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-~ ConE------JUNE-JULY 1999 VOL. 4 No. 7 Dear Reader "We now need a 'sea ethic,"'writes Dr. Carl Safina, founder of the Living Oceans Program of the Marine Wilderness National Audubon Society, in the epilogue to his book Song/or the Blue Ocean. He reminds OCR UNDERSEA YELLOWSTONES readers of Aldo Leopold's call for a "land eth• Should wilderness protection stop at land's end? ic" as a way of defining our responsibility for by Paul Kobefjfein Page 9 the landscape. "Many still view the ocean as the blank space between continents," writes SEVEN TROUBLING TRENDS: U.S. protection of Safina. "We have yet to extend our sense of ocean habitat challenged by lawsuits Page 10 community below the high-tide line." PUGET SOUND'S BOTTOMFISH MAY LAND EDITORIAL ON THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST Page 12 IS IT FRESH? ... AND OTHER IMPORTANT Over a century of land conservation has QUESTIONS TO ASK AT THE SEAFOOD MARKET taught us many hard lessons about the by Eliz-abeth Grossman Page 14 urgency of protecting whole ecosystems. It is time to apply that knowledge to our marine No REFUGE: Strictly speaking, our National environments as well. While most scientists Marine Sanctuaries are no sanctuary at all Page 16 and marine experts say that we still have much to learn about the way oceans work, it EIGHT GEMS IN THE PACIFIC Page 16 is painfully clear that all is not well under the sea. Fish species around the globe are CANADA'S OCEAN WILD: Protecting biodiversity declining. Marine environments are being along the B.C. coast degraded by destructive fishing and other by Jennifer Lash Page 18 extractive industries. Fast growing popula• tions are flocking to shoreline communities and despoiling the nature of the ocean's THE USUAL STUFF edge. Effluent from inland activities contin• ues to pollute marine waters and the seabed. FIELD NOTES: Clinton's Land legacy; redband ESSAY: by Kathleen Dean Moore 17 In this issue, we examine efforts here on trout: sage grouse; dredging the Columbia 3 the Pacific Coast where citizens and their CASCADIA RESOURCE DIRECTORY 22 governments have begun what we hope is a SAY WHAT 3 prolonged initiative to protect their marine COVER PHOTOGRAPH: CORDELL BANK environments with a series of sanctuaries NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY.C OURTESY and protected areas. Similar efforts are KATHIE DURBIN: On whales. dolphins and under way around the world. It is time to misplaced outrage 3 CORDELL BANK EXPEDITIONS/NATIONAL expand those areas and ensure that they pro• OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION vide adequate protection for entire ecosys• tems of species. While this may mean limits to fishing and ocher marine activity, in the long run we all will benefit. It is time to be conservative, and err on the side of caution for ocean, and learn what can be gained, rather than what we have lost.

his report on marine conservation was made possible by a generous Editor/Publisher Paul Koberstein Tcontribution by the Lazar Operations Manager/Publisher Robin Klein BORIO Of RDUISOIS Foundation to the Cascadia Times Research Art Direction Bryan Potter Design Susan Alexander. San Francisco, Calif. Fund. We would like to acknowledge Bill Peter Bahouth. Atlanta, Ga. Senior Editors Elizabeth Grossman Lazar for his leadership in efforts co preserve Pamela Brown. Portland, Ore. and protect ecosystems in the Pacific Jo Ostgarden Ellen Chu. Seattle, Wash. Northwest, both on land and at sea. Contributing Editor SteveT aylor David James Duncan. Lolo, Moni:_ There are many others to thank as well, Columnist Kathie Durbin Pat Ford. Boise. Idaho too many to list. Sabine Jessen for her excel• Cascadia Times is published IO times a year by Cascadia Michael Frome. Bellingham.Wash. lent photos, Molly O'Reilly, somewhere in Times Publishing Co., 25-6 Northwest 23rd Place. No. Ian Gill. Vancouver, B.C. the South Pacific, John Sherman, Robert 406, Portland OR 97210-3534. Subscriptions are $20 per Peter Lavigne. Portland, Ore. Stoll, Jennifer Lash, and all our subscribers. year. $36 for two years. The entire contents of Cascadia James Karr. Seattle, Wash. Times are copyright © 1996 by the Cascadia Times Ken Margolis. Portland, Ore. Publishing Co., and may not be reproduced in whole or Marshall Mayer. Helena, Mont. in part without permission of the publisher. The publisher Nancy Newell, Portland, Ore. encourages unsolicited manuscripts and art, but cannot Christopher Peters. Arcata, Calif. be held responsible for them. Manuscripts or material Catherine Stewart. Vancouver, B.C. unaccompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope Jim Stratton. Anchorage.Alaska will not be returned. Cascadia Times encourages electron• Sylvia Ward. Fairbanks.Alaska ic submissions to e-mail box [email protected]. We Charles Wilkinson. Boulder, Colo. reserve the right to print letters in condensed form. Mary Wood. Eugene, Ore.

How to Reach Us Phone (503) 223-9036 Fax (503) 736-0097 Email [email protected] World Wide Web http://cascadia.times.org Mail 25-6 NW 23rd Place, No. 406, Portland OR 97210 Field ffm ..fro m-Ca-scad-ia...... _ For antiquity's sake Clinton eyes alegacy of western monuments

By Elizabeth Grossman Study's In: Salmon Soon here is serious talk throughout the West this year about Out if no Dams Down Twhether the Clinton Wild Snake River spring and sum• Administration will move co protect mer Chinook salmon could disap• significant public lands by establishing pear by the year 2017 unless signifi• new National Monuments, and if so cant steps are taken, according to a where, and what this would mean. study released by Trout Unlimited. Secretary of lncerior Bruce Babbitt Scott Bosse, a biologist with Idaho announced earlier this year that he is Rivers United, says the considering National Monument desig• dire consequences of nation for an area of nearly half a mil• lion acres on che Shivwits Plateau north further delaying of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Word action to save is out chat other areas are also being wild Snake considered. A source reports that west• River ern state Bureau of Land Management salmon are directors have received a letter from becoming Babbitt, requesting information about increasingly areas that might qualify as National clear. Bosse says the Monuments. i continued reliance on Although there is no formal 0 ~ barging and trucking young process and nothing is confirmed, o fish as the cornerstone of salmon "Interior has a working list," says Bill s Marlett of the Oregon Natural Desert <... recovery efforts, literally invites a ; wave of extinction. Association. These inquiries, explains 0 Dave Willis of the Soda Mountain While some still call for more s::, studies, this report clearly shows Wilderness Council, are "part of an :. evolving strategy as co how and what z z that delay is a recipe for extinction, kind of protection these areas will get." § says Tim Stearns of Save Our Wild "Monuments are not Wilderness," 0" Salmon. The best available science CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 Steens Mountain is one of several possibilities for National Monument designation in the West. shows that partial dam removal is the only good chance of saving wild salmon. GROUND Fear Legal Action? Hit the Mute Button Of Whales. Porpoises While Olympic Pipe Line dropped TRUTH ING plans for a trans-state pipeline after By Kathie Durbin a recent leak and explosion killed and Misplaced Outrage two boys and a fisherman, and dev• astated Whatcom Creek near he furor over the recent killing of a gray whale by whaling captain named Herman Aishana, showed me his Bellingham, Washington, eight Makah whalers cook me back to 1976, when the brass harpoon and darting gun and described the call of employees suddenly became tight• T "Save the Whales" movement captured young the hunt. "Last year," he said, "I became the first man in lipped about the case. Oregon voters during California Governor Jerry Brown's history to shoot a moose on Barter Island." But the bow• The Seattle quixotic presidential campaign. J n 1978 I wrote sympa• heads were about to pass by on their fall migration, and Times reports a thetically about this movement. I quoted from David the mayor did not wait to skin his prey. He explained: likely explanation: Crosby's anthem, "To the Lase Whale." I mentioned the "Not even a moose can keep an Eskimo from his whal• intelligence of whales, and naturalist Jacques Costeau's ing." In pollution theory that whales may have their own oral legends. J cit• To understand why the Makah had to go whaling, cases brought ed statistics: "In the past half-century, since the advent of visit Ozetre, Wash., south of eah Bay. There, in 1970, under federal modern whaling technology, an estimated two million on a windswept stretch of coast, a beachcombing school• laws, the stakes whales have been slaughtered for commercial trade." teacher made a stunning discovery: Indian artifacts, made can be high and I do not denigrate the views of the anti-whaling pro• of wood, literally falling out of a steep, tide-eroded cut• the burden of testers who wept at the sight of the sea turned red with bank. When University of Washington archeologists proof relative'>: blood at dawn on May 17. Two decades later, I continue began excavating the site, they discovered an intact low. To bring a mis• co abhor commercial whaling, even as I recognize the role Makah fishing camp buried for nearly five hundred years demeanor charge under the Clean · it has played historically in the economies of many seago• by a mudflow that had sealed its artifacts in airtight clay. Water Act, prosecutors need only ing nations. But my feelings about whaling by indigenous Because coastal tribes used wood for everything from har• show what's called ordinary negli• people have softened over the years. poons to baby diapers, most material evidence of their In 1991 I visited the Eskimo village of Kaktovik, on daily life had long since decayed and decomposed in the gence, defined as the failure to use Alaska's Arctic Coast. Each year Kaktovik whalers har• wet coastal climate. The Ozette site yielded by far the reasonable care. Crfminal negli• vest a limited number of bowhead whales under a special greatest number of Northwest Coast Indian relics ever gence, which involves a "gross devi• permit granted by the International Whaling Commission discovered, a treasure that has been likened to a Pompeii ation" from what a reasonable per• in recognition of the role whaling plays in the Eskimo in mud instead of volcanic ash. After 11 years of continu- son v.:ould have done, requires a culture and subsistence economy. Kaktovik's mayor, a CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 SAY WHAT? lfli!ll!it!td /10111 /Jtl~/ .' CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

points out Bart Koehler of the Areas initially protected by the nation of the Escalante Grand Southeastern Alaska Conservation Antiquities Act include Arches, Bryce Staircase National Monument, and to Coalition (Wilderness can only be des• Canyon, Chaco Canyon, Grand Babbitt's interest in the Shivwits ignated by congressional legislation) Canyon, Glacier Bay, Grand Teton, Plateau, has prompted introduction of "but they are an additional layer of Olympic and Zion National Parks. bills by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, protection." But Oregon conservation• In the current political climate it (S.729) and Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, ist Andy Kerr notes that "many seems unlikely that much, if any pub• (H.R. 1487) that weaken the power of National Monuments have evolved lic land will be protected by legislation the President to designate National into National Parks." "Unless it comes of the 106th Congress. At least one Monuments, a position supported by with specific language and manage• Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. It is not ment plans," says Tom Myers of surprising that discussions of future Friends of Nevada Wilderness, monuments are taking place behind National Monument status does not "Does Clinton want to the scenes and causing some contro• automatically stop degrading practices versy within states' ~legations. such as mining and grazing. Grazing is be remembered for the "Historically, Presidents and now permitted within the Grand Secretaries have taken action in the Staircase-Escalante National Monica Lewinsky last months or even hours of their Monument. "Is that what Babbitt terms to protect areas," says Jim jontz wants," says Kerr, "a bunch of cow• - legacy, or for a of American Lands Alliance, referring bombed monuments?" to the executive power afforded the The Antiquities Act of 1906 autho• President and secretary of the Interior rizes the President "in his discretion," protected lands legacy?" by the Antiquities Act. "The to reserve land for the protection of Antiquities Act," says Kerr, "gives "historic landmarks, historic and pre• presidents an extraordinary opportuni• historic structures, and other objects of northwestern senator has used lack of ty to take the Jong view, " of land pro• historic or scientific interest," and calls supporting votes to explain his objec• tection despite "local politicians who for the "proper care and management tion to proposing Wilderness legisla• usually oppose it." of the objects to be protected." tion. Protection through National This particular president may have Neither the President's proclamation Monuments requires no votes, so a more personal reason to acc. nor the secretary of the Interior's rec• could be, say some conservation Comments Mike Medberry of the ommendations are subject to public activists, the "beginning of" what Idaho Conservation League, "Does review. Koehler calls "a public land heritage." Clinton want to be remembered for National Monuments are estab• Response among Western the Monica Lewinsky legacy, or for a lished by presidential proclamation. Republicans' to Clinton's 1996 desig- protected lands legacy?"

