I've been away for awhile; here's last week's Salmon News. New info and changes since 4/2/98 are bracketed {...}. New info and changes since 4/16/98 double bracketed {{...}}
Cleve Steward Sustainable Fisheries Foundation Tel. 425-670-3584
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{Bristol Bay Price-Fixing Lawsuit.
On Apr. 10, 1998, Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski rejected the petitions of two Seattle-area salmon processors to be dropped as defendants in the $1 billion Bristol Bay fishermen's antitrust class action case.
On Apr. 14, 1998, an Anchorage attorney announced that the one of the Japanese companies charged in this case has offered $6.25 million to settle all claims against it. Court approval of the settlement is required.} [Assoc Press]
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On Apr. 10, 1998, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted restrictive salmon seasons for 1998, with no harvest of coho salmon provided for areas south of the northern OR coast.
North of the northern OR coast, coho and chinook quotas were reduced about 40% from 1997 harvests. At the Columbia River mouth, sport fishermen will be able to keep only specially marked hatchery coho salmon. Seasons for chinook salmon are a patchwork along the coast to protect proposed and listed populations and to reduce the incidental harvest of coho salmon.} [Assoc Press]
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On Apr. 8, 1998, NMFS officials notified Nez Perce tribal officials of a proposed cut in the allowable tribal harvest of Snake River "B-run" steelhead trout, listed under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species, from 20% of the returning adults to a maximum of 7% of the returning adults. This is likely to dramatically limit the fishery for fall chinook salmon, where steelhead trout are taken incidentally.} [Assoc Press]
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On Apr. 1, 1998, WA Governor Gary Locke signed a package of seven bills into state law related to salmon, including measures creating a Governor's Salmon Recovery Office, a framework for salmon habitat restoration, a scientific review panel for salmon recovery plans, a streamlined permit process for volunteer salmon restoration projects, a required marking program to distinguish hatchery chinook salmon, and a program for planting salmon eggs in streams where wild salmon have disappeared.
Together, these measures provide about $36 million for salmon protection and restoration activities. [Assoc Press]
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On Mar. 31, 1998, the OR Water Resources Commission decided to cancel a 1994 additional water permit for the Grants Pass Irrigation District because the District had not acted as directed by the Commission on removing the Dam, which prevents coho salmon from reaching upstream spawning habitat in the Rogue River drainage. The Commission's action sends this case to a hearings officer for review before a final commission decision, likely in November 1998. [Assoc Press]
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In late March 1998, nine delegates from the Pacific northwest were scheduled to arrive in Washington, DC, to brief congressional staff on a regional plan for a "Three Sovereigns Fish and Wildlife Governance Process" to oversee salmon recovery in the Columbia River basin. The three "sovereigns" include 1) four Pacific northwest states; 2) 13 Columbia basin tribes; and 3) the federal government. Two versions of a draft agreement on this Process will be introduced at a series of public hearings in the four Pacific northwest states, beginning Apr. 8, 1998. [Assoc Press]
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On Mar. 26, 1998, OR state officials and the Nez Perce Tribe reached a court-ordered agreement allowing the tribal biologists to rear 800,000 eggs from returning hatchery steelhead trout for supplementing natural steelhead production in the Imnaha River drainage, OR. OR state biologists were concerned that such a hatchery program could harm natural steelhead stocks and wanted the returning hatchery steelhead trout destroyed. [Assoc Press]
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In late March 1998, the Northwest Power Planning Council's Independent Scientific Review Panel released a draft report on Snake River spring-summer chinook salmon, weighing the relative merits of breaching dams and barging fish. [Assoc Press]
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On Mar. 23, 1998, Canadian Minister of Fisheries David Anderson released a report critical of arguments by some U.S. managers that "pasturage" of salmon may affect the rights to their harvest. On Mar. 31, 1998, U.S. and Canadian negotiators (six for each nation) began two days of preliminary discussions in Washington, DC. {On Apr. 15-16, 1998, U.S. and Canadian negotiators began a second round of discussions in Vancouver, BC, on how to cooperatively manage salmon and allocate harvest for the 1998 season. Interim arrangements are being sought by June 1998.} {{Talks are scheduled to continue in Portland, OR, on May 11, 1998.}} [Assoc Press, Reuters] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New On Mar. 20, 1998, NMFS released a draft biological opinion for steelhead trout to state and tribal managers, calling for increased water spills at dams to assist downstream migration of juvenile fish and continuing a "spread the risk" approach by barging some juvenile fish downstream. A new flow regime for the Mid-Columbia Reach would be set at 135,000 cubic feet per second. On Mar. 23, 1998, Bonneville Power Administration officials reported that the new plan would cost BPA $15 million per year in lost power generation and transmission revenues. [Assoc Press, Dow Jones News] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New {{Norwegian Salmon. On Apr. 14, 1998, European Union officials imposed definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of farmed salmon from 24 Norwegian companies. Anti-dumping duties of $0.35 per kilogram and countervailing duties of 3.8% were imposed. This action extends some of the provisional anti-dumping duties imposed on 29 Norwegian companies in December 1997, who were cited as having violated an EU-Norwegian agreement on salmon pricing.}} [Reuters] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New On Mar. 23, 1998, the Valdez (AK) Fisheries Development Association filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in an effort to delay paying a $2.1 million court judgment against its salmon hatchery over the failed purchase of a seafood processing plant. After the court judgment, AK officials declared the hatchery in default on state loans and took nearly all the hatchery's cash -- about $1.2 million. Now the processing plant is suing the state and the hatchery, alleging the $1.2 million transfer was fraudulent. [Assoc Press] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New Ocean Summit. A National Ocean Conference on ocean and coastal issues has been scheduled for June 11-12, 1998, at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. The event is being jointly organized by the Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Navy. [Assoc Press, NOAA press release] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New Beginning on May 4, 1998, the National Park Service has scheduled a series of hearings in northern southeast Alaska communities and in Seattle, WA, on a proposal to phase out most commercial fishing within Glacier Bay National Park.} [Assoc Press] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New The House Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife, and Oceans has tentatively scheduled a hearing on west coast groundfish issues for Apr. 30, 1998. [personal communication] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New On Mar. 31, 1998, the AK Marine Conservation Council wrote a letter asking the U.S. Dept. of Commerce's Inspector General to investigate NMFS for alleged mismanagement of fisheries. The Council accuses NMFS of emphasizing short-term harvest goals in the North Pacific ahead of long-term conservation goals. The Council is particularly concerned with possible interactions between fishery harvest and Steller sea lions. [Assoc Press]
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Pacific Salmon Treaty.
Draft Biological Opinion for Steelhead Trout.
Aquaculture and Aquaria
Valdez Hatchery Files Chapter 11.
Marine Fisheries
{Glacier Bay Commercial Fishing.
West Coast Groundfish.
Investigation of NMFS.
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