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Monday, July 30, 2007 Feature: Alaska Crabber Becomes Art Impressario
NEW YORK CITY – Two stories above the frozen fish and live crustaceans of the Red Hook Fairway, a man who has spent his adult life pursuing the Alaska king crab has opened a gallery for the art he fell in love while at sea.
Look North Inuit Art Gallery is the brainchild of Jim Clark, a 15-year veteran of the commercial crabbing boats of the Bering Sea. The gallery opened this spring after Clark returned from an icy fishing season and signed a two-year-lease on the Fairway building loft that serves as both his home and gallery. He rents one of 45 mixed-use units created to keep artists and businesses on the fast-gentrifying waterfront. “I’ve been in waterfront communities all my life that have been stagnant or in decline, so it’s good to be in one that is coming back,” Clark said, staring at New York Harbor through a large, round window. Look North is the only Inuit Gallery in Brooklyn and so far, all compasses are pointing to its success. Clark’s love affair with the waterfront and the Inuit communities of the arctic shores began early. He grew up in the whaling town that inspired Moby Dick — New Bedford, Mass. At 21, he left the East Coast for what he expected to be a short stint on an Alaskan fishing boat. The adventure, however, turned into a crabbing career dotted with art collecting trips in the Inuit villages of Canada and Alaska. During the off-seasons, he visited Red Hook and fell in love again. “I never planned to be a commercial fisherman,” Clark said. “But I fell in love with the land, the harshness, the stoicism of it and just kept moving up the ranks of the boats. The more I learned about the art and got to know artists there, the more I wanted to be there for that. At some point, I realized I wasn’t giving it up.” And still, he says he is not giving it up. “I’m still on a working waterfront,” he said, “But I have also realized that the sea is much more romantic from the dock.” – The Brooklyn Paper News: Fraser Sockeye Runs Look Grim HOPE, 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. 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. 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. - Hope (B.C.) Standard
KODIAK, Alaska – Pink salmon are showing up, but not as many as Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists and fishermen would like.
News: Kodiak Pink Salmon Run Raises Worries Officials agree it is too early to judge the whole season. “It might not be that big of a year this year for pinks,” Fish and Game sport fish biologist Len Schwarz said. “People are starting to catch them out in front of the saltwater. “This year they might show up late, but it just doesn’t seem there are many pinks around as normal. It’s just getting started so we have to wait and see what the counts are. The counts are a little bit down compared to previous years.” However, for the past few years, there have been large returns of pinks in the Buskin. Fish and Game issued a news release this week stating the Buskin River drainage above Bridge 1 will remain open to sport fishing for salmon for the remainder of the year. The drainage includes the Buskin River, all waters flowing into it, as well as Buskin Lake, Lake Louise and Lake Genevieve. “Usually on Aug. 1, the streams that drain into Chiniak and Monashka Bay close above the highway to salmon fishing. And that is going to stay in effect, except for the Buskin River for the third year in a row,” Schwarz said. “We’re going to leave the Buskin River open to salmon fishing all year long. We won’t have that closure above Bridge 1.” Fish and Game submitted a proposal to the Board of Fisheries to have that area of the Buskin River permanently open to salmon fishing. “The reason we can do that is we have a weir where we count the Cohos (silver salmon) and we documented that we’ve been going over the upper end of the escapement goal consistently. When you see the same thing every year, why wait and sweat out whether you’re going to go over the upper end?” Schwarz said. Coho salmon wait for rain, he said. “If you have a drought year, you might not get your count, so you keep everything closed, but we’ve had a trend where every year on the Buskin we go over the upper end,” he said. It has remained a mystery as to why pink salmon return in high numbers one year and low numbers in other years. One observable fact, Schwarz said, is that this year is an odd-numbered year — or “off” year. It doesn’t hold true for all systems, but the Karluk and the Ayakulik rivers are notorious for having poor runs of pinks on odd years — such as 2005, 2007, etc. and better runs on even years. Although the Karluk is an example of this, the Buskin River doesn’t show this trend at all. Averaging the past five even years shows a return of 1.3 million pink salmon per year in the Karluk River, Schwarz said. Averaging the past five odd years shows a return of 125,000 pink salmon per year. “That’s a big difference,” he said. “There are 10 times more fish on an even year in the Karluk than on odd years.” Only eight pink salmon have showed up in the Karluk River so far. Last year at this time there were 27. The pink run abundance will become clear in the next few weeks, Schwarz said. - Kodiak Daily Mirror News: Panel Says more Klamath Protection Needed GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A panel has recommended continued federal protection for two kinds of fish in the Klamath Basin amid pressures to find solutions to regional water woes that led to a cutoff of irrigation water in 2001.