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Monday, August 27, 2007 News: Don’t Count on Late Sockeye
SALMON ARM, B.C. – Don’t count on too many late-run sockeye salmon returning to the Shuswap this year.
“If things don’t improve, it’s probably going to be the worst return on sockeye in several decades,” says Les Jantz, Department of Fisheries and Oceans biologist in Kamloops. This is a sub-dominant year for the world-famous Lower Adams River sockeye run. While an average year should see the return of some 1.5 million sockeye, scientists are predicting much lower returns. And that’s very bad news for commercial fisheries and First Nations people, who rely on the salmon for food, social and ceremonial purposes. The current run size will not support any commercial fishery and will leave precious few late-run sockeye available for First Nations, Jantz says. The current estimate of late-run sockeye is 600,000 and within that number DFO projects somewhere around 400,000 are heading for four areas along and beyond the Fraser River, including the Shuswap. These late-run sockeye are heading mainly to Adams River, but also to the Lower Shuswap and Little rivers. While there are some native fisheries taking place, they are targeting other species including summer-run salmon, instead of the vulnerable late-run sockeye stock. In the Shuswap, there will be some late-run fisheries only because these are the only sockeye stocks area First Nations bands have access to. “We normally try to catch one million sockeye to try to provide for First Nations,” he says. “Depending what happens, we’re probably looking at under 200,000 this year. The level of catch is well below their needs.” The primary reason for this year’s poor return is the below-average spawn in 2003. All DFO can do is get as many salmon to their spawning grounds as possible, and hope the late-run in particular survive the spawn, says Jantz – “and hope and pray that they have good freshwater and marine survival and we can rebuild this stock cycle as soon as possible.” – Salmon Arm (B.C.) Observer News: Lawsuit Filed Over Klamath Dams
PORTLAND, Ore. - California is being sued for failing to regulate toxic discharges from PacifiCorp's Klamath dams and reservoirs.
The Klamath Riverkeeper, the Karuk Tribe of California, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association filed the lawsuit Thursday against the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, North Coast region. The groups petitioned the board in February demanding that it establish limits on the amount of the highly toxic algae Microcystis aeruginosa that can be discharged into the river by Iron Gate and Copco dams. The dams are located in the Northeast corner of California. The dams are owned by Portland-based PacifiCorp, which is owned by billionaire Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. The groups have sought the removal of the dams, which they claim degrade water quality and destroy salmon runs without providing flood control, irrigation diversions or substantial amounts of electricity to downstream communities. In March the board denied the petitioners request, saying they lacked the authority to regulate PacifiCorp. The suit filed in California Superior Court in Sonoma County argues that Congress passed the Clean Water Act explicitly to preserve and expand states' authority to regulate water quality. On Aug. 17 a federal judge ruled that tribal members, commercial fishermen and business owners along the river can sue PacifiCorp for damages associated with the pollution. – Portland Business Observer
News: Celebrity Crab Skippers Featured in New England Event
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - Two of Alaska's most famous crab fishermen, Capt. Phil Harris of F/V Cornelia Marie and Capt. Johnathan Hillstrand of F/V Time Bandit, will appear at the 2007 Working Waterfront Festival on Sept. 22 and 23.
Discovery Channel's Emmy-nominated series Deadliest Catch, one of cable TV's top rated shows, features their family-run fishing boats. Capt. Harris, with 30 years' crab-fishing experience, just spent his 16th year with the Cornelia Marie, a top performer last season. Capt. Hillstrand runs a tight ship on the Time Bandit. Off the water, he enjoys riding his Harley rigged to rocket to 120 mph at the touch of a button. The two captains will be at the festival in New Bedford both Saturday and Sunday. They will appear on the festival's Main Stage at 5 p.m. Sept. 22, for an informal Q&A session followed by autograph and T-shirt signing. This unique opportunity brings together commercial fishermen from America's No. 1 fishing ports — New Bedford for value and Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for landings — to share their love of fishing and their authentic tales of the world's most dangerous occupation. – Portsmouth (N.H.) Herald News: Russians Say Claim on Arctic Stronger
MOSCOW – A Russian scientist said on that fresh test results back his country's legal bid to take control of the Arctic, just weeks after a submarine planted the Russian national flag on the North Pole's seabed.
