Panel OKs ecosystem plan for West Coast fisheries

4/9/13

After three years of consideration, West Coast federal fisheries managers on Tuesday unanimously adopted their first ecosystem approach to decisions on fishing seasons and catch quotas.

Meeting in Portland, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted the Fishery Ecosystem Plan, whose first initiative will be to consider how to make sure enough little forage fish remain in the ocean for bigger fish to eat.

"Clearly, federal managers have gotten the message that the days of crisis-based management, managing for a single species, and how to maximize catches are over," said Ben Enticknapp of the conservation group Oceana.

The Pacific council followed the lead of other councils, which have established ecosystem plans for federal waters off the southern Atlantic Seaboard, the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and the Hawaiian and Marianas islands, said Yvonne deReynier, who overseas development of ecosystem plans for NOAA Fisheries Service in Seattle. Each council is taking its own approach to the issue, because there is no legal mandate, she added.

As recently as 2002, the West Coast groundfish fishery, which includes popular species like lingcod and rockfish, was in trouble. A fisheries disaster was declared after a decade of declining catches.

Since then, managers have gone beyond just cutting back catch quotas to buying out half the groundfish fleet, protecting marine habitats and taking steps to minimize the numbers of unwanted fish that get dumped overboard dead, known as bycatch. Fisheries have been rebounding.

Under the ecosystem management program, the council will get regular scientific reports on the health of the ocean that will figure in decisions on setting fishing seasons, catch quotas and other issues.

Conservation groups were disappointed the program was non-binding, but felt the scientific reports will go a long way toward informing good council decisions, said Enticknapp.

Scott McMullen, a retired fisherman who serves on Oregon's Ocean Policy Advisory Council and helped write the program, called it a milestone, but added it faces challenges due to the difficulty of measuring things like forage fish numbers.

"In the forest, you can go out and count the trees," he said. "You can't do that in the ocean."

Brad Pettinger, director of the Oregon Trawl Commission, a fishing industry group, said West Coast fisheries have rebounded since the 2002 groundfish collapse, with strong catches of shrimp and whiting, the fish that is processed into artificial crab, and bycatch below 5 percent.

"Obviously, you want to be careful on forage fish, because it's part of the food chain," he said. "But I don't think we are anywhere close to (overfishing those species). The Wild West is gone."

Two major forage fish species, sardines and anchovies, are fished for bait and food. But lesser-known species, such as sand lance and some smelt are not. Conservation groups worry that as demand for fish protein increases, they will be overfished.

The fish go through a boom-and-bust cycle of about 50 years, whether they are managed or not, Pettinger said.

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Likely tsunami debris washes up in Crescent City

4/8/13

A 20-foot fishing boat that washed ashore in Crescent City on Sunday is believed to be the first piece of debris to land on California shores from the 2011 tsunami in Japan.

After local law enforcement towed the vessel off the beach, a team from Humboldt State University's Redwood Coast Tsunami Work Group, an interagency group that works to reduce earthquake and tsunami hazards, came to Crescent City to record the Japanese writing on the side of the boat.

Officials hope to use the writing, which was thought to be a license or registration number, to identify whether or not the boat washed to sea with receding tsunami waters.

"We are working with the Japanese government through the local consulate to confirm the source of any debris that we can," said Keeley Belva, a spokesperson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "It's challenging to confirm something; we need to have some sort of identification."

Out of about 1,700 reports of potential Japan tsunami debris that NOAA has received, only about 25 items have been confirmed to be from the 2011 tsunami, Belva said.

"Marine debris is a problem in general," Belva said. "There are things with Japanese writing that might not even be from Japan."

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For photos, visit the Redwood Coast Tsunami Working Group's Facebook page.

Here come the godwits!

Registration now open for 18th annual festival

2/10/13

Extraordinary birding awaits newbies and lifelong birders alike — and anybody interested in wildlife in general — at the 18th Annual Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival, to be held April 19 to 21 at the Arcata Community Center. Pre- and post-festival events extend the core dates from April 18 to 24.

Online registration is now open at   www.godwitdays.org. The 2013 program is as diverse as ever, incorporating many aspects of the animals and habitats that make up the scenic North Coast. The lineup consists of more than 100 field trips, workshops, lectures, boat trips, a banquet, and events like the “Big Day,” where participants travel by bus around Humboldt County to spot around 125 bird species.

Humboldt County rail: Embrace the vision

3/28/13

The Times-Standard and various other publications have recently published pieces touting further investigation into the feasibility of a railroad from Humboldt County due east across the Coast Range to the Sacramento Valley floor in the Redding/Red Bluff region. One of the suggestions was that our local economy could be revived by shipping trainloads of bottled water over that route. I write to point out that these authors are missing the most important advantages that could come from a thorough examination of Humboldt's transportation planning and the creation of a new vision.

