[Fishlink] ~~>FISHLINK SUBLEGALS 8/23/02<~~
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bit-bucket@straylight.primelogic.com
Fri, 30 Aug 2002 17:20:01 EDT
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~~>FISHLINK SUBLEGALS 8/23/02<~~
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A WEEKLY QUOTA OF FISHERY SHORTS CAUGHT AND
LANDED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR FISHERIES RESOURCES
AND THE PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S
ASSOCIATIONS
VOL. 06, NO. 08 23 AUGUST 2002
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"You can blame people who knock things over in the dark, or you can
begin to light candles. You're only at fault if you know about the
problem and choose to do nothing." ........Paul Hawkin
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This week's issue of Sublegals is available in PDF format on the web at
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still wish to read it through your email. In the coming weeks we will be
posting all past issues as well as a search engine. In addition to this new
look, we are continuing our Sublegals Fundraiser to support the Institute
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have recently passed our 100th issue, with very little funding, and are
looking to our readers to sustain the continuation of this effort. Go to
www.sublegals.net to donate to this effort. Thank you for your support
of community fisheries education.
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IN THIS ISSUE.......
Scientists Blast Use Of Genetically Modified Organisms. 6:08/01
Oregon Oceans Policy Group Recommends Marine
Protected Areas. 6:08/02
Widespread Frog Deformaties Linked To Two
Common Pesticides. 6:08/06
U.S. House Committee Tries To Redefine Science. 6:08/07
Second International "Fishers Forum" To Be Held
19-22 November In Hawaii. 6:08/16
AND MORE......
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6:08/01. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL BLASTS USE OF
GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMO): On 20 August the
U.S. National Research Council, responding to a request by the U.S.
Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for an independent scientific
review, issued a report, "Animal Biotechnology: Science Based
Concerns," which confirmed and highlighted the serious dangers
inherent in introducing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the
wild. The FDA requested the review as it prepares to rule on the safety
of certain animal-biotechnology products, including an application by
Aqua-Bounty Corporation to market genetically modified salmon that
has been extremely controversial (see Sublegals 5:09/02; 5:01/05;
4:16/13; 4:11/10; 3:23/14; 3:19/03; 3:07/15; 3:05/15; 2:16/11).
The NRC report confirms earlier reports on the dangers of transgenic
plants (see Sublegals 5:09/02), and also confirms the work of Purdue
scientists William M. Muir and Richard D. Howard on the "Trojan Gene
Theory." According to their models, based on well known genetic
transfer mechanisms (see Sublegals 6:02/06), many of the exotic genes
being proposed for approval by the FDA for salmon aquaculture stock
would inevitably escape to the wild, where they would gradually drive
wild salmon toward extinction is as little as 30 generations. For the
NRC press release go to: www4.nationalacademies.org/
news.nsf/isbn/0309084393?OpenDocument.
There are currently two GMO bills in the California legislature still
pending. SB 1525 would ban genetically modified organisms in the state
for sales or release without a permit (see Sublegals 5:20/06) while AB
791 would merely require that products with genetically modified
organisms be so labeled to consumers (see Sublegals 6:06/01; 5:26/02).
The State of Oregon also has a GMO labeling law on its initiative ballot
for November (see Sublegals 6:05/03) and the State of Massachusetts
already has a law on its books (HB 189, signed 10 April 2002) limiting
the use of GMO fish in aquaculture operations (see Sublegals 3:15/19).
6:08/02. OREGON OCEANS POLICY GROUP RECOMMENDS
MARINE PROTECTED AREAS: On 16 August the Oregon Ocean
Policy Advisory Committee (OPAC), a broad-based stakeholder group
appointed by Oregon's Governor Kitzhaber to advise him on marine
issues, recommended by a nearly unanimous vote the creation of marine
protected areas off the coast of Oregon. The initial areas would also be
monitored carefully as part of an experimental program to determine
their effectiveness as a conservation tool before they are widely
implemented.
The Oregon OPAC process has been collaborative and included
commercial fishing interests from its origin by design (see Sublegals
5:18/07; 2:14/09). Among the recommendations of the report were that
"before designing any specific marine reserves, Oregon acquire
additional information and conduct additional study, analysis, and
deliberation through an open, public process with extensive stakeholder
involvement." For a copy of the Final Report to the Governor and
information on the OPAC process see:
www.oregonocean.org/index.shtml.
