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Monday, September 3. 2007 <<<•>>> Tuesday, September 4. 2007 Open Net Farming Approved Against AdviceVICTORIA, British Columbia – The B.C. government has yet to formally respond to an all-party committee's recommendation in May that open-net pen salmon farming be phased out, but its actions since offer a strong hint about its stance. Agriculture Minister Pat Bell issued another new salmon farm license -- the fourth since the Special Legislative Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture reported on May 16. Grieg Seafood B.C. of Campbell River was granted approval for a new site in Nootka Sound, on the southwest shore of Gore Island in King Passage. It is the second site approved for Grieg in Nootka Sound since the report's release. Bell also announced that he rejected a controversial application for a geoduck farm off Quadra Island in Open Bay. He also amended a salmon farm license in Campbell River to allow the use of containment bags to raise smolt -- the first phase in a plan that could lead to the sort of commercial close-containment farming recommended by the aquaculture committee. But the approval of another open-net pen farm in Nootka Sound drew the ire of environmentalists, who say there is overwhelming evidence such farms harm wild salmon and the ocean. Bell said the application by Grieg made "good biological sense'' and has the support of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation. "This is a site identified by the local First Nation as an area acceptable for fish farming. It also has extensive support from local communities. It makes a lot of sense to move forward.'' Grieg Seafood now holds licenses for five farms in the area, with one application still pending. Catherine Stewart of the Living Oceans Society said that government should have waited until it responds to the aquaculture committee's report and coming recommendations from the Pacific Salmon Forum before it approved any new farms. "I guess this is an indication of their response [to the report,]'' Stewart said. "It's extremely disheartening. Their policy seems to be: Keep on approving more open-net cage farms and damn the science.'' Grieg's Parker said the contents of the committee's report "are just recommendations," adding that the government already has a thorough regulatory regime in place for salmon farms that the company meets or surpasses. The aquaculture committee recommended in May that all B.C. salmon farms convert to ocean-based, closed-containment technology within five years, but the industry and government complained such technology doesn't yet exist. Bell said he expects to bring forward a salmon aquaculture plan for B.C. later this fall. – Times-Colonist, Victoria, B.C.
Worst Fraser Run Moving UpstreamThe worst sockeye salmon run in decades is now swishing its way upstream toward the spawning beds. With less than 30 per cent of the expected number of salmon showing up in the Fraser River, it’s a disaster for commercial fishermen, aboriginals and sports anglers alike. But the decimation of the prized red salmon doesn’t yet mean we’re in the throes of a West Coast fishery collapse. Sockeye run on a four-year cycle, meaning the current spawning run has little bearing on next year’s return and more to do with what will be pulled up from the nets in 2011. But the developing pattern of poor returns in recent years is deeply disturbing. Plenty of salmon should have hatched from the previous spawn and gone out to sea. But indications point to warmer ocean water – likely due to climate change – that has resulted in less food for offshore sockeye and more predators chasing them. While 6.4 million sockeye were predicted this year, fewer than 1.9 million are now believed to be arriving. Those that do head up river seem to be increasingly threatened by parasites and warm river temperatures. It’s clear that overfishing isn’t to blame this year. There has been no commercial fishing. Likewise, the fish-counting folk at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans – often criticized for allowing too much or too little fishing – are off the hook this time. Despite the big picture, which provides another compelling in-our-face reason to redouble our efforts to slow global warming, the usual end-of-season finger-pointing and recriminations are under way. Native bands continue to bear the brunt of the hostility. The courts have consistently upheld their constitutionally protected right to fish for food ahead of all other users, subject only to conservation requirements. But many sidelined non-natives still find it tough to accept this is the law of the land. Meanwhile, lower Fraser aboriginal fishermen last week flouted the rule of law by staging an illegal protest fishery. They argue DFO shouldn’t have allowed sports anglers to stay on the river, ostensibly fishing for Chinook when some were in fact catching sockeye, while it was becoming clear aboriginal food fish needs weren’t going to be met. If stocks continue to decline, it will become increasingly challenging to split up the available salmon for food among the 90-plus bands up and down the Fraser. Cooperation among all sides, not confrontation, is what’s needed. – Surrey/North Delta Leader, British