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Monday, July 16, 2007 Bristol Bay Fish Continue to Hit
BRISTOL BAY, Alaska - Sockeye made their appearance in a convincing fashion over the past week, according to Alaska
Department of Fish and Game stats. As of Saturday, July 14, here are the numbers:
Total run so far has been 38,357,148. Total catch was 25,006,781. Pre-season predictions were that 34.4 million sockeye would return to the bay, with a total catch of 26.3 million. By comparison, here are the numbers from Wednesday, July 11.
Total run was 33,052,295. Total catch was 21,266,605. – Alaska Department of Fish and Game Brief: Russians to Claim Bottom of Arctic Ocean MOSCOW -- Russian oceanologists are going to set up Russian flag on the bottom of the Artic Ocean.The flag will be fixed at the depth of 43,000 meters near Artic pole, claims RIA News. This depth hasn’t been conquered by anybody before. And the diving can be dangerous. To come down the divers will use deep sea devices Mir1 and Mir2. The diving start is planed on July, 29-30. The oceanologists will reach the Artic pole on board the expedition vessel Academic Fjodorov. The expedition is going to collect the samples of ocean fauna and subsoil tests, to explore geothermal and hydrochemical phenomena. – ICRussia
KODIAK, Alaska – It took the better part of two years for Ron and Julie Kavanaugh to put their boat, the Sylvia Star, together again.
Feature: Broken Boat Put Back Together Again The fishing vessel they named after their daughter and owned for 16 years hit a rock and sank near Uyak Bay July 27, 2005. “The rock was sticking out on the edge so when the boat went by it, the rock just pierced the hull like a can opener,” Ron, a fisherman since 1976, said. “We had a rip that was a foot wide and 14 feet long.” The fishing boat’s four crewmen safely boarded a Zodiac and traveled to a nearby beach. The vessel went down in a short 15 to 20 minutes on what Ron describes as a “calm, beautiful day.” The boat remained floating stern up. It was considered a constructive total. “Constructive total” means it would take more money to rebuild the boat than the insured value of the boat. The couple considered purchasing another boat, but none were available that met their specifications. They opted to fix the Sylvia Star, but it was a longer process than they envisioned. Unforeseen circumstances delayed the start of the work. Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 had insurance companies inundated with work. It took an additional two to three months for the Kavanaughs to take possession of the boat and begin the reconstruction process. But finally, after 18 months of work, the boat is now completely refurbished and has already made several tendering trips. The couple agrees the local people who worked on the project did outstanding work. Ron did the demolition and local craftsman Tom Knoke did the woodwork. Another local, Carl Hayes, installed the fiberglas. The boat was completely stripped, leaving only the shell with a deck. The new wood trim is teak and the floor ipea hardwood, an increasingly popular all-natural Brazilian wood nicknamed “ironwood.” It doesn’t absorb water and swell or nick easily. The original 20-ton refrigerated seawater system was torn out and replaced with a 30-ton system. Two larger 65 kilowatt generators were installed. Instead of rebuilding the motor, a new Lugger 550-horsepower motor was installed. The rigging was sandblasted and metalized. Everything mechanically is new except the propeller and the shaft, Ron said. “We could not have bought what we have now (based on) what was on the market. A boat in this good of a condition just wasn’t available,” he said. The boats they might have purchased for the same price as the construction would have needed additional repairs. Also, the boats they looked at were not set up for their fisheries. The Kavanaughs fish and tender for salmon, pot fish for gray cod in the winter and fish for Tanner crab. “(Fishing) used to be fun before the politicians got involved,” Ron said. The Kavanaughs have been active in meetings and discussions about fisheries policy because they are concerned about the future of fishing. - Deanna Cooper for the Kodiak Daily Mirror <<<•>>> Tuesday, July 17, 2007 News: Authorities Probe Incident that Killed Fisherman POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE, Calif. - Investigators were trying to determine how a fisherman found floating with a life jacket off Point Reyes died at sea.The crew of the fishing vessel California Girl discovered Paul Wade of Santa Cruz dead in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday morning, Coast Guard officials said. The discovery came shortly after a 250-foot container ship headed for Portland reported a possible collision with a smaller vessel about 7 1/2 miles off the coast. Coast Guard search teams discovered debris in the area, possibly from Wade's fishing boat, said Joseph Ford, civilian search and rescue controller in the Coast Guards San Francisco office. Wade, found floating with a life jacket Saturday morning, was the sole occupant of the 37-foot fishing boat Buona Madre, Coast