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Monday, June 25, 2007 News: Crew of Overdue Fishing Boat Found Safe
KODIAK, Alaska - Four people reported overdue from a fishing trip Friday were found safe in a life raft about 17 miles south west of Halibut Bay in Shelikof Strait Saturday morning.
The 48 year old man, his 18 year old son and daughter and his 15 year old niece were located in their life raft by the NOAA research vessel Sea Storm at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. All four were cold but reportedly in good condition when rescued. They were scheduled to arrive in Kodiak Saturday evening aboard the Sea Storm. The NOAA vessel was operating in the search area when they spotted the raft. The four individuals abandoned ship Wednesday at 11 p.m., near Jute Bay where the fishing vessel Magnum sank. The Coast Guard will be conducting an investigation into the sinking. At 3 p.m., Friday the fishing vessel Magnum and its crew were reported overdue to the Coast Guard by concerned family members in Kodiak. The 56-foot seiner was scheduled to travel from Wide Bay on the Alaska Peninsula and arrive in Kodiak Harbor Thursday afternoon. The vessel and crew are from Kodiak. The Coast Guard initiated a search pattern which covered the whole of Shelikof Strait two times over, to include the entire west shore of Kodiak Island and the opposing shore of the Alaska Peninsula where Wide and Jute Bay are located. Aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak searched from 3:15 p.m., Friday until 1 a.m., Saturday morning before temporarily ending the search. At about 4 a.m., the Coast Guard Cutter Spar arrived in the search area and began a shoreline search. At 5 a.m., a first light search was conducted by an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter. A ground search team from Kodiak with a dog was also aboard the Jayhawk. An HH-65 Dolphin helicopter was also launched to search the east side of Kodiak Island. Coast Guard assets included Jayhawk and Dolphin helicopters and HC-130 Hercules airplanes from Air Station Kodiak. The search also included the Spar, home ported in Kodiak. Coast Guard flight crews were recalled from Cordova and Sitka to assist with the extensive search. Coast Guard air assets searched for about 30 hours – SitNews News: Offshore Discharge Permit Renewal Spurs Lawsuit COOK INLET, Alaska - An Alaska environmental group, commercial fishing groups and two Alaska Native villages filed suit in federal court June 18 to block the renewal of a federal discharge permit for Cook Inlet offshore platforms.The case was filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is where the Clean Water Act requires appeals of federal agency decisions under the act to be filed. The groups are contesting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s renewal of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to allow discharges of produced water and drilling fluids from the platforms to Cook Inlet waters. The plaintiffs will not seek an injunction against the permit and want to take the case to trial, according to Justin Massey, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska, an Anchorage-based environmental law firm. The groups argue that with current high oil prices the producers, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and XTO Energy can afford to install equipment to inject waste fluids into underground formations. Forest Oil, which operates a newer platform in the Inlet, does inject its fluids underground. The industry has argued that requirements to inject fluids from the platforms, which are 30 to 40 years old, will make them uneconomic to operate. Forest operates a much newer platform and installed injection facilities when the platform was built. There are 13 platforms operating in Cook Inlet. An analysis by Cook Inlet Keeper, one of the plaintiffs, indicate that about three times as many pollutants will be discharged under the new NPDES permit as under the previous permit – about 100,000 gallons of oil and grease, and 835,000 pounds of heavy metals, including mercury. Increased pollution results because more water is produced along with oil as the Cook Inlet fields continue to age. Dianne Soderlunch, a spokeswoman for the EPA, said pollution from the discharges will still be within federal limits under the new NPDES permit. The Alaska Native villages of Port Graham and Nanwalek, and United Cook Inlet Drift Association and the Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund, two commercial fishing groups, are plaintiffs along with Cook InletKeeper. Hanh Shaw, EPA project manager for the Cook Inlet permit reissuance, said that EPA would have no comment until the plaintiffs’ position was reviewed. Massey said he doesn’t expect a briefing schedule in the case to be established by the court until fall, and at this time there were no plans to seek a temporary injunction against disposing of wastes in the Inlet. “The toxic dumping loophole in Cook Inlet is a massive subsidy for the oil and gas industry, and at a time of record industry profits, industry can afford to do it right,” said Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook InletKeeper. “Anyone else intentionally dumping that much oil into Cook Inlet would be arrested.” Dave Martin of the Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund argued that EPA would slap a small fish processor with a big fine for polluting, “but they bend over backwards to let the oil and gas industry dump millions of gallons of toxics into our fisheries. How can we market our Cook Inlet fish as clean and healthy if EPA allows industry to pollute our water?” he said. Patrick Norman, chief of the Native Village of Port Graham, said that the dumping of wastes into the inlet is damaging to the Native culture, lifestyle and resources. Norman said that EPA’s own tests on the subsistence foods used by Port Graham residents “found the same types of pollutants discharged by the industry, and EPA continues to disregard tribal calls for a halt to the toxic dumping.” When Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, it established five-year terms for NPDES discharge permits, with the intent that technology would improve over time and pollution eventually would be eliminated, Trustees said in its lawsuit. The new NPDES permit was signed June 14. Plaintiffs contend that the industry has routinely violated its permit, despite lenient permit conditions for oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet. In 1995, the industry paid more than $2 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged more than 4,200 Clean Water Act violations in Cook Inlet, and between 2002-2003 industry reported more than 1,000 similar violations, plaintiffs said. Between 1996 and 2006, EPA conducted only four inspections of Cook Inlet oil and gas facilities, and no independent monitoring on waste discharge, the plaintiffs said. “As a result, water quality penalties have simply become the cost of doing business for oil and gas corporations in Cook Inlet, and lax oversight by governmental agencies virtually ensures future violations,” plaintiffs said. – Alaska Journal of Commerce
SITKA, Alaska - The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has confirmed this season's Southeast bag limits for charter boat halibut anglers and set out a schedule of work to establish a system that would allow rights to harvest the high-value fish to be sold or leased between the commercial and charter fleets.