Columbia Fishing Observers Face More AttacksWASHINGTON, D.C. – Attacks against government observers monitoring commercial fishing fleets doubled in one year, an indication of rising tensions on the high seas, according to agency figures released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER. Observers on fishing vessels track the catch to manage quotas and report any harm to marine mammals and other marine species. Figures obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act show that the number of observer harassment cases more than doubled from 2004 to 2005, at the top of a rising trend over the past decade. During 2005, the last year for which figures are available, more than one in 10 of the 500 observers in service experienced some form of intimidation or obstruction, according to agency records. Many of the observers are female and face particular challenges from all-male fishing crews on long, difficult voyages. Other violations reported by observers rose dramatically starting in 1999 and continued to rise through 2005, according to PEER, a national association of government workers in natural resources agencies. But even as reported incidents increase, the government agency responsible for the monitoring program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, has stopped keeping track of incidents. For more than 30 years, professional observers have accompanied commercial fishing vessels to monitor compliance with catch limits, bycatch rules and regulations protecting dolphins and other marine mammals. These observers, who work under contract to NOAA, are the only independent source of information for what occurs on the high seas. The economic pressures facing commercial fishing fleets are growing more intense as fish populations continue to decline and international competition grows fiercer. At the same time, reported cases of harassment and interference against observers is on the rise. Yet in 2006, NOAA abruptly stopped collected data, writing to PEER that “no documents were found that are responsive to your request … for a summary of all incidents of violence, threats or harassment against professional observers … between January 1 and December 31, 2006.” Agency data also indicated that in the vast majority of cases, NOAA took no enforcement action, and when it did, a warning was the most frequent sanction. Many violations were dismissed on the basis that the agency lacked resources to investigate them. "These numbers suggest that when the going gets tough for its fishery observers, NOAA goes away," said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization has tracked attacks against federal resource workers ever since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. NOAA Fisheries Service, said, "We need strong observer programs to address the significant problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. It is widely recognized that illegal fishing undermines efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks." – Environmental News Service
Commercial Fisherman Saves LivesKENAI, Alaska – After pulling nine people out of the water in his 31 years of commercial drift netting, Greg Perkins knows anyone on the river, or the ocean, who isn't wearing a life jacket is asking for trouble. So when he fished two men and a teenage boy out of the mouth of the Kenai River around 6 p.m. Tuesday, he credits luck for being in the right place at the right time. "They're lucky I'd seen it," he said. "One kid was a goner, he was in full panic, going up and down and under." Perkins was in his trailer at Ocean Beauty Dock in Kenai when he heard an outboard motor rev up and then a crash. He saw three heads bobbing up and down in the water, an empty skiff doing circles in the middle of the river and a commercial boat with a huge gash in it. Kenai police officers and firefighters responded to the Kenai City Dock after hearing about a boat running wild. Lt. Kim Wannamaker of the Kenai Police Department said two 21-year-old men and a 16-year-old were out fishing for silver salmon and were headed downstream when they decided to go back upstream. As they made a sharp turn, the edge of the boat caught the water and tossed all three anglers overboard before continuing in circles itself. "The occupants were in the water less than a couple of minutes before they were rescued by someone who had seen it," Wannamaker said. "All three are okay, none were injured (and) the skiff appeared to be fine, but while it was doing circles it collided with an anchored commercial boat in the river and caused damage there." Wannamaker said the 16-year-old was the only person wearing a life jacket, but Perkins said he gave the boy the life jacket. "I wouldn't mind if the kid brings it back," he said. "I would say they're pretty crazy to be in the water without life jackets." Both Perkins and Wannamaker said the boaters were lucky someone was there to rescue them. Perkins said the occupants were approximately 250 yards from shore and with the tide starting to go out, they might not have made it. – Kenai Peninsula Clarion Hillary Clinton Remembers Alaskan Slime LineNEW YORK -- Hillary Rodham Clinton has already had to forgo one potential running mate - her husband. Asked by talk-show host