Guard officials said. Later Sunday, Wade's wife, daughter and friends gathered at the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor to install a makeshift shrine honoring the man who bought a 37-foot Buona Madre four years ago to try his hand at commercial fishing, friends said. "He used to park it right next to me," Jerry Foster, 66, a commercial fisherman for 30 years, said Sunday as he worked on his boat at the Santa Cruz harbor. "He was just a regular guy who bought an old boat. I showed him how to tie up the gear. I remember he was a real fast learner." It's unclear where Wade was fishing from on Saturday. He was on the waiting list for a berth at the Santa Cruz harbor, according to harbor officials, and he has also been fishing out of Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay. Wade and many other commercial fishermen have been working the waters in the northern part of the state recently in search of king salmon. Scooby Cook, a Santa Cruz resident who's known Wade since he became a commercial fisherman, said there's a chance Wade was not keeping an eye on the radar at the front of the boat while he was fishing in the back. Todd Fraser, owner of Bayside Marine at the Santa Cruz harbor, said he sold Wade all of his fishing equipment when Wade was starting out. Before he bought the boat, Wade was a sailing enthusiast who owned a sailboat in Redwood City, his fellow fishermen said. "He showed up one day and basically turned himself into a commercial fisherman," Fraser said. "He got this wooden boat, a double-ender. They're pretty hard to see sometimes. It sounds like he may have been on the edge of the shipping lane. "But it doesn't matter what kind of boat you have if you're in a freighter lane. If they're on a tack, they're going to keep going. We don't know if he got hit and smashed and died or if he was hit in the water." Fraser, who said he's been in contact with a few of the commercial crews who were fishing for salmon off of Point Reyes over the weekend, said they're telling him that the captain of the freighter thought he hit someone, then called out by radio to one of the fishing vessels in the area to see if they were OK. When that vessel responded that they were fine, the freighter kept moving, according to Fraser. "But apparently Paul was in the next boat over," he said. "Commercial fishing is dangerous. It's the deadliest catch. People should know that around here. A lot of guys put their lives on the line when they go out fishing. We're going to miss him" – Santa Cruz Sentinel Deadliest Catch Skipper at Home in Indiana CHANDLER, Ind. – On a 17-acre farm here, you'll find a man who has a passion for horses and teaching kids to ride, but it's his other passion he's most known for which just happens to be one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.Captain Andy Hillstrand, The Time Bandit, says, "I've done it my whole life, I've been on boats since I was 3 years old, I mean that's all I remember as being a kid." He's also the captain of the custom built family vessel, The Time Bandit, and fishes for crab in one of the world's most violent and unpredictable waters, the Bering Sea off the Alaskan Coast. For the last two seasons, Andy and his brother Jonathan have been featured on the Emmy nominated show, Deadliest Catch. They share skippering duties on The Time Bandit. Jonathan Captain's the ship during king crab season while Andy takes over during opilio crab season. Capt. Hillstrand, says, "We're definitely not Hollywood TV stars I know that. We're just guys trying to make a living, we just have one crazy job." A crazy, and deadly job. Capt. Andy says, "Yea, I've got probably four or five friends who have not made it and stuff, you know, fishing fault. One guy got drug overboard on the east coast, one guy fell overboard crab fishing right next to us, another buddy of mine that they've named a harvester memorial after, they rolled their boat over and sank." Hillstrand says, "When I come home here, I'm ready to put my feet on dry land." Andy and his wife moved from Alaska to a 17-acre farm in Chandler, Indiana four years ago. He finds calm, peace and serenity by working with a different crew horses. He teaches horsemanship and holds a day camp for kids three days a week. "I teach pretty much teach the basics all around on horses, how to stay safe, how to get them to stop, instead of having a runaway horse." As captain of The Time Bandit, Andy can earn an income of over six figures in a few months, while deck hands average over $30,000 in just 90 days at sea. 20 hour work days onboard ship make life on the farm that much more special. Still, each year, on his birthday, September 25th, Andy answers the call from sea. Capt. Andy Hillstrand, says, "It's just what's in your blood. You kind of miss it but I always know I'm going back so I get to have fun doing this, I just mellow out." – Channel 14 News, Evansville, Ind.
NEW YORK - Few sane people want to visit a storm-tossed Bering Sea, the sizzling Sahara Desert and Canada's Northwest Territories in January. Experiencing them from a comfortable chair in front of a flat-screen television, however, is all the rage.
