The following weekly news summary was compiled by the Congressional Research Service from a variety of information sources. New info and changes since 9/10/99 are bracketed {...} New info and changes since 9/15/99 are double-bracketed {{...}}
Cleve Steward Sustainable Fisheries Foundation Tel. 425-670-3584
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On Sept. 9, 1999, NMFS announced the decision to list 2 additional CA chinook salmon populations for protection under the Endangered Species Act - Central Valley spring run chinook {{and northern CA coastal chinook are to be listed as threatened.}} Several OR and CA chinook populations were not listed, including the CA Central Valley fall-run, CA's Klamath River, and OR's Deschutes and Rogue Rivers. [Assoc Press, Environment News Service]
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On Aug. 28, 1999, 4 Alaska Native women, in an act of civil disobedience, used a beach seine near Juneau to illegally catch 5 sockeye salmon in defiance of federal law prohibiting subsistence fishing near Alaskan urban areas and state law closing the waters fished. [Assoc Press, MSNBC]
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On Aug. 27, 1999, the OR Water Resources Commission was scheduled to consider a request by the Grants Pass Irrigation District to extend a supplemental water right for 52 cubic feet per second beyond an Oct. 15, 1999 expiration date. The Commission had granted the extra water in 1994 on the condition that the District correct fish-passage problems at Savage Rapids Dam. The Commission considers the District to have failed to meet its agreed obligations because it did not remove the dam and replace it with pumps. [Assoc Press]
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In late August 1999, the WA Dept. of Ecology announced that it would distribute almost $65 million in grants and loans during FY2000 to communities and tribes for 93 projects in 29 counties to improve and protect water quality and salmon habitat. {On Sept. 13, 1999, the Marysville City Council voted 6-1 to adopt revisions to the city's sensitive area code to increase the size of buffers along salmon streams by 25%.} [Seattle Herald, Environment News Service, Assoc Press, Seattle Times, Portland Oregonian]
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On Aug. 20, 1999, the joint Canadian-United States Fraser River panel announced that commercial fishing would be closed for the entire season on the Fraser River sockeye salmon for the first time in BC history. {On Sept. 10, 1999, almost 200 BC fishermen attended an emergency meeting of the Fraser River Sockeye Crisis Committee, where they called for provincial and federal disaster relief funding.} [Seattle Times, Assoc Press, Canadian Press]
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On Aug. 12, 1999, the first sockeye salmon produced by a captive breeding program returned to the Sawtooth hatchery on the Salmon River. Subsequently, an additional 5 sockeye also returned to this hatchery.
All 6 returning fish were males. At least 2 of these fish are second generation offspring of 2 females and 6 males that returned to ID in 1993. [Seattle Times]
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On Sept. 16, 1999, the WA Senate has scheduled a public hearing on escaped Atlantic salmon and whether they threaten native salmon. [personal communication]
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In early September 1999, CA Governor Davis signed Senate Bill 963 into law, exempting oxygen used by the aquaculture industry from sales and use taxes when such oxygen is purchased for the prevention or control of disease in animal life normally used for human consumption. [Modesto Bee]
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On Sept. 2, 1999, IL Governor George Ryan announced a new program providing $1 million per year assistance for aquaculture research and development for the next 10 years. [MSNBC]
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On Sept. 2, 1999, the federal Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture has scheduled a special meeting in Washington, DC, to discuss collaborative work with the Environmental Protection Agency regarding aquaculture effluents. [personal communication]
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On Aug. 27, 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published notice that a general wastewater discharge permit had been made available to commercial aquaculture operations and associated fish processing facilities in ID. Operating under this permit, nutrient (especially phosphorus) loads to the Snake River system are proposed to be reduced by 40%. [Fed. Register, Assoc Press]
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On Aug. 27, 1999, officials of Igene Biotechnology, Inc. (Columbia, MD) announced that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had approved use of their product AstaXin(R) in diets of cultured fish and shrimp. This product is a natural source of astaxanthin, a pigment that imparts red color to the flesh of organisms consuming it. [Igene Biotechnology press release]
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On Aug. 17-20, 1999, the Univ. of WI-Milwaukee's Aquaculture Center held a 3-day training session for members of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians on raising yellow perch in a recirculating aquaculture system. A commercial-scale aquaculture system has been installed on the Red Lake Reservation in MN. [NOAA press release]
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On Sept. 29, 1999, the House Resources Committee is scheduled to hold part II of an oversight hearing on federal aid programs administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. [personal communication]
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In mid-September 1999, mechanized removal of water hyacinth from Lake Victoria, was scheduled to commence under contract to a U.S. engineering firm funded by the World Bank. Controversy continues over whether to shred and sink the plant (as intended by the U.S. firm) or remove it entirely from the waters (as proposed by local officials). This $1 million project is being jointly implemented by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, and includes other components such as fishery management and fishery research.. [Africa News Online]
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On Sept. 13, 1999, the Atlantic Salmon Commission, a creation of the ME Legislature, held its first organizational meeting and heard reports on declining Atlantic salmon stocks in ME rivers.} [Assoc Press]
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On Sept. 13, 1999, the UT Div. of Wildlife Resources announced the annual opening of the brine shrimp harvest season on the Great Salt Lake was being postponed for 10 days (from Oct. 1 until Oct. 11), due to a later than normal production of brine shrimp egg cysts.} [Assoc Press] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New On Sept. 9, 1999, the non-native spinier water flea (Cercopagis pengoi) were first reported from Lake Michigan in Grand Traverse Bay, MI.} [personal communication] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New Weekdays during the month of September 1999, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Wildlife Service biologists will conduct a hazing program to deter migrating double-crested cormorants from roosting on islands in Oneida Lake, NY. Cormorant roosting was reportedly reduced by 61% to 98% when hazing was used in September 1998. [Assoc Press] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New In early September 1999, National Pack Service biologists reported that, compared to last year, several thousand fewer invasive lake trout (including none exceeding 12 pounds) have been netted from Yellowstone Lake this year. This is believed to indicate that control measures are effectively reducing the lake trout population.} [MSNBC] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New On Sept. 2, 1999, AR Governor Mike Huckabee provided $15,000 in state funds from the governor's discretionary fund to match the first $15,000 in private donations to build a Professional Bass Fishing Hall of Fame on Lake Hamilton, AR. [Hot Springs Sentinel-Record] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New On Sept. 1, 1999, the State of Michigan and 5 Ottawa and Chippewa tribes are scheduled to file plans in federal court (Kalamazoo, MI) for negotiating a new agreement for fishing rights in parts of the Great Lakes. The current agreement expires in May 2000. [Assoc Press] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New On Aug. 31, 1999, federal, state, and private parties signed an agreement to conserve and restore westslope cutthroat trout in MT's Columbia and upper Missouri River basins. This agreement was the product of more than 2 years of negotiations, and was thought likely to reduce the potential that westslope cutthroat trout might be listed under the Endangered Species Act. [Assoc Press] Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New In late August 1999, divers working for the CO Division of Wildlife installed a 363-foot long molecular polyethylene Dynema screen across the spillway of Highline Lake, near Grand Junction, to keep non- native largemouth bass subsequently stocked in Highline Lake from migrating downstream and harming endangered native fish in the Colorado River. This screen cost about $200,000.}} [Denver Post]
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{Brine Shrimp Harvest.
{Spinier Water Flea.
Oneida Lake Cormorants.
{Yellowstone Lake Trout.
Professional Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.
Michigan Treaty Fisheries.
Cutthroat Trout Agreement.
{{Invasive Species Barrier.
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