Some people believe the problem rests with the U.S. trawl fleet in the Bering Sea.
But the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is looking farther afield. It has sent a letter to the State Department requesting help obtaining information on the catch of Western Alaska Chinook and chum salmon in Russian fisheries.
There is zero scientific evidence that the U.S. trawl fleet is to blame. Would like to refer you to this piece published today that includes facts not rhetoric. https://medium.com/@smadsen_1606/fishery-facts-not-fiction-1f3268e8bcfa
ReplyDeleteMs. Madsen is a master at spinning data. After all, it’s her job to guard the henhouse. 98% pure, she says. OK, I’ll bite. Anyone know what that other 2% equates to on a billion pounds? Yes, that’s 20,000,000 pounds of wastage. Yes, 20 million pounds! “Set the bar for fisheries management and sustainably for decades,” she says about this fleet. More like sickening and laughable for decades….
ReplyDeleteAnd let’s not get started on the Amendment 80 fleet. As wasteful as it is, the pollock fishery is really quite clean by comparison. Maybe Ms. Madsen should somehow twist this into her smoke-n-mirrors campaign? All other user groups have had enough, and we have had for way too long. Has the time finally come? Or will the draggers’ deep pockets and political clout spare them from yet another tow?
Evidently the Council hasn't been paying much attention lately, there is no State Department, didn't our drag queens watch that riot in Afghanistan a couple months ago?
ReplyDeletePutin voted for Biden, he always loves a new & improved Russian Collusion story.
The only great State Department deal in Alaska was when the Russian Minister, Edouard de Stoeckl got drunk one night with Seward.
Blame everyone else, a typical Democratic Party special, shown best with that recent drag queen as Secretary of State, Arkansas very own Hillary Clinton, fired off the Valdez slime line in '69. Maybe the Council should drag up Christopher Steel, he's about just as ignorant at this Council.
Here we go again, the deflection tactic. Russians, climate change, direct fisheries, hatcheries, inaccurate survey data... blame game never stops with the trawlers.
ReplyDeleteNext up will be - "economies of local communities will collapse without trawlers"," Our minority workforce will loose wages", "MSA Act should be interpreted to let us do whatever we want", "Food supply needs us"...
Ms Madsen is playing with facts in picking and choosing data to paint a rosy picture.
ReplyDeleteIn her article she states:
"The science shows us that a majority of chum salmon encountered in the Bering Sea pollock fishery come from hatcheries outside the United States."
Madsen is passing over the fact that the vast majority of Chinook Salmon trawler bycatch originate in AK, BC and the US West Coast rivers.
When she does address chinook salmon bycatch she grasps onto the statistic that "Incidental catch impacts to Upper Yukon Chinook runs average close to 1 percent". She neglects to point out that 53% of chinook bycatch are from rivers draining into Bering Sea.
Ms. Madsen claims to address "deliberate campaign of mischaracterizations and lies about North Pacific trawl fisheries" but clearly she is a source of misinformation.
All facts can be found in NOAA's presentation.
http://www.akleg.gov/basis/get_documents.asp?session=32&docid=77697
Other Madsen facts - "Folks who characterize our fleet as “outsiders” are incorrect, and are pitting Alaskan against Alaskan."
ReplyDeleteAll pollock fleet is home ported in Seattle
All pollock fleet have corporate offices in Seattle
The largest operator, American Seafoods, controls 45% of the pollock fishery. The company is joint owned by a European billionaire, a European multi-hundred millionaire, and a New York City Private equity company.
She must have forgot that google exists.