Feature: Living Dangerously … From the Couch Shows about adventure seekers in forbidding lands are among the hottest on cable television. Deadliest Catch, about crab fishermen off the Alaska coast, is Discovery's most popular show, while Ice Road Truckers is setting ratings records for The History Channel. Unhinged survivalist Bear Grylls of Discovery's Man vs. Wild is a new pinup star. They all have the romanticism of the wild frontier in common. Spectacular photography, at a time TV screens are becoming bigger and clearer, enhances the appeal. Both Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers were hunches that really paid off. Segments on the fishermen and big-rig drivers who race across frozen lakes were featured briefly on other shows, and executives decided to spin them off into series. Viewership for the third season of Deadliest Catch grew by 20 percent and June's season finale was seen by nearly four million people - big numbers for basic cable. "It's our American Idol,'' said Jane Root, Discovery's executive vice president and general manager. For a couple of weeks of backbreaking work on lurching, ice-slicked ship decks a fishermen can earn a year's wages. Or he could die. Nine have drowned in the Bering Sea since Discovery began filming the series, although none on boats where the network was filming. The series is like an old television Western, Root said. "It's touched something rather big and mythic in society today," she said. "The idea of those kind of rewards and danger existing in society is fascinating to people." The stars of Ice Road Truckers face a different kind of danger. They need to deliver massive loads of equipment to busy diamond mines up north. And the work needs to be done in the dead of winter, where frozen lakes offer the most direct routes. They can feel the ice crack and groan as they drive their big rigs over the lakes. If calculations about ice thickness are wrong, the trucks would plunge into the water, which would then freeze over faster than any rescue could be attempted. An idle truck that has broken down puts even more pressure on the ice. Producers are blessed with indelible characters - the old salts, cocky risk-takers, scared rookies. The 3.4 million people who tuned in to June's series premiere was the biggest bow ever for an original program on The History Channel, according to Nielsen Media Research. The network decided only in December to make the series, putting the producers in the same sort of race against time faced by the truckers. Producers had to scramble to set things up and get a crew to northern Canada for when the roads opened in January. A reality series about daredevil truckers might seem a strange fit for The History Channel. Dubuc said it touches upon one of history's greatest themes - exploration. Discovery's Man vs. Wild hasn't reached the same heights, but is growing fast in its second season. The star, Grylls, is a former British Special Air Service soldier whose military career ended when he broke his back jumping out of a helicopter. He looked for other ways to put his survival skills to use. Each episode begins with Grylls parachuting into some desolate area, carrying only a knife and flint. His goal is to find his way to safety in a couple of days. He offers valuable advice to people who may find themselves lost in the wild, like how to use the sky for directions or construct an ice cave to survive a night in frigid temperatures. He also goes the extra mile with a Crocodile Hunter-like enthusiasm. Worried about a lack of water in one episode, he drinks his urine. When Grylls fortuitously happens upon a sheep's carcass in Iceland, he cuts off chunks of meat and cleverly boils them in a hot volcanic pool. Fine. Then he gouges out the sheep's eyeball for some extra energy. "You bit into it and it was like an explosion of blood and gristle," he said. "I thought it was going to be a bit like a hard-boiled egg." The truest sign of a burgeoning trend is the number of similar series in the works. The History Channel is planning Tougher in Alaska, about the difficulty of some common jobs there. Discovery is excited about Last Man Standing, with six people who compete in sports originated by remote tribes. – Associated Press Brief: Russia Taking Over North Pole? President Vladimir Putin, looking to restore his nation’s greatness and establish an “energy empire,” has his eye on parts of the Bering Sea and the North Pole, according to a story from Time. The story reports Moscow wants to take control over an 18,000-square-mile piece of the sea between Alaska and Russian Chukotka.“The territory was ceded to the U.S. in 1990 under the U.S.-Soviet Maritime Boundary Agreement signed by Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. While the deal may have helped ease Cold War tensions, anti-reform Soviet hardliners always opposed giving up a piece of territory rich in sea life and hydrocarbon deposits, and they and their nationalist successors prevented the agreement's ratification. Today, the agreement still operates on a provisional basis, pending its ratification by the Russian parliament.” And as for the nation’s desires regarding the North Pole: “An expedition of 50 scientists that spent 45 days aboard the Rossia nuclear icebreaker found that an underwater ridge (the Lomonosov Ridge) directly links Russia's Arctic coast to the North Pole. This, they insist, surely guarantees Russia's rights over a vast polar territory that also happens to contain some 10 billion tons of oil and natural gas deposits.” – Anchorage Daily News News: Commercial Fishing Request Causes Angler Upset PRINCE EDWARD, B.C. - The recent decision by the Port Edward Port Authority to order the removal of fish-cleaning tables from the Rushbrook Floats is ridiculous, claim charter fishermen and local businesses."People come down here specifically to watch the boats come in and guys clean fish," said Northern B.C. Fishing Charters operator Steve Carpenter. "It helps the charter guys get clients, it helps Bob's [On the