Monthly Archives: June 2013
For Alaska’s prized king salmon, the good-old days morph into not-so-hot present
CHITINA — A cheer went up along the Copper River Monday as a dipnetter struggling in the churning, brown waist-deep water finally dragged ashore what is becoming an increasingly precious catch — a blush-colored king salmon of more than 30 pounds. It was one of two kings seen caught by a couple dozen fishermen hard at work, swinging or drifting long-handled nets in the murky glacial water on a dusty day beneath a 90-degree sun. It would also be among the last kings landed in the fishery this year. continued@alaskadispatch
Concern over Greenland fishery plans
Greenland’s recent announcement that it will open a commercial fishery has triggered concerns in North American countries where salmon populations are declining. Every winter, salmon in the north Atlantic migrate to the territory to feed in its waters. Over the past 10 years, Greenland has stuck to an agreement not to partake in commercial fishing of the salmon in order to conserve them. continued@icenews
APU octopuses help professor and students get their arms around species
Hollenbeck said he worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Prince William Sound fishermen to collect live octopus specimens which were then turned over for genetic testing, which backed up the idea that something was different about the octopuses in the “divergent” lineage. [email protected]
Marin Voice: Science is on the side of open and transparent Inquiry
WHY WOULD Dominique Richard (Marin Voice, May 18) or anyone, oppose an open, bipartisan review of the science surrounding the Drakes Bay oyster farm? continued@marinvoice
Pew Pablum and Dogma Turbo Charged – The Pew Joint Ocean Commission Initiative
‘Charting The Course, Securing the Future of America’s Oceans’ – “The Administration’s principles guiding domestic energy development include creating clean energy jobs and technologies, making America more energy independent, and reducing carbon emissions. Renewable energy — particularly offshore wind energy — has great potential for pursuing expansion.” The commission states in part, “Our nation must also promote renewable energy development and return more of the revenues generated by activities on the Outer Continental Shelf to ocean science and management activities.” The Report This article is the reality of experience in Europe . Bad experience The ‘Great Renewables Scam’ unravels
Opinions plentiful as oyster farm hearing reconvenes in Surry, Me.
SURRY — A reopened hearing on a proposed aquaculture lease on Morgan Bay brought dozens of residents and fishermen and others out to comment on the application. Many who spoke against the project said property values, recreation and wildlife would be negatively affected by the lease. continued@fenceviewer
Skeena River Once Supported More Than 50 times More Chum Salmon: New Study
TERRACE, BRITISH COLUMBIA — A new study published this week provides strong evidence that Skeena River chum salmon were in the past up to 52 times more abundant than at present. continued@stockhouse
John Bullard, The Master of Folksy Feel Good Babble will be accepting your calls between 3 to 5 p.m. on Monday, 6/24/2013
John Bullard, NE Regional Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Will be accepting calls from fishermen and other “stakeholders” to discuss the draft of “Working Document on Resources to Support the Northeast Groundfish 
Industry.” View the details here
Community service program will chase sea lions no more
The move follows a Herald report about the harbor district’s practice. The article described efforts by Danielle Dames, a 115-pound Castroville woman, to drive a braying sea lion bull weighing more than 500 pounds off the dock with a stick the size of a broom handle. Dames said she was afraid the animal would attack her and knock her into the water but she’d been offered no alternative for working off her punishment for a drunken-driving offense. continued@montereyherald
Coast Guard medevacs man from F/V Alaska Juris near Dutch Harbor, Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Crews from the Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell and Air Station Kodiak medevaced an inju
red man from the F/V Alaska Juris near Dutch Harbor Friday. [email protected] The Alaska Juris is a 238-foot factory operated by the Fishing Company of Alaska
My View: Gloucester’s St. Peter’s Fiesta – Susan Pollack
Next week, we’ll hear shouts of Viva San Pietro as fishermen and their families carry the turquoise-robed statue of St. Peter through the winding streets of our city by the sea. The procession is a big part of Fiesta, honoring the patron saint of fishermen in America’s oldest fishing port. Fiesta celebrates the city’s lifeblood: commercial fishing. It also honors Gloucester’s forbears, the deep-water fishermen who sailed in schooners continued@gloucesterdailytimes
