Integrated Management Strategy Called For in Changing Arctic

By Margaret Bauman | Fishermen's News Online

The report released April 4 by Interior Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes highlights the need for a coordinated approach using best available science to integrate cultural, environmental and economic factors in decision-making about development and conservation.

The report came on the heels of a March 27 Senate Oceans subcommittee hearing held in Anchorage on Arctic marine activity chaired by Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, who said increasing traffic due to declining Arctic sea ice poses greater risks than oil and gas drilling.

“In a challenging arctic marine environment, where there are no harbors of refuge and few aids to navigation or search and rescue assets, mariners also have less accurate weather forecasts and charts where there are dozens of miles between accurate depth readings,” he said. “And unlike oil and gas interests, which have incentives to work closely with arctic communities, shipping interests are more transient and have fewer resources to mitigate risks and respond to problems,” Begich said.

Hayes said the interagency report chronicles how Arctic residents

Opposition Grows to Genetically Engineered Salmon

By Fishermen's News Online

The national non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy organization said April 30 that more than 1.8 million people have sent the FDA comments vehemently opposing approval of GE salmon.

“The GE salmon has no socially redeeming value,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director for the Center. “It’s bad for the consumer, bad for the environment, and bad for our native salmon.”

Twelve senators, led by Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, and 21 members of the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, have asked the FDA to halt its approval until their economic, regulatory and environmental concerns are addressed. Also on the record in opposition to GE salmon are more than 250 businesses, individuals, public interest groups and fisheries organizations, including the Alaska Trollers Association, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, and the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

Officials with the Center for Food Safety said supermarket chains with more than 2,500 stores across the country have committed not to sell GE seafood, should it come to market,

Atka Pride Seafoods Plant Will Open Early in Aleutians

By Fishermen's News Online

APICDA Joint Ventures, a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, made the announcement March 6.

Icicle Seafoods did not respond to repeated requests for information about whether its Adak plant would operate this summer, but industry sources said that the company’s plant manager told the Adak City Council earlier that the plant would not operate this summer because generating power is too expensive during the slower fishing months.

Atka Pride Seafoods is a joint venture between APICDA Joint Ventures Inc., and the Atka Fishermen’s Association, a non-profit local fishermen’s association.

John Sevier, APICDA’s chief operating officer, said the community development association is pleased to have the Atka plant open early this year.

“This will allow us to get an earlier than usual jump on the season, particularly for sablefish,” Sevier said. “And it will provide continued local markets for fishermen currently delivering to Adak so they don’t have to make the long run to Dutch Harbor.”

Larry Cotter, chief executive officer