Summary for June 11 - June 15, 2007:

Monday, June 11, 2007

News: New Regulations Could Impact Shrimping Industry

New federal regulations designed to curb accidental snagging of red snapper in shrimp trawls passed last week, and local shrimpers, wholesalers and fishermen said Friday that the rules could deal a fatal blow to their businesses.

“Each time they come up with one new requirement, it’s one more nail in the coffin as far as the industry is concerned,” said Larry Hodgson, a shrimp wholesaler who serves on the board of Texas Shrimp Association.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council approved the new regulations, which govern the shrimp and red-snapper industries, in an attempt to address red snapper overfishing. Under the council’s new rules, shrimpers must cut the amount of bycatch by 74 percent from their average in past seasons.

In addition, the council reduced the recreational catch limit for red snapper from four to two fish per person and cut the overall catch limit for all commercial boats from 9.1 to 5 million per year.

Local shrimpers said they don’t think a bycatch reduction is necessary.

“There are fewer and fewer boats every year and that will take care of the bycatch issue,” said Carlton Reyes, a Brownsville shrimper and president of the Brownsville-Port Isabel Shrimp Producers Association.

The shrimp industry has struggled in the last decade because of rising fuel rates and increased competition from overseas producers and shrimp farms. In Brownsville and Port Isabel, the number of shrimp boats has dwindled from about 350 to 220 in the last decade, Reyes said.

Shrimpers already were required to reduce bycatch by 50 percent and must use devices that “exclude” red snapper from their nets. Combined with other pressures, having to adhere to stricter rules could push some shrimpers over the edge, Reyes said.

Some environmental groups were pleased with the new regulations, and others thought they were too restrictive on fishermen and shrimpers.

“With this plan, we’ve turned the corner with (red snapper) in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Chris Dorsett, Gulf of Mexico fish-conservation director for the Ocean Conservancy. “These are sustainable, science-based catch limits and caps on shrimp bycatch … by doing this, we’re going to enjoy better catches and more fishing opportunities for red snapper in the future.”

Although the rules established some “good” limits, an individually tailored approach for fishermen would be better, said Pam Baker, regional director for Environmental Defense’s oceans program.

“It’s not a good long-term management plan for communities and the fishing industry,” Baker said. “A move toward individual-fishing quotas would do that.”

The council already approved an individual fishing-quota system for commercial red snapper fishermen, with their quotas based on historical catches. That system went into effect in January.

Red snapper has been overfished since the 1980s, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, and still is a struggling species. The Gulf of Mexico council conducted a stock assessment in 2005 and determined that despite closures in the red snapper fishing season, the population is rapidly deteriorating.

The Ocean Conservancy, the Gulf Restoration Network and Earthjustice took National Marine Fisheries Service to court over their red snapper concerns. The groups said the agency’s red snapper rebuilding plan didn’t go far enough, and a federal judge agreed, striking down the plan in March. The agency now must adopt a new, nationwide rebuilding plan within nine months.

- The Brownsville Herald

News: Legislation Would Outlaw Commercial Harvest Of Striped Bass

WASHINGTON -- Striped bass would be classified as a game fish only under legislation proposed by Congressman Tom Allen of Maine.

A bill introduced by Allen and Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey would make it unlawful to commercially harvest striped bass.

Allen says the species has greater economic value as a recreational fish, and that banning commercial fishing would allow striped bass populations to rebuild.

Allen said Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina prohibit commercial fishing for striped bass.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina still maintain commercial fisheries for the species.

- AP

News in Depth: A Fight about Fish Farms

NEW YORK -- Next time you order a shrimp cocktail, eat a bagel with smoked salmon or enjoy a tuna sandwich, know this: The world's appetite for fish is growing a lot faster than the oceans can supply them.

Global fish consumption has doubled in the last 40 years, outpacing population growth. In the U.S., seafood sales have grown by about 10 percent a year since 2001. Nutritionists tout the health benefits of eating fish. But most ocean fisheries are fully exploited or overfished.

The seafood industry wants to grow more fish on farms, which already cultivate shrimp, salmon, oysters, clams, catfish and other species - providing nearly half the world's fish.

New legislation proposed by the Bush administration would make it easier to develop industrial-scale aquaculture in ocean waters. Today, U.S. aquaculture is concentrated in lakes, ponds and waters close by the shore.

"If we expect people to eat seafood twice a week because it's good, we really need to get aquaculture going in this country." says John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, a Washington-based trade association.

Others are in no such hurry. Some environmental groups oppose the proposed National Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2007 (NOAA), arguing that it doesn't go far enough to protect the oceans from pollution.

Among the risks: Fish can escape from farms and damage the wild fish population, diseases from farmed fish can spill over into the natural fish population, fish waste can damage the ocean floor and the hunger of farmed fish for smaller fish or fish meal can itself lead to overfishing and disruption of the food chain.

Food & Water Watch, an anti-corporate activist group, declares: "The factory-farm model is being adopted for aquaculture: growing food as cheaply as possible using toxic chemicals and other harmful techniques, packaging it in enormous bulk, and shipping it to distant grocery stores and restaurants all around the world."

In Alaska, meanwhile, commercial fisherman and state politicians worry that the rapid growth of farmed fish threatens their state's most important industry. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, says: "If we simply take dollars away from the existing commercial fishing industry and move them over to the aquaculture industry, are we really creating new commerce?"

Even more blunt is Mark Vinsel, executive director of the United Fisherman of Alaska. "We oppose fin fish farms, anytime, any place, any species," he says.

Alaska salmon fisherman have already been hurt badly by the rapid growth of salmon farms in places like Chile and Norway. Globally, aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing businesses in all of farming, with revenues increasing by about 11 percent a year. Most of that growth has come from Asia, where China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam all grow more fish than the U.S. As a result, the U.S. faces a "seafood trade deficit" of about $8 billion a year.

The Bush administration bill would make it easier to farm fish in U.S. marine waters, which generally extend from three to 200 miles offshore. It would streamline the permit process, giving primary responsibility to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, a unit of the Department of Commerce.

Right now, the industry says, it's all but impossible to get a permit for a large-scale fish farm because a multitude of federal agencies are involved.

"You have a process with nobody to lead it," complains Donald Kent, president of the nonprofit Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute in San Diego. After trying for years to get permission to develop a fish farm off the California coast, Hubbs-SeaWorld gave up and built a demonstration project off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico. "We're becoming a nation of importers, when we could be developing our own industry that we can control," Kent says.

Similarly, Taylor Shellfish Farms, a family-owned firm which grows clams, oysters, mussels and geoducks - giant burrowing clams that weigh more than a pound - bought five fish farms in British Columbia last year. The firm, which has operated in Washington state since the late 1800s, did so in part because efforts to expand closer to home were stymied.

Efforts to bring the industry and environmentalists together have made some headway. Last year, a task force of fish farmers, scientists and policy-makers convened by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute produced a 128-page report on Sustainable Marine Aquaculture that recommends for promoting aquaculture while protecting the environment. It's available for download from the Pew Charitable Trusts, which financed the effort. Rebecca Goldburg, a senior scientist at Environmental Defense and task force member, says her group supports aquaculture so long as proper environmental standards are in place.