The race to claim ownership of the Arctic, home to vast untapped gas and oil reserves, has intensified with Canada, Denmark, Norway and the U.S. all vying with Russia to build their political and legal case to claim jurisdiction. Valery Kaminsky, the director of the Russian Maritime Geological Research Institute, said new research demonstrated that the undersea Lomonosov mountain chain links Siberia to the Arctic. That contention — disputed by other countries' scientists — is the key to Russia's claim for ownership of the Arctic. "The way the geological strata are layered confirms the Lomonosov Ridge is of the same nature as the continental shelf," Kaminsky said in an interview on Vesti-24 television station. "We have a continuous interface of the ridge with the geographical shelf," he said. Russia lodged a claim in 2002 with the United Nations commission which adjudicates on Arctic territorial rights. Since then, it has been attempting to gather scientific evidence to back its legal arguments. Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States all have territory within the Arctic Circle. Each controls an economic zone in the Arctic, which extends 320 km (200 miles) north of their coastlines. Under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, coastal states can claim the seabed beyond those economic zones, if they can show it connects to the continental shelf on which they are located. Denmark this month announced it would speed up its own scientific efforts to establish a similar legal basis to justify control of the Arctic through Greenland, which it administers. Russian geologists have previously estimated the Arctic seabed has at least 9 billion to 10 billion tons of fuel equivalent, about the same as Russia's total oil reserves. – Reuters Event: Nordic Cod Farming Conference
REYKJAVIK, Iceland – A key Nordic conference on the future of cod farming and the technical challenges it presents will be held in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik next month.
The symposium is being staged in the wake of massive cuts in Iceland's annual cod quota, which comes into force in a few days time. Norway is expected to reduce its cod catch quota at the end of the year and restrictions are almost certain to be announced for the Baltic fishing grounds. It is estimated that within the next 12 months, European processors will have to do without over 100,000 tons of sea caught cod as the new quotas start to bite hard. These three drastic moves have placed a new emphasis on cod aquaculture. Now, the Icelandic Fisheries Ministry, with backing from the Icelandic Marine Institute, has organized this conference which will be held at the Hotel Nordic in Reykjavik between September 6 and 8. The aim of the conference is to provide an overview of cod farming activities and related research in the Nordic countries. The conference will be highly technical in content, discussing issues such as the farming of wild cod, juvenile fish production and selective breeding, and the health and environmental considerations related to cod farming. Speakers will also talk about rearing technology and the quality, processing and marketing problems involved with aquaculture. The Icelandic Marine Institute, which sent shock waves around the fishing world last months when its 64,000 cod quota cut recommendation was accepted by the Reykjavik Government, said the conference was designed to define future challenges. The institute pulled no punches suggesting that the very future of the entire Icelandic cod fishery would be threatened unless drastic action was taken. – fishupdate.com <<<•>>> Tuesday, August 28, 2007 News: Astoria No. 4 West Coast Fishing Port ASTORIA, Ore. – When it comes to landing fish, Astoria has been putting on pounds.The Astoria commercial fishing port - which includes Warrenton and Hammond landings - claimed 164.1 million pounds of fish last year, the fourth highest of any West Coast port and No. 9 nationwide. Astoria's 2006 haul was just a little lighter than that of Los Angeles, which landed 164.5 million pounds. Both were a ways behind the top Alaska ports in Dutch Harbor and Kodiak, which landed 911 million pounds and 372 million pounds respectively. The National Marine Fisheries Service compiles fish landing data from state records each year and releases rankings of fishing ports based on the total pounds of fish caught as well as the total value of the fisheries. With the rise of sardine and whiting fisheries, the Astoria area has moved up in the heavyweight rankings. The port brought in more pounds of fish in 2005 and 2006 than it has since 1980, when modern records begin. In 2004 and 2005, Astoria surpassed Los Angeles in pounds landed to claim the No. 3 spot on the West Coast. However, the extra pounds haven't brought an equivalent surge in cash. Reports on catch value show Astoria ranking 11th on the West Coast and a distant 25th nationwide. The high volume of sardines and whiting - worth around 5 cents per pound - can't compete with the high value of other catches such as the $2-per-pound Dungeness crab or the $6-per-pound Chinook salmon. Thus, fishing communities with fewer pounds landed have more valuable fisheries. For example, the 93 million pounds landed in Newport last year were worth the same as Astoria's 164 million pounds: $33 million. Astoria still nets big catch By the pound, the Astoria-Warrenton area claimed more than a third of the fish landed statewide in 2006, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife landing reports. Astoria-area ports landed the lion's share of Oregon's sole catch, a trawl fishing target, catching 1.9 million of Oregon's 3.4 million pounds of the coveted petrale sole in 2006 and 3.8 million of 7.7 million pounds of Oregon-landed Dover sole. Local fishermen also landed 3.9 million pounds of the state's 8.5 million albacore tuna haul, and Columbia River gillnetters caught more than half the state's 1.2 million landed pounds of Chinook salmon and nearly all the 50,000 pounds of Coho. "One of the reasons a lot of fish are landed here is because Astoria has a long history of fishing," said Jim Bergeron, a former Port commissioner and retired Oregon Sea Grant extension agent. "At one time Astoria was sort of the trawl capital of the world." All but a few thousand of the 78.6 million pounds of sardines landed in Oregon in 2006 came into the Astoria area. OSU Sea Grant Extension Agent Steve Theberge said a resurgence of sardines off the Columbia River in 1999 is a major reason Astoria's fisheries have gained pounds in recent years - despite a decline in groundfish landings. What's it all worth? Astoria's 78.6 million landed pounds of sardines were worth about $3.8 million to fishermen last year, according to ODFW; its 55.6 million pounds of whiting catch carried a price tag of $3.4 million. But despite all their heft, the two fisheries combined didn't come close to the $11.4 million brought into Astoria ports with Dungeness crabs in 2006. Among the 33.3 million pounds of Dungeness crab landed in Oregon last year, worth a total of $53.7 million, Astoria ports claimed 7.2 million pounds to Newport's 11.2 million. Charleston landed 7 million pounds, 4.2 million pounds went to Brookings and Port Orford claimed 1 million pounds. But landing prices aren't the only aspect of local fisheries that have an economic impact. Hans Radtke, an economist who recently analyzed fishing data for the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association, said the $34 million value of commercial fish landings at the mouth of the Columbia River translates into $102 million in the regional economy, $118 million in total personal income and close to 3,000 full-time equivalent jobs. His analysis accounts for seasonal workers and includes data from Chinook and Ilwaco, Wash., as well as $16 million generated when local fishers participate in distant fisheries, such as those in Alaska. – Pacific Fishing columnist Cassandra Marie Profita, writing in The Daily Astorian News: Big-boat Floats Eyed for Kodiak Harbor
KODIAK, Alaska – A project to upgrade deteriorating floats at St. Herman Harbor got a major boost this week with state funding of $4.7 million awarded out of a total estimated $9.8 million needed to replace the M and P floats.
