March 9, 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.
2. Relief for fishing family after ship runs aground in Alaska (KING 5 TV) (3/5). ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The distress call went out at 4:11 a.m. Thursday morning.
"We drifted aground on the beach and we are unable to back off the beach."
This was the crew of the Mar-Gun, a 112-foot fishing trawler with home port in Seattle, radioing for help moments after it started taking on water just off the coast of an island in the Bering Sea.
"We are... hard aground... on Saint Paul Island," came across the radio chatter. More
3. Coast Guard to conduct oil removal operations from grounded Mar-Gun (3/5). ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Factors regarding the sensitive nature of the environment on and around St. George Island have prompted the Coast Guard to mobilize the National Strike Force's Pacific Strike Team to respond to the pollution threat posed by the grounded 112-foot fishing vessel Mar-
Gun today.
"This move will allow responders to take advantage of the current weather window and begin pollution mitigation operations a day sooner than commercial entities are able to," said Cmdr. Joe LoSciuto,
federal on scene coordinator and deputy commander Sector Anchorage.
Information provided by the Department of Interior and State of Alaska indicates Staraya Beach on the north end of St. George Island
is home to fur seal and sea lion rookeries and haul outs and many species of marine birds. The beach is also adjacent to an archeological site of a historic Russian Aleutian settlement.
Six members of the Coast Guard's Pacific Strike Team are en route from their home base in Novato, Calif., and are expected to arrive in St. George Friday. Additional Coast Guard personnel from Sector Anchorage and District Seventeen will also deploy to the scene. Using strike team and Navy Supervisor of Salvage equipment delivered by a Coast Guard C-130, the team will work to safely remove the 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 668 gallons of lube oil reported to be aboard the Mar-Gun. No pollution has been reported.
The five-man crew of the Mar-Gun was rescued from the vessel by Coast Guard helicopter Thursday and safely delivered to St. Paul. The crew reportedly transferred the fuel on board to tanks located away from the outer
hull in an effort to preempt any discharge before leaving the vessel.
The Mar-Gun is a stern trawler based out of Seattle. The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the grounding. Link
4. Possible fuel leak a concern (3/6). Citing concerns over migrating birds, mating seals and a historic Russian settlement, the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday dispatched a team of experts from California to remove the wreckage of a fishing vessel that ran aground on St. George Island with some 15,000 gallons of diesel aboard. The 112-foot Mar-Gun, based in Seattle, ran aground and began taking on water shortly after 4 a.m. Thursday as it battled whipping winds and swelling seas.
The Coast Guard identified the five crewmen as Tim Propst, Dan Hankins, Richard Post, Dan Stanfield and Paul Gore. All were wearing survival suits when they were plucked from the vessel in a basket from an MH-60 Jayhawk just before 8 a.m. and transported to the clinic on nearby St. Paul Island for evaluation, said Lt. Jon Bartel, aircraft commander. No injuries were reported.
Several vessels had been in the area hunkering down against steady winds at some 45 mph, gusting to 57 mph, and seas at 5 to 6 feet. More
5. MAR-GUN. Responders to begin removing fuel from Mar-Gun (3/8). ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Coast Guard and civilian responders are working to remove fuel from the 112-foot fishing vessel Mar-Gun grounded on Staraya Beach off St. George Island in Western Alaska Sunday.
Poor weather conditions delayed the team in accessing the vessel Saturday and removing any fuel. Winds from the southeast of over 50 miles per hour created surf conditions that made work aboard the vessel unsafe. Personnel continued to work on response plans, equipment placement and shoreline observations. The winds have decreased Sunday to about 20 miles per hour from the south creating seas of only two feet.
The vessel has sustained some damage to the port side. It continues to be battered by the surf. The engine room is partially flooded. Sorbents have been deployed in the engine room to absorb any oils present. A light intermittent sheen has been sighted near the vessel. A limited amount of diesel has been released. Responders are working to determine exactly how much fuel remains on board.
