East Coast--West Coast--North Coast, Same Story, NOAA Drags Its Feet On Conservation

"The government is threatening to derail the efforts to protect groundfish and other depleted fish populations, like river herring. The New England Council meets Wednesday, and government leaders need to work to turn overwhelming public sentiment into regulation as opposed to throwing a wet blanket on the will of the greater fishing community."

Read the whole story: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120620/OPINION/206200310

Keep yer flippers wet.

Bycatch Symposium

http://seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/2014/wakefield-bycatch/index.php

Keep yer flippers wet.

Worth A Read

As traditional fishermen lose their grip on the resources they have depended upon for  generations and the big money interests go for the brass ring, enemies emerge from unexpected places and the fight for survival hardens.

http://www.alaskajournal.com/Alaska-Journal-of-Commerce/August-Issue-1-2013/AJOC-EDITORIAL-Mythbusting-the-halibut-split-and-the-federal-ANWR-argument/

Keep yer flippers wet.

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.

Attacks On Fisheries Observers More Than Double

You think the current 13% observer coverage is bad?  What about the abuse of observers?  Tolerated?  Observer companies have a conflict of interest? You mean there is corruption in the drag industry?  Complicity between industry and the agency (NMFS)?  The general public has no idea of how badly managed our North Pacific fisheries really are.

http://www.thecordovatimes.com/article/1321attacks-on-fisheries-observers-more-than

Keep your flippers wet.

Too Informative and Concise Not to Re-Post

Color them DIRTY:  Let's outlaw these boats or suspend their licenses for a year.  They are fishing 'trash' fish anyway.

http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/2013/pscinfo.htm

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And to borrow freely without permission:

From The Alaska Marine Conservation Council Website:

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is scheduled to take final action at their June meeting in Juneau. This is your chance to speak up for meaningful reductions. Send a letter to the Council by May 28th (see instructions and letter writing tips below) and  sign our open letter to the Governor and North Council asking for meaningful bycatch reductions.  

In August 2012, a 25,000 Chinook bycatch cap went into effect in the Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery. This historic cap is important, but there is another offender out there. Other trawl fisheries in the Gulf also catch Chinook salmon as bycatch while targeting flatfish, cod and rockfish. On average these other fisheries are responsible for about a third of the Chinook salmon bycatch every year but in some years these fisheries have been responsible for 60% or more of the bycatch. In 2010, non-pollock trawl fisheries in the Gulf caught nearly 10,000 Chinook salmon as bycatch.

 

This waste occurs despite recent and dramatic declines in Chinook returns in the Gulf and across the state. Runs were so poor in 2012 that the Secretary of Commerce declared a fisheries disaster for Cook Inlet Chinook salmon. The set net fishery was almost completely shut down in 2012, and the Kenai River was closed to all Chinook salmon fishing. Economic losses in Cook Inlet to commercial fishing alone are estimated at almost $10 million, with another $17.7 million to sport fisheries and additional losses to subsistence fishers.

 

Preseason forecasts and fishing restrictions across the Gulf for Chinook salmon in 2013 are further cause for concern. In short, the situation for families and communities dependent on Chinook salmon throughout the state remains dire.  Yet even at a time of low returns, fishing closures and declared disasters, Gulf trawl fisheries are allowed to catch thousands of kings as bycatch. The Gulf non-pollock trawl fisheries are the only fishery left which catches a significant amount of salmon bycatch, yet does not have a limit. This is unacceptable. It’s critical that we close this loophole and put a cap in place.

 

This year the Alaska State Senate passed SR5, a resolution introduced by Senator Peter Micciche of Soldotna urging the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to work to reduce Chinook bycatch in both the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea.  The Alaska House Bush Caucus also sent a letter to the North Council requesting bycatch reductions in trawl fisheries.  The North Council also needs to hear from you!

Letters must be received by Tuesday, May 28th. Make sure to write agenda item “C-4 GOA Salmon Chinook bycatch” on your letter. 

 

Send letters to:

North Pacific Fishery Management Council

605 West 4th Ave, Suite 306

Anchorage, AK 99510 (ck)

Email: npfmc.comments@noaa.gov

Anchorage, AK  99501

Fax: (907) 271-2817

For more information  visit the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's website.

 

Points to Include in Letters/Testimony:

• As a ________ (commercial halibut fisherman, charter operator, sport halibut fisherman, subsistence fisherman, consumer of halibut, etc.) I strongly support reductions in Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon bycatch in all trawl fisheries.
• The Council should set a cap of 5,000 Chinook salmon for the non-pollock fisheries in the GOA as a starting point. Bycatch must be reduced further in future actions.
• Chinook salmon have declined severely throughout Alaska: Commercial fishery failures and disasters were declared for the Upper Cook Inlet, Yukon River and Kuskokwim River.
• The Gulf non-pollock fisheries are the only fishery left which catches significant amounts of salmon bycatch, yet has no limit.
• Chinook salmon is critical to subsistence, sport and commercial fisheries, and a major contributor to the economy and culture of Alaska.
• All other users have to reduce their harvest to conserve Chinook salmon in years of low returns, the trawl fisheries must do the same.
• National Standard 9 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that bycatch be reduced.

At their meeting in Juneau, June 3rd-11th, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council will consider a bycatch cap range between 5,000 and 12,500 Chinook salmon in Gulf non-pollock trawl fisheries.  This is final action on a bycatch cap and will be the only mechanism to control bycatch at this time.

 

Attend the June Council Meeting in Juneau

The Council is scheduled to take up Gulf Chinook salmon bycatch starting June 7th at Centennial Hall. You can provide testimony in person at the Council meeting. It’s critical that the Council hears directly from people impacted by the Chinook salmon shortages and closures about the need to reduce bycatch in the trawl fleet.

 

Here is the  agenda for the meeting. 

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And keep yer flippers wet.

No Wonder There Is No Halibut Anymore

http://www.alaskajournal.com/Blog-Fish-Bytes/Blogs-2013/Non-pelagic-trawlers-hit-halibut-limit-in-Gulf-BSAI-plaice-TAC-achieved/

Keep yer flippers wet.