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Monday, December 10. 2007
Oregon pink shrimp wins MSC certification
This item also appeared in our Wild Catch service.
PORTLAND — Oregon pink shrimp has been formally certified as sustainably harvested.
The Marine Stewardship Council, based in London, declared that Oregon shrimp trawlers met their standards for responsible management and maintaining a sustainable fishery. That allows distributors to put the council's blue label on the product as a signal to consumers the product is ecologically safe.
It is the first shrimp fishery in the world to qualify for the council's blue label, which can be found on 1,000 product lines sold in 35 countries around the world, said Jim Humphreys, U.S. fisheries manager for the council.
Oregon pink shrimp joins Alaskan sablefish, Pacific halibut, Alaskan salmon and Alaskan crab as certified sustainable U.S. fisheries, Humphreys said. Pacific whiting, the primary ingredient of artificial crab, and Dungeness crab are being assessed for certification.
Humphreys said the Oregon pink shrimp fishery had made big strides in reducing bycatch, unwanted fish that are killed and thrown overboard, since adding a special grate to the trawl gear.
As a condition of certification, the council wants the fishery to better define its overall impacts on the ocean ecosystem, he added.
The fleet landed 20 million pounds of Oregon pink shrimp last year, which brought an average of 47 cents a pound. The tiny shrimp are primarily used in salads, and can be bought canned, frozen and fresh.
"This is an important accomplishment for our fishermen who harvest Oregon pink shrimp, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, who manage this fishery," Brad Pettinger, director of the Oregon Trawl Commission, said in a statement.
Ya think?
A study into the Australian fishing industry published in Science magazine proposes a bold plan to boost profits while easing pressure on the fish population.
The plan would see the industry cutting back on its catch but increasing its profits because of better fish stock.
The Commonwealth says it has already begun implementing the recommendations in the targets it sets for Australia's fish yield, but the industry says the plan is unnecessary and unworkable.
Sydney's fish market is the largest in the southern hemisphere. Today mud crabs are hovering around $30 a kilogram, (US $7.95 per pound) tuna $10 a kilogram and prawns for about $26 a kilogram.
The wholesale profit margin for these products is estimated at about 15 percent, but according to an economic study just published, this margin could be higher if less fish were caught.
Economist Quentin Grafton from the Australian National University is one of the authors of the study. He says, in purely economic terms, Australia is overfished. – Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Lost crab fisherman identified
Authorities have identified a commercial fisherman who fell overboard Friday morning off the Oregon coast five miles northwest of the Siuslaw River.
Andrew Jay Jessup Hebert-Hopper, 22, of Tangent, was wearing yellow rain gear but no life vest when he disappeared from the deck of the 75-foot fishing vessel Zora Belle.
The Coast Guard, which received the call at 7:20 a.m., searched a 100-square-mile area for Hebert-Hopper by helicopter and by boat for more than eight hours. The search was suspended indefinitely Friday evening.
The water where Hebert-Hopper went overboard was 50 degrees, the wind was 20 to 25 knots, and waves were 13 feet high. Coast Guard officials said a person would be unlikely to survive more than 4½ hours under those conditions. – The Oregonian
Use ice, sell better fish
The next issue of Pacific Fishing magazine explores what’s new in freezing and refrigeration.
“Fishermen believe they have a magic bullet” to help turn Bristol Bay sockeye salmon into a more profitable fishery. It's called ice.
Bristol Bay is Alaska's most valuable salmon fishery, and nearly all of the catch is sockeye, or reds. However, the fish fetch far less than reds from other Alaska regions, and most of the Bristol Bay salmon ends up in cans.
This year, 62 percent of the 30 million sockeye salmon caught in the bay went into cans, adding to an already oversupplied market. At a disappointing 62 cents a pound, the fishery was worth $106 million to Bay fishermen, down from $108 million in 2006.
"Right now, the only way a seafood company can make money is if they own a can line. Because there are so many bad fish coming out of Bristol Bay, you can't possibly freeze them and make money on those fish," said Mark Buckley, a 30-year Bay fisherman and a board member of the region's newly formed Regional Seafood Development Association.
Why the lower quality fish? Nearly 80 percent of the Bay boats are "dry" – meaning they don't chill their fish.
"It's a no-brainer. You can get up to 10 cents a pound more if you deliver chilled fish. Bristol Bay is way, way behind the rest of the state," Buckley said.
The development association aims to start turning that around next summer. It was formed two years ago when 1,730 driftnet permit holders voted to pay a 1 percent tax on their salmon catches to fund the venture.
It now has nearly $2 million in its coffers, and the first goal is to chill every fish caught by the drift fleet – including the many older, smaller boats that can't accommodate or afford fancy refrigeration systems.
"Our solution in this case is ice. We can facilitate and partner with others to get ice delivered hopefully to the entire fleet," Buckley said.
Ultimately, the better-quality product will attract more buyers who will compete for the fish.
"That is the only way we're going to raise our prices," Buckley said.
The association views its efforts as a partnership between fishermen and processors, and Trident and Leader Creek Seafoods are participating, he said.
"We are a seafood development association, not a price negotiation association," Buckley emphasized. "We're not there to try and force the processors to pay us more money. We are here to partner with industry to raise the value of Bristol Bay salmon.
"The region is undergoing a lot of hardship due to the downturn in salmon prices. If we can raise the prices and value of the catch, we can all help turn that economy around."
The Bristol Bay RSDA five-year strategic plan is posted at . Bristol Bay is only the second of 12 potential Alaska regions that has embraced the RSDA concept, following Prince William Sound/Copper River. -- Bristol Bay Times
Time to pay up for halibut, black cod
Alaska fishermen who hold quota shares of halibut and black cod (sablefish) pay a fee to the federal government each year to cover costs of managing and enforcing those fisheries. The fee, which can range from 1 percent to 3 percent, is based on the dock price paid to fishermen and averaged across the state.
"This year's average price for halibut was $4 a pound and $2 a pound for black cod. That compares to averages of $3.71 a pound and $2.45 a pound from last year," said Troie Zuniga, fee coordinator for NOAA Fisheries Restricted Access Management Division in Juneau.
Based on this year's fee of 1.2 percent, up from 1 percent in 2006, the combined fisheries yielded $2.7 million for coverage costs.
"For halibut, the overall value is $172 million and about $62 million for black cod. That's $21 million lower than the 2006 halibut value and $13 million lower for black cod," Zuniga said.
The fish prices were higher across the board this year, so why the lower values? NOAA Fisheries collects data only through September, so the highest prices paid at the end of the season in mid-November are not included, acting program manager Jessie Gharrett said. The prices are not based on fish ticket data, and the estimates are only applicable to determining the cost recovery fees, she said.
