Stolen Halibut Transformed to Good Deed by Thieves

While the newscaster's gushes about how the Coast Guard flew 13,000 lbs of filleted halibut to

Kotzebue for food bank dependents, the real story is one of theft, and public relations spin.  The public tax money used to pay for the under funded Coast Guard's flight, is carrying a mere 3/10s of one percent of the 4.4 million pounds of halibut wasted by the draggers in the Gulf of Alaska.  Most of those halibut are far too small for filleting, and represent the future of halibut. 

So in return for killing off the halibut stocks, the draggers and their processor cronies get a gushy sound bite by the news media.

http://www.kmxt.org/images/stories/mp3/130626.sea_share_halibut_adq-otz.mp3

http://www.adn.com/2013/06/26/2954187/halibut-bycatch-delivered-to-kotzebue.html

Keep yer flippers wet.

AJOC EDITORIAL: NMFS Alaska puts trawlers ahead of conservation

Good read:

 http://www.alaskajournal.com/Alaska-Journal-of-Commerce/June-Issue-3-2013/AJOC-EDITORIAL-NMFS-Alaska-puts-trawlers-ahead-of-conservation/

"McCarty didn’t lobby the council at the Kodiak meeting in June 2012, but her client John Whiddon of Pacific Seafoods did. Whiddon submitted a letter to the council on behalf of Kodiak processors asking for either no cuts or a smaller cut in halibut bycatch.

"Whiddon, at the time, was also putting his name forward for appointment to the International Pacific Halibut Commission on which Balsiger sits as the federal designee to the six-member U.S.-Canadian body.

"It might sound bizarre to think that someone against cutting halibut bycatch would think it even possible to be appointed to the IPHC.

"Despite mountains of evidence that halibut bycatch negatively impacts the species, or the decline in tanner crab populations around Kodiak or chinook salmon around Alaska, NMFS Alaska consistently sides with the trawl fleet while it is standing by junk science shutting down fisheries in the Aleutians."

NMFS=No More Fish, Sorry

Keep yer flippers wet.

Most Offensive Bycatch Draggers Year to Date

As you can see by these data sorts of NMFS stats of Vessel Specific Bycatch, there are habitual offenders who either don't have the skill to avoid PSC bycatch or don't give a shit.

For Chinook Salmon:

For Halibut:

Read it and weep.

Where have all the fishes gone?
Long time passing?
Gone to draggers everyone.
Long time ago.

Keep yer flippers wet.

7500 Chinook Hard Cap for Non-pollock Draggers GOA!

A June surprise from the Council.

http://www.alaskajournal.com/Blog-Fish-Bytes/Blogs-2013/Gulf-of-Alaska-nonpollock-trawlers-limited-to-7500-kings/

Keep yer flippers wet.