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Monday, August 13, 2007 No articles today - Staff Vacation <<<•>>>Tuesday, August 14, 2007News: Alaska Natives Market Yukon Kings This article also appeared in our Wild News service.FAIRBANKS, Alaska – This week’s New York Times Sunday Magazine features an article spotlighting efforts by a handful of Native communities along the mouth of the Yukon River to market their king salmon catches in the Lower 48. Jon Rowley, the Seattle-based food consultant and writer who helped popularize Copper River salmon, has been working with Yup’ik fishermen from Emmonak and nearby villages to make their Chinook catch the next big thing at high-end restaurants and markets Outside. No easy task considering Emmonak is 600 miles northwest of Anchorage. So far though, king salmon from Kwikpak Fisheries — a nonprofit formed in 2002 by Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association — has caught on in Seattle and other big West Coast cities and is slowly making its way eastward. Rowley, who talks up the lower Yukon salmon as the “King of Kings,” says it will take a few more years before the East Coast’s top restaurants gain an appreciation of the Yukon king’s superior quality. While not much to look at by the time they reach Fairbanks, the Yukon king’s high oil content — as much as double that of Copper River kings — make them highly prized when caught near the start of their 2,000-mile river journey. The king’s high oil content, which can affect its appearance and quality after being caught, is also part of the problem. An ice plant built last year in Emmonak and strict rules on icing down the salmon as soon as they’re caught has greatly improved the condition of the fish, Rowley said. “The Yukon king, if it gets the right handling, is in a league by itself,” Rowley said. “It literally melts on the palate.” The short commercial fishing season on the lower Yukon presents another challenge. The king run begins in mid-July and lasts just two weeks. Restaurants that want to feature Yukon kings only have a small window of time to work it onto their menu. Despite the challenges, Rowley says the response from food critics and top chefs has been overwhelmingly positive. Kwikpak, which buys about 60 percent of the commercial king catch on the lower Yukon, is the only seafood company in the world certified by the Fair Trade Commission for its commitment to providing fair wages to the local fishermen. This year’s commercial harvest of king salmon on the lower Yukon was slightly more than 32,000 fish, down from 44,000 in 2006, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Local fishermen were paid $4.30 a pound for whole salmon this year. Meanwhile, the fish pick up value as they travel east. Alaskan reds can sell for $15 a pound at Whole Foods Market in Washington, D.C., while (non-Yukon) kings fetch as much as $27 a pound. Kwikpak isn’t alone in trying to create a retail market for Yukon kings. Other companies promoting Yukon salmon include Boreal Fisheries and Bering Sea Fisheries. Yukon kings have traditionally been sold in Japan, but that market has started to slip in recent years. – Fairbanks News-Miner News: Oregon Senator says Cheney OK with Klamath
PORTLAND — Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., is siding with Vice President Dick Cheney over a massive fish kill on the Klamath River in 2002, saying there is no evidence it was caused by water diversions to farmers.
Smith also defended Cheney's role in intervening with federal officials to help farmers in the Klamath Basin and cast doubt that the salmon die-off caused sharp commercial costal fishing restrictions. The House Natural Resources Committee is investigating whether Cheney exerted improper political influence to override scientifically based management of the water resources. Environmentalists, often at odds with Smith, say his stance contradicts a study by the California Department of Fish and Game, which found that the water diversions played a key role in the deaths of some 77,000 salmon. Smith's defense of the farmers offers a chance to cement ties with rural voters, a key part of his political base. But if he's seen as insensitive to environmental issues it could cost him voters from Oregon's political middle. Smith says he does not regret his role in pushing the administration to aid the farmers, who had their water cut off for a year to protect the Klamath River salmon and the suckerfish in Klamath Lake. "Whenever the government says to any group of Americans, we are cutting you off 100 percent, not one drop (of water), that gets my blood boiling," Smith told The Oregonian. Smith first raised the issue in an interview with the Eugene Register-Guard in which he sought to distance the fish deaths from the water diversions. "I don’t know that there’s a connection between water for suckerfish that went to farmers, and salmon 18 months later that died of a gill disease," Smith told the Register-Guard’s editorial board. Smith later acknowledged that the fish kill came about six months after the first water diversion and argued that the die-off could have happened without it. The California Fish and Game report cited several factors leading to the fish kill, the largest in recorded West Coast history. There were larger-than-normal salmon returns, warm water and low river flows that combined to crowd the fish, hastening the spread of disease. The report concluded that, "River flow and the volume of water in the fish-kill area were atypically low," and that the river flow was the only factor controlled by humans. Smith cited another sentence in the report that said "no single factor" could have been "individually responsible for the fish kill." "It's stretching credibility to claim that the flow management decisions by the Bush administration in 2002 had nothing to do with the low flows in the Klamath River," said Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild, a Portland-based environmental group. Glen Spain, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, said he was not displeased with Smith protecting the farmers but said "Had there been more water in the river, we might never have had the problem, and when they put more water in the river, the problem went away." Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said river flows had been as low before without causing massive fish problems. The House committee began investigating Cheney after a June 27 story in The Washington Post detailing how he intervened with federal agencies to restore water to farmers. – Ontario (Ore.) Argus Observer
News: Secret Klamath Talks Face Difficult Future
WASHINGTON - When the House Natural Resources Committee met in July to discuss whether Vice President Dick Cheney had improperly interfered in the battle over Klamath River water, Republicans complained that the hearing could derail negotiations to settle the heated farming vs. fish fight.
