Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 2019)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019 NOAA wants more cameras on fi shing boats By KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL Oregon Public Broadcasting John Hankins owns the boat “Courageous,” which he sails out of Warrenton. He had a smile after return- ing from 25 days fi shing for albacore. “I’m full,” he said. “Both tanks!” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- tration didn’t assign a fi sher- ies observer to his boat this trip. But he said, it happens fairly regularly. “They’re usually not a problem for us. They’re measuring fi sh, they’re getting stats on the fi sh,” Hankins said. Fisheries observers are biologists tasked with mon- itoring commercial fi sheries to collect data for conserva- tion and stock management. They also make sure boats are in compliance with cer- tain rules, such as having required safety equipment on board. “We had one on the boat one time that was a real pain, because they didn’t like us talking negatively about whales,” Hankins said. “And he got all bent out of shape for it. Other than that, we never have a problem with the observers.” But, he said, most of the time, the observer is just another person on board, with a job to do. “They stay out of the way. Usually they don’t do much on the boat. But occa- sionally you’ll get one that’ll want to help us come in and handle fi sh or short fi sh, cook a meal for us, or clean up the galley,” Hankins said. “They’re usually pretty Kristian Foden-Vencil/Oregon Public Broadcasting John Hankins captains his fi shing vessel ‘Courageous.’ He thinks having cameras on board instead of fi sheries observers might stop some cheating, especially in the crabbing season. ‘THERE’S ONLY SO MUCH YOU CAN SEE FROM A BIRD’S EYE VIEW. EVEN IF YOU HAVE SOME AMAZING HIGH-QUALITY CAMERAS, THEY’RE GOING TO GET SPLATTERED WITH FISH SLIME AND BLOOD.’ Briita Pajunas | former observer decent people to be around.” Traditionally, the fi sh- eries observer job — part marine stock steward, part boat safety police offi cer — is low-paying, done by idealistic young scientists. They have to learn quickly to do their observing with- out getting in the way of the commercial fi shing crew. “I was really romanti- cizing the fi shing indus- try going into it,” former observer Briita Pajunas recalled. “I thought it would be kind of like the Wild West. Gritty. Dirty. Maybe even the danger of it was enticing. I certainly went into it very naive.” When she started, Paju- nas was fresh off an under- graduate degree in envi- ronmental studies. Her job focused on collecting data — counting what species are caught and what’s thrown back — in an effort to keep commercial fi sheries healthy long-term. The observers’ numbers can be used to set fi shing quotas, which can, in turn, dictate how much money fi shing professionals make. Pajunas said she worked well on most boats, but there were times she felt intim- idated. She said she once found a boat’s safety equip- ment wasn’t certifi ed, so she had to delay a trip. Pajunas was so uncomfortable she put the captain on the phone with her supervisor. But Pajunas said she usu- ally fi gured out how to work around problems — like when she found someone poaching salmon. “In a big garbage bin thing I found, there was a coho or two in there. And we kind of said: ‘Oh, I saw that. That happened,’” she said. “I record it in my log-book, but to avoid confrontation, I don’t dump that salmon overboard.” She said there was also the time her boat was using long fi shing lines with mul- tiple hooks, and sea birds were diving into the water for the bait and getting snared. “A rare short-tailed alba- tross did come up on a hook when I was on a long-liner my last year of fi shing. … That particular boat was catching quite a few sea birds,” she said. She said it was tense, but she didn’t talk to the crew. She just took the bird back to her supervisor. “A year later U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service … did want to interview to me and talk about that particu- lar bird, because it was pro- tected and it did have the potential of really having repercussions for that par- ticular, fi xed gear, long-line fi shery,” she said. Cameras might be able to document birds caught on long lines, or poached fi sh, just as Pajunas did as an observer. Pajunas agrees that cam- eras may identify problems and cost captains less than an observer. But she’s wor- ried they might also miss things. “There’s only so much you can see from a bird’s eye view,” she said. “Even