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Monday, August 20, 2007 News: Fraser Shortages to Bump Price of Sockeye
VANOUVER, British Columbia – The price of a fillet of B.C.'s wild salmon is expected to rise dramatically if the government follows through on plans to completely shut down the sockeye fishery.
Shah Hamid, of Seven Seas Seafood in Delta, expects the price of fresh sockeye to rise by as much as 75 per cent in the coming weeks. The company, he said, sold nearly a quarter million kilograms of sockeye in 2006, but this summer it will be laying off the 10 workers who normally would be processing the Fraser River harvest. "It will be really felt in the off-season, December through March," Hamid said. "Restaurants that usually have frozen product that you can thaw out and filet — you're not going to have that." This summer's sockeye salmon runs are shaping up to be some of the worst on record. All commercial fishing for sockeye on the Fraser River has been closed. Officials at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans this week confirmed to CBC that they may cancel all commercial, recreation and aboriginal fishing for sockeye on the Fraser River, including all its tributaries, for the rest of the season. Jordan Specht, a fish monger on Granville Island, said fillets are currently selling for $40 per kilogram, and if there's no fishing on the Fraser, they could go up to $66. The pre-season forecast for returning fish in southern B.C. was just over 1½ million, but an in-season adjustment was made to half a million, said Timber Whitehorse, of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. – CBC News: Where are the Humpies?
EVERETT, Wash. – According to the popular rule of thumb, decent numbers of pink salmon should have shown in the shipwreck area at the south end of "humpy hollow" by about the 10th of the month, working toward a peak fishery on about the 20th, give or take a day or two.
But as of the 15th of the month anglers on local saltwater "towing their white dodgers and pink hoochies" were still mostly striking out. Not entirely, it's true, since Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife creel checkers at the Port of Everett ramp tallied 329 fishermen on Sunday with three Chinook, 13 Coho, and 109 pinks, and at the Mukilteo ramp, 191 with six Coho and 54 pinks. That works out roughly to one pink for every three or four anglers over the weekend, which isn't what we expect from our odd-year humpy run. "I hope it's simply because they're running a little late this summer," said All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein in Everett. "Because checks out on the Strait have been strong, I think we still have a bunch of fish coming." – Everett Herald
News: Cabezon Trip Limit to Decrease
EUREKA, Calif. – The commercial cabezon trip limit for September and October will decrease as of Sept. 1 from 900 pounds to 200 pounds for each nearshore fishery permit holder. The decrease will allow the 2007 season to continue through the end of the year, according to a California Department of Fish and Game news release.
The trip limit for the November-December period will remain at 100 pounds. The decrease in the two-month cumulative trip limit for the commercial cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) fishery applies to the entire state and is effective for the period Sept. 1 through Oct. 31, according to the DFG. Recent landing receipts and dockside tabulation efforts indicate the statewide commercial fishery will reach the 2007 commercial allocation of 59,300 pounds as early as mid-September without this change. Last year the DFG indicated it made the same September-October in-season adjustment allowing the fishery to remain open for the remainder of the year. – Eureka Reporter News: Anglers Cannot Keep Cabezon
MEDFORD, Ore. – The first casualty of Oregon's bountiful bottomfishing season came Saturday when boat anglers had to stop keeping the cabezon they caught off the Oregon coast.
Sport anglers gobbled up the last of their 15.8 metric ton quota of cabezon, triggering a closure Friday evening for the tasty bottomfish. Anglers can continue to catch and release cabezon while targeting black rockfish, lingcod and other near-shore species that are still open for catching and keeping. Cabezon harvest by sport and commercial interests have been limited in Oregon in recent years over concerns that these tasty but slow-growing bottomfish may be over-fished. The exact health of the stock, however, remains unknown. But fishing for other species can continue because cabezon do well in surviving catch-and-release fishing despite their presence in deep waters. Unlike rockfish, cabezon do not have air bladders. Therefore, they do not suffer from barotrauma — expansion or rupture of the air bladder when the fish are brought up from deep waters — that can cause stress, injury, and sometimes death in rockfish. The closure does not effect shore-based divers or anglers casting from rocks, reefs, jetties or the open surf. Bottomfish caught by anglers in Oregon waters are managed under seven different harvest caps — three imposed by the federal government and four state-imposed caps. The cabezon cap was state-imposed. - Medford Mail Tribune Opinion: Apologies to Karl Rove
WASHINGTON, D.C. - It appears that I may have been unfair to Karl Rove in blaming him for the singularly tone-deaf politics of the Bush Administration's approach to public lands issues: Mark Rey's sustained campaign to cut off funding for rural schools; the oil and gas drilling orgy that turned much of the rural West from red to blue; the decision to have EPA set different, and less health-protective air quality standards for rural Americans; the indifference to the needs of blue-color commercial fishermen; and the systematic refusal to adequately fund fire-protection for Bush-loyal rural communities.
