Bairdi, bagged and broken. Photo courtesy Alexus KwachkaThe North Pacific Fishery Management Council has been meeting all week in Anchorage, but Deckboss didn't bother to attend the first few days. Frankly, the agenda looked kinda boring.
This afternoon, however, I decided to make at least a brief appearance.
And wouldn't you know, the action in the council chamber suddenly livened up only moments after your correspondent walked in.
A fisherman, Alexus Kwachka, was among several people testifying about the problem of the growing incidental capture — that's bycatch, in industry parlance — of bairdi Tanner crab in trawl nets dragging for groundfish around Kodiak.
Now, it's old sport down at the council for the guys who fish with pots and hooks to criticize the guys who fish with yawning trawl nets that often drag the ocean floor.
But Kwachka had more than just talk. He brought a series of rather startling photos depicting big mounds of Tanner crab bycatch on the deck of an unidentified trawler.
The pictures were said to have been taken this past summer. I've posted one here showing a multitude of Tanners mixed in with various fish.
To Kwachka and others, the pictures show why the council needs to take swift action to boot trawlers out of the crab grounds so Tanner stocks can complete an apparent revival and provide good income for small-scale fishermen.
A big problem is that Gulf trawlers most of the time carry no federal fishery observer to document the level of bycatch, say activists with the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.
Now I'm just guessing, but I wouldn't expect the trawl industry to concede that these pictures are anything more than anecdotal.
But dang, they really are troubling images, all those half-mangled crab hauled up as waste.
It'll be interesting to see how the council handles this.
54 comments:
can anyone tell what the other fish are that are laying in that catch?
One cod, a couple pollock, and some arrowtooths. It took 16 hours to clear the drag of tanners. So what you see is but a fragment of what they got. The carnage is constant and real.
Yikes!
Good for you, Alexus.
WOW! Pix speaks better than words. How does this hge amount of bycatch compare to the sub-legal halibut bycatch in other fisheries which is measured as multiple tons?
this has been going on since the early 80s without any solution towards fixing the problem
Shiaaaaat!....That's just the lemon next to the pie!....I can remember about 10 years ago of a certain Factory trawler hauling up many times this amount,in the Bering Sea, near the zemchung canyon, and not counting the ones that are killed by the larger, belly meshes. Multiple vessels sweeping very large areas, at once. The only times the observers were called to the deck, from the factory belt, was ONLY and AFTER the cod end was on deck....So they missed the 1000's of Opilio carcasses and Deep water coral coming up in 20'x 30' sheets on the haul backs...It's time to get on the right track of conservation...Isn't it odd that the biggest corps/canneries(which all have a direct interest in pollock and cod) have a direct interest in doing the annual crab trawl surveys for NMFS...Sounds like a major conflict of interest to me...How can that be impartial to other fisheries participants?....Let nature take it's natural course in rebuilding fish stocks, as opposed to allowing maximum harvest of mixed year classes...which is what happens to pollock and cod...measures should be in place to limit the catch of juvenile fish...like the crab industry must stick every crab for legal size....harvesting multiple year class fish can only contribute to a crash of previously healthy stocks....all in the name of harvesting roe...NMFS needs to realign their management approaches....I'm just a deckhand, but I have been exposed to enough to see what's really going on here....how about promoting the future for a change, and Not the retirement fund of veteran fat cats...that have privatized a public resource....
News flash. Was that tanner load on the same boat that recently tried to deliver a deck load and cod end to APS and was told, "No way," then proceeded to dump the estimated 80,000 pound right in front of the cannery? Is the EPA investigating? Was the crew stoned? All true, all true.
Yes, it was 40 tons or 80,0000 lbs. think on this for a minute, Trawls have tickler chains out front and roller gear to get the fish to jump up off the bottom. Since crab can't jump, guess how many got rolled over and crushed? additionally, earlier in the summer a 40 ton tow of baby halibut was caught, killed , and dumped overboard in Marmot bay. And that is just the tip of the Otter Trawl.
Think what all that crab and halibut would have been worth to fishermen, processing workers, and the city, borough and State as fish tax revenue.
It's amazing that these guys get to continue these practices to the detriment to the vast majority.
And to make things even more absurd, the Canucks have shown that it is possible to catch fish in a trawl without the bycatch.
Stand by for some great spin.
Not only that, ironically it is proven that the NMFS trawl nets used in the crab survey are practically incapable of catching crab, other nets outcatch them up to 50 to 1!
Where is the best science when you need it? Oh, I guess it is in the big processors pocket.
was`nt there a proposal to the BOF last year to close some Tanner areas to trawling that got laughed out by the trawlers lobby?? Who`s laughin now.
