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  • Oerdin knows... Salmon Fishing!

    US mulls Pacific salmon fishing ban

    By Rajesh Mirchandani
    BBC News, California and Oregon

    The US government will decide next week whether to issue a complete season-long ban on salmon fishing off the Pacific coast of the US.

    The proposal comes in response to a drastic collapse in fish stocks.

    But fishermen's groups say it will devastate their industry and cost the local economy billions of dollars.

    With a light hand on the steering wheel, captain Phil Bentivegna guides his boat, Butchie B, out of San Francisco harbour.

    He has worked on the ocean for 41 years, many of them in his current role, running charter tours for sports fishing enthusiasts.

    We pass dozens of other such boats, testament to this important part of San Francisco's tourist infrastructure.

    But the fishing tour business is quiet these days. In fact, Mr Bentivegna tells me: "Last year was probably the slowest year I have ever had for catching salmon."

    Economic cost

    Commercial fishermen are facing tough times too.

    California and Oregon, western states with considerable commercial and recreational fishing industries, are looking at the very real possibility of not being able to fish any salmon at all this year.

    It could cost the local economy more than $3bn (£1.5bn).

    I just don't think this is the industry to get into any more
    Phil Bentivegna
    The reason is that stocks of wild Pacific Chinook salmon - a staple food along America's west coast for hundreds of years - are in drastic freefall.

    One measure of the population is the number of salmon heading from freshwater spawning grounds to the ocean, a process called "returns".

    This year, the Chinook return is expected to number some 56,000; the minimum needed to keep the salmon fishing industry sustainable is at least 122,000.

    In past years, returns upwards of 200,000 salmon have been common.

    The recreational salmon fishing season should have opened any day now; instead a temporary ban is in place, while experts decide how to respond.

    Next week, the US government is widely expected to ban all salmon fishing - affecting Chinook and also the coho salmon - off a 1,200-mile stretch of the west coast of the US for the whole season, up to seven months. An alternative option would allow very limited catches.

    Duncan Maclean, who advises California's fishing industry, says fishermen realise there is no alternative.

    "I'm supposed to fight for every fish we catch and I have no fight this year," he says. "I cannot justify a fishery because the numbers are so low."

    Ocean conditions

    For once, fishermen are not getting most of the blame. This is not simply a problem of over-fishing. There are a variety of factors at play, some natural, others man-made.

    Changes in ocean conditions, perhaps brought about by global warming, mean less food for salmon to eat, so fewer make it upstream to spawn.

    Those that do face risks too: river water contains pollution from agriculture and industry, a potentially toxic environment for salmon, while river levels are often low as water is increasingly diverted to irrigate crops and supply large cities such as Los Angeles.

    There may be no respite ahead either.

    Putah Creek is a shallow tributary of the Sacramento River, exactly the type of watercourse where most wild Pacific salmon start life.

    Fish biologist Professor Peter Moyle leads a team of scientists from nearby University of California at Davis. They are pulling 20ft (6m) nets through the muddy water, then dragging them on to the bank and examining the contents.

    The process, called seining, is a crude way of counting the number of young salmon in a river. In a normal year, each haul should contain between five and 10 young salmon.

    "We got nothing," Prof Moyle announces, "except one little sunfish."

    According to Prof Moyle, the number of young salmon this year is at best a quarter of what it should be. He, like many other experts, foresees further gloom ahead.

    "The fishery is going to be shut down for at least two years," he predicts.

    'Time to clean up'

    Some 600 miles to the north, the mist clings to the wooded hills of Oregon and a cloud hangs over the quiet fishing port of Tillamook.

    This is a town dependent on salmon and crab.

    As Darus Peake, owner of the Tillamook Bay Boathouse and a state fishing adviser, says: "It's going to hurt everybody from the gas station owner on the corner to the gift shop to the motel to the restaurant... it's quite a trickle down."

    In Mr Peake's mind a salmon-fishing ban would be a quick fix for a deeper, man-made, problem.

    "We have got to start looking at ourselves... we need to go back to our natural resources, clean up our natural resources and then go on from there," he says.

    Back in San Francisco Bay, Mr Bentivegna is pointing out the famous landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island, just as he has for many years.

    He is running a few sightseeing tours now, no fishing trips and expects to lose nearly half his business this year.