According to two recent reports, Rove didn't actually drive environmental policy for the Administration — it was almost entirely the bailiwick of Vice President Cheney. Cheney's role on environmental issues was laid out earlier this summer in a long report in the Washington Post that detailed Cheney's unprecedented involvement in the seeming minutiae of environmental conflicts like water management on the Klamath River. The Post report documents calls made to front-line bureaucrats in the Department of the Interior. Cheney had reached far down the chain of command, on so unexpected a point of vice presidential concern, because he had spotted a political threat… By combining unwavering ideological positions — such as the priority of economic interests over protected fish — with a deep practical knowledge of the federal bureaucracy, Cheney has made an indelible mark on the administration's approach to everything from air and water quality to the preservation of national parks and forests. Now, in an Atlantic Monthly article that eerily appeared just as Rove walked out the door, Joshua Green argues that Rove by and large left environmental policy, like foreign affairs, to Cheney, and never saw environmental issues as being part of his master plan to reshape the American electorate. Since the rural Westerners Cheney's policies alienated were already a part of Rove's assumed Republican base, perhaps Rove myopically overlooked the possibility that even as he was struggling — ultimately unsuccessfully — to create a political realignment by broadening his party's base, Cheney was systematically hollowing out its foundations. Rove did, it is true, join Cheney in micro-managing the Klamath issue, making a 2002 election briefing to top managers at the Department of Interior on how much trouble the Klamath could make for Oregon Senator Gordon Smith. And his fine rhetorical hand was evident even in the 2000 campaign, softening Bush's hard edges with the pledge to do something unspecified about carbon dioxide pollution, as well as in terms like "Healthy Forests" and "Clear Skies." And Rove did, perhaps grudgingly, intervene in clean water regulation on behalf of Bush campaign donor Ernest Angelo — one of the "appeals" that Joshua Green says Rove hated being asked to do. But as Green points out, Rove was acutely sensitive to politics, not policy — and was blind to the fact that policy impacts politics in ways that are not always intended. He left environmental policy to Cheney because it didn't figure in his grand scheme, except as a source of money for campaigns. But it appears that he never understood that Cheney was acutely sensitive only to policy, and to the financial base of the party, not its voters. Cheney's chickens would come home to Rove's roost. In some ways, the picture of the White House you piece together from these two analyses is a new one: not the monolithic, unified, disciplined image the Administration projected for years, but that of a weak, if stubborn, president presiding over a two-headed "push me-pull you" creature out of Doctor Doolittle. And it's clear that Cheney is still running the show. Just this week the Forest Service, having been rebuffed once by the federal courts, announced again a whole complicated set of regulatory and guidance changes for the Forest Service, all predicated on the notion that the American people have to be denied any knowledge about what is planned for their public lands, and that the Forest Service political leadership and the timber industry need unfettered control of our National Forests. A few days earlier the BLM proposed a sevenfold increase in logging old-growth trees that help forests resist fires. So things may actually get worse environmentally as this Administration heads for the exits. We're going to be seeing a lot of folks rushing to the federal courthouse now that Cheney stands alone. – Carl Pope of the Sierra Club writing in The Huffington Post <<<•>>> Tuesday, August 21, 2007 News: Oregon Coho Back to the Market COOS BAY, Ore. – Fishermen in Charleston are catching enough Coho that they are appearing again in retail stores on the Southern Oregon coast.Fifteen years ago, commercial catches for the Coos Bay area, which includes Bandon and Winchester Bay, were down to as few as 5,300 fish. Gone were the banner years of catches of 101,500 fish in 1991; 159,500 fish in 1989; 196,400 Coho in 1988; and 177,100 in 1987, let alone a hopper year of 266,000 in 1979. The Coho fishery was closed after 1992. Retailers now are trying to figure out how to market a locally-caught fish that hasn't been seen since 1992. "That's what's scaring me," Seahawk Seafood owner George Paynter said. "I haven't had silvers since I've been in business here." Still, a tasty salmon is a tasty salmon and coastal customers have stuck by wild-caught fish, even as Chinook prices skyrocketed last year when the season was closed. This year, fishermen still get more than $5 a pound for kings, which translates into more than $10 a pound for filets at the local retail level. Coho prices may be a different story. Paynter said he's heard buyers planned to pay fishermen around $2 a pound for silvers on Wednesday. Other processors were planning to pay about $1.50. It all comes down to how much and where they can sell their fish. – Coos Bay World News: Tribe Sues for More Fish
VICTORIA, British Columbia - Vancouver Island's T'Sou-ke band wants to be able to fish where, when and how much it wants, so it is suing the federal government in the hope that a regime of restrictive rules will be struck down.
In its statement of claim, filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria, the T'Sou-ke say a treaty signed in 1850 gives them the right to harvest all species of available fish, seafood and aquatic plants year-round to satisfy their food and ceremonial needs. Since 1992, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has set limits on the number of fish the band can catch; prohibited the sale of fish caught, including commercial sales; and placed restrictions on where the T'Sou-ke can fish. The government did not consult the band before setting the new rules, band lawyer Robert Janes said. "This completely offends the idea of the Douglas Treaty." The treaty, signed by four T'Sou-ke members and Hudson's Bay Co. employee James Douglas, stated that the T'Sou-ke shall have the right to "carry on fisheries as formerly." Open to interpretation, Janes's definition is that fishing by the T'Sou-ke would continue "as prior to the signing of the treaty." That means fishing a range of species over a wide area and it includes a trade element, he said. For T'Sou-ke Chief Rose Dumont, "as formerly" means "fishing where we want, when we want, how we want, in a sustainable way for our members." While she is prepared to "fight to give our people what's promised in our treaty," it doesn't mean the T'Sou-ke will wantonly take to the ocean and rivers. The commercial and recreational Fraser River sockeye fisheries are closed due to very low numbers of returning sockeye. Even though aboriginals have permission to fish during the closing, Dumont said the T'Sou-ke will not cast their nets. "We respect conservation reasons. When it affects everyone, we respect that," she said. DFO spokeswoman Diane Lake said a lot of thought, research and hard numbers go into the process of fish allocations for all user groups, including aboriginals. The government can, in certain circumstances, regulate treaty fishing, but it has to provide clear rules in the regulations or law telling the bureaucrats how to deal with respecting native rights, Janes said. That hasn't happened with the T'Sou-ke. "DFO can't explain itself," he said. DFO would not comment on the specifics of this case because it is before the court, Lake said. For the T'Sou-ke and all coastal aboriginals, the ocean and its bounty are an integral part of who they are. The band's statement of claim, filed at the end of June, states that more T'Sou-ke are collecting welfare and that due to "increased urbanization," there are far fewer places to hunt for food. John Wells, who operates Sooke-based Hindsight Fishing Charters, said everyone who fishes should be treated equally. "One group can't have more rights than the other. You can't treat us as second-class citizens," he said. – Globe and Mail, Toronto
News: Another Suit by Canadian Natives
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Members of B.C.'s Musqueam First Nation will be returning to court next June to defend what they say is their aboriginal right to fish.
