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Brief: Fisherman Shoots Sea Lion
BONNEVILLE -- The California sea lion allegedly shot and wounded last week by a frustrated fisherman has not been seen since Wednesday night, a federal official said.
The animal disappeared after authorities say it was shot and seriously wounded. The case is being investigated by the NOAA's Fishery Service Office of Enforcement. NOAA spokesman Mark Oswell said officials will "keep an eye" out for the sea lion. If he is spotted and does not appear to be doing well, he may be recovered from the water for evaluation and treatment. Harming or harassing a sea lion is a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. If officials conclude there's been a violation, they can either pursue civil penalties or criminal charges depending on several factors in the case. A civil case could result in fines as high as $12,000 per violation. A criminal conviction carries fines of up to $20,000 and jail time. Oswell said sea lions are frequent targets of attack. He said the agency gets an average of one report a month about a sea lion that has been attacked. - The Oregonian News: Fishermen Go Solar LUMMI ISLAND — A group of Lummi Island reef-netters say the addition of solar panels will cut the environmental impact of their salmon fishery to almost zero this season.Fishers who catch salmon with troll, purse seine or gillnet gear use motor vessels that can run up a big fuel bill. Reef-netters stay in one place, but they use electric motors to pull their nets up. Until now, Dave Hansen and his reef-netting partners Tom Munroe, Riley Starks and Ian Kirouac used battery power for the net motors. On Tuesday, Hansen watched as electrician Bruce Rasmussen worked on the array of solar electric panels. Rasmussen said each of the 12 panels produces 100 watts of 12-volt power. At a total cost of $8,000, the project won’t pay for itself in electricity costs any time soon, but it will eliminate the backbreaking routine involved in recharging the batteries. Kirouac said the solar panels also will save work and enable the reef-netters to market their fish to environmentally-conscious consumers who like the idea of a zero emissions fishery. “With this installation, Washington now has the most sustainable salmon fishery on the planet,” Kirouac said. Starks will offer the fish at his restaurant, The Willows, on Lummi Island. The Anthony’s restaurant chain, Haggen Inc. and Pacific Cafe in Bellingham also buy the partners’ fish. The reef-netters believe in recycling, too. Hansen said the electric motors on his boat once powered the bomb bay doors and landing gear of a World War II vintage B-17 bomber, and they use a transmission salvaged from Model T Fords – Bellingham Herald Analysis: Cold Winter, Spring to Affect Salmon KODIAK -- Fishery managers do not know how this long, cold winter and slow starting spring will affect salmon numbers over the next few years, but they have a good idea based on past data.Pre-emergent fry studies took place in Kodiak from the late 1960s, but a lack of funding cut the program several years ago. The program allowed Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists to fly to various river systems and excavate areas where pink salmon spawned to see how well the fish survived over the winter. “You could tell whether floods in the fall had washed the eggs out completely and if the fry were developing normally, or if there had been a problem because of freezing,” Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association (KRAA) executive director Kevin Brennan said. This past winter and early spring has been one of the coldest on record, he said. “This March was very similar to some of those very cold winters we had in the ’70s. There is the potential it is going to lower the pink salmon production specifically, and possibly some of the other species of salmon,” he said. This will not affect this years’ pink salmon run, but the 2008 run could be impacted. Brennan noted pink salmon are the least evolved salmon species and more likely to be affected by climate. They often spawn in shallow water and gravel with a lot of water in it and are subject to freezing. “Looking at the weather we had this year and comparing it to those years when I was involved in the pre-emergent salmon project, I can say there was more ice and the ice was on rivers longer than I had ever seen in my 15 years of working with pink salmon in Kodiak.” Pink salmon dig a shallow redd or nest 6 to 8 inches deep and deposit gravel over it. When the fish hatch, if there is enough water in the gravel they may move deeper to avoid the cold temperatures. As spring progresses, they move closer to the surface as they absorb their egg yolks. When the yolk is absorbed, they come up into the water column and are washed out to sea where they begin to feed. If they can’t get out of the gravel because it is frozen, or if they absorb their yolk before they are able to get out into open water, they won’t survive. Kodiak Island’s two salmon hatcheries also have had problems because of the cold weather. Colder-than-usual water slows the development of the fish. Fish in both hatcheries are weeks behind their normal maturity schedule, but it is unlikely they will freeze to death. – Kodiak Daily Mirror Analysis: Fishermen Concerned about Wave Energy Projects CHARLESTON, OR - Commercial fishermen are accustomed to dealing with waves, but not the wave of tidal energy project proposals.Several crabbers, salmon trollers and beach trawlers met at the Charleston Marina RV Park recreation center to learn about what many viewed as the next threat to their livelihood. “It kind of feels like a gold rush,” Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association Executive Director Onno Husing, said. Husing was one of the organizers of the meeting, designed as an informal get-together to learn about two potential wave-energy parks proposed for ocean areas off Coos County, one in the Reedsport area and others. To date, seven projects are proposed