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

Coastal zone program apprears to be 'dead' Alaska's coastal management program appears to be "effectively dead," a leading state lawmaker said Tuesday, with neither the House nor Senate showing a willingness to budge on their positions."

The 2011 Togiak sac-roe herring fishery is over for the season with about 8-percent of the overall quota left on the table. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the details. Audio >  http://kdlg.org/news/archive.php?id=1227

May 31st, 2011 Lake and Peninsula Borough officials are finding themselves caught in the crossfire over an initiative brought by a citizens group aimed at halting development of large scale mining activities within the borough. The Pebble Limited Partnership has filed a motion in Alaska Superior Court in Anchorage asking the court to move for summary judgment to keep the proposed "Save Our Salmon" Initiative off of the borough's election ballot, alleging that the initiative is not certifiable under the Alaska Constitution and state statutes. Borough manager Lamar Cotton said ..........  http://www.thebristolbaytimes.com/article/1122pending_ballot_issue_on_mining_challenged

Plankton may hold up to ocean acidification better than expected England’s White Cliffs of Dover are certainly an impressive sight. The sheer cliffs, made of bright white chalk, rise as high as 350 feet above the shoreline. Despite the fact that the chalk is over 65 million years old, it may have something to tell us about how the ocean will react to the continued use of fossil fuels.

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr Alaska Dispatch | May 31, 2011 Armed Danish commandos have (possibly) been summoned to monitor Earth-loving "hippies" clinging to the underbelly of an Arctic deepwater oil rig  off the coast of Greenland , sources say. The environmental non-governmental group  Greenpeace  has published  statements and  video  showing its activists aboard two ships that are attempting to "interfere" with oil exploration going on in the Davis Strait, 100 miles west of Greenland. This business has in turn prompted the Kingdom of Denmark to launch two ships and a few helicopters to monitor the Greenpeace interference. The  Leiv Eriksson  is the source of all this Arctic bait and switch. British oil company  Cairn Energy  is attempting to drill four wells at depths of at least 5,000 feet this summer in "iceberg-strewn sea" with the 53,000-ton offshore oil rig, which has made its way to Arctic waters after a month of failed attempts by Green

May 31, 2011 Washington, D.C.-Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today commented on the announcement this afternoon that President Obama has selected John Bryson to serve as the next Secretary of Commerce. "By selecting John Bryson to head the Department of Commerce, President Obama is clearly demonstrating that he has no intention of backing down from his job-killing agenda,"  Senator Inhofe said.   " In fact, it is understandable that President Obama would select John Bryson as his nominee : he is a founder of a radical environmental organization and a member of a United Nations advisory group on climate change.  Mr. Bryson once called the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill 'moderate'.  This is legislation that would cost American taxpayers billions of dollars, destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs, and hurt families and workers by raising the price of gasoline and electricity. I will be working

Image by alexdecarvalho via Flickr President Barack Obama has tapped energy executive John Bryson to lead the Commerce Department, putting a businessman at the helm of an agency tasked with boosting U.S. exports and promoting American business around the world. Originally published May 31, 2011 ...... .  Bryson, 67, is a former chairman and chief executive officer of Edison International , a California-based energy company. He also has an extensive background in environmental issues, having co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council and served on a United Nation 's advisory group on energy and climate change. Bryson served as Edison's CEO for 18 years, retiring in 2008. He's since served on a number of corporate boards, including The Boeing Company , The Walt Disney Company , and Coda Automotive, Inc. He is also co-chairman of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a non-partisan group that focuses on policy issues that are of specific importance to the

Nice >> http://www.therealalaska.com/2011/05/whale-watching-in-sitka-video/

Absolute craziness.... RFID tags are already used to trace everything from poker chips to hotel towels, but what if these little pellets were embedded directly within your lunch, providing everything you'd ever wanna know about that ham sandwich you're about to beast? That's the idea behind NutriSmart -- a food tracking system that revolves around edible RFID tags. Developed by.....  http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/nutrismart-prototype-embeds-rfid-tags-directly-within-food-trac/ Video

Posted on May 30, 2011 China, a nation known for its human rights abuses and strict government control, has a message for food safety violators: If you endanger the public by contaminating or violating the safety of the nation’s food supply, you will be put to death. This harsh new measure runs counter to some of the pledges China’s Supreme Court has made to place more limitations on the use of the death penalty...  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/chinas-supreme-court-plans-to-execute-food-safety-violators/

