Tag Archives: nets

NOAA postpones controversial bottom trawling experiment in Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea

The project, called the Northern Bering Sea Effects of Trawling Study, or NETS, has been envisioned as an experiment to examine impacts of commercial bottom trawling in an area of the Bering Sea where it is currently banned. Bottom trawling is a method of fish harvesting that uses nets to sweep the seafloor. While it is prohibited in the Northern Bering Sea, the shift in fish populations caused by climate change may build pressure for bottom trawling there in the future, according to the study plan. The study has been designed as a multiyear project to start as early as this August. It was to be conducted by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service, also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service. News of the decision came in an emailed letter from Janet Coit, director of NOAA Fisheries, to tribal organizations that had expressed opposition to the project. more, >>click to read<< 09:52

Salmon and steelhead Band-Aids

Here we go again putting a Band-Aid over a sucking chest wound. Ask anyone who spends time on Washington and Idaho salmon and steelhead waters why the salmon and steelhead are declining and you will get a variation of answers. They will range from sea lions to dams to nets to birds to commercial fishing. by Kelly M. Colliton, >click to read< 09:43