Monday, October 11, 2010
North Pacific Council broadcasts meetings
Can't make it to important fish meetings that affect your future? If you have access to the Internet, you don't have to miss a thing.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Doomed whales after krill
A bountiful crop of krill and busy shipping lanes are to blame for a rash of dead whales that have surfaced around the Bay Area within a few short months, according to scientists.
– San Francisco Chronicle
More:www.sfgate.com
Mixed news on Cook Inlet beluga whales
A survey of Alaska's Cook Inlet this summer found more beluga whales than last year, but government scientists say when the long view is taken numbers for the endangered animals continue to slide downward.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Kodiak trawlers keep access
Trawlers win. But Kodiak crab stocks might be winners, too. That's my assessment of action at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in downtown Anchorage.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
No overhaul of Alaska subsistence board
The U.S. Interior Department has proposed adding two seats for rural Alaskans to the board that oversees hunting and fishing protections but has stopped short of the overhaul sought by some Alaska Natives, who want stronger, explicit rights.
– Juneau Empire
More:www.juneauempire.com
Terrorism suspects like Deadliest Catch
After a short stand-off, it looks like the Discovery Channel and three captains on the show Deadliest Catch have resolved their differences. This is good news for some fans in a rather unlikely place: Guantanamo Bay.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.kucb.org
Kodiak council rescinds Tanner letter
Was Kodiak Island Borough Mayor Jerome Selby too unilateral in a fisheries policy letter written on behalf of Kodiak residents? Borough assembly members thought so.
– Kodiak Daily Mirror
More:www.kodiakdailymirror.com
Copter plucks crewman from processor ship
A Coast Guard helicopter crew evacuated an injured crewman from a fish-processing ship 40 miles southwest of Coos Bay.
– Coos Bay World
More:www.theworldlink.com
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Farms’ sea lice jump to wild coho
Sea lice are jumping from pink salmon to coho salmon and could be harming the health of coho populations in the Broughton Archipelago, say two new research papers published online in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
– Victoria Times-Colonist
More:www.timescolonist.com
A new way to pay observers
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council wrapped up its October meeting by voting to restructure the observer program run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
—KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.publicbroadcasting.net
Tribe to enter seafood business
Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak was awarded a $458,665 grant to support entering the seafood industry.
– Kodiak Daily Mirror
More:www.kodiakdailymirror.com
NOAA Enforcement reforms
U.S. Commerce Secretary Locke announced sweeping reforms to increase accountability and transparency and strengthen the public's trust in NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement and the General Counsel for Enforcement and Litigation.
– NOAA
More:www.commerce.gov
Cordova was the king of clams
From 1916 until the late 1950s, the City of Cordova supported a large razor clam fishery, promoting itself as the "razor clam capital of the world.
– Cordova Times
More:thecordovatimes.com
A new study of Georgia Strait
The Strait of Georgia in 2030 — one of seven DFO Ecosystem Research Initiatives underway across the country — explores the present state of the Strait, how it is changing and what the Strait might be like in 2030.
– Campbell River (B.C.) Mirror
More:www.bclocalnews.com
Get serious about Columbia jetties
The Columbia River jetties need vast improvements – and fast.
– Daily Astorian
More:www.dailyastorian.com
Sockeye spawning spawns tourism
One of nature's great spectacles is currently drawing thousands of curious onlookers to the interior of British Columbia to witness a torrent of sockeye salmon returning to the area to spawn.
– Xinhua, China
More:news.xinhuanet.com
Don’t be fooled about oil
From Crescent City to San Diego, California's fishing industry has been an engine of prosperity providing tens of thousands of jobs and underpinning the economic base of coastal communities.
– Zeke Grader, writing in the Eureka Times-Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Wednesdsay, October 13, 2010
Got fish. Why mine?
Why would any person – race aside – choose a short-term mine in place of a permanent fish supply?
– Vancouver Province
More: www.theprovince.com
Fisherman missing in river
A commercial fisherman is missing after the boat he was in overturned on the Hoh River in west Jefferson County.
– Port Townsend Leader
More: www.ptleader.com
Pelican looks for processor grants
The Southeast Alaska town of Pelican has won possession of a closed seafood plant in a foreclosure case, and now it's looking for grants to get the place up and running again "to get the [fishing] fleet in here."
– Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com
Harbormasters gather in Kodiak
About 20 harbormasters and other harbor staff visited the Emerald Isle last week for the Pacific Coast Congress of Harbormasters and Port Managers.
– Kodiak Daily Mirror
More: www.kodiakdailymirror.com
Chevron selling Cook Inlet assets
One of Cook Inlet's biggest oil and gas producers – Chevron – said it will try to sell all of its assets in the Inlet.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com
New Tanner rules amended
After passing a plan Sunday to reduce Tanner crab bycatch in the groundfish fisheries off Kodiak, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council took up the matter again the following day and made some amendments.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com
Retailers race for ‘green’ fish
Sobeys Inc. hopes to raise the bar with its plan to push seafood suppliers and producers to run sustainable fisheries and farms to sell their fish at 1,300 Sobeys stores across the country under retail banners that include Thrifty Foods and IGA.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More: www.timescolonist.com
King crab opens Friday
Crabbers will drop pots for king crab on Friday when the famous red king crab fishery opens at Bristol Bay – and less crab has the fleet looking for higher prices. The roughly 15 million pound quota is down by 7.5 percent. Supplies from competing sources, notably Russia, are down as well.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, in Fish Radio
Workshops on new trawl rules
The new West Coast groundfish trawl fishery’s rules will be explained in a series of workshops from California to Washington state.
