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Monday, October 1. 2007 Landmark Marine Legislation Takes Effect "This is the first big step in helping California ensure that it will have sustainable marine resources into the future," says John Ugoretz, habitat and conservation program manager for the California Department of Fish and Game. "While some people feel we are taking away their freedom and don't like the idea ... we think that is a short-term sacrifice and that this is a must if our children and grandchildren want to have a healthy environment and a place to fish." Leading environmental groups say the new plan is the only way to sustain California's marine resources and world-famous bounty of rockfish, squid, tuna, jack mackerel, and hake. Fishermen in small towns along the central coast fear they will no longer be able to supply local restaurants with respectable "catches of the day." Waterfront boating operators say scenic tours and sport fishing could become too expensive or go extinct. And some local officials say the 'quaint fishing village' look could fade into yesteryear, replaced by communities of modern condos. There has been disagreement over key issues - including precisely where the zones should be and what fish need to be protected or exempted - and animosity has arisen over which groups of stakeholders are making the most sacrifices. "We keep hearing from the environmentalists that everyone has to compromise a little to make this all work, but we [fishermen] seem to be the only ones who make sacrifices," says Vern Goehring, manager of the California Fisheries Coalition, which represents fishing associations and seafood processors. First zone of five Made up of marine protected areas (MPAs), the newly designated zone off the central coast is the first of five that will eventually line the entire 1,100-mile coastline of California. It is mandated by the Marine Life Protection Act, which passed by a 2-to-1 margin in the state Legislature in 1999. The state Fish and Game Commission approved this first region in April after years of negotiations with coastal residents, fishermen, scientists, and environmentalists. Similar rounds of discussions are now under way concerning the next zone, which will cover state waters extending three miles from the shore and from San Mateo County to Mendocino County. One continued point of contention is over the quality of science that has gone into decision making. While there seems to be agreement over the depletion of fish stocks worldwide, many say that California, by virtue of better past management of its coastal waters by federal regulations, is largely exempt from those depletions. 'There is a popular perception that much of the world has been overfished, and that is certainly true elsewhere, but absolutely not true in California,' says Ray Hilborn, professor of fisheries management at the University of Washington's School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Hilborn has analyzed statistical models of 50 fish listed as in collapse worldwide, but he says only two from the list are seriously depleted in California. Other fishermen here say the original statistics causing most of the alarm - published in the journal Science in December 2006 - have been challenged by other studies. Many hope the state will look beyond fishermen to other reasons why fish populations decline: climate, coastal development, and urban runoff. All sides acknowledge that no matter how regulations evolve, enforcement will be a problem because of the lack of funding. 'The state Department of Fish and Game is woefully unable to enforce existing regulations,' says Mr. Merrilees. 'I literally fished for several years without ever even seeing a single Fish and Game official." - The Christian Science Monitor Resilience Key in Sustaining Salmon In a world in which instability, whether driven by people or nature, seems to be increasing, “resilience” is emerging as a key concept – a desirable characteristic of both natural and human systems and communities. Scientists define resilience as the ability to tolerate or recover from disturbance. In the Pacific Northwest, researchers who specialize in salmon have begun to examine the problem of long-term salmon persistence in the region through the lens of resilience. They say that the traditional focus on maintaining production and harvest – which has long dominated discussion of salmon – has diverted attention from the more fundamental concern about the fish’s ability to withstand disturbances and persist. According to Dan Bottom, a salmon biologist with NOAA Fisheries and a courtesy professor at Oregon State University, “the problem with the way we've managed fisheries in the past is we've tried to force a dynamic system into a static condition that actually, in the long run, makes the system much more unstable.” In the case of hatchery-raised salmon, produced to maintain a stable population size, one consequence is that many of these fish “are not capable of living outside that narrow range of tolerances” in which they were produced in the hatchery. “We try to manage natural resources so we can have things nice and predictable,” said Court Smith, an OSU anthropologist who has studied how communities adapt to change. “But we're now facing tremendous changes, in terms of climate, globalization, and other human impacts, so today there are a lot of very dynamic changes going on to which humans have to be really skillful in adapting, and in assisting other organisms, such as salmon, to adapt.” The Oregon Sea Grant program at OSU has been encouraging development of the resilience concept as it provides another approach to the problem of salmon decline and restoration in the Northwest, said Robert Malouf, program director. Earlier this year, Sea Grant sponsored a conference called Pathways to Resilience that involved more than 125 salmon researchers, social scientists, managers, and policy makers. Resilience as a goal of salmon management was described by many at the conference as an idea whose time has come. In his keynote address, former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber observed: “Albert Einstein once said ‘You should not use an old map to explore a new world.’ And he was right, because each new generation faces a new world with new challenges--challenges that cannot be met by clinging to the past but only by imagining a different world and a different set of tools through which to build it.” A theme sounded by many conference speakers was that the old approach to managing salmon has had the unintended effect of leaving both the fish and the human communities dependent on them less resilient. OSU anthropologist Smith said that the concept of resilience has applications far beyond salmon and fishing. “We should all be interested in resilience, because it adds a little different twist to the way we think about things. We have a human system interacting with a biocomplex system; if humans are going to survive over a long period of time, we need to be able to adapt to change and disturbance, rather than trying to make everything stable, as we have with our current policies.” – Science Daily
Oil Spill Demo at Prince Rupert Conference PRINCE RUPERT, British Columbia – The Living Oceans Society will be in Prince Rupert this weekend to demonstrate an online computer-generated model that shows how oil spills would harm ecosystems and communities on the North Coast of British Columbia. The demonstration is part of a two-day conference being hosted by the World Wildlife Fund Prince Rupert. It is open to everyone and takes place on Saturday, from 7 to 9 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at the Crest Hotel. The oil spill animation, built using leading edge computer modeling software and the most up to date oceanographic data available, is able to generate oil spill scenarios from oil tankers and drilling platforms in coastal waters. "The oil spill model clearly demonstrates that Canada and the province of B.C. must strengthen and enforce the moratorium on oil tankers and offshore oil and gas in order to maintain the wealth of marine resources on B.C.'s coast," said Oonagh O'Connor, Living Oceans Society energy campaign manager. "There is considerable pressure to open the coast to oil tanker traffic and offshore oil and gas. The federal government is already turning a blind eye to the tankers that are sailing into Kitimat to deliver condensate, a highly toxic petro-chemical product used to thin oil extracted from Alberta's tar sands." However, oil spills are not the only way oil can get into the marine environment and the two-day forum will also focus on the impact of chronic oil on the marine environment, said Mike Ambach, WWF-Prince Rupert. Exchange of oil bilge water and oil coming from motors are other sources, as well as shore-based oil entering the marine environment. "The effects are cumulative, although a lot less catastrophic than the oil spills, but they are none-the-less significant," he said. The impact of chronic oil spills on wildlife is something that has received more study on the Atlantic Coast because of the history and the larger ship volumes, he said. Sarah Patton from Canada Parks and Wilderness will focus on what has happened on the Atlantic Coast while Patrick O'Hara from the Ministry of Environment be speaking about the impact of chronic oil spills on B.C. seabirds. Then on Sunday, Peter Davidson from Bird Studies Canada will be conducting a hands-on workshop about shorebird surveys and beached bird surveys designed for citizen participation. "For all those birders out there, this will be a great opportunity," he said. The federal government is beefing up its enforcement arsenal in British Columbia to deter ship operators from illegally dumping oily bilge waste into the ocean - a practice that could be killing hundreds of thousands of seabirds every year. This fall, Transport Canada's new $10-million Dash 8 began flying surveillance runs over B.C. waters and the western Arctic, as the government also peers at the Pacific using special satellite images supplied by the Canadian Space Agency's RADARSAT-1. The new forms of surveillance, already in use in Eastern Canada, are meant to scare off unscrupulous bilge-dumpers trying to avoid the cost of disposal at port. The accumulated oil - a little here and a little there - creates chronic oil pollution, devastating for fragile seabirds, and likely, for other marine creatures. – Prince Rupert Daily News Craig Sidelined, Demos Take Over Salmon Issue WASHINGTON - With Idaho Republican Larry Craig weakened by a sex scandal and expected to depart from the Senate, Democrats will have more say than ever about the future of Northwest salmon and dams. Craig, who has been removed from leadership posts on the Appropriations and Energy committees, is known as one the most powerful voices in Congress on behalf of the timber and power industries. Environmentalists have fought Craig for years on issues from endangered salmon to public land grazing. Now Senate Democrats, exercising their slim majority, have waded into two contentious issues -- both related to Snake River salmon. First, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada asked federal regulators to require passage for salmon and steelhead for relicensing of the Hells Canyon Complex, a series of dams on the Snake River between Oregon and Idaho. Reid says the passage would allow salmon to return to their historical spawning grounds in northern Nevada, where the shimmering fish used to run thick nearly a century ago. Meanwhile, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has asked her colleagues to undo Craig's bid to use a federal spending bill to dictate water flow for Snake River fish. Salmon advocates were thrilled at the actions of the two western Democrats, which they say could go a long way to protect and restore salmon and steelhead in the Snake River Basin, which spans Idaho, Washington state, Oregon and Wyoming. Under language inserted by Craig this summer, the Interior Department would be directed to implement “without further delay” a controversial Bush administration biological opinion on the Upper Snake River issued in 2005. U.S. District Judge James Redden ruled last year that the opinion did not do enough to promote recovery of threatened salmon, violating the