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Monday, July 23, 2007 Things are slowish in Southeast
Here’s a roundup from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for the Southeast Alaska salmon fisheries:
Troll fishery Average weight has been 14.7 lbs/fish, average ex-vessel price has been $2.87/lb, and estimated value is estimated around $5 million. Fish size and price are comparable to the 2006 season. After fishermen have offload Chinook salmon, the fishery will continue to target other species, primarily coho salmon. Coho salmon catch thus far is 171,000 fish; average weight has been 5.1 lbs/fish; and average price has bee $1.07/lb. Coho price is comparable to the 2006 season, however average coho weight has been smaller by about ½ lb/fish. Designated areas of expected high Chinook salmon abundance will remain closed for the duration of the season. Effort levels during the initial summer fishery are estimated at 790-800 boats, comparable to 790 boats that fished during the 2006 season. Purse seine fishery Poor indications of northbound pink salmon into Districts 11 and 15, and poor sockeye returns to Chilkat Lake, precluded a seine fishery along the Hawk Inlet shoreline. Hidden Falls Hatchery cost recovery is presently at 50 percent of goal and broodstock is presently at 33 percent of goal, although an influx of chum salmon into the area has now made more rapid progress possible. SE drift gillnet fishery The plan links seine and gillnet time to provide pink conservation and allocation. Due to weak pink salmon escapements in the area the seine fishery was limited to one day. Effort by 35 boats was similar to the previous week, and much effort shifted to the Nakat THA as the traditional gillnet area closed. Last week’s catch at Tree Point included 3,500 sockeye, 24,500 pink, and 19,000 chum for the two day period, and the seasonal cumulative chum catch at the Nakat Inlet THA is now 32,000. Fisheries in Districts 6 and 8 were open three days. In District 6, there were 65 boats harvesting 80,000 chum, 35,000 pinks, and 7,000 sockeye. Effort was 2/3rds of average for the timing, but chum catch was double average, and sockeye catch rates were below average. In District 8, there were 45 of 60 boats targeting Anita Bay enhanced chum salmon. Effort was somewhat higher than average, and chum catch was over three times average. Boats targeting sockeye in District 8 were at or above average catch rates. This week, both districts have been announced for two days to conserve McDonald Lake sockeye. An extension is possible in District 8 if mainstem Stikine run strength can support more harvest. The larger, Tahltan Lake component of the Stikine River sockeye returns are thought now to have passed through the fishery. In District 11, over three days, 70 boats caught 12,000 sockeye, 13,000 pink, and 90,000 chum salmon. Effort was below average. Sockeye catch was low, but catch rates were average. Chum salmon catch was well over average, and fishermen were targeting enhanced chum returning to DIPAC release sites. The fishery has been announced for three days next week. In District 15, there were 70 boats catching 7,500 sockeye, 7,500 pinks, and 98,000 chum salmon. Effort was 80 percent of average, and fishing time varied by area within the District. Catch and catch rates of sockeye were below average. Catch of chum salmon was somewhat below average. However, catch rates for chum were above average. A conservative approach is being taken in much of the District in order to conserve weak returns of Chilkat Lake sockeye. Yakutat set gillnet fishery Fisheries on the Alsek and Akwe Rivers were extended. Eight fishermen on the Alsek harvested 2,300 sockeye, and sockeye have begun passing through the Klukshu weir in Canada. Five fishermen on the Akwe caught 4,200 sockeye. On the Situk, 38 permit holders caught 6,300 sockeye and total catch this season has exceeded 40,000. The lower end of the escapement goals for both Chinook and sockeye have now passed through the Situk weir. In Yakutat Bay, 25 permit holders caught 2,300 sockeye and total harvest is now over 37,000 for the year. News: More Federal Paperwork for Boat Owners? ANCHORAGE – A ruling by a judge in California could impact all boat owners in Alaska, except the military.The ruling could mean that thousands of recreational and commercial boat owners will have to get water-pollution permits to discharge deck runoff, bilge water and many other kinds of liquids off their boats. For more than 30 years, small boats have been exempt from such permits, which the federal Environmental Protection Agency routinely approves for large-scale polluters such as seafood processors and wastewater treatment plants. The small boat owners, however, become entangled in a court case that environmental groups, six states and others filed against the EPA over ballast-water discharges from large ships. The litigants were trying to force the EPA to issue permits for ships' ballast-water discharges, which have introduced many invasive aquatic species to the U.S. coastline and the Great Lakes, according to federal scientists. The Northern California district judge in the case declined to limit her ruling to ballast water. She threw out the Clean Water Act's exemption for water-discharge permits for many routine emissions from boats. Some of the more harmful pollutants introduced by boats into oceans and rivers, such as trash and human waste, are regulated under other rules. So far, the EPA has identified 143,000 commercial vessels and up to 18 million recreational boats that could now require pollution permits under the court ruling. State records show about 69,000 boats registered with the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles. The EPA is appealing the district court ruling and oral arguments are scheduled before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 14. The EPA has until September 2008 to impose the new permits under the lower court ruling. One of the Pacific Coast commercial fishing groups that petitioned the EPA to beef up its ballast-water regulations said Thursday he is concerned that the decision is now being applied to small-boat owners. "This could be extremely onerous when the discharges are essentially benign," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations. Requiring a permit for deck runoff and bilge water sounds nuts, said Tom Garrett, an Anchorage small recreational boat owner. "You can't regulate everything in this country," he said. – Anchorage Daily News
SEWARD, Alaska – The crew of a fishing boat abandoned ship near Seward.
