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Draggers Call Off Mid-Coast Strike EUREKA -- Trawl fishermen have decided to call off a nearly six-week strike with fish processors. The Fishermen's Marketing Association, which represents about 100 West Coast boats that target Dover, rex and Petrale sole, snapper and other bottom fish, voted to end the effort to establish an agreement with processing companies, said the association's Executive Director Pete Leipzig. “So we told the boats to go fishing,'” Leipzig said. Leipzig said the association will continue to try to reach an agreement with the companies through other means. The dispute started at the beginning of March when prices for fish dropped sharply with a large amount of fish brought in. Fishermen asked for a contract with processing companies, and while there appeared to be some movement toward a deal recently, major processors reportedly weren't interested in dealing with the association. – Times-Standard Giant drift net washes ashore on Maui MAUI -- In Maui, a deadly threat to ocean wildlife has been cut up and hauled away.A half-mile long drift net cut loose by a commercial fishing boat out at sea washed up on the beach in South Kihei. It was so big it took lifeguards and officers with the Department of Land and Natural Resources about two hours to cut the whole thing up. Then county crews took it away to the dump. "Every day I come out here and help clean up the beaches, so I was just afraid it was going to go back up in the ocean and of course the fish get tangled," said resident Jan Richie, who discovered the net. "You get tangled in that, and if you really don't have too much air, you're going down. This whole net is hundreds of pounds," said DLNR officer Buzz Hubert. DLNR says it's an ongoing problem. One to two nets wash up on the beach every month. Because the nets aren't tagged, it's impossible to tell which ships are responsible. Oxnard to get better boatyard OXNARD -- Channel Islands Harbor may soon have two new restaurants to replace one that burned down a year and a half ago, as well as a better boatyard, under two harbor improvement plans approved Tuesday by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.Marine Emporium Landing, which leases space at the harbor, owned a building that burned nearly to the ground in October 2005. The fire destroyed Sea Fresh restaurant and market, along with about 20 other businesses. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved a new lease that will allow two restaurants in the space, along with an office that will sell passes to fishing, whale watching and tour boats. The development also will include new commercial fishing docks to replace the ones that burned and will cost Marine Emporium Landing a total of $7.9 million, according to Harbor Director Lyn Krieger. She said the project will likely be finished next year. The other new lease approved was for Anacapa Marine Services, the smaller of two boatyards off Victoria Avenue. The center is planning a $3.8 million expansion that will take it from 25 boat slips to about 60, said Michael Fairchild, whose family owns the business. - Ventura County Star NOAA Chief Applauds Aquaculture Bill WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Nick J. Rahall, II (D-WV) said he would introduce a bill, at the request of the Administration, to help establish an offshore aquaculture industry.“The Bush administration is working to increase aquaculture in order to meet the needs of the seafood industry as well as the growing demand of U.S. consumers,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said. “I applaud Chairman Rahall's commitment to promote this important industry and the Mingo County Fish Hatchery in working to provide safe and abundant seafood for all U.S. communities, both coastal states and inland.” During a tour of the Mingo County Fish Hatchery in Pie, West Virginia, Rahall and Gutierrez discussed the Bush's efforts to expand the $1 billion U.S. industry into federal waters under the National Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2007. The legislation would create a regulatory framework for safe, sustainable aquaculture (fish and shellfish farming) in U.S. federal waters. The legislation includes requirements to ensure that offshore aquaculture proceeds in an environmentally responsible manner, protects wild fish stocks and the quality of marine ecosystems, and is compatible with other uses of the marine environment. – NOAA press release Editorial Analysis: Reader Wants B.C. Fisheries Manager Fired To the Editor:David Einarson is the Area Chief of Fisheries Management for Coastal British Columbia North. I certainly bear him no ill will, but the management of the Skeena salmon fishery is his responsibility, and given the debacle that was the 2006 Skeena salmon fishing season, sending Mr. Einarson packing along with some of his immediate underlings is not only an eminently reasonable response but an urgent action that should be undertaken expeditiously. “The health of Pacific salmon depends not only on their abundance but also on their biological diversity. That diversity includes the irreplaceable lineages of salmon evolved through time, the geographic distribution of these populations, the genetic differences and life history variations observed among them, and the habitats that support these differences. “Diversity of Pacific salmon represents their legacy to-date and their potential for adaptation to future changes in climate, fishing, and habitat. Protecting diversity is the most prudent policy for the future continuance of wild salmon as well as the ecological processes that depend on them and the cultural, social, and economic benefits drawn from them.” I didn’t write these paragraphs. I lifted them verbatim from The Wild Salmon Policy, published by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2005. These are the new marching orders for Mr. Einarson and his colleagues, policy drafted in recognition of the fact that Canada is a signatory to the UN Treaty on Biodiversity and that the majority of Salmon populations in this country are in