Friday Fishy News - October 13

[Flattieman]

The Fish that almost Started a Nulear War

That Must Be Some Tasty Fish

truthdig.com

October 7

The South Korean military fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers who may or may not have been attempting to fish at a stream in the demilitarized zone. The incident illustrates a rise in tensions between the two nations as North Korea prepares to conduct its first test of an atomic weapon:

South Korean soldiers fired about 40 shots as a warning after five North Korean soldiers crossed a boundary in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two country’s forces, South Korean military officials said.

It was unclear whether the North Korean advance, which occurred shortly before noon near a stream, was intended as a provocation, an official at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on condition of anonymity, citing official policy. No one was hurt, and the North Koreans retreated.

“It’s not clear whether it was intentional or whether it was to catch fish,” he said, adding that four of the North Koreans were unarmed, and the fifth carried a rifle.

The Case Of The Muskie: A Fish Story

57 Years Ago, The Record Setting Muskie Was Caught…Or Was It?

CBS News, America

October 8

Fishing is big in Wisconsin and the muskie is the biggest fish of all. It's called the king of the freshwater fish. Others say that bass is just bait compared to the muskie. To some, the muskie is symbolic of Northern Wisconsin.

There are muskie signs, muskies on the wall of offices and in bars. There is even muskie beer and muskie merlot.

Hayward, Wis. is the muskie capital, where local codes seem to set a muskie minimum of one per wall. Emmett Brown is director of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, which not surprisingly is in Hayward.

The muskie is part of the lore of the Northwoods. One man pulled a muskrat out of a muskie's mouth. Another was pulled out of a boat by the fish and legend has it that the muskie is a fish of 10,000 casts. A fisher could fish for days and never see one. So the local man who caught the biggest muskie ever is a legend.

In the hall of fame museum, the man, the late Louie Spray has an entire room. It showcases his wool fishing pants and shirt, fishing shoes and his old motor.

"He reminds me of the Babe Ruth of Muskie fishing both people had the same type of personalities," John Detloff, a resort owner and county historian, who authored a book on Louie Spray told Sunday Morning correspondent Bill Geist. "They both were flamboyant. They both were good time Charlies."

At Herman's Landing on Oct. 20, 1949 that Spray and two of his friends rented a small boat and headed out into the Chippewa flowage returning with a 69 pound 11 ounce muskie with two bullet holes in its head.

But now a group called the World Record Muskie Alliance has filed a 93-page challenge to Spray's world record, a document brimming with modern professional forensic analysis.

"We decided to apply some modern scientific processes to a lot of these old fish stories we hired an independent expert in the field of photogrammetry — it is the science of trying to determine measurements from photographic evidence with some high level mathematics," Rich Delaney, president of the alliance, said. "It's a technology that I believe NASA used to determine the size of objects on the moon. If you put length times girth the weight of the fish couldn't possibly approach the claim of Mr. Spray. 69 pounds, 11 ounces."

Rather, Delaney says the fish would have to be about 38 to 40 pounds. The report charges local favoritism, outright cheating and even unethical taxidermy. Delaney said evidence shows that the taxidermist augmented the fish by 10 inches to match Spray's story.

To rebut, the hall of fame contacted distinguished mathematicians like professor Doug Arnold of the University of Minnesota.

"This is a problem in projective geometry you really need more information that is sitting in this photo to tell me how long that fish is," Arnold said. "It depends on the placement of the fish and the placement of the camera. It's no longer than 63 inches they were claiming but it could be a lot shorter."

Then, another bombshell dropped: a hall of fame inductee and guide, Spence Petros, said that Chicago mafia capo Joey "the doves" Aiuppa told him on a fishing trip that he Caught spray's fish.

"He goes 'when I was a young man I liked to muskie fish around Hayward, Wisc. that was great you could bring them in and shoot them in those days," Petros said. "And he goes 'You know I caught the world record muskie?' and I was like you know half sarcastic like, 'You caught the world record muskie?' and he looked at me and said 'No, I caught it'"

The reason Aiuppa said he never came forward with his catch was because he was on the lam.

"I said 'Well what happened?' he goes 'I sold it to Louis Spray for $50,'" Petros said.

