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

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Progress of Electronic Monitoring Program Scrutinized An electronic monitoring program aimed at keeping fish harvesters in compliance with catch limits, incidental catch rules and other marine regulation is under fire from a national non-profit group dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. “Cost-effective electronic systems that meet both regulatory and scientific demands are nowhere near deployment,” says Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Ruch noted in a statement released on Oct. 28 that earlier this year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a series of white papers cataloging an array of obstacles..... http://fnonlinenews.blogspot.com/2013/10/progress-of-electronic-monitoring.html Objection Filed to Proposed Certification of Alaska Salmon Fishery 31 October 2013 Haring snacks met MSC vlaggetjes / Herring snacks with MSC flags (Photo credit: MSCkeurmerk ) US -

KTVA GCI wins out in FCC fight over acquisition of Alaska TV stations Jill Burke October 30, 2013 Score one for the new guy in Alaska's brewing television war. On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission granted Denali Media, a subsidiary of Alaska telecommunications giant General Communications Inc., the go-ahead to buy three television stations in Alaska: CBS affiliate KTVA in Anchorage, and NBC affiliates KSCT in Sitka and KATH in Juneau........ http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20131030/gci-wins-out-fcc-fight-over-acquisition-alaska-tv-stations It's official! Deal done! http://t.co/xpERx86tQq — MJ Thim (@mjthim) October 30, 2013

@NOAAFisheries releases their annual Fisheries of the US report... #Alaska fisheries #1 in value, volume of landings: http://t.co/nTscKxRLET — NOAA Fisheries AK (@NOAAFisheriesAK) October 30, 2013 P hantom Ships Expose Weakness in AIS Vessel-Tracking System BY BLOOMBERG ON OCTOBER 29, 2013 gcaptain.com By Isaac Arnsdorf Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) — Shippers, traders and researchers monitoring global vessel traffic in the past six months might have seen an imaginary U.S. ferry sail to North Korea, a tugboat go from the Mississippi River to a Dallas lake in two minutes and the path of a fake Italian yacht spelling out PWNED — hacker slang for “defeated.” These false signals, orchestrated by Trend Micro Inc., a Tokyo-based Internet security company, were designed to expose vulnerabilities in the mandatory system used to track merchant vessels worldwide. With the network that was built to improve safety at sea unprotected against hackers, phony tracks could lead to collisions and o

October 28, 2013 12:37 pm Alaska takes fight over seafood eco-labelling to Washington By Aaron Stanley in Washington Many of North America’s biggest seafood purchasers, including Walmart, Sodexo and the US government, are rethinking their environmental sustainability standards under intense pressure from the Alaskan fishing industry....... http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2c950a06-3d98-11e3-9928-00144feab7de.html The Coca-Cola Company isn’t smiling about the latest effort to force labels on foods and beverages that contain GMOs. http://t.co/eKqDp7nSe3 — POLITICO (@politico) October 29, 2013 DOE Releases Biological Monitoring and Sampling Results Report for the Amchitka Site English: Amchitka Island - Harlequin Beach, Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) By Judy Miller | S.M. Stoller 17 hour s 14 minutes ago GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the availability of the Amchitka Island, Alaska, Biological Moni

'Queen of the Fleet' Headed to Mexican Scrapyard Oct 24, 2013 The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis in 2007 when it left Kodiak for the last time. The decomissioned cutter, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, will be towed to Mexico and cut up for scrap.... http://www.kmxt.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5165 Murkowski blasts federal standards for subsistence during last day of AFN convention Posted: Sunday, October 27, 2013 12:12 am FAIRBANKS — The Carlson Center erupted in applause when U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski called the Federal Subsistence Board’s rural standards “ridiculous” during her address to the Alaska Federation of Natives on Saturday. Murkowski said the regulatory standards used to determine which Alaska Native communities are rural puts subsistence living at risk and said the federal board is in dire need of reforming. “In Alaska, rural is not determined by population; it is determined by the character of life in a place

