West coast salmon recovery

[Salmonchaser]

I didn't complete that thought very well. There are three types of trawling going on that should be watched. The Americans, Canadians, Scandinavians, UK and French are at least trying to monitor trawling despite the politics. There are a bunch of rogue nations though that are stealing fish from other countries and doing unknown amounts of fishing in international waters with factory trawler fleets. These are the guys putting Chinese fish in the supermarkets. The other type of trawling that I think is doing untold damage is the krill fishing industry. Any fishery that is using up enormous amounts of food for other fish is suspect in the long term. Same old story. Krill fishing is banned in the USA but we import the products made from Krill.

Fleets of fishing ships are going 'dark' in the South Atlantic, and China is the leading culprit

Hundreds of fishing vessels from foreign countries, China chief among them, have been trawling waters near Argentina, sometimes going "dark" for days.

www.businessinsider.com

From Antarctica to Tasmania, the debate over whether to fish a creature the size of a paper clip is key to saving the climate—and the humpback whales

"You have ships almost running into whales feeding on the same things they’re fishing," said Alistair Allan, an environmental activist.

fortune.com

Been bitching about this for 20 years or more, very few care. My dad was director of the EPA marine and freshwater ecology division. Wrote the final approval getting salmon to the Great Lakes. He raised the warning flag on the early trawl fisheries and was forced out. He forecasted the demise of NW and Alaska salmon 40 years ago. I killed my first king in 1961, my last in 21. God help us if we keep screwing things up this badly.

 

[atlas]

Fleets of fishing ships are going 'dark' in the South Atlantic, and China is the leading culprit

Hundreds of fishing vessels from foreign countries, China chief among them, have been trawling waters near Argentina, sometimes going "dark" for days.

www.businessinsider.com

I have a friend who is going on 4 month Coast Guard deployment to South America. I wonder if they're going to chase Chinese fishing boats around.

 

[atlas]

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www.facebook.com

Facebook group that posts about the trawl fishery bycatch. It is very active.

 

[Irrelevant]

Honestly, pretty similar to the catastrophic collapse of the Cod fishery on the Grand Banks. It all boils down to greed. True tragedy of the commons.

 

[Goodfish]

Honestly, pretty similar to the catastrophic collapse of the Cod fishery on the Grand Banks. It all boils down to greed. True tragedy of the commons.

Whats different here from the Grand Banks is that the population of the target species ( cod, pollack, hake) has not collapsed so there is still immense pressure on governments to ignore the bycatch in favor of jobs and revenue. Lots of greed! The problem now is that when salmon and crab populations are down that bycatch has much larger impacts. If the 500 Chinook of your hometown river are unfortunate enough to get picked off in the 100000 chinook bycatch then you just got screwed in favor of cheap fish sticks.

 

[atlas]

Bycatch of salmon going down isn’t a reflection or trawl practices improving, it’s a reflection of the continuing decline of salmon populations

 

[atlas]

https://alaskafish.news/02/2024/alaskans-join-forces-to-protect-pacific-halibut-from-trawl-bycatch/

 

[Irrelevant]

https://alaskafish.news/02/2024/alaskans-join-forces-to-protect-pacific-halibut-from-trawl-bycatch/

" allowing the bottom trawlers to take and discard roughly 4 million pounds of Bering Sea halibut bycatch each year"

I don't understand the thought here. Why is the hell would we want to deliberately waste food, waste a wildlife resource? It should be the opposite. No fish should be allowed to be wasted, similar to our wanton waste laws with hunting. Then you could actually count the amount of bycatch, which I think is so grossly underreported as to be laughable.

 

[atlas]

The only point I could see is that they wouldn't want to incentivize the trawlers to catch halibut by allowing them to sell bycatch, when other fisheries have to use other methods to catch halibut. None of it makes any sense though.

 

[Salmonchaser]

You can’t take a dump in Alaska without comfish giving the Ok. The amount of power that group has is absolute up there. We hosted several groups over the years that represented successful efforts in the gulf coast and Atlantic seaboard to control commercial fishing. They expressed genuine fear for their safety just being there much less trying to take on Com-fish. I really doubt anything substantial will be done until it’s too late. People talk about the plight of the kings with good reason. Talk to the residents of any of the small communities from the Aleutians to the Yukon, The chum salmon have nearly disappeared.

 

[Joe Hulburt]

" allowing the bottom trawlers to take and discard roughly 4 million pounds of Bering Sea halibut bycatch each year"

I don't understand the thought here. Why is the hell would we want to deliberately waste food, waste a wildlife resource? It should be the opposite. No fish should be allowed to be wasted, similar to our wanton waste laws with hunting. Then you could actually count the amount of bycatch, which I think is so grossly underreported as to be laughable.

