EPA Agreeing to Hold Seattle Bristol Bay Hearing on May 31

Seattle hearing requested by Cantwell will outline how the Pebble Mine would impact Bristol Bay salmon and WA state jobs, maritime economy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) released the following statement regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement that the agency will hold a public hearing in Seattle next week to discuss how large scale development in Bristol Bay, Alaska – like the Pebble Mine proposal – could hurt salmon and Washington state jobs. The hearing will be held on Thursday, May 31st, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time at the Federal Building in Seattle.

Earlier in May, Cantwell had asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to hold this Seattle hearing following the agency’s release of its draft watershed assessment, which itmade public last week. The EPA is also holding public hearings in Alaska June 4th-7th.

“I’m glad that Washington state voices will be heard as EPA works to finalize its scientific watershed assessment,” Cantwell said. “This public hearing is a critical step in ensuring Washingtonians’ livelihoods are protected. With thousands of Washington state jobs dependent on healthy, sustainable Bristol Bay salmon, I will continue fighting to ensure a final decision is based on sound science.”

Thousands of Washington state jobs – including commercial and recreational fishing, processing, shipbuilding and the restaurant industry – depend on Bristol Bay’s healthy, sustainable wild salmon populations. Nearly 1,000 Washingtonians hold commercial fishing permits in Bristol Bay. In 2008, Bristol Bay yielded over $113 million dollars in total value for Washington state commercial fishers. Recreational salmon fishers yielded an additional $75 million for Washington state businesses alone.

Bristol Bay is the most productive salmon run in the world, generating a total value of approximately $500 million dollars each year and supporting 14,000 full and part-time jobs.

In a September letter to Jackson, Cantwell became the first U.S. Senator to call on the EPA to use its Clean Water Act 404(c) authority to block any large development project in Bristol Bay if science determined that the project would “have unacceptable adverse impacts on water quality and the fish stocks that depend on it.”

DNA Evidence Shows That Marine Reserves Help to Sustain Fisheries – Science Daily

This has ramifications for the debate locally over creating Marine Protected Areas. Supporters of MPAs, including the NW Straits Foundation (whom support the work of local Marine Resource Committees (MRCs) in counties on the north Sound and Coast, which have, over a fifteen year period, been unable to get such areas created to protect Rock Fish populations.

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Researchers reporting online on May 24 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology present the first evidence that areas closed to all fishing are helping to sustain valuable Australian fisheries. The international team of scientists applied a forensic DNA profiling approach to track the dispersal pathways of fish larvae throughout a network of marine reserves on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Read the whole story at:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120524123019.htm

Radioactive Tuna Migrated Into Californian Waters From Japan – Medical News Today

The good news here is that the levels are lower than that which is deemed hazardous, the bad news is that it wasn’t detected by people being paid to monitor such things, but by some researchers looking at migratory issues.

It is critical that the government get their monitoring in place and in front of these kinds of issues, before the public panics and destroys the fishing industry , which is likely to happen from this anyway. Many people do not trust government monitoring to be accurate and timely.

Pacific bluefin tuna which have migrated from Japan to California have been found to be contaminated with radioactive cesium from the Fukushima nuclear accident, researchers from Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific have reported in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Despite radiation contamination, levels so far detected are well below those considered hazardous for human health, the authors emphasized.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245939.php

Protect forage fish, cornerstone of our ocean’s food web – Seattle Times

Amen to this…

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Pew Trust’s Paul Shively opines that, while salmon may be iconic, we must not forget to protect the health and numbers of the cornerstone of our ocean’s food web — namely, the less-well-known forage fish.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2018262940_guest23shively.html

Ties break down between B.C. salmon-farming firm, environmental coalition

As the spread of INH virus keeps moving through BC salmon farms, the relationships that were put in place to work towards avoiding this very situation start to fray.

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A unique relationship meant to reduce conflict between environmental groups and British Columbia’s largest salmon farming company has fallen apart. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform and Marine Harvest Canada confirmed Saturday that the project, known as the Framework for Dialogue, is officially over.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/ties-break-down-between-bc-salmon-farming-firm-environmental-coalition/article2444558/

Meet the biologist who is salmon farming’s worst enemy – Seattle Times

As the IHN virus spreads from Canadian fish farms down to US farms here in the Puget Sound, and the people in Canadian government still refuse to believe the possibility of this disease affecting wild fish runs, the Seattle Times highlights the woman who has done more to keep this issue alive, Alexandra Morton. Kudos to the Times, which did a nice job of highlighting her battle. Here’s hoping that all of you are buying wild salmon. If not, start today.