This fish tale is confirmed by Aiuppa's constant companion Jimmy Buonamo, also known as Pepsi or Jimmy Bananas.

"Yes, he caught that fish," Buonamo said. "And he wouldn't lie to anybody he caught the fish. That's one thing about him. He was true. He caught the fish."

Emmett Brown of the hall of fame says spray's world record stands, supported by notarized affidavits from the other two men in the boat with Spray, a man who measured it and a local postmaster who weighed it.

They've kind of voted to uphold this fish in the face of modern scientific research," Delaney said.

Pursuing a fish most foul

By Erik Lacitis

Seattle Times

October 9

THE COLUMBIA RIVER, near Vancouver — It's been a good season for David Vasilchuk, bounty fisherman.

Vasilchuk, 33, catches fish that have long been disdained — the northern pikeminnow, which used to be called a squawfish and which in recent years is mostly known as a voracious predator of juvenile salmon.

As of a week ago last Thursday, Vasilchuk had earned $40,424 catching pikeminnows this season, putting him in the top five of bounty anglers in the Northwest, with the other four living in Oregon. Making that kind of money can mean being on the boat for 22 hours a day, catching sleep when he can.

On a recent T-shirt-weather afternoon, a few minutes after casting off in his 17-foot Bayliner, he watched the white tip of his rod — white to better see it in low light — go tap-tap-tap as the bait was being nibbled. Vasilchuk pulled hard and began reeling.

Vasilchuk, who drives a cab when he's not fishing, was about to catch his 4,786th northern pikeminnow since the May 1 start of the bounty season. He was going to add another $8 to the total he has earned in catching these silvery fish with a long snout and a mouth that can open to 1 ½-2 inches.

"And I save salmon," he said in a thick Russian accent. His large extended family includes his parents, 10 brothers and a sister, many having come to the Vancouver area from Moldavia seven years ago.

Last year, some 2,200 anglers turned in 240,000 fish as part of the pikeminnow bounty program, although only 20 or so anglers made more than $12,000 each.

Like salmon, pikeminnows are natives to the river.

But unlike the salmon, people don't fish them for food or sport, not tribes nor commercial enterprises, said Russell Porter, the pikeminnow program manager for the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, an agency that covers five states.

Pikeminnows became a problem for smolts — the young salmon that migrate toward the ocean — because of dams built on the two rivers.

"We just have a series of lakes with water flowing through them slowly, which means smolts take a lot longer to swim out," Porter said.

"They get disoriented when they come to each dam. They're all concentrated at the back of the dams, trying to figure where the flow of the water is, and which direction to go."

And hanging around are the pikeminnows.

"They sit around the sides of the swifter water, and catch the smolt," Porter said. "We've cut open some pikeminnows that have 12 or 13 smolt filling their stomach, and two or three smolt in their throat."

That's why the Bonneville Power Administration this year is funding a $3.7 million program, begun in 1991, to reduce the number of pikeminnows in the Columbia and Snake rivers systems. More than 2.7 million northern pikeminnows have been caught and killed in the lower Columbia and Snake Rivers in that time.

The fish are held in such disdain that rendering plants have to be paid $15,000 a year to take the carcasses and turn them into fish meal.

"They're not very good to eat. Most anglers consider it a nuisance fish," Porter said. "They're like carp, bony and flavorless. And the meat gets mushy after about two hours if you don't keep them chilled."

He estimated that more than 3 million pikeminnows are in the main stems of the Columbia and Snake rivers, and that getting rid of 10 to 20 percent of the population annually saves 2 ½ million to 3 million salmon smolt each year.

In a season that goes from May 1 to Oct. 1 (or Oct. 15, in certain parts of the river) anglers are paid $4 each for the first 100 pikeminnows over 9 inches; $5 each for the next 300; and $8 each for every fish after that.

To further entice anglers to get out there and fish, some pikeminnows are tagged. If an angler catches a tagged fish, it's worth $500. This year, 1,300 pikeminnows were tagged and, so far, 198 of them have been caught.

On this day, Vasilchuk used his special bait to catch the pikeminnows.

"It's a secret, what I use," he said. The successful bounty fishermen, having put in long hours figuring the good fishing spots and techniques, are not much for sharing information.

