Monday, December 6, 2010
Southeast sea otter population exploding
Following an aerial survey of southern Southeast sea otter populations in the summer of 2010, biologists believe the population has doubled since a similar study in 2003.
– Petersburg Pilot
More:www.petersburgpilot.com
Leader Creek owner sells out
John Lowrance e-mailed yesterday to the company's Bristol Bay fishermen:
“I have decided to sell our stake in LCF in order to unload that financial commitment and risk. From amongst many potential buyers, we are lucky to have attracted the interest of the Canadian Fishing Company (Canfisco) and the Jim Pattison Group.”
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
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Parnell seeks ceasefire in fishing wars
Gov. Sean Parnell said the budget he rolls out Dec. 15 will offer a clearer picture of his plans for revamping the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
– Kenai Peninsula Clarion
More:www.peninsulaclarion.com
Magazine warns of Frankenfish
A Trout magazine story on the threats posed by genetically modified salmon, often called "Frankenfish," shows that such a plan poses grave risks to wild salmon fisheries in the U.S. and around the world.
– PRWeb.com
More:www.prweb.com
Bellingham fishing group fights moorage hike
The commercial fishing industry has formed a new organization, Commercial Fisherman’s Association of Whatcom County to represent commercial fishing interests in Whatcom County.
New officials in ADF&G
A new leadership team is taking shape at Fish and Game. Acting Commissioner Cora Campbell announced two appointments. They are: Craig Fleener as deputy commissioner and Kelly Hepler as assistant commissioner.
– Alaska Public Radio Network
More:aprn.org
Kodiak moorage rates eyed
The last increase to moorage rates was from 2004 to 2008. There is no plan to raise moorage rates at the moment, and the city council is in charge of setting fees. However, harbormaster Marty Owen presented two options for the future.
– Kodiak Daily Mirror
More:www.kodiakdailymirror.com
Cal Fish and Game knocks protected area deal
The California Department of Fish and Game has again criticized a proposal for marine reserves on the North Coast as inadequate and not restrictive enough to meet the goals of the Marine Life Protection Act.
– Pacific Fishing columnist John Driscoll, writing in the Eureka
Times-Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
North Pacific Council agenda full
We've got the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting all week here in Anchorage, and the agenda is packed.
– Pacific Fishing columnist
Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Ban oil tankers from B.C. coast
Introducing oil supertankers to B.C.'s North Pacific coast threatens that way of life and makes it challenging to stay optimistic.
– Vancouver Province
More:www.theprovince.com
UFA backs fish commish appointee
Commercial fishermen just backed the governor's acting fish and game commissioner two days before the window closes for other applicants.
– Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
More:Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - entry Fishermen cast support to Campbell
Cal lawmakers hear angry fishermen
Legislators promised a roomful of angry, miserable fishermen this weekend that they would work to restore devastated salmon runs and bring back their jobs.
– San Jose Mercury News
More:www.mercurynews.com
Latest update on Sarah’s show
On Sunday night’s episode of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” we learned that it’s all well and good to enjoy the beauty and power of wild animals from a distance, but it’s even better to kill 'em and chop 'em up.
– Los Angeles Times
More:latimesblogs.latimes.com
Civil suit over Pebble Mine
A civil trial that began Monday calls into question the legality of much of the work done over the past two decades to study the massive Pebble copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Fishermen say halibut quota cut dangerous
The International Pacific Halibut Commission has made preliminary staff recommendations of again lowering halibut quotas in 2011, but local fishing representatives see this as a dangerous move.
– Juneau Empire
More:www.juneauempire.com
Oregon protected areas on Internet
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has posted on its website maps and descriptions of proposed marine reserves and protected areas.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Maine pink shrimp season open
Freshly caught northern shrimp began showing up at local fishmongers, a day after the official opening of the season for the glistening pink decapods in the Gulf of Maine.
Industry experts say they expect a strong year for one of the region's few growing fisheries, even though regulators have shortened the season by 44 days and limited the catch to 8.8 million pounds.
– Portland (Maine) Press Herald
More:www.pressherald.com
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
It could have been much, much worse
The 738-foot cargo ship Golden Seas was successfully towed into Broad Bay at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. The icebreaker Tor Viking towed the vessel 500 miles after connecting with the ship near Atka Island in the Western Aleutians, and it
was escorted by the Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.publicbroadcasting.net
Oregon crab pot soak begins Friday
The state's most lucrative fishery will open, 12 days late. Fishermen will receive $1.675 per pound of Dungeness crab, down from $1.75 last year.
– Coos Bay World
More:www.theworldlink.com
Meetings on coastal Navy maneuvers
Responding to concerns about its coastal warfare training programs, the U.S. Navy has agreed to hold two meetings on California's North Coast to present more information and answer questions.
– Sacramento Bee
More:www.sacbee.com
Moss Landing Harbor ‘fishing for energy’
Moss Landing Harbor will be the first harbor in California to join the Fishing for Energy.
– PR News Wire
More:www.prnewswire.com
Council wants more Oregon protected areas
Members of a state advisory council on Tuesday overwhelmingly signed off on three new marine reserves that could mean severe restrictions in what can happen in the affected swaths of the Pacific.
– Eugene Register Guard
More:www.registerguard.com
Natives won’t be part of Yukon study
The tribal government in the Yukon River village of Fort Yukon has refused to cooperate with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for a study about the declining number of king salmon in the river, citing what it says is “a continued assault on traditional aboriginal hunting and fishing rights.”
– Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Alaska black cod quota higher
The black cod – or sablefish – quota is going up for next year. But most likely just for next year.
– Alaska Public Radio Network
More:aprn.org
Deadliest Catch hand takes photos
Deadliest Catch star Corey Arnold is a photographer who lives, eats, and sleeps his art – an artist living a truly alternative life. Arnold lives on a fishing boat in the Bering Sea, documenting the lives of the fisherman and workers with whom he shares his boat. His current task: to document the state of the commercial fishing industry in the European Union.
– Huffington Post
More:www.huffingtonpost.com
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Sea lions: NOAA cuts W. Aleutian fishing
NOAA’s Fisheries Service issued its final interim rule to reduce commercial fishing for groundfish stocks in the Aleutian Islands in an effort to provide more food for the endangered western Steller sea lion.
– NOAA
More:alaskafisheries.noaa.gov
Sea lions: Delisting west coast animals eyed
NOAA is currently evaluating the status of the eastern Steller sea lion population, which lives east of 144 degree west longitude and may be recovered enough to be removed from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife.
– NOAA
More:alaskafisheries.noaa.gov
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Samaritans rescue Alaska dive fishermen
Coast Guard Sector Juneau and a good Samaritan crew coordinated a rescue of two geoduck divers after their commercial fishing vessel caught fire 17 miles southwest of Craig in Port Santa Cruz Bay at 2:18 p.m. Wednesday.
– Coast Guard
More:www.piersystem.com
B.C. farms must reveal disease history
Details of sea lice infestation and disease outbreaks at individual B.C. salmon farms will be made public for the first time following a ruling Wednesday by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, head of the commission investigating the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye run.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.timescolonist.com
Bering Sea chill affects pollock
Despite a 30-year warming trend, the last three years in the Bering Sea have been the coldest on record. A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist says that the cold temperatures have helped produce larger zooplankton in the Bering Sea, which may be changing the way Walleye pollock are feeding.
– University of Alaska
More:www.sfos.uaf.edu
Climate change will affect Oregon fish
Global warming will likely change Oregon substantially, two new reports conclude, lengthening growing seasons on the upside but lowering summer water supplies, heating up salmon streams, increasing wildfires and heat waves, and squeezing crops optimized to fit a narrow temperature niche – including the Willamette Valley's prized pinot noir wine grapes.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
King crab hatchery receives grant
Biologists developing the science and technology to raise wild red and blue king crab in hatcheries as a way to rebuild collapsed stocks in parts of Alaska have received $460,000 in grants and support to assess how the crab may fare in the wild.
– Alaska Sea Grant
More:seagrant.uaf.edu
Fisheries expanding to unfished places
In a study published in the open-source journal PLoS One, a group of fishery experts and oceanographers showed that global fisheries have expanded geographically over the past 50 years, keeping a fresh supply of fishing—but that the world's fishing fleets are now running out of ocean.
– Time
More:ecocentric.blogs.time.com
Strong NW salmon: Distant memory
Commercial salmon fisherman Duncan MacLean, based out of Half Moon Bay, said he would gladly talk about the boom times of his industry — if only he could remember them better.
– San Francisco Examiner
More:www.sfexaminer.com
Friday, December 10, 2010
Anti-Pebble Mine demonstration
Fishermen and friends gathered in Anchorage on Thursday to protest the proposed Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay watershed.
– Renewable Resources Foundation
More:www.renewableresourcesfoundation.org
Halibut commish explains 2C cuts
The International Pacific Halibut Commission explained its preliminary staff recommendations for 2011, in which the quota for Area 2C cut nearly in half.
– Juneau Empire
More:www.juneauempire.com
B.C. sports halibut fleet frets over quota
In 2011, recreational halibut anglers could face the very real prospect of having their fishery end mid-summer.
– Canada.com
More:www.canada.com
Fewer kings on Columbia this spring
Biologists in Oregon and Washington forecast a lower-than-average spring Chinook salmon run into the upper Columbia River in 2011, but enough to offer sport and commercial fishing seasons.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Tribe objects to Cal protected area plan
The Yurok Tribe is bristling at the latest development in the effort to establish Marine Protected Areas on the North Coast.
– Crescent City Triplicate
More:www.triplicate.com
Applicants for Alaska fish commish
Only two people submitted applications by the deadline for the job of state fish and game commissioner: Cora Campbell and Ron Somerville.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Are Aleutians prepared for ship aground?
The 738-foot cargo ship Golden Seas was successfully towed into the Port of Dutch Harbor, four days after issuing a distress call. Now, the state of Alaska and conservation groups alike are reconsidering emergency preparedness in the Aleutian Islands.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.publicbroadcasting.net
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week, more reaction to cuts in the halibut quota; sablefish numbers are up, and the North Pacific council is meeting right now in Anchorage. All that, and is combining Fish and Game’s commercial and sports fish divisions a good idea?
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:www.kmxt.org
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Who will pay for Oregon marine reserves?
All the proposals for marine reserves off Cape Arago are irrelevant if none of them answers who'll pay for it, an Oregon legislator said Wednesday.
– Coos Bay World
More:www.theworldlink.com
Columbia sea lions killing sturgeon
Washington and Oregon biologists estimate sea lions may kill as many as 10,600 sturgeon in the lower Columbia River in 2011.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