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday the review by a panel of biologists found that one species in the upper basin, the short nosed sucker, is still at risk of extinction and should remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Lost River sucker is not at risk of extinction in the foreseeable future, so it should be reclassified as a threatened species, the agency said. A panel of 12 scientists representing government agencies and interest groups reviewed various sources of information about the fish and made the recommendations to the fish and wildlife service. The review was prompted by a petition from a group called Interactive Citizens United to take the fish off the endangered species list. There is no specific timetable for when the agency might act on the recommendations, spokeswoman Alex Pitts said from Sacramento, Calif. Joe Kirk is chairman of the Klamath Tribes, whose members once caught and preserved the fish for winter fare. The tribes hold an annual ceremony honoring the fish, once a staple for them. Kirk said the fish and wildlife service was correct to keep legal protections for the fish in place. "We have not seen significant recovery of any fisheries," he said in statement. "In fact, it should have continued both species as endangered." The Klamath Basin spans southern Oregon and northern California. One of the leading threats to the fish now is poor water quality, which is not likely to improve any time soon, the review found. It is not clear why one fish is doing better than the other. Greg Addington of the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents farmers, said the improved condition of Lost River suckers showed that habitat restoration was paying off, but more work needs to be done with federal agencies and the Klamath Tribes to find lasting solutions. A U.S. House panel holds a hearing next Tuesday to look at what role Vice President Dick Cheney played in a decision to restore irrigation, which was followed by the deaths of some 70,000 salmon in the Klamath River in 2002 due to low water levels. Pitts said that since 2001, the federal government has been spending about $85 million a year on various fish habitat and water conservation projects in the basin. – San Francisco Chronicle Canadians soon will market hook-and-line-only fish This also appeared in our Wild News service.HALIFAX, Nova Scotia – Nova Scotia seafood lovers will soon be able to buy fish caught solely by hook and line. "We wanted to do something different," George Cunningham, owner of Alyssa Foods, a division of Pubnico Trawlers in Lower East Pubnico, said. "They’re caught one at a time." Cunningham, a veteran fisherman and fish processor who founded Pubnico Trawlers in 1978, is bringing his first load of fish caught by hook and line to Home Grown Organic Foods in Halifax next week. Fish caught by hook and line are usually processed alongside fish caught by trawlers or draggers. Alyssa Foods is, according to the Ecology Action Centre, the first Nova Scotia fish processor that is dedicated to marketing fish caught by hook and line. Cunningham, 64, joked that the decision to market fish caught by hook and line separately was something of a retirement project, but he said there is a market for the fish, which he said are considered to be a more environmentally sensitive product because of the manner in which they are harvested. "It’s sustainable," he said, estimating that the 200 to 300 pounds of frozen Georges Bank haddock, hake, Pollock and cod he is bringing to Home Grown Organics will cost about 20 per cent more than the same fish caught by trawlers or draggers and sold in grocery stores or fish markets. Geordie Ouchterlony, the owner of Home Grown Organic Foods on Allan Street, said his customers are interested in fresh or frozen fish caught by hook and line for environmental reasons and are willing to pay a premium — $6 to $7 a pound — to get it. Ouchterlony has bought hook and line catch from other processors but wasn’t able to get it on a consistent basis until he hooked up with Alyssa Foods. He said his business is based on sustainability and its values are consistent with those of the Ecology Action Centre, which has promoted a sustainable fishery for years and helped him find Cunningham. - Halifax Chronicle-Herald <<<•>>> Tuesday, July 31, 2007 News: Cook Inlet Commercial Harvest Cut? ANCHORAGE – A borough-appointed committee in the Mat-Su is calling on the state to cut the commercial harvest of Cook Inlet salmon in the waning days of the sockeye gillnet season, predicting devastation for Susitna River guides and sportsmen if that doesn't happen.Commercial fishermen and a state biologist who manages these fisheries reply that Inlet gillnets aren't the reason for the trickle of fish up the Susitna. The committee, appointed by Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Curt Menard to represent businesses and anglers, said last week the state must act in the next few days or risk harming locals who fish to stock their freezers and guides and lodges who host fishing tourists. "One of our favorite mottos is that the best use of an Alaskan fish is on an Alaskan plate," said Borough Assemblyman Tom Kluberton, who is chairing the committee. By Thursday, the state had counted 12,034 sockeyes returning to Fish Creek this season -- slightly less than the same cumulative reading a year ago and almost 20,000 off the July 26 mark for 2003, but nowhere near the low point for the decade. At the Deshka River in the Susitna Valley, 335 Coho's had been counted through a weir by Thursday. That compared to 4,112 on the same date a year ago, but only 178 the previous year. Kluberton said the committee, called the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Sportsmen's Committee, will write to Gov. Sarah Palin and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game seeking action. The commercial sockeye fishery is the target of its ire, though the key spoils in this war are the Coho's that those nets also trap and that anglers favor. State fisheries biologist Jeff Fox, who regulates the commercial fishery from his Soldotna office, said it's too early to say how many Coho's will reach the Mat-Su this year. "We're having a banner year for Coho," Fox said. Those fish should turn up in the rivers soon. "It's still July. It's fairly early for Coho." Mat-Su committee member Bruce Knowles disputed that. He said the area should be swarming with Coho's. Commercial fishermen say they're not responsible for the Susitna's woes, that the problem is exaggerated and that it's too late in the season to make a change. But Kluberton said the real value for Cook Inlet fish is in the sporting lodges and on the angler's table. Cook Inlet fishermen contribute only 3 percent of the statewide commercial catch, he said, while the region supplies 65 percent of the anglers to constitute a billion-dollar sporting industry. – Anchorage Daily News Research: Plankton May Herald Bigger Salmon Runs NEWPORT, Ore. – The early arrival