News: Crew Safe Off the Miss Carol Coast Guard Petty Officer Jeremy Dawkins says the distress call came in to Air Station Kodiak at about 2:30 a.m. from the fishing vessel Miss Carol reporting a fire on board. The four persons on board had to abandon ship to a work skiff that was in tow. The Miss Carol was assumed to be a total loss. The skipper told the Coast Guard that his boat was still burning when they last saw it near Montague Strait, about 60 miles east of Seward. The crew was rescued by a Good Samaritan vessel in the area and taken to Seward. The Miss Carol was homeported in Homer. The identities of the skipper and the crew were not available at this report. - KFQD News: Catch Seized for Lack of Whale Safety Equipment NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – A commercial fishing vessel was recently boarded by the Coast Guard and had its catch seized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for allegedly fishing without required whale-safety equipment.On July 3, the Coast Guard cutter Grand Isle found the vessel Harvester at sea without whale-safety weak links, according to officials. As a result, NOAA special agents seized the boat's catch, valued at $30,000. According to the Coast Guard, the Harvester's crew was working in northern Georges Bank, which is in the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan area known as the Seasonal Area Management Zone East. Within this zone, weak links with specific breaking strengths are required on fixed fishing gear to minimize the risk of whales becoming entangled and being injured or killed as a result of swimming into the gear. Coast Guard personnel, in coordination with National Marine Fisheries Services, are investigating whether the Harvester's crew also violated provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. "The Coast Guard is committed to the protection of marine mammals, and regularly patrols the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and New England waters enforcing marine mammal protection rules," said Capt. Joseph McGuinness, chief of the enforcement branch for the First Coast Guard District, in a press release. "Fishermen are under considerable economic pressure to survive. Taking action against those who violate regulations gives the honest fisherman a better chance of making it through these tough times," he said. Implemented in 2002, the SAM program has identified two management areas based on predictable annual aggregations of endangered right whales, which have an estimated population of fewer than 300 in North Atlantic waters. – New Bedford Times-Standard Analysis: Al Gore’s Dinner and Problems with Boycotts This story also appears in today's Wild News service.VANCOUVER, B.C. – Al Gore's appetite was the subject of recent controversy when he was accused of scarfing down Chilean sea bass at his daughter's Beverly Hills wedding rehearsal dinner. Chilean sea bass, officially named Patagonian toothfish, is heavily overfished in Antarctic waters. For Gore, the toothfish was also a public relations nightmare. First came the accusations of hypocrisy and eco-obliviousness, including my own at the Shifting Baselines blog, and then rumors that the Gore family had not actually eaten the fish, and then the final sigh of relief from Gore supporters when the Daily Telegraph retracted their blow and reported the Chilean sea bass actually was "caught and documented in compliance with the Marine Stewardship Council." One thing is certain: Gore's character assassination was fueled by confusion rampant in today's global seafood market. "We did not co-evolve with fish they way we co-evolved with mammals," says Daniel Pauly at the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre. "Therefore, we cannot wrap our minds around fish or our hearts around them either." Perhaps for this reason, our primary way of conserving fisheries over the last decade has been through our stomachs. Expensive campaigns From 1999 to 2004, the Seafood Choices Alliance alone has invested $37 million in seafood consumer awareness campaigns, partially out of exasperation with the government's failure to regulate fisheries or seafood imports. These campaigns aim to educate consumers about fisheries issues and also to empower them to make a difference in the market. Instead, the web of complex messages is growing, along with the number of confused consumers. The 2007 "Seafood Watch" wallet card from Monterey Bay Aquarium lists tuna 12 different times (i.e., species, method of fishing, country) between the three columns of best choices, good alternatives, and avoid. But most tuna consumers are not aware that there are nine tuna species and often do not know the meaning of "troll-caught." These complexities overwhelm the average tuna shopper. Similarly, the aim of Canada's Living Ocean Society's "Farmed and Dangerous" campaign is to convince consumers not to eat farmed salmon. But studies from the U.S. have shown as much as three-quarters of the "wild" salmon sampled were actually farmed. Toothfish. Sea bass. Confused? But no fish exhibits the mass confusion possible in today's global seafood market better than the Patagonian toothfish, renamed Chilean sea bass by the Los Angeles fish merchant who discovered its market potential in North America. Sales of Chilean sea bass increased through the 1980s as word spread that the fish flesh was virtually indestructible and could take on any flavor. In the 1990s Chilean sea bass became a best seller and chefs simply could not get enough of the oily fish. By the late 1990s, many stocks of toothfish had collapsed. The Convention of Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources set harvest levels but, in 1999, an estimated 80 percent of Patagonian toothfish sold were illegally caught. That same year, Whole Foods, an eco-friendly grocery chain in the U.S., discontinued Chilean sea bass. (The chain thought it would pre-empt government action but the government did not act.) Meanwhile, fishing boats began targeting Antarctic toothfish, a relative of Patagonian toothfish, and sold it as Chilean sea bass, too. In 2001, U.S. law enforcers caught several toothfish pirates, one of whom was smuggling two ton of toothfish under a thin layer of crayfish. That same year, Bon Appétit magazine named Chilean sea bass the "Dish of the Year." Less than one year later, in February 2002, the D.C.-based National Environmental Trust (NET) launched the "Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass" campaign, which encouraged a boycott of the fish. The government mustered its energy to adopt NET's request that toothfish landings had legitimate paperwork (though they denied their appeal to get rid of the ambiguous title "frozen fish fillet," under which many illegal toothfish enter the U.S.). Wal-Mart, ever known for its social conscience, discontinued Chilean sea bass from its shelves in 2003. Mixed messages In 2006, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified 4.000 tons of Patagonian toothfish off the South Georgian Islands, Antarctica. In October 2006 Whole Foods reintroduced the MSC-bass. In January 2007, Wal-Mart followed. Within weeks, a scientist working off Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf reported seeing pirate vessels fishing for toothfish. From "Dish of the Year" to a boycott less than one year later. From de-shelved to re-shelved and legal to illegal. From threatened to MSC-certified (yet, still threatened). Amidst the mixed and remixed messages, how can consumers or journalists covering the Gore wedding stay afloat of the toothfish crisis let alone the fisheries crisis as a whole? They cannot. And so seafood awareness campaigns risk ineffectiveness due to information complexity and overload. The Vancouver Aquarium's Ocean Wise program continues to grow and to encourage restaurants to sell sustainable fish. The "success" of Ocean Wise is a stark contrast to Canada's 2006 refusal to sign the UN high seas trawling ban. Having all but abandoned their mandate to protect fisheries resources, national governments are content that individuals do what they can to save fisheries. At present, the complicated messages of seafood conservation efforts undermine the integrity and effectiveness of these market-based initiatives. For these programs to have a hope at obtaining their desired outcomes, seafood consumers must receive simple and accurate information followed by a clear and convincing call to act. And their actions must elicit transparent results on the water. It is possible. In 1989, Sam LaBudde went undercover, videotaped the dolphin slaughter onboard Mexican tuna vessels, and turned the footage into a news piece. Overnight, he revolutionized public sentiments toward tuna fishing and became the accidental father of new regulations and the dolphin-safe logo. But subsequent seafood consumer campaigns, as evidenced by Chilean sea bass, have had less success. – The Tyee, Vancouver, B.C. <<<•>>> Tuesday, July 24, 2007 News: Federal Discharge Permits for Small Boats? ANCHORAGE - A ruling by a judge in California could affect all boat owners in Alaska, except the military.The ruling could mean that thousands of recreational and commercial boat owners will have to get water-pollution permits to discharge deck runoff, bilge water and many other kinds of liquids off their boats. For more than 30 years, small boats have been exempt from such permits, which the federal Environmental Protection Agency routinely approves for large-scale polluters, such as seafood processors and wastewater treatment plants. The small boat owners, however, become entangled in a court case that environmental groups, six states and others filed against the EPA over ballast-water discharges from large ships. The litigants were trying to force the EPA to issue permits for ships' ballast-water discharges, which have introduced many invasive aquatic species to the U.S. coastline and the Great Lakes, according to federal scientists. The Northern California district judge in the case declined to limit her ruling to ballast water. She threw out the Clean Water Act's exemption for water-discharge permits for many routine emissions from boats. Some of the more harmful pollutants introduced by boats into oceans and rivers, such as trash and human waste, are regulated under other rules. So far, the EPA has identified 143,000 commercial vessels and up to 18 million recreational boats that could now require pollution permits under the court ruling. State records show about 69,000 boats registered with the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles. The EPA is appealing the district court ruling and oral arguments are scheduled before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 14. The EPA has until September 2008 to impose the new permits under the lower court ruling. One of the Pacific Coast commercial fishing groups that petitioned the EPA to beef up its ballast-water regulations said Thursday he is concerned that the decision is now being applied to small-boat owners. "This could be extremely onerous when the discharges are essentially benign," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations. – Juneau Empire Crayfish in Kenai Worries Biologists SOLDOTNA, La. - Fisheries biologists fretted this month when they trapped a live Louisiana crawfish in the Kenai River, and the foreboding deepened when someone brought in a dead one found on the riverbank soon after.It was the same non-native species found in the river three years ago, and word got around that maybe the mini-lobsters were