David Letterman if Bill Clinton could serve as her vice president should she be elected to the White House, the former first lady acknowledged that he could not. "Believe me," she joked, "he looked into that." She also remarked that if the Constitution didn't forbid a president from a third term, "he might be running." Such easy banter marked Clinton's seventh appearance on "The Late Show," which was celebrating its 14th anniversary on CBS. She first appeared on Feb. 14, 1994, when Letterman's mother, Dorothy, interviewed her briefly from the Winter Olympics in Norway. On Thursday's show, Clinton recounted a summer in Alaska during which she donned boots and an apron to gut salmon with a spoon. "Best preparation for being in Washington that you can possibly imagine," she joked. Clinton talked shop, too, discussing the need for campaign finance reform, how to pull troops out of Iraq and the importance of caring for wounded veterans. She said that while resistance to a female commander in chief has diminished, it hasn't disappeared. "I think it's not so much that people don't think a woman can do the job, it's just that we've never done it before," she said. "I'm not running because I'm a woman; I'm running because I think I'm the best-qualified and experienced person who can do the job. But I know that it's a big deal that I might be the first woman president." Clinton also read a "Top Ten List" of tongue-in-cheek campaign promises, including No. 3: "We will finally have a president who doesn't mind pulling over and asking for directions." – Associated Press <<<•>>> Wednesday, September 5. 2007 Trident Raises a Stink in Newport NEWPORT, Ore. – City and port officials called it the worst summer ever for fugitive odors emanating from the Trident Seafoods fish meal plant. "Small, mixed-size fish landed at Newport during the 2007 processing season added to our difficulties," he stated, citing a combination of smaller fish, heavier bycatch that halted fishing for several days, and spotty landings that kept boats out longer and delivering older fish that forced the plant to stop processing eight times in just six weeks. "Fish moving through the meal plant machinery (trucked from the Surimi plant) quickly became aged and degraded toward liquid state with each incomplete start-stop production cycle interruption. Much of the fish landed this season were not as fresh as usual because the fishing boats had to stay longer at sea to fill their holds (round trips often twice as long as usual)." – Newport (Ore.) News-Times Lessons Learned in Barge Diesel SpillPORT HARDY, British Columbia – There is a lot to learn from a barge that tipped its load and dumped 10,000 liters of diesel fuel into an ecologically sensitive area, say concerned North Islanders. “The tragic oil spill...has revealed a number of inadequacies in the management of dangerous cargos and oil spill response on the B.C. Coast,” says a press release from the ‘Namgis First Nation. The ‘Namgis are calling for all barges to be inspected before transiting ‘Namgis marine waters. The 'Namgis First Nation also call for an inquiry into the “deplorable condition of many of the barges that transit sensitive marine habitats on the B.C. Coast.” Jennifer Lash of the Living Oceans Society in Sointula agrees that the incident could have been better handled. “How does this response reflect on other issues on the Coast?” asks Lash, referring to the potential risk of large tankers of crude oil traveling in B.C. waters. “What if it were crude oil out there? What this proves right now is that they can’t handle a larger spill.” – North Island Gazette Oregon Officials Eager for Wave Power Test BuoyNEWPORT, Ore. – Lincoln County officials are energized over the pending deployment of what they believe is the first ever wave energy test buoy to go into the waters off Oregon's shores, and possibly the entire West Coast. The 75-foot AquaBuOY 2.0 wave energy converter manufactured by Finavera Renewables - based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - arrived at the Port of Newport's International Terminal site Thursday afternoon to await deployment to a test site two miles west of Agate Beach. The mooring system is already in place at the Oregon State University test berth site. Once in place, only about 10 feet of the buoy will show above the surface. Finavera officials requested and received permission to use the test site in March, and have actively participated in the process since then. Construction of the buoy began in early May at Oregon Iron Works in Portland. Kevin Banister, vice president of business development for ocean energy, said the buoy would remain at the test site for six weeks, allowing Finavera engineers to determine its potential to generate electricity from ocean motion. The device itself will power all onboard diagnostic equipment, with solar panels and small wind turbines installed to provide secondary electricity generation. Company engineers will glean data live via wireless and satellite technology. “Our engineers will test the device and analyze the results so we can optimize the design of the next generation that will move us to economies of scale,” said Finavera CEO Jason Bak. Researchers at OSU's Wallace Energy Systems & Renewables Facility, who