Monday, December 27, 2010
Countdown to trawl ratz
Trawl fishermen facing quota system that goes into effect Jan. 1.
– Newport News Times
More:www.newportnewstimes.com
Chuitna coal mine requires huge dock
Exporting coal from the mine, about 45 miles southwest of Anchorage, would require building a massive dock for ocean-going cargo ships on the west side of Cook Inlet.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Progress on Adak?
We could see two interesting developments soon with respect to the seafood industry in the Aleutian Islands.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
New study: Fish farm lice hurt wild salmon
Just a week after a report was released clearing sea lice in the collapse of the pink salmon run in 2002, an environmental group is pointing to a new report that it says shows fish farms make the sea lice problem worse.
– CTV, Canada
More:www.ctv.ca
B.C. fishermen should simply pay their fines
Commercial fishermen who fished illegally to protest the rules governing separate aboriginal fisheries should pay their fines and move on.
– South Delta (B.C.) Leader
More:www.bclocalnews.com
Cal river salmon best since ‘40s
The number of salmon seen in parts of the Eel River this year have dwarfed that in any other year since the 1940s.
– Pacific Fishing columnist John Driscoll, reporting for the Eureka Times-Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Ocean generators may hurt salmon navigation
As the search for green energy turns to the oceans, there are concerns tidal and wave generators and the cables that bring their electricity to shore could interfere with the internal compasses of everything from salmon, sharks and sea turtles to lobsters and crabs.
– Tri-City Herald
More:www.tri-cityherald.com
Alaska Fisheries Report
There’s a higher allocation for sablefish next year, a lot of talk about bycatch, and the governor had two applicants for fish and game commissioner – guess which one he chose.
– KMT, Kodiak
More:www.kmxt.org
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Fight against B.C. oil port
Oil interests, including Enbridge and its political supporters, are promoting a West Coast oil pipeline and supertanker port to get a couple of dollars more for each barrel of oil sands crude and to push back against growing U.S. restrictions on dirty oil.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
D-crab certification opens marketing doors
The state will enjoy the distinction as the only certified crab fishery in the U.S., at least for now.
– Coos Bay World
More:www.theworldlink.com
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
SE Otters Booming
Aerial surveys of otters in the southern Panhandle this past summer show a 13 percent annual growth rate for the reintroduced mammals and researchers say otter numbers there have doubled since the last survey was completed seven years ago.
– KSTK, Wrangell
More:kstk.org
Editorial: Catch shares make sense
A new system goes into effect Jan. 1 for managing commercial trawl fishing for 90 species of groundfish in federal waters off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California. The central idea of this system — to set catch limits by boat rather than for the fleet as a whole — makes good sense.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.nwsource.com
No fishing on Taku, Stikine runs
There again won't be a commercial king salmon gillnetting season for the Stikine and Taku rivers next May.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
BP didn’t learn from Exxon Valdez
Today, everyone concerned claims to have learned great lessons from this environmental tragedy. However, the handling of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico gives no such evidence.
– Ken Green, who worked in the oil industry as a geological field technician, drilling fluids engineer and pipeline inspection technician, writing in the Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Natives oppose Alaska fish commish
Newly appointed Alaska Department of Fish & Game Commissioner Cora Campbell has weathered many stormy seas, … so this week's press release by the Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand Camp rejecting her experience came as a shock.
– Juneau Empire
More:www.juneauempire.com
Scotland folds under fire from fish farmers
Pollution and health checks on hundreds of fish farms have been suspended and kept secret after the Scottish Government was threatened with legal action by the £350 million salmon farming industry.
– Herald, Scotland
More:www.heraldscotland.com
Dam improvements on Columbia
Improvements at all eight federal Snake and lower Columbia River dams boosted the safe migration of juvenile salmon and steelhead last year, a federal study says.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.nwsource.com
Navy training may harm killer whales
Environmentalists fear for the safety of the whales as the U.S. Navy prepares to expand its operations in its Northwest Training Range Complex, which stretches from the coastline of Washington state to Northern California.
