February 6, 2009 Disclaimer: Inclusion of a news article, report, or other document in this email does not imply MCA support or endorsement of the information or opinion expressed in the document.
F/V KATMAI. Raft inflates, but questions persist in deadly sinking (2/3)
F/V KATMAI. 15 hours of icy terror on the Bering Sea (1/30)
PowerPoint. Opportunistic temperature-at-depth recorders on Bering Sea pollock trawls to evaluate linkages between location-specific temperatures and pollock, salmon, and other species catch rates
NOAA. Steller Sea Lion and Habitat Protections Map Viewer Software
U.S. House Natural Resources. Rahall and Hastings Announce Subcommittee Lineup (2/4)
PICES Press (Jan 2009)
SWAMC challenges possible pollock restrictions (2/3)
DVD. Trashing Your Livelihood: Marine Debris and Commercial Fishing
2009 Alaska SE Sustainable Salmon Fund Funded Project List
Firms that fish Western Alaska village quotas seek tax relief (2/5)
Arctic fishing gets cold U.S. reception (Market Place Audio/Text) (2/5)
ADN. Council outlaws Arctic fisheries (2/6)
AP. Federal Board Votes To Ban Arctic Fishing (2/6)
NY Times. Arctic Sea Partly Closed to Fishing (2/5)
Washington Post. Commercial Fishing Is Barred in Parts of Arctic (2/6)
Seattle Times. Global warming spurs commercial fishing moratorium in U.S. Arctic (2/6)
Senator Murkowski. Changing Arctic realities call for new policy (2/5)
USCG. Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Advisory Committee. Apps due June 1
EPA – NPDES VGP program - reminder
STATE
Personal use king crab quota pinched (1/29)
BOF. Southeast and Yakutat Finfish (including salmon, herring, groundfish)
Invitation to Bid. 2009-1100-8472 Sablefish Survey Charter (2/4)
Palin's new rural affairs adviser has lengthy resume in fisheries (2/4)
City, borough aim for unified fish share policy (2/4)
Homer News SeaWatch. Cook Inlet 2009 runs to be low (2/4)
ADFG. Sonar Estimation of Salmon Passage in the Yukon River Near Pilot Station, 2006
ADFG. Activities of the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group, 2007
ADFG. Fishery Management Plan for the State-Waters Pacific Cod Season in the South Alaska Peninsula Area, 2009
ADFG. Fishery Management Plan for the State-Waters Pacific Cod Season in Kodiak Registration Area K, 2009
MARKETING
MSC. Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) /Gulf of Alaska pollock – Proposed assessment team (2/3)
MISC
Dutch Harbor, Alaska: The police blotter read around the world (2/5)
FEDERAL
F/V KATMAI. Raft inflates, but questions persist in deadly sinking (2/3). A raft that could have been used by crew members of the ill-fated Katmai partially inflated Tuesday during a test by investigators looking into the cause of the Seattle-owned fishing boat's sinking last year, which claimed the lives of seven men.
But the test didn't answer whether or not the raft actually was inflated, even partially, at the time of the sinking, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Rob McLellan.
"I don't think we can ever know definitively yes or no," McLellan said at the conclusion of the 40-minute examination of the black inflatable raft. More
F/V KATMAI. 15 hours of icy terror on the Bering Sea (1/30). The Bering Sea can be as dark, as icy, as wind-blown a place as you’ll find — one that can swallow fishermen and turn a night in a life raft into the most harrowing kind of near-death experience.
“It doesn’t get much more difficult than here; it’s extreme,” says Lt. Zachary Koehler, a Coast Guard helicopter pilot whose team rescued four cod fishermen after their flooded 93-foot vessel, Katmai, rolled on its side and sank.
Seven of Katmai’s crewmembers died Oct. 22 in the mountainous, white-capped seas off the western Aleutian Islands, 1,000 miles from the Alaska mainland. Seas were running 20 feet beneath roaring 6-foot breakers, Koehler says. The four survivors, rescued from a badly battered life raft, say three of their number tumbled from the raft and were lost early on in capsizes. For 15 hours, the four struggled to hang on as the raft flipped 20 or 30 times in 50-knot winds. More
NOAA. Steller Sea Lion and Habitat Protections Map Viewer Software. The standalone MapViewer software will allow you to download, view, query, navigate and print the Steller Sea Lion Protection Measures charts and additional restricted groundfish areas from your PC without being connected to the internet. More
U.S. House Natural Resources. Rahall and Hastings Announce Subcommittee Lineup (2/4). Washington, D.C. - House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) and Ranking Member Doc Hastings (R-WA) Wednesday announced the roster of Members who will serve on each of the four Subcommittees for the 111th Congress. ….
Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife:
Chairwoman: Madeleine Z. Bordallo (GU) Ranking Republican Member:Henry E. Brown, Jr. (SC) Democrats: Dale E. Kildee (MI), Eni F. H. Faleomavaega (AS), Neil Abercrombie (HI), Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ), Gregorio Sablan (MP), Donna M. Christensen (VI), Diana DeGette (CO), Ron Kind (WI), Lois Capps (CA), Carol Shea-Porter (NH), Frank Kratovil, Jr. (MD), Pedro R. Pierluisi (PR) Republicans:Don Young (AK), Jeff Flake (AZ), Doug Lamborn (CO), Robert J. Wittman (VA), John Fleming (LA), Jason Chaffetz (UT), William Cassidy (LA) More
SWAMC challenges possible pollock restrictions (2/3). Resolutions passed at the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference (SWAMC) Jan. 30 included requests to increase the Alaska Marine Highway System’s (AMHS) M/V Kennicott service to Southwest Alaska from April to September, appeals for more state transportation infrastructure and renewable energy funding, and increased state participation in the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s promotional programs. …..
Another resolution addressed what SWAMC called the potentially devastating impacts, economically and to future fishing seasons, of an environmental impact report on Bering Sea chinook salmon bycatch management that will serve as a central decision-making force for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. The impact report attempts to minimize chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery while still getting an optimum pollock yield.
In order to reduce chinook bycatch, the NPFMC may impose restrictive limits on chinook bycatch in the pollock fishery, which could make “the end result being a possible shut down of the entire Bering Sea Pollock fishery during A/B fishing seasons,” according to the resolution.
The resolution called for more research on the origin of chinook salmon bycatch and Bering Sea salmon abundance figures before placing restrictions. The resolution called for a full cost-benefit analysis of the potential impacts, adding that the environmental impact report lacked “any meaningful analysis of the direct and indirect economic consequences that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues for Pollock-dependent communities in Southwest Alaska and the State of Alaska.”
“We need sustainable fisheries, but we also need sustainable economies to support those industries,” said Maker.
City Councilman Terry Haines, who also attended SWAMC and does not agree with recent crab rationalization policy, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s fisheries adviser thinks there will be push for catch shares nationwide. More
DVD. Trashing Your Livelihood: Marine Debris and Commercial Fishing. Description. Marine debris, including lost and discarded fishing gear, can be costly to commercial fishermen. This video shows fishery damage, and tells how reduce the amount of new debris and how to clean up the debris already there. The video was produced with NOAA funds in partnership with the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association and Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation. Order a Copy from the Alaska SeaGrant Book Store
Firms that fish Western Alaska village quotas seek tax relief (2/5). Commercial fishing companies that harvest seafood on behalf of Western Alaska villages might collectively owe tens of millions of dollars in back taxes for business activities beyond the scope of their nonprofit status. Executives for the six companies are asking members of the Alaska congressional delegation to sponsor legislation to block taxes on their Bering Sea fishing income.
The outcome could affect how much economic development money is available for villages and the pace at which the companies are gradually taking over key parts of Alaska's huge fishing industry.
The six companies operate under the Community Development Quota program, a federal initiative begun in 1992. The program aims to benefit 65 coastal villages by vesting them with up to 10 percent of the lucrative Bering Sea fish and crab harvests.
The six companies, each representing groups of villages stretching from Nome to Naknek and out the Aleutian chain, arrange to catch the fish and convert it to cash. Company executives say they use proceeds from the catch to make further industry investments, create jobs, build processing plants, and provide scholarships and other benefits for often impoverished villagers. More
Arctic fishing gets cold U.S. reception (Market Place Audio/Text) (2/5). Ice is melting rapidly off the northern coast of Alaska, which is drawing the attention of the commercial fishing industry. But U.S. government is expected to step in and stop it before it starts. Sarah Gardner reports.
