Monday, December 19, 2011
FISH FARM DISEASE: ONLY BAD PR?
A government email describing a potentially lethal fish virus as a public relations problem has caused a stir at a federal inquiry in Vancouver.
– CBC
More:www.cbc.ca
Cal crab pot legislation
Proponents say the bill, written by Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, will not only ease competition from large boats but also will diminish the frenzy of the season's opening weeks by restraining the intensity of fishing.
– Eureka Times Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Cal squid fishery stays shut
Ocean conservationists won a victory in San Diego this week when they not only convinced the state's Fish and Game Commission not to re-open California's squid fishery, but were invited to draft a policy for managing the lowly forage fish that occupy the bottom of the ocean's food chain.
– San Jose Mercury News
More:www.mercurynews.com
NZ squid vs. sea lions
Commercial squid fishing is being blamed for a rapid decline in the number of sea lions around the South Island's coast.
– TVNZ
More:tvnz.co.nz
Your competition: a brown bird
These 7-1/2-inch-long, fat little birds are out there fishing right now in the cold, competing for salmon eggs, small fish, and aquatic larvae.
– Cordova Times
More:thecordovatimes.com
Alaska fuel barge adrift
The Coast Guard was responding to a disabled 95-foot commercial tug reportedly carrying more than 2.5 million gallons of fuel 24 miles southwest of Cape Fairweather Sunday.
– Coast Guard
More:www.d17.uscgnews.com
Shell gets drilling OK
A Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary received federal approval Friday for drilling exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast but with conditions that raised concerns with the state's congressional delegation.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
More on Alaska halibut
At its recent meeting in Anchorage, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council reaffirmed its support for the proposed catch sharing plan to allocate halibut between the rival commercial and charter boat fleets.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing in his blog: Deckboss
Crescent City processor hurt
The crew at Alber Seafoods in the Crescent City Harbor started processing almost two weeks later than usual because of the Bay delay, and now it must “wait and see” when another shipment of crab can bring more work.
– Crescent City Triplicate
More:www.triplicate.com
Konrad Uri honored
The Northwest Fisheries Association has paid special tribute to Konrad Uri with the presentation of NWFA’s 2011 Person of the Year award. The award is an acknowledgement of Konrad’s many lifetime contributions to the development of Bering Sea fisheries. He was a pioneer participant in the Alaska king crab fishery, where he developed one of the first at-sea catcher/processors. He was also the first American fisherman to build a groundfish catcher/processor for the Bering Sea, the Arctic Trawler, which set the stage for what is now a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
ON DOOMED VESSEL
The crab pots flew forward and buried Smith, just outside the boat's cabin. Another fisherman, Jim Peterson, was trapped inside the cabin.
– Coos Bay World
More:theworldlink.com
Deadliest Catch boat cited
State Wildlife Troopers have cited the fishing vessel Ramblin' Rose for possession of undersized St. Matthew blue king crab.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.kucb.org
Anti-gillnet measure hits snag
As a fish conservation organization moves ahead with plans to place a controversial ballot measure on the Oregon ballot next year that would ban gillnet fishing. The question remains: Exactly which measure will it be?
– Daily Astorian
More:www.dailyastorian.com
Fraser panel nears finish
After 18 months of hearings and the filing of 2,145 exhibits, a federal inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon has ended – except for the writing of a report that could recast fisheries management on the West Coast.
– Globe and Mail, Toronto
More:www.theglobeandmail.com
Pebble opponent fined
The Alaska Public Offices Commission is fining Pebble mine opponent Bob Gillam's private air service $25,500 for flying anti-Pebble candidates into villages to campaign and only charging them for fuel.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Drifting oil barge tethered
The commercial tug Le Chavel Rouge crew successfully took the disabled tug Nathan E. Stewart into tow 22 nautical miles southwest of Cape Fairweather.
– SitNews, Kodiak
More:www.sitnews.us
Another wandering fisherman indicted
An Oregon man who once operated a fishing vessel co-owned by a former fisheries aide to Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has been indicted on charges of fishing in one area and falsely reporting the fish were caught in another area.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Dam destruction after 'fish window'
Demolition work at the Elwha Dam is resuming about two weeks earlier than expected.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
YOU’LL FISH IN DILLINGHAM
The petition put forward the city of Dillingham to annex the Nushagak Commercial Fishing District into the city boundaries has finally been formally approved by the entity in Alaska that makes those decisions.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:kdlg.org
Canada to test for salmon disease
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency plans to test nearly 8,000 wild and farmed salmon over the next two years to find out if three potentially deadly fish diseases are present in British Columbia waters.
– Globe and Mail, Toronto
No time to bury disease evidence
The re-opening of the Cohen Inquiry on ISA virus provided an opportunity to see past the PR machine that protects salmon farms. The events around this virus have been moving so fast there has not been enough time to bury the evidence.
– Alexandra Morton writing for Pacific Free Press
Icicle’s ‘calculated risk” on Adak
Here is an Icicle letter from late August that discusses the company's "calculated risk" at Adak.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing in his blog: Deckboss
New name for Kodiak fish center
The name on the sign out front might not be changing any time soon, but if you call over to the Fish Tech Center, don't be confused – it has a new name.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More:www.kmxt.org
Coho swarm to N. Cal stream
The Scott River Water Trust is reporting a surprising higher return of coho salmon to the Scott River.
