The following weekly news summary was compiled by the Congressional Research Service from a variety of information sources. New info and changes since 12/11/98 are bracketed {...} New info and changes since 12/17/98 double bracketed {{...}}
Wishing you a happy New Year!
Cleve Steward Sustainable Fisheries Foundation Tel. 425-670-3584
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On Dec. 16, 1998, PATH (Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses) modelers were scheduled to report 1998 activities at a public meeting of the Northwest Power Planning Council (NPPC) in Portland, OR. PATH scientists had reported to the NMFS Implementation Team on Dec. 10, 1998.} [NPPC Advisory]
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On Dec. 16, 1998, Canada's Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans announced a new allocation policy and management principles, guaranteeing British Columbia's sport fishery priority access to all coho and chinook salmon stocks and as much as 5% of the total allowable catch of pink, chum, and sockeye salmon.} [Sport Fishing Institute of BC press release, Assoc Press]
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On Dec. 14, 1998, BC provincial fisheries minister Dennis Streifel announced that an informal survey of recreational fishing businesses indicated that the BC sport fishing industry lost as much as C$200 million in 1998, primarily due to closures of the coho salmon fishery.} [Assoc Press]
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On Dec. 2, 1998, the Northwest Power Planning Council's Scientific Review Team (SRT) reported to the Council that, upon review, the Columbia River salmon hatchery system is not operating correctly, and has produced weak fish runs that undermined wild salmon populations. The SRT offered 21 recommendations [http://www.nwppc.org/art_prod.htm] to improve the hatchery system, including use of large breeding populations to maintain genetic diversity, developing facilities engineered to simulate the natural stream, and elimination of stock transfers whereby non-native species are introduced.
The SRT's report is to be reviewed at a workshop on artificial production in January 1999, followed by public meetings in March and April 1999, with recommendations submitted to Congress in May 1999. [Sacramento Bee, NPPC Congressional Update. Portland Oregonian]
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On Dec. 18, 1998, Canadian Labor Minister Claudette Bradshaw announced C$13 million in financial assistance to the province of New Brunswick to manage and control infectious salmon anemia disease affecting the salmon aquaculture industry in the Bay of Fundy. New Brunswick had requested special disaster assistance for this problem.}} [Emergency Preparedness Canada press release]
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In mid-December 1998, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is scheduled to send out forms to conduct the first comprehensive census of U.S.
aquaculture production. Previously, only catfish and trout production had been censused. This comprehensive census will be conducted every 5 years.
The 1998 census will be available in fall 1999.} [NASS press release]
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On Dec. 14, 1998, Cornell Univ. scientists reported finding two wild Atlantic salmon at a private hatchery on ME's Pleasant River that were infected with a rare virus detected earlier this year in Pleasant River brood stock at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery in North Attleboro, MA. Previously, this virus had only been detected at a salmon farm in Scotland in 1978.} [Assoc Press]
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On Dec. 3, 1998, WA's Pollution Control Board ruled that critics failed to prove that salmon farming is not environmentally sound and sustainable; the Board upheld the right of Puget Sound salmon farmers to continue operations. An appeal by the Marine Environmental Consortium sought to have salmon farmers' operating permits revoked, with the farms moved out of Puget Sound or into solid enclosures. [personal communication, Portland Oregonian]
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On Dec. 4, 1998, NM State Engineer Tom Turney granted emergency temporary approval for minimal well water use so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Mora Hatchery could begin operations to produce rainbow trout while water rights issues are negotiated. Five local residents representing agricultural interests have challenged the hatchery's water rights and use plan. [Assoc Press]
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On Dec. 10, 1998, the Iowa Natural Resource Commission voted 7-0 to approve state purchase of 1,700 acres in Allamakee County to provide a buffer along Waterloo Creek, to protect brown trout and threatened American brook lamprey. [Assoc Press]
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On Dec. 8, 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the Biodiversity Legal Foundation's March 1998 petition to list Bonneville cutthroat trout as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act presented substantial information indicating that such a listing might be warranted. Thus, FWS was initiating a more comprehensive status review of this subspecies. [Fed. Register, Assoc Press]
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On Dec. 2, 1998, a WY trout farm owner was sentenced and ordered to pay a $ 2,880 restitution to partially cover WY Game and Fish Dept. efforts to recover about 500 rainbow trout illegally dumped by the trout farm owner into the Thomas Fork River, a watershed managed specifically to protect Bonneville cutthroat trout, after his delivery truck sprung a leak.} [Assoc Press]
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On Dec. 1, 1998, researchers reported the detection of whirling disease in native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake, WY, and expressed fears for spread of the disease down the Yellowstone River. [Assoc Press]
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