Endangered Species Act. He ordered federal officials to submit a new salmon recovery plan by the end of October. Salmon advocates say Craig's language would nullify Redden's ruling and direct officials to rely on a discredited policy that does not provide enough water to allow salmon to thrive and shifts the burden for recovery of the threatened fish to Oregon and Washington state. In a Sept. 19 letter to fellow Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who chairs the Interior subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations panel, Cantwell said Craig's action could “undermine” the ongoing planning process for salmon, as well as disrupt a judicial order. She asked for Feinstein's help in “removing this controversial and unnecessary language” from the federal spending bill before it is approved by the Senate. Reid was similarly forceful in his letter to federal energy regulators mulling a plan to relicense the three-dam Hells Canyon Complex, which produces more than half of Idaho Power's hydroelectric energy. When the dams were constructed, they blocked salmon and steelhead from reaching their spawning grounds in southern Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada, Reid wrote in an Aug. 27 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Dan Whiting, a spokesman for Craig, accused Cantwell and Reid of meddling in Idaho issues. ”Basically the bottom line is Larry Craig is out to protect Idaho water,” Whiting said, adding that Craig believes that the 2005 opinion rejected by the court is one that will “balance all the interests of water issues in the region, for irrigation, power use and for salmon.” Democrats control both chambers of Congress “and I'm sure they are looking for opportunities to get their way,” Whiting added. “Whether they are taking advantage of Senator Craig's current state I don't know.” Craig is expected to remain as Idaho's senior senator at least until a Minnesota judge rules on his effort to withdraw a guilty plea in a men's room sex sting. As long as he is in office, Craig “will represent Idaho's interests,” Whiting said. “Natural resource issues and salmon and water are things he's worked at for 27 years.” Feinstein, in a letter to Cantwell last week, said the Craig language on the spending bill was inserted as a “placeholder” until the bill goes to a House-Senate conference committee. If there are any objections, “I can assure you that ... I intend to drop the language from the final conference report,” Feinstein wrote. Reid also supports Cantwell's efforts, as part of his bid to return salmon and steelhead to Nevada rivers, Summers said. ”Improving the overall viability of the Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead populations is a necessary part of that effort,” he said. “We need to move forward, not backward on these issues.” – Eureka Times Standard Commercial Fishermen Move Inland MEDFORD - Tracy Cole feeds a gillnet through a flapping contraption that is sending tui chubs flying around like popcorn. Hundreds of dead chubs coat the boat deck as Cole ducks to allow a 4-inch chub to skip past his face and land belly-up into Fish Lake. Cole is part of a team of commercial fishermen who pulled more than 11,000 pounds of illegally introduced chub from Fish Lake last week using gill nets and a specially designed "beater-bar" that separates the chub from the net in speedy, but smelly, fashion. It would take a full day to pull the dead chubs from the 600-pound net by hand, but the gas-powered beater-bar can do it in minutes. That makes chub-netting a cost-effective replacement for rotenone — an expensive piscicide used to wipe chubs out of Diamond Lake only after years of environmental studies. "That was our goal — to come and show that this is a feasible alternative to rotenone," says Bob Schones, the Siletz fishermen hired for the job. "This thing beats the fish right out of the net. If you had to pick them out by hand, it would be unbearable. It'd take all day. "It's a little dirty, but it's fun," he says. It's also found favor with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, whose biologists are looking for a way to keep Fish Lake's unwanted chubs down to a level where they won't out-compete stocked trout for food and space as they did at Diamond Lake. "As far as mechanical removal goes, it definitely looks like it has merit in Fish Lake," says Ian Reid, a Forest Service fish biologist on the project. Fish Lake needs it. The lake, off Highway 140 near the Jackson/Klamath county line, has a long and painful history with chubs. Illegally introduced in the early 1940s by fishermen from nearby Klamath Lake, the chubs have survived five rotenone treatments. That makes it a poor candidate for any future effort at better fishing through chemicals. Two Ohio college interns spent the summer using trap-nets to catch and haul about a quarter of the estimated 1 million chubs, leaving the lion's share to Schones. The work was as much an experiment as it is a screen test for Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe. Eleven nets, each 600 feet long and ranging from 8 to 16 feet deep, were set in known chub waters and left overnight. Chub swam into them and got their gills stuck on the thin mesh netting. Most die. The mesh was small enough, Cole says, that only 10 trout were captured last week. The next day, the nets were hauled onto the boat and run through the beater-bar, which jettisons the catch. The thumped chubs were bagged and hauled to a farm outside of Phoenix, where they were buried as fertilizer. The project cost $24,000 and was paid for through Northwest Forest Plan funds, Reid says. Schones' contract called for netting, hauling and disposing of 8,000 pounds of chub, or about 160,000 fish. He caught almost that many Sept. 16-17. By the time the crew beat chub out of their last net Thursday, more than 11,000 pounds of chubs were gone. "It's amazing," Schones says. "I think we put a dent in the chubs." They also put a dent in their sense of smell. The chubs rotted quickly in the sun, drawing a mean team of yellow jackets to the boat when it approached shore. "Most fish need a day or two to really stink," deck hand Don Schmidt says. "These things stink right away." – Medford Mail Tribune <<<•>>>
