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Summary for February 26 - March 3, 2007:

Alaska: Pollution Fine Seals Demise of Small Packing Plant

NINILCHIK –Deep Creek Custom Packing shut down in December after agreeing to a pollution fine that, while small by federal standards, was the ‘last straw’ in a business that had scraped by since the 1990s, owner Jeff Berger said. His offense: dumping cod heads at the mouth of the Ninilchik River, where they washed along the beaches near the town's harbor.

Berger has put the small plant up for sale, blaming an increase in government scrutiny along with years of marginal salmon markets. The ultimate insult to Berger was that he had to pay $10,500 for what he thought was environmentally benign, if not beneficial.

'Fish waste is not toxic. It's food,' Berger said. 'It's a natural nitrogen cycle.'

The federal government requires dumped fish waste to be ground into half-inch bits, and state regulators say Berger blatantly ignored that rule.

Anchorage Daily News

Alaska: Frozen Meat Tube Fighters Reconcile

UNALASKA – Two warehouse employees, who sustained minor injuries after attacking each other with a five-pound tube of frozen hamburger last week, have apparently made up – at least in the eyes of the law.

Both men received minor welts after hitting each other in the head with the frozen meat during the fight, which stemmed from an argument at the Peterkin Distributors warehouse, according to the Department of Public Safety. Officers responded to the incident.

Both men have decided to not press a complaint against the other and authorities report they have reconciled.

KIAL

NOAA Web Page Outlines MSA

NOAA Fisheries has created a new Web page for materials related to the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). The page currently contains a draft "redline" version of the new MSA, as well as statements and press releases related to the reauthorization. The site will be revised regularly to include fact sheets, notices of upcoming public comment periods, and updates on MSA implementation. The address is: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/msa2007.

NOAA

Alaska: Alaska Exports Grow in 2006

Juneau – Governor Sarah Palin announced the value of Alaska's exports grew to a record-high $4 billion in 2006, a 12.6% increase.

In 2006, the value of Alaska's seafood exports topped $2bn for the first time, a 2.8% increase from the previous year. Although Alaska seafood exports to Japan declined 12.3%, Japan is still the state's single largest seafood market at $725mn. Alaska seafood exports to other countries include an 8.4% increase to Korea to $356mn, a 33.7% increase to China to $323mn, and a 24.1% increase to Germany to $202mn.

Alaska's 10-year trend toward diversification of international seafood markets continues. In 2006, Asian markets accounted for $1.5bn of Alaska's seafood export value and Europe accounted for $461mn. Ten years ago, Asia accounted for almost all of the state's seafood exports.

Office of the Governor

Video Showcases Octopus Love

For a male cyanea octopus, finding a mate is all about showing a little "leg."

From sniffing the water for female pheromones to baring their suckers to scare off potential rivals, the creatures must make good use of their eight appendages for a chance to reproduce.

Watch a tense standoff between two competing males, and see the victor learn the harsh lesson that getting a female's attention isn't the same as keeping it.

View the video.

National Geographic Digital Media

Alaska: Northern Dynasty Ignores Pending Legislation

As conversations and bills regarding the future of the Bristol Bay watershed pervade Juneau, Northern Dynasty Minerals remains steadfast in their pursuit to develop the extremely rich mineral deposits across Cook Inlet.

Amid the controversy, Northern Dynasty CEO Ronald Thiessen announced Feb 20 that new reports confirm the Pebble East prospect as "one of the world's most important copper-gold-molybdenum deposits.”

And as exploratory drilling continues, Northern Dynasty intends to send a message that it clearly does not approve of legislation in the works.

House Bill 134, proposed by Rep. Bryce Edgmon D-Dillingham has a different focus than Kodiak Sen. Gary Stevens' Jay Hammond Refuge bill. Edgmon said it could make it illegal, with commonsense exemptions, to withdraw, obstruct, pump or pollute surface or subsurface water in any Bristol Bay drainage that support salmon,

including the five major river runs. It also lays out a schedule of fines for violating these protections.

The headwaters of the Bristol Bay contain the most pristine trout fishing in North America, and the region is home to the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Edgmon quoted the 2006 ISER Study of the economics of the Bristol Bay watershed, which has an estimated net economic value of the area between $110.9 and $185.6 million per year. Those figures take into account the commercial salmon fishery, subsistence harvest, sport fisheries, sport hunting, wildlife viewing and tourism.