for the Oregon Coast. Each would consist of buoys tethered to the ocean floor that ride ocean swells. Internally, each buoy would have elements that would harness a portion of the swells' energy, convert it to electricity and transmit it to shore. Some proposals call for up to 200 buoys in a single area, up to about 5 square miles. All must be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Rumors abound about other projects proposed but that haven't been officially filed with FERC. “They should be coming to us,” troller Paul Merz said, noting that the companies moving ahead with the wave energy parks should be talking to existing users of the ocean: commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, commercial shippers. Commercial Dungeness crabbers could see the most change in their fishing patterns. The placement of the buoy arrays matches prime crab ground: depths of between 20 and 40 fathoms on expanses of sandy ocean bottom. Salmon and crab fisherman Tim Smith, who fishes the Irish Miss out of Winchester Bay, picked up on the gold rush idea. “They're claim jumping,” Smith said. “They're taking that (area) away.” Projects already under way FERC already has approved three preliminary permits to wave energy projects, giving three entities approval to test sites for the feasibility of operating more than one or two buoys at a site. Only one license is pending approval. Ocean Power Technologies, with U.S. offices in New Jersey, plans to have the first buoy in the water off Reedsport this summer. Some of the companies applying for permits to operate wave energy parks in the U.S. are foreign-owned, with offices in North America. Several companies already have demonstrated the value of tidal energy technology in Europe. Finavera Renewables, for example, is an Irish firm but has offices in Canada and the U.S. It has applied for a permit to study the feasibility of a park near Bandon. Fishermen said the issue of fishing grounds is the main issue, and the state and federal involvement in accepting energy parks that could displace the fleet. For instance, “crabbers,” Smith said. “(They're) going to push us aside for foreign money?” – Coos Bay World News: Hunt Whales to Save Them? BRISBANE – In an attempt to bridge the deep international divide over whaling, a former senior U.S. official has proposed the unthinkable: lift the moratorium on the commercial hunt.A compromise to control whaling could mean that overall, fewer whales would die, said Rollie Schmitten, who was the U.S. whaling commissioner for 10 years. The 25-year-old moratorium is seen as one of the conservation movement’s great global achievements, despite the use of International Whaling Commission loopholes by some countries to keep on whaling. But Schmitten, who retired in 2005, said the commission had become stuck in an ideological quagmire, divided between pro- and anti-whaling countries. "With the exception of commercializing whaling, for Japan there is little to be gained [in finding a solution]," Schmitten said. "We may not like it, but we may have to come to grips with the notion that whaling is not going to stop." He suggested a solution with four elements at a UN symposium on whale conservation: phase out lethal scientific research, and any whaling in sanctuaries; lift the moratorium using an agreed system to manage whaling; and prohibit all international trade in whale meat. Last year the whalers led by Japan gained a majority in the commission, passing a non-binding resolution declaring the moratorium "no longer necessary." Whaling is flatly opposed by Australia and other countries. - Brisbane Times Analysis: Shark Fin Soup Hurts Scallop Industry RALEIGH, N.C. -- The scallop beds are being picked clean by rays because of a dwindling shark population, say researchers in the recent issue of Science.The UNC-CH researchers say when there are fewer sharks around eating the rays, the rays proliferate and eat up the scallops. While the ray population has been growing at 8% a year, the number of great sharks has dropped drastically, as much as 99% from 1972 to 2003. Where there once were 100 sharks feeding on rays, there is now one. That has translated into the end of the $1 million scallop business in North Carolina. In the mid-1980s, the state's annual bay scallop harvest totaled half a million pounds. By 1998, the take was 289,000 pounds. Six years later, when the state stopped allowing a bay scallop harvest, fishermen took in fewer than 100 pounds. So, where did the sharks go? More than likely, into a $100 bowl of soup. The U.S. government, which has managed Atlantic shark fisheries since 1993, strictly limits the number of sharks that can be taken. But when a single dorsal fin from a whale shark can fetch more than $14,000, finning sharks becomes a high-stakes enterprise. Most of those fins end up in the Asian delicacy shark fin soup, which pops out of the kitchen at $100 a bowl. As many as 73 million sharks are killed worldwide each year just for their fins, a practice the National Marine Fisheries Service has banned in U.S. waters. The scallops are gone. The rays have to eat something. Next, the clams and oysters will go. Your favorite captain's seafood platter may be down to flounder and French fries before long. - News & Observer In Depth: Aquaculture Worries Gloucester Fishermen GLOUCESTER, MA -- Local fishing advocates are split over whether a federal push to encourage fish farming in American waters would help recovering stocks or would be an environmental and navigational danger.A bill in Congress would make it easier to start fish farms by creating a streamlined permitting process in federal waters, which stretch from 3 to 200 miles offshore, though it would allow the adjoining coastal state veto power over any proposal 12 miles or closer to its shores. Fish farms, or aquaculture, are large areas of ocean, usually measured in square miles, fenced in with barges and containing underwater tubular or conical nets that keep fish in one location. Some in Gloucester are concerned that having a high