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The Salmon Purse Seine - Competition and Information Among British Columbia Salmon Purse Seiners by Max Ledbetter, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/11/prweb178134.htm (PRWEB) November 15, 2004 -- In British Columbia, Canada, salmon purse seiners line up at fishing access points, forming well defined queues. These queues were measured over time, using a one-dimensional recording scale. Sixty-one overflights of Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait were attempted; 51 flights were completed. Two models were presented for exploitation rates in relation to queuing patterns. The overflight model was fit to the line-up distributions. One underlying assumption was that the skippers possessed fairly accurate information regarding the distribution of catches (analysis of variance methods utilizing skippers' logbook data showed that line-up lengths reflected catch rates). The model fit well and the parameter estimates reflected anecdotal and statistical information about fish behavior. The exploitation rates saturated at an effort level of 100 vessels (whereas the maximum effort observed was 363 boats) and indicated that (at saturation) the fleet caught 80% to 90% of the vulnerable migrating salmon present in Johnstone and Queen Charlotte Straits during what were commonly 48- or 72-hour fishing openings. (Note: Salmon successfully migrating through the strait on days that were closed to seiners and salmon that were not vulnerable to the gear--e.g., below the depth of the nets--escaped the purse-seine fleet.) http://maxledbetter.moved.in Citing declining numbers of salmon and low prices, Governor seeks federal aid by comparing Alaska's fishing industry to Midwest farming By Mike Chambers Associated Press - Aug. 27, 2001 JUNEAU, Alaska - Gov. Tony Knowles declared western Alaska's commercial fishing sector an economic disaster on Friday, Aug. 24, [2001] a step toward seeking federal aid for the beleaguered industry. Officials compared the industry - which is suffering from dwindling numbers of salmon and low prices - to past Midwest farm failures which prompted federal crop supports to help growers weather poor markets. Some fishermen are calling for a federal or state buyback of fishing permits - which at Bristol Bay can cost about $40,000 each, in an effort to thin out the western Alaska fleet, Golia said. But Knowles spokesman Bob King said that idea could cost tens of millions of dollars and there's no guarantee it would effectively reduce the number of commercial fishing operations. Islanders argue inshore fishery has no room for huge N.B. seiners The Guardian, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, 13 Nov. 2001 (and reprinted by thefishingnews.com News Wire message board, http://www.thefishingnews.com/cgi-bin/news_wire.pl) There is no room for large New Brunswick herring seiners to fish in an inshore Island zone, P.E.I. Fishermen's Association president Donnie Strongman says. "The only reason they are here is because other inshore fishermen, even those in their own province, have kicked them out of inshore areas," Strongman said. Campbell said fishermen across the Island believe these large vessels can and will devastate the herring stocks. "We will insist that federal fisheries take action next season." Smugglers are using tuna boats to transport cocaine by Dick Russell Defenders of Wildlife - Summer 2002 edition, http://www.defenders.org/defendersmag/issues/summer02/tunadolphin.html (also see http://www.eurocbc.org/page820.html and http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/New_Global_Economy/tuna_drugs_ Mexico.html) Last December, after several weeks of surveillance, the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the purse-seine vessel Macel, observed in an area closed to yellowfin tuna fishing off Mexico’s southwestern coastline. Found hidden in special compartments, under tons of yellowfin tuna, were some 10.5 tons of pure cocaine with a street value of $500 million. The ship and its 19-man crew were turned over to the Mexican Navy. This wasn’t the first time a tuna seiner had been caught with the illicit substance. In 199[5], the Coast Guard seized the Nataly I, a Panamian-flagged vessel en route from Colombia to an island off the Mexican coast. It had 12 tons of cocaine on board, all in boxes marked "tuna." The ship was found to be part of a fleet of a dozen tuna boats operated by the Cali cartel. Later that year, another seiner was captured in international waters off the coast of Ecuador, carrying seven metric tons of cocaine destined for Manzanillo, Mexico. . . . Officials estimate that as much as two-thirds of all the cocaine destined for the United States, or at least 275 tons a year, now travels by ship via the eastern Pacific. And Mexico is now the primary transit country for cocaine entering the United States from South America as well as being a major source of heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana. Not all of this is coming on tuna seiners, of course, but in the trade cocaine is reportedly referred to as atun blanco -- white tuna. Craig Van Note, executive vice president of the Washington-based Monitor consortium of conservation groups, launched an investigation of the Mexican tuna industry during the early 1990s. According to a declaration filed by Van Note in recent legal proceedings on the tuna-dolphin issue: "The investigation revealed that most of the tuna fleets and canneries in Latin America had been bought up or established by the major drug cartels operating in that region. The long-range fishing boats have been used for smuggling vast quantities of cocaine north to the United States and east to Europe. The canneries have been used to launder billions of dollars. "The violent reaction of the Latin American tuna industry to the embargoes of their dolphin-deadly tuna by the United States and the European Union -- and the massive pressure campaign to overturn the embargoes -- can, in my opinion, be largely attributed to the inadvertent interdiction of this tuna-cocaine pipeline by conservationists seeking dolphin-safe tuna. "The drug cartels’ investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in fleet and cannery operations were crippled by the loss of their major markets for tuna, and their illicit operations under the guise of catching and shipping tuna -- drug smuggling and money laundering -- were compromised by the exposure." Organized Crime and Dolphin Safety by Paul Spong of Orcalab and Ben White of Animal Welfare Institute ECO, the daily summary and commentary sheet of the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), IWC ECO'99 Vol. LI No.4 stories, http://www.greenpeacefoundation.com/news/eco4.html#crime The dirty secret behind the massacre of dolphins by tuna fishermen in the eastern tropical Pacific is that organized crime syndicates own virtually all of the tuna fleets and canneries in Latin America-- and use these companies to smuggle cocaine and heroin throughout the world and to launder narco-profits. The Cali and Medellin cartels of Colombia, the Mexican drug gangs, and even the Sicilian Mafia have bought into the Latin American tuna industry over the past 25 years as ideal fronts for their criminal activities. . . . The "tuna/cocaine connection" was organized in the 1970's when two Sicilian Mafia families . . . set up operations in Venezuela to smuggle heroin into the Western Hemisphere. Because the Mafia controls Italy's tuna industry, the Sicilians established tuna fleets and processing plants in Venezuela and nearby countries as cover for their narco-trafficking. In the early 1980's, the Sicilians entered into partnerships with the Medellin and Cali Cartels to smuggle cocaine into Europe, where the Mafia had an established heroin network. By the early 1990's [they] . . . were annually shipping 200 tons of cocaine, worth more than $10 billion, to Europe, most of it hidden in cans or frozen blocks of tuna. The Sicilians made so much money off the tuna/cocaine connection that they have invested heavily throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Law enforcement sources report that they have bought control of Aruba, effectively turning that island state into a criminal enterprise for drug-running and money-laundering. . . . The largest tuna/cocaine operation was set up in the late 1980's by the Cali Cartel and the Mexican drug cartels. A Cali underboss . . . formed dozens of companies and banks in Panama, which bought tuna fleets and canneries. . . . Remarkably, both the Mexican and US governments have chosen to ignore the tuna/cocaine connection because of the corruption at the highest levels of the Mexican and Panamanian governments. . . . Environmentalists, meanwhile, are asking all cetacean activists to help expose this dirty deal dooming dolphins. JAPAN CONCERNED ABOUT INCREASED FISHING VESSEL SIZE Fiji Government Online, 7 May 2003, http://www.fiji.gov.fj/press/2003_05/2003_05_07-03.shtml Japan is very concerned about the continued construction of larger fishing vessels and accused developing fishing nations of navigating around laws to exploit the fish resources of already vulnerable developing and near bankrupt Pacific Island economies. Akira Nakamae, the head of the Japanese delegation to the 4th Preparatory Conference (Prepcon) on the Tuna Commission for the Western and Central Pacific . . . said that fishing industries in some regions, such as Taiwan, [are] currently constructing 26 large purse seiners that will start fishing soon. Mr Nakamae said the 26 new vessels would have a net increase of their total fishing capacity with some of them over 2,000 Gross Tonnage (GT). He said this increase by the use of the "flag of convenience" has significantly increased the actual fishing capacity of purse seiners, even though the increase in the number of purse seiners appears relatively