"People ask me, 'Where have you caught them?' " Vasilchuk said. "I tell 'em, 'At the bottom of the river.' "

He began fishing in 2003, with a rod bought at Goodwill. That year, he was No. 8 on the top bounty-anglers list, earning $14,878.

But it wasn't as if he was a beginner.

"I was fishing all the time in Russia. All the time I was at the river. I was born July 12, which in my country is the day for fishermen," he said.

Two of his brothers, Ivan and Oleg, also take part in the pikeminnow bounty fishing, but it is David who spends the most time on the river and catches the most fish.

This year, after having caught eight of the $500 tagged pikeminnows, David treated himself to a $345 rod and a $500 reel, sensitive to every nibble.

For company, he has a radio, but he seldom turns it on.

"All the time I'm fishing. If no bite, I'm sleeping," he said.

Vasilchuk has a cellphone and talks to his wife, Alla, who's at home with their seven children. Sometimes she joins him at the boat, sometimes she brings him food. In the summer, one or two of the couple's older children might also fish.

When darkness descends on the river, the scenery is beautiful. Bald eagles sometimes fly by; the clear night sky sparkles with stars.

For the most part, though, Vasilchuk keeps his eye on his fishing rod.

The bounty program has in its official title that it's a "sport reward fishery."

For David Vasilchuk, it's how he makes his living.

Jamaicans Urged to Explore Ornamental Fish Rearing

Jamaice Information Service

October 11

Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Victor Cummings, has called for more Jamaicans to explore backyard ornamental fish rearing as a viable source of income.

The Minister was speaking on (October 9), at a tour of an ornamental fish farm, operated by Mark Williams, and Christopher and Peter Higgins in Harbour View, St. Andrew.

Pointing out that local fish farmers could benefit from the many opportunities available in the global fish trade Mr. Cummings noted that "the current value of the local ornamental fish trade is estimated at some US$1 million per year at the retail level, and we in Jamaica have not even started to scratch the surface".

He cited the Inner-City Ornamental Fish Production Project as one effort by the Ministry, to get individuals from both rural and inner city communities involved in ornamental fish rearing.

This programme, Mr. Cummings noted, in conjunction with the Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC) aims to provide persons not only with skills in the production of ornamental fish, but business skills as well.

"Under this programme we have trained approximately 60 individuals in ornamental fish, where we have gone through everything such as the types of fish, diseases and feeding. We have identified 15 individuals who will be receiving a grant of approximately $50,000 to grow their own ornamental fish," he informed.

Mr. Cummings noted that the idea behind the programme was to use ornamental fish production, as a means of diversifying economies within these communities.

As part of the effort to attract more persons to backyard ornamental fish rearing, the Ministry in conjunction with the Jamaica Ornamental Fish Farmers (JOFFA) will be hosting a National Ornamental Fish Expo, at Jamaica College, on Old Hope Road from October 28 to 29.

The Expo will be held under the theme, 'Treasures Beneath the Water: Highlighting opportunities in the pet fish industry', and will highlight opportunities in the local pet fish industry, and the international market.

Too much fish linked to higher risk of premature birth

By Stephen Daniells

Food Navigator.com - Europe

October 12

Eating too much fish during pregnancy is linked to high mercury levels in mothers and could put women at a higher risk of giving birth prematurely, report US scientists.

The research, published on-line ahead of print in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (doi: 10.1289/ehp.9329), has already been picked up by many mainstream news publications, including New Scientist, and could reignite the debate about whether the benefits of fish consumption may outweigh the risks.

Consumers have been receiving mixed messages with some claiming that the benefits of fish consumption, like omega-3, protein, and essential vitamins and minerals content outweigh the risks posed by pollutants such a methyl mercury, dioxins, and polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs).

The situation is particularly sensitive for pregnant women, with such pollutants reported to damage the development of babies.

But a diet rich in the omega-3 fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), during pregnancy and breastfeeding is thought to support healthy pregnancies as well as the mental and visual development of infants.

The Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Health (POUCH) study, by researchers at Harvard University and Michigan State University, recruited 1,024 women between their 15th and 27th week of pregnancy. Dietary consumption of fish was evaluated by in-person interviews and self-administered questionnaires, while hair sample were taken in order to establish methyl mercury levels in the mothers.

