Mexico shouldnt listen to the UN who cares what that they have to say ….. especially on this issue of security. …

“I acknowledge the dilemma faced by the authorities in discharging their responsibility to protect. However, recourse to the military remains problematic as it is fundamentally unsuited–in training, philosophy, equipment, and outlook–to perform civilian law enforcement functions.”

OK, so the UN would rather have corrupt and inept law enforcement do the protecting?…………Sure! That makes a lot of sense…..

To pull troops out when they are winning (Both mexico and iraq) would be UN-wise.

i think the UN should just call itself the UTN — UNITED TERROR NATIONS ……..

Hello long time no blog……

I agree with you Avi the UN is acting more like they are FOR the terrorists than against them.

Well in this case it’s more drug cartels and gangsters than terrorists.

So maybe United Nations of Intoxication would be better.

Hahaha Shep just made the Lawyer he was interviewing look like and idiot hahaha!

AN**

Avi: what was being said?

Off topic

Wild salmon at $40 a pound?
Blame the sharply curtailed harvests in Oregon, California
By ROBERT McCLURE
P-I REPORTER

Will this be the year we see fishmongers charging $40 a pound for salmon?

· Salmon stock collapse: Are we next?

Some fear that the answer is yes, given the ominous signs: Federal officials are meeting near Seattle this week to slash or even halt salmon fishing off California and Oregon. Washington’s salmon catch also looks iffy, prompting Gov. Chris Gregoire this week to contemplate calling for emergency federal aid.

And Alaska’s bountiful wild salmon catch is expected to be trimmed by one-third from last year’s bumper harvest.

Overall, expect a boost in prices for the famously cyclical catch of wild salmon, say government officials and fishing-industry observers. That’s particularly true for the highly sought-after chinook — or king — salmon, whose numbers in California collapsed this year.

“All the California markets don’t have fish, and they (will be) saying, ‘We’ll buy that fish for a dollar more a pound,’ ” said Craig Bowhay, an analyst with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

“For a piece of the action, you’re going to have to pay.”

It’s simple economics: With few or no salmon coming from Oregon and California, and Washington’s catch constrained by the need to protect runs under the Endangered Species Act, the overall salmon catch will be smaller.

Meanwhile, demand has skyrocketed — to the point that even the lowly chum salmon, which once sold for perhaps $1 a pound or even $1 a fish, is now routinely going for $3 a pound or more.

“America has become a nation of salmon eaters,” said Laura Fleming, communications director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

But once Alaska’s commercial salmon fisheries kick into high gear next month, there will be salmon available.

More than 90 percent of North America’s wild salmon harvest comes from Alaska. While the salmon catch there is being slashed by about 35 percent from last year, 2007 marked Alaska’s fourth-biggest salmon catch ever.

For 2008, “we’re looking for a very healthy year,” said Mike Plotnick, an analyst with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who emphasized that Alaska’s first priority is letting enough fish get past the nets to preserve abundant runs.

But you’ll pay more. In the last few weeks, with just a limited winter fishery in gear, at least one Seattle market was selling wild chinook for $32.95 a pound. Even in Juneau, practically on top of the winter fishery, Fleming recently forked out $26 a pound, she said.

The California salmon crash prompted inaccurate reports that salmon would be unavailable. The crash had its roots in 2005, when young salmon from the Sacramento River swam to the ocean. Those fish are set to return this year.

Some observers, especially environmentalists, trace the drop to diversions of massive amounts of water to farms and cities from salmon streams in California’s Central Valley.

But scientists note that 2005 also saw an unusual weather pattern that pummeled the marine food web, killing tens of thousands of seabirds and leaving the young salmon with little to eat. Dozens of other causes are being investigated, as well.

This week, the whole thing comes to a head as the Pacific Fishery Management Council meets in SeaTac to set catch limits on the coast from Canada to Mexico. The National Marine Fisheries Service will decide by May 1 whether to take the council’s recommendation.

While the fisheries service is balking at allowing even 2,000 or 3,000 fish to be caught off California and Oregon this year, an estimated 6,000 salmon were killed and dumped back into the ocean unused last year as an inadvertent catch in the whiting fishery, records show.