"We collect information only from shoreside processors, and the value is applied to the total fishery harvest. Unfortunately, those processors do not receive all the fish harvested. There are catcher processors, and others sell their catch on the dock. These persons are not required to report to us," Zuniga added.
Bills were mailed last week to 2,381 Alaska longliners, down from 2,500 last year. Deadline to pay is Jan. 31.
Information is a bit sketchier for shareholders of Bering Sea crab. Federal figures show the total fishery value for crab for the 2005-06 seasons was $127 million. Crabbers paid a 3 percent fee to the feds, totaling $3.9 million in fishery coverage costs. – Bristol Bay Times
Tuesday, December 11. 2007
This is one of the best stories you'll read about the Klamath
WASHINGTON – Environmentalists, Indian tribes, fishermen and farmers have been meeting in private for months trying to come up with a deal to turn the battle over Klamath River water into a showcase for cooperation and restoration.
Now, just as the 26 organizations involved in the secret talks are about to vote on whether to endorse the nearly completed pact, new studies raise doubts about whether it will send enough water down the ailing 263-mile-long river to lift its salmon runs from the brink of extinction.
No one disputes that the river is killing fish.
Recent runs have been so poor that Congress sent $60 million earlier this year to help relieve a financial disaster for fishermen, the result of a massive fish kill in 2002.
Troubling signs now are emerging on the river's tributaries, including the Shasta River, where scientists are puzzled about why hundreds of thousands of small fingerlings die before they reach the Pacific Ocean.
Neither is there any dispute over the leading cause.
Four small hydroelectric dams operated by PacifiCorp cut the river system in half, diverting so much water to high desert irrigation in southern Oregon that in dry years there isn't enough for both farmers and fish, let alone to flush out parasites and diseases downstream of the dams.
Parallel talks are under way with the Portland-based utility to remove the dams. The proposed deal focuses on amicably resolving other issues, including how much water farmers get in the upper basin and how much is sent down the river, on the assumption the dams are coming down.
It is an expensive proposal intended to bring peace to the river system for 60 years. Over the first dozen years, it calls for more than $900 million in federal spending – twice what taxpayers are now spending.
"I think we're on the brink of totally redefining how the Klamath River is operated, and making a landscape change in the upper basin that will be good for everybody," said Craig Tucker of the Karuk Tribe in Northern California, a leading advocate of the deal.
But two recent studies prepared for the Northcoast Environmental Center in Arcata, one of the parties to the talks, raise troubling questions about whether the deal is that good for fish.
William Trush, an environmental consultant on the faculty of California State University, Humboldt, and Greg Kamman, a hydrologist for a San Rafael consulting company, were provided assumptions and text of portions of the deal. Both see huge gains in knocking down the dams but are skeptical about what the deal otherwise would do for fish.
Their Nov. 9 reports question whether the deal can produce the additional water storage that it promises. They are critical of specific allocations of water for irrigation and nothing similar for restoring salmon runs. And the timelines are fuzzy.
"I am concerned that the successful implementation of the settlement agreement hinges on a conceptual plan which has no guarantees of being achieved within a specified amount of time," Kamman wrote.
The reports, which follow a National Research Council study last month supporting higher river flows, pose the potential for pushing some participants away from the deal.
"They could cause problems; I don't know," said Greg Addington of the Klamath Water Users Association. "But we want the agreement to work for fish."
Greg King of Northcoast declined to talk about the studies his group commissioned, saying he was concerned they had been leaked to The Bee in apparent violation of confidentiality agreements.
But the group's board of directors has been meeting to formulate its position on the settlement, and King called river flows the group's "most crucial issue."
"It's dicey," he said of the agreement. "We would be giving up some of our legal rights."
Commercial fishermen involved in the talks also seemed more cautious because the gains they want are outside the power of the negotiators to produce.
"The intent of the settlement agreement is to assure more water in the river, even during droughts, than has historically occurred," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.
Critics of the deal say the studies may make the proposal's funding, already a huge issue, even more problematic. Much of the money would provide power subsidies for irrigators and economic development funds for counties and Indian tribes as well as restoration of the river and basin.
Critics wonder why Congress would agree to spend more than $900 million for this when there are doubts it will recover endangered fish. Some think the salmon runs are being sacrificed for news coverage of the dams someday being torn out.
"What I worry about is the trade-off," said Bob Hunter, a staff attorney for Water Watch of Oregon.
Jim McCarthy, spokesman for Oregon Wild, said he sees a "boondoggle" in the making.
"With no set allocation for fish, it says we are hoping to get the flows they need," he said. "But the flows they are talking about are less than what the scientists say the fish need."
But Tucker, of the Karuk Tribe, said that Water Watch and Oregon Wild – excluded from talks last year after they refused to sign onto the framework for them – are trying to torpedo the deal. – Sacramento Bee
New York Times takes a look at West Coast wave energy
NEWPORT, Ore. — Chris Martinson and his fellow fishermen catch crab and shrimp in the same big swell that one day could generate an important part of the Northwest’s energy supply. Wave farms, harvested with high-tech buoys that are being tested here on the Oregon coast, would strain clean, renewable power from the surging sea.
They might make a mess of navigational charts, too.
“I don’t want it in my fishing grounds,” said Mr. Martinson, 40, who docks his 74-foot boat, Libra, here at Yaquina Bay, about 90 miles southwest of Portland. “I don’t want to be worried about driving around someone else’s million-dollar buoy.”
The coastal Northwest is one of the few parts of the West where water is abundant, but people are still fighting over it. Amid concerns about climate change and the pollution caused by generating electricity with coal and natural gas, Oregon is looking to draw power from the waves that pound its coast with forbidding efficiency.
It might seem a perfect solution in a region that has long been ahead of the national curve on alternative energy. Yet the debate over the potential damage — whether to the environment, the fishing industry or the stunning views of the Pacific — has become intense before the first megawatt has been transmitted to shore.
“Everyone wants that silver bullet,” said Fran Recht of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. “The question is, Is this as benign as everyone wants to say it is?”
The first federal permit to conduct testing for a wave energy farm off the coast of the United States was awarded in February to a company that wants to study the ocean area near Reedsport, Ore., 60 miles south of here. Three more permits have since been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Major technical and financial obstacles remain, and energy generated from waves is not expected to start contributing to the electrical grid in the United States for several years.
Yet like wind energy in its early stages in the 1980s, wave energy is considered promising, perhaps inevitable, with the potential to one day provide 5 percent to 10 percent of the nation’s energy supply, according to some projections.