multiplying in competition with young salmon. But after two weeks of unsuccessfully trapping in search of more, managers say they're cautiously optimistic that it was just a case of amphibious escape from an Independence Day Cajun cookout. One of the crawfish -- the one turned in by a landowner -- even looked boiled, having turned red. "What we're thinking is somebody just dumped them in the river, because we found two of them in the river, not too far apart, and one of them looked like it could have been cooked," said Tim McKinley, a Soldotna-based biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. That's exactly what happened three years ago, when biologists announced they'd found one specimen from the same warm-water species. Officials determined that a child had rescued four crawfish from a meal and released them in Kenai, where one turned up on the riverbank. Crisis averted, officials believed. But then eyebrows raised again July 9, when a crew netting king salmon at the department's census site at mile 8.5 of the river snared a crawfish clinging to life. It died soon afterward. The state put out a dozen plastic traps, similar to minnow traps, along the lower river and in small tributaries near the sightings. Crews baited them with salmon eggs. Aside from a few juvenile salmon swimming into the funnel traps, nothing happened. "We're still looking," McKinley said. But the event's timing, so soon after a holiday when people like to cook outdoors, makes the escaped-dinner theory seem plausible to him. It seems so to a crawfish expert in Louisiana too. Crawfish farming is big business there, producing 60 million to 80 million pounds per year. Live exports from the state are booming as former Louisianans who grew up on the delicacies move elsewhere, said Robert Romaire, an aquaculture professor at Louisiana State University. He called the animal "cosmopolitan" because of its desirability around the world and easy live transport by air freight in wet sacks. The species found in the Kenai is technically the Louisiana red swamp crayfish, indigenous to the Southeast United States and northern Mexico, Romaire said. Those who eat it tend to call it a crawfish instead of a crayfish, he said. In America, it has been successfully -- if unwisely -- introduced as far north as southern Ohio and northern California, he said. It is one of 550 crayfish species worldwide. Typically crawfish are shipped in 40-pound sacks, Romaire said, so there may be hundreds of the 4-inch crawlies trying get down from a picnic table. Often a child will grab one or two for play. Numerous online outlets ship live crawfish to Alaska overnight. Romaire said he's had crawfish at an Anchorage restaurant. The species has been known to thrive, or at least survive, in more northerly climates where enthusiasts have transplanted them, Romaire said. The red swamp crayfish is reproducing in such unlikely places as the cold lakes of Switzerland and Sweden, he said. It could do so in Alaska too, he presumes, though the cold water would slow productivity. – Anchorage Daily News
VALDEZ, Alaska - A fishing boat ran aground late Saturday night about 25 miles south of Valdez, spilling thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Fishing Vessel Spills Diesel Fuel The Nordic Viking damaged at least one of its nine fuel tanks near Port Gravina and Olsen Bay. Cleanup crews were expected on the scene Sunday afternoon, said Ray Dwyer, a search and rescue controller for the Coast Guard. "They plan to remove what fuel they can, make repairs and try to re-float it. The engine room is flooded," Dwyer said. He said investigators were still looking into the cause of the accident Sunday, when the size of the spill measured about a square quarter-mile. The vessel was carrying up to 15,000 gallons of fuel. About 3,500 gallons was in the fuel tank that was breached, he said. The Coast Guard estimated the size of the spill at 3,500 to 12,000 gallons. No one was injured in the accident, according to a Coast Guard report. Another fishing boat picked up the four crew members on the Nordic Viking, a 127-foot vessel out of Kodiak, and took them to safety. - Anchorage Daily News To the Editor: Battle for Fish Not Over KODIAK, Alaska - It’s certainly been bracing watching The Battle of Near Island. Our two governments here on Kodiak always seem ready to cave in to any ideology or game plan, as long as it’s presented to them by someone they perceive as important or on the winning side.It took Near Island for the electorate to finally say “enough.” I don’t think we’ll build anything on Near Island except what the citizens deem proper after careful consideration. Neither do I think we’re going to spend $37 million on upgrades to the present facility, which is already located right where it should be. What I hope will happen is that we let wiser heads prevail in Kodiak and they can figure out how to get a good job done without shelling out many years of $2 million a year in debt service. Especially as we can bank on declining revenues from fisheries unless we get our captive governments turned around on privatization of the Gulf of Alaska. If the owners manage to crowd the crewmen and skippers out in the Bering Sea, they’ll be a giant step closer to ownership of the Gulf as well. They’ll use that win to leverage themselves into other fisheries and, of course, there’s always processor quotas waiting in the wings. The same mindset is, and probably the same people are, calling the shots on both these two issues. I’d bet on a very good outcome in The Battle of Near Island; I’m not so sure about the fisheries. If our two governments don’t help us grab 40 percent (at least) of the Gulf, we’re going to lose it all, and there’s going to be lots of production and jobs out there in future years. I hope everybody read the lady’s letter in last Friday’s paper. The headline called us malcontents. That’s right. And there’s lots of us. - John Finley writing to the Kodiak Daily Mirror News: Congressional Hearing on Cheney/Klamath Issue WASHINGTON - Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee have said they will hold a July 31 hearing to look into the role Vice President Dick Cheney may have played in the 2002 die-off of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border.An article in the Washington Post said that Cheney played a crucial role in developing a 10-year water plan for the Klamath River that courts later called arbitrary and in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Democrats charged that Cheney's action resulted in the largest adult salmon kill in the history of the West. "The ramifications of that salmon kill are still being felt today as returns to the Klamath River are so low that commercial, sport and tribal fishing seasons have been curtailed for the past three years," Democrats said in a letter calling for the hearing. Commercial fishing in California and Oregon was cut by more than 90 percent last year—the largest commercial fishing closure in the history of the country—resulting in more than $60 million in damage to coastal economies, the letter said. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, whose district includes Del Norte County, an area where the fish died, said Democrats want to have a hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee. "We know that science was manipulated and the law was violated," Thompson said. "Did in fact the vice president of the United States put pressure on mid-level bureaucrats to alter the science and circumvent the law in order to gain political votes for his re-election or the election of other people in Oregon?" Thompson's office drafted the letter, which was signed by 36 House Democrats in California and Oregon, including all four Democratic House members in Oregon and all Democrats except House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California. Thompson said he did not ask Pelosi to sign the letter. – Crescent City Triplicate <<<•>>> Wednesday, July 25, 2007 News: New Dutch Harbor Dry Dock UNALASKA, Alaska - A floating dry dock brought into Dutch Harbor Sunday will make it easier to repair Bering Sea fishing boats without a trip to Seattle.The new 200-by-64-foot unit arrived at Magone Marine Service last night. Owner Dan Magone said its 45-foot-beam capacity should accommodate a good cross-section of Dutch Harbor's marine traffic. "[The dry dock] will pick any of the old crabbers," he said. "It'll handle any of my vessels, it'll handle quite a few of the longline fleet." The new facility can service vessels up to 1,000 tons. That's more than twice the capacity of the only other dry dock in town, the historic submarine dock now owned by Harbor Crown Seafoods, which Magone rebuilt in 1982 but no longer operates. At the moment, his shop does most of its repair work in the water, with divers. Magone bought the new dry dock from the Foss shipyard in Seattle. The purchase price and travel costs ran him nearly $1 million, but he said it was worth it. "Now we can pick stuff out of the water and fix it like they do in the real world," he said. "And in my old age, I'm looking forward to being able to stand out there and point, rather than go down there in a hardhat and figure out how I'm going to pull the rabbit out of the hat one more time." – KIAL News: Pacific Whales Rebound, Western Grays Wane Hunted almost to the brink of extinction, the gnarly gray whales of the eastern North Pacific have rebounded to about 20,000 animals. That population, protected from commercial whaling for many decades, now treks from the Baja to the Alaskan Arctic in one of the world’s great migrations.Their journey north along the Pacific Northwest and southern Alaska gets studied by scientists, watched by whale-lovers, tracked by school children. During the trip, it’s an undulating conga-line of muscle and blubber through the green-water swells. Once in the Arctic, the 30-ton bottom-feeders churn up acres of muck in their quest to scarf down invertebrates, offering a snout-tilling boost to the seabed ecology that enriches the food chain. In turn, these grays get chomped by key pods of the rare mammal-eating killer whales, the ocean’s most elusive and intelligent predator. In all, it’s a 5,000-mile-long spectacle that echoes the bounty once common in pre-industrial oceans worldwide. The eastern Pacific gray whale recovery is be one of the world’s great conservation success stories, proof that scientific knowledge coupled with public resolve can create space for the ocean’s giant mammals to thrive. Not so fast. There’s another population of gray whales in the Pacific, one that’s never been allowed to rebound. And if people don’t act, they may still be driven into extinction by failure to protect their only known feeding grounds. Listed as critically endangered on the ICUN’s red list, the western gray whales number about 120 animals with only 25 to 35 breeding females. They migrate from southern China to eastern Russia in a paltry echo of their genetic cousins across the sea. Where eastern Pacific gray whales find a quiet Chukchi and Bering sea to fill their bellies, the western whales struggle to forage along Russia’s Sakhalin Island in the presence of an oil-drilling cacophony that repeatedly drives them from their food. Oil producers say they won’t change their practices to help. – Far North Science
VANCOUVER, B.C. - The 14 nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council have provided notice of their intention to appeal the decision of the Federal Court in the judicial review of the Groundfish Integration Pilot Plan.
