June 2023 – Page 2 – Fishermens News

Op-Ed: The Value of Fishing Grounds on California’s North Coast

Fishermen operating worldwide over the past 100 years have been continually challenged by the steady loss of fishing grounds caused by non-fishing ocean development and challenges from regulatory restrictions. The list of these developments is massive—cable lanes, dumping grounds, oil and gas mining, military closures, fishery regulations, dredging, ocean-sewer outfalls, marine-protected areas, shipping lanes, etc. Wind-power projects are beginning to consume extensive tracts of coastal fishing grounds in Europe and now in the U.S. With the approaching loss of thousands of miles of U.S. West Coast fishing grounds to offshore wind (OSW) development, the state of California’s permitting agency has begun asking about the value of California’s fishing grounds. The response is difficult and...

Interior Department Announces $35M for National Fish Passage Projects

Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington are among 22 states sharing in $35 million in federal funding to address outdated or obsolete dams, culverts, levees and other barriers to fish in the nation’s rivers and streams. Dams built in the western U.S. over the past 100 years to provide power for communities have made it difficult for salmon to return to their natal streams to spawn. The resulting decline of salmon has adversely impacted people and wildlife, including marine mammals and birds, that depend on the fish for sustenance. The Interior Department’s April 21 announcement is part of the agency’s five-year, $200-million commitment to restore free-flowing waters, remove barriers to fish migration and protect communities from flooding. The funding is provided under President Biden’s...

Commercial Fishing v. NOAA Fisheries

In case you missed it, the Supreme Court on May 1 agreed to take up a dispute between the Biden administration and East Coast commercial fishing companies that could eventually have a huge impact on the U.S. commercial fishing industry as a whole. The court’s eventual judgment has the potential to overrule a nearly 40-year-old decision that gives deference to federal agencies. The case, Loper Bright Enterprises et al. v. Raimondo, is expected to be heard in the Supreme Court’s next term. The court is being asked to override the 1984 Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council ruling, in which the justices determined that courts should defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of statutes when laws are ambiguous. The case revolves around Atlantic herring fishermen who say the Na...

USCG Participates in Active Shooter Drill at Alaska Marine Terminal

On April 26, members of the U.S. Coast Guard and agency partners took part in a full-scale active shooter exercise at the Ketchikan Alaska Marine Highway System Terminal. Participants, which included Coast Guard Sector Juneau, Coast Guard Station Ketchikan and Coast Guard Public Information Assist Team, were able to run through tactical processes, practice ways to de-escalate the situation and utilize crisis communications during the exercise, which involved an “active shooter” at the terminal and on the 408-foot AMHS marine vessel Matanuska, according to the agency. Coast Guard Station Ketchikan was also able to use a 45-foot medium response vessel to rescue a “victim” from the water. “In the event of an active shooter incident, we must be ready for an effective, coordinated emerge...

NOAA’s 2022 Status of Stocks Report Show Slight Improvement Over 2021

NOAA Fisheries has released its 2022 Status of Stocks report, showing some improvement over the previous year in terms of overfishing. According to the latest report, released during a NOAA Fisheries teleconference on April 27, 93% of stocks were not subject to overfishing in 2022 and 81% were not overfished. Those numbers compared with data showing that 92% of stocks were subject to overfishing in 2021 and 80% were not overfished. NOAA officials said positive trends were seen this year with the number of stocks on the overfishing list decreasing by two to 24. Overfished stocks decreased by three to 48. NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said the latest annual report reveals the U.S. remains a global leader in maintaining sustainable fisheries that drive the blue economy, support coastal c...

Investigation Continues into Fire Aboard Trident Fishing Vessel

As of early May, an investigation was continuing into an April 8 fire that occurred aboard Trident Seafoods’ Kodiak Enterprise while the 276-foot fishing vessel was moored in the Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma, Wash. The Kodiak Enterprise had returned to Tacoma in late March on the heels of the groundfish A season and was there for maintenance. In a statement released at the time by Trident Seafoods, in response to a request from Tacoma television station KIRO 7, company officials said that they did not know the cause of the fire, were cooperating with the investigation and would conduct a thorough review of shipyard maintenance safety protocols with internal and external experts. At the time the fire began, the Kodiak Enterprise was reported to have an estimated 55,000 gallons of diesel ...

Mild Weather, Few Fish Greet Harvesters for Alaska’s Copper River Opener

Dozens of commercial harvesting vessels out on May 15 for the celebrated Copper River salmon opener were greeted by calm waters and temperatures in the low 40s, but relatively few fish. “On our first set we caught two fish,” veteran Copper River harvester Bill Webber of Cordova said. “The sea lions got them out of the net, and they ripped a big hole in the net,” he said. “Then we moved offshore and then west, and ended up with 31 fish for the whole day, all sockeyes.” If the fishing was slow, so was the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s effort to calculate the day’s overall harvest. ADF&G fisheries biologist Jeremy Botz in Cordova noted that the agency’s new online reporting system was not at first reporting the harvest correctly. Processors were initially paying $10 a pound ...

Fishing, Conservation Groups Sue Utility Over Harm to Salmon and Steelhead in Eel River

A coalition of five commercial fishing and conservation groups have filed suit in federal court charging that Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project on the Eel River in Northern California is illegally harming salmon and steelhead listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Specifically, the lawsuit charges the utility with maintaining and operating the Potter Valley Project in a manner that harms and harasses Coastal California Chinook salmon and Northern California steelhead trout, amounting to illegal take of these species. The Potter Valley Project includes two dams, Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam, which impede fish passage and block access to hundreds of miles of critical, high quality spawning and nursery habitat for Chinook salmon, steelhead trout a...

‘Bulldog of the Bering’ Returns to Kodiak After 30 Days at Sea

The Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley returned to Kodiak, Alaska, in early May after a 30-day patrol in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands to enforce federal fishery laws and ensure mariners are maintaining all required safety equipment. The crew sailed the 282-foot medium endurance cutter over 2,000 nautical miles from the Alaska Peninsula to Adak and north of the Pribilof Islands, also steaming west to cross the 180th Meridian into the eastern hemisphere, to conduct a time-honored naval ceremony. Training and drills were performed throughout the patrol to ensure mission readiness. Crewmembers donned firefighting gear for simulated engine room fires, arranged dewatering pumps for flooding drills, and manually navigated the cutter without GPS all of which enhanced proficiency in damage contro...

Shipper-Carrier Relationships: A Pure Fishing Case Study

Building trust and keeping communication fluid between shipper and carrier was what helped fishing tackle, lures, rods and reels provider Pure Fishing Inc. and global shipping company Ocean Network Express (ONE) weather the tumultuous environment that fractured other relationships between some marine businesses during the ups and downs of the pandemic and the logistics problems that ensued. At a March 1 session titled “Building Strategic Shipper-Carrier Relationships Amid Volatility: A Pure Fishing Case Study,” Pure Fishing Global Transportation Director Larry Gorsich and ONE North America Area Sales Manager Tad Knight talked about the working relationship between the two companies and how they were able to navigate the volatility in shipping goods during the pandemic. The conversation t...