of sub arctic zooplankton - including unusually high numbers of copepod species rarely seen in Oregon - is providing a smorgasbord for offshore salmon and other species of fish, according to researchers conducting a salmon survey from Newport, Ore., to LaPush, Wash.This is the 10th year researchers have conducted the survey of juvenile salmon and preliminary results suggest that numbers of both juvenile Coho and juvenile Chinook surveyed this spring were the highest they've recorded. "We'll know more when we crunch the final numbers, but it certainly looks like a banner year for salmon survival - primarily because of a bountiful supply of the right kind of food," said Bill Peterson, a fisheries biologist with NOAA who is based at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. The juvenile salmon surveys, conducted in May, June and September, include the waters from the central Oregon coast north to the tip of Washington state. Based on a long-term ocean observing program, which Peterson initiated off Newport in 1996, it has become clear that juvenile salmon respond quickly to changing ocean conditions. The ocean off Oregon has begun to cool again, starting in July of 2006, after nearly four years of warm ocean conditions, said Peterson. Cooler waters bring northern species of copepods into the region to feast on phytoplankton blooms triggered by summer upwelling. Copepods are small crustaceans that are major links in the food chain that supports salmon, other fish, whales and seabirds. Peterson's research suggests that northern species - which are lipid rich - provide better nutritional benefits for their consumers than southern copepod species that are prevalent during warm water regimes. "This year, we've experienced one of the earliest biological transitions to 'summer' conditions in recent decades," Peterson said. "The sub arctic zooplankton not only arrived extremely early, we are seeing unusually high numbers of a group of copepod species rarely seen off Oregon. These copepods are bigger than our usual 'local' species, and pack on even more lipids. "The transition began in March this year, the earliest we've recorded during the 12 years of observations made off Oregon," Peterson added. "The two other years when the zooplankton arrived anywhere near that early - in 1970 and 1972 - were characterized by very high salmon production." – Oregon State University press release
PETERSBURG, Fla. - On Friday morning around 10 a.m., 40 to 50 seasonal workers gathered in a crowd outside of Wrangell Seafoods, Inc. (WSI) and complained about the lack of working hours. These workers are among 90 foreign seasonal workers (or as WSI referred to them as, “international exchange students”), who are hired through foreign agencies.
Petersburg Processing People Protest According to WSI’s executive administrator Julie Decker, WSI has been having weekly meetings with the seasonal workers to keep them up-to-date and allow them an arena to ask questions and air concerns. “After one of our meetings there was still some disgruntlement and they wanted a guarantee that they would see work at least ten hours a day until they leave and we said we just can’t do that because we’re completely at the whim of the fish,” Decker said. When workers came into work on Friday at 8:30 a.m. as they had been instructed to do the evening prior, they were told they couldn’t work due to an issue with the city’s water not running. “It didn’t exactly translate to everybody that there’s no work because the water is being fixed and that as soon as the water comes back on, we’ll unload the tender that’s sitting outside,” explained Decker, who cites this misunderstanding as “precipitating” the strike. Police chief Doug McCloskey was one of two police officers that showed up at WSI. He described the scene of gathered workers as “a lot of them talking amongst themselves” and the function of the Wrangell police as “just standing by to keep the peace.” “The only thing that I could really glean from it is they seemed to think they should be getting more hours than what they were,” said McCloskey. One WSI seasonal employee, Alfred Gjini, age 23, from Albania, confirmed McCloskey’s assessment of what caused Friday’s strike, although Gjini himself did not participate in the strike, “The employees at the factory don’t like the working hours and there are some problems, like they are worried about their money because they have spent a lot of money to come here and they are not working a lot. That is the problem.” The 90 foreign workers, out of “roughly 120 to 150” seasonal employees at WSI, come from countries like Mexico, the Philippines, and Canada, but the majority of them come from Turkey and Russia. “We use agencies in all different countries but we work mostly Trident Seafoods in Petersburg is another seafood processor who employs seasonal employees from foreign agencies, although it’s a smaller ratio. Dave Ohmer, plant manager at Trident, said there are “probably about 175-180” seasonal employees. Of this amount, around 30-40 of them hold J-1 Exchange Visitor visas. The United States government issues J-1 visas to individuals who take part in a wide range of exchange visitor programs sponsored by schools, businesses, and a variety of organizations and institutions. Exchange visitor programs for young people include summer employment programs, internship programs for university students, and au-pair programs. Trident’s foreign workers are Polish, Russian, Kazakhstani, Turkish, among others nationalities. “You get such a mixing of different people from different cultures,” said Ohmer. – Petersburg Pilot News: Angler Stabs Sea Lion NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – A 24-year-old fisherman was arrested in Newport Beach on Friday for allegedly stabbing a California Sea Lion repeatedly with a steak knife after the animal stole his bait.The sea lion, a six-foot female weighing about 150 pounds, was severely wounded and later euthanized. "It's a horrible thing," said Dean Gomersall, animal care supervisor at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, where the animal was put to death four and a half hours after the attack. "It's very cruel. My crew is extremely upset, and we're just glad the person was caught." Hai Nguyen of Garden Grove, who was being held at