The estimated dollar value of the Pebble Mine prospect is in the $200-billion range.

The Jay Hammond State Fish and Wildlife Refuge bill, which would create a wild life refuge on Bristol Bay, remains in committee meetings so far. As of yet, no hearing has been scheduled.

Sean Magee, Vice President of Public Affairs for Northern Dynasty, said the proposed Jay Hammond refuge and House Bill 134 are both intended to thwart the Pebble project efforts, despite published comments made by legislators.

Homer Tribune

Lack of Data Impedes Industry Growth

Lack of information about one of Alaska's largest labor sectors is hampering efforts by fisheries-dependent communities to influence public policymaking, build infrastructure and grow local economies, according to a report commissioned by the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference (SWAMC).

The report, written by Northern Economics Inc, outlines ways to improve collection and reporting of Alaska's seafood harvesting labor data.

Wanetta Ayers, former SWAMC executive director, said the lack of thorough and timely labor data for crew members has been a stumbling block for fisheries policymakers, fisheries-dependent communities, the fishing industry and the crew members themselves.

The project report, “Improving Seafood Harvesting Labor Data,” also cites individuals' and communities' inability to readily access federal programs and grant funds that are available to workers in other industries and communities with a more diverse economic base.

A complete copy of the report can be downloaded from www.swamc.org.

- Alaska Journal of Commerce

Oregon: Year Round Warning Light Nixed by Coast Guard

GOLD BEACH – On Tuesday the Curry County Commissioners discussed a letter from the Coast Guard that refused their request to leave a warning light at the Port of Gold Beach year round. Currently the light is removed in October when the Coast Guard leaves for the winter.

Commissioner Lucie La Bonté said people have been killed and they may need to go to a higher level of authority to resolve the situation.

"The Curry County Board of Commissioners was saddened by the recent deaths on the Rogue River Bar on Saturday Dec. 16, 2006 of the commercial fishermen aboard the new boat ‘Ash,'" said the letter to Admiral Thad W. Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard. "The deaths over the weekend were commercial fishermen. With the recent storm and the high levels of the Rogue River a warning light could have saved these lives."

"While the lights may provide commercial vessel operators with additional awareness of potentially hazardous bar conditions, the regulations and statutes ... do not apply to the operation of most commercial vessels," said the return letter from Rear Admiral Craig E. Bone, assistant commandant for prevention. "As such, even if the hazardous bar lights had been illuminated the day the F/V ASH capsized, the bar would not have been restricted to a commercial fishing vessel such as the F/V ASH. "

He told the commission that their request to operate the lights at Rogue River from a remote location by using cameras or by coordinating with someone who is in the area conflicted with Coast Guard procedures.

- The Daily Triplicate

10th Annual Fisher Poets Gathering

More than 60 performers took the stage at the 10th annual Fisher Poets Gathering in Astoria over the weekend.

The poets laid bare the trials of life at sea and toasted the triumphs. At the Liberty, Columbian and River theaters, the VooDoo Room and the Wet Dog, hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the wisdom gleaned from old boats, big hauls and high seas.

Knappa poet "Dangerous Dave" Densmore, who has taken center stage for the fisher poets over the last 10 years, said the atmosphere is especially comforting for workers in an industry that has been plagued by consolidation, government controls, and bad press.

- The Daily Astorian

Scotland: Salmon Farm Intends 500% Increase in Production; Others Cry Foul

Scotland's fish farming industry has been accused of playing Russian roulette with wild salmon after one company said it wanted to expand production by more than 500%.

Migdale Smolt, which produces smolts for the salmon farming industry, has applied to increase its fish production from 30 to 160 tons a year.

Angling interests are calling for the farm to be relocated as the fragile peace between the farmed and wild sectors appears to be under pressure again.

In recent years relations had improved through the development of local area management agreements. These have led to an increase in the number of adult fish returning to the rivers covered by local agreements.

But now Scotland's wild salmon interests, including the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards, the Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland, the Atlantic Salmon Trust and the Salmon and Trout Association (Scotland), have expressed their opposition to an application to more than quintuple the size of a fish farm on Loch Shin in Sutherland. One representative said the company was “playing Russian Roulette with wild salmon” in the area.

- The Herald of Scotland

Washington: New U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty in the Works

Parts of the Pacific Salmon Treaty that defused U.S.-Canada hostilities and ended talk of a salmon war is set to expire at the end of next year.