Tuesday, October 2. 2007
How Stevens Ensured Fed Money for Angler Lobby ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In 2004, Alaska state officials came across a puzzling sentence deep inside a bill recently passed by Congress. It said only this: "$2 million is for the Kenai River; $1 million for the Russian River." The officials couldn't tell what the money was for. So they sent an e-mail to the office of Alaska's senator, Ted Stevens, at the time chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Stevens' panel had helped craft the bill, which covered spending for several federal agencies. The section in question dealt with money distributed out of something called the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. The reply from Stevens' office to the state: "The $2 million for the Kenai River; and $1 million for the Russian River go to Bob Penney." Then it gave the phone number for Penco, an Anchorage company founded by developer Bob Penney. Penney is a longtime advocate for sport fishing on the Kenai, and has a summer home and other property along the river. He co-founded the nonprofit Kenai River Sportfishing Association and helps direct the group. He is also a longtime personal friend and past business partner of Stevens. The $3 million was ultimately spent under the direction of the sport fishing association on fisheries research and habitat work. But putting the private sport fish group in charge of the money -- and not the state Department of Fish and Game -- has proven controversial on the Kenai Peninsula, where competition between recreational anglers and commercial fishermen is fierce. Controversial money Stevens declined to comment for this story. His spokesman, Aaron Saunders, cited the senator's position of not speaking on matters related to the federal investigation of Stevens, which included an FBI raid this summer on Stevens' Girdwood home. Penney, when reached for comment, denied having anything to do with securing the Kenai and Russian river money. Kenai River Sportfishing Association acting chairman Ron Rainey, though, thought Penney was behind the earmark that ended up with the association, known as KRSA. He said the group hadn't even known the money was coming. "I was chairman then, and Bob Penney and Sen. Stevens evidently worked out a process for habitat and fisheries studies on the Kenai and Russian rivers," Rainey said. Sue Aspelund, special assistant with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said she knew the money was meant for the Kenai River nonprofit but does not recall exactly how. She said her recollection is that someone from the association had contacted the department. The money came from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund and it can only be used for salmon sustainability work, so there was never any inference that the money was intended for Penney personally. The money from the 2004 earmark -- and similar appropriations in 2005 and '06 -- never actually went to the sportfishing association. The group, working with Fish and Game, determined how it should be spent, and the money was then channeled through the state to individual contractors. In addition, Fish and Game has conducted many of the projects itself. But the fact that an advocacy group is directing where the federal money is going has caused some heartburn on the Kenai Peninsula. A new group of fishermen and retired biologists, the Kenai Area Fisherman's Coalition, wrote the governor on Sept. 14 the action was unethical and possibly illegal. Stevens and Penney Penney has been under scrutiny lately for his relationships with members of Alaska's congressional delegation. The state's other U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski, was accused of getting a sweetheart deal from Penney on her 2006 purchase of a Kenai riverfront lot next door to Penney's home. Murkowski denied wrongdoing but decided in July to sell the lot back to Penney as a result of the controversy. Every summer for more than a decade, Stevens and Penney have been involved in bringing members of Congress, Cabinet secretaries, corporate executives and other VIPs to Alaska for the Kenai River Classic, a king salmon tournament that raises money for fish habitat. Penney and Stevens were partners in a Utah land deal. Stevens made an initial investment of $15,000 in 1998 and said in 2005 that he made $150,000 when he sold his interest in the property. Stevens and Penney have also been partners in racehorses. Earlier this year, Penney appeared before a federal grand jury that is part of the ongoing investigation of Stevens. "With Attention to Bob Penney" Penney, while declining a full interview for this story, provided a statement of his version of events. Penney's statement begins with his recollection that $20 million was appropriated from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund for Alaska in 2004. Penney said he recalls $1 million of it went to sport fishing and he believed "commercial purposes" got the rest. Penney's group actually received $3 million of $19.3 million designated for Alaska from the salmon recovery fund in 2004. The rest was appropriated for uses including Fairbanks and Cook Inlet hatcheries, the Alaska SeaLife Center for Resurrection Bay salmon habitat, the city of Adak, the Arctic-Yukon Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative and the Municipality of Anchorage to restore popular sport fisheries at Ship Creek, Chester Creek and Campbell Creek. Penney's statement said sport fishing money went to the Kenai River through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game "with attention to Bob Penney, it should have continued to say, as co-chairman of the KRSA habitat restoration committee." KRSA sets priorities through a process including input from local, state and federal fisheries scientists. The sport fishing group then seeks out proposals for projects that fit with those priorities. The organizations that do the projects submit invoices to Fish and Game for reimbursement from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. Who decides? Tarbox, the