Saving Seafood

Washington’s Cantwell on the coast to fight offshore oil plan

February 6, 2018 — WESTPORT, Wash. — U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) met with local fishermen, small business owners and other local leaders in Westport on Saturday to “discuss the negative impacts of the Trump Administration’s proposed offshore drilling plan on local jobs and the economy.”

Among those attending were Westport Mayor Rob Bearden, Al Carter of Ocean Gold Fish Processing, Hillary Bearden and Larry Thevik of the Washington Dungeness Crab Fishermen’s Association, Mark Ballo of Brady’s Oysters, Greg Mueller of the Washington Trollers Association, Mike Cornman of Wesport Seafoods, Jonathan Sawin, representing charter boat operations, as well as local business operators Sarah McWhelan, Adrienne Jones, and Port of Grays Harbor representative Molly Bold.

“Our coastal economy, and specifically our maritime fishing economy is so important to our state,” Cantwell said in opening remarks. “That’s why we’re here, because we want to do everything we can to help it grow and to protect it.”

In a letter earlier this week, Cantwell led a bipartisan group of 16 lawmakers from the Pacific Northwest to call on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to remove the Washington/Oregon planning area from the National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2019-2014. Zinke in January announced the National OCS Program for 2019-2024, which proposes to make over 90 percent of the total OCS acreage and more than 98 percent of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas available to consider for future exploration and development.

By comparison, the current program puts 94 percent of the OCS off limits. In addition, the new program proposes the largest number of lease sales in U.S. history.

Cantwell has been a leading opponent of the new policy: “Oil drilling and exploration off the Pacific Northwest coastline, or an oil spill from drilling anywhere along the Pacific Coast, poses threats to the fishing, shellfish, and tourism industries at the heart of Washington’s economy,” Cantwell said “The maritime economy in Washington contributes $50 billion dollars to the state economy and supports 191,000 jobs in the state. Other states along the Pacific coast similarly rely on their maritime industries for significant economic output.”

Cantwell told the Westport group she couldn’t understand why the current proposal was made, since oil and gas exploration off the Washington coast has “been considered before and has been rejected.”

Late Sunday, a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management public meeting and citizens forum on the proposal that had been scheduled in Tacoma at the Landmark Catering and Convention Center was abruptly cancelled by what was said to be a “credible threat.”

A news conference — that included Gov. Jay Inslee, Mayor Crystal Dingler of Ocean Shores, Gina James of the Quinault Indian Nation, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz, and Thevik among the speakers — was moved to Olympia as a result.

Inslee and Dingler both cited the Nestucca oil barge collision of 1988, when 2.8 million gallons of Bunker C oil were spilled near the entrance of Grays Harbor. Inslee noted 4 million tourists visited the state’s beaches last year.

“Oil and gas drilling and the risk it poses — the inevitable risk — is unacceptable for some of the best beaches in the world,” Inslee said.

Dingler noted how the Ocean Shores Convention Center became a marine bird rescue center for oil-soaked birds after the Nestucca incident.

“Despite people’s efforts, we were able to save very few of them,” Dingler said, urging opposition to the drilling and exploration proposal “on behalf of a clean and healthy ocean, which powers our economy and is the bedrock of our way of life.”

The bureau is accepting public comments on the plan through March 9, and Cantwell has made the case for opposition in similar gatherings in Seattle and Vancouver.

“We have tried to prepare what is a response to this proposal in encouraging our various organizations in the state to communicate to the Secretary of Interior that this is a bad idea,” Cantwell said. “But unfortunately, they have continued to move forward.”

“W’re concerned about all sorts of issues,” Cantwell told the Westport group. “We’re concerned about the incidents of oil spills that we know have happened.” She also listed concerns about future earthquakes and tsunamis off the coast.

Mayor Bearden noted Westport late last month passed a resolution opposed to any coastal oil and gas drilling, similar to a resolution also adopted by the city of Ocean Shores.

“I think Westport would turn into a ghost town if we had some drilling and there was a spill,” Bearden predicted. He said mayors of several other Grays Harbor communities were considering similar resolutions.

So many local businesses depend on fishing and the marine environment, Bearden said, noting Westport is the top-producing fishing port on the West Coast and No. 10 nationally for production.

“People would not come, there would be no work” if there was an oil mishap on the coast, he said.

Carter of Ocean Gold, said his company provides about 600 jobs a year locally, with more than a dozen independent boats fishing for the enterprise.

Read the full story at the Daily World 

 

Endangered Orcas Are Starving. Should We Start Feeding Them?

January 25, 2018 — Washington state officials have proposed a new tack to save the Pacific Northwest’s critically endangered orca population. Their idea is to boost salmon hatchery production by 10 to 20 million more fish per year to provide more food for the iconic killer whales.

