Mar 11
2011
Archive for the Breaking News Category
Mar 10
2011
35 tons of dead sardines scooped from King Harbor so far; cleanup costs top $100,000
March 9, 2011
The effort to rid King Harbor of millions of dead fish before they start to decay had the look of a lab experiment Wednesday.
Boats trawled slowly through the Redondo Beach marina, dragging nets behind them to capture fish from a thick layer of carcasses deposited on the harbor bottom.
Volunteers wearing rubber gloves went from slip to slip scooping floating clusters of sardines with fishing nets and plucking individual, hot-dog sized fish from the water.
Firefighters aimed a hose at the harbor bottom to try to agitate the fish for a diver to capture. And a sewer vacuum truck was converted to suck fish from the water with a long plastic hose that had the look of an elephant’s trunk.
Redondo Beach officials said it will take several days and cost at least $100,000 to clean up King Harbor after the sudden fish die-off that began Monday evening.
Read the rest of the story here.
Mar 10
2011
Millions of dead fish blanket Redondo’s King Harbor Marina
By Larry Altman, Torrance Daily Breeze Staff Writer
March 9, 2011
Millions of sardines created a massive stink and an even bigger cleanup effort in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor Marina on Tuesday after they swam inside overnight, became trapped and died.
Millions of sardines suffocated Tuesday night during windy storm that altered currents trapping them in King Harbor Marina where there was not enough oxygen in the water to sustain them. Photo by Brad Graverson.
Twelve to 18 inches of dead sardines blanketed the water’s bottom in Basin 1 off Marina Way. Another thick layer of dead fish coated the surface from the breakwall to the inner docks, surrounding boats and walkways.
Authorities with the California Department of Fish and Game, along with other ocean biologists at the scene, declared the mass death a natural event. The fish, they said, sucked every drop of oxygen from the water and couldn’t breathe.
“They are in every slip and every dock,” said Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan. “It’s a whole lot of fish.”
Hughan said authorities believe the huge school of sardines, perhaps blown in by the night’s 40-mph winds and crashing waves, swam into King Harbor and became disoriented.
Those who chose other basins were fine, but the schools that headed into Basin 1 “backed themselves into a corner” and were unable to find their way out, he said.
Read the rest of the story here.
Mar 9
2011
What Role Is Ocean Acidification Playing In Shellfish Losses?
No new Pacific oysters recruiting to oyster “beds.”
Shellfish larvae dying at commercial hatcheries.
Corrosive, acidified seawater measured for the first time off the Pacific Coast.
These and other observations, beginning in 2005 on the West Coast, prompted members of the shellfish industry to seek help from scientists to explore what is causing the shellfish losses, what role ocean acidification (OA) and other factors might be playing, and how to adapt to sustain West Coast shellfish resources.
Scientists, oceanographers, state and federal agency managers, and industry members participated in a workshop in 2010 to frame the problems, assess what information is available and what is needed, and to suggest future actions.
Photo credit: Richard Wilson, Willapa Bay, WA
The California Current Acidification Network (C-CAN) evolved from that meeting as participants and others interested in ocean acidification agreed on the need to facilitate and enhance communications, education and research collaborations among scientists, academia, agencies and industry.
The need for education is clear:, Increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere, a consequence of fossil fuel use, are causing immediate, measurable impacts on ocean chemistry.
About one-third of the carbon dioxide produced every day around the world is absorbed by the oceans. As CO2 reacts with seawater, it lowers seawater pH and reduces the concentration of carbonate ions, an essential component in the calcium carbonate that makes up the shells of shellfish and the skeletons of corals. Recently scientists have begun measuring changes in ocean chemistry and investigating the possible consequences to marine life, food webs and people. These studies find that ocean acidification is ongoing and may have significant biological impacts. The West Coast is vulnerable to the enhanced ocean acidification associated with seasonal upwelling, potentially causing serious impacts to ecosystems and some recreationally and commercially important shellfish.
Watch this video produced by NBC Learn for more information.
Mar 9
2011
NOAA: U.S. ‘Turning a Corner’ in Ending Overfishing
March 8, 2011
At a hearing today in front of the Senate Commerce Committee on the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Assistant NOAA Administrator for Fisheries Eric Schwaab said that the U.S. is making good progress toward meeting the mandate to end domestic overfishing.
“We know that nearly $31 billion in sales and as many as 500,000 jobs are lost because our fisheries are not performing as well as they would if all stocks were rebuilt,” Schwaab said. “While we are turning a corner toward a brighter future for fishermen and fishing communities, many fishermen are struggling in part as a result of years of decline in fishing opportunity.”
