Monday, December 10, 2012
OREGON GUV KILLS FISHING
Gov. Kitzhaber has once again said one thing and done another, and in the case of not honoring the voters who soundly defeated Measure 81, he brings his revised proposal for commercial gillnetting on the Columbia River without this region's industry and supporting businesses' input, clearly showing he has dropped the ball entirely and fails to recognize our state's history, and how and what got us here in the first place.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Oregon commish against gillnetters
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted Friday to ban the use of gillnets to catch fish on the main stem of the Columbia River, relegating the primary commercial-fishing tool to side channels and tributaries.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Washington vote nears
Washington's fish commission was scheduled to decide soon on similar rules, eliminating the centuries-old practice from both sides of the river.
– Seattle PI
More:seattlepi.com
Bristol Bay escapement unchanged
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has decided to delay an effort to change the escapement goals for most of the salmon runs in Bristol Bay.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Bay drift boat permit stacking
The issue of permit stacking in Bristol Bay is one of the topics that's dominated the discussion during the ongoing Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting in Naknek.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Bay setnet permit stacking
The Alaska Board of Fish voted Friday to eliminate the permit stacking system that's been available in Bristol Bay's setnet fishery for the last three years.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Bay dual permit system stays
An effort to get rid of the "D-Boats" in Bristol Bay was turned down Friday by the Alaska Board of Fisheries.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Cal crab strike still on
Even with the nice weather around San Francisco Bay, local commercial crab boats remained idle Sunday in a strike over prices.
– San Francisco Chronicle
More:sfgate.com
NW crab season on hold
The state office said Oregon crab are now meaty enough to begin fishing, but Oregon is waiting for Washington and California to complete tests, as the three states coordinate their season openers.
– Coos Bay World
More:theworldlink.com
Seafood industry creates jobs
With the unemployment rate hovering just below 8 percent and signs of job growth modest at best, one sector with a promising employment outlook that doesn't get much attention in the national conversation is the seafood industry.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.com
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
NO NW CRAB FOR CHRISTMAS
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has delayed the state's ocean commercial Dungeness crab season again, this time through Dec. 30.
– Corvallis Gazette Times
More:gazettetimes.com
You could see this one coming
The Alaska congressional delegation is asking federal regulators to partially delay the 2013 implementation of the expanded fishery observer program.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Next Columbia gillnet moves
The new plan will face immediate challenges — pushback from an irate commercial fishing industry, skirmishes in the 2013 Legislature over new fees and rules, and questions whether it really will work.
– The Oregonian
More:oregonlive.com
Tracing seafood in Oregon
The company did its own research to find the most sustainable Oregon seafood and came up with a list of six: Youngs Bay fall Chinook, Netarts Bay oysters, line-caught albacore tuna, Dungeness crab, pink shrimp, and razor clams.
– Pacific Fishing correspondent Cassandra Marie Profita reporting in Ecotrope, Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:ecotrope.opb.org
Give salmon for Christmas
Sitka Salmon Shares was included in an article titled Seven Sustainable Foodie Holiday Gifts.
– Galesburg (Tenn.) Register Mail
More:galesburg.com
Quota for groundfish
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has set the 2013 total allowable catch (TAC) for Alaska groundfish.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, reporting on his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
See yourself?
Anchorage ranks #1 for total fishing participation, with 994 permit holders, and another 1,216 crew license holders who fish year round.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:sitnews.us
Ocean a noisy place
The causes are human: the sonar blasts of military exercises, the booms from air guns used in oil and gas exploration, and the whine from fleets of commercial ships that relentlessly crisscross the global seas.
– New York Times
More:nytimes.com
Togiak spawn-on-kelp allocation
The Alaska Board of Fisheries turned down a reallocation proposal on Monday related to Togiak herring.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
USE SALMON SKINS FOR ART
Everything you need to transform the scaly hide into a workable piece of clothing or art material can be found in your kitchen — as three Alaska Native women are showing at the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in the Anchorage Museum.
More:sfgate.com
N. Cal crabbing also late
Due to poor test results, the commercial crab season for local fishermen in Humboldt, Mendocino, and Del Norte counties has been delayed to Dec. 31.
– Eureka Times Standard
More:times-standard.com
Fish fraud rampant
Red snapper, wild salmon, and other fish sold in some outlets were other, cheaper species, according to DNA tests done by an ocean conservation group.
– KTOO, Juneau
More:ktoo.org
Oregon Guv ham-handed
Gov. John Kitzhaber's drive to outlaw gillnet fishing on the Columbia River is an uncharacteristically ham-handed maneuver that lacks environmental value, beyond rewarding one constituency at the expense of another.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
B.C. oil tragedy would be great
The financial costs of a worst-case scenario tanker spill off the north coast of British Columbia could outweigh the economic rewards of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline for the region.
– Huffington Post Canada
More:huffingtonpost.ca
Feds want new move on Columbia
The Obama administration wants two neutral, university-based environmental mediators to tackle the 20-year impasse over restoring Columbia and Snake River salmon runs by doing a "situation assessment" and hearing out the river system's irrigators, grain producers, barge operators, ports, greens, fisheries interests, tribes, and other "stakeholders."