News: Tribal Council Appeals Federal Ruling On May 29, Justice J. Blais found against the Nuu-chah-nulth Nations in their assertion that the minister of the department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) breached his constitutional duty to consult the Nuu-chah-nulth before he made the decision to implement the three-year plan. The groundfish plan was largely the design of the commercial fishing industry, and was developed over the course of two years. The plan implemented new individual transferable quotas (ITQs) for rockfish, lingcod and dogfish to commercial license holders, among other initiatives. Officials from DFO began a consultation process with the Nuu-chah-nulth a few months before the minister announced that the plan would be implemented. That consultation process had only reached stage three of a six-stage protocol at the time of the minister's announcement, and was never completed. The Nuu-chah-nulth nations began a court action against the DFO minister in May 2006. They based the litigation on a Supreme Court decision known as Haida. That court said there is a duty to consult and accommodate the interests of Aboriginal people when the Crown takes, or proposes to take, action that may affect the asserted Aboriginal rights of Aboriginal people. The Nuu-chah-nulth submitted to the federal court that the implementation of the ITQs would have an impact on their right to the food, social and ceremonial fishery, and that the ITQs would have an impact on Canada's ability to provide adequately for a fishery in treaty negotiations, making the buyback of commercial licenses more expensive. In his decision, Justice Blais rejected the Nuu-chah-nulth assertion that consultation should have begun earlier in the process of developing the groundfish plan when changes could have been made to the proposal to address Nuu-chah-nulth concerns. He said the duty to consult fell on the lower end of the scale and that the minister was under no obligation to hold bilateral consultations with the Nuu-chah-nulth nations. The grounds for the Nu-chah-nulth appeal are: Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council President Francis Frank said the decision to appeal was not solely based on the legal implications of Justice Blais' decision in the federal court. "The ruling is not consistent with the collaborative relationship building we've been forging with the department of Fisheries," said Frank. "We are appealing because the ruling is not conducive with the positive steps we are both taking to work together. The ruling is a step backward for both DFO and Nuu-chah-nulth, and will hinder relationships with all First Nations if it stands." - Ha-Shilth-Sa, published by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council News: Record "Heat Wave" EUREKA, Calif. - Inland folk may scoff at high temperatures of 73 degrees, but for the North Coast -- that's a heat wave.And, it was a heat wave that made for record-breaking temperatures four days in a row from Friday to Monday, with one record going back 106 years. The most impressive temperature hike happened Saturday when the mercury hit 74 degrees, breaking the 1901 record for the same day by five degrees and the normal temperature by 11 degrees, according to a National Weather Service climate report. It was 72 in Eureka on Monday, 73 on Sunday and 71 on Friday. The meteorological reasons behind this warm weather have a lot to do with the wind, said Mike Vojtesak, a lead forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Vojtesak said the Eureka area is currently experiencing high pressure from the south as opposed to the usual high pressure from the north that normally keeps temperature low. ”We just don't get this wind reversal very often,” Vojtesak said. Local businesses are heating up with the weather and cooler products are in greater demand. Jim Dearinger, a clerk in the electrical department of Pierson Building Center, said the heat is making the fans move. ”Yeah, I've seen a little extra fan movement. Everyone's trying to keep a little cooler,” he said. “I'm overheated.” The Bon Boniere Ice Cream parlor is feeling the heat as well. Employee Nicole Cowan, who works at the Eureka shop, said they've been experiencing record business. ”This is the busiest summer we've ever had,” Cowan said. Owner Delora Hamilton agreed, adding that the heat is bringing in out-of-town customers. ”A lot of our inland customers are coming to the coast to stay cool,” she said. The National Weather Service predicts a slight cooling trend through mid-week. – Eureka Times-Standard News: Kayaker Escapes from Great White BEAN HOLLOW STATE BEACH, Calif. - A man fishing off an isolated Northern California beach was tossed out of his kayak when a great white shark attacked the tiny boat.Dan Prather scrambled back onto the kayak and paddled furiously to shore with the help of another boater. The attack left deep gnaw marks on the boat. The attack occurred Saturday off Bean Hollow State Beach, some 20 miles south of Half Moon Bay, where about 18 kayakers launched around 7 a.m. Saturday before splitting into two groups. "Everyone had been fishing for a while — for a good two, three hours," said John Dale of Foster City, a member of the kayak fishermen's club. "From what he told me, basically he was fishing and was adjusting a lure, and all of a sudden he was thrown from his kayak into the water. "When he came up, he thought he had been hit by a boat, but when he looked the shark was still on the front of his kayak, latched on, gnawing on the kayak. He thought about it for a second and decided he better get back onto the kayak, even though it was still on the nose." Prather scrambled back into his kayak, but the force of the attack had knocked his seat loose and he fell out two more times. The shark swam away, leaving Prather's kayak with multiple scratches and punctures in its bottom. While Prather's friends said he's not ready to talk publicly about the attack, they said the San Leandro resident never lost his cool or his sense of humor during the ordeal. "He told me, I caught a couple fish ... and a shark," Dale recalled. – San Francisco Chronicle <<<•>>> Thursday, July 26, 2007 News: Celebrity Crab Skippers to Wrestle Florida Gators This item also appears in today's Wild News service.SARASOTA, Fla. – Tastes like chicken. No matter. These Arctic rock stars are coming for the fight, not the bite. Famous crabbers from Deadliest Catch, accustomed to frigid air, deadly work, icy decks and stacked stakes, will visit Sarasota next month to hunt some gator and help some children. Used to the succulent sweetness of fresh Alaskan king crab, among other chilly aquatic delights, they are less interested in how alligator tastes than in hunting a deadly catch of another sort. From the busy docks of Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, Alaska, hail the Time Bandit fishing vessel's captains Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand, the Sea Star's Capt. Larry Hendricks and the Wizard's Capt. Keith Colburn. The four - familiar faces to viewers of Deadliest Catch (Discovery Channel) - will fly 12 hours on their own dime to the beastly humidity of Florida. Billed as the "Bad Boys of the Bering Sea" by event sponsors William Davis and Eric Donaldson, the skippers will make appearances to help at-risk children who need early education, developmental services and therapy. Davis owns Barnacle Bill's Seafood Restaurant and Market, and Donaldson is a partner in The Crab Broker. Great guys These characters are larger than life, as smooth as calluses. It's tough, wet, chilly, hazardous work off the Alaskan Coast, as seen on the Emmy-nominated show. That's something even local families know all too well. In a tragic run while fishing - not for crab but for salmon - on his annual summer job in the same waters, longtime Port Charlotte commercial fisherman Jeffrey Steele died at age 60 this month, lost from the 32-foot Nezzen in Ugashik Bay near Pilot Point, Alaska. Andy Hillstrand, who has horses and a 70-acre farm in Chandler, Ind., has fished