decline. The way in which the Skeena River salmon fishery has been prosecuted for more than a century is in stark contrast to the principles of biodiversity, which explains why all our sockeye stocks, other than the enhanced Babine race, dog and coho salmon, and summer steelhead are in decline. Largely as a result of the coho crisis, the Skeena fishery had taken some small halting steps away from poor fishing practices of yore. In 2006 Mr. Einarson presided over a return to the bad old days. In the face of evidence that the steelhead returns were low, Mr. Einarson and his crew gave the commercial fishing fleet more fishing time. Speaking of Skeena steehead, preeminent fisheries scientist, Dr. Carl Walters, said that letting large fleet fish for a short time was not good, having a small fleet fish day in day out was the worst possible scenario. In 2006 Einarson et. al. let 250 fishers fish weeks on end, including 11 straight days during the peak migration time for summer steelhead. So much for bio-diversity. In January of 2001, Mr. Einarson’s department adopted A Policy for Selective Fishing in Canada’s Pacific Fisheries. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Einarson had a hand in formulating this paper. The policy is smart stuff. For example Principle 4 states: “Four fundamental strategies in fishing selectively to minimize mortalities and maximize chances for survival of non-target fish, invertebrates, seabirds and marine mammals will be adopted through increased knowledge of fishing gear and practices. In order of preference they are: 1. avoidance of non-target species and stocks through time and area restrictions 2. avoidance through gear design 3. release alive and unharmed before being brought aboard or ashore, through gear design 4. release alive and unharmed from the deck of the vessel or landing site (e.g., shore or fishing pier). Selective measures in Skeena have taken the form of recovery boxes, shorter soak times for gill nets, shorter nets, weed lines, and, in the case of seine boats, brailing. In the 2006 fishery, the managers at DFO decided not to worry about enforcing these measures and they chose to do this. Scott Koltish, head of enforcement at DFO, publicly admitted that compliance with the selective harvest measures was poor (and these include the release of steelhead) and it’s little wonder since there was almost no enforcement presence in the Skeena fishery in 2006. DFO’s mandate is to take care of fish, then aboriginal fishers, then sportsmen and commercial fishers. They’ve never fulfilled that mandate. Now after countless hours of deliberation, paid for by taxpayers they’ve formulated two much-needed policies that reflect the reality of the times. But, policy isn’t worth spit if it’s not adhered to. As taxpayers and concerned citizens, we have the right to expect and demand that it is. When it isn’t, we have every right to demand the removal of those entrusted to see that it is implemented and adhered to. If we don’t, Pacific salmon will go the way of Atlantic cod. - Bob Brown in a letter to the Terrace (B.C.) Standard News: California Restricts 20% of Central Waters SAN FRANCISCO -- Fishing will be banned or restricted in almost 20% of the Central Coast waters under a decision by a state wildlife commission. The move creates the nation's most ambitious marine reserve system. The refuge program, which will ultimately span the entire coast, is designed to revive California's depleted near-shore fish stocks. Environmentalists largely hailed the decision as a landmark step to protect dwindling fish species, such as rockfish. Fishing groups, however, said the program was too restrictive and would limit what commercial fishermen could catch and what consumers would be able to buy. Friday's action established 29 protected marine areas along California's Central Coast, between Pigeon Point in San Mateo County and Point Conception north of Santa Barbara. The reserves cover approximately 204 square miles, representing 18% of Central Coast waters. About 94 square miles will be designated as "no take" preserves, where all commercial and recreational fishing and kelp harvesting will be forbidden. Limited fishing and kelp harvesting would be permitted in the remaining reserves. Under the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act, the state will hire nine extra Department of Fish and Game wardens to guard the reserves. The commission will designate reserves for the coast from Half Moon Bay to Point Arena, excluding San Francisco Bay, by 2008. Reserves for remaining coastal state waters -- including San Francisco Bay -- will be chosen by 2011. The designation process has been long, arduous and often acrimonious. Environmentalists, sport anglers, commercial fishermen, spear fishers, recreational divers and kelp harvesters all jockeyed for favor with the commissioners -- and against each other. But the complaints -- for the Central Coast, at least -- are now all consigned to the past. For better or worse, the reserve program will move forward. And most of the people involved in the process think that's a good thing. - San Francisco Chronicle Brief: Old Cannery Torn Down on Vancouver Island’s West Coast TOFINO, B.C. -- Workers were busy removing metal siding from the old B.C. Packers fish plant in Tofino Sunday.By mid-afternoon, only one side of metal siding remained on the building, revealing a skeleton of metal beams. The property’s new owners, Moss Development, part of Campbell River’s Olsen Management Group Inc., plans to build the Shore, a residential and commercial development, on the site. - Port Alberni WestCoaster Editorial Analysis: Monster Squid a Warning Editor’s note: The landing of a colossal squid by New Zealand fishermen earlier this year offered a rare glimpse into the mysterious world deep beneath the waves. Scientist Mark Norman argues that it also shows how marine life is being destroyed before it is understood.I cannot see this as a highpoint of scientific discovery drawn from the distant reaches of our wild oceans. In the era of super science, nothing shows how little we know of our own planet as