Oregon, Washington and Northern California, where the Pacific Ocean first meets land in the contiguous United States after gathering momentum for thousands of miles beneath westerly winds, have the potential to generate four times as much energy from waves as states on the East Coast, according to studies by the Electric Power Research Institute.
All of the permits approved have been in Oregon, where transmission lines run close to the coast, making them easier to tap into, and where state government encourages businesses to explore new forms of energy.
With state support, Oregon State University is testing a wave energy buoy it plans to deploy off the coast here next spring.
Finavera Renewables, a Canadian company with an office in Portland, has conducted tests near the Yaquina Head lighthouse here, and has a permit to do more testing near Coos Bay.
Ocean Power Technologies, the company planning the project near Reedsport, has received a preliminary permit to test the potential for a wave farm it says could generate up to 50 megawatts of electricity. A typical coal-burning plant produces about 600 megawatts.
Several kinds of technology are being tested. Some would use buoys that hold turbines turned by waves. One type being tested at Oregon State would create energy from the relative movement between a fixed spar and a buoy that rises and falls with waves.
The Reedsport project could transmit energy to shore through an outflow pipe once used by a now-defunct timber mill. That convergence of old economy and new reflects what supporters of wave energy say is fitting symmetry for a region that has evolved from an extraction-based economy built on logging to one striving to use natural resources in ways that are environmentally sound.
But some environmentalists and fishermen worry that the recent rush for renewable energy is more about politics, big business and the next big thing than it is about clean energy. They warn that too little is known about what effect wave farms might have on migrating fish and whales.
“The tendency with new technology is always to minimize the downside,” said Ms. Recht, of the fisheries commission, which works with conservation agencies and the fishing industry to protect fish populations. “I’m not prepared to take new risks unless we’re conserving and respecting the energy we already have.”
Nancy Fitzpatrick, the administrator of the Oregon Salmon Commission, which is financed by the fishing industry, said: “Is it going to impact us? Going way back to the dams, we find out later that of course, yes, it affected salmon and migration. So we don’t want to be stuck in a situation like that with wave energy.”
For now, wave parks are expected to be built two or three miles offshore and cover as much as several square miles. Supporters say they will barely be visible, if at all.
Philip D. Moeller, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a supporter of wave and tidal energy projects, said the government was “not allowing these to go into sensitive areas.” Mr. Moeller added, “We haven’t defined sensitive area, but the point is we’ll be cognizant of that.”
He said the commission was encouraging wave energy companies to seek a new five-year “pilot license” the commission has created specifically for wave and tidal energy projects. The license, which could be gained in six months, would let companies set up a short-term wave farm to test technology and demonstrate success to wary investors. If environmental damage became evident, he said, the equipment could be removed from the ocean fairly quickly, something that is far more complicated with dams.
“Let’s get this stuff in the water and find out what it has to offer,” Mr. Moeller said.
“Consumers want green power, and this is an option.” – New York Times
Feds take next step in Bristol Bay mining
Federal land managers announced Friday they plan to lift mining restrictions on roughly 1 million acres in the Bristol Bay region.
The decision, which can be appealed, is a harsh blow to some Southwest Alaska villages, environmentalists and sporting groups that oppose mining in a watershed containing the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.
"It's unbelievably disappointing," said Tim Bristol, the Alaska regional director of Trout Unlimited, a national sport fishing advocacy group.
"I don't know where this goes next. Maybe to Congress," he said.
The Bristol Bay region is already boiling with debate over potential development of the massive Pebble copper and gold prospect north of Iliamna Lake. Pebble is on state land not subject to Friday's decision. The controversial prospect lies in the headwaters of two of the five main rivers that feed the bay's world-class salmon and trout fisheries.
Some of the land that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans to re-open to mineral entry is in the same river drainages as Pebble, but many miles downstream.
However, BLM officials say the 1 million acres don't appear to contain valuable mineral resources. Also, they claim they do not have a legal basis to continue the ban.
"Its purpose has been served," said Gary Reimers, based in BLM's Anchorage office.
For more than 30 years, millions of acres of federal land in Alaska have been closed to mining or oil and gas leasing due to the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the federal law that created Alaska's Native corporations. The land was put off limits to development while the new Native corporations selected land from federal holdings in their regions. Under the Alaska Statehood Act, which Congress passed in 1958, the state also can select land.
Soon, the state and Native corporations will soon receive the remainder of the land they selected in the Bristol Bay region.
"The lands of the highest mineral potential have been taken," Reimers said.
The BLM's critics do not find that reassuring.
Large blocks of land that agency officials plan to reopen to mineral entry are located on uplands in the Nushagak and Kvichak river drainages, which feed some of Bristol Bay's commercial, subsistence and sport fisheries. Over the years, the Nushagak is the state's largest king salmon producer and the Kvichak is the state's largest sockeye producer.
Previously, a coalition of village Native corporations worried that pollution discharges from mining could harm their salmon runs unsuccessfully asked the BLM and congressional leaders to maintain the ban on mineral entry in the region, said Dillingham resident Bobby Andrew, a coalition spokesman.
The BLM decision isn't final yet: opponents have until Jan. 14 to file a protest letter to the agency's Alaska regional director, Tom Lonnie.
Conservation groups are weighing other legal options, too, said Jeremiah Millen with the Alaska Wilderness League.
Mining officials have said very little exploration has occurred n the region but they don't feel that the BLM should retain the ban.
"It doesn't make any sense to close it off because of some campaign against Pebble," said Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association, in an interview last year.
Some Bristol Bay residents and environmental groups have asked the BLM to postpone its decision until after mid-January. – Anchorage Daily News
Marine protected areas getting bigger
Ocean waters off San Diego County and the rest of Southern California likely will be carved into new marine conservation areas years earlier than expected, state officials have said. The reserves could benefit dwindling species but damage the fishing industry in the region – arguably the state's biggest battleground on the issue.
California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman announced that officials will soon begin reviewing the coast along San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Some observers had expected them to first tackle the northern reaches of California.
Three years ago, state officials chose the central coast as the starting point to expand a hodgepodge of undersea reserves designed to protect numerous species through restrictions on fishing and other forms of harvest. They have completed one section and are working on another.
“This is a monumental effort,” Chrisman said of the Southern California plan. “It truly is a national model, and there will be a lot of good that will come of this.”
His announcement spurred powerful interest groups to prepare for what's likely to be a long struggle over whether to enlarge – perhaps dramatically – coastal reserves along the 300-mile stretch from the U.S.-Mexico border to Point Conception, north of Santa Barbara.