ADN. Council outlaws Arctic fisheries (2/6). Federal fishery regulators Thursday approved an unprecedented plan to ban U.S. commercial fishing in the Arctic Ocean. The Anchorage-based North Pacific Fishery Management Council spent two years developing the Arctic plan in response to climate change and the rapid retreat of sea ice in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas along Alaska's northern coast.
Some scientists and fishing industry players say it's conceivable that commercially valuable seafood species such as pollock or crab populations could expand in the Arctic, which could draw fishing fleets.
So far, no fishing of any major scale occurs in the Arctic, and the few surveys of fish stocks there don't show large populations.
Still, the council, meeting in Seattle this week, decided to write an Arctic Fishery Management Plan to control commercial fisheries should they develop. More
AP. Federal Board Votes To Ban Arctic Fishing (2/6). ANCHORAGE - In a move aimed at limiting harm to Arctic waters opened by global warming, a federal advisory board voted Thursday to ban commercial fishing north of the Bering Strait off Alaska's coast.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Seattle, voted unanimously to prohibit industrial fishing in nearly 200,000 square miles of U.S. waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to approve the recommendation.
Environmental and industry representatives hailed the council's decision, saying summertime melting of sea ice has outpaced regulators' ability to manage Arctic Ocean waters.
"The rate of change in the Arctic is increasing, and the retreat of sea ice is happening faster than our science is able to provide the kind of information we need to determine whether there should be or can be a sustainable fishery in the Arctic," said Dave Benton, director of the Marine Conservation Alliance, a trade group representing fishing interests from rural Alaska village associations to factory trawlers. More
NY Times. Arctic Sea Partly Closed to Fishing (2/5). A federal fishery panel voted Thursday to close off a large swath of the Arctic sea to commercial fishing. The move was a pre-emptive measure to protect more than 150,000 square nautical miles north of the Bering Strait that have become more accessible as a result of the warming Arctic climate.
The unanimous vote was unusual in that it was largely supported by industry and conservation groups alike and because it was the first time the United States had acted to close a fishery as a result of climate change instead of in reaction to overfishing, proponents of the measure said. More
Washington Post. Commercial Fishing Is Barred in Parts of Arctic (2/6). In a unanimous vote yesterday, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council ruled that scientists and policymakers need to better assess how global warming is affecting the region before allowing fishing on stocks such as Arctic cod, saffron cod and snow crab.
"There's concern over unregulated fishing, there's concern about warming, there's concern about how commercial fishing might affect resources in the region, local residents and subsistence fishing and the ecosystem as a whole," said Bill Wilson, a council aide.
Environmentalists and fishing interests praised the move as sensible, given the changes to ice cover and other features of the Arctic environment.
The Marine Conservation Alliance -- an association representing fishermen and processors who harvest groundfish and crab off Alaska's coast -- endorsed the council's decision to close an area spanning nearly 200,000 square miles, an area nearly twice as large as the U.S. national park system. More
Seattle Times. Global warming spurs commercial fishing moratorium in U.S. Arctic (2/6). Spurred by global warming concerns in the U.S. Arctic, a federal fishery council on Thursday established a moratorium on commercial seafood harvests in a vast zone off Alaska's northern coast.
In a unanimous vote in Seattle, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council approved the plan in response to the dramatic retreat of summertime ice in Arctic waters.
The plan covers a nearly 200,000-square-mile area stretching from the Bering Strait waters near Russia to the U.S. maritime boundary with the Canadian Arctic. The plan will be forwarded to the U.S. Commerce Department for final approval, and would be a boost to State Department efforts to negotiate similar fishing closures off the Arctic coasts of Canada and the Russian Far East.
There are currently no commercial harvests in the federal waters of the U.S. Arctic, which stretch from 3 to as far as 200 miles offshore through the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
But many believe that pressures to fish those areas will increase in the years ahead if warming waters cause a migration there of pollock and other species that now sustain major harvests farther south in the Bering Sea.
"The rate of change in the Arctic is fairly well understood," said David Benton, executive director of the Marine Conservation Alliance, which represents commercial fishing groups, processors and Alaska communities. "What is not understood is the way that it's going to affect the marine environment and the Arctic people." More
Senator Murkowski. Changing Arctic realities call for new policy (2/5). Although many in the Lower 48 did not pay much attention, the White House recently released an important new policy statement dealing with an area of the world that is close to the hearts of many Alaskans — the Arctic.
