Fishermen score a victory in protecting California’s water

September 3, 2012- The Institute for Fisheries Resources’s sister organization, The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), along side member group San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association and conservation groups won the first round in their attempt to get state and federal officials to follow water quality laws and comply with the Clean Water Act. For years West side Irrigators have been dumping their selenium pollution into the San Joaquin River and SF Bay Delta Estuary without required pollution control permits.

On Friday August 31, 2012, the Eastern District Court, ruled this selenium polluted ground water being discharged into the sloughs, San Joaquin River and San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary is subject to the pollution control provisions of the Clean Water Act.

Since 1996 San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority and USBR have been allowed to discharge Selenium into the sloughs, San Joaquin River and Delta in excess of Clean Water Act water quality protection standards without required permits. Recently in 2010 they sought and obtained another approximate decade long extension.

The dischargers argued they do not need to comply with the Clean Water Act pollution control measures because they are exempted under an irrigated return flow provision. The court denied this reasoning. Selenium bioaccumulates in plant and animal tissue causing deformities and birth defects. After cows were found to be dying and deformities in migratory birds and ducks, Secretary Hodel feared that the federal government would be sued for killing wildlife in direct violation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and closed the drains from the west side of the San Joaquin Valley into Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in 1985. Despite this closure, irrigators sought and obtained a “temporary” permit to go around water pollution control laws in 1996. This series of exemptions is being challenged in federal court.

U.S. Congress Members Write Letter to

NOAA on Catch Shares Policy

Eight members of the U.S. Congress wrote a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) on 3 November, 2011. The letter asks that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is an agency under NOAA, provide better guidance on catch share policy to the country’s Regional Fishery Management Councils (RFMCs).

The letter emphasizes the need for fishing communities to be more involved in fishery decision-making processes and the need to investigate the potential of community associations and other mechanisms in order to retain local jobs and the long fishing heritage that exists within communities.

Read the letter here: Letter to NOAA on catch share policy

IFR Writes President Obama

The Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR) was recently asked to provide a fisheries perspective on the Obama Administration’s jobs bill, together with the various proposals aimed at reducing the nation’s deficit.

IFR’s President, Pietro Parravano, rose to the occasion and crafted his thoughts on how America’s oldest industry should be addressed within the American Jobs Act. President Obama is encouraged to visit the nations’ fishing ports, where many jobs have been lost and many who are still fishing worry that there is no future in their chosen profession. They not only worry that they will have nothing to pass on to their sons and daughters, but whether they will still have work the next fishing season.

The American Jobs Act, with its focus on rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, could significantly help our nation’s fishing industry, which in turn would help protect and create permanent and sustainable jobs.

Read the full 8 page letter.

San Francisco Community Fishing Association Opens!

It took a long time (2005 - 2011) but the fleet of small, family-owned commercial fishing vessels that call San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf home, now have their own business. A business that will allow the fishermen to decide how much they can get for their catch and where they will sell it. This video documents the first phase in a new way the San Francisco Bay Area will be able to access locally caught seafood, direct from the men and women who risk their lives bringing in the catch.

A Dream Comes True: San Francisco Community Fishing Association

For more information on Community Fishing Associations, check this out.

Stop the Certification of Farmed Salmon as “Sustainable” and “Responsible”

The Institute for Fisheries Resources has joined the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) and a slew of other organizations in taking a stand against the certification of farmed salmon as “responsible” and “sustainable” by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council.

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council has proposed a farmed salmon certification system called the “Standards for Responsible Salmon Aquaculture” which shamefully allows: Waste Pollution, Chemical Contamination, Killing of Wildlife, Sea Lice & Infectious Diseases, Non-Native Species, Escapes, Unsustainable & Non-Certified Fish Feed, Transgenic Plants, Copper-treated Nets & Biocides, 20% Mortality, Antibiotics & Toxic Chemicals and Deaths of Workers.

The farming of carnivorous fish such as salmon is environmentally, socially, ethically and morally bankrupt. Salmon farming is fundamentally flawed. The farming of salmon in open net cages or pens in the sea and in freshwater can never eliminate problems with escapes, infectious diseases, parasites, chemicals and waste pollution. Even closed containment systems on land or in the sea can never eliminate problems of energy use and the use of depleted and contaminated fish meal and fish oil.

Any farming process which leads to a net loss of resources can never ever be certified as “sustainable”.

Sign on to the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-certification-of-farmed-salmon-as-sustainable-and-responsible

Urge Congress To Take A Stand Against GE Fish!

Support the Bipartisan Legislation to Ban GE Fish, Require Labeling: Despite nearly 400,000 comments in opposition, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to announce its approval of genetically engineered (GE) salmon any day now. To make matters worse, FDA argues that these GE salmon don’t even need to be labeled! Go to the Center for Food Safety website to submit a prewritten letter.

In response to FDA’s imminent approval, Congress is taking action. Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Representative Don Young (R-Alaska) recently introduced bipartisan legislation in Congress that would ban GE fish (Bill# S. 230/H.R. 521) and require mandatory labeling for consumers if approved (Bill# S. 229/H.R. 520).

The legislation has been endorsed by 64 consumer, worker, religious and environmental groups, along with commercial, recreational and subsistence fisheries associations, food businesses and retailers—including the Center for Food Safety, Ocean Conservancy, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development, the Alaska Trollers Association, Food and Water Watch, the National Cooperative Grocers Association and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations among others—who know that the approval of GE salmon would represent a serious threat to the survival of native salmon populations, many of which have already suffered severe declines related to salmon farms and other man-made impacts. Wild Atlantic salmon are already on the Endangered Species List in the U.S.; approving these GE Atlantic salmon could be the final blow to these wild stocks. Additionally, the human health impacts of eating GE fish are entirely unknown. If GE salmon are approved, these fish must be labeled so people can make informed choices.

Please write your U.S. Senators and Representative and urge them to protect fisher folk, consumers and the environment by co-sponsoring S. 230/H.R. 521 and S. 229/H.R. 520! Follow this link to submit a prewritten letter from the Center for Food Safety.

The IFR and Other Groups Sue for More Water Over Dams for Salmon

In efforts to protect salmon and steelhead, the IFR and other conservation and fisherman’s groups sued the Washington state Department of Ecology on Thursday June 3, 2010 to allow more water to spill over dams along the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

The lawsuit’s goal is to lift some of Washington’s Department of Ecology standards on the amount of dissolved gases in water. Water spill over dams can cause high levels of dissolved gases in rivers, so allowing for more gases in water will allow for more spill over the federal dams. And releasing more water over the dams - rather than running it through turbines - improves salmon’s chances of surviving their migration.

Earthjustice filed the lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court on behalf of the Institute for Fisheries Resources, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, and Idaho Rivers United.

Farmed Salmon Exposed - The Global Reach of the Norwegian Salmon Farming Industry

The IFR is pleased to be a part of the 25+ groups from Norway, Canada, Chile, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, UK, and the US to participate in this Tuesday 16 February global launch of “Farmed Salmon Exposed - The global reach of the Norwegian salmon farming industry.”

Follow the link below to watch this highly anticipated 4 part film now!

Farmed Salmon Exposed -The global reach of the Norwegian salmon farming industry

Please share this with your friends and family!