has pulled a plan to eliminate the Puget Sound herring bait fishery, which was included in the budget-cutting package submitted to the state Office of Financial Management Sept. 22.
– The Olympian
More: www.theolympian.com
China punishes Norway
Since the row last year between Beijing and Oslo over the Nobel Peace Prize, exports to China have fallen off dramatically.
– The National, Abu Dhabi
More: www.thenational.ae
Making the Nehalem fish-friendly
You have to know that a "beaver deceiver" is a perforated pipe that penetrates a beaver dam so that beaver are fooled into thinking they have to keep building up their dam because water keeps flowing through it.
– North Coast Citizen
More: northcoastcitizen.com
Fuglvog sentencing delayed
A federal judge has agreed with a defense request to move back sentencing for a former fisheries aide for Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com
Unalaska case to Supreme Court
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a workers' compensation case that started in Unalaska.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More: www.kucb.org
Adams sockeye stronger
Sockeye salmon en route to Adams River are expected to return in stronger numbers for the second year in a row, following a decade of trouble in B.C.'s Fraser River system.
– Vancouver Sun
More: www.vancouversun.com
Canadians skeptical over frankenfish
Support for genetically modified fish and animals is on the decline in Canada as more consumers grow skeptical of the federal government's ability to regulate these high-tech food options, a government-commissioned poll has found.
– Victoria Times Colonist
Read more: www.timescolonist.com