small. Mr Nakamae also showed Japan’s concern about the increase of small fish catch by the introduction of Fishing Aggregating Devices (FAD). "At present almost all the purse seiners are using FADs to improve catches and [are] thereby catching a large number of small tuna. "In this sense too, the impact of fishing has been amplified rapidly and significantly on the tuna resources involved that for instance, the Japanese bigeye catch in the North Pacific decreased sharply in parallel to the increase of purse seine fishing capacity," said Mr Nakamae. Ban Use Of Purse Seine Fishing Boats, Fiji Says 'This type of fishing is killing marine life' by Robert Keith-Reid Islands Business, August 2003, http://www.pacificislands.cc Fiji will press for a complete ban of the use of purse seine fishing boats in the Western and Central Pacific, or at least a minimum number and tighter controls on them. . . . According to Fiji's fisheries and forests minister Konisi Yabaki, purse seine fishing is "environmentally unfriendly and should be controlled, minimised or completely banned." This type of fishing is killing most marine living organisms including juvenile tuna fish. "Its excessive use in the region is detrimental to our healthy tuna stocks, and to our local industry," he claimed in a July statement in which he announced a temporary freeze on the issue of licences for fishing in the Fiji's 1.26 million square kilometres exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Cape Cod tuna fishermen angered by bigger boat's pricey fish haul The Boston Globe, 7 October 2003, http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2003/10/07/ cape_cod_tuna_fishermen_angered_by_bigger_boats_pricey_fish_haul/ Last week, the North Queen, an 84-foot purse seiner based in New Bedford, was guided to a school of tuna by a spotter plane flying overhead. It scooped up the fish within sight of local fishermen in smaller boats. "It's a crime. We had an agreement with them (not to fish in Cape Cod Bay). They shouldn't be fishing there," Peter Weiss, president of the General Category Tuna Association, told the Cape Cod Times. "Years ago that bay was covered in tuna fish," said Kevin Scola, a tuna fisherman based in Marshfield. "I remember days standing on pulpit and seeing five or six bunches, with 500 to 600 a bunch." Scola is convinced that bluefin tuna imprint on an area, and return year after year. When purse seiners catch a whole school, that memory dies with that group -- and bad tuna years in Cape Cod Bay always followed big catches by the seiner fleet in the years before, he said U.S. launches aerial surveillance of border by Jane Armstrong Globe and Mail, 21 August 2004, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/ RTGAM.20040820.wxbord0821/BNStory/National/ Bellingham, Wash. -- The Blackhawk helicopter hovered over the Pacific Ocean, its pilot pointing out the coves and bays preferred by drug dealers when they bring their wares from Canada. At Birch Bay, less than 10 kilometres south of the border, the pilot dived for a closer view at the scene of a drug bust last month in which custom agents in a boat retrieved $200,000 (U.S.) from the water and arrested two Canadians after intercepting what they say was an exchange of money for drugs. . . . The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will pour millions of dollars into equipment and personnel at five border crossings with Canada over the next four years to improve security. . . . It's no surprise that the first border reinforcements will be at British Columbia, long a sore point for U.S. law enforcers. It was from B.C. that convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam attempted to enter the United States in 1999 in a car containing explosive material. In terms of drugs, last year a record 2,100 kilograms of B.C.-grown marijuana entered the United States. Another Group at High Risk for HIV by Edward H. Allison and Janet A. Seeley Science, Vol 305, Issue 5687, 1104, 20 August 2004 Fishermen and other seafarers (and their casual and long-term sexual partners) . . . are thought to be among the groups with highest [AIDS] prevalence rates of any occupational group other than commercial sex workers. . . . Almost 29 million fisherfolk, 84% of the world total, work in Asia (6), with perhaps three or four times that number of dependents, so the high seroprevalence rates observed in fishing communities are likely to be regionally significant. AIDS in fishing communities: a serious problem, frequently overlooked Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAONewsroom, 3 March 2005, http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/100061/index.html Rome -- It was in a fishing village on the Ugandan shores of Lake Victoria in 1982 that a new and terrible disease [AIDS] began to affect large numbers of people in Central Africa. At the time, the illness was known only as "Slim," due to the wasting affect it had on its victims' bodies. . . .