finding massive "sea monsters.” The largest single invertebrate animal ever found was recently captured by longline fishermen in Antarctic seas. Known as a colossal squid, it weighed 450kg (990lb), about twice the weight of the largest squid previously captured. This event highlights two points; firstly, that our knowledge of the most common habitat on our planet - the deep sea - is still in its infancy, and secondly that such scientific discoveries indicate the scale and reach of global fisheries exploitation. This squid is a very impressive animal. It is has eyes larger than a blue whale's, a sharp slicing beak as big as a rockmelon and a tongue covered in sharp teeth. Size Comparison Its eight arms and two longer feeding tentacles are armed with toothed suckers and sharp hooks. It swims with muscular fins and a big funnel for jet propulsion, and the undersides of its eyes have rows of lights like truck running lights. It is only the fourth non-juvenile of this squid species ever examined by scientists, yet colossal squid are considered the most abundant Antarctic squid by weight. Their beaks have frequently been found in toothed whale stomachs and juveniles are regularly captured in trawls but nothing is known about the creatures' behavior in the wild. Exploitation of the Seas Accidentally caught on a commercial fishing line, it is a symptom of the massive, and largely unnoticed, overexploitation of our deep seas. This squid was captured on deep-sea longlines, which are baited and barbed fishing lures attached to kilometers of monofilament line, set as deep as 2km down to catch Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish. Often marketed as Chilean sea bass or mero, commercial quantities of this fish were only discovered in the early 1980's. Since then, huge harvests throughout the Southern Ocean have lead to a massive collapse of stocks. Throughout the world, longlining for fish has come at a high cost. Not only the fish themselves but also the countless albatross, other seabirds and marine mammals, attracted to and drowned on these baited lines. Recent initiatives in some regions are reducing these casualties, but only for the legal fisheries. Much of our knowledge of the world's next largest invertebrate, the giant squid, comes from similarly destructive fisheries. At the peak of the orange roughy trawling frenzy of the eighties and nineties, giant squid specimens incidentally caught in these trawls came in thick and fast from the fishery hotspots: South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand alone, more than 30 giant squid were caught during this time period - more than the world total for the previous 150 years. Both the fisheries and the flow of giant squid specimens subsequently dived. This strip-mining of the deep ocean has gone largely unnoticed, aided by consumers who really don't want to know that their Chilean sea bass, sea perch or trevalla have come courtesy of the clearance of deep-sea coral forests or drowned albatrosses. So when the capture of the colossal squid came to light, part of me marveled at the pictures in the newspapers of this wonderful sea monster, but a larger part of me saw it as yet another casualty of our short-sighted wanton plundering of the deep ocean. – BBC Dr Mark Norman is curator of molluscs at Museum Victoria, Australia News: Poachers Face Sentences for Abalone Spree VICTORIA - A sentencing hearing has begun in Prince Rupert for three men convicted of the largest known poaching of abalone in B.C. history.Randall Graff, Daniel McNeill, and Michael McNeill pled guilty in March to poaching 11,000 abalone found in the back of a Ford F-150 pickup truck in February 2006. They were the first abalone poachers convicted under Canada's four-year-old Species at Risk Act. Each man faces a maximum $750,000 fine. Mr. Graff could also be sent to jail for up to five years, while the McNeill brothers face up to seven years because of previous fisheries convictions. Their sentencing comes as new figures from federal scientists show that northern abalone - once a $1 million-a-year industry in B.C. - will be extinct in B.C. waters by 2051. The as yet unpublished numbers use 2001 data and project ahead 50 years. Northern abalone is considered a threatened species in Canada. Their numbers crashed in the 1970s and '80s because of unsustainable legal and illegal harvesting. A federal ban halted commercial harvesting in 1990, but poaching persists. These hand-sized delicacies may fetch between $10 and $15 in the shell on the black market. Penalizing poachers might help reverse the trend in B.C.'s northern waters. Some sites selected in the 1970s for monitoring have seen an 80-per-cent dip in abalone stocks; three-quarters of them have no abalone at all. The three poachers awaiting punishment in Prince Rupert stole nearly double the next-largest seizure of abalone in the province's history. Ten years ago, fisheries officers found 6,200 newly shucked abalone shells and charged two poachers. The Prince Rupert poachers’ sentencing hearing is scheduled to last two days. Aside from possible fines and jail time, they could forfeit the boat, Ford truck and other items used during the crime. The poachers pleaded guilty under both the Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act. The Species at Risk Act conviction adds $250,000 to the maximum penalty and another five years in possible jail time. - The Globe and Mail News: Sea Lions Won’t Move from Dam WASHINGTON - For three years, the California sea lions dining on endangered salmon below Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River have been blasted with rubber buckshot, chased by boats, harassed by firecrackers and rockets and subjected to irritating acoustic frequencies blaring from underwater speakers.It's known as "non-lethal hazing," and it hasn't worked. In increasing numbers, the sea lions continue to feast on salmon runs that are struggling to survive. Washington state, Oregon and Idaho together have asked for permission to kill more than 80 sea lions a year. Legislation to expedite the request was introduced in late March