Newport Beach Jail on $20,000 bail, is expected to be arraigned this week on charges of felony cruelty to animals. Authorities said the case also is being investigated by the U.S. attorney's office for possible federal charges under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Police say Nguyen was fishing off Newport's "M" Street Pier about 12:30 p.m. when the sea lion apparently took the bait from his fishing pole. The fisherman became upset, they said, and stabbed the animal at least twice with a steak knife. "It was close enough so he could just reach out and stab it in the water," said Sgt. Evan Sailor, a spokesman for the Newport Beach Police Department. "A number of people witnessed it and called police. It's definitely odd; not something you see every day." Nguyen was arrested without incident at the pier, Sailor said. Nguyen could face a $25,000 fine and up to a year in prison if convicted on the animal cruelty charge. In addition, said Martina Sagapolu, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Commerce, a conviction on federal charges of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act could add $12,000 in civil penalties, criminal fines of up to $20,000 and more jail time. Sea lions are protected, Gomersall said, because, among other things, they act as a "litmus test for the state of the ocean," their health a barometer of environmental conditions. – LA Times <<<•>>> Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Fishermen Decry Cheney’s Role in Klamath EUREKA, Calif. - On the eve of a House committee hearing on the role Vice President Dick Cheney played in Klamath River management decisions, fishermen decried the impact of political tampering on their ability to earn a living.Congress is investigating Cheney's role -- if any -- in denying sufficient water for salmon in the Klamath River to support farmers in the upper Klamath Basin, despite the recommendation of scientists and others. On Monday, several fishermen joined conference call with the group Earth Justice and described the impacts such management decisions had on their livelihoods. Dave Bitts, a salmon fisherman out of Eureka, said that last year he and others in the industry caught only one-fifth of the fish they'd have normally landed in a year. The House hearing, scheduled before the House Natural Resources Committee, is being called “Crisis of confidence: The political influence of the Bush Administration on agency science and decision-making.” House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall agreed to conduct hearings following a recent Washington Post article. The article covers Cheney's involvement in Klamath River issues, as well as in pressing for air quality controls friendly to industry, among other matters. Cheney's influence led to full irrigation deliveries in 2002, the article contends. Later that year, more than 65,000 salmon died in a hot, low river. Al Ritter, a fisherman out of Newport, Ore., said that 2005 was the worst season of his decades-long career. Those who have been in the business for a number of years can, maybe, withstand such a terrible season, but those younger fishermen who've just gotten into the business are really hurting, he said. Larry Collins, out of San Francisco, said that he's never seen it “as tough for the fleet as it has been the last four years.” It's bad when the public loses access to its own resources, he said, “especially because of a cheap political stunt like this.” Kristen Bolyes of Earth Justice, who moderated the teleconference, said political interference on matters surrounding endangered species has been a hallmark of the Bush Administration. The 2002 Klamath River fish kill, brought about by the administration's decision to put farmers ahead of fish despite the concern of scientists, led the death of some 65,000 adult salmon and to later deaths of juvenile salmon, she said. Regulators then severely limited the amount of fish allowed to salmon fishermen to protect the dwindling stocks. Because authorities regulate for the least healthy river systems, fishermen had to dramatically curtail their catch - especially in 2005 - to protect Klamath salmon, despite the fact that salmon from other river systems were abundant. The water management plan favored by Cheney, and eventually adopted for the Klamath River, was eventually thrown out in court, Bolyes said. But a new plan is expected in 2008, and given the history, fishermen and others are worried about what will be proposed, she said. Meanwhile, a broad group of parties with stakes in the Klamath River say they remain committed to hashing out a settlement over the future of the river's hydropower dams nearly two years after official talks got under way. – Eureka, Calif., Times-Standard News: Not Enough Kings Reaching Canada FAIRBANKS, Alaska – It remains to be seen whether enough Yukon River king salmon will reach Canada to satisfy Alaska’s border passage requirement as set forth in a treaty between the U.S. and Canadian governments.According to the Yukon River Salmon Agreement, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is obligated to manage the Yukon king run so that about 45,000 fish reach the border this season — a minimum of 33,000 for escapement and another 12,000 to make up for commercial harvest in Alaska. It’s going to be close either way, fish managers say. As of July 26, there were 26,500 kings counted by sonar at Eagle, about 50 miles from the Canada border. State fisheries biologists are projecting a border passage of 50,000 fish, according to Steve Hayes, who oversees the Yukon River Chinook run for the Department of Fish and Game. This year’s Yukon king run wasn’t as strong as state fisheries biologists predicted or fishermen hoped. Only about 125,000 kings had passed a sonar counter at Pilot Station, located 120 river miles upstream of the mouth. That’s 20 percent below the average of 155,000 kings, said Hayes. “It wasn’t a disaster but it wasn’t a great run,” said Hayes, summing up the 2007 Chinook return. The department appears to be meeting its minimum escapement goals just about everywhere and though subsistence fishermen had a harder time catching fish this season, most reported they were able to put up enough salmon for the winter, Hayes said. The fact that the state allowed commercial fishermen in