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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 3, NO. 7 16 FEBRUARY 2001
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3:07/01. MPAs - DON'T MAKE THE REST OF THE OCEAN A
SACRIFICE ZONE PCFFA WARNS: On the eve of the national
seminar on marine refuges, part of the of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting held in San Francisco,
the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) issued
a warning on 16 February that all ocean waters need protection, not just
the percentage some want to set aside as no-take zones. PCFFA in its
statement said that it agrees with many scientists and environmental
organizations on the need to protect marine ecosystems, it cautioned that
protecting only waters designated as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) could
open the door to new offshore oil drilling, ocean dumping, and proposals
to use the ocean for carbon sequestration (pumping CO2 into the ocean, as
a means of combating global warming) instead of curtailing the emission
of greenhouse gasses.
"We recognize the need for and support the establishment of some areas
to be set aside as refuges, whether permanent or rotating, to benefit resident
fish and shellfish populations and ultimately fishermen. Certain types of
activities that destroy habitats - such as anchoring on coral reefs or using
heavy bottom trawl gear over rocky pinnacles - are inappropriate and
should be prohibited in some areas. We also realize that pristine areas free
of any human activity need to be set aside for baseline research," said
PCFFA Northwest Director Glen Spain. "But let's be clear that setting
aside some areas does not mean the rest are sacrifice zones. Our whole
ocean, not just a part of it, should be protected."
In reiterating its concern that the rush to set aside a percentage of
ocean
waters in MPAs could leave remaining ocean waters vulnerable to
pollution and habitat destruction, PCFFA President Pietro Parravano
emphasized, "our oceans are too important for life on this planet and for the
production of so much of our food, to just set aside a small portion of them
- such as 20 or 30 percent for protection." Rather than specifying a
percentage of ocean waters only for protection, PCFFA has proposed zones
for: 1) BASELINE RESEARCH within pristine waters where no human
activity, except scientific observation, would be permitted; 2) HARVEST
REFUGES as set asides for resident fish and shellfish species; and 3)
FRAGILE HABITATS where the use of certain types of fishing gear or
other activities would be prohibited. These zones would be within an
overall regime of protecting all ocean waters. For more information, go to
PCFFA's website at: www.pcffa.org .
3:07/02. CONTINUE OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING
MORATORIUM PCFFA/IFR TELLS MMS: On 31 January the
Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR) and PCFFA issued written
comments to the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the U.S.
Department of Interior agency charged with leasing the nation's submerged
lands for oil and gas development, calling for a continued moratorium on
new offshore oil drilling. The comment deadline to MMS is 22 February
(see Sublegals, 3:01/13).
In its formal comments to the federal agency, PCFFA/IFR wrote, "the
OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] areas on the west coast most likely to be
considered are also in the very heart of incredibly productive commercial
fisheries, the most productive in the nation, and these marine ecosystems
are also very fragile biological systems that would inevitably be disrupted
and potentially seriously depleted by offshore oil and gas lease
development activities. In other words, oil exploitation in these areas could
easily mean job losses in the hundreds of thousands and many billions of
dollars in lost personal impacts to our industry and the regional economy
by triggering potentially catastrophic collapses of our economically very
valuable but highly fragile groundfish fisheries, salmon fisheries,
Dungeness crab fisheries and squid harvests....The west coast's extremely
valuable fisheries are simply too much to sacrifice for the equivalent of a
few days to several week's oil consumption." For a copy of the letter or
more information, see: www.pcffa.org .
3:07/03. SESSION ON POSSIBLE USE OF DEEP RIGS AS FADS:
A technical session and panel on the use of offshore oil rigs as fish
aggregating devices (FADS) is scheduled for 22-25 February in
Jacksonville, Florida as part of the American Fisheries Society (AFS)
Southern Division Midyear Meeting. For more information, contact Jeff
Childs at jchilds at falcon.tamucc.edu .