Lead author Fei Xue reported that women with higher intake of fish consumption were more likely to have higher methyl mercury levels, and women who gave birth prematurely were more likely to be in the top ten per cent of methyl mercury hair levels.

"Our study is the first to report an association between delivery at less than 35 weeks' gestation and maternal hair mercury levels at or above 0.55 [parts per million]," she wrote.

The average mercury level was 0.29 ppm.

The authors stressed however that only 44 of the 1,024 women in the study (about four per cent of the study population) actually gave birth prematurely and called for more studies to test the association.

While other studies have reported links between mercury exposure during faetal development and cognitive problems, the science remains inconsistent. Indeed, back in February a panel of experts at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said that the benefits of eating seafood continue to outweigh the risks.

During the meeting, Phil Davidson from the University of Rochester Medical School, reported that a ten-year study of over 700 children in the Seychelles Islands, where women average 12 meals of fish a week, showed no cognitive defects that can normally be seen from mercury absorption.

Michael Morrissey from Oregon State Universitys Seafood Laboratory said at the time that pregnant women should stick with current FDA recommendations of about 12 ounces (340 grams) per week. The rest of the population should be eating fish four to seven times per week.

Angler's claim of record catch deemed just another fish story

By Scott Sansberry

Yakima Herald-Republic

October 12

Ray Wonacott's record lives on.

The 80-year-old Ellensburg man whose Washington state record for small mouth bass has stood for 40 years may just stand for another 40. Or, at least, another year.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has officially denied the record-catch application by

22-year-old Austin Kenyon of Kennewick, who had submitted that a small mouth bass he caught on Sept. 2 weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces. Had it been approved, Kenyon's catch would have surpassed by a half-pound the bass Wonacott caught -- on a fly rod, no less -- in the Hanford Reach back in 1966.

But Kenyon's fish had been frozen at least once -- which in itself could nullify a record catch. And WDFW enforcement officers were told in interviews with individuals (who will remain anonymous at their request and that of the department) that after the bass had been weighed at about 7 pounds once at a Kennewick market, lead weights totaling 2 pounds, 4 ounces were inserted into the fish prior to its being weighed by a department biologist.

Kenyon stands by the authenticity of his fish. "I think someone just lied," he told the Tri-City Herald.

WDFW angler education coordinator Keith Underwood said that although the record-application denial was based largely on the determination that the fish's weight had been altered, the department had no plans to pursue any penalties against Kenyon.

So Wonacott, a retired nuclear health physicist, will keep the state record. His fish is also recognized by the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame as the world record for a small mouth bass caught by a fly fisherman.

MORE ON THE RECORD SCENE, PART I: While Kenyon's bass is certainly the most controversial would-be record fish not to make it onto Washington books this year, it isn't the only one. A Benton City woman caught a 22-pound catfish above McNary Dam that her husband was convinced must be the biggest blue catfish ever caught in Washington waters.

But when the couple sent photos of the fish in to WDFW fish biologist Paul Hoffarth, he came back with bad news: It wasn't a blue cat.

"It was just a channel cat," Hoffarth said. "A lot of people who think they have state-record blue cats turn out to be channel cats." One of the distinctions between the two is that blue cats don't have any dark spots and channel cats do, although Hoffarth noted that the larger channel cats "tend not to have any spotting." Hence, the

confusion -- and the non-record.

The state record for a channel cat? Over 36 pounds. "Got to be a real monster to top that," Hoffarth said.

MORE ON THE RECORD SCENE, PART II: If you want a state fishing record, here's the ticket -- pick a new fish that everybody in the state isn't yet trying to land.

Dennis Werlau Jr. of Kennewick, a WDFW seasonal employee based at the department's Pasco office, in early July 2005 caught a beast of a tiger trout, a fish that had only recently been part of a limited stocking program at a handful of lakes. The fish was easily upwards of 4 pounds, he thought before releasing it back into the waters of Grant County's Lenice Lake from which he had caught it.

Only later did he find out that the state record for the fish, which is only now starting to gain popularity, was under 3 pounds. So Werlau, normally a catch-and-release fly angler, went out two weeks later and caught a 4.68-pounder, setting the record. This July he topped that, catching a 6.26-pounder.