in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the battle between 400-pound bull sea lions and the thousands of salmon heading upstream to spawn, both sides have picked up important allies. Backers of the salmon include the three Northwest states, the region's Indian tribes and four of the region's members of Congress. Backing the sea lions: the 10 million-member Humane Society of the United States. The confrontation involves two of the nation's pre-eminent environmental laws, the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Prior to the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, California sea lions were rarely sighted in the 140-mile stretch of river between the Pacific Ocean and Bonneville Dam, the first of the 19 huge hydroelectric dams on the mainstream of the Columbia and its largest tributary, the Snake River. The numbers of California sea lions had dwindled to fewer than 10,000 before Congress acted. Now, an estimated 300,000 California sea lions inhabit the Pacific, breeding on the islands off Southern California and chasing the food supply as far north as Puget Sound. On a typical day, a dozen or so California sea lions can be spotted below Bonneville Dam, though as the spring Chinook runs peak in late April, between 80 and 85 have been seen on a single day. Several sea lions have even entered the dam's fish ladders, which the salmon use to skirt the massive concrete structure. Sea lions also have been spotted upstream of Bonneville, apparently swimming through lock gates when they're opened for ship traffic or hitching rides on barges. About 100,000 spring Chinook have headed upstream past Bonneville Dam in the past several years, though between 2001 and 2003 there were near record runs of nearly 500,000. In 1994, Congress amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow for the killing of individual sea lions or other pinnipeds feeding on threatened or endangered salmon and steelhead. Washington state received a permit to kill some of the sea lions at the Ballard Locks, but Sea World in California took three of the worst offenders before they could be exterminated. Critics say the sea lion issue is little more than a smokescreen to hide the fact that little has been done to restore the runs and that hard choices involving knocking down dams, restoring habitat or placing severe restrictions on fishing haven't been made. – McClatchy News Service News: Bristol Bay-Ocean Beauty Deal Strengthens Both SEATTLE -- Ocean Beauty executives were enthusiastic about the recent deal with the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation (BBEDC), which has the latter assuming a 50% equity stake in the company. “We know what we do well, and its salmon,” said one director on Monday. Ties with the BBEDC will produce another portal into the Bristol Bay fisheries by Ocean Beauty buyers. Plus, the BBEDC has catch allocations for a variety of bottom fish in the Bering Sea-Aleutian Island area. "We have found the ideal company to invest in," said Robin Samuelson, CEO of the BBEDC. "Ocean Beauty's management group is strong and they bring processing expertise and training that will allow us to expand opportunities for our residents. Their commitment to shore-based processing and Alaskan rural community viability is a natural fit with the mission of the BBEDC, which is to improve the economic conditions for the residents of Bristol Bay, Alaska." There will be no changes in management at either company as a result of this investment. Ocean Beauty will continue to occupy its current headquarters in Seattle, and all seven of its Alaskan processing plants will continue to operate as normal. Founded in 1910 as the Washington Fish and Oyster Company, Ocean Beauty owns and maintains a worldwide network of manufacturing plants, smokehouses, quality control facilities, distribution locations, and sales offices. The Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation is a nonprofit Community Development Quota (CDQ) corporation headquartered in Dillingham, Alaska, providing local residents and communities with the tools to develop fisheries related economic development at the community level. – Press release and Pacific Fishing magazine News: B.C. Salmon Farming Supported by Public Campbell River -- A recent poll taken by Ipsos Reid, on behalf of the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA), shows increasing support for sustainable aquaculture in British Columbia.A majority of respondents (65%) said they support the development of a sustainable salmon farming sector in BC; and less than 1% identified salmon farming as the top environmental issue facing BC today. An earlier survey showed that 60% of respondents believed salmon farming increased job opportunities and 41% said a benefit of salmon farming was that it resulted in less pressure on wild salmon stocks. These polling results also coincide with a recently released preliminary report, commissioned by the BC Legislative Assembly's Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture. The report shows the economic benefit of salmon farming to be nearly double than previously reported, crediting salmon farming with generating 7784 jobs. The report compares salmon farming, the wild commercial salmon industry and the salmon sport fishery on a number of economic variables including jobs (direct, indirect and induced) as well as economic trend indicators. According to farmgate production numbers salmon farming show a 93% growth from 1997 (36,600 tons) to 2005 (70,600 tons) and a 95% increase in total processed output over the same period: $190 million in 1995 versus $371 million in 2005. – BCSFA press release Maine University Researches Farmed Halibut PORTLAND -- University of Maine researchers have hatched and reared juvenile Atlantic halibut successfully.Now, as Maine's wild fisheries are further depleted and restricted, the scientists and their business partner are ready to raise the fish to market size and test whether land-based halibut farming is a viable enterprise. Last week, UMaine staffers and Maine Halibut Farms President Alan Spear were busy grading and moving