– Eureka Times Standard
Don’t subsidize frankenfish
For the past decade, AquaBounty has been trying to secure approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration to market and sell its proprietary GE fish as “salmon” in supermarkets and restaurants throughout the United States.
– Eureka Times Standard
Hatcheries are a bad influence
Oregon State University scientists have found that it takes only a single generation for steelhead trout raised in fish hatcheries to pass along bad genetic traits to populations in the wild.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Ethics panel (kinda) clears Young
The House Ethics Committee has cleared Alaska Rep. Don Young on charges he took too much money for his legal expense fund from a donor with interests in offshore Arctic oil drilling. But now the panel is changing the rules because of the case.
– Tacoma News Tribune
Thursday, December 22, 2011
HOW ENDANGERED IS BRISTOL BAY?
Because of a plan to dig a massive copper, gold and molybdenum mine in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, people here are grappling with a question they would rather not ask: Can southwest Alaska make money from its wealth of minerals without doing harm to the money fish?
– E&E Publishing
More:www.eenews.net
Japanese buy Bristol Bay cannery
North Pacific Seafoods, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Marubeni, is buying Yardarm Knot's Red Salmon cannery at Bristol Bay.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
Can hatchery fish compete?
The more capable a salmon is of thriving in captivity, the less capable it is of succeeding in the wild.
– New York Times blog
More:green.blogs.nytimes.com
Aleutian sea lions in court
Nearly two dozen commercial fishing operations working in the Western Aleutian Islands are pushing him to decide in their favor so they can return their livelihoods by the start of 2012.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
$5,000 fine for chasing sea lions
A pair of Vancouver Island sports fishermen hooked fines totalling $5,000 stemming from their harassment of Stellar sea lions off Camanah Point in Pacific Rim National Park in August of 2010.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
Old-timer passes on
This winter was the first crab season in about 70 years that Nat Johnson didn't set his pots.
– Half Moon Bay Review
More:www.hmbreview.com
Ocean zones hem in energy buoys
Wave energy developers say Oregon's initial draft leaves them in a watery ghetto.
– Oregon Public Broadcasting
More:news.opb.org
Kenai draws horde of dipnetters
The city estimated some 19,994 dipnetters participated, up 13 percent from a year ago. That's the most ever.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
New economic plan for Bristol Bay
The Bristol Bay Native Association has put together a 5-year economic development strategy for the Bristol Bay region.
– KDLG, Dillingham
More:www.kdlg.org (scroll down)
Shell spill called worst in decade
An oil spill near the coast of Nigeria is likely the worst to hit those waters in a decade, a government official said Thursday, as slicks from the Royal Dutch Shell PLC spill approached the country's southern shoreline.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Happy birthday (we think)
This week marks the first anniversary of the Canadian federal government taking regulatory control of British Columbia's aquaculture industry – and the province's salmon farmers are looking forward to a new year that will see the Pacific Aquaculture Regulations more established.
– FishNewsEU
More:www.fishnewseu.com
Friday, December 23, 2011
OREGON CRAB: LATE AND SMALL
The weather may be fine, but fishing boats appear to be returning a less than bumper crop of crabs this year.
– Coos Bay World
More: theworldlink.com
Akutan wants to grow
The city of Akutan wants to grow. It has submitted a proposal that would expand its territory by 700 percent if approved by the state's Local Boundary Commission.
– KUCB, Unalaska
More: www.kucb.org
Taking too many herring?
With the Department of Fisheries (DFO) increasing the winter food and bait fishing on herring populations, Howe Sound can wave goodbye to the resurgence of marine life it's seen in recent years.
– Squamish Chief
More: www.squamishchief.com
Sacramento smelt rebounds
The Delta smelt has rebounded to levels not seen in a decade.
– Record Net, Stockton, Calif.
More: www.recordnet.com
Southeast otters
New research shows northern Southeast Alaska's sea otter population is growing slower than in the southern part of the region. But it's still expanding, which continues to worry fishermen and divers.
– KSTK, Wrangell
More: kstk.org
Derelict now Cordova's problem
The Coast Guard declared that the 135-foot landing craft Sound Developer no longer poses a substantial pollution threat to the environment and transferred responsibility of the vessel to the City of Cordova.
– Coast Guard
More: www.d17.uscgnews.com
Comment on offshore petro plan
Alaskans will soon be able to comment on a draft environmental impact statement describing how offshore oil and gas activities in the U.S. Beaufort and Chukchi seas could affect marine mammals and the Alaska Native communities that depend on them for subsistence.
– Juneau Empire
More: juneauempire.com
Cal reserve soon
A plan to protect ocean health by restricting fishing in some areas takes effect in Southern California in just a few days.
– Southern California Public Radio
More: www.scpr.org
Alaska Fisheries Report
Coming up this week, we have a couple stories from the recent North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting, hear the governor's plan to sell more fish to Europe, and find out how young fishermen can get a jump on learning the ropes.
– KMXT, Kodiak
More: www.kmxt.org
Merry Christmas
For a proper yuletide, we'll spend the next few days in peaceful contemplation. Fish Wrap will reappear on Tuesday, Dec. 27. Until then, may your plums be sugary.
– Don McManman, Erin Downward, Michel Drouin and Wesley Loy