"Let's do what's best for the fish, farmers, the tribes and the fishermen," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., pleaded, with fellow GOP Reps. John Doolittle of Roseville, Calif., and Wally Herger of Marysville, Calif., sitting in solidarity with him at the witness table. "Let's encourage them to find common ground, not rub salt in old wounds when they are so close to an historic agreement of enormous significance." But as the projected November deadline for a deal moves steadily nearer, environmental and Indian tribal leaders are raising concerns that the pact that everyone so desperately wants is in danger of slipping away because of what they see as political manipulation. "Whatever comes out of these negotiations has to have a scientific basis, rather than a political basis," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, Hoopa Valley Tribe chairman. "There were political strings being pulled before the negotiations started - and they are still in play." Critics warn that the evolving 60-year agreement is being shaped by Bush administration officials and is looking more and more like a $250 million-plus gift to irrigators, assuring them of ample water and subsidized power to pump it in exchange for a huge but possibly elusive environmental victory - knocking down four dams on the river. The hydroelectric dams are owned by Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp, which is no longer involved in the talks. "PacifiCorp hasn't committed to anything," said Steve Pedery, spokesman and conservation director for Oregon Wild, an environmental group now excluded from the talks because it wouldn't sign on to a binding 23-page "settlement framework" in January. Greg Addington, director of the Klamath Water Users Association and a strong advocate of a negotiated settlement, said he was disappointed that critics are beginning to go public before a deal is done. "I'd hope that we could work these things out amongst ourselves and not in the media," he said. But he added that even among irrigators there are "big concerns," despite assurances of water and subsidized power. The fight over Klamath water is a textbook example of a conflict so complex and long-standing that the best promise for success is a negotiated settlement. Farmers rely on the same water for irrigation that fishermen and Indian tribes need for the health of fish, and in many years there is too little of it. Complicating the tensions are federal laws protecting endangered fish and nearly a century of federal policies that drained once-rich wetlands for migratory birds and converted them into irrigation-dependent farmland for homesteaders. The problems came to a head in 2001 when outraged farmers had their water supply turned off during a prolonged drought to save water for salmon runs. The tables turned in 2002 when water was restored to farmers while reduced downriver flows of sun-heated water created ideal conditions for the spread of a pathogen that killed an estimated 70,000 salmon. That massive die-off, the worst in U.S. history, led to a fishery disaster in 2005 and 2006 as commercial fleets along 700 miles of the Pacific Coast were idled to protect the diminished Klamath River run. Settlement talks began in 2005, about the time PacifiCorp applied to relicense its dams for up to 50 years. Environmentalists want the dams removed to reopen the upper Klamath to salmon. – Sacramento Bee News: Disease Hits Salmon Sharks
SANTA CRUZ, Calif - Nearly a dozen dead juvenile salmon sharks, killed by brain infections, have washed up along Central Coast shores in the past month.
And it's not the first time this has happened to the shark, which resembles a great white, though it's the largest number in recent memory, researchers say. Every summer for the past decade, dead baby salmon sharks have inexplicably shown up on beaches, an uncommon occurrence because sharks tend to sink to the bottom of the ocean when they die. Necropsies conducted at Stanford University and Long Marine Lab at UC Santa Cruz have shown that most of the salmon sharks had bacteria-induced brain infections at the time of their deaths, but shark experts still don't know the source of the bacteria. Even more baffling are the salmon sharks themselves, which are rarely spotted alive in the waters of the Central Coast but whose numbers are legion in the Gulf of Alaska — so much so that they've been referred to as the "poor man's marlin" among fishermen whose livelihoods hinge on catching them. "There's a mystery in the Monterey Bay and the mystery is that something that looks like a baby white shark dies on our shores every year," said Dave Casper, a veterinarian with Long Marine Lab at UC Santa Cruz. "And yet we never catch live salmon sharks in the bay. But we know they have to be there if they're washing up on our shores." Casper is asking local salmon fishermen to keep a lookout for them. "Please catch a live one for us so we can study it," Casper said, adding that various cultures taken from a live shark could hold the answer to why baby sharks are dying. "What is the common source for this bacteria, and do adults harbor the bacterium in their systems?" said Casper. "So far, all we've got is this encephalitis. There are more questions than answers." At first, scientists thought the deaths may have been the result of demoic acid, a biotoxin often found in a variety of marine organisms that the sharks feed on. But no evidence of the biotoxin has surfaced in the necropsies, Casper said. – Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel News: Slow Red Run Shuts Off Sport Fishing
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – With red salmon runs extremely weak in the Susitna River, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has issued an emergency order banning anglers from catching or keeping any sockeye.
