Solar Cells Info

First-ever solar-powered salmon fishery will be operating this summer at Lummi Island in Anchorage
Laine Welch,  March 10, 2007
Source: Anchorage Daily News
http://www.adn.com/money/story/8699195p-8599623c.html

The first-ever solar-powered salmon fishery will be operating this summer at Lummi Island, home to the world’s only remaining reefnet fishery. It’s located at the northeast tip of the San Juan archipelago in Washington state, near Bellingham.  Reefnetting is perhaps the oldest form of net fishing in the world. Called “the original and still the best in selective fishing” by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, it was done centuries ago by Native Americans using cedar canoes and cedar nets.

Although the boats are bigger now and winches are used to pull the nets, there isn’t much difference in the fishing method to this day. Instead of chasing the fish with motorized boats, reefnet fishermen create an elaborate array of lines and ribbons that form a funnel-shaped reef. As the fish swim along, they are forced upwards and over into a large net suspended between two anchored barges.

“We stand on towers on each barge and watch for the fish. When a school comes over the net, we lift it up with electric winches and spill the fish into a live well filled with slush ice,” explained Riley Starks of the Lummi Island Wild Co-op.

The winches are powered by banks of six-volt batteries, which must be ferried to shore for recharging.

“For years we’ve talked about ways of rigging something up so we wouldn’t have to bring thousands of pounds of batteries in every night,” Starks said.

The fishermen believe the sun will provide the solution.

The co-op has partnered with Bellingham-based Alpha Energy to power the salmon fishery with solar panels. This spring Alpha Energy will donate and install the panels on three of the 11 barge-net operations — called “gears” — that compose the reefnet fleet. Starks estimated the panels cost $10,000 per gear, and said the co-op will expand solar energy to the entire fishery.

“This is a perfect example of how solar power can save time, labor and money for a fishery or any business in a remote location,” said Matt Donnelly, vice president of Alpha Energy. “These reefnet boats are in the water for months at a time and require constant power to operate. As long as the sun rises in the morning, they will have environmentally friendly power.”

The Lummi Island fish will use “solar salmon” tail tags as a marketing angle when the fishery begins in late July.

“If we can get it into the mind of consumers that they’re doing something good by purchasing this fish — every little advantage helps,” Starks said.

He added that overall, the concept means far more than money.

“Solar technology could be used in lots of different salmon fisheries. Where the opportunity exists, it should be done to try and make our footprint on this Earth as small as possible.”

For more information, go to www.lummiislandwild.com.

• Halibut “hookie.” The way halibut behave around baited circle hooks tells fish scientists a lot about the stocks.

“Our belief is that if fish over about 20 pounds bite a circle hook, they’re hooked. Most of the fish under 10 pounds that bite the hook don’t get hooked, and there is a pretty direct progression as size gets bigger of fish being caught,” said Steve Kaimmer, a biologist with the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

This summer Kaimmer will observe how well the “hooking success” of halibut meshes with computer models.

“We count the number of fish in each size group caught in the commercial fishery and our surveys, and estimate how many halibut are out there on the sea floor. We want to recreate with a good number of observations the hooking success on circle hooks that is being predicted by our stock-assessment model,” he said.

Kaimmer uses an “acoustic camera” that provides underwater sonogram images. His earlier observations revealed that halibut almost always come up-current when they’re following a scent trail to baited gear.

“A lot of times they would overshoot the baited hook, and then loop back around. At that time, I think they’re using vision because they’ve lost the scent. They often won’t take a bait right off the bat, but will sit 5 to 10 inches down-current and just smell it for a while. When it decides to take it, it gives a kick of its tail and grabs it on the run, so to speak. It’s very amusing,” he said.

The commercial halibut season opens today and runs to Nov. 15.