Report, Rumor, Analysis

Report:
Potential changes to halibut hired skipper regs forwarded for further analysis by NPFMC staff. PVOA and DSFU are adamantly opposed to reform.

Large owners of halibut IFQ commonly loan the 20% cash down payment required by the NMFS loan program to their crew members. So who really controls/owns that IFQ? Hint: Follow the money. Where the hell is the IRS?

Options are moving forward to require observers on small vessels fishing groundfish, including halibut. The buzz word is data gaps, quality data. Thinly veiled attempt by trawlers to reduce the pressure on their hidden dirty fishing by allying with other gear groups. Refuse them the compromise they crave. Do not go over to the dark side.

Bruce Leaman says only 50 million pounds of halibut are missing. Says bycatch needs reduction. (Really?)

Denby Lloyd wants assessments of halibut bycatch by October 2010.

Rumor:
SOS. Same Old Stuff. A Kodiak trawler, the Sea Mac, cod trawling last month came up with a huge bycatch of halibut while the observer was in the bunk, sea sick. Estimates ranged up to 20K pounds. They set back and killed 20K more! WTF. That is $720,000 at current IFQ prices. Tell me it ain't true. 'Sammatter wit you? Do you care? No more coffee at that place for me.

The Kodiak Chamberpot of Commerce forwarded only Matt Moir's name to the Governor for the NPFMC. They didn't know we already have a hard working Member? Not possible. If we lose our current Kodiak Member, the replacement will promote the agenda of foreign processor and trawler interests, and the interests of boots on deck owner/operators will be damaged. If you want to have any chance of making progress at the NPFMC, write letters of support by the end of February for Duncan Fields and Sam Cotten to:

Office of Governor Sean Parnell
Attn: Jason Hooley, Director of Boards and Commissions
PO Box 110001
Juneau, AK 99811-0001

CC:
Cora Campbell
Fisheries Policy Advisor
PO Box 110001
Juneau, AK 99811-0001

Analysis:
We have no evidence? The resources are collapsing. The trawlers operate without or around observers; some sell and transfer at sea their cod bycatch to their former crew operating jig boats. They bring refused loads to the dock that are wasted and dumped. They rip out the bellies of their pelagic trawls dragging up crab pots. They regularly destroy and damage far more than they deliver. Everyone on the waterfront knows the story, but the very officials charged by the the people through their government to manage and protect these resources are too distracted or compromised to demand protection of the resources. Way past time to revolt, friends, the trawlers and their allies need to be brought down. Demand change.

Several AP and NPFMC Members are qualified to join the Corrupt Bastards Club. To figure out who they are, pay close attention to how they vote on controlling bycatch. Nothing of consequence came out of the Portland meeting, just potential. Meanwhile crab fishermen, salmon fishermen, halibut fishermen, charter fishermen, sportsfishermen, and subsistence fishermen wait while the resources are hammered by the horrific bycatch like that we posted on this blog http://www.tholepin.blogspot.com/2009/10/filthy-video-of-halibut-waste.html .

Don't be afraid of observer coverage on the under sixty fleet. This is a smoke screen aimed by the trawlers to distract from their continuing dirty fishing. All fisheries have bycatch. Some fisheries are just plain dirty, with unacceptable levels of bycatch and benthic destruction. Under scrutiny, the truth of trawler destruction will require major changes in the way they operate, if they operate. Support the changes to observer coverage that will expose the truth.

Keep yer flippers wet.

Read this blog...it's loaded.

http://www.alaskacafe.blogspot.com/

Keep yer flippers wet.

Alaska PFD to Pay for Trawler Theft?

From a memo to Denby Lloyd, Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game:

"Last night at the Edgewater Hotel, we were told by a halibut processor who attended Steve Hare's presentation to the PAG (Processor Advisory Group) that Steve admitted to them that the (at least) 100 million pounds of missing halibut that the IPHC cannot account for these past four years was caused by 'un-reported GOA trawl bycatch.' Steve never told that to us fishermen on the Conference Board, which really stinks. I request 2 minutes tomorrow morning to put this on the record at our Observer Committee Meeting at AFSC (Alaska Fisheries Science Center). Denby, this is grotesque and it suggests that the IPHC process itself is warped towards favoritism, which we have NEVER believed before, NOT ONCE. We trust Bruce Leaman and Greg Best. But Steve makes us wonder now. Plus, why wouldn't Jim Balsinger and Ralphie Hoard come clean with us yesterday? Don't they think we can handle it?

