The Kirkland, Washington, company last week signed a deal with Dakota Creek Industries Inc. to construct the vessel, to be named America's Finest.
Fishermen's Finest says the 262-foot trawler will be "the first carbon-neutral fishing vessel in the world and will fully utilize every fish caught."
The company already operates two factory trawlers, American No. 1 and U.S. Intrepid. Both were built in the late 1970s.
Fishermen's Finest is part of the so-called Amendment 80 fleet, which targets species such as yellowfin sole, cod and Pacific ocean perch in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.
Carbon neutral, BFD. They need to make it halibut neutral.
ReplyDeleteand king salmon neutral, I don't fish kings but the lack of them keeps us off sockeyes.
ReplyDeleteThe Amendment 80 fleet as it currently stands is pretty darn efficient at pillaging the ocean floor. Some of these vessel make well over 30 trips a year at between 1 million and 2 million lbs a trip. Are we as stewards of the resource ok with perpetuating hard on bottom trawling? Is 9 million lbs of halibut bycatch acceptable in the BSAI most of which is attributable to the Amendment 80 trawl fleet? We should all ask ourselves these questions before this INSANITY continues. There are many problems in the BSAI fisheries resources, but I see ending the insanity of hard on bottom trawling as an easy fix to some of these complex problems. Or maybe everyone should act like they don't notice the destruction that is occurring because it's too political to get involved or you'll be retired when the environmental hammer drops.
ReplyDeleteThis arrogant halibut fishermen entitlement greed and sloganeering needs a reality check. REALITY CHECK: A halibut fishermen who catches 1 ton of halibut- after throwing most of his unobserved catch overboard and only keeping the ones he wants- as he does, sells that to Whole foods markets crowd, creating about 4,400 8 oz very nice halibut meals for the wealthy whole foods customers and employs about 4 guys on a crew. On the other hand, 1 ton of halibut allocated to the A80 fleet allows them to catch about 130 tons of other species and generates 572,000 8 oz. meals of yellowfin sole, rock sole and cod, for the regular people and in doing so they employ about 100 Alaskans on a crew and shore side, in addition to ship support personnel including longshoremen, all of whom have families. The economics of fishing is supposed to be a complex series of analysis and trade offs, not nonsensical sloganeering. Creating 572,000 meals and employing hundred of people with families is better than creating 4,400 meals and employing 4 guys unless, I suppose, you are one of the 4 guys. But then you should ask yourself if its really appropriate to sacrifice hundreds of jobs and hundreds of thousands of meals for people, just for you.
ReplyDeleteGood point we need more trawlers in Alaska We also need to to open Southeast Alaska to trawling. Screw the small boat salmon fisherman. Trawling is the most efficient and effective way to catch all fish. There are plenty of low paying jobs for the small boat fisherman on these factory trawlers. Its great pay and an awesome working environment. There's a real team feel onboard our vessels. So all of the small boat fisherman stop complaining and get with the program.
DeleteDiirected halibut fishery is the biggest waste of resource in the fishing business. It forces waste by requiring discards and prevents optimum yield, all to buy off a few loud mouths, like this guy, who invent enviro arguments to hide their greed. Fact is that the catcher boats, not the cp's who use excluders, hammer the halibut The cp's use modified sweeps, pelagic doors and excluders which do not damage the bottom, period. They make the best use of the halibut resource, by far, by using the halibut to produce a huge recovery of target species that feeds the world, not just a handful of halibut dinners for the one percenters.
ReplyDeleteYou bet your ever shrinking by catch.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a recovery rate you're getting from the yellowfin, rock sole and cod. You might want to double check the math there... quite a few bones to turn into "meals" there.
ReplyDeleteAnd how many Alaskans, or even Americans, are employed on a factory trawler? Just curious...
There is absolutely no justification for the good of hard on bottom trawling. You mentioned the mass quantity of low quality fish dragged from the depths of the e king crab, bairdi and opilio grounds, but no mention of the environmental repercussions of such actions. I'll be the first to admit there is at times a fair amount of bycatch inherent in the longline fisheries, but no where near what the Amendment 80 fleet is capable of. I've heard you guys on the radio out here in Unimak Pass talking about catching "your" ton of halibut per day as you tow your way up and down the pass. I counted 20 draggers at that given time last January. 40k lbs of halibut bycatch per day not counting all the crab and other undesirable species that are carelessly tossed over the side. Oh, and I did have an observer the last halibut trip I did.
ReplyDeleteWow, I am glad this discussion is started....
ReplyDelete572,000 disgusting meals served to prison inmates and through subsidized school lunch programs all paid for with federal subsidies is a good thing?
Destroying bottom habitat forever?
Killing crabs, halibut and salmon justifies creating 96 low paying jobs for crews from Seattle and 4 good paying ones... Crews that spend three quarters of their lives as sea, working for near minimum wage is a good thing?
Destroying the fabric of coastal communities that depended on salmon that the trawlers caught and discarded is worth it?
Contributing significantly to the decline of the halibut resource, a shadow of its past, jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of IFQ share holders, longline, charter, sport and subsistence fishermen....
All so you can spend 30 million dollars of blood money on a more efficient factory?
Shame on your or creating 572,000 meals at the cost of habitat, jobs and Alaska.
You should be banned from operating, and probably would be, if you hadn't done an end around the Council to get your amendment 80.
Shame on you.
And congratulations on your pretty new boat
At 6:13: All other arguments aside, Amendment 80 is the ONLY rationalization program that was done entirely through the Council system. Halibut/sablefish, pollock, crab were all done through Congress -- that's the end run around the Council.
ReplyDelete3:38 & 7:07
ReplyDeleteYou guys need to look at Europe and the East coast to see what trawling has done to the fisheries there. It isn't a matter of management, its a matter of bottom trawling being overly destructive. Hopefully the pressure of public opinion will shut the bottom trawlering. The cod can be caught by pot, and the crap fish trawlers catch can be filled in with farmed fish.