WDFW LE work widow rockfish by-catch dumping

[fishncliff]

A good article from the Chinook Observer paper on the illegal dumping of 8000 lbs of widow rockfish by a commercial vessel.

http://www.chinookobserver.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=12&ArticleID=194 98


Heres the WDFW scoop on it.

Widow Rockfish And Canary Rockfish Are Currently Designated As Over-Fished By The Pacific Fishery Management Council: Stock rebuilding plans are in place for these species. Trawl vessels that target Pacific Whiting and are considered “by-catch” can encounter rockfish. Strict caps on the over-fished species have been applied, and once caps are met, the whiting directed fishery could be closed. The primary management and enforcement issue related to the Whiting directed fishery involves total catch accounting, particularly for Canary and Widow rockfish harvests. All vessels participating in the shore-side fishery have a mandatory surveillance camera pointed at the net reel and deck meant to discourage discarding by-catch (like rockfish). It is unlawful to turn cameras off while the vessel is engaged in fishing activity. All catch must be retained. Processing plants are not monitored in the same fashion that vessels are. Once the fish are delivered to the processor by the vessel, the catch must be sorted by species and documented on fish receiving tickets.
Unless an officer actually observes the weight of fish being entered on these documents, there is no independent verification that the reports are accurate. Uniformed officers monitored offloads of fish at plants around the clock for a five-day period. Weights were recorded and fish receiving tickets were inspected.

Last week, thousands of widow rockfish washed up on the Long Beach Peninsula, spread out over a thirteen-mile area. This incident was the result of intentional and illegal discarding of by-catch in an effort to avoid reaching the cap. Officer Hopkins, Officer Chadwick, Special Agent Adkins, OSP Sgt. Scrupe and Special Agent Stanley investigated and a suspect has been identified. He confessed to turning off his camera and dumping the fish because he didn’t “want to be known as the guy who shut the season down”. Oregon State Police and the USCG provided critical investigative support.
After this case investigation, the total Widow rockfish harvest was 213 metric tons (MT), which included the 16,000 pounds of Widow rockfish believed to be illegally discarded by the suspect (as determined through interview, log books and observations). The cap is 220 MT. Only about 50% of the allowable harvest of Pacific Whiting has been landed and approaching caps threaten to close the fishery early. If the season closes early, it will mean the loss of millions of dollars to commercial industry. From our perspective, a little pressure at the processing plant level resulted in Widow rockfish squirting out the other end, on the fishing grounds. Without the heavy shoreward current, we may never have known about this illegal activity. Special thanks to Bruce Kauffman from the Nahcotta lab for his assistance in responding to the initial call and a request from Captain Cenci to run the beach later in the week. Thanks to Brian Culver for helping to ensure that the discovered harvest was properly applied to the cap. Officers are investigating several additional vessels for possible illegal dumping of catch. (Statewide Marine Division)

[ron m]

Thanks for the link and the info.
ron m

[Smoked Salmon]

I hope this leads to more funding that investigates better methods of targeting specific fish species. With millions of dollars trickling through the economy from the fishing fleet, it makes sense to keep them off the docks as much as possible.

[Irish Pennant]

All vessels participating in the shore-side fishery have a mandatory surveillance camera pointed at the net reel and deck meant to discourage discarding by-catch (like rockfish). It is unlawful to turn cameras off while the vessel is engaged in fishing activity. All catch must be retained.

I don't know anything about comercial fishing or the management of it but I find that something just isn't right with this. Put up surveillance cameras and give those who are to be watched the ability to turn them off. If there's a requirement to have cameras then they should be used in a fashion that's effective otherwise it's just a joke and the requirement should be removed.
I can see the answer being given to a concerned citizen "Oh no sir, they don't cheat. There 's surveillance cameras on every ship to monitor the catch".

[jimsbuddy]

Originally Posted by Irish Pennant

I don't know anything about comercial fishing or the management of it but I find that something just isn't right with this. Put up surveillance cameras and give those who are to be watched the ability to turn them off. If there's a requirement to have cameras then they should be used in a fashion that's effective otherwise it's just a joke and the requirement should be removed...