    The prospect of a season-long ban on salmon fishing makes him fear for future generations.

    "I'm glad I'm at the end of my career instead of at the beginning of my career when this is happening," he says.

    "I know a couple of young skippers that are in their late 20s or early 30s with families and house payments. I really feel bad for them... I just don't think this is the industry to get into any more."

    BBC, News, BBC News, news online, world, uk, international, foreign, british, online, service
    Scouse Git (2) La Fayette Adam Smith Solomwi and Loinburger will not be forgotten.
    "Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for..."
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  • #2
    Since when could snoopy close threads here?
    "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
    Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

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    • #3
      "We have got to start looking at ourselves... we need to go back to our natural resources, clean up our natural resources and then go on from there," he says.


      'nuff said.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Asher
        Since when could snoopy close threads here?
        The same abilities that let me modify your poll the other day lets me close threads...
        <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
        I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

        Comment


        • #5
          Thank you Ben. You are a good man.
          Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

          Comment


          • #6
            A good man, who doesn't regularly post more than two threads per day...
            <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
            I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

            Comment


            • #7
              Rules are for lesser mortals.
              Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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              • #8
                And for people who don't want PCRs.
                <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
                I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

                Comment


                • #9
                  CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
                  ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS


                  Section 25. The people shall have the right to fish upon and from the public lands of the State and in the waters thereof, excepting upon lands set aside for fish hatcheries, and no land owned by the State shall ever be sold or transferred without reserving in the people the absolute right to fish thereupon; and no law shall ever be passed making it a crime for the people to enter upon the public lands within this State for the purpose of fishing in any water containing fish that have been planted therein by the State; provided, that the legislature may by statute, provide for the season when and the conditions under which the different species of fish may be taken.

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                  • #10
                    Thank you Ben. You are a good man.
                    It's an issue near and dear to my heart.

                    I've probably caught something like 20 chinook and coho off the coast of kitimat over the years.

                    I wouldn't oppose a moratorium, but only if it's a total moratorium, in that no one can fish, but that will never happen.
                    Scouse Git (2) La Fayette Adam Smith Solomwi and Loinburger will not be forgotten.
                    "Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for..."
                    2015 APOLYTON FANTASY FOOTBALL CHAMPION!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Zkribbler
                      CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
                      ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS


                      Section 25. The people shall have the right to fish upon and from the public lands of the State and in the waters thereof, excepting upon lands set aside for fish hatcheries, and no land owned by the State shall ever be sold or transferred without reserving in the people the absolute right to fish thereupon; and no law shall ever be passed making it a crime for the people to enter upon the public lands within this State for the purpose of fishing in any water containing fish that have been planted therein by the State; provided, that the legislature may by statute, provide for the season when and the conditions under which the different species of fish may be taken.
                      Season: June 1st, 2010-August 1st, 2010
                      Conditions: No Salmon

                      Sounds legal to me
                      <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
                      I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Oregon Coast 'Dead Zone'



                        NEWPORT, Ore., Aug. 17 — On the north shore of Yaquina Bay rests the rusty fishing fleet of this small Pacific port, scores of boats whose captains seek salmon or rockfish, shrimp or crab.

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                        Leah Nash for The New York Times
                        Francis Chan, marine ecologist, preparing a bottle to collect coastal Oregon water whose oxygen levels, he says, are the lowest in at least 50 years.
                        Directly across the bay, on the south shore, sits the Hatfield Marine Science Center, a small campus of Oregon State University that provides a seaside outpost for scientists who study the water and the life within it.

                        The natural divide has seemed particularly fitting this summer, with the two groups, who rarely share the same view anyway, drawn farther apart by a recent discovery. In a large section of shallow ocean water near the shore, scientists at the university measured record-low levels of oxygen this month, so low that most marine life cannot be sustained there. Countless crabs and other crustaceans have died, and fish have simply disappeared from some spots.

                        Scientists call such an area a “dead zone,” and some suggest that this one could portend broader, troubling environmental changes linked to global warming.

                        There is little dispute that the dead zone exists; the disagreement centers on whether it matters much. In a state where fishermen are already accustomed to strict regulation, fights with environmentalists and attention from academics, many of them are having none of the notion that there is a larger problem.

                        “They say it’s global warming and it’s Bush’s fault, and it just goes on and on and on,” said Bill Wechter, 53, a crabber who said he had been working here since 1978, had 500 traps stretching north from Newport and had suffered no losses. “Everybody’s guessing.”