Rocks] sell food, and they will lose all that business. We're getting pressure by the commercial guys not to dock there, and it's just not right. Everybody should be able to share the facility." The issue stems from a history of complaints by commercial fishermen and vessel operators about the congested dock. Up until now, sport and charter fishermen have been able to use the dock to load, unload and clean their catch on two large metal tables installed at the bottom of the dock ramp. But a recent decision handed down by the Port Edward Harbour Authority general manager Richard Hill will see the Rushbrook cleaning tables removed after July 31. "A few of us were informed, but the decision was made without any prior consultation with us," said Randy Janzel, owner and operator of Unreel Charters in Prince Rupert. "The Port Authority just said they're going, and that's all there is to it.'" The dock space available at Rushbrook has been a contentious issue for years because the marina is primary intended for use by commercial vessels. Currently, other fishing vessels are allowed to moor boats there for the season, but only before the first three fingers, which are reserved for commercial fishing boats. "The commercial guys are saying we're parked in their loading zone too," said Janzel. "The solution that needs to take place is policing the loading zones, which has never been done in the 15 years I've been chartering here. There's a two-hour maximum time limit to park there, and after that there's a $50 an hour charge. There's guys that park there for three days in a row, both commercial and sport fisherman included, and there's never been a fine handed out. They're very aware of it, but they just let it slide. That would be an easy solution, but I don't think that's ever going to happen." – Prince Rupert Daily News <<<•>>> Wednesday, July 18, 2007 Bristol Bay Fishermen Made Their Season BRISTOL BAY, Alaska - Sockeye catches have bested pre-season predictions by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game stats. As of Monday, July 16, here are the numbers:
Total run so far has been 43,405,352. Total catch was 27,306,720. Pre-season predictions were that 34.4 million sockeye would return to the bay, with a total catch of 26.3 million. – Alaska Department of Fish and Game Letter to the Editor: Things Looking Up for Crews We could have done worse on the final choice for the two vacant seats on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.Duncan Fields has already voiced support for a crew and hired skipper settlement. Beth Stewart is out. There was a rumor that she was the governor’s choice to take the chairmanship, but the processors didn’t like her politics. So we got Sam Cotton. Sam’s vote will be for a fisherman payoff unless I’m mistaken. I don’t know him, but I’ve heard him testify many times. Seems to be a straight shooter. That’s two votes. Then you have Denby Loyd, head of Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the governor’s vote on the council and a man who seems committed to doing the right thing. That’s three votes. Eric Olsen — who is a community development quota representative and should vote for sharing the wealth with Alaskans — is a probable fourth vote. On the 11-member council, six votes win. If you took a vote tomorrow we’d lose 7 to 4. The council was originally structured with six Alaskans and five representatives from outside Alaska. If the four members from Washington and Oregon voted for a fishermen’s share, they would be roasted by their constituents. The one National Marine Fisheries Service vote is very doubtful. Hogarth, head of NMFS, has to go to Sen. Ted Stevens for his budget every year and Stevens believes that boat owners should get it all. That leaves just two votes, both Alaskan. Gerry Merrigan and banker Ed Rassmusen won’t want to vote for a crewmen’s share. Things have to change by this winter when the vote is scheduled. The Bering Sea crab fishermen have a job to do, for which they’ll be paid $150 million in IFQs. If they expend even a fraction of the energy they put out doing their jobs in the Bering Sea, it should be a piece of cake. – John Finley to the editor of the Kodiak Daily Mirror
VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Honorable Loyola Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, announced that Canada's new government is fulfilling its commitment to establish one fishery for British Columbia and will provide $175 million to support environmentally and economically sustainable integrated Pacific commercial fisheries.
News: Canada Promises Integrated Single Fishery "Overcoming the challenges facing Pacific commercial fisheries requires all fishing sectors to rise above the discords that have existed in the past and begin working cooperatively," said Minister Hearn. "Unfortunately, some fisheries, like the commercial salmon fishery on the Fraser River, have been characterized by conflict and mistrust. Our new government committed to help reverse this direction." The new funds will be provided over five years, and will be used to establish enhanced catch monitoring and reporting in B.C. fisheries, strengthen enforcement efforts, and provide the basis for a new approach to trace fish from the time they are harvested in the commercial fishery until they are purchased by consumers. It will also allow the federal government to retire the licenses and quota of fishers who want to leave the commercial fishery, and use these resources to facilitate greater participation in a wide range of commercial fisheries by First Nations throughout B.C. A key component of effective Pacific integrated commercial fisheries is to increase the involvement of fishers in the management of the fisheries, and to move toward clear harvest sharing arrangements for the salmon fishery. The long-term goal is for all participants in the commercial fishery to manage their respective shares cooperatively, in ways that ensure fairness, the conservation of the resource, the sustainability of the fishery and a stable