3:07/04. COMMERCIAL SHELLFISH HARVEST THREATENED
BY POLLUTION: An article in the 13 February edition of The Olympian
reports that data presented at the 2001 Puget Sound Research Conference
indicates that bacterial contamination affects up to 60 percent of
commercial shellfish from Puget Sound. Over half of the growing areas
under investigation contain what have been deemed unacceptable fecal
coliform counts by Department of Health's Tim Determan. The most likely
sources of the pollution are stormwater runoff, failing septic systems, and
animal waste. The discovery of increasing populations of jellyfish, which
can survive in oxygen deprived waters, does not bode well for water
quality in the sound. Based on this data, commercial harvest has been
halted in two major inlets of the sound, equally over 2,300 acres when rains
are heavy and pollution input is the highest. Plans are underway for the
development of both a shellfish protection district and pollution prevention
plan before June in order to sustain the fishery. To view the article go to:
http://news.theolympian.com/stories/20010213/SouthSound/183699.shtml
The findings of shellfish pollution in Puget Sound comes on the heels
of a 20 January Associated Press story reporting U.S. President George W.
Bush issuance of a directive blocking a Clinton Administration order aimed
at stemming runoff from feedlots. Included in the Bush directive was a halt
to the previous administration's "long-term plan" for reducing the size of
the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The final plan, released in early
January by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), calls for
improvement through a series of voluntary actions and incentives for
farmers. The "dead zone" is caused when excessive nitrogen pollutants
from fertilizer and animal wastes -- increase growth of algae. To meet that
goal, the Clinton plan called for increases in financial and technical
assistance for landowners implementing conservation measures and the
development of new partnerships to reduce polluted runoff into the basin.
3:07/05. GAO FINDS HALF OF U.S. SEAFOOD FIRMS NOT
FOLLOWING HACCP RULES: The Associated Press reported
Tuesday, 13 February, a finding by the Congressional General Accounting
Office (GAO) that less than half of all American seafood firms are
following U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) food safety standards
under the agency's HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point)
program. Instituted in 1997 as the U.S. fishing industry's answer to
seafood health inspections, the GAO report found only 44 percent of
seafood companies with HACCP plans met the minimal requirement for
seafood safety. The GAO report also found that only one-third of seafood
importers that were inspected by the FDA could document they were
following the rules.
The GAO report comes on top of a series of recent reports on the safety
of seafood in the U.S. Late last year, the American Medical Association
(AMA) published its study recommending eating fish two to four times a
week to cut the risk of stroke. Then, the FDA issued a health warning on
mercury levels in shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish warning
against the consumption of those fish by pregnant women, children and the
elderly. This was followed by a Purdue University study, reported by
WorldCatch, over a 3-year period of heavy metals in catfish, trout and
crawfish, that found levels of mercury were on average 40 to 100 times
lower than the one-part-per-million limit set by the FDA. Compounding
all of this was the finding by the Suzuki Foundation of potentially
dangerous levels of toxic chemicals in the feed given to farmed salmon (see
Sublegals, 3:01/10). To view the various recent news reports on seafood
safety, visit the WorldCatch website at: http://worldcatch.com .
3:07/06: FEDERAL COURT THROWS-OUT LOWER SNAKE
RIVER DAM WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN: On 16
February, in Portland, a U.S. Federal District Court Judge ruled the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers (COE) failed to adequately address federal Clean
Water Act (CWA) temperature and dissolved gas requirements in the
Corps' 1998 plan for the operations of Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental,
Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the lower Snake River. The COE
approval, therefore, of that plan was arbitrary and capricious, the court
held. The judge, noting that it was clear error for the Corps to ignore CWA
requirements (which are routinely violated at those dams), ordered it to
come up with a new plan "which addresses its compliance with its legal
obligations under the Clean Water Act" within sixty (60) days. PCFFA
and IFR were co-Plaintiffs in this case, originally brought by the National
Wildlife Federation, and Plaintiffs were represented by the Earthjustice
Legal Defense Fund (National Wildlife Federation et al. v. U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers)
The court noted that there was clear evidence water temperature and
dissolved nitrogen maximums for salmon were routinely exceeded at these
four lower Snake River dams, that the dams contribute substantially to
those violations, and that "the administrative record raises substantial
doubts as to whether the Corps has complied with its legal obligations."
This ruling follows upon a prior ruling by the same court on 21 March
2000 that the COE is legally bound by CWA standards. Prior to that
ruling, COE considered such standards advisory rather than mandatory.
