Salmon 2.0
Monday,28 June,2010 13:27:19
We've heard it before, now we're hearing it again. Genetically modified salmon could be coming to a dinner table near you.
The June 18 Economist reports that genetic engineers at Aqua Bounty, in Waltham, Mass., are trying to secure federal approval to produce and market super-salmon.
They can do this, they believe, through tricks with DNA (from king salmon and ocean pout) that will turn off the normal lull in the salmon's growth cycle.
As a result, a salmon that once took 30 months to reach full size will be marketable in 18 to 24 months.
Aqua Bounty has been seeking regulatory approval for a decade and hopes to hear this year.
According to the Economist, Aqua Bounty's plan is to by and large create sterile salmon to reduce the risk of escapement leading to genetic mayhem in the wild. A contingent of fertile salmon would be kept under the aquacultural equivalent of lock and key.
As your mother used to say, it all sounds like fun until someone gets hurt — that is, until fast-growing, reproductive "Frankenfish" manage to escape and displace their natural cousins.
The Economist says it's an open question whether consumers will eat Naughahyde kings.
But if, as the magazine suggests, people pay extra for the meat of the over-muscled Belgian blue cow, why would they not spend less for speedy-grow salmon?
So I have no doubt you can put them down as "coming to a table near you."
You hope not.
Thank you for your time.
Jerry Fraser
Editor & Publisher, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com
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Breathing room for groundfish harvesters
Monday,21 June,2010 15:07:05
Anger and apprehension about fishing under the new catch share management system that began in May abound, but Northeast groundfishermen finally received a smidgen of good news this week.
They've been concerned about low annual catch limits set for species like pollock. They fear that the ACLs for these fish are too low, and will prematurely trigger an automatic shutdown of fishing on all groundfish stocks.
The ACL for pollock was set at 2,748 metric tons for 2010. But a draft working paper on pollock assessment released on May 28 by the Northeast Demersal Working group yielded some interesting — and welcome — news.
The report finds that the species is "not overfished and overfishing is not occurring." The paper's findings triggered calls for Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to accelerate the process of raising the 2010 ACL for pollock.
Then this week came news that regulators will raise the pollock catch limit to 16,000 metric tons. Doing so should give groundfishermen a better chance of reaching their harvest limits on other more valuable species, although low ACLs for other species such as winter flounder and yellowtail flounder pose problems, too.
NOAA has a lot invested in making catch share management work in the Northeast. Raising the pollock limit could be a small but important step in the right direction towards doing so.
Thank you for your time.
Linc Bedrosian
Senior Editor, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com
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Cleanup needs to begin in earnest
Monday,7 June,2010 09:12:31
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research yesterday released computer modeling that depicts oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout making its way around the Florida peninsula and up the Atlantic Coast.
UCAR goes out of its way to make clear that "this is not a forecast, but rather, it illustrates a likely dispersal pathway of the oil for roughly four months following the spill.
"It assumes oil spilling continuously from April 20 to June 20."
That's a pretty conservative assumption, based on BP's total inability thus far to stanch the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
So what happens if the oil is still flowing July 20 or Aug. 20? Where will it be then? We have now been told Dec. 20 is not out of the question.
The answer is things will go from bad to worse to impossible.
I can comprehend an oil spill, but every day since April 20 has become more incomprehensible to me.
We have known from the beginning the chances of turning off the oil spigot are slim and none until the relief well is drilled — top kills, top hats and the current dog-and-pony operation (oops, I mean containment cap) — notwithstanding.
But why has there been no all-out assault on the mess? BP's cleanup efforts certainly aren't fooling anyone.
President Obama should be leading the cleanup charge with no less vigor and moral certainty than President George H.W. Bush displayed when he formed the Coalition of the Gulf War following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Yet instead his administration seems more of a conduit intent on legitimizing BP's PR efforts.
To say nothing of its own. Later today Obama is traveling to Louisiana and will presumably exult that the government has sent BP a cleaning bill for $69 billion.
Trouble is, nothing's clean.
Regardless of the accuracy of the UCAR model with respect to latitude and longitude, the truth is unassailable: the spill is getting bigger and spreading farther.
Mr. President, oil does not respond to speeches or charms or whirlwind visits to Louisiana.
We need boats and booms and brushes and rags and a million arms with sleeves rolled up. We need anything and everything we can throw at it.
We need you to marshal all the forces only the president of the United States can muster in this effort.
This is not a campaign, Mr. President.
This is a war.
Thank you for your time.
Jerry Fraser
Editor & Publisher, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com