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Alaska: Alaskan argues against rationalization
Crab rationalization’s harms on the coastal communities of Alaska were enormous. More than 1,000 deckhands lost seasonal paychecks and local businesses that depend upon a vibrant coastal fishery lost considerable revenues. Some even shuttered their doors, because corporate privatization of a public resource was the last special-interest serving straw.
For two years, to little avail, the crewmembers, affected businesses and municipalities gathered facts, gave public comments at regional fish council meetings, and pointed out the economic instability that resulted. They also outlined the negative effects on other aspects of fishing, from fleet consolidation to coercive monopoly pricing.
So, if you’ve been waiting for a forum where a difference might be made, it arrives during the week of March 26, at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Anchorage. On the agenda is an 18-month program review.
In February 2004, councilman Ed Rasmuson’s motion passed, directing staff to prepare this analysis to examine the effects of the 90 percent A-share (processor specific) and 10 percent B-share (open market) split; and to analyze the binding arbitration program (between catch vessels and processors) on the distribution of benefits between harvesters and processors in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands fisheries.
The council is to consider whether the 90/10 split and arbitration program are having their intended effects, and whether some other A/B split – 70/30, or even 50/50 – is appropriate. Why not 100 percent open, with measures to allow crab to come to Kodiak and create jobs?
Council action in April 2006 clarified the upcoming review also concerns application of the A/B share split and regionalization to captain and crew shares. Dollars that might flow back home once again. Please contact your local fishermen and come to Anchorage to make a difference.
Details are on the council Web site.
- Stephen Taufen
Canada: A New Fishery: Gooseneck Barnacles
Percebes are a shellfish with a long, soft body like the neck of a goose, hard shells at the top, and a 'foot' at the bottom that attaches them to rocks. They only grow on rocks exposed to heavy surf, and only grow in several parts of the world. They are highly sought after as a rare delicacy, savored for their lovely texture and flavor, which is somewhat like crab or lobster.The percebes fishery is an experimental community-based fishery operating under sustainability guidelines. It is managed by the Westcoast Aquatic Management Board, which is the first Board of its kind in Canada mandated to use an integrated, ecosystem-based approach.
Harvesting occurs on rocks in the intertidal zone which are pounded heavily by surf. It is challenging for harvesters, both to get from a boat on to rocks, and then to harvest without being swept by the surf. Supply is sometimes interrupted for periods of time where there are either poor tides or poor weather.
Harvesters are 80% First Nations and 20% other residents of small coastal communities. They use a selective harvesting tool that takes small bouquets of percebes of a certain size range, leaving younger and older percebes to re-populate the small harvested patch. Percebes are harvested live and remain live for extended periods of time. Harvesters take care to wet-store and clean the percebes after harvest and before sale/processing.
Harvesters knowledge is used to assess the abundance and regeneration rates of rocks. If the abundance of percebes reaches a 'trigger' limit for a rock, the rock is closed until fully regenerated. Biological monitoring and assessments are also employed in the fishery to ensure proper management. Harvesters place tags in their harvest bags that outline the rock where the percebes were picked. Landings and sales are validated, and weights are written down at processing plants and export certificates. This allows the product to be tracked from rock of origin to export.
- West Coast Vancouver Island Aquatic Management Board
Oregon: Lower Columbia Not Ready for Big Gas Tankers
The Columbia River is not ready to receive liquefied natural gas tankers, according to the US Coast Guard.The Coast Guard's long-awaited Waterway Suitability Report, released Mar 1, explains all the changes and additional resources that would be needed before LNG tankers could safely cross the bar and travel 38 miles upriver to the proposed Bradwood Landing facility.
The report, six pages of which have been made public, addresses many questions North Coast residents have about how LNG would change life on the Columbia River.
But the report does not say who will cover the costs of making the river LNG-ready.
And while the resource gaps identified in the Coast Guard's report will have to be filled before LNG tankers can enter the river system, the required changes might not take place until after the Bradwood Landing project receives federal approval.
To ensure safe and secure navigation, LNG tankers will need to have Coast Guard escort boats and firefighting tugs close by at all times; other vessels on the river will need authorization to enter a 500-yd moving security zone surrounding the tankers in the shipping channel; and a 200-yd security zone will be enforced while the tankers are berthed at the Bradwood Landing LNG receiving terminal at river mile 38.