Band members were ticketed on the weekend for being on the Fraser River after the closure of the sockeye fishery on Friday. Chief Ernest Campbell said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' attempts to keep the First Nation off the fishing grounds are a violation of a Supreme Court of Canada decision. The high court's 1990 decision upheld the band's right to fish for food, social and ceremonial purposes. The weekend's protests have led to an appeal from federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn for calm in the face of dwindling fish stocks. Campbell says the band is ready to go back to court to ensure the high court's decision is upheld. The Musqueam band also has told Fisheries and Oceans Canada that there should be no commercial or sport allocations until the band has exercised its aboriginal right to fish. Both the Musqueam and the Sto:Lo Tribal Council say sports and commercial fisheries have not been curtailed. "If they had any real concern about conservation, they would shut down the fishery,'' Campbell said Sunday. Hearn, however, maintained that was the reason for the closure. "Protest fisheries or illegal fishing, particularly this year, have the potential to do considerable harm to sockeye populations in B.C. There are enough salmon returning to the Fraser River to meet conservation goals and spawning requirements in 2007, provided we allow them the opportunity to do so,'' she said. The closure of harvesting on the largest salmon-producing river system in the world means no commercial or recreational fishing of the fish and has seriously curtailed access for First Nations. And while no sockeye are being pulled from the Fraser for sale to the public, there are still millions returning to other parts of the Pacific Coast to ensure that grocery stores and restaurants will still have sockeye for sale, albeit fewer and more expensive. The forecast had been for 6.3 million sockeye to swim up the Fraser River from the Pacific this year, but the bottom has fallen out of that prediction. Based on test fishing and monitoring, Fisheries has revised that forecast down steeply to just 1.6 million sockeye. In the international, multi-jurisdictional world of salmon management on the Fraser, the No. 1 priority is conservation and the need to get enough fish back to the spawning grounds to produce future generations. Next in line comes the obligation to First Nations. Commercial and recreational fisheries rank at the bottom. The Sto:Lo Tribal Council accused federal fisheries officials of allowing the Fraser River sport fishery to become "a macabre and destructive force'' and have called on the department to close down the sport fishery. – Canadian Press Feature: So Much Ocean, So Few Cops
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Aboard the Albacore, a California Department of Fish and Game patrol boat, the engine room is quiet. Sophisticated electronics at the helm are dark. The boat has been tied up in port for weeks.
The 65-foot Albacore was designed to be out on the vast Pacific, protecting wildlife along the California coast. But along with six other long-range patrol boats in the state's fleet, the Albacore is idle most of the time because there aren't enough game wardens to run it. The boats are the primary defense against overfishing on California's 1,100-mile coast. State game wardens enforce state and federal fishing rules as far as 200 miles from shore. The enforcement void is worrisome because in September, fishing bans or restrictions begin in 29 new "marine protected areas" covering 200 square miles of Central Coast ocean. California earned praise worldwide in April for creating the reserves. But it will be a rare day when law enforcement is on those waters. The boats are supposed to have a full-time, four-member crew: a lieutenant, two wardens and a maintenance engineer. But the Marlin, a 58-foot, high-tech catamaran based in Berkeley, is down one warden. The Coho in Los Angeles is down two. In Ventura, the Swordfish is down one warden, but no matter: The boat has been laid up six months with a blown engine. The Albacore has no full-time crew. If its half-time skipper can borrow wardens from shore-based patrols, the boat might sail four days a month. California's warden force has been crippled statewide by salaries that have not kept pace with other police agencies. Base pay for a starting warden is $43,000 a year. That's up more than 25 percent compared with a year ago, but still 25 percent less than a similarly experienced California Highway Patrol officer earns. Wardens have broader police powers and more education requirements. Many wardens have left the force for higher pay at local police agencies. There are 47 warden vacancies statewide. And recruitment has suffered. The department received 429 applications for the training academy session that just concluded, compared with nearly 1,200 applicants in 1986. "We simply don't have enough wardens," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, a commercial fishing group. "We just cannot continue to get by on the cheap with our wildlife resources." Commercial fishermen have complained about the closures caused by new protected areas. But most of the reserves remain open to recreational fishing, and unscrupulous anglers or poachers could still exploit these areas. Despite the vacancies, Kaitilin Gaffney, Central Coast program manager at the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy, said there will be enough "eyes on the water" to guard the reserves. This includes a multimillion-dollar monitoring effort in which scientists will study reserves for several years. "Obviously, that's not a replacement for having wardens on the water, but it really can be a leg up," Gaffney said. – Sacramento Bee To the Editor: Stevens has Harmed Fishermen
Sen. Ted Stevens was quoted in the Anchorage Daily News saying that Alaska has been financially hurt due to the impact in Congress of negative ADN stories about him. The message seems to be: support him or lose your livelihoods.