In the meantime, China has become the biggest exporter of farmed fish to the U.S. Let's just hope the Chinese grow fish more carefully than they make pet food.

- CNNMoney.com

News: Snapper Fishing Limits Reduced

NEW ORLEANS - Recreational and commercial boats must cut the number of red snapper brought to shore and shrimpers must bring up less in their trawls to keep one of the Gulf of Mexico's most popular catches from dying out, federal regulators decided last week.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council reduced the recreational catch limit from four fish to two per person, and set a limit for all commercial boats at 5 million for the year instead of 9.1 million as in past years.

The two-fish recreational catch limit had already been put into effect on a temporary basis this year. And the commercial catch had been put at 6.5 million pounds before the current season began.

"I think we've really turned a corner in management of this species. We're finally on the right track," said Chris Dorsett, Gulf of Mexico fish conservation director for the Ocean Conservancy, one of three groups which took the council to court over its previous plan.

The plan also requires anyone going after redfish to use circle hooks, which have points curved inward so they are less likely to hook in a fish's stomach, and which commercial fisheries have used for decades. Commercial and sports fishers also must use tools to improve the survival of fish too small to keep: de-hooking tools and hypodermic-like venting tools to deflate the fish's air bladders so they can easily swim back to the deep waters where they lurk.

After the species was declared overfished in 1997, the council set limits on the number and size of red snapper that sport and commercial fishermen could take.

But conservationists said the limits were far too low to rebuild the species by 2032 - the last possible deadline.

A federal judge agreed, striking down the plan earlier this year. Regulators had until the end of this year to approve a new plan.

Charter captains and shrimpers have said the rules could put them out of business.

Shrimpers must cut the amount of red snapper that come up in their nets as part of the bycatch by 74 percent from the average for the 2001-2003 seasons. The limit will drop to 67 percent in 2011.

- AP

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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

News: Copper River Red Harvest Above Average, Kings Lagging

Cumulative harvests of Copper River sockeye salmon reached 675,672 fish by the June 2 opener, surpassing the 10-year average of 596,705 reds, while the Chinook harvest, at 21,969 fish, lagged well behind the 10-year average of 32,068, state officials said.

The commercial harvest from the June 2 opener alone was 107,673 reds and 4,492 kings, said state biologists in Cordova. By the same date in 2006, the commercial fleet had harvested 468,141 sockeye and 14,908 Chinooks, biologists said.

Even the famed Grand Central Oyster Bar in New York City got into the act over the frenzy that marks the first runs of the Copper River salmon fishery. The online NYC official guide for visitors bragged that the Oyster Bar “will again be the first restaurant to serve this year's first catch” of the omega-3-rich Copper River salmon.

“The Copper River salmon is considered the Rolls Royce of king salmon,” according to executive chef Sandy Ingber, the guide said. “It is known for its high fat content, and has the most brilliant red color of all the kings.” While the guide did not mention prices, it did recommend calling for reservations.

Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle was selling whole kings for $19.99 a pound, with an offer to cut them to customer specifications, including fillets and steaks. “Copper River kings are only available from May to June, so get `em while we've got `em,” the fishmongers of Pike Place advised customers.

Ed's Kasilof Seafoods offered five pounds of Copper River sockeye fillets for $74.75, while SeaBear, in Anacortes, Wash., offered eight dinner-sized fillets of sockeyes, a total of three pounds, for $74.99, shipped directly from Alaska. Fisherman's Express was offering its king salmon fillets for $29.95 a pound, and Northwest Seafoods offered eight pounds of king salmon fillets for $279.30, 16 pounds for $510.70 or 21 pounds for $629.80.

Others, like Wild Pacific Salmon, offered five pounds of flash-frozen-at-sea king salmon fillets for $89.95, down from the previous price of $129.95. As an added lure, the family-owned firm noted that they donate 10 percent of annual profits to wild salmon habitat conservation and restoration projects in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, but did not specify what part of Alaska the salmon was from.

Some shippers were advising customers to order in advance, with a warning that there was a finite amount of kings available.

A number of Alaskans and summer visitors meanwhile elected to try their own luck, heading for the Kenai Peninsula as the sport fishing season opened, in search of other wild Alaska salmon.

- Alaska Journal of Commerce

Restaurant Review: The Original Fish Market Restaurant

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Original Fish Market Restaurant, Downtown, was rushed by 350 diners for lunch one day last week, a delight for the bottom line but a hectic scramble for the kitchen, bar and sushi bar staff.

Executive chef Brian J. Annapolen hadn't even caught his breath when the hostess informed him that he had visitors from the media. Oops -- he had completely forgotten about his afternoon "Cooking Class" appointment. No ingredients had been prepared, and he didn't have a recipe in mind.

Annapolen, 37, however, viewed the situation as a challenge. Within 15 minutes, he had chosen a consumer-friendly recipe -- popular with his customers -- and 20 minutes later, the dish was plated and ready for the photographer.

Annapolen's quick rebound is just one indication of the young chef's noted cooking and management skills as well as his creativity. The menu changes daily, according to what's fresh, and it reflects the seasons of the waters as well as the land.

Featured entrees, which change from lunch to dinner daily, are crab cakes, pesto-seared scallops, steamed Alaskan king crab legs, and grilled tequila-lime shrimp and spinach salad. Sandwiches also are offered at lunchtime.

Assisting Annapolen are sous chef Sean Davies, sushi chef Mike Au and pastry chef Eugene Kanar. Patrons can sit at the sushi/raw bar and watch as Au's team prepares Japanese delights to order.

At lunch, sushi combos cost $15.50 each and include miso soup or salad. About a dozen different types of fresh oysters are available on the half-shell. Diners also can gather at the bar for drinks, from premium beers to top-shelf liquors to Island Oasis frozen drinks, a summer pleaser.

Soups include cream of blue crab, lobster bisque and Cajun seafood gumbo; and among the salads are a signature Caesar, baby spinach and "The Wedge," a wedge of iceberg lettuce with tomato, carrot and creamy blue cheese dressing.

Annapolen, who celebrated three years as executive chef on June 3 and is the father of two little boys, says he notes trends in fine dining establishments elsewhere in hopes of introducing them at The Original Fish Market Restaurant.

The latest, he says, is "a move toward light and fresh -- low-carb salads and entrees, for example -- with smaller portions and lower prices so that diners can enjoy a multicourse meal and still have room in their stomachs for dessert. It's happening in New York -- people are spending $40 for a five-course lunch, when it usually cost $110 before."

The chef says he especially doesn't want his customers to miss out on first courses such as Thai green curry mussels, hot and sweet fried calamari, and steamed middleneck clams, or Kanar's desserts, which include Key Lime Chantilly Cake, Turtle Cheesecake, Black Bottom Pie and a caramelized banana split.

The Original Fish Market Restaurant will be the site of a fund-raising dinner for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture on July 27, during which the kitchen staff will prepare area-grown or artisan foods from small farms statewide. One of the farmers will be Kathy Fields, of Flint Hill Farm, in Coopersburg, Lehigh County -- Annapolen's mother-in-law. She raises cows and goats and has begun making artisan butter and cheeses.

