CAPTAIN’S LOG
Those who have been aboard the Perseverance in Wild Alaska, have listened to Capt Larry pontificate on the insidious practice of commercial Trawl fishing. This video shows clearly the destruction of which he speaks in living but deadly color. The vid is dated, but the damage continues today...
m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=-0616msQC_M&fbclid=IwAR3yNbzUuu_0M-mTdREKNus4CQ4R7PzPMHJdB.... #captainlarry
Halibut trawl bycatch(in Alaska) in 2019 wasted about 1.43 million individual halibut.
For perspective, there is an estimated 180,000 bison skulls in this photograph.
If these skulls were halibut, it would take eight of these piles to represent how many individual fish were wasted in 2019.
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/alaska/commercial-fishing/fisheries-catch-and-landings-reports-alaska
#captainlarry
Tragic
They need to put tighter restrictions on the commercial fisherman to better control this type of waste.
Yea... but the sport fishermen are catching all “their” fish and must be controlled!!! 🥴
This season, while the Comfish fleet was exceeding its allocations and quota by millions of tons, the Southeast Alaska guided angler effort (number of fish caught) was down 47% from 2019, and pounds of allocation caught was 36% UNDER the annual quota!
Aaargh....Wild Alaska puts its money where its mouth is..
#captainlarry
And you want more government control ?
Wild Alaska needs you know this!
Alaska 2020 Halibut BYCATCH now @ 4.9 million lbs.
2020 total Southeast Alaska Charter catch: 477k lbs
Aaaargh....are you pissed off yet?...
#captainlarry
Yes, but I have been since they cut the charter limit from 2 to 1 a day! Sick and tired of politics everywhere!!!
Holy Hell!😳
Makes one think hard about sport fishing.
🧐😡🤬
A 2019 United Nations report put the bycatch rate in the Gulf of Alaska Deepwater flatfish trawl at 92%; ranking it as the 4th highest discard rate in the WORLD.
For every 100 lbs of fish or sealife brought aboard, 92 lbs were dumped.
The State of Alaska charges a 3% Landing tax, and the 2019 NOAA FOSS Landings reports show average value of "flatfishes" is $0.17 per pound.
So.......via the landing tax, Alaska is being reimbursed at a rate of 1/2 penny($0.005) per pound, for a fishery which dumps back 92% of the fish they catch.
Oh and did I mention that at least one trawl company is CURRENTLY suing the State in an attempt to avoid having to pay ANY landing tax?
Take a look around the history of the world; trawlers overharvesting stocks is the norm, not the exception. Difference is, after they have wrecked a stock, they have the boats and the capital to move on to the next fishery. It is the locals in the directed fisheries who are stuck cleaning up the mess
If you don't think that the trawl lobbies have historically had an outsized influence over fisheries regulations, think again...
UN FAO REPORT:http://www.fao.org/3/ca2905en/ca2905en.pdf
NOAA FOSS LANDINGS:https://foss.nmfs.noaa.gov/apexfoss/f?p=215:200:14117512807433:::::
#captainlarry
Simply DISGUSTING! FYI I follow Alaska Fishing News and STOP Alaskan Trawler Bycatch on FB too! Dear Lord!
All trawl fisheries should be banned until they can be managed to avoid this amount of by catch
We need some chefs to start making tasty meals so these discards have a market to flow into raising the value so everyone wins ! Seriously, even fish soup, fish fritters, fish sticks etc... where are the food company entrepreneurs? 3% tax on the weight per ton of fish is $60.00 / 2,000 Lb = $ .03 (per Lb.) - $ .17 (current price per Lb) = $.14 gross profit per Lb. × 2,000 Lb. = $280.00 per ton after 3% tax.