thousands of juvenile halibut from the UMaine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research's nursery to re-circulated seawater tanks, where the fish will be grown to 2 to 10 pounds. Some halibut already were marketed last year to notable Maine restaurants. Nick Brown, operations manager of the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research, and his staff also were monitoring and collecting eggs from Lana, Wanda, Daisy, Neissa, Sylvia, Violet and other spawning female halibuts housed in 21-foot-round brood tanks. The breeding season runs from mid-February through May. "We only expected to rear a few thousand fish, but these systems were so successful, we wound up with 25,000 fish last year. This bodes very well for the future, "Brown said. In 1999, UMaine purchased an existing Franklin salmon farm and established the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research. The research center's mission is to explore new marine species and develop related technology to enhance and expand the Maine aquaculture industry. Sea urchins are among the other sea creatures being studied there. - The Ellsworth (Me.) American News: Merchants Tell Fishermen to Lay Off Tuna ROME—Some of Europe's biggest retailers are urging the European Union to halve the allowable quota of bluefin tuna to be taken from the sea, saying the sushi fish could soon become extinct in the Mediterranean.Chains including Germany's Metro, France's Auchan, Dutch Albert Heijn, and Asda, Wal-Mart's British unit, have signed a letter calling for a drastic reduction in EU tuna quotas. Weeks before the start of the tuna hunting season, green group WWF said the firms' support might help push the European Commission to halve the quota it was allocated at international level which, it says, does not guarantee the species' survival. In a letter to the Commission, the companies said they were "deeply alarmed at the tragedy about to unfold in the Mediterranean" if EU fleets were allowed to catch the 17,000 tons of tuna permitted at present. The retailers said they agreed with WWF's assessment that the quota set last November by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) was far too high. Scientists advising ICCAT had recommended a 50% cut in the total tuna catch, but the body instead accepted a much weaker plan. WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, at the time blamed the EU for resisting larger cuts. The retailers said it would be "amoral and irresponsible" not to slash the quota. - Reuters News: Grays Harbor Plans Marina Improvements WESTPORT —The Port of Grays Harbor has decided to create a Westport Marina Boat Basin Master Plan to address the issues facing the marina and come up with long-term solutions that would be implemented as funds allow.“It was time to look at the marina itself,” said Lisa Benn, the project manager. Benn is an accounting manager and treasurer for the Port. “The marina is a centerpiece and tourist draw for Westport. This is a wonderful opportunity you don’t usually get at other marinas,” Benn said. “We’ve got to look at long-term plans to utilize our resources. This plan will set a blueprint for where the marina is heading in 10, 15, 20 years. We need a vision or a map or a plan for what we want the marina to look like.” The idea to create the plan has been in the works for a year and the process will kick off this week. Benn said the plan will address issues such as the overall design of the boat basin, how — and with what materials — the Port should replace the aging floats, trends in the boating industry, the needs of commercial, charter boat and recreational fisherman, other needs such as showering facilities, and the feasibility of creating a boat repair yard and haul-out facility. “The main thing is that fishing vessels are getting bigger and wider,” said Robin Leraas, the interim marina manager. “And when the boats come in, they want bigger power and bigger space. It’s hard to accommodate them. This plan would identify what our needs truly are.” The Westport Marina is unique in that it is one of only a few Washington ports that is located on the ocean and in that it combines commercial and recreational industries, said Randy Lewis, the City Administrator. The plan is being paid for through a $50,000 rural planning grant from the state Community Economic Revitalization Board, $53,000 in matching funds from the Port and through a portion of a $238,000 Economic Development Initiative Grant that was awarded to look at the feasibility, the development and the design process of building a boat yard. - Aberdeen Daily World In Depth: Crabber Blames Rationalizations for Near-Tragedy KODIAK -- Longtime Kodiak fisherman Bill Prout blames individual processor quotas (IPQ) for a recent near-disaster when his boat, the Nordic Viking, along with four other boats, became stuck in tightly packed ice March 28 for 14 hours near St. Paul in the Pribilofs. This is the first time Prout had been in this situation in 30 years of fishing and he didn’t like it. “We got caught and could not even maneuver out of it,” Prout said. “For the first six hours, I only made one-tenth of a mile.” The weather shifted and the Nordic Viking eventually got out, but Prout and his crew couldn’t help think about other boats that had been in the same situation but weren’t as lucky. If not for restrictive processor shares under crab rationalization, Prout would not have attempted the journey through ice, he said. The Nordic Viking was on its way to the Trident-owned processing ship Independence to unload Bering Sea opilio snow crab. Under rationalization, crabbers have designated areas to unload their “A” shares of crab, either the North region or the South Region. “A” shares make up 90% of the crab that has to be delivered to one or more eligible processors. The remaining 10%, or “B” shares, can be delivered to any processor, with or without processor shares. This system is known as the 90/10 split. Prout’s crab was destined for the North region because he had used up his Southern shares. “This year, we did not have any more Southern shares, so this pretty