Officials fish for ways to produce shrimp

Virginia Tech and Blue Ridge Aquaculture researchers are building a facility they hope will spur the aquaculture industry.

Mason Adams

The Roanoke Times

October 13

MARTINSVILLE -- The nation's largest indoor fish farm is preparing to grow even bigger.

Virginia Tech officials and Blue Ridge Aquaculture broke ground Monday on a $2.4 million facility to research indoor shrimp production.

According to Virginia Tech professor George Flick, the facility will be used by university researchers to study saltwater shrimp production, which he hopes will spur the state's aquaculture industry.

Last week, the White House called for the end of bottom trawling, a fishing practice that produces a high percentage of the shrimp for the United States. That could be a good sign for domestic operations such as Blue Ridge Aquaculture, he said.

"As we continue to grow, we've about tapped out our ocean resources," Flick said. "We're having to go more and more to aquaculture."

Some state farmers have converted portions of their land for aquaculture. Last year, Franklin County tobacco farmer Johnny Angell built two ponds for growing Malaysian freshwater shrimp, and this year he built two more.

Mountainous terrain and winter weather keep those operations small scale, Flick said.

Blue Ridge Aquaculture grows fish on an entirely different level. Currently, the company produces about 10,000 pounds of tilapia per day in its 80,000-square-foot facility. That's greater than any other operation in the United States, according to Tech officials, who hold an annual international aquaculture conference.

"We're so far ahead of the rest of the world," said Blue Ridge Aquaculture President Bill Martin as he led congressmen Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, and Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, on a tour of his production facilities. "We go to meetings and they're still talking about village aquaculture, mom and pop stuff. This is not mom and pop stuff."

As Martin spoke, one of his 35 employees dumped a bucket of organic fish food into a tank containing thousands of tilapia. Immediately the water began to froth as the fish swarmed the food.

Forty-two identical tanks filled the warm, humid room, and, once the tilapia are fully grown, each of those tanks will produce about 45,000 pounds of live fish. Tilapia is a species of freshwater fish that originated in Africa.

They're sold mostly to markets in Toronto, Boston and New York.

"The buyers are demanding a standard they've never demanded," Martin said. "It's not about the money so much, it's the product."

Consumers there want live fish raised organically. And they're willing to pay extra for it.

"In New York they won't eat the Chinese tilapia -- they've got to have Bill Martin's tilapia," Goode said.

Virginia Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner J. Carlton Courter III sees shrimp production as a logical extension of that trend. He plans to target three areas: the live market, the sushi market and the organic market.

The tilapia and shrimp operations will complement each other in ways that will save money, Martin said.

"All of our tilapia waste will be fed to shrimp," Martin said. "That reduces our feed cost by 50 percent. That makes me damn competitive."

The shrimp research facility is intended largely as a steppingstone to larger things. Martin said he intends to use it to find out exactly how much space Blue Ridge Aquaculture will need to increase its production to about 35 million pounds per year.

Three Virginia Tech researchers will work out of the new facility to conduct a study for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The company is now using a site in an industrial park behind Martinsville Speedway, where the current tilapia facility, two greenhouses and the research facility take up about 115,000 square feet.

But Martin is looking at a 500-acre site to build shrimp production facilities, as well as more buildings for tilapia. He estimates the new site could produce as many as 600 new jobs over the next five years.

In addition, Martin's work will help provide a model for others getting started in aquaculture.

"Bill shares information," Flick said. "He's been very open about the type of thing he's been doing. We give him ideas. Not all ideas work, but he fine-tunes it and it becomes available to the public."

Goodlatte said that sort of research and technological development will keep Virginia on the cutting edge.

The state has always been an agricultural powerhouse, he said.

But as land prices have soared, farmland has been developed for housing and other uses.

"Anything that can add value to agriculture and maximize the value of the land" is vital to keeping the state agricultural industry strong, he said. Blue Ridge Aquaculture, which produces millions of fish per year from a small site, is a great example of that.

Martin is convinced that his business can help restore Virginia's place as a seafood powerhouse. If things go as planned, the state could find itself as a top producer, he said.

"I remember when Virginia was the number one seafood-producing state. Now we're not even in the charts," Martin told Goodlatte at the end of the tour. "If these things work, we're back to number one."

