MCManman and Keaton Conspire to Confuse Less Careful Readers

On page six  and seven of December's 2011 Pacific Fishing Magazine's Don McManman starts a twisted apology (probably mostly to advertisers) about having passed on information Wiglaf pulled from official NMFS numbers (although McManman seems to confuse Wiglaf and Medred).  Josh Keaton of NMFS also weighs in to twist Wiglaf''s flippers over the posting.  Admittedly, Wiglaf has been pretty hard on NMFS for not protecting the resources of the GOA.  McManman even includes some palaver from Merrick Burden, of MCA, a wholly owned and operated extension of the draggers and processors serving as a thinly guised propaganda service to promote DP interests.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't bother to respond, but since this is a clumsy attempt to gut our credibility, here goes.   I do appreciate that this need to fill two pages in Pathetic Fishing means we hare having some effect, or no one would mention us.

No projections of the Alaska Beauty's catch was made by Wiglaf.  Straight off NMFS's report.  No application to the fleet was made by Wiglaf; the Alaska Beauty is regularly dirty, owns no IFQ halibut and so is apparently disinterested in taking care of that resource.  (Don't you love the way Keaton apologizes for the Alaska Beauty?)  We have to wonder though, what happens when Alaska Beauty doesn't have an observer aboard.  Keaton says one observed bad tow, NMFS records show there were five.  NMFS numbers: 43% of his catch of cod was PSC halibut.  Beauty, eh?  A black mark on Alaska to be sure.

The fleet-wide catch was officially extrapolated with an approved NMFS model by NMFS number crunchers and published as such.  That they adjust these numbers regularly as they feel the pressure by the industry to deflate them or find errors in their methods (are there many?) should be our concern, but we publish as the information surfaces.

24 September 2011

http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2011/car240_psc_halibut.csv
This link has weekly bycatch rates/mortality by area and gear type. (Thanks, GF)

As far as to what Craig Medred says (we saw the error in his report), we have little care.  Medred is devoutly anti-commercial fishing, and so is hardly an ally, except that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" occasionally makes him useful.  Nobody, after all, informed of the horrific bycatch waste in the Gulf of Alaska fails to flinch.  And while it is true we all have bycatch, whether pot, longline, seine, troll, jig, gillnet; the fact remains that trawl bycatch is beyond what anybody should tolerate, and while we argue, trawlers are busily degrading the GOA, its habitat and ocean inhabitants.  NMFS is comfortable with its own models and sincerely does not have the will to change the modus operandi of GOA trawling.  Some say they sincerely don't care.  Too much trouble and too much well financed opposition with no political backbone in DC to back them up.  Fisheries science is up for sale.  Wake up. 

"At times the GOA trawl fleet seems more intent on avoiding halibut (PSC bycatch) than actually catching its target species.  The fleet voluntarily stood down for three weeks in September because of high (observed) halibut bycatch."  Don McManman says.  Oh, Don, come on, you are not really that simple are you?  They had damn well better be careful.  If they exceed the PSC they will be forcibly shut down by Federal law.  Their behavior is called self interested self preservation.  McManman kisses on...

"The GOA trawl fleet also voluntarily took on 100 percent observer coverage---paid for out of their own pockets---to ensure an accurate and timely count of halibut bycatch."  Really?  Don, they didn't do that out of the goodness of their hearts, it is called CYA.  A PR ploy that worked on you and didn't cover anymore time than they needed it to, operating as an informal co-op.  Part of this was to stopper their 'pirate' or sloppy skippers who can't avoid bycatch because they are too unskilled or impaired.  It was also a demonstration of what they could do if we give them the Gulf as IFQ.

Years ago, Al Burch said we had to hang together as commercial fishermen or the greenies and the tree huggers and PETA would hang us all separately.  It is a simple argument that has appeal if you are basically distrustful or paranoid, but not if you are more willing take a chance with honesty with the fish consuming public.  It is the public's ocean.  We need to clear the air, fish as cleanly as we can and change how we catch fish if we need.  If dragging is unable to clean up its act, it needs to go the way of the dinosaurs...extinct.  That restricting trawlers might affect Pacific Fishing's bottom line, or anyone else's, is meaningless in the long run, and that is what we care about, the future of fishing.  We look east of us and see it is mostly gone or a shadow of its former health/wealth.  We don't want to look back at the good old days.  We want them from here on into the future.  You got a problem with that?

Bycatch is an emotional issue, you say?  Damn right.  To see the future swept away by the lust for profits, to see the passive response of NMFS and the NPFMC to such criminality of wasting this year 1829 metric tons of halibut.  One metric ton is 1000 kilograms, so a metric ton is roughly 2205 pounds, so 1829 X 2205 = 4,032,945 pounds.  Check that Don.  No bullshit. 

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

This is straight off the internet.  Try it, you'll like it.  And if what we believe is true, this is a fraction compared with what is really being killed off as bycatch in the Gulf. 100% observed trawling for an entire year will get us some ground-truthing of what the real cost to the resource is for complacency over trawl bycatch.


Journalists are dependent on economics to survive.  Fishing magazines (all small magazines) are under stress.  They need every advertising dime they can garner.  The smaller the outfit the more dependent they are on their advertisers.  Advertisers hate controversy.  It is hard on the bottom line.  So most journalists are not very independent, they depend on advertising dollars for their daily bread.  Bloggers are not dependent on cash made from their journalism.  They can speak the truth as they see fit without the compromise of fearing offending groups (except for violent threats).  The blog is a leveler.  Wiglaf is saying nothing that hasn't been said before on the docks, but for the first time, you can read it out loud and online.  This news can get beyond the shorelines of this little fish town.  That shakes things up.

Last. Anonymity is for self protection.  What's a name, anyway?   Call me Wiglaf.   Judge the argument.   If you want to get a hold of me, use the comment link, but otherwise don't waste my time.

Keep your flippers wet.