City Manager Linda Freed made the announcement at a regular meeting of the Kodiak City Council. Freed said the allocation was part of a larger amount that was whittled down from $10 million to $5 million statewide after Gov. Sarah Palin vetoed the original bill containing the Municipal Harbor Facility Grant program. In the end, Kodiak received the lion’s share of the state money. Freed said the grant award demonstrates the significance of Kodiak as one of the major ports in the United States. Harbormaster Marty Owen said today the money is key to harbor improvements with the two floats in bad condition, having been in service now for 25 years. M and P floats are the second to last floats in St. Herman Harbor, also known as Dog Bay. P float connects M and N. The floats handle Kodiak’s larger boats, ranging in size from 90 feet to 120 feet. There are 35 big boats in and out of the harbor at that dock at any given time that tie up to 15 fingers. “Five-hundred ton boats, sometimes in strong wind, put a lot of stress and strain on these docks. They need to be stout,” Owen said. Construction bids for the project open Sept. 14, with a bid to be awarded in October. Actual construction will not begin until the spring of 2008. Owen said the configuration of the floats will remain the same, except boats will park perpendicular to the floats and not have to angle in. The float improvements are part of a new boatyard, including a travelift, on the south end of St. Herman Harbor where quarry work has been taking place the past several months. The travelift, which will accommodate boats weighing up to 600 metric tons, is a separate project with an estimated cost of $12 million. Addition money for the M and P floats project will be drawn from the city’s harbor enterprise fund, and $1.5 million from a bond sale. – Kodiak Daily News
News: Buoy to Test Oregon Wave Power Site
NEWPORT, Ore. – A contingent of Lincoln County officials witnessed a major historical moment last week as an anchor and buoy marker dropped off the stern of the Pacific Storm, a research vessel owned and operated by Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute, in an area of the ocean two miles west of Agate Beach, and one mile southwest of Yaquina Head lighthouse.
As they bobbed up and down aboard the Oregon Rocket, skipper Don Mathews and 16 representatives of various public and private entities watched the first tangible step toward Lincoln County becoming the first area in the nation to actually place a wave energy device into the ocean. The anchor will serve as a mooring system for a unique wave energy buoy developed by OSU's Wallace Energy Systems and Renewables Facility, home to the nation's only federally funded university research program focused on a more direct wave-to-electricity conversion process. The research team designated the area - known as the OSU Wave Energy Small-Scale Test Berth Site - as a low-impact location for three buoys: one from OSU, one from Finavera, a private wave energy company, and one a TriAxys directional wave monitoring and measuring buoy to conduct small scale wave energy testing. Researchers will return to deploy the test buoy sometime within the next few weeks. "We are the first to move forward in getting a device in the water because we are proactively seeking cooperative efforts with those most highly affected by the future of wave energy research," said County Commissioner Terry Thompson. The cooperative effort, which features on-going direct input from the fishing community, involves representatives from a wide range of public and private entities. The deployment puts Lincoln County megawatts ahead of other wave energy efforts along either major coast, which has local officials charged up and glowing with anticipation. – Newport (Ore.) News-Times News: Dam Owner has Salmon Transpo Plan
BAKER LAKE, Wash. – Since February, crews here have been working on a floating engineering puzzle – the first of its kind in the world, they say.