much was the only place we could have delivered our crab,” Prout said. “We were progressing to the (processing) ship and the ice got thick. It stretched out about a mile. It was lightly packed, but got tighter as we got closer to the ship. Although rationalization has made crab fishing somewhat safer, fishermen are still pressured to do things “they should not have to do,” Prout said. He added many of the vessels are not ice certified, a Coast Guard classification. Crabbers are fishing much later this spring than they did last year because the processing ship Stellar Sea caught fire in January. The processing vessel Stellar Sea was custom processing for all of the processors who were going to buy opilio in January, but a fire put the vessel out of commission. About a dozen boats were actively fishing for Northern shares that had to be delivered in the North when the Stellar Sea burned. They had delivery dates — and live crab — and no place to go to have it processed. The crabbers figured out how to deliver the loads they already had, many of them using “B” shares, the 10% that can be delivered to any processor. After that, they fished their Southern shares and waited until the Northern processor was in place. By that time, it was late March and crabbers faced a potential problem with ice. They ended up in a potentially dangerous situation and lost revenue as well. Most of the fleet tied up and sent their crews home for a few weeks. “One fisherman told me they figured it cost each individual boat in excess of $50,000,” Kozak said. That was in extra fuel by having to move their pots off the grounds, sending their crew home and in some cases, forfeiting other fishing opportunities. Other processors were prepared to purchase the crab, but they could not because they did not have processing shares. The processor share 90/10 provision is under review by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council as part of the 18-month review of the crab rationalization program. The council is looking at whether the “B” shares — the portion harvesters can sell to any processor — are enough. The 10% “B” shares were meant to give the fishermen the ability to seek higher prices for their crab. – Kodiak Daily Mirror News: Dam Worries Brought to Billionaire Buffett EUREKA -- American Indians, commercial fishermen and conservation groups plan to take their concerns about salmon-blocking dams on the Klamath River straight to the owner's ultimate chief -- billionaire investor Warren Buffett.Representatives from the North Coast will head to Omaha, Neb., in early May to plead with Berkshire Hathaway's CEO to take notice of the struggle over the fate of Pacificorp's dams. The company's shareholder meeting is the forum, and the tribes and fishermen plan to put on a brush dance in the vicinity of the gathering and perhaps bend the ear of investors. Berkshire Hathaway's MidAmerican Energy Holdings bought Pacificorp nearly two years ago, after the Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk and Klamath tribes twice brought similar messages to previous owner ScottishPower. ”They didn't fix a damn thing,” said Hoopa Valley tribal member Merv George, who intends to bring a traditional redwood canoe to Omaha. “They just sold it to someone else.” George said that he's optimistic that Buffett may only be uninformed about the effects his subsidiary's dams are having on Klamath salmon stocks. The mission to Omaha is an educational one, George said, that he hopes will spur Buffett to make decisions from the top. Pacificorp and MidAmerican, he said, have not been very helpful. The trip to the Midwest takes place as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considers issuing another 30- to 50-year license for the hydropower dams. Settlement talks between the company and stakeholders along the Klamath River are also proceeding, but have yet to produce tangible results. - The (Eureka) Times-Standard News: Black Abalone Candidate for Endangered List CRESCENT CITY, CA – Black abalone may take a spot on the Endangered Species list, following a review by the National Marine Fisheries Service that found the marine mollusk nearly extinct in much of its range along the California coast.The abalone population has dropped by more than 90% at about half of the sample sites that the federal agency surveyed, according to the finding published Friday in the federal register. The decline started in the south and has reached northern waters. Black abalone live mostly in shallow intertidal waters off the state's southern end, but range up the rocky coastline into Oregon. The service will take public comments until June 12, then form a team to start a review that will recommend a listing decision at the end of 2008. The abalone population has dropped mainly because of overfishing. Commercial and recreational abalone fishing closed in the 1990s, although poaching continues. Another fatal threat comes from Withering Syndrome, a bacteria that appeared in the 1980s and kills the animal by causing its tissue to atrophy. Linked to warmer water temperatures, the disease has spread north, hitting formerly stable abalone populations. – The (Crescent City, Calif.) Triplicate News In Depth: Port Townsend Tidal Power Idea on Hold PORT TOWNSEND - The City Council has deadlocked on a proposed partnership to seek a $100,000 grant to design a tidal turbine power generation project at Point Wilson.The council on Monday night voted 3-3 on the project, and the measure failed for lack of a majority. The seventh council seat has been vacant since Scott Walker resigned on March 15. An appointed member must take office by May 7. A tidal turbine project would generate electricity by capturing the energy contained in the moving water mass of the tides. Point Wilson, which is two miles north of Port Townsend in Fort Worden State Park, marks the entrance into Admiralty Inlet - and then into Puget Sound - from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Council members Geoff Masci, Frank Benskin and Laurie Medlicott opposed seeking the grant for a tidal turbine project there. They said they first wanted