Bradwood Landing is one of five companies proposing LNG terminals in Oregon and the farthest along in the federal approval process. The Coast Guard's WSR marks another major milestone for the project, which is being developed by Houston-based Northern Star Natural Gas Co.
Tribes Remember End of Celilo Falls
Jay Minthorn remembers watching the Columbia River rise, the islands of Celilo Falls vanish, the fishing platforms wash away—and a centuries-old way of tribal life vanish forever.The gates of The Dalles Dam had closed, and nothing would ever be the same.
"To me it was one of the biggest funerals that I ever attended. People were up there mourning, crying, everything,” says Minthorn, a member of the Umatilla Tribe who fished the falls as a young man.
He is 70 now. He was just 20 on March 10, 1957, when the dam pushed back the Columbia River to reap the benefits of hydroelectric power. In six hours the falls were gone forever beneath a mockingly tranquil reservoir pool.
The 50th anniversary of that moment is approaching.
"If you talk of Celilo to some Indian families you will get the door slammed in your face. It's still that painful," says Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
For 10,000 years or more, Columbia River Indians thrived on the abundant salmon churning through the falls to upriver spawning grounds. The falls provided a cultural identity, an abundant life, and, for centuries, a Western Wall Street where tribes from across the West, from Alaska, from the Plains, from the South came to trade salmon, shells, buffalo meat, obsidian, copper, roots, fur, blankets, canoes, slaves.
Beginning in the 1830s, gold seekers and early settlers forced the tribes out of the river valleys leading to the Columbia, and the tribes found a welcome among the Celilo on the Columbia. Treaties of 1855 then herded the Indians onto reservations after they signed away huge tracts of traditional lands and other wealth.
Some stayed on the river, but all members of the river tribes kept their fishing rights to the "usual and accustomed" places, and the falls remained known as "an Indian place."
But access to the "usual and accustomed" fishing areas, guaranteed by treaty but not well-defined, often was blocked by whites who had taken over land.
And murderously efficient fishing methods by non-Indian fishermen (such as fish traps and fish wheels, since outlawed) fed the voracious downriver salmon canneries.
Pollution and destruction of spawning grounds also played a role in reducing the salmon runs to a trickle of their historic highs. But dams were a major factor.
At the height, as many as 16 million salmon passed through the river. By 2006, only about 1 million adult salmon and steelhead heading upriver to spawn were counted at Bonneville Dam, the first of 14 dams on the Columbia.
Looking back, there was little the tribes could do to prevent the dam from being built. They argued for its placement where it would not bury the falls, but dam advocates stressed a need for cheap hydroelectric energy to power the aluminum smelters on the river. Bonneville Power Administration newsreels of the day presented the falls as a nuisance to river commerce and transportation and painted glowing images of the easy life of abundant, cheap electricity.
And so, the falls disappeared.
After considerable dickering, most members of the four tribes got about $3,750 each for the loss of their fishing place. Some refused the money, saying nothing could replace what was lost.
River towns, including Celilo, were relocated to allow for the rising reservoir.
Those who remained at Celilo got new homes, many built with "weathered" surplus World War II materials, in the new Celilo Village, said George Miller, Celilo Village project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
And it became a dreadful slum. Water pressure, residents said, was so low that sewage sometimes backed into the water pipes.
Minthorn, chairman of the Umatilla tribal confederation based near Pendleton, said non-Indian towns that were relocated got good-quality modern facilities. Not so Celilo, "because we were Indians. We were out of power."
- San Francisco Chronicle
Fisherman Get Voice in Wave Energy Debate
Lincoln County Commissioners Bill Hall, Terry Thompson, and Don Lindly unanimously approved an ordinance Feb 28 related to the siting of ocean wave energy facilities.It formalized the establishment of a 19-member advisory committee called Fishermen Involved in Natural Energy (FINE), and assigned the group two specific tasks - to develop a siting plan for wave energy projects off the Lincoln County shore, as far out as the Continental shelf, a distance of 12 miles; and to review any applications made for those projects. The commissioners appointed the panel of commercial and recreational fisheries representatives, chaired by retired Oregon State University Extension Sea Grant Agent Bob Jacobson, during their Feb 21 meeting.