News in Depth: Quota System on Horizon for Halibut Charter Fleet Meeting in Sitka, June 6-12, the council directed its staff to have analyses of a range of options for the quota-trading system ready for initial review at its Oct. 1 session. It scheduled final action on “charter halibut allocation/compensation” for its Dec. 3 meeting, but stakeholders from all interest groups, as well as the state Department of Fish and Game, said that target is ambitious. Even if the council meets its own deadlines, some of the options would require action by Congress, the Alaska Legislature, or both; and few participants in the debate expect a long-term fix to be in place before 2009 at the earliest. None would describe the council's plan as a permanent solution. Moving toward a quota system The decisions at a crowded council meeting in Sitka, June 7, gave Southeast Alaska charter boat skippers some immediate, if temporary, certainty, but a spokesman for their stakeholders' organization warned that the new plans, coupled to a previously approved moratorium on new guide licenses that is expected to take effect by 2010, could mean a grim future for those still moving into the business. “I think it's to the point now where businesses are going to start going under,” said Rick Bierman, spokesman for the Juneau Charter Boat Operators Association, following the council meeting. Commercial harvesters, struggling for more than a decade to staunch the continuing loss of their harvest shares were hopeful that the forthcoming quota-trading system would satisfy charter sector demands. “We've kind of learned over the past 14 years that the charter industry will continue to fight for more fish through the regulatory process, and we're going to be in knock-down, drag-out fights in front of the council every year unless there's some mechanism that allows them to make business decisions,” said Linda Behnken, a former council member, commercial harvester and executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association. Alaska's steadily growing charter fishing fleet has been operating under a largely unenforced guideline harvest level for several years. Last year the Southeast quota of 1.4 million pounds was surpassed by 42 percent, or 620,000 pounds, while the Southcentral take was 328,500 pounds, or 9 percent over its GHL of 3.65 million pounds. Because the total U.S. take of Pacific halibut is controlled by a treaty with Canada, the charter overage forces a reduction in the commercial fleet's harvest, and charter operators knew the bottom line of the Sitka session would be fewer fish for their clients to catch. “It was a pick-your-poison set of options,” Bierman said. “There wasn't an option in there to give us more fish. We were going to come out of there hurting.” For the current season, the council confirmed federal regulations that took effect June 1, limiting the statewide charter bag limit to two halibut per day, including one no longer than 32 inches. For Southeast, charter anglers were placed under a season limit of four fish, expected to reduce their total catch by approximately 518,000 pounds. The rules replace a one fish per day limit for charter anglers that was proposed by the International Pacific Halibut Commission and reviled by charter operators as a season killer. The options now under analysis provide a variety of methods to give the charter fleet more of the annual harvest quota either by creating a pool of poundage for their collective use or by allowing individual businesses to buy quota shares directly from commercial skippers. Under the highly successful, decade-old individual fishing quota (IFQ) system used by the commercial fleet, individual skippers were originally awarded quota shares based on their past participation in the fishery. Quota shares (QS) are not a number or poundage of fish, but a percent of the harvest quota set each year by the IPHC. Within limits on the number of QS a single skipper may own, they are continually bought and sold within the commercial fleet. Although the price of a single QS is currently in the $20 range, the system allows newcomers to the fishery to buy their way in. A conversion rate of about 20 pounds of quota share equating to one fish has been created. Pool vs. IFQ Neither sector has yet settled on a preferred alternative because of the wide range of options that are being analyzed and the possibility that the council could add new twists to the proposals it receives in October. Bierman said two schools of thought are dominant within the charter community. Established operators, including him, generally prefer the IFQ system. Bierman's family business operates a single boat and lodge with clients who pay $500 per day for the chance to catch two halibut. For the past 12 years his clients have landed an average of 150 to 200 fish per season. If low stock levels force an overall reduction in harvest for the season, the trading system could allow Bierman to buy the QS he needs to satisfy his clients from a commercial skipper. It could also eliminate the 32-inch size limit on the second fish. “My people pay top dollar for a day on the water with me. They're not greedy people, but a 32-inch fish, 6 or 7 pounds of meat, that's not much to take home ... If I can buy enough quota to satisfy my guests then I'm taken care of,” Bierman said. No one from either business sector or government would venture a guess as to how high such a system would drive the cost of QS, and Bierman acknowledged that it would be difficult for fishing guides offering less expensive charters. “It's going to be expensive. It's going to be real expensive. It's not a secret that some people are already buying quota shares in anticipation. I don't necessarily need cheap. I need reliable. I'm in it for the long run,” Bierman said, noting that he was not speaking for the association on this point. The pool alternative would provide a volume of QS, held “in trust” by the state or federal government, that would be available to the entire charter fleet. Funds raised by a mandatory marine charter stamp would pay for the reallocations from the commercial quota, but would not give individual charter operators the same ability to assure themselves of sufficient fish to meet their needs. Also, all would suffer if the pool were not sufficient to meet a season's total demand. Bierman said this system could leave Juneau charter businesses and others who operate “upstream” of their competitors in a vulnerable position. In Southeast's case, the Sitka charter fleet would have an unrestricted shot at the pool fish moving in from the ocean before they reached Juneau waters. “They can suck that quota up and then I'm looking at mid-season closures,” Bierman explained. The pool system, in his view, would also mean stamp fees paid by clients of established operators would underwrite their