the lower Yukon River to harvest 33,500 king salmon early in the run, however, has prompted some criticism from fishermen on the upper Yukon and on the Tanana River who were not allowed to commercially fish. But state and federal biologists in Alaska, as well as those in Canada, said this year’s run was tough to gauge and appeared to be a strong one, judging from the first pulse of kings to hit Pilot Station. There are no specific ramifications if enough fish don’t reach Canada, said Hayes. The minimum escapement goals were met in both the Chena and Salcha rivers on July 22, though returns in both rivers are only about half the average. The Chena and Salcha river stocks make up the largest component of the Yukon River Chinook run — between 30 and 40 percent. The department’s aerial surveys and other escapement projects in the lower and middle river also indicate the return will exceed low-end escapement goals, Hayes said. The Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, which represents both commercial and subsistence fishermen on the Yukon and Tanana rivers, is still hopeful enough fish will reach the border to meet treaty requirements, said executive director Jill Klein. “If we weren’t making our escapement goals and subsistence needs were not being met and we weren’t meeting the border passage requirement we wouldn’t be happy, but that’s not the case yet,” said Klein. “We’re still hopeful.” While the mark and recapture program is still the official index used to estimate border passage of salmon, Alaska and Canadian officials say the Eagle sonar is probably the more accurate of the two and could replace the mark and recapture program as the main index for border passage in the future. The disparity between the two different counts is a big one — the mark and recapture estimate is about 40 percent lower than the Eagle sonar — but Canadian experts say that DNA information and other programs confirm the mark and recapture estimate is low. In the future, the department would like to take DNA samples of fish as they enter the river to determine early on if certain stocks could be at risk, said Hayes, the Alaska biologist. “We’re talking over 2,000 miles in river length with a lot of different stocks,” said Hayes. “If you had an earlier picture of what the survival components were of the different geographic areas I believe that would help us make better decisions in season.” – Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
ANCHORAGE – Icicle Seafoods Inc. has agreed to pay a $900,000 civil fine for pollution violations on its processing ship, the Northern Victor.
News: Icicle Decides to Pay Pollution Fine Icicle failed to clean up a seafloor offal pile dumped from the ship in Udagak Bay near Dutch Harbor, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleged. The company also was accused of other violations, including discharge of seafood waste over annual limits specified in Icicle’s federal pollution permit and failing to monitor effects of the dumping. Cleanup of the waste pile was a chore Icicle was required to perform when the company acquired the 380-foot pollock and cod processing ship in 1999. Under its permit, Icicle was supposed to clean up the pile by September 2002 but failed to get it done, the EPA alleged. Icicle has conducted dredging in Udagak Bay to remove the waste pile satisfactorily, according to federal court papers. The dredging wrapped up in March. The $900,000 settlement agreement is not yet final. Federal authorities have put the proposed settlement out for public comment until Aug. 10. This isn’t the only major fine Icicle faces. Federal officials have levied a $3.4 million civil penalty against Icicle for violating an annual poundage limit on processing western Aleutians brown king crab in 2002-2004 . Icicle is fighting it. – Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy, writing as The Highliner in the Anchorage Daily News News: ComFish Future Under Review KODIAK, Alaska – The Kodiak Chamber of Commerce has called for a community roundtable on the future of the annual ComFish trade show. Originally scheduled for Thursday, the meeting will be rescheduled for sometime in September.Chamber Executive Director Deb King says participation in ComFish has decreased over the years and organizers face “a real challenge” in attracting vendors or local residents that are directly related to the commercial fishing industry. It’s the largest commercial fisheries trade show in Alaska. King says the board and the staff of the chamber think it’s necessary to review the event to see if it is still relevant and how much it contributes to the local economy. The chamber is asking for community input on either what can be done to reverse the decline or to come up with ideas for an alternative event. King said the meeting was rescheduled because so much of the fleet is out on the fishing grounds at the moment. – KMXT News: Dead Zone Returns to Oregon Coast GRANTS PASS, Ore - The return of oxygen-depleted water off the Oregon coast is a sign of a warming climate, which could have ill effect on populations of sea creatures, scientists said Monday.It's the sixth year the water, known as a dead zone, has formed. "It does, indeed, appear to be the new normal," said Jane Lubchenco, professor of marine biology at Oregon State University. "The fact that we are seeing six in a row now tells us that something pretty fundamental has changed about conditions off of our coast." Unlike the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is caused by fertilizer washing down the Mississippi River, the Oregon dead zone is triggered by northerly winds, which create an ocean-mixing condition called upwelling. This brings low-oxygen waters from deep in the ocean close to shore, and spreads nitrogen and other nutrients through the water column, kicking off a population boom of plankton, the tiny plants and animals at the foundation of the ocean food web. Normally, this is good for salmon, giving them lots of food to eat. But when huge amounts of plankton die, they fall to the bottom of the ocean, where they decompose, depleting the water of oxygen. Oregon State researchers the found conditions returning during a survey of the 25 miles of continental shelf between Newport and Cape Perpetua last Friday. Instruments towed back and forth