Begich, Murkowski host subsistence hearing Posted: Sunday, October 27, 2013 12:00 am By Jeff Richardson FAIRBANKS — Sen. Mark Begich and Sen. Lisa Murkowski hosted a field hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Saturday, hearing testimony at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention about subsistence concerns. Begich called the field hearing to discuss “rural food security,” which the Democrat said centered around the ability of Alaska Natives to practice a traditional subsistence lifestyle.... http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/begich-murkowski-host-subsistence-hearing/article_c5b08196-3edf-11e3-b716-001a4bcf6878.html Southeast Alaska hydro expansion on schedule, but questions remain Posted: Saturday, October 26, 2013 7:42 pm Associated Press KETCHIKAN, Alaska — Contractors are on schedule to complete an expansion of the Whitman Lake hydroelectric project in Ketchikan by July. It's been almost 90 years since workers built a dam at Whitman Lake to supply

Two possible paralytic shellfish poisoning cases reported in Sitka The Pioneer Home, one of Sitka's many historic structures, in May 2002. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) State health officials remind public about risks October 26, 2013 Saturday AM (SitNews) Sitka, Alaska - Two probable cases of paralytic shellfish poisoning have been reported to the Alaska Section of Epidemiology. Both were the result of eating shellfish harvested in the Sitka area on Oct. 18, 2013. After eating two of the clams, the male patient reported tingling in his left hand and lips. He was nauseated and vomited. The female patient had similar symptoms with a headache. Both patients sought care at local emergency departments. Both were treated and released. Leftover clams were.... http://www.sitnews.us/1013News/102613/102613_psp.html Fishing technique known as trawling can sometimes be productive fish0193 (Photo credit: NOAA Photo Library ) By Amanda Alvarez, ISNS October 26, 2013 (SitNews) Ke

PWS salmon harvest at 96.2 million fish and rising Prince William Sound, on the south coast of Alaska. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Posted 10/25/2013 by - Margaret Bauman A preliminary report on the Prince William Sound salmon season puts the total harvest at 96.2 million fish, but state fisheries biologists said Oct. 22 that the postseason revision would boost that number with an increased humpy harvest. With fishing complete in all districts, the preliminary harvest totals should be representatives for all species, but pink salmon harvest totals included underestimate the true number of humpies because of inaccurate inseason average weights, said the report released by Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Cordova management and.... http://www.thecordovatimes.com/article/1343pws-salmon-harvest-at-962-million-fish-and DNR ordered to rule on Chuitna apps BY ELWOOD BREHMER, ALASKA JOURNAL OF COMMERCE Published: 2013.10.24 11:37 AM A state Superior Court judge ruled Oct. 1

Eastern Steller Sea lions off ESA list NOAA Ship Fairweather (Photo credit: NOAA's National Ocean Service ) Posted 10/23/2013 by - Margaret Bauman Steller sea lions within the eastern distinct population segment, east of Prince William Sound, will be removed from the Endangered Species Act list, Jim Balsiger, administrator for NOAA Fisheries' Alaska region said Oct. 23.This is the first species NOAA has delisted, citing recovery, since the eastern North Pacific gray whale was taken off the list of threatened and endangered species in 1994. The delisting will take effect 30 days after publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. Balsiger said the agency is delighted to see the recover of this population segment of Steller sea lions, and that they.... http://www.thecordovatimes.com/article/1343eastern-steller-sea-lions-off-esa-list http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/oct/24/steller-sea-lions-taken-off-threatened-species/ http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/storie

Props to that GCI logo representing LTE for Alaska. I see you, Alaska. I see you. *peace sign* — Darren Murph (@darrenmurph) October 22, 2013

As Alaska goes... Tuesday, 22 October 2013 Today's New York Times story on Alaska's row with Walmart is surprisingly well-informed. (That's no slant on the Times, but anyone who follows American fisheries knows mass media tends to grasp neither the big picture nor the nuance of the industry.) The story covers how the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute decided to move away from Marine Stewardship Council certification and toward Responsible Fishery Management through certifier Global Trust (using FAO guidelines). One hiccup? As David Jolly writes, "Someone forgot to check with Walmart." It's pithy, but it's wrong. No one forgot to check.... http://www.nationalfisherman.com/blogs/the-rudderpost/2494-as-alaska-goes Alaska's salmon industry convinces corporations to buy Alaskan salmon again @NYTimes : http://t.co/MDE6sAt8B8 — NOAA Fish media team (@NOAAFishMedia) October 23, 2013 Map of Bristol Bay, Alaska (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) New Gro