6:08/03. GLOBAL WARMING THREATENING OCEAN
ECOSYSTEMS: A new report by the Pew Center on Global Climate
Change predicts that ongoing global warming is likely to upset the
delicate balance of many fragile coastal and ocean ecosystems over the
next decades, and that these systems may react in dramatic and
devastating ways. Extrapolating from the best and most recent
predictions, "such high rates of change will probably result in local if not
total extinction of some species, the alteration of species distributions in
ways that may lead to major changes in their interactions with other
species, and modifications in the flow of energy and cycling of materials
within ocean ecosystems," warns the new report, "Coastal and Marine
Ecosystems and Global Climate Change: Potential Effects on U.S.
Resources," available online at:
www.pewclimate.org/projects/marine.cfm. The beginning of these
effects are being seen now, as low lying areas of Louisiana disappear
before rising sea levels, as major coral reef die offs occur worldwide and
as El Nino events become more frequent and more severe than in the
past. For more see:
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-14-06.asp.
6:08/04. ALMOST HALF OF U.S. IN DROUGHT: According to
monthly drought assessments by the U.S. National Oceanic &
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 49% of the United States is now
in "moderate to severe" drought conditions, due in part to the
fifth-warmest July on record. Much of eastern Oregon and most of
California have been classed as abnormally dry, though hardest hit has
been the Rocky Mountain states, the Southwest and Southeast according
to CNN.com at:
www.cnn.com/2002/WEATHER/08/14/drought.heat/index.html. For a
map of the regions hit with drought refer to the National Drought
Monitor website and information updates there at:
www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html. NOAA National Climatic Data
Center reports indicate that 2002 is in line to be the world's second
hottest year on record, but that a weak to moderate El Nino building in
the Pacific may drive average global temperatures even higher in the
final five months of the year. Continued drought conditions will cut into
water supplies for fish and wildlife and affect salmon recovery efforts
throughout the west coast.
6:08/05. BIGGEST DEAD ZONE EVER OFF LOUISIANA: The
"dead zone" which annually forms off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf
of Mexico has set new records, larger this year than even last year's
record breaking size. The dead zone is caused by polluted runoff from
the Mississippi River, causing huge algae blooms that suck dissolved
oxygen levels down so far that nearly every marine life form caught
within the massive zone is killed. For more, see the 29 July Baton
Rouge Advocate at: http://theadvocate.com/ns-search/stories/
072902/new_coast001.shtml?NS-search-set=/3d5c4/aaaa205275c4b64&
NS-doc-offset=0&.
6:08/06. WIDESPREAD FROG DEFORMATIES LINKED TO
TWO COMMON PESTICIDES: Scientists searching for clues to the
widespread deformities now found in frogs in 43 states and Canada, and
in many other places all over the world, have found the first compelling
evidence of a link between these deformities and the pesticides atrazine
and malathion. Exposure to these commonly used agricultural pesticides
appears to make frogs more vulnerable to a common trematode or worm
parasite that infects and distorts frog hindquarters as they develop legs.
The study, by ecologist Joseph Kiesecker and titled "Synergism between
trematode infection and pesticide exposure: A link to amphibian limb
deformities in nature?" appears in the 23 July edition (Vol. 99, Issue 15,
pp. 9900-9904) of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and
is available online at: www.pnas.org/cgi/content/short/99/15/9900.
6:08/07. U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE TRIES TO REDEFINE
SCIENCE: In what is widely perceived as a stealth attack on the federal
Endangered Species Act (ESA), the U.S. House of Representatives'
Resources Committee passed a bill on 10 July (H.R. 4840) to the House
Floor that is purported to be an ESA "reform" bill. The bill, championed
by Congress's most ardent foes of the ESA, would redefine the current
standard of "best available science" that is used in all ESA decisions, and
change it to something its authors call "sound science." The new
standard gives special weight to non-peer reviewed empirical evidence if
presented by landowners, limits the use of modeling tools commonly
used in conservation biology, raises many new administrative hurdles to
future ESA listings, makes economic calculations (and not just science)
a major basis for future listing decisions, and gives landowners new
legal tools to attack ESA decisions. Under the standards established in
H.R. 4840, ESA protections for west coast salmonids, for instance,
would be all but impossible. A similar bill (S. 911) was introduced in the
U.S. Senate on 17 May 2002 by Oregon Republican Senator Gordon
Smith.