Biologists would have liked to have seen 60,613 reds up the Yentna River, a major Susitna tributary, by Aug. 6. Instead, they have seen only a fraction of that and are now projecting a spawning return of only 63,573. That falls far short of the minimum goal of 90,000 spawners and is less than half the optimum goal of 160,000. Meanwhile, the silver salmon run in the Susitna drainage appears to be improving, with the exception of the Deshka River, said Susitna guide Ray Blodgett. As of Thursday, only 6,617 silvers had passed the Deshka weir. This time last year, more than 11,000 silvers had been counted at the weir. Low water plays a role, said Mat-Su area state sportfisheries biologist Dave Rutz, with silvers often waiting for water levels to rise before heading upstream. Coho also like to nose into and mill around in side streams more than other types of salmon, which can slow their upstream journey, he said. But while the silver season has yet to play out, the Valley red run is whimpering to yet another dismal close. Why the sockeye returns are so dismal is a matter of debate and an ongoing Fish and Game study. Many local guides and sportfisherman believe commercial driftnetters targeting reds headed for Kenai area streams intercept reds headed for the Mat-Su. But department biologists have contended that it is far from clear what is causing the low sockeye runs in the Mat Su, and commercial fisherman deny being the cause. A three-year study in its second year that involves tagging, taking genetic samples and tracking red salmon, has yet to come up with any answers, said Richard Yanusz, a state sportfisheries biologist overseeing some of the work. – Anchorage Daily News <<<•>>> Wednesday, August 15, 20072007 Salmon Forecast and Harvest to Date Here’s an update on Alaska salmon harvests to Aug. 10 as compiled by North Pacific Seafoods and brought to you by the Northwest Fisheries Association.Fishing Ranks as Deadliest Industry NEW YORK – As the nation watched rescuers continue their efforts to reach six workers in a Utah coal mine, lawmakers were calling for tougher safety laws to govern the industry.Luckily, some are already on the books, thanks to the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act, an outgrowth of the Sago Mine accident in West Virginia in January 2006. The legislation, passed by congress and signed into law by President Bush five months after the accident, mandates wireless communications, enough oxygen for workers to survive for 50 hours and a protected area from which workers can await rescuers. The latest mining accident shows that dangers persist. But in the big picture, luckily, it seems that periodic legislation over the past 30 years has made the business safer. Mining does not statistically rank among the most dangerous occupations. Fatalities did increase 19% in 2006 to 190, largely due to the Sago Mine accident in West Virginia in January. But mining accidents have generally dropped since passage of the Mining Safety & Health Act in 1977, which tightened safety standards. Per capita-wise, the industry doesn't rank among the 10 most dangerous. For the second straight year, fishing and related activities topped the fatality list, with 142 deaths per 100,000 workers. Slips and overboard falls continue to wreak havoc on some commercial fishing boats off the coasts of Alaska, Massachusetts and other seaboard areas. Right behind were pilots and aircraft engineers, with a rate of 88 per 100,000 employees. Total air-related deaths (beyond pilots and engineers) shot up to 215 from 149 in 2005, mainly due to last summer's ComAir crash in Lexington, Ky. Because fatal plane crashes are so infrequent, yet sometimes claim many lives when they do occur, airplane death totals tend to be volatile year to year. Overall, workplace fatalities edged down last year to 5,703 from an adjusted 5,734 in 2005, according to BLS statistics. The per capita rate also fell slightly, to 3.9 per 100,000 workers from 4.0. Males accounted for 92% of all work-related deaths, according to the BLS numbers. In raw totals, road accidents have been the top overall killer of workers - mainly truck drivers and traveling salespeople - since BLS started keeping the data in 1992. Just over 1,300 were killed last year, about the same number as in 2005. The category ranks ninth in per capita deaths, with 27 per 100,000 employees. According to the Federal Highway Administration, almost two-thirds of all highway fatalities are categorized as "road departures," as opposed to intersection or pedestrian accidents, an indication of tired drivers veering out of their lanes or off the road altogether. Meanwhile, homicides at the workplace continue to decline. The 516 recorded last year was the lowest total in 12 years, and down from a peak of 585 in 1999. But agricultural workers continue to bear the brunt of difficult conditions and extreme weather. The field accounted for 158 work-related deaths last year, or fewer than 22 per 100,000 workers. The agriculture heavy economies of Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota and Montana all averaged at least 4.8 deaths per 100,000 last year, making them the four most dangerous states for workers. Each averaged more per capita fatalities than the five safest states - Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Massachusetts - combined. – Forbes In Pictures: America's Most Dangerous Jobs News: Group Takes Seal-hunting Fight to U.S. Restaurants
This also appeared in our Wild News service.