This ruling makes it clear that not only do those standards legally apply,
but that the Corps' actions in the past and plans for the future must take
them into account.
CWA standards for the Snake river include maximum water
temperatures of 68 F. Sustained water temperatures in excess of about 68
F. (20 C.) are very stressful and even fatal to migrating juvenile salmon,
but these temperatures are routinely exceeded for long periods of time in
summer months within the lower Snake River dam system. The Biological
Opinion (BiOp)prior to the recently adopted November 2000 version called
for temperature maximums of 59 F. (15 C.), a goal never met during
summers. The current BiOp is vaguer, deferring to the development of a
Water Quality Improvement Plan among the federal agencies to set
standards which has not yet been developed.
There are only a limited number of ways the Corps might meet water
quality standards, including obtaining more net flow through the Snake
River from Idaho water users (a move that would be hotly contested), or
bypassing the river around one or more Snake River dams. This could
create a crisis for the President who, at various times, has apparently
opposed all the possible measures the Corps could take to resolve its
dilemma. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has
long complained of Corps' CWA violations in the Snake River, has already
taken the position that water quality requirements for salmon could not in
fact be met unless the lower Snake River dams were bypassed (EPA
comments to the Snake River Dams Draft Environmental Impact
Statement, 27 April 2000). Any conceivable engineering fixes, if any are
even possible, might well exceed the costs of decommissioning. For more
information or a copy of the ruling contact: Earthjustice Legal Defense
Fund, Kristin Boyles, (206)343-7340.
3:07/07. SALMON RECOVERY MONITORING REPORT: The
State of Washington's Independent Science Panel, intended to oversee the
scientific credibility of that state's salmon restoration programs, recently
delivered a report to the Governor and the Legislature on salmon recovery
monitoring (ISP Rep. 2000-2; "Recommendations for Monitoring
Salmonid Recovery in Washington State" (Dec. 2000)). It is now available
in PDF format from the following website:
http://www.governor.wa.gov/esa/science/documents.htm.
3:07/08. CALFED BAY-DELTA GRANT CONCEPT PROPOSALS
DUE 23 FEBRUARY: CALFED's Bay-Delta Watershed Program first
stage "concept proposals" are due in by 1700 HRS on 23 February. These
first stage proposals must be a concise description of the proposed program
seeking funding. The proposal process has been split into two steps: 1) the
submission of a "concept proposal" which will then go through a review
and 2) the invitation of a full proposal. State funding for the Program is
pending legislative action. For more information see the CALFED Bay-
Delta web site at http://www.baydeltawatershed.org/.
3:07/09. WATERSHED ASSESSMENT WORKSHOP 24
FEBRUARY: FishNet 4C- the Fishery Network of the Central California
Coastal Counties will be hosting a Watershed Assessment Workshop on 24
February in Ukiah, California. The workshops will include information on
how to plan and organize a watershed assessment, an overview of the
Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board's (OWEB) Assessment Manual,
California methods of assessing watershed resources, and local central
California agency contacts for technical assistance. The event is scheduled
from 930 to 1530 hours on Saturday, 24 February at the Todd Grove Room
in Ukiah. The workshop is free, but pre-registration is required in order
to plan for lunches and speakers. The Oregon Watershed Assessment
Manual will be available for purchase for $25 on-site. To register on-line,
send name/organization, address, phone number and e-mail to Kallie Kull
at kallie at igc.org. Or, mail to: 94 Fairlawn Dr., Berkeley, CA 94708. For
more information, contact: Kallie Kull with FishNet 4C at (510) 649-0704
or kallie at igc.org, or Chamise Cubbison at: (707) 468-9223, ext. 3.
3:07/10. FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR WATER STUDIES AND
PROJECTS: California's Department of Water Resources (DWR) has
announced the availability of loan and grant funding for local studies,
programs, and projects to better manage California's water resources. For
more information and applications visit:
http://wwwdwr.water.ca.gov/grants-loans/default.html. Various grant
programs have specific due dates up to 20 March.
