Arctic Field Program News 2011

1 Artwork by Vladilen KavryVladilen Artwork by Promoting Science and Steward S h i P in Bering, Beaufort, c hukchi and o k h o t S k S e a S Contents Community-based Salmon Management: Under the Microscope: Focus on Species ................................2 A “Win-Win” for Wildlife and People Letter from the Director .....................3 ach year, one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on Earth healthy salmon runs and law-abiding fishermen have had little F I S H F O R E V E R unfolds in thousands of rivers throughout the vast North opportunity to influence salmon fishery management in their WWF and Community Partners Advocate for Reducing EPacific region: the migration of Pacific salmon. Following local waters. Salmon Bycatch ..................................4 several years of life at sea, millions of wild salmon return to Fortunately, in some areas of Russia with critically diminish- Expansion of Large-Scale Driftnet- their natal rivers and lakes to spawn, a remarkable cycle that ing salmon stocks, residents are taking steps to become more ting in Russia—A Global Concern for forms the keystone of a rich and complex natural architecture. involved in the local management of their fisheries through the Transboundary species .......................5 Bears and birds depend on wild salmon. Entire forests are development of local salmon councils. By creating these coun- Trans-boundary Transfers of nourished by salmon, as the fish decompose on river banks, cils, community members, fishing industry representatives, Ideas and People Support Salmon Conservation ...........................5 spreading essential nutrients inland from the ocean. Salmon and local administrations are building a common platform for Dial ‘P’ For Poac hing .............................6 fuel economies, support ancient and contemporary cultural resolving a range of salmon management issues. Not far from traditions, and capture the hearts and minds of anglers, artists, Kamchatka, on Sakhalin Island, such councils have been operat- Illegal Oil Exploration in Russia’s Key Fishery ..............................6 and authors around the world. ing since 2008 with the support of WWF’s partner organization, “Too Special To Drill:” Bristol Bay, Nowhere is wild salmon more plentiful and its habitat more the Wild Salmon Center (WSC). WSC provided instrumental America’s ‘Fish Basket,’ Needs intact than in Alaska and the Russian Far East. Today, coastal continued on page 2 Permanent Protection .........................7 communities rely heavily on salmon for sustenance and main- Bristol Bay Economic Report .................7 taining cultural traditions. In these communities, the mere mention of a summer at “fish camp” lights up people’s faces and ARCTIC OCEANS prompts them to recall countless fond memories of harvesting, PROTECTION processing, eating, and storytelling. Community members of all Lessons Not Learned:Offshore Development in Arctic Seas ................8 ages participate in fish camp each year, providing an opportunity for elders to pass ancient traditions on to younger generations. Arctic Shipping: New Opportunities, New Dangers ..............9 Sadly, in many parts of the historical range of salmon, wild Don’t Be a Buckethead ........................9 populations have been lost due to overharvest, habitat loss, and construction of dams for hydropower, with consequences that A R C T I C B R I D G E reverberate far beyond the rivers themselves. Remove salmon Science Knows No Boundaries: Interna- from rivers, and the careful construction of natural systems will tional Research Builds Bridges Across the crumble and valuable cultural heritage and traditional knowl- Bering Strait ......................................10 edge are jeopardized. An Important Step Forward In WWF works in the oceans and rivers of Alaska and Russia the Creation of an International Park in the Bering Strait ......................11 to ensure that wild salmon remain a keystone of healthy, intact ecosystems. In the Russian Far East, on the Kamchatka Arctic Walrus Left Stranded By Climate Change .............................11 Peninsula, the Bolshaya River was once known for its plentiful Pandas and Polar Bears ....................12 salmon runs, which have long allowed communities to thrive on its shores. However, the Bolshaya’s convenient proximity to Spotlight on Partner: Kamchatka’s largest city, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, has made it Tom Tilden........................................13 an easy target for illegal fishing activity. Over the past ten years, Special Recognition & Thank Yous ....14 poachers have severely depleted the river’s salmon stocks Williams Laura by Photo n Salmon iS a key food Source for many communi- Staff Bios ..........................................15 through illegal and unsustainable harvest of salmon eggs and tieS throughout the Bering Sea. here a young girl fish. Until recently, members of the communities that rely on in the village of khailino, kamchatka, with partS of freShly caught Salmon. 