number of fish penned in one area will create environmental problems for the wild aquatic population. "There are problems with mixing with the wild, with waste and antibiotics," said Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association. However, Michael Linquata Sr., president of the Gloucester House Restaurant, said aquaculture is a way to end a large trade imbalance that finds the U.S. importing much of its seafood. Fish farms placed offshore in areas with a slight current could provide a flushing system for the waste, Linquata said. Plankton, shrimp and smaller fish would feed on the waste and provide forage food for larger wild fish in the area as well. "It's inshore waters where you have the problems, the waste release, they get sea lice, parasites," said Gloucester's Vito Calomo, executive director of the Massachusetts Fisheries Recovery Commission. "If you get out there far enough, and you have the deep water where cleansing can take place, the chance of disease is far less as long as you don't overcrowd." Twelve different salmon farms in Cobscook Bay, Maine, were struck in 1999 and 2001 with the infectious salmon anemia virus, which is harmless to humans, but causes hemorrhaging in the kidneys and other organs, protruding eyes, pale gills and a swelling of the spleen in salmon. Aquaculture could also provide jobs for fishermen displaced by strict federal regulations limiting the amount of time they may spend at sea. The bill, introduced in Congress last month, would give the Department of Commerce the power to issue 20-year permits for aquaculture proposals in federal waters. About $4 million would be appropriated to get the permitting process moving. Aquaculture is a $70 billion business globally, about $1 billion in the United States, and provides about half the seafood eaten. About 70 percent of seafood consumed domestically is farm-raised and imported, Gutierrez said. - Gloucester Daily Times News: 51 Sea Lions Die in Fish Farm Net TOFINO, B.C. -- The deaths of 51 California sea lions caught in the nets of a salmon farm is a sign of how the mammals' exploding population will affect other marine enterprises, a fish-farm operator says.Employees of Creative Salmon Co. Ltd. discovered the mass of dead animals April 12 while changing nets on the farm, located in Tofino Inlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. “In 16 years of operation, we have never experienced anything like this,” said general-manager Spencer Evans. The incident and other reported sea-lion drownings at fish farms have environmentalists calling for a move away from open-ocean net cages to closed-containment systems. But Evans, who farms coho, said it might be the first indication of escalating problems for Clayoquot Sound. He said over the last 16 months, the number of sea lions has gone from a handful to about 1,500 animals. “The impact will be huge on the other local fishers, the sport fishers, the salmon enhancement people, the stream keepers, the native fishery,” he said. So far this year, Creative Salmon has reported 110 drowned sea lions, up from 46 in 2006. Evans said divers initially discovered a few drowned sea lions between the grower net and shark guard while performing a routine inspection. The grower net houses the salmon. The shark guard, attached to the bottom of the grower net, is a false bottom designed to keep out dog fish. Grower nets and shark guards are surrounded by a larger net, called a predator net, which surrounds an entire fish farm. Evans said he thinks the sea lions chewed through the predator net and shark guard to get at the salmon in the grower net but drowned when they couldn't get back out. 'Once they find a good spot they typically remember that,' said Marilyn Joyce, a marine mammal coordinator for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Pacific region. Provincial and federal officials are investigating this incident, said Andrew Thomson, Fisheries' acting director for aquaculture management. – Toronto Star News: UN to Examine Standards for Farmed Fish NEW YORK – As the world consumes more seafood, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is working to create a new international standard to certify the safety and harvesting of fish.Currently, almost half of all seafood eaten is farmed in captivity by humans instead of being raised in the wild, prompting questions about whether what is eaten is safe and whether it was produced without hurting the environment. A certification system that is uniform across the world could verify that seafood has been harvested in a way that is healthy, socially responsible and environmentally-conscious, and FAO is mounting the effort to create a standardized framework. Without one global standard, both consumers and producers must decide which certification method to trust. As the number of so-called standards increase, consumers could lose confidence in the entire certification system. The FAO, in collaboration with the non-governmental organization (NGO) Network for Aquaculture Centres in the Asia Pacific, has been conferring with certification organizations, producers, processors and consumer groups to establish global guidelines for the creation of a new system. "The idea is to bring together a broad group of all the different people involved in the industry, look at what's already being done in terms of certification, and come up with an overarching framework that can help put aquaculture certification schemes on the same page," said Rohana Subasinghe of FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. While the guidelines to be set up will not be standards in and of themselves, they will help to regulate the raising of seafood by Governments, NGOs or private companies, he added. The first discussion among the various participants was held recently in Bangkok, bringing together 72 different groups from 20 countries. The next meeting is scheduled to take place later this year in Brazil, after which FAO and its partners will draft guidelines to be presented to Governments at the UN