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#10-20-2013 - ComFish News Roundup

Fishermen: Canadian gold mine endangers salmon
Posted: Saturday, October 19, 2013 2:12 pm
Associated Press | 4 comments
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A British Columbian gold mine would pollute a major tributary of a Ketchikan fjord, threatening fishing stock and tourism, locals say.... http://www.newsminer.com/news/alaska_news/fishermen-canadian-gold-mine-endangers-salmon/article_97b86062-390b-11e3-b991-0019bb30f31a.html
Unuk River
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ANILCA hearing focuses on subsistence values, challenges
Posted: October 19, 2013 - 6:25pm
By Molly Dischner
Morris News Service-Alaska
The importance of subsistence in Alaska was reinforced in a September congressional hearing, but so were the challenges in managing fish and game populations with that in mind. The U.S. Senate Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing Sept. 19 regarding wildlife management authority in Alaska under the Alaska National Interest Lands Act, or ANILCA and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA. The hearing was the first time ANILCA has been back up for congressional discussion since it... http://peninsulaclarion.com/news/2013-10-19/anilca-hearing-focuses-on-subsistence-values-challenges

Board of Fisheries discusses Cook Inlet cod changes
Posted: October 19, 2013 - 6:26pm
By MOLLY DISCHNER
Morris News Service-Alaska
ANCHORAGE - Alaska’s Board of Fisheries is considering changes to the commercial Pacific cod fishery in Cook Inlet, but Kenai Peninsula residents have mixed views on the proposals. At the board’s Pacific cod meeting in Anchorage, which began Friday and is expected to end Tuesday, the board is considering an increase to the allowable state waters Pacific.... http://peninsulaclarion.com/news/2013-10-19/board-of-fisheries-discusses-cook-inlet-cod-changes

‘Super salmon’ set to be first GM food approved for sale in the U.S.
English: Logo of the .
English: Logo of the . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
BY JON SWAINE, LDT OCTOBER 19, 2013
NEW YORK - A new “super salmon” is expected to be approved for sale in the US within the next few weeks, reigniting a heated debate over genetically-modified food. The salmon would be the first GM animal ever approved for human consumption, and has been under development in Massachusetts for 18 years. It is expected to be cleared for sale soon by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and now American supermarkets are coming... http://www.theprovince.com/news/super+salmon+first+food+approved+sale/9058401/story.html

UAF students host Food Day to draw attention to food security
University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Alaska Fairbanks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Posted: Saturday, October 19, 2013 10:13 pm
Nancy Tarnai / Alaska Grown
FAIRBANKS — University of Alaska Fairbanks anthropology and philosophy student Azara Mohammadi has no qualms about admitting she is a city girl. Growing up in Fairbanks and California, she was not exposed to agriculture and laughs at herself for having to ask what it means to hull corn. “At least I’m a blank slate,” Mohammadi said good naturedly. Today, she is the force behind a UAF student movement to get more locally grown food into.... http://www.newsminer.com/features/sundays/alaska_grown/uaf-students-host-food-day-to-draw-attention-to-food/article_af5dbe7a-385b-11e3-a0b4-0019bb30f31a.html

Project uses root wad technique to restore bank of Chena River in Fairbanks
Posted: Sunday, October 20, 2013 12:04 am
newsminer.com
Tim Mowry
FAIRBANKS — The decades-old practice of dumping old vehicles, chunks of concrete and large rocks into the Chena River to stabilize eroding riverbanks might be nearing an end.
A riverbank restoration technique developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that uses... http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/project-uses-root-wad-technique-to-restore-bank-of-chena/article_384c758e-395e-11e3-99f7-001a4bcf6878.html

Alaska fisheries battle Walmart over sustainability label
by Lauren Rosenthal @laurenthal
Uninspiring: Walmart
Uninspiring: Walmart (Photo credit: Patrick Haney)
October 20, 2013  5:00AM ET
ALASKA — “Alaska's constitution demands sustainability.” It isn’t the world’s catchiest slogan, but Jack Hopkins, a 67-year-old salmon fisherman from the town of Cordova, near the renowned Copper River, had it painted on a sign so he could wave it at passing drivers and Walmart employees on a busy street corner in south Anchorage. “We were out there for half the day,” Hopkins said. He and 40 other Cordova fishermen were picketing — protesting Walmart’s decision to stop selling wild Alaska salmon because it no longer carries a sustainability label. Walmart — the world’s biggest retailer — has been on a quest for sustainability since 2005. The store pledged to green up its supply and start a “Sustainability Index” to help grade prospective vendors. But the definition of “sustainable” can be a slippery one — especially when it comes to fish, which vary wildly in their populations and the way they’re harvested. And some critics speculate that Walmart’s interest in sustainability is more about the bottom line. Governments around the world manage their wild stocks very differently, said Dick Jones, who works for the Sustainable Fish Partnership, a Hawaii-based nongovernmental organization that has helped Walmart grapple with the issue. In the end, the company drew up a..... http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/20/alaska-fishermenbattlewalmartoversustainabilitylabel.html

Premium Seafoods allowed to hire foreign fish trawler
CANADA
Friday, October 18, 2013, 23:50 (GMT + 9)
Premium Seafoods' request to have a foreign vessel catch its redfish quota has recently been approved by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). This is a one-off exception that has been granted with reservations, as some conditions have to be met, reports the Cape Breton Post. According to Stefan Leslie, DFO spokesperson, there are several provisions that guide the department that allow foreign ships to be hired to catch the Canadian quota. Leslie explained the temporary licence is only... http://fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?l=e&country=0&special=&monthyear=&day=&id=64227

Antarctica Trip 2001
Antarctica Trip 2001
(Photo credit: John "Pathfinder" Lester)
Talks open on no fishing zone to protect Antarctic seas
The Observer, Saturday 19 October 2013
 07.15 EDT
Fishing and oil drilling could be banned across more than two million square kilometres of the frigid seas around Antarctica in a historic attempt to conserve the last pristine ocean. Negotiations this week at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) will centre on a proposal for a 1.25m square kilometre "no take" zone, which would cover much of the Ross Sea. Another proposal would establish several other smaller protected areas in the seas around East Antarctica, adding.... http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/19/antarctic-fishing-ban-bid
















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