if you have some amaz- ing high-quality cameras, they’re going to get splat- tered with fi sh slime and blood.” Pajunas said cameras also can’t thoroughly exam- ine a fi sh to determine its age. And that’s important because older, larger fi sh procreate better and keep populations healthier. Melissa Hooper, the monitoring branch chief for NOAA’s West Coast r egion, thinks cameras will make fi sh data collection more effi cient and proba- bly cheaper. And while she agrees there are aspects of an observer’s job that a cam- era can’t do, such as deter- mining a fi sh’s age, she said some of that can be done onshore. “So they bring them to the dock, where the species can be verifi ed in person, at the dock,” Hooper said. Fishing captain John Hankins worries cameras will be expensive. But he also thinks they have a ben- efi t for fi shing captains like him: They might catch cheaters, especially in the crab fi shery. “So when somebody else runs our crab gear. They’re taking the crabs out of our traps and so they’re taking money out of our pocket,” he explained. Each vessel’s crab buoys are painted in colors that are registered with the state — so cameras could tell if someone was pulling up somebody else’s crab pots. NOAA’s new camera program was scheduled to start in January 2020. But it’s now been delayed until 2021 to give fi shermen, the government and technology companies time to prepare. The job also isn’t likely to be eradicated all together: There’s just likely to be a lot more cameras and a lot fewer boat-bound observers in the years to come. Marine heat wave that resembled ‘Blob’ shrinks By EVAN BUSH Seattle Times The marine heat wave roiling the Pacifi c Ocean off the West Coast has weak- ened in intensity, shrunk in size and pulled away from shore, said scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration. “The coastal waters have cooled,” said Andrew Leis- ing, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. “The recent heat wave, it’s still there and it’s very strong, but it’s quite a ways offshore.” Scientists feared this sum- mer’s heat wave was a sec- ond coming of “The Blob,” which formed in 2014, peaked a year later with waters at close to 7 degrees above average and upended the West Coast’s marine eco- system and food webs. Sea- birds, sea lions and salmon died in huge numbers as marine temperatures soared. This year’s heat wave may be shrinking and mov- ing offshore, but it’s unclear whether it will persist, what effects the high surface tem- peratures have had on ani- mals or how this will affect seasons to come. A Wash- ington Department of Fish and Wildlife offi cial said the agency was seeing odd crea- tures more typically found in warmer water and coho The Astoria City Council wishes everyone a JOYOUS HOLIDAY SEASON! salmon runs were lower than “Counting the fi sh and Phillips said other species forecast. seeing what species are appeared in abundances “we “We are not conclud- out there takes weeks and hadn’t seen before,” listing ing it’s over yet,” said Chris months,” Leising said. yellowfi n tuna, mahi mahi Harvey, a Northwest Fisher- During “The Blob,” sci- and bluefi n tuna among the ies Science Center research entists documented strange surprises. biologist of the heat wave, happenings in Northwest “What does it mean? We adding that scientists will waters. don’t know what it means,” watch for the water-churn- Researchers caught tens Phillips said. “I don’t know ing winter storms that could of thousands of tubular, jel- what normal is anymore. I halt the unusual pattern. “We lylike pyrosomes, which are don’t know if there will be really need to see some good usually found in the sub- such a thing as normal.” mixing events to stir the tropics. Jellyfi sh populations Phillips said the agency water up and let some of that shifted. Scientists hauled had predicted a strong return heat dissipate into the atmo- into their nets tropical fi sh, of coho salmon this year. sphere so the water this win- like the Pacifi c pompano. Researchers “documented ter is as cold as it is during a This summer, fi shers and one of the highest densities of normal winter.” researchers saw plenty of juvenile salmon off the coast At its peak, this year’s unusual happenings, said we’d ever seen” in spring event was the second-largest Larry Phillips, WDFW’s 2018, Phillips said. “Lo and marine heat wave recorded, South Puget Sound and behold, we didn’t see the ranking below the now infa- Coast Region Director. return anticipated” this year mous “Blob,” Leising said. A longtime Northwest when those juveniles were Areas