The Original Fish Market Restaurant, at The Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh, 1000 Penn Ave., Downtown, is open from 1 p.m.-1 a.m. Sundays, 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Mondays-Fridays and 1 p.m.-1 a.m. Saturdays. Details: 412-227-3657.

– Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Book Review: The Zen of Fish

The title The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, From Samurai to Supermarket creates an expectation of a dry historical text, with an implication from the subtitle of a chronology of the popular raw fish meal. In reality, The Zen of Fish is an amicably told tale that takes a quirky, humanistic and mostly non-linear approach to the story of sushi.

Author Trevor Corson, whose past works include The Secret Life of Lobsters, finds himself in familiar territory as he chronicles the 3-month training program at the California Sushi Academy in Hermosa Beach, in Los Angeles County. He starts the story by following 20-year-old Kate Murray, a flailing student whom Corson selects as the underdog (a questionable move: Kate's persistent ineptitude -- for instance, she never learns how to properly use her knife -- and squeamishness when it comes to handling fish wore this reader's patience thin. Other students, such as the quiet, former Japanese pop star Takumi, or the drill-sergeant instructor, Zoran, are infinitely more interesting -- you can see all the real people in the book on thezenoffish.com, a companion Web site that lends the books a whiff of reality television).

Corson takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, carefully documenting the daily exchanges as students are taught to gut, clean, slice, roll and present all manner of aquatic life into customer-ready creations. He details his meticulous reportorial approach at the outset of the book: 'All descriptions rely on extensive field reporting and nothing has been invented or fictionalized represents speech that was not directly witnessed by the author but was described to the author as having occurred,' and so on.

The author uses select points in the "real time" of the sushi academy as opportunities to jump into the scholarly discourse -- pieces of sushi sociology, anthropology, history and marine biology -- that gives the book its name. The class' first lesson on making rolls, for instance, leads to a chapter on seaweed that includes several revelations -- how a British scientist's discovery changed nori from a rare treat to a thriving industry; that the point of the inside-out roll, an American invention, was to conceal the black seaweed from finicky Stateside eaters. This formula is repeated with ease throughout the book without seeming contrived, whether Corson is launching from Kate's struggles in class to the inherent sexism in the sushi trade, or creating a segue from a Hollywood catering job to tuna's traditional status in Japan as a low-class fish.

Once he hits his stride, Corson's work mimics an omakase meal (which signals to the chef that you are in his or her hands), guiding the reader on a mostly enjoyable, sometime delightful journey through sushi land. He explains the expected -- albeit fascinating -- tidbits, for instance, what the origins of sushi are (ironically, it started off as a technique to preserve raw fish) and the real contents of the paste that we all call wasabi (it's mostly mustard and horseradish -- real wasabi root is expensive and incredibly rare). But he also throws in factoids that make you gasp or giggle. Take the role of the mackerel in English slang:

"Mackerel have a reputation the world over for their ostentatious shine. In England, calling a man a 'mackerel' meant he was a dandy; in France, it meant he was a pimp. It is from the latter usage that we get the term 'mack daddy.' "

Corson also possesses a touch of the poetic, visible in beautiful sentiments such as this one: "When a perfect nigiri crumbles apart on the tongue, the grains of rice mingle instantly with the fish, combining tastes and textures. The sensation some diners feel is gratitude because the chef has calibrated the sushi so perfectly that they hardly have to chew."

The reader seeking porn-style food writing should look elsewhere. Corson has a penchant for describing foods in scientific terms (he effusively thanks Harold McGee, the food science genius, in his acknowledgements), and his tendencies to describe flavors from the chemistry perspective might not cut it for vicarious thrills. See this flavor commentary: "While most flatfish muscle lacks a high concentration of flavor elements, it does contain a variety of interesting amino acids."

When it comes to the fish, Corson focuses largely on what their lives were like before they became menu items. The fascinating existence of the aquatic creatures we consume at the sushi bar put the story lines of the humans in The Zen of Fish to shame. Corson describes why flatfish have all of their features crowded onto one side of their face, the sex-changing tendencies of shrimp, who start their lives as male and end them as females, the treacherous life's journey of the eel, and the unexpected beauty of the squid. So much of gastro journalism focuses on consumption. This chronicle reveres the creatures destined for dinner as much as it does the humans who prepare them.

Reviewer Gabriella Gershenson is the food editor for Time Out New York.

- San Francisco Chronicle

News in Depth: Origin of Fish Disease a Mystery for Alaska Biologists

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - How the dangerous pathogen Myxobolus cerebralis got into Alaska's fisheries is something scientists may never know.

Equally unknown is the significance of the appearance here of the metazoan parasite that afflicts trout and salmon with what is commonly known as "whirling disease."

Clearly, though, M. cerebralis - usually called "Mc" for short - has been in the 49th state for some time, said chief state fisheries pathologist Theodore Meyers.

Only when DNA detection techniques entered the picture did the Alaska Department of Fish and Game discover, to the surprise of Meyers and others, that rainbow trout at the Elmendorf State Fish Hatchery were carrying M. cerebralis spores.

"After years of negative results," the agency noted in a press release earlier this year, "a new, much more sensitive molecular test based on DNA has detected the parasite."

None of the infected fish showed any outward signs of whirling disease, which causes fish to swim erratically, or whirl. Whirling makes them difficult to feed and vulnerable to other predatory fish, birds and mammals.

Whirling disease has decimated some rainbow and cutthroat trout populations outside Alaska.

In Yellowstone National Park, for example, whirling disease has been blamed for the decline in populations of native trout that spawn in Yellowstone Lake tributaries. One of those tributaries, Pelican Creek, saw more than 10,000 Yellowstone cutthroats killed by a severe whirling disease infection.

Other Western populations of trout have been equally hard hit. Colorado was so concerned it spent more than $10 million to clean up its hatcheries after 11 of them showed signs of contamination.

To date, Mc has been reported in 24 states including Alaska and caused severe declines in native trout populations in many of the West's best trout streams.

"The heads of diseased fish may contain up to 2-3 million spores of Mc," Fish and Game noted. "The Elmendorf Hatchery rainbow trout samples contained an estimated 100 to 1,000 spores, a level too small to be detected with standard microscopic tests and too small for the fish to show any signs of the disease."

Meyers isn't sure why the Mc has failed to flourish in Alaska, but he has some theories.

"It depends a lot on the age of this fish and water temperature," he said. "We're on the very edge, possibly, of the range of the parasite."

Cold water may have protected Alaska fish.

There are a number of ways the parasite could have arrived in Alaska. They could have been carried north along with fish by federal officials active in stocking when Alaska was still a territory; imported to the Elmendorf hatchery with the last of the rainbow stocks brought from the Lower 48 about 30 years ago; stuck to the waders of a tourist angler from Outside; or arrived from elsewhere in the state hatchery system.

"The Fort Richardson Hatchery is negative," Meyers said, "and Fort Rich is on well water."

Elmendorf Hatchery, on the other hand, uses water from Ship Creek. All sorts of fish have been dumped into Ship Creek over the years, including the king salmon that now support the state's most visible king salmon sport fishery. Tens of thousands of anglers have gone wading there.

