2:17/03. WORLD'S MAJOR SEAFOOD PROCESSORS FORM E-CARTEL: How to describe it - an e-commerce seafood cartel or an internet Hanseatic League for fish? The 6 October issue of the U.K. trade publication, Fishing News, reports (p.8) that some of the largest seafood catching and processing companies from around the world, representing over $5 billion (US) in sales, have established an e-commerce partnership called Seafoodalliance.com. Members of the consortium include American Seafoods of Seattle, WA; The Barry Group of Corner Brook, Newfoundland; Clearwater Fine Foods, Inc. of Halifax, NS; Coldwater Seafoods Corporation of Rowayton, CT; Fishery Products International of St. John's Newfoundland; High Liner Foods, Inc, of Lundenburg, NS; Pacific Trawlers of Seattle, WA; Pacific Seafood Group of Portland, OR; SIF Group Ltd, of Iceland; Sanford Ltd, of New Zealand; Scandsea AB of Sweeden; and Youngs Bluecrest Seafood Ltd, of the U.K. The consortium was finalized at a recent meeting in New York, after several months of work. For more information, go to Fishing News' website at: www.fishingnews.co.uk .

2:17/04. COLUMBIA RIVER FALL-CHINOOK RETURNS DOWN; STEELHEAD COUNT HIGH: FishWire reports fall chinook salmon runs in the Columbia totaled 192,000 as of 24 October, a drop of 20 percent from last year's run. But jack counts are up considerably, indicating a good run next year. Coho runs are double last year's and steelhead numbers also are up, about 30 percent higher than last year's run. Investigations, meanwhile, continue to examine a puzzling loss of up to 80, 000 steelhead in the John Day Pool. For more information, go to: http://www.newsdata.com/enernet/fishletter/.

2:17/05. WILLAMETTE RIVER STUDY CONFIRMS WIDESPREAD FISH DEFORMITIES: In a recent effort to verify anecdotal reports, scientists observed about one-third of test fish using Oregon's Willamette River (a tributary of the Columbia) were hatched with severe deformities. Water quality in the Willamette has been gradually degrading, mostly due to non-point source pollution from agriculture and urban runoff, but also some point source industrial polluters. "If the environment is inducing these changes to fish, then there's a question about what it is doing to other organisms, including humans," commented Stan Gregory, fisheries Professor at Oregon State University. "This is not a trivial finding.." Several runs of salmon and steelhead are now listed in the Willamette River, and Oregon has just this year a pesticide tracking bill to ascertain what agricultural chemicals are used near the river. Pesticides are widely used in the Willamette basin and have been implicated in fish deformities as well. See "Diminishing Returns: Salmon Declines and Pesticides," for more information on the impacts of long-term exposures to sublethal levels of pesticides, go to the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Website at: http://www.pond.net/~fish1ifr/salpest.htm. Also see: http://www.oregonlive.com/printer2.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/10/ lc_62crook20.frame.

2:17/06.NORTHWEST POWER COUNCIL ADOPTS NEW FISH & WILDLIFE PLAN: On 19 October the Northwest Power Planning Council formally adopted the first revision in more than six years of its "Columbia River Basin Fish & Wildlife Program" salmon restoration plan. The last plan revision in 1994 (Council Document 94-55) was never fully implemented due to political gridlock over flow augmentation provisions requiring more water from Idaho. The amendments incorporate the current strategies behind the recently proposed National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Columbia River Biological Opinion (see Sublegals 2:04/04). The NMFS BiOp deferred much of the implementation of its measures to the Council, and thus the Council's plan mirrors the strengths and weaknesses of the NMFS BiOp itself, completely ignoring the issue of breaching the Snake River dams in favor of patchwork habitat improvements. Furthermore, little of that habitat benefit may occur in short enough time frames to prevent extinctions caused by the hydropower system. "The overall document appears to be a political compromise rather than driven by the real biological needs of salmon," commented PCFFA's Glen Spain. "Its good as far as it goes, but it clearly does not go far enough fast enough to assure recovery." The program amendments are expected to be posted on the Council's web site late next week at: http://www.nwppc.org or call the Council publications office at (800)452-5161 to request a printed copy.