CHICAGO – The restaurant you choose to dine in this weekend could affect the welfare of seals thousands of miles away. At least that's the assertion of the Humane Society of the United States, which has convinced more than 50 Chicago-area restaurants to boycott Canadian seafood to protest the country's hunting of seals for meat and pelts. The boycott, begun two years ago but reaching the Chicago area only recently, is based on the assertion that seal hunting is inhumane and most of its participants also profit from the larger Canadian fishing industry. But both industry and government say the boycott is having little or no impact on seal hunting, which they see as a perfectly legitimate trade that's responsibly sustained generations. Still, Michael Sullivan, service manager at Parker's Ocean Grill in Downers Grove, said executive chef Patrick McLaughlin, made a big push to join the boycott. "Being primarily a seafood restaurant, he felt the benefits outweighed the costs," Sullivan said. Marie Weir, general manager of Cy's Crab House in Buffalo Grove, which has also joined the boycott, said costs may be slightly higher to buy fish from elsewhere in the world, but the options are out there. Even the famous Canadian snow crabs can be replaced with those from Russia and Alaska, she said. Ending the hunt Pat Ragan is director of the Humane Society's ProtectSeals campaign. She said more than 215,000 young seals were clubbed and shot to death for their fur in eastern Canada this year alone. The society's research found that while seal hunting brings in $16 million a year for Canadian fishermen, fish and seafood bring in $3 billion annually, Ragan said. She said the boycott's rationale is that fishermen can't afford to lose so much fish and seafood business just to keep the seal trade going. Started in 2005, the boycott's support expanded to restaurants in major cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Miami and now Chicago, Ragan claims. "We may be able to end the hunt this year," Ragan said. "This is just such an important moral issue." The Canadian government and fishing and seal hunting industries scoff at that. They say the boycott isn't even close to finishing off a way of life for many in areas of eastern Canada where other work is scarce. "It's not having much of an impact on the Canadian seafood industry," said Jennifer Kelly, spokeswoman for Canada's Department of Oceans and Fisheries. 'Not pretty' Seal products remain popular in several countries, chiefly Russia and China. "Sure, there are some animal lovers who don't understand who'll want to join (the boycott)," said Mark Small, a 67-year-old seal hunter from Newfoundland whose father and grandfather were seal hunters before him. "Scientists from not only Canada but internationally have come out and said the seals are not in danger (of extinction), and it's not a conservation issue," he said. Contrary to popular opinion, the government monitors seal hunts and outlaws the killing of seal pups that are still nursing, Small said. He believes that if seal hunting were conducted in the U.S. or other parts of Canada, it would result in herds being wiped out forever. But the practice in eastern Canada has always been done in the most responsible way, Small added. He questioned the criticisms of seal hunting being a particularly cruel or inhumane form of hunting. "Ninety percent of our seals are shot with high-powered rifles," Small said. "Very little is the club used anymore." Boycott for real? A 2006 report by the Center for Consumer Freedom - a nonprofit coalition of restaurants, food companies and consumers - claimed 78 percent of restaurants and seafood companies on the Humane Society's boycott list weren't actively participating. The center's director of research, David Martosko said, the Humane Society's goal is to end all hunting and fishing and even prohibit the use of elephants in circuses. The society "is misleading the public on what it all means," he said. "They just want to make money because it builds political power." The Humane Society's Ragan counters that the Center for the Consumer Freedom is a front for the restaurant industry and not about consumer interests at all. She said there's no evidence the center talked to the people at the boycotting restaurants who actually make the supply decisions. Since the center's report came out, however, the Humane Society has asked all participating restaurants to put their pledge in writing. The politics of food From grape boycotts to foie gras bans, other memorable food movements:
After the closure of two facilities in Texas earlier in the year, Illinois was the last state with an operating slaughterhouse. – The Daily Herald, Chicago
News: Number of Alaskan Sport Fishers Declining
WASHINGTON - Nearly a third of Alaskans age 16 and over went fishing last year, tying the state with Minnesota for the highest percentage of residents who consider themselves recreational anglers.
But the number of people hunting and fishing in Alaska and across the United States has declined overall, according to a survey released last week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Across the U.S., the number of people fishing has dropped 12 percent, and the number of people hunting has decreased 4 percent since 2001. There's been an especially steep decline in Alaska compared with the agency's 2001 survey, said Jerry Leonard, a Fish and Wildlife economist who crunched the numbers for the report. Recreational fishing is down 26 percent in Alaska, Leonard said, and hunting is down 24 percent in the state. The survey estimated that about 421,000 people fished in Alaska in 2001; that number dropped to 310,000 last year. Yet even as the number of people hunting and fishing has slid, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife survey found that the number of people who are actively engaged in what they term "wildlife viewing" has risen. Those activities include just about any outdoor pursuit, ranging from bird watching to whitewater rafting. Nationwide, the numbers jumped 8 percent from five years ago, the study found. In Alaska, it went up 22 percent. The Fish and Wildlife Service survey, conducted every five years since 1955 by the Census Bureau, measures the economic effect of fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing. It's used for a variety of purposes, including measuring the economic value of public lands. The numbers were even used to determine the economic effect of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Alaska's numbers Alaska's on-the-ground numbers show a slightly different picture from the federal survey, said Doug Vincent-Lang, a special projects coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. They measure the "days fished," which saw a decline from 2005 to 2006, but it was not a dramatic drop, he said. The state also saw the number of fishing licenses slide from 2005 to 2006 after it added a surcharge to pay for a fish hatchery. The state generally sells between 400,000 to 500,000 licenses, and while there have been minor fluctuations, officials still think their numbers show an increase over time, Vincent-Lang said. Still, it's true that a smaller portion of the state's population is fishing. Ten years ago, almost half of Alaskans sought a fishing license, he said. Urbanization across the West has a role in the shift away from hunting and fishing toward wildlife viewing, Leonard said. But it's also a demographic shift. Baby boomers are aging out of more active hunting and fishing and shifting to less intense activities. "People who were once hunters and anglers tend to become wildlife watchers as time goes on," Leonard said. "They're increasingly giving up their fishing and hunting activities and picking up the binoculars. They tend to start wildlife watching." And many people have developed interests in outdoor pursuits unrelated to hunting and fishing, and not just in Alaska, said Debbi Long, whose family has run Cascade Rafting and Kayak on Idaho's Payette River since 1985. They've seen a 10 to 18 percent annual increase in business in recent years - numbers that parallel the gains shown by the national survey. – Anchorage Daily News Top U.S. Spending on Outdoor Activities (2001-2006)
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- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Research: Alaska's Largest Fisheries Science Center to Open