The vessel grounded with a reported 15,000 gallons of diesel on board. Responders worked to stabilize the vessel Thursday and Friday. A series of transfer hoses and pumps are being used to move the fuel on board to containers and a truck on the shore. More text and photos
6. New Study Shows Eliminating Harmful Subsidies Could Improve Health of U.S. Fisheries (3/3). Washington, DC - 03/03/2009 - A new study published in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management reveals that the U.S. government gives more financial support to the fishing industry than previously estimated. The study, conducted by Renée Sharp and Dr. Rashid Sumaila, and supported by the Lenfest Ocean Program, is the most detailed assessment to date of state and federal fishing subsidy programs in the United States. The researchers found that $713 million per year of direct subsidies, or financial support, goes to the U.S. fishing industry, roughly half of which could contribute to overfishing.
“Through this study we found that previous subsidy numbers were considerable underestimates,” said Renée Sharp, co-author of the study and senior analyst at Environmental Working Group. “Our findings show that direct U.S. fisheries subsidies could be worth roughly one-fifth of the value of the catch itself.”
The researchers found that fifty-six percent of fishing industry direct subsidies in the U.S. could be considered harmful to fisheries. By lowering overhead costs, these subsidies promote increased fishing capacity, which in turn can contribute to overfishing of fish populations. As an example, commercial fishermen are exempt from federal and state fuel taxes, which largely provide money for transportation and infrastructure costs. More
7. New Oceana Report Shows Depletion of Prey Fish may be Starving the Oceans (3/2). Rome, Italy -- Scientists are finding evidence of widespread malnutrition in commercial and recreational fish, marine mammals, and seabirds because of the global depletion of the small fish they need to survive, according to Oceana's new report, "Hungry Oceans: What Happens When the Prey is Gone?" These "prey fish" underpin marine food webs and are being steadily exhausted by heavy fishing, increasing demand for aquaculture feed, and climate change.
"We have caught all the big fish and now we are going after their food," said Margot Stiles, marine scientist at Oceana. "Until recently it has been widely believed that prey fish are impossible to overexploit because their populations grow so quickly. We are now proving that untrue as the demands of commercial fisheries and aquaculture outpace the ocean's ability to provide food for us and itself."
Hungry Oceans finds that 7 of the top 10 fisheries in the world target prey fish. These fisheries have emerged as populations of bigger fish have become overexploited and depleted. The report concludes that the impacts of fishing activity over the past decades has been so great that the nearly all prey fisheries now cannot withstand increased fishing pressure. Hungry Oceans also finds that aquaculture is increasingly the driver behind overfishing of prey fish, as salmon, tuna and other carnivorous farmed fish become the fastest growing seafood products in the world. Changing ocean temperatures and currents caused by climate change also make prey fish populations more vulnerable. More
10. You Can't Keep a Good Fish Small (3/4). Fishers like to catch big fish, and over time this strategy can select for genetically smaller fish in a population. But a new study suggests that this downward spiral is reversible. If fishers harvest at random, big fish can stage a comeback.
Most fisheries target only the larger fish in a population. Trawl nets allow the smallest fish to escape, and recreational fishers usually throw back the little guys. In the case of Canadian cod, harvested to collapse in the 1980s, the survivors are smaller than they were historically. Such trends worry fisheries scientists, because larger fish tend to be healthier and more fecund than smaller ones.
Researchers have wondered whether the declining average size they see in harvested fish populations is due to environmental factors or to genetic changes in the harvested populations. In 2002, David Conover, a marine ecologist at the Stony Brook University in New York state, and his colleagues showed that part of the reason is genetic. In laboratory studies, his team removed 90% of the largest fish in two groups of silversides (Menidia menidia)--a small, commercially harvested fish found off the northeastern U.S.--over 4 years or four generations. As the bigger, faster-growing fish were removed from the population, those with genetically slower growth rates grew to dominate, driving down the average size. More
11. Subsistence vs. Bering Sea trawlers (3/2). On June 23, 2008, the Association of Village Council Presidents issued a press release titled, "Does our subsistence way of life have to end so that the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery can continue?" Stated within the press release was our outcry on the continuation of the Bering Sea Pollock Trawl Fishery's wasteful and destructive practice of killing Chinook salmon bound for western Alaska and its implications on the commercial fishermen and their families.