Ground Truthing c o a r r s u s o FROM PAGE 3 ous digging, the Ozette To view the Ozette site was closed in 1981 artifacts is to be moved and its remaining arti• by the raw courage of the facts were reburied. :~,;-.:-:... :.·,,;,.··~• ~ fierce Makah, who armed For a small Indian .. ~ themselves with mussel• tribe in a remote, isolat• ; shell tipped harpoons ed location, whose mem• !and challenged the bers are subject to all the ~ Pacific in dugout canoes. usual social ills that ~ Visitors to the museum plague Indian reserva• ~ can see the wooden bail- tions, the discovery at , ~ ers, paddles and canoe ~~~<( • Ozette was a galvanizing ;..,;;;;..~·"!' ~ macs they used on their moment, and it inspired :::: - ~ . i arduous voyages. "Whale a remarkable cultural · .:' · ·; ~ hunting utilized almost renaissance. The tribe ,..; ~ every technical skill pos• donated land and § sessed by the Makahs, $500,000 for a fine .;.:~-~ "i from the building of the museum at Neah Bay j canoes to the develop• that houses the best-pre• ;;; mcnt of the equipment, served of the artifacts. 6 the incense physical Tribal leaders recruited l training, the fulfillment the few surviving elders A gray whale off the coast of British Columbia. of spiritual preparations who still spoke the intri- for the hunt and extraor• cate Makah language to teach it in the local schools. Montana Groups EPA:. dinary knowledge of the ocean," says the text accompany• to Museum staff members offered instruction in the making of ing the exhibit. One of the most magnificent finds at Ozette Cfean Up Your. Act cedar bentwood boxes, spruce root baskets and ocher tradi• was a cedar carving of the dorsal fin of a whale, inlaid with Purposely violating federal law isn't tional items. Over the past 30 years, the Makah have redis• more than seven hundred sea otter teeth. going to cut it anymore in covered their history. Photographs by Edward and Asahel Curtis, enlarged to Montana. Two Montana .. based Central to that history is whaling. The Makah were the mural size, show Makah daily life in the early years of the conservation- groups filed suit uncontested masters of the whaling life. The whale was the 20th century, shortly before the Makah voluntarily stopped recently against the touchstone of their culture, their economy, their religion, whaling in the face of depleted populations of gray whales, Environmental Protection their art. James G. Swan, a white teacher and dispenser of which had been decimated by Japan, Norway and other medicine who lived and worked among the Makah in the whaling nations. The rarest and most spectacular photo• Agency (EPA) for failing to 1850s and 1860s, described their traits in a treatise, "The graph at the museum shows the actual harpooning of a consult with U.S. Fish and Indians of Cape Flattery," published by the Smithsonian whale on the open sea. It was taken by a Makah who was a Wildlife Service when its Institution in 1869. "They do excel ... in the management member of one of the last expeditions. decisions may affect , of canoes, and are more venturesome, hardy and ardent in So now the .Makah have killed their first whale in more Montana's federally their pursuit of whales, and in going long distances from the than seventy years. They have done it in fulfillment of their listed native fish land for fish, than any of the neighboring tribes," Swan treaty with the U.S. government, with the blessing of the species. wrote. "They are, in face, to the Indian population what the International Whaling Commission, and in compliance with They're inhabitants of Nantucket are to the people of the Atlantic rules for the hunt established by the National Marine demanding Coast, being the most expert and successful in the whale 0 fishery of all the coast tribes." CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 SAY WHAT? Protecting Lands State by State The potential for Western public land protection currently seems as varied as the landscape. Steens Mountain and Soda Mountain in Oregon, and the Owyhee Canyonlands in Oregon, Idaho and Nevada are among the areas under consideration for Monument des• ignation, say members of the conservation community, including the Oregon Natural Desert Association and the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club. Chris Strebig in the Oregon state BLM office confirms that "Babbitt has a real interest in BLM lands deserving recognition." He said BLM's preferred management for Steens is as a National Conservation Area (NCA), and that there was also the possibility of NCA planning for Soda Mountain. Within the Oregon delegation there has been dis• cussion as to what kind of support might be given to such a strategy of public lands protection, with briefings held by Congressman Earl Blumenauer's office, but no official statements have been made. Sen. Gordon Smith is a co• sponsor of the Craig bill, (as arc Alaskan Republican Senators Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski). Sen. Ron Wyden's office declined to comment on his involvement in these conversations. In California, Sen. Diane Feinstein has introduced a bill (S.848) for an Otay .Mountain Wilderness area. Representative Mary Bono is discussing the possibility of introducing legislation to protect areas of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains, This area of about 300,000 acres includes both BLM, Forest Service, Native American, county and private lands, says Paul Brink of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and according Spectacular landscapes across the West. such as Steens to Bill Havert of the Coachella Valley Mountains Mountain. remain unprotected. Conservancy, is also under consideration for a National Monument. lose," adding that there is also interest in expanding the Wyoming BLM recommendation of public lands existing Craters of the Moon National Monument. protection seems "remote to impossible," says Dan In neighboring Nevada, Myers said the "primary Heilig of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, despite potential monument we're interested in and working on decades of work to protect portions of the Great Divide is Owyhee Canyonlands which would include 1.5 million Basin and South Pass along the Oregon Trail, contiguous acres in Nevada." The Black Rock High Desert also areas of the Jack Mormon Hills, Red Desert, and biolog• needs protection, he said, stressing the importance of ically important Steamboat Mountain. "While you're at getting a mineral withdrawal for the area and "doing it, save it all!" said Heilig. something about cows." Colorado has a Wilderness bill in the works, but "Grazing," says Kieran Suckling of the Southwest Susan Tixier of the Colorado Environmental Council said Center for Biological Diversity, "is the number one most she knew of no discussion of specific potential Colorado prevalent impact on endangered species in the National Monuments and commented that state agency Southwest." Without curtailing mining, grazing and mili• officials thought such an Administration move unlikely. tary activity that takes place on Arizona public lands, "have we really substantially increased protection," he Susan Ash of American Lands Alliance in Utah, wondered. reports that while work on the management plan for the Escalante Grand Staircase and a Wilderness bill for Utah In New Mexico, local grassroots groups are conduct• continues, Governor Mike Leavitt is considering a bill to ing an inventory of the state's public lands, evaluating designate portions of Utah's National Parks as Wilderness, their wilderness characteristics and determining which to limit the impacts of human visitation and recreation. are under the most direct threat from development. "We may be looking to National Monument status as interim These areas should be managed for the values that protection," says Edward Sullivan of the New Mexico are actually out there," says John Gatchell of the Wilderness Alliance, "but with Wilderness designation as Montana Wilderness Association of the Blackfoot Basin the ultimate protection." near Glacier National Park, the Rocky Mountain Front n ::Ill and the Missouri Breaks. "These should all be candi• While views in the conservation community differ as 00 n dates for Monument status," he said, mentioning that to the adequacy of protection National Monuments con• Babbitt had recently visited the Missouri Breaks. vey, there is agreement they bring recognition, and the = opportunity for further protection. Some expressed con• - Cautious about speaking t00 soon, SEACC's Koehler cern that the process might be jeopardized by premature *.... named additional areas of the Tongass and the Arctic i discussion, but felt public support was important in seek• National Wildlife Refuge and Coastal Plain as possible "'00 ing protection for any area. candidates for Monument status in Alaska. c::, With many legislators actively supporting the status (1) ....!.... Katie Fite of Committee for Idaho's High Desert quo, executive action may be the swiftest way to gain c: spoke of the Owyhee's important biological diversity as much needed land protection in the West. And a signifi• '< well as its historical and cultural values. "There's been so cant legacy of protected lands may be how the Clinton little cooperation between the Idaho delegation and the administration would like best to be remembered. Clinton administration, '' says Michael Medberry of the -E.G. • Idaho Conservation League, "that there's not much to CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 SAY WHAT?

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Malheur Refuge discovers desert fish by KathieD urbin or most of its history, southeast Oregon's Malheur National F Wildlife Refuge was a refuge in name only. It was established to pro• tect waterfowl habitat in the the largest freshwater marsh in the Lower 48, yet for decades its pastures were overrun with cattle from neighboring ranchers. Denzel Ferguson, the late and legendary foe of public land graz• ing, reported in his book Sacred Cows at the Public Trought hat stock damage The Fish & Wildlife Service provides water for cows on the Malheur National Wildlife f caused duck production at the refuge Refuge. Now refuge managers are thinking about water for fish. to plunge from 151,000 to 21,300 Water Act. least of the Fish and Wildlife Service's between 1948 and 1974, a period dur• For the Harney Basin redband, concerns. Ironically, he says, the ing which federal grazing permits on survival has required a series of adjust- agency responsible for enforcing the the refuge doubled. In recent years, merits over the past millennium. The Endangered Species Act has paid far under pressure from environmental• Blitzen River now flows from Steens less attention to habitat degradation on ists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mountain into a closed basin. But fish its own refuges than on other federal has reduced the number of cows biologists say the Blitzen once flowed lands. Until recently, "there was not a allowed co graze on the refuge. Now, into the Columbia-Snake River sys- lot of interest in water quality or fish for the first time, the agency is being tern, providing the redband with a habitat" on the part of Malheur refuge goaded to manage this watery paradise migration route to the Pacific. That managers, Bowers says. "The main for an imperiled desert fish. passage was blocked a thousand years mission of the refuge has been to grow In September of 1997, four conser• ago. Some of the trout then began waterfowl. We've pushed unsuccess• vation groups, led migrating from the headwaters of fully until the past two years to get fish by the Oregon the Blirzen to considered." Natural Desert Harney But now, with the threat of a list• Association, filed Lake, grow- ing looming, the service has rediscov• a petition with the ing large in ered that its name includes the word U.S. Fish and the productive "fish." The refuge has hired its first Wildlife Service to RobertVaugt}t, Supervisor of the marsh system. But the staff fish biologist, Rick Roy, who says protect the red- government planted carp in refuge managers are going to try to Colville National Forest in band trout under the federal Northeast Washington, recently Harney Lake in the 19th century to "become more aware of native fish." Endangered Species Act. The red- provide a food source for pioneers and Roy adds, however, that no one should annouoced liis decision to log a band, an interior cousin of the settlers, thereby introducing an exotic expect miracles. "Malheur is not sud• Sultjvan Lake Ranger District water~ rainbow trout, has been extirpat• predator into the redband's world. denly going to become Malheur shed that sustains bun trout, The Z · ed from nearly three-quarters of In this century, development of Fisheries Refuge." Stumber Timber Sale,•toc::ated west of. its former range east of the the Malheur refuge's elaborate system In cooperation with the state and the Salrno PriestWilderness Area and Cascades and survives only in six of canals, check dams and irrigation the environmental group Oregon south ¢>,f th~ Canadfan: border, includes closed river drainages of the Northern diversions has blocked the trout's Trout, the agency is attempting to removal of approximately 24 million Great Basin. Chief culprits in its return to the headwaters of the Blitzen increase red band trout survival rates board feet and logging of the steep decline are livestock grazing, which co spawn. The fish are routinely found by retrofitting some of its dams with denudes scream banks, and irrigation, riparian slopes of Slate Creek. dead in fields and irrigation canals at fish ladders and fish-friendly culverts which alters stream flow patterns and summer's end. Native fish, says that give the embattled fish a fighting According to Liz Allen, Kettle results in deterioration of water quality. Range Conservation Group, the . Oregon state fish biologist Wayne chance of navigating the maze of In Oregon's Harney Lake Basin, Bowers, have traditionally been the ditches and channels. The vast Colville National Forest has failed to the Fish and Wildlife Service has itself meet all of the time lines for commit• been a culprit in the decline of the ments they made to conserve the bull redband, through its management of trout Instead, they are proposing to the extensive system of dams and aggressively log and build eight miles canals that regulate the flow of the of new road. Supposedly, to help Blitzen River, which feeds the seclusion-dependent wildlife. Malheur refuge. In March of 1998, after the service failed to meet a dead• line for a ninety-day finding on their And finally: One of the Stupid petition, conservationists sued to force Bills Circulatingin the Oregon a decision. Most land managers in east• Legislature ern Oregon now believe that the red• CITIZEN ACTION - SB 678. As band trout will be listed. The conse• amended, makes interference with quences will be dramatic, not only for logging or other agriculture opera• the refuge but for the Bureau of Land tions a Class A misdemeanor punish• Management, which manages most able by one in year prison or a $5,000 public land in eastern Oregon. Poor fine. Status: Passed Senate. Passed water quality and elevated tempera• tures degrade most screams flowing House, 47-4. Awaits slg~tures of through heavily grazed BLM lands in Speaker and President, theh goes to southeastern Oregon. In the South the Governor. • ' Steens Mountain area alone, eight screams are in violation of the Clean Field Notes coNt1NuEa------Roaring Springs Ranch, in the adja• Another 282 million cubic yards completely full, but copping-off in Ground Truthing cent Catlow Valley, also is retrofitting of material will have to be dug up and Astoria would allow them tO leave the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 irrigation structures to aid upstream dumped someplace to maintain the Columbia with a full load, without fish passage. channel over the next 20 co 50 years. having to dig the channel of the Fisheries Service, which enforces the Saving the redband is not going Oregon's natural resource agen• Columbia any deeper. Marine Mammal Protection Act. They to be cheap. On a recent tour of the cies all expressed concerns for water This would also allow ports to may not sell any part of the three-year-old refuge, Bowers pointed out a new quality, habitat, farmland preserva• cake advantage of the next generation female gray whale they harpooned and $8,000 fish ladder that provides tion and species such as smelt, stur• of freighters, which would require a shot off Tatoosh Island. Some outsiders upstream access for fish. "We're geon and salmon - all of which are depth of SO feet. Yet the Corps are skeptical of their motives. But the already spending $300,000 and that's struggling in the lower Columbia dropped it from consideration. pride in the bearing of the returning a drop in the bucket," he said. "When River. Instead, we could see a request for a whalers and the joy in the faces of tribal you start talking about redesigning In fact there are several salmon SO foot channel in the next few years members were obvious to anyone who dams, trapping carp and marking red• runs on the lower Columbia that are - perhaps even before this project is viewed the television footage. Something band trout ... " He also pointed out a listed under the Endangered Species complete. important was going on here, something place where sudsy water, the product Act, and yet the Corps' did not take The final report on impacts that those of us who are not Makah cannot of excessive nutrients from cows and even the most basic consideration for should be out in this summer and it truly understand. waterfowl, pours through a diversion protecting them - halting dredging could be very different from the The gray whale is no longer in dan• ditch into the Blitzen River. "This is and blasting while endangered draft. However, Congress didn't ger. It was removed from the federal not fish-friendly," Bowers said. salmon are in the river. bother waiting, approving funding for endangered species list in 1994. More Bowers has done his part. He no "This project would significantly the project as if the environmental than 26,000 gray whales now migrate longer stocks the Blitzen River with alter the environment of the consequences didn't matter. along the Pacific Coast, a number that non-native rainbow trout, and he has Columbia River and estuary, would may equal or exceed the gray whale pop• reduced the catch limit for redbands. impact shallow water and wetland ulation prior to the beginning of wide• But he believes habitat is the key to habitat, and could negatively impact spread commercial whaling. In fact, there recovery. Ulcimaccly, he would like to many species including sturgeon, When you consider that are indications that gray whale popula• see the upper stretch of the Blitzen crab and salmon," said the Columbia tions may be approaching che carrying restored to its meandering channel River Estuary Study Task force-a capacity of the Arctic waters where they through the refuge. That's a goal that council of governments on the lower they are proposing to feed before they begin their 12,000-mile will meet with resistance from refuge river. "From our analysis ... it is clear migration south to their calving grounds managers, however, because it would that {the Corps of Engineers] has no remove 191 million cubic off Mexico's Baja Peninsula. This year reallocate water and change the mix adequate reason for their assumption more than one hundred dead gray whales of waterfowl stopping over and nest• that no significant impacts will result yards of sand, 220,000 have washed ashore along the Pacific ing on the refuge. "If in five years we from this project." Coast from Baja to Puget Sound. can have good fish passage and colder To many of the people on the Oceanographers speculate that some gray water temperatures," he says, "I will lower river who depend on the estu• cubic yards of hard whales may be starving due to depletion have done my job." ary for their livelihoods, this is a one• of their feeding grounds. two punch in the guc. They must bear basalt rock, 450,000 No ecological argument can be made all the costs and gee none of the eco• for denying the Makah permission to take nomic gain, said CREST's Director cubic yards of gravel five gray whales annually over the next Kathy Taylor. five years. What we are left with, then, is Army Corps Seate and lower river govern• an anthropomorphic view of whales• ment officials have repeatedly called and boulders-it cer• a view chat disregards a predator-prey Rocks Out in for an independent economic analy• relationship extending back thousands of sis, yet none is planned. Despite tainly seems like this years. the strong-worded objections from state Meanwhile, if anti-whaling protesters Columbia officials and local governments, might have some effect. are looking for a new cause, consider the Congress recently took the inexplica• By Ed Hunt Dall's porpoise. Dall's porpoises grow to ble step of approving initial funding he eight feet long, reach a weight of 400 hen the Army Corps of for the project before a final environ• pounds, and are among the world's fastest Engineers recently released mental report was complete. swimmers, attaining speeds of 30 miles Wa plan for digging and blast• Federal law exempts the Corps This project could be completed per hour. Last year, Japanese whalers ing 191 million cubic yards of rock, from having to look at the impacts its with far fewer environmental killed at least 18,000 of the porpoises in muck and critters from the lower actions will have on "unwilling partic• impacts. Yet, if the final report looks coastal waters off Japan, targeting females Columbia River, they said it would ipants," says Nahcotta Ecologist just like the draft, we may be "stuck" with calves. Over the past eight years they have no environmental impacts, but Kathleen Sayce. "Congress in its wis• with this plan. That may force more have killed 150,000. Large commercial they had trouble finding anyone who dom freed the Corps from this oner• difficult questions, such as whether interests dominate the porpoise trade, and agreed. ous duty because it knew that impact continued deepening of the many fraudulently sell the meat as whale, To state and regional natural costs could exceed project costs. A Columbia river is worth the environ• pocketing $2,300 per carcass. There is no resource agencies and people on the typical year's worth of dredging on the mental and social costs. Given this monitoring or inspection of the more than lower river, it seemed obvious that Columbia river, for example, could climate of uncertainry and obfusca- 200 boats that catch and land Dall's por• there would be impacts co habitat - easily be tripled by all of the mitiga• tion, perhaps the Oregon poises, and Japan has disregarded both for the things that live in the riv• tion actions that are now needed to Department of Land and requests by the IWC to reduce its catch. er as well as the things that live where repair beaches, levees, dikes, river Conservation asked the most disturb• Last year and again this year, scien• the Corps and Portland, Vancouver, drainage, habitat and ecosystems." ing question of all. tists urged the International Whaling and Longview ports planned on What bothers a lot of people is "We are concerned that even if Commission to pressure the Japanese gov• dumping hundreds of millions of that there are alternatives worth con• this project proceeds, on-going ernment to suspend or reduce the Dall's cubic yards of muck and rock. sidering - alternatives that are changes in the maritime industry will porpoise catch. Dr. Paul Spong, a cetacean When you consider that they are cheaper and less destructive. yield bigger ships and eventually expert from British Columbia, sharply crit• n proposing to remove 191 million One option would cost only result in calls to deepen the shipping icized the IWCs's failure to pass a resolu• .. ..c, cubic yards of sand, 220,000 cubic $500,000 and would result in the least channel yet again. Is there a point at tion opposing the hunt at its 1998 meet• ..a yards of hard basalt rock, 450,000 environmental impacts while sub• which continued deepening of the ing. The Dall's porpoise, Spong said, is ;: stantially improving grain shipment Columbia River is neither feasible or cubic yards of gravel and boulders-it "one of the casualties of this year's 'Let's -t certainly seems like this might have traffic conditions. It had the best justified?" Not Do Anything to Upset Japan and E some effect on the Lower Columbia cost-to-benefit ratio, but it was reject• Perhaps that point has already Norway' strategy ... The Dall's porpoise .."' River Estuary. ed out of hand. been reached. • population off Japan is suffering the same c The Corps will also have to use Another alternative would help gross over-exploitation that decimated the 1_:::> high explosives to blast through the lower Columbia economy by cre• Editor's note: This article originally world's great whale populations." ~ bedrock in the river. All this material ating a topping-off port at Astoria. appeared in Tidepool and can be found Here is an environmental crime wor- will be dumped on farmland, wet• This option deserves consideration as in a longerform at http://www.tide• thy of the passion of the anti-whaling lands and streamside forests, as well we look long term to the future econ• pool.org/hpchannel.html). activists at Neah Bay.: • as in marine habitat just off the omy of the lower river. At current mouth of the Columbia River. depths, ships cannot go down river 0 SpecialC&------~------• Sage Grouse losing ground