More than 20 agencies, including the Oregon and federal departments of energy, back Oregon State University's initiative to establish a national Ocean Wave Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Center to create and test wave energy technologies.
U.S. Senator Gordon Smith supports the effort to establish the wave energy project along the Lincoln County coastline. He urged the federal commissioners to exercise as much flexibility as possible, telling them Oregon "is uniquely positioned to become the world's leader in wave energy technology," adding his hope that FERC will allow the state "to become a wave energy pioneer" and not hamper "the progress and promise of this renewable energy source."
After Wednesday's official designation of FINE, Thompson said the advisory committee provides commercial and recreational fishers with a unified voice in the wave energy siting process. Before this, no existing organization represented the entire range of local fishing interests. Thompson said it’s vital for fisheries and wave energy to co-exist.
- Newport (Ore.) News-Times
Alaska: Reports Reveal Extent of Cold War Whaling
KODIAK -- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists recently translated a collection of internal reports written by Soviet scientists working aboard factory whaling ships in the North Pacific during the Cold War. The reports shed light on why the population of the North Pacific Right Whale declined during the mid-20th Century. They may also give scientists some idea where to find the small populations of Right Whales still out there.The reports were written during a period when the Soviets were engaged in a massive worldwide campaign of illegal whaling. The period began in 1947 and continued until the International Whaling Commission began its Observer Program in 1972.
Phil Clapham, a researcher with NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle says the reports document the decline of several whale species.
Clapham says the government set annual targets for whale catches, but only paid crews a bonus if they exceeded those targets. Year after year, he says, the targets were increased to match the previous season’s catch.
The population of North Pacific Right Whales had already been depleted by 19th Century whaling. But Clapham says by 1963, it was showing signs of a slow recovery. That was virtually halted by extensive illegal whaling by Soviet ships in the mid-1960s, most of which took place in the southeastern Bering Sea and south of Kodiak.
Today, Clapham says you probably couldn’t even find a hundred Right Whales in the eastern North Pacific. He says NOAA will use the information gleaned from the Soviet reports to find historical areas where Right Whale populations might be.
- Casey Kelly, KMXT News, Kodiak
Alaska: Roger Rowland appointed to Unalaska City Council
UNALASKA, AK – Roger Rowland has been appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Unalaska City Council.The council voted 4-2 in favor of Rowland. He will complete Joanna Aldridge's term, which ends in October.
Rowland was one of three people to submit letters of interest for the position. He says he had considered running for council last October, but missed the filing deadline, and will put himself up for election this coming fall.
Rowland is a local machine shop owner and a fisherman, and has lived in Unalaska for two decades. He's also active in the soapbox derby, but otherwise hasn't been involved in running community organizations or local government in Unalaska.
Council member Juanita Lewis put forward the motion to appoint Rowland. She said his lack of experience in local politics was a strength in that it would bring a fresh perspective to the council.
- KIAL News
California: Good Samaritans Come to Aid of Fishing Vessel
EUREKA, CA -- The crew of The Second Wind fishing vessel nearly had to abandon ship Friday afternoon after a submerged log punctured its hull 7 miles off Patricks Point.The Coast Guard said it received a mayday call around 12:15 p.m. from the 37-foot boat that was taking on water.
A helicopter was launched about the same time good Samaritans from Trinidad came to the aid of the boat.
The helicopter was able to drop a pump to the boat and they were able to stabilize the hull breach.
A Coast Guard vessel was on its way to tow the fishing boat in to Humboldt Bay late Friday afternoon, according to the Coast Guard.
– The (Eureka) Times-Standard
California: Big Squid Off Laguna Beach
NEWPORT BEACH, CA --They're not quite sea monsters, but anglers here are landing squid nearly 6 feet long, far larger than a typical catch.One Newport Landing sport fishing boat came back Saturday with a load of squid that averaged 30 pounds each, and 5 feet in length.
A 4-pound squid is typical, but the largest in the catch weighed 50 pounds and was nearly 6 feet long.