In the Battle between Fish and Farmers, Orcas are the Losers

At the source of the problem, it's too easy to go with the flow

By Robert McClure

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

October 9

About a third of Puget Sound's chinook salmon come from the Skagit River. There is no rescuing Puget Sound orcas without rescuing the chinook, the orcas' main food source. And there is no rescuing chinook without bringing back those in the Skagit.

And yet, the Skagit -- the largest river flowing into Puget Sound, one where all five native salmon species still can be found -- is the classic example of how much people resist changes that are necessary to rescue Puget Sound's sea life.

Recall the mantra of former Gov. Gary Locke in the late 1990s as he talked about saving the Northwest's celebrated salmon:

"Extinction is not an option."

Everywhere he went, Locke pledged that the state would do its utmost to snatch salmon from the brink of oblivion. Fearing heavy-handed federal restrictions on building and commerce, Locke said it early and often as the U.S. government prepared to extend the protections of the Endangered Species Act to Puget Sound chinook.

While the population is at only a fraction of its historic levels, the number of wild Skagit chinook has seen a gradual increase over the past decade. Last year, a diverse coalition of interests called the Shared Strategy for Puget Sound released its draft proposal for further boosting their numbers.

Yet many vows made previously in the name of salmon recovery remain unfilled, leaving plenty of room for doubt that Gov. Chris Gregoire's new campaign will work.

"We will fully enforce existing laws," Locke promised in 1998 at a Washington Association of Counties meeting in Tacoma. "This sounds pretty mild, but those of you who know land-use, water allocation and environmental law know that this is a big change and a huge challenge."

Six years later, state biologist Kurt Buchanan was not surprised to find dying salmon in Red Cabin Creek, a Skagit tributary that flows under state Route 20 about 10 miles east of Sedro-Woolley in Skagit County.

His agency, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, had warned that would happen if dredging were allowed there, because when the stream dried up, fish would congregate in a hole and become stranded.

Who did the dredging? The state Department of Transportation -- the very one under Locke's control. The work was approved by Buchanan's own department.

This happened despite a 1949 state law -- the Hydraulic Code -- passed "to ensure the proper protection of fish life" in exactly these kinds of circumstances. It goes further, saying "protection of fish life shall be the only ground upon which approval may be denied or conditioned" in such instances.

The dredging is needed to keep state Route 20 from flooding because a culvert used to drain the area is inadequate, and the Legislature hasn't provided the money to fix it. Workers are supposed to check when they think salmon might be stranded there, pick them up and take them to safe waters.

"It is outrageous that (Fish and Wildlife) continues to issue permits that have been proven to result in dead fish," said Larry Wasserman, environmental director of the Skagit River System Cooperative, a tribal fishing organization.

Problems with Red Cabin Creek have been known at least since the early 1980s. It is just one of the more than 2,800 culverts and other structures across the region that similarly harm fish. They're blocking potentially thousands of miles of rivers where, if salmon were allowed to spawn, their numbers could be boosted by hundreds of thousands or even millions each year, biologists have estimated.

Salt of the earth

Probably the biggest bottleneck for Skagit salmon, biologists say, is the destruction of the river's delta, where fresh water and salt water mix. Historically, young salmon could hang out here, getting acclimated to the brine of Puget Sound while hiding from predators.

But more than three-quarters of that so-called "estuary" is gone, blocked with dikes installed to keep salt water out and create farmland. The dikes included "tide gates" to allow rainwater to drain off the fields.

Technically, the Hydraulic Code required Skagit farmers to allow salmon to pass through the gates.

After the salmon gained legal protection in 1999, environmentalists and tribes began to push the issue. Letting some salt water into farmland would help regain part of the lost estuary, they reasoned.

But that would reduce the amount of land available for crops. So farmers and their allies in the Legislature found a simple solution: They changed the law. Suddenly, it was no longer illegal for the farmers' tide gates to keep young salmon out of their historic rearing grounds. Problem solved. For the farmers.

"We passed legislation that gave farmers the upper hand," acknowledged state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, the measure's sponsor. "Farmers are truly the endangered species, not the fish."

