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#03-09-2014 - ComFish News Roundup

Brisk snow crab fishery in Alaska's Bering Sea nears quota
Jim PaulinDutch Harbor Fisherman
March 8, 2014
The Bering Sea snow crab fishery is moving right along. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Unalaska reported 46 vessels registered on Monday, and 78 percent of the 54 million pound quota harvested. Unalaska city natural resources analyst Frank Kelty said the fleet landed 5 million pounds last week. “It’s going pretty quick. If they have a couple more weeks like that, it will be over with,” Kelty said. Processors posted an opening price of $2.15 per pound paid to.... https://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140308/brisk-snow-crab-fishery-alaskas-bering-sea-nears-quota

Fish Factor
Seafood enjoys a surge of interest during Lent
By LAINE WELCH
March 08, 2014
(SitNews) - Last Wednesday marked the start of Lent, a time of fasting, soul searching and repentance for hundreds of millions of Christians around the world. And what the burst in the holiday sales season from Thanksgiving to Christmas means to retailers, Lent means the same to the seafood industry. The 40-day Lenten season, which this year runs from March 5th to Easter Sunday on April 20th, dates back to the 4th century, and it has been customary to forego meat ever since.    While nearly all seafood enjoys a surge of interest during Lent, the most traditional items served are the so called “whitefish” species, such as cod, pollock, flounders, and halibut. Food Services of America reports that Ash Wednesday is the busiest day of the year for frozen seafood sales, and the six weeks following is the top selling season for the entire year. (Ash Wednesday is so called from the..... http://www.sitnews.us/LaineWelch/030814_fish_factor.html

PEBBLE UPDATE: Action initiated to protect Bristol Bay watershed
BBRSDA welcomes additional discussion on whether Pebble mine is appropriate for this
Posted 03/07/2014
by - Margaret Bauman
Federal environmental officials on Feb. 28 initiated action under the Clean Water Act to identify appropriate options to protect the Bristol Bay salmon fishery in Southwest Alaska, a move that could potentially halt the Pebble mine. The announcement came from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, who said that extensive scientific study "has given us ample reason to believe that the Pebble mine would likely have significant and irreversible negative impacts on.... http://www.thecordovatimes.com/article/1410pebble-update-action-initiated-to-protect

Pebble overreach
Added by Editor on March 7, 2014.
Saved under Editorial
It is refreshing to see Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty fighting back against high-handed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency steps to block a Pebble Mine project even before the first mining application can be filed. The agency says it is taking pre-emptive action and would exercise its rarely used authority under the Clean Water Act to protect the entire Bristol Bay region from large-scale mining – based on highly questionable science that seems based on guesses. The EPA has used the act’s 404(C) section – a bureaucratic nuclear bomb – to halt projects only... http://www.anchoragedailyplanet.com/45059/pebble-overreach/

Scientists: Test West Coast for Fukushima radiation - h/t Drudge
Tracy Loew, USA TODAY
12:53 p.m. EDT March 9, 2014
SALEM, Ore. -- Very low levels of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster likely will reach ocean waters along the U.S. West Coast next month, scientists are reporting. Current models predict that the radiation will be at extremely low levels that won't harm humans or the environment, said Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who presented research on the issue last week. But Buesseler and other scientists are calling for more monitoring. No federal agency.... http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/09/scientists-test-west-coast-for-fukushima-radiation/6213849/











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