News – Page 292 – Fishermens News

14Mar

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APM Wins Terminal Safety Awards

For the fifth straight year, APM Terminals’ Pier 400 facility at the Port of Los Angeles has won the Pacific Maritime Association’s Category A Southern California Area Container Terminal Safety Award, and the PMA’s Coast Award for the safest terminal on the Pacific Coast.The awards were announced March 1 at the PMA’s 63rd annual West Coast Safety Southern California Area Awards in Los Angeles.“It is gratifying that the hard work of our men and women in ensuring the safe operation of our terminals is recognized by our peers in the industry,” APM Terminals’ Americas Region President Eric Sisco said.The awards, which are based on reported injury rates per man-hours worked, are divided by geographic area and by size and are presented for the Southern California, Washington and Oregon ports.Fac...

14Mar

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Detained Car Carried Cleared to Leave Portland

A nearly 650-foot car carrier that had been detained at the Port of Portland after losing power near the mouth of the Columbia River last week has been cleared by the US Coast Guard to leave.The M/V Morning Spruce had been detained since Feb. 28 after the vessel lost engine power while 12 miles southwest of the Columbia River bar. Power was restored by the ship’s engineer about four-and-a-half hours later.A subsequent inspection by Coast Guard Port State Control Branch of Marine Safety Unit in Portland found numerous safety hazards on the vessel.After remaining in port for a few days, another Coast Guard inspection determined that the violations, which included fire control boundaries, excessive oil in machinery spaces, soft patches on fire main piping and heavy hydraulic leaks had been re...

14Mar

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Seattle Port Commissioner Announces State Senate Run

Gael Tarleton, who’s been a member of the Port of Seattle Commission since 2007 has announced she’s running for the 36th District legislative seat being vacated with the retirement of veteran State Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle).“I have been watching the education cuts and watching the challenges to women’s rights that we thought were settled 35 years ago, and just decided that I wanted my voice to be heard,” she said in her March 12 announcement.Tarleton, a Democrat, has been president of the five-member Port Commission since January and is in the first year of her second four-year term as an elected official on the port board.A Massachusetts native and Georgetown University graduate, she works at the University of Washington’s Institute for National Security Education and Research, ...

7Mar

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NPFMC Takes Up Salmon Bycatch, GOA Cod Issues

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has set aside 12 hours of its schedule for its spring meeting in Anchorage March 28-April 3 to deal with the contentious issue of chum salmon caught incidentally to groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. Also on the agenda, which is online at www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc, is a 10-hour slot for habitat conservation issues, eight hours for halibut issues, including final action to allow Area 4B fish-up, and six hours for Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod issues. The last will include an updated discussion paper on Pacific Cod jig management, a discussion paper on limiting other gear on jig vessels, and a discussion paper on Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod A-season opening dates.Also noted on the council’s website is an upcoming workshop for t...

7Mar

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Alaska Crab Fisheries Enter Peer Review Stage

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute says that Alaska’s crab fisheries have entered the peer review stage for FAO-based responsible fisheries management certification. The review will include Bering Sea/Aleutian Island king and snow crab, Bristol Bay red king crab, St. Matthew blue king crab, and Eastern Bering Sea snow crab commercial fisheries.Based on the technical expertise required to carry out the fishery assessment, Global Trust Certification Ltd. has chosen for its external peer review team Earl Krygier and Jerry Ennis. Krygier is a retired long time employee of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game who also served as the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation’s cooperative research coordinator. Ennis is a retired researcher from the University of Liverpool’s Department of fish...

7Mar

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ComFish Agenda Ranges from Salmon Markets to Mining Perspectives

ComFish Alaska, Kodiak’s annual commercial fisheries forum and trade show, set for April 12-14, will cover a range of topics this year, from salmon market trends and new safety regulations to perspectives on the Chuitna coal and Pebble mine projects.University of Alaska Anchorage fisheries economist Gunnar Knapp will deliver a 20 year overview of Alaska’s salmon markets, along with a look at future opportunities. Tyson Fick of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute will likewise address current market conditions, challenges and opportunities for Alaska seafood around the world.Ken Lawrenson, the US Coast Guard commercial fishing vessel safety coordinator, will discuss the latest updates on dockside exams and safety training, life rafts, building to class and more related to new fishing ves...

7Mar

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Federal Court Upholds Fishing Restrictions to Protect Steller Sea Lions

Federal Judge Timothy Burgess is upholding fishing restrictions put in place to reduce the competition between commercial fisheries and endangered Steller sea lions in the Aleutian Islands.The US District Court judge announced his decision on March 5 in the case filed by the state of Alaska, Alaska Seafood Cooperative and the Freezer Longline Coalition against administrator Jane Lubchenco of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The court found that the National Marine Fisheries Service based its decision on good science and reiterated that the protections currently in place are both justified and necessary.The court has also ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to prepare an environmental impact statement by March 2, 2014 ...

29Feb

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Seattle Blessing of the Fleet

The 84th annual Blessing of the Fleet has been scheduled for Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 2:00 pm at the Fishermen's Memorial site at Fishermen's Terminal in Seattle, Washington.Originated by the late Pastor O.L. Haavik of Ballard First Lutheran Church 82 years ago, the service will be conducted by Pastor Erik R. Wilson Weiberg and Pastor Laurie A. Jones, both of Ballard First Lutheran Church. The pastors will offer thanks to God for the fishing community, remembering the risks they take each day to provide seafood for our tables, and pray that their families will be healthy and protected during their time of separation. The ceremony will also serve as a remembrance for those who went out to sea and never returned. As in past years, various representatives from the government and the fishing ...

29Feb

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Icicle Will Acquire Snopac Products

Icicle Seafoods Inc. announced today that it has reached a preliminary agreement to acquire Snopac products Inc., a small independently owned and operated seafood processing company with operations in Alaska, and Seattle. The transaction is subject to completion of due diligence and other customary closing conditions and the financial terms were not disclosed, nor were operational details.Snopac operates a seafood processing plant at Dillingham and a seafood processing vessel, the M/V Snopac Innovator. Together they enable the company to process more than one million pounds of round weight per day. Snopac has a significant presence in the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery and also participates in herring and pink salmon fisheries with the Innovator.Dennis Guhlke, president and chief execu...

29Feb

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EPA’s Draft Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment Due Out in April

The US Environmental Protection Agency has issued an update on progress made to date on its analysis of the Bristol Bay watershed, in advance of a draft assessment of its findings due out in late April.The goal of the EPA’s scientific analysis is to better understand how future large-scale mining may affect the salmon fishery in Bristol Bay. Information gathered during the assessment will be used to make decisions to protect salmon resources and habitat on which salmon and other fish depend.The assessment is focused on the Kvichak and Nushagak watersheds because those drainages are open to development of mineral resources.The goal of the EPA’s analysis it to better understand how large-scale mining may affect the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. The EPA plans to use information gathered during ...