a formal presentation from the company that would design the turbine, Puget Sound Tidal Power LLC. The deadline for the application for the grant from the Washington Technical Center is April 26. Deputy Mayor Michelle Sandoval, Council member Catherine Robinson and Mayor Mark Welch supported the proposal. Welch said he wanted the city to be in a position to step up on a Point Wilson tidal project should Snohomish Public Utility District - which now holds the federal right to develop it - decide not to develop a project there. Lost FERC bid Port Townsend last month lost its bid to develop tidal power when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Snohomish PUD's application to develop it in Admiralty Inlet, between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island. That, in effect, gave Snohomish PUD exclusive rights. The city's 30-day period to appeal FERC's decision has expired. That application proposes 450 tidal-energy generating turbines beneath the waters of Admiralty Inlet. Snohomish PUD officials have said that the seven sites it filed for could provide as much as 100 megawatts of energy. That would be enough power for about 60,000 homes. How it works Energy conversion devices would be attached to the seabed, according to Snohomish PUD representatives. The devices would be completely submerged, and would generate power from the rise and fall of the tides. As the waters rise and then fall, a flow is generated. Giant underwater windmills and turbines are being developed around the world to capture this energy source. The gearing of the equipment has to be tremendous to turn the extreme slow motion of the tide into enough displacement to produce energy. – Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles News: Alaska Board Shoots down Cook Inlet Plan ANCHORAGE -- The Alaska Board of Fisheries narrowly defeated a call for emergency management of Cook Inlet sockeye salmon, delaying until next year a showdown between commercial and sporting and personal-use interests.Some commercial gillnetters had asked the board to change the upper Cook Inlet management plan to make meeting escapement goals -- the preferred range of salmon numbers getting upriver to spawn -- the top priority. Sport fishing groups complained that the move could end the regular practice of commercial “window” closures that are meant to allow bursts of fish upstream for river anglers on summer weekends. The board voted 4-3 to stick with the current plan after a Monday afternoon teleconference. The management plan is up for routine review next February, and some board members said they prefer to hear from the public and act then, rather than exclude the public in an emergency ruling. 'There wasn't really an emergency that was presented,' board member Larry Edfelt of Juneau said, explaining why he voted with the majority. 'It was a (fish) allocation issue. I wasn't comfortable dealing with allocation issues in the absence of public hearings.' Jeff Beaudoin, a Kasilof setnetter who petitioned the board for emergency action, said the proposal was not about reallocating the catch. He disputes that giving state managers more flexibility to boost commercial harvest during strong salmon runs takes fish from sport anglers or personal-use dipnetters. State fisheries managers, meanwhile, have lacked the regulatory framework to meet escapement goals. The Cook Inlet plan is due for revision every three years and will be reviewed next year with public hearings. Beaudoin has resubmitted his petition for review then. Sporting interests retaliated last week, though. The Cook Inlet Sportfishing Caucus submitted its own proposal to the Board of Fisheries. It would gear sockeye management toward subsistence, personal use and sport fishing. – Anchorage Daily News News In Depth: Oregon Trawling GRANTS PASS, OR: Scientists taking a new look at old videotapes of the seafloors off southern Oregon found that areas showing tracks from the nets of fishing trawlers had fewer numbers and kinds of fish than places that were undisturbed. Studies worldwide have documented the damage bottom trawling does to seafloor habitats, but this is the first to look at fish numbers and diversity on muddy seafloors on the West Coast's Continental Shelf, where bottom trawlers do much of their work, the study said. A review of videotapes taken in 1990 from a manned submersible in an area known as the Coquille Bank off southern Oregon found that in areas showing roller tracks in the mud from bottom trawling nets, there were 20% fewer fish, 30% fewer species of fish and six times fewer invertebrates, such as crabs and seapens. 'We are not suggesting trawling be banned,' said Mark Hixon, a professor of marine biology at Oregon State University and lead author of the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. “The question must be asked whether we want to sacrifice these ecological communities, not even knowing what the long-term effects of bottom trawling might be, or whether some mud areas of the Continental Shelf deserve permanent protection,” he said. Two years ago, federal fisheries managers banned bottom trawling on 300,000 square miles off the West Coast to protect coral beds, kelp forests, rocky reefs and other areas deemed essential fish habitat. But there have been no efforts to protect the muddy seafloor that covers most of the Continental Shelf, scientists said. Some areas of the shelf are temporarily off-limits to bottom trawling until rockfish populations rebuild from overfishing. “This doesn't mean you shouldn't do trawling everywhere,” said Rosenberg, a professor of natural resources at the University of New Hampshire and a former deputy director of NOAA Fisheries who did not take part in the study. “You have to manage where trawling occurs and what level of impact we can sustain without reducing the resource productivity. This kind of study provides some good information that allows you to start to do that.” About 120 bottom trawlers are still fishing off the West Coast, down from about 500 in 15 years, said Brad Pettinger, administrator for the Oregon Trawl Commission. They catch