Yea whats up with that ... its like a drunk wearing a braclet, but giving them the key because at night its tough to sleep with.... Why dont they have a battery system inside, where once the camera is turned off the battery will send a signal out to reciving station, just as the little homming domes on the Semi trucks have... If your camer is turned off and you dont stop fishing and report it, you get a hefty fine. Sucks to be the fisherman having to stop fishing, but as they maintain there own vessel for readyness so the camera would be maintained ( not like there alot of maint required)

[fishncliff]

update:

Update on Whiting Fishery Violations: Officers with the Coastal Marine Detachment (Grays Harbor County) continued monitoring efforts related to the Whiting industry. The 220 Metric Ton (MT) cap on Widow rockfish was quickly closing in, especially after the discovery of 16,000 lbs. of fish illegally discarded by a vessel recently. Once this amount was applied to the cap, only 5 MT remained. Officer Jewett arrived at a Grays Harbor fish plant at 3:00 a.m. in order to monitor a vessel offload and ensure that any Widow rockfish and other fish were properly documented on fish harvest reports. He noticed a tote of fish about to be poured into the meat grinder. Suspicious of what was going into the grinder, Officer Jewett had the tote lowered for inspection. The forklift operator told Officer Jewett that the fish were rockfish, and that they had already been documented on a fish receiving ticket. The tote did contain a mix of Widow and Yellowtail rockfish that had not been documented. The suspect supervises by-catch and night dock operations at the fish plant and admitted that her intent was to hide the catch by destroying it so that the Whiting season would remain open. Her impression was that only 1,000 pounds remained. Her intent was to destroy most, but not all of the by-catch, so that the landing would not look suspicious. Sgt. Rhoden arrived later to assist Officer Jewett and all the fish were then being properly sorted. A total of 4,300 pounds of Widow had been accounted for when the vessel pulled away from the unloading dock, and tied up to the ice dock. Sgt. Rhoden discovered that the vessel had been encouraged to discontinue the offload by the dock supervisor due to her concerns that additional by-catch remained onboard the vessel. The boat’s skipper was very adamant that he had nothing to do with fish being left on the boat and returned for a complete offload. Officer Chadwick monitored the rest of the offload and an additional 5,700 pounds of Widow rockfish were discovered. (Statewide Marine Division)

[Tyeebuster]

This story just keeps getting beter, unbelievable. However, I have witness the same kinds of deception during the Columbia River gillnet fishery, so this is no surprise

[Salty Walty]

Originally Posted by Tyeebuster

This story just keeps getting beter, unbelievable. However, I have witness the same kinds of deception during the Columbia River gillnet fishery, so this is no surprise

I see the same at the docks with the sportfleet also.

"Don't report your yelloweye or canary catches. If we catch too many the season will shutdown."

Neither the commercial or sport side is without blame or unblemished by those who wish to break the law or attempt to skirt the rules. Until we have our house in order we have very little justification to point the finger too vigorously.

[sparkleboy]

Originally Posted by Irish Pennant

I don't know anything about comercial fishing or the management of it but I find that something just isn't right with this. Put up surveillance cameras and give those who are to be watched the ability to turn them off. If there's a requirement to have cameras then they should be used in a fashion that's effective otherwise it's just a joke and the requirement should be removed.
I can see the answer being given to a concerned citizen "Oh no sir, they don't cheat. There 's surveillance cameras on every ship to monitor the catch".

These camera systems are designed to be triggered on by the activation of the ships hydraulics as the nets are lowered into the water. After this point, the camera systems are designed to continue recording until the vessel reaches the port is has declared it will land in, season long. When the article refers to 'tampering with the camera system' it means just that. The captain and crew somehow modified the ships electronics or simply vandalized the camera system to the point of failure.
Descrepencies are found fairly easily. The camera systems are designed, installed, and the video reviewed by a private coorporation. They have access to each vessels landing records (which are required to be completed by the processing plant a vessel lands at, and of which a copy goes to ODFW, and OSP), and can figure out pretty easily if there's no video for a trip for which they have a fish ticket.