Constructed on a cove in Baker Lake at the end of a temporary causeway, the 26-foot-tall structure is Puget Sound Energy's latest method for getting the fish from Baker Lake down the 312-foot-high hydroelectric dam and out to the Skagit River. The utility hopes the new $40 million fish passage system and $112 million total in other improvements in the works will quadruple current numbers of Baker River sockeye salmon returning to the watershed to spawn. "We're really enthused to see it under construction and about to go into effect," said Stan Walsh of the Skagit River System Cooperative – a group representing the fisheries interests of the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes. Walsh said the old fish passage system has had its downsides for salmon. "A lot of juvenile sockeye and coho just don't make it out of the reservoir," Walsh said. Seven years have gone into the design of the new facility, he said. The new fish passage system is part of the agreement Puget Sound Energy made with a number of government agencies, environmental groups and tribes as part of its application for a new license to operate the dams. The agreement provides for a number of projects to make up for the impacts of operating the dams. The total cost to PSE for those projects was estimated at $360 million in funds and lost power over 30 years, according to PSE spokesman Roger Thompson. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is still in the process of deliberating over that application. Cary Feldmann, manager of PSE's resource sciences, and agencies that helped develop the floating surface collector – including the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service – hope to see increases in returning salmon continue. "They did a great job of recovering and putting in artificial spawning beaches and brought up the runs to higher than they've ever been in known history," said Arn Thoreen, a former commercial fisherman and founding board member of the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group. But Thoreen said in addition to the floating surface collector and other PSE plans for fish improvements upriver, he and others hoped the utility would also implement downstream habitat improvements. Those improvements were part of the settlement agreement PSE made, Thoreen said, but then the federal agency reviewing PSE's application for a new license deemed the downstream improvements unnecessary. PSE has said it will implement the agreed-upon downstream projects even if FERC throws them out. The new floating surface collector currently under construction will take over for an aging machine that Puget Sound Energy people call "the gulper." The barge, designed to operate unmanned most of the time, runs on a system of pumps. It posed an engineering problem because it has to work in an environment where the water levels continually fluctuate. The 130-foot by 60-foot barge will be deployed Oct. 1 right next to the face of the dam. In it, four Swedish-made, 145-horsepower pumps can altogether generate a current of about 1,000 cubic feet per second. That's about as fast as the Baker River itself this time of year. Fish swim toward the current, instinctively looking for a way out to the ocean when they're ready to leave their native freshwater. Once the fish are caught in the gulper, the water then has to decelerate gradually so they aren't injured against the screens through which the water flows. The current drops them into a large pool so the fish can rest. PSE plans to start operating the new fish passage system next spring when juveniles are ready to migrate. – Skagit Valley Herald News: Fisherman Busted in Hawaiian Protected Area
HONOLULU – The federal government has charged a vessel owner and operator with illegally fishing in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.
It's the first time federal authorities have taken such action since President Bush last year declared the waters of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a marine national monument. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has charged longline fishing vessel owner and operator Robert Flores with three counts of entering the monument and unlawfully harvesting monument resources. He's also charged with failing to stow his fishing gear while in the monument. He faces fined of about $60,000. Limited commercial bottomfishing is allowed in the monument for another four years but longline fishing there been banned. – KPOI, Hilo, Hawaii <<<•>>> Wednesday, August 29, 2007 News: Pinks are Swarming to Alaska ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Of the five species of salmon harvested commercially in Alaska, pink salmon are the most numerous.And, boy, do we have a passel of pinks this year, especially in Prince William Sound. According to the Department of Fish and Game, purse seiners likely will bag a record catch in the Sound this season, exceeding the all-time high of 59.9 million pinks in 2005. Pink salmon historically have been a low-value fish stuffed into cans for retail in the Lower 48, the Southern states in particular. But lately pink salmon economics have improved, with the average dockside price running at a relatively fat 16 cents a pound this year. A trend toward filleting and freezing the fish is adding value to pinks, industry watchers say. – Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing as The Highliner in the Anchorage Daily News News: Judge Links Ben Stevens to FBI Probe
JUNEAU, Alaska - A federal judge has for the first time publicly linked former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens, son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, to the corruption investigation that has been underway since 2004.
