Category Archives: Pacific
A California dilemma: Save the whales or eat the crabs?
I had always assumed Californians loved whales, and that measures to save the gigantic, federally protected creatures would be universally applauded. I was wrong. “There are so many whales out there! When we stopped shooting them with exploding harpoon tips, the whale population started to increase,” Collins said. “The gray whales are at historical levels!” Singling out the commercial crab fleet feels extremely unfair to Collins. After all, he said, ship strikes kill more whales than crab lines. “But we are the only ones paying for that!” >click to read< 06:56
UPDATED: Charleston Ice Dock on fire; Charleston Ice House a complete loss
According to a press release from the Coos County Sheriff’s Office, the ice house fire began releasing ammonia at 9 a.m. today and is why the public is being told to keep a distance. The ice house is located across from the US. Coast Guard Boat Station. Video, photos, >click to read< Crews respond to ammonia spill in Coos Bay -The facility produces commercial ice for the area’s commercial fishing fleet. >click to read< 14:26
Update 6:30 p.m.: Charleston Ice House a complete loss; toxic smoke evacuation order lifted – >click to read< 12/21/2019 07:52
Coast Guard rescues five people from a fishing vessel southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge
The Coast Guard rescued five people from a fishing vessel approximately 14 miles southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge, Wednesday. At approximately 4:45 p.m., the boat captain of the Mandy Jane fishing vessel issued a mayday call for assistance via VHF-FM channel 16 to Coast Guard Sector San Francisco command center watchstanders after his boat began taking on water with four additional people aboard. >click to read< 20:17
Study: offshore renewable energy installations rough on marine life
Researchers suggest that if marine renewable energy devices (MREDs) – such as wave energy converters and wind turbines – are placed in marine environments without consideration of environmental consequences, marine life could be severely damaged. That stands in stark contrast to the environmentally friendly mindset that drives such devices in the first place. The study insists that these energy devices can greatly advance climate goals but cautions that greater thought must be given to when, where and how they are implemented. >click to read< 12:41
Merkley, Wyden, Pacific Coast Members Announce Major Win for Trawlers in Year-End Spending Bill
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley, joined by Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Kamala Harris (D-CA), and U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR-4), Greg Walden (R-OR-2), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA-3), Kurt Schrader (D-OR-5), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1), and Jared Huffman (D-CA-2), today announced a major, bipartisan victory for West Coast trawlers in the 2020 spending bill that Congress is expected to pass this week. The language proposed by Merkley and supported by the other West Coast Senators and Representatives would forgive more than $10 million in accrued loan interest that was forced onto the West Coast groundfishing fleet because of mismanagement by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). >click to read< 16:49
Resident orcas’ appetite likely reason for decline of big Chinook salmon
“We have two protected species, resident killer whales and Chinook salmon, and we are trying to increase abundances of both—yet they are interacting as predator and prey,” said lead author Jan Ohlberger, a research scientist at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “Killer whales don’t show a lot of interest in Chinook until they reach a certain size, and then they focus intensely on those individuals.”>click to read< 19:02
S.D. tunaboat captain discovered Galapagos ‘Garden of Eden’ tragedy 85 years ago
If someone aboard the local tunaboat Santo Amaro hadn’t been curious, the bizarre finale of the Galapagos islands’ modern Eden might not have been learned for years. The Santo Amaro was back yesterday, loaded with fish and bringing an account of the startling events which followed the discovery of two mummified corpses on Marchena island’s barren shore on the afternoon of Nov. 17. The ghastly discovery by the Santo Amaro’s people apparently had no ill effect on their luck, for the clipper had a catch well in excess of 100 tons of prime fish when she went up to the Van Camp plant to unload. >click to read< 09:47
Dungeness crab fleet readies for opener as weather hampers season start for some
A monthlong delay in the opening of the Dungeness season will conclude this weekend, allowing the commercial fleet to get out on the water and start pulling in traps on Sunday.,,, many small-boat captains in the North Bay plan to wait even longer for ocean conditions to calm, so it’s safer to deploy their heavy fishing equipment. “It’s day by day,” veteran Bodega Bay fisherman Tony Anello said. 17 Photos, >click to read< 15:20
Video: Coast Guard medevacs injured Canadian fisherman 50 miles off Washington coast
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound in Seattle received the medevac request from the captain of the 110-foot fishing vessel Ocean Pearl at about 1 p.m. The watchstanders then directed the launch of the aircrew. The aircrew arrived on scene at 2:14 p.m. and conducted the hoist. The aircrew transferred patient care to EMS at 3:23 p.m. >click to read< 06:54
