HomerNews.com, 6 January 2010
An association that works with global grassroots organizations to advocate for safe, healthy food and water and promotes public resource ownership has blasted a bill made public on Christmas Eve by California Congresswoman Lois Capps that would allow offshore aquaculture in federal waters, 3 to 200 miles offshore.
The nonprofit Food and Water Watch calls the bill "unnecessary and not a step toward protecting our oceans and fishermen's jobs from harms associated with ocean fish farming."
"While Representative Capps may intend legislation as a safeguard against a piecemeal approach to developing and regulating ocean aquaculture, theultimate effect is of streamlining the process for the industry to better establish itself in the U.S.," according to Food and Water Watch.
Fish farming can have devastating effects on the environment and fishing jobs and produce lower-quality fish for consumers, the group said. Environmental problems can include escapement of fish, pollution of surrounding waters with excess feed and fish waste, and transmission of parasites and diseases to wild populations.
Food and Water Watch points out the bill contains limited liability for damages to naturalresources.
Former Sen. Ted Stevens introduced the first National Offshore Aquaculture Act in 2005 after concerns from the Bush administration that the United States was falling behind in global seafood cultivation and a near $8 billion seafood trade deficit. Capps' legislation is the National Sustainable Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2009. There was also an act introduced in 2007.
Stevens later introduced an amendment that would allow coastal states to opt out of allowing offshore aquaculture.
Capps defended her bill, saying "My legislation represents a huge step forward in our efforts to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for offshore aquaculture development that balances environmental, social and economic concerns. I believe that by working together we can create a common sense framework that ensures that offshore aquaculture development proceeds in an ecologically sustainable fashion."
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has twice offered legislation prohibiting the development of any new offshore aquaculture ventures in federal waters until Congress addresses the environmental issues associated with offshore aquaculture.
Food and Water Watch says that "rather than continue with legislation to regulate (and thus allow) ocean fish farming, Rep. Capps should instead support legislation that would prevent the growth of this industry. To supplement U.S. seafood production and increase green jobs, a much more sustainable approach is necessary. Representative Capps should support the exploration of aquaculture techniques that have fewer negative environmental and economicimpacts, such as land-based re-circulating systems."
The Dungeness crab fishery in Southeast Alaska fell off somewhat in 2009 with a total harvest of just over 3.5 million pounds, down from 4.7 million pounds in 2008, and a village is asking the Board of Fisheries to shut down the more productive summer season.
The organized village of Kasaan, a federally recognized tribal government, submitted the proposal to the board saying the summer fishery negatively impacted the subsistence harvest. The board will take up the proposal at its March meeting, which addresses statewide finfish and supplemental issues.
The fishery was open for two months this fall, and two months last summer. The fall harvest totaled 949,000 pounds of Dungeness; the summer harvest was 2.6 million pounds.
The average price paid to fishermen for both seasons was $1.72 per pound, for a total value of $5.9 million.
Fishermen interested in commenting on proposals going before the Board of Fisheries for the February meeting dealing with Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands finfish issues have until Jan. 12 to do so. Several of the proposals have to do with the state-waters cod fishery, and most of those are looking to limit who can participate, mostly by restrictions in vessel size. Others aim to increase the percentage of the federal cod quota set aside for state waters to 50 percent.
Salmon proposals for the region, Area M and Chignik, include ways to increase the gillnet harvest of pink salmon in the post-June fishery in Area M and increase fishing time for the Southeast District Mainland, as well as many others.
The complete proposal book can be found through the board's Web site at www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us.
A study recently conducted in the Gulf of Alaska and published in the journal Nature indicates that glaciers are a significant source of high-quality feed for the base of the food chain, and their continuing disappearance may cause problems for the marine ecosystem. The research, which was conducted on 11 coastal watersheds in the Gulf of Alaska, has documented an interesting paradox with important implications for coastal ecosystems.
"Glacial watersheds comprise 30 percent of the Tongass National Forest and supply about 35 to 40 percent of the stream discharge," says Rick Edwards, a co-author on the study. "These watersheds export dissolved organic matter that is remarkably biologically active in contrast to that found in other rivers. Generally, scientists expect that organic matter decreases in its quality as a food source as it ages, becoming less and less active over time."
But the dissolved organic material discharged from the glacial watersheds in this study was almost 4,000 years old; yet surprisingly, more than 66 percent of it was rapidly metabolized by marine microbes into living biomass to support marine food webs, according to Edwards.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at realist468@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Source: HomerNews.com