A new treaty could be key to the effort to revive endangered wild salmon stocks on both sides of the border, particularly Puget Sound and Columbia River chinook runs.

In 1994, the Canadian government announced a $1,500 fee on U.S. fishing boats headed to Alaska through British Columbia’s “inside passage.” In the United States, there was talk of assessing an oil pollution levy on Canadian tankers transiting the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Three years later, some 200 Canadian fishing vessels blockaded the Alaskan ferry Malaspina as it tried to leave the harbor at Prince Rupert. Some Canadians were also threatening to cancel the U.S. Navy’s lease of a torpedo test range off Vancouver Island.

“Many of us remember what happened in the past and we don’t want to go down that road again,” said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and one of four U.S. members of the Pacific Salmon Commission.

Negotiations began in earnest earlier this month in Portland, OR. U.S. officials said preliminary talks had been constructive, though they warned it won’t be easy to secure a new treaty given the complexities involved.

- The Bellingham Herald

Oregon: PNW Sea Lions Continue to Poach Endangered Salmon

GOLD BEACH – The Port of Gold Beach has had its problems with sea lions, but Port Director Don Flynn has no plans to ask federal authorities for permission to kill the ocean animals that prey on salmon and discourage tourists who come to fish.

Flynn said the sea lions are a problem because they make fishing, or landing fish, very difficult and do damage to the docks.

Last month, Washington, Oregon and Idaho formally asked NOAA Fisheries Service for permission to permanently remove California sea lions from the Columbia River, including killing them, because they were having a "significant negative impact" on populations of salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act.

As part of the steps called for in the Marine Mammal Protection Act that could lead to NOAA Fisheries granting the states their request, the agency has told the states it had formally accepted their application and was starting a process that will include setting up a special task force.

The federal agency is also asking for public comment on the states' application and information on sea lion predation of salmon at Bonneville Dam.

Actions taken to discourage sea lions from the mouth of the Rogue River are working, at least for now.

- The (Crescent City) Daily Triplicate

Ohio: The Birth of the McDonald’s Fish Sandwich

CINCINNATI - In 1962, Lou Groen was desperate to save his floundering hamburger restaurant, the first McDonald's in the Cincinnati area.

His customers were mainly Catholics, who used to abstain from meat every Friday, not just during Lent, a 40-day period of repentance.

His solution: He created a sandwich that would eventually be consumed at a rate of 300 million a year: the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish.

That led to a wager between Groen and McDonald's chief Ray Kroc, who put his own meatless alternative, a pineapple sandwich, up against Groen’s new fish sandwich. They offered both at the restaurant one day, and Groen sold the most, which meant his sandwich went permanently on the menu.

But the chain compelled Groen to modify the fish recipe.

Groen, now 89, said halibut was in the original recipe, but the chain’s demand for low pricing compelled him to go with the less expensive Atlantic cod, a whitefish, and he added a slice of cheese. He still prefers the halibut.

- The Associated Press

Florida: Fish Fraud Revealed

Last year, The New York Times revealed that most of the “wild” salmon sampled in that city was actually farmed. Consumers Reports discovered the same thing.

Now the spotlight has turned to Florida. The target: Grouper. Turns out, much of the high-priced “grouper” sold is actually farm pond catfish from Vietnam.

Local media has had a field day ordering “grouper” from restaurants and sending samples off to a DNA testing outfit. (It costs about $150. Want more info? Check the next issue of Wild Catch magazine.)

To see what one Pensacola television station found, view the video.

- Ed

Port Officials Seek EDA Funding for Barge Facility

PORT ANGELES - Port officials will pursue federal grant funding to study as well as possibly design and build a barging pier for wood chips - possibly used by Port Townsend Paper Corp.

Port of Port Angeles commissioners unanimously agreed at Monday's meeting to pursue the funding from the federal Economic Development Administration.

Commissioner Bill Hannan of Sequim said he and Bob McChesney, the port's executive director, recently met in Seattle with federal Economic Development Administration officials.

EDA officials said grant funding was available for not just feasibility studies for a barging pier for wood chip barges but also designing and building one, he said.

McChesney said the port has been actively trying to develop a barge facility, including two studies of the idea.