retired state commercial fisheries biologist, said money has been wasted. He disagrees with some of the projects, the consultants chosen to do them, and what he calls their implications for upcoming Board of Fish decisions. But Tarbox said his main problem is with the process involved. He said there needs to be a level playing field to decide the priorities of the Kenai. The state, not the sportfishing group, should decide the fate of federal dollars for the river, he argued, and other users of the river shouldn't be shut out. Fish and Game does have an oversight role and put together a team of commercial and sportfish scientists to review the projects and make sure they are scientifically sound and financially responsible, said Fish and Game special assistant Aspelund. – Anchorage Daily News Ben Stevens Denies Fish Processor Kickbacks ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Former state Senate President Ben Stevens unexpectedly called a local radio show Friday, talking publicly about the Alaska corruption investigation for the first time since the FBI searched his office more than a year ago. – Anchorage Daily News
Total Allowable Catches for Crab Set Here are the announcements from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the NMFS concerning Alaska crab openings this year. Red king crab The Alaska Department of Fish & Game and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have completed analysis of NMFS trawl survey data for Bristol Bay red king crab. The Bristol Bay red king crab stock is estimated to be above the mature female abundance threshold. The Effective Spawning Biomass (ESB) of the Bristol Bay red king crab stock is estimated to be 72.8 million pounds. Based on the 2007 data, ESB increased 7.2% between 2006 and 2007. Mature male abundance increased 10.7% over the 2006 estimate and legal male abundance increased 15.4%. Since the ESB estimate is greater than 55.0 million pounds, a 15 percent exploitation rate was applied to the estimated mature male abundance to derive total allowable catch (TAC) for the 2007/08 season as follows: IFQ 18,344,700 pounds CDQ 2,038,300 pounds Total 20,383,000 pounds The 2007/08 Bristol Bay red king crab fishery will open at 12:00 noon on October 15 and will remain open through January 15, 2008. The pot limit for this fishery is 450 pots per vessel. Alaska snow crab The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have completed analysis of NMFS trawl survey data for the Bering Sea snow crab stock. Abundance and biomass estimates were made using area-swept and assessment model techniques. The total mature biomass (TMB) of male and female snow crabs in the Bering Sea is estimated to be above the harvest strategy minimum threshold for a fishery opening. The 2007/08 snow crab total allowable catch (TAC) is summarized as follows: IFQ 56,730,600 pounds CDQ 6,303,400 pounds Total 63,034,000 pounds The 2007/08 snow crab TAC was calculated using an exploitation rate of 16.68% applied to the mature male biomass of 377.9 million pounds. The 2007/08 Bering Sea snow crab fishery will open at 12:00 noon October 15, 2007 and will remain open through May 15, 2008 in the Eastern Subdistrict and through May 31, 2008 in the Western Subdistrict. The snow crab fishery is open in waters of the Bering Sea District west of 166º W long., except for waters enclosed by 168° W long. to 170° W long. and 57° N lat. to 58° N lat. (ADF&G statistical areas 685700, 685730, 695700, and 695730) will be closed to commercial fishing for Tanner and snow crabs to protect the Pribilof blue king crab stock. The majority of blue king crabs captured during the 2007 survey were found in this area. The pot limit for this fishery is 450 pots per vessel. Bairdi crab The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have completed analysis of NMFS trawl survey data for the Bering Sea Tanner crab stock. The Bering Sea Tanner crab stock is above the minimum mature female biomass threshold of 21.0 million pounds. The Bering Sea District Tanner crab stock is managed east and west of 166º W longitude, with a separate total allowable catch (TAC) for each area. There is no minimum total allowable catch (TAC) for Bering Sea District Tanner crab. The department calculated the TAC east of 166° W long. using a 10% harvest rate applied to the molting mature male abundance. West of 166° W long., the TAC was calculated using a 50% harvest rate applied to the exploitable legal-male abundance estimate. The 2007/08 Bering Sea District Tanner crab TACs are summarized as follows: IFQ - East 3,100,500 pounds CDQ - East 344,500 pounds Total - East 3,445,000 pounds IFQ - West 1,958,400 pounds CDQ - West 217,600 pounds Total - West 2,176,000 pounds In the area west of 166° W long., waters enclosed by 168° W long. to 170° W long. and 57° N lat. to 58° N lat. (ADF&G statistical areas 685700, 685730, 695700, and 695730) will be closed to commercial fishing for Tanner crab to protect the Pribilof blue king crab stock. The majority of blue king crabs captured during the 2007 survey were found in this area.
The 2007/08 Bering Sea Tanner crab fishery will open at 12:00 noon on October 15, 2007 and will remain open through March 31, 2008. The pot limit for this fishery is 450 pots per vessel. Buoy tags are currently available for sale at the Dutch Harbor and Kodiak ADF&G offices. Vessel operators may harvest Tanner crab west TAC and snow crab concurrently by registering for both species west of 166° W long., as well as Tanner crab east TAC and Bristol Bay red king crab by registering for both species east of 166° W long. Between 163° W long. and 166° W long., Tanner crab may only be harvested in the directed Tanner crab fishery. Vessel operators may not concurrently register for Tanner crab fishing east and west of 166° W long. Each vessel operator is restricted to a single species allocation of crab pot gear (450 pots) and must designate at the time of registration the quantity of pot gear registered and the quantity of pot gear configured for each species. * * * The operator of a vessel participating in IFQ, or CDQ crab fisheries must notify the USCG at least 24-hours prior to departing port when