Upscale seafood chain restaurants, Marine safety, more Fisheries Politics 101, Gulf Rationalization dies

Upscale seafood restaurants:

When you get to $75.00 a plate for surf and turf in a chain restaurant, you're not talking about taking two year old. Or are you, when the ketchup is in the Heinz bottle on the table? In any event, this article gives a look at what constitutes a niche market for very high quality seafood. You're talking Tasmanian steelhead, and more different kinds of oysters than you'll be able to remember.

Marine safety association:

This is not a popular topic with fishermen since it doesn't add to the bottom line. You can visualize catching more fish with that new Pullmaster, but nobody wants to visualize going overboard. Maybe that's what's needed, a little visualization training. Then you'd get people taking the safety courses in droves.

Kodiak processor's take on king crab deliveries there:

Kodiak pioneered king crab processing, yet they only qualified for a tiny percentage of processor quota shares when crabbing went "rational." And I get worried when a leading fishery consultant in Kodiak says crab "rationalization" is the most complicated management strategy in the world and implies that it is incomprenensible.

That implies that the North Pacific Council are the brightest and best of all the fisheries managers in the world and us common folk needn't concern ourselves with understanding their work. Either that or they have created a monster that threatens to replicate itself and constrict the spread of economic benefit.

One thing is for sure, there are laws against destroying the economic foundation of communities on purpose, to benefit the few title-holders of capital fisheries assets. This tends to disprove the "best and the brightest" theory.

Mixing zone news:

Is what gets me about the DEC's new rules allowing some discharge into salmon spawning streams is the part about showing that a discharge won't hurt salmon. You can imagine how a mining company will represent their discharges. There's no room for an "oops" in this business of tampering with the spawning beds.

Gulf Rationalization has died on the vine:

Representative LaRoux of Kodiak says, "Many of you have talked with me personally and I have attended many forums on the issue of Gulf rationalization. Last session I held Senate Bill 113 in the Special Committee on Fisheries of which I am co-chair because I wanted to gather more information. Having done so, I am now of the mind that this bill should stay in committee and I have no plans to move it out of committee. As far as I am concerned, this bill is dead. "

Byrd Ammendment lives?

"The legislation would postpone repeal of the so-called "Byrd amendment" until October 2007, according to the House Ways and Means Committee. Duties collected up to then as the result of trade disputes will continue to go to the individuals and companies that backed the complaints. After that, the money will go to the federal treasury."

Quick, back some complaints!

Finally, I've been saying this for years too. She said, "Maura, it really is awful cleaning the canned salmon but well worth the effort." The problem is, young people get hung up on the "awful" part. The salmon canneries know this. They just don't want to re-tool the plants. They have selling out on the brain. Icicle just about sold out awhile back to BCCI Bank, except it was found to be a swindle attempt of Arab investors. The Brindels sold all their canneries a couple of years ago, seeing the handwriting on the wall in my opinion.