Daily Archives: February 12, 2013
Attorney: Alaska Native fishermen should get first go at kings
An attorney for Alaska Natives cited for illegal fishing is renewing his religious protection defense, saying the state could conserve king salmon runs on the Kuskokwim River while granting Yup’ik Eskimos a subsistence fishing priority to accommodate their long-held spiritual views. Read more here
Alaska – National Marine Fisheries Service rejects Center for Biological Diversity petition to list cold-water corals
A federal agency has rejected a petition seeking to list 44 cold water corals off Alaska as threatened or endangered. An environmental group says the corals are threatened by commercial fishing, ocean warming, acidification and oil spills. Read more here
NORTHEAST MULTISPECIES Announcement of approved dockside and at-sea monitoring providers for 2013. Effective Date: May 1, 2013
NOAA Fisheries has approved four companies to provide at-sea monitoring services and three companies to provide dockside monitoring services in the 2013 Fishing Year, which begins on May 1. Read more here
www.aisobservers.com www.mragamericas.com www.atlanticcatchdata.ca www.ewts.com
NOAA reviews new management measues aimed at allowing young scallops to mature
The move — which reduces quotas by a third — is something local fishermen are on board with, although they hope the cuts prove to be only a temporary thorn in their side, said Jim Kendall of New Bedford Seafood Consulting. “They knew about this already,” Kendall said Monday night. “They figure if they make two-thirds of what they were making then they’ll still get by.” Read more here
Phase II – Feds enter new phase of fishery rules probe
Inspector General Todd Zinnser
In a memo Monday, that office notified the top manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that it was beginning its review of ‘‘controls and processes’’ in a management system installed in 2010. The system established strict catch quotas for each species of bottom-dwelling groundfish in New England, and gave fishermen individual shares of those quotas. Fishermen then pooled their shares together in groups called sectors. Read more here
Sausalito restaurateur championing local herring
Herring season is in full swing, and the small fish have returned to San Francisco Bay en masse this year, making pelicans and sea lions happy. But the majority of what’s caught is shipped to Japan, where its roe is considered a delica
cy. That’s a travesty to people like Belov and Kirk Lombard, a San Francisco fisherman who tries to educate people about environmentally sustainable low-tide fishing through his company, Sea Forager, and is working to get a commercial permit to catch herring. Read more here
Louisiana prepared to ignore federal snapper regulations
While the federal government reaffirmed its control of recreational red snapper management this past week, Louisiana fisheries officials also doubled down on a threat to claim three marine leagues of ocean on behalf of the state in a
n effort to wrestle away oversight of the species from the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council. Read more here
Three Part Series – Under The Label: Sustainable Seafood – Is Sustainable-Labeled Seafood Really Sustainable?
Industry demand for the “sustainable seafood” label, issued by the Marine Stewardship Council, is increasing. But some environmentalists fear fisheries are being certified despite evidence showing that the fish population is in trouble —
or when there’s not enough information to know the impact on the oceans. Read more here
Hawai‘i fishermen in uproar about cascade of environmental protections
HONOLULU — Hawai‘i fishermen say they are being pushed to the limit by a barrage of proposed federal and state laws that threaten their livelihood. “It stresses me out. It stresses a lot of fishermen out, because how many other people have to fight to maintain their way of life?” Monk seal and coral proposals. Read more here
Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival arrives Feb. 16-17
An estimated 25,000 people are expected to converge on the historic village of Cortez the weekend of Feb. 16-17 for the annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival. Read more here
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife – Public meeting on salmon forecast kicks off season-setting process
Kicking off the annual salmon season-setting process, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will present initial forecasts – compiled by state and tribal biologists – of 2013 salmon returns. Read more here
PORTLAND, Ore. – Appeals court stays new gillnet fishing rules
Responding to a challenge from commercial fishermen, the Oregon Court of Appeals has ordered that state to hold up on enforcing new gillnet fishing rules. Read more here KIRO 7 Eyewitness News
Insight: Comeback cod lessens gloom over emptying oceans
Just over six years ago, an article in the U.S. journal Science projected that all fish and seafood species, on current trends, would collapse by 2048. Read more here
Congressman John Tierney and eleven other NE delegates urge NOAA to continue a full subsidy of at-sea monitoring costs
Congressman John Tierney, six of his colleagues in the Massachusetts congressional delegation, and five more from Maine and New Hampshire have written to the acting commerce secretary, formally urging the government to find a way to continue a full subsidy of at-sea monitoring costs while the industry absorbs drastic cuts in catch limits. Read more here
