Pacific Fishing - Fish Wrap Archive December 31, 2007

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Pacific salmon invading the Atlantic

Ocean-swapping Pacific salmon are moving into Atlantic waters, scientists say.

The fish, native to the North Pacific, have started colonizing and breeding in rivers in southern Argentina, a new study shows.

Although the sight of salmon leaping in Argentina's world-renowned trout rivers may be enticing to anglers, the silvery predators could become a nightmare for the region's marine life.

The invaders threaten to deprive penguins and sea mammals of food—an ever-increasing risk given the number of invasive salmon currently escaping from fish farms in neighboring Chile, researchers say.

The warning stems from the first study to show salmon swimming from the Pacific to the South Atlantic, where salmon don't naturally occur.

The study focused on chinook salmon, a Pacific species that has recently become established in the Santa Cruz River system in the Patagonia region of Argentina.

DNA analysis of the Santa Cruz salmon traced the fish back to failed salmon-ranching experiments on Chile's Pacific Coast during the 1980s.

Don Staniford, who was not involved in the new study, is the European representative for the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Pure Salmon Campaign. He said the new findings could mean dire consequences for the region's marine habitat.

"Salmon have a very healthy appetite, so they're going to consume native fish and prey that other species are dependent on," he said.

"You've got a recipe for potential ecological disaster."

Chinook salmon were first discovered accidentally in the headwaters of the Santa Cruz in 1998 as researchers surveyed trout spawning sites.

Another breeding population has recently been identified in a river in Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of Argentina.

Eastern-flowing ocean currents and fish-rich seas off southern Patagonia have likely allowed the salmon to spread to Atlantic waters, said study team member Miguel Pascual of the Centro Nacional Patagónico in Chubut, Argentina.

"Salmon can migrate long distances in the ocean, and they can be caught almost anywhere in the Southern Ocean," Pascual said, referring to the waters that surround Antarctica.

One salmon was recorded as far north as Uruguay, he added.

The cooler waters of southern Argentina make the region most vulnerable to invasion, Pascual said, and the area's trout rivers are likely targets for the invasive salmon.

While anglers have yet to hook any of the salmon, "[the fish] are creating a stir among sport fishermen who regard them as an addition to other valuable fisheries for steelhead and sea trout," Pascual said.

But the impact of these sea-feeding fish on the marine environment may prove severe, according to the latest research carried out by Pascual and his colleagues.

A new study, yet to be published, found that 96 percent of the chinook salmon's diet in Patagonian seas is made up of sprats, small herring-like fish that are key prey for Magellanic penguins, a species classified as "near threatened" by the World Conservation Union.

While the number of chinook salmon in the region isn't yet known, models indicate that a "medium-size population" could match the food consumption of the entire penguin population of southern Patagonia, Pascual said.

The team also warns that the number of salmon finding their way to Argentina is likely to grow "as Chile moves forward to become the largest [farmed] salmon producer in the world."

Staniford, of the Pure Salmon Campaign, said salmon escapes from Chilean farms are spiraling out of control.

Millions of fish reportedly escaped in a single incident last year, when an earthquake triggered a mini-tsunami that hit salmon farms in Chile's Aysen region, Staniford noted.

In addition to competing with penguins and sea mammals for prey, escapees can spread disease and parasitic sea lice that affect wild fish, Staniford added.

"Escaped farm salmon, unlike domesticated cows or sheep, can swim vast distances and are mobile pollutants," he said. – National Geographic

A lesson in supply and demand

If there is fresh poke and sashimi at your party, consider yourself lucky and a little broke. Even though supply picked up the past couple of days, it wasn't enough to take care of the demand.

Onaga went for $30 a pound at the fish auction. That's a bargain - yesterday, onaga went for $50 a pound.

"This vessel was supposed to come in two days ago but finally made it and so we've got about 4,500 pounds of deep sea bottom fish from the Northwest Hawaiian Islands this morning. And everybody's just curious to see how the prices are going to do," said Brooks Takenaka, from United Fishing Agency, LTD.

Price is based on supply and demand. Supply has been short...