Image by woody1778a via Flickr Margaret Bauman | The Bristol Bay Times | May 29, 2011 Yukon River chum salmon, rich in important omega-3 oils and prized for their rich, buttery flavor, will be running soon, providing an important harvest to several hundred Yup'ik Eskimo harvesters who deliver to Kwik'Pak Fisheries at Emmonak. But just how many fish they will be able to harvest is the big question and Jack Schultheis, general manager for Kwik'Pak, said he hopes the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will take a more moderate management approach, one that will allow harvesters to bring in more than the 150,000 chums they were allowed to harvest a year ago. Time was, Schultheis said, when there were so many salmon swimming upstream in summer that processors were overloaded, fisheries were shut down or openings delayed so that the processors cold catch up with the harvest already there. That happened on a regular basis, with the fishery valued at $15 million to $20 million.

Polar opposites attracted sailor to career at sea Posted:  May 29, 2011 - 9:33pm By  Klas Stolpe   JUNEAU EMPIRE Somehow on the dry plains of Iowa, in the small town of Toledo, in a family of little means, a young lad playing football, basketball, baseball, cross-country and track found a calling on the water. “I don’t know what prompted me,” retiring U.S. Coast Guard 17th District Capt. Carl J. Uchytil said. “The flyers I saw said they did everything, saved lives, put out fires, busted druggies, I couldn’t figure out why everybody didn’t want to be in the Coast Guard. I was just a kid looking for adventure 30 years ago.” Uchytil was honored in a Coast Guard D17 Retirement Ceremony on Friday at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center. “I had never seen the ocean before,” Uchytil said of his early years. “I had never seen a Coast Guard unit before. The first time I had ever been in an airplane was on my way to the academy. I had never ventured two states away from Iowa.” An Iowan cousin

Image via Wikipedia GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE — Zipping along the northwestern Alaska coast in a helicopter on a summer day, recent Coast Guard Academy graduate Bob Papp scanned for a route his vessel could take through the ice from Nome to Kotzebue, just above the Arctic Circle. The sea was a hardened expanse, and ice even covered the shore. That was 35 years ago. When Papp — now Adm. Papp, commandant of the Coast Guard — returned to Kotzebue last August, there was no ice in sight. It was a powerful reminder of how the Arctic has been altered by climate change, and of how the Coast Guard's mission in the region must change, too, Papp said during an interview aboard the Seattle-based icebreaker Healy. New shipping lanes, increasing tourism, new access to fish stocks and especially the promise of oil and gas drilling have set off ........  http://ap.juneauempire.com/pstories/state/ak/20110530/837104115.shtml

The Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska — A Coast Guard lieutenant has been temporarily relieved of authority over a Petersburg, Alaska-based cutter after officials say they lost confidence in his ability to command. Lt. Matthias Wholley was in charge of the Cutter Anacapa, but the Coast Guard said Monday that he.....  http://ap.juneauempire.com/pstories/state/ak/20110531/837414802.shtml

The BBRSDA is pleased to make available for download this special report prepared by TIm and Meghan Gervais:   Converting Smaller Bristol Bay Boats into Fish-Chilling Machines: The F/V Sea King Demonstration Project.

The list  http://www.militarytimes.com/valor/ This will be the only post for the day.......

Image via Wikipedia By DAN JOLING Associated Press Published: May 29th, 2011 06:26 PM Last Modified: May 29th, 2011 06:26 PM Continued disagreement on how to extend Alaska's coastal zone management program has halted plans for a second special legislative session, House and Senate leaders said Sunday. Legislative leaders last week told members to book airplane tickets for Juneau. However, plans for the special session fell apart when both sides failed to budge from previous positions. Senate leaders met Sunday morning and reaffirmed their commitment to a bill worked out by a conference committee, said Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak. House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, said...........  http://www.adn.com/2011/05/29/1889164/senate-leader-says-special-session.html

Installed in the Hauling Gear Lab and looking nice! .. (screenshot attached) More >>  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search?q=asmi

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/record-snow-makes-spectacular-yosemite-waterfalls/