economic return for all participants, while taking into account the need to provide access for First Nations fishing for food, social and ceremonial purposes, and recreational harvesters. – CCN News: Japanese Looking for WWII Remains WASHINGTON - The Japanese government has resumed a search for the remains of World War II soldiers said to be buried in mass graves on the island of Attu at the western tip of the Aleutian Islands, U.S. officials said Monday.More than sixty years after one of the deadliest battles of the war, the bodies of nearly 2,500 Japanese soldiers still lie beneath the muskeg and throughout the hills of the perennially fog-draped island, according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Defense. Last week, a group of Japanese and U.S officials made a four-day trip to the tiny island and used hand shovels and pickaxes to verify the location of burial sites mapped by the Japanese government in 1953, and by the U.S. Navy. Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare is studying the feasibility of excavating the remains from the distant island and transporting them back to Japan for reburial, said Maj. Christopher Johnson, a policy advisor in the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office at the Pentagon. Bones recovered Chief Warrant Officer Robert Coyle, who commands 20 Coast Guard members stationed on Attu, found two left boots made of rubber containing foot bones and a leather pouch that soldiers may have used to hold bullets. The group also found an old wooden cross in a valley thought to contain the bodies of 501 Japanese soldiers. The Coast Guard crew members are the only people living on the island. After a short ceremony to honor the dead, Japanese officials reburied the remains, said Johnson, who was also on the expedition. Calls and e-mails to the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., were not immediately returned. Japanese forces landed on Attu and the neighboring island of Kiska on June 7, 1942, in the only land invasion of the U.S. during World War II. Battle for the Aleutians American soldiers arrived the following May. Most of the fighting involved hand-to-hand combat in horrific weather -- 120 mph winds, driving rain and dense fog. The battle lasted for more than two weeks before the U.S. retook the island. Attu is considered the second-deadliest battle of the Pacific theater behind Iwo Jima. The oval-shaped island is 15 miles from north to south and 40 miles east to west, Coyle said. Of the roughly 2,500 Japanese troops on the island, only 28 were taken prisoner. Most died in battle or chose to commit suicide by holding grenades to their chests, according to the Park Service, which manages the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area. American soldiers used bulldozers to bury the Japanese in mass graves on the treeless island, marking them with wooden posts, Johnson said. The burial sites lie in roadless areas covered with high grasses and boggy ground that could contain unexploded ordnance, officials said. Coyle said an excavation would be difficult and require heavy equipment to be flown out to the isolated island, which lies in stormy waters on the border of the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean. – Anchorage Daily News News: Dutch Harbor on Top Again UNALASKA, Alaska – The National Marine Fisheries Service has released its report on 2006 seafood landings in the United States, and Dutch Harbor remains at the top of the heap.Dutch Harbor hauled in 911.3 million pounds of seafood in 2006, 23 million pounds more than the port's landings in 2005 and more than twice those of the next largest port, Louisiana's Intracoastal City. Dutch Harbor comes in second for value of seafood as usual, after New Bedford, Massachusetts. Other Alaskan ports to crack the top-ten for value were Kodiak, Sitka, Naknek-King Salmon and Seward. – KIAL <<<•>>> Thursday, July 19, 2007 Brief: Bristol Bay Fishermen Winding Down BRISTOL BAY, Alaska - The biggest portion of the Bristol Bay red run appears to be ending, with “only” 539,599 fish caught in a 24-hour period beginning ending Tuesday.Some of the boats have tied up and crews are preparing to fly out. Klas Stolpe, a Pacific Fishing photographer and fishermen who has been crewing out of Naknek, took a few minutes Wednesday morning to check in via e-mail. He said the crew of the F/V St. Vincent was cleaning the boat, preparing to fly out. As for a price, Klas was in a hurry but here’s what he had to say: “Price is fronting 50 and a base of 62, possibly 75 cents.” If the price does rise to 75 cents, it’ll mean $121 million coming home in fishermen’s pockets. Here are the numbers by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, as of Tuesday, July 17:
Pre-season predictions were that 34.4 million sockeye would return to the bay, with a total catch of 26.3 million. – Alaska Department of Fish and Game In Depth: Mystery Surrounds Death at Sea of Capitola Man Paul Wade, the Capitola fisherman whose body was found floating off Point Reyes over the weekend and whose death is now the subject of a Coast Guard investigation, had a job to do.It was to scout the waters off Sonoma County for salmon in the Buona Madre, an old Monterey "double-ender" built in 1931. As the lead vessel, he'd search for the fish using sonar, then radio back the coordinates to his fishing buddies, Mike Rogers and Mike Tracy, who operated the Dulcinea — a tad slower than Wade's but only by a few knots. But last Friday morning at 10:30 a.m., Wade, 55, decided to leave the waters north of Bodega Bay and head south toward Drake's Bay, where there were "toads" to be had — 30- and 40-pound salmon that can fetch thousands of dollars on the open market. "We'd all just been out there a few days earlier, and he knew they were out there, so he was stoked," said Tracy, 42, who met Wade a year ago and forged a fishing relationship. But there was only one problem with the plan: Tracy and Rogers had a hard time hearing Wade's message over the radio. It came