– NOAA
More: www.nwr.noaa.gov
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Deadliest Catch squabble was 'hell'
"Emotionally, it was hell," Johnathan Hillstrand said of the conflict with The Discovery Channel that prompted the trio to throw the future of the popular show into doubt.
- Seattle PI
More: blog.seattlepi.com
Secret ingredient: Whale poop
A new study from Harvard University and University of Vermont has revealed that whale faeces is rich in nutrients, and has a huge positive influence on the productivity of ocean fisheries.
- Oneindia
More: news.oneindia.in
Feds stingy with Cal water
Federal fisheries managers have never used hundreds of millions of gallons available each year since 2004 to improve conditions in the lower Eel River for salmon and steelhead.
- Pacific Fishing columnist John Driscoll, reporting in the Eureka Times-Standard
More: www.times-standard.com
More sea otter hunting for Natives
Congressman Don Young has introduced legislation aimed at increasing sea otter harvests and pelt sales in Southcentral and Southeast Alaska. It's targeting a growing population of marine mammals that are consuming more and more shellfish in Southeast.
- KSTK, Wrangell
More: kstk.org
Marine deaths increase
Marine deaths increased from 783 to 817, with the vast majority occurring in recreational boating (736). Other marine categories, including cargo transport and commercial fishing, showed increases as well, although commercial passenger vessels showed a slight decrease.
- Docuticker
More: web.docuticker.com
New study of Chukchi drilling
Two months after a judge found flaws in the government's environmental assessment of petroleum drilling in the Chukchi Sea, federal offshore regulators released a revised analysis that was immediately denounced by environmental and Alaska Native groups.
- Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com
Disease not culprit in most net pen deaths
Infectious diseases were absent in 80 percent of the Atlantic salmon found dead on B.C. fish farms in 2009, according to audit completed by the provincial government.
- WestCoaster, Tofino, B.C.
More: www.westcoaster.ca
NOAA seeks W. Coast social info
Several researchers from NMFS' Human Dimensions Program will be traveling along the West Coast during the next few months to collect social/cultural information on fishermen and fishing communities in order to establish baseline data on communities that will be affected by the new groundfish trawl IFQ program.
- NOAA
More: www.nwfsc.noaa.gov
U.S. says no to fish pirates
A new federal rule will allow NOAA's assistant administrator for fisheries to deny a vessel entry into a U.S. port or access to port services if that vessel has been listed for engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by one of the world's international fishery management organizations. The rule takes effect on October 27.
- NOAA
More: www.noaanews.noaa.gov
Friday, October 15, 2010
La Niña winter to be stormier
Since 1950, there have been 18 La Niña events, the cooler-than-normal subsurface waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean that typically give the Pacific Northwest wetter, cooler and stormier winters than normal.
- The Oregonian
More: www.oregonlive.com
Fisherman presumed drowned
Fifty-two hours after David Hudson Jr.'s boat capsized and he was washed downstream, search-and-rescue teams wrapped up attempts to find him.
- Port Angeles Peninsula Daily News
More: www.peninsuladailynews.com
Good Columbia coho run
Late-stock coho salmon returns to the Columbia River appear significantly better than forecast, Washington and Oregon fishery officials said.
- Tacoma Daily News
More: tdn.com
Good coho in northern Puget Sound
While many continue to scratch their head about the lack of coho coming into central and southern Puget Sound, it appears that isn't quite the case for northern Puget Sound returns.
- Seattle Times
More: seattletimes.nwsource.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
Big decisions about observers and tanner crab protection came out of the North Pacific Council meeting; fishermen down the chain are upset with sea lion restrictions; and it looks like the skippers who held out on the Deadliest Catch are back in the fold - just in time for the start of the Bristol Bay Red King Crab season.
- KMXT, Kodiak
More: www.kmxt.org
Otters are pests in Southeast
Sea otters are thriving in Southeast Alaska after nearly becoming extinct a century ago.
- Anchorage Daily News
Read more: www.adn.com
Bristol Bay king crab opens today
The Bristol Bay red king crab and St. Matthew blue king crab fisheries open up at noon today.
- Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More: www.publicbroadcasting.net
Restaurateur guilty over subsistence fish
A former owner of a Juneau restaurant has been sentenced to community confinement for buying subsistence halibut.
- Seattle P-I
More: www.seattlepi.com
N. Cal protected area panel praised
First and foremost I wish to thank all of the stakeholders for their time and emotional investment sitting at the Marine Protected Area table.
- Crescent City Triplicate
More: www.triplicate.com