Environmentalists and fishermen, while often united on the need to help preserve California's fisheries, have clashed for years over the size and location of marine protection zones. The fight has encompassed everything from scientific reports to demonstrations where people throw fish, dress as kelp and bring children with fishing poles.
The fracas is expected to intensify as attention focuses on Southern California, home to millions of people with direct or indirect interest in the ocean.
Kate Hanley, who manages marine conservation efforts for the environmental group San Diego Coastkeeper, said she was hopeful that the revision process for coastal reserves will improve the health of the ocean in a way that all sides could appreciate.
“We really are trying to protect the same resource,” Hanley said.
Southern California already has more than 40 marine protection areas that cover some 150 square miles. That includes 10 along the coast of San Diego County.
The patchwork includes marine reserves, marine parks and marine conservation areas. They allow different amounts of fishing and shellfish harvesting.
By far, the largest coastal reserves in Southern California are near the Channel Islands. Research there has shown that such zones help marine life recover, but there isn't enough information to make long-term conclusions, said John Ugoretz, a top official with the state Department of Fish and Game's marine program.
“The trends are looking positive . . . and it's showing at this point there has not been the types of negative (economic) impact that people were concerned about,” he said.
Marine reserves have helped boost the populations of marine animals worldwide, said Ed Parnell, a marine ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
“Two generations from now, people will be very happy with (California's reserve system) . . . just as we are glad that there were forward-thinking people in the 19th century who created the national parks system,” he said.
Others are less certain about the prospects.
“The jury is out. Large-scale closed areas may not be necessary, and it's certainly too soon to know if they have any effect,” said Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Association of California. The group represents more than 200 sport fishing boats from 23 landings statewide.
The Legislature established the basis for a statewide network of coastal reserves in 1999 when it passed the Marine Life Protection Act. The law has been supported by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission, which declared that the nation's oceans are in crisis.
Early next year, state officials will commission studies as part of their effort to determine what areas should be off-limits to recreational and commercial fishing in Southern California. Even after they reshape the coastal reserves, they will continue to refine them over the years based on what's working.
“The marine protected areas that have existed historically are really small and placed in locations that didn't have a huge amount of scientific basis to them and are very poorly enforced,” said Greg Helms of the Ocean Conservancy in Santa Barbara.
He welcomed the revision process despite the dissension it stirs.
“When you bring more voices into the ocean management and ocean protection process, it's fundamentally a good thing because the oceans are a commons,” Helms said.
In drawing new boundaries for marine protected areas on the central coast, state officials have tapped numerous interest groups, including those for fishermen, scientists, divers, surfers and tour boat operators.
Dozens of experts contributed to a two-year review that led state leaders to expand reserves in the central coast's southern section by more than 450 percent – to 204 square miles.
As that process played out, some interest groups became more concerned about what could happen in Southern California. If the region's reserves increase as much as they did in the southern central coast, they would cover about 850 square miles.
Paul Lebowitz, kayak fishing editor for Western Outdoor News, said additional restrictions for waters off La Jolla and Dana Point would severely affect the growing ranks of kayak anglers at those sites.
“La Jolla is the sport's epicenter. There's the deep canyon, the kelp beds, the influence of Scripps pier and a good, safe place to launch,” Lebowitz said. “But based on what has happened in this process up north, they like (to protect) deep canyons. . . . It would be devastating to us to lose La Jolla.”
Fishing organizations such as United Anglers of Southern California, the Coastside Fishing Club, the Sportfishing Association of California and the American Sportfishing Association have formed the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans to try to maintain access to various recreational fishing grounds.
“We have put together a good coalition to make sure anglers' voices are heard,” said Tom Raftican, president of the United Anglers group. – San Diego Union-Tribune
Wednesday,December 12, 2007
Halibut quota down, prices probably up
Think halibut is pretty expensive now? The price might climb even higher next year, when supply is expected to drop.
The scientific staff of the International Pacific Halibut Commission recommended a catch limit of just over 59 million pounds for next season, a drop of 9 percent from this past season.
Commercial fishermen in some regions will take the brunt of the cuts.
For Southeast Alaska (Area 2C), the recommended catch limit is 6.2 million pounds, a cut of 27 percent.
For British Columbia (Area 2B), the recommendation is for a nearly 30 percent cut to 8 million pounds.
For the top fishing area, Southcentral Alaska (Area 3A), the recommended catch limit is about 24 million pounds, down 7.6 percent.
The commission staff is recommending higher limits in most areas farther west off Alaska.
The six-member commission, which regulates halibut fisheries off the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska, is scheduled to meet Jan. 15-18 in Portland to make the final decision on catch limits.
The halibut fishery is expected to open in March and run until November. – Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing as The Highliner for the Anchorage Daily News
San Francisco fishermen get some money
Lawyers for local crab fishermen have brokered temporary cash settlements from the insurance group that represents the container ship Cosco Busan for damages they suffered from November's big oil spill.
The ship's insurers are offering crab boat owners who can prove they were damaged by the spill interim payments of either $5,000 or $10,000, money that attorney Michael Duncheon described as "a down payment" against future claims.
The interim payments do not affect the fishermen's right to pursue further compensation or additional damages in case the crab fishery has been permanently damaged by the spill.
The fishermen sustained a financial loss when the Cosco Busan spilled fuel oil into the bay and ocean just a week before the Nov. 15 opening of the commercial crab season.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger halted all fishing in a 3-mile-wide zone outside the bay for more than a week, which impacted the opening of the season in the days just before Thanksgiving, when fresh Dungeness crab is a highly prized holiday treat.– San Francisco Chronicle
JUNEAU -- A processor to replace fossil fuels with bio-diesel should be operating by January, a man behind plans to form a biodiesel cooperative said.
"We hope to show there are local solutions for energy problems of national concern," said Anthony Distefano, co-founder of Southeast Alaska Solutions.
The Alaska fish processing industry disposes of an estimated 13 million gallons per year of fish oil that could be converted to biodiesel, according to the Alaska Energy Authority.
The authority is looking for bids on a portable system that would render fish oil from fish waste from various processors.
One Juneau business already is putting biodiesel to use.
The Baranof Hotel invested about $10,000 in a new fuel system about 18 months ago to power its boilers with a blend of biodiesel and regular diesel.
The Baranof's exhaust stack now emits the distinct aroma of French fries, assistant chief engineer Quin McLean said. – Anchorage Daily News
Governor names Juneau man to fish panel
Gov. Sarah Palin has appointed a state Fish and Game official to the Northern Panel of the Pacific Salmon Commission.