The Arctic Policy 2009 calls for enhanced security, increased environmental protection, sustainable energy development, international scientific cooperation and greater involvement of indigenous people in the Arctic.
U.S. Arctic Policy was last updated in 1994, but the Arctic is vastly different today than it was 15 years ago. The administration’s updated Arctic policy recognizes the United States as an Arctic nation — thanks to Alaska’s geographic location — and details new objectives, priorities and needs for the region.
Climate change and the environmental changes that come with it are occurring at an unprecedented rate in the Arctic. The polar ice cap is melting and areas that have never been accessible to energy development, shipping, and tourism have been opening up during the summer, leading some to predict that one day in the near future the fabled Northwest Passage, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, might be a regular shipping route. This is an intriguing prospect for Alaskans. More
USCG. Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Advisory Committee. Apps due June 1. The US Coast Guard is in search of persons interested in serving as members of the Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Advisory Committee (CFIVSAC). Applications for membership should be received by June 1. 74 Fed. Reg. 6294 (February 6, 2009).
EPA – NPDES VGP program – reminder. This is a reminder to the regulated community that the EPA’s Vessel General Permit (VGP) program comes into effect on February 6. Following is our (Haight Maritime Newsletter) earlier report on this development: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice announcing the Vessel General Permit (VGP) program as part of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA). A federal court previously ruled that the long-standing exemption from the NPDES permitting requirement was invalid and directed that the exemption be vacated as of December 19, 2008. The VGP program has been developed in response to that ruling. The program addresses 28 separate discharges from ships including, but are not limited to, ballast water discharges, deck washdown and runoff, bilge water, gray water, seawater cooling overboard discharge, controllable pitch propeller hydraulic fluid, and hull husbandry. Covered vessels (basically commercial vessels, foreign and domestic, of 79 feet in length and greater) operating on navigable waters of the United States have to adopt best management practices for each of these waste streams. In addition, covered vessels of 300 gross tons and greater will have to submit Notices of Intent (NOIs) relating to these discharges. The EPA also released its 162-page VGP permit and a 125-page Fact Sheet and a 179-page Economic Analysis. Finally, to further complicate an already difficult situation, it released the State and Tribal Certifications related to the VGP program. The EPA also issued a news release stating that the program affects approximately 61,000 domestic vessels and 8,000 foreign vessels. Note: Subsequent to the signing of this notice, the federal court granted a motion to delay implementation of the VGP program until February 6, 2009. This is a work in progress and there are certain to be further developments. 73 Fed. Reg. 79473 (December 29, 2008).
STATE
Personal use king crab quota pinched (1/29). The Board of Fisheries has sided with commercial vessel owners on policy regarding red and blue king crab harvest. They voted unanimously Tuesday to accept a proposal by the Petersburg Vessel Association (PVA) on the matter. PVA petitioned the board to reconsider a management technique that reallocated the commercial crab quota to personal use fishermen in the case of a commercial closure. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has closed the commercial king crab fishery since 2005. Personal use fisheries were closed early in 2007 due to low numbers and the season was canceled all together in 2008.
Groups representing commercial interests made the argument that those crab needed to remain in the water in order to rebuild the weakening stock, rather than ending up on a local dinner table.
Meanwhile, another proposal came before the board this week that sought to end commercial participation in the 11A king crab harvest. That proposal was put forth by Territorial Sportsman, a Juneau-base group. The group maintained that the fishery was an important sustenance fishery for Juneau area residents and that there isn’t enough biomass for commercial interests as well.
When both fisheries were operating together, management tended to favor the personal use fishery with around 60% of the harvest. That wasn’t the case this week as board members sided with commercial users.
Board members indicated concern that the personal use fishery was still taking 100% of the recommended harvest for any given year, leaving little chance for stock numbers to increase in the future.
“This proposal would essentially leave that 40% in the water to help try and rebuild the stock. From a conservation of the resource point of view, that made a whole lot of sense,” said Board Member Howard Delo. Link
Invitation to Bid. 2009-1100-8472 Sablefish Survey Charter (2/4). The Alaska Dept. Of Fish and Game is requesting bids from qualified bidders to perform the Northern Southeast Alaska Sablefish Pot Survey.
Interested bidders may download the invitation to bid below.