So environmentalists and tribes turned to federal law. The National Wildlife Federation appealed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where an inspector phoned a Skagit County farmer named Curt Wylie to tell him he would need a permit before replacing his failing tide gate.

"Mr. Wylie stated that he didn't believe a corps permit was required and that he was going to replace the gate and then 'let you (corps) come after me,' " a corps inspector reported to his supervisor.

"I just do not remember any such conversation," Wylie said in an interview. "I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I don't remember it."

Wylie has gone unpunished. In fact, the corps is preparing to issue an after-the-fact OK on the job. But the National Marine Fisheries Service hasn't yet signed off on that idea.

John Pell, a corps inspector, said violators rarely are fined because, "We find getting a project into compliance to be more beneficial to the environment."

Last month the corps began investigating two additional cases in which nearby farmers repaired their tide gates without a permit.

Farmers say letting fish in means letting salt water onto land drained a century ago. The diked land now is used for growing peas, potatoes, berries and other crops eaten locally, as well as spinach and other seeds exported worldwide. If farmers are driven out, many conservationists worry the land will be paved for development -- a worse scenario ecologically for the fish.

It's a complicated and divisive issue.

"Salt and farming don't work," said Mike Shelby, executive director of the Western Washington Agricultural Association. He says the low-lying, seaside deltas where much of Skagit farmland is located would be ruined.

But maybe not.

"The farmers are thinking worst-case, and saying our fields will be flooded, and whether that's 10 acres or a hundred acres or a thousand acres I don't think anybody really knows," Pell said.

Enforcing the code

Salmon advocates say the Legislature could do a lot to rectify the situation by merely enforcing the half-century-old Hydraulic Code, which governs work in or near the water, such as dredging and dock construction.

Enforcing the code could go a long way toward fixing problems like Red Cabin Creek and the tide gates. But the Legislature has consistently refused requests from Fish and Wildlife and environmentalists to give the department the power to issue orders for violators to stop work that is harming fish habitat.

Similarly, the Legislature has refused to allow the department to directly levy civil penalties higher than $100 a day.

To get any stiffer punishment, the agency's enforcement staff must turn to county prosecutors, who are often too overloaded to give attention to such violations.

Compare that to the Ecology Department, which can levy fines of up to $10,000 a day, and whose inspectors can issue enforceable stop-work orders to violators.

Wasserman, of the tribal fishing group, was the co-author of a 2000 study that severely criticized Fish and Wildlife's hydraulic permit program as understaffed and unwilling to regulate strongly. He says little has changed in six years.

"These stories all come down to this: When there's hot political issues, usually the fish suffer," he said.

A Few Stories from MallacootaPete:

Manna's fish from heaven

ninemsn.com.au

July 25

Fish rained down on the Indian village of Manna last week, startling locals who hailed the phenomenon as a miracle.

In an echo of the Bible's manna from heaven, fish up to 2.2 inches (55 millimetres) long plummeted to earth for 15 minutes in the remote village in the southern state of Kerala.

"I saw fish falling from the sky. At first, we could not believe our eyes," said shopkeeper V.K. Satheeshan.

Residents quickly collected the fish, with some gathering them in jars.

"When I rushed to the spot, I found lots of small fishes on the road. Some of the shopkeepers collected fishes in jars," said M. Rajeevan, a local journalist from Manna.

The pencil-thin fish were likely lifted into the sky from rivers by a waterspout, or mini-tornado, according to professor Godfrey Louis of Mahatma Gandhi University in the Kerala city of Kottayam.

Illegal fishing threatens local livelihoods

By Tim Arvier

National Nine News Darwin

September 13

If you buy seafood at the supermarket, enjoy a takeaway from the local fish and chips shop, live off the land or simply enjoy wetting a line on the weekend, then you have reason to be worried.

The reason is illegal Indonesian fishermen. What's particularly alarming is that their numbers are increasing, few are being caught and the impact on our economy is increasing.

Figures released under Freedom of Information laws show that in the last financial year, over 8100 foreign fishing boats were spotted in our waters at an average of 22 a day, with only 202 trawlers (0.25 percent) seized (all were Indonesian).

Minister for Fisheries Ian Macdonald describes the 8100 figure as "silly", as some trawlers may have been spotted more than once. However, interpreters who look after captured illegal fishermen say detained Indonesians estimate that only one in 14 boats are caught.