Brian Frenette of Juneau is the Department of Fish and Game's sport fishing supervisor.
Frenette has published scientific papers on fish management issues involved in Southeast Alaska fisheries.
Frenette will serve as the governor's alternate on the panel, among several regional groups that provide technical and regulatory advice on salmon stocks to the commission. – Juneau Empire
North Pacific council increases yellowfin catch
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted on Monday to nearly double the size of the Bering Sea yellowfin sole fishery, setting the catch limit for the species at 225,000 tons for 2008.
The move was intended to offset the shrinking quota for the Bering Sea pollock fishery, for which a total allowable catch (TAC) of 1 million tons was approved by the council on Monday.
But the decision was opposed by an unusual alliance of environmental groups and the so-called "head and gut" fleet, the bottom-trawling boats that fish for sole and other flatfish.
The two groups don't have much common ground, but both argue that the council is risking long-term consequences in order to bail out the pollock fleet in the short term.
"What we're seeing is a fishery running out of one kind of fish, which is pollock, and then just moving on down the line," said Jon Warrenchuck, oceans scientist with the conservation group Oceana.
A handful of catcher-processor boats in the pollock business also fish for yellowfin sole, and were given part of the sole quota by the North Pacific council last year in response to shrinking pollock quotas. Lori Swanson, the executive director of the Groundfish Forum, a head and gut fleet industry organization, said that's fine, to a point.
"[When] pollock goes down and yellowfin goes up, there is a mechanism to allow more yellowfin to go to the pollock boats--we don't dispute that at all," she said. "Our concern is that by setting the TAC so high this year, the increased effort could reduce the amount of yellowfin that's available for the fishery in the future."
Both Swanson and Warrenchuck said that if the yellowfin quota is going to increase, they'd like to see it happen more gradually. In testimony before the council on Monday, Warrenchuck mentioned concerns by Oceana's lawyers that approving a quota jump of this magnitude without an environmental impact statement could violate the National Environmental Policy Act.
Stephanie Madsen, the executive director of the At-Sea Processors Association, a mostly pollock-oriented industry group, downplayed the controversy over the measure, saying that in the long run the pollock and head and gut fleet would be able to fish without stepping on each others' toes.
"It looks like we're all fighting, only because it's uncertain," she said. "I don't think there are going to be long-term issues."
The yellowfin quota was larger than the one recommended to the council by its advisory panel, but below the level that the council's scientific advisors had said was reasonable. The council also approved an increase in the advisory panel's recommended arrowtooth flounder TAC for the Bering Sea, from 50,000 tons to 75,000 tons. – KIAL
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Trident vessel spills diesel off Tacoma
Human error apparently caused a 435-gallon diesel spill from a fishing vessel tied up at the Port of Tacoma, officials said Tuesday.
“We think there may have been a misalignment of valves or inattention to detail,” U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Marty Smith said of the Monday night spill. “We don’t think it was mechanical, but I can’t say that 100 percent. It’s still speculation.”
A state Department of Ecology official said much the same thing about the spill from the Bowfin, a 166-foot Trident Seafoods fish tender moored at the port’s Pier 25 at the mouth of the Hylebos Waterway.
The Coast Guard and the Ecology Department are jointly investigating.
Seattle-based Trident operates a fleet of fishing vessels that work off Alaska. The company leases moorage at Tacoma’s port. Three vessels were tied up at Pier 25 on Monday night.
The Bowfin spill occurred during an attempt to transfer the fuel from one internal tank to another.
“Somehow, the fuel escaped through a vent. It’s under investigation right now so I don’t know why that happened,” said Joe Misenti, a Trident Seafoods vice president.
Misenti said the Bowfin’s chief engineer initiated the fuel transfer, but might not have been on board when the accident took place.
“We’re working on a timeline to determine where he was at that time,” he said.
Trident requires its employees to monitor such fuel transfers, said Bob Nelson, the company’s attorney.
Monday’s was largest of several recent spills involving the Bowfin or other Trident Seafoods vessels, according to state records.
Since 2002, Ecology Department officials have issued Trident nearly $6,000 in fines for six spills, none of which amounted to more than 20 gallons, records show. In addition, Ecology officials are still investigating a 90-gallon spill from the Bowfin in Commencement Bay last July.
Even so, Coast Guard and state officials commended Trident for floating containment booms around its vessels while in port, a voluntary practice that largely confined Monday’s spill to the dock area.
“It helped a great deal,” said Lt. Cmdr. Smith. “They’ve been a really good response partner on this one.”
State regulations require containment booms only during fueling.
“There are no state laws governing the conduct of internal transfers,” said David Byers, Ecology Department spill response manager.
At Citizens for a Healthy Bay, an environmental advocacy group, Leslie Ann Rose said she believes containment has been effective.
“I’ve talked to some people along Marine View Drive and they don’t smell or see anything,” she said. “It appears the response went very much the way it should have.” – Tacoma News Tribune
Pollock catch set by North Pacific council
ANCHORAGE – The North Pacific Fishery Management Council settled on a Bering Sea pollock catch limit of 1 million metric tons for next year.
That’s a 28 percent cut from last season, reflecting what scientists say is a stock decline after a string of robust years with catches nearing 1.5 million tons.
Some industry players argued a higher catch limit would do no harm, while organizations such as Greenpeace and Oceana wanted a much more conservative number.
With respect to other commercially important Bering Sea fish, the council held the cod limit steady but increased yellowfin sole substantially.
Council recommendations are subject to final approval by the U.S. commerce secretary.
At the council’s Anchorage meeting this week, fishermen and processors talked up prospects for a large class of young pollock to reach adult size and start another bull run for the fishery in a couple of years.
Pollock is one of the world’s largest commercial fisheries by weight and a big reason why Alaska accounts for more than half of all U.S. seafood production annually.
The versatile pollock is made into goods including fish sticks and surimi, a paste used for a vast array of Asian specialty foods. – Pacific Fishing columnist Wesley Loy writing as The Highliner for the Anchorage Daily News
Body thought to be that of lost fisherman
The San Mateo County coroner is trying to identify a body that washed up on a Half Moon Bay beach Tuesday.
Authorities are trying to determine if the body of a man is that of one of the two fishermen who went missing last week while crab fishing off the San Mateo County coast, said Half Moon Bay police Sgt. David Bolster.
"He was dressed like a fisherman. He was wearing deck boots and rubber pants with suspenders," Bolster said. "The only people I'm aware of who are missing here are the two fishermen."