Bids are due in the Juneau ADFG Procurement Office no later than 2:30 PM on 2/27/2009. More
Palin's new rural affairs adviser has lengthy resume in fisheries (2/4). Gov. Sarah Palin has appointed a former crab fisherman and fisheries corporation manager from Dutch Harbor/Unalaska as her new rural affairs adviser. John Moller, 47, started work Friday, according to the governor's office. He said he's planning a trip to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta next week to visit Emmonak, Kotlik and possibly other villages. "I believe I can help rural Alaska be heard in the governor's office and also go the other direction, in terms of anything that the governor would like to convey to rural Alaska," he said.
According to his resume, Moller worked more than 10 years as a crab fisherman and as a general manager of the fisheries corporation Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, and in 2007 and 2008 served as a vice president at Adak Fisheries. More
City, borough aim for unified fish share policy (2/4). The Kodiak City Council and Borough Assembly held a joint work session Tuesday night, on the heels of last week’s Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference (SWAMC).
“One thing we heard at SWAMC is that the Obama administration strongly supports catch shares. It’s time for Kodiak to adopt a concerted fisheries policy,” City Councilman Terry Haines said.
Borough Mayor Jerome Selby agreed Kodiak needs a community fishery policy statement.
“Then we can inject our policy into future fishery debates. Our policy could then be one of the alternatives considered,” he said.
Haines added, “Once we have a fisheries policy statement, the city and borough can together contract a fishery expert to represent Kodiak at these meetings.”
The concept of adopting a community fishery management policy was strongly endorsed, though no formal action was taken in the work session format.
A draft ordinance proposing the creation of a Kodiak Fisheries and Oceanic Research Advisory Board also received general approval. The purpose of the board would be to “support a sustainable Kodiak fishing industry and community interests, to enhance communication between Kodiak’s public officials and research sector and to facilitate communication among state, federal and university researchers in Kodiak.” More
Southeast Dungy crab fishery undergoes changes (KFSK Audio) (2/4). Southeast’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery will look a little different this year following decisions by the State’s Board of Fish in January. The Board approved a change to the season timing for districts 1 and 2 in southern southeast Alaska near Ketchikan.
Homer News SeaWatch. Cook Inlet 2009 runs to be low (2/4).
Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists have released the sockeye salmon forecast for Upper Cook Inlet, confirming what fishermen have been speculating all along: 2009 will not be a banner year.
Run size is forecast at 4.3 million sockeye Inlet-wide, with a harvest expected to be about 3 million, 2.5 million of that by commercial fishermen. While that is down from the 20-year-average, it is actually above the 2008 commercial harvest of 2.36 million sockeye. [Also MatSu issues]More
MSC. Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) pollock – Proposed assessment team (2/3). The certification body, Moody Marine Ltd, has put forward nominations for the fishery re-assessment team that will be responsible for assessing the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) pollock fishery against the MSC Standard.
To download this announcement, please follow this link.
Any stakeholder wishing to provide comments on the suitability or otherwise of any of the nominees is invited to contact Andrew Hough no later than 5pm GMT, 14th February 2009.
Comments should be sent to:
Andrew Hough
Email: a.hough@moodyint.com
Phone: +44 (0) 1633 401902
MISC
Dutch Harbor, Alaska: The police blotter read around the world (2/5). The weekly cop report documents what happens when thousands of fishermen from all over the world descend on one small port: bar fights, eagle attacks, dockside melees and more.
Reporting from Dutch Harbor, Alaska -- It was shortly after 7 in the morning when police spotted the man on a bicycle, a smear of blood around his mouth and more dribbling from cuts on his forearms.
But he had an explanation.
An ex-girlfriend "turned me on to vampirism," he told the officers, but he was ready to put all that behind him. Was there somewhere he could find a priest?
"Officers advised the man to conceal his predilection, in order to avoid alarming the public," said the police report, apparently mindful of the trouble that can ensue in a boisterous fishing port when the public gets alarmed.
The weekly police blotter that chronicles the bar fights, eagle attacks, yowling foxes, distraught psychics and dockside melees in Dutch Harbor -- part of the small city of Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands, about 800 miles southwest of Anchorage in the Bering Sea -- has become a must-read all over Alaska and other far-flung parts of the globe. More
Marine Conservation Alliance
431 N Franklin St Ste 305
Juneau, AK 99801-1186