carrying crab pot gear. USCG can be contacted at: 1-800-478-5555; Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, (907) 581-6738; and Kodiak, (907) 654-5588. Preseason gear inspections will be available beginning on October 10, 2007 in Dutch Harbor, Akutan and King Cove. Vessel registration will begin on the morning of October 14, 2007. An individual holding a 2007 Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC) Bristol Bay red king crab, snow crab and/or Tanner crab interim use permit card (K91T or K09T) must be aboard the vessel when it is registered. Vessels may fish concurrently for IFQ and CDQ crab, but a separate registration and CFEC permit card is required for each fishery. At the time of registration, all pots onboard the vessel or in wet storage must be in compliance with current Bristol Bay commercial red king crab fishing, snow crab and/or Tanner crab regulations. For questions regarding issuance of quota share and IFQ/IPQ, contact NOAA Fisheries RAM Division at 1-800-304-4846 (option #2). For questions regarding federal Crab Rationalization Program regulations, contact NOAA Fisheries Sustainable Fisheries Division at (907) 586-7228 or the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement in Kodiak at (907) 486-3298 or Dutch Harbor at (907) 581-2061. For further information on state management contact the Alaska Department of Fish & Game in Dutch Harbor at (907) 581-1239 or in Kodiak, at (907) 486-1840. – Press release Water Users Say Power Plants Harm Fish SACRAMENTO – A coalition of water users filed a notice Thursday stating its intent to file a lawsuit alleging that power plants are harming fish in the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The four water districts allege that Mirant Corp.'s natural gas-fired power plants in Antioch and Pittsburg are harming species including the delta smelt. The smelt's decline triggered a recent federal court decision that was expected to limit the amount of water available from the delta for people and farmers, including those served by the Belridge, Berrenda Mesa, Lost Hills, and Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa water districts. The plaintiffs say that Mirant's power plants pump more than a billion gallons of water a day from the delta to cool steam turbines. The process not only kills tens of thousands of fish that get sucked into the pumps, but harms their habitat by returning warmer water to the delta, says the 11-page notice sent by Irvine attorney Paul Weiland. Filing the notice is the first required step to actually bringing suit against the government. The coalition cites reports by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Public Policy Institute of California, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, that the pumps potentially kill so many fish that they are contributing to declining smelt populations. Mirant corporate spokeswoman Felicia Joy Browder said in an e-mail that she could not immediately comment. The coalition said it also intends to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for authorizing Mirant's killing of rare species. A spokesman for the Corps said he couldn't comment. Experts previously estimated that keeping fish out of the pumps could be expensive. One fish screening device costs $7 million to purchase and $600,000 annually to maintain. The coalition acknowledged that the power plants are just some of the potential causes of the smelt's decline. Invasive species, pollution, and other unscreened water pumps have also been identified as problems. None of those problems will be resolved by merely limiting water pumping from the delta for the federal and state water projects that feed farms and communities, Michael Boccadoro, spokesman for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, said in a news release announcing the legal notice. -- San Diego Union Tribune ComFish Still Alive in Kodiak KODIAK, Alaska – ComFish, the annual spring fisheries tradeshow hosted by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, is down but not out. Chamber employees and members want to resurrect it as a new event with a new image. They describe it as a fisheries summit, more issues oriented than retail oriented. “We cannot afford to be losing money consistently. We are responsible to the membership and to our board members and we need to make some sound business decisions,” Chamber of Commerce executive director Debora King said. King projects ComFish will lose about $10,000 next year if there are no changes to the way it is run. That’s a big loss for an organization as small as the chamber, she said. Chamber members held a meeting Thursday to brainstorm ideas for breathing new life into ComFish. King said Kodiakans can expect an announcement from the board by the end of October. The tradeshow has been bleeding money and losing its audience in recent years. Attendance among fishermen has dropped. Booth rentals to industry sales representatives are at historic lows and replacing those booths with local business and service organizations hasn’t worked well. But chamber members like the popular fisheries forums at ComFish, at which biologists and economists present new information, and policy experts discuss fisheries politics and regulation. Several people attending Thursday’s meeting agreed. Some said the name ComFish should stay, even if the event adopts a fisheries summit approach. “ComFish has some identity and I think we want to keep that identity,” Kodiak Island Borough Mayor Jerome Selby said. “I think we need to build on that.” The consensus Thursday, if one could be found in a brainstorming meeting, was that retail is out and a summit-style, information oriented convention is in.