Police were called to an area south of Poplar Beach at 1:44 p.m. after a passer-by spotted the body.
The two missing fishermen are James Davis, a 57-year-old groundskeeper for the San Leandro Unified School District, and Benjamin Hannaberg, 58.
They set out Dec. 4 in Hannaberg's 25-foot fiberglass boat, the Good Guys, to check crab pots they had set a few days before.
They ran into 20-foot swells on their way back to the harbor and lost radio contact with another boat before disappearing. Debris were later sighted in the water, including the Good Guys' emergency beacon.
Shell isn't giving up on Alaska
Dutch oil giant Shell is making a major splash in Alaska offshore exploration after a nearly decade-long absence.
Rick Fox, Shell’s Alaska asset manager, said the company is committed to developing its holdings in the federal waters along the state’s northern coast despite legal setbacks to its plan to search for oil starting this fall in the Beaufort Sea.
Since 2005, high oil prices and the promise of major discoveries have spurred the company to invest hundreds of millions of dollars on drill rigs, leases and office space in the state.
Fox, who two decades ago managed Shell’s exploration drilling in Alaska’s polar oceans, said the company considers Alaska the “future heartland” of oil development.
“What other places are available to free-market companies to operate that have this type of tax regime?” Fox said in an interview with in Anchorage in mid-November. “This is a good place for us to work.”
Shell ceased production at its wells in Cook Inlet in 1998, partly because of low market prices, bringing a temporary end to a nearly 40-year presence in the state.
The company now holds all or part of 179 federal offshore leases in the eastern Beaufort Sea, which it picked up in Minerals Management Service (MMS) sales in 2005 and 2007, and through a buyout of EnCana’s interests in the area. Shell paid nearly $84 million for its Beaufort holdings.
Federal geologists estimate the Beaufort Sea could hold as much as 8 billion barrels of oil and nearly 28 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The MMS is planning another lease sale in the Beaufort in 2009.
Alaska’s Arctic waters are among the few federal areas off the U.S. coastline, outside the Gulf of Mexico, open to oil and gas exploration, and Shell is leading a small phalanx of companies interested in the region. Production on the offshore leases is subject to a 12.5 percent federal royalty.
“This company really has enthusiasm and confidence that Alaska is a great place for us to be,” Fox said. “What we need to do, though, is to start delivering value for the amount of money that this company is investing.”
Shell’s Alaska business must compete internally with other projects across the globe for a slice of the company’s $2 billion annual exploration portfolio, company spokesman Curtis Smith said.
“We have a substantial capital budget, but we have to compete for those dollars within the company,” Smith said. “Year in and year out, we have to deliver progress.”
Beaufort Sea
Shell’s has a $200 million, three-year project to evaluate its holdings around Camden Bay by drilling up to 12 exploratory wells. Three of those wells were slated to be completed this fall in the Sivulliq prospect, located about 16 miles offshore and just east of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The play, formerly known as Hammerhead, is familiar to Shell, which first drilled there in 1985.
In August, however, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sidetracked Shell’s plans based on a challenge by environmental groups, the North Slope Borough and the Alaska Whaling Commission, which claimed exploration would drive migrating bowhead whales out of reach of native subsistence hunters.
The MMS, the Interior Department agency responsible for offshore oil and gas leasing, approved Shell’s exploration plan in February, finding it wouldn’t cause significant harm to whales or the environment. But plaintiffs in the case argued regulators failed to adequately consider the potential impacts of industrial noise and spills associated with exploration.
The court ordered Shell to put its exploration plans on hold until the case could be resolved. The decision cost the company, which had two drill ships and a fleet of support vessels waiting in Alaska and Canadian ports ready to sail for the Beaufort, the 2007 drilling season.
“There was a lot of steel in the water ready to get some work done,” Fox said.
The delay cost the company about $100 million.
The court heard the case on Tuesday, though, a decision is not expected for months.
In the meantime, Fox is working to try to ease the concerns of North Slope Borough officials.
Chukchi Sea
Shell’s interest in the Arctic includes the Chukchi Sea, off Alaska’s northwest coast.
In early November, Shell wrapped up its second year of collecting detailed 3-D seismic data in the Chukchi.
The company is building on 17 years of 2-D seismic data and knowledge of the area gained from five exploratory wells drilled in the Chukchi between 1989 and 1991. Shell partnered with ConocoPhillips this year on its seismic program in advance of an upcoming MMS lease sale planned for the Chukchi in February.
Shell is interested in obtaining acreage in the region, but not sure yet whether it will bid on leases.
“This seismic would help detail some of these areas to determine if the Chukchi is a good fit for Shell,” Smith said.
The MMS, part of the Interior Department, estimates the region — about 29 million offshore acres stretching from Point Barrow to Cape Lisburne — holds up to 15 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. Additional lease sales are slated in the Chukchi for 2010 and 2012.
The Alaska Wilderness League and native groups want MMS to postpone leasing in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas until better scientific information about the Arctic Ocean can be gathered, including the potential combined impact that climate change and oil and gas development could have on whales and other marine mammals.
Bristol Bay
The company also owns 33 leases off the coast of Bristol Bay with an eye toward building up to four offshore oil and gas production platforms in the salmon-rich waters.
Fox said the company is confident it can tap the underwater oil and gas resources without disturbing fishing activities. However, oil and gas development in the area has long faced stiff opposition from environmental groups and commercial fishermen.
Shell has already been forced to withdraw from the region once. It was among a handful of companies that combined spent $95 million in 1988 for leases in Bristol Bay, also known as the North Aleutian Basin, only to see local opposition result in the federal government rescinding the sale in 1995.
Shell cannot develop its Bristol Bay holdings, for which it paid about $1 million in 2005, until it receives federal permits, a process it has not yet begun.
“The timing of putting that process in motion will largely be guided by the cost and impact of the activities under consideration,” Smith said.
President Bush in January removed a presidential ban on drilling in Bristol Bay that had been in place since the Exxon Valdez spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound in 1989. The action cleared the way for the MMS to hold a lease sale in 2011. – Anchorage Daily News
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Friday, December 14. 2007
Fish farms killing fish - and entire runs
Parasitic sea lice infestations caused by salmon farms are driving nearby populations of wild salmon toward extinction.
The results show that the affected pink salmon populations have been rapidly declining for four years. The scientists expect a 99 percent collapse in another four years, or two salmon generations, if the infestations continue.
"The impact is so severe that the viability of the wild salmon populations is threatened," says lead author of a new article in Science (December 14) Martin Krkosek, a fisheries ecologist from the University of Alberta. Krkosek and his co-authors calculate that sea lice have killed more than 80% of the annual pink salmon returns to British Columbia's Broughton Archipelago.
