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#12-07-2013 - ComFish News Roundup


Chignik fishery largely unchanged after BOF meets
BY MOLLY DISCHNER
Alaska’s Board of Fisheries made only a few of the proposed changes to Chignik fisheries today in Anchorage, noting the overall stability of the fishery. The board voted in favor of a change to seine regulations addressing when fishing ends. Under the new regulation, seines do not have to be all the way out of the water, just... http://www.alaskajournal.com/Blog-Fish-Bytes/Blogs-2013/Chignik-fishery-largely-unchanged-after-BOF-meets/

Fish Factor
Halibut catch limits down again for all regions except Southeast Alaska
By LAINE WELCH
December 06, 2013
(SitNews) - It comes as no surprise that the recommendations for next year’s halibut catches are down again for all regions except Southeast Alaska. Fishery scientists with the International Pacific Halibut Commission have recommended a 2014 coast wide commercial catch total of 24.45 million pounds, a 21% decrease from the 31 million pounds allowed for this year.  That includes catches in Alaska, British Columbia and the Pacific Coast states. In a summation at a meeting in Seattle last week, the IPHC said: “The results of the 2013 stock assessment indicate that the Pacific halibut stock has been declining continuously over much of the last decade as a result... http://www.sitnews.us/LaineWelch/120613_fish_factor.html

The C word
Posted by admin2
Friday, December 6, 2013
Certification. It’s a nasty word in Alaska right now. So nasty in fact, that the State has successfully lobbied the US government to remove mention of the C word from its seafood purchasing guidelines. The General Services Administration has now removed all references to 3rd party certifications from its “Healthy and Sustainable Food Guidelines”. Alaska is right to do so.... http://www.alaskasalmonranching.com/the-c-word/

Alaska Science
Grinding fish heads for the goodness within
Pat Simpson of Anchorage holds up sockeye
salmon oil he extracted from fishheads
processed at his Nikiski plant. SitNews.us
Photo by Ned Rozell
By NED ROZELL
December 06, 2013
(SitNews) Nikiski, Alaska - In a chilly building across Cook Inlet from the white pyramid of Mount Redoubt rest a few dozen plastic-lined cardboard totes filled to the brim with an amber liquid. Each chest-high cube holds about a ton of fish oil extracted this summer from the heads of salmon. It’s a product that would have been lost to the Kenai River if Pat Simpson had not recovered it. Simpson, 49, is a fisherman-turned-entrepreneur who has for the past few summers purchased salmon heads from fish processors who do business here in this small industrial town north of the Kenai River. Using precision equipment made in Europe, Simpson’s team steams and grinds the heads of pink, chum and red... http://www.sitnews.us/1213News/120613/120613_ak_science.html

Alaska promises to do better on Yukon River salmon
"I only had King salmon one supper
this whole year so there's no
question that we on the U.S. side are
trying to meet our obligations under the
treaty," says Erik Weingarth, an
Alaskan member of the International Yukon River
Panel. (CBC)

CBC News Posted: Dec 06, 2013 10:15 AM CT
International salmon talks with the Yukon River Panel have wrapped up in Whitehorse. In the last seven years, Alaska has delivered its salmon quotas on the Yukon River, twice. This year, the Alaskans are promising to do better. Andrew Bassich is the U.S. delegate from Eagle, Alaska..... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/alaska-promises-to-do-better-on-yukon-river-salmon-1.2453680

Energy committee hands two options to Assembly
December 5, 2013 | Vol. 111, No. 49
The borough assembly’s special energy committee voted 7-0 Monday to send two options and a recommendation to the borough assembly meeting Tuesday night. The options represent borough manager Jeff Jabusch’s assessment of possible futures for the Thomas Bay Power Authority. The options, delineated by the committee in discussion at a previous meeting, amount to a list of positives and negatives for either the City and Borough of Wrangell or Southeast Alaska Power Agency running the Tyee Lake hydroelectric facility. A two-page memo drafted by Jabusch outlined the ups and downs of either scenario. Were Wrangell to take over the project, it would give “Wrangell a more hands on involvement in the project on a day to day basis,” the document reads. It “would give us the opportunity to have a closer working relationship with SEAPA as it relates to things going on at Tyee.” The disadvantages include Wrangell having to cover roughly $90,000 of net non-billable costs currently not covered by the operations and maintenance contract between TBPA and SEAPA. The borough would also shoulder the burden of paying the... http://www.wrangellsentinel.com/story/2013/12/05/about-town/energy-committee-hands-two-options-to-assembly/1675.html

Who's Killing Hawaii's Monk Seals?
Posted: 12/06/2013 1:40 pm EST
By Nathan Eagle and Sophie Cocke
Last year, a man on the Hawaii island of Molokai confessed to killing an endangered Hawaiian monk seal — and nothing happened. He didn't just whisper it to a friend or post it on Facebook. He told a New York Times Magazine reporter that he hit an 8-year-old bull in the head with a rock out of anger and under peer pressure. Millions of people read the story in the May 8 edition titled "Who's Killing The Monk Seals?" Those readers included federal law enforcement agents whose job it is to protect Hawaiian monk seals, a species that has been classified as endangered under federal... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/killing-monk-seals_n_4399723.html




















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