A parasite that enters the heads and spinal cartilage of fingerling trout, Mc is a relatively new import to North America. A native of the Eurasian continent, it is thought to have been introduced to American waters in the 1950s.

Though the disease can infect salmon, it has done the most damage to native trout populations. The parasite rapidly multiplies in a trout's brain and spine, putting pressure on the fish's organ of equilibrium. As a result, the fish starts to whirl in a piscatorial version of the way people stagger when drunk.

Fish that survive are usually left with skeletal deformities but can successfully reproduce without passing on the disease.

Brown trout, another European import, have a resistance to Mc. They become infected but seldom suffer system breakdowns. As a result, the browns - common to many Lower 48 waters but absent from Alaska - serve as ideal carriers for the disease.

When they finally die, thousands to millions of spores are released into the water. These spores are amazingly resilient. They have been known to survive in some streams 20 to 30 years.

But to grow, Mc spores need an intermediate host - one of a number of tiny aquatic worms known as Tubifex tubifex. The worms must ingest the spores before they can again infect trout fry.

State officials aren't taking any chances. Commissioner of Fish and Game Denby Lloyd has banned any further stockings of Elmendorf hatchery fish in creeks, streams or rivers. With the exception of already infected Ship Creek, Elmendorf fish will go only into landlocked lakes lacking natural spawning populations of trout or salmon.

That's bad news for stream anglers but good news for lake fishers.

"As a result (of Mc), over 94,000 hatchery fish that otherwise would have been destined for open watersheds will be transplanted into closed system in 2007," according to the Fish and Game press release, which added that "king salmon will continue to be stocked in Anchorage's Ship Creek, the most likely source of the parasite."

The stream has already received potentially contaminated discharge water from Elmendorf Hatchery.

"However, no Elmendorf Hatchery fish will be transferred to the Fort Richardson Hatchery," Fish and Game said. "The stocking of open systems will resume when the state builds a new, well-water-only hatchery near the existing Elmendorf facility in the next four to seven years, which will eliminate the potential of introducing Mc from Ship Creek water."

The hatchery was planned long before the Mc outbreak.

Meanwhile, Meyers said, the state agency is expanding the hunt for possible Mc contamination in waters across the state.

Neither the disease nor Mc-diseased fish pose any threats to humans, but because Mc is so hardy, the state is reminding anglers that live fish may not be transported or released into state waters without a special Fish and Game permit.

"If fish are cleaned in the field," the agency says, "clean them only in the waters from which they were caught."

- Anchorage Daily News

News: Prawn Fisher Convicted of Illegal Fishing

QUEEN CHARLOTTE CITY, B.C. – Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) announced today that a Prince Rupert resident and commercial prawn fisher has been convicted of illegal fishing and fined $15,000.

On June 3, 2004, around the Queen Charlotte Islands, fishery officers observed the fishing vessel Dawn Chase hauling shrimp/prawn traps gear twice on the same day. Tan Nguyen Nguyen, captain and owner of the Dawn Chase, was subsequently charged for failing to comply with the conditions of a commercial prawn licence.

Recently, in Prince Rupert provincial court, Nguyen was fined a total of $15,000, of which $14,500 will be directed toward DFO for the proper management and conservation of fish and fish habitat.

Nguyen has previously been convicted for conducting the same illegal activity in the Prince Rupert area.

As a condition under the commercial prawn license, fishers are permitted to fish between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. during the season and are permitted to haul their gear only once daily during this period. The intent of this management measure, agreed to by the prawn industry, is to reduce the handling and mortality of undersized prawns, by allowing smaller prawns enough time to enter and then leave the trap while the gear is on the ocean bottom.

Multiple hauling is the practice of hauling gear to the surface more than once per day to recover the catch, an illegal practice that is contrary to the commercial prawn license conditions and provides an unfair advantage over other prawn fishers within the same coastal area.

DFO acts to end illegal fishing activity. As part of this work, the Department is asking the general public for information on activities of this nature or any contravention of the Fisheries Act and Regulations. Anyone with information can call the toll-free violation reporting line at 1-800-465-4336.

– Fisheries and Oceans Canada

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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

News Brief: Flying Sturgeon Knocks Woman Cold

ROCK BLUFF, Fla. – A woman on a jet ski was injured over the weekend by a leaping sturgeon, the latest incident involving the flying fish on the Suwannee River, officials said.

Tara Spears, 32, of Bell, was knocked unconscious by the animal on Sunday while boating on the river north of Rock Bluff, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.

She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and was expected to recover, the agency reported.

The large, prehistoric-looking sturgeon have hard plates along their backs. They can grow up to 8 feet long and up to 200 pounds.

In April, a leaping sturgeon severely injured a 50-year-old woman from St. Petersburg who was riding a personal watercraft on the Suwannee River. She suffered a ruptured spleen and had three fingers reattached by surgeons, but she lost her left pinkie finger and a tooth.

– Associated Press

Feature: Louisiana Oysterman Says His Crop Needs No Viagra

HOUMA, La. - The head of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force is disgusted at the denigration of oysters that is taking place in Australia, where a man reportedly has been feeding Viagra to oysters in an attempt to make the savory mollusks a more potent aphrodisiac.

"This is flat out wasteful," said Michael Voisin, chair of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force and proprietor of Motivatit Seafood in Houma, LA. "I don't know what's wrong with the oysters in Australia, but Louisiana oysters are an all natural aphrodisiac, the gold standard."

Voisin, a happily married father of five and an eighth generation oysterman, says it's a shame that someone would go to such lengths when the oysters he harvests can do the trick naturally. Voisin has sent five-dozen Louisiana oysters to Tony Abbot, the Minister of Australia's Department of Health and Aging.

"I hope Mr. Abbot can make use of these oysters and then tell his countrymen to end their dependency on drugs," said Voisin.

And it's not just Australia. Studies prove that the world is becoming increasingly dependent on prescription medications. According to Voisin, the millions being spent on combating erectile dysfunction would be better directed elsewhere.

"A half dozen Viagra costs about $200 not to mention the doctor visit required to get a prescription," said Voisin. "I can ship five dozen oysters from Louisiana to anywhere in the world for less than that. Heck, I'll even throw in a bottle of Tabasco."

Voisin is encouraging men around the world to eat Louisiana Oysters and send the money they would have spent on pills to fishing families who are still recovering from the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005.

"Despite the grueling rebuilding effort, most Oystermen in Louisiana are smiling," Voisin wrote in an open letter to all men. "We'll share the wealth if you do."

- Louisiana Seafood Promotion

News Brief: Endangered Sea Bass Speared to Death

LA JOLLA, Calif. - Officials are looking for a spear fisherman who may have shot an endangered black sea bass that was found impaled with a spear off the coast of a La Jolla beach.

The San Diego Lifeguard Service says lifeguards found the 150-pound bass -- considered to be about 15 to 20 years old -- floating about 75 yards offshore yesterday afternoon.

The bass died and the spear was removed for evidence.

It is illegal to take the fish -- which is a protected species. Punishment is a two thousand dollar fine.

In 2005, authorities charged three men with illegally fishing in La Jolla's underwater preserve after one shot a sea bass.