2:17/07. CONSERVANCY DEVELOPS ACTION PLAN TO MAXIMIZE TOTAL SALMON PRODUCTION (NATURAL AND HATCHERY) IN UPPER SACRAMENTO RIVER: The Battle Creek Conservancy has released its action plan for maximizing the total production of all chinook salmon runs in the Upper Sacramento River system and significantly increasing natural production in Battle Creek (a tributary of the Sacramento coming in just below Shasta Dam). The Sacramento River is now the largest chinook salmon producing system on the Pacific Coast. Among other things, the plan, developed in consultation with fishery biologists would move Coleman National Fish Hatchery production of late-fall chinook and steelhead on Battle Creek to an enlarged Livingston Stone Hatchery on mainstem Sacramento at Keswick. By moving some of the hatchery production from Coleman to Livingston Stone, it will be possible to increase natural production on Battle Creek where some five or more antiquated hydro-electric dams are slated for removal to open up fish habitat.

Moving more hatchery production to Livingston Stone is also expected to increase natural spawning in the upper 29 miles of the river, where habitat (spawning gravels, water temperature) has been improved but is still underutilized. Battle Creek has had overescapement for the past few years with as many as 100,000 to 130,000 fall-run spawners ripping up each others redds and depleting the oxygen in the stream. The Livingston Stone Hatchery was built in 1997 as a result of the efforts of PCFFA's late Habitat Conservation Director Nat Bingham who sought a facility on the mainstem of the Sacramento as was called for in 1940 to mitigate the impacts of Shasta Dam. Prior to its construction, all of the mitigation production took place at Coleman, located on lower Battle Creek. For a copy of the action plan, "Battle Creek: One View of the Next Step" e-mail the Conservancy's Bob Lee at: rlee@lassen.com .

2:17/08. SETTLEMENT REACHED TO PROVIDE $800 MILLION FOR IRON MOUNTAIN CLEANUP, AIMED AT PREVENTING TOXIC WATER RELEASES INTO SACRAMENTO RIVER: On 20 October, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that state and federal regulators had reached an agreement with Aventis Crop Sciences USA Inc. that could raise an additional $800 million to clean-up acid run-off at the Iron Mountain Superfund site, which produces what may be the most contaminated water in the world. Under the terms of the settlement, Aventis, a French firm, would ensure 95 percent fo the acidic water coming fromthe decommissioned mine near Redding will be neutralized before if reaches the Sacramento River. Under the agreement, Aventis will buy a $160 million insurance annuity now that will pay up to $300 million over 30 years, plus a final payment of $514 million in 2030.

Although cleanup of the site has been under way for several years, the settlement should help speed the timetable for satisfactory mitigation of the pollution, said the Chronicle report. The agreement was largely brokered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is the largest environmental settlement in the EPA's Region IX, covering California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii.

2:17/09. KLAMATH BASIN WATER SUPPLY ENHANCEMENT BILL ON WAY TO WHITE HOUSE: Senate Bill 2882, cosponsored by Oregon Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden, is now on its way to the White House for signature, with broad backing from irrigators, conservation groups and by PCFFA. The bill authorizes a study of ways to increase overall storage and delivery of water within the Klamath Project in the Upper Klamath Basin. This year saw widespread fights over diminishing water supplies, including suits by PCFFA and others to protect downriver fish runs, suits among water users over allocation, and a complete cutoff of water to the wildlife refuges during critical waterfowl migration times. PCFFA supported the bill after certain provisions were changed and fish and wildlife needs were also taken into account. The studies will be conducted in consultation with stakeholder groups, which PCFFA believes should also include lower river interests. The bill only authorizes the studies; no funds have been appropriated as yet and this may be difficult this late in the appropriations season. However, passage of the bill means that funds will likely be in the new Administration's budget for FY 2002 to be submitted early next year. For more information on this bill, go to the Library of Congress THOMAS bill index at: http://thomas.loc.gov.

