Daily Archives: December 27, 2018

Sea lion bill signed into law by President Trump

Legislation that allows the lethal taking of sea lions that prey on at-risk fish populations on the Columbia River and select tributaries in Washington, Oregon and Idaho has been signed into law by President Donald Trump. The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., makes slight changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which lays out prohibitions for killing marine mammals, and institutes a permit process for the lethal taking of sea lions. Permit holders are legally allowed to kill sea lions that are part of a population and/or stock that is not classified as being depleted or at risk.>click to read<20:41

Littering charge against owner of Provincetown dragger dismissed

A charge of littering against the owner of the Artemis, the defunct fishing vessel that sat on the Provincetown West End breakwater for months earlier this year, was dismissed in Orleans District Court earlier this month due to “insufficient evidence.” John Christiansen, 54, of West Yarmouth was charged by Provincetown police in June, after he failed to remove the 42-foot-long steel hulled ship off the breakwater where it had lodged during a storm. >click to read<18:40

Work continues on federal plan for Cook Inlet salmon

More than two years after a court ruling ordered the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to develop a management plan for the Cook Inlet salmon fishery, a stakeholder group has made a first set of recommendations. The council convened a Cook Inlet Salmon Committee last year composed of five stakeholders to meet and offer recommendations before the council officially amends the Fishery Management Plan, or FMP, for the drift gillnet salmon fishery in Upper Cook Inlet, which occurs partially in federal waters. >click to read<15:13

Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 45′ Millenium Marine Tuna/Longline

Specifications, information and 22 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >click here< Vessel cruises at 10 – 12 knots and 18 – 20 knots WOT. New L/P mini super spool 22 mile longline reel, beeper buoys available for additional $20,000. 14:20

Russell Wangersky – Farmed Salmon: Left behind

It sometimes feels that we’re perpetually jumping onto a ship just about the same time as everyone else is abandoning it. And nowhere does it seem more like that than in the aquaculture business. As the plans steamroller ahead for a new massive Placentia Bay open pen Atlantic salmon project with the provincial government (and key regulator) fully onside, it’s hard to ignore that many others are moving in the other direction. In the state of Washington, a large-scale fish escape saw that state announce a ban on Atlantic salmon pen farming and a wind-down of existing operations. (The salmon aquaculture business in Washington is back under the microscope this month after 800,000 juvenile salmon had to be destroyed because they were found to be carrying a strain of Piscine orthoreovirus, which is dangerous for wild stocks of salmon.) >click to read<