The Omnibus Spending Bill (see Sublegals, 8:18/07) contains the Stevens' riders that, among other things, would make seagoing sharecroppers of Alaska's crab fishermen by awarding processor quotas. The bill, too, may contain language to delay or eliminate country-of-origin labeling (COOL), including that for seafood and the marking of fish as "wild" versus "farmed" (see Sublegals, 8:18/04).

Finally, while members of the fishing industry have pled to Congress for flexibility in the enforcement of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), those pleas have largely fallen on deaf ears. The Department of Defense, however, has gotten Congress to give them waivers. The Pentagon's $401 billion authorization bill for the 2004 fiscal year also exempts military bases from stringent habitat-protection requirements under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The bill allows the Navy to redefine "harassment" under the MMPA, making it easier to use low-frequency sonar suspected of harming whales and dolphins. The sonar doesn't just affect marine mammals, however, it also has an adverse impact on fish stocks. In other words, what Congress has managed to do with this military exemption is make the MMPA even more onerous for fishermen. For more information on the MMPA military waivers see the 24 November Christian Science Monitor at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1124/p02s02-usmi.html.

Ordinarily Sublegals staff does not comment on the news, but simply reports it. But in the face of egregious behavior and action by the Congress, some comment is surely called for. With all the turkey bills being foisted on Americans, Congressional bosses should be eating crow. Happy Thanksgiving.

8:19/02. SOUTHERN CRAB SEASON OPENS A DAY LATE AND A DIME SHORT: On Saturday morning, 15 November, an ex-vessel price agreement was reached for $1.75 a pound and the "southern" Dungeness crab fishery began the following day (see Sublegals, 8:17/13). The season was to begin the 15th, but a hold-up on a price agreement, with crabbers asking $1.85 and buyers offering $1.65 per pound, kept the fleet in port an additional day. Although a price was agreed-on, no market orders were signed, raising a question about the legality of the fishery. As it now stands, a buyer could drop the price, for example, to a dime a pound without notice and there is little fishermen could do except try to find alternative markets. Boats are fishing out of the three main southern ports (Sonoma County, California south) of Bodega Bay, San Francisco and Half Moon Bay. For more information, see the 17 November Oakland Tribune at: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1772194,00.html.

8:19/03. USFWS FINDS LOW KLAMATH FLOWS MAJOR FACTOR IN 2002 FISH KILL: On 18 November, following Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued its belated report on the causes of the massive September 2002 Klamath fish kill, where more than 34,000 adult salmon and steelhead perished (see Sublegals, 8:11/01; 7:21/01; 6:16/01; 6:15/01; 6:14/01; 6:13/01). The agency confirmed extremely low flows from Klamath Irrigation Project operations, released from Iron Gate Dam, were the primary factor for the fish kill. Low flows created fish passage and thermal barrier problems which in turn both stressed the fish and delayed upstream migration, thus crowding a slightly above-average incoming fish run into too small a space for too long, setting up ideal conditions for the epidemic spread of diseases that are always present but rarely fatal.

September 2002 water discharges below Iron Gate Dam just before the fish kill were at only 759 cubic feet per second (cfs), or about 11 to 64 percent of 41-year historic averages, depending on gage location, according to USFWS' report. Flows from the Trinity River at the same time, however, were about 96 percent of historical averages for the same 41-year period. "Our conclusion is that August and September 2002 were characterized by low discharges with the Klamath River Basin above the confluence with the Trinity River relative to historic records," notes the report [pp. 17-18]. Additionally, the report put to rest speculation by Upper Klamath Basin irrigators that the fish died because of a toxic spill. Losses were highly specific to salmon, the report notes, while any kind of toxic spill would be nonselective and would thus have killed all species present.

The USFWS report corroborates an earlier one by the California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG) (see Sublegals, 7:02/01) as well as an analysis by Yurok Tribe biologists, both of which attributed the 2002 disaster primarily to extremely low flows from the Klamath Irrigation Project released from Iron Gate Dam. Iron Gate Dam stores only whatever river flow is still available after water used by Klamath Project irrigators has first been subtracted, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) controls the amount of water released from both the Project and the Dam.

The Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush during 2002 provided normal irrigation allotments to the Klamath Irrigation Project, even though it was a drought year. The water difference came from the allotment of water for lower river salmon, including coho salmon, which are listed as "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Klamath River fall-run chinook, though far more abundant than coho, are also seriously depleted compared to historic run sizes and have been the focus of millions of dollars in restoration efforts in the lower basin. Most of the fish which died during the fish kill were fall-run chinook. For a copy of the USFWS report see: http://sacramento.fws.gov. For press accounts, see the 19 November Los Angeles Times article at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-klamath19nov19,1,6296122.story?coll=la-headlines-california, the 19 November Oregonian article at: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1069246894223300.xml, and the 19 November San Francisco Chronicle article by Glen Martin at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/19/MNGRC35FLQ1.DTL.