competitors' season. “If it goes into a pool, then basically I've done my advertising and the building of my business to help the new guy coming in,” Bierman said. The issue is simpler for the commercial fleet. “We are vehemently opposed to reallocations that are not between willing buyers and willing sellers,” Behnken said. Her longliners' association wants any system to be market-driven that recognizes the cost of reallocations to the commercial sector. “It is extremely important that there are direct costs associated with impact, that charter operations have to pay or they won't be regulated,” Behnken said. Behnken said the commercial fleet was particularly upset that Commissioner Denby Lloyd included on the list for analysis an option that would allow commercial quota to be reallocated to charter boats without compensation. Among the hundred persons who testified at the meeting, commercial skippers unanimously opposed that option. Both the stakeholders committee, dominated by the charter fleet and the council's stand industry advisory committee supported elimination of that option. Doug Vincent-Lang, the state's Sport Fish Division special projects coordinator, noted that even though commercial quota shares are used as collateral for loans, by law, they carry no property rights and can be reallocated without compensation. Lloyd added the option to the analysis list to assure its ramifications are identified and placed in the record. Behnken noted that a halibut stamp system or a sport fishing tax to fund a charter quota pool would give the charter fleet a potentially huge fund commercial harvesters could not match. “If commercial boats have to bid against a revenue stream off charter licenses, then it could substantially inflate the cost of commercial shares and have dramatic, negative effect,” Behnken said. Regulators face a different set of practical and legal issues, including trying to make a management system designed for one harvest method fit another that is very different. Commercial boats can react quickly to sizable increases or decreases in stock abundance fairly quickly and easily by fishing more or less gear. Charter boats can deal with drops in stock volumes with lower bag limits, but not increases. “With increased abundance charters can't throw out more gear. They need to put more clients on vessels and they can't do that right away,” Vincent-Lang said. In addition, state law requires that the holder of commercial halibut quota shares must be onboard the vessel when those shares are being fished, but the skippers on many charter boats are hired employees. The business owners may not only not be on board, but could be corporations, which are not allowed to own quota shares, Vincent-Lang noted. In recent years, the Alaska Legislature has refused to amend state law to allow corporate ownership of fishing rights within the commercial sector and the question of whether and how it would give that ability to the charter fleet is wide open. - Alaska Journal of Commerce News: Man Accused of Falsifying Lobster Logs LONG BEACH, Calif. - One of two San Pedro fishermen accused of poaching lobsters from the Santa Monica Bay was charged Friday with four felony counts of attempted perjury.Michael Gordon Hulse, 59, allegedly falsified fishing logs from January to March 2007 - when he was illegally trapping hundreds of spiny lobsters in the bay to sell at a San Pedro fish market, authorities said. Hulse and Ramon Duran Sambrano, 37, were arrested March 19 at the Los Cerritos Channel after an investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game. At the time, the pair were attempting to unload 299 spiny lobsters - about $5,000 worth - that they had caught in a Santa Monica Bay marine refuge, which is off-limits to commercial fishermen, authorities said. Hulse and Sambrano were each charged earlier with grand theft, felony conspiracy and three misdemeanor counts, including the unlawful use of lobster traps in a restricted area, said Deputy District Attorney Danette Gomez. If convicted, they could face up to nine years in prison, Gomez said. Hulse, who had the only fishing license, had been mandated by the Department of Fish and Game to record the locations of his catches every month, Gomez said. He allegedly falsified logs to report he had been trapping lobster at Horseshoe Kelp, near Los Angeles Harbor. "We have (global positioning system) tracking evidence that shows he was nowhere near Horseshoe Kelp," Gomez said. This is Hulse's first criminal case. Sambrano has a felony record, including a 1988 conviction for having unlawful sex with a minor, records show. Both men are scheduled to appear July 17 in Long Beach Superior Court for a preliminary hearing. - DailyBreeze.com Brief - Fishing Misadventure Stories Sought for Publication Attention Fishermen: Do you have a story about the one that got away? Or a story about a fishing related calamity such as: going overboard, sinking your boat, getting attacked by the thing you caught, getting lost or stranded in the water, getting pranked by buddies, having horrid luck, or some other comical or terrible disaster? Casagrande Press wants your story.Casagrande Press is seeking fishing misadventure stories, articles, and essays for publication in the forthcoming book Fishing's Greatest Misadventures. They are looking for nonfiction fishing stories about bad judgment calls, pranks, comical/ironic episodes, disaster, attacking fish or other animals, bizarre injuries, misfortune, injury, loss of wit or limb, panic, critical conditions, contest meltdowns, rough weather, everyday fears, fishing trips gone wrong, engine failure and lost at sea episodes, etc. They are looking for stories that tell a good tale, develop the depth of the characters involved, and have a tight narrative tension. There is no fee or cost to submit a story. Submit online. Deadline: April 15th, 2008 About the book: Fishing's Greatest Misadventures, to be published in 2008, will present 30 true stories which cover the spectrum from terrifying to comical to downright bizarre. In these pages both everyday fishermen and pros tell their stories of freak or catastrophic accidents, fish attacks, sabotage, pranks, getting lost at sea, idiotic decisions, eerie or unexplained incidents and other jaw dropping calamities. These stories bring to life the strange possibilities that await us once we cast our lines. - PR Web <<<•>>> Tuesday, June 26, 2007 News: Sea Lions Winning Against Columbia River Hazers CASCADE LOCKS, Ore. — Above the spillways of Bonneville Dam, Darrell Schmidt patrolled with his shotgun, drawing a bead on furry brown California sea lion heads popping up from the Columbia River and blasting off a beanbag round.All spring he was part of a nonlethal, and not very effective, effort to keep the federally protected animals from gobbling threatened spring