2:17/10. KLAMATH FISH & WILDLIFE BIBLIOGRAPHY AVAILABLE, KLAMATH HYDRO RELICENSING PENDING: In May, 2000 Kier Associates, on contract with PacifiCorp as owners of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, published a comprehensive annotated bibliography of scientific studies and data on fish and wildlife in the Klamath Basin, available from PacifiCorp on CD-ROM. PacifiCorp prepared the bibliography as part of its pending relicensing of the Project under Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) License No. 2082, which expires in 2006. PacificCorp will be taking the first steps toward relicensing of the Project by publishing its preliminary documents for public review in December of 2000. For a copy of the CD, "Klamath Hydroelectric Project Annotated Bibliography of Aquatics and Wildlife (May 2000," or to get on PacifiCorps' relicensing contact and document distribution list, contact Todd Olson, Licensing Project Manager, PacifiCorp at 825 N.E. Multnomah, Suite 1500, Portland, OR 97232, (503) 813-6657.

2:17/11. SAVAGE RAPIDS DAM DEMOLITION BILL INTRODUCED: On 24 October Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith jointly introduced Senate Bill 3227 to bring up to $22.2 million in federal money to bear on the demolition of Savage Rapids Dam, a 79-year old irrigation dam on Oregon's Rogue River. Although the dam was built to irrigate agricultural lands, most of the water now goes to lawns and hobby farms. Biologists have identified the dam as a chief obstacle to upstream migration of adult salmon and steelhead, and as a killer of young salmon and steelhead migrating downstream. PCFFA intervened in litigation brought by the National Marine Fisheries Service two years ago to have the dam replaced by more modern pumps that can be screen to avoid fish kills. Federal studies estimate the economic loss of fisheries caused by the dam at about $5 million/year. No action on the bill is possible this year, but it will be reintroduced in the next Congress and has the support of the dam's owners as well as conservation and fisheries groups, including PCFFA. For more information on the proposed Savage Rapids Dam demolition see: http://www.oregonlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/10/ nw_41dam25.frame

2:17/12. ELECTION GUIDE 2000: The October issue of The Fishermen's News, (pp.18-19) includes an article by PCFFA's Glen Spain and Zeke Grader "Elections 2000: Vote Because Your Industry Depends On It" with a guide for what fishing men and women should look for in candidates and ballot initiatives in the 2000 U.S. federal and state elections. In fact, there are on the 7 November ballot many candidates and issues from the national to the local level that could impact on fisheries. At the national level, for example, who is elected could mean the difference of whether or not offshore oil drilling will be allowed off the coast of California, Georges Bank, Florida's east coast and Bristol Bay. Offshore oil drilling has displaced large areas of fishing grounds, displaced fishermen in ports and the severity of the impacts of hydrocarbon pollution associated with the drilling on fish stocks is only now being revealed.

In California, at the state level, is a ballot initiative, Proposition 37, sponsored by a number of polluting industries that would make it more difficult for the Legislature to assess polluter fees ("polluter pays") to mitigate and clean-up pollution, including that affecting water quality and fish habitat. A "no" vote on 37 would stop the polluters. At the local level, in San Francisco for example, is Proposition R designed to stop a Cleveland Developer from turning Fishermen's Wharf Pier 45 from a fishing pier to a Las Vegas-style tourist attraction (with nothing relating to fishing or San Francisco Bay; it would include a miniature Haight Ashbury complete with fake fog, a catwalk sized Golden Gate Bridge, and a rollercoaster-like earthquake simulation). A "yes" vote on R would help to restore a working/fishing waterfront for San Francisco.

For more information, visit our Fishermen's News archive website at: http://www.pond.net/~pcffa/fn-oct00.htm. Remember to vote on Tuesday, 7 November.