– Kodiak Daily Mirror <<<•>>> Wednesday, October 3 Herring Fisheries Closed Through Spring `08 ANCHORAGE, Alaska - No commercial herring fisheries will be allowed in Prince William Sound this fall or next spring. That’s no surprise. These fisheries have been closed since 1999 due to the weak herring population. The stock is not improving, said Steve Moffitt, area research biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Cordova. Biologists saw spawning along about 18 miles of shoreline this spring, the second-lowest tally since 1973. The spawning biomass forecast for next spring – mature fish age 3 and older – is 10,000 tons, about as low as it’s ever been, Moffitt said. The only encouraging sign is lots of juvenile herring seen around the Sound, Moffitt said. So, the hand wringing over the Sound’s once robust herring stock is likely to continue. Is the problem a lingering hangover from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill? Is it the impact of disease seen in some herring? Was it the huge commercial sac roe harvests of 1991 and 1992? Is it a combination of these factors, or none of the above? Maybe herring hatcheries are the solution, an idea that’s gotten a lot of attention lately from researchers. – Pacific Fishing columnist writing as The Highliner for the Anchorage Daily News. Their View: Lynn Canal Herring Long Gone By Andy Rauwolf, John Harrington, Snapper Carson, co-chairs: Ketchikan Herring Action Group We find it quite interesting that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has recently considered listing the Lynn Canal herring stocks as either threatened or endangered. NMFS has maintained a laboratory in Juneau for about 3/4 of a century and has conducted extensive research on the once huge Lynn Canal herring stock as well as many other herring populations throughout S.E. Alaska. In 1982, after 5 years of intense herring sac roe fishing, then Governor Sheffield was persuaded to override an order by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) for an emergency closure of the Lynn Canal herring fishery and open the fishery. This last thrust depleted the herring stocks to a level that could no longer sustain the population of whales, sea lions, and salmon that had thrived on it, causing its collapse. Why, after twenty-five years, is NMFS just now considering this listing? Is it really for the sake of the herring, depleted long ago and never able to recover, or is it to appease the Sierra Club who after all these years, having shown no previous interest in the welfare of our herring stocks, now wish to use them as a tool in their quest to halt development of a mine in this area? Lynn Canal, near Juneau, is not an isolated case of depleting these rich and oily fish that are so essential to several species of salmon and bottom fish as well as most marine birds and mammals. It was once one of seven major herring spawns along with dozens of smaller spawning populations that painted the waters of Southeast Alaska white each spring, keeping salmon and other predators fat and healthy. Of the thousands of square miles of waters in the southeast, only Sitka Sound remains as a major herring spawning area. All other areas now host much smaller, severely depleted, or nonexistent populations. Herring were once so abundant that from 1900 to 1960, over 60 herring reduction plants operated year-round throughout Southeast Alaska employing over 2000 people. ADF&G didn't feel a need to regulate the bait fishery until the early 1970s when populations they were quantifying near Ketchikan crashed under their watch, never to recover. In 1976, the sac roe fishery began in earnest, with Japanese buyers paying over $2000.00 per ton just to get the eggs. In a few short years (6 years in the case of Lynn Canal), local residents began seeing a significant decline in herring populations throughout Southeast Alaska. As local pilots, sport and commercial fisherman, and other residents watched the herring biomass wither, ADF&G biologists with bachelors' degrees denied there was anything wrong with the way they managed the fishery. Instead they claimed that in each case the herring "must have moved". What biologists failed to factor into their equations was the steady increase in the whale population following the implementation of the National Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. The significantly larger humpback whale population, which prefer to feed on herring and can consume as much as three tons per day per whale, is now putting enormous pressure on what remains of the dwindling herring stocks in Southeast Alaska, making it impossible for depleted stocks to rebuild to any extent or for any length of time. The cause of the herring decline in Southeast Alaska can be attributed to at least two factors. One is the result of a broken system of management. ADF&G can make recommendations to the Board of Fish, but all final decisions on fisheries are directed by the Board and carried out by the Department. Every proposal submitted to the Board by the public relating to herring conservation at every meeting since 1993 has been rejected. At times, of the seven board members, as many as four have been herring permit holders. Secondly, federal biologists lacked adequate long range planning while drafting the National Marine Mammal Protection Act. They did not factor in the huge impact on available food resources from the population explosion of several species of marine mammals that has led us to this current sad state in Alaska's waters. Sitka Sound, itself under intense pressure from humpback whales and a state managed sac roe fishery, is the last hope for a large herring stock in Southeast Alaska. Unfortunately, as things now stand, the cycle will probably have to run its course, culminating in the starvation of large numbers of herring predators, including humpback whales. In the meantime, be prepared to continue to see smaller runs of smaller fish as hatcheries continue to release millions of salmon fry into waters that once teemed with herring but are now "plowed fields". In closing, with the popularity for herring roe in Japan dwindling more with each passing year, and the prices paid to fishermen only a fraction of what was once a very lucrative market, aren't herring really worth more to all of us if left in the water? – SitNews, Ketchikan