There are no doubt those who will narrowly claim that building a railroad over a mountain range will be prohibitively expensive. This is in part because they only see the railway as being used for products, bottled water, timber, perhaps gypsum board, that are not high in dollar value. Also they will claim that the difficulty of building a railway, which needs to be more or less flat, will cost many millions of dollars per mile to construct. This naively overlooks the fact that all is being called for now is a study, which can no doubt be performed for only hundreds of thousands of dollars per mile. Much more importantly it fails to comprehend the much greater economic potential available to us if only we have the fearless foresight to grasp that potential.

First, the cost of construction. If the construction methodology is limited to dynamite and diesel, few enduring benefits will accrue.

But if we expand our vision we can vastly reduce the cost of construction and foster a new industry. We must envision the building of the railway atomically. As we develop the skills and technology to use carefully controlled atomic explosives we will find we can create the entire railway virtually without any need to use antiquated machinery such as bulldozers and excavators. The development of this technology will be accompanied by massive growth in the educational infrastructure. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of high paying nuclear physicist jobs will spring up. It is also highly likely that one spinoff of this effort will be to get back on track the effort to address the too often ignored necessity for nuclear locomotives. And we should not forget that Humboldt has previous experience with nuclear power. Just think about the possibility that we will one day become a convergence of the Scandia laboratories and the Silicon Valley. Drs. Richmond and Eagles may someday soon preside over research and educational institutions rivaling and surpassing Berkeley and Stanford, perhaps justifying their current salaries. The airport will have to be expanded just to handle the importation of child care providers from Northern Europe The College of the Redwoods will be accredited. We will be rich, famous and internationally respected.

But the reality is that no matter how great the eastern demand for bottles of water, board feet of timber, crab legs and hashish, those products alone will not support the railroad. Another enterprise will, and that enterprise will contribute even more to our high tech future. It is not enough to build the railway and revitalize our port.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY MUST BECOME A SPACEPORT! Several times a week rockets carrying communication and observations satellites will be launched from the Arcata Bottom or from New Samoa, or perhaps both. With a little luck and the proper alignment of the stars the first humans to walk on Mars will have departed from behind the Redwood Curtain. The astro- and geo-physics programs at HSU will expand immensely, creating untold wealth and nearly endless demand for au pairs. There will be a huge new Land Rover dealership. Myrtletown may one day be the home of the grandest opera house in the world. We'll get a Home Depot, a Trader Joe's and a Crate and Barrel. The music department at CR will be funded. Fort Humboldt will once again be the most important military installation on the Pacific Coast. And each day sub-assemblies of spacecraft and satellites will flow both east and west on our new railway.

This is a vision that must be brought to life now. Money must immediately start to flow. It may be necessary that, for a short time, a handful of decades, institutions that supply education, law enforcement, administration of justice, perhaps even streets and sewers will have to go on a back burner, but once we get started nothing can stop us. The future is ours to take.

Roy Dahlberg resides in Arcata.

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EPA report: More than half nation’s rivers in poor shape

3/26/13

More than half of the country’s rivers and streams are in poor biological health, unable to support healthy populations of aquatic insects and other creatures, according to a nationwide survey released Tuesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency sampled nearly 2,000 locations in 2008 and 2009 — from rivers as large as the Mississippi River to streams small enough for wading. The study found more than 55 percent of them in poor condition, 23 percent in fair shape, and 21 percent in good biological health.
The most widespread problem was high levels of nutrient pollution, caused by phosphorus and nitrogen washing into rivers and streams from farms, cities and sewers. High levels of phosphorus — a common ingredient in detergents and fertilizers — were found in 40 percent of rivers and streams.

Another problem detected was development. Land clearing and building along waterways increases erosion and flooding and allows more pollutants to enter waters.

“This new science shows that America’s streams and rivers are under significant pressure,” said Nancy Stoner, acting assistant administrator of the EPA’s water office. “We must continue to invest in protecting and restoring our nation’s streams and rivers, as they are vital sources of our drinking water, provide many recreational opportunities and play a critical role in the economy.”

Conditions are worse in the East, the report found. More than 70 percent of streams and rivers from the Texas coast to the New Jersey coast are in poor shape. Streams and rivers are healthiest in Western mountain areas, where only 26 percent were classified as in poor condition.

The EPA also found some potential risks for human health.

In 9 percent of rivers and streams, bacteria exceeded thresholds protective of human health. And mercury, which is toxic, was found in fish tissue along 13,000 miles of streams at levels exceeding health-based standards. Mercury occurs naturally but also can enter the environment from coal-burning power plants and from burning hazardous wastes.

The Obama administration finalized regulations to control mercury pollution from coal-burning power plants for the first time in late 2011.

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Download the EPA National Rivers and Streams Assessment report HERE