JUNEAU, Alaska – "We are proud of the new marine research facility, and we're inviting everyone to come have a look," said Doug DeMaster, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
The open house at the new Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute at Lena Point in Juneau, Alaska will be held from 3:30 to 7 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2007. Tours of the facility start from the main lobby. The opening of the facility is the culmination of a 15-year effort to create Alaska's largest fisheries research facility. The new 69,000 square foot, two-story building will enable scientists to expand research into Alaskan fisheries and meet the growing information needs of the NOAA Fisheries Service ecosystem approach to managing fisheries. What sets the new facility apart from past facilities is its laboratories, which are larger, safer and provide increased scientific capabilities. In addition to chemistry, genetics, and biology laboratories, there is a large wet lab, a necropsy room equipped to handle small marine mammals, large fish and sharks, an ichthyology laboratory for sorting and identification of specimens, two large walk-in freezers, and a large day room for contractors and other project personnel. The wet lab will have just under 2,000 square feet of enclosed space, 4,000 square feet of outdoor space, overhead electric power access, and can receive 1,200 gallons per minute of filtered sea water. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has started construction of a 30,600 square foot, $26.5 million sister teaching and research facility at Lena Point, which is designed to hold 13 faculty, 10 research assistants and 45 students. The university building will be complete in fall 2008. NOAA and Congressional leaders are meeting just ahead of the Aug. 21 open house. Sen. Ted Stevens, Dr. Bill Hogarth, NOAA Fisheries Service director, and many of the people responsible for supporting and helping build the new Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute plan to attend the meeting. NOAA Fisheries Service scientists and staff began moving into the new facility shortly after receiving the keys on May 1, 2007. All furniture and equipment have been installed, however full operations will not be realized until about mid-August, since many of the scientists are in the field gathering data during the summer. – SitNews, Ketchikan <<<•>>> Thursday, August 16, 200779 Headless Walrus Bodies Found in Alaska NORTON SOUND, Alaska - Dozens of walrus carcasses missing their heads and valuable tusks have been discovered on western Alaska beaches in recent weeks, and federal wildlife authorities are trying to figure out whether they were killed illegally.Investigators flying over Norton Sound beaches east of Nome counted 79 walrus carcasses in about a 40-mile stretch between Elim and Unalakleet, said Steve Oberholtzer, a special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage. Large numbers of headless walruses have washed ashore in the area before, but this is the most investigators have seen in at least 10 years, Oberholtzer said. Only Alaska Natives can legally hunt walruses for subsistence, but they must salvage a "substantial portion" of the animal, including the heart, liver, flippers and some red meat. Headless walrus carcasses immediately raise questions about poaching. But the investigation does not necessarily mean anyone broke the law, Oberholtzer said. In at least one case, someone found four carcasses washed up on the beach and removed the tusks legally. "No one has been charged, and we're not speculating wasteful take has occurred," he said. "We're on a fact-finding mission to discover what caused the death of these animals and whether it's legal." Natives value walruses as a source of subsistence meat, said Vera Metcalf, head of the Eskimo Walrus Commission in Nome. The group works with the government to manage walrus populations and promote proper harvests. The tusks provide an important source of income in many cash-strapped villages for artists who sell ivory handicrafts, she said. "The overwhelming reason behind the wasteful take of walruses, when it occurs, is the value of the ivory," said Oberholtzer. Healthy population The last estimate in 1990 numbered Pacific walruses at about 200,000. Walrus biologists hope to release a new estimate based on aerial surveys next summer. They're not classified as threatened or endangered. Residents from two Inupiat villages in the sound, where tusk ivory is considered a valuable commodity for carving, said they've never seen so many dead walruses washed ashore. At least one person — a state trooper — legally collected tusks from walrus carcasses on shore earlier this summer. Trooper Karl Erickson of Unalakleet, a village of about 700, said he was planning to harvest herring eggs from kelp in June but ended up collecting tusks from four dead walruses. "Normally you'd find one, maybe two, but in one boat ride we found four," said Erickson. "I've never heard of that before." – Anchorage Daily News Selendang Ayu Owners to Plead Guilty in Unalaska Grounding
DUTCH HARBOR, Alaska - Owners of a ship that broke up on an Aleutian Island, polluting the Bering Sea and killing hundreds of seabirds, will plead guilty to two federal counts, the U.S. Attorney's office announced Tuesday.
IMC Shipping Co. (IMC) of Singapore, owner of the freighter Selendang Ayu, will plead guilty to illegally discharging oil and soybeans off Unalaska Island and to killing migratory birds, said U.S. Attorney for Alaska Nelson Cohen. The 738-foot freighter ran aground Dec. 8, 2004, and broke in two on the north side of Unalaska Island. The vessel was carrying an estimated 442,000 gallons of fuel oil and some diesel. About 336,000 gallons of intermediate fuel oil and diesel spilled, along with 66,000 tons of soybeans. During rescue operations, a Coast Guard helicopter carrying Selendang Ayu crewmembers from the tanker crashed. Six of the 10 freighter crewmembers, who had been plucked from the stricken ship, were killed. The Coast Guard helicopter crew was rescued. Unalaska Island, 800 miles southwest of Anchorage, is home to the city of Unalaska and its port, Dutch Harbor, the nation's second busiest for seafood landings. The island is also within 50 miles of the Great Circle shipping route linking major West Coast ports to the Pacific Rim. Cohen said documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court indicate IMC intends to pay a criminal penalty of $10 million. The penalty includes $4 million in community service, including $3 million to assess risks for shipping hazards where the Selendang Ayu went aground and $1 million for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. IMC has also agreed to serve three years' probation, which will include an audit of IMC's maintenance program. The parties requested that the plea be entered and sentencing be scheduled for Aug. 22. The Selendang Ayu had left Tacoma, Wash., on its way to China with a load of soybeans when it experienced mechanical problems. The vessel's engine was shut down as crew members attempted repairs. The vessel drifted for two days, and as it approached Unalaska Island, crewmen were unable to restart the engine. The ship grounded just off Spray Cape and broke apart. Response operations began immediately following the grounding and continued for two months with removal of the oil still in the ship's tanks, the start of shoreline cleanup, and the placement of protective absorbent material along shoreline that had not been oiled. About 37 miles of shoreline were affected by the spill. More than 1,600 birds and six sea otters were found dead. IMC paid more than $100 million in cleanup costs. The captain of the Selendang Ayu, Kailash Bhushan Singh, pleaded guilty in April 2005 to making a false statement during the casualty investigation regarding the time the engine was shut down before the grounding. – Associated Press
Editorial: Defense of Bush Klamath Stand Misguided
The problem with Sen. Gordon Smith's defense of the Bush administration's 2002 decision to divert Klamath Lake water for irrigation isn't that the Oregon Republican is wobbly on the facts. It's that he's willing to bend and selectively omit the facts to justify ideologically driven political positions.
