Homer Alaska - Seawatch

The Bering Sea cod longliner catcher/processor fleet no longer has to race for fish after Congress passed the Longline Catcher Processor Subsector Single Fishery Cooperative Act, which authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to approve a cooperative for longline cod catcher processors in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

The measure now goes to the White House where President Obama is expected to sign it into law.

The bill was sponsored by Alaska Sens. Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski, and Washington's Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. It was supported by Congressman Don Young and Washington representatives in the House.

The bill, which passed the Senate by unanimous consent last month, was also supported by all the current participants in the fishery including the six Alaska-based Community Development Quota corporations.

"This bill will enable Bering Sea cod fishermen to invest their time and resources more efficiently, reduce costs, improve safety by ending the 'race to fish,' and promote effective, sustainable fishing practices," Begich said. "It was supported by all the participants in the fishery including the Alaska CDQ groups, and will help preserve jobs and the resource."

"I am pleased to see that this legislation will become law. It was broadly supported by all sectors of the fishing industry and will allow the fleet to stop racing for fish and cooperatively manage their harvest," Murkowski said.

"It allows for the development of another successful catch share program in the North Pacific, and I am proud to work with my Alaska and Washington State colleagues in the House and Senate to advance this important piece of legislation," she said.

The Bering Sea cod freezer longline fleet includes 36 vessels with more than 1,200 fishing and processing jobs.

The fleet lands more than 150 million pounds of cod each year worth more than $100 million. It was the first cod fishery in the world to be certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.

Fishing companies, vessel owners, and related businesses participating in the fishery formed the Freezer Longline Coalition in 2005 to establish the cooperative and improve the safety, conservation and management, and socio-economic benefits of their fishery.

The U.S. Coast Guard has released its top 11 videos for 2010, highlighting the year's most compelling cases from the work done every day by the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard selected 11 videos to recognize the service's 11 statutory missions and is inviting the public to vote for their favorite video as part of the service's 2010 Video of the Year contest.

"The Coast Guard's Top 11 Videos of 2010 highlight the dynamic and challenging environment our men and women operate in daily, as well as during major response operations such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Operation Unified Response to assist the people of Haiti after the earthquake," said Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp. "We conduct many of our missions out of the public eye, so I'm excited to take time at the end of the year to showcase the work of America's Coast Guard men and women. I encourage people to vote for the video they like best and I'm eager to learn the results of this year's contest."

The video compilation is available for viewing and download from the Coast Guard visual information site at http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=1081158 and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ2rgclfiaQ.

The Coast Guard is one of the nation's five armed services. Its history is traced back to August 4, 1790, when the first Congress authorized the construction of 10 vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling. It predates the Navy by eight years.

Known variously through the 19th and early 20th centuries as the Revenue Marine and the Revenue Cutter Service, it expanded in size and responsibilities as the nation grew.

It is an extremely active service. For example, in 2010, the Coast Guard saved more than 4,300 lives and conducted more than 22,000 search and rescue cases; prevented more than 200,000 pounds of cocaine from reaching the United States; boarded more than 2,100 High Interest Vessels bound for U.S. ports to ensure security and conducted nearly 9,000 inspections on foreign vessels entering U.S. ports to ensure safety and protect the environment; and conducted more than 5,000 fisheries conservation boardings, to highlight just a few of their accomplishments.

A Bellevue, Wash., crab importer who has been imprisoned in Russia since September 2007 was re-arrested moments after a Russian jury unanimously cleared him of all previous charges.

Arkadi Gontmakher, an American citizen from the Ukraine, is the founder of Bellevue-based Global Fishing, which in 2007 was the largest importer of Russian king crab sold in groceries across the United States. His original arrest was on charges of involvement in a criminal ring that Russian authorities claim poached massive amounts of king crab from the waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Dec. 16 verdict appeared to clear the way for his return to Washington state. But before he could set foot outside the courtroom, Russian police arrested him on a new set of charges that involved purchases of crab from other illegal Russian fishermen. The charges are nearly identical, according to his lawyers.

The original charges carried a maximum two-year sentence, but Gontmakher remained in prison for three years while awaiting trial.

Global Fishing is no longer in business.

Cristy Fry has commercial fished out of Homer and King Cove since 1978. She can be reached at realist468@gmail.com.