"People were getting wet and trying to avoid getting inked," said Newport Landing manager Steffanie Hillerstein.
The boat was fishing the waters just south of Laguna Beach.
Anglers, using 10-inch long lures, needed nearly 10 minutes to land each of the large squid.
- San Francisco Chronicle
Oregon: Volunteer Whale Watchers Help Science, Whales
CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT - "We have people worldwide who plan their vacations to come and watch whales," Morris Grover with the Oregon State Parks Whale Watching Center at Depoe Bay told the crowd of about 30 at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center during the weekend.The group gathered to learn to “speak” whale watching. Each year, as gray whales pass just off the coast on the migration from Alaska to Baja, volunteers gather at 28 locations along the coast to count the whales and help others appreciate this rare mammal. The volunteers help scientists gather data to better protect the whales.
Grover said the Oregon coast is the best place in the world to watch for whales, probably Washington as well, but hard to tell as Washington has fewer sites than Oregon collecting data. Although there are peak times to spot whales, such as March when they are heading to Baja after feeding off the Alaska coast, gray whales have been seen here every month of the year.
Grover said in addition to whaling, pollution, ship strikes and noise endanger whales. In Puget Sound, male orcas are dying off because of the accumulation of toxins in their system. Generally a female's first calf is stillborn, and usually their second. Experts believe the pods there will soon be gone.
- Chinook (Wash.) Observer
Alaska: New Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy
Seasons are not what they once were in Alaska. Ice roads on Alaska's North Slope have a shorter lifespan than they had 30 years ago. The extent of sea ice hugging the northern coastlines gets smaller every year.These changes affect Alaskans and people who work in Alaska, and a few scientists just received funding to make climate science user-friendly for those people.
Is sea ice outside Shishmaref safe for travel? In a new program, Alaska scientists will try to take existing information from NOAA and make it more useful to everyday people.
Dan White, the head of the Institute of Northern Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said are no climate services that can help businesses predict what kind of ice to expect in five years off the coast of Alaska.
White, along with John Walsh of the International Arctic Research Center, Fran Ulmer of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at UAA, and Craig Gerlach of UAF's Department of Anthropology are among the scientists involved with a project to make National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration products more applicable to people affected by climate change in Alaska. They've teamed to create the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy.
- Ned Rozell, science writer at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Alaska: Alaskan Bridge Projects Resist Earmarks Purge
Long after Congress removed about $450 million in budget earmarks for two bridges in the Alaskan exurbs, the fight over whether to build them is not dead.Mocked as “bridges to nowhere” by critics who saw them as the epitome of Congressional excess, preparations for the projects have been slowly moving forward even as big questions remain over whether the bridges will be built.
When Congress removed the earmarks for the bridges in 2005, it still gave the state the money, but it allowed Alaskan officials to decide how to spend it. The state reserved about $200 million for the proposed bridges, far less than the construction costs but enough to show that there was serious intent to complete the projects.
Some environmental and planning work has already been done.
Supporters of one of the bridges, the Knik Arm Crossing, are expected to get the proposal included in Anchorage’s long-range city transportation plan in April.
The agency charged with building the bridge is courting private investors for a toll-driven, for-profit venture. If built, the Knik bridge could cost about $1 billion beyond the $110 million the project has received from Congress.
On the remote island of Gravina in southeast Alaska, construction is set to begin this summer on three and a half miles of roads intended to connect the island’s airport and its 50 residents to the other proposed bridge, a 200-foot-high arc over the Tongass Narrows to the city of Ketchikan.
Regardless of the ridicule about the bridges as a pork-barrel binge, there are political facts that have kept hope alive for those who believe the projects are necessary for Alaska to grow economically.
To direct the federal financing to other projects, for example, would require action by Gov. Sarah Palin, a Republican, and the State Legislature. It would also mean undoing the work of the powerful Congressional delegation, led by Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Don Young, both Republicans, who secured the money for the bridges.
- New York Times
Alaska: While not fishing, it’s a hot time in Alaska
ANCHORAGE -- Authorities on Tuesday were looking for a man who robbed a bank in Anchorage while swinging a flaming torch fashioned from a burning T-shirt and a yard-long metal pole.On Monday, the masked robber threatened to set fire to people, including the teller, and burn down the bank building in Fairview if his demands weren't met.