In an interview last week with The Register-Guard editorial board, Smith insisted there is no evidence that a massive fish kill on the Klamath River that same year was caused by the administration's decision to release water to farmers. Smith also defended the role that Vice President Dick Cheney played in intervening with federal officials to resume flows to farmers in the Klamath Basin. The issue of the Klamath diversion arose because the House Natural Resources Committee is investigating Cheney's role in Klamath water management decisions that many believe led to the deaths five years ago of 75,000 fish in the Klamath Basin. Three dozen House Democrats from Oregon and California requested the hearings after The Washington Post reported details of Cheney's extensive intervention, which was intended, in part, to win votes for Smith's re-election. Smith had been pushing the administration to help get water for farmers whose crops were threatened by the shut-off amid drought conditions. Smith insisted the water diversion was intended to help threatened sucker fish and that "the focus at the time was not on salmon," and said the die-off occurred 18 months later near the mouth of the Klamath River. He said the fish "died of some gill disease, which is not uncommon and happens periodically," and that it was unrelated to the decision to the irrigation diversions and the lower water levels they produced. Smith's version of Klamath Basin history conveniently omitted some key facts. They include a California Department of Fish and Game report that said a number of factors - including warm temperatures, low flows and crowding - caused conditions conducive to gill disease and other bacterial infections. "River flow and the volume of water in the fish kill area were atypically low," the report said, noting that river flow was the sole factor controlled by humans. In a Saturday story by The Register-Guard's David Steves, commercial fishing advocate Glenn Spain aptly observed that Smith's simplistic attribution of the dead fish to gill disease "is sort of like saying lung cancer kills smokers, not smoking." Smith's assertion that the fish kill happened 18 months after the diversion is also off base. The die-off occurred between Sept. 19 and Oct. 1 - five months after the March 29 reopening of the headgates. Smith has shown a willingness to overlook inconvenient facts before. Last year, he and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, promoted a bill that would have accelerated salvage logging and reforestation after fires, dismissing a study by Oregon State University researchers that raised serious questions about the practice. With Smith facing what could be a tough re-election race next year, he should pay more attention to the facts when discussing environmental issues, including Klamath Basin water policy. – Eugene Register-Guard News: Alaska Losing Political Clout
WASHINGTON - When he was a keeper of the federal purse strings, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska told another Republican senator who opposed the infamous "bridge to nowhere," "I don't threaten people. I promise people."
His home-state GOP colleague, Rep. Don Young, was not to be outdone. Last month he told a fellow House member who opposed education money for Alaska Natives: "There is always another day when those who bite will be killed, too, and I am very good at that. Those that bite me will be bitten back." Stevens and Young may not be promising, threatening or biting anymore, now that both are under federal investigation. The investigations — and a questionable land deal that entangled the third member of Alaska's congressional delegation — also may have ended a modern-day gold rush that sent billions of federal dollars to the state. Alaska's entire delegation is under an ethical cloud, something congressional historians say is unprecedented:
Stevens, 83, is the longest-serving Republican in Senate history — having taken office in 1968. Young, 74, has been in office since 1973. Both face election next year. Bringing home the bacon No other delegation has delivered like Alaska's, using a combination of intimidating tactics and powerful positions — especially when Republicans were in the majority through last year. Stevens headed the Senate Appropriations Committee. Young led the House Transportation Committee, making him the traffic cop for all road and mass transit projects. More than 2,000 projects worth $7.5 billion have gone to Alaska since 2000, says Taxpayers for Common Sense. Alaska received a little over $1 billion in the 2005 highway bill. A 2005-2007 study of earmarks by the group showed that Alaska — ranked 47th in population — has done far better than other states, when spending is calculated per person. Spending over the three-year period came to $4,311 per person in earmarked projects for Alaskans, while Hawaii was a distant second at $1,812. At the low end were the populous states of Texas, at $98 per person, and New York, $95 per person. Part of the difference can be explained by Alaska's special needs, with its remote geography, rough terrain and extreme weather. But the clout of Stevens and Young also has played a huge role. "There was a time when these were the gods in some ways, but it's a new world," said Bill Hoagland, a former Senate Appropriations Committee staff director under Stevens. "There are senators and congressmen who are new to the institution and don't have reason to be as scared as previous members.They don't have the same fear factor." Black clouds Federal authorities are scrutinizing Stevens' relationship with Veco's Allen, who helped oversee a renovation project that more than doubled the size of Stevens' Alaska home in 2000. Allen's company won tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts, and officials were major political donors. Allen has pleaded guilty to bribing lawmakers in the state Legislature. The Wall Street Journal and others have reported that federal investigators are also looking at Young's relationship with Veco. Young has declined to discuss the investigation. Stevens says the interests of justice will be best served if he does not comment until after the investigation. Murkowski says her land deal was "a judgment call that I made that allowed me and my husband to undergo a level of criticism that I believe is unfounded but has caused people to question me. I'm not willing to compromise that trust for any piece of property." Murkowski had drawn criticism over her purchase — located along the Kenai River — from Anchorage developer Bob Penney, a campaign contributor she called a lifelong family friend. – Anchorage Daily News News: Home Car Washers Hurting Fish
SEATTLE - The International Carwash Association (ICA) released a study showing a direct relationship between the mortality of fish and the run off of toxic residues from residential carwashing and parking lot carwashes, the Associated Content reports.