– The Province, Vancouver
More:www.theprovince.com
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Advice: Kill more Sealions
A group advising the federal government says a program to remove or kill sea lions that eat imperiled salmon near Bonneville Dam hasn't been as effective at saving the fish.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Fish adviser cautioned Todd Palin
Cora Campbell, then Cora Crome, wisely warned that inviting in floating processors in an effort to keep salmon prices high in a fishery in which the Palins were working could raise ethics problems for the governor.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
N. Cal river sees high salmon returns
State wildlife officials say a threatened species of salmon has completed its fall run to a Mendocino County dam in record numbers.
– San Jose Mercury News
More:www.mercurynews.com
Kodiak looks toward salmon enhancement
An ambitious new plan for the next 20 years of hatchery and stocking programs in the Kodiak area strives to double the number of salmon available through supplementary runs.
– Kodiak Daily Mirror
More:www.kodiakdailymirror.com
Protecting California otters
The creation of this enormous "no otter" zone resulted from a 1987 compromise between the federal government and commercial fishing interests opposed to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's attempt to reduce the species' risk of extinction by attempting to create a second population of 200-plus otters at San Nicolas Island through "translocation" of animals from the existing central coast population.
– The Californian.com
More:www.thecalifornian.com
AK fish commish defends herself
Cora Campbell, the new 31-year-old commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, is promising "outreach" to the Native community after the Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand Camp objected to the appointment of "someone so young and inexperienced."
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Another view of marine reserves
One thing seems certain: No little patch off Cape Arago, no matter how good it might be for the local ecosystem, will do anything about garbage washing up on beaches, industrial poisons in the food chain, or any other monster in the environmental closet.
– George von Dassow, writing in the Coos Bay World
More:www.theworldlink.com
Salmon education for kids to be cut
Every year, 40,000 schoolchildren in the state are introduced to the life of salmon through the Salmon in the Classroom program. But beginning in January, the program is ending.
– Seattle Times
More:seattletimes.nwsource.com
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Messing with a B.C. Lake
Residents of one of B.C.'s smallest towns are lining up to save the province's biggest natural lake from a proposed hydro scheme by Yukon Energy Corp.
– Vancouver Sun
More:www.vancouversun.com
More doubts about young fish commish
Kodiak’s legislators say they have some doubts about Gov. Sean Parnell’s choice to lead the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, but their doubt falls short of outright opposition.
– Kodiak Daily Mirror
More:www.kodiakdailymirror.com
B.C. fishery not ‘race-based’
A recent Globe and Mail column echoed the complaint of the white commercial fishermen about the unfairness of the “race-based” fishery on B.C.'s Fraser River.
– Harry Swain, a former federal deputy minister of Industry Canada and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, writing in The Globe and Mail, Toronto
More:www.theglobeandmail.com
Subsistence board to eye Yukon Chinook
The battle over Yukon River king salmon seems ready to rage at next month's Federal Subsistence Board meeting, as riverside communities fight for their share of the dwindling run.
– Tundra Drums, Alaska
More:www.thetundradrums.com
Next year marks beginning of CG rules
Kodiak fishermen can look forward to new regulations after the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 was signed into law this fall.
– Kodiak Daily Mirror
More:www.kodiakdailymirror.com
Legislation ends race for Alaska cod
The Bering Sea cod longliner catcher/processor fleet no longer has to race for fish after Congress passed the Longline Catcher Processor Subsector Single Fishery Cooperative Act, which authorizes the secretary of commerce to approve a cooperative for longline cod catcher processors in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.
– Homer News
More:www.homernews.com
Grates keeps pink shrimp fishing clean
The key to the pink shrimp fishery’s successful eco-exploits involves harvesting with trawl nets containing a Bycatch Reduction Device (BRD) known as the Oregon Grate – a “fish sorter” placed in the net to separate the shrimp from other fish and prevent excessive incidental capture of other species, such as hake and rockfish.
– Newport News Times
More:www.newportnewstimes.com
We’re outta here
Mr. and Mrs. Wrap – and all the MiniWraps – hope you have a peaceful and prosperous New Year. See you on Monday, Jan. 3.