Gustaf Klarin | Eye on the Arctic | May 28, 2011 SINTEF photo An in situ test burn in the Barents Sea, conducted as part of the Joint industry program on oil spill contingency for Arctic and ice covered waters. STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Arctic oil and gas extraction is expected to increase, even as influential environmental organizations in Sweden demand that the government there strive to end all oil development in the Arctic Ocean to protect the sensitive sea environment from spills. But oil extraction in the Arctic can be more environmentally friendly than drilling in warmer waters, according to geographer and Arctic researcher Rasmus Ole Rasmussen. "Cold water and ice are very beneficial when cleaning up after an oil spill," says Rasmus Ole Rasmussen, a researcher at Nordregio, the Nordic Council of Minister's research institute in Stockholm. "The oil is much thicker and much easier to pump up." "Because of the cold water," he adds, "the........  h

Image via Wikipedia DELIVERY: Robert Duvall backs domestic production; feds won't crack down. By KAY CASHMAN Petroleum News Published: May 28th, 2011 11:23 PM Last Modified: May 28th, 2011 11:23 PM Robert Duvall won't be on board the ship that offloads Escopeta Oil's jack-up rig this week but he will be making a trip north once the company starts drilling for oil and natural gas in Alaska's Cook Inlet . A long-time friend of Houston-based Escopeta President Danny Davis, the well-known actor and director is a staunch supporter of domestic oil and gas drilling. "Alaska's got plenty of oil and gas that we need down here," Duvall said in an interview Thursday with Petroleum News. "It's preferable to importing energy from foreign sources, such as the Middle East." Duvall would have been on board the vessel that is bringing the Spartan 151 jack-up rig into Cook Inlet, but he's about to start work on an independent film, "Jayne Mansfield&

Image via Wikipedia By  SEAN COCKERHAM scockerham@adn.com Published: May 28th, 2011 12:39 AM Last Modified: May 28th, 2011 12:44 AM Leaders of the Alaska House and Senate are telling their members to go ahead and book airplane tickets to Juneau for a special session on coastal zone management to start on Tuesday. The special session is still being described as "tentatively" scheduled and the Senate leadership won't be giving its members a final answer until Sunday on whether it's.........  http://www.adn.com/2011/05/27/1886936/special-session-once-again.html

Fish Factor By LAINE WELCH   May 27, 2011 Friday Tides rule the day for most mariners, who plan their work days based on its ebb and flow.  “A tide book is like a Bible to a fishermen. It is constantly referenced – they lay their nets down by the tide, they launch by the tide – all their activity is centered around that every day,” said Jerry Thompson of Soldotna, publisher of the Alaska Tide Book for 23 years. Port Moller Photo courtesy of Lee Anne McDermott, Peter Pan Seafoods Fishermen and other mariners are being warned that the tide information for Port Moller is off by 8 to10 hours .  The error was first noticed a few weeks ago by Richard Lovano, dock boss for 30 years at Peter Pan Seafoods at Port Moller, when he was planning the best time to work under the company dock. “I started watching the tide first thing in the morning and it was low at 9am and not high like it was supposed to be. So that’s how I became aware that the tides were way off,” Lovano said in a phon

Image via Wikipedia COMPASS:  Other points of view By SEN. MARK BEGICH Published: May 27th, 2011 09:30 PM Last Modified: May 27th, 2011 09:30 PM With Americans feeling pain at the pump and Alaskans often suffering from the highest energy prices, the U.S. Senate's response last week was both predictable and doomed. Democrats offered a proposal to reduce tax incentives for the five largest oil companies while Republicans simply called for more offshore drilling. These narrow proposals failed to provide immediate relief at the pump and would leave coastal states like Alaska without a nickel of the revenue from offshore development. Neither bill came close to........  http://www.adn.com/2011/05/27/1886921/america-needs-a-sweeping-energy.html

By  ELISABETH ROSENTHAL Scientists aiming their gene sequencers at commercial seafood are discovering rampant labeling fraud in supermarket coolers and restaurant tables: cheap fish is often substituted for expensive fillets, and overfished species are passed off as fish whose numbers are plentiful. Yellowtail stands in for mahi-mahi. Nile perch is labeled as shark, and tilapia may be the Meryl Streep of seafood, capable of playing almost any role. Recent studies by researchers in North America and Europe harnessing the new techniques have consistently found that 20 to 25 percent of the seafood products they check are fraudulently identified, fish geneticists say. Labeling regulation means little if the “grouper” is really catfish or if gulf shrimp were spawned on a farm in Thailand. Environmentalists, scientists and foodies are complaining that regulators are lax in policing seafood, and have been slow to adopt the latest scientific tools even though they are now readily available an

