News

A NOAA scientist, Dr. Bill Lehr, last week told a group of Congressional staff investigators on a conference call that a controversial National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report claiming that nearly three-quarters of the oil from the Gulf oil spill has already been addressed was released by White House officials and not scientists at NOAA. The NOAA scientist told congressional investigators that the data backing up the assertions made in the report is still unavailable and that peer review of the report is still not complete. Officials at an August 4 White House press briefing had said that the report had been thoroughly peer reviewed. “This is yet another in a long line of examples where the White House’s pre-occupation with the public relations of the oil spill has sup...

Chris Goldblatt, Gold Leaf SustainableTo set the record straight, I do not represent the commercial fishery or any other interest. I am acting solely out of my deepest sense of right and wrong. The Marine Protected Areas (MPA) will not remove the existing, complex fishing regulations; they will be in addition to them.I recently attended a meeting at the Double Tree in Santa Barbara, California. The Department of Fish and Game-assisted meeting was technically public and formally intended to field ideas about how the marine protected areas were to be monitored once they were established.My wife and I showed up bright eyed and bushy tailed. It was just us, two former abalone divers looking down the barrel of 30 or so hard core pro MPA people, most of them scientists, university heads and Pack...

Attorney Stuart H. Smith, representing the United Commercial Fishermen's Association, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, public and private entities, and citizens harmed by the BP oil catastrophe, today issued this statement:"Independent water and seafood testing and analyses by Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery experts reveal that highly toxic chemicals remain in the water and food chain. These toxins pose a significant risk to marine reproduction and human consumption of Gulf seafood."The greatest concern is the presence of chemicals known as PAHs (or polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons), which have carcinogenic properties. Our studies have shown that PAHs are present in shrimp from the impacted Gulf areas of the spill at 10 times the levels found in shrimp from inland, low-impacted area...

From its genesis as the Revenue Marine, the Coast Guard has evolved to become the world’s premiere multi-mission, maritime service, conducting operations around the globe to execute its 11 missions.“Coast Guardsmen are agile, adaptable and multi-missioned,” said Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp, Jr. “Born as revenue cuttermen, lighthouse keepers, steamboat inspectors and surfmen, we have expanded to meet the maritime needs of our nation. As Coast Guard men and women, we share a bond of pride in our rich heritage and a common purpose to uphold our honorable traditions.”The Coast Guard began its service to America in 1790 within the Treasury Department as the Revenue Marine, later renamed the Revenue Cutter Service. The Revenue Cutter Service joined with the US Lifesaving Service i...

The nation's farmers could face new restrictions on the use of pesticides as environmentalists and fishermen’s groups, spurred by a favorable ruling from a federal judge in Washington state, want the courts to force federal regulators to protect endangered salmon and steelhead from the ill effects of many commonly used agricultural chemicals. The eight-year-old ruling by a federal Judge in Seattle required the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review whether 54 pesticides, herbicides and fungicides were jeopardizing troubled West Coast salmon runs.The agencies moved recently to restrict the use of three of these chemicals, methomyl, carbofuran and carbaryl, near bodies of water that flow into salmon-bearing streams, and they're consid...

Sisters Kiyo and Tomi Marsh were rolling around the stormy Bering Sea on Tomi’s 78-foot fishing boat, the F/V Savage, when the jokes began about “cooking in the ditch” – the trough of the wave.Wild weather notwithstanding, the Marsh sisters and their friend Laura Cooper, went on to assemble quite a collection of recipes, stories and beautiful photographs gleaned from their adventures in the rough and tumble world of Alaska commercial fisheries. The result was “The Fishes and Dishes Cookbook,” a delightful volume of tasty recipes using Alaska’s wonderful wild seafood offerings, published by Seattle’s Epicenter Press.The volume serves up, along with the recipes, the flavor of Alaska’s commercial fisheries, where these women have worked every job, from cook to captain.Try the corn cakes with ...

The Commercial Fishermen’s Festival (astoriasundaymarket.com/cff/), which will take place on September 18th and 19th in Astoria, Oregon is preparing a special memorial flag to honor deceased commercial fishermen.To have a name added to the flag, email the name of the fisherman, city/state, date of death and name of the vessel the fisherman was most closely associated with. Also include your own name, phone and email so the festival organizers can verify the information provided. This is open to all commercial fishermen. Send information to cyndi@commercialfishermensfestival.com by August 20.The mission of the Commercial Fishermen’s Festival is to offer fishermen and industry professionals an opportunity to bond and share information that will save lives, improve productivity, increase dema...

A new company known as Dutch Harbor Acquisitions LLC has purchased the assets of the Harbor Crown processing plant located in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Dutch Harbor Acquisitions LLC is led by Siu Alaska Corporation and Copper River Seafoods.Siu Alaska Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC), a private, non-profit Community Development Quota corporation which represents fifteen member communities in the Norton Sound Region including over 8,500 residents. NSEDC owns quota for red king crab, snow crab, and golden king crab, as well as halibut and sablefish IFQ and CDQ quotas. NSEDC and Siu also have ownership interests in a number of Bering Sea vessels including Pollock at-sea catcher processors, a cod freezer-longliner and crab vessel...

United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) last week announced its endorsement of Senator Lisa Murkowski for the United States Senate. UFA is a statewide organization representing 38 commercial fishing associations and hundreds of additional independent commercial fishermen from fisheries throughout the state and its offshore federal waters. The group organized a special endorsement meeting on August 5 after being approached by the Murkowski campaign for an endorsement prior to the August 24 primary.“With this early endorsement, Alaska fishermen are recognizing Senator Murkowski’s extraordinary efforts to improve their businesses and the communities they live in”, said UFA President Arni Thomson.UFA provided an early endorsement for Senator Murkowski in 2004 and now recognizes her strong accomplishm...

On June 22nd, two commercial fishermen based in Brookings, Oregon filed a class action suit against Pacific Seafood Group (PSG), alleging that company founder Frank Dulcich and his company have used its size and clout to control the West Coast seafood industry and suppress prices paid for certain seafood product by as much as 15 to 50 percent.According to the suit filed in US District Court, father and son plaintiffs Lloyd and Todd Whaley are representatives of a class of West Coast fishermen or fishing vessel owners who delivered certain seafoods to seafood processors in Oregon, Washington or California any time between June 21, 2006 and “three months before the date of trial in this case.”The suit alleges that since at least 2005, Pacific Seafood Group has possessed monopoly power in the...