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Murkowski aide is contender for top spot in NOAA Fisheries (5/1)
Opinion. Bering Sea in peril of crash (5/4)
Stevens, Palin all smiles at Kodiak's ComFish event (5/1)
Finding Space for All in Our Crowded Seas (5/2)
Forum. The Political Economy of Natural Resource Uses: Lessons for Fisheries Reform
New NOAA Online Handbook Helps Teachers and Community Groups Create an Oral History of the Fishing Culture (5/4)
Materials for Crab Assessment Workshop May 11-12, AFSC
Network Sets Traps To Find Any Green Crabs In Alaska (5/1)
STATE
Opinion by BOF Member Bonnie Williams. Good fish science is essential (5/3)
ADFG Reports
MARKETING
As More Shoppers Seek Seafood for Health, Former Alaska Fisherman Offers Timely Insider Tips (5/4)
Alaska pink salmon a key element in Global Food Aid Program (5/1)
FEDERAL
Murkowski aide is contender for top spot in NOAA Fisheries (5/1). Petersburg fisherman Arne Fuglvog, a fisheries aide to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is an apparent finalist in the competition to head the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Fuglvog, a fifth generation fisherman who has served on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, has the endorsement of United Fishermen of Alaska, an umbrella group representing more than 30 fisheries groups active in the state.
The other apparent finalists are Brian Rothschild, a professor of marine science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, who has the backing of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and James Balsiger, NMFS acting administrator and former head of NOAA Fisheries in Alaska.
An appointment announcement is anticipated within the next few weeks.
Balsiger was appointed as acting administrator following the resignation of William Hogarth in 2007. He is charged with management and conservation of marine fisheries and the protection of marine mammals, sea turtles and coastal fisheries habitat within the United States exclusive economic zone.
The National Marine Fisheries Service protects the nation's marine resources through scientific research, fisheries management, law enforcement and habitat conservation.
Fuglvog and Balsiger declined to confirm whether they are top contenders. Rothschild was unavailable for comment. According to various sources, including news reports, all three have been interviewed. More
Opinion. Bering Sea in peril of crash (5/4).Observing recent stories in this paper, a pattern is emerging. A while back the Fisheries Board met to discuss Bering Sea pollock. Of concern was the incidental catch of king salmon. In 2007 the reported king catch was 120,000.
In Tuesday's paper was a story ("Troubling trend," April 28) on the troubled king runs in the Karluk River. Just 730 kings escaped in 2008. Is there a link between these two stories?
Surely experts could explain that water temps, currents, etc., can affect fish populations. So the incidental catch might not affect the runs. But the incidental catch of 120,000 kings has to affect some rivers somewhere.
Sadly, while the Bering Sea pollock fishery is worth about $1 billion, I'm sure it will continue to be fished until it crashes. Then history will reveal yet another fishery that was allowed to be overfished. -- Joe Reza, Anchorage Link
Stevens, Palin all smiles at Kodiak's ComFish event (5/1). KODIAK - Former Sen. Ted Stevens and Gov. Sarah Palin let bygones be bygones April 23, and had broad smiles for each other at a festive dinner celebrating 50 years of statehood and Alaska's commercial fisheries.
"Governor, delighted to be here with you," said Stevens, as he came forward to accept a lifetime achievement award from United Fishermen of Alaska. "And you all should know that, as I travel the south 48, you are the best public relations person we ever had."
It was Stevens' first public appearance since a judge in Washington, D.C., dismissed federal corruption charges against him earlier in April.
"We especially welcome the architect of the nation's premier fisheries management act and statehood advocate, Sen. Ted Stevens," said Palin. More
Finding Space for All in Our Crowded Seas (5/2). The ocean is getting crowded: Fishermen are competing with offshore wind projects, oil rigs along with sand miners, recreational boaters, liquefied gas tankers and fish farmers. So a growing number of groups -- including policymakers, academics, activists and industry officials -- now say it's time to divvy up space in the sea.
"We've got competition for space in the ocean, just like we have competition for space on land," said Andrew Rosenberg, a natural resources and environment professor at the University of New Hampshire who has advised Massachusetts on the issue. "How are you going to manage it? Is it the people with the most power win? Is it whoever got there first? Is it a free-for-all?"
To resolve these conflicts, a handful of states -- including Massachusetts, California and Rhode Island -- have begun essentially zoning the ocean, drawing up rules and procedures to determine which activities can take place and where. The federal government is considering adopting a similar approach, though any coherent effort would involve sorting out the role of 20 agencies that administer roughly 140 ocean-related laws. More
Forum. The Political Economy of Natural Resource Uses: Lessons for Fisheries Reform.
