Undercurrents

Archives for: July 2006, 31

Bumpy ride

Posted by jessmil on 07/31/2006 5:01 pm

The following posting is from Carroll, who is onboard in the Bering Sea...

July 30

After 30 hours of transit, we’ve finally dropped anchor in Security Cove, just north of Bristol Bay. It’s been a bumpy ride, but the only casualties so far have been a few dishes that came flying out of the cabinet in the middle of the night last night. We duct taped everything that wasn’t nailed down, went back to bed, and haven’t had any problems since. Now the sun is out, the waves are calmer and we can see the mainland for the first time in almost three weeks. So, we got that goin’ for us.

A few hundred miles to the south, the same winds that made our going so tough the last few days have been pushing the Cougar Ace closer to shore. The Cougar Ace capsized south of the Aleutian Islands last week as it was carrying 5000 new cars from Japan to Canada and the U.S. As the winds picked up from the southwest, the Cougar Ace’s 650 foot hull started acting like a giant sail, pushing the capsized ship north toward the Aleutians. If it reaches shore, it could run aground and break apart, spilling 540 tons of oil and diesel fuel onto the shores of the islands. A similar event occurred just a couple of years ago, when a giant soy freighter called the Selandang Ayu ran aground on Unalaska. Locals tell us the cleanup from that spill was never completed (something we’d hoped to verify on this trip). Now they face the
prospect of a new one.

Happily, the news isn’t all bad. Yesterday, new federal rules took effect that will prohibit bottom trawl fishing in 370,000 square miles of ocean habitat in the Aleutians and, in the process, create the largest protected marine habitat in the country. As the name implies, bottom trawling involves dragging heavy, weighted nets across the ocean floor to catchbottom-dwelling fish like halibut and sole. But dragging trawl gear across the sensitive ocean floor destroys habitat at the same time it takes the fish, churning up mud, tearing out ancient corals, and leaving tracklines of destruction that may never recover.

The millions of square miles of ocean habitat wrecked each year by bottom trawling have sparked a global campaign to end bottom trawling on the high seas, and in sensitive areas under national control, like the Aleutians. Ironically—or, perhaps not ironically given the environmental track record of the current administration—there’s very little bottom trawling actually going on in the area of the Aleutians protected by the new rules. But this means the habitat is still largely intact.

More importantly, the rules include additional and more stringent protections for the cold water coral habitats most sensitive to fishing impacts. In these habitats, the new rules prohibit not only bottom trawling, but any fishing gear that touches the bottom, including bottom longlines. It will, in effect, create a no-fish zone near the ocean floor where overfished species might find safe harbor, with benefits for the whole ecosystem.

Protecting these most fragile of habitats isn’t the whole answer to saving the Bering. But we’ve seen in the last few weeks that it’s an important part of the answer. And a good place to start.
Carroll

Leave a comment

Security Cove

Posted by jessmil on 07/31/2006 4:56 pm

The following posting is from Adam, who is onboard in the Bering Sea...

Gales and big seas, rain and fog.

We didn’t think we’d be going anywhere today. At 0200 it was really howling, well over 50 knots of wind blowing us around on anchor and making the little ship vibrate. However it appeared to have eased somewhat in the morning so we called up the weather people in kodiak for a forecast and heard 35knots and 12 foot seas easing to 25 and 8 foot in Bristol Bay, so we decided to head on out and see how right they were. They were pretty right except for the 15 foot swells that occasionally put us on our ear and set the bilge alarms off and emptied the galley cupboards onto the floor, they’re all gaffa taped shut now as the little clips they have are obviously not strong enough. I’m having to type with one hand at the moment, using the other to look after my cup of tea and stop myself sliding away from the table.
We’re headed for another little bay called security cove, sounds good eh?! If the weather gets better we’ll head on by and into our search pattern in Bristol Bay. If not we’ll hide in there for a bit and reassess.

The time we have left is getting shorter and shorter so feel free to pray for a break in the weather so we can achieve or objectives for this leg of the tour. We need to find sea mammals to illustrate that they live here in the heart of Pollock fishing mismanagement country, and are part of the ecosystem that relies on the fish that are being taken out by the mega tonne. As well as that if we see any giant trawlers we’ll check out where and what they are fishing, maybe find out how there season is going if they’ll talk to us. I really look forward to the day in the not too distant future when seeing a fishing boat in the Bering doesn’t immediately mean something really wrong is happening. It’s a campaign that will be won if the locals and environmental groups work together well and send a united and clear message to the pollies and the industry bigwigs in the lower 48 that the only acceptable way is-ECOSYSTEM BASED MANAGEMENT FOR THE BERING!!!!!

Adam

Leave a comment

Plan B

Posted by jessmil on 07/31/2006 4:47 pm

The following posting is from Carroll, who is onboard in the Bering Sea...

July 29

We spent another day anchored in Nash Harbor, waiting for the storm to pass. Even here in the lee of the island, the wind is blowing so hard it makes the boat vibrate. Makes for a refreshing breeze when you step outside, though. Tomorrow’s forecast is for more of the same, followed, Sunday, by more of the same again. With the weather eating ever deeper into our work plans for the final week of the expedition, we’re strategizing ways to make the best of the situation. If conditions permit, we’ll up anchor tomorrow and make the 30 hour transit to a cove just north of Bristol Bay, so if and when the weather does break, we’ll be ready to begin work immediately.

There’s much to be done in the last days of the tour: photo identification of humpbacks in the northern half of Bristol Bay, killer whale research along the Alaska Peninsula, documenting trawlers in the Southeastern Bering, and documenting the remarkable beauty of this region wherever we find it. Gale force winds for the next few days will make the job difficult, and maybe a little uncomfortable, but hopefully not impossible. In the event the impossible comes up, however, we’ve got a plan for that, too.

Carroll

Leave a comment

Pinned down by the storm

Posted by jessmil on 07/31/2006 4:44 pm

The following posting is from Adam, who is onboard in the Bering Sea...

28th July
Howling wind and rain

Well we’re still pinned down by the storm that started yesterday. It is on schedule with the forecast and has swung to the south west and picked up in intensity. The front should be passing us about now so hopefully it’ll start to ease up this evening and over night and allow us to poke our nose out in the morning and head west towards Etolin pass and then south to Bristol Bay.

We’ve made today useful by helping Craig get footage of various things on board that are hard to get when the boat is under way. I gave him a tour of the engine room and explained the tasks down there, and Captain Bob is explaining all about the ship and its systems and his responsibilities as captain. James is making samosas again as they were so good the first time, so we’ll get some of that on tape too so people can see how hard we’re doing it here on the good ship pacific Storm.

We’re all itching to get under way and on with the work we are supposed to be doing. The end of the tour is drawing nearer and nearer and the urgency we feel to collect the information we need from Bristol Bay and the northern side of the Alaskan Peninsular is growing.

There’s not a lot to see out the portholes except spray and grey skies and the low green island. We did see a herd of reindeer that had come over near our beach for shelter from the storm. They must be hardy critters indeed to live on this low treeless island that is covered in snow and surrounded by ice for most of the year.

So that’s it from me for today, not a very exciting update, but it is what’s happening. Hopefully people in the south are working hard on saving the oceans and the forests and fighting the water wasting coal and oil burning fools that seem to have so much power at the moment.

SAVE OUR SEAS!!!

Adam