Now if the trawler is making all of it's over head plus profit by keeping only 8% of the catch this leaves the 92% cast off pure profit ! Now I realize the trawler doesn't want to processor fill their tanks with this waste soooo how about placing very large processing ships with refridgeration close to the fishing grounds to collect & process then package & freeze the finished product ? I know the trawler captain wants to trawl, catch, sort & keep the profit BUT dump the spoils & move on... So perhaps with a small fleet of collecting ships were in the area, pulled up to the trawler and transfered the load via vacuum into their tanks. The trawler moves on while the fleet ship meets other trawlers to load up. Trawlers are happy. Fleets of collector ships deliver the full tanks to the processing ship who happily processes. This exact same process is in use in Alaska every year... yep... small boats netting the salmon runs filling their tanks then moving out to a larger ship to unload then small boats move back into the salmon grounds to catch and fill their now empty tanks. The fleet of bigger collecting ships eventually fill their tanks and head to the factory to unload. Once unloaded they head back to the Salmon grounds to collect more fish from the smaller boats when their tanks are topped. Yeah, there are some logistical concerns to address and work out but the point is this general plan concept is possibly quite feasible if we can bring the Seafood companies in for finished product distribution & marketing. Each step of the costs will need to be assessed from the fleet costs for picking up and delivering the raw product to the large ship processor & deliver to the seafood companies. Yes, the trawler captains need some incentive income for taking time to upload to the collector ship. It can be done. Waste can be eliminated BUT turned into a valued viable healthy food high in protein to distribute to markets around the world in need of a consistent source of protein to feed their nations. We also save our fisheries. That would become better managed just as the current crab industry is in Alaska & Fisheries off the coast of New England the Gulf Coast & Canada as well as other countries. So where are the Seafood entrepreneurs ? The catch is already proven to be readily available.
The 250 million pounds of bycatch wasted each year in Alaska is approximately equivalent in weight to a stack of 10,000 semi tractors, or a stack of 50,000 Ford F-150s
Now do you understand? #captainlarry
...and how in the world does that meet any sustainable fisheries guidelines or marine stewardship practices.
Someone is paying off the regulators !!
Fascinating read on wild salmon habitat restoration. It’s not set in Wild Alaska, but saving the King of Salmon has long been a mission of ours.
Aaargh...make the King runs great again..
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/the-elwha-dams-are-gone-and-chinook-are-surging-bac.... #captainlarry
The Elwha dams are gone and chinook are surging back, but why are so few reaching the upper river?
Since two dams were removed from the Elwha River, chinook salmon have steadily returned to the lower and middle river. But fewer are reaching the cold, uppermost reaches of the watershed. Why? A good read for sure...funny how they tip toe around the fact hatchery fish will return to the stretch of river they are raised in like. This recovery is an awesome step regardless.
NOAA has released a new set of trawl bycatch numbers. These figures are for the week ending in 10/17/2020.
Statewide King Salmon bycatch last week averaged 548 individual Kings per DAY.
Statewide "other" salmon(Sockeye, Coho, Chum, pink) bycatch last week averaged 1,527 individual fish per DAY.
Statewide Sablefish(blackcod) bycatch last week averaged 87,240 lbs per DAY.
Statewide Halibut bycatch last week averaged 11,338 lb per DAY.
Statewide Crab bycatch averaged 6129.4 individuals per DAY.
#captainlarry
I say shit can those boats, it's rape 💀 of our oceans. Been there done that , I've seen first hand the waist involved with this type of fishing and could justify what I was doing so I gave it up. Don't get me wrong im all for commercial fishing but there has to be a better way!
The next time you order a fish sandwich, California roll, or feed the kids fish sticks, remember, this is where it came from.
Aaaargh....don’t complain about the fishing with your mouth full..
#captainlarry
Why I like to go out and catch my own!
2020 Alaskan trawl bycatch mortality of "other" salmon is currently at 300,732 individual fish.
Other salmon are coho, sockeye, chums, and pinks.
Trawlers waste one salmon every 1.52 minutes in 2020. All. Year. Long.
This is the 5th year in a row that the trawl fleet has wasted more than 300,000 salmon. The trawl fleet's peak waste year was in 2005, when 711,520 other salmon were killed and dumped back, NOT including KING Salmon!!!
In what other fishery would this wastage not be considered a criminal act?
#captainlarry
Alaska Has odd regs for a reason
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