Monday, November 22, 2010
Yukon Natives harvest lampreys
Yukon River fishermen waited with dipnets this week for the creepy, snake-like fish that swarms under the freshly frozen surface in a mass migration toward spawning grounds.
– Tundra Drums
More:www.thetundradrums.com
NW boats worry California crabbers
For fishermen based in San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and Bodega Bay – ports nearest to this valuable crab fishery – the larger boats from Oregon and Washington that can carry hundreds of crab pots mean less money in their wallets.
– Washington Post
More:www.washingtonpost.com
Good crab catches in California
If the bustling scene at Pillar Point Harbor was any indication of the bounty of crabs crawling the ocean floor off the Central California coast in the past few days, then local crab fishermen have much to give thanks for on next week's holiday indeed – as long as the demand can keep up with the supply, that is.
– HalfMoonBayPatch
More:halfmoonbay.patch.com
New sport halibut rules in effect in February
Federal rules taking effect in February are expected to keep a third of the halibut sport charters working out of Homer, Seward and Valdez stuck in harbor this year.
– Anchorage Daily News
More:www.adn.com
Acting Alaska commish enthused
Former Petersburg resident Cora Campbell is enthused about her appointment as acting commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game.
– Alaska Public Radio
More:aprn.org
Dutch Harbor tanner crab
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently set guideline harvest levels for the small open access tanner crab fishery near Unalaska.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More: www.publicbroadcasting.net
Canada burping poisons into Columbia
Researchers are concluding a second year of sampling in a study to determine whether industrial pollution in the Upper Columbia River threatens people and wildlife.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Family relentless for answers after sinking
The name of their brother's boat aptly describes a Monterey family's struggle to learn what went terribly wrong in ocean waters off Half Moon Bay early one morning in June 2004.
– Monterey County Herald
More:www.montereyherald.com
Boom year in Alaska in 2011
Alaska is gearing up for huge harvests in its seafood industry next year – demonstrating once again that it has one of the most productive and sustainable commercial fishing economies in the world.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Laine Welch, writing in SitNews, Ketchikan
More:www.sitnews.us
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Oregon crab negotiations resume today
Negotiations over the price of Dungeness crab in Oregon were expected to resume this morning.
Negotiators had met last week but decided to suspend proceedings until more information concerning fill was obtained, said Nick Furman, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission.
Fill testing in Northern California was delayed this year. Negotiators rely partially upon such data to help gauge season timing Oregon.
Cal crabbers: Too many foreigners
The number of Dungeness crabs exported out of the state is somewhat of a sore subject for local fishermen, since out-of-state crabbers have started more aggressively encroaching on their territory in recent years.
– San Francisco Appeal
More:sfappeal.com
Fashion statement: Salmon leather
Exotic looking and durable, the product created from the skin of the salmon is a fast-rising trend among eco-friendly consumers.
– Alaska Dispatch
More:www.alaskadispatch.com
Frankenfish process misses consequences
The review process being used by the Food and Drug Administration to assess the safety of a faster growing transgenic salmon fails to weigh the full effects of the fish's widespread production, according to analysis by a Duke University-led team in this week’s Science.
– Environmental Protection
More:eponline.com
Anti-frankenfish bill introduced
U.S. Democrat Sen. Mark Begich introduced legislation to stop the approval of genetically engineered (GE) fish by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
– FIS
More:www.fis.com
Canadian report: Closed farm containment
A new report by Canada’s federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has provided further information on the viability of closed containment production systems for salmon farming.
– FishNewsEU
More:www.fishnewseu.com
B.C. fish farmers ignore options
While the current B.C. industry drags its feet about getting out of the sea, hardly a month goes by without new and improved fish-farm set-ups and products coming on stream from other folks who aim to put fish farms where they should be: on land in closed containers.
– Victoria Times Colonist
More:www.timescolonist.com
Alaska Peninsula drilling leases dropped
The last of the active North Aleutian basin natural leases have been dropped. Hewitt Mineral Corporation let go its four leases in October, two years after Shell relinquished the 33 leases it possessed.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.publicbroadcasting.net
Depoe Bay opposes marine reserve
The Depoe Bay City Council voted Nov. 16 to reject the findings of a citizen committee for a new marine reserve at Cascade Head.
– Newport News Times
More:www.newportnewstimes.com
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Sarah clubs fish. Will voters approve?
Viewed as an electability audition, Palin's television series is not going particularly well. Nearly every moment of the second episode's Commercial Halibut Fishing Trip was – to any other politician, a career-ending photo-bomb. Here's Sarah Palin clubbing a fish to death. Here's Sarah Palin encouraging Bristol to club a fish to death. … Here's Sarah Palin holding the still-beating heart of a deceased halibut.
– Washington Post
More:voices.washingtonpost.com
Big increase in pollock harvest
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council groundfish plan team met in Seattle and set the allowable biological catch for eastern Bering Sea walleye pollock at 1.276 million metrics tons. That's a 57 percent increase from the 2010 ABC, which was set at 813,000 metric tons.
— Pacific Fishing columnist Alexandra Gutierrez, reporting for KUCB, Unalaska
More:www.publicbroadcasting.net
Council releases crab ratz report
The staff of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council has released a new report titled Five-Year Review of the Crab Rationalization Management Program for Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Crab Fisheries.
– Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing in his blog: Deckboss
More:deckboss.blogspot.com
N. Cal crab season begins Dec. 1
West Coast fisheries managers agreed to open the season for commercial Dungeness crab fishing north of Point Arena on Dec.1.
– Pacific Fishing columnist John Driscoll, writing in the Eureka Times-Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Court: Stop killing Columbia sea lions
Sea lions that have faced death by lethal injection for making banquets of endangered fish in the Columbia River won a reprieve Tuesday when a federal appeals court told Oregon and Washington wildlife officials to cease killing them.
– The Oregonian
More:www.oregonlive.com
Is Schwarzenegger stuffing coast panel?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked Humboldt, Del Norte and Mendocino counties – and coastal cities in the region – to nominate elected officials for a soon-to-be vacant seat on the California Coastal Commission. The move at the end of Schwarzenegger's term initially spawned concern that the standing governor was trying to stuff the seat.
– Pacific Fishing columnist John Driscoll, writing in the Eureka Times-Standard
More:www.times-standard.com
Columbia smelt disappearing
Oregon and Washington fishery officials have agreed no commercial or sport fishing will be allowed this season for the once-plentiful smelt, now under federal protection.
– Seattle P-I
More:www.seattlepi.com
‘Play nice,’ says Alaska guv
"Instead of segregating (commercial) fish and sport fish, I think we ought to be merging the data sets together and agreeing on baseline fisheries data. That's what science is about. They shouldn't be operating from different data sets and advocating for different data sets."
– Gov. Sean Parnell upon appointing current state Attorney General Dan Sullivan as commissioner of natural resources, as quoted in the Homer News
More:homernews.com
Adieu until Monday
Mr. and Mrs. Fish Wrap, plus all the little Wrapettes, will take Thursday and Friday off for our annual observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving. And what will be on the festive table this year? Crow, of course.