- Port Angeles Peninsula Daily News

Alaska: Federal Halibut Charter-Catch Restrictions Unpopular

Since the International Pacific Halibut Commission chose to restrict charter-caught halibut along the coast of Alaska, charter operators have been feeling jilted as their business becomes more regulated. At the same time, commercial fishermen see the recent action to limit charter catch as part of the process to becoming as regulated as their industry is, and see the issue as one of conservation.

The charter halibut bag limit, once signed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, rolls back to one per day from June 15 to 30 in Southcentral Alaska, and from June 15 to July 31 for Southeast Alaska.

To address how the commission came to the decision, its executive director, Bruce Leaman, spoke at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center on Saturday to answer complaints and explain the process.

Since the decision was made, the Homer City Council heard testimony Feb. 12 from charter operators saying their livelihood was at stake, and would-be visitors are canceling booked trips and swearing off the sport.

Meanwhile, commercial fishermen said the issue is a conservational one, and since charters have been surpassing the guideline harvest level, the commission is right to intervene with a different method of management.

Leaman said the commission is restricted in managing the stocks in that the North Pacific Fishery Management Council actually makes the decisions on sport, commercial and subsistence allocations. He said the commission

made its limiting decision because the council would not limit the 2008 charter take.

He also said that the harvest policy is an evolving one, taking into consideration the pacific decadal oscillation, a pattern of ocean climate, as well as otolith chemistry.

Once a catch is exceeded, Leaman said it is up to the council to take an action to adjust its target catch, and limit the by-catch mortality rate.

Still, some charter operators wanted to know just how the commission could justify becoming involved. Leaman replied that such an argument belongs in front of the council — not the commission.

Anyone wanting to address the council may do so at its March 26 meeting at the Anchorage Hilton.

Leaman also spoke about recent halibut stock assessments and the methodology behind those assessments.

The commission's decision employed a new approach to assessing the stocks. For the last 20 years, an independent estimation of the biomass from each regulatory area was made. The new suggested method takes account of the stock as a "single coast-wide unit," which was chosen because it acknowledges new information from tagging programs and shows greater levels of movement by adult fish than previously believed. This information then becomes part of the 2007 stock assessment. The tagging effort started in 2003 with 43,999 fish tagged.

According to the commission staff, the total stock biomass is about the same as the sum of that from the traditional regulatory assessment. However, the new methodology was considered too narrow, and the commission advised its staff to use additional methods. These methods include more dialogue with fishermen and other assessments, a staff explanation reads.

That brought the examination to use the area "constant exploitation yield," and corresponding catch limits. The commission adopted a catch limit of 1.11 million pounds, or 1.67 percent lower than what staff calculated. The fishery yield is determined by subtracting other removals from the total. The commission staff then applies a slow-up/fast-down algorithm to the fishery yield to create a catch limit recommendation, which can be more or less than the yield.

Slow-up is applied if the year's fishery yield is greater than the last year's commercial catch limit. Fast-down is applied if this year's fishery is less than last year's commercial catch limit, as summarized by Rex Murphy of the Alaska Charter Association.

Leaman said the constant exploitable yield takes net migration and out-migration in the coastline assessment into account. That means that even if fish are moving, they're counted.

On the commercial side of halibut, the commission completed its 83rd annual meeting in Victoria, B.C., and is recommending to the governments of Canada and the United States that catch limits for 2007 total 65.1 million pounds. That is a 6.7 percent decrease from the 2006 catch limit of 69.9 million pounds. Area 3A, however, sees a total allowable catch of 26.2 million pounds this year, up 1 million from last year. There are 200 individual fishing quota permits held in the Homer area, which totals 5 million pounds of allowed halibut take.

The Homer Tribune

Canada: Quatse River Hatchery Seeks Funding for Improvements

PORT HARDY - A $100,000 grant from the new Towns for Tomorrow program is being sought to help fund $850,000 in improvements to Quatse River Hatchery.

The Northern Vancouver Island Salmon Enhancement Association (NVISEA) would like to replace aging office facilities at the Quatse Hatchery and expand operations to include a salmon interpretive center, laboratories and a classroom, according to a letter NVISEA chair Grant Anderson wrote to the council.

The hatchery association “is asking if council will consider making application through the recently announced Towns for Tomorrow program for $100,000 toward the project,” says Anderson. “NVISEA is prepared to provide the District of Port Hardy with the required local contribution.”