"Because of the weather there were a couple of days where we didn't have very much fish at all. And basically what happened was, it sent everybody into a panic," said Takenaka.

And because of two important events, demand was high.

"Well, I think that's making a significant difference. Normally, people get excited about New Years but this year, coupled with the fact that we've got a fantastic football game that everybody's going to be watching and all," said Takenaka. "So I believe poke and sashimi are going to be a significant part of it."

Demand for fresh ahi sashimi is always high around New Year's -- it's part of the island tradition now. But demand for onaga, aku, opakapaka and other fish from the Northwest Hawaiian Islands is high year round. And here at the auction, it's not just stores and restaurants coming to bid. – KHON2, Hawaii

And now, our celebrity update

Professional celebrity, acquisitive mother, and future saint Angelina Jolie has started rubbing caviar into her skin to stay looking young.

The 32-year-old actress, who is dating Brad Pitt, is said to be worried the veins in her arms, hands and forehead have become more visible because of the amount of weight she has lost in recent months.

To combat the problem, Angelina has started having a special £200-a-time beauty treatment which uses a cream made from the eggs of the Baerii sturgeon, which is reared on farms in the South of France to produce the culinary delicacy of fish eggs.

The treatment, which can last up to three hours, involves the actress being wrapped up in tight bandages so her body sweats out toxins before she is slathered in the youth-restoring body cream – which claims to fight “slackened skin and loss of firmness”.

The high oil and protein content of the sturgeon eggs is believed to be very good for the skin.

As well as the full body treatments, Angelina is also having lengthy facials using caviar-based moisturisers made by cosmetic company La Prairie. – The Cheers News

From our guy in Anchorage, the top 10 for 2007

This is the season for Top 10 lists, so The Highliner offers a recap of the most important or interesting news of the past year.

• A Bristol Bay gillnetter, Sarah Palin, embarked on her first full year as governor.

• Ocean Beauty Seafoods Inc. in April announced it was selling a 50 percent stake in the Seattle company to Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. of Dillingham. It marked the first major move into the onshore processing sector by one of Alaska’s six Community Development Quota companies.

• Another big Seattle processor, Icicle Seafoods Inc., in August announced it was selling to Fox Paine, a California private equity firm. Icicle also made news in March, announcing it would farm salmon in Chile.

• The agonizing wait for fishermen plaintiffs in the epic Exxon Valdez oil spill case continued as the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the company’s appeal of a $2.5 billion punitive damages judgment.

• Salmon fishermen enjoyed a killer season, landing 212 million fish worth $374 million at the docks. It was the fourth-largest catch since statehood.

• The Bush administration in April scheduled an offshore oil and gas lease sale for 2011 in Bristol Bay, home of major salmon, crab and bottom fisheries.

• Gov. Palin in April unveiled the winning design for the state’s commemorative quarter: a grizzly bear chomping a salmon!

• The feds in March offered a revised National Offshore Aquaculture Act to encourage fish farming in ocean waters. Alaskans, who have outlawed fish farming in state waters, panned the legislation.

• The North Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended a 28 percent cut in the Bering Sea pollock catch, knocking next year’s quota down to a mere 1 million metric tons. Don’t worry, kids, that’s still a trainload of fish sticks.

• The Highliner made its debut in March. OK, so this item doesn’t really belong in the Top 10. But hey, this is a colorful, complicated, combative industry and players need all the news they can get. Keeping you engaged is the aim of this blog. – Pacific Fishing Wesley Loy writing as the Highliner in the Anchorage Daily News

To the editor: Pacific Fishing editor a ‘pompous fraud’

I’ve run across a paper by Joe Sullivan that’s been around my desk unread since January 2006. Joe’s paper was an attempt to make crab ratz look good to the city fathers and mothers. We can see today that his predictions were all wet.

After a few crocodile tears about the fishermen who lose their jobs, he says that those who remain will see considerable benefit. The crewmen horror stories filtering back from the Bering Sea turn that statement into a bad joke. We can debate whether or not he intended to lie, but if he really believed what he wrote he should be let go for incompetence.

