Blog.HaulingGear.com Archive (8-2008 to 3-2014)

Image by NIOSH via Flickr LAINE WELCH FISHERIES Published: January 30th, 2010 07:02 PM Last Modified: January 30th, 2010 07:03 PM The most common piece of equipment on a fishing boat is also the most dangerous: the deck winch. "Fishermen tell us it is the most powerful thing on the boat," said Ted Teske, a health communications specialist with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. "If that thing gets ahold of you when you're pursing a line or moving a line, it will not stop and it won't let go. It will end up tearing your arm off or breaking your neck or ripping you apart." NIOSH research shows that a high number of traumatic fishing injuries come from entanglement in a rotating winch, especially on seine vessels. If a fisherman............ http://www.adn.com/money/welch/story/1117896.html ............... The E-Stop comes in an easy-to-install kit with all materials included. Teske said he is hopeful the kits will

1 day 9 hrs ago JUNEAU — The state government’s top lawyer Tuesday outlined plans to accelerate Alaska’s fight against “unwarranted” expansions in the application and potential application of endangered species laws here. Attorney General Dan Sullivan said he’d also approach other states to tell them about Alaska’s plan, which includes a request for $1 million next year to hire another full-time attorney focused solely on the Endangered Species Act and for more contract help from specialized lawyers. Sullivan, who took office last year, told the House Finance Committee he’s drafting letters to his counterparts in every state outlining the Alaska Department of Law’s playbook as ................ http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/5669162/article-Alaska-preps-for-endangered-species-listings-fight?instance=home_news_window_left_top_2

Thursday, January 28, 2010 Story last updated at 1/28/2010 - 10:27 am By Kim Marquis | JUNEAU EMPIRE Alaska fishermen are gathered in Seattle this week with others from the Northwest region and Canada for the annual meeting of the international commission that manages halibut. Commercial halibut fishermen in Southeast Alaska face a 26-percent cut in the amount of fish they are allowed to catch this year over last, and it's not the first year of cuts. In five years, Southeast fishing quotas - the amount in pounds the commercial fleet can catch - has gone down by 65 percent. Fishermen are becoming increasingly frustrated. Robert Mosher, Juneau-area operator of the vessel Patience, paid thousands of dollars for the right to harvest halibut in the catch-share system. "There is absolutely no indication of the needs for...... http://juneauempire.com/stories/012810/loc_555995469.shtml

Forum will now take place during Kodiak Crab Festival Article published on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 DAILY MIRROR STAFF For the first time in 20 years, the traditional candidates debate will not kick off the ComFish Trade Show and Policy Forum in Kodiak. The fisheries debate is rescheduled for May 28 during the Kodiak Crab Festival due to the final days of the.....  http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=8424

Image via Wikipedia Posted by Alaska_Politics Posted: January 27, 2010 - 12:33 pm From Sean Cockerham in Juneau – Anchorage Republican Rep. Charisse Millett filed a resolution today asking the Legislature to oppose the proposed federal designation of critical habitat in Cook Inlet for beluga whales. The resolution is liable to pass quickly. House Speaker Mike Chenault, a Nikiski Republican, only referred it to a.... http://community.adn.com/node/147385

Image by Getty Images via Daylife By John Gapper in Davos Published: January 27 2010 16:03 | Last updated: January 27 2010 19:3 Twitter, the internet social network, is developing technology it hopes will prevent the Chinese and Iranian governments being able to censor its users. Evan Williams, the chief executive and co-founder of Twitter, which has been credited with helping anti-government protesters in Iran to organise resistance, said software developers were working on “interesting hacks” to stop any blocking by foreign governments. Mr Williams, speaking at the World Economic Forum, said he admired Google for its  decision last month to confront China  over..........  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/efe7142c-0b51-11df-9109-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Image via Wikipedia Wednesday, January 27, 2010 Defense, dual-use technology at issue By  Bill Gertz Senior Obama administration national security and trade officials will meet Wednesday with key congressional leaders to seek support for a major overhaul of U.S. export controls, aimed at loosening the restrictions with an eye to economic gains. The breakfast meeting with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and White House National Security Adviser James L. Jones will include Brent Scowcroft, a former national security adviser who led a recent government-sponsored study that called for ending Cold War-era national security controls on U.S. exports of defense and civilian-military, dual-use technology and products. The administration officials will argue for reforms, asserting that streamlining defense trade controls will fix a broken system and improve U.S. economic competitiveness. Trade security officials and specialists fear that loosening defense trade controls will bolster the

