Monday, December 5, 2011
STOP HERRING FISHERY
Most places that had a roe herring fishery in past years are no longer fished due to poor stocks.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More:www.timescolonist.com
Eat herring
Herring fisheries in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Baltic seas were a major food source for Europeans, many of whose descendants settled in Northern California.
– SF Weekly
More:www.sfweekly.com
Fishing restrictions before board
Several dozen proposals, including some that would restrict commercial fishing in Prince William Sound and the Upper Copper River, are before the Alaska Board of Fisheries this week in Valdez.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
Make commercial fisherman pay
Commercial fishermen pay nothing for our fish, sell them for a premium, then tell us we should be grateful for the hatcheries they pay for.
– Fairbanks Daily Miner
More:newsminer.com
Seeking out fish farm disease
Scientists in British Columbia, Washington state, and Alaska are developing separate surveillance plans for a salmon virus that has yet to be officially detected in north Pacific waters.
– CTV, Canada
More:m.ctv.ca
Barney Frank retiring a 'disaster'
Carlos Rafael, who owns a fleet of boats that trawl New England waters for scallops and fish, offers a terse assessment of how Barney Frank's coming retirement will hit local fishermen."It's a disaster," he said.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
An opportunity on the Klamath
Here's a rare opportunity to resolve decades of conflict. Let's not waste it.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Stop tax dollars for frankenfish
As if to prove the point of the Occupy movement, federal agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are working overtime to help a corporation, AquaBounty, secure approval for its highly controversial request to sell a proprietary GE fish as "salmon" in supermarkets and restaurants throughout the United States.
– Santa Rosa Press Democrat
More:www.pressdemocrat.com
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
HALIBUT COMMISH IRRITATES LISA
"It is disappointing to hear further reductions are likely, and that the IPHC is suggesting potentially drastic model changes may be needed that would cause steeper reductions."
– Sen. Lisa Murkowski, quoted by Wesley Loy in his Deckboss blog
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
More on halibut
As expected, there will be less Pacific halibut to catch next year for fishermen from California to Alaska.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
Are dipnetters subsistence fishermen?
The Alaska Supreme Court heard arguments in the ongoing legal battle about whether Chitina dipnetters should be classified as subsistence fishermen.
– Fairbanks News Miner
More:newsminer.com
Southeast red king crab
Southeast commercial crabbers caught about 176,000 pounds of red king crab last month in a fishery worth nearly $1.9 million on the docks.
– KSTK, Wrangell
More:kstk.org
Russia and fuel-hungry Nome
The iced-in city of Nome on Alaska's western coast may be in luck: A Russian tanker that can plow through thick ice will try to deliver 1.5 million gallons of home heating fuel, gasoline and diesel fuel after a massive storm kept a barge from getting in before winter.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Poison fish nearly kills diner
A two-star Michelin restaurant in Tokyo has suspended its head chef after a diner came close to death having eaten the potentially poisonous puffer fish.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
Editorial: 'Salmon judge'
James Redden was more than a "salmon judge," but his biggest legacy is the fight that he's waged to force the government to recover wild fish.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Norwegian cod gets MSC nod
The Norwegian Seafood Export Council has now gained MSC certification for all Norwegian North East Arctic cod and haddock fisheries.
– MSC
More:www.msc.org
Bristol Bay fishermen recipes
To help wild salmon lovers kick off the holiday season healthfully and with style, the commercial fishermen of Bristol Bay are inviting consumers to try Bristol Bay sockeye salmon this holiday season with five simple recipes, each of which uses a different product form of wild and sustainable Bristol Bay sockeye salmon. The recipes are featured with photos on the Bristol Bay sockeye website atwww.bristolbaysockeye.org.
For the recipes alone:www.bristolbaysockeye.org/recipes
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
NO WORD ON NW CRAB OPENER
The test to determine if the North Coast's commercial crab season will begin after Dec. 15 has been delayed due to the weather.
– Eureka Times Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Thank the Tongass for salmon season
As a Sitka-based commercial fisherman, I was excited to see the Alaska Department of Fish and Game confirm what many of us in the fleet suspected: that Southeast Alaska set records this past summer as far as volume, price and returns of salmon.
– Juneau Empire
More:juneauempire.com
Survey shows anti-Pebble mood
Residents in Alaska and the lower 48 states solidly oppose the Pebble Mine project proposed in Bristol Bay and would like to see the project abandoned.
– ENews Park Forest, Illinois
More:www.enewspf.com
Fish farm disease backgrounder
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recently said that its continued testing of BC salmon has not turned up the deadly and highly-infectious Atlantic salmon virus.
– Juneau Empire
More:juneauempire.com
Otters hurting fisheries
That means the voracious eaters are consuming more and more sea cucumbers, sea urchins and the giant clam called geoducks.
