Tag Archives: West Coast fisheries
Pacific salmon recovery report gives 32 recommendations to reverse declines
Wild salmon stocks are being affected by a range of impacts throughout their life cycle, which span from freshwater streams and rivers, to coastal ‘foreshore’ areas and deepwater marine environments, per the report. These threats include habitat degradation, impacts of flood control measures, predation, fishing activity, and threats of disease from fish farms. Based on these findings, the committee provided 32 recommendations to reverse salmon declines, which one witness, Richard Beamish, Scientist Emeritus at DFO’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, calls the “international Pacific salmon emergency.” >click to read< 07:58
Californians urge Gov Newsom pause in Delta Tunnel planning during Coronavirus crisis
The state of California is continuing ahead with plans for the Delta Tunnel, a project to divert more water from Northern California for San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and Southern California water agencies, in spite of the COVID 19 global pandemic. Fishermen, Tribal leaders, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, scientists, many elected leaders, family farmers, Delta business owners and the general public oppose the construction of the environmental and economic damage it will cause to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, West Coast fisheries and the people of California. Dan Bacher reports, >click to read< 17:37
Fishing licences and quota on the West Coast are murky business
Being a commercial fish harvester is tough work. There are long hours, unpredictable seas and demanding physical conditions, not to mention the experience it takes to know where to drop the traps or cast a net..,, In the West Coast fisheries, a single licence may be exchanged for tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and quota transactions are worth tens of millions of dollars annually. However, the market for licences and quota is not transparent or tightly regulated.,,, As licences and quota concentrate in fewer hands they become out of reach for active harvesters. In turn, the socioeconomic fabric of Indigenous and coastal communities stretches and strains. A recent study by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans comes to similar conclusions. >click to read<16:31
Analysis of Commercial Fishing Licence, and Quota Values – As at December 31, 2016 Prepared for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Region >click to read<
Quit blaming the commercial fishermen
The recent letter by Gary Mills from Terrace on the Department of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO) management of the West Coast fisheries (B.C. getting East-Coast treatment) is misinformed and disrespectful to the hundreds of men and women working in the commercial fishing industry on the North Coast. Through 10 years working as a biologist, fisheries observer and commercial fisher on both the East and West Coast, my experience has been much different. First, casting blame solely on commercial fishing for declining fish stocks is not fair. >click to read<14:46
Book Review – Rough Waters: Our North Pacific Small Fishermen’s Battle
What it’s about: A commercial fisherman looks at the threats facing West Coast small-boat fishermen, including ecological changes, weak management, and pushback from industrial fishing. As a result, some fishing families and towns — and businesses that rely on them — struggle to stay afloat. The book presents the issue in two parts. The first analyzes state-managed West Coast fisheries vs. federally managed fisheries. Mendenhall goes on to compare the industry in the United States with other parts of the world, examining the destruction she contends is wrought by the strategy of “catch-share” management. Read the story here 15:09
‘Warm blob’ in Pacific Ocean linked to weird weather across the US