Image via Wikipedia By ROB STAPLETON Published on January 22nd, 2010 A lawsuit filed against the U.S. Postal Service and Peninsula Airways Inc. for allowing the airline to deliver "mainline bypass mail" will be heard in Washington D.C., on Jan. 27. Mainline bypass mail carriers Northern Air Cargo, Everts Air Cargo and Lynden Air Cargo filed a complaint alleging that the U.S. Postal Service wrongfully interpreted the Rural Services Improvement Act (RSIA) that regulates carriers of mainline bypass and Bush bypass mail. Alaska Airlines, Everts Air Cargo, Lynden Air Cargo and Northern Air Cargo were granted special rights to carry mainline bypass mail as part of RSIA. Bypass mail is shipped directly from urban warehouses or merchants to rural customers through air carriers, bypassing the post office. The program dates back to 1985 and was...........  http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/1003bypass_mail_carriers_sue_penair_postal_service

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA-(Jan. 26, 2010)—For those of you who know Alaska and have experienced the Alaska bush the following will not be a big surprise. To others it will be an eye opener about shipping perishables in Alaska. In Rural Alaska there are no supermarkets, fast food restaurants, or quick stop grocery stores. In fact-- in most villages there is only one store, and it will probably be the only source of ammunition, fuel, soda pop and pampers, and usually a family owned mom and pop store. These village stores are not on a road system, a rail system and most are only accessed by aircraft and or seasonally by a barge. So the revelation of Walter Williams of Dillingham was understandable when he saw the Tednologies, Inc. shipping containers that peaked his interested. Here is the scene. If you are lucky enough to live in a hub city like Bethel, Nome or Kotzebue you have additional options of a store owned by a Canadian company that has its roots in the Hudson Bay Company. But th

PETERSBURG-AK (01/26/2010) Alaska may ease commercial vehicle registration rules for fishermen who move gear and small vessels short distances by road. The State Department of Transportation’s proposed rule-change comes in response to concerns from the fishing fleet. Matt lichtenstein reports: Audio >> http://krbd.org/modules/local_news/index.php?op=sideBlock&syndicated=true&ID=986 

Image via Wikipedia The Associated Press Published: January 26th, 2010 09:36 AM Last Modified: January 26th, 2010 09:36 AM MINNEAPOLIS -- Target Corp., the nation's second-largest discounter after Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said Tuesday that it pulled all farmed salmon from its stores as it looks to be more environmentally conscious. The retailer said it will no longer carry farmed salmon in its......... http://www.adn.com/money/industries/fishing/story/1110716.html

Funding to Accelerate Deployment of Terrestrial Broadband Infrastructure in Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta ANCHORAGE, Alaska ,  Jan. 25  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GCI (Nasdaq:  GNCMA ) received notice today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service ("RUS") had approved United Utilities, Inc's application for an  $88 million  loan/grant combination to extend terrestrial broadband service for the first time to Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta ("Y-K Delta"), an area roughly the size of the state of  North Dakota . United Utilities, Inc. ("UUI") is a wholly owned subsidiary of GCI....  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gci-subsidiary-awarded-88-million-in-federal-broadband-stimulus-funding-82652837.html

Posted on Youtube January 21, 2010  Recreational and Commercial fishermen unite as one Please come to D.C to show that we need change Please read me Channel INFO..  Hat tip National Fisherman on Facebook

Monday, January 25, 2010 Image by Google via CrunchBase By  David M. Dickson Conventional wisdom has evolved that China's 1.3 billion consumers make up a market much too big to leave. But now, Google, the worldwide search-engine giant, may be testing that mind-set. A week after threatening to quit China, Google reported a blockbuster net income of nearly $2 billion, or 30 percent of revenues, for the fourth quarter, suggesting the world's leading search-engine firm would remain a powerful, valuable, highly profitable media company even if it had to abandon China's burgeoning Internet market. Google entered China in 2006, agreeing to enforce Chinese government censorship by filtering out material on the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Human Rights Watch, the Dalai Lama and other topics deemed taboo by Beijing censors. China's economy, expanding annually at double-digit rates, had made the Silicon Valley star, with its informal slogan of "Don't Be Evil,&