NVISEA board member Brian Welchman came to answer any questions from council. “The grant application requires a $20,000 local contribution and we (NVISEA) would contribute it for the District,” he said. “The District would only be responsible for the accounting on the $100,000.”

Mayor Hank Bood spoke for the proposal. “This is a big project, a good project that’s being done by volunteers,” he said. “We can only apply once per year for Towns for Tomorrow, but this is the only one that can be ready in time.”

The project currently has $224,000 in grants already approved, says Welchman.

- Port Hardy (B.C.) North Island Gazette

Hawaii: Hawaii Bottomfish stocks in bad shape

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council says Hawaii bottomfish stocks are "in worse shape than previously determined" and need more action than proposed before now.

The council said that it had been pushing for a 15% reduction in "fishery-related bottomfish mortality" but the council now feels a 24% reduction is necessary.

Last year the council proposed a four-month seasonal closure of state-controlled waters, from the coast to the three-mile territorial limit.

When Hawaii state officials declined to do that, the council asked the U.S. secretary of commerce to close bottomfish grounds in federal waters between Oahu and Molokai, and northwest of Kauai.

- Ed

Hawaii: Runoff killing coral, urchins, off Kohala Coast

State officials are investigating who's responsible for Big Island runoff that killed coral, urchins, mollusks and other marine life off the Kohala Coast.

The debris — which includes corrugated roofing, hand-cut trees and green waste — is more than a foot deep in some places and extends for a three-mile stretch from Honokoa Gulch to Pohakuloa Gulch.

William Walsh, an aquatic biologist for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources, said the Kohala Coast is very vulnerable and that the natural drainage system was somehow compromised. He said there was nothing to absorb the run off, such as vegetation, and that these accumulated minor changes can have catastrophic results.

Low-lying coral in the area is covered by a layer of filamentous algae, which traps the finer sediment. The sediment also smothered mollusks, worms and urchins.

Walsh said the fish can relocate to nearby areas but other marine life couldn't escape.

The reef has an amazing ability to regenerate and may clean out in about five years, but each event like this reduces the reef ability to respond, Walsh said.

A preliminary investigation conducted by the Department of Health's Clean Water Branch said blocked culverts in Puu Kalalii and Keawewai Gulch could be responsible for the runoff.

The Advertiser, Honolulu

Canada: Fish Farm Sea Lice Implicated in Wild Salmon Infections

For the first time in Canada, scientists have used data from the world's largest aquaculture company to draw a link between sea lice from Atlantic salmon on British Columbia fish farms and soaring infection rates in wild salmon migrating nearby.

After an infestation caused the near collapse of wild spring salmon stocks in the Broughton Archipelago in 2002, Craig Orr, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, collected information from the Norwegian company Marine Harvest on sea lice at its fish farms in the region.

Dr. Orr, also the science co-ordinator for the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, said 3.6 million wild salmon were predicted to return to the Broughton in 2002, but only 147,000 fish returned- a 97% crash that only effected Broughton.

Dr. Orr also studied a sea lice action plan brought in by the provincial government after the collapse -- the only time any such plan to curb sea lice population growth has occurred in B.C. -- in his search for growth patterns in the parasite's demographics. The results were published last week in an article for the North American Journal of Fisheries Management.

Dr. Orr discovered that 12 active, open net-cage farms in the Broughton, which is composed of dozens of islands between the B.C. mainland and the northern tip of Vancouver Island, contained between one and five

million Atlantic salmon and produced billions of lice eggs over an 18-month period in 2003 and 2004. Louse-egg production peaked during late winter in both years, just before the seaward migration of juvenile wild salmon.

His article confirms that when lice-egg production was reduced by early harvesting of farmed salmon, infections on wild juvenile salmon near the farms declined dramatically.

- The Globe and Mail, Toronto

Alaska: Halibut charter take ruling on hold

Commercial halibut fishermen were waiting on Thursday for the next act in the drama over sports charter catches in Southeast and south-central Alaska.

Uncertainty arose after officials in Washington, D.C., declined to approve a catch reduction plan issued in January by the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

“We’re just waiting now,” said Kathy Hansen, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Fishermen’s Alliance.

“It’s up to NMFS now. They have to implement regulations that are equivalent or more restrictive than the IPHC,” she told Pacific Fishing.

The director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, William Hogarth, told the Anchorage Daily News that his agency would take several days to come up with new regulations.

