Monday, October 24, 2011
EXPECT JAPAN DEBRIS IN THREE years
Debris from the devastating tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 has turned up exactly where scientists predicted it would after months of floating across the Pacific Ocean. Finding and confirming where the debris ended up gives them a better idea of where it's headed next.
– MSNBC
More:www.msnbc.msn.com
Alaska Natives against trawling
Delegates to the Alaska Federation of Natives convention today passed two resolutions of interest to the commercial fishing industry.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Body found in commercial crab gear
Two commercial fishermen made a grisly discovery Sunday morning, pulling up a body in full scuba gear caught in their crab trap in Burrard Inlet.
– 24HoursVancouver
More:vancouver.24hrs.ca
Cold bars Bering Sea fish
Scientists say a pool of cold water in the northern Bering Sea has been a locked door to the northward migration of pollock and cod, the fish harvested for America's fish sticks and fast food sandwiches.
– Seattle P-I
More:www.seattlepi.com
Pebble to be site of super clash
Mining on this scale, in such a sensitive area, has generated an epic clash that is playing out in Alaska politics, economic sectors, and local communities, and drawing in partisans all over the world.
– Alaska Native News
More:alaska-native-news.com
Anti-Pebble vote taken to court
The issue is quickly going back to court, where a judge in Anchorage will hear arguments Nov. 7 on the legality of the ballot measure.
– Sacramento Bee
More:www.sacbee.com
Fish farm disease worries Senate
The U.S. Senate has approved an amendment calling for an investigation and "rapid response plan" to prevent the spread of the ISA virus reported in wild sockeye in British Columbia.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
B.C. fish farmer to plead guilty
Marine Harvest, a large Norwegian-based producer of farmed salmon, intends to plead guilty to a 2009 case of having "incidental bycatch" at two of its facilities near the north end of Vancouver Island in the Broughton Archipelago.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More:www.timescolonist.com
Crescent City Harbor low on cash
The Crescent City Harbor is in a dire cash flow situation as bills for ongoing tsunami repair projects are received — and this is just the beginning.
– Crescent City Triplicate
More:www.triplicate.com
Why scientists fear fish farm disease
To understand why scientists were so alarmed last week to see a potentially lethal fish virus surface in two sockeye, consider what happened in South America in 2007.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.nwsource.com
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Let us kill sea lions
Debris from the devastating tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 has turned up exactly where scientists predicted it would after months of floating across the Pacific Ocean. Finding and confirming where the debris ended up gives them a better idea of where it's headed next.
– MSNBC
More:www.msnbc.msn.com
Alaska rejects anti-coal mine plea
The state of Alaska rejected a petition seeking to declare state lands within the Chuitna watershed as unsuitable for coal mining.
– Anchorage Daily News
Read More:www.adn.com
'Critical habitat' for smelt
When the Obama administration set aside "critical habitat" for smelt last week it included the Columbia River and many of its tributaries near Portland. It didn’t include smelt-heavy sections of the ocean, where the small but significant "forage fish" spend 95 percent of their lives.
– Bend Bulletin
More:www.bendbulletin.com
Stay calm over fish farm disease
State officials say there is "no reason to panic" and that Alaska salmon are "relatively safe" from a deadly fish virus that has appeared for the first time in Pacific waters.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch writing for SitNews.com, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
Aground near Charleston
A 50-foot fishing vessel ran aground early Sunday just north of the entrance of the Coos Bay.
– Coos Bay World
More:theworldlink.com
State sells off pirate ship’s catch
An Alaska business has purchased the roughly 30 tons of squid and 30 shark carcasses that authorities confiscated from a vessel suspected of illegal fishing.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Pebble backers won’t contest election
The group promoting a mine project near the headwaters of Bristol Bay will not contest the outcome of a vote aimed at the Pebble mine.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Klamath report now available
NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources recently released the third annual Klamath River Basin Report to Congress. The Magnuson-Stevens Act required NOAA Fisheries to develop a recovery plan for Klamath River coho salmon in 2007 and submit annual reports to Congress beginning in 2009.