Image via Wikipedia 1-24-2010 The Alaska Board of Fisheries will meet for six days in Fairbanks starting Tuesday, and the big issue will be Yukon River king salmon. The fact that the federal government last week declared the 2008 and 2009 Yukon River king salmon runs disasters only magnifies the situation. “It’s going to be interesting to see what happens,” said Mike Smith, subsistence resource director for Tanana Chiefs Conference in Fairbanks. “We’re hoping some conservation efforts are implemented.” TCC represents dozens of villages on the upper and middle Yukon and Tanana rivers, and many fishermen in those villages say both the size of the Yukon king run and the size of the fish themselves are getting smaller, Smith said. Stan Zuray of Tanana is one of them. “We’ve removed all the real big fish,” Zuray said. “The 50-pounders are gone, and there’s only a few left over 40 pounds. Now we’re reduced to 30-pounders.” The decline in big fish is one of the reaso

2 trending topics this morning on Twitter are in Mandarin. Screen-shot from @haulinggear posted below. Perhaps this is where the censored Googlers will go?

Image by keso via Flickr Miriam Marcus , 01.22.10, 04:30 PM EST The Middle Kingdom came down hard on Hillary Clinton's anti-censorship speech.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently got involved in the ongoing standoff between Google and the Chinese government. Beijing is less than pleased. Image by keso via Flickr On Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu had harsh words for Clinton following a speech she gave in Washington on Thursday which cited China as one of the countries where there has been "a spike in threats to the free flow of information" over the past year. (See “ Google’s Secretary Of State .”) Clinton’s remarks were in response to an ongoing standoff between Google ( GOOG - news - people ) and the Chinese government over cyber-security and Internet censorship. Earlier this...... http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/google-earnings-search-markets-equities-china-clinton.html  

Image via Wikipedia Thursday, January 21, 2010 By Anita Chang ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIJING (AP) -- Google's threat to pull out of China over concerns about censorship and security should not affect ties with the United States, a top Chinese official said Thursday, seeking to contain the government's dispute with the Internet giant. The comment from Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei came just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech in Washington on Internet freedom, saying that censoring news and information flows is bad for economic growth and calling for American companies to resist pressure to accept censorship. Image via Wikipedia "The Google case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and countries; otherwise, it's an over-interpretation," He told a news conference, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The Xinhua report did not mention censorship, instead referring to Google

Image via Wikipedia Boaters could be surfing the Net as early as the summer Article published on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 By LOUIS GARCIA Mirror Writer   More details were discussed on the implementation of Wi-Fi at the harbor at the Tuesday afternoon Port and Harbors Advisory Board meeting. At a previous meeting George Grohs Jr. of Coastline Computers had expressed interest in installing and running the Wi-Fi service for the harbor. Grohs has proposed to cover the equipment bill for all the necessary components, Harbormaster Marty Owen said. Grohs would like to provide boat owners a subscription service for a Wi-Fi connection. Owen said he has spoken with Homer’s harbormaster, and Homer has a similar setup for Wi-Fi Internet that is working well. Rates and service packages weren’t discussed indepth, but Port and Harbors Advisory Board President Nick Szabo discussed some of the........ http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=8403

 ADN: STATE OF THE STATE Governor targets oil taxes, federal 'war' Gov. Sean Parnell used his first State of the State speech Wednesday night to criticize the federal government and defend his proposals for oil company tax breaks and a big new college scholarship program based on grades rather than need. 10:20 PM ***************** Link to full transcript (with interesting fisheries quotes) here and full test pasted below http://gov.alaska.gov/parnell/press-room/full-press-release.html?pr=5246 State of the State Address Governor Sean Parnell PRESENTED TO THE 26th Alaska Legislature January 20, 2010. Lieutenant Governor Craig Campbell, President Gary Stevens, Speaker Mike Chenault, cabinet members, legislators, my family – Sandy, Grace and Rachel. Thank you for joining us. Tonight, we remember the people of Haiti and the extreme loss of life and economic devastation due to recent earthquakes. We honor our servicemen and women, both guard and active duty, who

Image via Wikipedia West Coast's largest estuary in trouble By Samantha Young ASSOCIATED PRESS SACRAMENTO, Calif. | It was just five years ago that fishing guide Bob Sparre had all the salmon he could handle. He brought beaming clients back to shore loaded with prized Chinook salmon after a morning trolling the rivers and channels of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Northern California. On a recent day, heading out on the Sacramento River amid a chilly, midwinter fog, the guide of 20 years couldn't catch even a single fish for his lone client. It was the kind of unproductive and unhappy trip that he and other guides say has become all too common in recent years as the populations of salmon and other fish in the delta have plummeted. The number of fall-run Chinook salmon returning to the Central Valley to spawn has declined from more than........ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/20/salmon-decline-is-warning/