Agency's Subcommittee on Aquaculture meeting to be held in November 2008 in Chile. – NewsBlaze News In Depth: Popular Lake Fish Disappearing from Nets MILWAUKEE -- Commercial fisherman Mike LeClair would normally be on Lake Michigan this time of year chasing chubs, a tasty little fish that is among the last of the lake's native species still for sale in local markets.But the fourth generation fisherman quit for the spring last week after nine hours on the lake yielded a pitiful 75 pounds of fish. That isn't surprising. A recent trawl survey of Lake Michigan fish populations shows chubs have crashed to just 4% of their peak numbers in the late 1980s. It is difficult to make ecological sense of the problems facing the lake's fish populations; the recently released U.S. Geological Survey report shows continued declines in key Lake Michigan prey fish, which are the smaller species that feed the salmon and trout that drive the lake's recreational fishing industry. Alewives, the favored food of the salmon, have dropped by about 26% in the last year, which follows a 70% fall-off two years ago. Rainbow smelt numbers dropped by about 69% from 2005 to 2006; chub numbers in 2006 were down about 46% from 2005. Invasive species rise Nobody is precisely sure why so many fish have disappeared so quickly, but likely factors are high numbers of the planted predatory salmon, along with spiraling numbers of invasive species. Invasive round gobies, a bug-eyed, prehistoric-looking fish known for gobbling eggs of native lake species, have increased 16-fold from 2005 to 2006. Zebra and quagga mussels, which like gobies are natives of the Caspian Sea region, are also increasing. The volume of the pesky mollusks found in the fish nets of Geological Survey researcher Chuck Madenjian doubled each year from 2003 to 2005. Then last year it tripled. These mussels are among the lake's most notorious invaders because of their ability to disrupt the food chain on so many levels. They eat the plankton upon which virtually every fish species in the lake directly or indirectly depends. Madenjian notes that fish populations are built to fluctuate, and the chub plummet might be part of a long-term boom and bust cycle. Not reaching quotas Tim Kroeff, who helps manage the state's commercial chub program for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, says that commercial fishing is not the cause of the decline, and he notes that almost half of Lake Michigan is off-limits to the fishermen to help sustain chub numbers. Madenjian, who also agrees that fishermen are likely not the likely culprit in the chubs' decline, said his trawl survey indicates the beleaguered species might someday rebound to the point that Wisconsin's Lake Michigan commercial fishermen can begin netting them again. – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel News Revisited: It's Still Juicy and Still Wrong Late last year, a scientist from Dalhousie University in Halifax – Boris Worm – made headlines as the lead author of a scholarly article declaring the oceans would be fished clean by 2048.His assertion was provocative. It also was wrong. Within days, scholars from around the world began doing something very unscholarly – stepping outside academia to proclaim that Worm was wrong. In short, they maintained that Worm’s conclusions were based on cherry-picked data – that Worm had deliberately ignored other data in an attempt to increase the PR sex appeal of his study. The folks at our sister publication – Pacific Fishing – joined many others in the media to publish what was the emerging consensus about Worm. Then, they moved on, assuming the lesson had been learned. Worm himself back-peddled furiously. But a story as good as this – an obituary for the world’s oceans – was too juicy to whither away. Most recently, several fish farm companies have been using the discredited study as a reason why aquaculture should expand. So, we decided to revisit the matter by distributing a copy of Pacific Fishing’s account, which appeared in its January issue. If there has been more recent information, it’s been in the form of Worm’s own contrition. We’ve posted a pdf of the feature. You’ll find it here. Editorial: More Protection Needed PARIS -- The trouble with modernity is how efficiently it obliterates age-old wisdom.The good news from Palau, an island nation near the Philippines, is that some wise old ways have reasserted themselves to the benefit of the tiny republic's fish and reefs, and people. Under an ancient system of laws known throughout the South Pacific as tabu or kapu, rulers would forbid fishing in certain areas to let them recover from overuse. Their decisions relied on deep knowledge of the habits of fish, and were strictly obeyed by islanders, who understood that depletion of fisheries meant death. Overfishing by local fishermen, commercial boats and poachers has been as much a problem in Palau as elsewhere in the Pacific. Then elders in Ngiwal, a state of Palau, banned fishing on a small section of reef in 1994. It took only a few years for fish to return. Palau now protects 460 square miles of reefs and lagoons. In 2005, Palau's president, Tommy Remengesau Jr., issued the "Micronesian challenge," calling on the region to conserve 30% of coastal waters by 2020. Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have created hundreds of "no take" zones. Meanwhile, nations in another sea are pursuing their own "Caribbean challenge." But there is still a lot of water to cover. It would help if the United States dove in. Hawaii's reefs are increasingly barren. Hawaii's House of Representatives, pushed by the commercial fishing industry, recently passed a "Right to Fish" bill that is fundamentally at odds with the spirit of Palau. It erects impossible barriers against the creation of no-take zones. What the lobbyists pushing the legislation are banking on is that Hawaiians will forget the usefulness of the old ways and bristle at the supposed paternalism. It would be a perverse victory for "rights" if such an attitude hastened the demise of a shared, precious and vulnerable resource like an island fishery. – International Herald Tribune News: Poachers Busted for Paddlefish VEVAY, IN -- Police in the small town of Vevay, Indiana, arrested several people Monday in an unusual bust as part of an ongoing investigation. Those arrested weren't selling drugs on the black market, but something just as profitable -- fish.They're called paddlefish, and only Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois allow commercial and sport fishing of them on the Ohio River. But officers say people without commercial licenses took it way beyond sport, all in hope of making some quick cash. Sgt. Dean Shadley with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources understands the lure of paddlefish. "Some of these guys are making $100,000 to $400,000 a year in the paddlefish industry," he said. Why? The eggs. Some of the fish contain several pounds of caviar – considered the second best in the world -- making each fish worth between $500 and $800 on the black market. Vevay is set up perfectly, with a dam that stops the fish. "They're stacked up in here like cordwood," Shadley said. "So this is the place to come snag paddlefish." Conservation officers either arrested or had warrants for 23 people, including Clark County's Timothy Sanger and his brother, Gary McGinnis. It's the result of an 18-month undercover operation to stop the illegal harvesting of the paddlefish. The fishermen and women are breaking the law both because of the number of fish caught and the snagging mechanism used to catch them. Paddlefish have already been fished out on the Caspian Sea, which is why the Ohio River population is so attractive to the European caviar appetite. Indiana DNR biologists who have been studying the fish say they've seen a 200 to 300% drop in the catch rates over the past two years. – WAVE 3 Research News: DNA Tracks Sharks Fins MIAMI -- Despite regulations by some countries to protect the behemoth basking shark from further population declines, a new study published in the current on-line edition of Animal Conservation reports that sharks are still being killed for their high-priced fins.Scientists from the Nova Southeastern University, the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, Imperial College and Durham University used a novel, streamlined DNA analysis method to document the presence of fins from basking sharks in the Hong Kong and Japanese fin markets, and even in the USA where this species has been completely protected by fishery regulations since 1997. “The demand for basking shark fins, which can fetch prices in excess of $50,000 (USD) for a single large fin, is continuing to drive the exploitation, surreptitious and otherwise, of this highly threatened species,” says Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D., director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI), who led the research group. “This finding, along with our recent research documenting extremely low genetic diversity in basking sharks worldwide, raises urgent concerns about the longer-term health of this species.” Growing up to 40 feet long, the filter-feeding basking shark is considered to be extremely vulnerable to fishing pressure, perhaps more so than most sharks, because it grows slowly, matures late, and has low numbers of offspring, resulting in naturally small populations. Historical commercial fishing for its meat and vitamin-rich liver oil frequently resulted in rapid collapses of its populations. “Our findings suggest that preventing worldwide collapse of basking shark populations will require expanded protection for this vulnerable species and better enforcement of existing fisheries and trade rules,” says Ellen Pikitch, Ph.D., a co-author and executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science at the University of Miami. One of the major problems with monitoring the trade in shark products to prevent exploitation of protected species is the difficulty in identifying detached body parts and processed products accurately to species-level. The rapid and low-cost DNA forensics test for basking sharks developed and used by Shivji and colleagues generates a simple, DNA fingerprint unique to basking sharks. - Pew Institute for Ocean Science News: Canadian Cod Slowly Returning, say Fishermen SYDNEY, Nova Scotia — Hook and line fishermen are catching a variety of year-class cod in a winter fishery off northern Cape Breton.“It’s not as abundant as in the past, but it is a pretty good sign,” said Robert Courtney, the captain of the 40-foot John & Ronnie. He said the only problem they’ve encountered is a Fisheries and Oceans management plan that is not viable. “We are allowed to fish 2,000 hooks (six tubs) and that means we have to re-bait at sea when the weather is bad to try to make a day’s pay,” he said. Fisheries and Oceans last week reported a continuing decline in spawning cod stock biomass in the southern Gulf reaching an all-time recorded low of 50,000 tons. There were 65,000 tons when the moratorium was instituted in 1993. Courtney, president of the North of Smokey/Inverness South Fishermen’s Association, said with the majority of fishermen off the water, it doesn’t take too much investigation to determine whose throat groundfish are disappearing down. “Seals eat 10 to 20 times more than the commercial fishery caught in the last 14 years and the grey seal population is still growing.” Moncton-based DFO biologist Doug Swain told the CBC that slowly reproducing adult cod, not the limited fishing, have contributed most to the species’ decline in the southern Gulf. Glace Bay fisherman Kevin Nash said the 4Vn resident cod stock continues to decline as shown by data from a DFO science directed index fishery he manages using four boats. “We continuously ask the scientists why with the moratorium on and no directed fishery, but they can’t seem to come up with an answer why it’s not recovering.” A 100-ton commercial index fishery that allows fishermen to fish where they want with a limited