2:17/13. MORATORIUM ON CALIFORNIA NEARSHORE FISHERY PERMITS APPROVED: At its October meeting, the California Fish & Game Commission adopted regulations establishing a moratorium, effective Friday, 13 October 2000, on the issuance of Nearshore Fishery Permits for the taking of nine marine fish species. The regulations set the stage for the subsequent adoption of a formal nearshore fishery restricted access program, reducing the number of permits issued in future years to a number consistent with the ability of the resources to sustain a harvest. For further information, visit the California Department of Fish & Game's website at: www.dfg.ca.gov or contact CDFG's Maria Melchiorre, License & Revenue Branch, at (916) 227-2284.

2:17/14. PCFFA BOARD MEETING SCHEDULED FOR 2-3 NOVEMBER IN MONTEREY: The Board of Directors of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) will meet Thursday-Friday, 2-3 November at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Pacific Grove. For more information on the meeting, call PCFFA at: (415) 561-5080.

2:17/15. MALAYSIA WILL APPEAL TO WTO TO OVERTURN U.S. LAW PROTECTING SEA TURTLES: The Associated Press reported on 24 October, that Malaysia, as expected, will ask the World Trade Organization (WTO) to force the United States to repeal a law "that bans imports of shrimp from countries which use trawling nets that trap the turtles" (see Sublegals, 2:16/23, 2:12/18). Experts say nets without turtle-excluder devices (TEDs) "are killing up to 150,000 turtles a year." U.S. shrimpers are required to use TEDs. In response to a WTO ruling declaring the U.S. law "illegal," the U.S. weakened its regulations and will provide "assistance to countries to help them equip their fishing fleets with turtle excluders" but Malaysia is still pushing the WTO to pressure the U.S. into repealing the law all together. Ironically, the U.S. has been a major promoter of the WTO at the same time this non-elected body has been given authority to overturn the national laws of its signatory members, including those laws aimed at promoting conservation.

2:17/16. NEW LIST SERVE FOR GLOBAL FISHERIES DISCUSSION: A web discussion site, The Global Fisheries Discussion (GFD) Page has been set up to further the aims of global communication between working fishing men and women and coastal communities. The site can be found at http://www.geocities.com/globalfishdiscussion . A low volume list serve for urgent notices and more detailed discussion/debates has also ben set up. It is globa-fish@interchange.ubc.ca. Instructions for subscribing can be found on the GFD page. The list serve has been set up by Charles Menzies at the University of British Columbia. The objectives of the list serve include fostering and furthering discussion among fishers, fishing community members, and supports in their struggle to build a global organization. This is an ad hoc list that is not affiliated to any particular organization. However, it has as its inspiration the goals and objectives of the fishing men and women who organized the World Forum of Fish Harvesters & Fish Workers (WFF) constituent assembly in early October at Loctudy, France (see Sublegals, 2:15/01).

2:17/17. NEW COMMISSION ON FISHERIES RESOURCES: The World Humanities Action Trust, a British Foundation, is sponsoring a "Commission on Fisheries Resources" whose terms of reference are: "To consider - in the context of human survival - the present status of fish stocks world-wide and their trends in availability, primarily as a direct source of food; to consider the necessary changes in management of fisheries and how, and over what period, these could be implemented, and to identify modifications to governance that would facilitate such implementation." An overview of the Commission's report can be read on line at: http://www.what.org.uk/newpub.htm#fisheries. The Commission on Fisheries Resources membership is posted at: http://www.what.org.uk/commiss.htm .

2:17/18. SLOW FOOD AND GROWTH SPEEDING ANTIBIOTICS: The November-December issue of the Utne Reader, features a report on the Slow Food movement, and other articles looking at organic foods and the future of food production. The article by Tenaya Darlington, "Slow is Beautiful (and Delicious)" (pp.54-59) will be of interest to those promoting organic produce, meats and dairy products as well as wild fish. The Slow Food movement, which began in Italy in 1989, is a reaction against fast foods and foods produced with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and gene splicing (transgenic organisms). It stresses natural and seasonal foods, heirloom crops and traditional methods of small-scale food production. To view the articles, visit the Utne Reader website at: www.utne.com .