from one mile offshore to 12 miles offshore found oxygen levels as low as one-sixth of normal, said Francis Chan, a research professor of marine ecology. That is not as bad as last year, when scientists plotted a dead zone that stretched from southern Oregon to the tip of Olympic Peninsula in Washington, a distance of nearly 300 miles. Video from a remotely operated submersible showed a crab graveyard on the Perpetua Reef south of Newport, and fishermen reported unusually large numbers of rockfish — apparently able to swim away from the dead zone — in unexpected areas on its edges, Lubchenco said. New video from May showed that some rockfish and sea stars had returned, but that less mobile creatures such as sea anemones and sea cucumbers had not. "The current low oxygen conditions may knock the system back to the starting line, delivering another setback to an already stressed system," Lubchenco said. "This marine ecosystem may take as long to recover as the terrestrial ecosystem did from the eruption of Mount St. Helens." – San Francisco Chronicle <<<•>>> Thursday, August 2, 2007 News: Pebble Mine Developers Sign on Deep-pocket Partner ANCHORAGE, Alaska – One of the world's largest mining companies said it will pump up to $1.425 billion into Alaska's massive and controversial Pebble prospect.Under a new 50-50 joint venture, the Pebble copper-and-gold project near Iliamna in Southwest Alaska will have new leadership — executives from London-based mining giant Anglo American and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., the company that owns the deposit. Anglo and Northern Dynasty said their agreement will not change the ownership of Pebble, though the companies will have equal rights in developing the deposit. If it is developed, Pebble could become one of the world's largest mines. The controversy stems from Pebble's location in the headwaters of two rivers that feed Bristol Bay, one of the world's biggest salmon fisheries. The project faces intense opposition from environmental groups, fishermen and some villages in the Bristol Bay region. "There's going to be a mine," Bruce Jenkins, Northern Dynasty's chief operating officer, said Tuesday. The companies will prove it can be done responsibly, without harming fish, he said. Though Northern Dynasty is still drilling to determine the full extent of Pebble's riches, its executives said this year that they believe Pebble could be the largest mineral deposit of its kind in the world. It could be developed with underground and/or open-pit mining methods. The companies said Tuesday their targeted production start date at Pebble is 2015, though they will have to acquire state and federal permits. Pebble's opponents said they are hopeful that Pebble will be stopped. Company has worldwide reach Anglo chief executive Cynthia Carroll said in a press release that Anglo is looking forward to working closely with Alaskans, specifically the communities of the Bristol Bay area and the Kenai Peninsula. Pebble has a potential to be a "world-class operation," she said. Anglo, based in London, was formed in South Africa. Last year it earned $6.4 billion in profit on $33 billion in revenue. Anglo and Northern Dynasty said they will create a new company to explore and develop Pebble. Jenkins said the company will be based in Anchorage and its chief executive will live here. The companies signed their agreement Tuesday after notifying regulators. Northern Dynasty said it stopped trading of its stock on the Canadian and U.S. stock exchanges at midafternoon in anticipation of signing the deal. Anglo makes a commitment The deal was reached after the Vancouver, British Columbia-based junior mining company negotiated for more than a year with roughly 15 other large mining companies, Jenkins said. Anglo is committing to spending $125 million to finish a pre-feasibility study for the mine, targeted for the end of next year. To retain its 50 percent partnership, Anglo will then have to commit $325 million for a feasibility study, targeted for 2011. If a decision then is made to develop a mine, Anglo must commit $975 million to build it. Anglo's track record Though its critics are running an ad campaign against Pebble, warning of environmental disaster and pollution, Northern Dynasty says it would build a sound mine, with no net loss to the region's fisheries. Like many other global mining companies, Anglo has encountered sharp criticism from environmental and human rights groups. In 2005, for example, the international group Human Rights Watch complained about Anglo's activities in Africa's Democratic Republic of Congo. The same year, Anglo said it was ramping up its human rights activities around the world, with a special focus on conflict zones. – Alaska Daily News News: Cheney’s Role in Salmon Dispute Secret to Regulators WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Interior Department's deputy inspector general said that her office was unaware of Vice President Dick Cheney's involvement in decisions affecting the Klamath River when it concluded in a report three years ago that there was no evidence of political interference in the heated 2001-2002 endangered species battle.Mary L. Kendall told the House Natural Resources Committee that if her office had been told about calls Cheney made to top Interior Department officials, they would have been checked out. But she also said she is not sure they would have mattered. "It may not have changed the conclusion," she said. But she added, "We would have followed any tracks made available to us." The committee hearing was scheduled at the request of 36 House Democrats from California and Oregon after the Washington Post reported in June that Cheney had intervened in the highly charged battle over water flows in the state's northernmost river. According to the newspaper, Cheney called Sue Ellen Wooldridge, then Interior Secretary Gale Norton's point person on the Klamath, raising concerns about the Bureau of Reclamation's decision in 2001 to turn off irrigation supplies to basin farmers in order to send more water down river for endangered fish. Cheney then recommended that the Interior Department ask the National Academy of Sciences to analyze the biology behind the decision. The academy concluded that shutting off the water to farmers was not justified, and a