in garbled, and when Wade didn't return to Bodega Bay later that evening, the pair of fishermen started to get worried. "We kept calling him on our cell phones, but we never got him," said Tracy, who was later saddled with the grim task of identifying Wade's body early Saturday afternoon at Coast Guard Island off Alameda. His body was found floating 7.5 miles offshore at Point Reyes about 8:40 a.m. He was wearing a life vest but no survival suit to fight off the cold water. He was discovered by the crew of the California Girl, a fishing vessel passing through the area. How Wade ended up in the water is unknown but it's suspected the Buona Madre was struck by a passing freighter. The vessel is believed sunk. Debris from the boat has been found. Around 5:15 p.m. Friday, a 250-foot freighter, the Eva Danielson, reported to the Coast Guard that it may have hit a vessel in dense fog roughly six miles off Point Reyes as it headed toward Portland. The freighter, according to Lt. Anya Hunter, then made radio contact with the crew of the Marja, a nearby fishing boat, then lost contact, then regained it. But once the operators of the Marja radioed back that they were fine, the freighter moved on, Hunter said, apparently unaware another boat was in the area. The case remains under investigation, Hunter said, adding that two investigators have been assigned to the case. It's unclear if the Buona Madre was in the shipping lane. Tracy, who spoke with Wade the night before he died about the next day's game plan, said up to this point "everything is just speculation and that the only person who knows what happened is Paul and the freighter." The cause of Wade's death is pending, according to the Sonoma County Coroner's Office. Friends and family are planning a memorial service at the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor at 4 p.m. Saturday. Wade earned a bachelor's of science degree in business administration at Chico State in 1975, ultimately getting a job as a purchasing manager and eventually owning his own business. He was born in Eureka and attended high school in Oroville. "Paul was compelled to follow his true calling to become a fisherman and sailor, a profession that allowed him to combine his love of the ocean, independence and freedom," the family said in a death notice. "Paul worked tirelessly and strenuously for two seasons, fishing salmon and crab. He took great delight in cooking and sharing fresh catches with his family and friends." He is survived by wife Lori and several children and stepchildren. He has left a lasting impact on all them, including his fishing buddy, Tracy. "I won't get on the water again without thinking about Paul," he said. "We all know we take our lives into our hands when we go out. It's not going to change. I'll try to be as cautious as I can. We know the risks.” – Santa Cruz Sentinel
KENAI, Alaska – Every year, every head of household fishing here gets up to 25 salmon plus 10 for every household member listed on the free permit in the Kenai dip-net opener.
News: Dip-netters Back at the Kenai Before July is over, about 20,000 families – 59 percent of them from Anchorage at last count – will freeze or smoke hundreds of thousands of Cook Inlet sockeye, plus the occasional flounder, king salmon, Coho or humpy. The state created this urban subsistence equivalent to let urban Alaskans share in the salmon resources of Cook Inlet. Now it is a meat market to the region. "We're growing a generation of people who are being weaned on dip-net fisheries across the state," says Robert Begich, Kenai Peninsula sport fish biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Other dip-net sites such as a more remote fishery on the Copper River near Chitina have more history, but the Kenai has become an instant tradition 160 road miles from the state's population center. Groups of families drive here together, some clustering tents, sharing chores and enjoying nightly fellowship around a campfire. News: Dutch Harbor Tops Seafood Landings UNALASKA, Alaska - The National Marine Fisheries Service has released its report on 2006 seafood landings in the United States, and Dutch Harbor remains at the top of the heap.Dutch Harbor hauled in 911.3 million pounds of seafood in 2006, 23 million pounds more than the port's landings in 2005 and more than twice those of the next largest port, Louisiana's Intracoastal City. Dutch Harbor comes in second for value of seafood as usual, after New Bedford, Massachusetts. Other Alaskan ports to crack the top-ten for value were Kodiak, Sitka, Naknek-King Salmon and Seward. - KIAL News <<<•>>> Friday, July 20, 2007 News: Fishing Improves in Cook Inlet COOK INLET, Alaska - While most eyes were on a record-setting Bristol Bay fishery, the harvest in Cook Inlet has begun in earnest.These numbers from ADF&G, although somewhat out of date, reflect a strong bunch of fish arriving at one time. The Central District, for example, recorded a 24-hour catch, ending July 16, of more than a half-million reds.
Table by David Hoffard Important: Comment Deadline on Vessel Discharge Soon NPDES EPA Vessel Discharge Permits may be required for ALL vessels – comment deadline August 6.EPA is seeking information as it considers how to develop a water permit program for pollutant discharges incidental to the normal operation of commercial vessels and recreational boats. Vessel owners or operators whose discharges previously have been exempt from Clean Water Act requirements will require a permit beginning Sept. 30, 2008. Regulated discharges may include ballast water, bilge water, deck runoff, and gray water. Approximately 143,000 commercial vessels and potentially more than 13 million state-registered recreational boats and more than 25 different types of vessel discharges could be affected. On the Web: EPA is seeking public comments and data to help the agency develop the permitting framework EPA website fed Reg notice June 21 Fact sheet on district court ruling - United Fishermen of Alaska
This story also appears in today's Wild News.
