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This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
Efforts aim at mitigation of fishing restrictions
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As
recreational anglers try their luck off the south jetty, the F/V
Tempest makes its way past the jetty into |
Agency
decisions pending on salmon, groundfish, whiting
Those involved in the salmon fishery, which figures prominently in
Oregon's coastal culture and economy, anxiously await final word from
the Pacific Fishery Management Council concerning how much, if any, of
the salmon fishery will open this season. Meanwhile, potential new
regulations for West Coast groundfish and Pacific whiting have seafood
industry leaders worried about what they call a possible “monopoly of
the seas.”
PFMC is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by
the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 to manage
fisheries from 3 to 200 miles off the
The council, which makes recommendations to
federal agencies, convenes April 7-12 in
A sudden, unexpected collapse in the numbers
of Sacramento River fall Chinook - usually the healthiest salmon
population and one the fisheries have relied on to prop them up during
the limitations imposed by Klamath River salmon woes - could lead to a
full closure from Cape Falcon southward to the border of Mexico. Council
Executive Director Donald McIsaac said in March that the council would
“take a final vote on whether any fishing on
They will make that decision April 10, and
officials from the National Marine Fisheries Service said they expect to
decide whether to incorporate the council's decision into federal
regulations before May 1.
While commercial and recreational fishing
interests along the
A delegation of seven commercial salmon
fishermen from Oregon, Washington, and California, among them Bob Kemp
of Newport, traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to ask for respite
for the West Coast salmon industry. They went to request Congressional
hearings into the root causes of the salmon crisis, which they and their
legal representatives from Oakland, Calif.-based Earthjustice claim
“results in large part from government mismanagement of the
The Oregon Tourism Commission (dba Travel
Oregon), in cooperation with the Oregon Coast Visitors Association and
the Southern Oregon Visitors Association, convened at the Port of
Newport Thursday to discuss how those in the tourism industry could
“collaboratively, strategically, and proactively” counteract
misperceptions “in the media and among our consumer base” stemming
from the salmon fishery's woes.
Rebecah Morris, executive director of the
Central Oregon Coast Association (COCA), said a number of businesses and
organizations are already doing media and consumer outreach “to
provide the facts as they know them on the impacts on the proposed
limitations” on salmon fishing, and correct public misperceptions
about those limits.
“What people hear when they hear that
salmon fishing is closed is that the coast is closed,” Morris noted.
“We want to determine what we can do from a local, state, and regional
level to redirect people to everything else we have here.” While
salmon fishing might flounder, she and others point out emphatically
that the coast is still open for business, and other recreational
fishing opportunities exist, along with everything else to do and see on
the
Unfortunately, other fisheries face
challenges, too.
Groundfish
and whiting
During the week of June 9, the Pacific
Fishery Management Council will turn its attention to potential new
regulations for groundfish and whiting (also known as hake). At issue is
a choice between an individual or shared market quota to allocate the
take of those species.
Pacific whiting is the largest fishery by
volume on the West Coast, providing more than 3,000 jobs and $89 million
in revenues.
The federal government regulates whiting as a
derby-style fishery, establishing a quota for the overall fishery that
allows permitted vessels to fish until they reach that quota. Vessels
have no individual limits, so the owners and fishermen end up rushing to
catch as much of the regulated supply as early as possible to maximize
profits - hence the “fishing derby” appellation. The trawl
groundfish fishery, which includes flatfish, sablefish, and rockfish, is
regulated as a limited entry fishery managed through bi-monthly trip
limits. In earlier efforts to maintain fish stocks and economic security
for fishermen, federal officials reduced the groundfish trawl fleet by a
third through a government buyback of permits and vessels. Those
reductions hurt some coastal communities, as limited product forced some
processors to cut back or close.
West Coast seafood industry leaders oppose a
proposed individual quota set-up - what they deem “a monopoly of the
seas” by the 176 commercial limited entry permit owners - which they
say would “put coastal jobs and communities, seafood consumers, and
sustainable fisheries at risk.”
The individual system would allocate 100
percent of the initial quota to vessel owners and fishermen; the shared
system would provide both fishermen and processors with an initial quota
allocation. Both groups invest heavily in jobs and capital equipment,
and seafood industry officials say the shared market approach would
provide economic safety for both of them. They say the shared market
method would guarantee fair access to resources, protect current jobs in
coastal communities, stabilize prices fro consumers, and encourage
environmental stewardship.
Without “fair and reliable access to
resources,” processors say they might face drastic measures to stay in
business, from eliminating innovative ways to use the seafood catch to
raising consumer prices or cutting jobs, which would negatively affect
local economies.
“We are simply asking for a fair deal,”
said Heather Munro Mann, deputy director of the West Coast Seafood
Processors Association. “Processing jobs are already at stake with
restrictions on salmon and groundfish, and the threat of marine
reserves. The seafood industry needs the stability that a balanced
approach would provide, not the upheaval that would result from a
one-sided allocation.”
Terry Dillman is assistant editor of the
News-Times. He can be reached at (541) 265-8571 ext. 225, or terrydillman@newportnewstimes.com.
Klamath
salmon film to show at Hatfield
Klamath Riverkeeper, the group working to
restore water quality - and along with it salmon runs in the Klamath
River - will sponsor “Un-Dam the Klamath!” film nights in four
Oregon coast communities, including Newport.
The event features screenings of the
45-minute documentary, “Solving the Klamath Crisis: Keeping Fish and
Farms Alive,” which shows the effort to have four hydroelectric dams
removed from the river and return salmon to 300-plus miles of historic
spawning habitat the dams have blocked for the past 90 years. The first
screening is in
The
Fishermen in
To find out more about the film or Klamath
Riverkeeper, call (541) 821-7260, e-mail Marvin at malena@klamathriver.org,
or visit their website at www.klamathriver.org.
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research and educational purposes only. For more information go
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Source:
http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2008/04/04/news/news03.txt