8:19/04. TRANSGENIC FISH, SPORTFISH REGULATIONS, ROCK CRAB MANAGEMENT HIGHLIGHT CALIFORNIA FISH & GAME COMMISSION MEETING: The California Fish & Game Commission will meet 3-5 December at the State Personnel Board, 801 Capitol Mall in Sacramento. A follow-up meeting is scheduled for the 16th to consider the Coho Salmon Recovery Strategy plan (see Sublegals, 8:17/12). The following are the major fishery issues of interest:

Wednesday, 3 December, 1000 HRS

4. REQUEST OF SCIENTIFIC HATCHERIES FOR PERMIT TO PRODUCE, POSSESS AND TRANSPORT TRANSGENIC AQUATIC SPECIES FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH, PHARMACEUTICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING PURPOSES.
5. REQUESTS OF YORKTOWN TECHNOLOGIES AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE & CONSUMER SERVICES FOR THE COMMISSION TO CONSIDER EXEMPTING FLUORESCENT ZEBRA FISH FROM THE RESTRICTED SPECIES LIST.

Thursday, 4 December, 0830 HRS

18. CONSIDERATION OF POSSIBLE ADOPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES TO RECREATIONAL GROUNDFISH FISHERY REGULATIONS FOR CONSISTENCY WITH FEDERAL RULES.
19. RECEIPT OF PUBLIC TESTIMONY AND CONSIDERATION/ POSSIBLE ADOPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES FOR COMMERCIAL TAKE OF CABEZON, GREENLINGS AND SHEEPHEAD.

Friday, 5 December, 0830 HRS

25. DISCUSSION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGES IN THE 2004-2006 SPORT FISHING REGULATIONS AND FINAL ADOPTION OF THE 2004-2006 SPORT FISHING REGULATIONS RELATING TO FISH, AMPHIBIANS, REPTILES AND INVERTEBRATES.
26. CONSIDERATION OF ADOPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES TO COMMERCIAL SURFPERCH FISHERY.
27. CONSIDERATION OF POSSIBLE ADOPTION OF DEPARTMENT PROPOSAL TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO THE COMMERCIAL ROCK CRAB FISHERY.
28. REQUEST TO TAKE EMERGENCY ACTION TO CLOSE SQUID FISHERY NORTH OF PILLAR POINT.
29. RECEIPT OF TESTIMONY ON DEPARTMENT'S DRAFT MARKET SQUID FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN AND CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ADOPTION.

For more information on the meeting, call (916) 653-4899, or go to: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fg_comm.

8:19/05. EU FOLDS TO US PRESSURE ON FRANKENFOODS; TRANSGENIC CROPS NOT ANSWER FOR AFRICA OR WORLD HUNGER; MENDOCINO COUNTY SEEKS BAN: While the California Department of Fish & Game is set to decide whether to permit genetically-engineered (GE or "transgenic") fish in that state for the aquarium trade and other purposes, the Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. biotech companies (e.g., Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland) succeeded this past week in pressuring the European Union to lift a five-year de facto moratorium on the planting of GE crops. The EU announced it will lift the ban and allow planting of GE sweetcorn. This
weakening of food safety standards falls on the heels of New Zealand's cancellation of a two-year moratorium on GE crop trials (see: http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/corn111803.cfm). This also comes after Canadian farmers warned their European counterparts of the GE crop risks, saying the technology will damage the organic food sector and leave fields strewn with "super weeds" grown from stray, leftover seeds (see: http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=22745).

The Bush Administration has also been pressuring African nations to accept GE crops, thereby opening markets for U.S. biotech GE seed manufacturers such as Monsanto (GE crops will also enable Monsanto to sell more of its pesticides). The United Nations' Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf, however, says irrigation and road-building are higher priorities in improving Africa's weak agriculture sector than fostering the growth of biotechnology on the continent. "The number one problem of agricultural development in Africa is water," Diouf told reporters following a speech to the Inter-American Development Bank. "The second problem of Africa is rural infrastructure, the rural roads." Reuters, reporting Diouf's speech, said the "Bush Administration filed a World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint last spring, alleging that the EU's moratorium on new biotech products is an illegal trade barrier costing American farmers millions of dollars in lost sales. In announcing the WTO action, the Administration highlighted the refusal of American GE food aid by some African countries and linked the action to the EU ban." For more information, go to the complete 11 November Reuter's report at: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22818/story.htm.