Russia Steps Up Warplane Exercises Around Alaska ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Russian warplane exercises around Alaska have become routine in the past few months, U.S. military officials said Monday, as the former Cold War superpower steps up flights from its Arctic bases. During the summer, Russian bombers have staged at least seven exercises in a buffer zone outside U.S. air space, each time alerting the U.S. through reports by Russian news agencies, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Alaska region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. U.S. and Canadian fighter jets, usually F-15s, have been dispatched each time to escort the Russian planes in the exercises, which have ranged from two to six aircraft, Herritage said. The latest exercise came Sept. 19 and involved two planes flying somewhere off the coast of Canada, Herritage said. They were met by Canadian planes from NORAD, which is jointly operated by the U.S. and Canadian militaries. At least five exercises by the Russian Tu-95 Bear heavy bombers have taken place off Alaska's Aleutian Islands and other historic Cold War outposts, such as Cape Lisburne and St. Lawrence Island, according to NORAD records. All occurred beyond the 12-mile boundary that constitutes U.S. airspace. "They used to have them from time to time, but not nearly in this frequency," Herritage said. "These exercises used to be more common during the Cold War." The exercises come amid troubled relations between Russia and the West and are seen by some as intimidating moves by an increasingly assertive Russia, but Herritage said the exercises are not a cause for alarm. "The recent exercises appear to be routine training activities," he told The Associated Press. "They are nowhere near U.S. airspace." President Vladimir Putin announced in August that Russia was resuming long-range bomber flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Russian Air Force officials in Moscow could not be reached for comment after hours. They have repeatedly said that the planes were not violating any nation's airspace or any international agreements. – Juneau Empire Algae Blooms Kill Farmed Salmon PRINCE RUPERT, British Columbia – A salmon farm near the central coast village of Klemtu experienced two algae blooms during the summer, the most recent of which killed hundreds of tons of farmed Atlantic salmon. The Localsh Bay farm site, one of about 35 sites operated by Marine Harvest Canada, was hit by the second bloom two weeks ago. "We haven't seen algae blooms in Klemtu, so it was unusual for us to have this occur up there," said Clare Backman, Marine Harvest Canada1s director of community relations and environmental compliance. Salmon farmers have had to learn to deal with such algae blooms, which are a widespread and commonplace problem for farms along the entire coast, particularly in the late summer and early fall. It is still not fully understood how the species of algae called Heterosigma akashiwo kills the fish. "It takes a special combination of sunshine, water temperature and nutrients for them to bloom, but when they do, they can be very damaging to our fish. So we tend to avoid places where there is frequent algae blooms, and the Sunshine Coast was an area like that." "The total amount of fish that we've removed from up there was actually 260 metric tons," said Backman. That equates to about 10 per cent of the total salmon stock for the Localsh Bay farm. – Prince Rupert Daily News <<<•>>> Further Limits for Delta Waters? SAN JOSE, Calif. – One month after a federal judge ordered sharp reductions in Delta water deliveries to protect a tiny fish, the same judge this week will consider further limits to aid salmon. Taken together, the rulings affect two permits that are supposed to spell out how fish will be protected from being killed or disrupted by the state's major dams, pumps and aqueducts. The permits, called biological opinions, were badly flawed when they were written in 2004 and 2005. Federal regulators have been revising them since last year and plan to have new ones written in another a year or so. Environmentalists sued to get tighter controls on water deliveries immediately. Last month, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger ordered restrictions on Delta pumps that water agencies say will cut farm water supplies and could force water rationing in some parts of the state. In May he struck down the biological opinion meant to protect Delta smelt. Many observers expect Wanger to toss out the second opinion - which is supposed to protect winter- run salmon, spring-run salmon and steelhead. That could further restrict water use, especially in the San Joaquin Valley. The parallel lawsuits offer interesting comparisons. The first was meant to protect Delta smelt, a pinky-size fish that smells like a cucumber but fails to generate much public sympathy. They are dangerously close to extinction. Salmon and steelhead, on the other hand, are held in higher public esteem and, in the case of salmon, taste good and support commercial and recreational fishing industries. Unlike smelt, California's imperiled salmon runs have increased substantially in recent years and represent a rare success in a state water policy largely beset by failure in recent years. Likewise, the restrictions on water operations most likely to help the fish also differ. For Delta smelt, the most immediate step - the one ordered by Wanger - involved limiting water exported from the Delta. The smelt are poor swimmers and are easily trapped and killed at the pumps. For salmon, the biggest issues in play are how cold water is managed on the Sacramento River. If more water is required to keep rivers cold during the spawning season, that would mean less water for San Joaquin Valley farms in the spring and summer. The bottom line is the same for anglers and environmentalists: They say the way to protect fish that depend on the Delta is to reduce California's dependence on Delta water. - San Jose Mercury News Safety Training Saves Fishermen's Lives NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - Fishing vessel safety training helped save the lives of five fishermen and a fishing observer who skillfully donned survival suits and leapt into a life raft when their scalloper began sinking off Nantucket, safety trainers said Tuesday. The entire crew survived the incident without injuries. A day before the sinking, they had practiced an abandon-ship drill. |