Chinook salmon as they schooled up at the dam's fish ladders en route to upriver spawning grounds. "I got one on the back of the neck with a beanbag, and he didn't even drop the fish he was eating," said Schmidt of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Blasts of rubber buckshot, earsplitting pyrotechnics on the river surface and underwater firecrackers haven't helped, either. In fact, preliminary numbers indicate the sea lions got more salmon this season than in any of the six since records have been kept. It's the third year wildlife officials have used nonlethal hazing to try to deter the sea lions. But nothing, it seems, trumps the allure of the fat, tasty spring Chinook salmon. Killing any protected marine mammal can bring stiff fines and jail time. Oregon, Washington and Idaho want permission to kill some of the more troublesome animals under the 1972 Marine Mammals Protection Act that shields them. It can take years. Some congressmen are trying to fast-track the process of allowing "lethal removal" of some of the worst repeat offenders. "After trying every trick in the book, (lethal removal) is the only option left to stop the sea lions," said Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington state. The 1972 act protected all marine mammals, some of which needed it more than others. Robin Brown of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said there are perhaps 300,000 California sea lions along the Pacific coast, about six times the number in 1972. Oregon and Washington wildlife officials figure about 1,200 hang out around the mouth of the river. But Brown said only 100 or so regularly show up at the dam each spring. Meanwhile, some impatient souls, probably fishermen, are beginning to apply a brand of Western justice. A California sea lion was shot recently near Portland by a frustrated sports fisherman who saw it take a salmon from another fisherman's line. He was seen alive a couple days later. Reports of sea lion shootings have increased in the past two years. In March, according to Brian Gorman of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle, a half-dozen sea lions were found dead in Washington's Puget Sound and others were found dead on beaches. All had been shot. The sea lions and their human hazers left the dam in late May, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will use the summer to look at the numbers and evaluate the hazing program. The Corps doesn't believe it had any substantial impact in deterring the sea lions. The sea lions, or their relatives, are not new to the river. Lewis and Clark mentioned them in their journals in 1806, but fishermen say the sea lions eat too much of the threatened spring run, 4.1 percent this year by early estimates. The estimated percentage is higher than in some recent years because the salmon run was smaller. Lethal removal was tried once before, in the 1990s, when Washington state received a permit under the 1972 act to kill some of the sea lions at the locks in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, but Sea World took three of the worst offenders before they could be killed. The sea lions had nearly eradicated a steelhead run there. Once, an estimated 16 million salmon returned annually to the Columbia and its tributaries. Fish managers hope for a tenth of that today, and 13 salmon and steelhead species are protected under the Endangered Species Act. The spring Chinook run is listed as threatened, which means it could become endangered and eventually extinct. – Associated Press News: Kenai Backs Public Review of Pebble Mine Project KENAI, Alaska - A resolution supporting Northern Dynasty’s Pebble Mine project drew opposition from a half dozen people attending last week’s Kenai City Council meeting, causing the council to tweak the wording a bit before passing the measure.In its original form, the resolution demonstrated the city’s support of “the development of a copper, gold and molybdenum mine at the Pebble Porphyry Prospect northwest of Lake Iliamna.” Despite the repeated insistence by Councilman Rick Ross that a substitute version of the resolution was intended to show the city supports only advancing the project to “the public review and hearing process,” those objecting said they felt the wording indicated the city is in support of the huge mine project. “My first choice would be to kill both proposed resolutions,” said Gerald Brookman of Kenai. “This was just sprung on the public Monday. This is a big, big issue,” he said. “Give us at least a month.” Mayor Pat Porter told Brookman the resolution basically moves the proposed mining project to the public process. “I’m against the whole open-pit process,” said Alan Van Horn. “I’ve seen what it’s done to Colorado. It’s going to poison and destroy the streams. Attending the council meeting was Sen. Tom Wagoner, who said he is in favor of the resolution, chiefly because the Pebble project stands to create jobs for two generations of Alaskans. “The state of Alaska has the most rigid (permitting) process for open pit and hard rock mining,” Wagoner said. “The land Pebble is on was recognized by the state as land suitable for mineral development.” “People say salmon won’t spawn in those streams (after mining begins). Salmon ... red salmon don’t spawn in streams. They spawn in lakes,” Wagoner said. Visiting from Pedro Bay on Iliamna Lake, George Jacko said, “As things have moved forward, most folks in that region are opposed to this project. “The entire Bristol Bay watershed would be affected,” he said. “We’re extremely concerned about the impact on Bristol Bay.” Nikiski resident Janice Chumley expressed surprise that the city of Kenai would support a project with so much ongoing debate. Chumley earlier made a presentation on invasive weeds to the council as a research technician with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. She said she felt it would be “wise to get all sides (of the Pebble mine controversy) presented.” The mayor again stated that the city is only asking that the public process go forward. Councilman Mike Boyle said he questioned the timing of the city’s resolution, if for no other reason than creating the perception that the city supports the mining project. Councilwoman Linda Swarner offered an amendment saying the council “supports the permitting process” for the project. Her amendment was approved unanimously. The amended resolution passed 5-2. – Penninsula Clarion
NEWPORT, Ore. - According to officials at Oregon State University in Corvallis, university research programs, private development, and political interest are all continuing to move forward in initiatives to make the United States, and Oregon in particular, a leader in the development of ocean wave energy -- a renewable power source seen as environmentally friendly, cost effective and increasingly practical.