- San Diego Union-Tribune

Oyster Beer Joins Lineup for Arcata Festival

ARCATA, Calif. - As they have for the better part of two decades, North Coasters will descend on the Arcata Plaza this weekend to gobble and slurp their fill of oysters.

The 17th annual Oyster Festival will include all the things North Coasters have come to expect -- from the children's entertainment section and oyster calling contest to the live music and oysters of all flavors and consistencies.

Taffy Stockton, director of Arcata Main Street, said this year's festival has a few new things on tap. Joining the Oyster Calling Contest, which sees participants of all ages try to woo oysters from their shells, will be the first Oyster Shuck and Swallow Contest. The new contest will see professional shuckers teamed with amateur eaters to see who can down the most oysters in the allotted time period.

Also new this year will be oyster beer, a savory concoction of beer, tomato and clam juice, which Stockton called fabulous and a natural fit for the festival.

Stockton said an information area, complete with a sea life touch tank, will be on hand this year to help educate the public on bay life.

There will also be plenty of old faces on the plaza. Peter Jones, who owns Folie Douce in Arcata, will be back on the Plaza making his Japanese grilled oysters.

Jones will also add pulled pork sandwiches to his festival menu, ensuring he has something for those who don't like oysters as well.

Dustin Valance, head chef at Curley's Grill in Ferndale, will be back offering a raspberry-sake coulis.

”We love the festivals and Curley loves oysters,” Valance said. “He loves sexy food, so we always like to come out and do our thing.”

But, in light of Humboldt Bay's recently being added to the state Water Resources Control Board's list of pollutant-imparied waters, some have questioned whether those slippy, slimy oysters are safe to eat.

Pete Nichols, program director for Humboldt Bay Keeper, which pushed the board to include Humboldt Bay in its list of impaired waters, said he will be eating oysters on the Plaza this year.

”I love Oyster Fest,” Nichols said. “I've always gone. I've always eaten oysters.”

What worries some is the that tests have shown the bay to be polluted by dioxin, a byproduct of a banned wood preservative once used at mills around the bay.

According to the FDA, high levels of dioxins have been related to increased risks of cancer and reproductive and developmental effects.

While careful to say that more data is needed, he isn't too worried about munching down on oysters at this year's festival, though Nichols did say that some toxicologists recommend that pregnant women and children steer clear of all bottom feeders and shell fish.

This is good news for Humboldt County, as its bay accounts for more than 70 percent of the fresh oysters consumed in California, according to Arcata Main Street, which sponsors the annual festival.

Todd VanHerpe, who owns Humboldt Bay Oyster Co. with his wife, Holly, said that the dioxin worries have had an impact, though the company's oysters are still FDA-approved.

”It is a PR issue because people's perception of what that listing means and what it really means are two different things,” VanHerpe said, adding that he too will be eating oysters at the festival.

Oyster festivities will kick off on the Plaza at 10 a.m. and carry on to 6 p.m. Saturday.

If you go:

  • What: 17th annual Oyster Festival
  • Where: Arcata Plaza
  • When: Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

- The Times Standard

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Thursday, June 14, 2007

Japan: Another Favorite Dish Going Extinct

TOKYO - A revered tradition during Japan's hot and humid summer is eating broiled eel, a dish believed to induce energy. But this year, the item has been elusive on menus following a decision by the European Union to slash eel exports.

Facing stock depletion, Europe is considering a move to have the trade in eels restricted under the Washington Convention that protects endangered species in the world.

European exports, mostly juvenile eel caught off the coasts of France and Spain and then dispatched to countries such as China for cultivation, account for between 50 percent to 70 percent of Japanese consumption, now around 100,000 tons per year.

The Japanese media, quoting data from Europe, say recent annual catches have been less than 200 tons. Some estimates indicate that stocks have fallen to about 1 percent of those available in the 1970s.

Catches in Japan, despite its eel-eating tradition, constitute only about 20 percent of domestic consumption. Catches of young eels in Japanese waters have plunged to around 20 tons to 30 tons - about one-tenth the figure in the 1970s, mostly due to coastal destruction.

Yoko Tomiyama, spokeswoman for the Japan Consumers Association, points out that the eel crisis, the newest in a series of blows to Japanese traditional cuisine that includes the high-profile slump in blue-fin tuna for sushi, has brought home a stark message that must be acknowledged and tackled quickly.

"The threat to eels this summer symbolizes a crisis we had chosen to ignore but cannot any longer. It shows, very cruelly, that the Japanese are steadily losing their food supply and also that money cannot buy everything,'' she told Inter Press Service (IPS).

Tomiyama, who spearheads a consumer movement based on caring for the environment, safe food and boosting local agriculture output, explains that the Japanese consumer has been led to believe their rich purchasing power gives them access to anything.

But as cherished food items begin to disappear, said Tomiyama, people are waking up to the reality that the government must develop policies that balance both corporate purchasing power and respect for conservation.

Indeed, the ongoing whaling dispute, that has pitched Japan against anti-whaling countries, is a case in point say conservationists.

Japan is angry that its proposal for a review of the whaling ban at the CITES ( Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) at the Hague, last week, was turned down.

"Anti-whalers are totally illogical because they put environmental protection above everything else," Hideaki Okada, an official at the whaling section at the Ministry of Fisheries explained to IPS.

He rejected claims that the whaling proposal was an attempt to reopen commercial trade of whale products. "Japan wants a review to find out which species should be put on the endangered list and what types can be harvested. Our proposal is to develop a trade that is based on the sustainable use of resources, not just blanket protection," he said.

The defeat at the Hague has led Tokyo to threaten to leave the International Whaling Commission. Japan has also embarked on a campaign to promote the sale of whale meat in the country, terming it traditional and culturally rooted.

Conservationists think otherwise. Professor Hideo Obara, a respected biologist, said the official stance is dangerous as it resorts to nationalism to defend practices that are based on the belief that technology and economic strength are an answer to food issues.

Obara added that Japan is not the only guilty nation and other Asian countries, such as China and South Korea, are also following similar policies leading to over fishing in the Pacific Ocean.

Sophisticated fishing technology and trawler boats showcasing Japanese advancement has led to marine destruction, say conservationists. Experts also point out that developing sophisticated fish farms, now heavily subsidized by local governments, is not easy.

For example, a fisheries research center in collaboration with Kinki University in Wakayma prefecture, west Japan, has spent millions of dollars on an advanced breeding program, first launched in 1970, to boost the endangered blue-fin tuna.

Last year, the tuna bore eggs for the first time but commercial production is expected to take much longer.

Said Tomiyama, "Japan's food culture should be protected not by officials pushing new technology or a call to nationalism. Rather, modern culture and tradition must include education and the deeper values of preserving our environment," she said.

– Asia Times

News: Judge Sides with Wild Salmon

SEATTLE - The push by property-rights advocates to count hatchery-bred salmon toward the goals of the Endangered Species Act is misguided and runs afoul of the law, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled June 13 in Seattle.

His decision flatly rejects the idea that if enough salmon can be produced in hatcheries, there is little need to protect wild stocks. It also strikes down what environmentalists widely viewed as a Bush administration policy to appease building and agriculture interests.