new biological opinion was put together by summer to keep the farms watered. That fall, as many as 70,000 salmon died in the river's lower reaches when low flows and warm waters created an ideal environment for the spread of a deadly pathogen. "This was the biggest commercial fishing disaster in history," Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, told the committee, adding that it cost taxpayers $60 million in disaster assistance this spring. The 2004 inspector general's investigation, sought by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., had been focused on reports in the Wall Street Journal that Karl Rove, President Bush's political director, had pressured officials in connection with Klamath River decisions. After its independent investigation, the inspector general's office found no one at the Interior Department who said they felt any political pressure. But it was not until the Washington Post report that there had been any inkling that Cheney might have been involved behind the scenes, too. The Democratic-led committee invited Cheney and Dirk Kempthorne, who succeeded Norton as department secretary last year, but neither accepted. "I am obliged to express disappointment at the difficulty we have in trying to learn the truth," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, D-W.Va., the committee chair, who nonetheless declared the Klamath "a case study in the political heavy-handedness so prevalent throughout this administration." There had been concern among Republicans that the hearing could reignite old hostilities by plowing old ground while two dozen players in the Klamath controversy are engaged in historic negotiations to craft a solution. During the peak of a drought in 2001, the shutoff of water affected thousands of farm families. A year later, so many salmon died that successive years of commercial fishing from California's Central Coast to the Columbia River were ruined. "I've never seen it as tough on the fishing fleet as its been the last couple of years," said San Francisco fisherman Larry Collins in a telephone press conference arranged by environmentalists Monday in advance of the hearing. – Sacramento Bee
SEATTLE - PETA's brand-new billboard—which shows a wheelchair-bound young patient in a Japanese hospital (whose brain damage was linked to the consumption of methylmercury, which was traced to contaminated fish) next to the tagline "Extreme Case of Mercury Poisoning: How Much Is in Your Fish?" — won't see the light of day in Seattle. That's because it was rejected by all four of Seattle's outdoor advertisers. One reason that PETA had hoped to launch the new ad in Seattle is because the city is home to Trident Seafoods, the nation's largest seafood company.
News: PETA Starts Campaign with Trident Why is PETA out to sink the myth that fish is "brain" food? Consider the following:
"If fish flesh were labeled for all the dangerous substances that it contains—including mercury, PCBs, and potentially deadly bacteria—it would be the last thing that anyone would want to swallow," says PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich. "The best thing you can do for your health - and for fish - is to go vegetarian." – PETA press release News: Yukon River Chum Run Off to Slow Start FAIRBANKS, Alaska – With only a trickle of fall chum salmon entering the Yukon River, state fisheries biologists are keeping their fingers crossed that a surge of fish will show up soon.“I hope to see a pulse (of fish) any day,” Fred Bue, fall season area manager for the Department of Fish and Game, said by phone from Emmonak, where he and other biologists are monitoring the fall chum run. This year’s fall chum run appears to be later than normal, he said. The number of fish that have passed a sonar counter at Pilot Station, 120 miles upstream from the mouth of the Yukon, stood at 64,000 through July 29. That’s less than half of the average passage estimate of approximately 150,000 fish for the same date. “It’s later than we expected but fall chum are known for coming in on big, strong pulses with big gaps between those pulses,” Bue said. Biologists are sticking to their original run-size projection of 900,000 to 1 million fish, which is about the same size as last year’s run and would provide enough fish for escapement, subsistence use and a small commercial harvest. “The summer chum run was around average, and we’re expecting the fall chum run to be about average,” Bue said. This year’s summer chum run totaled approximately 1.7 million fish but the run was lower than normal on 4-year-old fish, noted Bue. The fall chum run consists mainly of 4- and 5-year-old fish, and there are usually more 4-year-olds than 5. “That’s something we’ll be watching,” Bue said, referring to the number of 4-year-old fall chums. Chum salmon runs in Norton Sound to the north appear to be strong and the Kuskokwim River is also faring well for fall chums, Bue said. Last year the department had its first commercial fishing period for fall chums on the Yukon River on July 30. There won’t be any commercial fisheries this year until more fish show up, Bue said. “We thought we’d be commercial fishing by now and we’re not,” he said. “We’re staying pretty conservative.” Neither have biologists been able to gauge the run by subsistence catches because very few villagers on the lower Yukon fish fall chums for subsistence, Bue said. “We haven’t been able to find anybody fishing down here,” he said, citing the high price of gas in the Bush as one of the reasons. “On the lower river nobody fishes fall chum. They use them but they don’t put away big quantities. Their freezer fish is usually kings.” Villagers on the middle and upper Yukon will catch fall chums for food if they didn’t catch enough kings in June and July, he said. Fall chums are also a main source of dog food for mushers who live on the middle and upper Yukon River, as well as the Tanana River, Bue said. – Fairbanks Daily News-Miner The Pollock C Season Opens Aug. 25 KODIAK, Alaska – The pollock quota is approximately 8,000 tons in the Western Gulf. In the Chirikof area, Area 620 on the south side of Kodiak Island, the quota is 1,500 tons, and for Area 630 around Kodiak, fishermen can harvest 3,500 tons.