Tappan Zee Bridge Crews To Install Sturgeon Monitors
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. – Tappan Zee Bridge crews will begin putting in acoustic receivers used to locate endangered Atlantic and Short-Nose sturgeon in the Hudson River this week, the New York State Thruway Authority announced. continued@dailyvoice
Lobster processor gears up with 90 employees in Gouldsboro, Me
Maine Fair Trade Lobster, the latest owner and operator of the former Stinson Seafood plant, has hired 90 people and last week geared up its new lobster processing line in the plant for a trial run. The company, a joint partnership between East Coast Seafood and Garbo Lobster, has indicated it plans to begin regular operations as the busy summer season for Maine’s lobster fishery gets under way. continued@BDN
The guilt never fades over wasted fish
I have been a commercial fisherman for more than 30 years, and I’ve caught a lot of fish. I feel good about that. But there is one aspect of commercial fishing I haven’t felt good about the entire time. The waste. People are starving in many places on our little blue dot, and I and my men have probably thrown away close to half a million pounds of fish in my fishing career. Why, you might ask? [email protected]
UNH recieves $6 million NOAA grant for research
UNH recieves $6 million NOAA grant for research. The Joint Hydrographic Center, which specializes in hydrographic, ocean and coastal mapping sciences. Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter said the center will serve NOAA and the country through research, training and the development of state-of-the-art ocean mapping technologies.
Marine Fisheries Center’s first meeting discusses fishing yields in Ocean Springs Mississippi
OCEAN SPRINGS — The newly funded Science Center for Marine Fisheries’ first meeting began Friday and continues today at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Center’s Cedar Point teaching site in Ocean Springs. Members of the new group, which includes business and federal partners, pay $25,000 to $50,000 a year to support it and serve on the Industry Advisory Board. The board assesses proposals for funding of biological research intended to solve scientific problems that limit sustainable fisheries. [email protected]
Senate winner will inherit fishing crisis
The winner of Tuesday’s special election for the U.S. Senate will face a number of issues, but perhaps none tougher than representing a diminished and dispirited Massachusetts fishing fleet in the midst of an industry crisis and a federally recognized “economic disaster.” Gomez is a political newcomer and admittedly unfamiliar with the industry. Markey is a favorite of environmental groups, continued@gloucesterdailytimes
Salmon season picks up in Southwest
Now well past the mid-June mark, Southwest salmon fisheries have begun to ramp up. Still a few weeks out from peak fishing, set and subsistence nets have begun to pull in steady pounds from early-run fish, as have commercial crews in various fisheries along the peninsula and in Bristol Bay. [email protected]
Lawyer accused of misconduct resigns from BP case
A lawyer working for the administrator overseeing a multibillion-dollar settlement from the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf resigned Friday after being accused of misconduct. Lionel H. Sutton III resigned Friday morning, Nick Gagliano, a spokesman for court-appointed administrator Patrick Juneau, told The Associated Press.Sutton has been accused of collecting portions of settlement payments from a New Orleans law firm to which he had once referred claims, a BP PLC official who reviewed a report outlining the allegations told the AP, which broke the story Thursday. continued@baynews9
IAGC Comments on Settlement Filed in Gulf of Mexico Seismic Survey Litigation
We are pleased that the parties to this litigation have come together and proposed a settlement to the Court,” said Chip Gill, President of IAGC. “NRDC and other environmental organizations have speculated that marine seismic surveys harm whales and dolphins, but the science and four decades of experience show that we do not,” continued Gill. As NOAA Fisheries, the agency charged by Congress to administer the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and which is the US authority on the science behind these matters, states in a public filing last year regarding a permit for a seismic survey, “To date, there is no evidence that serious injury, death or stranding by marine mammals can occur from exposure to airgun pulses, even in the case of large airgun arrays.2“continued@narketwired