                        This is the fifth straight year in which a dead zone has appeared here, but scientists say that this one is by far the biggest, covering as much as 1,200 square miles, and that the oxygen levels have been startlingly low in places.

                        Those low levels are caused by persistent northerly winds that push nutrient-rich water into shallow areas — a process known as upwelling — without being offset by southerly winds that typically flush out the water and effectively keep it from becoming overfertilized. Dead zones are common around the world, with the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie, Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound experiencing them on occasion. But most often they are caused by local pollution problems, including runoff containing fertilizer or sewage.

                        Adding the recent observations off Newport to findings that date from 2002, when a summertime dead zone was first documented here, some scientists say changes in wind patterns could indicate a growing disparity between rising land temperatures and cool ocean temperatures. Such a condition has long been predicted in some regional models on the effects of global warming, said John A. Barth, an Oregon State oceanographer who is among a group of scientists of various disciplines studying the Oregon coast.

                        But the fishermen say they know the ocean best: they spend their lives working it rather than writing research papers about it. Changes in ocean conditions simply require adjustment, they say, whether that means shortening lines or fishing closer in or farther out.

                        By and large, they are not worried. They cite the state’s record 2005 crab harvest, 33.7 million pounds, and another strong harvest, 27.5 million pounds, in the season just ended.

                        “There’s all kinds of cycles in the ocean,” said Jim Emory, a 41-year-old fisherman whose boat is named Monde Uni. “It is what it is. It’s an opportunity.”

                        Some scientists, too, are being cautious. Jane Lubchenco, a zoologist who specializes in marine ecology at Oregon State and who has long been outspoken about global warming threats, is among those who say that while the findings here are fascinating, more data, collected over a longer period of time, are needed.

                        “We can’t say with absolute certainty that this has never happened before,” said Ms. Lubchenco, former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, who has worked at Oregon State since 1978.

                        The other day Ms. Lubchenco and other scientists boarded the Elakha, a 54-foot boat used to research close to shore. Sea lions lurched past buoys marking testing equipment. Cormorants flew inches above the surface.

                        Tests that day showed oxygen levels in the northern part of the dead zone improving, perhaps reflecting a slowdown in the upwelling. [Tests in the central and southern parts this week, on the other hand, continued to show very low readings.]

                        Francis Chan, a marine ecologist at Oregon State who has been measuring the oxygen levels off the coast since 2002, said a scientist here was sometimes viewed as having a political agenda and lacking a real understanding of the ocean. Yet Mr. Chan, who takes samples digitally but also collects water with the glass Winkler bottles that scientists have used for decades, points to charts that he said he had compiled from oxygen readings recorded over the last half-century.

                        “People say, ‘Oh, there’s always been dead zones,’ ” Mr. Chan said, “but when I look at the entire data we have, I just don’t see these numbers in the historical record.”

                        Mitch Vance, the shellfish project leader for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, is one of those who believe far more data are needed.

                        As for the often divergent views among the people who share Yaquina Bay and the ocean it meets, Mr. Vance said, “It depends on how many fishermen and scientists you get in a room; that’s how many opinions you’re going to have.”
                        Long time member @ Apolyton
                        Civilization player since the dawn of time

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                        • #13
                          Lancer I'm sure global climate change does play a part but from what I've read the main causes of dead zones are excess human caused nutrients & chemicals ending up in the ocean. Farm run off, sewage, oil & grease from roads, and who knows what else.

                          The nutrients cause an algae bloom which sucks up all the oxygen in the water killing everything which can't quickly move to other waters. I'm sure chemical run off doesn't help either.
                          Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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                          • #14
                            It's not necessarily human caused, as non-human causes can also have an impact, but certainly some are human-caused. I doubt global warming has any impact on these.

                            I wonder if there are ways to encourage net-oxygen-producers to move in instead of algae?
                            <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
                            I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

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                            • #15
                              Regulating farm run off and higher sewage treatment standards would be a good start. Take away the excess nutrients which cause the massive algae outbreaks.

                              In other news The Presidential Memorial Commission directed the city of San Francisco to find a public building to name after George W. Bush. Activists have gotten an initiative on the ballot to name a sewage plant the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant".

                              Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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