Environmentalists, while noting that dams and water diversions are prime culprits in the decline of Pacific Northwest salmon, also fault the fisheries service for failing to rein in this salmon “bycatch” in the whiting fishery off Washington, Oregon and California.

“NMFS still fails to take action on that issue, and yet they’re shutting down the California fishery,” said Jim Ayers, vice president of the activist group Oceana. “The whiting guys get to pick them up in their nets, kill ‘em and throw them away.”

Will lots of California and Oregon fishermen head north to Washington, where at least some fishing will be allowed?

Not likely, industry observers say, especially with diesel fuel, which runs most fishing vessels, going for $4 a gallon or more.

“It’s a concern, but it’s not like the whole world’s going to come here,” said fisheries service biologist Peter Dygart.

If federal officials order major cuts in fishing here, Gregoire will press for emergency aid to the fishing industry, she said Monday.

While there are some bright spots in Washington this year — Columbia River fall chinook and Puget Sound chum are expected to show increases, for example — overall the fishery will be constrained by low numbers of protected coho salmon, said Pat Pattillo, salmon policy coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Coho usually start to show up offshore in big numbers in July. When that happens, fishing for chinook has to be scaled back, because the two fish mingle in the ocean.

So chinook may be fairly plentiful in May and June, but the usual moderation of salmon prices as we move into high summer might not happen this year.

“Anyone who knows fishing knows you can’t tell until (the season) opens,” Pattillo said. But, he added, “Prices are likely to increase. They’ve been at record levels for the last few years.”

Overall, salmon runs have been pummeled in Washington and Oregon, compared with historic levels. For example, while scientists estimate that perhaps 5 million to 9 million chinook returned to the Columbia River each year in the late 1800s, the number returning there from 1979 to 2006 averaged just 135,000.

“We’re just kind of down here at low levels, and the fact that (the chinook catch) is up this year isn’t really anything to write home about,” Pattillo said.

Canada is unlikely to come to consumers’ rescue, either, Pattillo said, because it has stopped fishing for coho off Vancouver Island, where millions were previously caught each year.

It is possible that some consumers will just switch to farmed salmon — and, if they’re not careful, those consumers could even be the unlucky ones who end up paying that $40 a pound if they have an unscrupulous fishmonger, said Fleming, the Alaskan seafood marketer.

“You may have to talk with the person at your seafood restaurant or grocery counter. You may have to say, ‘Do you know there are other species we can try while we’re waiting for our river to come back?’ ” she said. “I like to think of it as a flavor for every palate and a price point for every budget.”

Consumers are likely to substitute coho or sockeye before they’ll pay $40 a pound for chinook, said veteran Washington fisherman Joel Kawahara.

“It would be ridiculous to ask people who are paying $4 a gallon for gas to pay $30 a pound for salmon,” said Kawahara, who along with environmentalists is pointing to this year’s salmon crunch as a clarion call for better salmon management.

“I don’t see $40,” Kawahara said. “$18 is going to be tough.”

But, he acknowledged, “The consumer side of the equation is so far different from what it has been in the past five years that you can’t predict what the price is going to be.”

P-I reporter Lisa Stiffler contributed to this report. P-I reporter Robert McClure can be reached at 206-448-8092 or robertmcclure@…. Read his blog on the environment at datelineearth.com.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/358287_salmon09.html

Fishermen returns low for salmon management talks
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By Susan Chambers, Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 09, 2008 | 1 comment(s)

SEATTLE — Returning Sacramento fall Chinook numbers are down — and so follows the numbers of fishermen returning to fishery management meetings this year to talk about ocean salmon seasons.

The issue is simple: There are so few fall salmon swimming back up the Sacramento River that traveling to another meeting to ask for any fishing season is practically a moot point.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting this week in Seattle to work on salmon and other fishery issues, tackled the issue head-on Tuesday as the subject of scientific research took center stage.

“The situation with the Sacramento is truly unprecedented,” said Frank Lockhart, the National Marine Fisheries Service representative on the council, reiterating what he told the council and audience a month earlier.

OoT part 2

“It’s going to take some serious thought to come up with any justification (for any fishery),” he said.

The room was packed. On ly a few of the 100 or so seats in the audience were empty. Scientists, advisors, state, federal and tribal agency staff and a few members of the press sat in those chairs.

