NOAA Fisheries News Releases
NEWS RELEASE
October 23, 2000
Carol Tocco, Public Affairs NMFS
(907) 586-7032
Susan Auer, General Counsel
(907) 586-7414
High Seas Drift Net Vessel Sold for $226,500
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of General Counsel in Juneau announces that on October 16, 2000, the F/V ARCTIC WIND was sold at auction to the highest bidder. The amount bid for the vessel was $226,500 and the successful purchaser was Price, Waterhouse/Pacific Island Resources.
The F/V ARCTIC WIND, approximately 177 feet in length and registered in Honduras, was sighted with approximately 4 miles of nets in the water by a Coast Guard C130 on May 1, 2000. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act implements a United Nations' resolution imposing a global moratorium on large-scale driftnet fishing beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone of any nation. On May 7, the United States Coast Guard Cutter SHERMAN intercepted the vessel, and after a lengthy chase, boarded the vessel and directed the ARCTIC WIND to return to the location where she had deployed the drift nets to retrieve those nets.
The vessel, along with the approximately 3 metric tons of frozen salmon on board, was seized for violation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act prohibition of high seas drift net fishing and escorted to Adak, Alaska. A team of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service Enforcement personnel then took over custody of the vessel and sailed the vessel on to Seward, Alaska. The Immigration and Naturalization Service coordinated with NOAA Fisheries Enforcement to repatriate the vessel's Russian crew. Prior to the sale, more than 40 miles of drift net were removed from the vessel.
The salmon on board the vessel were predominately of chum, sockeye and chinook salmon. Samples of those fish were analyzed by the NOAA Fisheries Auke Bay Laboratory (Juneau) to determine their region of origin using genetic stock identification, otolith marks, and parasite analysis. Based on the analysis, the chum salmon samples originated in Russia, 63%; Japan, 14%; western Alaska, 11%; Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak, 6%; Prince William Sound/southeast Alaska, 4%, and British Columbia, 1%. The origins of the sockeye salmon sample were Russia, 24%; Alaska/northern British Columbia, 75%; and southern British Columbia/Washington, 2%. The origins of the chinook salmon sample were Russia, 44%; western Alaska, 23%; southcentral Alaska, 6%, and California/Oregon/Washington, 27%. No chinook salmon were detected from southeast Alaska or British Columbia. The remainder of the salmon not analyzed were donated to the Foodbank of Alaska.
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