– NOAA
Read the report:www.nmfs.noaa.gov
Frankenfish may harm a green reputation
Allowing an American company to produce the eggs of genetically-modifed salmon on P.E.I. would hurt the Island's reputation as a green province, environmentalists warn.
–
CBC
More:www.cbc.ca
Help!
Fish Wrap succeeds or fails on one thing alone: Numbers. Although we have the highest possible quality readership – each of you represents physical perfection, impeccable manners, and exquisite taste – we need more subscribers. Do us a favor: Get one person to become a subscriber.
The process is easy: Send an e-mail with first and last name, plus the e-mail address, to circulation@nwpublishingcenter.com. That’s it!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
REASONS FOR DEADLY SINKING
Watertight doors left open on an overloaded fishing vessel during a storm likely caused the boat to sink off the coast of Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
No charges against pirate crew
A NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman says she doesn't expect charges to be filed against the crew of a ship suspected of illegal fishing.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
NOAA pays for E. Coast monitoring
In a preliminary response to Sen. John Kerry's comprehensive reform agenda for the New England fisheries, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco announced a commitment to continue paying the multi-million dollar cost of at-sea monitoring for commercial fishing boats.
– Gloucester (Mass.) Times
More:www.gloucestertimes.com
Disease shocks fish farmers
The detection in B.C. sockeye of a virus that is lethal to Atlantic salmon has sent a shock wave through British Columbia's fish farming industry, where annual sales of $250 million and some 3,000 jobs are at risk.
– Globe and Mail, Toronto
More:www.theglobeandmail.com
Another source: Tsunami debris coming
Up to 20 million tons of tsunami debris floating from Japan could arrive on Hawaii's shores by early 2013, before reaching the West Coast, according to estimates by University of Hawaii scientists.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Fish migration on Deschutes
Sometimes the return of one adult salmon or steelhead is more exciting than runs of hundreds or thousands. That's the situation this year in Central Oregon's Deschutes River Basin.
– Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita, reporting for Oregon Public Radio
More:ecotrope.opb.org
Fish kill in Portland
The Coast Guard and state regulators are investigating an oil spill at a Port of Portland soda ash export terminal last week and the subsequent death of some 300 fish.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Derelicts stymie Alaska ports
A 120-foot landing craft called the Sound Developer sank in Cordova's harbor three winters ago, leaving it broken in parts and leaking whatever hazardous fuels were aboard.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Fish radiation monitoring
Greenpeace Japan urged the government to come up with strict rules requiring that fish products bear labels showing the radioactive materials they contain.
– Japan Times
More:www.japantimes.co.jp
Thursday, October 27, 2011
ADFG: FISH FARM DISEASE RISK LOW
The smolts were not exhibiting any outward signs of infection. Research on Salmon Anemia Virus indicates that the risk to Alaska's salmon stocks is low.
– ADF&G
More: www.adfg.alaska.gov
Denby Lloyd seeks Kodiak job
A former commissioner for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is seeking to become the fisheries analyst for Kodiak Island.
– Anchorage Daily News
More: www.adn.com
NW hydro dam breached
With a massive charge of TNT detonated at the base of Condit Dam, the White Salmon River roared back to life.
– Seattle Times
More: seattletimes.nwsource.com
Nuke leak bad, but no danger
France's nuclear monitor said that the amount of caesium 137 that leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear contamination of the sea ever seen. But, confirming previous assessments, it said caesium levels had been hugely diluted by ocean currents and, except for near-shore species, posed no discernible threat.
– Vancouver Sun
More: www.vancouversun.com
Some farmers oppose frankenfish
New Brunswick's salmon farming industry says it is strongly opposed to the production of genetically modified salmon, distancing itself from what it labels a "controversial and untested product."
– New Brunswick Business Journal
More: nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com
Training new processing leaders
Middle management employees from seafood processing plants around the state of Alaska will gather in Kodiak for a leadership workshop sponsored by the Fisheries Industrial Technology Center.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More: www.kmxt.org (scroll down)
No ID for diver found in crab gear
The autopsy results are in but North Vancouver police are no closer to identifying the remains or cause of death of a scuba diver pulled from the waters of Burrard Inlet.