Ted personally rammed through Congress the last two individual fishing quotas schemes. He personally led the charge to allow the Central Intelligence Agency to use waterboarding and sensory deprivation (years of solitary confinement accompanied by hooding prisoners during exercise times so that they can’t even see another human being other than interrogators) and other torture schemes. He is an unmitigated supporter of Israeli apartheid, the theft of Palestinian lands, the turning of the Gaza Strip into one huge prison, etc. Ted and company also has supported the war on Iraq, resulting in the deaths of 750,000 innocent people in a country the size of California. Virtually every family in that country knows the sorrow of violent deaths courtesy of the U.S. Congress and we all know who wants to “liberate” Iran next. I could go on and on. But I think the picture is clear enough. We seem to be left with a choice: our livelihoods or your souls. – Dana Carros writing to the Kodiak Daily Mirror <<<•>>> Wednesday, August 22, 2007 News: Dismal Northwest Salmon Season Closes SEATTLE – The book officially closed on the 2007 spring and summer salmon season on the Columbia and Snake Rivers on Friday, and the bottom line was even worse than fisheries managers predicted.Returns of spring and summer Chinook to the Columbia-Snake basin fell far below the level needed for recovery for the eighth consecutive year. For fishermen and northwest communities, it was another year of reduced seasons and economic insecurity, and put an exclamation point on the continuing failure of federal salmon recovery efforts. "The federal agencies can slice the numbers and spin the data any way they want, but the real bottom line is clear: fewer and fewer fish are returning each year, and this administration has no intention of doing anything new or serious to actually help us," said Jeremy Brown, a commercial salmon fishermen and member of the Washington Trollers Association. "We have had to spend as much time tied to the dock this year as we have fishing, and nothing the federal government is proposing suggests they intend to improve the situation." Recreational, commercial and tribal fishermen in Washington, Oregon and Idaho all experienced cutbacks and closures in 2007 that gutted fishing seasons to just half of what they were last year. Those who fish Washington's waters, in particular, faced quotas as low as they have been since 1994, threatening the economic stability of already struggling coastal and river communities in the state. "This year was another body blow to fishermen who are struggling to survive from one poor season to the next," said Joel Kawahara, a member of the board of the Washington Trollers Association based in Quilcene, Washington. "Year after year in Washington, we have cut our seasons to accommodate the shrinking limits, just to try to keep our jobs, support our families, and keep fishing in the future. But our backs are against the wall for the third year in a row." Anglers made 175,000 trips in pursuit of spring Chinook on the Columbia River in 2001 but only 70,000 this year. This trickles down to motels, eateries, equipment suppliers and retailers throughout the region. Inland in fishing towns like Riggins, Idaho, the situation was just as bleak. The salmon fishing season in Idaho closed on some rivers in late May, while fishing continued on the Lower Salmon near Riggins through June 2. The closings came much sooner than the anticipated date of June 25th. Gary Lane with Wapiti River Guides in Riggins says so few fish returned that the subsequent fishing restrictions kept anglers away. Lane blames the four lower Snake River dams, and he says every year the dams are in place is another year of struggle for small river towns. By the numbers Fewer than 67,000 adult spring Chinook crossed Bonneville Dam this year, the first of eight dams salmon must navigate during their upstream migration to Idaho through the Columbia-Snake river system. That's 30% below last year's number (itself a dismal year), significantly below the 10-year average, and only a fraction of the 400,000-plus fish needed for sustained recovery. Summer Chinook returns at Bonneville registered less than half of the 2006 count, and only about two-thirds of the 10-year average. Returns of combined wild and hatchery Snake River spring/summer Chinook were virtually identical to last year's poor numbers, with wild Snake River spring/summer Chinook in no better shape than they were in when they were first listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1992. As of Friday, a combined 30,184 of these fish had passed Lower Granite Dam. In a typical year, only about 20% of these fish are of wild origin. – Press release from Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition More Natives Protest Fraser Closure
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Native fishermen defied a federal ban on the weekend, taking their boats to the lower Fraser River to protest against the continued recreational fishery.
Ernie Crey, fisheries adviser for the Sto:lo bands in the Eastern Fraser Valley, said members of the Cheam, Chehalis and Musqueam bands fished the lower Fraser on Saturday night and yesterday. Crey said the decision was made after the Department of Fisheries and Oceans banned natives from fishing sockeye and Chinook in the lower Fraser, but permitted recreational sports fishermen on the water until midnight last night. Sports fishermen are banned from fishing for sockeye too, and, ostensibly, can only catch Chinook, but Crey said the anglers routinely flout this ban, which has caused resentment among natives who argue they have first dibs on the sockeye. Crey said native fishermen, many from impoverished communities along the Fraser River, need the fish to feed their communities over the winter. He estimated that about a dozen native fishing boats were on the water last weekend in defiance of the ban. "The courts have said our fishery comes second only to conservation and ahead of both the sport and commercial fisheries," Mr. Crey said. Doug Kelly, tribal chief for intergovernmental relations for the Sto:lo Tribal Council, said federal fisheries officers issued summonses to at least six native fishermen over the weekend, including to Chehalis Chief William Charlie. Dramatic declines in sockeye runs have already forced the federal Fisheries Department to cancel the Fraser's commercial fishery for sockeye this year. Crey said the ban on fishing sockeye on the lower Fraser raised the ire of native groups not only because recreational fishermen were snagging sockeye, but because federal fisheries officials permitted native groups on the upper Fraser to continue fishing. – Globe and Mail, Toronto
Federal Court Warns Fraser Protest Fishery
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The federal government warned yesterday it would come down hard on fishermen who break a ban on sockeye fishing in the Fraser River.
