Daily Online Update, Friday - February
10, 2012
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Alaska/Pacific Coast
Timelines
Proposed for Impact Statement on Steller
Sea Lion Regulations
KUCB.org, February 9, 2012
The National Marine
Fisheries Service is asking for at least 15 months to assess the impact of
their Steller sea lion protection measures.
http://kucb.org/post/timelines-proposed-impact-statement-steller-sea-lion-regulations
Public Meeting
on Salmon Forecast Kicks Off Season-Setting Process
KBKW, February 10, 2012
Olympia,
WA - Anglers, commercial fishers and others
interested in Washington state
salmon fisheries can get a preview of this year's salmon returns and potential
fishing seasons during a public meeting here Feb. 28.
http://kbkw.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3777
Sitka
Conservation Society partners with Pacific
High School to serve
local seafood for lunch
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [Capital
City Weekly] February 10, 2012
Thanks to a
partnership with the Sitka Conservation Society, Pacific
High School now serves local
seafood in the cafeteria and joins the growing ranks of schools connecting to
local foods. Pacific High students will have a choice of local seafood dishes
twice a month. Sitka is the ninth
largest fishing port in the U.S.,
but only recently did school children have access to the abundance of homegrown
seafood. The program began in 2010 when the Sitka Conservation Society
partnered with Blatchley Middle
School and then with Keet Gooshin Heen in 2011 to
launch a Fish to School program. Due to the success of that program, it has
evolved and spread to another school in the community. "To kick-off the
new partnership, SCS's Fish to Schools program will cook with Pacific High
students to rally support for local fish lunches," said Tracy Gagnon, Fish
to School coordinator at Sitka Conservation Society. "A favorite recipe
will be chosen for an upcoming Fish to Schools benefit." Students help
prepare the meals through their culinary arts program. "We are striving to
change the system by incorporating more local and traditional foods that the
students want to eat," said Johanna Willingham, Pacific
High School lunch coordinator.
"Through our innovative Food Based Meal Program, the students are learning
valuable life skills by developing recipes they enjoy and cooking with their
local bounty." The Fish to School program creates new partnerships by
uniting a local conservation organization and high school with community based
processors and fishermen. That partnership allows more students access to
healthy lunches, as fish are packed with vitamins, proteins and omega-3 fatty acids
that promote healthy hearts and healthy brains. "Our community depends on
the fish that comes out of the ocean, yet our school lunches were so
disconnected from our local resources," said Beth Short-Rhoads, Fish to
School volunteer organizer, mother and fishing woman. "Thanks to Fish to
Schools, our children now have access to local seafood. The fact that it is
incredibly healthy is an even bigger bonus." There are more than 9,000
schools across the U.S.
involved with local farm to school programs. The majority of the programs serve
land-based foods in the cafeterias, so Pacific High adds another layer by
providing local seafood to students. "This is an exciting opportunity to
be part of the growing farm - or fish - to school movement across the country,"
added Gagnon. Sitka Conservation Society has been working to protect the
temperate rainforest of southeast Alaska
and Sitka's quality of life since
1967. SCS is based in Sitka, in the
heart of the Tongass National
Forest.
Politics
Legislators plan
D.C. trip to sell ANWR
LOBBYING: Arctic
power asks lawmakers to make pitch in as vote comes up.