deployed the mooring system Aug. 23, hope to have their direct drive wave energy buoy ready for deployment by the end of September. The test site and buoy deployments derive from a collaborative community effort involving a number of public and private entities, among them: OSU, Oregon Sea Grant, Fishermen Involved in Natural Energy, the Lincoln County Wave Energy Team, Lincoln County government, and Central Lincoln People's Utility District. – News-Times, Newport, Ore. British Fisherman Object to Wave Power PlanUnited Kingdom - Plans to build one of Britain's largest wind farms off the Humber Estuary have been announced - and they are certain to provoke comment from the local inshore fishing industry. In the past fishermen have criticized the location of many wind farm projects on the East Coast, saying they are badly planned and there has been little consultation with the local industry. Wind farms were recently attacked in a report by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society which said the pile driving noise during the construction period often caused huge distress to dolphins in particular. The German owned power firm E.ON said the development, which is five miles off the Humber Estuary and close to shellfish and inshore fishing grounds, would be capable of providing electricity to almost 200,000 homes. Up to 83 turbines would produce 300 megawatts of "green" energy. E.ON UK chief executive Paul Goby said: "When built, this wind farm will play a vital role in the fight against climate change." He said it would displace the emission of hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide every year, helping the government to meet tough renewable energy targets. "But this scheme represents just one of the billions of pounds-worth of investments we're making in the UK, all of which are designed to help keep the lights on while also reducing carbon emissions," he added. E.ON is already operating 20 onshore and offshore wind parks in the UK. And it is also involved in a number of highly sophisticated offshore projects off the German North Sea coast and the Baltic coast, including the first large-scale offshore wind farm in Germany called “alpha ventus”, 45 kilometers off the North Sea island of Borkum. The first turbines are to be generating power from autumn next year. The company said the planning process for the "technically complex" project was starting with a series of consultation meetings with representatives from the local fishing industry and coastline communities. Robin Oakley, senior campaigner for Greenpeace, said: "Renewable energy schemes such as this are vital if the huge threat of global warming is to be tackled. He added: "However, it's a bit rich of E.ON to be claiming that all their investments are designed to help reduce carbon emissions when they're trying their utmost to build climate-trashing coal power stations in the UK." – fishupdate.com South African Hake Fishing Industry in TroubleSouth Africa - The hake fishing industry is in trouble. Not only are there too many vessels catching the fish, there is also talk of foreign vessels finding their way into the fishing industry and sailing off with the money. Black Economic Advancement in the industry saw a fair share of the big fishing companies annual quotas go to new players, the so-called small rights holders. Horst Kleinschmidt worked for the Department of Marine and Coastal Management at the time when these smaller quotas were allocated.
– Carte Blanche, South Africa <<<•>>> Thursday, September 6. 2007 Fishing Boat Victims IdentifiedSEATTLE - A Seattle fishing vessel that sank off the Washington coast Sunday apparently capsized after becoming flooded, killing two of its crew members, one of whom was seen in her final moments trying to rescue her dog. "It's pretty cut and dried as to why this vessel sank," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Brian Fischer. "At some point, they were pumping more water on than they were pumping off." The Coast Guard identified the two crewmembers of the F/V Papa George who died in the accident on Monday as ships master David Starbuck, 62, and crewmember Ethel Zelaya, 37. The crew never sent a distress call, and the first anyone knew of the sinking was when the survivors beached a skiff on the shores of Long Beach about 6:30 p.m. "It sounds like they just headed for the nearest land," said Petty Officer Shawn Eggert. The vessel apparently went down about 12 miles off the coast, Eggert said. Before it sank, the boat was carrying a load of 40 to 60 tons of sardines in its hold with the crew pumping water on and off the vessel, circulating the water to keep the fish fresh, he said. But the boat's pump was unable to keep up. The ship's engineer noticed the boat listing and went to investigate. He found water filling the engine room and the hold. "There was too much water on the boat, basically," Eggert said. "That caused the boat to capsize, sending the whole crew overboard." One man managed to cling to the vessel and get the skiff off, and he rescued two of his fellow crewmembers. But they were unable to reach Starbuck or Zelaya in time. The survivors saw Zelaya apparently making a valiant but futile attempt to rescue a dog from the ship's cabin. "She was seen and