At the same time, a federal prosecutor revealed there are "multiple, ongoing nonpublic investigations" related to the ongoing inquiry into ties between Alaska lawmakers and the oil industry. Investigations have so far resulted in one criminal conviction, of former state Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, and indictments of former Reps. Bruce Weyhrauch, R-Juneau; Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, and Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla. Weyhrauch and Kott, now a Juneau resident as well, are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 5 in Anchorage. The Stevens connection turned up in a legal filing in the Weyhrauch case, in which U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick acknowledged Ben Stevens' role. Sedwick noted that the identification of Stevens had "already been reported in the press," based on comparing the money paid by former VECO Corp. CEO Bill Allen and Stevens' financial disclosure reports. The indictments of Weyhrauch and Kott accuse them of having conspired with Allen and an unidentified "State Senator A" to advocate for an oil tax plan supported by VECO, an oil field services company, and the state's oil producers. In other court documents, such as Allen's indictment, Senator A is listed as Senator B. "The evidence which the United States will present at trial will show that State Senator A is, in fact, Ben Stevens," Sedwick wrote. Stevens, Weyhrauch, Kott and Kohring were among legislators whose Capitol offices were searched by FBI agents last year. Stevens, who did not run for re-election, has not been indicted. Weyhrauch did not run for re-election either, after two terms representing Juneau. Kohring and Kott both ran for re-election, with Kott losing and Kohring winning. Kohring resigned his seat last month, after being indicted in May. Kott's attorneys asked Sedwick to allow them to challenge a search warrant after the deadline for doing so, citing the "massive amount of work" the case required. In opposing that request, federal prosecutors revealed the other investigations. Prosecutors said they provided recordings of wiretaps in May, giving his lawyers plenty of time to review them or ask for an extension of time to file legal challenges. They acknowledged they waited until July 24, six weeks before the scheduled trial date, to provided some written materials, but said they met all required deadlines for providing information to the defense. Prosecutors didn't provide the materials before July 24, they said, because "the materials disclose multiple ongoing, nonpublic investigations." The government had considered providing Kott with edited versions of the materials earlier, but determined that the redacted versions would not have been meaningful. Weyhrauch has been trying to have his trial separated from that of Kott, saying that prejudicial evidence against Kott will likely "spill over" and make it more difficult for the jury to assess the allegations against him. A federal magistrate has advised against separating the two trials, but Douglas Pope, Weyhrauch's attorney, said Monday he'll appeal that to Judge Sedwick. Pope said he's still expecting to begin the trial with jury selection Sept. 5, however. – Juneau Empire
News: Enviro Group Names New Chief
WASHINGTON – The environmental group, Marine Fish Conservation Network, has announced the appointment of Bruce J. Stedman as its new executive director.
Stedman brings to the position more than 25 years of experience in marine and environmental policy. A national coalition of more than 190 environmental organizations, commercial and recreational fishing groups, aquariums, and marine science groups, the Network selected Stedman after a nationwide search. Stedman comes to the Network from his current position as a senior mediator at RESOLVE in Washington, DC, where he co-designed and facilitated the New York Governor’s Ocean and Great Lakes Symposium on ocean policy and successfully guided Maine’s Governor’s Task Force on Marine Aquaculture. Stedman has also facilitated many strategic planning and advisory committee meetings on fisheries and other ocean-related issues, as well as numerous workshops and dialogues on other environmental policy topics. – American Chronicle Editorial: 18 Years Later, Exxon Still Doesn't Get It
EVERETT, Wash. - It would be interesting to know how much money Exxon Mobil Corp. has spent trying to fight the $2.5 billion in punitive damages it is supposed to pay for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.
Last week, Exxon Mobil launched its final shot at an appeal, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to uphold the $2.5 billion in damages, which the court had reduced from $5 billion. Exxon has fought the judgment for more than a decade. Meanwhile, lawyers for the plaintiffs say that about 20 percent of their clients have died. Those remaining include about 33,000 commercial fishermen, cannery workers, landowners, Natives, local governments and businesses. The spill was the largest in U.S. history — dumping more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, threatening the food chain that supports the area's commercial fishing industry and endangering 10 million migratory shore birds and waterfowl, hundreds of sea otters and dozens of other species such as harbor porpoises, and several varieties of whales. Exxon Mobil says it has spent more than $3.5 billion as a result of the spill, including compensatory payments, cleanup payments and settlements. It says the punitive damages are unwarranted because the spill was an accident. Yes, it was an accident. But a preventable one. The National Transportation Safety Board identified a number of factors under the control of the captain or the company that contributed to the grounding of the ship. Exxon's lawyers question 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. If Exxon isn't responsible for its captains, who is? Exxon Mobil just doesn't get it. In a statement explaining its latest appeal, the company opens with: "We acknowledge that the Exxon Valdez oil spill was a very emotional event for many in Alaska, and to some, those feelings remain strong even today." That condescending sentence alone warrants punitive damages. A very emotional event for many in Alaska? Try an unprecedented environmental disaster. Feelings about the "spill" (sounds small and accidental) remain strong today for millions of people worldwide, not just "some" in Alaska. – The Daily Herald, Everett, Wash News: Fishing Restrictions Hurt California Port
MORRO BAY, Calif. – Hoping to ward off more fiscal woes, the Morro Bay City Council this week will discuss whether to hire a consultant to evaluate its operations.