But this year, in stark contrast to two years ago, only a handful of fishermen sat to listen. Most paced or stood in the back of the room or talked in hushed tones in the corridors. Many of those who attended the March council meeting in Sacramento chose to save money or, for others, continue fishing for Dungeness crab instead of making the trip north.

Sport and commercial salmon trollers were faced with a similar situation in 2006, when fall Chinook returns to the Klamath River were down and the council considered a drastic closure. That closure was relatively minor in light of recent events. Sport and charter fishermen still were able to fish in 2006, but commercial trollers in Southern Oregon and Northern California lost a whole year of fishing. The situation triggered a fisheries fa ilure declaration and federal disaster funding flowing to Oregon and California.

The April council meeting often is the most contentious. It’s when the council makes its final decision on salmon seasons. It’s the last chance for members of the public to plead their cases and craft seasons that will work for various groups.

Hundreds of fishermen did just that in 2006. The Klamath River crisis was only beginning to be understood but the immediacy resonated with sport and commercial fleets. More than 300 anglers and trollers arrived at the meeting in California with picket signs in hand, statements ready to be made, rallies calling for the government to declare the fishery a disaster, begging and pleading for any fishing opportunity they could get.

On Tuesday, at this April meeting on a dreary spring day, few spoke.

The public comment period lasted minutes, not hours.

Genetics study debated

Oregon commercial salmon troll er Paul Heikkila fishes out of Charleston. He’s one of the Oregon representatives on the council’s Salmon Advisory Subpanel. He’s also a retired Oregon Sea Grant agent and understands the need for scientific data.

On Tuesday, though, his words to the council relating to what commercial trollers were hoping for were simple.

“It’s kind of sad,” Heikkila said, referencing a one-page report of subpanel recommendations that listed each of eight ocean zones south of Cape Falcon, on the northern Oregon Coast, to the Mexico border as “closed.”

“It’s closed for trollers except for scientific research,” he said.

Council members flipped through their papers to find the page he referenced.

He added: “That’s it.”

His words didn’t even hang in the air. They boomed through the microphone to the open space between the council and the audience, a final testament to the severity of the situation.

The recommended research, genetic studies started in Oregon and scheduled to be expanded to California this year, resulted in a round of probing questions from the council.

How many fishermen would be employed to do the study?

Would obtaining the data outweigh the risks to the Sacramento stock?

Would the data benefit just commercial fleets or recreational fleets, too?

Genetic study scientists and supporters said that yes, indeed, the data would be worth the risk and that yes, the information would benefit all salmon fleets. This year, biological samples would be taken but the fish would be returned to the ocean unharmed. Still, scientists predicted that roughly 1,700 Sacramento fish might be caught or harmed; advisors believed that number is exaggerated.

There also would be one hidden benefit, Oregon Sea Grant agent Jeff Feldner said.

“We’d be learning non-lethal genetic sampling and do so when there’s no rush to get back to a fishery,” he said.

The case for sports

Brookings resident and Port of Brookings-Harbor Commissioner Jim Relaford was one of the few who made a last-ditch plea to the council.

And again, the council questioned the need.

Relaford supplied provided a survey published by the American Sportfishing Association that said saltwater fishing results to more than $150,000 to Oregon in retail sales – and Curry County, Brookings especially, gets a share of that.

We are faced with a situation, without a season, Relaford said, that would result in a $25 million in direct economic impact to the southern-most part of the Oregon Coast.

Relaford asked the council if it would allow a sport season in August or later, since by then, Sacramento fish have passed Curry County and anglers could access the Klamath River fish, Chinook that will be the predominant salmon in that part of the ocean then.

A boy claimed he saved a school bus but reports say he actually caused the incident and is a fake hero lol

Adam, did you get my 3 attachments in those emails?

never mind, i just read your post in the older thread

Adam, the best contacts for the DFG story are Wardens Bob Orange and Jerry Karnow. Their contact numbers are on that PR. If you cant find it let me know and I can send the info to you.

Hey Adam,

I didn’t actually go anywhere - just got caught up in a busy time at the office. But thanks for asking.

How soon before the Democrates side with the UN on this one?