In the November-December issue of Mother Jones, meanwhile, is a short report (p.23) by Edwin Dobb, "Growing Resistance: Is Agribusiness Squandering One of Medicine's Most Potent Weapons?" regarding the use of antibiotics in animal feed (chicken, pork) to speed growth. The use of these antibiotics can lead to the development of new strains of bacteria with greater resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine, thereby posing a threat to human health. This article should be of interest to those concerned with the use of antibiotics in fish farming operations and the potential human health threat presented. To view the report, go to Mother Jones website at: www.motherjones.com .

Finally, in the 13 October issue of Science, is an article on transgenic foods, "Can Genetically Modified Crops Go 'Greener'?" (pp. 253-254) regarding plant research aimed at using a plant's own genes, not those from another species, in genetic modifications. This article should be of interest to those concerned with genetic modifications being made to farmed salmon and other fish (see Sublegals, 2:16/11-13). To view the article, go to the Science website at: www.sciencemag.org .

2:17/18. NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY, NO MORE SILENCE, ASMI TO TAKE ON FARMED SALMON: WorldCatch News Network reported on 11 October that the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) is about to change its longstanding policy against criticizing salmon farming. With growing consumer concern over genetically modified foods, some ASMI board members say the time is right to consider a marketing campaign focusing on farmed salmon's negative aspects. "One of the constraints I was told I have to operate on is I can't go out and say bad things about farmed salmon," said David Harrison, ASMI's newly hired strategic marketing director. Harrison's outline of his "action plan for salmon" sparked the discussion at the ASMI board meeting in Sitka earlier in the month. Alaska is the world's largest producer of wild salmon and recently Alaska's salmon fishery was certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) making it the first salmon so certified and only the third fishery in the world to earn MSC certification.

2:17/19. EMERGENCY CLOSURE FOR LINGCOD: The California Fish & Game Commission at its October meeting in San Diego took emergency action to close all ocean-based fishing for lingcod statewide during the final two months of the year, in response to concerns that the harvest will exceed its allowable catch for 2000. The fishery has been declared "overfished" by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) which will compliment the state action by restricting fishing for lingcod from three to 200 miles offshore. The regulation will remain in effect through December, after which, new regulations aimed at protecting lingcod and other marine bottom feeding species are expected to be in place. In a related matter, the Commission decided against closing fishing for rockfish in Southern California during the lingcod closure. According to Robert Treanor, the Commission's Exuctive Director, the final harvest could be less than projected if anglers continued to concentrate on other marine finfish species during the final two months of the year. Both closure recommendations made by the State's Department of Fish & Game follow multi-year rebuilding plans developed for lingcod and bocaccio rockfish by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC). For more information, go to the CDFG website at: www.dfg.ca.gov or contact L.B. Boydstun at (916) 653- 6281.

2:17/20. GLOBAL WARMING APPEARS WORSE THAN PROJECTED: New evidence shows man-made pollution has "contributed substantially" to global warming and the earth is likely to get a lot hotter than previously predicted, the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a panel of hundreds of scientists has recently concluded. The report's summary was being distributed to government officials worldwide this week and is expected to get final approval at a United Nations conference early next year. In the first full-scale review and update of the state of climate science since 1995, the scientists, in revised estimates, concluded that if greenhouse emissions are not curtailed the earth's average surface temperatures could be expected to increase from 2.7 to nearly 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, substantially more than estimated in its report five years ago. For more information see: http://www.oregonlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf?/ news/oregonian/00/10wr_51warm26.frame. For more information on the IPCC see: http://www.ipcc.ch.

Such a rapid rate of change could have disastrous impacts on sea life as well as terrestrial species, forcing most into extinction. In the 18 October issue of Nature,"Cooler winters as a possible cause of mass extinctions at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary," Linda Ivany, et. al., Volume 407 Number 6806 Page 887 - 890 (2000), scientists report that they have reconstructed severe climate changes from fossil records that occurred 34 million years ago of only seven degrees Fahrenheit which resulted in the death of 90 percent of all sealife in the Gulf Coast, the worst mass extinction since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago. To search for this article under the keyword "climate" go to: http://www.nature.com/nature.

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