3:07/11. KRIS-NOYO SYSTEM TO BE UNVEILED FRIDAY IN
FORT BRAGG: The Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR) will roll-out
its watershed resource information system for the Noyo River at a public
meeting in Fort Bragg on 23 February (at the Town Hall beginning at 1800
HRS). Called KRIS (for Klamath Resource Information System) Noyo ,
it is part of a three-watershed project that was funded by the California
Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CDF) and the National Fish &
Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) for Mendocino County (along with the Big
and Ten Mile river watersheds) along California's north coast. The new
KRIS Noyo project contains graphs and charts on fish populations, water
temperatures, stream sediment, vegetation, road densities, riparian
conditions and more. It has aerial photographs, maps, and bibliographic
resources as well. The bibliography contains full text versions of agency
file memos, watershed reports, and a wealth of cutting-edge scientific
articles on Pacific salmon and watersheds. An electronic map project
(KRIS Noyo Map) is also on the CD, but it requires ArcView software to
run it. All information contained in KRIS Noyo survived an extensive
review by agency biologists, timber company specialists, and
academic researchers.
The computer programs and maps were developed, and information
gathered and entered, by a team of specialists that also developed KRIS
projects in the Klamath and Trinity basins and in two dozen coho salmon
watersheds in Humboldt County. KRIS Noyo team member and former
Fort Bragg salmon fisherwoman, Vivian Bolin, added that "This enormous
collection of carefully reviewed scientific information will help inform
land use decisions in the Noyo River watershed for years to come".
Information was provided by timber companies, community organizations,
the fishermen's own data collection programs, CDF, the California
Department of Fish & Game, the North Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board, the City of Fort Bragg and others. A number of historic
photographs, made available to the project by the Mendocino Historical
Society, the Held-Poage Library, and local residents, have been
incorporated in KRIS to illustrate how the watershed has changed over the
years.
The KRIS Noyo software is free, it is easy to use and can be run on
any modestly powered IBM personal computer. Macintosh computer users
can either purchase software to run PC programs or they can surf the
website containing portions of KRIS Noyo at http://www.krisweb.com.
KRIS Noyo CDs are available free to any interested person by calling (916)
227-2652. KRIS CDs covering the Big River and Ten Mile River are
nearing completion and IFR and CDF will make these available to the
public, as well. The KRIS Noyo Program is dedicated to the memory of
Michael Maahs, a Fort Bragg fisherman and biologist who was lost at sea
last March.
3:07:12. WILLAMETTE RIVER WATERSHED CONFERENCE
SET FOR APRIL: A two-day conference focusing on water and fisheries
issues in Oregon's Willamette River watershed will be held on 11-12 April
at the Water Resources Education Center in Vancouver, Washington,
sponsored by the Oregon Chapters of the American Institute of Hydrology
(AIH) and American Water Resources Association (AWRA). Check the
AWRA and AIH websites for the most current information: www.awra.org
or www.aihydro.org. For further information, contact: Anders Rasmussen,
HDR Engineering,(503) 768-3751, e-mail: arasmuss at hdrinc.com; or Ivars
Steinblums, Mt. Hood National Forest, (503) 668-1780, e-mail:
isteinblums at fs.fed.us.