Max Kon

these “drug cartels and gangsters,” use car bombs, torture, assassinations, extortion, beheadings, kidnapping, pollute the environement with the toxic poison used to mix their drugs, corrupt all political systems, destroy the future of civilization - our youth, they are Narco Terrorists and Mexico and the United States must totally ignore the idiots at the UN.

Good for Mexico standing up to these terrorists, they have my whole hearted support!

Tammy: are you glad to be back? I know i am. I saw your husband posting comments so i knew you were doing fine.

Retread: I don’t care what they’re called, just as long as they go out of business.
Pity Mexico doesn’t use the death penalty anymore.

OT: So much for Global warming,,,,,,,,,,Apparently it ends this March…
On a side note, The Norwegians knocked on Al Gores door today asking for their Nobel Prize back.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/10/eaclimate110.xml

In my opinion.. they are a bunch of goofballs over at the U.N.

I’m being nice when I say that.

I think the UN HQ should be built in Baghdad… then maybe they will care about how things are in Iraq…. and they can take their generally-arrogant entitlement BS with them!

Who’s with me?

UN spells un and is the first syllable of under which is the prefix of undermine and underwear. Spends a lot of money and CO2 managing scams.

OK Adam–

I am doing homework here-

the drug cartels are not going anywhere- as long as they have their flow of traffication coming in from South America to the Carribean and on to the US, this is not going to stop.

The borders are still not secure- hello? where is the wall: Barely even going up!!!

Caldernón is doing his best– one man versus all the corruption which became him– lone man on a island!

You don’t think I don’t like Calderón— I like him as much as President Uribe in Colombia-

these two have my support! I think these two guys are trying to make some great changes but ahhh, corruption as set them back!

And as for the free trade which Hillary, not know anything, oppossing free trade to Colombia, better look at how this would be a good thing.

It is one of those things- kiss your neighbor’s ass because you will never know when you need your backyard to be mowed! duh?

SOUTHERN California, SOCAL, is not going to let you rest Adam-

Personally, myself, after reading his posts- I really don’t like poachers- I don’t like the fact idiots are trying to make a big buck out of illegal activities- and I DO find these poachers to be offensive! They are trying to capitalize on destroying our environment and plus not having any respect for our environment–

I am on SoCal’s side– and I hope he pushes this!!!

SoCal===

Diod you see Al Gore’s new car?

what a joke–

oops– did?

Carrie–

Carrie-

Petraeus— about Iraq–

He is on to the fact we just can’t just move the troops out now as in pronto! I don’t even know who will be the best President– but I am going to have to do McCain– because Adam can’t be the one or LDG here—

but Iraq can’t be left alone for at least for a few months- the babies (Al Sadr et al) just don’t know how to behave!

Susan: What’s Al’s new car like?

Max—

I can’t find the link to Al’s new car– darn!!

xxx

Susan: if you ever find it just email it to me. Thanks

For any of you who would care to see a comparison of how well U.N.-administrated policing works, I might suggest looking at Haiti for a prime example.

This is news *From This Last Week* — blink and you’d have missed it:

“The rage erupted in days of violent clashes with U.N. peacekeepers and looting across Haiti that left five people dead in the countryside before abating late Thursday. Protesters even stormed the presidential palace on Tuesday, charging its main gate with a rolling dumpster and yelling for Preval to step down.

“Before the death of the U.N. policeman Saturday, U.N. military commander Maj. Gen. Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz told The Associated Press that calm was returning across the country, with some transportation resuming and people going back to work.”

*And if you are more concerned with the “why?” of Haiti still being a problem, well…

“Globally, food prices have risen 40 percent since mid-2007. Haiti is particularly affected because it imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice. Once-productive farmland has been abandoned as farmers struggle to grow crops in soil devastated by erosion, deforestation, flooding and tropical storms.”

from FOXNews, quoting The AP.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351008,00.html

*Follow-Up

Both the Haiti story, and the story of this thread regarding Mexico’s anti-narcoterror policing, are superb topics. Important to know about, important to discuss, and they fell utterly off the media radar as soon as the “Murder / AWOL Story” hit. Looks like there is room in the headlines for only one Latin America or Caribbean story at time.

A. Housley, I do not envy your job one bit (re: as a Foreign Correspondent). Somedays it must seem like you are a lone voice…