Image by betta design via Flickr Jan 20 03:01 AM US/Eastern Hong Kong remains the world's freest place to do business while the United States has lost its claim to an unrestricted economy, according to an annual report published Wednesday. Hong Kong, a former British colony which was returned to China in 1997, edged out rival Singapore to claim top spot for............. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.819c032ec56dfea2daa7f7b7b1448fb8.671&show_article=1

Jan 20 06:09 AM US/Eastern ................... Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said he would propose plans to preserve most of the earlier bill, vowing not to hit families and key sectors hard, while seeking an agreement on how to tax heavy industry by July. "We will not touch households, hauliers or fishermen," Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters......... http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b14b08bf986238e0df1e7301b9ac699c.201&show_article=1

Image via Wikipedia Article published on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 By LOUIS GARCIA Mirror Writer   The Tanner crab fishery season opened last Friday with a bigger catch quota than last year. The 2010 quota for Kodiak is 700,000 pounds, an increase of 200,000 pounds from last year’s harvesting season. The quota is split into three sections. The northeast is set at 100,000 pounds, the eastside at 500,000 and the southeast at 100,000. Crab that has recently developed into legal catch size is the reason for the increase in quota. “There’s a year class of crab we’ve been following for several years, and they’re attaining legal size,” said Wayne Donaldson, regional shellfish/ground fish management coordinator. “The.............. http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=8396  

Image via Wikipedia Tuesday, January 19, 2010 MILPITAS, Calif., Jan 19, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) ----Globalstar, Inc. (Nasdaq:GSAT), a leading provider of mobile satellite voice and data services to businesses, governments and consumers, today announced that the first 90-day window to launch six Globalstar second-generation satellites will open on July 5, 2010. Globalstar plans to launch the new satellites during this time. The satellites will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan using the Soyuz launch vehicle. The human-rated Soyuz is used to ferry astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station and Globalstar has previously used it eight times to successfully launch satellites into orbit. "Confirmation of this second-generation satellite launch window is another significant milestone for the company as we prepare for our new constellation," said.............. http://www.foxbusiness.com/story

Image via Wikipedia TUGS: Senator says rescue in Hinchinbrook Entrance underlines need for escorts. By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK ebluemink@adn.com Published: January 18th, 2010 10:59 PM Last Modified: January 18th, 2010 11:00 PM The Exxon tanker that briefly lost power in state waters Sunday while carrying more than 25 million gallons of crude oil has quickly become a poster child for pending federal legislation to beef up protection for Prince William Sound oil shipments. Two tugs escorting the 832-foot SeaRiver Kodiak through the Sound towed it to safety on Sunday morning. The tanker now is en route to San Francisco. The towing was precautionary, said Joel Kennedy, maritime operations project manager for the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council. The tanker remained on course during.......... http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/story/1098756.html

Page last updated at 23:35 GMT, Monday, 18 January 2010 By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News Oil from the Exxon Valdez spill was found just inches below the surface Large quantities of oil spilled during the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster can still be found beneath gravel beaches in Alaska, a study has discovered. Writing in Nature Geoscience, a team of scientists found that oil just a few inches down was dissipating up to 1,000 times slower than oil on the surface. They suggested that a lack of oxygen and nutrients in the gravel was slowing the dispersal of the remaining oil. The results could have implications for cleaning up future spills, they added. Considered to be one of the worst env

Image by BrotherMagneto via Flickr Monday, January 18, 2010, 10:25am PST  |  Modified: Monday, January 18, 2010, 10:34am Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and other members of Washington state’s congressional delegation say they’re “troubled” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ’s plan to move its marine operations center-Pacific operations on Seattle’s Lake Union — and its 175 jobs — to Newport, Ore. A letter sent...........  http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2010/01/18/daily4.html

By Steven Mufson Image via Wikipedia Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 18, 2010; A12 BEIJING -- In 2000, a 31-year-old software engineer named Li Yanhong, a.k.a. Robin Li, left his job in Silicon Valley and returned home to China to start an Internet search engine. He raised $26.2 million in venture capital, including a modest investment by Google. Image via CrunchBase Ten years later, Li's company, Baidu , has become the dominant search engine in China, a goliath with 7,000 employees and a market value of $16.2 billion on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Google, which sold its stake in 2006 when it launched its own Chinese site, has lagged far behind, capturing less than half of the market share Baidu has here. In a country obsessed with economic advancement, Li, a graduate of Beijing University and SUNY at Buffalo, has attained what Chinese newspapers have called pop-star status, with fans thronging Baidu conferences. And to many here, his company