WHERE ARE THE POLLOCK? Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission www.pacificfishing.com THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR FISHERMEN ■ OCTOBER 2011 Salmon 2011 Who caught them ... and where US $2.95/CAN. $3.95 10 s(ARBOROFTHE-ONTH"ELLINGHAM 63126 s.EWINSATELLITECOMMUNICATIONS www.alaskaseafood.org IN THIS ISSUE Editor's note ® Once, I was THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR FISHERMEN INSIDE: brilliant ... Don McManman …and thought all I needed was a loud voice. Unfortunately, at the time, most everyone else thought I was dumb — loud voice, or no. So, the worst thing that could have happened to me … well, happened. At the wizened age of 20, they made me the editor of the college paper. It was like Shipyard renewal in Petersburg : Page 12 handing a bottle of Jack Daniels to an alcoholic. At my most sober (figuratively), I was never any good at self-reflection, but drunk (figuratively), I couldn’t even find the reflection in a mirror. As editor, and being the restless sort, it took me probably no more than 37 minutes to determine that the dean of students was guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors — and needed to be impeached. (His crimes and/or misdemean- ors were so heinous that I can’t remember a thing about them.) I ranted. I raved. I wouldn’t retreat. But, I was lucky. No one was listening. I was also lucky that something serious hadn’t happened — something that demanded and deserved the harsh words I had wasted on the dean. My This year's salmon roundup : Page 14 high-caliber ammo was gone. Just like Mark Twain in 1867 — and just like the various hot heads who have slithered on to the public stage today. A century and a half ago, Twain finagled his way into a tour of the Mediterranean and Holy Land. Very likely, it was the first public “cruise” for Americans. The ship stopped first in the Azores for provisions. For Twain, the Portugal colony didn’t stack up favorably to the United States: “The community is eminently Portuguese — that is to say, it is slow, poor, shiftless, sleepy, and lazy.” Strong words. But Twain didn’t have anything bigger Bellingham – Harbor of the Month : Page 20 when he met the people of Damascus, who were truthfully slow and poor and shiftless and sleepy and lazy and a good dozen more descriptions of questionable character. So, the best he had left were individual vignettes: “Would you suppose that an American Mother could sit for an hour, with her child in her arms, and let a hundred flies roost upon its eyes all that time undisturbed? I see that every day. It makes my flesh creep.” He shot off his big ammo in the Azores and could only shoot flies in Damascus. Today, our trigger fingers seem a lot more itchy, so much so that the sun has Fishing sockeye on the Fraser : Page 31 darkened, if only because of the verbal shrapnel sent aloft from our several civil wars. Barack Obama is a “traitor.” On the cover: Josh Thomason, Angie Kubalek, Ian Kirouac, Mitt Romney is “a multinational corporation.” and Tom Munroe harvest salmon from a reefnet built off Charter operators in British Columbia are starving because of halibut regs. Lummi Island, near Bellingham. For another look, see Page 46. Charter operators in Cook Inlet are starving because of … well, you know. Martin Waidelich photo All simple statements distilled from complex issues, and like all distilled products, these will leave you befuddled (figuratively). VOLUME XXXII, NO. 10 • OCTOBER 2011 Used to be, if you were a card-carrying narcissist, and you came up with an idea all your own, you might end up heading for divorce court or editing a Pacific Fishing (ISSN 0195-6515) is published 12 times a year (monthly) by Pacific Fishing Magazine. Editorial, Circulation, and Advertising offices at 1000 Andover campus newspaper. Whichever, the contagion would be confined. Park East, Seattle, WA 98188, U.S.A. Telephone (206) 324-5644. ■ Subscriptions: These days, technology allows narcissists to spew their over-wrought language One-year rate for U.S., $18.75, two-year $30.75, three-year $39.75; Canadian subscriptions paid in U.S. funds add $10 per year. Canadian subscriptions paid in every place with broadband. They’re attacking the Azores with no idea of what Canadian funds add $10 per year. Other foreign surface is $36 per year; foreign awaits in Damascus. This lack of proportion — and outright shallowness — is airmail is $84 per year. ■ The publisher of Pacific Fishing makes no warranty, reason enough to ignore them. express or implied, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the information contained in Pacific Fishing. ■ Periodicals postage paid at Seattle, I know. I’ve been ignored a lot in my life. Washington. Postmaster: Send address changes to Pacific Fishing, 1000 Andover Like I said, I was