We stated in the press release the following: "Many of our families have not achieved their subsistence needs for the coming winter. Our commercial fishermen have not and will not meet their cash needs to pay for the bills that have accumulated over the winter. Compounded by high gasoline and home heating costs, this makes for dire situations in most of our villages."
Mr. Nick Tucker struck the nerve of the situation in an article that appeared in the Anchorage Daily News on January 15, 2009 when he said, "Local commercial fishermen didn't make any money from king salmon - a staple of the economy..." More
12. MPA. Parks that can move when the animals do (3/4). Climate change is pushing marine animals out of their protected areas. Ways must be found to ensure that their protection migrates with them, naturalists say.
When scientist Dee Boersma first arrived to Punta Tombo, Argentina, in the early 1980s, the colony of Magellanic penguins there was 300,000 breeding pairs strong. Since then, they’ve declined by more than 20 percent. Dr. Boersma faults competition from fishermen, pollution in the form of oil dumped at sea, and climate change for the decline.
But while the Punta Tombo colony is shrinking, others farther north are growing. The penguins’ shifting range underscores how climate change isn’t always a drop-dead-from-the-heat affair. And it raises questions about how to protect threatened – and mobile – marine species as they adjust.
Changing weather patterns have shifted upwelling currents, the productive areas that support large anchovy schools, northward. On average, Punta Tombo penguins must now swim 25 miles farther for a meal – 50 miles total – compared with a decade ago. Some penguins have simply established new colonies closer to their food source, welcome evidence of their ability to adapt. More
13. Opinion. When will major seafood players abide by law instead of devising political schemes? (3/6). Excessive chinook and chum salmon bycatch by the pollock fleet will devastate Bering Sea coastal communities dependent on every last salmon for necessary food and income to maintain power and heat.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council failed to put a hard cap on fleets or stop fishing entirely when they’ve caught a certain number of salmon. The Magnuson-Stevens Act defends conservation, sustainability and habitat. National Standard No. 9 of the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 states, “Conservation and management measures shall, to the extent practicable minimize bycatch, and to the extent bycatch cannot be avoided, minimize its mortality.” Shall!
When will major seafood industry players abide by the law and minimize bycatch instead of devising political schemes to get around it?
At the NPFMC meeting last June, Dutch Harbor municipal leaders implied their loss of economic stability from closing down the pollock season was more important than Native rights to subsistence fish and keeping their families warm and fed. I was repulsed by their comments. Not only should the pollock fleet face shutdown for lawbreaking, huge fines should be in place for each chinook caught. Penalties could then be distributed to communities in need. More
14. Conflicting plans for Bering Sea resources aired at forum (3/5). As increasing numbers of fish species migrate into the northern Bering Sea, fishermen are asking the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council to open the area to bottom trawling.
Simultaneously, tribes whose people have lived off resources of the northern Bering Sea for thousands of years are developing a plan to submit to the council to protect their subsistence resources from bottom trawling.
Representative of organizations on opposite sides of this issue participated in a Bering Sea issues forum Feb. 25 at Kawerak's Bering Strait Regional Conference in Nome. They included three speakers from the Best Use Cooperative, composed of vessel owners who bottom trawl for flatfish; representatives of the Bering Sea Elders Advisory Group, with a membership of 34 tribes along the Bering Sea coast from Shishmaref to Platinum on Goodnews Bay; and spokesmen for Oceana Inc. and Greenpeace USA. Julie Raymond-Yakoubian, Kawerak's social scientist, was the forum moderator.
Currently there is a moratorium on bottom trawling in the northern Bering Sea, an area that includes Norton Sound. At a meeting in June 2007, the NPFMC received resolutions from 25 Bering Sea tribal governments calling for protection of subsistence resources and sensitive areas from bottom trawl fishing. During the same meeting the council approved Amendment 89 to the Fishery Management Plan for groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area, which established a northern boundary for bottom fishing as a precautionary measure while the council develops an FMP for the northern Bering Sea.