The warning came as natives conducted a protest fishery between Mission and Hope after recreational anglers were permitted to catch salmon in the river until midnight last night. "Protest fisheries, particularly this year, have the potential to do considerable harm to sockeye populations," said Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn. "My department is taking action to protect the sockeye resource and will continue to do so if further illegal fishing occurs." About 6.3 million sockeye were expected to return to the Fraser this summer. So far, only 1.6 million have turned up. Already, 100,000 fish have been caught and last Thursday the DFO ruled the only native bands allowed to fish were north of Yale, and then only until midnight last night. The protest fishery was done by members of the Cheam band. They are upset that recreational fishermen and native fishermen north of Yale were able to fish. Fisheries officers handed out a poaching ticket to at least one native fisherman. The DFO believes that, despite the low return, there will be enough sockeye salmon returning to the Fraser to spawn. Hearn said the dramatic decline in stocks should be of "grave concern" to everyone involved in fishing. "The low returns create a frustration that will test all our resolve to work together," she said. – Vancouver Province Jaws Fear Grips Russian Pacific Region
MOSCOW – Residents in Russia's far east have been warned to use caution in the sea after the capture of a great white shark like that made famous in the 1975 horror film Jaws, a newspaper said on Monday.
"Great White sharks have appeared off southern Sakhalin" island, the popular daily Novye Izvestiya said in a report from the far eastern port city of Vladivostok. "Fishermen and holidaymakers have been advised to watch the sea carefully and to run out of the water on the appearance of large, triangular fins above the surface," the front-page article said. The story carried a photograph of a dead great white shark - mostly black in color - of around five meters lying on the beach that it said had become ensnared in fishing nets off the Sakhalin coast. It claimed that at least two other great white sharks of larger size had also been spotted and photographed near the shores of Sakhalin island. Although Jaws depicted the great white shark as a vengeful monster relentlessly on the hunt for a meal of human flesh, experts say this portrayal has wrongly maligned the animal, now considered an endangered species. The newspaper story did quote one scientist, Anatoly Velikanov, as saying that the giant sharks usually do not go after humans. But he added: "Unfortunately, sometimes people become 'fodder' for Great Whites." It did not say when the shark was caught, but one report late last month said fishermen off Sakhalin had "for the first time" caught a great white in the area. Experts however had previously treated reported sightings of great white sharks off Sakhalin with skepticism, Novye Izvestiya said. – Independent Online, Cape Town News: Processors Lose Bid to Keep Out Factory Ships
VALDEZ, Alaska - Ships that process Bering Sea Pollock can continue to visit Prince William Sound to process salmon, under a federal court ruling last week.
It’s a loss for Sea Hawk Seafoods Inc. of Valdez and a group called the Non-AFA Processors Association, which had sued the federal government claiming it should have barred the ships from entering the Sound. The plaintiffs argued that because the ship owners were granted lucrative “monopoly” shares of the world’s largest commercial fishery – Bering Sea Pollock – under the American Fisheries Act of 1998, they were barred from expanding into other fisheries such as salmon. But the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to fence in factory ships such as the 338-foot Arctic Enterprise, a Trident Seafoods Corp. vessel that has come to the Sound to process salmon between Pollock seasons, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs. The encroaching ships present unfair competition, taking away fish that otherwise might go to shore-based processors such as Sea Hawk, according to the lawsuit filed last November in Seattle. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour evidently never ruled on the merits of the case. Rather, he tossed the suit last week, ruling the plaintiffs failed to file their complaint by a certain deadline. – Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing as The Highliner for the Anchorage Daily News <<<•>>> Thursday, August 23, 2007 News: Exxon Appeals Valdez Suit to Supreme Court WASHINGTON, D.C. – Exxon Mobil Corp. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to quash a federal court's ruling that the company owes $2.5 billion in punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.This is the energy giant's final attempt to overturn the judgment, which Exxon has been battling for more than a decade. In May, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied Exxon's request for another hearing in the long-running civil case. The company has been appealing since 1994, when an Anchorage jury awarded $5 billion in punitive damages to the class-action plaintiffs, who claim economic harm from the spill of nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have said that roughly 20 percent of their clients have died during the lawsuit. The living plaintiffs include about 33,000 commercial fishermen, cannery workers, landowners, Natives, local governments and businesses. The 9th Circuit Court slashed the original $5 billion in punitive damages in half because, in part, the company did try to clean up the spill and didn't spill oil from the tanker Exxon Valdez deliberately. In its petition to the Supreme Court on Monday, Exxon raised several criticisms of the 9th Circuit's ruling. Exxon's lawyers questioned, for example, whether it's legal for the 9th Circuit to impose punitive damages under maritime law against Exxon for the behavior of one of its captains if Exxon didn't have a direct role in the captain's behavior, and if the captain's behavior was contrary to company policy. Also, the 9th Circuit's ruling ignores legal precedent set by other federal appeals courts, according to Exxon's filing. Four of the nine Supreme Court justices must vote in favor of granting the petition. Granting the petition doesn't automatically throw out the lower court's ruling, it means the Supreme Court will review the ruling. – Anchorage Daily News News: Big Seafood Processors Take Stand on Pebble Mine
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Pacific Seafood Processors Association, whose members include major seafood packers involved in the Bering Sea bottom fish, crab and salmon fisheries, have written up this position paper on the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine.
