Tag Archives: State of Washington
NCLA Challenges WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife’s Illegal 24-Hour Surveillance of Crabbing Boats
The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a lawsuit against the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Electronic Monitoring Program using GPS technology to constantly track the location and movements of every state-licensed boat that fishes for Coastal Dungeness Crab, whether they are crabbing or not. The Department sustains the program by forcing fishermen to pay for electronic monitoring systems that they must install on their boats or else face criminal sanctions. Representing local crab fishing boat Captains Sara Franey, Brent Young and Mark Young, NCLA asks the Washington Superior Court to stop this unconstitutional surveillance regime, which does not improve upon cheaper, less intrusive existing methods for monitoring crab stocks. links, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 18:05
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<
State investigators focus on nets plugged with mussels in Atlantic salmon net-pen failure
Investigators probing the collapse of an Atlantic salmon farm that sent 160,000 invasive fish into the Salish Sea last summer are examining mussels and other sea life coating the nets as cause. Photographs obtained by The Seattle Times under a public records request show portions of the nets at Cooke’s farm were so fouled with kelp, algae and especially mussels that the net was no longer visible.,, Cooke is required under the terms of its lease with the state to maintain its farms in a clean and safe condition. >click here to read< 21:10
Herrera Beutler seeks aid, additional funding for declared fishery disasters
Members of Congress from the state of Washington are asking the Office of Management and Budget to provide additional funding for declared fishery disasters statewide. Led by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, and Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Artondale, 10 members of the state’s congressional delegation sent a letter to OMB Director Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday asking him to approve their request for supplemental appropriations, specifically for Washington’s commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries. click here to read the story 07:46
Washington State loses major legal battle, might pay up to $2B to save salmon
Washington state lost a major legal battle Friday, which could force it spend nearly $2 billion to restore salmon habitat by removing barriers that block fish migration. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year affirmed a lower court’s 2013 ruling ordering the state to fix or replace hundreds of culverts — large pipes that allow streams to pass beneath roads but block migrating salmon. Idaho and Montana joined Washington state in asking the appeals court to reconsider the case. The court declined to do so Friday, but several judges dissented from that decision, saying it should be reconsidered because of its significance. “This is a win for salmon, treaty rights and everyone who lives here,” Lorraine Loomis, chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, said in a statement. The group represents 21 tribes in western Washington that challenged the state over the culverts in 2001, part of decades-long litigation over tribal fishing rights. click here to read the story 10:34