3:07/13. TOOTH NETS COULD REDUCE WILD SALMON
MORTALITY: In an attempt to improve techniques used to selectively
catch hatchery salmon, leaving wild salmon behind, commercial fishing
vessels will test tooth nets, also known as tangle nets, on the Columbia
River this spring, according to a 12 February report by National
Fisherman. These experimental nets are smaller than gill nets and thus
entrap the fish by its teeth or jaws instead of its gills, improving the
chances of wild fish survival. In addition, each boat is equipped with a
recovery box, a container with fresh running water where fish that are to
be thrown back can recover. The cost of the nets and the boxes are close to
$3,000 but organizers hope that a grant from the Northwest Power Planning
Council-Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) will fund the study. If
the nets prove to decrease wild salmon bycatch mortality, widespread
implementation is possible. Currently, the nets will be mandatory on the
Willamette River for the 2001 Spring Chinook season. For the full text go
to: http://www.nationalfisherman.com/ondeck/news/news.html
3:07/14. CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR WAIVES
ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS, FISH PROTECTIONS TO
INCREASE POWER PRODUCTION: On 8 February, California
Governor Gray Davis issued executive order D-22-01 stating that due to
the current energy crisis and the fact that, "all reasonable conservation,
allocation, and service restriction measures will not alleviate this energy
supply emergency" that all existing power plants which increase their
output by less than 50 megawatts between June and October 2001 will not
be subject to the jurisdiction of the Energy Commission. The order
continues to say that any thermal powerplants currently offline will be able
to come online more quickly due to a reduction in the time allocated for
environmental and public safety review. Perhaps the most environmentally
compromising provision of the order mandates that the State Water
Resources Control Board (SWRCB) is to "ensure that powerplants in the
State of California are not precluded from operating as a result of thermal
limits in waste discharge requirements." (See Sublegals, 3:06/01). For full
text of the order go to www.governor.ca.gov and search for "D-22-01"
3:07/15. NMFS AND USFWS TO ASSESS IMPACT OF
TRANSGENIC SALMON: Greenwire reports the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration (FDA) will look to the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to investigate the
potential impacts of escaped transgenic fish on native populations. Despite
White House reports that the aquaculture industry's ability to ensure that
transgenic salmon are sterile is "high, but less than 100%", fishing and
conservation groups are concerned that any escapement could alter an
already sensitive gene pool of wild fish. An application for FDA approval
by A/F protein for fish that reportedly have growth rates 4 to 6 times that
of wild salmon has been met with concern by health safety organizations.
(See Sublegals, 3:05/15).
The 19 February issue of Forbes magazine (pp.106-107) features an
article on Elliot Entis, of Aqua Bounty Farms (A/F Protein), the developer
of transgenic Atlantic salmon. According to the Forbes report, Entis plans
to sell his genetically modified (GMO) salmon eggs, if he gets FDA
approval, in batches of hundreds of thousands to fish farms around the
world for 50 cents (US) apiece. "He figures fish farmers would be willing
to pay five times what they normally do for roe because they could cut the
growth cycle in half and slash their production costs from $1.55 per pound
of live salmon to $1.20."
3:07/16. INVASIVE SPECIES WORKSHOP: A workshop entitled
"Reducing the Introduction and Damage of Aquatic Nonindigenous
Species Through Outreach and Education" will be held on 8 May at the
Holiday Inn San Mateo, from 0830 to 1630. Registration is free and
limited to the first 45 responses. To register, e-mail Erin Williams at
emwilliams at ucdavis.edu or call at (530) 752-3419. The workshop is
sponsored by the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. The workshop follows by
a month the National Conference on Marine Bioinvasions in New Orleans
where IFR will be presenting a paper (see Sublegals, 3:06/16; 2:23/11).
The aquatic invasives workshop announcement also follows on the heels
of the lawsuit filed on 8 February by the Center for Marine Conservation
(CMC) and San Francisco BayKeeper against the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (COE), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). The suit, filed under the Endangered
Species Act (ESA), contends the federal agencies have failed to develop
plans to adequately address the discharge of ballast water, which is a major
source of invasive species, in line with the Port of Oakland's proposed
expansion of its ship terminal. Plaintiffs are represented by Earthjustice
Legal Defense Fund. CMC's Linda Sheehan, has argued that while the
Port's regulations for ballast water discharges are a "good first step," they
do not apply to ships in the coastal trade or those coming to port in storms.
Ship ballast water, along with plants and animals dumped from aquariums,
and fish escaping aquaculture operations are the three main sources of
nonindigenous invasive aquatic species. For more information, e-mail:
esmith at earthjustice.org .
3:07/17. NMFS RELEASES SHARK PLAN: The National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) has released a final copy of the national plan of
action for the conservation and management of sharks. The plan is based
on input from scientists , federal and state agencies, and public comments
on the draft report. To receive a copy of the plan, contact Margo Schulze-
Haugen or Karyl Brewster-Geisz at (301) 713-2347.
3:07/18. COASTAL PELAGICS MEETING IN PORTLAND: An
open meeting of the Pacific Fishery Management Council's Coastal
Pelagic Species Management Team (CPSMT) and Coastal Pelagic Species
Advisory Subpanel (CPSAS) will take place on 9 March at 0800 HRS at
the DoubleTree Hotel in Portland. For further information call Dan
Waldeck at (503) 326-6352.
