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*******
Note to list members: These reports from the U.S. Congressional
Research Service, are generally posted once a week and are made
available by way of friendly staff in congress.
This posting consists of new material from these summaries, obtained
by extracting only the material in {curly brackets}. In some cases,
when new material is inserted into an existing paragraph, the new
material may not make much sense by itself. Hint: if the lines in a
paragraph are very uneven, it is probably because the new material
was added to an existing paragraph, and the old stuff was cut out.
*******
MARINE FISHERIES
Iceland ITQ Ruling. On Jan. 5, 2000, Iceland's Regional Court of the
Western Fjords found a fishing vessel captain and vessel owner not
guilty of
fishing without owning or leasing quota in January 1999, concluding that
Icelandic laws on individual transferrable quotas (ITQs) violate both
the
constitutional rule against discrimination and the rule about the right
to
work. The Minister of Fisheries reportedly indicated the case will
likely
be appealed to the Supreme Court. [personal communication]
Canadian Groundfish. In early January 2000, the Canadian government
announced the conclusion of a 5th round of buyouts of Newfoundland
groundfish licenses. A total of 120 licenses were purchased from a
total of
600 bids. The total cost of the buyout is about C$13 million.
Altogether,
the 6-year program has purchased about 1,300 licenses for a cost of
around
C$114 million. On Jan. 6, 2000, Canadian Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans
officials reported that owners of the Portuguese fishing vessel Calvao,
boarded in late December 1999, will be charged in Portugal with
overfishing
American plaice on the Grand Banks and misreporting their catch. The
Calvao
was supposed to be fishing for redfish. [Canadian Press]
Bering Sea Snow Crab. In early January 2000, AK Dept. of Fish and Game
managers speculated that the Bering Sea snow crab fishery, scheduled to
open
on Jan. 15, 2000, might be postponed until late April or May 2000, if
ice
extending much farther south than normal makes most of the fishing area
unaccessible. Ice conditions are reported to be the most severe since
January 1975, with the St. Paul Island and harbor (with processing
plants)
iced in and inaccessible. Others suggest that postponing the season may
be
an economically motivated decision, allowing fishermen to catch
high-value
cod now and snow crab later in the spring. A decision on this fishery
is
expected to be made by Jan. 7, 2000. [Anchorage Daily News]
Oil Spill Compensation. On Dec. 29, 1999, representatives of the
International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage announced
that
Japanese businesses harmed by rumors that crab and shrimp had been
polluted
by a January 1997 Russian tanker spill would receive more than $2.6
million
in compensation. More payments are anticipated. [Yomiuri Shimbun]
Illegal Fishing. On Dec. 14 and 27, 1999, Coast Guard personnel
intercepted a Mexican lancha fishing illegally for shark in U.S. waters
off
TX with gillnets. The TX Dept. of Parks and Wildlife assumed
responsibility
for prosecution in both cases. [personal communication]
By Jan. 3, 2000, an
estimated 18,000 seabirds had been killed by the spill. On Jan. 6,
2000,
the French food safety agency, Agence Francaise de Securite Sanitaire
des
Aliments, recommended a ban on the sale of shellfish and seaweed from
the
coastline most affected by the oil spill as well as a ban on fishing
from
the shore in the region. Tests were recommended for fish caught at sea
to
assure they are not contaminated. Oil has come ashore along 250 miles
of
the coast. [Environment News Service, Assoc Press]
On Jan. 1, 2000, CA became the first
state to require ships to exchange their ballast water at sea to
minimize
the possibility of transporting invasive species to CA ports. This is
the
result of the CA Legislature enacting AB703. [Augusta Chronicle, San
Jose
Mercury]
SALMON ALONG THE PACIFIC COAST
OR Salmon Management. On Jan. 5, 2000, an ECONorthwest economist
submitted
a report to the OR Board of Forestry, concluding that logging
restrictions
to protect salmon habitat would yield other economic benefits in tourism
and
recreation that could outweigh the costs of the reduced timber harvest.