The bill has also been opposed in a strong letter to the Committee,
signed by more than 300 scientists, stating that scientists, and not
Congress, should define what science should be. Nevertheless, the bill
could now come up for a full House floor vote at any time. The bill text
is available at: http://thomas.loc.gov. For more, see the 19 July issue of
the Northwest FishLetter at:
www.newsdata.com/enernet/fishletter/fishltr146.html#4. For more
information also see: www.stopextinction.org.
6:08/08. OREGON MINERS SUE NMFS FOR BIOP DELAYS:
The Eastern Oregon Mining Association (EOMA) has sued the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), demanding that the agency complete
long overdue Biological Opinions (BiOps) on any potential threats their
member's planned public lands mining operations may have on
threatened and endangered species. The EOMA represents mostly
small-scale gold, silver and heavy metals miners whose operations
require a formal Section 7 consultation and BiOp from NMFS under the
Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) because they operate in
accordance with a federal permit. Some of the miners have been waiting
for their BiOps for as long as five years, costing them money. For more
information contact Bob Meitmanek, at: roheitma@oregontrail.net. For
more info on EOMA see their web site at: http://www.eoma.org.
6:08/09. EL NINO IS BACK, BUT LIKELY TO BE MILDER: U.S.
government climatologists announced 11 July that El Nino climate
conditions have definitely returned, but that projections still peg this
year's El Nino as less severe than during the devastating 1997-98 event.
However, as it matures, these conditions could still change, so it will
take careful monitoring according to scientists with the National Oceanic
& Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center.
Typically, El Nino conditions lead to reduced Pacific Northwest
snowpacks but early snow melt which can trigger flooding, particularly
in California. Lower snowpacks would translate into less water in
salmon-bearing rivers and increased water competition throughout the
arid U.S. Pacific coast states. For details see:
www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s938.htm.
6:08/10. SETTLEMENT OVER PUGET SOUND CHINOOK
HARVEST PLAN MAY LEAD TO RESTRICTIONS: A lawsuit
brought some time ago by Washington Trout against Washington State's
fishing regulations for its Puget Sound chinook salmon harvest has now
been settled, says the Tacoma News Tribune of 4 August. The lawsuit
challenged a joint State-Tribal plan for harvesting Puget Sound chinook
salmon when the species is also protected as "threatened" under the
federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Washington Trout says the settlement calls for the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) to postpone final approval and beforehand to
write a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Biological
Opinion by 2004 that analyzes the impacts of the Puget Sound Joint
Resource Management
Plan (RMP), including a "no harvest" option that was never considered
in the original plan. Washington Trout contends that the current plan
currently imposes simply too much risk for chinook salmon. The State
and the Tribes say they believe the plan they developed is scientifically
sound and will survive scrutiny. Washington Trout also was one of two
groups that recently gave the state 60-days notice that it plans to sue to
shut down 18 state salmon hatcheries on Puget Sound whose operation it
also contends negatively impacts ESA-listed wild chinook salmon (see
Sublegals 6:04/10). For more, see the story at:
www.tribnet.com/sports/outdoors/story/1536015p-1652934c.html.
6:08/11. CONFERENCE ON SEDIMENT DISPOSAL: With many
west coast dredging and dam removal proposals receiving much
criticism, including the Columbia River Channel Deepening Project (see
Sublegals 6:06/14) now on the table, appropriate disposal of the
sediments from such operations is becoming an increasingly
controversial problem. As a result, the Environmental Law Education
Center is presenting its "Fifth Annual Advanced Conference on
Sediments" to address some of these problems, on 6 September, 2002 at
the Auditorium of World Trade Center Building Two, 25 SW Salmon
Street, Portland, Oregon beginning at 0730 HRS. For more information
and the agenda, go to the ELEC site at:
www.elecenter.com/sediments02.htm.
6:08/12. SUMMARY OF SCIENCE ON RIPARIAN BUFFERS
AVAILABLE ONLINE: The Smithsonian Environmental Research
Center (SERC) has posted an excellent and very comprehensive
scientific bibliography of articles on riparian buffer zones as they relate
to fish and aquatic wildlife protections. The bibliography is intended to
"comprehensively cite and subject index the world literature on
vegetated stream riparian zone water quality effects." This eighth
edition review is dated April 1999 and is at:
www.serc.si.edu/Serc_web_html/pub_ripzone.htm.