"If nothing changes, we are going to lose these fish."
Previous peer-reviewed papers by Krkosek and others showed that sea lice from fish farms can infect and kill juvenile wild salmon. This, however, is the first study to examine the population-level effects on the wild salmon stocks.
"It shows there is a real danger to wild populations from the impact of farms," says Ray Hilborn, a fisheries biologist from the University of Washington who was not involved in the study. "The data for individual populations are highly variable. But there is so much of it, it is pretty persuasive that salmon populations affected by farms are rapidly declining."
According to experts, the study also raises serious concerns about large-scale proposals for net pen aquaculture of other species and the potential for pathogen transfer to wild populations.
"This paper is really about a lot more than salmon," says Hilborn. "It is about the impacts of net pen aquaculture on wild fish. This is the first study where we can evaluate these interactions and it certainly raises serious concerns about proposed aquaculture for other species such as cod, halibut and sablefish."
The data are from the Broughton Archipelago, a group of islands and channels about 260 miles northwest of Vancouver that is environmentally, culturally, and economically dependent on wild salmon.
To pinpoint the effect of salmon farms, the study used a large dataset collected by the Canadian federal government's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Fisheries and Ocean Canada) that estimates how many adult salmon return from the ocean to British Columbia's rivers each year. Extending back to 1970, the data covers 14 populations of pink salmon (Onchorhynchus gorbuscha) that have been exposed to salmon farms, and 128 populations that have not.
Sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) are naturally occurring parasites of wild salmon that latch onto the fishes' skin in the open ocean. The lice are transmitted by a tiny free-swimming larval stage. Open-net salmon farms are a haven for these parasites, which feed on the fishes' skin and muscle tissue. Adult salmon can survive a small number of lice, but juveniles headed from the river to the sea are very small, thin-skinned, and vulnerable.
In the Broughton Archipelago, the juvenile salmon must run an 80-kilometer gauntlet of fish farms before they reach the open ocean. "Salmon farming breaks a natural law," says co-author Alexandra Morton, director of the Salmon Coast Field Station, located in the Broughton. "In the natural system, the youngest salmon are not exposed to sea lice because the adult salmon that carry the parasite are offshore. But fish farms cause a deadly collision between the vulnerable young salmon and sea lice. They are not equipped to survive this, and they don't."
Salmon bring nutrients from the open ocean back to the coastal ecosystem. Killer whales, bears, wolves, birds, and even trees depend on pink salmon. "If you lose wild salmon there's a lot you are going to lose with them -- including other industries such as fishing and tourism," says Krkosek.
"An important finding of this paper is that the impact of the sea lice is so large that it exceeds that of the commercial fishery that used to exist here," says Jennifer Ford, a co-author and fisheries scientist. "Since the infestations began, the fishery has been closed and the salmon stocks have continued declining."
"In the Broughton there are just too many farmed fish in the water. If there were only one salmon farm this problem probably wouldn't exist," Krkosek says.
"Over the years the number of farmed fish has increased," says Morton. "There used to be only a few farms, each holding about 125,000 fish. But now we have over 20 farms, some holding 1.3 million fish. The farmed fish are providing a habitat for lice that wasn't there before."
The researchers observed that when farms on a primary migration route were temporarily shut down, or fallowed, sea lice numbers dropped and salmon populations increased.
"Even though they have complicated migration patterns they all have one thing in common -- overall, the populations that are declining are the ones that are going past the farms," says Mark Lewis, a mathematical ecologist at the University of Alberta.
"There are two solutions that may work -- closed containment, and moving farms away from rivers," says Lewis. Closed containment means moving the salmon to pens that are completely sealed off from the surrounding environment in contrast to the open-net pens currently in use. In a May 16, 2007 provincial government report, the B.C. Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture recommended a move towards closed containment within 5 years.
"If industry says it's too expensive to move the fish farms or contain them, they are actually saying the natural system must continue to pay the price," says Daniel Pauly, Director of the University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre, who was not involved with the study. "They are, as economists would say, externalizing the costs of fish farming on the wild salmon and the public."
Morton, who has been studying the impacts of aquaculture for 20 years, says that, "Wild salmon are enormously important to the ecosystem, economies, and culture. Now it is clear they are disappearing in place of an industry. People need to know this and make a decision what they want: industry-produced salmon or wild salmon."
Funding came from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems National Centre of Excellence Network on Biological Invasions and Dispersal Research (with nonacademic participants including the David Suzuki Foundation, Canadian Sablefish Association, Wilderness Tourism Association, and Finest at Sea), the National Geographic Society, Tides Canada, a University of Alberta Bill Shostak Wildlife Award, the Lenfest Ocean Program, Census of Marine Life, and a Canada Research Chair.
Ransom Myers, a highly respected fisheries scientist from Dalhousie University, was a coauthor of this paper. Dr. Myers died of an inoperable brain tumor before this work was published. The authors dedicate this paper to him. – ScienceDaily
Southerners don't like deep-sea fish farming
D'IBERVILLE -- The majority of those gathered at a public hearing Wednesday cited environmental concerns over a plan to allow seafood farming operations to use large submerged cages to house live fish off the Mississippi Coast.
The Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council is drafting a plan to allow commercial groups to place large numbers of fish in submerged cages out in the Gulf and the farmers would raise them there to sell.
The operations would be allowed from within three to 200 miles from the barrier islands, if the current version of the plan is adopted.
Some of the popular models of the cages are about 80 feet by 100 feet, according to a report from Food and Water Watch, a Washington-based group that opposes the plan. There would be large zones in the Gulf filled with the cages, some gathered at the meeting feared. They said it would create environmental problems and also disrupt fishing practices.
Paula Vassey said she was concerned that people already are giving up too many government-owned lands and waters in the name of economic development, and this plan would be another example of that. -- Sun Herald, Mississippi
'Sustainable' Fraser sockeye concept questioned
British Columbia conservation groups are voicing strong opposition to the B.C. Salmon Marketing Council's pursuit of international certification for wild sockeye as an environmentally friendly consumer product.
The marketing council said on Wednesday that it urgently needs certification from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to satisfy retailers in Great Britain who warn they will refuse to sell B.C. canned salmon unless it obtains an eco-certification label.
B.C.'s principal rival in the British market, Alaska, already has MSC certification.
The conservation groups say it's inappropriate for salmon marketers to get sockeye certified by the stewardship council because of unaddressed conservation concerns for sockeye and other salmon in the Fraser, Stamp-Somass and Skeena river systems.