This is just more proof in the pudding that the canneries and corporations, that are heavily invested in the State, and Federal harvests, can get away with such gross infractions, which should be major felonies....Can you say wanton waste?...Total disregard for other fishermen trying to make an honest living...Where's the enforcement when you need them?...Are they still up north, counting King Salmon?....
Or are they busy giving tickets to an unfortunate crab boat who had to commit the grevious crime of having to go Dutch to offload their opis after being unable to enter an iced over St. Paul Harbor (just so the greedy community can extract their pound of flesh?)
I smell a rat... where did these pictures come from? Is anyone even interested in finding out the truth behind these pictures? Why are they anonymous? If this is real why such a secret about hiding the truth about what boat did this and when? Frankly I don't believe it's a true representation of the trawl fleets here in Kodiak.
Hey Big Wes,
Great site! I depend on this site for all breaking news about fish.
Keep up the good work
Capt. Stanley George
Why are we anoymous? Because there is too much money at stake here and we don't trust that we will not suffer harm, property or personal, from telling it like it is. We haven't been able to get law enforcement to stop this criminality, why would they protect a whistle blower? Da! Come on, Curt. You know how the world works.
So you create panic and cause harm, yet take no responsibility. I have been the captain of a trawler here in Kodiak for 25 years I've seen bycatch in all Kodiak fisheries. To post some pictures that cannot be verifyed, and blame the Kodiak fleet is negligent and ignorant. I hope anyone who reads this keeps an open mind about "Don't believe everything you see"
Ohhh boy...I just come to the reality that if the drag fleets were eliminated for good, 90% of federal and state fisheries problems and all the drama with it, that they carry, would be eliminated...What a concept huh?!!!...They may be feeding millions of mouths across the continents, but what about all the underwater devestation happening that's been clearly evident in the limited data gathered thus far...can't forget the co2 carbon gases as well...yep they are quite the contributors to the environment around the world...Hey waters, go tickle your mud someplace else....
Please enlighten me. How can the trawl fleet not have a devastating effect on our ocean environment? Is all a man has to do is see one of those monsters in action.
It's been known, since the inception of otter trawls, by the Scottish in 1892, the damage that these so called "monsters" can inflict. History is repeating itself. Government agencies are being manipulated and bought, just like the days of old...Read Mark Kurlansky's book, "COD". Better to take a passive approach to fishing, and wait for the fish to come to you,throw back the little ones...as opposed to clear cutting the whole damn forest! Quality goes up, habitat improves, and mature fish populations increase ten-fold....ONLY IF HABITAT IS PROTECTED!...PRETTY SIMPLE MATH!
Trawls are proven to damage the environment. How hard is it to push a vacuum cleaner?...The primary method in using a trawl has NOT changed since 1892. You send the net down, and there are NO ways to control what you are catching. Those are the facts. Until trawls can be proven to protect the habitats of other fish and invertibrates for their sustainability, the trawls should be listed as gear which is unlawful to use. Not HAPPY?...TOO BAD!...Find another way to fish...
Looks like we are slective posting now my last two comments did not show up I wonder why. If I am not mistaken you are working on on one of these so called monsters. Good luck Anonymous What a cool name. When you take responsability for your actions I will be happy to explane bottom trawling to you.
hey I called arround and found a picture of a full cod pot with triggers but it is full of tanner crad how do i post it fair is fair lets post it then lets multaply it by lets say 1000 pots a day. oh my thats lots of by catch boy I hope that dosnt hurt you guys come on westly lets post it what do you say got the picture lets go.
Oh boy do you guys have any idea how bad the crab BY-CATCH is in the pot cod fishery. I had no idea but after making a few calls I found out not only is the by catch crazy out of control these guys are dragging ther pots accross the bottom. it is only just a little ways but after you multiply it by 1000s of pots it huge what should we do about it. Steel traps 1000 lbs drug across the bottom with no thought to the damage that thay doing. I am apalled how do I join your club to stop this crazy out of control pot fishery
With the pot fishery. Most of the crab and if not all are alive when pulled. Then released alive. Can you say the same for the cod end on your Trawler? After a long haul. EVERYTHING is dead. Bycatch and all.
curt waters...professional mud tickler by day and drag queen by nite!...
Draggers are just a giant underwater dustpan that KILLS its product. Pot fishing is CLEAN. Show a kindergarten class a video of how a dragger catches its product verses a pot vessel. Even they can understand which boat creates more carnage and waste than utilizing an efficient fishery. NMFS needs to leave the pot boats out of this. This is a DRAGGER issue!
In the old days they would chain the prop. Fortunately, photos are the next best solution.