The Endangered Species Act has a "central purpose of preserving and promoting self-sustaining natural populations," the judge ruled.

"Species are to be protected in the context of their habitats, until they are self-sustaining without the interference of man," Coughenour's ruling says. "Artificial propagation is a temporary measure designed to bring a species to the point where the species no longer requires the protection" of the endangered-species law.

Coughenour's ruling specifically addressed protections for steelhead, a seagoing rainbow trout, in the upper Columbia River. But it sets up a conflict on a much broader scale that is expected to affect dozens of species of salmon and other hatchery-raised fish.

Environmentalists were thrilled.

"This decision puts salmon protections on the right footing, since we need salmon in streams, and not in zoos or the equivalent of zoos," said Seattle lawyer Patti Goldman of the law firm Earthjustice, which represented environmentalists in the case. "It means we can't diminish protections for salmon based on how many you can crank out in a hatchery."

Arguing against the environmentalists was the Building Industry Association of Washington, which says restrictions on agriculture and waterfront building -- based on salmon protections -- will unnecessarily drive up costs to consumers.

The builders group maintains that hatchery-bred and wild salmon should be treated the same because they swim together in rivers and go out to sea together and then return to breed -- often with each other, a key criterion under the law.

Coughenour's 40-page ruling dismissed that argument in a single footnote.

Timothy Harris, the building lobby's general counsel, described himself as "astonished" by some of Coughenour's reasoning.

Coughenour's decision "really strains to say that habitat and the protection of naturally spawning populations are what the (law) is meant to protect, and the (law) simply doesn't say that," Harris said. "He unabashedly thumbs his nose at the law."

Under the Endangered Species Act, Harris said, an animal must first be found to be in need of protection before its habitat needs can be considered. But the ruling, by failing to count hatchery-bred fish, is "putting the cart before the horse," Harris said. "It's intellectually dishonest."

Coughenour acknowledges in his ruling that his finding is in direct contradiction to a 2001 ruling in Oregon by a different federal judge, Michael Hogan. Hogan held that salmon raised in a hatchery near the Alsea River in Oregon deserve the same legal protection as salmon that spawned naturally in a nearby creek. He said federal officials improperly refused to protect hatchery-bred fish under the Endangered Species Act.

The essence of the difference between the two rulings is this: While both judges agree that the National Marine Fisheries Service can protect both naturally spawned and hatchery-bred fish under the Endangered Species Act, Hogan said that both groups' numbers must be considered before deciding to invoke the protections of the law.

Coughenour said that only the wild stocks can be considered at that point.

After Hogan's ruling, the Fisheries Service revised its policy on procedures for protecting fish. But Coughenour said the result was "internally contradictory" and noted that federal biologists protested that its application to hatchery fish "would not be scientifically valid."

Scientists have been documenting differences in the behavior of hatchery-bred and wild salmon at least since the 1950s, and compiling evidence that the hatchery-bred fish are less able to survive in the long run.

The genetic variability of salmon runs has allowed them to survive since the time of the dinosaurs because they can adapt to changing conditions. Consider that some start life in the cool, rain-drenched creeks of the Olympic Peninsula, while others thrive among comparatively hot and arid conditions where the Snake River runs through high desert.

Property-rights advocates argue that the fish's ability to adapt to so many conditions is evidence that any particular salmon run doesn't need to be protected, since some other run could move to fill in the gaps if one disappears.

But fish scientists -- including many working at the Fisheries Service -- point out that wild fish, unlike those in hatcheries, are genetically programmed to spread their risk.

For example, wild fish usually return from the sea over a period of months to spawn. So if some are caught in a drought or a raging flood that washes away their eggs, others will return later to continue the run.

Coughenour's ruling notes studies showing, among other things, higher rates of aggression and less-efficient feeding behaviors among hatchery-bred fish. "It is clear that hatchery fish have important differences from wild fish," Coughenour ruled.

Between the poles of the environmentalists and the business interests, there is a third view: That hatcheries, if properly operated with fish whose genetics are sufficiently similar to the wild salmon and carefully controlled, could be used to supplement the wild populations and rescue them from extinction.

Those interests, including Indian tribes, were not represented in the suit.

The Fisheries Service was still studying the ruling late Wednesday and, while disappointed in the result, was unprepared to comment, agency spokesman Brian Gorman said.

– Seattle Post Intelligencer

News: Increased Pumping May Result in Delta Smelt’s Extinction

CENTRAL VALLEY - The federal government dramatically increased its water exports from the Delta today, spurring concern that opening two more of its Delta pumps, combined with increased pumping by the state of California, will bring the Delta smelt even closer to extinction.

The federal government opened up two of its Delta export pumps June 13, tripling the amount of water exported since the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cut its operation down to one pump to protect the threatened Delta smelt on June 1.

The agency increased its water exports from 850 cubic feet per second to 2700 cubic feet per second to provide deliveries to downstream agricultural water contractors.

The increased pumping is causing alarm by fishing and environmental groups that the smelt, now on the verge of extinction, will be imperiled by reverse flows that cause them to stray into the South Delta rather than going on their annual migration into Suisun Bay.

“No smelt have been killed in the federal pumps since May 30,” said Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation. “However, federal and state biologists will closely monitor the status of the fish. We were waiting for the water in the Delta to rise to 77 degrees, triggering the fish to move into the cooler water in Suisun Bay.”

McCracken noted that the federal government purchased 25,000 acre-feet of water from water districts on the Merced and Stanislaus rivers for releases downriver to stop reverse flows towards the federal pumps. “Apparently it worked, since the federal pumps are no longer taking any smelt,” he said.

The State Department of Water Resources (DWR) on Sunday started operating its pumps, shut down since May 31 after Department of Fish and Game began seeing increasing numbers of Delta smelt killed in the pumps. An average of 400 cfs of water is being exported this week.

Unfortunately, 66 smelt have been killed in the state pumps over the 3-day period starting Sunday. This contrasts with the total of 35 smelt found by the DFG throughout the Delta this year to date.

“The number of smelt killed by the state pumps over the past three days is more than those the DFG has found throughout the entire Delta this year,” pointed out Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “This species is approaching the point of no return – and we don’t know where that point is.”

He said that the Delta smelt is still very much in harm’s way, since the majority of remaining smelt are on the east side of Sherman Island now, within the influence of the federal and state pumps.

“The federal government, by creating a net reverse in flows, is contributing to keeping the smelt in the Delta rather than migrating downstream to Suisun Bay,” he explained. “What we need is pulse flows into Suisun Bay to get the fish out of harm’s way, as recommended in the recent letter to the state and federal governments by fishery scientists Peter Moyle and Tina Swanson.”

Jennings and Mike Lozeau, the lawyer for the alliance, will go back to court on Monday regarding the order by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch requiring the DFG to issue DWR a “take permit” for killing threatened Delta smelt, spring run Chinook and winter run Chinook in the state pumps. DWR has appealed the decision – rather than complying with the law – and the judge issued a stay.

In a different but related lawsuit by Earthjustice, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger is scheduled to rule Aug. 21 on whether the giant pumps in the Delta can be operated and at what capacity.