20 Strange But True Things About Deadliest Catch
Deadliest Catch is one of the most popular shows on reality television right now. The premise for this catchy hit seems pretty straight forward. Groups of the toughest men and women travel north to brave the freezing waters of the Bering Sea in order to bring home hauls of king crab, queen crab, and snow crab. Check out these twenty strange but true facts that we could not have guessed take place on our favorite fishing reality show, Deadliest Catch. Photos, >click to read< 14:33
Waiting Game: Gear ready, the North Coast’s commercial crab fleet is on hold
Fishermen are optimistic by nature, but spending $5,000 on new crab gear this year is still a risky proposition for commercial crabbers like Curt Wilson. The equipment is expensive, prone to being lost and there has been no certainty in recent years that the commercial Dungeness crab season will start on time, if at all. “I just want a chance to fish,” said 34-year-old Wilson,,,>click to read< 07:06
FurCanada open house will kickstart campaigns for a seal, sea lion and sea otter commercial fishery in British Columbia
The fur is set to fly in Nanaimo this weekend, with an open house to kickstart campaigns for a seal, sea lion and sea otter commercial fishery in British Columbia. FurCanada, a Vancouver Island company, hopes the event on Dec. 14, will raise awareness about the overpopulation of seal and sea lions which are decimating B.C.’s endangered and threatened chinook salmon stocks. Thomas Sewid, who is President of Pacific Balance Marine Management, which is the organization leading the development of the seal, sea lion and sea otter industry estimates that of the 27 million chinook smolts produced a year in the Salish Sea (wild and hatchery) the pinnipeds are consuming about 24 million of them. >click to read< 19:53
Local skipper speaks at United Nations fisheries conference
At a United Nations sustainable fisheries conference in a posh conference center in Rome three weeks ago, it was “Your Excellency” this and “Minister that” until the master of ceremonies stilled the room to introduce a fishing boat captain. That captain was 34-year-old Rebecca Argo, co-owner of a pair of salmon tenders that operate out of Port Townsend’s Boat Haven, serving southeast Alaska. >click to read< 12:55
Warren proposes ‘Blue New Deal’ to protect oceans. Where Warren’s Blue New Deal Falls Short
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday proposed a “Blue New Deal” plan in what she calls an effort to protect oceans and rebuild the economy associated with oceans. The proposal was influenced by a question from an oyster farmer at the CNN presidential town hall on the climate crisis in September,,,“I said I would, and I meant it,,, >click to read< 11:03
An Environmental Lawyer Explains Where Elizabeth Warren’s Blue New Deal Falls Short – Warren’s plan does recommend folding the US into the United Nations Law of the Sea treaty,,,, Furthermore, the Blue New Deal aims to rebuild America’s fisheries, an effort that “would support an additional 500,000 jobs and generate an additional $31 billion in sales impacts,” >click to read< 11:09
Measure to help protect, enhance working waterfronts passes U.S. House
The measure, introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, D-1st District, would provide $24 million in federal grants and loans to states, which could allocate funding to municipalities, nonprofits and fishing co-ops for projects that preserve or improve working waterfront infrastructure. If approved by the Senate, it also would create a task force at the Commerce Department charged with identifying threats to working waterfronts, including climate change and marketplace pressures. >click to read< 09:02
Letter | Save the salmon through lethal means, if necessary
California sea lions, harbor seals and cormorants have never been in danger of going extinct, but 11 distinct populations of salmon and steelhead are. Common sense should tell us we need to control the number of predators through lethal means. A professed sense of helping undernourished countries tells us we should not waste the meat. Canneries for centuries have been processing all kinds of high protein meat. I am quite sure the canneries would be willing to employ additional help at a lot less than is now being spent for all of our ESA efforts. by Carlisle Harrison >click to read< 11:34
International sea cucumber kingpin implicated in new smuggling case
When Wei Li walked across the southern US border into San Ysidro, California in September, he told US border officers—twice—that he had nothing to declare. He was lying. An x-ray of Li’s bag detected an “anomaly,” and the officers looked inside. According to a search warrant application filed in federal court, they found 46 sea cucumbers weighing about 2.5 pounds. It turns out the illegal sea cucumber trade is a serious problem. >click to read< 17:46
Commercial crab season opening delayed until at least Dec. 31
With Dungeness crab in some management areas including Long Beach and Astoria still lacking enough meat, fishery managers on Dec. 6 decided to delay opening the commercial season until at least Dec. 31 from Point Arena, California to the U.S.-Canada border. > click to read<, Commercial Crab Season Delayed Again – >click to read< , Commercial Dungeness crab season delayed again along Oregon coast – >click to read< 18:49
Randy Babich has been fishing Puget Sound and southeast Alaska for 54 years. A lot has changed in that time.