crab in the treacherous Bering Sea his whole life, captaining the custom-built family vessel. His brother Johnathan shares skippering duties - the latter taking the helm in king crab season, the former during opilio crab season. Viewers will recognize Hendricks as the skipper of a 1969 94-foot-long vessel built for the Bering Sea crab fishery at the Marco Shipyard in Seattle. The ship finished hauling its last three pots 15 minutes before that crab season ended on the TV series' first run. The Sea Star was retired from the crab fishery after crab rationalization in 2005. And Colburn captains one of the largest vessels in the fleet - the 155-foot Wizard, a World War II-era ship converted for crabbing in 1978, and a "perennial top five producer," according to Discovery Channel. "They're all great guys," said Donaldson. "I've known the captains for years." His company supplies cold water crab to Barnacle Bill's restaurants, and he annually takes clients to Alaska to see how the crab is harvested, handled and processed and to spend a day on one of the ships in the bay. Davis and his brother went last November. A plan is born "John and Andy (Hillstrand) and Keith (Colburn) and Larry Hendricks wanted to come gator-hunting with me on airboats," Donaldson said. "I'm taking them gator hunting on an airboat, and pig hunting with a swamp buggy." The fundraising plan was cooked up after Davis learned of the gator-hunting sojourn. He told Donaldson they should do something more with the fortuitous visit. The men will visit the Florida Center for Child and Family Development in Sarasota, a community-based agency providing early childhood education, developmental and therapeutic services and programs to more than 550 families. Public appearances will include a fundraising autograph session and a private limited-seating king crab feast and auction. Items to be auctioned include a case of fresh Dutch Harbor crab (in season), a life ring from one of the Dutch Harbor ships, dinners at Barnacle Bill's and a slot on Donaldson's annual "sea to plate" tour to see the vessels firsthand in Dutch Harbor, including a day on one of the vessels. Off the hook Donaldson expects the drinks will be flowing the evening of the auction. "That's gonna be off the hook," he said. "They all have their poison of choice." Indeed, the Duck Farts will pour (it's an Alaskan favorite of one of the captains: equal parts Kahlua, Bailey's Irish Cream and Crown Royal, and in that order). "They work hard, and they play even harder," Davis said. "Sarasota should feel somewhat privileged that four of them are coming," Donaldson said. – Herald-Tribune, Sarasota, Florida News: Drugs/Alcohol Suspected in Vessel Grounding PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, Alaska - Drugs and or alcohol are believed to be a factor in the grounding of the F/V Nordic Viking near Olsen Bay in Point Gravina, Prince William Sound, late Saturday night.The skipper of the vessel refused drug and alcohol testing, U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Chuck Nowak said. The three other crewmembers were tested and no evidence of drugs or alcohol was found. Fishermen have the right to refuse testing after a vessel mishap, but refusal of the testing leads to suspicion that drugs and or alcohol could be a factor. “We take that in consideration toward civil penalty matters and it can be used as evidence,” Nowak said. Coast Guard officials are now investigating the cause of the grounding at the scene, and crews from the Alaska Chadux Corp., based in Anchorage have been hired for the cleanup. The Coast Guard is taking the remaining fuel off the boat today to ensure no additional oil spills, Nowak said. They anticipate recovering 11,700 gallons. The Coast Guard estimates up to 3,500 gallons spilled and now has spread over a 5-mile area. Diesel, like crude oil, can be fatally toxic to marine birds and mammals, but dissipates more quickly than crude. Nowak said the Coast Guard is watching for possible spill impact on wildlife, but has not seen any oiled birds or mammals. The oil also poses a health concern for those involved in the cleanup. “(Diesel) is a skin irritant so the folks have to wear gloves and skin protection,” he said. Fuel from the Nordic Viking has already reached an island used as a resting place for seals and is coating an unknown amount of shoreline in the wildlife-rich sound, according to State Department of Environmental Conservation environmental specialist John Brown. A cleanup could take weeks, he said. “This is a large spill for Prince William Sound and that area,” Brown said. “There’s certainly plenty of wildlife, and potential environmental risk is pretty high.” The spill is already one of the top 20 largest of the hundreds that have occurred in the sound over the last decade, prevention and emergency response manager for the DEC, Leslie Pearson said. The Nordic Viking is a fish tender, which transports fish from smaller boats to canneries onshore. The owner of the boat, Bill Prout of Kodiak, is liable for cleanup under state law, Pearson said. Prout was not on the boat at the time of the grounding. – Kodiak Daily Mirror
Pebble Project employment provides boon for some, concerns for others
Pebble Project support hinges on job creation This is the second part in a three-part series by the Homer Tribune examining the possibilities of Alaska hosting Pebble Mine — a project known as one of the most globally significant mineral discoveries now in the world. The stories will look into what that means for Alaskans, laborers, the environment, and risks for the site itself. In this second piece, the Homer Tribune narrows the focus to the exploration of the site — what sorts of jobs it brings and what's at stake economically. Brothers Toni and Brian Janti don't really mind sharing their workday on a remote drill site west of Iliamna. Growing up with their mother in the coastal village of Newhalen, the two had already spent plenty of time fishing and hunting together. Now they have no problem sharing when it comes to things like a 6-by-8-foot plywood box, or even a nice, hot cup of freshly ground Seattle's Best coffee. But all bets are off when it comes to the Nintendo. "We only play it when we get snowed or fogged in," Toni, 24, said of the portable game. "I've gotten stuck out here in the winter a few times. They couldn't get helicopters out to pick us up because of thick fog." Unfortunately, the drill for the Pebble Mine exploration must keep going. That means if your relief doesn't come, you don't get to just clock out. For whatever stretch of time the drillers are confined to the drill station, home becomes a 40-by-60-foot platform and the plywood box. "It's really not so bad — the boxes have heaters. You just kind of hole up in the shelter if it gets really bad," Toni said. "We can take turns working the hours so we can get some sleep in. And the overtime is always nice." Toni has been working at the Pebble site for three years, while brother Brian, 22, is in his initial year with the company. "The only other lasting jobs in the area are with the schools — which are limited," he said. "A good amount of people head north for jobs on the (North) Slope, which takes people away from here." As the size of his community dwindles, the school population goes down right along with it. "Our mom is a school teacher in Newhalen," Brian said. "If we all have to move away from here to find work, she won't have a job anymore. And we may not have a village anymore." Pebble provides opportunity, brothers say Brian studies filmmaking in the Lower 48, and said if didn't have the job manning the core drill rig on the claim, he would likely be working someplace else — and not making nearly as much. Toni agreed, saying he first found an office job at Pebble three years ago. "Working in the office was pretty boring for me," Toni said. "So when things opened up out in the field, I jumped at the chance to get outside and get my hands dirty. Besides, it's much better than the jobs we would normally have around here. If it wasn't for Pebble, I'd probably be