– KFSK, Petersburg
More:kfsk.org
Toxic soil in Nushagak Bay
A giant bag of contaminated soil recently fell into Nushagak Bay in Dillingham.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Coastal management petition OK'd
Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell on certified the grassroots Alaska Sea Party's application to begin collecting signatures for a statewide ballot initiative to restore Alaska's coastal management program.
– SitNews, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
Where did halibut go?
At the heart of the issue is whether the harvest model the commission has been using to set past catches is reliable. The numbers of dead fish just aren't adding up.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:www.kmxt.org
Derelict raised in Cordova
Global Diving and Salvage, monitored by the Coast Guard, used four five-ton pontoons in addition to two 22-ton pontoons and 26 nine-ton lift bags to refloat the Sound Developer in Cordova harbor after it spent three years underwater.
– Coast Guard
More:www.d17.uscgnews.com
We need your help
For the February issue of Pacific Fishing, we'll take a look at the bane of seiners: jellyfish. We'd like to hear from you. Got any stories, preventatives, remedies, or advice? Send them to our writer, Michel Drouin, at scribblefish@hotmail.com
Thursday, December 8, 2011
SOCKEYE CHANGE WITH CLIMATE
Sockeye salmon are evolving through natural selection to deal with a warming climate, according to a study by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
– The Fish Site
More:www.thefishsite.com
Halibut numbers alarm Homer
As the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meets in Anchorage to discuss halibut and other fish management measures, newly released preliminary halibut catch limit recommendations by International Pacific Halibut Commission staff alarmed the halibut fishing industry in Homer.
– Homer News
More:www.homernews.com
No to subsistence herring plan
Two proposals to establish subsistence-only zones for herring in Sitka Sound failed to win recommendation from the Sitka Fish & Game Advisory Committee in a contentious meeting Tuesday night.
– KCAW, Sitka
More:www.kcaw.org
Fisherman nets diver's remains
The remains of a long-missing paraplegic Canadian scuba diver were recovered when they got caught in a commercial fishing net, authorities said.
– UPI.com
More:www.upi.com
Save fuel, save money
This bulletin summarizes methods for reducing fuel consumption and saving money, based on published studies and experiences of commercial fishing vessel operators.
– Sea Grant
More:seagrant.uaf.edu
Cancer chemical in farmed fish
The Scottish salmon farming industry faces a sales ban and fines after traces of a cancer-risk chemical was discovered in the fish.
– Responsible Aquaculture
More:responsibleaquaculture.wordpress.com
Trawl catch shares in Gulf
The Advisory Panel voted in favor of recommending that the Council form a stakeholder work group to begin GOA groundfish rationalization.
– FishNews, Aleutians East Borough
More:aebfishblog.blogspot.com
Track wild fish around B.C. farms
A new map highlighting all Atlantic salmon farms active during the wild salmon outmigration period in 2011 is adding to the extensive amount of information made public by members of the BC Salmon Farmers Association.
– The Fish Site
More:www.thefishsite.com
U.S. seeks Pacific fisheries protection
The U.S. is pushing for "disciplines" on fishing subsidies, which environmental groups such as Washington-based Oceana say is crucial to reduce the depletion of fish stocks by commercial catches.
– Business Week
More:www.businessweek.com
Friday, December 9, 2011
D. CRAB: DEC. 15 IN MOST OF OREGON
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says fishery managers met this week and decided that the crab would be ready by Dec. 15, but not for the entire Oregon Coast.
– KCBY, Coos Bay
More:www.kcby.com
D. Crab: Jan. 15 in N. California
Experts have recommended that the season be delayed due to a poor crab meat-to-size ratio found in recent tests.
– Eureka Times Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Giving up Cal farmland for salmon
Along one of the San Francisco Bay's most valuable watersheds, healthy salmon runs will soon coexist, at last, with cabernet sauvignon.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.nwsource.com
Sporties to benefit from restoration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced it will begin evaluations to find Alaska salmon streams most in need of restoration.
– Juneau Empire
More:juneauempire.com
New Unalaska harbor opens
At first light this morning, the F/V Cynosure pulled into its new home. The 58-foot longliner was the first boat to occupy a slip at the new Carl E. Moses small boat harbor.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.kucb.org
Alaska Fisheries Report
More reaction to the IPHC’s recent halibut quota announcement; commercial fishing in Cordova is being threatened by dipnetters; and Yardarm Knot’s Naknek cannery has been sold. All that and just how much seafood can a sea otter eat if a sea otter could eat sea… never mind.
More:www.kmxt.org
New cookbook out of Ketchikan
For LaDonna Gundersen, author of Salmon Desserts & Friends (paperback, 135 pages, $18.95), catching, cooking and eating salmon is her passion.
– SitNews, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