By Elizabeth Grossman and across the fences that separate meetings to review sage grouse man• Gunnison sage grouse in the world. public and private lands. agement policies and state conserva• Working with the state Division of n late April, just before dawn, on a "You have to look at the whole tion plans. A status review of the. Wildlife, the BLM and Natural sage covered hillside in southeast• enchilada," says San Stiver, a biologist species has been commissioned by Resource Conservation Service, the I ern Oregon, there is movement in with the Nevada Division of Wildlife. American Lands Alliance, a national group's conservation plan completed a the low brush. Before you see the birds, "You couldn't find a better species to conservation group. Concurrently, the year and a half ago, devised for private you may hear a popping sound, the look at as a cornerstone species for Fish and Wildlife Service is gathering and public lands, includes bird, plant "swish-swish-coo-oo-poink!" of the sagebrush steppe," he says, explaining information to prepare a response to · and soil studies, changing grazing rota• male sage grouse's courtship song. The that the bird's decline is a sign that the any petition filed for ESA listing of the tions, reducing cattle numbers on some male birds are about cwo feet call with whole landscape is suffering. sage grouse. allotments, monitoring stubble height of grayish brown feathers. To attract a For sage grouse, "the whole enchi• Until a status review is completed, grass, improving riparian habitat, alter• hen, the males strut, their white breasts lada" means "huge expanses of terriro• no legal action towards ESA listing can ing mowing and prescribed burns to swelling like huge collars to show ry," says Seiver, because they use dif• be taken. "But an initial look," says encourage vegetation. "I chink people bright yellow air sacs, their tails fan• ferent habitat during different seasons. Jasper Carlton of the Biodiversity are doing what they say," says Sue Navy ning to spiky crowns, in a display natu• In winter, the birds need tall sage• Legal Foundation, "shows there's a of the High Country Citizens Alliance. ralists describe as "one of the most stir• brush for food and cover. In spring, very good likelihood that the sage "No one wants to see the bird listed." ring natural history pageants in the they move to areas of scattered sage• grouse is biologically threatened in a In Washington conservation plans Great Basin." brush for their leks - the breeding significant portion of its historically involve paying landowners and leasees This scene was once common sites to which they return year after known range. This is a species headed not to graze and using the Conservation across sagebrush country in the West. year for their charismatic courtship dis• for disaster. Now, not five years from Reserve Program co take remnant Sage grouse were so numerous that ear• plays - and to build nests. Sage grouse now, is the time to address this." shrub steppe (sage grouse habitat) out ly settlers compared them to the pas• of agricultural production. According to senger pigeon whose flocks darkened Michael Schroeder of the Washington the skies. Only 40 years ago, hunters Department of Fish and Wildlife, sage cook them by the dozens. Now sage grouse seem co be doing well on the grouse are disappearing, and scientists Yakima Army Training Center where are alarmed at what chis means for the there's been no grazing for four or five species - and for the health of the years, and where there's been work "to high desert on which it depends. reduce the impacts of fire." "I'm watching extinction happen• "Sagebrush has not been managed ing right in front of my eyes," says Clait with sage grouse in mind," says Braun, Avian Research Program Schroeder. Manager of the Colorado Division of Utah and Idaho have completed Wildlife, who has studied sage grouse some conservation plans, but imple• for over 25 years. Since 1980, he mentation has not yet begun. Nevada explains, sage grouse populations will start its planning process this sum• have declined as much as 45-82 per• mer. Other sage grouse states are just cent. While still hunted in nine states, getting to work. the bird is declining in Oregon, "We don't like where sage grouse Washington, Idaho, evada, Utah, numbers are," says Seiver, "so we'll enact Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, conservation plans whether or not a peti• California, North and South Dakota. It hens need grass tall enough tO protect If sage grouse is listed under the tion is filed." Idaho has four working has vanished completely from Arizona, nests and chicks from predators, and ESA, it would mean taking manage• groups, each in different parts of the New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, grasses and ocher small green plants, ment out of states' control, and quite state. As elsewhere, these groups include Nebraska and British Columbia. In called forbs, for food. Summer range is likely federally mandated change in biologists, ranchers, farmers, sportsmen Alberta and Saskatchewan, the a mix of sagebrush, and the wet mead• management practices - including and conservationists. "Everyone realizes Canadian government has listed sage ows and riparian areas that host forbs grazing - throughout the birds' range. we've got a problem," says Connelly. grouse as endangered. and insects important to chicks' diets. "If all the states get on board and "We're in agreement that we want to do "This is noc a natural decline. it's Sage grouse "may use as much as implement conservation plans on a uni• something now rather than wait for fed• man-induced," says Braun, describing 800 square miles," says Dr. Jack fied basis, we have a chance of suc• eral intervention." the fragmentation, degradation and loss Connelly of the Idaho Department of cess," says Braun. "If we don't manage Working groups are voluntary, and of sage grouse habitat. Fish and Game. These expanses have for healthy landscapes and allow fur• some like Tom Cade of the North ln May, Northwest Ecosystem been encroached upon by farming and ther degradation and fragmentation, it American Falconers Association, a Alliance and the Biodiversity Legal grazing, along with housing and com• will lead to extinction." hunting group concerned about the Foundation filed a petition with the mercial development, says Prof.John "'vVe need to have conservation decline of sage grouse and loss of habi• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list the Crawford, a biologist at Oregon State planning across jurisdictions as we've tat, worry that "not much of anything is Washington sage grouse under the University. Altered fire patterns and the seen for salmon, the spotted owl and happening on the ground." Cade is Endangered Species Act. invasion of non-native plants such as desert tortoise," says Stiver. impressed with the dedication of the Federal agencies and environrnen• 00 cheat grass are also responsible for the "My goal," says Braun, "is to try Idaho groups but says "the problem is, !I talists are now taking a hard look at the loss of sage grouse habitat. Restoration and work with people so they don't get these groups have no political power." .:: sage grouse co determine whether it will mean changing practices which too polarized." "We're hoping states can get things c warrants protection under the ESA. have destroyed the natural patterns of Current conservation plans vary happening so we won't have to list the cii Whether or not it is listed, saving sage vegetation. from state to state, and there is concern bird, but that may not happen," says u grouse will have far-reaching impacts Sage grouse require a mosaic of that without a concerted effort to coor• Cade. ..c on the use and management of the habitat so restoration will "involve dif• dinate and implement restoration Conservationists, agency scientists, U sagebrush country many westerners ferent management entities which immediately, it may be too late to save hunters and other Westerners agree ~ have long taken for granted. Sage makes conservation difficult," says the sage grouse. that restoring sage grouse will require o-: grouse may also teach us an important Connelly. "We need co protect what's In Colorado, a working group has cooperation between state and federal '"5' lesson about biology and politics. left of habitat, and fix what's broken." been meeting since 1995, addressing agencies as well as private landowners. ~ Because of their habitat require• This spring and summer, western issues of education, research, and land To do so, they say, will require an § merits, protecting sage grouse will directors of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife management issues, to preserve habitat informed public, a redistribution of mean crossing traditional political juris• Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of for what biologists believe to be the resources, and the political will to enact 0 dictions, thinking beyond state borders Land Management are holding special only sustainable population of conservation measures. • ilderness, according to the authors of the 1964 Wilderness Act, is "an area where the earth and its commu• Wnity of life are untrammeled by man ... " The law, curiously, docs not men• tion the words marine, ocean or sea. But should wilderness protection stop at land's end? The national network of ur parks and wilderness protects creatures of the forest, but what about denizens of the deep? There is no doubt that the sea's biological diversity and integrity arc in ·undersea trouble, and thus so are we, according to the world's leading marine and conser• vation biologists. As vital components of our planet's life support systems, marine life protects shorelines from flooding, breaks down wastes, moder• ates climate and maintains a breathable ellowstones atmosphere. Marine species provide a livelihood for millions of people; and food, medicines, raw materials and recreation for billions. Marine species ould wildernessprotection stop at are at risk from overexploitation, physi• cal changes in ecosystems, pollution, the introduction of alien species, and global atmospheric change. land's end? The world's catch of ocean . fish peaked in 1989 and has been declining in most oceanic regions since. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated in 1997 that among the world's main fish stocks, 44 percent are fully exploited and are therefore producing catches that have reached or are very close to their maximum limit, with no room expected for further expansion. About 16 percent are overfished and likewise leave no room for expansion. There there is an increasing likelihood that catches might decrease if remedial action is not undertaken to reduce or suppress overfishing. Another 6 per• cent appear to be depleted, with a resulting Joss in total production, not to mention the social and economic losses derived from the uncontrolled and excessive fishing pressure, and 3 per• cent seem to be recovering slowly. Fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic, the Southeast Atlantic and the Eastern Central Atlantic reached their maximum production levels one or two decades ago and are now showing a declining trend in total catches. In the Norcheast Atlantic, the Southwest Atlantic, the Western Central Atlantic, the Eastern Central Pacific, the Northeast Pacific and the Mediterranean and Black Seas, annual catches seem to have stabilized, or are declining slightly, after having reached a maximum potential a few years ago. "The declining and flattening catch trends in these areas are consistent with the observation that these areas have the highest incidence of fully exploited fish stocks and of stocks that