No one wants to see orcas starve, but reliance on fish hatcheries leaves some whale advocacy groups uneasy.

There are just 76 orcas left in the pods that call the inland waters of the Northwest home. That’s the lowest number in more than three decades. Numerous factors take the blame for the dwindling population, but one of the biggest according to biologists is lack of prey. Chinook salmon are the preferred food for these orcas.

Sport fisherman Greg King can relate.

“The science is there. They’re dying,” he said. “We’re on a world stage here right now. The whole world is watching us. Are we going to let these orca whales die and have that blood on our hands? I don’t think we want that.”

King trooped to the Washington Legislature this month to support spending tax dollars to increase hatchery production of Chinook—also known as king—salmon. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife first proposed this idea and the governor is running with it.

State Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, independently put forward the concept and is getting traction with both parties in the legislature.

On one level, the idea is pretty simple: rear more salmon at maybe half a dozen or more existing hatcheries throughout the state with spare capacity and release them.

Some of that could happen at the Hoodsport salmon hatchery on Hood Canal.

“We want to see if we can add to that prey base here from Hoodsport,” State Fish and Wildlife Regional Hatchery Manager Rob Allan said.

Asked whether he thinks this will work, that enough of the fish will survive to grow big enough to interest the killer whales, Allan said he hopes so.

“All we know is that we release fish, they go out to the salt (water) and then they come back,” Allan said. “So then it’s up to the whales to go ahead and eat ’em. We think it’s going to help.”

But potential complications abound. The federal government will need to give the OK because both the Puget Sound orcas and many wild salmon runs they used to feed on are listed as endangered.

“Hatchery fish has been identified as a bit detrimental to recovery of wild stocks,” Allan explained. “They want us to put the reins on it a bit.”

That’s because hatchery fish could compete for resources with wild stocks and they might interbreed. So it’ll be a challenge to identify the right salmon stocks, hatchery locations and run timing.

Read the full story at KUOW

 

Coastal governors oppose Trump’s offshore drilling plan

January 5, 2018 — Governors along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts are opposing the Trump administration’s proposal to open almost all U.S. waters to oil and natural gas drilling.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced Thursday a draft proposal that would allow offshore drilling for crude oil and natural gas on the Atlantic Coast and in the Arctic, reversing the Obama’s administration’s block in those areas. It also permits drilling along the Pacific Coast as well as more possibilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Under the plan, spanning the years 2019 to 2024, more than 90 percent of the total acres on the Outer Continental Shelf would be made available for leasing.

Zinke said the Interior Department has identified 47 potential lease sales, including seven in the Pacific and nine off the Atlantic coast. That would mark a dramatic shift in policy, not just from the Obama era. The last offshore lease sale for the East Coast was in 1983 and for the West Coast in 1984.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican and ally of President Trump, quickly said no thanks to Zinke’s plan, citing drilling as a threat to the state’s tourism industry.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner

 

Cooke authorised to raise 1M more Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound despite recent escape

October 6, 2017 — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has granted approval for Cooke Aquaculture to rear 1 million more Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound after one of the largest fish-farm escapes the firm has faced in history.

In August the company’s Cypress Island net-pen facility near the San Juan Islands collapsed and released tens of thousands of Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound and nearby waters.

Following the net pen collapse, Governor Jay Inslee directed that no permits be issued for new aquaculture net pens while the incident was being investigated.

However, current laws and administrative rules do not give state regulators the authority to deny Cooke’s permit to move healthy fish into an existing net pen.

In a prepared statement, Inslee said he had asked the company to withdraw its permit application to move 1 million juvenile Atlantic salmon from the company’s hatchery in Rochester, Thurston County, to its existing net-pen facility in Puget Sound at Clam Bay, along Rich Passage. He also expressed disappointment to know the firm decided to go ahead while thousands of salmon that had escaped have not been recovered yet.

Read the full story at Fish Information & Services

Cooke faces government action, lawsuit after salmon escape

August 30, 2017 — Cooke Aquaculture faces potential fines and a lawsuit in the aftermath of a large-scale farmed salmon escape it experienced in Washington State last week.

The Washington Department of Ecology said that Cooke could face penalties for the incident, Larry Altose, a spokesman for the agency told The Seattle Times.

“[Farmed salmon] are supposed to be released to the store,” Altose told the newspaper. “Not [Puget] Sound.”

Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency in Washington and said the salmon release was a “situation that has state agencies working together to protect the health of our salmon.”

Inslee directed the Department of Ecology to put any new permits for net pens on hold until a thorough investigation of the Cooke incident is completed.

Read the full story at Seafood Source