It’s the latest move by city officials to rescue a dwindling budget caused by a waning commercial fishing industry and a tourism slowdown. The loss of revenue caused by state fishing restrictions along the coast has severely affected the seaside town. Fishermen have bought less fuel and equipment, cutting sales tax revenue. City Manager Bob Hendrix said the study would compare the city’s operations to other agencies in the county, and possibly throughout the country. The city could then use the data to reevaluate its operations and decide where resources should primarily be spent and where reductions can be made. Hendrix said it was too early to tell whether Morro Bay would be forced to further reduce its staff, which has shrunk already from a budgeted 122 full-time equivalent employees in 2004 to 107.75 this year. “It’s way too early to talk about layoffs,” he said. “You have to look at what’s going on before you start making changes to the budget.” The Harbor Department, which sustains its annual budget of more than $1 million, will likely not be included in the study. – The Tribune, San Luis Obispo <<<•>>> Thursday, August 30, 2007 The Hagfish: Slimy Viagra The hagfish is a bottom feeder so repulsive it had a cameo on TV's Fear Factor. It slimes its enemies, has rows of teeth on its tongue, and feeds on the innards of rotting fish by penetrating any orifice.But cooked and served on a plate, it is considered an aphrodisiac in South Korea. And the overseas appetite for the hagfish — also known as the slime eel — is creating a business opportunity for struggling West Coast fishermen confronted with tough restrictions on the catching of salmon and other fish. California's annual catch jumped from practically nothing to 150,000 pounds over the past four years. Oregon and Washington state last year reported around 1 million pounds of hagfish caught. The 14- to 18-inch hagfish looks like an eel. In fact, there is debate over whether it is really a fish. The 300 million-year-old creature has no jaws and one nostril. Essentially blind, it dwells in the dark more than 1,000 feet down. On NBC's Fear Factor, two contestants sat in a vat of the creatures and had to push handfuls of them through holes. They described the experience as sticky, stinky and disgusting. Hagfish has a modest following among older Korean men who savor it as an appetizer broiled in sesame oil, sprinkled with salt and accompanied by a shot of liquor. Peter Chu, a seafood exporter in Eureka, Calif., said the fish sells for as much as $20 a pound in South Korea, which he estimates consumes 9 million pounds a year. "There's a myth there that it's an aphrodisiac. It gives you energy like Viagra," Chu said. "It's like oysters here." Fisherman Mark Tognazzini, who used to catch hagfish in the early 1990s, said it is relatively inexpensive to get into hagfishing. They are caught in five-gallon barrels fitted with trap doors and baited with rotting fish. As if its looks weren't enough of a turnoff, hagfish, when agitated, vomit and secrete a protein that reacts with seawater to create a thick mucus. A single animal can turn a five-gallon bucket of seawater into a pool of goo in a matter of moments, said Eddie Kisfaludy of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. While the slime distracts predators, it also occasionally suffocates the hagfish. – Chicago Daily Herald News: Single Light in Awful Fraser Year
VICTORIA, British Columbia – An awful week for the Fraser River fishery finished on a rare bright note with the report of native sockeye salmon being discovered in the Alouette River for the first time in 80 years.
DNA tests have confirmed that the 28 sockeye found in this major tributary of the lower Fraser match the kokanee found in the reservoir behind the Alouette Dam. The kokanee, a trout-like fish that persists when sockeye are trapped in their home lakes, must have busted out in 2005 in a test release of Coho from the BC Hydro spillway. Experts are amazed that these little descendants of the original fertile run not only survived the escape but the salt water downriver, and then struggled back up trying to get back to their lake. Kokanee reverting to sockeye has never been documented before. Alas, most of these tenacious fish got to the base of the dam and died there, as millions did back in the 1920s when the dam was built. A few were caught and returned to the reservoir, a vast and barren place compared to the original chain of lakes. A fertilization program has raised some weeds and helped support lake fish, but this development seems close to a miracle. By coincidence, Delta MP John Cummins was camping at Alouette Lake when I caught up with him to discuss this season’s generally horrible sockeye returns. A commercial fisherman and noted critic of his own government’s fisheries and treaty policies, he’s skeptical about the warming ocean water, exotic predator and disease theories put forward to explain why only a quarter of the expected 6.3 million sockeye are returning to the Fraser this year. If the big problem is ocean warming, he wonders why Alaska and Skeena returns are normal, as are Chinook and Coho returns to Washington and Oregon. A few years ago Cummins took part in protest fisheries, in response to Fisheries and Oceans Canada approval of pilot commercial fisheries by aboriginal groups. This year things are so bad that the food and ceremonial fishery was halted, and aboriginal fishermen have been ticketed in their own protest sockeye fisheries. Sto:lo Tribal Council fisheries advisor Ernie Crey tells me the protesters didn’t catch much, and Cummins is off base in opposing the Tsawwassen treaty and its thin slice of the Fraser sockeye catch. While Cummins says the ever-increasing aboriginal share of fish is pushing what’s left of the commercial fleet out of sockeye, Crey says the MP “needs to take a breath and relax.” Local legend has it you could once walk across the Alouette on the backs of the spawning salmon. It’s comforting to think that some of that lost abundance can be rebuilt, even after it was totally wiped out. The damage done It’s worthwhile remembering that our fisheries management, like our forest management, has only recently emerged as a true conservation system rather than a handmaiden to industry. Now federal fisheries officials have the delicate task of trying to balance too many competing demands. After numerous court decisions, their priorities are sufficient spawners first, native food and ceremonial second, then sport and commercial fishing as numbers permit. – The Chronicle, Ladysmith, B.C.