6:08/13. SCIENTISTS FORM CETACEAN BYCATCH
REDUCTION NETWORK: A group of leading scientists has urged
"governments, conservation organizations and fishermen to work
together to address the leading threat to dolphins, whales and porpoises
worldwide - entanglement in fishing gear" says a 23 July World Wildlife
Fund press release, which is sponsoring the effort. The scientists group
agreed to form a global rapid response team and a bycatch reduction
resource network, called the "Cetacean Bycatch Action Network," to
help fishermen, governments and other stakeholders find practical and
cost effective solutions to the problem. Information about the Network is
at: www.cetaceanbycatch.org. The press release on the Network is
located at: www.cetaceanbycatch.org/press.htm.
6:08/14. HATCHERIES AND SALMON CONFERENCE
PROCEEDINGS AVAILABLE: The proceedings of the workshop
"Hatcheries and the Protection of Wild Salmon," organized 6-7 June
2001 by British Columbia's Simon Fraser University are now available
online at the Speaking for the Salmon website at:
www.sfu.ca/cstudies/science/salmon.htm. The document is
approximately 2 MB (150 pages) in length. Printed copies are available
for $25. For purchase information contact Jennifer Penikett, Centre for
Coastal Studies, (604)291-4893 or by email at: penikett@sfu.ca.
6:08/15. MONTEREY OCEANS FAIR PLANNED FOR
SEPTEMBER: The 10th anniversary of the Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary, Coastal Clean-Up Day, and the 10th anniversary of
the Monterey Maritime Museum will all be celebrated on 21 September
2002 from 1100 to 1700 hours at the Custom House plaza in Monterey,
California. The event will include ocean exhibits and boat rides and
tours. For further questions, including information about how to reserve
a booth, call Liz Love at (831) 647-4255 or email: liz.love@noaa.gov.
6:08/16. SECOND INTERNATIONAL "FISHERS FORUM" TO
BE HELD 19-22 NOVEMBER IN HAWAII AROUND BYCATCH
REDUCTION THEME: In a meeting hosted by the Western Pacific
Regional Fishery Management Council, the "Second International
Fishers Forum" will be held 19-22 November 2002, organized around
the subject of reduction of the incidental bycatch of sea turtles and
seabirds in commercial longline fisheries. High sea turtle bycatch rates
in the Western Pacific pelagic longline fishery were ignored by NMFS
for many years, a failure that eventually resulted in lawsuits that closed
the longline fishery down for months until NMFS could develop bycatch
reduction measures and an observer program. Bycatch concerns still
impose serious restrictions on longline fisheries in the West Pacific and
elsewhere (see Sublegals 5:12/08; 3:24/16; 3:14/08; 3:08/16; 2:18/21;
2:08/09; 2:03/16; 1:26/15). The conference aims to encourage
cooperative solutions to these problems to be developed collaboratively
between fishermen and scientists, and is free to all longline fishermen.
For more information see: www.wpcouncil.org or call the Council office
at: (808)522-8220.
6:08/17. COLUMBIA RIVER POLLUTION CITED AS HEALTH
HAZARD: Columbia River pollution may be endangering the health of
about 20,000 people in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer reported 31 July on a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) study that found that members of four native Tribes in the
Columbia River Basin have a higher than normal risk of cancer and
other diseases. Adults of the Yakamas, the Nez Perce Tribe, the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the
Confederated Tribes of Warms Springs eat up to 48 fish meals a month,
with a Tribal total averaging 6 to 11 times that of the national average,
most from the Columbia. Risks for getting cancer was 2 in 100 cases for
those eating much of the long-lived fish like sturgeon. The risk was
lower for those eating salmon, steelhead and rainbow trout (7-20 in
every 10,000 cases), though it was still high enough to warrant
regulatory intervention. Scientists found 92 of the 132 chemicals they
looked for in the fish from the Columbia.
According to the Intelligencer, the most frequently detected
contaminants were metals, PCBs, banned but environmentally persistent
pesticides such as DDT and chemicals produced during chlorine
bleaching of paper pulp or water chlorination. The Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) has opposed more river
dredging because it would release more hazardous chemicals into the
water. To read the article, go to
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/80720_columbia31.shtml.