Amendment 89 created four new Habitat Conservation Areas in which non-pelagic trawling iscontinued on page 6
16. Murkowski Gets Appropriations Subcommittee Assignments (3/5). WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today was assigned to five subcommittees of the Senate Appropriations Committee, several of which have major impacts on Alaska.
Murkowski, who joined the appropriations panel in January, was assigned to the following subcommittees: Interior, Environment and Related Agencies; Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies; Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies; Financial Services and General Government; and Legislative Branch, serving as the ranking Republican on that panel. More
17. NOAA – nomination of marine protected areas to the national system (3/6). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a notice stating that it received nominations from federal, state, commonwealth, and territorial governments of existing marine protected areas for potential inclusion in the national system of marine protected areas. Comments on these nominations should be submitted by April 6. 74 Fed. Reg. 9798
18. IPHC Notifies Industry Of Halibut Sales In 2009 And Seeks Buyers Interested In Iphc Research Fish (3/6). The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) will be conducting research operations off Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska during 2009 and will be selling halibut caught during the operations to offset costs associated with conducting the survey. This news release is intended to notify the industry of the IPHC plan to sell fish and seeks offers for fish sales arrangements from interested buyers.
We anticipate that all landings will be between early June and early September, 2009. Approximately 15 vessels may be involved in the survey, and average trip size for halibut is expected to range from 8,000 to 45,000 pounds. Lesser amounts of rockfish and Pacific cod may also be landed. All of the fish will be well iced, and we will attempt to keep all of the fish less than six days old when selling into markets where the fish are marketed fresh. Older fish may be landed when selling into frozen markets. Suggestions from industry on how the IPHC can maximize fish quality or improve fish sales are welcome. More
STATE
19. Homer News SeaWatch. Pilot fishery in Sound targets skates (3/4). Prince William Sound fishermen are embarking upon a pilot fishery in state waters (within 3 miles of shore) to harvest a ubiquitous species plaguing longline fishermen statewide: skates.
Targeted fisheries for skate are not new; Kodiak tried it in 2003, paralleling a targeted federal fishery. National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Tom Pearson reported at the time that skate deliveries increased from 20 tons in 2002 to 1,700 tons in 2003, mostly as a result of the targeted fishery in state waters. More
20. Assembly Considers Fisheries Research Committee (KMXT Audio) (3/2). At its work session Thursday, the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly discussed an ordinance that would create a Fisheries and Oceanic Research Board Committee. Assembly members agreed on the need for such a board to better advocate for the needs and interests of Kodiak's fisheries.
Dr. Murat Balaban has been serving in the role of director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Fishery Industrial Technology Center in Kodiak for just over a year. He said that fisheries are critical for Kodiak in terms of economic and social impacts and pointed out that the nature of fisheries issues are always in flux. He said there are factors that can be controlled and some which cannot, such as changes in ocean temperature and the environment. He said the creation of a board would go a long way toward addressing those issues.
21. Facing hard times, South Carolina shrimpers look to Alaska for help (3/6). Petersburg, Alaska—While Americans consume ever-increasing quantities of imported farmed shrimp, shrimp fishermen in places like South Carolina—who have for generations relied on wild shrimp harvests—are finding themselves locked out of markets and undercut in price.
“Shrimpers all over the country have felt the same financial strain from cheaper shrimp imports that fishermen here in Alaska have felt from farmed salmon coming into the country,” said Glenn Haight, fisheries business specialist with the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program.
But Alaska fishermen have fought back. And some are winning. The solution, they say, is becoming more knowledgeable and efficient business people. Some have taken this to an extreme, diving into direct marketing as a way to stay in business. Such fishermen catch, process, market and sell their catch directly to tightly held lists of clients that include local restaurants, food services, and individuals. This Alaskan approach can work elsewhere, they say, even in places like South Carolina.