are either overexploited, depleted or c:::, recovering after having been depicted," ro the FA O reports. t If chat sounds as if we're fishing like there's no tomorrow, consider the Grand Banks fishery off the shallow coast of Maine. where after 350 years of commercial exploitation of haddock, frozen," she says. The time between catch• advocates Reinholdt. "We didn't bust ass ing a fish and when it gets to market is cru• out in 70 mile an hour winds in the north cial. "If fish is taken care of properly," says Pacific taking care of these fish co get you a Jon Speltz of the Wild Salmon market at piece of crap," says 1artin. People have to Fishermen's Terminal in Seattle, "it can understand the limits of the resource, says last up co ten to fourteen days from the Reinholdt, and "understand the sacrifices time it is harvested." Fish iced the moment that need to be made," adding chat an ever it's caught and brought to market within increasing world population is taxing 24-30 hours, experts agreed is the ideal marine environments. time for ensuring freshness. How is the public to understand the Martin and Randolph concurred with limits and quotas placed on specific fish? others who advised that a fish bled, gutted Why not demand fresh-killed salmon and immediately frozen - frozen at sea - twelve months a year? "Wild salmon is produces a high quality product, chat when good for our bodies and our souls," said sold, is defrosted slowly, or let go slac~. Riley Starks, an executive board member Cory Schreiber of Wildwood Rest~urant in of the Washington Reef Net Owners Portland, however, does not consider any Association, speaking philosophically. frozen fish of "restaurant quality." He "Keeping wild salmon part of our public believes three to four days the maximum culture preserves the runs." preferred time from water to dining cable. On a more basic level, farmed fish rais• "Fresh," he said, is "not frozen." But es lots of questions, in terms of fisheries Randolph and Speltz offered that fish biology, environmental impacts an? long• frozen at sea is a way to have wild, rather term food saferv Fish farmmg requires the than farmed fish, year round. use of ancibiori~s. There is uncertainty and Where, how and when caught - even concern about what happens when non• Latin family names - are part of the native farmed fish escape and mingle with seafood labels at Nature's. There I find bay native stocks. Nearly all retailers carry a scallops, rock shrimp, turtle safe Georgia mix of wild and farmed fish, not all of it sweet white prawns, domestic sea scallops, marked as either. manila clams, true cod, king Chinook Conservation issues surrounding par• salmon (oncorhynchus tsawyntscha) "long line ticular species of fish are rarely simple. caught - delivered to ature's 16 hours out Some salmon runs are threatened and of the water - sustainable harvest prac• endangered. Others are healthy and prolif• tices," blue marlin, Dover sole, red rock ic. Some rockfish and other ground fish snapper family scorpaeridaei- "hook and « species and stocks are seriously overfished, line caught, delivered co Nature's 16 hours 3 others are not. "We used to get thousands our of water - sustainable harvest prac• 3 of pounds of fish off the Oregon coast," tices," aqua farmed and ruby red boneless l says Cleary. " ow we don't even drive our trout, Oregon sea bass, ahi tuna, and e; own truck co the coast. Oregon is in trou• Copper River sockeye salmon fillet. § ble," he says. Randolph and Martin concur. A large poster explains the "Turtle• ~5 Many fisheries are in trouble all along the safe certified" guarantee. "The shrimp are ,. Pacific coast. harvested only with the use of Turtle g What can be fished in Alaska or Extruder Device nets in a sustainable man• ~ California, differs from how, or if, that ner ... [by] supporting these shrimpers. we '----=-"" species can be fished in Washington or The action is fast and furious at Pike Place Market in Seattle. can avoid purchasing aqua farmed shnmp Oregon. In the US, limits vary fro~1 state to state. The setting of quotas and limits.and which are raised with the use of antibiotics caught, which does not interfere with ~he on the shell, live New Zealand little neck the closing of certain fisheries arc hotly and are directly related co the destruction seabed. Nees are also used for selective clams, Oregon troll Chinook salmon steak debated everywhere, partly because of the of mangrove forests throughout the ~vorld. '' fisheries, such as reef netting for salmon and fillet, fresh Alaskan halibut fillet and bounds of knowledge at every level. Buying seafood suddenly seems to involve done in the San Juan islands of Puget steak, Copper River Chinook salmon steak At the Pike Street Fish Company mar- serious decision-making. Sound or the method developed by the and fillet, Idaho rainbow trout - dressed, ket in Seattle, crowds of tourists ogle the What are "sustainable harvest prac• Hawkshaws who catch salmon from Prince fresh Pacific long-line caught swordfish, huge whole salmon and jaws of m_onkfish. tices?" \Vhy is it important tO know how Rupert, BC. These fishers catch relatively fresh Central America Blue Marlin, fresh Fishmongers shout and toss their wares the fish is caught? And what about farmed? small numbers of fish which are sold at pre- Oregon red snapper fillets, Idaho Catfish - more as street theater than actual seafood Fish are caught in nets and with hooks and mium prices. . pan ready, fresh Hawaii, long-line caught commerce. There are whole Jive squid, live lines, but with each method there is much The most common method of catch mg ahi vellow fin tuna, fresh Idaho sturgeon, manila clams, Penn Cove mussels, golden variation. premium deep sea fish, like halibut and fresh Oregon rex sole, Rhode Island squid mantle oysters, live kumomoto and Trawlers sweep the sea bottom with tuna, is with hook and line, called troll• cubes & tentacles, fresh Fiji combo alba• Quilccne yearling oysters; fresh tilapia, big weighted nets, scooping up the target• caughc. It's a painstaking process, says core tuna, fresh Alaska razor clams, Alaska spot prawns, fresh true cod, Chilean ed fish - or other sea creature. With it may Marcin who used to fish for salmon and hal• Massachusetts chopped clams, Oregon sea bass, fresh yellow fin ahi tuna, fresh come what's called by-catch, frequently in ibut. "Baiting halibut hooks," she says, "is small oysters, Mississippi rock shrimp, rainbow and golden trout, pan ready cat- large quantities, and often discarded. Large like making lace." There are drag lines, Mexico bay scallops, Mexico medium and fish, and fresh buffalo fish. Signs announce bottom-crawling operations that disturb the which raise the question of how many hooks large white shrimp, Maine sea scallops, fresh yellow-eye rockfish from Alaska, sea floor significantly and create great to a line, and whether or not the hooks have Oregon shrimp meat and Oregon fresh Atlantic salmon, petrale sole and amounts of by-catch, are of growing con• barbs, which can lead to by-catch and waste. Dungeness crab meat. snapper fillets, Copper river king salmon, cern to those' concerned with conserving Overfishing throughout the marine-life food "Sourcing in seafood," says Jerry fresh troll caught hook and line king marine resources. chain is a serious problem. Reinholdt, fisherman and Oregon t,' salmon, king crab, Alaska Dungcness crab, ~ Despite "extensive knowledge of the "I look at the ocean a little bit like a Processor Representative on the Salmon physical, chemical and biological processes garden," Cleary, explaining the value of a Advisory Panel of the Pacific Fisheries fresh blue marlin and swordfish, tubes and = tentacles, fresh sea and bay scallops, and ;;: that occur in the sedimentary environments targeted fishery - fishing specifically f?r Management Council. "is the name of the fresh soft shell crabs. -4 of the world's oceans," explains Waldo one species, in a certain place, at a certain game." Knowing where seafood con:ies Penn Cove is in Puget Sound, the i: 'Wakefield, Fisheries Research Biologist time. "I chink fisheries need to be managed from is often the first step to understanding trout, buffalo fish and catfish farmed in ~ and Oceanographer with the National more aggressively on a conservation basis," its freshness, safety and how environmen• Idaho. Sole is the flatfish also referred to as c: Marine Fisheries Service Northwest he says, referring both to quantities, loca• tally sound its harvest. Both he and Martin flounder. Hake is also called whiting. Dog Fisheries Science Center, scientists are just tions and seasonal limits. "You wouldn't go emphasize the importance of edu~ate_d 1.. salmon is now sold as chum or keta. Pacific ~ beginning to understand "the influence of into the garden and take all the tomatoes at fisherman, and say the current generation is snapper is rockfish, which can be any num- -o various fishing gear on this type of marine once including the green ones and all the increasingly knowledgeable. ber of different fish, some of which arc

absolutely miniscule, and the protec• interest in the islands, with a recent tions are very weak. As poor a job we are increase in summer visitors, has caused doing on land, we are doing much worse the agency co consider the possibility of at sea." rationing visits. Under the new Canada Countries began designating Oceans Act, the government seeks co marine waters for protection only in the build an extensive system of marine last few decades. Out front is New protected areas by 2010 ch rough a series Zealand, where the undersea wilderness of coastal planning proceedings. movement began in the 1960s led by But Sabine Jessen of the Canadian ecologist Bill Ballantine. Australia has Parks and Wilderness Society says even created 300 "marine protected areas" chis is not enough. "In B.C., 11 percent chat cover some 400,000 square kilome• of the land is protected, and yet less ters. Probablv the best known is the than 1 percent of the marine environ• Great Barrie; Reef Marine Park, the ment has any protection. This has co largest of its kind in the world. It sup• change." ports 1,500 species of fish, 350 species of West Coast states have taken some hard coral, 4,000 species of mollusks and steps to protect marine ecosystems. z< Q 240 species of birds. Some areas of the Several small nearshore areas in Puget z< park allow most activities, including Sound and off California coast are off• n fishing. Other areas allow some tourism, limits to fishing, as are underwater pin• 00 but no fishing. Some areas are com• nacles off Sitka Sound, Alaska, and pol• -n c:, pletely out of bounds to everyone. lock areas around Steller sea lion rook• ;: eries in the Bering Sea. None of the A China rockfish. - Another leader is Canada, which in -t cooperation with the province of British experts interviewed for this story were able commercial fishing grounds that i: Columbia has created 104 marine pro• aware of any marine protected areas off Marine Sanctuaries on both coasts, in .... the Gulf of Mexico, and off Hawaii and are routinely exploited. 00 tected areas in B.C. The Pacific Rim Oregon. California bans bottom trawling As in the forest, the Endangered § National Park Reserve, on the west side within 3 miles of shore. American Samoa. However, there is lit• Species Act may have an answer to poor ro of Vancouver Island, is the only reserve The U.S. government is just begin• tle that is unique about the way these management in the sea. The National that bans fishing. Half of the reserve is ning to consider strengthening protec• areas are managed, other than around t coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Fisheries Service has decided to waters of the open Pacific, around the tion for the special places in its seas. It Marine Sanctuary. Some, including the consider listing seven species of ground- Broken Group Islands west of Barkley too has yet to establish much true fish in Puget Sound. The petition may Sound. Parks Canada is thinking care• marine wilderness. Over the last 25 Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Washington, contain valu- the catalyse for a broad coastwide status fully about their future. The growing years, the U.S. created 12 National t I Cover