News: Flying Fish- Kodiak to Chicago KODIAK, Alaska – From Kodiak waters to a Chicago distributor is a one-day trip for 10,000 pounds of premium salmon so far this season. The Olga/Moser Bay Seafood Producers Alliance (OMBSPA), a group of set gillnet fishermen at the south end of Kodiak Island, are in their fourth year of the venture. The alliance sells the best of their catch to Plitt Seafoods in Chicago, who then sells the fish to high-end restaurants throughout the United States. In 2004, Plitt Seafoods president Bob Sullivan sent 13 chefs and buyers to Olga Bay. The group met the co-op members to discuss the prospect of flying fresh fish to Chicago. "That started us working in the direction of sending fresh fish direct from Olga/Moser Bay into Chicago," co-op member Ann Barker said. Sullivan said in a previous interview, "The salmon went to white-tablecloth restaurants and high-end retailers like Whole Foods. It was a home run. We started gaining market share as the summer went along because of that product. It got a great following. Barker said the co-op sells two categories of salmon. "The premium fish — the 6-pound silver fish — that are beautiful and caught live, we bleed them right in the picking skiff and put them in a tote of ice. Those are the ones we send out," she said. Fish smaller than 6 pounds are iced in a brailer bag and processed and frozen on the Alpine Cove, a floating processor. "It’s perfect for our bay because it can process 12,000 pounds a day, put them on ice and those get shipped frozen," Barker said. After a fishing closure, co-op members take the premium fish and pack them in boxes. The boxes are loaded on Andrew Air planes in the morning. Andrew Air refrigerates them and takes them to Alaska Airlines in time for the afternoon flight to Anchorage. That flight takes them direct from Anchorage to the windy city. The fish arrive on the Chicago tarmac at 6:30 the next morning. During the co-op’s four years members have worked on building infrastructure. Two grants from the Alaska Department of Economic Development helped them purchase a gel pack maker, strapping, scales, and an ice machine for use on the Alpine Cove. The grants also helped them purchase a StarBand communication system, a two-way satellite Internet system consisting of a dish and a satellite modem that routes data from remote users through satellites to a StarBand hub and then to the Internet. Before the fish leave the ground, the Starband system allows the co-op to contact the wholesaler with information on how much fish is coming in. Plitt informs their buyers when they can expect the fish so they can start advertising right away, Barker said. "It’s no longer enough for these high-end restaurants to say Olga/Moser Bay salmon. They want Bill Barker salmon. They want Sid Omlid salmon," Barker said. When the fresh fish is on the menu, the restaurant displays a small placard with the fishermen’s picture and their family’s story. "Bob Sullivan has given us a vision of what our fish can do and it’s very exciting to be a part of," she said. In June, Sullivan flew to Olga Bay to visit with the fishermen and observe the operation. He again sent buyers from Whole Foods Market and later chefs to do the same. "Every summer he sends a group of chefs,” Barker said. “He sends these people out to us and (we) share a meal, they see how we fish and how we pack them. If we can, we show them a bear. They see how pristine and remote the operation is." One chef said he didn’t know places like this existed and just being there was going to make him a better person, Barker said OMBSPA fishermen get $1.50 a pound for the premium fresh product and $1.10 a pound for the frozen product. – Kodiak Daily Mirror News: Canadian Fishermen Cautious About Government Promise NANIAMO, B.C. – Commercial fishermen are cautious about the implications of a re-worked plan to hand more of the West Coast fishery over to native fishermen.Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn announced a $175-million, five-year project to transfer non-native fishing licenses to natives. The original license buy-out program introduced in the 1990s under the Liberal government angered non-natives, who said it took away their livelihood. But gradually more fishermen sold their licenses as stocks dwindled. Now the government is offering cash to voluntarily retire licenses, fish quotas, gear and vessels. A salmon opening north of Port Hardy this week meant few fishermen were available to comment, but 63-year-old Dave Keeling, a fisherman of 35 years, said he might consider giving up his salmon, halibut, herring and tuna quotas. "I might, if the price is right," Keeling said. A separate aboriginal fishery has long been a sore point with non-native fishermen. Non-natives protested when aboriginal fishermen got first dibs on the resource, sometimes shutting out non-natives. A Department of Fisheries officer reportedly told media the department now plans to give natives and non-natives equal access to stocks, but Keeling doubted natives would agree. "They only seem to go for more, not for less," Keeling said. "It’s my gut feeling – I could be wrong." Several Supreme Court decisions have exerted aboriginal rights to food and ceremonial fisheries, but some natives have been accused of selling the fish illegally. Bob Elliott, a status Indian, isn’t sure the new program will be an improvement over the old one. "It’s not going to benefit natives," Elliott said. "It only benefits the guys at the band office. Anybody not related to the chief and council, you get nothing – that’s the way it’s always been." About one-third of the money will go to better fisheries monitoring, catch reporting and enforcement, and Bill Wareham, of the David Suzuki Foundation called it good news. “We said it’s positive to see those management systems,” Wareham said. “It’s not enough, but it’s definitely going toward the thing we feel is needed.” - Nanaimo News Bulletin Pebble Project: One Thing’s Sure – A Fight IlIAMNA, Alaska Peninsula – Flying over the blurring fusion of green Arctic willows and hundreds of small blue ponds dotting the tundra west of Iliamna, it isn't hard to