then she went into the water," said Fischer, with the Coast Guard Air Station Astoria. The survivors brought the two victims ashore in the skiff. They spent Sunday night in a hotel and did not require hospitalization, he said. The Papa George is an albacore troller and purse seiner operated out of Fishermen's Terminal. Steve and Holly Lovejoy of Papa George Gourmet Albacore & Seafoods own the vessel, built in Louisiana as a shrimper. – Seattle Post-Intelligencer Fishermen Save Three from DrowningCRESCENT CITY, Calif. – Two Yurok fishermen saved three men from drowning in the surf at the mouth of the Klamath River Monday morning. At first, only two men were in danger, but a boat piloted by Lance Robbins sank while attempting to rescue the first two, according to Yurok Tribal Police Sergeant Thorin McCovey. Yurok fishermen Bill Bowers and Marvin "Jake" Jones rescued the three men, soon after the boat piloted by Robbins sank. "I couldn't be prouder of my son," Marvin "Jake" Jones' father, Marvin Jones, said. The elder Jones said that another private boat on the scene was not willing to go out to save the men. The incident, according to McCovey, occurred when Charlie Conrad and his son Hunt Conrad, of Oregon, were fishing at the river's mouth, towards the breakers and their engine cut out. The breakers capsized the boat and the Conrads were left fighting the waves, McCovey said. He said local fisherman Robbins was the first to try and help the pair. "He hit the big waves head-on, the water flooded the motor," Marvin Jones said, who watched the boat capsize. Robbins made it out to the breakwaters, "his boat ran aground and was sunk by the waves," McCovey said. Robbins was now fighting the waves himself, but Bowers and Jones were already on the scene to help them to safety. Ron Jurin, owner of Jurin Construction in Willow Creek, owned the boat piloted by Robbins. Jurin, who lives in Redding, just returned home from vacation to find out about his boat sinking. The boat was valued at $60,000, according to Jurin. "It's kind of a sore subject, the boat wasn't insured," he said. Bowers and Jones, made it out to the breakers and were able to pull Robbins and the Conrads from the surf into their boat. "It was pretty much handled by the time we got there," McCovey said. He said that the Conrads had already been taken to the hospital after the tribal police arrived. – Crescent City Triplicate
Biologists to Bring Back Alaska Herring?SEWARD, Alaska - In plastic tanks in a narrow back room of a shellfish hatchery here, researchers last spring did something they hope will help bring back the herring population that crashed about 15 years ago. Taking a lead from Japanese businessmen who cultivate herring for food, they hatched herring eggs gathered from Prince William Sound and fed them brine shrimp. The idea is to study ways to restore herring, instead of just continuing to study theories about what has suppressed their numbers, said Howard Ferren, assistant director of research at the Alaska SeaLife Center. It's a call repeated around Cordova, where fishermen whose lives were disrupted by the herring crash want some kind of restoration program, if not the one in which the SeaLife Center is a partner. But managers at the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council -- which has millions to spend to improve the Sound's ecosystem -- say the hatchery approach is premature while the causes remain unclear and the state lacks a recovery plan. The Sound's herring catch never was one of Alaska's top fisheries, like salmon, crab or pollock. But fishermen who caught halibut and salmon counted herring as a lucrative supplement to their annual income. A key feature: They could make their money in just a few days of fishing. At its peak, Prince William Sound fishermen got about $12 million a year for their herring catch. Despite a widespread belief to the contrary, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill might not have caused the herring crash. In fact, some of the largest herring catches in Sound history occurred in the three years after the Exxon tanker disaster. Then, after the biggest catch of all in the 1991-92 season, the herring population collapsed and the fishing all but stopped. The oil spill? Overfishing? Disease? No one knows why the crash occurred. Tackling the mystery Meeting last week, the Exxon oil spill council's advisory committee recommended against funding a second year of the hatchery study, at least until a plan is in place next year. The full council has yet to rule on the funding. In Cordova, retired herring roe buyer Ross Mullins said the SeaLife Center's approach is all wrong, but so is the council's. Mullins said the SeaLife Center's work could lead to permanent hatcheries, which he finds unfeasible. But the trustee council's reluctance to act toward restoration before all the facts are in is maddening, he said. Another poor crop In herring fishing, the money is in selling herring eggs to Japan. Since the herring population crashed, the state has opened a commercial fishery season only twice. This spring's observed spawn along Prince William Sound shores was the sixth lowest since records began in 1973, said state biologist Steve Moffit. The result: no commercial herring fishery. |