A commercial halibut boat in Sitka, Alaska. Photo from NOAA.
Hoping to rebound fish stocks and boost coastal economies, NOAA is calling for big changes in how commercial fishermen go about their business.
The agency says it’s starting a voluntary program to encourage the industry to move to what’s called Catch Share systems. These rules are already in place for 13 commercial fisheries around the country. Four more fisheries will adopt the rules over the next year.
So how does this work?
Crater Lake, one of 500 lakes in the study. Photo by Dennis Newman
Here’s an argument for catch-and-release.
A new report by the Environmental Protection Agency is raising questions about the safety of fish caught in America’s lakes and reservoirs. The study looked at fish in 500 lakes across the country, including nine here in Oregon.
What the agency found is that it’s just about impossible to catch a fish that doesn’t have at least some mercury or PCBs. Dioxins and furans were also found in most fish.
But are they safe to eat?
That of course varies greatly depending on where you’re fishing and often how you eat what you catch.
Some more results from the study:
Mercury: The study found “potentially harmful” levels of mercury in fish at 49% of the lakes in the study. Mercury gets into the food chain from the burning of fossil fuels, usually coal.
PCBs: 17% of the lakes studied had fish with unhealthy levels of PCBs, a class of chemicals that can cause cancer.
Dioxins and furans: While at least 8 out of 10 fish in the study had at least some level of these chemicals, unhealthy amounts were found in fish at 8% of the lakes in the study.
Unfortunately, the EPA says its hard to draw conclusions about the safety of the fish caught here in Oregon. It says the sample sizes are too small to make any conclusions. But I’m trying to get data on what they found here.
Meanwhile, the Oregon Department of Human Services does have a list of lakes and rivers with fish advisories. You can find that list here.
Wildlife is a multi-billion dollar business for the state. About $2.5 billion in 2008 according to some new stats from Oregon Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Travel.
This report tells us that Oregonians and visitors spent the money on four major activities, wildlife viewing, fishing, hunting and shellfishing. Of the four, wildlife viewing is by far the most popular, with about 1.7 million people doing such things as birdwatching. Fishing trails behind with 631,000 participants and hunting with 282,000.
Courtesy ODFW
Some of the money was generated by the trips we made to do these things. We spent about $1 billion traveling to our favorite fishing spot or hunting site. Most of it was spent on overnight trips.
And where were we going to have all this fun?
The North and Central Coasts saw the biggest chunks of the money we spent on traveling for wildlife activities, followed by East and Central Oregon.
We also opened our wallets for wildlife related equipment. The report says we spent $1.5 billion on such things as boats, spotting scopes and recreational vehicles.
UPDATE: A follow up hearing has been scheduled for HB 2220. (See last paragraph in this story.) The House Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Communities Committee holds a work session on April 14 at 8am.
A key bill to help stop the spread of invasive species is making progress in the Oregon Senate. SB 571 was approved by the Environment and Natural Resources Committee and will soon be voted on by the full Senate.
The bill increases penalties for anyone caught introducing invasive species into the state. In some cases, they can be charged with a Class C Felony. Perhaps more importantly, ODFW can sue the person for the costs of removing the invader.
In September of 2206, ODFW treated Diamond Lake with rotenone to kill an estimated 90 million Tui Chub.
That can be a substantial amount of money. The state spent almost $6 million to remove the Tui Chub from Diamond Lake in 2006. The chub are native to the Klamath Basin. But in Diamond Lake they’re invaders leading to the collapse of rainbow trout fishery. Water quality got so bad that the normally clean lake suffered from toxic algae blooms. The state carried out a similar program in 1954.
Wildlife officials believe the chub were introduced into Diamond Lake by fishermen who were using them as bait.
For more information see this post on the Oregon League of Conservation Voters blog.
By the way, we’re also following HB 2220. That bill creates a system of border checkpoints where boats and trailers coming into Oregon have to stop and be inspected for invasive species. The bill has received one hearing and is still awaiting action in a committee of the Oregon House.