Later this month, six shrimp fishermen from South Carolina will come to Alaska to take part in a unique exchange with Alaska fishermen, biologists, and fisheries business experts. The March 18–22 event in Juneau and Petersburg is aimed at showing South Carolina fishermen how Alaska’s fisheries work, and sharing with them strategies to improve their bottom line. More
MARKETING
22. Frozen Seafood = Hot Sales (3/4). With shrink once again ranking as the chief concern cited by supermarket seafood executive participants of our recently released 2009 Seafood Operations Review, the Juneau-based Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) is once again angling to make it easier for retailers to tackle the issue.
Right on time for Lent, grocers looking to promote the countless benefits of seafood needn’t stress over shrink, but should instead tap ASMI’s newly redesigned Cook It Frozen! promotional materials to attract and educate customers about the ease and convenience of preparing caught-in-the-wild seafood without thawing.
In step with recent Nielsen retail tracking data that finds sales of frozen, unbreaded seafood up by 13.5 percent in a recent 52-week period to $334 million (Seafood Trend Newsletter, 12/22/2008), promoting the timesaving benefits of heart-healthy frozen seafood is a bountiful opportunity for seafood-shrink-weary grocers.
“Frozen seafood has become a [requisite] freezer pantry item,” affirms Larry Andrews, ASMI’s retail marketing director. “It comes individually portioned so consumers can get a high-quality wild and natural product with no preplanning any night of the week.”
ASMI’s Cook It Frozen! techniques aim to educate consumers about cooking healthy seafood meals in as little as 15 minutes directly from the freezer — while the seafood is still frozen — so no preplanning or thawing is necessary. Individual frozen portions allow consumers to cook only what is needed for any given meal, with no waste. Due to advancements in freezing technology, Andrews adds, frozen Alaska seafood also retains all of the nutritional value of fresh seafood throughout its extended shelf life. More
23. Go Wild Alaska Style! Boston 2009 (3/4). An Alaska celebration in Boston during the International Boston Seafood Show has become the hottest ticket in town! The fifth annual Go Wild Alaska Style! is sponsored by the Alaska seafood industry through the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
To reserve a ticket, please contact Sharon Gaiptman, sgaiptman@yahoo.com (907) 321-0751 . Availability limited. Ticket required at the door. Link
MISC
24. Pew ties cloud industry view of NOAA chief nominee (3/6). At her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, celebrated marine biologist Jane Lubchenco was introduced as "the bionic woman of good science" by Ron Wyden, a senator from her home state of Oregon.
And for the most part, the MacArthur ("genius") Fellowship recipient and Oregon State University faculty star was treated with awe — as her science was taken for granted and her position at the summit of the powerful network of environmental causes financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts was overlooked.
But under questioning by Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, Lubchenco acknowledged a crisis unfolding within her future domain — which employs 12,000 people and spends $3.9 billion a year — at the Gloucester-based regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service, whose effort to regulate the groundfishery has been gracelessly unraveling.
"I've never seen it so bad," Snowe, with 13 years service on the Commerce Committee's fisheries subcommittee, told Lubchenco, saying the blame was wholly the agency's. More
25. Fishing crews pray for safe season (3/8). Under a clear sky, fishermen, their families and members of Ballard First Lutheran Church gathered at Fishermen's Terminal on Sunday before a fleet of boats that would soon head to open waters.
People thought about crew safety, a bountiful seafood harvest and appreciation for emergency responders.
The 81st annual "Blessing of the Fleet" drew about 100 people from throughout the Seattle area to the terminal, marking a tradition started by the church's late Rev. O.L. Haavik.
Ballard First Lutheran Church Council President Tom Tocher asked God for protection for the men and women who ply the waters off Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California.
"If storms come, guide them safely through them to the haven they would reach," he said during the invocation.
"Say to the waves, 'Peace. Be still.' You hold the hearts of people in the hollow of your hand."
Among the elected officials who spoke, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott talked about how the tradition still has meaning. More
Marine Conservation Alliance
431 N Franklin St Ste 305
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