Fisherman Appeal in Reaction to Exxon Action
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Plaintiffs are filing a cross-appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court asking for punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez oil spill to be raised to $5 billion if the high court decides in favor of Exxon’s request last week to hear the case.
Plaintiff’s attorney Matt Jamin of Kodiak said Monday a cross-appeal would re-establish the $5 billion originally awarded in the 18-year-old case, only if the Supreme Court takes the case. The Supreme Court has until the end of the year to respond to Exxon Mobil Corp.’s petition. Four of the nine Supreme Court justices must vote in favor of granting Exxon’s petition for the case to proceed. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco earlier ordered Exxon to pay $500 million in compensatory damages, the amount Exxon is currently paying out. Jamin’s latest request follows a back-and-forth contention in the courts, and between plaintiffs and defendants, on the amount of punitive damages. Punitive damages are awarded a plaintiff in addition to compensatory damages in order to punish the defendant for a reckless or willful act. Compensatory damages are a payment intended to offset the loss of a plaintiff who has suffered an injury. The most recent court decision placed the amount of punitive damages at $2.5 billion, down from $5 billion. Exxon is arguing the $2.5 billion is excessive. Jamin maintains on behalf of claimants, which include not only Kodiak plaintiffs but also about 33,000 others in the class-action suit, that the Supreme Court should not hear the case. Lawyers for plaintiffs estimated that about 20 percent of their clients have died during the lawsuit. Living plaintiffs include commercial fishermen, cannery workers, landowners, Natives, local governments and businesses. Part of the $2.5 billion is to be distributed to 51 groups of Kodiak claimants with the Kodiak salmon seine group receiving 14.5 percent, or $450 million. Set-netters would get $130 million. Jamin previously informed clients that the current amount to be distributed (if the $2.5 billion figure is the final amount) includes interest of $2 billion, and a 11 percent reduction due to Exxon’s settlement in a Seattle suit reducing the total amount to $3.08 billion. Jamin said if the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, it is possible that instead of settling in 2008, the lawsuit could go on another year and not be settled until June of 2009. “If the court decides not to hear the case, then it would be sent back to the 9th Circuit who will then send it back to Holland,” Jamin said. U.S. District Judge H. Russell Holland of Anchorage set the amount at $2.5 billion after the 9th Circuit ruled the $5 billion in damages excessive. Holland in 2002 set the amount at $4 billion and later reduced it. The amount was reduced based upon reasoning that Exxon did try to clean up the spill and did not spill oil from the tanker deliberately. Exxon filed a motion earlier this year to have the entire panel of 15 judges hear the case en banc contending the $2.5 billion is excessive, but in May the court refused to hear the case. Jamin said if the Supreme Court does not hear the case, then his clients would receive the amount established in Holland’s court and it would be distributed immediately. Jamin said, however, even if the court does take the case, there is a chance it could still be decided by June 2008. Exxon’s primary arguments include three points. First, Exxon should not be held liable for actions of Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, who was piloting the Exxon Valdez when it spilled 10.8 million gallons of oil after running aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, March 14, 1989. Second, Exxon contends that under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Congress specified criminal and civil penalties for maritime conduct that do not include punitive damages, raising the question of whether the courts can expand federal maritime law established by Congress. Third, Exxon argues even if $2.5 billion in punitive damages could be reaffirmed, the amount is excessive and should be lower within limits of maritime law and due process. “Each of those issues have already been rejected before,” Jamin said. – Kodiak Daily Mirror News: Creek ‘Herding’ Investigated in Alaska
Alaska State Troopers are investigating reports of Prince William Sound salmon fishermen using skiffs to drive fish out of streams – a definite no-no in the commercial fishing rule book.
The incident occurred Aug. 23 in Iktua Bay in Prince of Wales Passage, near the Armin F. Koernig hatchery in the remote southwestern Sound. According to people who called in complaints, some purse seiners used skiffs to drive salmon out of streams and also planted people on shore with plungers to help with the herding, said Bert Lewis, seine management biologist with the Department of Fish and Game in Cordova. A plunger is a long pole with a cup on the end. Seine boat crews thrust plungers into the water to make bubbles, frightening fish into an enclosing net. At least five callers – fishermen as well as processors – complained about the stream herding and “everybody named names,” he said. So authorities know the boats and crews alleged to have been involved. The herding was an apparent attempt to net more pink salmon at the end of a record-setting season in the Sound, Lewis said. “It’s people who have a history of this kind of activity,” he said. “They all know better. It’s just greed.” – Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing as The Highliner for the Anchorage Daily News To the Editor: Privatizing the Fish
This was written as a letter to the editor of the Kodiak Daily Mirror.