The Bush Administration is pushing both GE crops and industrial aquaculture, claiming transgenic crops and fish farms "are needed to combat world hunger." That claim conflicts with a study done by Dr. Charles Benbrook, who in a recent New York Times article said, "The first generation of genetically modified food crops -- corn and soybean seeds -- were created to make pest management simpler on America's large, mechanized farms. The technologies would be far less effective on African farms, which are small and diversified and rely largely on human labor." Adding to that sentiment, a recent Reuters article points out that GE crops need nearly ideal growing conditions, something the arid and drought-ridden climes of Africa simply cannot provide, not to mention the fact that impoverished African farmers can't even afford GE seeds, which typically cost 35 percent more than traditional seeds. For more information, go to: http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/071403_ge_africa.cfm. Meanwhile, back in the USA, Mendocino County, California officials announced on 18 November that a sufficient number of signatures had been gathered and validated to qualify a measure for the March 2004 ballot to ban GE crops in that Northern California fishing and wine-growing county (see Sublegals, 8:14/04; 8:09/02). For more information, see the 19 November Sacramento Bee article, "Biotech Critics Gain a Victory," by Mike Lee at: http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/7812501p-8753480c.html.

8:19/06. SCOTTISH PROTEST OF FARMED SALMON PLANNED PRIOR TO CHRISTMAS: Earlier this month, protests were held outside grocery chains in North America protesting the sale of farmed salmon (see Sublegals, 8:18/02); now the same is planned for Edinburgh. Following the success of last December's "Santa Says No! No! No! to Farmed Salmon" events in Dublin, London and Edinburgh, the Salmon Farm Protest Group plan another peaceful and jolly supermarket protest in the Scottish city on 20 December. Pickets will be set up outside Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's markets that Saturday. For more information, contact Don Staniford at: don.staniford@virgin.net, or go to the Salmon Farm Protest Group website at: http://www.salmonfarmmonitor.org.

8:19/07. MERCURY LEVELS DROP IN EVERGLADES DUE TO POLLUTION REDUCTION EFFORTS; REPORT SAYS HUMAN RISKS FROM MERCURY IN FISH EXAGGERATED: The Miami Herald, in a 6 November article, reported "levels of mercury have declined by at least 60 percent in wildlife in the Everglades in the last decade... Scientists believe much of the reduction comes from federal and state air quality laws reducing emissions from waste incinerators, which produce mercury as a byproduct of burning plastics and other material." The Herald went on to report, "Mercury in large doses can damage the human nervous system and harm the development of fetuses, or even kill in extreme cases... About two million acres of the Everglades are currently under fish consumption advisories for most popular freshwater species because of mercury contamination... The study, launched by state and federal agencies in 1994 to assess the effect of new pollution controls, measures mercury in the feathers of birds and the flesh of largemouth bass caught in the mercury hot spot of the Everglades... In 1989, when the study began, some areas had concentrations above 2 milligrams per kilogram in fish. That has dropped to 0.2 milligrams per kilogram to 1.5 milligrams per kilogram in some areas." The Miami Herald article is at: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/7197117.htm.

Even though mercury levels remain at elevated levels in the Everglades, the success of the effort to reduce mercury pollution at the source and thereby reduce contamination levels is good news for mercury abatement programs elsewhere, including those in California's Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. Intrafish, meanwhile, reported on a study published in the 30 October 2003 New England Journal of Medicine (Vol. 349, No. 18) raising doubt about the level of risk that mercury in seafood poses to humans. Mercury levels tend to be higher in larger, older and long-lived fish, including swordfish, tilefish, and some sharks and tunas, raising concerns about the safety of eating those fish (see Sublegals, 6:17/12; 6:06/12; 6:08/21; 5:01/01; 3:16/13). The study states that "fish consumption has clear health benefits, and the risk posed by exposure to mercury is currently speculative." The article is T. W. Clarkson, et al., "The Toxicology of Mercury - Current Exposures and Clinical Manifestations," available from the New England Journal of Medicine (fee) from: http://content.nejm.org/content/vol349/issue18.

"It is reassuring that the only clinical reports of mercury poisoning from fish consumption are those from Japan in the 1950s and 1960s. The EPA [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] guideline is derived from reports of subtle and small neuropsychological changes in children in the Faeroe Islands study, whose exposure was mainly from whale consumption. A similar study in the Seychelles found no adverse effects from fish consumption alone," states the study. "The majority of the general population in the United States has levels of exposure well below the EPA guideline, but 8 percent or so have levels that are slightly higher. Although a National Academy of Sciences committee reported that 60,000 children in the United States were at risk as a result of prenatal exposure, they failed to provide any justification or explanation for that conclusion." The NEJM study also cast doubt on a link between mercury and cardiovascular disease, said the Intrafish story.