stuck working in the general store or trying to get on a fishing boat at Naknek." The average pay for drillers' helpers, according Pebble Project Public Relations Vice President Sean Magee, starts around $20 an hour. "Here, they pay for your food and shelter and everything, so whatever money you make, it's all yours to keep," Toni said. "And who can beat coming to work every day on a helicopter?" The brothers work a six-week rotation, but Toni said shifts and times are fairly flexible for employees. And overtime dividends often pay well. "If you work hard, you can make $10,000 a month in the winter," he said. Developing a local workforce The Pebble Project employed a total of 638 people in Alaska in 2006, according to Northern Dynasty. Approximately 125 of those employees came from the Bristol Bay communities, and Alaskans made up 82.4 percent of the total workforce. Northern Dynasty's training programs are designed to help employees "upgrade" their skills so that local hires can be promoted to more responsible positions. Currently, drill helpers receive instruction and training to assist them in advancing to become "qualified drillers." "Several local residents have been hired on so they can gain the experience on drilling rigs," said Magee. "We hire some full-time drillers and some part time. We also have local people working on reclamation crews, as well as support positions in administration, housekeeping and catering." Magee said the company also employs bear guards. When Northern Dynasty Minerals, Inc. first announced its plans to set up mining exploration in the Pebble site west of Iliamna, few people had ever even heard of the Anchorage-based mineral exploration and development company. News travels fast Before long, Northern Dynasty had infused more than $130 million dollars into exploration of the area. By the end of 2006, the company had already budgeted another $95 million to be used for engineering, drilling and studies on socioeconomic and environmental impacts. The company estimated it spent about $3 million on salaries, goods and services in the Bristol Bay region in 2006. According to the company, development of the Pebble Project could generate capital investment of between $1 and 3 billion, 1,000 high-skill, high-wage operations jobs for 50-80 years, hundreds of millions of dollars in annual mine operating expenditures, 2,000 jobs during the two- to three-year construction phase, tens of millions of dollars in annual tax payments to state and local governments, and other spin-off benefits and business opportunities for Alaska." Benefits worth the price? However some feel those "benefits" and "business opportunities" come with a steep price. Ralph Andersen, CEO of Bristol Bay Native Corporation, said he is concerned that the ongoing process and negotiations surrounding the prospect's development have turned into nothing more than a, "war of rhetoric — it's a war of words." The Bristol Bay Native Association Board of Directors adopted a resolution opposing large mine development in the region. Much of that opposition stem from concerns regarding the mine's effects on the environment. But Andersen said the group is not ignoring economic factors. "At this point, Pebble is really not doing very much," he said. "Things are very preliminary as they are just conducting baseline studies." Andersen said he is fully aware that things can move fairly quickly from here, though. "We have a few folks from around here that have gone up to work at the prospect," he said. "There are many potentially positive results, but I also think there is an equal, if not greater, negative potential. The preliminary designs and things we have seen show they have really not settled on a plan of operations." Got a room? Commercial fishing, sport fishing, and tourism currently make up the majority of income sources for the villages of Iliamna, Newhalen and Nondalton. The land is thick with salmon, trout, grayling, moose, caribou, bear, seal, porcupine and rabbits. An 8-mile gravel road connects Iliamna to Newhalen, while construction continues on a 22-mile road to Nondalton. Residents who live in the community year-round often live a subsistence lifestyle, while summer workers from other areas work at the many hunting and sportfishing lodges in the area. "We are here to help support local business in the area," Magee said. "That's why we rent local lodging facilities for our own accommodations." And with the project far from even being started, chances are those lodges could stay filled for years to come. Keeping an open-mind While various interest groups are sprouting up left and right with opinions regarding the development of the Pebble Project, Lake and Peninsula Borough Mayor Glen Alsworth said he's at least willing to look at plans. According to Alsworth, with a Native population of 85 percent in his borough, most of the communities are built around the schools. And when schools start slipping from the magic enrollment number of 10, they're well into trouble of losing state backing. As the schools shrink and the towns dwindle, Alsworth said he is committed to making it work. "The mine doesn't have to be entirely on the mining company's terms," he said. "While people embrace and grapple with the idea of a mine, they may come to realize the mine is a source of net gain." Still, Alsworth admitted the decision to develop is a complicated one. "We need to know if we are committed financially to doing this," he said. "In the long run, we can't afford not to be, and we can't afford to screw it up." And while Northern Dynasty explores the soils, Alsworth finds himself thinking about change. He's seen it since he was a kid — they didn't have phones, and there were absolutely no emergency services. But things change, and they will continue to. And, if the mine is going to happen, whether the people want it to or not, they had better be prepared for it. "Our part will be to anticipate change and turn it into something positive, instead of a war path," he said. And many there could use the jobs. "I find it ironic that people will be holding signs saying 'don't put poison in my water,' all while they're poisoning their dreams with alcohol and nicotine. They guzzle it and smoke it, which is much more devastating than what anyone from the outside could do to them. Obviously, there's no ready solution but at least we can take the chance to get educated about it, no matter what the opportunity could be. Why not give it an honest look?" Alsworth said. News: Officials Charge Illegal Dumping of Bycatch OYSTERVILLE, Wash. - Capt. Mike Cenci and enforcement officer Bret Hopkins of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Enforcement Program and federal agent Mickey Adkins of National Marine Fisheries gathered 1,233 widow rockfish as evidence July 17 on the ocean beach from Klipsan to Oysterville approaches. They physically counted another 500 fish that littered the beach.Cenci said, "I am absolutely confident these fish were caught in the commercial Pacific whiting fishery." By Wednesday noon a suspect boat captain from Oregon admitted catching and illegally dumping at least 8,000 pounds of widow rockfish to avoid meeting the bycatch cap. Cenci said there is a 220-metric ton limit on widow rockfish and a 4.7 metric ton limit on canary rockfish that can be inadvertently caught in the Pacific whiting, or hake fishery. All fish caught must be retained and accounted for on fish-receiving tickets so that the full harvest can be measured in keeping the quotas. The Pacific whiting fishery is under federal jurisdiction and every boat that fishes for them must have an operable net and deck camera that records the fishermen's activities. The suspect boat's camera was allegedly disconnected by the boat operator, also a federal offense. Oregon State Police and the U.S. Coast Guard provided critical assistance in the investigation. Under Washington State law, these type of violations are a class C felony and can possibly lead to hefty fines, jail time and even seizure of one's vessel. Under federal law, fines can be as much as $130,000. Investigators from the various agencies are handling this particular case strictly as a federal offense at this time according to Cenci. The whiting fishery is big business as 242,591 metric tons is the quota for 2007 and typically the 16 local boats fishing for them can gross as much as $40,000 per day. Unfortunately, both the widow and canary rockfish have been over-fished and are under strict re-building plans. Cenci said, "For the most part the commercial fishermen are very good about catching whiting and avoiding the other species. Apparently this guy made a mistake and didn't want to be the guy that shut down the industry [by exceeding the cap]." Cenci added, "At the time of the investigation, 197 metric tons of widow rockfish bycatch had already been taken. Following final investigation of the amount that was discarded by the fisherman, biologists added 16,000 pounds to the bycatch cap total, bringing it to 213 tons." The whiting catch total is at only about half of the 242,591 metric tons allocated for this year according to Cenci. Of that total, the Makah Indians receive 32,500 metric tons and 26 percent of the catch is allocated to Canadian fishers. A couple of beachcombers Tuesday morning felt the widow rockfish were fresh enough to help themselves to a few fillets. Gulls and other shore birds from far and wide also feasted on the rockfish before the officers were able to gather their evidence. – Chinook (Wash.) Observer News: Alaska Oil Wells Could Topple into the Ocean ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Old Alaskan oil wells could be swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion of the state's Arctic coastline.The disappearance of sea ice that shields against storm waves, and of permafrost that holds shorelines together, is eating away at the coast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. Erosion rates have risen steeply along the coastline of the reserve — where the Bush administration wants to increase oil drilling — possibly due to warmer weather, the study showed. "Coastal erosion has more than doubled along a segment of the Arctic Alaska coast during the past half century," it said, adding the land loss was being magnified by the conversion of freshwater "thermokarst" lakes into saltwater bays as they become inundated with waters from the Arctic Ocean. 30 old exploration wells The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the reserve, has identified about 30 old oil exploration wells that need to be cleaned and plugged before the sea claims them. The BLM has already cleaned and plugged the J.W. Dalton well in 2005 after more than 300 feet of shoreline was eaten away in a single summer. That well, drilled in 1979, is now underwater. "There was sort of a mass failure in terms of the land that just melted away," said Wayne Svejnoha, a BLM scientist, adding the cleanup is expected to cost around $20 million per well. Environmentalists find it ironic that BLM is on the verge of authorizing new oil developments in the Teshekpuk wetlands. Pits no longer used But Svejnoha said new oil drilling would lack some erosion-related environmental risks. Operators no longer store drilling waste in pits next to wells, eliminating the specter of such pits unleashing their contents into the sea, he said. Coastal erosion is among the climate impacts — such as reduced periods for hard-frozen tundra and solid sea-ice cover — that environmentalists say makes North Slope oil operations riskier than before. More than oil sites are affected by erosion, with sections of the North Slope's sole highway at risk, as well as abandoned defense communications structures built early in the Cold War — many of which have associated hazardous-waste stockpiles. – Reuters <<<•>>> Friday, July 27, 2007 News: Fish Processor Fined for Pollution SEATTLE - A South Seattle-based seafood-processing company has been fined $10,000 for putting waste water tainted with fish residue and blood into a storm drain.The Department of Ecology determined that there was contaminated water in April and May at Western United Fish Company's facility. The company had been washing its insulated containers used to carry fish outside, unaware it was a problem, said Alex Tran, Western United Fish Company's president and owner. The company received several warnings for violating the Clean Water Act before the fine was invoked. Tran said there was miscommunication about those warnings. "I wasn't aware this was so serious," he said. He said the company has implemented a new process for washing the containers, and will no longer be doing it outside where the water can trickle into the storm drains. The water from storm drains in the area flow into the Duwamish River. Waste water can hurt fish and other aquatic and marine life in the river by lowering oxygen levels, the department said. – Seattle Times News: Fraser Fish a No Show … So Far RICHMOND, B.C. – Sockeye salmon that should be heading up the Fraser River by now have all but failed to show up, casting fresh concern on the future of the fishery.“There’s just a trickle of fish,” said Mike Lapointe, chief biologist for the Pacific Salmon Commission. “It’s looking really poor.” He cautioned the results are still early – their run timing could end up being later than expected – but fears of a wipeout season for fishermen are rising. “It’s bleak,” said Surrey commercial fisherman Bill Harris, who is ready to fish this summer but not optimistic. The early Stuart sockeye run, which migrates all the way to Stuart Lake in northwestern B.C., was expected to number 45,000. So far it looks like that run will end up between 10,000 and 15,000. Early summer run sockeye – the next group that arrives – were forecast to come in at 690,000 but Lapointe said they’re so far arriving at a tenth of the expected rate. The Fraser’s main summer run of sockeye salmon, considered the bread and butter of the fishing industry, is forecast to be just 3.37 million, a shadow of last year’s 8.7 million, which was itself considered disastrous relative to projections. With the peak expected around Aug. 8, Lapointe says those summer-run sockeye should be starting to arrive in numbers very soon. One possibility is that high ocean temperatures, which were particularly bad in 2005, may have forced the salmon to range further for food and be late arriving in the river. The counts biologists rely on come from test fisheries conducted in the river and offshore. But they’ve been plagued by opportunistic seals, which are gobbling salmon out of the test fishery nets in much higher numbers than usual. “Some of the fish they’re bringing in are partial fish – just heads or tails – and that has created some problems for us,” Lapointe said. But he says the test fishing counts so far are so consistently low voracious seals don’t explain them away. Had sockeye started coming in as expected, some commercial fishing would likely have been approved in U.S. waters by now, and likely some aboriginal fishing for food, social and ceremonial purposes. “It’s really obvious to everyone that there’s no real sense about thinking about any kind of fisheries because even if you went out there you wouldn’t catch many fish,” Lapointe said. Fishery advisor Ernie Crey said he thinks it means there will be no commercial catch this year if numbers are so low that all returning salmon are needed on the spawning grounds. “It looks grim to me,” he said, adding aboriginal fishing – which is second priority after conservation needs but ahead of the commercial fleet – is also unlikely. Crey said he worries the Fraser River fishery is failing over the long term. “It looks like the runs are collapsing,” he said. “There will be an occasional year where there will be a spike in the returns. But the trend is consistently downhill.” - Richmond (B.C.) Review
WASHINGTON, D.C. – From the day it became law 34 years ago, the federal Endangered Species Act has been politically hot – a flash point of contention between defenders of nature and advocates of economic progress. Now, the ESA is embroiled in new controversy.