amount of gear in 4Vn can get any amount of codfish and numbers have been increasing in recent years. “Fishermen say the codfish moved off the inner grounds and are congregating in deeper water,” Nash said. – Cape Breton Post News: Storm to Keep Lobster Pricey PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Prices of fresh seafood caught by Rhode Island fishermen rose to a new high two weeks after the end of Lent, when prices traditionally fall. Last week's ferocious storm may keep the crustacean costly for a while longer.Some stores have been selling lobster for as much as $17 a pound. At Champlin's Seafood in Galilee, 1-pound lobsters went for $14.99 per pound last week. Freshly caught cod cost $11.99 per pound, and winter flounder cost $12.99 at retail. Lobster prices have been buoyed by high demand and low supply. "In case no one noticed, we just had a Category 2 hurricane," said Richard Cook, owner of the 35-foot lobster boat, Sandra Lynn, out of Snug Harbor. 'Most likely, I lost 200 traps. This was a very, very bad storm, but all winter long, we've had a tremendous amount of wind." Cook may have lost $10,000 to $15,000 worth of traps, not to mention ropes and buoys in last week's storm. And like all the other fishermen out of Point Judith, he saw diesel prices rise to $2.16 per gallon last week. In the past, lobstermen in Maine and Nova Scotia kept live lobsters in pounds during the winter and sold them when the price was right. Keeping lobsters in tight quarters is risky, and the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine said pounding has done poorly in recent years. Dealers there did not keep as many lobsters as they once had over the winter, further pinching the supply. Prices of cod, flounder and other groundfish have also remained unusually high two weeks after the end of Lent, said Ryan Labriole, skipper of the Iron Horse, a 74-foot dragger out of Galilee. Fishing regulators limit the number of days ground-fishing boats may work at sea each year. - The Providence Journal News: Blue Crab Still Hurting, New Study Begins NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- With the Chesapeake Bay crab population continuing to struggle despite years of stricter regulation and management, Virginia officials on Tuesday said it was time to start over.The Virginia Marine Resources Commission, a state panel that regulates blue crab harvests, voted unanimously for a study of its efforts over the past two decades, beginning with an independent scientific review. Stocks have been below historical averages for 10 of the past 11 years. Also Tuesday, the commission approved two new moves intended to help pregnant female crabs, whose estimated populations have been especially weak in recent years. They swim to the southern reaches of the Bay each spring and summer to spawn. Commissioners voted to create a rectangular, 94-square-mile sanctuary for pregnant females off the Virginia Beach coast, from Cape Henry at the mouth of the Bay down the Atlantic Ocean to the North Carolina border. The no-harvest area is for commercial fishermen only from June 1 to Sept. 15, and covers ocean waters from the coastline to three miles offshore. The zone is considered a haven for females carrying a dark-colored sac, or sponge, on their back - a tell tale sign they are about to give birth. Secondly, the commission agreed to partially lift a statewide ban on taking female crabs when their sponges have turned dark-brown or black in color. The commission left the ban in place from May 15 to July 15 - when most females unleash their first sponge holding millions of eggs - but voted to allow their catch afterward and for the remainder of the year. – Virginia Pilot News: Child Slave Labor in SE Asia Seafood Industry SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand - Nampeung is an ethnic Mon girl from military-ruled Myanmar who has been working in a seafood factory in central Thailand for nearly three years.She spends six days a week shelling shrimps and her work is measured by the kilogram. Of the 200 people working in the barn-like factory during an unannounced visit by Reuters, nearly half appeared to be in their early teens or younger -- clear evidence of child labor in an industry worth $2 billion a year in exports. Half Thailand's exported shrimps go to the United States, where they end up on the shelves of retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Costco, according to Poj Aramwattananont, president of the Thai Frozen Foods Association. Japan and Europe each account for another 20%. Even though she can only dream of going to school, Nampeung is one of the lucky ones. She makes up to 300 baht ($9) a day -- more than the province's minimum wage -- and sees nothing wrong with children her age working. "The old people are so slow," she said with a broad smile, sitting demurely on the floor of the concrete hut next to the factory, which she shares with her mother, father and three siblings. Other factories in the coastal province of Samut Sakhon, 50 km (30 miles) west of Bangkok, where 40 percent of all Thailand's shrimps are processed, do not have such a contented workforce. A police raid on a factory called Ranya Paew in September revealed conditions that were little short of mediaeval. – Reuters Brief: Seafood Distributor Suddenly Quits SPRINGBORO — MidWest Seafood, one of the Dayton area's largest wholesale distributors of fish and shellfish, has suspended deliveries to local restaurants. Repeated attempts to reach Bill Easton, the company's founder and president, have been unsuccessful.Easton launched Bill Easton Seafood in 1977, and MidWest Seafood was launched in 1982, according to the company's Web site, which said MidWest employed 100 people and had 3,000 accounts as of 2001. Restaurateur Bill Castro, whose family owns El Meson restaurant in West Carrollton, said he was "sorry and shocked" to hear from his MidWest sales representative that he could no longer place orders. "They were dedicated and service-oriented," Castro said. "Hopefully, someone's