The man stormed the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union branch at about 3:45 p.m., said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez. He yelled at customers to get down on the floor.
He fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of money, authorities said, and all customers managed to flee the bank.
Police later recovered the still smoldering shirt outside the bank.
The robber is described as a black man in his late 20s, about 5-foot, 7-inches tall with a medium build. He was wearing a mask covering part of his face, a tan Carhartt jacket and gray sweatshirt, the FBI said.
Gonzalez said that in his more than 15 years at the FBI in Anchorage he could not recall a robber using a torch as a weapon.
- Alaska Daily News
Washington: Possible LNG Terminal at Cherry Point
BELLINGHAM -- For more than three years, Lummi Nation and a Colorado energy consulting firm have been involved in discussions with a variety of public agencies and private firms about possible construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal at Cherry Point.The prospective terminal would be a major new industrial facility that would unload tankers carrying the chilled liquid fuel, and then warm it back to the gas state for transmission to users via pipeline. The cost to build such a plant could be $300 million or more.
Willie Jones, the Lummi Indian Business Council’s vice chairman, described the idea as “pretty much dormant at this point. … I wouldn’t say it’s dead but I wouldn’t say it’s moving at this point.”
The state of Alaska is showing renewed interest in construction of a gas pipeline that would bring gas from North Slope fields to Valdez, where it would be liquefied for tanker shipment. Cherry Point, already home to two oil refineries that handle Alaskan crude oil, would be a relatively close site for offloading liquefied natural gas and regasification.
– Bellingham Herald
Canada: New Tuna Guidelines
TORONTO -- Health Canada's new initial guidelines on eating canned albacore tuna may not go far enough, some scientists say.On Feb 20, the department issued consumption advice for children and pregnant and nursing women who eat the canned fish. The new guidelines, while indicating upper limits for these populations, also state that “Canadians can rest assured that there is no reason to stop eating canned tuna.”
The guidelines were published after a CBC investigation revealed mercury levels above the allowed limit in 13% of 60 cans purchased in three Canadian cities.
Now, a Canadian woman has stepped forward saying she has suffered serious medical problems as a result of eating too much albacore tuna.
Maureen Hayes of Ottawa lost 60 pounds on a special diet that included eating up to four cans of albacore tuna a week for 10 years. About a year ago, she started having heart problems.
It took one year, visits to several specialists and a magazine article about mercury before Hayes put the pieces together and had her blood tested. She discovered her blood had elevated levels of mercury.
- Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News
Advertisement
Icicle to Open Salmon Farm in Chile
Icicle Seafoods, Inc. is pleased to announce the recent formation of SALMONES AYSEN, S.A., a Chilean company with headquarters in Santiago, Chile. Icicle’s partner in this new enterprise is Mr. Pablo Baraona, formerly of Salmones Tecmar, S.A. SALMONES AYSEN’s operations will consist of the production of farm salmon and trout in southern Chile’s Eleventh Region.
Icicle Seafoods, an Alaska corporation founded in 1965, is a diversified seafood company with several on-shore and floating processing facilities operating throughout Alaska in most major fisheries. It is currently one of the largest processors of wild salmon in the world. Mr. Baraona was one of the principals of Salmones Tecmar, S.A.
and has been involved in the salmon business in Chile since 1992. Tecmar was sold to Fjord Seafoods in 2000. Don Giles, Icicle’s President & CEO said, “Our company has had a 15 year relationship with Mr. Baraona and his team in Chile. We think this is an ideal fit, combining Icicle’s global marketing efforts and product diversity with
Mr. Baraona’s experience and expertise in the salmon industry in Chile.” Giles further stated, “While we know this may give some of our friends in Alaska some heartburn, our commitment to Alaska and Alaska wild salmon is unwavering as evidenced by our recent acquisitions of two salmon plants in Alaska the past two years, as well as the addition of Kelley-Clarke Seafood, Inc. in 2005. Most of our wild salmon customers worldwide also use farmed salmon and are demanding control and accountability from the water to their door. With this new venture we can give them the same assurance and accountability as we do with our wild Alaskan products.”