“The battle to save the Delta smelt is not a fish versus people issue,” said Jennings. “It’s a case of fish and the West Coast’s biggest and most important ecosystem versus subsidized crops. We may be witnessing the first ever extinction of a species deliberately caused by the Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Water Resources.”

Deadly Fish Virus Spreads in New York

NEW YORK - A deadly, fast-spreading virus is affecting freshwater fish in several lakes in New York state. In the past, the fish virus had a catastrophic impact on fish populations in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. Pacific northwest. Victoria Cavaliere reports from VOA's New York bureau that state officials are examining the environmental and economic impact of the virus.

Hemorrhagic septicemia virus, or VHS, causes internal bleeding in affected fish but poses no danger to humans. The disease spreads rapidly among fish by direct contact. There are four strains of the virus: three found in Europe and one in North America.

VHS has long been a problem among commercially raised rainbow trout in Europe. The U.S. Geological Survey says millions of trout have died in the past decade, costing Europe's fishing industry about 40-million dollars a year.

Outbreaks have also affected salmon and herring in Japan and other parts of the Pacific, including the U.S. northwest.

Doug Stang is chief of New York State's Bureau of Fisheries. He explains why VHS is spreading widely and rapidly. "One of the troubling things with regard to VHS is that there are many fish species and fish families that VHS impacts. VHS has been found to affect worldwide 37 different species. We don't think that there are any species or families that are not susceptible to VHS," he said.

In 2005, scientists were alarmed to find that VHS had moved from its normal marine habitat into the fresh water fish populations of the U.S. Great Lake regions.

Last year, a mutated strain of the virus killed millions of fish in four of the five so-called Great Lakes, located on or near the U.S. -- Canadian border. The Great Lakes are the largest group of fresh water lakes on Earth. This year, the virus has also been detected in the Finger Lakes region, a popular tourist destination in New York state.

Scientists have discovered the fish virus in at least 19 of the 150 fish species in New York lakes and rivers. It has devastated six species. Stang says containing the disease means minimizing the movement of live fish and restricting fishermen (anglers), and that takes time and money.

There is some good news. Stang says over time, fish build up a resistance to VHS, and eventually the virus may run its course.

- Voice of America

Restaurant Review: An-Choi Serves Playful Pan-Asian

PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. - Pan-Asian food appears on every expert's "hottest trends" list, and 2007 began with Bon Appetit magazine naming it "Cuisine of the Year."

Pan-Asian is exactly what the name implies: a panoply of Asian cuisines, playing off each other on the same menu or even on the same plate. It combines flavors of Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan and others — and often uses inherent French influences to boot.

Thanh Truong really doesn't understand all the recent fuss; he's been creating Pan-Asian delicacies for more than 20 years, beginning with a stint in the 1980s at his brother's restaurant in Belgium. Most recently he cooked at the Fortune Cookie in Monterey and Robata in Carmel.

Truong now owns An Choi, with the sub-heading "Asian contemporary cuisine": a new Pan-Asian concept in Pacific Grove in the building long ago occupied by French restaurant Le Chantilly. Truong said he chose the name for two reasons. First, An Choi sounds like "enjoy." Second, he said, in Vietnamese, "an" means "eat" and "choi" means "play," and those two concepts mingle inside the walls of this four-month-old invention.

Truong and his wife Christine gutted the long-vacant building at the far west end of Lighthouse Avenue, in the middle of the Asilomar forest but offering modest, neck-craning views of the ocean.

The menu leads the diner on a playful global tour, employing the use of several cuisines, including: French (duck confit salad, steamed roulade de sole, canard l' orange); Vietnamese (pho soups, Ha Noi crab rolls, clay pot ginger fish); Japanese (sashimi, sushi rolls, teriyaki rice cubes); and Chinese (Hong Kong noodles, sweet and sour pork).

It's mostly a family affair, with Thanh Truong manning the kitchen, and wife Christine and daughter Emmeline working the front of the house.

"I put all my experience into the menu," said Thanh Truong, discounting the restaurant's obscure location. "If the food is good, people will find it."

|HE SAID|

Thanh Truong's statement is a restaurant truism, in most cases. And in terms of his new restaurant in the Pacific Grove hinterlands, the food shows enough promise to merit a visit by Pan-Asian food fans to decide for themselves.

In any but the most skilled hands, this type of fusion leads to confusion. Truong makes his food playful yet accessible and, although the menu is not annotated, the staff (including an often-roaming chef Truong) explains the food thoughtfully and with a subdued pride.

Use those explanations to your advantage, because often the menu description does not do justice to what lies beneath. For example, don't expect the sweet and sour pork to include the usual rough-cut chunks of heavily breaded meat, deep fried and drowned in a cloying orange sauce. Truong instead uses strips of tender pork loin paired with caramelized pineapple.

Similarly, the walnut prawns ($16) come delicately battered and lightly covered in a sweet white sauce.

The clay pot ginger fish ($16) was outstanding; four thin fillets of sole baked and served in the same dish, the accompanying onion and a bit of sugar supplying the sweetness that countered nicely with the use of briny Asian fish sauce and pungent bits of fresh ginger.

The vegetarian summer rolls were unique, only for the addition of matchstick jicama; the dish as a whole eliciting "ho-hum" responses from our table.

Our 14-year-old sushiphile loved the dragon rolls ($16), as the chef drew on his experience at Robata, the venerable Japanese restaurant in Carmel. Served on an elegant, elongated plate, eight large rolls revealed crab and avocado inside and large pieces of cooked eel outside. He devoured them all.

In my book, An Choi is an up-and-comer that needs to develop consistency, update its low-end wine list and avoid outpricing the marketplace (one wave of price "adjustments" has already taken place).

But I'll be back. I'm still curious.

|SHE SAID|

I like the setting for An Choi, nestled in a serene P.G. neighborhood with a view of towering cypress and a sliver of sea down the block. The restaurant's interior echoes those natural surroundings with lots of natural light, green walls and a vaulted sky-blue ceiling. In the far corner, a cute little bar with three barstools offers specialty martinis, a variety of imported beer and wine. Overhead, a slide show on a small plasma TV reveals images of the exotic fare in store.

The Vietnamese baked crab cakes are unique, narrow quiche-like wedges with fresh lump Dungeness meat mounded on top ($9). The texture is firm and tofu-like, the egg mixture supported by clear noodles baked inside.

Tamarind prawns with garlic noodles make a beautiful presentation with four huge prawns (tails on) perched elegantly atop a mound of fragrant egg noodles.

Tamarind juice adds a dash of tartness, balancing the sweet flavor of the noodles. I appreciate that the garlic doesn't overwhelm this dish; however, oil is used too heavy-handedly, turning an otherwise blend of delicate ingredients into an over-rich entrée ($16).

I have a feeling this little place is still coming into its own. There is a lot to like here, especially small gourmet touches and gracious service, which set it above popular local noodle houses.

Mike Hale and Melissa Snyder approach their reviews from a couple's perspective. All visits are made anonymously.

AN CHOI 1120 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove, 372-8818
Hours: Mon-Sat, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; 5-9 p.m. (Sun, until 8 p.m.)