Mountain Sky Guest Ranch, Emigrant MT May 7–10, 2009
Introduction
"The Political Economy of Natural Resource Use: Lessons for Fisheries Reform" is the topic of a forum hosted by the Property & Environment Research Center (PERC) under the direction of Don Leal, with the support of the World Bank’s sustainable fisheries program (PROFISH). The purpose of the forum is to bring together a group of two dozen distinguished academics and practitioners to focus on a broader understanding of the institutional foundations necessary to promote efficient resource use and long-term economic growth.
Background
The world's ocean fisheries are in crisis because of the ongoing failure to manage the economic wealth inherent in a naturally productive resource. The World Bank study "Sunken Billions" estimates that the world's fisheries squander an estimated $50 billion a year from overfishing because of poor governance in managed fisheries as well as illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing.
Management reforms based on better defined rights of access and use are providing effective pathways in capturing and nurturing the wealth inherent in ocean fisheries. Still, problems of resource allocation and management require addressing the political economy of natural resource reform.
The forum will consolidate existing knowledge in the political economy of natural resource use and development assistance and to draw out lessons for fisheries reform in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere.
Products of the forum will include a methodological approach for conducting political economy case studies of reforms in specific countries as well as a report and subsequent edited volume addressing the legal, economic, and fiscal frameworks necessary for fisheries reform.
Network Sets Traps To Find Any Green Crabs In Alaska (5/1). With spring weather, experts from natural resource agencies, professors, teachers, students and citizens in Alaska are increasing their vigilance for oceanic aliens: European green crabs.
Ketchikan resident Gary Freitag will board a plane within the next couple weeks to ride to Shelter Cover, on Dall Island on the outer coastline of Southeast Alaska to set small crab traps where green crabs are likely to make their first appearance in Alaska.
Freitag works for Alaska Sea Grant which is funded by NOAA and the University of Alaska. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Ketchikan. The cooperative nature of his funding echoes what can be seen across the state: many people from scientists to fishermen to citizens to students, with federal to state to private affiliations have their eyes open for the first sign of green crabs. More
STATE
Opinion by BOF Member Bonnie Williams. Good fish science is essential (5/3). Facing unknowns, board must punt. The Alaska Board of Fisheries regulates fisheries with the constitutionally mandated goal of maximum sustained yield. In considering hundreds of proposals each year, the singular question for me is always whether doing this will be good for the fish (or their habitat). Every other consideration is secondary.
The board is given a wealth of prior-year data, projections and predictions; we are given available science. And then, alas, we punt — because many unknowns still exist.
Kodiak’s once-thriving commercial crab fishery ended more than a decade ago. What happened? No one really knows. Maybe overfishing, maybe temperatures, maybe the pollock and cod ate the young. We have hatchery salmon; can we devote a hatchery to crab and transplant them as they grow? Maybe.
The Yukon River used to have many 8-year-old female king salmon. Now it’s rare to see a 7-year-old; mostly the upper Yukon sees 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds, much smaller, with far fewer eggs. Why did this pattern change? What can be done? No one knows. The result we know: far fewer salmon, of much smaller size, and as the escapement declines, even subsistence fishing is stopped. More
As More Shoppers Seek Seafood for Health, Former Alaska Fisherman Offers Timely Insider Tips (5/4). The quality of fresh and previously frozen fish declines quickly in retail display cases. Bellingham, Wash. (PRWEB) May 4, 2009 -- If you've ever bitten into a perfectly prepared piece of salmon from your local grocer and been disappointed instead of delighted, an Alaska fisherman-turned-seafood-retailer has some insider advice for you.
Shoppers are seeking out fish for their omega-3 fatty acids, which are highly beneficial but quick to spoil. This is why fish ? especially oil-rich species like salmon ? are best when frozen within hours of harvest, purchased frozen, and thawed at home. (Vacuum-sealed frozen fish thaws in just 30 minutes when immersed, still in its package, in cold water.)
According to former fisherman Randy Hartnell, fish that's been frozen soon after harvest usually tastes fresher than "fresh" fish that's never been frozen. In addition, fish displayed as fresh at supermarket seafood counters suffers the quality-degrading effects of light, air and inconsistent storage temperatures. More
Alaska pink salmon a key element in Global Food Aid Program (5/1). ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Pink salmon from Alaska is helping feed the world's hungry.
To deal with an overstock of canned salmon in 2001, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute enrolled in the Global Food Aid Program.
It's become a quick success, and has helped feed the hungry in Laos, Jamaica, Cambodia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Swaziland.
It's popular because all ages can eat it, it's nutritious, therapeutic for AIDS patients, easy to handle and has a long shelf life.
"It slowly has become the darling of the USDA's Food Aid Program because we are the only solid animal protein on the list and we are up to almost a million cases of demand now," said Kevin Adams with ASMI.
The program is so popular that to keep up with demand marketers are testing a similar program in Uganda with canned herring. More
Marine Conservation Alliance
431 N Franklin St Ste 305
Juneau, AK 99801-1186
Emigrant MT
May 7–10, 2009