BY Craig Welch – BROUGHTON ARCHIPELAGO, B.C. — She’s perched in her boat near a fish farm, talking about diseases, the kind that might escape and kill wild salmon. Then she spies a worker peeling toward her in a boat.

Alexandra Morton, bane of North America’s salmon farms, runs a hand over tired eyes and awaits a confrontation.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018296338_viruslady27m.html

EPA sets hearing in Seattle on Alaska Bristol Bay Gold Mine issue – Seattle PI

Given the number of both present and past Alaska fishermen in our area, I thought I’d repost this from the Seattle online paper. Some of you might be interested in going and putting in your two cents. Obviously, a gold mine of this size upstream of the last massive wild salmon run in Alaska, is a subject worthy of debate.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to hold a public hearing in Seattle next Thursday on whether the world’s greatest salmon fishery — at Alaska’s Bristol Bay — can coexist with a gargantuan proposed gold, copper and molybdenum mine.
The session, on May 31 at 2 p.m. in the Federal Building, is likely to hear from Puget Sound-area fishers and restaurant owners who oppose the proposed Pebble Mine on economic as well as environmental grounds.

Joel Connelly asks: Can Bristol Bay salmon survive big mine?

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/05/24/can-bristol-bay-salmon-survive-big-mine-epa-sets-hearing/

Second BC salmon farm under quarantine for virus – Times Colonist

A second B.C. salmon farm is under an official Canadian Food Inspection Agency quarantine order after a positive test for infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus. Grieg Seafood put its Ahlstrom Point farm, near Sechelt, into voluntary quarantine last week after routine tests by Fisheries and Oceans found a low positive result for IHN in the company’s coho salmon.

http://www.timescolonist.com/life/Second+salmon+farm+under+quarantine+virus/6677571/story.html

Deadly virus appears in Washington state salmon farm – Pacific Fishing

Pacific Fishing, 25th May 2012

A virus has infected a Bainbridge Island salmon farm, forcing the owners to begin culling and destroying infected fish.

It’s the same disease – infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, or IHNV – that caused a British Columbia salmon farm to destroy 560,000 fish last week. The fish ended up in a composting facility.

Another British Columbia salmon farm announced this week that it
had voluntarily quarantined itself because the disease was found in its stock.

Alan Cook is vice president for aquaculture at Icicle Seafoods,
which owns American Gold Seafoods, the operator of the Bainbridge Island salmon farm at Orchard Rocks.

“There is no human health implication,” he said. “The virus is
endemic. Wild fish have it. The disease came from wild fish to our fish, not the other way around.”

Cook said the path of the disease can be proved by DNA analysis.
Hugh Mitchell, a Seattle area veterinarian who specializes in fish, agrees. The disease “is endemic. It’s common. It’s part of the natural ecosystem.”

At the Orchard Rocks farm, diseased fish are being culled. Fish
large enough for the market are being butchered and sold, Cook said. Smaller fish are destroyed.

He declined to say how many fish were in the farm.Once the stocks are gone, the farm will be fallow for three months.
Nets will be removed and disinfected, Cook said.

The largest financial hit for Icicle will come from lost production.

“More than anything else, it’s the cost of the loss of livestock,” Cook said.

There has been a salmon farm for 30 years at that Bainbridge Island location. Never before has it been hit by IHNV, Cook said.

However, the disease was reported in salmon farms in British
Columbia about 10 years ago, Mitchell said.

The disease is part of the natural ecosystem in the North Pacific. Wild salmon species here have built some resistance to the virus. Healthy wild fish can withstand the infection.

However, Atlantic salmon used in farming have no resistance to
the disease, Mitchell said. They are made even more susceptible to disease because they live in close confinement.

“Farmed fish are way more susceptible to wild diseases,” Mitchell said.

And why did the disease made another appearance this year and
not others?

“No one knows,” Mitchell said.

http://pacificfishing.com/news/pf_20120525_virusII.pdf

Read more stories via Pacific Fishing: http://www.pacificfishing.com/

EPA proposes new rules for muddy logging roads–Bellingham Herald

The Obama administration wants to change the rules applying to stormwater running off logging roads, blunting a landmark court ruling that found the muddy water running into salmon streams and drinking water reservoirs should be regulated like industrial pollution. The roads would instead be regulated under a less stringent system known as "Best Management Practices," where authorities set up guidelines for the design and maintenance of logging roads to minimize erosion that sends mud into rivers. 