This report was prepared for several environmental groups, including OR
Trout, Portland Audubon, and Pacific Rivers Council. On Jan. 6, 1999,
OR
Governor John Kitzhaber announced that programs under the OR salmon plan
had
improved salmon habitat by upgrading or removing more than 1,400 miles
of
road from service to reduce erosion and by fencing wildlife and
livestock
from 400 miles of streambank. [Portland Oregonian]
AK Salmon Dumping Case. On Jan. 5, 2000, Juneau, AK, District Court
officials announced that a May 2, 2000 trial date had been set for an
Excursion Inlet salmon canning plant and its manager charged in November
1999, with 19 misdemeanor counts of intentional salmon waste. Almost
3.2
million pounds of chum salmon carcasses were alleged to have been dumped
in
Icy Strait over a period of 19 days, after their eggs were removed (roe
stripping). [Anchorage Daily News]
BC Salmon Management. On Jan. 4, 2000, managers of Canada's Dept. of
Fisheries and Oceans released salmon forecasts for 2000, predicting a
below
average to poor harvest in all areas with limited fishery openings and
possible complete closures. The sockeye salmon fishery at the mouth of
the
Fraser River is expected to be limited or closed. For the sport
fishery,
additional restrictions may be imposed on catching chinook salmon on the
west coast of Vancouver Island. The northern commercial troll fishery
will
likely be closed for the entire season due to coho and chinook salmon
conservation concerns. However, sockeye salmon returns to the Skeena
and
Nass Rivers are expected to improve. A third round of commercial
license
buybacks ended in late December 1999. [Canadian Press]
Proposed Tribal Plan Exemption. On Jan. 3, 2000, NMFS published a
proposed
rule that would exempt implementation of tribal resource management
plans
from the Endangered Species Act's Section 9 take prohibitions for
threatened
salmon populations, where implementation of such plans has been
determined
to be unlikely to reduce the survival and recovery of listed salmon.
[Fed.
Register]
These proposed rules were published in the Federal Register on
Dec. 30, 1999 (steelhead trout) and on Jan. 3, 2000 (salmon). Public
comment will be accepted until Feb. 22, 2000 (steelhead trout) and Mar.
3,
2000 (salmon). [Assoc Pr!
ess, Seattle Times, Seattle Post- Intelligencer, Fed. Register]
On Jan.
18, 2000, ballots from Grants Pass Irrigation District patrons will be
counted to determine whether patrons will approve conditions set by the
District's Board for meeting demands by the OR Water Resources Council
and
NMFS to remove Savage Rapids Dam. [Portland Oregonian, Assoc Press]
FRESHWATER FISHERIES
Atlantic Salmon. In late December 1999, NMFS and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service announced that the public comment period for the
proposed
Endangered Species Act listing of Atlantic salmon in ME was extended for
an
additional month, and that 2 additional public hearings were scheduled.
[Assoc Press]
MARINE MAMMALS
AK Sea Otters. Jan. 11, 2000 is the deadline for public comments to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on a request by a consultant to 2
Japanese
aquariums to capture a up to 2 sea otters apiece from Kodiak waters for
export and public display in Japan. [Anchorage Daily News, Fed.
Register]
CA Sea Lion Deaths. The Jan. 6, 2000, issue of Nature contained an
article
concluding that the deaths of more than 400 CA sea lions between
Monterey
Bay and Morro Bay in 1998 was caused by domoic acid from a toxic
dinoflagellate plankton bloom. [San Jose Mercury]
FL Manatees. On Jan. 5, 2000, the FL Marine Research Institute
announced
that a record high 73 manatees were killed by boats in the first 10
months
of 1999. This exceeded the previous record loss of 60 manatee deaths in
all
of 1996. [Assoc Press]
On Jan. 3, 2000, NMFS published an interim final rule in the Federal
Register, implementing provisions of the International Dolphin
Conservation
Program Act and establishing specific requirements for the program.
Public
comment on the new rule will be accepted through Apr. 3, 2000. The
regulations implement a new labeling standard for dolphin-safe tuna,
effective Feb. 2, 2000, and establish requirements to track and verify
the
status of tuna imports from the eastern tropical Pacific. [Environment
News
Service, Fed. Register, Environmental News Network, Dept. of State,
Humane
Society of the United States press release]
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