imagine how this land has inspired its surrounding communities to have such passion and commitment toward the care and usage of its resources.Originally an Athabaskan village at the intersection of the Iliamna River and Iliamna Lake, present-day Iliamna sits some 40 miles from its birthplace, and faces some difficult decisions in its future. Buried anywhere from 1,200 to 6,000 feet beneath the surface of a vast region just 17 to 18 miles west of the village lie what is potentially billions of dollars worth of valuable minerals at the convergence of three watersheds. The borders of the mine claim spread to the size of this summer's Caribou Hills Forest Fire in Ninilchik — roughly 90 square miles. The area of attention, however, rests in a vast tundra valley approximately encompassing some 15 square miles. Digging for a future through exploration Northern Dynasty Minerals, Ltd. has been working the area for several years now. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson, a mineral development corporation based in Vancouver, B.C. With the strong possibility of several multinational companies sniffing around for a piece of the development and investment opportunities in the world's second-largest gold-copper-molybdenum mine, the dominantly Native American village of some 450 residents faces a compelling future as a mining town. And whether that future looks promising for mine developers and investors or for fervent opponents of the project from various fishing and environmental organizations, one thing remains clear — no side is going down without a fight. "This whole thing is really like a science project for us right now," said Sean Magee, vice president of Pebble Project Public Relations. "If we have a successful find this year, then we'll look at proposing a development plan by 2009." The Lake and Peninsula Borough, the governing body for the region, passed a resolution in support of the development of the mine. However, some surrounding villages adamantly oppose the development. Mine could become biggest in the world According to Magee, the project had spent $130 million by the end of 2006, purely on exploration of the area. The exploration budget for 2007 is $95 million "Our goals for 2007 are defining the outer limits of Pebble's 'inferred' resources, and delineating known portions of Pebble East into 'indicated' or 'measured' resources," Magee explained. When asked about the possibility of Pebble becoming the king of gold-copper-molybdenum mines, Magee replied, "I could say that one might expect it to get bigger. I would be surprised if it didn't wind up being the largest in the world." With each new exploratory drilling into the layers of sediment and rock, explorers are becoming increasingly aware of just what they're dealing with. Back at the "core shack" in Iliamna, laborers and geologists look through boxes of core samples, comparing them to charts suggesting the percentages of their geological makeup. In this and last year, Northern Dynasty has punched about 70 miles worth of core samples through the claim. It's a drilling process that costs about $200 per foot of sample. This year's effort could reach 6,000 feet deep into the earth of the east deposit. Northern Dynasty has long since turned its attention from the original west deposit, where the former claim owner first noticed the site's possible potential when explorers spotted oxidized copper on the surface, to the east deposit, where company geologists say they've tapped long intervals of copper, gold, and molybdenum mineralization. Now they're expanding their focus to the north and the south of the east claim. Geologist Jason McLaughlin with Northern Dynasty said the rocks they're finding most right now are similar to those found in Chile at similar depths. That suggests the rocks could be of similar circa — 65 million years old — as both lie on the Pacific Rim's Ring of Fire. "Land resources in these areas benefit from ongoing periods of volcanic activity over time," McLaughlin said. "What we've heard from some of the people touring our site is that what we're seeing is fairly similar to resources in Chile and surrounding areas." Chilean copper has long been the mainstay of the country's economy. Balancing development, environment Magee said the company is investing in science in order to design a project that "doesn't create problems in the first place." "We are going above and beyond as far as safety and ecological impact are concerned," he said. "We want to help protect the fish and water. Major fish streams are very important to us. We're not just economically focused." One way the company is working to reduce environmental impact is via transportation and construction. "We sling everything out to the drill sites by helicopter and lay tundra pads, (20-by-40-foot sections of wooden pallets), down before we start anything," Magee said. "Sure, a road would be cheaper, but we're more concerned about creating a lighter footprint on the land." That means moving people, drills, maintenance equipment, food, everything needed to fuel the operation and keep off the surface of the tundra. As for some kind of assertion that a system is in place to monitor and safeguard the environment in the resource-rich area, Magee said Pebble is trying to maintain a balance between development and protecting the ecosystem. That means pairing biologists with nearby ponds, lakes and streams as well as geologists with thousands of pounds of rock samples. "The people discussing this mine are not simply metallurgists, geologists and engineers," Magee said. "Environmentalists also have a seat at the table." While Pebble officials maintain that all factions involved in the project will have a say in exactly how it develops, jockeying for the best seat at the mining prospect table continues. How and if the project can be developed responsibly for all stakeholders still remains to be seen. – Next week, The Homer Tribune will shift to telling the story of the current and future economic impact a mine of this size has on Alaskans, both on fishing and mining jobs and what that means for the area. |
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