The Paragon is a 56-foot commercial purse seiner moored at Longbranch Marina, a seagoing workhorse that dwarfs the pleasure boats around it. “I was going to be a dentist,” said the owner, Randy Babich, who just turned 70. “I went through pre-med, pre-dent. My dad always said, ‘Get into a profession.’ ” Babich grew up in Gig Harbor and “got into fishing because my family was into fishing,” >click to read< 07:16
Boat Fire: Cause Still ‘Undetermined’
Investigators said they have yet to find the precise cause of a Brookings Harbor fire Monday morning that heavily damaged the Miss Pacific, an 85-foot commercial fishing vessel. “The cause is undetermined,” Harbor Fire Interim Chief Thomas Sorrentino told The Pilot. “We believe it could be an electrical issue. “The fire started on the port-side rear of the cabin and went out the back to the stern of the boat, >click to read< 06:36
Researchers, marine pilots work to prevent vessel strikes from killing Alaska whales
Over the past decade, federal officials have logged 77 incidents of vessels hitting whales in Alaska waters. About three-quarters of those, were endangered humpbacks. But, it’s not clear why those strikes keep happening. A group of federal researchers and marine pilots have teamed up to combine what scientists know about whale behavior with what marine pilots know about ships.,,, That’s important as NOAA has logged 182 whale strikes in U.S. waters over the last decade. But that’s an undercount: ships aren’t legally required to report when they hit whale. And sometimes they don’t even know it’s happened. >click to read< 12:18
FV Sally J – A Community Restoration Project
This past year, the iconic commercial fishing vessel the Sally J, located in front of the Lopez Island Historical Museum, had her gillnet gear reinstalled. The restoration of the Sally J has been a Lopez community effort from the time she came to the museum until now, and the historical society would like to acknowledge all of the people who have contributed this year and in the past, and give you an update on the progress made this year. >click to read< Lopez Island Historical Society >click to visit< 15:25
New Environmental Defence Fund Report Details Actions Needed to Create Climate-Ready Fisheries
“Even with the necessary actions to control emissions and investments to reduce carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere, changes in the ocean already underway will continue and even accelerate,” said Eric Schwaab, senior vice president for EDF Oceans.,,, The five pathways articulated in the report focus on steps that can and must be taken by governments, NGOs, fisher organizations, academia and multilateral organizations in order to create greater resilience and sustainability of fisheries. The pathways include: >click to read< 06:57
UPDATED: Breaking: Boat Fire in Port of Brookings-Harbor, Photos, New Details
An 85-foot fishing vessel is on fire at Port of Brookings-Harbor. A Coast Guard vessel is fighting the fire from the water with Harbor Fire, Brookings, Gold Beach and Smith River Fire Departments on the scene. This story will be updated >click to read< 15:45
Photos / New Details: Boat Fire – >click to read<
A dark horizon
If you’re an Alaska commercial salmon fishermen, be forewarned; the farmers in Wisconsin are coming for you. Enter the marketers. “A Better Ocean in Your Backyard” is the new marketing theme of Superior Fresh, a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) farm in America’s Heartland: “Until now, it’s been impossible to get truly fresh Atlantic salmon in the Midwest, not to mention salmon of the incredible quality that Superior Fresh offers. Healthy, delicious, and without the same contaminants you’d find in the wild. And we did it sustainably to boot.” The word that will, or should, jump out to Alaskans (everyone, everywhere) there is “wild.” >click to read< 10:33
Cooke Aquaculture agrees to pay $2.75M to settle lawsuit over salmon net-pen collapse
Cooke Aquaculture has reached a settlement to pay $2.75 million in legal fees and to fund Puget Sound restoration projects, putting an end to a Clean Water Act lawsuit that followed the 2017 collapse of one of the fish-farming company’s net-pen structures.,,, The legal settlement, which awaits federal officials’ review and a judge’s signature, bookends a contentious and litigious chapter in the fight over fish farming in Washington waters that resulted in the termination of some of Cooke’s leases, a $332,000 fine to Cooke from state regulators and a ban on farming nonnative fish, >click to read< 12:09
Ropeless Fishing Gear: New Crab Pot Could Help Reduce Whale Entanglements
Last year 46 whale entanglements were reported off the West Coast, and crab gear was responsible for about a third of them. According to Derek Orner, a bycatch reduction program coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service, this a growing problem,,, His agency recently announced grants for several ropeless fishing gear projects, including a new kind of crab pot developed by Coastal Monitoring Associates of California. >click to read< 09:43
Some B.C. salmon runs face ‘meaningful chance of extinction’ after landslide
The landslide prompted officials at multiple levels of government to organize a rescue mission that saw thousands of salmon, which are very vulnerable to stress, lifted by helicopter across the rocks that blocked their migration route. But despite that effort, prospects are dismal for the salmon in the upper reaches of the river, according to Dean Werk, president of the Fraser Valley Salmon Society. “We’re talking about virtually a collapse — a total collapse — of the salmon stocks above the Big Bar slide,” ,,, >click to read< 12:10
Blessing of the Fleet honors Trinidad’s fishing community
Hundreds gathered on the bluffs above Trinidad’s bay on a clear and crisp Thursday morning for the annual Blessing of the Fleet. As people walked to the site where the ceremony was held at the intersection of Trinity and Edwards streets, lively tunes were pumped through the speaker system.,, “We are so grateful for this glorious, crisp, dry fall day,” she said, “for the opportunity to gather together as a community to celebrate, honor and give thanks for the bounty of the oceans and for those whose livelihoods provide us with its nourishment.” >Photo’s, >click to read< 11:26
The secret Richmond lab where Bay Area crab season annually learns its fate
Each year, the fate of Northern California’s Dungeness crab season is in the hands of a few scientists in a quiet East Bay lab examining a small container of tan goo. At the California Department of Public Health lab in Richmond, the goo is viscera, or the internal organs of a Dungeness crab, and the scientists study it to determine whether a neurotoxin called domoic acid is present.,,, While the commercial Dungeness crab season is on hold for an entirely different reason — a lawsuit,,, >click to read< 07:56