"Can you please call Steve on the carpet tomorrow and make him explain why he failed to fully inform us fishermen and the Observer Committee of what he knew about the status of our halibut stocks. Based just on what the Canadians told us yesterday, they'll insist on being compensated for this and we long-liners don't have deep pockets to pay them off. I'll bet you they start ogling the trawlers' ITQs or that $34 billion in the Alaska Permanent Fund (to get the Council's attention) just to bring this issue to a boil when they address the NPFMC in Portland next month. Trust me, they are really pissed off now and it seems unlikely they'll take it anymore (remember Peter Finch's 1976 performance in Network? "We are made as hell and we are not going to take it anymore." Double it!)

"Don't mean to ruin your day."

An Alaska Fisherman (name withheld)

Keep yer flippers wet.

Contact IPHC About Dragger Destruction of the Resource

The International Pacific Halibbut Commission is meeting in Seattle January 25 through 29. Here is an opportunity to contact Executive Director Bruce Leaman bruce@iphc.washington.edu and make your concerns known about the wanton waste of halibut in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea by the American trawler fleet. While halibut stocks plummet and fishermen dependent on the resource continue to suffer economic impacts, the trawler fleet continues to decimate the halibut (and crab and salmon) stocks with impunity. By shear numbers of concerned citizens, perhaps if we add our voices to those in attendance who will be demanding changes in the way the IPHC and NMFS (No More Fish Sorry) calculate the real loss of halibut and habitat by the trawl fleet. Speak up now, loudly and often, before there is nothing left, like what has happened to the East Coast fisheries.

Keep yer flippers wet.

Tholepin Called Biased...

Since when is truth biased? We are moving in a scary direction, people.

Keep yer flippers wet.

The Dope on Marine Stewardship Council Certification

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6908997.ece

You pay 'em and they certify. Wow. That's what they mean by 'green.'

If you want to object to certification, you have to pay them...up to $30K. WTF.

Keep yer flippers wet.

Do Not Certify Pollock as Green!

The blue tangles of threads on this tanner crab is chafing gear from a trawl net proving they are contacting the bottom and fragile crab, as well as everyting else! These were common during tanner crab season 2009 in Kodiak.

The Marine Stewardship Council (http://www.msc.org/) is about to re-certify the pollock trawl fishery as green and sustainable. Of course it is neither green or sustainable. It has a dark history going back at least as far as the joint venture days when hundreds (some say thousands)of my fellow sea lions were killed in the Shelikof Strait. More recently huge numbers of salmon, especially chum and chinook are taken by trawlers here in the Gulf of Alaska and in the Bering Sea, where resultant shortages of fish have closed the Red and the Karluk Rivers to fishing on Kodiak Island, and have starved the residents of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers who depend on these fish for food and income. These systems have been declared a disaster for lack of fish, bycaught by the Bering Sea trawlers. www.adn.com/news/alaska/rural/story/1095790.html.

Here in the Gulf of Alaska, it is well known that the 'midwater' trawls frequently contact the bottom (they call it 'kissing') crushing crab and other species while the trawlermen chase the pollock close to the bottom. Furthermore, juvenile pollock excluder gear allows for larger average fish size while excluding these juveniles. As a result of going through the excluder mesh, these smaller pollock are damaged and most do not survive thus distorting the catch stats. Since there is no accounting, these excluded/killed fish are not counted against the total allowable catch quota. Like the king and tanner crab that are crushed, if you don't see 'em you can't count 'em.

There is no way the pollock fishery is green or sustainable. You can make an objection to the Marine Stewardship Council, but only if you are a registered participant and are willing to pay up to $30k. Now that's some green!

Keep yer flippers wet.

SEACOPS Joins the Fight for Cleaner Fishing

Welcome SeaCops to the fight to stop the wasteful destruction of our fisheries resources by the dirtiest fishing gear ever invented, trawling.

"Wiglaf - thanks for your work, we need your help! WE NEED VIDEO AND PICTURES. We're experiencing a severe decline of Halibut in SE Alaska and the charter sector is getting a lot of the blame for this. Go figure-punish the smallest user group with the least representation who get the most value per pound of fish caught.

"We are on a mission to educate the public about how ALL halibut drift west as larva and grow up in the nurseries of the Western Gulf only to be slaughtered by draggers as juvenile fish before they can complete their migration and be recruited into the fisheries = 2,000,000 individual fish! That's more halibut than the longliners and sport fishermen will get to catch this year combined.