2 continued from page 1 guidance in establishing salmon councils on Sakhalin, bringing experience and With continued support from WWF and WSC, the Ust-Bolsheretsk Public knowledge from lessons learned working with similar salmon councils in North Salmon Council has been successful in many areas: an anonymous poaching hot- America. To learn more about how these councils might work on Kamchatka, Sergey line has been successfully established, providing appropriate government agencies Vakhrin of the “Save Salmon Together!” coalition and WWF’s Anatoly Dekshtein with reports of fishing regulation violations, and the council’s proposed new proto- traveled to Sakhalin in the spring of 2010 to attend a WSC salmon council training cols and regulations have been implemented. seminar. The Council’s successful efforts continue to set a precedent in Kamchatka Upon their return to Kamchatka, “Save Salmon Together!,” WWF and WSC set for community-based fisheries management. We look forward to seeing continued out to lay the foundation for a similar council in the town of Ust-Bolsheretsk, a success and growth of public salmon councils on the Kamchatka Peninsula! q community on the shore of the Bolshaya River. Sergey and Anatoly shared success stories they’d heard, describing the Sakhalin salmon councils’ progress toward combating poaching; restoring and monitoring salmon streams; educating the public; and promoting community involvement in fishery management. Concerned about the damage poaching has caused to the salmon population in their local river, the people and administration welcomed the idea of public salmon councils and began working to create one of their own. Less than a year later, in January of 2011, Ust-Bolsheretsk’s District Mayor Igor Bondar established the Ust-Bolsheretsk Public Salmon Council by official decree. Comprised of local stakeholders, including representatives from regional government and enforcement agencies, educators, commercial fishermen, and local and indigenous people, the council acts as a conduit for ideas to be discussed and then proposed to relevant government agencies. The council also operates as a forum, addressing important issues such as: the fight against poaching, how to best develop ecotourism, local access rights, the value of traditional fishing practices, Photo by Michel Roggo, WWF-Canon Michel by Roggo, Photo public outreach and education, stream restoration and monitoring, and overall n Sockeye salmon return upStream to spawn. watershed management. UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Focus on Species: The Sea Butterfly eautiful and bizarre, a group of swimming sea snails known as “sea butter- chemical changes could cause this important animal to become locally extinct in flies” are one of the Arctic’s most abundant inhabitants, a vital part of the just a few decades. Cold waters like the Gulf of Alaska absorb more CO2 more Bfood chain, and today are extremely vulnerable to the hidden effects of cli- readily than warmer seas, meaning that Limacina helicina could be one of the mate change. The foot of these tiny animals has adapted to become a set of “wings” first animals to be affected by ocean acidification. Some scientists predict that the that propel them up and down the water column. Sea butterflies have a peculiar way Limacina will be unable to live in some parts of the Arctic Ocean due to aragonite of feeding, casting out a mucous net that is often many times wider than the animal undersaturation as early as 2016! itself, trapping other plankton and bacteria as they float by. The sea butterfly then Ocean acidification is often described as climate change’s “sister problem”—it consumes the entire net when enough prey is caught and constructs a new one. It is caused by more or less the same processes, and its effects could be equally dra- is thought that the net also helps to increase the organism’s buoyancy as it floats matic. The loss of a species like Limacina helicina would have an enormous impact through the open sea. on Arctic ecosystems, a “canary in the coal mine” for global climate change. q There is only one species of sea butterfly in the Arctic,Limacina helicina, but it is extremely plentiful in the cold waters of the north, comprising more than half of total zooplankton abundance in some seas. This ubiquitous sea butterfly makes up almost 50% of the pink salmon’s diet and is also preyed upon by sea birds, baleen whales, mackerel, herring, and other fish species. Another swimming sea snail, Clione limacina, feeds exclusively upon

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