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/05/23/2534133/epa-proposes-new-rules-for-muddy.html

Blue Ribbon panel warns about dangers of ocean acidification–KPLU

Carbon emissions are threatening Washington’s shellfish industry. That’s the concern of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification, which meets today in Seattle.

It was created after shellfish hatcheries noticed a correlation between declining PH values in Hood Canal and dying oyster larvae.

Carbon pollution, absorbed by the ocean, interferes with their ability to form shells.

Bill Dewey, with Taylor shellfish farms, says it’s been seven years now since Willapa Bay oysters have hatched naturally.

Listen to the whole story at:

http://www.kplu.org/post/blue-ribbon-panel-warns-about-dangers-ocean-acidification

Penn Cove company shifts shellfish harvesting operation to Quilcene Bay–Port Townsend Leader

Luckily for Penn Cove Shellfish, they have a backup location. Hope that the State starts taking derelict vessels more seriously after this.

Until it gets the “all clear” notice that Penn Cove waters are clean, Penn Cove Shellfish has relocated its mussel-harvesting operation to its Quilcene Bay farm on Hood Canal.

Read the whole article at the PTleader online

http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?FromHome=1&TypeID=1&ArticleID=31481&SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55

New Means of Safeguarding World Fish Stocks–Science Daily

Hope this gets here soon.

Powerful and versatile new genetic tools that will assist in safeguarding both European fish stocks and European consumers is reported in Nature Communications. The paper reports on the first system proven to identify populations of fish species to a forensic level of validation.

With up to 25% of fish catches being caught illegally across the world, and with an estimated cost to Europe of up to €10 billion by 2020, the EU were eager to address the problems facing the European fishing industry. …The EU has already introduced a law requiring any fish sold in the EU to be identified with the species and region of origin on the label from 2011. …

Read the whole story here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120522135036.htm

Seagrasses Can Store as Much Carbon as Forests–NSF

The National Science Foundation has just released a study that shows the incredible effects of seagrasses in helping act as a carbon sink for our planet. This reinforces our efforts locally via our Marine Resource Committees, and the efforts of Shoreline Master  Programs (SMPs) to protect the shorelines and near shore environments from abuse.

The results demonstrate that coastal seagrass beds store up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, mostly in the soils beneath them.

As a comparison, a typical terrestrial forest stores about 30,000 metric tons per square kilometer, most of which is in the form of wood.

The research also estimates that, although seagrass meadows occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world’s oceans, they are responsible for more than 10 percent of all carbon buried annually in the sea.

Read the whole story here:

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124263&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

Four honored for work to protect and restore Strait of Juan de Fuca

Four honored for work to protect and restore Strait of Juan de Fuca

TACOMA – Four “Puget Sound Champions” were honored on Friday, May 11 by the Puget Sound Partnership, the agency charged with coordinating Puget Sound cleanup and restoration.

The awards were presented by Gerry O’Keefe, the Partnership’s Executive Director, and Ron Sims, former King County Executive and current member of the Partnership’s Leadership Council, at a meeting of the Strait Ecosystem Recovery Network. The Network is one of eight regional sub-groups that coordinate and prioritize projects and programs aimed at creating and sustaining a healthy Puget Sound.

The award recipients are:

The North Olympic Salmon Coalition, which was honored for its work to implement salmon recovery plans in the Strait, and to work with landowners, local tribes, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and others to initiate projects such as the Salmon Creek Estuary and Morse Creek Restoration.

Micah McCarty and Chad Bowechop of the Makah Tribe, were honored for their effective leadership to improve oil spill prevention, preparedness and response in Puget Sound. Micah McCarty was also honored for his policy work as a member of the National Oceans Council and the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification.

Michelle McConnell, Jefferson County planner, was honored for her work on the Shoreline Master Program maintaining fresh and saltwater migratory pathways for fish and wildlife, creating complementary policies among neighboring jurisdictions, and for initiating an ambitious community-wide planning process for a complex county divided by a national park, and bordering Hood Canal, the Strait and the Pacific Ocean.

Bob Campbell, Facility Coordinator with Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles, was honored for providing accessible, high-quality information about the Sound, and training docents for the more than 1,600 visitors who come to the Center each year. Campbell also provides educational, hands-on experiences with near-shore environments to 1,800 students a year, encouraging scientific inquiry and appreciation for the natural wonders of the marine environment.

“I commend you all for your dedication, commitment and collaboration in ecosystem recovery. We are all indebted to you. The Strait Ecosystem Recovery Network has done impressive work, and serves as an excellent example of local coordination,” said Ron Sims.