Its been fun PUNK but this blog only post what it wants to see. And any one that thinks Pot fishing is CLEAN has never pot fished. I dont know who you are and now I dont care. Good luck PUNK
Curt....you're a moron at best, keep posting and we'll keep laughing at ya
I bet the only fish you've been around is at McDonalds
Curt's in denial. I used to drag and gave it up for pot cod fishing for a living. Pots are way cleaner and what by-catch there is goes back ALIVE...
Also, thank-you Alexus for your efforts. B.
100% observer coverage with a hard cap on PSC is the only way for all size boats! NO more loopholes for dirty fishermen to jump through.
As a pot fisherman I've wondered about our impacted area. I've contacted NOAA scientists twice and calculated examples. 1st, with Craig Rose, the ENTIRE Bering sea pot cod fishery: 1.31 nautical miles. That assumes a 6 1/2x pot being dragged 2.5x its surface area on each haul, and 100% new bottom covered by each haul. I believe that coverage was for 2002, and calculated after noting an error in the groundfish report in June 2003.
The second example, with Bob Otto at the Kodiak NOAA bldg: our contact RATE vs. a typical Kodiak drag net. Assuming 10,000 pots hauled, with the same 2.5x bottom sweep, using 6x pots, our contact rate was equivalent to the area covered by a Kodiak bottom trawl IN ONE HOUR!
Curt Waters raises some legitimate points in some of his posts. This point is not among them. His criticism of the bottom contact incurred by cod pots is so obviously wrong that he should know better. The data are widely available at NPFMC meetings. The oft-repeated accusations of draggers tend to strike me as something akin to tobacco company propaganda.
Are the processors allowed to sell the by-catch and keep the money?
Doesn't NMFS have an affective observer program?
Who's the head of Alaska's Fish and Game?
with no details, this picture could be from anywhere and could even be a fish and game tow doing tanner crab surveys.
Not saying it is or isn't anything. Just pointing out an inconvenient fact.
If you want credibility, details are in order.
I'm sure details could be/were released to NMFS enforcement. After all the threats and intimidation during crab rats it's obvious why the particulars are kept private.
haveing been a fisherman since the age of 16,and not finishing high school ,please foorgive my spelling.at this time and age i am left to wonder why we fisherman can not unite,this site seems to be set up to divide us all.soon we will not be able to even have a cup of coffe toghether,let alone come to terms on whats important to all of us.conservation,better utilisation of fisheryies,and common ground,and no more transfer of wealth thru communist tatics implmented as safty and conservation.i know of no dragger,trawler,wh would make that tow twice.and while crab are coaght at least there are crab to catch today,most of us draggers,trawlers all fished crab untill its decline,and halibut untill it was made a communist fishery.and 20 years ago there was mass cod,pollack,arrow tooth,ect.instead of further divideing comunities in alaska by pictures that have no time,date,boat,location ect.who ever runs this blog or whatever this is,should relise that no matter whatmwere all in the same boat,and we need not divide,but unite,cause believe me we dont want to catch crab.and generly dont.and for the people who would rather divide us,what are there motives,if you dont have balls enuf to say who you are,where it was taken ect it just more hype thrown at us to deviate us from whats importsnt to us all,like no more privitetization of public resourses.and whats good for the goose is good fr the gander,perhaps with the communists runnig the show we will all be outsoursed with out unity,and will once again have coffee toghether at the foodbank.
Seems to me that who ever took this picture was just a lazy fucker that runs around avoiding the real work of getting the shit off deck!He would of better served his fellow crewmembers by trading in his camera for a shovel.No capt. intends to haul up a bag of by catch theres no money in it for any one. Lets not buy into the polarization of the fleet far greter threats loom around the fleet than the occasional bad tow, like turning all of Alaskan fisherman into nothing more than share croppers!
oh man, I miss the subsistance tanner crab (marketed as snow crab) fishery in Valdez Bay and beyond. It was a right of spring!
To anonymous with the questions:
"Are the processors allowed to sell the by-catch and keep the money?"
It depends on the species of bycatch. Groundfish boats (like the flatfish trawler in the photo) can't keep any tanner crab and must throw them all overboard - they shouldn't even get to the processor!
"Doesn't NMFS have an affective observer program?
This really depends on your definition of effective. Groundfish vessels less than 60 ft LOA aren't required to carry observers at all. Trawlers and longliners b/w 60-125 ft and pot vessels of any size carry observers for 30% of fishing days. Why the lower pot vessel observer coverage? Because they have lower bycatch!
"Who's the head of Alaska's Fish and Game?"
Denby Lloyd was appointed the Commissioner of ADF&G in 2007 by the illustrious Gov. Palin.