of warmer-than- fi sherman called WDFW supposed to migrate back to usual water this year this summer and reported Washington waters as adults stretched from roughly catching a species he’d in late summer. Alaska to California. never seen. He brought two The agency has had to Even now, somewhat to WDFW. close several coho fi sher- diminished, the heat wave “They were called white ies earlier than expected All North Coast Residents are Invited to Join Together! remains among the largest croaker. They’re a species because of poor returns. A One-of-a-Kind Preparedness Event Coming this fall to Clatsop County and most intense Leising has typically associated with Phillips said WDFW also seen in nearly 40 years of California,” Phillips said. found undersized migrating data from satellite measures “They’re very uncommon in coho in Puget Sound. of sea surface temperatures cooler water.” Phillips said the relation- in the Pacifi c. The fi sherman only kept ship between spring juvenile The heat wave’s biologi- two, but reported catch- salmon counts and returning cal effects are being studied ing white croaker one after adults a year later has typi- now. another. cally been a strong correla- Friday, November 22 Liberty Theater (Astoria) Evening Session 6 - 8:00pm Real talk about earthquakes, preparedness and November culture with Friday, 22 TED x Evening Session Liberty speaker Steve Eberlein. Theater (Astoria) 6 - 8:00pm Enjoy the lights and holiday festivities while shopping Downtown Astoria! www.astoriadowntown.com FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29 th - WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1 st Customers can park downtown longer than the posted time limit, except in metered spaces. Saturday, November 23 Seaside Convention Center Saturday, November 23 Morning Session Morning Session 10:00 Convention - noon Seaside Center 10:00 noon Preparedness An earthquake story Science NO COST FOR ADMISSION This special event is made possible with contributions and coordination provided by these community preparedness partners: Practice Planning Mitigation For Information contact ClatsopEMD@co.clatsop.or.us tion. Not this time. “Somehow that relation- ship fell apart. We ended up over-forecasting. That suggests marine survival affected those fi sh,” he said. He suspects the marine heat wave, which peaked in August, might have played a role. Scientists will be watch- ing for Pacifi c storms this winter. “Normally, we’d have these storms come in and churn everything up and reset the system,” Harvey said. Leising said atmospheric models forecast a normal winter, which could dissolve the heat wave. But “those same models were com- pletely wrong in 2013 and 2014,” Leising cautioned. In 2013, the year before “The Blob” began to form, marine temperatures rose, before backing off as winter arrived. Leising said the timing of this event appears to be simi- lar to that of 2013. “If that’s the case, we could be in for a really big event next year,” he said. Leising said average ocean surface temperatures are rising and scientists may have to redefi ne what they consider a heat wave as the world warms. But, he said, “the ani- mals don’t care how we defi ne it. The temperature is warmer than they’ve ever been. They’re still getting cooked.” WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 New Clinic Coming to Seaside Soon! Bringing 50 years of service this state of the art outpatient clinic provides medication-assisted treatment for adults with opiate use disorders. We are building a high energy team of professionals dedicated to treating the individual, wiping away stigma and helping to rebuild the health and life of the people they serve. Competitive wages and exceptionally strong benefits package for employees working at least 20 hours per week. Contact us today and you can make a difference in one of the following positions: Site Medical Director MD or DO with experience managing medication assisted treatments for substance use disorders and board certification by a member board of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Medical Operations Manager RN with strong leadership experience and supervision skills Senior Clinical Manager Masters Degree from nationally accredited school in human services. Requires licensure and/or CADC, or in process of obtaining either. Nurse Practitioner Experience treating patients with substance use disorders. Data Waivered. We are very excited to bring these excellent opportunities to members of the community. Contract Recruiter Patrice Cavins PatriceCavins@codainc.org