brilliant. But I got over it. Park East, Seattle, WA 98188. Copyright © 2011 by Pacific Fishing Magazine. Contents may not be reproduced without permission. POST OFFICE: Please send address changes to Pacific Fishing, 1000 Andover Park East, Seattle, WA 98188 A former grave digger, Don McManman now edits Pacific Fishing. WWW.PACIFICFISHING.COM £ OCTOBER 2011 £ PACIFICFISHING 3 YOUR BUSINESS Keeping up PREFERRED PUBLICATION OF: ALASKA INDEPENDENT FISHERMEN’S MARKETING ASSOC. FREE MARKET R EPORT CORDOVA DISTRICT FISHERMEN UNITED Here’s a sampling of market information you could have read weeks ago — OREGON DUNGENESS if only you had subscribed to Pacific Fishing’s Fish Wrap. CRAB COMMISSION Each business day, we compile a digest of news that’s important to your UNITED FISHERMEN resource, to your market, and to you. It’s informative and free! OF ALASKA To subscribe, send an e-mail to [email protected]. WASHINGTON DUNGENESS CRAB FISHERMEN’S ASSOC. Pebble Mine project for sale: A mining who published a paper on a virus that extend my fullest sympathies to the people WASHINGTON REEF NET company with a 50 percent interest in a could explain the decline of Fraser River of Canada, whose taxes have paid for this OWNERS ASSOC. huge copper and gold deposit in Alaska, sockeye would not be allowed to speak to dog and pony show.” – National Fisherman where hundreds of millions of dollars have the media, even though her department magazine WESTERN FISHBOAT been spent on exploration, is trying to find had no objection, an inquiry has heard. OWNERS ASSOC. Silly season – Otter awareness: a buyer for the contentious project near Cook Inlet – Tough decisions: Faced The Morro Bay City Council can’t seem to the world’s best remaining wild sockeye with a sockeye return that ranked among shake the controversy over its refusal to salmon streams. To Subscribe: the top five all time and what may end acknowledge “Sea Otter Awareness Week.” www.pacificfishing.com/ Chum run strong on Yukon: The fall up as the lowest return of Kenai River Foodie craze: Nordic cuisine: In the last pf_subscribe.html chum run on the Yukon River has surpassed king salmon ever, ADFG was under even Ph: (206) 324-5644 five years, a new culinary movement has expectations with a return in excess more scrutiny than usual in the most hotly Fax: (206) 324-8939 washed through the world’s top kitchens, of average. contested fishery in Alaska. Main Office flowing not from Spain, France, or the 1000 ANDOVER PARK EAST B.C. OKs farm mortality report: B.C. sports halibut season closed: Mediterranean, but from Copenhagen, SEATTLE, WA 98188 The B.C. government has retracted an The federal Department of Fisheries and Stockholm, and points as far north PH: (206) 324-5644 application to the Cohen Commission to Oceans announced a closure for the 2011 FAX: (206) 324-8939 as Lapland. keep its audits of dead fish at salmon farms recreational halibut season on Sept. 5, Chairman/CEO Judge dismisses trawl challenge: out of the public eye. as the fishery has achieved its allowable MIKE DAIGLE A U.S. District Court judge dismissed [email protected] Sockeye radioactive? Sockeye salmon catch limit. Publisher the lawsuit brought by the Pacific Coast PETER HURME returning to Canada this year will be tested Fraser sockeye – No smoking gun: Federation of Fishermen’s Associations to [email protected] by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency There is no single disease-causing organism halt the West Coast groundfish trawl catch- for radiation contamination that might be that scientists can pinpoint to explain the EDITORIAL CONTENT: share program. Associate Publisher & Editor picked up in the North Pacific from Japan’s decline of the Fraser River sockeye in 2009. C Fear in Emmonak: The Alaska Dispatch DON M MANMAN Fukushima nuclear disaster. Crescent City Harbor in the red: [email protected] reported that the Alaska Fish and Game PH: (509) 772-2578 Squid boat sinks: The Coast Guard The Crescent City Harbor is going to have announced it was closing its Emmonak Copy Editor responded to a report of a 61-foot fishing significant cash flow difficulties this fiscal office. The reason given was not economic, BRIANNA MORGAN vessel that sank in the vicinity of Eagle Rock year due to boat basin repair projects. Anchorage Office it was … fear. near Catalina Island. Salmon, steelhead in Upper WESLEY LOY Fraser sockeye take northern route: Field Editor Kake plant challenging: A reopened fish Willamette: The top priority for saving The diversion rate of Fraser sockeye through MICHEL DROUIN plant is bringing some badly needed jobs to Upper Willamette Basin salmon and Johnstone Strait is currently estimated to be Kake, but Sealaska Corp. already is finding steelhead from extinction is getting more PRODUCTION OPERATIONS: approximately 75 percent.