shrimp, sole, rockfish and other bottom-dwelling species popular in West Coast fish markets, as well as hagfish, black cod, and thornyheads that are exported to Asia. Pettinger said fishing has never been better, and there is little of the muddy seafloor on the shelf that hasn't been fished. He doubted that areas scientists identified as undisturbed actually were, because currents would quickly cover the tracks left by fishing gear. – Associated Press News Brief: Japan to Open Cold Storage in Russia Far East NAKHODKA -- A deep-freeze warehouse with a capacity to store up to 3,500 tons of fish and seafood will be constructed in the town of Nakhodka by several Nakhodka fishing companies together with Japanese company Hiro Kikaku. This is the first mutual project of its kind in the Russian Far Eastern fishing industry.The decision was announced at the meeting of Nakhodka’s Mayor Oleg Kolyadin and Hiro Kikaru’s top managers. The project, planned to start at the end of 2007, aims both to export high quality fish and seafood products to the Japanese market from Primorye fisheries and help block the poaching of marine resources. According to Hiro Kikaku’s top managers, business relations with the Russian partners are developing successfully but they are hindered by large volumes of contraband seafood supplied by Russian poachers to Japan. Poached seafood considerably slashes the prices in Japan and law-abiding companies suffer losses. The total investment by the Russian and Japanese combined will be $7 million, the statement said. For the past three years, the Hiro Kikaku company has been actively cooperating with Nakhodka’s fishing export companies. The volume of shrimp exported to Japan totals 1,200 tons per year which accounts to almost 25% of Japan’s overall annual consumption. - Vladivostok News News: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint PALO ALTO -- Global warming activists have a new ally in their fight to save the planet -- lunch.It turns out that food and the energy it takes to make it is one of the largest human activities contributing to global warming. The average American creates 2.8 tons of CO2 emissions each year by eating -- even more than the 2.2 tons each person generates by driving, according to recent research (Echel and Martin, 2006). Beginning on Earth Day, 2007, Bon Appetit Management Company -- the nation's pioneer in "greening" food service, is launching a national campaign to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and help their guests do the same. With 400 cafes in corporations, universities and specialty venues nationwide -- including Yahoo!, Oberlin College and the Seattle Art Museum -- Bon Appetit will encourage chefs and diners to think about how their food choices could help ease the climate crisis. The Low Carbon Diet will include:
- PR NewsWire News In Depth: Scientist Says Bering Sea Disappearing KODIAK -- As the Bering Sea warms, what Kodiak fishermen catch in the next 30 years may be different than anything in the past."We don't really know what we will be fishing for," Mike Litzow, research fisheries biologist for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, said Tuesday. Litzow described the effects of global warming on Alaska fisheries before a well-attended gathering at Kodiak High School as part of a WhaleFest lecture series that continues through Monday. His lecture was titled "Effects of Global Warming on Bering Sea Fish and Crustaceans." "The Bering Sea is disappearing," Litzow said. Litzow said it is not that the changing fisheries could be detrimental to Kodiak fishermen, but that the transition could be difficult. Litzow showed how warming temperatures in the earth's oceans are driving changes in the kinds of animals in the seas. Warming waters in other parts of the globe, such as on the Oregon and California coasts, result in migrations like the smooth pink shrimp now showing up in Alaska waters, Litzow said. Litzow said climate change has already changed Bering Sea fisheries compared to 30 years ago, with shrimp and crab fisheries nearly gone, while salmon and groundfish are booming. "The bottom line is that temperatures are driving changes in biology," Litzow said. Because of decreasing ice cover in the Arctic, the numbers of fish caught in the Bering Sea are larger in the north now than in the south due to a shift of 31 kilometers since 1982. "Pollock, halibut, rock sole and snow crab are all moving north," Litzow said. As the decline in the temperature ratio between arctic and subarctic continues, Litzow said, sea communities become more diverse and there is an increase in the average number of predators preying on smaller animals, such as cod eating sand lance, which feed on zooplankton, then zooplankton feeding on algae. The cod chain ultimately ends with a processor and then the dinner table. Global warming, which many attribute to greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, can affect the oceans with as little as a 1 degree change in temperature, which has occurred in bottom water since the past century. He said acidification is higher in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea than it is anywhere else in the world. – Kodiak Daily Mirror Brief: Shrimp Draggers Don’t Hurt Crab Fishery ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland -- New research shows no evidence that shrimp draggers are significantly damaging crab stocks, a fisheries scientist says.Eric Dawe, a research scientist with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said fears from fishermen and conservationists have not been borne out in evidence he has collected. Shrimp trawlers do not pose a significant risk to crab spawning grounds, the DFO scientist says. “Yes, we can see some damage to crabs in the form of leg loss that has resulted from shrimp trawling, but our study did come to the conclusion that we could find no evidence that this trawling represented a major source of mortality on snow crabs.” Dawe said about 5% - 10% of crabs that encounter trawls suffer leg loss. He said he expected that some of the crabs that lose legs will die as a result. – CBC |