review of rockfish under the and 65 in our Northeast Pacific cede to any further restncnons. "We term benefits to the fishing in stry: ESA, similar to how the Ocean). Harvested for centuries don't have a crisis of no fish, we have a more fish, more consistent harvests and initial salmon listings led by First Nation peoples, they crisis of no science," Rod Moore, execu• the reduced probability of closures due to a regional review and a have been targets of intense tive director of the West Coast Seafood to overfishing. They can also protect torrent of more listings. All fishing with bottom trawl gear Processors Association, told a House species that are not targeted in commer• of this activity may accel• since the 1950s. The Pacific committee in 1998. cial fisheries, but are unintentionally erate the creation of Ocean perch rockfish was He has a point, at least in terms of trapped in nets. refugia for these fish overfished in the 1960s, and West Coast fisheries. The NMFS Moreover, as Rod Fujita of the and the ecosystems that has still not recovered. Since Northeast Fisheries Science Center has Environmental Defense Fund points support them. It may also g the 1980s, many individual approximately 120 employees working out, the purpose of marine reserves can speed up efforts to prop up 3: rockfish species (belonging to on groundfish, but only 28 dedicated to go beyond the simple enhancement of coastal fishing economies~ the sebastes genus) have west coast groundfish in the Northwest, fisheries. "Perhaps the most robust pur• already staggering from the f "decreased alarmingly," along Southwest, and Alaska Fishery Science pose of a marine reserve designed pri• loss of salmon fishing. Various O with the general rockfish popu• Centers combined. The Northeast manly as a fishery enhancement tool is proposals call on government ~ lation, according to Mary Center is supported by two NOAA co provide insurance for fishery manage• agencies to buy permits, gear~ Yoklavich of the National research vessels that conduct a com• ment failures," he says. But reserves cre• 2 and vessels from out-of-work ~ Marine Fisheries Service. O plete resource survey every year. On the ated for fisheries can fail if they are not operators. ~ The hardest hit? Possibly ~ West Coast, NMFS surveys stocks once planned carefully. The idea of creating § the bocaccio, one of the most ~ every three years. A reserve would have value even if marine wilderness is o popular varieties. Sometimes i Nevertheless, the time for marine it did no more than provide a sense of denounced by some national called the rock salmon, it is a wilderness apparently has come. In marine wilderness and directly protect fishing groups, but two West January of this year, state and federal biodiversity. "A marine reserve that he National Marine conservation plans to be deliv• have been established in Puget rockfish that has a long history Coast organizations, the resource managers in Florida restricted includes a spectacular stretch of coast Fisheries Service said ered to the National Marine Sound, including the San Juan of exploitation in the West Pacific Coast Federation of fishing and other activities in parts of kelp forests and rocky outcrops accessi• has begun a year-long Fisheries Service this fall. Marine Preserves, Sund Rocks in Coast groundfish fishery, partic• the Florida Keys National Marine ble divers could be successful... even Fisherman's Associations and biological "status But Mike Saro of People for Hood Canal, and Titlow Beach ularly in California. Weighing co the Pacific Marine T up to 20 pounds, it ranges from Sanctuary. The joint state-federal man• if no fishery benefits accrue," according review" of seven species of fish Puget Sound, a Seattle-based near Tacoma. In total, less than 1 agement plan for the sanctuary would to Fujita. Conservation Council, say in Puget Sound as a first step to conservation organization, said percent of the habitats used by Kodiak Island, Alaska, to Punta ban fishing and restrict boating and div• Even so, Elliott Norse says, marine conservation is essential to determine if they need protec• the state is long on plans, but rockfish in Puget Sound have Blanca, Baja California. The ing in 10-14 square miles of the 2,800 reserves are not sufficient conservation healthy fishing livelihoods tion under the Endangered short on action. "They talk about been protected. largest concentrations are off square mile sanctuary. tools by themselves - oil spills and oth- and communities. Species Act. None of the species, all the plans they've got, but there For several years, citizen southern and central California "The reality is marine interestingly, is a salmon. Several is nothing in the water," he said. groups like People for Puget and near the Oregon~ Tiny anchovies congregate in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. protected areas are going to Washington border. The bocac• salmon species were listed under "There is no firepower there. You Sound and Friends of the San council. "Now that new information has canary rockfish has declined to about 8 happen," says John Fussell of cio frequents a range of habi• the ESA in Marsh. will have to Stan dealing with Juan Islands have tried to create revealed an even worse state of affairs percent of its historic abundance the Pacific Marine tats, including kelp forests, The seven are Puget Sound enforcement and compliance.'' the Northwest Straits National for this species, the need for the Council according to a draft report issued June 1'. Conservation Council, a rocky reefs, midwater, and populations of Pacific herring, The status review, sched• Marine Sanctuary in the north• to take decisive rebuilding steps, and to Any species that has dropped under 25 group that advocates conser• Pacific cod, Pacific hake, walleye uled for completion next ern portion of Puget Sound, in open, low relief bottoms. It can vation and sustainability, and be identified by its large mouth take them immediately, is truly urgent," percent of its historical abundance will pollock and brown, copper and February, will make a science• waters between Whidbey Island said the letter, signed by representatives be listed as overfished. represents commercial and and protruding lower jaw. quillback rockfish. They are part based recommendation on and the Canada-U.S. border. of the Natural Resources Defense Also in March, NFMS listed two recreational fishing interests, of a more expansive petition sent whether a is warranted. If at chat Congress killed the idea last year, As recently as 1997, bocac• conservationists and scien• cio has been among the top 1 Council, the Environmental Defense other fish, the Pacific Ocean perch and to the agency last February to time the agency makes a formal passing instead a bill creating a O tists. "If stakeholders want to Fund, the Center for Marine the ling cod as overfished. But the des• examine 18 Puget Sound proposal to list any of the seven locally controlled Northwest rockfish species caught off all have a hand in it, they have to Conservation and the Pacific Marine ignation does not mean that ling cod species, the largest number the species, it would have another Straits Commission as an alterna• Washington ports and several participate." ports in California, including Conservation Council. served in restaurants in fish and chips, is federal agency has ever been year to make a final decision to tive to a federal marine sanctuary, They called for emergency action to from an overfished stock. Ling cod con• When fish disappear, so asked to consider under the fed• commit to a formal listing. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Patty Monterey, San Francisco, Los do profits. The West Coast red uce the bocaccio catch to zero, and sidered "overfished" off California, eral species-protection law. It is The agency said it would be Murray and Rep. Jack Metcalf, Angeles and San Diego. The rockfish industry declined by threatened further action under the Oregon and Washington, meaning that also the first time the agency has working closely with the calls on seven Puget Sound Pacific Fishery Management 30 percent from 1995 to 1997 Council reports that during the ESA if not satisfied. "The available data at current exploitation rates, the popula• been asked to conduct such a Washingcon Department of Fish counties ro oversee the recovery would,_ in our view, clearly justify listing tion is not sustainable. But in Alaska, a drop from $37 million to $26 review of a West Coast fish and Wildlife and the treaty of depleted species, creation of 1970s and '80s, annual catches million in the value brought of bocaccio frequently exceeded bocaccio under the Endangered Species the ling cod is plentiful. species other than salmon. Indian tribes in western marine protected areas and the Act," they wrote. to shore. "We have to have Until the early 1980s there Washington in its status review. protection of nearshorc critical 6,000 tons. In 1982, fishers land• intact ecosystems to support It didn't take the National Marine was a commercial Puget Sound The petition was submitted habitat. The commission also has ed a record 6,784 tons of bocac• sustainable fisheries " savs cio. Since then, the catch has Fisheries Service Jong to react. Just one Marine Wilderness hake fishery, and until recently by Sam Wright, a biologist retired representation from Native month _ later, in March, NMFS placed Glen Spain of the PCFFA. dropped precipitously. In 1996, What's clear is that reducing the catch by there was a limited fisherv for from the Department of Fish groups and the governor's office. bocaccio on the federal "overfished "Everyone knows the horrors the total catch was 668 tons. itself will not lead us out of the overfish• herring and their eggs by 'both and Wildlife. Wright could not be Any county that participates species list." There must now be a plan of rampant overfishing." In 1998, a National Marine ing crisis. Research in Monterey Bay tribal and non-tribal commercial reached for comment. The peti• in the commission gets $10,000 to halt the decline. For now, the Council Fisheries Service survey shows that bottom crawling is removing a fishermen in Puget Sound. tion says species diversity in in stare-up money so long as they is encouraging all recreational and com• showed bocaccio at 2-to-4 per• food source for these fish - including Imperiled Mostly the remaining species are Puget Sound has been markedly embrace the goals of species mercial fisherman to avoid bocaccio as cent of its historical abundance. tube worms, sponges, anemones, hydro• targeted by sport fishermen. reduced, abundance of each recovery and habitat protection. much as possible. A formal rebuilding Denizens of The American Fisheries zoans, urchins, and other odd creatures. The agency said there was species has declined precipitous• "It is a far cry from a sanctu• plan could be adopced in November. Society has nominated bocaccio Up to 20 pounds of these animals can be the Deep insufficient information on the ly and the average fish size has ary," said Sato of People for Puget . . ~voiding bocaccio might be simple as a candidate for "special con• discarded as waste for every pound of Canary rockfish, Pacific remaining 11 species - all vari• become much smaller. There are Sound. "We consider it admitted• if rt lived alone. But it doesn't, and many cern" status on its list of commercial catch. Some remain in the Ocean perch. Bocaccio. eties of bottom-dwelling rockfish few mature females, and each is ly experimental but we're willing other rockfish varieties in the nets are in The _coastline at Olympic National Park in Washington abuts the Olympic Coast National Endangered and Threatened ocean after trawls have plowed through Sound appetizing? You've - to warrant a status review of producing fewer offspring. to go aJong with it. At least now nearly as bad shape as bocaccio. Others Manne Sanctuary. Marine Fishes of North the sediment that had been their home. seen these fish in your gro- them. The Washington The establishment of there is a framework in the north• are quite healthy. No one really knows America, and the World Only no-fishing zones can protect the The decline of rockfish on the er types of pollution don't stop at the ao cer's seafood case, or ordered Department of Fish and marine wilderness or no-fishing ern part of Puget Sound that with for sure about most of them. There are Conservation Union has identi• food chain as well as the endangered fish . ~acific ~oast has spawned increasing invisible line in the water surrounding a :E them at Red Lobster. No, you Wildlife, however, said a review zones, Wright says in his petition, the list of salmon, and the pend• 53 species of rockfish caught in the fied the fish as a candidate for The National Marine Fisheries interest m the use of marine wilderness reserve, and many marine organisms, .,: haven't? Perhaps you would was not needed on any of them. is key to the survival of these ing listing of groundfish and her• Pacific fisheries. Of these, there is little its Red List of "critically endan• Service has taken no position yet on on this side of the continent. The such as whales, seabirds, and billfish are recognize the name Pacific "We have alreadv taken fish. In 1970, a 27-acre refuge ring, that puts aJI species on an or no data for 45 species. c gered" plants and animals. such an idea, but its biologists there Pacific Fisheries Management Council, wide-ranging and depend on environ• i5 Red Snapper, or Oregon Red many actions to rebuild these from fishing was established in equal footing." The health of another species mar• c Nevertheless, last concede it has merit. They emphasize, one of the eight regional councils ments outside limited reserves. u Snapper, the market names species, including restricting har• Puget Sound. The site, known as The most pressing need at keted as red snapper, the canary rock• M December the Pacific Marine however, that they know very little around the U.S., has formed a marine "If we want pieces of water that c for several varieties of reddish vest and creating sanctuaries the Edmonds Underwater Park, this time, he says, is scientific fish, is just now being reviewed by ~ Fisheries Council - which sets about trawling's impacts, particularly in reserve ad hoc committee. It met for the function pretty much as they did before rock fish caught in the Pacific where no fishing is allowed," said provides "unambiguous empiri• information. "We don't even NMFS. Recent surveys show a "notice• federal fishing regulations for the Pacific. "We need to develop a real• first time in May. we came here, in which we can do sci• from Mexico to Alaska. Washington Department of Fish cal evidence of true rockfish know what's out there," he said. able absence" of old females (more than c coastal waters off California, ly well thought-out research program," Some fishing groups see no-take enrific research, where we can learn (1):::, The West Coast's declin• and Wildlife Director Jeff capabilities," he says. He cites "We need shoreline inventories. 20 years old), a disturbing fact given that Oregon and Washington - took says W. Waldo Wakefield, a fisheries zones as an economic hardship. They what the ocean is all about, if we want "i: -€ ing rockfish fishery still pro• Koenings. "These and other studies showing that there are You have co know what your these older fish produce greater num• steps which increase fishing research biologist with the National will force some fishers to travel further to such places then we need co have '<'" ~ duces many of the fish fillets actions will serve as part of between seven and 50 times baseline is or you'll never get bers of offspring. They show a consis• c pressure on bocaccio. Marine Fisheries Service. find fish, and cause fishing to increase in marine protected areas," Norse says. 2, we commonly find at the detailed, scientific conservation more rockfish in the Underwater recovery." tent decline over the last several years, Several conservation Some segments of the commercial ~reas outside the reserves, possibly lead• "No place in the sea is safe just by supermarket. The rockfish plans that hopefully will allow us Park than in other heavily fished -P.K. and scientists are pessimistic about its groups protested in February in fishing industry are not willing to con- mg to localized extinctions in those areas. dumb luck." • group is incredibly diverse to avoid ESA listings." Koenings areas of Puget Sound. population's ability to stabilize. The a letter to the Portland-based But reserves can also provide Jong- (about 100 species worldwide said that WDFW expects the Several other no-take zones Cover&------cod and flounder, almost all have been ging and hunting. species are in trouble from overfishing removing everything of any size. I saw lost. In May 1998, the Northeast At present, about 1/. of 1 percent of off California, Oregon, Washington and rollers on one trawler in Newport, Ore., Fisheries Management Council closed the world's oceans are protected from British Columbia. The bocaccio rockfish made of airplane tires. Though the 884 square miles in the western Gulf of exploitation. The 1,600 scientists called is down as much as 98 percent over the research on effects in the Pacific is still Maine to protect Atlantic cod. for expanding these areas 80-fold -their last couple decades. relatively sparse, the early evidence is "The depletion of the world's most goal is to protect 20 percent of the world's Government and industry have damning. One study in California's popular fish species has set off three oceans by 2020. This has prompted a rag• tried to address the decline without Monterey Bay National Marine trends, each of which is adding to the ing debate, fueled in large part by specu• closing areas of the Northeast Pacific to Sanctuary showed that tiny but impor• oceans' troubles," says Peter Montague, lation. Scientists say information about rockfish harvests, while still allowing tant benthic organisms at the bottom of author of Rachel's Environmental and ocean ecosystems- especially here in fishing 12 months a year, to no avail. the food chain are scarce in number in Health Weekly report. "Fisherman are the Northeast Pacific - is meager. Just Tighter regulations now seem areas that are heavily trawled, and plen• adopting new technologies that allow how much virgin ocean do we have left? inevitable, especially if the rockfish is rifu I in areas that are lightly trawled. them co fish in deeper waters, and they How much seabed has not been dam• listed under the Endangered Species To Elliott Norse, that sounds like a are fishing lower on the food chain." aged by humans? The problem is no one Act, which may happen. For fishermen, clearcut. Norse, director of the Marine Last year, during the U.N. really knows. But among scientists who that might be good news, especially if Conservation Biology Institute in International Year of the Ocean, more urge caution, who say that it's better to enhanced protection of species and Redmond, Wash., is an expert on both than 1,600 leading marine scientists and err on the conservative side than to risk their habitat mean that they can fish like forest (he is author of Ancient Forests of conservation biologists from 65 coun• losing more fisheries, ocean wilderness there is a tomorrow. the Pacific Northwest) and marine ecosys• tries urged us tO rake that next step, to makes sense. tems. Bottom trawling, he says, is like translate the Wilderness Act's ethic from We can already see serious and clearcutting a forest and then converting land to sea, to protect our undersea unmistakable signs of adversity, and not Deep Sea Forestry it into a lawn. By declaring some areas Yellowstones. They called for an end co just with the salmon and its epic strug• West Coast rockfish live among the off limits to the trawlers, Norse believes activities that are destroying marine gle. The story here concerns rockfish - crags and crevices on the Continental the decline can be reversed. species and ecosystems. In theory, at members of the scorpionfish family that Shelf, a relatively shallow plateau "There are substantial areas of the least, the worldwide decline of ocean encompasses some 65 species inhabit• sea that are so biologically important extending tens of miles out to sea. species might be stemmed if enough ing the ortheast Pacific. Some of these Bottom trawl technology enables fishing that we should decide as a society that waters were set aside from all fishing spiny predators may be old enough to the Shelf as deep as a mile. Nets fitted we want to protect them," he says. "We and oil and gas development, just as predate the Civil War. Some- we don't with rollers are dragged across its floor, did that on land starting 127 years ago. wilderness lands arc off-limits to all log- know exactly how many - rockfish The areas receiving protection are