– Seattle P-I
More:blog.seattlepi.com
Fish farming started innocently
Forty years ago it was seen as a burgeoning industry, a salvation for fisherman, and a pathway towards a sustainable fishery that would protect wild stocks.
– rabble.ca
More:rabble.ca
Time to tax gold mines
While the U.S. government reaps billions of dollars in royalties each year from fossil fuels extracted from federal lands and waters, it does not collect any money from gold, uranium or other metals mined from the same.
– Juneau Empire
More:ap.juneauempire.com
Crab coming from classic boat
The crab fishing boat, called the Billikin, and its six crew members, were shown catching a species of crab called opilio on the commercial fishing reality-TV show's first season in April 2009.
– Iowa State Daily
More:www.iowastatedaily.com
Subsistence fisheries wobbly
The judges ruled that just because there's a state subsistence preference for hunting and fishing doesn't mean the state has to allow subsistence hunting and fishing everywhere.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:alaskadispatch.com
Thursday, December 13, 2012
KENAI SALMON HEADED FOR KASILOF
A genetic analysis of Chinook salmon caught in the Upper Cook Inlet east side setnet fishery showed more than 25 percent of the harvest typically attributed to the Kenai River actually returning to the Kasilof River.
– Peninsula Clarion
More:peninsulaclarion.com
Lubchenco to resign
Lubchenco's nearly four years at the helm of the department that regulates commercial fishing were filled with friction, controversy, and lawsuits over fishery management.
– South Coast Today
More:southcoasttoday.com
Lawsuit over gillnet ban?
After investing $800,000 to defeat the gillnet ban in Measure 81, the gillnetter community is not giving up. Many people have told him they would be interested in joining a class-action lawsuit against the state, he said.
– Daily Astorian
More:dailyastorian.com
Cal Dungeness strike over
Pillar Point Harbor commercial fishermen will start casting off to collect more Dungeness crab after agreeing to end a nine-day strike.
– Half Moon Bay Review
More:hmbreview.com
Fine for fishing in preserve
A commercial fisherman will pay $12,500 in penalties for catching Dungeness crab in a state marine reserve off the San Mateo County coast.
– Sacramento Bee
More:sacbee.com
Arctic shipping could be disaster
When the Malaysian freighter Selendang Ayu grounded in Alaska's Aleutian Islands eight years ago, it was a tragic reminder of the growing risks of northern shipping.
– Huffington Post
More:huffingtonpost.com
Oil dispersants found benign
Now a report from government scientists finds remarkably few ill effects from these chemicals.
– Alaska Public Radio
More:alaskapublic.org
Sitka herring allocation down
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game announced the guideline harvest level for the 2013 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery Wednesday. It is 11,055 tons.
– KCAW, Sitka
More:kcaw.org
Oops! Harbor rates lowered?
City council may have unintentionally lowered moorage rates when it approved the 2012 schedule of fees and charges for city services.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More:kucb.org
Funds for Coos Bay wind buoys
The Department of Energy has awarded $4 million to a Seattle company for a wind power demonstration project off Coos Bay.
– Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:opb.org
Friday, December 14, 2012
DELAY OBSERVER REQUIREMENT
Small vessels in Alaska's fishing fleet are being subjected to an expensive and poorly devised program for monitoring their take of groundfish, and a delay in implementation is needed, according to a letter sent by Alaska's Congressional delegation this week to Acting Secretary Rebecca Blank of the Department of Commerce.
– SitNews, Ketchikan
More:sitnews.us
Editorial: Keep gillnets
Commercial fishing, like logging, is part of our cultural heritage.
– Longview (Wash.) Daily News
More:tdn.com
Pebble exec isn't happy
A spokesman with the Pebble Limited Partnership used a public presentation last month in Anchorage to criticize the EPA for their "Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment."
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Troller nearly sinks
A troller with two people on board almost sank about 30 miles west of Wrangell.
– KSTK, Wrangell
More:kstk.org
No trolling in Bristol Bay
The Alaska Board of Fisheries took no action during their Bristol Bay on a proposal to create a new fishery in Bristol Bay.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
It's a joke! Get it?
A 21-year-old fishing guide thought it would be funny to claim in his legally required logbook that he caught tuna and whales on the Kasilof River last summer.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:adn.com
Coast Guard funding OK'd
The Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act, which authorizes $8.6 billion in fiscal 2013 and $8.7 billion in fiscal 2014 for the activities of the Coast Guard, cleared the Senate Wednesday and is headed to President Obama for signature.
– TradeOnlyToday
More:tradeonlytoday.com
Dividing fed fish disaster funds
The $150 million will have to be shared between four different fishery disasters declared in 2012.
– Mycentraljersey.com
More:mycentraljersey.com
Filling disaster fund a fight
It has two key provisions for Alaska – federal aid for the fishery disaster and money for marine debris research and clean up.
– Alaska Public.org
More:alaskapublic.org