3:07/19. REDEDICATION OF SALMON TROLLERS HALL,
PRESENTATION ON SALMON FORAGE SET FOR SATURDAY
IN FORT BRAGG: California Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin,
chair of the State Legislature's Joint Committee on Fisheries &
Aquaculture, will be on hand in Fort Bragg on early Saturday afternoon, 24
February, for the rededication of the Salmon Trollers Marketing
Association (STMA) hall and a presentation on a study on salmon forage
and its implications. STMA was one of the earliest marketing associations
formed along the Pacific Coast following the break-up by the U.S.
Government of the fishermen's union in the late 1940's. It's meeting hall,
built in the early 1950's was badly damaged by fire last year and has just
been rebuilt. As part of the ceremonies, long-time fisherman Bill Maahs
will present the findings of a two-decade long studies conducted by his late
son, Mike, on the salmon forage and the implications for rebuilding
rockfish stocks. For more information, contact STMA at: (707) 964-5500.
3:07/20. RUSSIAN FISHING INDUSTRY PROTESTS
GOVERNMENT PUTTING UP FISH QUOTAS FOR AUCTION,
AUCTION PROCEEDS NEVERTHELESS: On 14 February, a group
of fishing companies from the Far Eastern federal district of Russia held a
strike in Vladivostok protesting the government's plan to implement
auctions as a means to distribute fishing quotas. This is a follow-up to a
letter submitted to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking that the
auctions not be held and that allocation of fishing quotas by the Federal
Committee for Fishing continue without cost. Nevertheless, several dozen
fishing companies have conceded and registered to take part in the 17
February auction (See Sublegals 3:05/04). A spokesman for the Russian
government interprets this participation as support for the policy and
believes "the fishermen of Russia support the decision of the government
to organize auctions". Since 1 January many vessels and their crews have
been forced to stay in port while the quotas remained in the hands of the
government. According to a ITAR-TASS news agency report on 1 Feb,
quotas for 100,000 tonnes (1 tonne= 2204 lbs) of Canadian pollock and
2,000 tonnes of herring in the Sea of Okhotsk are up for auction. The news
of the pending auction followed the British Broadcasting Company (BBC)
report of 2 February that the United States has granted a quota of
approximately 150,000 tonnes on pollock to Russia within the U.S.
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Bering Sea. For information on the
results of the 17 February auction see the WorldCatch website
http://worldcatch.com which has been reporting regularly on events in the
Russian Far East fisheries.
3:07/21. NMFS WEBSITE ON FISHING GEAR IMPACTS: The
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has announced it has
established a website for information the agency has gathered on the effects
of fishing gear on both habitat and fish. The site includes a literature
database providing access to scientific and popular literature on the effects
of mobile fishing gear. It is the intent of NMFS to update the website
database on a regular basis with new information of ongoing research.
Because of strong interest in these issues and the considerable delays that
are often associated with preparation and peer review of scientific journal
publications, a variety of workshop summaries, progress reports and other
technical documents of interest are posted. Also available are new
graphical summaries of bottom trawl research in Alaska waters, and maps
showing the variability of key invertebrate species. Plans for future
research focus on identifying the effects of the various gear types,
including trawls, longlines, pots and dredges, on fish habitat for a range of
habitat types. Long term plans call for studies that establish the connections
between habitat, fish production, population dynamics and the mitigation
of fishing impacts through gear design. To view the website go to:
http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/abl/MarFish/geareffects.htm .
3:07/22. DEEP-SEA FISHERIES SYMPOSIUM SET FOR
HAVANA IN SEPTEMBER: A deep-sea fisheries symposium, to be held
in conjunction with the 23rd Annual Meeting of NAFO, has been scheduled
for 12-14 September in Havana, Cuba. The meeting is sponsored by
NAFO, ICES and CSIRO. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 1
March. For more information, contact: Jon A. Moore, Florida Atlantic
University, at (561) 799-8025 or e-mail at: jmoore at fau.edu .
NEWS, COMMENTS, CORRECTIONS: Submit your news items,
comments or any corrections to Natasha Benjamin, Editor at:
ifrfish at aol.com or call the IFR office with the news and a source at either:
(415) 561-FISH (Southwest Office) or (541) 689-2000 (Northwest Office).
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