Hogarth’s agency was handed the matter after the Department of Commerce — which includes NMFS — and the State Department declined to approve the halibut commission’s decision cutting the charter catch.

Earlier, in December, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council declined to act in the matter, sending the controversy to the halibut commission.

The halibut commission’s plan would have limited charter fishermen to one fish in certain times and in certain areas. The scheme would have gone into effect this summer.

International Whale Meeting Could be Whale of a Fight

Hundreds of international delegates and journalists are expected in Anchorage in May for a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, and locals might just see a whale-sized fight break out.

The issue is whether Alaska's North Slope and St. Lawrence Island Eskimos can continue to hunt and kill small numbers of endangered bowhead whales.

Japan wants the United States and other nations to consent to the harvest of minke whales by some of its coastal villagers, and the Japanese might try to muster enough votes to block Alaska whaling if it doesn't get its way, said William Hogarth, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

But the United States doesn't support what amounts to commercial whaling and will not go along with Japan, said Hogarth, who will chair the IWC meeting.

California: Coast Guard looks for drug smugglers, finds turtle

It as not what the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Boutwell out of Alameda usually encounters as it patrols the Eastern Pacific, searching for drug traffickers.

On Monday, five sea turtles were found tangled in fishing nets amid a twisted ball of plastic netting.

The sailors freed the turtles after finding them.

The crew also cleaned up the plastic debris, which included about 10 plastic bottles. Under federal law it's illegal for any vessel to dump plastic into any waters.

"They saw the bottles bobbing in the water and then they found the turtles," Petty Officer Brian Leshak said Monday. "It's not something the crew look for. But they do have authority to stop and rescue them."

The species of turtle also was not available.

The rescue comes in the wake of the Morgenthau, another Coast Guard cutter home-ported in Alameda, seized cocaine worth more than $50 million on the street during a similar patrol of the Eastern Pacific in December.

The seizure happened when the crew came across the smugglers dumping more than 4,000 pounds of the substance into the ocean.

- Contra Costa Times

Florida: Alligator bites man

LAKELAND - Adrian J. Apgar was relaxing at a favorite quiet spot before work when his life changed last November.

The Polk City man told police that he'd come to sit on a rock near the bank of Lake Parker many times before the morning of Nov. 29, when an alligator emerged from the shallow water and attacked him.

Nearly three months after the attack, Apgar, 45, remains at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Gary Morse, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said Monday.

Trappers captured a 12-foot-2-inch alligator a few hours after the attack at Lake Parker County Park, and Morse said officials were reasonably sure it was the one that bit Apgar.

However, over the next three days, three more alligators were trapped and killed after the wildlife agency received reports that they were being fed. Alligators that are given food by humans overcome their natural fear and learn to associate humans with food.

Necropsies concluded that none of the animals had human remains in their stomachs.

"We weren't necessarily expecting to find something," Morse said. "They don't always swallow what they've got."

The report said Apgar told emergency workers and medical personnel shortly after the attack that he had smoked methamphetamine and fallen asleep before he was attacked.

The gator grabbed him below the waist and dragged him into the water. It briefly released him, only to bite onto his right arm. Then, it clamped onto Apgar's left arm and began to roll, which mostly tore the arm off except for a few tendons.

Witnesses called police and Polk County sheriff's deputies pulled him from the water.

Apgar’s left arm had to be amputated above the elbow, his right forearm was fractured, and several chunks from his side and buttocks were bitten off, along with other puncture wounds and injuries.

Washington: Pollock Roe Auction Continues Downward Trend

SEATTLE - The auction for DAP frozen pollock roe started in Seattle on Feb. 22 Japan time.

On the first day of the auction, participants reacted calmly to the offers from at-sea factory ships, mother ships and land-based plants, with prices standing lower than last year. Thus, the downward trend of recent years continued.

From the second day, however, some dealers posed to buy actively in a turnaround from their wait-and-see posture on the first day. Auction sources say this move pushed up the prices.

Some sources participating in the auction prices as a whole were ¥100-200 lower than the first round last year, with those from CP boats staying in the order of ¥1400-1500 and those from land plants at around ¥1,000.

However, as dealers, who stood on the sidelines, made contracts in 'test buying' with an unexpected ease, buyers who are not mired with inventories at high prices, posed to buy positively.

- BANR JAPAN REPORTS