Hammer, Hammer, Hammer the Kings; Trawl Away, Drag Away, Throw Away the Kings

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Obviously, the draggers don't feel any compunction about dragging away (and throwing away) Alaska's threatened stocks of king salmon.  Although the take is half of last week's, it is still an outrage. 

No cap is yet in place for Kings.  Although the NPFMC has passed a 25,000 cap of Kings, it does not apply to this year's catch.  Kiss your King salmon good bye!
http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/car120_goa.pdf

That the Golden Fleece doesn't lead the worst offenders is surprising. But then they specialize in destroying tanner crab. The Kodiak vessel Caravelle continues her reign as a worst offender in halibut and king salmon. O'Donnell has been heard to claim he doesn't alter his behavior in the face of observers. If true, he is either an especially dirty dragger, or the rest of the fleet is gaming the hell out of their observer coverage.  Come to think of  it, where is the rest of the fleet?  Unobserved!
http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/pscinfo.htm


KYFW

More Than 5200 Chinook Wasted By GOA Trawlers Just This Week

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In a switch from wasting at least five million dollars worth of halibut last week, GOA trawlers hammered away on the king salmon, a species widely regarded as suffering from steady declines.  Like halibut, the prevalent attitude of "the sooner they're gone, the sooner we can have our way with the GOA," is expressed by those draggers having no stake in the PSC resources.

Source.

We know from past observations that the Alaska Beauty is particularly dirty, so it is interesting that they have only one observation here.  This is an example of gaming.  Looks like the Walter N with double the observer coverage knows how to fish relatively cleanly.  How about: reward the clean boats with a high proportion of the quota, when it comes to that?  Since the practice has been to fish for history so they get the biggest share of the Gulf, turn this around and reward the cleanest boats....what a crazy idea, because now the rewards go to the pigs.   http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/pscinfo.htm





Picture removed by Google.

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KYFW...

Trawlers Smash Halibut, Wasted PSC Exceeds 700,000 Pounds NMFS Reports

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Week ending October 8, 2011 makes last week's halibut PSC look like a warmup. Interestingly, the percentage rate of halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) has diminished, while the actual PSC of halibut has soared to over three times last week's PSC.  Abstrusive statistics are part and parcel of NMFS's 'public process' and 'openness.'  But the occultive practices fail to conceal that pelagic trawling is used on the bottom to catch pollock and the Chinook which feed with them.  Trawl slaughter of Chinook takes a sharp upswing, at 2445 fish wasted.

 Source:http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/pscinfo.htm

http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/car120_goa.pdf

KYFW

Getting Wasted: The Tragedy Continues (photos censored)

The pictures which were here were anonymously donated to someone who gave them to someone who gave them to Wiglaf for the tholepin blog.  These photos of illegal activity have since been claimed by the skipper of that vessel who filed with the Google blogging service and they have since been taken down by Google.  This is part of a larger conspiracy by the trawling fleet cooperative to limit their exposure to the public for the secret damages they are doing to the Gulf of Alaska.  Personal threats are received regularly here against Wiglaf and others suspected of being him/her.  Ask not what the Gulf of Alaska can do for you, ask what you can do for the Gulf of Alaska. In the future always save anything you find of interest here and repost elsewhere.  These supposed copyright infringement claims do not have to be substantiated for Google to take them down.  We do not blame Google.  They are simply covering their ass.  Blogs are the last potential for freedom of the press.  But freedom of press in America is an illusion after all.  wt

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Question: Why does a web host or blogging service provider get DMCA takedown notices?
Answer: Many copyright claimants are making complaints under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Section 512(c)m a safe-harbor for hosts of "Information Residing on Systems or Networks At Direction of Users." This safe harbors give providers immunity from liability for users' possible copyright infringement -- if they "expeditiously" remove material when they get complaints. Whether or not the provider would have been liable for infringement by materials its users post, the provider can avoid the possibility of a lawsuit for money damages by following the DMCA's takedown procedure when it gets a complaint. The person whose information was removed can file a counter-notification if he or she believes the complaint was erroneous. 

Remember, this is in metric tons.  So 99 X 2200 = 217,800 pounds X $7 =  $1,525,600 in ex-vessel value, last week. http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/car120_goa.pdf

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Of special interest, while Miss Leona whores through the cod, Alliance is heavily observed and apparently knows how to trawl.  Elizabeth F meanwhile sets the standard for stewardship.  .http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/pscinfo.htm

KYFW.

Halibut Waste Rises as Draggers Hammer Cod and NPFMC Fails Again

Here are this week's Dirty Dozen Draggers placed here to celebrate the NPFMC's failure to control waste in the GOA.  In the right column is the percentage of halibut PSC as compared to the catch.  Ironically the Alaska Beauty is the dirtiest dragger this week with fully 43 percent of their 'cod catch' halibut PSC.  No reasonable country or state would tolerate this kind of resource waste.  Other draggers on this list show they can control their PSC, at least some of the time. Source.  We will publish the NPFMC motion and vote when it becomes available.

http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/car120_goa.pdf
104 X 2200 = 228,800 pounds of halibut wasted by draggers just last week.  Value? In cash terms to longliners, about one million six hundred thousand dollars ($1,601,600).  In lost reproductive potential, in lost growth potential, in long term resource damage; all unknowns...but far in excess of the cash value lost.  All in one week.  Are we sure that is the full extent of the damage?  Not at all, as the observer program is badly flawed.  Well what about the report that just came out show that Alaska's bycatch was so much lower than the rest of the country?  Totally misleading and released in a timely way to bolster dragger arguments before the NPFMC that they are so good and righteous...but the fact is that the bycatch in Alaska is a great unknown due to the misleading character of the posits in the extrapolations of a badly flawed observer system.  Wouldn't you think the media in Alaska would examine this stuff?  Wouldn't you think they might look deeper than a feel good press release by NMFS?  Why would they? There is no more reward for real investigative journalism than for the embrace of press releases, that you don't have to rewrite for a public which remains largely uninformed.  The preceding article here regarding faulty red king crab science is an indication of how easily twisted the shaky science is in institutions where uncomfortable findings are suppressed and independent thinking scientists are marginalized.

KYFW,