You be the judge, but the way The Highliner reads it, the PSPA board feels resource development projects deserve the chance to seek permits, but a project that jeopardizes fish – or sales of fish – is not OK. – Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing as The Highliner for the Anchorage Daily News Statement by the Pacific Seafood Processors Association The Pacific Seafood Processors Association (PSPA) represents seafood processing companies operating throughout coastal Alaska. These companies provide markets to thousands of fishermen and jobs to thousands of processing workers; generate significant economic benefits to communities and the state; and supply high quality seafood products to consumers around the world. The investments of PSPA's member companies in Alaska's seafood industry are based primarily upon the productivity of Alaska's pristine waters. It is these well-managed waters and fisheries that have provided Alaskans and the world with a wide variety of premium seafood for over 100 years. If they continue to be managed well, these waters will provide an abundant food resource for hundreds of years to come. Additionally, Alaska's seafood industry has invested heavily over the past three decades in marketing our products as pure and healthful, and coming from the most pristine waters on earth. Along with the actual purity and productivity of Alaska's waters, this public perception plays a critical role in the marketability of Alaska's seafood. Because of our investments in and dependency upon Alaska's pure waters, healthy fishery resources, and the public image of Alaska's natural environment as pristine and unspoiled, PSPA has a keen interest in ensuring that any resource development projects undertaken in Alaska not damage Alaska's ecosystems or image. With these factors in mind, the PSPA Board of Directors has followed proposed mineral, oil, and gas development projects in Alaska in recent years. As a matter of principle, for natural resource development projects (including fisheries), PSPA supports robust permitting processes based on sound science; a full and open public process; careful benefit/risk analysis; and thorough review, oversight, and enforcement by appropriate agencies. With regard to mineral, oil, and gas projects specifically, it is the position of the PSPA Board of Directors that the permitting process must carefully weigh potential shorter-term benefits from extraction of non-renewable resources against any potential negative impacts on perpetually renewable resources, such as fish and the waters and habitat upon which they depend. This would naturally require the permitting process to assess any potential impacts on the waters and watersheds within the range of the project and the routes to be used to transport the resources extracted by the project. Further, it is the Board's position that only projects that will not damage the market perception of the health benefits, purity, and wholesomeness of Alaska's seafood products should be permitted. PSPA has applied these standards in reviewing the proposed Pebble Mine project near Lake Illiamna. Due to its location in one of the richest fishery resource areas of the world, applying a strict benefit/risk test for this large-scale hard rock mining project is especially appropriate. While we acknowledge the potential short-term economic benefits of the proposed project, we are deeply concerned about the enormous risk of long-term damage to one of Alaska’s perpetual economic engines - renewable seafood. The investments of our Member companies in Bristol Bay, as elsewhere in Alaska, are based upon the preservation of pristine waters critical for the fish species upon which our businesses and the livelihoods of our employees and fishermen rely. If, as we understand the current plans for the Pebble Mine, it would degrade important watersheds feeding the world's most productive sockeye salmon fishery, then the project seems to us to pose an unacceptable risk. Thus, consistent with the principles above, PSPA would oppose the Pebble Mine project unless the developer can ensure that there will be no negative impacts to the region's water quality, or to Alaska's fishery resources and their marketability. PSPA recognizes the importance of economic diversification and resource development in Alaska. In assessing proposed mineral, oil, and gas projects, we will apply the standards set forth in this document. We look forward to continuing to work cooperatively with other industries and to supporting projects that can ensure no negative impact on fishery resources or the marketability of Alaska seafood. - Pacific Seafood Processors Association
News: Judge says Klamath Dam Suit Should Proceed
SAN FRANCISCO—A federal judge has denied an energy company's request to dismiss a lawsuit claiming its dams cause pollution lethal to fish in a river along the California-Oregon border that once brimmed with salmon.
The suit was filed against Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp by a group of Klamath River tribal leaders, salmon fishermen, business owners and environmentalists in U.S. District Court in Northern California. The plaintiffs accuse the company of operating two California dams in a way that causes toxic algae blooms. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled Friday that the suit can go forward, though he also wrote that he did not have the authority to require PacifiCorp to immediately alter its dam operations while the case is heard. In the company's motion to dismiss, lawyers for PacifiCorp argued that the algae in question is common in the Klamath River basin and other watersheds throughout California. The Klamath was once the West Coast's third-biggest producer of salmon, but last year federal fisheries managers practically shut down commercial salmon fishing after the third straight year of poor returns of wild Chinook. Opponents have long pushed for the dams' removal as a remedy to the salmon decline. – The (San Jose) Mercury News News: Port Officials Seek to Slow Rush to Marine Reserves
NEWPORT, Ore. – Among the growing swell of ocean policy issues along the Oregon coast lurks what many observers consider a threat to fishing and tourism livelihoods: Gov. Ted Kulongoski's intensifying call for a network of marine reserves within the state's territorial waters.
