Saving Seafood

‘Wasteful’ catfish inspection program costing taxpayers millions, tough to kill

May 31, 2016 — The way Congress’ chief watchdog describes it, the government’s plan to set up a new catfish inspection process is one of the clearest examples of wasteful spending in the federal budget.

Yet killing the catfish inspection program is proving to be tremendously difficult for all the usual Washington reasons: a powerful patron in Congress, a weak administration controlling the agencies and a pliant Congress happy to limp into the next election on autopilot.

The cost-cutters did win a round last week when deficit-hawk Republicans linked arms with Democrats who were eager to find places to trim the budget. Combined, they voted 55-43 to stop the duplicate catfish inspection by the Food Safety and Inspection Service and shift it back to the Food and Drug Administration, which had been handling it for years.

But victory for the cost-cutters is anything but assured. The House must still vote, and then the change must survive President Obama’s veto pen.

Read the full story from The Washington Times 

State and tribes agree on fishing season; plan still awaits federal approval

May 27, 2016 — EVERETT, Wash. — After a nearly monthlong stalemate, the Department of Fish & Wildlife and Native American tribes have come to an agreement on a recreational fishing season for Puget Sound.

The agreement reached Thursday afternoon follows extended negotiations between state and tribal fisheries managers after they failed to reach an agreement earlier this spring.

The state and tribes must now obtain a joint federal permit in order to open the fishing season in Puget Sound waters.

“We plan to re-open those waters as soon as we have federal approval,” said John Long, salmon fisheries policy lead for Fish & Wildlife. “We anticipate getting the new permit within a few weeks.”

Approval of the permit is expected by mid-June. In the meantime, a closure of recreational fishing that was enacted May 1 remains in effect.

The season includes a hatchery chinook season on the Snohomish River from June 1-July 30. A sockeye season on Baker Lake also is planned starting in mid-July, with a maximum take of 4,600 fish for the season.

Read the full story at the Everett Herald

NOAA: Dungeness crab in peril from acidification

May 19, 2016 — The Dungeness crab fishery could decline West Coastwide, a new study has found, threatening a fishing industry worth nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year.

Scientists at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle found that pH levels likely in West Coast waters by 2100 at current rates of greenhouse-gas pollution would hurt the survivability of crab larvae.

Increasing ocean acidification is predicted to harm a wide range of sea life unable to properly form calcium carbonate shells as the pH drops. Now scientists at the NOAA’s Northwest Fishery Science Center of Seattle also have learned that animals with chitin shells — specifically Dungeness crabs — are affected, because the change in water chemistry affects their metabolism.

Carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, is pumped into the atmosphere primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. Levels of atmospheric C02 have been steadily rising since the Industrial Revolution in 1750 and today are higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years — and predicted to go higher.

When carbon dioxide mixes with ocean water it lowers the pH. By simulating the conditions in tanks of seawater at pH levels likely to occur in West Coast waters with rising greenhouse gas pollution, scientists were able to detect both a slower hatch of crab larvae, and poorer survival by the year 2100.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

Puget Sound salmon fishing effectively closed after stalemate between state and tribal fisheries

May 9, 2016 — For the first time in 30 years, state and tribal fishery managers failed to develop a joint plan for the 2016-17 Puget Sound salmon fishing season, effectively closing all of Puget Sound and some lakes and rivers.

“The door remains open (for more discussions with the tribes),” said Ron Warren, the state Fish and Wildlife salmon policy manager. “The tribes and (state) in different ways offered packages that met the conservation objectives, but we couldn’t reach agreement on them.”

This left many — an estimated 200,000 anglers held Puget Sound salmon licenses during the 2014-15 fishing season — questioning what led to this unprecedented situation.

During a meeting April 27 in Fife — around 60 representatives from state, tribal, NOAA Fisheries and officials from the offices of the governor and attorney general — plans were laid out for additional cuts needed to reach an agreement.

State fishery managers offered an alternative proposal for sport fisheries, with a 50 percent harvest cut on an expected poor Puyallup River return of 353 wild chinook and 3,708 hatchery fish.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

Senator Wyden, Senator Merkley working on fish screens bill

May 5, 2o16 — Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are pushing to reauthorize a voluntary, cost-share program with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife that pays for installing fish screens and passage devices in four Northwest states.

The Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act was initially passed in 2000 before expiring last year. Over the years, it has funded 127 projects that have reopened more than 1,130 miles of habitat to fish passage in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana.

Wyden and Merkley, the Democratic duo, want to extend FRIMA for $25 million from 2017 to 2024. The program not only protects native fish runs, but helps farmers by maintaining their irrigation canals.

Read the full story at the East Oregonian

Senator Wyden, Senator Merkley seek to restore funding for NW fish screens

April 29, 2016 — Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced legislation Thursday they said would protect fish populations and habitats while allowing for continued water supplies for irrigation and other uses in the Pacific Northwest.

The Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act (FRIMA) would reauthorize a voluntary, cost-share program the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses to pay for installing fish screens that protect salmon and other fish from entering irrigation channels in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana. The program is also used to help keep irrigation channels free of debris.

“FRIMA is a homegrown and commonsense program with a proven track record in restoring salmon runs and protecting other fish habitats and species in the Pacific Northwest,” Wyden said. “This bill allows continued collaboration among water users, farmers, fishery managers and conservationists so that protected salmon runs and irrigation can sustainably coexist side-by-side.”

Read the full story at KTVZ 

Puget Sound Crisis Brings Salmon Fishing Closure

April 29, 2016 — SEATTLE — All salmon fishing in Puget Sound will close on May 1 unless federal officials issue last-minute permits.

State and tribal fisheries managers failed to reach an agreement Wednesday for this year’s Puget Sound fishing season, which runs from May 1 to April 30, 2017.

“We had one last round of negotiations in hopes of ensuring salmon seasons in Puget Sound this year,” Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Jim Unsworth said in a statement. “Regrettably, we could not agree on fisheries that were acceptable to both parties.”

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

D.B. PLESCHNER: Sardines not collapsing, may be in recovery

April 25, 2016 — On April 10, the Pacific Fishery Management Council closed the West Coast sardine fishery for a second straight year. The council followed its ultra-conservative harvest control policy and relied on a stock assessment that does not account for recent sardine recruitment.

But in fact, there are multiple lines of evidence that young sardines are now abundant in the ocean.

In addition to field surveys, fishermen in both California and the Pacific Northwest have been observing sardines — both small and large — since the summer of 2015. And California fishermen also provided samples of the small fish to federal and state fishery managers. During the council meeting, the industry advisory subpanel — comprised of fishermen and processors — voiced concern with the inability of acoustic surveys — on which stock assessments are largely based — to estimate accurately the number of fish in the sea. These surveys routinely miss the mass of sardines in the nearshore, where the bulk of the fishery occurs in California, and in the upper water column in the Pacific Northwest, where Oregon and Washington fishermen catch sardines. The recruitment we’re seeing now seems much like the recruitment event following the 2003 El Niño. The years 1999-2002 were characterized by strong La Niña conditions, similar to the years 2010-2013. And what happened after the early 2000s? By 2007 the West Coast sardine population hit its highest peak in recent memory.

So by all appearances the sardine population is likely on the upswing — not still tanking as many environmentalists and media reports are claiming.

Read the full opinion piece at the Monterey Herald

WASHINGTON: Talks with Tribal Leaders Fail on Puget Sound Salmon Fisheries

April 21, 2016 — OLYMPIA, Wa. – State fishery managers have decided to separately secure the federal permit required to hold salmon fisheries this season in Puget Sound.

The decision was made Tuesday after negotiations over salmon seasons with tribal leaders again came to an impasse. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and the tribes last week could not reach an agreement during the annual season-setting process.

“We had hoped additional conversations with the tribes would result in fisheries that were agreeable to both parties,” said Jim Unsworth, director of the department. “Unfortunately, that did not happen, but our door remains open to further discussions.”

Read the full story at The Fishing Wire 

Washington Salmon Run Called ‘Disastrous’

April 20, 2016 — SEATTLE — Fisheries managers on Friday approved limited ocean salmon fishing off the Washington coast, but are still discussing plans for Puget Sound, including closing all fishing in the region due to disastrous runs.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which includes state and tribal officials, met last week in Vancouver, Wash. to set commercial and recreational fishing guidelines.

The president of the Puget Sound Anglers called predictions for this year’s salmon run “the worst we probably have ever seen.”

The council set an ocean-salmon sport catch at 35,000 Chinook and 18,900 hatchery coho salmon.

Debate continues this week on what, if any catch, will be allowed in Puget Sound.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service