Seven Troubling Trends Affecting Our Oceans planet. This is the first mass . extinction that is due directly to Two-thirds of the human activities. l\.1ajor drivers © major marine fisheries include habitat destruction or are fully exploited, over exploit• alteration, introduced and inva• ed or depleted. Just over 40 years sive species, and overfishing. ago, this figure stood at less than 5 percent. . @ There are now some .. fifty "dead zones" or @ The concentration of areas with low co no oxygen, in carbon dioxide in the the coastal areas around the atmosphere has increased by 30 world, most of which have percent since the beginning of appeared within the last fifty the Industrial Revolution. The years. Globaily,dead zones have best (and cautious) predictions tripled in number in the last thir• forecast a global temperature ty years. The dead zone in the increase of 2-6 degrees 1'~ and a Gulf of Mexico, for example, has rise in sea level of 6 inches to 3 doubled in size since 1993, and at feet over the next century. 1600 square miles is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. Excessive nutrient influx, espe• . cially nitrogen and phosphorus @ 1 'he explosively grow• compounds from agricultural, ing human population livestock and poultry enterprises currently utilizes over half the in upstream watersheds, are the available surface freshwater of the suspected causal agents. • planet About 70 percent of that conversion of wetlands and The amount of nitro• changing, in part because of this forests to urban and industrial amount is used in agriculture. gen that enters the influx of nitrogen into previously SOURCE: From comments by Jane Above and beyond the ramifica• areas or of grasslands to pastures @ nitrogen cycle each nitrogen-poor systems. The Lubchenco, distinguished professor of tions of these numbers for popula• and agricultural fields. The year has more than growth of many (though not all) zoology at Oregon State University, tion, chis figure has critical impli• recent listing of nine salmon and doubled over the past century as species that cause red tides and to the House Subcommittee on cations for water flow through steelhead populations in the a result of human activities. The other harmful algal blooms is Fisheries Conservation and Oceans Pacific Northwest highlight making of fertilizers and burning estuaries and bays, and therefore often triggered by an influx of 012 May 6. Lubdrenco, past preside/It habitat quality, e.g., for salmon. some of the consequences to of fossil fuels account for the nitrogen and other nutrients. of the American Assotiation for the marine species of land transfor• bulk of this newly "fixed" nitro• Advancement of Sdena, kas done mation due to logging, grazing, gen. Additional wasted nitrogen extensive research 012 the ecology of hydroelectric power generation, is carried into the air and trans• .. rocky shores of Oregon, Washington agriculture and urbanization. ported elsewhere on land or into @ A number of scientif• and Colifomio for over three ; ©,~i~~i~:::i~ii~\:~ Habitat transformation is more oceans. This excess nitrogen can ic experts have stated decades. She is a leadingvoicea mong § land surface of Earth has now difficult co quantify in oceans. disrupt downstream ecological that Earth is in the early scientists in the call for marine been transformed by human systems. The chemistry of states of the sixth mass extinc• reserves. action. Examples include the coastal areas around the world is tion event in the history of the frozen," she says. The cime between catch• advocates Reinholdt. "We didn't bust ass ing a fish and when it gets to market is cru• out in 70 mile an hour winds in the north cial. "T f fish is taken care of properly," says Pacific taking care of these fish co get you a Jon Speltz of the Wild Salmon market at piece of crap," says 1arcin. People have to Fishermen's Terminal in Seattle, "it can understand the limits of the resource, says last up co ten co fourteen days from the Reinholdt, and "understand the sacrifices cime it is harvested." Fish iced the moment char need to be made," adding chat an ever it's caught and brought to market within increasing world population is taxing 24-30 hours, experts agreed is the ideal marine environments. time for ensuring freshness. How is the public to understand the Martin and Randolph concurred with limits and quotas placed on specific fish? others who advised that a fish bled, gutted Why not demand fresh-killed salmon and immediately frozen - frozen at sea - twelve months a year? "Wild salmon is produces a high quality product, chat when good for our bodies and our souls," said sold, is defrosted slowly, or lee go slac~. Riley Starks, an executive board member Cory Schreiber of Wildwood Rest~urant 10 of the Washington Reef Net Owners Portland, however, does not consider any Association, speaking philosophically. frozen fish of "restaurant quality." He "Keeping wild salmon part of our public believes three to four days the maximum culture preserves the runs." preferred time from water to dining table. On a more basic level, farmed fish rais• "Fresh," he said, is "not frozen." But es lots of questions, in terms of fisheries Randolph and Speltz offered that fish biology, environmental impacts an? long• frozen at sea is a way to have wild, rather term food safety. Fish farming requires the than farmed fish, year round. use of antibiotics. There is uncertainty and Where, how and when caught - even concern about what happens when non• Latin family names - are part of the native farmed fish escape and mingle with seafood labels at Nature's. There I find bay native stocks. Nearly all retailers carry a scallops, rock shrimp, turtle safe Georgia mix of wild and farmed fish, nor all of it sweet white prawns, domestic sea scallops, marked as either. manila clams, true cod, king Chinook Conservation issues surrounding par• salmon (oncorhynchus tsawyntscha) "long line ticular species of fish are rarely simple. caught - delivered to acure's 16 hours out Some salmon runs are threatened and of the water - sustainable harvest prac• endangered. Others are healthy and prolif• tices," blue marlin, Dover sole, red rock ic. Some rockfish and other ground fish snapper family scorpaeridaei - "hook and species and stocks are seriously overfished, line caught, delivered co Nature's 16 hours ochers are not. "We used to get thousands our of water - sustainable harvest prac• of pounds of fish off the Oregon coast," tices," aqua farmed and ruby red boneless says Cleary. "1 ow we don't even drive our trout, Oregon sea bass, ahi tuna, and own truck to the coast. Oregon is in trou• Copper River sockeye salmon fillet. ble," he says. Randolph and Martin concur, 5 Many fisheries are in trouble all along the A large poster explains the "Turtle• ~ safe certified" guarantee. "The shrimp are ,. Pacific coast. harvested only with the use of Turtle g What can be fished in Alaska or Extruder Device nets in a sustainable man• ~ California, differs from how, or if, that !_ __ =.....,o. species can be fished in Washington or ner. .. [by] supporting these shrimpers. we The action is fast and furious at Pike Place Market in Seattle. can avoid purchasing aqua farmed shnmp Oregon. In the US, limits vary from state co state. The setting of quotas and limits, and which are raised with the use of antibiotics caught, which does not interfere with ~he on the shell, live New Zealand little neck che closing of certain fisheries arc hotly and are directly related co the destruction seabed. Nees are also used for selective clams, Oregon troll Chinook salmon steak debated everywhere, partly because of the of mangrove fores cs throughout the world." fisheries, such as reef netting for salmon and fillet, fresh Alaskan halibut fillet and bounds of knowledge at every level. Buying seafood suddenly seems to involve done in the San Juan islands of Puget steak, Copper River Chinook salmon steak Ac the Pike Street Fish Company mar- serious decision-making. Sound or the method developed by the and fillet, Idaho rainbow trout - dressed, ket in Seattle, crowds of tourists ogle the What are "sustainable harvest prac• Hawkshaws who catch salmon from Prince fresh Pacific long-line caught swordfish, tices?" Why is it important tO know how Rupert, BC. These fishers catch relatively fresh Central America Blue Marlin, fresh huge whole salmon and jaws of m.onkfish. Fishmongers shout and toss their wares the fish is caught? And what about farmed? small numbers of fish which are sold at pre- Oregon red snapper fillets, Idaho Catfish - Fish are caught in nets and with hooks and pan ready, fresh Hawaii, long-line caught more as street cheater than actual seafood mium prices. . commerce. There are whole live squid, live lines, but with each method there is much The most common method of catch mg ahi vellow fin tuna, fresh Idaho sturgeon, manila clams, Penn Cove mussels, golden variation. premium deep sea fish, like halibut and fresh Oregon rex sole, Rhode Island squid Trawlers sweep the sea bottom with tuna, is with hook and line, called croll• cubes & tentacles, fresh Fiji combo alba• mantle oysters, live kumomoto and Quilccne yearling oysters; fresh tilapia, big weighted nets, scooping up the target• caught. Ir's a painstaking process, says core tuna, fresh Alaska razor clams, Alaska spot prawns, fresh true cod, Chilean ed fish - or ocher sea creature. With it may Martin who used co fish for salmon and hal• Massachusetts chopped clams, Oregon come what's caUed by-catch, frequently in ibut. "Baiting halibut hooks," she says, "is small oysters, Mississippi rock shrimp, sea bass, fresh yellow fin ahi tuna, fresh rainbow and golden trout, pan ready cat- large quantities, and often discarded. Large like making lace." There are drag lines, Mexico bay scallops, Mexico medium and fish, and fresh buffalo fish. Signs announce bouorn-trawling operations that disturb the which raise the question of how many hooks large white shrimp, Maine sea scallops, fresh yellow-eye rockfish from Alaska, sea floor significantly and create great to a line, and whether or not the hooks have Oregon shrimp meat and Oregon fresh Atlantic salmon, petrale sole and amounts of by-catch, are of growing con• barbs, which can lead co by-catch and waste. Dungeness crab meat. snapper fillets, Copper river king salmon, cern co chose concerned with conserving Overfishing throughout the marine-life food "Sourcing in seafood," says Jerry marine resources. chain is a serious problem. Reinholdt, fisherman and Oregon fresh troll caught hook and line king ~ salmon, king crab, Alaska Dungcness crab, ~ Despite "extensive knowledge of the "I look at the ocean a little bit like a Processor Representative on the Salmon physical, chemical and biological. processes garden," Cleary, explaining the value of a Advisory Panel of the Pacific Fisheries fresh blue marlin and swordfish, tubes and = tentacles, fresh sea and bay scallops, and ;;: that occur in the sedimentary environments targeted fishery - fishing specifically f?r Management Council. "is the name of the of the world's oceans," explains Waldo one species, in a certain place, at a certain game." Knowing where seafood con:ies fresh soft shell crabs. -4 Penn Cove is in Puget Sound, the ii 'Wakefield, Fisheries Research Biologist time. "I think fisheries need co be managed from is often the first seep to understanding trout, buffalo fish and catfish farmed in :;: and Oceanographer with the National more aggressively on a conservation basis," its freshness, safety and how environmen• Idaho. Sole is the flatfish also referred to as c: Marine Fisheries Service Northwest he says, referring both to quantities, loca• tally sound its harvest. Boch he and Marcin flounder. Hake is also called whiting. Dog Fisheries Science Center, scientists are just tions and seasonal limits. "You wouldn't go emphasize the importance of edu~ate_d 1. salmon is now sold as chum or keta. Pacific ~ beginning to understand '.'the influence_ of into the garden and take all the tomatoes at fisherman, and say the current generation is snapper is rockfish, which can be any mun-

Strictlyspeaking , our National Marine Sanctuaries aren't truly "sanefuaries" at all

hen Congress passed allows natural resource harvesting, includ• legislation creating ing including bottom crawls that scrape up '.\ ational Marine every living thing from the sea floor. Sanctuaries in 1972, Generally activities allowed before desig• it recognized that nation as "grandfathered" into the site des• oceans are ecosystems, but lack the same ignation, like commercial fishing. kind of protection as special areas on land. "I would like to see what Jimmy Carter "This Nation historically has recognized said become a reality," says Elliott Norse, a the importance of protecting special areas marine conservation biologist in Redmond, of its public domain, but these efforts have Wash. "He said (the marine sanctuaries) are been directed almost exclusively to land the underwater equivalent of national areas above the high-water mark," the leg• parks. But in reality they are not. They are islation said. more like national forests, they are multiple In 1980, President Jimmy Career ven• use areas, they are not enough to protect the erated the first group of National Marine resources we want to save." Sanctuaries as "the marine equivalents of Norse should know. He was a staff Yosemite, Big Bend, the Great Smokies, ecologist for the Council of Environmental and the Everglades." Quality under Carter, working on marine But Congress never delivered any true issues. He and many other critics say national underwater wilderness, and Carter Congress, which. provides National Parks was exaggerating - more than a little. _ o with more than 100 times more money than National Park allows clearcutting and the sanctuaries, is co blame for the sanctu• wholesale extraction of predator species. aries' shortcomings. As the National Mose National Marine Sanctuaries are not Geographic Society recently observed, this truly sanctuaries from all human activities, level of funding "reduces these sanctuaries but are managed for "multiple use" which Commercial fishing ships at work in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. to a level of poverty." The society is taking U.S. and Canada National Marine Sanctuaries and Parks