Next in line to be fired or brought to heel would have to be Duncan Fields who has been a disappointment on all fronts. I’ve attempted to chronicle his sins as he committed them, but it’s hard to keep up. Last week at the Board of Fish he torpedoed the attempt to close Dead Man Bay to trawling, a simple request by crab fishermen and something that should have been done years ago.

And dishonorable mention should go to Don McManman, editor of Pacific Fishing magazine. I mentioned in a previous letter that North Carolina and Maine were getting a lot of traction in their dealings with the National Marine Fisheries Service. McManman in his December editorial calls these citizens “backbiters and hair pullers” and “bubbas” for daring to stick up for their rights. Since he started the name-calling, I don’t mind calling him a pompous fraud and his magazine, judging by the numerous puff pieces on the North Pacific Council, a propaganda tool of the privatizers. – John Finley, writing to the Kodiak Daily Mirror

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Thursday, January 3, 2008

Feds want to sell oil leases off Northwest Alaska

ANCHORAGE -- The U.S. Minerals Management Service said Wednesday it will offer oil and gas exploration rights next month to 29.7 million acres in the remote Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska.

The decision to hold the February 6 lease sale, the first in the Chukchi since 1991, comes days before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to list the polar bear as threatened and has drawn fire from environmentalists seeking to limit oil development in the area.

"We believe our decision is a good balance, and will allow companies to explore this intriguing frontier area while still protecting the resources important to the coastal residents," MMS Director Randall Luthi said in a statement.

The Chukchi Sea separates northwestern Alaska from northeastern Siberia. The U.S. portion of the remote, ice-choked sea is believed to hold 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, according to the Interior Department.

In the past, companies seeking to drill Alaska's offshore regions have concentrated on areas as close to shore as possible, minimizing distances from infrastructure and potential costs.

It is unclear whether companies will want to venture into such distant waters, said MMS spokeswoman Robin Cacy. "We won't really know until we have the sale."

Environmentalists say the Chukchi area, already hard-hit by rapid warming, should not be opened to more oil and gas development.

"We've seen all of these studies and reports coming out concerning significant impacts to marine mammals from global warming," said Betsey Beardsley of the Alaska Wilderness League. "If you couple that with increased oil and gas development, there's no telling what impact that would have to marine life."

U.S. Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, criticized the lease sale plan and said the MMS should wait at least three years to investigate potential impacts to polar bears, being considered for Endangered Species Act protections because of habitat loss.

"It's the height of irresponsibility and short-sightedness for the Bush Administration to schedule lease sales in the Chukchi Sea, which represents critical habitat for polar bears, whales, walrus and threatened wildlife," he said.

A decision on listing the polar bear is due next week.

Alaska Wilderness League's Beardley predicted several companies will bid on Chukchi leases, including Shell, which is active in offshore Alaska, Exxon Mobil and Norway's Statoil.

A spokesman for Shell said the company acquired data from seismic surveys conducted in the Chukchi over the summer, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.

"Evaluation of that data is ongoing to determine if the Chukchi is a good fit for Shell," he said. – Reuters

(Editor’s note: There currently is limited commercial fishing effort in the southern Chukchi, for crab and scallops, but global climate change has fishermen looking north. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is working on a fishery management plan for the Chukchi and Arctic Ocean.)

Is Arctic warming a natural phenomenon?

WASHINGTON — There’s more to the recent dramatic and alarming thawing of the Arctic region than can be explained by man-made global warming alone, a new study has found. Nature is pushing the Arctic to the edge too.

There’s a natural cause that may account for much of the Arctic warming, which has melted sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers, according to a study published in the journal Nature. New research points a finger at a natural and cyclical increase in the amount of energy in the atmosphere that moves from south to north around the Arctic Circle.

But that energy transfer, which comes with storms that head north because of ocean currents, is not acting alone either, scientists say. Another upcoming study concludes that the combination of that natural energy transfer increase and man-made global warming serve as a one-two punch that is pushing the Arctic over the edge.

Scientists are trying to figure out why the Arctic is warming and melting faster than computer models predict.

