alaska salmon fleet hard aground

Alaska Pink Salmon Fishery Federal Disaster Declared

Alaska’s Vital Salmon Fleet Is Hard Aground

Collapse of Alaska’s Largest And Most Valuable Fishery Is Now Official

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced Wednesday the national disaster declaration.

Congress must now appropriate funds for disaster relief to the many afflicted communities that depend almost entirely on the salmon catch.

Or of course the Alaskan government and Feds might simply ring me up and give the go ahead to restore the Alaska Pink salmon pasture as I did in 2012 resulting in the largest catch of Pink Salmon in all of history. There may even be time to save this years Pink Salmon schools.

Gov. Bill Walker requested a declaration for the fishery in September. In his letter to Pritzker, Walker reported on the collapse of pink salmon in Prince William Sound, Kodiak, Chignik, lower Cook Inlet, and Southeast Alaska management areas.

pink salmon disaster

There is NO MYSTERY, Pink Salmon and their kin are all starving at sea. We can and must save them. Click to read more

According to the letter, fishing opportunities were significantly reduced as a result of poor returns. In Kodiak, much of the area remained closed for 70 percent of the season. Only 3.2 million fish were harvested in the Kodiak management area, approximately 20 percent of the average catch over the last five years.

Just 12.1 million pinks were harvested in the Sound, far below the five-year average of 39 million fish. Walker’s letter also tallied 97,000 pinks for the lower Inlet, 13 percent of the fish forecast to return. The region’s 2016 catch was valued at $78,000, far below the five-year average value of $501,000.

“The impacts of low pink salmon runs are being felt across the Gulf of Alaska,” Walker said in an emailed statement regarding the disaster declaration.

“In addition to commercial fisherman and fish processors, those who sell fuel, tackle, supplies, groceries and lodging are also struggling,” he said in the statement. “Local governments will also feel the burden on their economic base. We are pleased with this news from the U.S. Department of Commerce and we will work with the federal government going forward to address this issue.”

In the Western Pacific Japan’s salmon are starving at sea

salmon crisis

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Government report show landings in 2016 in Hokkaido the main salmon port is the lowest in nearly three decades. Direct fishery losses of nearly $75 million USD have multiplied into economic sector losses of ~$200 million. Japanese salmon groups now demanding government approve ocean pasture restoration begin this year.

The number of Japanese salmon caught out of its main salmon fishing ports, including Hokkaido, in 2016 plunged 30%-40% from the previous year to 23.4 million fish, according to the survey by the Hokkaido District Fisheries Coordination Committee. The figure represented the lowest level in 28 years. The collapse has been confidently attributed to poor ocean survival, the salmon are simply starving at sea.

While the politicians jockey for position to divide the spoils of government emergency funds/power we are wasting precious time.

We can and we must rush first to the aid of the starving salmon in the Gulf of Alaska there’s time if we don’t delay.

pink salmon disaster

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How to bring back the fish!

In the summer of 2010 the Canadian government convened a Royal Commission to investigate why the Sockeye Salmon of the Fraser River were expected to return that year number fewer than 2 million fish when historic highs have exceed 40 million. Canadian supreme court justice Cohen commanded under oath that any and all fish experts appear before his bench to give sworn testimony as to why the precious Sockeye were nearing apparent extinction.

sockeye

Sockeye Salmon having returned to the rivers of their birth are gathering to find mates in an all important dance with nature.

The judge and his team of lawyers ended up spending 40 million dollars on a report that essentially said, ‘sorry, we don’t know.’ They studiously avoided and ignored the real facts about the salmon and as the court inquiry closed the fish reported in to testify with the truth.

Instead of the under 2 million Sockeye salmon expected 40 million of the scarlet beauties swam home in the fall of 2010. The real story of the salmon crisis in the NorthEast Pacific, aka Gulf of Alaska, was proven to be due to collapse of that ocean fish pastures plankton blooms, the fish are starving at sea. The 40 million Sockeye salmon that testified ‘in the flesh’ had been fed and nourished by a thrice in a century eruption of an Alaska Aleutian Island volcano.