going to be able to step in and provide not only the fish, but the service as well." – Dayton Daily News News In Depth: EU Doubts Quality of Pakistani Seafood KARACHI: The European Union has cited serious disinformation from the Pakistani fishery authorities during a visit of its team to check seafood quality, which it marked as one of the major reasons behind delisting the country's local processing factories.An official document admitted dishonesty on the government's behalf and disclosed that during the EU team visit info provided by the federally-administered Marine Fisheries Department and Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority (KFHA) proved absolutely wrong, which was also placed in the final report received here by the authorities concerned. “The mission team was informed by the CA and KFHA officials that auctions for shrimps in K1 are performed in the afternoon and for fish in the evening,” said a MFD letter to the institutions concerned based on detailed report of the EU and its findings. “According to instructions set by the CA, all FP (fish products) intended for export to the EU market are to be compulsory auctioned at the K1 auction site. However, the mission team found several records in establishments that demonstrate receipt of shrimps at different times during the morning.” It said that during the course of the mission, information was gathered, in particular from different establishments, indicating that other landing sites were used to supply the EU-approved establishments. “The mission team observed FP being auctioned and supplied to and processed by EU approved establishments unfit for human consumption according to Council Regulation (EC) N 2406/96,” added the MFD letter. The government last month finally received a verdict from the EU, which informed Pakistani fishery authorities about delisting of all the processing factories on quality grounds, putting ban on more than $80 million exports of the country. The EU decision came after more than a month of its vigilance team visit to Karachi fish harbour and other fisheries installations in January 2007 to check quality of seafood being exported to its member countries. In February 2005 the EU team wrapped up its visit on warnings that Pakistani authorities should maintain seafood quality as per the set standards otherwise they would lose their largest seafood export market. However, sources say this time the EU has offered a month time for an action plan to remove deficiencies observed during the team’s visit. “In fact the MFD has received an EU communique,” said a source close to the fisheries circle. “It clearly asked for the action plan by April 16, 2007 and would then give certain deadline to accomplish such plan. After that the EU said it could consider the listing of Pakistan seafood exporters.” The State Bank suggested seafood exports at $160 million by June 2006 up from $138.94 million exported during 2004-05, as the EU countries remained the largest buyers of the Pakistani products with more than 50 per cent share in total shipments. The EU contributes more than 60 per cent of total seafood export from the country, as the 27-nation block has been the largest single buyer of Pakistani seafood for more than two decades. – The News Pakistan News In Depth: Massachusetts Lobster Industry Does Right by Whales The American Lobster, Americanus homarus, is most abundant in the Gulf of Maine, from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, where it is most heavily targeted by commercial fisheries. And no wonder, according to a recent New York Times article, the retail price has doubled since last spring, now about $15 for a one lb lobster.Few of those shelling out their money for this delicacy realize the conflict between the lobster industry and whales. Fishermen are not trying to catch whales, it happens incidentally. The lines that connect the traps below the surface can float as much as 25-30 feet above the sea bed. The line to which the colorful buoy is attached can run hundreds of feet down to the bottom. Whales sometimes get ensnared in the lines. No one knows why they can’t detect the lines-maybe there are just too many in one area, or maybe whales are just too busy feeding and become oblivious. As the whale becomes entangled it appears to roll further into the gear, causing a tight wrap. While some whales do shed the gear on their own, others carry it with them for years. The line can become imbedded in the skin or worse, cut through bone. Ultimately, it can be a death sentence. The fate, literally, of a species is at stake. The critically endangered North Atlantic right whale is on the brink of extinction with fewer than 400 animals remaining. Much of its summer feeding habitat overlaps with that of the American lobster. While entanglement in fishing gear is not the only threat, it is partly responsible for the failure of right whales to recover since it was first protected in 1935. In 2005, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) finally issued a proposed rule to require sinking line i.e. line that rests on or very close to the sea bottom between the traps of fixed fishing gear, reducing the amount of line floating in the water, as a result reducing the risk of entanglement to whales. While NMFS has yet to require sinking line due to political pressure, on January 1, 2007, Massachusetts mandated that all fixed fishing gear in Massachusetts State waters must be equipped with sinking line. It may not be "whale safe", but it is significantly "safer" and the Massachusetts fishermen deserve support from whale-loving consumers. - YubaNet.com News Brief: Alberta Health Authorities End Seafood Promotion A half-million-dollar tourism blitz of Canada’s oilpatch headquarters earlier this month that involved handing out lobster rolls, marinated mussels and freshly shucked oysters ran afoul of Alberta’s Public Health Act. Citing a lack of hand-washing equipment and food thermometers, the health authority promptly shut down the shopping mall booths. Carol Horne, publicity