Anchorage
Daily News, February 10th, 2012
JUNEAU -- A
contingent of state representatives including House Speaker Mike Chenault are
missing several days of the legislative session next week to head to
Washington, D.C., and make a pitch -- once again -- for oil drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
http://www.adn.com/2012/02/09/2309652/legislators-plan-dc-trip-to-sell.html
National
Electronic hatch
monitoring system may help prevent commercial fishing boat sinkings
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS
[Fish Radio] February 10, 2012
A new hatch and door monitoring system can keep your boat afloat. More
than half of all fishing fatalities come from vessels going down. For example,
the sinkings of the Alaska Ranger and Katmai in 2008 where 12 men died both
stemmed from flooding through open hatches. That highlighted the need for a system
that provides immediate status of all openings aboard fishing boats. To the
rescue: a simple monitoring system on doors and hatches with inputs displayed
in the wheelhouse. "It’s been around for awhile. It is used on military
boats, ferries – even on the Titanic, - so it’s not a new idea, but we are
trying to do is put it in a package fishermen can use and scale it to their
vessel size." Chelsea Woodward is a NIOSH engineering technician with
commercial fishing safety program. NIOSH is the National Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health, a research unit. "In the wheelhouse, we
have a display that has three lights for each instrumented door a green light
when it is shut and dogged, a yellow light indicating that it is shut but not
dogged and then a red light showing that it is open. So the captain and crew
can look at the display and immediately know the status of each of the
doors." NIOSH communications specialist, Ted Teske – "Our goal is to
make it flexible, adaptable, so that everyone ffrom a limit seiner all the way
up to the big catchers can have this systems on their boat and retrofit it to
an existing vessel easily." The system was field tested in the Bering
Sea by the Lilli Ann, a freezer longliner, and the Gladiator, a
trawler. Woodward says both gave it great reviews. The NIOSH team also is
working on a system for the compartment in the stern called the lazarette,
which houses shafts for a propeller or rudder and can often leak. "We
would liket to combine a flood rate monitor with a hatch door monitor that
concentrates on the Lazarette, especially for smaller vessels, and that would
tell the skipper not only the status of the door, but what is going on behind
the door without opening it. If there is flooding behind that door, he would an
indication of the water level before he opened the door, then couldn’t shut the
door again." Woodward says costs for the monitoring system vary by door,
but can be as low as $20. NIOSH is partnering with Wapato Engineering of Oregon
to have the systems available by the end of the year.
International
Report says
science, not minister should rule Canada's
fisheries
The Canadian Press,
February 9, 2012
VANCOUVER - Fisheries management in Canada places too much discretion in the
hands of the federal minister, conferring "czar-like" powers that
have meant the country has lagged far behind others in protecting its oceans,
says a study by an expert panel of some of Canada's most distinguished
scientists.
http://www.thecanadianpress.com/english/online/OnlineFullStory.aspx?
Environment &
Science
Feds Speed
Development of Arctic Oil Spill Response Maps
KUCB.org, February 9, 2012
As shipping and
energy exploration increase in the Arctic, so do the
chances of an oil spill. On Tuesday, the federal government bumped up the
deadline for a project that will help responders coordinate if an oil spill
ever does happen.
http://kucb.org/post/feds-speed-development-arctic-oil-spill-response-maps
Adak Radar Array
to Track Magnetic Storms
KUCB.org, February 7, 2012
Equipment to
monitor magnetic storms will be installed on Adak
Island in the Aleutians
this summer. The 40-antenna radar array will help scientists understand
the interaction between the Earth’s upper atmosphere and space. Here’s University
of Alaska Fairbanks electrical
engineering professor Bill Bristow.
http://kucb.org/post/adak-radar-array-track-magnetic-storms
FYI’s
Judge dismisses
suit accusing SeaWorld of enslaving whales
The Reuters, Wed Feb 8, 2012
(Reuters) - A
federal judge on Wednesday threw out an animal rights group's lawsuit accusing
SeaWorld of enslaving captive killer whales, ruling that orcas had no standing
to seek the same constitutional rights as people.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/09/us-usa-seaworld-lawsuit-idUSTRE81809E20120209
Items FROM the
February Council meeting:
PIBKC
Rebuilding Motion
HAPC Designation for ares of Skate Egg Concentration Motion
Crab EDR Motion
Opinion: Alaska
Natives ask EPA to stop threatening their economy
Abe Williams and
Lisa Reimers of Nuna Resources, an Alaska Native consortium, flew to Washington
this week to see Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa Jackson. They
wanted to ask her help ensuring the survival of their Bristol Bay
region's Native Alaskan tradition and culture. They got a response as frosty as
Alaska in February.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2012/02/alaska-natives-ask-epa-stop-threatening-their-economy/253521
Nancy Diaz
Administrative
Assistant/Bookkeeper
Pacific Seafood Processors Association
1900 W Emerson Place
Suite 205,
Seattle, WA 98119
Phone: 206.281.1667
E-mail: nancy@pspafish.net
Website: www.pspafish.net
Our office
days/hours are Monday-Friday
8:00
A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