News: Oregon Wave Energy Research Initiatives Move Forward A range of efforts is under way at OSU to improve the technology of wave energy generation. Significant outreach programs with coastal communities are helping to integrate them into the development process, and multiple partners hope to create a national wave energy research and demonstration center in Oregon. On May 17, at the invitation of U.S. Congresswoman Darlene Hooley (D-Dist. 5), one of the OSU scientists leading these efforts, discussed the issues with the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment a part of the Science Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. "Congressional leaders want to find out more about how wave power could help address the nation's energy needs, and what the federal government might do to help," said Annette von Jouanne, a professor of power electronics and energy systems in the OSU College of Engineering. "Things are really picking up speed now," von Jouanne said. "Members of the public and political and agency leaders are understanding how electricity produced by waves could be a significant contributor to our energy portfolio, and people are beginning to see the value of a focused, national center to move research forward." In her Congressional discussion, von Jouanne said she outlined the technological obstacles that must be overcome to commercialize wave energy, the ways that streamlined permitting and agency cooperation could help, and the need for more environmental and ecological studies. In other recent developments:
Experts at OSU say wave energy should be able to provide clean, renewable energy with minimal environmental concerns. However, challenges remain in developing ways to tap wave power with systems that are reliable, maintainable, and able to survive a tough ocean environment. In the past nine years, OSU has built its wave energy program through strong collaboration with state and federal agencies, private industry, utility companies, and coastal communities. Outreach to fishing and crabbing industries has been a key part of the work, and a port liaison project team composed of commercial fishing experts has been involved in wave energy device siting and ocean technical expertise. OSU has also worked with a group called Fishermen Interested in Natural Energy to enable ocean testing in the late summer of 2007, and has located a low impact site for this testing. "Our commercial fishermen are what you would consider 'practical' ocean experts, and they've been valuable partners in identifying sites that would cause the least disruption to the state's economically important seafood industry," said Flaxen Conway, an OSU Sea Grant Extension specialist. "They also have been consulted on local ocean environments, the waves, currents, debris and climate history. We're working together with them to plan for mutually beneficial future use of the ocean and its resources." Research and development of wave energy is still very young, in comparison to other forms of renewable energy such as wind power; but wave power, most likely produced by buoys that are anchored 2 to 3 miles offshore and move gently up and down with ocean swells, could produce steady and large amounts of electricity. Studies have suggested that network of about 500 such buoys could power the business district of downtown Portland. Systems could be scaled up or down in size, whatever is needed to meet demand. Theoretically, estimates suggest that 0.2 percent of the ocean's untapped energy could power the entire world. - Newport News Times Shellfish Growers Log Mill Concerns GRAYS HARBOR, Wash. - An overflow of effluent into Grays Harbor waters from Weyerhaeuser’s pulp mill in Cosmopolis forced the closure of surrounding oyster beds for at least 30 days between August 2005 and August 2006, according to the state Department of Health.And before the mill restarts under new ownership, supporters of the local shellfish industry want some kind of assurance that conditions will improve or, at the very least, they will receive some sort of compensation for not being able to harvest shellfish. The requests were made in public comments provided to the state Department of Ecology as part of the mill’s pollution discharge permit renewal process. Richard Bassett, the managing partner of Zurich-based Charlestown Investments, said his firm is interested in purchasing the mothballed mill, but only if the permits are renewed by Weyerhaeuser. If purchased, Bassett said the new name of the mill would be Cocidus High Purity Cellulos and the permits would be transferred to that name. Brady Engvall, of Brady's Oysters, said it's not really clear why the Weyerhaeuser mill has caused the closure of so many oyster beds. "It’s been going on for years," Engvall told The Daily World. "It's been problematic and it happens and it goes away for a while and then they fix it and it happens again." Engvall did note in his letter that when Weyerhaeuser forced his oyster beds to shut down, he received some kind of monetary compensation. He hopes for the same arrangement with Cocidus. Merley McCall, who is in charge of the state Department of Ecology's pulp and paper unit, said he would respond to the shellfish community's concerns before the permit is approved. Besides Engvall, McCall received letters from the Friends of Grays Harbor and the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association and both groups had similar concerns. All three letters also had concerns about more effluent being deposited into the Harbor. Another letter by Mark Toy, of the state Department of Health, was also submitted to correct the record. The original "fact sheet" for the permit showed that the mill only had two one-week closures between August 2005 and August 2006. The correct number, however, is five one-week closures, Toy said. The letters from the shellfish supporters also contained that fact, asking for the record to be changed. "The industry is regulated on a very stringent fecal colony limit," wrote R.D. Grunbaum, the vice president of FOGH. "Exceeding that limit has been detrimental to the oyster growers and has resulted in the closure of the Bay to shellfish harvesting." "Each of these closures represents economic hardship for the growers who must shut down their operations and their cash flow along with the layoff of employees," wrote Robin Downey, executive director of the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association in Port Townsend. "This is a significant burden for growers to carry, especially given their powerlessness to control the situation." Toy also had a concern about one portion of the permit. “Although not stated explicitly,” Toy muses in his letter, “Will Cocidus’ operations result in significantly more effluent flow than occurred when Weyerhaeuser operated the mill?” "I don’t think that there will be more … but there is more flexibility in the permits over certain periods of time," Bassett said. Downey stressed that "with adequate safeguards in place it is possible for our two sectors to co-exist." "Local shellfish farmers certainly appreciate the new opportunities for employment in the community that the mill re-opening represents, but we request that these new jobs not be placed ahead of already existing employment in the shellfish sector," she wrote. - The Daily World News: Six Northwest Species Labeled Overfished WASHINGTON - The number of overfished U.S. seafood species edged up in 2006, a government report said Friday.Species of monkfish, shrimp and sharks were added to a list of fish whose populations have fallen below recommended levels, while types of skate, sole and yellowfin tuna were among those being caught at rates that could result in an overfished designation, the 2006 Report of Status of U.S. Fisheries said. In the Northwest, six stocks — bocaccio, canary rockfish, darkblotched rockfish, cowcod, yelloweye rockfish and Pacific Ocean perch — were designated as overfished. Petrale sole was added to the list of stocks that are subject to overfishing. Nationwide, 47 stocks were found to have overfished populations in 2006, compared with 43 in 2005; 48 were subject to overfishing, compared with 45 a year earlier, said the report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "The results from 2006 are mixed — some stocks have improved while others have declined," said William Hogarth, NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries. Overall, about 75 percent of fish stocks under federal management were considered to be fished in a sustainable manner. – Seattle Times <<<•>>> Wednesday, June 27, 2007 News: New NPFC Appointments ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The U.S. Commerce Department has just announced its picks for two seats on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.They are Duncan Fields of Kodiak and – here’s the surprise – Sam Cotten of Anchorage. Cotten, a former state legislator, got the nod over Beth Stewart of Juneau, who along with Fields had been one of Gov. Sarah Palin’s preferred nominees. Palin had listed Cotten as an alternate to Stewart. Interestingly, Cotten and Stewart are colleagues, having long worked together as lobbyists for the Aleutians East Borough. Members serve three-year terms on the Anchorage-based council, which regulates commercial fisheries off Alaska. – The Highliner News: Salmon Season Picking Up KODIAK, Alaska - The salmon season has picked up, but the harvest is below average, Alaska Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologist Jeff Wadle said.Harvest rates on the Westside of Kodiak are keeping up with the forecast. “It’s not great fishing, but it seems like the red salmon are steadily increasing,” Wadle said. The Westside is open, which includes the Northwest Kodiak District and Inner and Outer Karluk Sections are open until further notice. The Eastside opened at noon Thursday for 33 hours for a test fishery. This is the second opening there. Fish and Game starts managing pink salmon in July. July 6 is the first general pink opening, Wadle said. They have three periods in July to gauge how the pink run. “We try to catch them before they get into the streams so we get high-quality product. Then we see how the fishery is going and that will let us know how the pink salmon run is going to turn out,” Wadle said. A record-setting amount of pinks were caught in 2006. Last year, Wadle said the catch for pinks was greater than 31.3 million as of Sept. 5, 2006. “I’m anticipating a good year (for pinks),” Wadle said. “I don’t think it will be as good as last year, but it has the potential to be as good as last year.” - Kodiak Daily Mirror
VANCOUVER - Fish and conservation groups are demanding an investigation, saying mismanagement by the federal Fisheries Department in 2006 allowed severe overfishing of the Skeena salmon run in northwest British Columbia.
News: Activists Urge Investigation of Skeena Salmon Overfishing The groups, including the Watershed Watch Salmon Society and the North Coast Steelhead Alliance, made their claim after obtaining documents under the Freedom of Information Act. They say the documents show that under pressure from the fishermen's union, Prince Rupert's mayor and other politicians, DFO managers allowed overfishing at the mouth of the Skeena River. But fisheries officials deny they were pressured into decisions, saying the management plan is set at the start of the season and lobbying by groups calling for more fishing days or fewer openings is an annual ritual. Dave Einarson, area chief of resource management for the B.C. north coast, says officials have to "set aside those kinds of things and get on with the business of achieving the objective" in the fisheries plan - conservation of the stock and delivering on the amount of fish scheduled to be taken. He says the catch rate was down in 2006 and the increased number of openings were needed because the sockeye were quite small and "a lot of the smaller ones were swimming right through the nets." Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon, had said the documents show DFO managers put politics ahead of science in making critical management decisions. Greg Knox, chair of the North Coast Steelhead Alliance, said the actions of the Fisheries Department are "a scandal." The groups claimed the fishing has endangered the long-term health of wild salmon in the Skeena and the economy of the entire Skeena watershed. But Einarson said the enforcement wing of DFO already plans to "put more fisheries officers on the ground this year" to make sure selective fishing measures are being adhered to. "We always try to adapt to the issues of the day and what the problems are," he said. "If things screwed up or went wrong, then we try to figure out a way to correct those errors. That's kind of a continual thing." - Canadian Press News: Delta Western Fuels Workers Join Union UNALASKA, Alaska - Employees at Delta Western Fuels elected to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Friday afternoon. The outcome of a similar election held Thursday at North Pacific Fuels remains undecided.All six eligible Delta Western employees voted in favor of unionization, although those results have yet to been certified by the National Labor Relations Board. If certified, the vote would put the fuelers under the same union as the employees of the containerized shipping companies operating out of the harbor, APL and Horizon Lines. Delta Western and the ILWU have until Friday to file challenges to any of the ballots cast in the election, and Delta Western representatives won't say whether they plan to do that. If the election outcome stands, Delta Western's Dutch Harbor office will be the first of the company's operations to be unionized, and it means the employees here will negotiate a contract with the company for the first time. Brian Bogen, the CEO of Delta Western's parent company, North Star Utilities Group, said he doesn't expect much to change. "We believe that we have treated our employees very well and fairly for a lot of years in Dutch Harbor, and we would hope we would be able to continue that relationship going forward," he said. Employees at Delta Western and local ILWU leaders reached today for comment didn't want to speak publicly about what they would be seeking from the company under the contract. It's a different story at North Pacific Fuels, where five employees voted in favor of joining the ILWU and five voted against, resulting in a tie. Four of those ballots have been challenged, three by the union and one by North Pacific. If the results stand as a tie, the union loses that election. The NLRB will consider the questioned ballots after the challenge period