Glacier Bay National Park Sitka Sound Pinnacles, Gwaii Haanas National and Preserve, Alaska SoutheastAlaska Marine Conservation Area Status: Proclaimed Glacier Bay National Status: Proposed marine protected area. Reserve Monument in 1925: established as a In 1998, the North Pacific Fisheries Status: Established as a Canadian national park and preserve in 1980. Management Council banned all fishing for National Marine Conservation Area Reserve Wilderness also designated in 1980. rockfish, lingcod, halibut and scallops in in 1988, by agreement to establish Gwaii Designated a Biosphere Reserve 1986. the pinnacle area. The area remains open Haanas NMCA Reserve (3050 sq. km.) for salmon fishing. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1992. Geography: Gwaii Haanas, located off The National Park Service proposes to Geography: Two large underwater vol• the Queen Charlotte Islands of British allow commercial fishing in non-wilder· canic cones dominate an area off Cape Columbia, represents both Hecate Strait ness marine waters of Glacier Bay proper Edgecumbe in Sikta Sound. One cone and the Queen Charlotte Islands natural to continue for 15 years; commercial fish• comes within 40 meters of the surface. regions. It is a 3,050 square kilometer ing in wilderness waters would end at the The pinnacles rise abruptly from the coastal sanctuary of 138 island - one of time the regulations go into effect. seafloor at the entrance to the sound which, Anthony Island, is a World Heritage Geography: The complex includes a where ocean and tidal currents create Site massive water flows over the pinnacles. National Park with 3,225,284 acres A jellyfish in the Cordell Bank NMS. Environment: The area abounds with (601,600 acres of marine waters), and a Environment: The steeper of the two distinctive island flora and fauna and rich wilderness consisting of 2,770,000 acres wildlife or other ecosystem components. cones has extremely complex rock habitats Haida cultural heritage. More than one (53,270 acres marine). Also included are and supports a diversity and density of million seabirds nest along the shoreline Mount Fairweather, the highest peak in Economy: Commercial fisheries in Glacier fishes not seen in surrounding areas. It Bay National Park waters are economically with even more migratory birds passing ~ southeast Alaska, and the U.S. portion of provides habitat for yelloweye and tiger through in the spring and fall.The year• :E the Alsek River. important to many local fishermen and rockfish. and is spawning habitat for ling• ..:: communities. Several species are targeted round absence of sea ice, combined with c Environment: Since 1966 regulation and cod. Adult lingcod use the top of the pin• the relatively uniform temperatures and in Glacier Bay proper, including Tanner nacle as a seasonal feeding platform after :i legislation have prohibited commercial crab, Dungeness crab and halibut, which the nutrient-rich waters flowing through :;g fishing in Glacier Bay National Monument spawning. Young rockfishes occur in great the system, result in a rich diversity of are fished year-around. A small amount of numbers at the top of the pinnacle, and c1 and Glacier Bay National Park. commercial salmon trolling, mostly for life. Marine invertebrate diversity is the Nonetheless, commercial fishing activities large schools of rockfishes feed on plank• richest in Canada - some 3,800 species 0-- chinook salmon, occurs during winter and ton above the pinnacles. ~ still continue in park waters. Commercially spring within a few specific locations - more than three times the number of fisheries in Glacier Bay impact marine, throughout the bay proper. Some ground• Economy: The area has been an impor• species on the Atlantic coast. Over 400 ~ freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems in fish species (i.e., Pacific cod, rockfish and tant fishing ground for halibut, salmon species make up the fish fauna. They ~ ways that are often not apparent. For c sablefish) are fished primarily in the mid and rockfish. include s rockfishes, lingcod, Irish Lords, 2, example, salmon harvested enroute to to lower bay. greenlings, kelpfish and five species of spawning streams become unavailable to Pacific salmon. Significant portions of the 4D marine mammals, eagles, bears and other world population of various seabirds breed a lead role in promoting and exploring the Efforts to achieve greater protection sanctuaries. Its "Sustainable Seas" expedi• for special areas of the nation's marine sanc• tions are taking researchers co most sanctu• tuaries have been difficult. For example: aries this year. In the Florida Keys National Marine There are 12 National Marine Sanctuary, a management plan to create no• Sanctuaries in the U.S. waters, including 10 fishing reserves of nearly 500 square miles off the mainland and others off Hawaii and was met with stiff criticism from the fishing American Samoa. A thirteenth, in the Great community. After several extremely con• Lakes, will be announced in October. A tentious public hearings, the size of the no• fourteenth, the proposed Northwest Straits fishing reserves was reduced to less than 15 National Marine Sanctuary in Puget ~ square miles. Sound, has been dropped from active con• ~ In the Stellwagen Bank National sideration. They range from the hiscoric ~ Marine Sanctuary off Massachusetts, all shipwreck of the USS Monicor, co the 5,300 ~ commercial fishing activities are allowed. square miles encompassing the submerged ~ In 1995, a group of scientists proposed an Monterey Canyon. In all, more than 18,000 I "experimental management area" as a ref• square miles of important marine habitats, o,: erence area to allow research on the effects including coral reefs, kelp forests, rocky :;: of bottom trawling and other fishing gear. shores, sandy beach and open ocean, are 2 No systematic research on these effects < managed and, to a degree, protected by the 'd z had ever been conducted on the chronic sanctuaries. ~ effects of gear on a wide range of habitats, By and large, the sanctuaries ban a O and scientists saw the sanctuary as the best number of destructive activities like oil and J site on the northeast coast for doing this gas development. But outside a few tiny ~ research. However, complaints from the areas, they do not ban commercial fishing. z fishing community co local congressmen Congress in 1972 declared that all historic A dolphin goes airborne in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. killed the project until 1998, when erner• fishing would be allowed to continue as gency measures to protect the nearly always. Fishing groups have vigorously unique habitats, while banning few if any must consider the site's aesthetic, conserva• depleted Atlantic cod led to the creation of defended their rights to fish in marine sanc• compatible public and private uses of those tion, ecological, recreational, educational, a 884-square mile no-fishing zone in the tuaries ever since. resources. historical, and research values. Congress Gulf of Maine that included part of The National Marine Sanctuaries Act The current authorization of appropri• has the authority to review a sanctuary des• Stellwagen Bank. authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to ations expires on September 30, 1999. A ignation before it becomes final. In the case Perhaps none of this should be surpris• designate and manage areas of the marine new bill puts a moratorium on new sanctu• of a sanctuary which is located partially or ing. After all, the National Marine environment with nationalJy significant ary designations until the existing sanctuar• wholly within the seaward boundary of any Sanctuaries Act takes pain to protect his• aesthetic, ecological, historical, or recre• ies can meet the goals of their management state, the governor of that state was given toric fishing rights, but makes no mention ational values as National Marine plans or statutory mandates. the authority to block designation in state at all of the world "wilderness," • Sanctuaries. The primary objective of this Sanctuaries can be established by the waters. Congress has legislatively designat• law is to protect marine resources, such as Secretary according to standards estab• ed the Florida Keys, Hawaiian Islands and coral reefs, sunken historical vessels or lished in the Act. Sanctuary designations Monterey Bay sanctuaries.

U.S. and Canada National Marine Sanctuaries and Parks here - 25 percent of the rhinoceros auk• Olympic Coast National lets, 40 percent of the ancient murrelets and 70 percent of the Cassi n's auklets. The Marine Sanctuary, abundant resources attract a seasonal Washington variety of cetaceans - grey, minke, hump• Status: Designated NMS in 1994. back and orca whales, harbour and Dall's Activities prohibited within the Olympic porpoises and Pacific white-sided dol• Coast National Marine Sanctuary include: phins. Harbour seals and Stellar sea lions oil, gas and mineral exploration and pro• are common while California sea lions and duction; discharging or depositing materi• sea otters are more localized. al within the sanctuary boundary (except Economy: The reserve provides opportu• for certain fishing, vessel operations, and nities for wilderness adventure, solitude beach nourishment activities); and moving and discovery, and appreciation of the or removing an historical resource; drilling rich natural and cultural environment. into, dredging, or otherwise altering the Access to the park is by boat or aircraft. seabed (exceptions are made for tradition• al fishing operations, navigation aids, ves• Pacific Rim National Park sel anchoring, and harbor maintenance). Geography: The Olympic Coast National Reserve, British Columbia Marine Sanctuary covers over 3,300 square Status: Designated as a Canada National miles of ocean waters off Washington Park Reserve in 1970. A starfish along the B.C. coast. State's rugged and rocky Olympic n Geography: The exposed open coast of Peninsula coastline, larger than the states the Pacific Coast Mountains make up the for many species of marine life including Economy: The lOO·plus small, rocky of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. -..n spectacular surroundings of Pacific Rim. sea lions, seals, whales, and porpoises. The islands in Barkley Sound are accessible The sanctuary includes the entire conti• 11::t This unique park of 388 square kilometers tide pools are fiUed with seashell creatures only by boat. A kayakers and canoeists nental shelf and deeper waters at the - is composed of three parts - Long and other marine life. The super-abundant paradise, this area offers protected heads of Juan de Fuca, Quinault, and .... · marine life found in the group is the result anchorages and numerous sandy beaches. Nitnat submarine canyons. Sanctuary -i Beach, the West Coast Trail and the '" of a deep ocean trench lying just off the The Broken Group has recently become a waters extend an average of 35 miles off• .. Broken Group of Islands. Features include sand beaches, an island archipelago, old• continental shelf on which Vancouver mecca for divers. Several shipwrecks lie shore and span 135 miles north to south, growth coastal temperate rainforest, and Island lies. Much like Monterey Bay, the between the islands, although these stretching from United States/Canada significant archaeological sites. Pacific trench generates huge upwellings of wooden ships have become unstable over international boundary in the Strait of nutrients, creating plankton which nurtures the past century or two. There are eight Juan de Fuca to Koitlah Point at the Environment: With more than 100 the marine creatures. Birds too are a part designated campgrounds. Visitors may mouth of the Copalis River. islands, some no larger than large rocks of island life, nesting in the many caves stay a maximum of 14 nights on the Environment: More species of whales, poking out of the sea, the group is a haven and surge channels. Broken Group Islands. CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 fisheries. Oceans Society believes that a net• As on land, the design of Queen work of MPAs must include a core MPAs began to focus on protect• Charlotte of "no-take" areas and prohibit ing habitat. In 1998, the federal Planning Region aquaculture, dumping, dredging, and provincial government ------/ extraction of non-renewable released a draft Marine Protected DIXON r_- - -- ENTRANCE /?> resources. It is imperative that a Areas Strategy which outlined - network of marine protected areas -- I minimum standards. By prohibit• ,c address both overfishing and habi• ing dumping, dredging, the tat degradation. exploration for and extraction of \ : Q There is no guarantee that we non-renewable resources in all \ I can apply the terrestrial principles MPAs, the governments appear \ I of design to ocean. It is unclear to be trying co conserve marine \ HECATE what role connectivity and focal biological diversity by protecting \ STRAIT species will play in marine protect• habitat. \QUEEN \ CHARLOTTE \ ed areas. Scientists are now con• Yet the way we use the land IS';_ANDS \ ducting research on these subjects and the ocean are very different, \ \ and we look forward to the results. and so the minimum protection \ \ As with the evolution of terrestrial standards must also be different. \ \ protected areas, we cannot post• In the Pacific Northwest we har• \ \ BRITISH pone the establishment of marine vest mostly plants (trees) which \ ~ protected areas while we wait for create habitat, whereas in the COLUMBIA '----, -----/ the definitive way to design them. ocean we harvest mostly preda• '- QUEEN CHARLOTTE We cannot afford to wait for science tors (fish) which use habitat. Offshore ', SouN_o~--::3j--i!r:;;--:,Central Coast to tell us exactly how to establish Protecting terrestrial habitat for Planning Region -, tr Planning Region marine protected areas. It is imper• animals means reducing the ative that we set up some protected impact of human use. Yet most "-'\ --- ...... \!::) \ ...... _ areas, watch for the results, and seabed habitat can be protected ' apply that experience and research without reducing the human \ \ to future protected areas. impact. These areas would still Marine Planning \ It has been 7 years since we be vulnerable to overfishing. For Areas in British \ began working to protect Gabriola example, commercial and recre• Columbia \ Passage. Even as a Pilot Project this ational fisheries can wipe out \ area remains open for commercial rockfish on a rocky reef without \ and recreational fishing, putting \ touching the habitat. Habitat Planning Region increased pressure on the marine conservation in the ocean is \ Boundaries \ life. If we designated Gabriela important but it is not enough. \ Passage as a no-take MPA now, we Designing an effective net• Major Marine \ could monitor species such as rock• work of marine protected areas Protect Areas \ fish, urchin, and lingcod, and gain a means that standards must be \ ~ better understanding of the marine based on the values, characteris• \ ~ ')(\ $~ Queen Charlotte Islands \ ~'> 0(,. t< ~~.c,,.~.JI-- ecosystem and how it works. tics, and uses of the ocean. Four I. Gwaii Haanas National Reserve \ ')~ "'$~ 0 factors impact our marine envi• North Coast Fjords '\ ~~ 4~~ Jennifer lash, ExecutiveDirector ronment: overfishing, pollution, 2. Hakai Recreation Area ' ~·~~ living OceansSo ciety, habitat degradation, and climate ', o'> o, Box 166, Sointula, BC VON 3EO change. MPAs have the potential Vancouver Island <, 3. Brooks Peninsula Recreation Area <, (250) 973-6580 ...... ,.,... to be the most effective in pre• 4. Broughton Archipelago Marine Park ...... ,,, FAX (250) 973-6581 venting overfishing and habitat 5. Robson Bight Ecological Reserve / JUAN DE [email protected] degradation but less effective in 6. Pacific Rim National Reserve / / FUCA STRAIT fDl'fii.'W.livingoceans.org / preventing pollution and climate / change. Therefore Living /