News: Cheney Meddling in Klamath Probed Two different government entities are investigating decisions by Bush administration officials related to species recovery. In one, the U.S. Interior Department is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointee, who recently resigned under fire. At the same time, Congress is investigating evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney interfered with decisions involving water in California and Oregon that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Klamath River salmon, some of which were listed as "threatened" species. Both episodes illustrate what critics say is the Bush administration's resistance to the law. During President Bush's time in the White House, the listing of endangered and threatened species has slowed down considerably. It's a fraction of the number his father made in four years (58 new listings compared with 231 by the senior Bush), and most of those were court-ordered. New funding for protection of such species has been cut as well. As a result, 278 "candidate species" are waiting to join the list of 1,352 plant and animal species now listed as "endangered" or "threatened." Scientists and activists see the ESA as the last chance for preventing extinction of dwindling plants and animals ranging from the obscure – the rock gnome lichen, for example – to the grizzly bear and other "charismatic megafauna." But to developers, it can be a very costly impediment to business. And to farmers, ranchers, loggers, and others whose work is land-based, it can threaten a traditional way of life. Many fights over species protection have ended up in federal court. But it is the political pressure on government scientists that is the current focus. Following a critical report by the inspector general of the Interior Department in March, Julie MacDonald – the official in charge of fish and wildlife, including those listed under the ESA – resigned. Fish and Wildlife Service employees complained that Ms. MacDonald had "bullied, insulted, and harassed the professional staff … to change documents and alter biological reporting," according to the report. "We confirmed that MacDonald has been heavily involved with editing, commenting on, and reshaping the endangered species program's scientific reports from the field," the inspector general wrote, also noting that "she has no formal educational background in natural sciences, such as biology." The Interior Department inspector general also found that MacDonald had "disclosed non-public information to private sector sources" – special interests that had a financial stake in species listing and protection – including the California Farm Bureau Federation and the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm that specializes in property rights advocacy and litigation. Government officials moved quickly to fix the political damage. Last week, the director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (the Interior Department agency in charge of endangered species programs) announced that eight decisions MacDonald had made under the ESA would be examined for scientific and legal discrepancies. In a phone conference with reporters, Fish and Wildlife Service director H. Dale Hall called the episode "a blemish on the scientific integrity" of the agency. "When I became director, I made scientific integrity my highest priority, and these reviews underscore our commitment to species conservation," Mr. Hall said. Critics welcomed the action. But they want the internal review to include many more of some 200 species decisions that MacDonald had a hand in, such as those for the marbled murrelet (a shore bird), the bull trout, and the controversial northern spotted owl. Also, they say, the problem goes deeper. "The real culprit here is not a renegade political appointee," says Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) scientific integrity program. "The real culprit is a process where decisions are made behind closed doors." In 2005, UCS surveyed about 450 Fish and Wildlife Service scientists. Two-thirds said they knew of cases where Interior Department political appointees had interfered with scientific reports and decisions, and 84 said they had been ordered to remove or change technical information from scientific documents. Political pressure is alleged to have taken place during a summer drought in 2002 when Klamath River water was allowed to irrigate farmers' fields rather than provide adequate passage for salmon headed upstream to spawn as government scientists had recommended. As reported in detail recently by The Washington Post, Vice President Cheney intervened in decisions involving a 10-year water plan for the Klamath River basin, siding with farmers and ranchers over environmental considerations. Courts later termed that plan "arbitrary and capricious and in violation of the Endangered Species Act." As a result of the low water flows that summer, which make the water warmer and the fish more prone to disease, some 70,000 salmon died. Since then, fish runs have remained low, causing economic hardship for Indian tribes as well as commercial and sport-fishing businesses along the West Coast. The House Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a hearing next week to investigate "political influence … on agency science and decision making." Cheney has been invited to testify, but he is not expected to attend the hearing. - Christian Science Monitor News: Dip-netters Found Poaching KENAI, Alaska – Fishing violations were higher than normal last weekend as dipnetters and red salmon flooded the rivers. Alaska State Troopers recorded more than 60 personal-use violations on their Web site, but wildlife enforcement says the number is higher."As the fish hit the river, (dipnetting) was packed," said Glenn Godfrey, a lieutenant with Alaska Wildlife Troopers. "Lots of dippers usually lead to lots of problems." Godfrey estimated the number of personal-use fisheries violations to be between 75 and 100 over the weekend. Commercial fisheries violations, which are not recorded on the State Troopers Web site, reached 20, Godfrey said. "We just hit it hard this year," Godfrey said, "and it's been real effective." Wildlife troopers received between 40 and 100 complaints by peninsula residents over the weekend, but Godfrey said personal-use violations dominated this weekend. "If they see something that's not right, they call, and rightly so," Godfrey said. "Peninsula residents are good about calling in and reporting, and good about knowing the regulations. They're very protective of the river, which is good for us." While a few out-of-state people were caught dipnetting, the majority of violations have involved dipnetters not recording their catch, marking their fish or fishing in closed waters. "It's a pretty high violation rate for that fishery," Godfrey said. "That being said, there are people who do everything perfect. We check people who do it right and we check people who mess up quite a bit." For personal-use fishermen, failure to mark a fish results in an $85 fine, while failure to record a catch could cost $110. Godfrey said fishing in closed waters results in a court appearance with a possible $3,000 fine. Usually the local wildlife troopers don't have enough man power to deal with the large number of violations, Godfrey said. But additional personnel, a patrol boat from Kodiak and a helicopter from Anchorage filled the need nicely. "I don't think we've used (the helicopter) in the commercial fisheries before," Godfrey said, "and it's been fantastic." Godfrey said one way fishermen, especially personal-use fishermen, can keep from facing a fine is if they read the regulations. "It's kind of like our mantra," Godfrey said. "It's so easy, page 18 of the regulation book, it's super simple." – Peninsula Clarion (Kenai) News: Skipper Refuses Breathalyzer after Grounding VALDEZ, Alaska – The captain of a fishing vessel that spilled more than 3,000 gallons of diesel into Prince William Sound after running aground initially refused to take drug and alcohol tests, Coast Guard officials said Tuesday.The three other crew members on the Nordic Viking did submit to the tests, said Lt. Commander Matt Jones. In an interview late Tuesday with the ship owner, the Coast Guard learned the captain did take the test hours after the grounding this weekend, 55 miles southwest of Valdez. By law a person cannot be physically required to take the tests under Coast Guard regulations, but his license can be revoked. The skipper, however, was not required to hold a license because he was operating in waters that are considered to be generally safe, Jones said. Jones would not immediately release the skipper's name. The fuel spill forced the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to close some of Port Gravina, a bay within the Sound, to commercial fishing for pink and chum salmon. Seine nets from some boats came in contact with the oily sheen. The closure isn't expected to result in much lost catch overall for the Sound's fishing fleet, said Jeff Regnart, a Fish and Game supervisor. The 127-foot vessel leaked up to 3,500 gallons of diesel after grounding on Saturday, causing officials to close down the pink salmon fishery in the sound. The slick spans several miles but has thinned considerably, said John Brown, an environmental program specialist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. No animal deaths or injuries have been reported in connection with the spill, Brown said. The four crew members on board escaped to another fishing boat nearby and were uninjured. The grounding site near Olsen Bay and Port Gravina is well-charted on nautical maps and has few submerged rocks. The vessel went up on the rocks at 10:35 p.m., about a half hour before sunset. Winds were blowing from the south at 10 to 12 mph, and seas were generally calm, with two- to three-foot swells. There may have been some fog, but without a weather station in the immediate vicinity, it is difficult to tell, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Dang. The Nordic Viking is a fish tender, hauling fish from smaller boats to canneries onshore. Prout is liable for cleanup under state law. Alaska Chadux Corp., an oil spill removal company based in Anchorage, has been hired for the cleanup. So far, 9,500 gallons of diesel have been removed from other fuel tanks on the ship, Jones said. Crews are working to remove the remaining 3,500 gallons before towing the Nordic Viking to port. – Anchorage Daily New |