8:19/08. ODFW DEVELOPMENTAL FISHERIES BOARD MEETING: The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife's Developmental Fisheries Board will meet 17 December in the Hatfield Marine Science Center Library Seminar Room in Newport. Agenda items include:
* Update of recent Oregon Fish & Wildlife Commission actions.
* Continue review of Developmental Fisheries Program, including review of statutes and rules.
* Review of Bay Clam fishery.
For more information, contact Jean McCrae at (541) 867-4741.

8:19/09. CHRISMAN NEW CALIFORNIA RESOURCES SECRETARY, HIGHT STEPS DOWN AS CDFG DIRECTOR: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Mike Chrisman to head the state's Resources Agency, which includes the Departments of Fish & Game (CDFG), Water Resources, and Forestry & Fire Protection. Chrisman, a Visalia rancher/farmer, Southern California Edison regional manager and member of the Fish & Game Commission, takes over from Mary Nichols. The Governor also named Terry Taminnen as head of the state's Environmental Protection Agency (Cal EPA). Robert Hight stepped down as Fish & Game Director to accept a judicial appointment from outgoing Governor Gray Davis. Sonke Mastrup is Interim Director of CDFG. For more information: http://www.dfg.ca.gov.

8:19/10. US ENERGY BILL PUTS COASTS AND FISHERIES AT RISK, PASSAGE UNCERTAIN: On 15 November the completed Conference Report on the U.S. Congress's Energy bill was released by the Republican conferees for a 48-hour review of the 1700-page bill by Democratic conferees and the rest of the Congress (see Sublegals, 8:13/07; 8:11/13; 8:05/10; 7:25/05; 7:24/03; 7:19/10; 7:15/09; 7:14/01). In addition to weakening fish protection standards in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dam licensing proceedings, the bill as adopted in conference would place America's coasts and fisheries at risk. The following summary was prepared by Environmental Defense's Richard Charter. "Taken in aggregate, the energy bill would clear the way for industrial exploitation of America's marine environment by the oil and gas industry on a scale heretofore unimagined." An analysis of the "Oil and Gas", "Miscellaneous," and "Studies" sections and their implications for damaging America's coastlines follows:

1) TAKEOVER OF ENTIRE 200-MILE EEZ BY SECRETARY OF INTERIOR. The Secretary of Interior would be granted broad new jurisdictional authority over all energy-related industrial projects within the 200-mile U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
2) FISCAL INCENTIVES FOR EXPANDED OFFSHORE DRILLING.
3) WEAKENING OF STATES RIGHTS UNDER CZMA: Legitimate appeals of federal projects filed by coastal states under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) would be curtailed.
4) GIVEAWAY OF FREE TAXPAYER-OWNED OIL AND GAS TO PETROLEUM INDUSTRY IN FRAGILE ALASKAN WATERS: Oil companies would be encouraged to pursue offshore drilling in remote waters offshore Alaska, where no spill cleanup technology has proven effective.
5) EXPEDITED LNG PROJECTS: Construction and expansion of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals, both onshore or offshore, would be expedited.
6) WEAKENING OF CLEAN WATER ACT PROTECTIONS.
7) FASTER APPROVAL FOR OFFSHORE LNG PLANTS AND RISKY FLOATING OFFSHORE OIL STORAGE FACILITIES.
8) HAWAII CONVERSION TO LNG ECONOMY EXPLORED.
9) PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR WHITE HOUSE ENERGY TASK FORCE: "Subtitle C - Access to Federal Land" of the Oil and Gas Title would grant permanent authority to Vice President Dick Cheney's secretive White House Energy Task Force, renaming it the "Office of Federal Energy Coordination" and granting this body broad authority to coordinate and expedite federal decisions on energy projects on an ongoing basis.
10) FACILITATES INDUSTRIAL EXPLOITATION OF AMERICA'S OCEANS FOR ALL ENERGY SOURCES.

The little bit of good news in the bill is that it does not include earlier language to authorize an "inventory" (i.e., exploratory surveys and drilling) of OCS moratorium areas and it encourages protection of the Great Lakes from offshore oil drilling. For a full analysis of the bill, contact Richard Charter at: waterway@monitor.net. Also see: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22865/story.htm.

NEWS, COMMENTS, CORRECTIONS: Submit your news items, comments or any corrections to Editor at: sublegals@ifrfish.org, or call the IFR/PCFFA office with the news and a source at either: (415) 561-FISH (Southwest Office) or (541) 689-2000 (Northwest Office).

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