The summer of 2007, like the summer of 2005, smashed all records for loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and the ice sheet in Greenland. In September, the Arctic Ocean had 23 percent less sea ice than the previous record low. Greenland’s ice sheet melted 19 billion tons more than its previous record.

The Nature study suggests there’s more behind it than global warming because the air a couple of miles above the ground is warming more than calculated by the climate models.

Climate change theory concentrates on warming of surface temperatures and explains an Arctic that is warming faster than the rest of the world as mostly because reduced sea ice and ice sheets mean less reflecting solar rays.

Rune Graversen, the Nature study co-author and a meteorology researcher at Stockholm University in Sweden, said a shift in energy transfer explains the thawing more, including what’s happening in the atmosphere, but does not contradict consensus global warming science.

Oceanographer James Overland, who reviewed Graversen’s study for Nature, said the research dovetails with an upcoming article of his that concludes the Arctic thawing is a combination of the two.

“If we didn’t have the little extra kick from global warming then we wouldn’t have gone past the threshold for the change in sea ice,” said Overland, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s lab in Seattle. – Associated Press

Our guy in Anchorage predicts the future

So what can we expect in the new year? The Highliner knows it’s risky, but he offers these 10 predictions. Please, no wagering, and I’ll thank you not to rub it in a year from now when I’m proven wrong. Off we go!

• The Bering Sea crab fisheries will go another calendar year with no fatalities, further making a mockery of that TV show, “Deadliest Catch.”

• Look for consolidation in the Bering Sea pollock fleet. Fishing cooperatives will park some boats with the quota going down substantially. And expect one factory trawler to sell to a bigger competitor.

• Jim Balsiger of Juneau will be named the new director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Bon voyage, Mr. B.

• The bluster will continue over Pebble, a copper and gold mine that isn’t and might never be.

• Exxon Mobil will emerge the victor in the spill case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Retail halibut prices, already at blueblood levels, will go even higher due to a smaller catch limit. Can you say consumer revolt?

• We might see more public corruption indictments this year, but no fishy ones. And no, The Highliner has no inside information.

• Gov. Sarah Palin, so very popular now, will lose some of her shine in the commercial fishing industry. That’s what happens when you start making decisions.

• Bering Sea trawlers will get that Chinook bycatch under control. They’d better.

• Bob Thorstenson Jr., who occasionally swears off The Highliner, will break down and keep posting. And his blogger buddies will gladly take the bait.

(As for Wesley’s last prediction – which probably was a lock anyway – it took Bobby T. Thorstenson exactly 8 hours and 6 minutes to respond.)

An important day passed and you didn’t know it

You may not see the significance, but a major anniversary went by on Tuesday, a date that should be etched into a boulder on some rocky headland on Unalaska:

McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish sandwich debuted 45 years ago. The Bering Sea provides all those filets of pollock and, because of acceptance by McDonald’s, now is viewed as the natural choice in many countries in many applications.

The date also was the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, but we’ll leave the celebrations to others.

Greens concerned about sea lice

The Tasmanian Greens are concerned the state's growing aquaculture industry could pose a threat to wild fish stocks.

The Greens Deputy Leader, Kim Booth wants the State Government to investigate whether a report on Canadian fish farms has local relevance.

The report, in the journal Science, documents the decimation of wild salmon by sea lice from penned fish.

But spokesman for the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association Phoroze Jungalwalla says he is unclear why the Tasmanian Greens are calling for an investigation, as there are no sea lice in Australia, or wild salmon populations in Tasmania.

Mr Booth says the report's author raises wider concerns about the potential impact of aquaculture involving other species and parasites.

"What we're calling on is the minister to take a precautionary approach here," he said.

"Have a look and see if this issue that's been highlighted by sea lice in the Northern Hemisphere could in fact translate into a problem for both the salmon growers down south in the Southern Hemisphere in Tasmania, and also our environment.

"Although we're talking about different species in the Northern Hemisphere, and we don't have sea lice or wild salmon here in Tasmania, it's very important for our environment, our image, our export potential from Tasmania, and the maintenance of a clean environment and wild fish as well as the commercial growers, that the government take this very seriously," he said. – Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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