– North Shore Outlook, British Columbia
More: www.northshoreoutlook.com
Cucumber diver dies
On 10/24/11 at 0530 hours, John Robert Pugh Jr., 35, of Juneau, was in the vicinity of Funter Bay on the west coast of Admiralty Island on a 21-foot skiff working as a deckhand in a sea cucumber fishery opener that was scheduled to start at 0800.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More: deckboss.blogspot.com (scroll down)
Cleaning Cordova derelict
The Coast Guard awarded a contract to remove the source of pollution from the sunken landing craft Sound Developer in Cordova to Global Diving and Salvage, Inc. out of Anchorage and Seattle.
– Coast Guard
More: www.d17.uscgnews.com
Seminars on ocean acidification
Want to learn more about Ocean Acidification, and what impact
it is (already) having on Northwest fisheries? Three opportunities next month:
• Tune in to KUOW's Weekday with Steve Scher show at 10 a.m. on Nov. 8 for an interview with NOAA scientist Dick Feely and former U.S. Congressman Brian Baird.
• Attend Dissolving Before Our Eyes: The Acidification of Our Oceans, and Why It Matters To All Of Us, with Bill Dewey, Dick Feely and Brian Baird, at Town Hall Seattle Nov. 8th.
– Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com
• Attend for Washington Sea Grant's Symposium on Ocean Acidification, Nov. 9 at the University of Washington. Free, but registration required.
– More: www.wsg.washington.edu
Friday, October 28, 2011
GOODBYE TO POLLOCK B
As of Saturday, 77,000 metric tons of fish remain unharvested. That's about 10 percent of what the fleet's allowed to take this fall. Both the catcher vessels and factory trawlers have reduced their effort substantially.
– Pacific Fishing columnist
Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.kucb.org
More fish fraud
A Consumer Reports investigation reveals that more than one-fifth of 190 pieces of seafood bought at retail stores and restaurants in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were not what they claimed to be – either mislabeled as different species of fish, incompletely labeled, or misidentified by employees.
– PR Newswire
More:www.marketwatch.com
Saving smelt: What about the ocean?
When the Obama Administration set aside "critical habitat" for smelt last week it included the Columbia River and many of its tributaries near Portland. It didn't include smelt-heavy sections of the ocean, where the small but significant "forage fish" spend 95 percent of their lives.
– Longview Daily News
More:tdn.com
More words about Klamath plan
As the most recent round of public hearings on the Klamath dam removal environmental impact report nears an end, both supporters and detractors of the project have had an opportunity to have their long-standing comments added into the record.
– Eureka Times-Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
U.S. budget cuts to hurt Alaska
There is a fiscal reckoning coming to Washington, D.C., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski wants Alaskans to be ready.
– Alaska Journal of Commerce
More:www.alaskajournal.com
Craft aground, DWI
Police arrested the captain of a landing craft for suspected drunken driving after the 53-foot vessel ran aground at the Anchorage small boat harbor.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week, we have a follow-up on the salmon virus found in British Columbia wild stock; a former fish and game commissioner wants to be Kodiak's fisheries advisor, and New Zealanders share their tricks for turning leftover fish parts into useful stuff. All that and why is Sen. John Kerry so mad at Jane Lubchenko?
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:www.kmxt.org
Boat in trouble off Grays Harbor
The U.S. Coast Guard assisted the crew of a 50-foot fishing vessel, which was taking on water near Grays Harbor, Wash.
– Daily Astorian
More:www.dailyastorian.com
Salmon disease threat not bad
Scientists and fishermen are following news of a deadly fish virus found in British Columbia salmon. It's a scary situation, but it may not be as bad as it sounds, at least for now.
– KSKA, Sitka
More:www.alaskapublic.org
Indians, rafters disagree
Condit Dam was destroyed on Wednesday. That means salmon should be returning soon to the base of Husum Falls, upstream from where Condit recently blocked the White Salmon River.
– Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:news.opb.org