According to the Aug. 10 report, the tests showed that the run off detergents and other chemicals used to clean a vehicle are washed through the rain and run off into the lakes, streams, and rivers. The report said Environmental Partners, Inc. and Vic Odermat, owner of Brown Bear Car Wash, conducted the independent study that showed the carwashes detergents and surface residues are draining into storm drains, which then run off into public water areas, causing a devastating effect on the aquatic life in the waterways. During the study conducted here, the fish toxicity tests used samples of run off water from a carwash fundraising event and compared it to a simulated run off that was potable. The results were 100 percent mortality rate to the fish in the water from the carwash and the fish survived in the potable water, said the report. Under the clean water act of commercial carwashes, carwashes are mandated not to send the run off from their business into the storm drains that will drain into the waterways. The water has to be recycled into a sewer system or treated and recycled for further use in the business, the report said. For more information on educating customers about the benefits of professional carwashing, consult the cover story of Professional Carwashing & Detailing magazine’s September issue. – Professional Car Washing & Detailing <<<•>>> Friday, August 17, 2007News: All Fraser River Fisheries Closed The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is considering a total ban on the sockeye salmon fishery in southern British Columbia after fewer salmon are returning to the area than was forecast.Even the aboriginal ceremonial fishery will be cancelled this year, said Timber Whitehorse, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesperson for the Fraser River Salmon Stock Assessment in Kamloops. "[The] pre-season forecast was just over 1½ million, and the in-season adjustment is half a million, so just over one-third of the pre-season forecast," Whitehorse said Wednesday. Fisheries experts suspect two-thirds of the salmon died in the ocean, but why that happened is not clear. What is clear is that very few fish are returning to the rivers to spawn this summer, said Pat Matthews, spokesperson for the Secwepemc Fisheries Commission. "Those stocks in the North Thompson and the Shuswap are less than 5 percent of what was forecast," said Matthews. – CBC News News: Palin Names New Appointees to ASMI
Gov. Sarah Palin has just named two new people to the board of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and tabbed one sitting member for another term.
The new appointees replace Don Giles, president of large processor Icicle Seafoods Inc. of Seattle, and Duncan Fields of Kodiak, who represented small processors on the board. Their three-year terms expired, a Palin spokeswoman said. – Wesley Loy writing as The Highliner. Here’s the press release: JUNEAU, Alaska – Governor Palin appointed Tom McLaughlin and Jack Schultheis, and reappointed Kevin Adams, to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s board of directors. The seven-member board includes representatives from the seafood processing and harvesting industries, and works to increase the value of Alaska’s seafood resource through promotions in both domestic and overseas markets and providing the industry with food safety and quality assurance training. Tom McLaughlin fills an ASMI board seat representing large processors with an annual payroll of $2.5 million or greater. As president and CEO of Seafood Producers Cooperative, North America’s largest fisherman-owned cooperative, McLaughlin has helped build market awareness of premium longline and troll-caught Alaska seafood. He has held senior management or marketing positions with divisions of John Labatt Ltd., Tyson Prepared Foods, and ConAgra, and worked as marketing director for several other food companies. He has also served on national and international food marketing councils, including the Frozen Food Council, the International Food Manufacturers Association, and the Beef Marketing Board. He has a master’s of business administration from DePaul University. Kevin Adams of Anchorage fills a seat representing seafood harvesters. Adams has extensive experience in fisheries and marketing, gained through 20 years experience as a Bristol Bay driftnet boat captain, his work for the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation and Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association, as vice president of the Great Ruby Fish Company fish processing and marketing company, and as manager of Adams Enterprises, a Naknek net and fishing supply business. He has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from California State University at Chico. Jack Schultheis of Wasilla fills an ASMI board seat representing small processors with an annual payroll between $50,000 and $2.5 million. A seafood plant manager with extensive experience in the Yukon River fisheries, he is currently logistics and sales manager for Emmonak-based Kwik’pak Fisheries. He has previously worked as processing plant manager for 10th & M Seafoods and North Alaska Fisheries, as a rural Alaska fish marketing cooperative manager, and in numerous other seafood industry positions in buying, sales and marketing, and plant management. – Office of the Governor
News: Shell Can’t Drill This Year
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Shell's ambitious plan to drill exploratory oil wells in the remote Beaufort Sea might be doomed — at least for this year — after a federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered further delay for the project.
