Free Republic

Japan's annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins began Oct. 8 in the traditional whaling town of Taiji on the Kii Peninsula of Honshu's Wakayama Prefecture. These "drive fisheries" triggered demonstrations, held under the "Japan Dolphin Day" banner, in 28 countries. The protests went almost entirely unreported in Japan, where only very few people are aware of what goes on. The culling, spanning a period of six months, is officially condoned as part of traditional culture, and is described as "pest control" by practitioners. However, it is the inhumane way in which the mammals are killed, by stabbing and spearing them,...

Beluga ban boosts domestic caviar farming By Laura Zuckerman Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:25 AM ET HAGERMAN, Idaho (Reuters) - After more than a decade growing in the spring waters of a commercial fish farm in southern Idaho, five dozen white sturgeon are ready to give eggs that will be marketed to U.S. caviar connoisseurs. The timing could hardly be better. A recent U.S. ban on beluga caviar from the Caspian and Black seas has sparked a boom for U.S. fish farms, which are stepping in to provide gourmet stores and high-end restaurants the much-loved salted eggs, or roe, from...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Greg Sanders' otter-catching days are over. It's been years since he last snatched the animals from Southern California waters and shipped them north under an ambitious federal program to preserve an endangered species while protecting shellfish divers from natural competition. Now, in an admission that the slick-furred creatures refuse to respect boundaries imposed by man, the federal government wants officially to abandon an otter-relocation policy it effectively dumped more than a decade ago. If the government's battle of wits is at its end, the otters have won. "This concept of taking animals and putting them in...

The recent passage of the National Highway Bill advances the Trans-Texas highway project, which may significantly impact Texas’ recreational inshore fishery. Interstate 69 Texas, a key component of the project, will cut a quarter-mile-wide swath of asphalt, rails and utility lines across the grasslands of the western coastal plain. When completed, it will represent the southern terminus of 1,600 miles of transportation infrastructure designed to bolster North American trade from Mexico to Canada. As a result, an unprecedented amount of industrial traffic and secondary development will impact this fragile ecosystem along a route which crosses every major river system in...

VALDEZ, Alaska (AP) - This is a busy commercial and sportfishing town, and it normally smells a little ripe in late summer as unharvested pink salmon spawn and then die. But this year, residents and tourists have been holding their noses a little tighter. Millions more pink salmon than expected, most of them born at the local Solomon Gulch hatchery, migrated in from the ocean this season, overwhelming commercial seiners and processing plants.

BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. (ABP)—In Forrest Gump, the hero scores an economic coup when his boat is the only one in the Bayou La Batre, Ala., shrimping fleet to survive a hurricane. Sadly, for the real-life Bayou La Batre, Forrest Gump was fiction. This blue-collar hamlet south of Mobile, where Mobile Bay meets the Gulf of Mexico, may be the place in Alabama hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, at least economically. The destruction is not nearly as dramatic as in New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast. But it may have crippled the entire town’s way of life, which is...

Halifax — Scientists will begin probing waters off Nova Scotia in search of a slimy creature they believe is slithering north and could be blanketing some of Canada's richest fishing grounds.Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey plan to head out Monday to a vast area over the Canadian portion of Georges Bank to look for a colony of sea squirts nicknamed the Blob for its icky texture and habit of covering most everything in its path. “It's something new. It covers up the bottom and it forms a barrier between fish and what fish feed on, so logically you'd think...

HALIFAX – Scientists will begin probing waters off Nova Scotia in search of a slimy creature they believe is slithering north and could be blanketing some of Canada’s richest fishing grounds. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey plan to head out today to a vast area over the Canadian portion of Georges Bank to look for a colony of sea squirts nicknamed the Blob for its icky texture and habit of covering almost everything in its path. ‘Covers the bottom’ “It’s something new. It covers up the bottom and it forms a barrier between fish and what fish feed on,...

New research by a Canadian university has brought previously unknown parts of the world's oceans into focus and is raising new concerns about the global decline of big species. The study, released yesterday by the journal Science, found that the ocean contains a small number of "hot spots" where marine life concentrates and where stocks are declining dramatically. But the finding has also opened a new window of hope because it points to a few key areas, in a vast, featureless ocean, where conservation efforts could be targeted for maximum effect. By looking at 50 years of international fishing data...

WELLFLEET — If it’s determined that the decline of the eastern oyster on the Maryland and Virginia coastline represents a “significant portion” of the subspecies, the oyster could be added to the federal endangered species list, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service spokesperson Marta Nammack said Monday. A ban on oystering would significantly affect this town, where shellfish — oysters, in particular — are its biggest industry. Wellfleet oysters are a world-famous delicacy that accounted for more than $2.5 million of the town’s aquaculture, or shellfish farming, industry in 2002. About 100 families in town rely primarily on oysters...