Sockeye runs in all of those rivers struggled in 2007 and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has warned that it expects 2008 runs to be weak. Fraser River commercial fishermen did not get an opportunity to fish for sockeye in 2007.
The process to certify the fish has been underway since 2001 and is about 85-per-cent complete, with the MSC at present looking for a team to peer-review an independent report that suggests B.C. sockeye would qualify for the coveted MSC label. – Vancouver Sun
Last trip out for commercial crabbers
Ben Hannaberg and Jim Davis, onboard a 25-foot fiberglass fishing boat named The Good Guys, departed at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 4 from Pillar Point Harbor. They intended to go pick up their crab pots.
Jerry Brumm, the lone passenger aboard another 25-foot crabbing boat called The Majek, left Pillar Point around the same time. The two boats were the only commercial vessels to test the 25-foot swells that day.
The Majek returned alone.
The local fishing community weathered another crushing blow to an already disheartening year last week when Hannaberg and Davis went missing the afternoon of Dec. 4.
Harbor officials and the U.S. Coast Guard searched for two days, but all that remained of Hannaberg and Davis' voyage were smashed shards from The Good Guys, and a body washed ashore and a cautionary tale of the risks fishermen take every time they test the seas.
By early afternoon on Dec. 4, the morning's 25-foot waves had grown to 32 feet, rolling in every 17 seconds. Visibility, which had been poor to begin with, had dropped to less than 100 feet with very dense fog, and both boats decided to make their way back to Pillar Point Harbor.
The Majek made it to the mouth of the harbor first. Shortly after 1 p.m., Brumm radioed The Good Guys to tell Hannaberg and Davis he'd sit at the mouth of the harbor to meet them. The fishermen aboard The Good Guys answered back, saying they were at the outer buoys a couple of miles offshore and were on their way in.
About 10 minutes later, Dennis Baxter, captain of the party fishing boat The New Captain Pete, was also on its way back to the harbor. The 53-foot boat had been the only other boat to leave Pillar Point that morning, taking spectators out to Mavericks where surfers were enjoying the largest swells they had seen in years. Baxter spotted The Majek and radioed Brumm, learning that The Good Guys was still out in the water. Baxter docked the boat, disembarked all but two of his passengers, and went back out to look for the vessel.
By 1:30 p.m., Brumm had radioed Assistant Harbormaster John Draper to report that too much time had passed since last hearing from The Good Guys.
"(Brumm) said 20 minutes ago, Ben called him at the buoys, and said he was coming in," Draper said. "That's when we suited up and took off."
Deputy harbormasters Cary Smith and Mike Williams boarded personal watercrafts by 1:40 p.m. and raced out to the buoys while Draper contacted the Coast Guard, California State Parks and the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. Since the current was moving southward, Draper asked rescue personnel on shore to search areas from Dunes Beach stretching south along Half Moon Bay.
"I also contacted Mavericks personnel that were surfing out there, and got on their radio frequencies to ask them to keep an eye out for (The Good Guys)," Draper said. More than 15 surfers and their tow teams were already in the water on personal watercraft.
"After we searched the No. 1 north buoy we came back and searched the No. 3 buoy. We went outside the southeast reef, found nothing, searched the inside area of the southeast reef from Miramar to Kelly Avenue," he said.
The Coast Guard had already deployed two 47-foot rescue boats from its Golden Gate station and two helicopters from South San Francisco. The boats had to turn back due to poor conditions. Baxter also turned back after 20 minutes, leaving the helicopters and personal watercrafts to continue the search on their own.
At 2 p.m. rescue personnel began picking up signals from the emergency beacon aboard The Good Guys. It was transmitting from a mile off Dunes Beach.
The EPIRB, which stands for "emergency position indicating radio beacon," is the name for the transponder that all commercial vessels are required to carry. The next day, Harbormaster Dan Temko would explain the EPIRB's workings to reporters. "If they become submerged, they automatically float to the surface and begin transmitting their position," he said. "They're fingerprinted to the boat they're attached to."
Although it was the first positive indication that rescue crews could find The Good Guys, it was also a dismal moment.
"The boat's sunk," Draper remembered thinking at the time. "I pretty much assumed the boat's lost at that point. Is that the right thing to think? Probably not. But that's the fact of life and that's how I took it."
The water at the time was 53 degrees.
An hour later, the Coast Guard helicopter spotted the first bits of boat debris in the southeast reef, about one mile farther south from where the EPIRB had originally been transmitting.
"This was all pretty substantial evidence that the boat had gone down," Temko said.
At 10 p.m. the Coast Guard suspended what it called its "active search" for The Good Guys. The next morning at daybreak, with the sea a bit calmer than the day before, the Coast Guard and Harbor Patrol lit out again to find what they could. But this time the search was downgraded from a "rescue effort" to a "recovery effort."
In 53-degree waters with six-knot winds, the estimated time anyone could stay alive floating in the sea was less than eight hours, according to the Coast Guard. It had been more than 19 hours since Hannaberg and Davis had likely been knocked from their boat.
At 8 a.m. Dec. 5, Half Moon Bay Police found two small fiberglass sections of a boat washed up on Poplar Beach. Less than an hour later, a state lifeguard found what looked to be a boat seat.
The Coast Guard called off its recovery effort at 9:25 a.m., with the Harbor Patrol doing the same two hours later.
By late afternoon, the EPIRB, which still hadn't been recovered, was finally located five miles off the coast near San Gregorio. The Harbor Patrol picked it up, confirming that it belonged to The Good Guys.
In all, rescue workers conducted eight separate searches over an area of 500 square miles. -- Half Moon Bay Review
Dec. 1 marked the start of the Dungeness crab season. An on-schedule start of the season is a blessing indeed.
Dec. 2 is always a sad reminder for my family of what crab season can be. On Dec. 2, the crab vessel Midnight Sun capsized in heavy seas as it tried to enter Humboldt Bay, killing three young men in their 20s. The captain survived. The names of the young men were Milton Pellegrini, 21; Jody Stewart, 25; and Steve Hall, 28. Milton was my husband's brother and Jody was my brother.
Because of the trepidation that comes with the start of crab season, I want the community to know how very appreciative we are to the Ferguson family of Westhaven for making and delivering wonderful crab-shaped cookies to crab fishing boats.
The Ferguson's thoughtfulness brightened our day and even brought smiles to some crusty sea captain's faces! You are welcome on our boat anytime. Thank you for thinking of us.
May the crab fleet have a safe season. -- Ronnie Pellegrini writing to the Eureka Times-Standard
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