“That takes into account underages and overages of the A and B seasons TAC (total allowable catch) earlier in the year,” National Marine Fisheries Service fisheries biologist Tom Pearson said. “If we go over a little bit in one area, that comes off the next season’s TAC apportionment.” There were several openings in the pollock B season, which opened March 10. “When the quota wasn’t caught, we would open for a brief period of time,” Pearson said. In the Western Gulf there were three openings. The final closure for the season was March 23 and it remains closed until Aug. 25. Area 620 closed for the season March 27. In Area 630 the fishery opened for 24 hours and closed March 11. Pearson said it was a small quota and therefore harvested quickly. However, the pollock B season lasted longer this year than in 2006 because fishing was not as good in the Western Gulf. Pearson said each year has variables and it is not possible to predict harvests in the upcoming season. In 2006, the Western Gulf pollock C season opened Aug. 25 and closed Sept. 27. There were several openings within those dates. The final quarter, pollock D season, stayed open until it closed by regulation Nov. 1, 2006. The D season quota wasn’t harvested although fishermen are usually able to harvest the total Western Gulf quota, Pearson said. “Fishing wasn’t so good there,” he said. Last year in Area 620 fisherman were unable to harvest the entire C or D season apportionment. In Area 630, the C season closed Sept. 27, 2006. Fishermen were able to harvest the pollock quota there, but fishing was slow, Pearson said. Fishermen participating in the Area 630 D season also left some pollock unharvested last year. “I would anticipate that the quotas in Kodiak Area 630 and the quota in the Western Gulf — like last year — will be harvested, but maybe not like last year in Area 620,” Pearson said. “But every year is a little bit different. It depends on how the fish are distributed and the effort.” Quotas do not carry over from one year to the next, but do carry over from one season within that year to the next. NMFS takes into account how much pollock is harvested each year. If 80 percent of the quota is harvested one year, the biomass would be a little higher the following year and therefore the TAC would increase by a modest amount, Pearson said. – Kodiak Daily Mirror <<<•>>> Friday, August 3, 2007 News: Rockfish Dumping Ends Fishery GRAYS HARBOR, Wash. - For the second time in 10 days, alleged illegal activity was uncovered in the Pacific whiting fishery by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers. As a direct result, the multi-million-dollar fishery has been shut down for the season. This equals about 240 million pounds of whiting that will not be harvested this year.A check of a northern coastal cannery in Grays Harbor County July 26 by WDFW enforcement officer Matt Jewett revealed an apparent cover-up to dispose of yellow tail and widow rockfish, according to WDFW Capt. Mike Cenci. Cenci said an employee of the cannery admitted putting 1,000 pounds of bycatch on a hydraulic lift in preparation to move the rockfish onto a conveyor leading to a grinder. The employee allegedly admitted the grinding process was to avoid adding the rockfish to the bycatch cap established by the federal government to protect over-harvested rockfish species. There is a 220-metric ton cap on widow rockfish as bycatch in the Pacific whiting, or hake trawl fishery. According to Cenci, the boat that had brought the fish in was told by a cannery worker to leave the area, but it later returned. The vessel allegedly had already off-loaded 5,700 pounds of rockfish and there was an additional 4,300 pounds still on board. Cenci said, "The bycatch would have been destroyed if Officer Jewett hadn't showed up when he did. In my opinion this was a blatant effort to avoid the bycatch cap." He explained that at this time a charging decision is in the process of being made of the alleged violation as a federal and state crime. The 10,000 pounds of bycatch directly led to the shutdown Thursday at 6 p.m. of the lucrative Pacific whiting fishery for the year. Only about 55 percent of the allotted catch of 242,591 metric tons of whiting for 2007 was harvested before the fishery was brought to a halt because of surpassing the by-catch cap for widow rockfish. A previous violation of dumping 16,000 pounds of widow rockfish overboard while at sea by a boat skipper out of Oregon July 17 could lead to fines of up to $130,000 in that case. According to Cenci, the 16 trawlers that fish for Pacific whiting can bring in as much as $40,000 per day for their catch. – Chinook (Wash.) Observer News: Stevens’ Help for Akutan Airport Suspect WASINGTON, D.C. - Sen. Ted Stevens, who as a top appropriator has mastered the art of the congressional earmark, tucked $3.5 million into a Senate spending bill this year to help finance an airport to serve a remote Alaskan island.The airstrip would connect the roughly 100 permanent residents of Akutan to the outside world. The biggest beneficiary, though, would be Seattle-based Trident Seafoods Corp., which operates one of the world’s largest seafood processing plants on the volcanic island in the Aleutians. Trident and Stevens are no strangers. For years, company founder and Chief Executive Charles Bundrant has been a generous contributor to the Alaska Republican’s campaigns. And in December, according to the Seattle Times, a federal grand jury investigating political corruption in Alaska ordered Trident and other seafood companies to produce documents detailing financial ties to the senator’s son, former Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board Chairman Ben Stevens. The younger Stevens served until last year as chairman of the federally funded board that his father created in a 2003 appropriations bill (PL 108-199) to promote Alaska seafood. The board provided marketing grants to Trident and other seafood companies at the same time Ben Stevens served as a paid consultant to industry trade groups. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the measure containing the airport earmark, the fiscal 2008 Transportation-HUD spending bill (S 1789), on July 12. It is awaiting full Senate action, probably sometime in September. Logistical challenges While the Akutan airport would benefit Trident, Akutan’s mayor said the town, not the company, asked for the funds. |