We think these guys in Ketchikan on the Aleutian Ballad  are an awesome interface between us in the industry and the public at large. We see videos from passengers on the boat upload clips to YouTube and elsewhere on a regular basis.. This one was put online within the last 24 hrs. Having said that, our guess is that every once in awhile the boys on deck miss the smell of a ripe bait tote.. ;-)

Image via Wikipedia FOREIGN REGISTRY: Delivering Spartan 151 violates Jones Act. By KAY CASHMAN Petroleum News Published: May 28th, 2011 12:04 AM Last Modified: May 28th, 2011 12:04 AM For the first time in more than a decade, a jack-up rig is headed to Cook Inlet to drill for oil and gas. The Spartan 151 drilling rig, under contract to Escopeta Oil, is expected to arrive in Kachemak Bay the week of May 29 and begin drilling in Upper Cook Inlet in late June. The rig is coming from the Gulf of Mexico aboard a foreign-flagged ship named the Kang Sheng Kou. The rig's transportation has been a contentious issue because federal law generally prohibits shipping cargo from one U.S. port to another on foreign-flagged vessels. Escopeta has been working hard to renew an earlier waiver of the law, known as the Jones Act, to relocate the Spartan 151. Although the Department of Homeland Security, in a letter from Secretary Janet Napolitano dated May 20, turned down a new waiver, it did not.....

Awesome Alaska Commercial Fishing / History Video Archive - Produced by John Sabella http://johnsabella.com Also located on the web here >>  http://www.youtube.com/user/alaskaseiners  and here http://seiners.net

Image via Wikipedia Web posted  Friday, May 27, 2011 By Sean Manget  Alaska Journal of Commerce While Outside vacationers may see the new route offered by discount airline JetBlue Airways from Long Beach, Calif., to Anchorage as a new chance to see Alaska's beauty in the summer, Alaska businesses see it as an opportunity for new partnerships. At a breakfast meeting in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in midtown Anchorage May 24, officials from the airline met with officials from a diverse range of Alaska companies. The meeting, organized by the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., followed the landing of the airline's first Anchorage flight of the season the night before. Lynden International, a freight forwarding and integrated logistics company, as well as air carrier Northern Air Cargo, have partnered locally with JetBlue, said officials with the two companies. Northern Air Cargo offers contract services to air carriers at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Air

Image by Getty Images via @daylife 5/27/11 2:49 PM EDT Newt Gingrich doesn't buy the established science of global warming, especially when there were warnings in the 1970s of a new Ice Age. "Now many of those scientists are still alive, and they were absolutely convinced," the GOP presidential contender  said Wednesday  during a campaign visit to Manchester, N.H. "I mean, if Al Gore had been able to in the 1970s, we would have been building huge furnaces to warm the planet against this inevitable coming Ice Age." The former House speaker warned of government overreaction to an issue that he suggested may just be a passing fad. "Now, if you were a left-wing intellectual, climate change is the newest excuse to take control of lives, and you want a new bureaucracy to run our lives on behalf of the newest thing," he said. Environmental groups say Gingrich is just carrying water for........  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55848.html Relate

FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2011 Posted by: PA3 Jonathan Lally Deck Watch is a five minute radio show featuring Coast Guard news from around Alaska. The feature for May 26, 2011, by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally, is an interview with Lt. Jon Bartel regarding the rescue of five fishermen from the fishing vessel Nordic Mistress. Coast Guard audio by D17 External Affairs. On May 22 the crew of the Nordic Mistress made a mayday call reporting they were sinking.  The Nordic Mistress skipper told Sector Anchorage command center they were abandoning ship and needed Coast Guard assistance.  After the Nordic Mistress crew made the mayday call, about 45 minutes later, a Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and crew arrived on scene to safely hoist all five survivors from a life raft and took them to Kodiak. To listen to Deck Watch please click the link below: http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=1257412