– The Monterey County Herald

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Friday, June 15, 2007

News Brief: PSPA Names McDowell Vice President

Mary McDowell has joined the Pacific Seafood Processors Association in Juneau as the vice president for PSPA's Alaska operations.

McDowell, a 30-year resident, first came to Alaska as a member of an archeological team working in the Aleutian Islands in 1973 and 1974.

Her expertise is built on 18 years of legislative staff experience, with a primary focus on fisheries issues, three years as a special staff assistant for fish and game issues in the office of the governor, and eight years as a commissioner of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, PSPA officials said.

McDowell also spent 18 seasons managing and operating a fish buying station for salmon and halibut in Angoon, providing support services and a market for the local fishing fleet.

She has a bachelor's degree in anthropology, with an emphasis on Alaska Native cultures, from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

PSPA, founded in 1914, represents Alaska onshore processors and motherships in state and federal waters. The association's member companies operate plants throughout Alaska, including Bristol Bay, Dutch Harbor, Kodiak and Southeast Alaska.

– Alaska Coastal Journal

News: Laid-off Seafreez Workers Cry Foul Over Trucked Shrimp

NOVA SCOTIA - Unemployed fish plant workers in a Nova Scotia town are angry that shrimp landed in their community is being trucked to eastern Newfoundland for processing.

The Seafreez plant in Canso has been idle for several years, even though shrimp is still being landed locally.

"We believe that anything caught here should be processed here," said plant worker Kathy Dorrington, who punched in 27 years at the plant under different owners.

"It's a very sad state of affair that's going on right now in this area. We have no hope."

The shrimp is being trucked to a plant in Clarenville, in eastern Newfoundland.

Seafreez has said quota cuts made operating the Canso plant unfeasible.

Darrell Dexter, the leader of the New Democratic Party in Nova Scotia, said since the provincial government put money into the Canso plant, workers should have guarantees of continued employment.

"Essentially what happened is that the company did the minimum that was required, and then simply stripped out the equipment. We understand it was shipped off to Newfoundland," Dexter said.

Dorrington said workers have lost hope that the Canso plant will ever reopen. She said they now would like to see an early retirement program.

Bill Barry, the Corner Brook businessman who owns Seafreez, did not return calls from CBC News.

– CBC News

Book News: A Fine Kettle of Fish

MANILA, Philippines -- A little book introduced me to Alan Davidson. It was called A Kipper with my Tea.

I suppose the giver, my husband, saw its subtitle, Selected Food Essays, and correctly thought this was the kind of book I would appreciate.

It was more than appreciated. It's one of my most valuable books, the one I would recommend to anyone who aspires to be a food writer.

His essay on the Filipino eating attitude, Hallo, Halo-Halo, endeared him to me right away. He called the attitude "tropical-rejoicing syndrome." His British upbringing made him think of it at first as unseemly but it infected him later. "Quite a relief" was how he ended his essay.

Most people would remember the late Davidson as the editor of The Oxford Companion to Food and organizer of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Two huge projects, certainly.

Yet his biggest contribution to the world of food must certainly be his works on seafood— identifying them, giving their various names in different countries, writing down how these were cooked.

Unofficial task

He started his "fish work" when he was assigned in Tunis in 1961 as a member of the British diplomatic corps. It wasn't part of his official duty but it was done to keep a promise to his wife to help in identifying the bewildering array of fish at the market and to write down the names in Arabic, French and Italian.

That resulted in a booklet on the sea fish of Tunisia. His introduction to ichthyology, the study of fishes, came from the expert on Mediterranean fish, professor Giorgio Bini.

That little book on Tunisian seafood later grew to be a bigger book on Mediterranean Seafood. It was done with the help of another great British cookery writer, Elizabeth David, who saw the first book and persuaded her publishers to entice Davidson to do the expanded version.

While assigned on home duty, Davidson said the "fish in my life submerged." Luckily, he was assigned as ambassador to Laos in 1973. The assignment resulted in the book Fish and Fish Dishes of Laos.

He was the first person to catalogue the fish and to describe the cookery of this nation. In A Kipper with my Tea, he wrote about the giant catfish of the Mekong river, the Laotian pa beuk, a rare species that could be caught only for one month in a year and could measure some three meters long and weigh over 250 kilos.

The fish is so mysterious because no one knows where it spawns. There are so many myths about it that certain rules have to be obeyed by fishermen while attempting to catch it, otherwise they believe they will be unable to catch one.

The rules include making the necessary offerings to certain spirits and to hurl insults at each other while fishing.

Today, any book by Davidson merits my attention and depletes my allowance. And so Seafood of Southeast Asia was quickly purchased as soon as I saw his name. It's the second edition; the first one was published in 1976.

The book has wonderful illustrations, so deftly done, though, in black and white. The fish are easy to identify. But the book is more than just a catalogue. It also includes recipes of the nations that compose the region.

Every fish is listed with the scientific name and local name. It puzzled me at first that among Southeast Asian nations, Laos was not included in the local names listing. Then I remembered that the country was landlocked, meaning it had no coast. Its fish is only from fresh waters such as the mighty Mekong River where the pa beuk is found.

Chinese influence

Though not in Southeast Asia, China and Hong Kong are included in the recipe section. Davidson knew that Chinese cooking was so much a part of Southeast Asian cookery.

He also wrote in that book that the most common and most interesting fish were included but, since fish didn't adhere to man's political boundaries, the fish could also be found in East Asia, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

I still have to look for his North Atlantic Seafood. It may seem irrelevant to an Asian like me but it's really the writing that interests me.

One of my pleasant surprises was looking through the titles in a bookstore and discovering Seafood: A Connoisseur's Guide and Cookbook, a collaboration with artist Charlotte Knox.

The writer said he had a global selection in mind having covered very specific regions in his fish books while the artist chose with her painter's eye. The result is a beautiful seafood book, each fish or shellfish looking so fresh and waiting to be cooked in the Asian, Mediterranean, North Atlantic or Scandinavian way.

When asked why he titled my little book A Kipper with my Tea, Davidson wrote in the book's introduction that "High tea, Scots style has always been, at least since the age of 4, my favorite meal. And I really like kippers." This fish expert likes his herring, cured with salt and smoked.

– Asian Journal

Feature: Fresh Start for Atlantic City Seafood Festival

ATLANTIC CITY - For 17 years, the New Jersey Fresh Seafood Festival was a staple at Gardner's Basin, a picturesque spot on the bay side of Absecon Island. But housing was taking away precious parking space, so its nonprofit sponsors saw little hope of continuing it in 2007.

Tony Sbarra, though, thought that was just what he didn't want to see in his version of what Atlantic City should be.

"I hated that we lost Miss America, and that we're going to lose the rides on Steel Pier after this summer," said Sbarra, who runs Off the Wall Productions, an entertainment and marketing company in nearby Hammonton. "To lose a family event like a seafood festival, well, it just was not going to be right."

Sbarra, a board member of the Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce, decided to act in March, and this weekend he is presenting the first Atlantic City Seafood Festival on the grounds of Bernie Robbins Stadium along the Black Horse Pike.

"That's not a lot of lead time, and people assumed we weren't going to do this before 2008," he said. "But I said that if we wait a year, we might as well fold it up. You don't do these things every year, and people find something else to do."

<