Red tide may be the least of Cape shellfishermen's worries this summer. In May, the National Marine Fisheries Service decided that the Eastern, or American, oyster is a candidate for endangered species status based on a petition they received in January. The agency has until Jan. 11, 2006, to decide. Fisheries service spokeswoman Teri Frady said yesterday her agency was in the process of putting together a panel of experts to study the issue. Eastern oysters are harvested in New England and on the Cape, accounting for more than $1.2 million in revenue for the Cape and islands aquaculture industry...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal court ruling that rejects the Bush administration's latest effort to balance Columbia Basin salmon recovery against hydroelectric dams has fish conservationists pressing anew for breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. "What the law requires is an honest analysis of how we configure the hydro system so we can get salmon back in our rivers," said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation. "What all the scientists tell us is such an honest analysis would call for breaching the lower four Snake River dams." But with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress...

The Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission (MFAC) has approved Massachusetts' MarineFisheries' proposals for new rules affecting recreational fishing for summer flounder (fluke), black sea bass, and scup. Rule changes were also approved for commercial fishing for striped bass, spiny dogfish and coastal sharks, scup, and groundfish. New prohibitions on the retention of certain coastal shark species include basking sharks, dusky sharks, sand tiger sharks and white sharks. Any of these shark species caught incidental to fisheries directed toward other species must be released to ensure maximum probability of survival.

BONNEVILLE DAM, Ore. -- Sea lions are feasting on fish at the Bonneville Dam, and engineers are looking for ways to drive away the protected animals. About 30 sea lions surround the dam's spillways, gorging on any fish that come by. But that reportedly has minor impact on the fish runs. The problem is that at least two have figured out how to enter the fish ladders. "It's pretty amazing that they've managed to get all the way into the locks," fisherman Tom Wood told KOIN News 6. "They can take out some research equipment that they have in there....

NEW ORLEANS - Thousands of oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico could be converted into deep-sea fish farms raising red snapper, mahi-mahi, yellowfin tuna and flounder, under a plan backed by the Bush administration.For years, marine biologists and oil companies have experimented using the giant platforms as bases for mariculture, but commercial use of the platforms as fish farms never got off the ground because of the federal government's reluctance to open up the oceans to farming.Yet in December, President Bush proposed making it easier to launch fish farms off the nation's coasts. That could be...

A Canadian seafood company helped buy geoduck kingpin Doug Tobin's fishing boat and finance his $1.5 million Puget Sound clam-poaching ring — all in exchange for exclusive rights to resell the stolen shellfish, according to a lawsuit filed by the Washington state Attorney General's Office. A year after Tobin was sentenced to 14 years in prison for making off with nearly 100 tons of shellfish in the region's oddest and most sophisticated wildlife-poaching ring, the Attorney General's Office accused a Richmond, B.C.-based company of fronting him much of the cash to get started. The state is seeking millions of dollars...

Chinese coast guards' killing of innocent Vietnamese fishermen violates international law The recent killing of innocent Vietnamese fishermen by Chinese coast guards was a serious violation of international law, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in Hanoi on January 20. The action also violated the Agreement on the Demarcation of the Tonkin Gulf, the Vietnam-China Agreement on Fishing Co-operation in the Tonkin Gulf, and other agreements reached by Vietnamese and Chinese leaders, and hurt the friendly sentiment between the two peoples, the spokesman stressed. He made the remarks while replying to the Vietnam News Agency's query on Vietnam's reaction to...

Fishing rules under scrutiny as search for fishermen ends By JAY LINDSAY BOSTON — The Coast Guard on Wednesday called off its search for five fishermen lost at sea when their scallop boat capsized in turbulent waters off Nantucket. [snip] The deaths sparked anger among boat owners and fishermen, who said federal rules which cut fishing days and penalize fishermen who leave fishing grounds early force captains to fish in dangerous weather to take advantage of limited opportunities. "You´re taking the skipper out of the wheelhouse and putting lobbyists and congressmen in the seat, making decisions for you," said Kevin...

An East Bay man, a North Bay man and the company they ran have been indicted for allegedly lying about how much fish they bought in order to cover up illegal depletion of Northern California fisheries, prosecutors said. Santa Rosa-based North Coast Fisheries Inc.; company president Michael Lucas, 40, of Santa Rosa; and a former manager, Peter Pomilia, 54, of Blackhawk were indicted on one count of conspiracy and nine counts of making false statements to the government. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine plus restitution if applicable. The indictment claims...

Scots team to study mysterious decline of salmon at sea FRANK URQUHART MARINE scientists in Scotland have been awarded a £100,000 grant to try to unravel the mysterious and massive decline in stocks of Atlantic salmon at sea. Over the past decade, major investments in stock conservation and the adoption of catch-and-release policies on Scotland’s principal salmon rivers have led to improvements in the prospects of survival for salmon in fresh water, vital to the future of the country’s £73 million angling industry. But there is now consensus among both scientists and fishery managers that the major decline in Atlantic...