U.S. and Canada National Marine Sanctuaries and Parks

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 fishing for salmon, halibut, rockfish, flat- dolphins, and porpoises spend time in these fish, cod, crabs, and other shellfish is an waters and more kinds of kelp are found important segment of the local economy. here than anywhere else in the world. Ships enroute to the major ports of Twenty-nine species of marine mammals Washington and British Columbia transport breed, rest within, or migrate through sanc• oil, fish, lumber, grain, and other cargo, tuary waters. Some of the most common are through portions of the sanctuary. In addi- the harbor seal, harbor porpoise, Pacific tion, over a million people visit the beaches white-sided dolphin, Risso's dolphin, hump• i 0 and seaside trails to hike, camp, and go back and California gray whales. The sanctu• ~ beach combing. ary contains some of the largest colonies of :;:."' c:, z :DI i: seabirds such as murres and tufted puffins 0 M in the contiguous United States. Five -c Cordell Banks National v - "c:, species of Pacific anadromous salmon, sea• s Marine Sanctuary, ..:,: -;: run cutthroat trout and steelhead, as well 0 :c California .... as large populations of bottomfish-perch, < ii c Status: NMS in 1989. Protecting one of the ,.,, sole, and cod are other important compo• z Cilll <( five major ocean upwellinging regions in nents of the sanctuary ecosystem. <.) c z the world and the habitat of such rich :::, -c (l) Economy: Beneath the waters of its north• u diversity is the primary mission. -.!..__ ern margin are productive fishing areas 0 c ~ Geography: About 52 miles northwest of '< known as "the plain" and Swiftsure Bank. z 0 the Golden Gate Bridge, at the edge of the invertebrates. National Marine Sanctuary is a large phyla of invertebrates, and over 450 Circulating in the waters around Cordell expanse of Pacific Ocean along with species of marine algae. A rich array of Marine Conservation Bank are huge numbers of krill. This makes nearshore tidal flats, rocky intertidal areas, Biology Institute habitats including the open ocean, rugged www.mcbi.org it an important summer feeding ground wetlands, subtidal reefs, and coastal rocky shores, sandy beaches, lush kelp for humpback whales, blue whales, pacific beaches. This 1,255 square mile area is forests, and wetlands support large num• Canadian Parks and salmon, and bottom fishes. Twenty-five larger than the state of Rhode Island. The bers of seals and sea lions, whales, fish Wilderness Society species of marine mammals have been sanctuary is marked by a gently sloping stocks, otters, and seabirds. In fact, the www.cpaws.org/index.html identified in sanctuary waters, and at least seafloor extending for nearly 35 miles off• sanctuary has one of the most diverse and United Nations Food and forty-seven species of seabirds have been shore before dropping off steeply beyond abundant assemblages of marine mammals Agriculture Organization (FAO) identified over the Bank. More species of the Farallon Islands, the widest in the world. Other key megafauna species www.fao.org albatross have been identified here than Continental Shelf found anywhere along of the sanctuary include the sea otter, gray People for Puget Sound anywhere else in the northern hemisphere. the California coast. The Farallon Islands whale, blue whale, humpback whale, mar• www.pugetsound.org Five species found in sanctuary waters - are a national wildlife refuge, offering ket squid, brown pelican, rockfish, and Environmental Defense Fund Stellar sea lions, humpback whales, blue resting and breeding sites for marine giant kelp. For many migratory species, www.edf.org whales, brown pelican and short-tailed · mammals and seabirds. such as the gray whale, king salmon and albatross - are classified as endangered American Oceans Campaign Environment: The islands host 400,000 brown pelican, the sanctuary is also an www.americanoceans.org ~ or threatened. breeding seabirds and 10,000 seals and important link to other habitats beyond its :E Economy: Commercial and recreational sea lions every year. In the spring, dense boundaries. Sea Web ..: www.seaweb.org c fishermen are drawn to the marine life colonies of cormorants, auklets, common Economy: Fishing for squid, salmon, i5 found throughout the sanctuary. murres and western gulls nest on the shrimp, and sardines is an important com• Center for Marine Conservation ~ Sportfishing boats come to the bank in islands' rocky slopes and underground bur• mercial activity in the Monterey Bay www.cmc-ocean.org : search of lingcod and king salmon. Bird rows. Elephant seals and sea lions crowd National Marine Sanctuary. • Pacific Coast Federation of U watching and whale watching on the Bank the islands' pocket beaches and marine Fisherman's Organizations ~ attract numerous commercial and private terraces in the fall and winter. Nearshore (PCFFA) a- vessels. However, strong currents, cold areas support bull and giant kelp, eelgrass www.pond.net/-pcffa 2:- :, water, difficulty locating the shallowest and coralline algae and invertebrates such Pacific Marine ~ areas, and time safety limits deter recre- as brittle stars and anemones, mussels, Conservation Council § ational divers from visiting the site. www.pmcc.org See Cascadia Times Web site - U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries www.times.org - for still more sites. CoverB------CON-TINFRUE--P0-OM 1-5AGE - clams and starfish. Other key species in barrel of fish is lifted onto a small scale. the sanctuary are dungeness crab, It weighs 145.3 pounds. "Rockfish," says California gray whale, Stellar sea lion, ashy the fisherman. "Greenies, brownies, storm-petrel, humpback whale, blue whale, blacks and yellow-eyes. Snapper." rockfish, and abalone. Spring and early The Wild Salmon market posts a summer upwellings of cold, nutrient-rich guide co wild fish of the northwest waters create a highly productive ocean Pacific. The "catch of the day" is environment rich in plankton. Copper River king or Chinook salmon, Economy: The commercial harvest of troll caught Washington king, Copper Dungeness crabs, rockfish and salmon is River sockeye, chum or keta from Prince allowed. William Sound, local rockfish, southeast Alaskan halibut and fresh ling cod, both long-line caught. Monterey Bay National Speltz and partner Paula Cassidy Marine Sanctuary, offer recipes on fliers. Martin travels California· around the county doing cooking demonstrations. "People have to over• Status: NMS in 1992. Rules ban the mov• come their concerns about cooking ing, removing or injuring, or attempting seafood," says Speltz. Education, I am to move, remove or injure, a Sanctuary told again is key. "The more people you historical resource. An exception: "This have interested in the resource, the bet• prohibition does not apply to ... tradition• ter it will be for the resource," says al fishing operations." Reinholdt. Geography: The waters of Monterey Bay In Newport commercial fishing ves• and the adjacent Pacific Ocean off the sels named Limit Stalker, Eat Mc, central California coast were designated Predator, Grumpy and Last Straw are in and protected in 1992 as the Monterey port. The owner of the Lisa Melinda is Bay National Marine Sanctuary. This vast awaiting the next day's opening of the An island in the Olympic Coast NMS providing nearshore habitat for numerous species. area stretches 400 miles (348 nautical Pacific whiting season. The partner of a miles) north to south, extends an average tuna fisher now 1,200 miles out at sea, about 200 feet deep. Along a few of its Gulf of the Farallones of 35 miles (30 nautical miles) offshore, works on her boat. At a nearby fish mar• ridges and pinnacles, this submerged National Marine and covers over 5300 square miles (4,024 ket two middle-aged men tell the sales• island rises to within 120 feet of the woman they want "fillet." "What kind of Sanctuary, California square nautical miles). an area nearly the ocean surface. The Bank is approximately size of the states of Connecticut and fish?" she asks. "You wane Dover sole, 9 miles long and 5 miles wide. To its west, Status: NMS in 1981. Regulations specifi• Rhode Island combined. Rugged, rocky petrale, snapper?" "Fillet," they sanctuary waters plunge precipitously to cally allow "bottom trawling from a com• shores and an underwater canyon over ten say, "fillet." • depths over 6,000 feet. To the east sanc• mercial fishing vessel. .. " Thousands of thousand feet deep are its dominant phys• tuary waters lie over a flat continental ships cross the sanctuary each year in and ical features. The sanctuary contains one shelf approximately 300-400 feet deep. out of San Francisco, but rules prohibit of the world's most geologically diverse The sanctuary includes 526 square miles of the passage of oil tankers, barges, or mer• and complex seafloors and continental For more information Pacific Ocean surrounding Cordell Bank. chant vessels within two nautical miles of margins. It is located in an area which Environment: Within the Cordell Bank the Farallon Islands, Solinas Lagoon, or separates the North American Plate from other sites designated as areas of special National Marine Sanctuaries National Marine Sanctuary are rocky subti• the Pacific Plate, and is marked by the San Home Page dal areas, soft sediment continental shelf biological significance. Also prohibited: oil Andreas fault system. www.sanctuaries.nos.noaa.gov and gas exploration and development; and slope and open ocean. The tops of Environment: Monterey Bay National National Marine Fisheries Service Cordell Bank's ridges and pinnacles are effluent discharges; alteration of or con• struction on the seabed; and damaging or Marine Sanctuary is home to, or a migra• www.nmfs.gov covered with sponges, anemones, hydroco• tion corridor for, 26 species of marine rals, hydroids, tunicates, barnacles, crabs, removing historical or cultural resources. Canada Department of Fisheries mammals, 94 species of seabirds, 345 and Oceans (DFO) worms, scallops, snails, chitons, and Geography: The Gulf of the Farallones species of fish, 4 species of sea turtles, 31 www.ncr.dfo.ca/home_e.htm countless other algae and invertebrates. National Marine Sanctuary is a large phyla of invertebrates, and over 450 Circulating in the waters around Cordell expanse of Pacific Ocean along with species of marine algae. A rich array of Marine Conservation Bank are huge numbers of krill. This makes nearshore tidal flats, rocky intertidal areas, Biology Institute habitats including the open ocean, rugged www.mcbi.org it an important summer feeding ground wetlands, subtidal reefs, and coastal rocky shores, sandy beaches, lush kelp for humpback whales, blue whales, pacific beaches. This 1,255 square mile area is forests, and wetlands support large num• Canadian Parks and salmon, and bottom fishes. Twenty-five larger than the state of Rhode Island. The bers of seals and sea lions, whales, fish Wilderness Society species of marine mammals have been sanctuary is marked by a gently sloping stocks, otters, and seabirds. In fact, the www.cpaws.org/index.html identified in sanctuary waters, and at least seafloor extending for nearly 35 miles off• sanctuary has one of the most diverse and United Nations Food and forty-seven species of seabirds have been shore before dropping off steeply beyond abundant assemblages of marine mammals Agriculture Organization (FAO) identified over the Bank. More species of the Farallon Islands, the widest in the world. Other key megafauna species www.fao.org albatross have been identified here than Continental Shelf found anywhere along of the sanctuary include the sea otter, gray People for Puget Sound anywhere else in the northern hemisphere. the California coast. The Farallon Islands whale, blue whale, humpback whale, mar• www.pugetsound.org Five species found in sanctuary waters - are a national wildlife refuge, offering ket squid, brown pelican, rockfish, and Environmental Defense Fund Stellar sea lions, humpback whales, blue resting and breeding sites for marine giant kelp. For many migratory species, www.edf.org whales, brown pelican and short-tailed mammals and seabirds. such as the gray whale, king salmon and albatross - are classified as endangered American Oceans Campaign Environment: The islands host 400,000 brown pelican, the sanctuary is also an www.americanoceans.org f:3 or threatened. breeding seabirds and 10,000 seals and important link to other habitats beyond its :E Economy: Commercial and recreational sea lions every year. In the spring, dense boundaries. Sea Web ..: www.seaweb.org c fishermen are drawn to the marine life colonies of cormorants, auklets, common Economy: Fishing for squid, salmon, i5 found throughout the sanctuary. murres and western gulls nest on the shrimp, and sardines is an important com• Center for Marine Conservation ~ Sportfishing boats come to the bank in islands' rocky slopes and underground bur• mercial activity in the Monterey Bay www.cmc-ocean.org : search of lingcod and king salmon. Bird rows. Elephant seals and sea lions crowd National Marine Sanctuary. • Pacific Coast Federation of c., watching and whale watching on the Bank the islands' pocket beaches and marine Fisherman's Organizations ~ attract numerous commercial and private terraces in the fall and winter. Nearshore (PCFFA) a- vessels. However, strong currents, cold areas support bull and giant kelp, eelgrass www.pond.net/-pcffa

.z-:, water, difficulty locating the shallowest and coralline algae and invertebrates such Pacific Marine ~ areas, and time safety limits deter recre- as brittle stars and anemones, mussels, Conservation Council § ational divers from visiting the site. www.pmcc.org See Cascadia Times Web site - U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries www.times.org - for still more sites. ------Arts & m1ffi E S S A Y Caring for Our Places

Kathleen Dean Moore is chairof the And so on, for all the rest-sage, salt Departmentof Philosophy at Oregon State flats, sandhill cranes. They all have their University and the author of Riverwalking, uses, because even if they are not winnerof a 1996 PacificNorth west resources that ,we develop, they are Booksellers Award. Her'IUW coJJectionof resources chat develop us (which is essays, Holdfast, is publishedby TheL yons equally useful). So here's the theory of Press in June. Thefollo wing essay is from a enlightened self-interest we have an OLD AST talk given at the Oregon Natural Desert obligation co assure the well-being of the Association Conferencea t the Malheur high desert because our weJl-being Wildlife RefugeF ield Station, May 1, 1999. depends on it, and the well-being of our children. All this may be true, but it can't tell my students. First, the be the whole story. embrace-the celebration of being First, because this utilitarian view of I alive among all this life. Then, a the land has led people to do terrible search for the consequences of that things in the name of the "greatest good embrace. for the greater number." It is possible to It's a good place to scare, because no dynamite Celilo Falls on the Columbia matter where we come from, we can River where native people gathered for agree on this, at least... that each of us, in centuries co fish and pray. And then it is some way, cares deeply about the rivers possible co dam the river and bury the and the land and their natural and rubble and the prayers. You can show on human communities, or (as my students a graph how the benefits soar far beyond would say) each of us is in a "meaningful the measured costs, irrigating orchards relationship" with something that smells and sending cheap electricity co cities on of algae or sage. the Pacific Coast. The hidden coses of "Sing our love for the land," Aldo human cruelty, the destruction of some• Leopold said, "and our obligation to it." thing beautiful and lasting, the harden• That strikes me as good advice. I want to ing of the sprit• sing our love for the land first, and then these don't show up chink together about what that means for on the chart. our obligations. I want to imagine a new Bue something ethic, an ethic of connection, built not else is wrong. I sim• only on caring for people or caring for ply don't believe the the land, but on the intricate and beauti• utilitarian premise, the arrogant and ful ways that love for people and love for dubious idea that human beings are the the land nurture each other and sustain center of the moral universe-human us all. beings, imagining that rivers were made especially for them, the way ticks must 1at is the nature of our obliga• think that hikers are their special gifts tion to the land? The dominant from God. The temptation then is to W:ethic, the ethic chat we swim design arrogant policies and undertake in, is an ethic of separation-a utilitarian dubious projects, and then we end up moral view. Utilitarians will say that the doing to rivers what ticks do to us, primary value of the land is its value to except ticks have the good grace to drop us-its utility. They say further that off when their stomachs are full. And therefore our obligation to wild lands• there's another problem with chis view. It to protect chem and heal them-are real• secs us apart from the natural world-we ly obligations to people, co use wild make ourselves outsiders, a kind of mass lands in a way that maximizes human auto-alienation. From that separation Nescucca. Sweet Home Creek. And then can do to a barbed-wire fence, or a line benefit. That makes a certain sense. comes a kind of sadness we can't suddenly, it was as if a cloud had passed drawn in the sand? If a river had logic, it After all, what is a desert landscape good explain, and a longing for a place that across the sun. The saying of the names would be inductive; a river grows by the for? feels like home. had become a drum roll for what was accumulation of many small things• It's a long list, but it will include: Finally, consider a third problem lost-the culture, the free-flowing rivers, water rolling off a million hemlock nee• Desert rivers for irrigation. with the view that the only value of the the clear water, the salmon. Snake, dles, seeping through mossy banks into a dammed and dammed again. thousand feeder streams. The life histo• Pine forests for grazing cattle, or for land is its value to us. le doesn't' distin• toilet paper, or both. Grasslands for fat• guish between higher and lower uses. Willamette, dammed and poisoned. ries of herons, the bones of spawned-out tening cattle. It's possible to dam Glen Canyon and Klamath, dammed. Santiarn, clearcut. salmon, the silt of failed dreams, boul• Rivers for salmon and potatoes. use the impoundment for fraternity par• Urnpqua, dammed. Tahkenitch, ders cracked off mountains, used-up n dammed. Siletz, clearcut. Owyhee, automobiles-the river gathers it all. Rivers to flush urine and dead cows ties in houseboats, but the canyon can 00 into the next county. Deer for shooting. do better things than this, and fraternity dammed and dispersed over forty thou• There is a kind of wisdom here, and a -n sand acres. Willow Creek, poisoned. The ..Cl But we don't have to be brutal boys are easy co amuse. It is possible to recommended curriculum. ;::: about this, or narrow-minded. We can use a desert canyon co graze cattle, but Columbia River, dammed, poisoned, .... acknowledge many ocher human uses of who would think that the highest use of dammed again, poisoned, until all the © 1999 by Kathleen Dean Jifoore. river-otters in the lower river have skin Reprintedby permissionof the author. ii: the land: a desert canyon is as a breeding ground 00"' Meadowlarks co jump-start your for flies? tumors, and any radiologist in this coun• heart in the morning. Junipers for shade try can tell who has grown up along the river, by the radioisotopes in her bones. as sweet and full of memories as n a hydrology class, I was invited to Christmas. Shallow lakes for blue-green do the one obligatory class on ethics. algae and oxygen and suckers and water I asked the students co tell me the f a river could think, it would think I big; no political boundary or lot line striders and wading birds and coots• names of their home rivers. Grand because these are all the jigsaw puzzle Ronde. Umatilla. Klickitat. Malheur. Imakes the slightest bit of difference pieces of good health. White Salmon. Wallowa. Mollala. to a river, and have you seen what a river