ends, on Thursday. - KIAL News: Collision Investigation Underway ANCHORAGE - The collision between a Seattle-based fishing vessel and a cruise ship in southeast Alaska early Monday that crippled the seiner is under investigation, U.S. Coast Guard officials said.The Adirondack, a 58-foot salmon boat, was dead in the water after the crash disabled its steering system, said Petty Officer Sara Francis. No injuries have been reported, and the 257-foot cruise ship Spirit of Yorktown reported no damage, Francis said. Another fishing vessel - the Guardian - arrived on the scene and towed the Adirondack to Sitka, where Coast Guard officials inspected it, she said. "We certainly got hit, and it sustained pretty extensive damage," said Adirondack owner and operator Alan Jacklet, 43. "There was no breach to the hull, so we were very fortunate." The crash occurred around 1 a.m. Monday in calm seas and light winds in southeast Alaska's Chatham Strait, off the southeastern end of Catherine Island, about 15 miles south of Angoon, Francis said. The skies were overcast at the time of the collision, making the area dark, she said. Jacklet, of Carnation, Wash., said he didn't know exactly what happened because he wasn't on watch at the time of the crash. On watch were two new but experienced crew members. Reached on his cell phone in Sitka, Jacklet said his vessel was heading north to Sitka at about eight knots when the collision occurred. The top house is crushed, he said, and the right side of the ship was severely damaged. "Everybody was very lucky to not have been injured," he said. Shortly after the crash, the Yorktown radioed the Coast Guard and sent a small boat to the Adirondack see if its four-person crew needed assistance, Francis said. Jacklet said the Guardian was only about 4 miles away from his location and was able to reach the scene in about a half hour. The Yorktown was traveling under its own power to Petersburg, where it was scheduled to arrive Tuesday afternoon. It will also undergo an inspection upon its arrival, Francis said. Francis said she could not comment further on the specifics of the incident, citing the ongoing investigation. She said a final report could take as long as six months to prepare. It is the second time in as many years the Yorktown has been involved in an accident, Francis said. In 2006, it ran aground at Matia Island in Washington state, though at the time it was operating under the name Yorktown Clipper. In that case, the company was fined $1,000 for placing its passengers at risk because company officials did not report a dent the ship sustained on its bottom. "We got a little bit concerned because we didn't know the extent of the damage," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. John Park. He said the company had five days to provide a written report to the Coast Guard but didn't do so for at least a week. "During that time they were operating with passengers," he said. "We found out later it wasn't that bad, but they have a duty to report it to the Coast Guard." It was unclear whether the ship was operating under the same captain. Seattle-based Cruise West, owned by West Travel, Inc., operates nine small ships, and its Spirit of Yorktown - the largest ship in its fleet - travels between Alaska and through the Panama Canal to the Caribbean. It has a cruising speed of 10 knots with a capacity of 138 guests and a crew of 40. Company officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Jacklet said the Coast Guard has cleared his ship to get repairs, and he hopes he will be able to get the Adirondack - his livelihood - back onto the water within a week. "It's going to be rough and tumble, but it will work," he said. – Associated Press <<<•>>> Thursday, June 28, 2007 Seiner Crew Rescued After Sinking ANCHORAGE – Dale Pruitt was soaked and frozen and clinging to the hull of the capsized commercial salmon boat two miles off the Alaska Peninsula.The 56-foot seiner had been knocked over in roaring seas just before dusk. Water temperature was 48 degrees. As Pruitt, barefoot and wearing only a T-shirt and shorts, held on to the slippery hull, it started to sink beneath him. Pruitt, 47, a commercial fisherman since he was 13, thought about his two teenage children and niece floating away in the waters around him. After 30 years of going to sea, from Russia to Ketchikan, he didn't allow himself any fatal thoughts. He saw a box with the life raft in it among the debris from the boat. "We were in trouble," he said. "I knew the only chances of survival were to get in that raft." Pruitt and the teens survived the sinking of the Magnum and 62 hours -- that's almost three days -- floating in a life raft across Shelikof Strait before another boat spotted them. Pruitt, his 18-year-old son, Mitchell, 15-year-old daughter, Calista, and 18-year-old niece, Cally, survived by luck and, they think, an unwavering belief that someone was going to rescue them. "We had hope, and that's what we lived on for two and a half days," Dale Pruitt said. As 5-foot waves crashed over them in the small, crowded life raft, about the size of a tent, they kept conversations going, sang songs and talked about what they were going to do when they got back home. The family recounted their experience by phone Monday from their home in Kodiak, where the Magnum was originally headed. Theirs was a family commercial fishing operation, like many in Kodiak, where children learn to fish when they are young, and as soon as they are big enough to work the boats become part of the crew. Mitchell Pruitt had been fishing with his dad for a half-dozen years already, Calista for at least two. Happened too quickly The family had just fished a two-day opener for red salmon at Cape Igvak on the Alaska Peninsula near Wide Bay. The boat trip back home was supposed to be a 15-hour ride across Shelikof Strait and around the coast of Kodiak Island. They were carrying a light load of 10,000 pounds, or roughly $10,000 worth of fish. They were two hours into the trip Wednesday night when something went wrong. "The weather changed so fast," Mitchell Pruitt recalled. Winds whipped at 60 mph, with seas sloshing 15-foot waves. Dale Pruitt tried to turn the boat back to land, but something was wrong with it; it was rolling violently from port to starboard. He now believes water leaked into the lazarette, a part of the boat that is supposed to be watertight. Drawers flew open. Things fell off shelves. The boat listed 40 degrees to one side. Cally Pruitt, who had a broken arm in a cast already, flew from the cabin door to the deck windshield and whacked her head. Calista Pruitt, the youngest on board, screamed. It was all happening so quickly. "There was no question it was going to roll over," Mitchell Pruitt said. Dale Pruitt told the kids to get their survival suits on and get out of the cabin. He got on the radio and started calling Mayday. "Are you joking me?" said Calista, a sophomore at Kodiak High. "Don't be a drama queen, and get your suit on," her dad said. "I'm not being a drama queen. I'll show you dramatic," she said. "Get your goddamn suit on," he said. So she did. She was the first one out of the cabin. Cally went out second, falling on top of Calista, who was clinging to the boat. Cally went overboard. Mitchell and Calista were swimming on the sinking deck, which was awash in the