manager for Tourism PEI, called it a frustrating “paperwork issue” that was straightened out in a few hours. She blamed the blunder on a Toronto-area public relations firm they’d hired. Despite the seafood slight, the province that calls itself “the Gentle Island” says it was happy with the tourism campaign that brought more than 6,000 Internet hits to the website. – The Guardian of Prince Edward Island, which has this delightful motto: “The Guardian covers Prince Edward Island like the dew.” News: Alabama Bans Chinese Catfish MONTGOMERY, AL -- Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks announced a ban on the sale of catfish from China on Wednesday after antibiotics prohibited in the U.S. were found in Chinese catfish.Sparks said 20 samples of catfish from China were collected for testing by the department of agriculture over the last few weeks. Of those samples, 14 tested positive for the antibiotic fluoroquinolones, which the Food and Drug Administration banned from use in food-producing animals in 1997. “We are sending notice today that we are not going to continue to sit by and let these foreign countries produce their food at a different standard than we ask our farmers to produce by and then send those products in here at a cheaper price,” Sparks said. Agriculture department chemists also tested 13 samples of basa fish from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, with five of the samples testing positive for antibiotics. Sparks said additional testing is required before a decision is made to ban basa fish. The samples that tested positive represent about 214,260 pounds of fish that will not be sold. About 300,000 pounds of fish have been suspended pending further analysis. Lance Hester, the state's food safety director, said the exposure of fish to the banned antibiotics is not accidental. He said the antibiotics are used to kill bacteria in the water. Sparks said he will not lift the ban on Chinese catfish until there is no evidence the forbidden antibiotics are used. The extensive testing is expensive, but Joe Basile, a chemist at the department of agriculture's lab in Montgomery, said the FDA has been involved and is bearing much of the cost. – Associated Press Editorial Analysis: Monster Squid a Warning Editor’s note: The landing of a colossal squid by New Zealand fishermen earlier this year offered a rare glimpse into the mysterious world deep beneath the waves. Scientist Mark Norman argues that it also shows how marine life is being destroyed before it is understood.I cannot see this as a highpoint of scientific discovery drawn from the distant reaches of our wild oceans. In the era of super science, nothing shows how little we know of our own planet as finding massive "sea monsters.” The largest single invertebrate animal ever found was recently captured by longline fishermen in Antarctic seas. Known as a colossal squid, it weighed 450kg (990lb), about twice the weight of the largest squid previously captured. This event highlights two points; firstly, that our knowledge of the most common habitat on our planet - the deep sea - is still in its infancy, and secondly that such scientific discoveries indicate the scale and reach of global fisheries exploitation. This squid is a very impressive animal. It is has eyes larger than a blue whale's, a sharp slicing beak as big as a rockmelon and a tongue covered in sharp teeth. SIZE COMPARISON Its eight arms and two longer feeding tentacles are armed with toothed suckers and sharp hooks. It swims with muscular fins and a big funnel for jet propulsion, and the undersides of its eyes have rows of lights like truck running lights. It is only the fourth non-juvenile of this squid species ever examined by scientists, yet colossal squid are considered the most abundant Antarctic squid by weight. Their beaks have frequently been found in toothed whale stomachs and juveniles are regularly captured in trawls but nothing is known about the creatures' behavior in the wild. Exploitation of the seas Accidentally caught on a commercial fishing line, it is a symptom of the massive, and largely unnoticed, overexploitation of our deep seas. This squid was captured on deep-sea longlines, which are baited and barbed fishing lures attached to kilometers of monofilament line, set as deep as 2km down to catch Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish. Often marketed as Chilean sea bass or mero, commercial quantities of this fish were only discovered in the early 1980's. Since then, huge harvests throughout the Southern Ocean have lead to a massive collapse of stocks. Throughout the world, longlining for fish has come at a high cost. Not only the fish themselves but also the countless albatross, other seabirds and marine mammals, attracted to and drowned on these baited lines. Recent initiatives in some regions are reducing these casualties, but only for the legal fisheries. Much of our knowledge of the world's next largest invertebrate, the giant squid, comes from similarly destructive fisheries. At the peak of the orange roughy trawling frenzy of the eighties and nineties, giant squid specimens incidentally caught in these trawls came in thick and fast from the fishery hotspots: South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand alone, more than 30 giant squid were caught during this time period - more than the world total for the previous 150 years. Both the fisheries and the flow of giant squid specimens subsequently dived. This strip-mining of the deep ocean has gone largely unnoticed, aided by consumers who really don't want to know that their Chilean sea bass, sea perch or trevalla have come courtesy of the clearance of deep-sea coral forests or drowned albatrosses. So when the capture of the colossal squid came to light, part of me marveled at the pictures in the newspapers of this wonderful sea monster, but a larger part of me saw it as yet another casualty of our short-sighted wanton plundering of the deep ocean. – BBC Dr Mark Norman is curator of molluscs at Museum Victoria, Australia |