It's a costly setback for the Dutch oil giant, which has a fleet of drilling ships and support vessels poised and waiting in Alaska and Canadian ports. The court order is a victory for environmental groups and North Slope residents who argued oil industry noise could drive migratory bowhead whales out of reach of Native subsistence hunters, and who accused federal regulators of doing shoddy environmental studies of potential harm from drilling to whales, polar bears and birds. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled the challengers, who sought to block a federal agency's February approval of Shell's drilling plans, "raised serious questions and demonstrated that the balance of hardships tips sharply in their favor." The panel ruled Shell can't drill until the case plays out. Although the judges ordered the case to be speeded up, they indicated it won't be resolved before early December. That would effectively kill Shell's drilling plans for this year, because by then the Beaufort Sea likely will be frozen, locking out drill ships that need mostly open water to operate. Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said the company was reviewing its legal options and would not demobilize its fleet just yet. "We are disappointed, and hope the court's ruling will not have an adverse effect on the Alaska economy — most notably the hundreds of jobs that would be created if Shell is successful in Alaska," he said. The Beaufort Sea remains largely a frontier zone, with most of Alaska's oil produced on land from large fields such as Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk and Alpine. Shell had planned to drill three wells at a prospect called Sivulliq, located about 16 miles offshore just west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The area previously was explored in the mid-1980s, with the government estimating that Sivulliq could hold 200 million barrels of crude. But oil companies abandoned and ignored the site until Shell showed renewed interest in the last couple of years. "I am very disappointed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling blocking Shell Oil Company from drilling in the Beaufort Sea," Gov. Sarah Palin said in a statement issued Wednesday. "This is the second development project with costs exceeding $200 million to be blocked by an action by this court. Decisions such as these pose a threat to our economic future. Nevertheless, I remain committed to help responsible parties develop Alaska's resources in a manner that protects our way of life." In May, the appeals court held that the planned Kensington gold mine northwest of Juneau would violate the Clean Water Act. – Anchorage Daily News News: Alaska Volcano Erupting
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Pavlof Volcano on the Alaska Peninsula started erupting Wednesday, a day after scientists issued a warning based on a sudden surge in local earthquakes.
The volcano, one of the most active in the Aleutian rim of fire, is spewing molten rock in what could be a buildup to a bigger ash explosion, scientists said. Eyewitnesses on a fishing boat reported seeing incandescent blocks falling down the east-southeast flank of the volcano early Wednesday, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported. The observatory had already raised its aviation alert code for the volcano from yellow to orange, and the alert level from Advisory to Watch, based on heat readings by weather satellites and an escalating swarm of earthquake signals from sensors on the mountain. A pilot reported a weak ash plume Wednesday extending five miles southwest of the summit at about 8,400 feet elevation. Scientists said the eruption could become stronger at any time. In previous eruptions, the mountain spewed lava for a week or more before suddenly sending ash clouds miles into the sky, said Steve McNutt, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute who works with the observatory. Low clouds Wednesday obscured views of the steep cone-shaped mountain from the nearest community, Cold Bay, 37 miles to the southwest. Pavlof is located 590 miles from Anchorage. Immediate hazards around the volcano include light ash fall on nearby communities, mudflows in local drainages, and lava flows and avalanching of hot debris on the upper reaches of the volcano, the observatory said. With nearly 40 historic eruptions, Pavlof is closely watched and heavily wired for seismic readings. Attention was drawn to the volcano Tuesday when earthquake activity increased abruptly. Similar patterns of seismicity occurred before eruptions in 1996, 1986, 1983 and 1981, observatory scientists said. They issued their first alert at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. The 1996 eruption resulted in a series of ash explosions, lava fountaining and lava flows over several months. Ash clouds reached as high as 30,000 feet. An eruption 10 years earlier sent a cloud as high as 49,000 feet. Ash clouds can present a hazard to aviation. McNutt said Pavlof has experienced its longest period of repose on record — 11 years. One of Pavlof's peculiarities is that its eruptions in the past half-century have been noticeably seasonal, coming between September and November, said McNutt. A hypothesis, tested by modeling and as yet unrefuted, is that the seasonal fall buildup of low pressure in the Aleutians piles an extra foot of water onto the beaches, squeezing the magma at depth, he said. "This one's a little early," McNutt said. – Anchorage Daily News News: Fishing Boat Capsizes in Coos Bay Channel
COOS BAY, Ore. – An unidentified 32-foot fishing vessel ran aground on the inside of the North Jetty yesterday and later capsized after U.S. Coast Guard members helped the lone passenger get ashore.
According to Chief Chuck Chavtur, at about 2 a.m., the Coast Guard received a mayday radio call from a vessel up against the North Jetty. A shore party, helicopter and rescue boat were sent out to offer assistance. Civilian Search & Rescue Controller Kevin St. Pierre said one man was on the vessel at the time, though his identity was not known. “He refused assistance, took some stuff off the boat and headed into the dunes and no one has seen him since,” St. Pierre said. The ship already had taken on some water by the time the Coast Guard arrived. “We tried to get a pump on the vessel, but it was too far gone,” Chavtur said. At 9:30 a.m., the vessel was floating bow up in the main shipping channel heading back toward the ocean. Chavtur said a commercial salvage company had been contracted to help secure the vessel, which was thought to have about 200 gallons of fuel on board. “Hopefully they can get it in the next 15 minutes,” Chavtur said. “If it sinks, there is nothing we can do about it.” – Coos Bay World |