"I work closely with SEACOPS (http://www.seacops.com/) who had a lot to do with getting rid of the draggers in SE Alaska in the '80s. We've got SEACOPS active again and are working on a presentation to educate SE communities about why our halibut numbers are down so low.

"Can we get a copy of your filthy halibut video for the presentation, and do you have pictures?"

Absolutely. On its way.

Keep yer flippers wet.

The Central Gulf, An Issue Overview for Non-Fishers

The Central Gulf of Alaska

The richest area of the Gulf of Alaska, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, is the central gulf, composed of the near shore, the continental shelf, and the continental shelf edge waters between 159 W and 140 W longitude. Huge flats areas, mountainous pinnacles, and muddy gullies offer an incredible diversity of sea life. Most trawling occurs in waters well under 500 fathoms. This Google Earth view shows the continental shelf and the deep offshore abyssal waters. Jurisdictions include state waters (out to three miles) and federal waters out to 200 miles.

The state waters are mostly managed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and federal waters by the National Marine Fisheries Service through the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. Halibut are managed by the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

Comments about management should be addressed to your state senator, or representative as well as the governor's office, and the commissioner of Fish and Game. Comments about federal management should be addressed to the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, and copied to your US Senators and Representative Don Young. Don't expect much from the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council unless they are flooded with comments. They are not a democratic council and mostly follow the directives of their interest conflicted Members. Petitions and letter writing campaigns have greater effect than individual letters. Organizations also have greater effect, based on member numbers. Start your movement today. You might consider: www.ipetitions.com/start-petition

Bear in mind the following:

• The Prohibited Species Catch (PSC) of halibut for trawlers in the Central Gulf is 2000 metric tons (4.4 million pounds). All of these fish are killed, thrown overboard and wasted. Because less than 30% of the trawler tows are observed, and these observations are often manipulated by the trawlers, the actual PSC is believed by most non-trawler fishermen to be far higher.
• This PSC doesn't change with the abundance of halibut. Now that halibut abundance has gone down for several years in a row, effectively the trawler fleet is killing and wasting a much larger share of the halibut.
• The trawler fleet wants to negotiate a larger PSC so they can catch more flounders (flats), since they reach their halibut PSC cap without catching all the flats they might otherwise be allowed. They call this stranded quota. The actual value of the flats is very low, but trawlers are allowed to keep targeted incidentally caught codfish which pays for the trips. So they want to waste more halibut to waste more flats so they can catch a little cod. Does this make sense to you?

If you are not a commercial fisherman and this all seems complex, remember, this is the simplified version. This all becomes more and more complex the more you learn and the NMFS and the trawler industry intends it to be too daunting to understand. The less the public knows, the more trawlers and their friends can get away with. The trawler fleet actually hires their own analysts to feed both NMFS and the public data and information most carefully spun to their distinct advantage. How else would they be able to continue to waste Alaska resources with such apparent nonchalance?

Missing data. Where is the data you ask? Missing or carefully manipulated. Because observer data is fragmentory, it used to both support trawler arguments before the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council , and dismissed as insufficient when used to criticised the trawler industry. When fewer than three vessels are involved in any area, the claim of proprietary privacy is made and the federal or state government can not by statute release the data. We need more data, no doubt, and to this end 100% observer coverage must be instituted to see what really goes on with our resources.

Begin your education at: www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc

Request:

• 100 % observer coverage on all trawlers in the Central Gulf.
• Individual trawler bycatch caps on all PSC (halibut, king salmon, and crab).
• PSC cap of halibut at 2000 metric tons must be linked to the highest abundance of halibut, and scaled back according to current abundance.
• No increase of PSC. Enough wanton waste already.
• Demand cleaner fishing practices by all gear types, no more free pass.

Keep yer flippers wet.

Tholepin Hits Around the World

Tholepin Hits Alaska

Tholepin Hits Outside Alaska

We won't break any records, but according to our SiteMeter, Tholepin is averaging 96 page views per day. Considering the weighty material in these pages, not too bad. These graphs indicate the interest is well beyond Kodiak Island. Juneau and D.C. hits were especially interesting. Are the Maryland hits coming from our potential new NMFS Director Eric Schwaab? Too good to be true? He might be an honest man. Come on...it could happen.

Keep yer flippers wet.