ocean. Dale Pruitt never had time to put on his survival suit, which he had in his hand at one point but lost in the chaos. "We were on the deck, floating, trying to avoid getting rolled up by a (fishing) line. We didn't want to touch the seine, to get pulled down," Mitchell Pruitt said. Dale Pruitt said, "I was sure scared, but I wasn't going to let the kids know that." On top of the sinking boat, Dale and Mitchell Pruitt tried to pry off the attached metal skiff but couldn't. The overturning boat had tightened the knot so much that only a knife could undo it. They didn't have a knife. They saw the life raft, still in its box, floating nearby and went after that. When he hit the frigid water in his shorts and T-shirt, Dale Pruitt's bruised and scraped body went numb, he said. Only Calista had her survival suit on all the way. The suits on Cally and Mitchell quickly filled with water. "Cally was floating in her own world by herself, shocked," Mitchell said, of the girl about 100 yards away. Dale Pruitt swam to her and pushed her into the raft. No one heard The family didn't know it, but no one heard the Mayday call. The EPIRB, an emergency signal that is supposed to go off when a boat is in trouble, also didn't go off. It was almost a full day before they were reported overdue and searchers even began looking for them. They had no drinking water. No food. And the only warmth came from their bodies. They shot off the two flares they had. They looked for lights. They looked for land. Only night came. That first night, they didn't let each other fall asleep, afraid hypothermia would set in and they would never wake up. "I kept telling my brother he had so much to live for, so much to go through still: a girlfriend, school, 'Just don't go to sleep,' " Calista Pruitt said. They told family stories, talked about eating chicken tenders at Henry's restaurant in Kodiak, and sang Long Black Train by Josh Turner. The first day, it rained for half an hour, and each survivor was able to drink about 2 ounces of water that collected off the raft's rain flap, Dale Pruitt said. Two days later, it rained four hours and the family carefully collected enough water to hydrate themselves. The second day on the raft they thought they spotted Kodiak Island and spent six hours paddling fruitlessly towards the land, the wind counteracting their push. Mitchell Pruitt started to think, "What if no one comes? What if they don't know we are gone until we are really gone?" "It was hell," he said. "It was just a wet hell." Dale Pruitt wanted to yell across the empty ocean to his wife, Mindy Pruitt, whom he knew must have been out of her mind with her whole family missing at sea. He wanted to shout at the top of his lungs that he and the kids were still alive and not to give up. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard was searching with fixed-wing C-130s and HH-60 and HH-65 helicopters, combing hundreds of miles of coastline on the western side of Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula. It was a daunting task. Flight crews were brought in from Cordova and Sitka to assist. Overcast days made seeing anything on the water difficult. It wasn't until Saturday that Dale Pruitt heard the unmistakable sound of a nearby boat. He told Mitchell to open the flap of the raft and take a look outside. It was the Sea Storm, a 105-foot fishing vessel under contract to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "That was a hallelujah moment," Dale Pruitt said. - Anchorage Daily News Letter: Juneau Road Would Benefit Fishermen, Too JUNEAU, Alaska - The completion of a Lynn Canal highway linking Juneau to Haines, Skagway and the rest of Alaska will prove extremely beneficial to Juneau's healthy and growing fishing industry.Even with the short ferry shuttle link, it will be virtually a 24/7 transportation corridor for delivering seafood to market. The seafood industry estimates that an average of 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of salmon, halibut and black cod could be shipped every day once Juneau has a road. Currently, an average of 10 million to 15 million pounds of salmon is harvested annually in Juneau-Lynn Canal waters. But once fish is caught, it must be processed and transported to market. The Juneau Assembly and Juneau Docks and Harbors Board have shown their commitment to improving our industry's infrastructure. Juneau citizens have passed bonds for several millions of dollars to provide loading and unloading facilities. Juneau now has two major processing facilities and several smaller custom seafood processing companies. Also, Docks and Harbors is planning to provide additional cranes and improved boat repair facilities. While we are improving our infrastructure, we still need more reliable transportation to get our fish to market. Juneau has three options for shipping seafood:
All of these costs are expected to increase due to rising fuel costs. Alaska Airlines' new fleet of cargo aircraft demonstrates its commitment to our industry, and I commend them for the investment. But the small portion of seafood the airline carries is our high-value product. Barges are the least expensive way to ship seafood, but because of the length of time it takes, all products shipped must be frozen or canned. These products return a minimum price to our industry. The existing ferry/road mode is used on a limited basis. Processors can put a vanload of seafood on the ferry in Juneau and send it either north to Haines or Skagway, or south to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, where the city connects with existing highways. This transportation option is plagued by ferry scheduling problems and limited capacity. It does not meet current or future needs. Air freight and barge shipments will always play a role and will continue to be used to get our seafood to market. But the best possible transportation scenario is a road that is connected to the continental highway system. Fishermen and local seafood processors agree that the highest value for our products is the fresh fish market. A Lynn Canal highway would provide an opportunity to establish new fresh fish markets in the Lower 48. But fresh fish markets are time-sensitive; shelf life is limited, and any improvements we can make to transportation infrastructure will be reflected in positive financial growth for the fishing industry. The existing ferry/road option has proven the markets are there. But time is critical when dealing with fresh products. I also believe trucking seafood via the new road would create back-haul opportunities such as carrying groceries one way and seafood the other way as demonstrated in other Alaska seaports linked to the continental highway system, such as Kenai and Seward. With the advent of the individual fishing quota system for halibut and black cod, Juneau has become a major seaport. Our share of the state's raw fish tax is around $400,000 per year - up from $70,000 several years ago. It is entirely conceivable that the current number could double with the completion of a Lynn Canal highway. The road would provide a reliable transportation corridor that would create new markets, cut transportation costs and create an economic benefit to Juneau and northern Southeast Alaska. How can Juneau afford not to build this road? - Jim Becker of Juneau writing to the Juneau Empire |