Mr. Baraona said, “My team and I are excited to be partnered with Icicle in this project. Our experiences and business together over the years has been both positive and successful for all concerned, and we look forward to working together to make SALMONES AYSEN a success.”
End Advertisement
Oregon: Oregon Crab Catch Down
The Dungeness crab market this year has left North Coast residents feeling a bit pinched.With crab landings in Oregon just half of what they were last year, the price of crab products has been driven up.
Crab fishermen have been charging up to $3.50 a pound at the docks, which is good news; they agreed to start fishing in December for a price of $1.60 per pound. But, of course, the price wouldn't be so high if the crab were plentiful.
Meanwhile, local fish markets have had to raise their prices for a pound of whole cooked crab from $4.99 to as much as $7.99 in the past few weeks. A pound of crabmeat is up to $26.99 from $21.99 earlier this year.
According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 70 percent of the landings take place within the first four weeks of the crab fishery. Landing data show fishermen this season caught half of what they did last year, but after two years of record landings, experts say the fishery is just getting back to normal.
– Daily Astorian
Oregon: Officials Predict Better Trolling Season
Curt Melcher, assistant administrator of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Fish Division, said the overall outlook is brighter for the 2007 commercial and recreational salmon season. Last year's virtual closure financially scuttled the commercial fleet.Melcher and other ODFW officials reviewed the 2006 season, talked about 2007 preseason forecastsduring an Ocean Salmon Industry Group gathering in Newport. The forecasts generated cautious optimism.
State officials said about 30,400 wild spawners returned to the Klamath River last autumn, and they expect about 60,000 this year. They also estimate about 530,000 Klamath River salmon (wild and hatchery fish combined) in the ocean this year, far beyond the 2006 estimate of 100,000. The downside is most of those fish are 3-year-
olds, which are generally too small to catch and keep because they're usually under the 28-inch limit.
Much hinges on salmon from the lower Columbia River in Washington and the Sacramento River in California, which provide much of the catch off Oregon. Commercial trollers welcome any improvement over last season.
- Newport (Ore.) News-Times
Oregon: West Coast Federal Fish Management Poor, Report Says
PORTLAND – A year-long review of federal management of fish populations off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington shows poor performance in ensuring healthy oceans and productive fisheries, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Marine Fish Conservation Network (MFCN), a national coalition of environmental and fishing groups. The Network reveals that the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) ignored scientific advice when setting catch levels and failed to implement key requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, our nation’s primary ocean fisheries law.The report highlights actions that the PMFC, a government advisory council, took in 2006 that put fish and fishermen in jeopardy. The report says the council ignored scientific recommendations, setting a catch level for Pacific whiting that would result in the species being overfished within two years. Although mandated by law, the report said the council made no progress in reducing by-catch in its most valuable fishery (groundfish).
The MFCN also reported the council pushed a proposal to expand its drift gillnet fishery for swordfish and thresher shark by opening an area currently closed to protect endangered leatherback sea turtles.
- Marine Fish Conservation Network
Tennessee: Food Fight—The Sequel: Blonde Smacks Waitress with Catfish
This is the latest installment in our series about people attacked by food. Last time it was a fight in Dutch Harbor with frozen hamburger as weapons. Today, we have assault with a deadly dinner.BULLS GAP, TN — The folks at Di's Diner were assaulted with a catfish dinner of their own making.
Employee Tina Henry and owner Dwight Jenkins told authorities a "blond, heavy-frame female" tried to slip out of their Bulls Gap eatery, about 60 miles northeast of Knoxville, with a pilfered catfish meal Friday night.
"Tina states that as the suspect was paying, they told her she would have to pay for the dinner in her purse," Hawkins County Sheriff's Cpl. David Lafollette wrote in his report.
"She then became mad, throwing money at the cash register. The suspect then walked outside, and Tina and Dwight followed," the report said.
"The suspect then threw the fish out of her purse at Tina, hitting her in the back."
Tina Henry wasn't hurt, but the $7.99 catfish dinner was ruined.
Witnesses say the suspect fled with a man in a red and black Ford pickup. They didn't get the license number.