This week we’re talking about the battle over water on the Klamath, and what it means for farmers, fisheries and Native communities. We’ve also got updates on Humboldt’s COVID case surge and efforts to get people vaccinated. And a new frybread stand has sprung up, spreading Frybread Love around the county — we’ll talk about […]
fisheries
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Huffman Gets Bleak Input on Fisheries
Long before the first refugees from the city planted cannabis seeds in the hills of Southern Humboldt, fishermen braved the seas in summer and winter to bring back crab, salmon, rockfish, lingcod and a variety of other seafood. It was always considered a reliable — if dangerous — way to make a living. Things have […]
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Huffman Announces Release of Nearly $30 Million in Fisheries Disaster Funding
More than a year after Congress appropriated the funds, members of the the North Coast’s commercial fishing industry and a local tribe are slated to receive federal disaster support in the coming months, Rep. Jared Huffman announced this morning. “Tribes, hardworking fishermen, their families, and coastal communities have been stuck in limbo for far too […]
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‘A Miracle Didn’t Happen’
When the California Fish and Game Commission took the unprecedented step last year of shutting down the North Coast’s 2018 red abalone season, the idea was to give the last vestige of the state’s once great fishery some time to bounce back. The decision came in the aftermath of what scientists call a “perfect storm” […]
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Huffman Applauds Allocation of $29 Million in Fisheries Disaster Relief Funds
North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman announced today that the federal government has allocated $25.8 million in disaster assistance to those affected by the 2015-2016 closure of California’s commercial Dungeness and rock crab fisheries and another $3.9 million to the Yurok Tribe stemming from the collapse of the fall Chinook fishery in 2016. “For far too […]
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‘Perfect Storm’ Has North Coast Marine Ecosystem Reeling, Abalone in Crisis
Cynthia Catton’s voice catches a bit as she describes diving along the North Coast this summer to survey the region’s red abalone stock as part of annual state monitoring efforts. She had known the situation was bleak but that didn’t prepare her for what she would see. “At all of the sites we saw a […]
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Karuk Tribe Restricts Fishing
The Karuk Tribe announced today that it is restricting subsistence fishing on the Klamath River, a reaction to predictions that this year’s run of Klamath Chinook salmon will be the smallest in history. On March 25, the Yurok Tribe announced it would suspend commercial fishing for the second year in a row. The Yurok Tribe […]
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Crab Fishermen in West Coast Ports Pull Pots in Solidarity with Humboldt
A week’s worth of negotiations have failed to break the stalemate between Humboldt Dungeness crab fishermen and the Pacific Group, which locally owns Pacific Choice Seafood. Last week, Pacific Group announced it was lowering its buying price for crab from $3 per pound to $2.75. Fishermen in District 7 — which stretches south from Humboldt Bay’s […]
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New Law Says Gold Dredgers Need Clean Water Permits
Local tribes, environmentalists and fishing groups are applauding a bill signed today by Gov. Jerry Brown that will require recreational gold miners to obtain Clean Water Act permits before using dredges and other techniques to search for the precious metal in California rivers. There’s been a moratorium on suction dredge mining since 2009, though loopholes […]
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Upper Klamath Tribes, Farmers Announce Tentative Agreement
Klamath Tribes and Oregon irrigators have reached an “agreement in principle” over the long-disputed waters of the Upper Klamath Basin, saying the groups will work toward a common goal of improving fisheries, water quality and agricultural sustainability in the region. Upper Klamath farmers were dismayed earlier this year when the Oregon Water Resources Department ordered […]
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Sport Mussels Cleared For Eatin’
You’ve gotta be careful with those wiley bivalve mollusks. Sometimes the tasty filter feeders are packed with enough toxins to — worst cases — make you tingle, burn, talk funny, choke, fall over and even die. That’s why the California Department of Public Health routinely sets quarantines on sport-harvested bivalve shelfish such as clams, scallops […]
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“Congress, Tear Down These Dams,” Says SF Chron
On Monday, the Associated Press published a story outlining the results of a U.S. Geological Survey study, which examined the likely effects of removing four dams on the Klamath River. The upshot? It’s a good idea. As AP reporter Jeff Barnard explains, federal scientists believe the $1 billion dam-removal project would restore the ecosystem, improve […]