6:08/18. CHEFS SUPPORT MANDATORY NOTICE OF
GENETICALLY MODIFIED INGREDIENTS: Eight prestigious chefs
sent a letter on 20 August to California Assemblywoman Virginia
Strom-Martin in support of AB 791, the bill that would ensure public
labeling of genetically modified food items. The chefs recently joined
over 150 restaurateurs in over 30 states to request the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) to require a mandatory notice identifying
genetically engineered (GE) fish. In their letter, they state, "Passage of
AB 791 by the California Senate would ensure that the minimum
consumer protection measures concerning GE fish are taken." The bill
has passed the California Senate, but is now bottled up in conference
where opponents hope to kill it as the California Legislature winds down
its current session. To find AB 791 by bill number see:
www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html.
6:08/19. SPORT FISHING POSES THREAT TO SEABIRDS, BUT
PROBLEM PREVENTABLE: Last summer, the City of Santa Cruz and
the California Department of Fish & Game (DFG) were forced to
prohibit fishing for several weeks on the majority of the city's pier
because dozens of pelicans were found entangled in fishing line or
impaled by fishing hooks used by anglers. The same problem was
reported in other areas of the state where popular fishing piers are also
feeding grounds for seabirds, including the endangered brown pelican.
According to DFG, of the more than 150 brown pelicans that were found
with hooks and taken into recovery last fishing season, 47 died or had to
be euthanized due to the severity of their injuries. DFG is asking sport
anglers who fish along California's shoreline and piers to avoid casting
near seabirds feeding on fish in the same area.
Other ways to avoid catching seabirds include the following: weight
the line so that the bait sinks rapidly, don't feed the birds and hide then
take home leftovers, and avoid fishing around large concentrations of
birds along piers or in roosting and breeding areas. DFG and the
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recommend the following
when a bird is accidentally hooked: do not cut the line, get help to safely
remove the bird from the water with a net, take the bird by the beak first
and cover its eyes with a damp cloth, maintain control of the head and do
not remove the hook directly. Other techniques to avoid hooking or
entangling seabirds can be found on page 32 of DFG's 2002 Ocean Sport
Fishing Regulations booklet (www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/sportfishingregs.pdf)
or from NMFS at: http://swr.ucsd.edu/habsc22.htg/bm2.htm.
6:08/20. 14 CALIFORNIA PARTY BOAT CAPTAINS BUSTED
FOR POACHING: A year-long sting investigation (Operation Near
Shore) has one charter boat captain behind bars 19 August and 13 others
charged on lesser counts. According to the 20 August Los Angeles
Times, Bodega Bay Skipper Rick Powers was "charged with one count
of felony conspiracy to violate Fish and Game laws and six
misdemeanor infractions that include using illegal hooks, exceeding
catch limits and keeping prohibited species." Other allegations include
catching fish out of season, fudging records and wounding other wildlife.
Department of Fish & Game (DFG) wardens went undercover on
various party boats along the whole coast of California and took photos
and video of violations. The investigation was prompted by complaints
from passengers unhappy with illegal activities they had witnessed.
Violations included catching undersized fish then filleting them before
returning to dock, failure to keep accurate log books, and using barbed
hooks while fishing for salmon. The charter boat industry is significant
in California, with thousands of day trips annually. These boats caught
5.8 million pounds of fish in 2001, according to state officials. The
misreporting in log books is particularly serious as resource agencies rely
on that information to determine annual catch limits. To read the LA
Times article see: www.latimes.com/la-me-fish20aug20.story or call
Steve Mararano of DFG, at 916-654-5866 for more details.
6:08/21. MERCURY, KNOWN NEUROTOXIN, EFFECTIVELY
CONFUSES SUBLEGALS STAFF: Staff at the Monterey Bay
Aquarium, wishing to correct our correction of Sublegals 6:04/05 that
appeared in 6:06/13, provided us with many links to information
regarding the sources of mercury in the environment. Humans use
mercury for items ranging from electronic devices to pharmaceuticals.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that
50-75% of mercury annually released into the environment now comes
from human sources (cited in a paper on the Mississippi-Alabama
SeaGrant Consortium's website:
www.masgc.org/mercury/abs-moore.html). The Agricultural and
Biological Engineering Department at Purdue University estimates that
an estimated two-thirds of mercury now found in the environment was
released there by human activity:
http://danpatch.ecn.purdue.edu/~epados/mercbuild/src/kids.htm. Thank
you for the correction.
NEWS, COMMENTS, CORRECTIONS: Submit your news items,
comments or any corrections to Editor at: ifrfish@pacbell.net or call the
IFR/PCFFA office with the news and a source at either: (415) 561-FISH
(Southwest Office) or (541) 689-2000 (Northwest Office).
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