The Kasatochi volcano erupted and dusted the salmon pasture 2 years earlier just as the Fraser sockeye babies were heading out to sea. Instead of mostly starving those young fish were treated to a feast, they grew and grew, and before too long they swam back to their Fraser River home 40 million strong. (Watch this video of a song about that Sockeye miracle.)

kasatochi_rg1 pink salmon disaster averted

I hired artist Leanne Hodges to paint what has been long in my mind’s eye and sketch books and this fabulous painting of the Kasatochi salmon pasture miracle resulted. The volcano is dusting and rstoring the ocean pasture that in turn is feeding all of ocean life. Two other Aleutian volcanoes in the past century have similarly sent record numbers of salmon home from thriving ocean pastures they dusted with life giving mineral rich ash. – click to read more

Listen to your mother is always good advice, in this regard I listened to our common mother , Mother Nature.

kasatochi blooms

The Aleutian Volcano Kasatochi erupted in 2008 dusting the Gulf of Alaska salmon pastures producing a tremendous bloom and historic catches of salmon – click to read more

In the summer of 2012 another volcano dusted the NE Pacific, this time it was the human volcano, me, Russatochi. With 11 Indian friends and support of their tiny village we were astonishingly successful in our ocean pasture restoration project. The project was undertaken following years of development with Haida First Nations and Canadian federal government endorsement and science funding. IT JUST WORKED!

The time has clearly come to begin intelligent caring restoration and regeneration of vital Gulf of Alaska ocean salmon pastures to bring back the fish, the whales, the sea-birds, and all of ocean life. The cost to implement and sustain this work on a yearly basis will be but a few scant million dollars. Here’s how.

Just plain everyday folks are needed and precious few of those.

How many? Neither millions nor even thousands of people are needed, mere hundreds can easily restore the Gulf of Alaska salmon pastures and bring back the fish. I have proved it just works!
restored ocean pasture blue to green

Looking astern off the transom of my research ship before we began our dusting to restore the ocean to health the ocean was a blue desert. After dusting the same view revealed a beautiful emerald-green see that had become full of life. (No Photoshop, raw camera) – click to read more

The simple solution Mother Nature requires of us, her and my ‘pitch book’  business plan is as follows.

Problem = The Gulf of Alaska ocean plankton that nourish our salmon are dying fast and becoming blue deserts fast

Solution = Restore ocean pastures immediately with proven methods and technology.

Underlying magic/technology = In 2013, following my 201 project in which I restored a 50,000 km2 ocean pasture in the Gulf of Alaska, the ocean Garden of Eden bloomed. Proof of this was seen when following my bloom an additional ~200 million salmon were caught, the state of Alaska reports our additional fish delivered more than $700 million into the state economy. The fish grew because something like 100 million tonnes of ocean killing CO2 was converted into new ocean life.

Competition = It’s complicated, but sure there’s plenty.

Team= Proven team headed by me Russ George the one and only person with his feet wet in this work.

Projections and milestones = Beginning this year I will work to deliver hundreds of millions of additional fish every year into fishermen’s nets and onto people plates, sufficient to help bring an end world hunger.

Status and timeline = After 20 years and millions of dollars spent in development, the largest ocean pasture restoration project in history as proven success 2012, is ready for redeployment in the spring of 2017.

JOIN ME!

Call the governor of Alaska and demand the state support our work! Don’t worry not one penny of tax money is needed, just encouraging words!

Call the US Secretary of Commerce and demand the same of that office, again don’t worry not a single penny of your tax dollars are required just your helpful words of support!

Call President Trump and plead with him to help me bring back the fish!

Wonder who will benefit from this. How about American children who are hungry and in need!

Click to read more

READ ABOUT THE NEARLY HALF A BILLION MEALS OF NOURISHING PASTURE FED PINK SALMON FROM MY 2012 PROJECT WENT TO FEED AMERICAN CHILDREN IN NEED!