“Although we are recognizing four recipients today, there are many other hard working individuals and organizations making important contributions in the Strait Action Area. Today’s recipients were nominated by their peers for doing outstanding work that deserves to be recognized and to serve as an example for others,” said Gerry O’Keefe.

The Partnership will honor Puget Sound Champions in other local coordinating entities it collaborates with to advance Puget Sound recovery. Upcoming meetings include June 11 in the greater Seattle area and June 20 in Hood Canal. More information about these meetings will be available at www.psp.wa.gov or by contacting Michael Grayum at Michael.grayum@psp.wa.gov.

“There’s lots of work to do to ensure a healthy future for the Sound,” said O’Keefe. “Only by working together can we restore this natural asset and keep it thriving for generations to come.”

Island fish farm gets rid of all its quarantined fish – Vancouver Sun

Tofino is not that far away as the water flows…

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A Vancouver Island salmon farm says it has now emptied a site that was quarantined because of a virus. Mainstream Canada announced last week that tests confirmed the presence of an infectious virus known as IHN at its Dixon Bay site, north of Tofino.

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Vancouver+Island+fish+farm+gets+quarantined+fish/6665262/story.html

US Halts Makah Whaling Study After Seven Years – PDN

A 7-year-old study on the potential environmental impact of Makah whaling is being ditched, the federal government announced. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service and Department of Commerce issued a “notice to terminate” the draft environmental impact statement Monday. This is the latest development in lengthy legal battles over the Makah tribe’s treaty right to hunt whales — and comes only days after the 13th anniversary of a Makah whaling crew legally killing a gray whale off Neah Bay. U.S. halts Makah whaling study after seven years over ‘new scientific information’

Whaling Study for Makah by Feds Stopped

Training available to handle oiled birds

It’s a not well understood issue with the public, that if there were an oil spill, that most volunteers could be turned away without proper training. Getting this training now would allow you to be put to work helping when it would be most needed. Here’s your chance!

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Attached is registration information for the 2012 oiled wildlife class series, to be held June 2 and June 23 at the Clallam County Fairgrounds. The classes, sponsored by the Clallam Marine Resources Committee and Surfrider, offer training to volunteers who want to be able to help wildlife in the event of an oil spill. Actual wildlife (well, domesticated wildlife – ducks, actually) will be a part of the training – nothing like hands-on experience to make it real.

8-hour Hazwoper certification is required to take these classes. Class limit is 24 people per class.

You will receive a confirmation email once you have registered. You can click on the link in the pdf file, or directly on the link below:

http://websrv7.clallam.net/registration/ccmrc_traininglist.php

Please call or write with any questions. I look forward to seeing you at oiled wildlife recovery class!

Thank you
Cathy Lear
Habitat Biologist
360.417.2361
B.I.-&-S.-training-6-2-2012.jpg

June 4th: Silence is not an option in Canada

Things are not going well for environmental protection on the north side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Since Canadian voters elected a majority conservative government and PM, an all out slashing of social and environmental programs is underway. Programs that have long supported environmental protection and science are falling away. The most immediate concern for those of us on this side of the Strait, is the removal of tanker monitoring to somewhere near Ottawa. This would be like moving our Coast Guard monitoring to Chicago. When governments let their guards down, is usually when mistakes happen, and get compounded. Given the ease by which oil spreads on water. We must be helping our friends on the other side to restore these disastrous cuts before we are cleaning up a mess that will be “our” mess too. Letting federal officials, like Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, and others, know that you are concerned about this, would be a good start. On June 4th, Canadian environmental groups and others are planning a ‘black out’ day to alert the public to the threat.
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Georgia Strait Alliance writes: ‘In recent memory, there has never been such an open attack by our federal government on our environment and the civil society that is its voice. And that is why there has never been a more important time for us to speak up. So on June 4th Georgia Strait Alliance is joining organizations, businesses, unions, bloggers and individuals from across the country to “Black Out, Speak Out”.’

http://georgiastraitalliance.blogspot.ca/2012/05/june-4th-silence-is-not-option.html

Quilcene hatchery releases juvenile coho–PDN

Quilcene National Fish Hatchery’s recent releases of nearly 600,000 juvenile coho salmon into Hood Canal and Puget Sound waters marked the 101st consecutive year the hatchery has continued a program that supports area tribal and sport fish harvests. http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120522/news/305229993/quilcene-hatchery-releases-juvenile-coho