Port of Newport General Manager Don Mann, among others, has set sail on a mission to at least soften the potential impact of the governor's proposal. He moored at Newport City Hall during Monday night's city council session to solicit their support for the effort. "As you are aware, the governor's office is pushing very hard to achieve the designation of State Marine Reserves (SMRs) along the Oregon coast within a very short timeline," Mann said. "This is an issue of much concern for our commercial fishing industry, and will affect many, many people in communities all along the Oregon coast." A sea change The move to establish an SMR network is the latest iteration in a process that began in December 2005, when Gov. Kulongoski proposed designating Oregon's entire coast as a National Marine Sanctuary. In a letter to Oregon's federal congressional delegation, the governor said a national marine sanctuary along the entire coast would allow state and federal agencies to work with commercial and recreational groups to simultaneously protect ocean ecosystems off the Oregon shores from misuse and preserve commercial and recreational fishing. Kulongoski's proposal would have extended the state's reach to an average of 25 nautical miles, giving sanctuary to 25,000 square miles of ocean. Oregon made a whale-sized move toward regional protection in September 2006 by joining Washington and California in the West Coast Governor's Agreement on Ocean Health. The next big step toward establishing the national marine sanctuary was for Oregon's Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC) to weigh in with a recommendation. OPAC provided an interim report at the end of December 2006. Altering course In an April 18 letter to OPAC, Kulongoski thanked OPAC for the report, in particular their "thorough assessment" of the two issues - governance and fisheries management - he considers "critical in the successful designation and management of a marine sanctuary." The council's recommendation against creating the national sanctuary (federal waters, they noted, would encompass most of it, where Oregon officials would have little authority to regulate commercial and sport fishing) and California's recent designation of 29 new SMRs inspired Kulongoski to set aside the sanctuary proposal and proceed instead toward establishing Oregon's own SMR network. He told OPAC members to devise a proposal for the network, along with examining wave energy and aquaculture efforts, asking them to return with recommendations within a year. Proceed with caution? City, port, and county officials in Oregon's coastal communities view the short timeline as reckless, and since the April announcement of the governor's newest tack, have worked to get the state to proceed with caution. There is a key difference between a marine sanctuary and marine reserves: while sanctuaries allow for commercial and sport fishing within specified limits, reserves are "no take" zones. That distinction could mean the difference between economic sustainability and economic ruin for fishing and tourism dependent coastal communities. Port of Newport commissioners crafted draft resolution during their regular July session to outline those criteria. OPAC member David Allen, County Commissioner and Fishermen Involved in Natural Energy member Terry Thompson, and Oregon Coastal Zone Management Executive Director Onno Husing provided a lengthy presentation about the marine reserve process at that session. In early August, Mann sent a letter and a copy of the resolution to all Oregon coast port managers, port commissioners, county commissioners, city councilors, and mayors, asking them to consider drafting a similar resolution or a letter to send to the governor's office - with copies to OPAC and its Marine Reserves Working Group (MRWG) - for consideration. Port officials say they agree with the overall purpose of SMRs - to help protect, sustain, and restore the nearshore marine ecosystem, its habitats, and species "for the heritage values they represent to present and future generations" - and the concept of protecting the ocean environment. But in the interest of limiting adverse social and economic impacts on ocean users and ocean dependent communities, they encouraged state officials to use specific criteria in considering SMR designation, among them determining the socioeconomic impact of establishing the SMR in the recommended area; providing adequate state funding for baseline studies, follow-up research, monitoring, and enforcement; and taking adequate time "to observe and collect baseline data within the boundaries of and adjacent to proposed or nominated SMR sites," including any climatological effects. They also urge using local boats and experienced boat captains to collect the baseline data and perform periodic assessments. OPAC's Marine Reserves Working Group will gather in Charleston Aug. 22 to discuss marine reserves objectives, nomination forms, and future basic funding requirements for elements of the process and research. Newport council members agreed to wait until after the Port of Newport's Aug. 28 session, at which the port commissioners will consider adopting the resolution. City leaders will likely consider the matter during the Sept. 4 council session. – Newport (Ore.) News-Times Solution: Stop Fishing Fraser River Sockeye
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – If sockeye salmon are to return to the Fraser River in healthy numbers in the future, everyone should cease fishing and work together to change the way fish are managed.
Some 6.3 million sockeye were expected to return this year but so far only 1.6 million have arrived. It is bad news for everyone from aboriginal and commercial fishers to recreational anglers, river guides and all the satellite businesses that depend on the seasonal fishing industry. “This year is worse than expected,” said Mike Le Point, chief biologist for the Pacific Salmon Commission. “Even with all the signals, no one expected the run to be this bad.” So what happened? Global warming? According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Report "State of the Pacific Ocean 2005," the entire Pacific coast of Canada was warmer and drier than normal in 2005, the year when this year’s returning salmon would have journeyed to the open ocean to feed and mature. But according to the report, waters were warm in all marine ecosystems. The warm waters reduced the vertical mixing of near-surface and deep-sea regions, which reduced the supply of plant nutrients into the surface layers of the ocean. Consequently, the production of microscopic plants (phytoplankton) was reduced. The biomass of zooplankton on which many marine fish depend was below normal and there were unusually high abundances of zooplankton species that normally occur in California. The traditional cold-water krill on which salmon and other marine life depend were proportionally less abundant. “One of the challenges they face is that in warmer waters the young salmon have an increased metabolism,” explained Jeffrey Young, aquatic biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation. They need to eat more but with less food available they likely traveled