Hey Curt....get informed. Years back I took Bob Otto and 2 ADFG crab biologists out for a two week project to gather data on mortality rates associated with continuous handling of crab bycatch related to the cod pot fishery. After our at sea project ended 100 tanner crab were kept in salt water tanks at fish tech center(Kodiak) and held for a prolong period of time to be observed for mortality rate. Number of dead crabs...ZERO. This information is readily available to you if you ask. Come back to this post with honest fair info and quite muddying the discussion with self preserving lies.
Its a nasty day, I'll take the bait. The last couple of times I tried to post here I didnt get posted not sure whats up with that. But here I'll try again. Dear Ano, for short. Very cool you could bring your 100 crabs. To a secure climate controled place and have them live. I'm sure I could to. Here is some info from the EA you should look up.so you will be the one informed And I quote. "The average tanner crab bycatch by the CGOA pot catcher vessel sector 2003-2008 was 5.5 crab per metric ton of groundfish caught." (id)at 164, Table 3-16. "For the trawl catcher vessel sector, the average was 0.4 (id) in 2008, the CGOA pot catcher vessel fleet took 87,285 tanner crab, a number more than 600% greater than the number of tanner crabs taken incidentily by CGOA trawl catcher vessels in 2008. ID at 164, Table 3-15" If you think this is a "self preserving lie" I suggest you get your own copy of the "environmental assessment/regulatory impact review initial regulatory flexibility analysis report", like the one I have. If you can't get your own copy, just watch Deadlist Catch on t.v. and you can see for yourself the bycatch mortality. better luck next time, Curt Waters
More shape shifting there Curt...Mortality rates is the key to this data and this discussion. I have reviewed the some data you reference and know from my own pot cod fishing time that most if not all crab bycatch was released alive. It is undeniable that trawl bycatch/mortality rates is unequaled by any other gear user group.
QUIT TOWING THROUGH THE TANNER CRAB GROUNDS
Recent halibut and tanner crab bycatch photos show majority of the fish/crab will not survive their encounter with your trawl net. Why must the majority suffer for the dirty deeds of a few soul less fishers.
Shape shifting? how long has it been since you have caught a fish. Are you a IFQ armchair fisherman Charging his crew 35% for pure joy to go fishing with you. And now you have nothing better to do than screw with other men out tring to make a living. Its a nasty day How about your opinion on lost crab pots. Looking back in my log book. For last year I retrived 36 lost pots. All had dead crabs,or dead fish in them. Most had some form of bio in them although a few had zip ties over the bio ? why the zip ties? . Any way how much fish and crabs do the lost pots catch, How manny lost pots are there. whats the mortality rate and how long do they fish????????? There was a charter last year on the west coast to remove lost pots.
Quit Towing Through the Crab grounds. This must be a diffrent ANONYMOUS, What in your Opinion is the Crab Grounds. And what time of year is there crab there.Is there crad there in the daylight as well as the dark. Do you still want me to catch the predators like the flat head, arrowtooth pollock cod rocksole and buttersole that eat the baby tanner crabs. I think you should read some more THERE WOULD NOT BE A INCREASING CRAB STOCK WITHOUT THE TRAWLERS dont take my word for it ask FISH and Game what eats Crab Larvae
Verna got out while the getting was good
I had a funny feeling i was waisting my time Good luck Anonymous
.....tholepinblogspot.....hey curt check this one out you will love the intelligent comments
The December NPFMC newsletter is once again dominated by trawl bycatch issues. Salmon/crab/halibut, EFP project to tweak numbers of halibut mortality rates to benefit Amendment 80 vessels. Please explain dragging to me Curt..maybe I can come to understand you and your kind. NOT
Curt next time you tow through the crab grounds can I please have 100 crab so I mat try and duplicate the results from the prior post. Legs and crushed carapaces are okay..maybe I can use the controlled setting and grow some new bodies for them. PEACE OUT
Dear Anonymous This will be my last post. Right up to your comment about Verna I held some hope for you. But if you are the best that this post has to offer I have much better things to do with my time Curt Waters
Wow.... first off to "anonymous" what the #$%^ does my mother have to do with this?
And Dad... stop feeding the trolls. That's internet comment rule number one.
Lastly... for what it's worth, I have fished with my dad, Curt, almost every summer since I was 14 or so, and I have tossed my share of crab bycatch overboard... maybe its just cause we make short tows generally but I'd say damn near every crab I've tossed has been alive for the tossing. In any case, there are bycatch limits, we do take observers, and we stay within the 'sustainability limits.' If there is a problem with the of amount bycatch, change the limits, and gear/fishing practices will change accordingly.
Happy New Year!
Curt....comeback, forgot your out destroying the tanner crab grounds and under reporting your salmon/halibut catch. Observer restructure was hot topic at Portland NPFMC meetings. We are catching up with you!!!!
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