I agree that it doesn't seem logical to waste fish but I think the solution is to ban any method of harvest that creates it. We can no longer sport fish sturgeon in the Columbia but the salmon gillnetters can sell their bycatch. If sturgeon are in such dire straights that can't allow a small sport harvest then it makes no sense to put nets in the river that kill them.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Also, check carefully when you are buying salmon at the market. They have been marketing Wild Caught Alaska Keta Salmon. Keta is another name for chum, also known as dog salmon. It’s what locals feed their dogs or use for bear bait. Not fit for human consumption in my book.

 

[Salmonchaser]

I agree that it doesn't seem logical to waste fish but I think the solution is to ban any method of harvest that creates it. We can no longer sport fish sturgeon in the Columbia but the salmon gillnetters can sell their bycatch. If sturgeon are in such dire straights that can't allow a small sport harvest then it makes no sense to put nets in the river that kill them.

This is so messed up, use to take the kids down to Bonneville when school got out. Catch a bunch of shad and then go fish for oversize sturgeon. C&R barbless hooks. It use to be easy. Routinely caught keepers fishing the Shad Rack or behind the island for kings as well. I didn’t kill the keepers cause I don’t like the flesh but they sure were fun.

 

[Goodfish]

" allowing the bottom trawlers to take and discard roughly 4 million pounds of Bering Sea halibut bycatch each year"

I don't understand the thought here. Why is the hell would we want to deliberately waste food, waste a wildlife resource? It should be the opposite. No fish should be allowed to be wasted, similar to our wanton waste laws with hunting. Then you could actually count the amount of bycatch, which I think is so grossly underreported as to be laughable.

Also, check carefully when you are buying salmon at the market. They have been marketing Wild Caught Alaska Keta Salmon. Keta is another name for chum, also known as dog salmon. It’s what locals feed their dogs or use for bear bait. Not fit for human consumption in my book.

The other thing that is going on ecologically is that Chums and Pinks used to be largely left in the river as nutrients. Now they are being marketed and it is yet another blow to river nutrients that supported things that juvenile salmon and steelhead need to grow.

 

[Goodfish]

" allowing the bottom trawlers to take and discard roughly 4 million pounds of Bering Sea halibut bycatch each year"

I don't understand the thought here. Why is the hell would we want to deliberately waste food, waste a wildlife resource? It should be the opposite. No fish should be allowed to be wasted, similar to our wanton waste laws with hunting. Then you could actually count the amount of bycatch, which I think is so grossly underreported as to be laughable.

You’ve got to follow the money. It makes no sense otherwise.

From Anchorage Daily News

Alaska produces more seafood than all other U.S. states combined and provides two-thirds of the nation’s wild-caught fish and shellfish.

Alaska seafood is sold in 100 countries around the world and is the state’s top export by far, topping $3 billion annually.

Alaska provides 43% of the global supply of pollock, 13% of cod, 6% of crab. Alaska salmon provides 11% to the world, with farmed salmon production swamping wild fish at nearly 3-to-1.

Bristol Bay (428 resident-owned boats/1,764 resident fishermen) accounts for over half of global sockeye salmon supply and is home to the largest red run in the world.

In 2019, Alaska salmon accounted for 36% of the industry’s annual value and 15% of the volume. Pollock accounted for 24% of the value and 59% of volume.

The Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands region produced 55% of total seafood value and 79% of the volume. High-volume whitefish (pollock, cod), mostly harvested at that region and Kodiak, account for roughly 80% of harvest volume and nearly half of Alaska’s dockside value.

Commercial fishing and processing businesses paid more than $163 million in taxes, fees, and self-assessments in FY 2019.

 

[Salmonchaser]

The frustrating thing is there is a historical bright line. talk to long time people on the rivers, the arrival of the giant factory trawlers resulted in significant and noticeable declines in returning fish.

 

[jryoung]

Also, check carefully when you are buying salmon at the market. They have been marketing Wild Caught Alaska Keta Salmon. Keta is another name for chum, also known as dog salmon. It’s what locals feed their dogs or use for bear bait. Not fit for human consumption in my book.

Trash fish for sure.

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[Salmonchaser]

Trash fish for sure.

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generations of locals and visitors had it all wrong

 

[FI460]

Water quality discussed after completion of Klamath reservoir drawdown

With the drawdown of three reservoirs complete, the Klamath River is flowing more or less within its historic channel.

www.opb.org

Nice to see some legitimate journalism around the issue. There are a few blog posters in siskiyou county absolutely frothing over the issue, and I've seen their opinion pieces shared pretty widely.

 

[atlas]

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feat...-incidentally-caught-fishing-gear-alaska-2023
With all the press around Orcas you would think this would be a bigger deal. 10 orcas killed in trawl gear.