further to find food sources, burning more energy in the process. The undersized sockeye become easy prey for predatory species normally found further south but which are now migrating into B.C. waters. “Over forty to fifty years, the Fraser River sockeye have got a bit smaller,” stated Young. “This year they are small.” Complicating their lifecycle is the fact that some fish are swimming up the Fraser River early. “They usually linger in the estuary for six to eight weeks before entering the river,” said Dave Barnes, fisheries technician with the Cultus Lake Salmon Hatchery. But for whatever reason some fish enter fresh water immediately and travel upriver. “Early arrivals will die before spawning from kidney parasites.” Why some sockeye are swimming upriver early is not fully understood but there is concern over loss of genetic diversity as fewer fish make it to their spawning streams and many die along the way from parasites. As environmental conditions trigger subtle but profound changes in the biology of sockeye, so fish management must also change. Leading that thought process is Grand Chief Doug Kelly, Sto:lo Tribal Council. “What I have been doing for the last 2-1/2 years is working on the development of The Salmon Table, bringing together (First Nations) tribes, representatives from the Commercial Salmon Advisory Board, recreational anglers and environmentalists. All we have seen over the last 100 years is these groups throwing rocks at each other in an unhealthy conflict. No one wins and the fish lose. (They) have come together to agree on what the challenges are and work on strategies and policies to make things better. We are starting to look at ideas that make sense through cooperation, not confrontation.” – Chilliwack (B.C.) Progress <<<•>>> Friday, August 24, 2007 News: Freighter Owner Guilty in Foundering ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The owner of the freighter that spilled tons of soybeans and 340,000 gallons of fuel off an Aleutian Island nearly three years ago pleaded guilty Wednesday to three misdemeanor federal counts.IMC Shipping Co. (IMC) of Singapore, owner of the Selendang Ayu, pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the Refuse Act and one count of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline accepted terms of the plea agreement, calling for a $10 million fine. The penalty includes $4 million in community service, including $3 million to assess risks for shipping hazards where the Selendang Ayu went aground along the Great Circle Route and $1 million for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The 738-foot freighter ran aground Dec. 8, 2004, and broke in two on the north side of Unalaska Island. About 66,000 tons of soybeans were lost. During an attempted rescue in rough seas, a huge, storm-driven wave crashed into a Coast Guard helicopter lifting Selendang Ayu crew members from the freighter. The aircraft crashed, and six of the 10 freighter crew members were killed. The helicopter crew was rescued. The Selendang Ayu left Tacoma on its way to China when it experienced mechanical problems. The vessel's engine was shut down as crew members attempted repairs. As the freighter drifted toward Unalaska Island, crewmen were unable to restart the engine. The ship grounded just off Spray Cape and broke apart. More than 1,600 birds and six sea otters were found dead after the spill. IMC paid more than $100 million in cleanup costs. U.S. Attorney for Alaska, Nelson Cohen, praised the company for its cooperation in the investigation that followed, making available foreign witnesses and experts who otherwise would have been beyond subpoena power. The two sides remain at odds over whether the company was negligent. Cohen contends it could have been proved, if necessary. The crew shut down its engine after discovering a crack in its No. 3 cylinder liner. It could have continued operating with the other five but had to shut down the engine to make repairs. Investigators concluded that the liner cracked because of improper maintenance and inappropriate operation of the engine — overheating the engine — which was aggravated by predicted stormy seas. DOJ officials also said when the ship encountered the stormy weather, the strain on the engine from trying to maintain speed in gale-force winds and 30-foot seas brought the engine to the breaking point. IMC representatives deny the company was negligent. According to the company, at the time of the accident, all recommended maintenance and inspections had been carried out according to manufacturer's recommendations. The vessel had a full complement of spare parts when it left Washington state. Vessel records and crew testimony demonstrated that the crew had conducted a detailed maintenance check and thorough inspection of the main engine pistons and cylinders when the vessel departed, the company said. – Associated Press News: Crew Safe After Fishing Boat Sinks
KODIAK, Alaska – Four people are safe after the Kodiak-based salmon seiner Golden Girls capsized in Ugak Bay Monday morning. The Coast Guard received a signal from an emergency beacon activated at the scene at about 8:45 a.m., Monday.
The crew of the Golden Girls — Andrew Edgerly of Kodiak, his two children and a family friend — were already safely onboard the fishing vessel Chiniak or on shore when a Coast Guard helicopter arrived, one family member said today. Photos taken from a Coast Guard helicopter show an emergency life raft deployed at the scene. Edgerly’s wife, Nira Givon, said all four people were able to get aboard the Golden Girls’ skiff and later boarded the Chiniak. “They didn’t need the raft, because they were all able to get into the skiff, safe and sound,” Givon said. Two people were cold and wet, Givon said, and were taken to a nearby cabin to dry off and warm up. Ugak Bay is south of Kodiak city and opens up southeast toward the Gulf of Alaska. Kodiak boats navigate around Cape Chiniak and Narrow Cape to get to Ugak Bay. Givon said her family has no comment on what caused the boat to sink. The Coast Guard is investigating the sinking. – Kodiak Daily Mirror
News: Alberni Fish Plant Burns
PORT ALBERNI, British Columbia – A vacant First Nations fish-smoking plant in Port Alberni was destroyed by fire Aug. 22.
Captain Pete Aspinall, of the Port Alberni Fire Department, said firefighters received the call at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. The building is located at the corner of Josephine Street and River Road Aspinall said when firefighters arrived on the scene the building was engulfed in flames. “The building was fully involved. There were flames of about 60 to 70 feet shooting from the roof.” He said it took 21 fire fighters from Port Alberni and the Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department about an hour to get the blaze under control. Aspinall said there was no one in the building, which was without power. He said the cause of the fire is unknown. “The building is so badly damaged it’s likely we’ll never find out the cause.” Larry McGifford, Port Alberni’s fire chief, said there was a full fire crew at the scene until 4:30 a.m., and a smaller crew monitored the site for spot fires until 10 a.m. |