Pew gears up for Blue Fin Tuna fight with ICCAT over Catch Quota’s with working group meeting in Montreal, June 26 to 28
This week, fisheries managers and scientists from around the world will meet in Canada and shape the fate of the western Atlantic bluefin tuna, signaling whether fishery managers will choose to follow sound science and let this tuna population recover or ignore precaution and return to crippling levels of overfishing. The latter could result in the collapse of the western Atlantic bluefin population. continued@pew
Kenai Kontencious. Kenai keeps 2011 salmon habitat law on the books
KENAI, Alaska — It boiled down to science vs. emotion and personal property rights vs. government encroachment as scores spoke about the future of salmon habitat regulation on the Kenai Peninsula; one man, a Russian immigrant, warned of eventual gulags. Following 315 minutes of commentary made by nearly 100 citizens, the most any sitting assembly member can remember, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted 6-3 to keep the current salmon habitat protection law on the books. Largely favored revisions to the law are expected to pass a July 2 vote. [email protected]
Lawyer working on BP settlement claims suspended
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawyer working for the court-appointed administrator reviewing claims arising from BP’s Gulf oil spill has been accused of collecting portions of settlement payments from a New Orleans law firm to which he had once referred claims, a BP official with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated [email protected]
Alaska: Impacts pondered for expanding state waters fisheries
JUNEAU — In an era of widespread anti-government sentiment, and Alaska’s particular anti-Washington bent, state and federal fisheries managers are beginning to address a range of issues that will further intertwine their regulatory activities and could risk coastal economic and chinook survival without high levels of cooperation. Early this year, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council began a new approach to “rationalization” of federal trawl fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska that would include establishment of comprehensive salmon, halibut and crab bycatch controls. continued@alaskajournal
Tierney fisheries bid shot down in House
An amendment submitted by Congressman John Tierney to give commercial fishermen access to a U.S. Agriculture emergency disaster loan program had died in the U.S. House, though Tierney hopes it may still find sufficient support through a House-Senate reconciliation. continued@gloucesterdailytimes
Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield fights cancer – treatment has begun – has asked to be left out of the next cabinet
Federal Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has asked to be left out of the next cabinet so he can focus on his recovery. Ashfield announced his illness in a letter to constituents on Friday. “Over the past few weeks, I have not been feeling well and, while undergoing tests, doctors discovered that I have a form of cancer called Hodgkin’s lymphoma. continued@cbcnews
San Diego’s commercial fishing industry has some tenants concerned that Driscoll’s Wharf owner Tom Driscoll is trying to drive them out.
A landlord’s attempts to get the decaying Driscoll’s Wharf back into ship shape and revitalize San Diego’s commercial fishing industry has some tenants concerned that he is trying to drive them out. While they may disagree on many things, Tom Driscoll and the fishermen at his wharf in Point Loma agree on one point: The 128-slip marina is badly in need of renovation. continued@utsandiego
The San Clemente Dam – California’s biggest dam removal project in history begins in Carmel Valley
In a project that will be watched by engineers and biologists across the nation, construction crews today will begin a three-year, $84 million project to tear down the hulking landmark — California’s largest dam-removal project ever. The work will open up 25 miles of upstream tributaries and creeks so endangered steelhead trout can return to their historical spawning grounds. continued@thewilletnews
‘Those who are up top are the ones who are winning’
NEW BEDFORD — While not yet feeling the force of new regulations, fishermen in Southern New England are worried about the effects the new regulations will have on their livelihoods this year. For those working the high seas, the new rules are causing problems.“The problem is that for fishermen it’s a black and white issue,” said Dr. Brian Rothschild, former Dean of the UMass School for Marine Science and Technology. “The regulations are grayer than fishermen need them to be.” continued@ojournal
