Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Almost Four Tenths of One Percent Pays Draggers Big Dividends

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Laine Welch reports all over the 'net that draggers destruction and waste equal warm and delicious fuzzies for the poor and indigent. "Alaska food banks are the beneficiaries of fish taken as bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska thanks to Kodiak fishermen and local processors."  And all this positive spin for 3.7 tenths of one percent of the waste of halibut alone.  The story goes on to state that 5000 pounds of halibut and chinook bycatch were donated to Kodiak and 10,000 pounds of halibut and salmon bycatch were donated to Anchorage; the rest of the 4.02 million pounds of halibut and the 20, 983 king salmon were destroyed, wasted and lost.  No one knows how many kilotons of other species, not named or counted were destroyed, since they don't have name recognition or official value to make it into the NMFS statistical accounts.

For at least the past two weeks very positive news stories have circulated warm fuzzies, making it seem that bycatch has a valuable other side.  Contrarily, the magnitude of the outrageous waste and destruction of the public's resources by a small number of trawlers (about 40) has been neglected by the news media, who, lazy and ill informed, take the easy path and report the most simplistic news story.  Shame on Laine Welch and all the simpletons who picked up this story.  The painful truth remains untold, except maybe here.  They don't even need thirty pieces of silver to sell out the Gulf of Alaska, 3.7 tenths of one percent of their waste is enough.

If we make those donated pounds into meals, we get (at 1/2 pound of donated bycatch per meal), about 30,000 meals.  Wow, that is a lot of food for the poor.  But what remains untold is that at least 7,908,000 meals are dumped and that is just counting this year's reported halibut PSC.  Nevermind the salmon, cod, crab, and everything else.

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Point.  The waste of bycatch in the GOA can not be compensated for by some half ass program to feed poor people (as nice as that is) when the real story is the wholesale destruction of tens of millions of pounds of fish in the GOA.  Some of these fish are not valued (like Kodiak and Anchorage's poor?), but they play an important role in the health of the Gulf of Alaska.  3.7 tenths of one percent is all that the draggers need to donate of make a positive spin in the media. 

As far as keeping all these fish and feeding the masses, think again, most of the halibut wasted by draggers are very small.  You can see them sorted into totes for grinding at our local canneries.  Six inches long.  Total waste. GroundupFish Data Bunk and friends claim small halibut don't count.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Will Alaska wake up and see the real toll before it is too late for the Gulf? Will the NPFMC do its legal duty to the people of the USA and Alaska and protect these resources? Or will the spin specialists like the Ground(up)fish Data Bank and the 'pugh boys' on GOA draggers destroy one of the last great fishery resources left in the world.
BTW, I hear that NMFS says Wiglaf's figures are not accurate; well of course not, he gets them from NMFS on the web, and NMFS changes them constantly, especially when AGData Bunk calls them, so go figure.  And they impugne Wiggy's credibility?  Look, almost all NMFS figures are extrapolations based upon few (and far between), skewed and inaccurate observations.  If NMFS would become transparent, Wiggy would be forced to get his flippers off this keyboard.  He can't wait. 

But until that day, Keep Your Flippers Wet,

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

6 to 1 they destroy it

Anonymous said...

http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/PDFdocuments/halibut/EFPAppendix2_1111.pdf

Have you checked out this research? It's a study done on the sampling methods used to determine bycatch volume in tows. It has some really neat graphs and information I thought you could use. It shows that the number of tows taken is a HUGE factor in how accurate the data is. Observations based on 1 sampled tow are so far off it's a joke. Not until around 20 tows does it become more accurate. Looks like those scientists actually figured something out once. Only took them 20 years.

Anonymous said...

What's really got me stumped is how anyone can be a skeptic when it' so obvious what's happening. Been seeing alot of claims that tholepin is inaccurate and over the top.

Wiglaf said...

I get by with a little help from my friends. Amazingly, Craig Medred thought we were credible; that was nice. NOAA has only been to the site four times today; the State of Alaska thrice; Canada twice, and DC once. All good signs, thanks. W

Anonymous said...

REMEMBER it's not ONLY bycatch, it's the habitat, habitat, habitat that IS BEING EFFECTED it's the ECOSYSTEM, SEALS, WHALES, PLANTS, FISH & ALL that they depend on each other to survive each year, POSSIBLY EVEN THE AIR THAT WE BREATH, WHICH IS NOW CALLED CLIMATE CHANGE.