These are not subsistence fishermen either; most boats are equipped with modern technology such as GPS satellites and use large ice blocks to freeze tonnes of illegally caught fish. They are also indiscriminate in what they catch; any fish, no matter how small or endangered, will eventually find its way into an Indonesian marketplace.

However, what the fishermen bring with them may create an entirely different set of problems even more significant than the fish they take away. Many of the boats have chickens, parrots, rats, dogs, even monkeys on board, any of which may carry diseases such as tuberculosis, rabies or bird flu; any of which could threaten public health or devastate farming industries. There have also been reports of fishermen setting up camps on Australian beaches, stashing equipment, digging wells and, presumably, latrines.

Local fishermen in Darwin say the illegal trawlers are becoming smarter; many will fish in close to the Australian coastline but then return to international waters if they think they've been spotted by Customs. The boats are also entering and fishing in Australian waters at times when it's harder to discover or capture them, such as at night or even during storms.

To many of the crew, the possibility of capture is not a deterrent. Many are young, paid a small wage and consequently view the whole exercise as a big adventure. If caught, they are treated well and given food and clothing before being flown back home on a commercial flight. The offending boat is usually burnt, which is of little concern to anyone except the captain or owner.

The impact on Australian fishing is also escalating, with many fishermen having to compete for increasingly limited fish stocks with Indonesians, who have no restrictions on what they sell back home. Local fishermen believe the increased competition, along with rising petrol prices (which raise costs), will inevitably lead to consumers paying more for seafood.

Some are concerned the fish will disappear forever. One Darwin fishermen summed up how much illegal and indiscriminate fishing could hurt the industry. "Well", he said, "you never hear of anyone being eaten by a shark in Indonesia, do you?"

'Tough stance' needed on fishing vessels

ninemsn.com.au

September 28

Greenpeace has called for tighter controls on commercial fishing in the Pacific, including deregistration of vessels that do not report their positions to authorities.

It also wants greater rights for the boarding and inspection of fishing vessels.

Greenpeace Pacific expert Nilesh Goundar listed the recommendations to the second annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) compliance committee in Brisbane.

Mr Goundar said all vessels registered to the WCPFC, commonly known as the Regional Tuna Commission, should have a vessel monitoring system (VMS) that is tamper proof and that reports automatically.

The VMS is a satellite-based, vessel tracking system which provides management authorities with accurate information on fishing vessels' position and speed at time intervals.

Mr Goundar said the Greenpeace ship MY Esperanza was currently on the second leg of a tour of the Pacific exposing illegal and overfishing in the Pacific region.

"Lead campaigner on board, Lagi Toribau, said during the first leg of the (tour) Greenpeace worked with enforcement officers from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) patrolling their exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for illegal fishing.

"Eighty per cent of the boats that were boarded had their VMS switched on, but were not reporting to the FSM coastguard," Mr Goundar said in a statement.

He said Greenpeace also recommended to the meeting that there be no further extensions on applications for fishing licences, 100 per cent observer coverage in the WCPFC area and that all member countries should have the right to board and inspect other members' vessels until the WCPFC is ready to decide on its own patrol scheme.

Flattieman.

Edited October 13, 2006 by Flattieman

[mrmoshe]

Thanks for another fine collection Flattie.

I was intrigued by the bounty story on pikeminnows.

"

Vasilchuk, who drives a cab when he's not fishing, was about to catch his 4,786th northern pikeminnow since the May 1 start of the bounty season. He was going to add another $8 to the total he has earned in catching these silvery fish with a long snout and a mouth that can open to 1 ½-2 inches."

Wouldn't that be a great idea to put a bounty on carp in our river systems and have

bounty hunters paid to get rid of them.

Perhaps this has been suggested before and knocked back for some reason but it to me seems

a win/win situation just to rid ourselves of these introduced pests.

Hey...maybe leatherjackets next LOLOL

Pete.

[Flattieman]

Wouldn't that be a great idea to put a bounty on carp in our river systems and have

bounty hunters paid to get rid of them.

Mate, that's exactly what I thought when I first read that article! Very interesting...

Flattieman.