Schwaab said that NOAA is committed to working with fishermen and communities during this period of transition.
Our nation’s fisheries have been vital to the economics and identities of our coastal communities for hundreds of years. According to the most recent estimates, U.S. commercial and saltwater recreational fisheries support almost two million jobs and generate more than $160 billion in sales.
Schwaab talked about fishery management challenges, including improving collection, analysis, and accuracy of scientific information used to manage both recreational and commercial fisheries. He indicated that NOAA Fisheries will continue to work hard with the regional fishery management councils, fishermen and the coastal communities to increase confidence in the management system and ensure productive and efficient fisheries.
Read the full story here.
Mar 8
2011
Tribal Seas
State officials search for ways to respect marine habitats and native fishing rights
Trinidad Head PHOTO BY RYAN BURNS
BY RYAN BURNS
It’s been almost a dozen years since the California legislature approved the Marine Life Protection Act, a momentous piece of legislation designed to help coastal ecosystems rebound from decades of overfishing and ecological abuse. The Act was based on a model that’s proved effective elsewhere, including the oceans off New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef, where fishing is limited or prohibited inside designated marine reserves. Establishing such a network of Marine Protected Areas here in California has been slow and tumultuous as virtually every resident with a toe in the Pacific has lodged objections to the process or the outcome or both.
The latest attempt to unravel the work done so far came last week when a group of southern California fishermen filed suit against the state Fish and Game Commission. The anglers argue that the MLPA work completed in their region last year should be nullified because the process violated the California Environmental Quality Act. Tensions between commercial fishermen and environmentalists have accompanied nearly every step of the MLPA initiative.
Read the rest of the story here.
Mar 3
2011
Mar 3
2011
Kerry still weighing catch-share stand
By Richard Gaines Staff Writer
Pondering how he might vote on the so-called Jones amendment — should the House-approved cutoff of funds for future NOAA catch share programs come to a Senate vote — Sen. John Kerry announced Monday he would be holding a “due diligence” meeting Thursday with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco.
Lubchenco is the lead advocate for the catch share management program, which she began promoting while an academic scientist and officer of the Environmental Defense Fund before President Obama nominated her to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Kerry also said Monday he hoped to gain insight into catch shares via a field hearing he plans to schedule in Massachusetts for the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
Read the rest of the story here.
Mar 3
2011
Editorial: Lawmakers should recognize bogus catch-share push
The threads of corruption infesting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and administrator Jane Lubchenco’s beloved catch share fishery management program gets wider and more varied with each passing week.
So it is a mystery why every member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation is not making every effort possible to reign in the federal fishing regulatory agency through a budget amendment aimed at freezing NOAA’s funding for expanding this job-killing national policy.
The latest example is an anonymous petition faxed to and circulated among fishermen, asking that they sign on in support the new regulatory system, which allocates fishermen “shares” of an allotted catch that be bought, sold or traded like commodities.
The system, launched in New England last May, has concentrated control of fisheries into larger, corporate hands and out of the hands of smaller, independent fishermen like those who dominate Gloucester and many other fishing communities around the country. And remember that, back in 2009, Lubchenco indicated that’s actually a state goal of her program, saying she felt the need to eliminate “a sizeable fraction” of the fishing fleet.
Now comes a contrived petition, designed to make it look like there is grassroots support for catch shares among those it is putting out of business — smaller fishermen, and those who work as boat crew members.
Read the rest of the editorial here.
Feb 25
2011
Fisheries catch share program questioned
Sun Journal Staff
The search for balance between economic and environmental concerns intensified this week over catch limits from those in both commercial and recreational fishing industries.
Key North Carolina congressional delegation members have asked U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke “to consider other well-established fishery management techniques” to help keep the industry alive.
A letter from Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., joined several senators and congressmen from other East Coast states in the request. The request came over “concern that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations catch share policy will further endanger the economic vitality of the already-struggling fishing industry and will not end overfishing.”
“The fishing industry is a crucial part of our nation’s economy, but in these tough economic times too many fishermen are struggling to provide for themselves, their families and their communities,” the letter said.
It maintains, as have fishermen speaking at recent public hearings in New Bern before the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council this year, that NOAA has “committed significant funding to encourage the adoption of catch share programs when it has not committed sufficient funds to adequately assess the stocks of our nation’s fisheries.”
Read the rest of the story here.