I imagine it’s beginning to dawn on the privatizers that they could lose this war. It must be scary for them, tens of billions in property that they might not get. The ownership of the fish and the ability to control prices in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska forever must be worth at least that. Barely a year ago they were so confident of a win that they casually tried to take Kodiak’s processor quotas for Bering Sea crab with a one-word change in the Coast Guard Appropriations Bill, the “Blue Dutch Affair.” The point I’m trying to make is that a year ago, they felt safe enough to try a stupid, wildly illegal longshot like the BDA. It’s not like they needed the money, it was small change to them. Now they’re happy to just stay out of jail. They were riding a wave that’s been rolling for 30 years, who’d ever think that wave could stop? But our biggest banana company has been caught shooting peasants in Central America, Coca Cola is getting run out of India for causing all those farmers’ suicides, and the American people are looking on as the power stations, toll roads, bridges, water supplies and port facilities they built are auctioned off to absolutely anyone who has the money. Looking on but beginning to realize, I’d bet. Privatization certainly was the wave of the future, something so inevitable that all the timid, crooked or elegantly unaware members of our two island governments climbed aboard, and remain aboard to this day (with some great exceptions). But if I were a privatizer, I’d settle right now before they lose the whole works. They should take their winnings and let’s all get busy doing what we’re supposed to. Go ahead and privatize if they’re so fired up to do so, but we get half. The American people, represented by the fishermen who caught the fish, get half, or 40 percent at least. – By John Finley in the Kodiak Daily Mirror <<<•>>> Friday, August 31, 2007 News: Fraser Run Looking a Bit Better MAPLE RIDGE, British Columbia - There's been a slight improvement in the dangerously low number of sockeye salmon heading up the Fraser River to spawn.The estimated number of returning sockeye is now just under 1.9 million, an increase of about 275,000 from last week's estimate. That's still 70 per cent below the pre-season forecast that 6.3 million sockeye would return this year. Warm ocean temperatures when juvenile salmon went to sea are thought to account for the year's poor run. Warmer seas translate into less food for salmon and more tropical predators chasing them. Commercial sockeye fisheries are shut down this summer. Only a small aboriginal food fishery was allowed, and sports fishing is now shut down on part of the river to ensure Chinook anglers don't also hook sockeye. There's no solid estimate yet on incoming pink salmon, which were forecast at 19.5 million this year, but test fisheries are starting to detect sizable numbers of the low-value fish. – The News, Maple Ridge, B.C. News: Candidate Vows to Support Fishermen
EUREKA, Calif. – The Humboldt County school/special district election is approaching, and candidates are currently in the process of campaigning for votes.
One of the positions on the November ballot is the Division 2 commissioner position with the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District. Fortuna resident and candidate Carlos Quilez outlined his vision for Humboldt Bay at a press conference Wednesday. “I want to see some energy and I want to see some active management of this district,” he said. “I think there are a lot of economic opportunities we can look at.” If elected, Quilez, an avid fisherman, said he will support the sport and commercial fishing fleet industry, as well as the mariculture industry. He highlighted the importance of enhancement of infrastructure while protecting natural resources. “Humboldt Bay is a true ecological gem,” Quilez said. Additionally, Quilez said he will support restoration efforts around Humboldt Bay, as it provides a majority of California’s oysters, as well as providing crab and a variety of fish. Maggy Herbelin, coordinator of Humboldt Bay Stewards and a Quilez supporter, said she feels he is qualified for the position as someone who possesses administrative skills and has an ability to create jobs. Thorington said Quilez’s background in planning and management serves to qualify him for the position, as well as an emphasis on utilizing bay resources. Quilez is a retired San Jose State University administrative planner. He is also the executive director of Friends of Small Places, a local environmental group concerned with impacts of gravel mining on neighborhoods and river ecosystems. Other candidates vying for the second-division position include current commissioner Roy Curless and Eureka resident Steven Morris. The election will be held Nov. 6. – Eureka (California) Reporter
News: Who’s Editing Wikipedia?
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - In reporting on corporate editing of Wikipedia, an International Herald Tribune story brings in Exxon Mobil Corp. and the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989.
It seems substantial changes to the online encyclopedia’s oil spill entry — changes that downplayed the spill’s impact on wildlife and that cast a positive light on compensation payments from the company — were traced to Exxon Mobil equipment. But while new software could trace the changes to the company, it could not pinpoint an individual. An Exxon Mobil spokesman said company employees “are not authorized to update Wikipedia with company computers without company endorsement.” – Anchorage Daily News News: Pacific Salmon Foundation has Big Plans
PRINCE RUPERT, British Columbia – The Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) has some big plans for the coming years, one of the most important being changing the public's attitudes and behavior when it comes to fish.
Newly appointed chairman of the PSF John Woodward has taken over as head of the foundation at a critical time, when issues of increasingly low salmon counts are being reported across the province of British Columbia, but also when funding is at an all-time high. "This year, the PSF has launched into a huge program on the Fraser, where we've got $10 million from the provincial Living Rivers fund, $10 million from DFO, and $5 million from the Salmon Endowment fund, plus a lot of private money, all aimed at the Fraser and how to revamp the Fraser," said Woodward. – Prince Rupert Daily News News: Local Woman Studies Salmon Restoration
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