You gotta be kidding me!

I'm on the ALCAN, but I'm not moving an inch.  Of all the bummers, when traveling, breaking down is right up there at the top of the list.  I didn't even get 250 miles into British Columbia and the Ford's engine spun a rod bearing.  I wish I could say it was just a bad car, but I picked it out after weeks of searching. I'm a victim of my own thoroughness.  I picked a car that had lived on Vashon Island it's whole life.  Evidently a car which only does short trips to the store and whatnot can have a problem when put under a pretty good load like a long haul to Alaska.  It seems they build up a lot of junk in the oil ways and internal parts of the engine from being a short distance personal vehicle.  After years of easy driving and maybe stretching it's oil changes a bit, I buy the car, have it checked out by my mechanic, load up the old Ford Explorer and head for Alaska.  The short of it is, all the junk breaks loose and drops into the oil screen and plugs it up.  The engine doesn't get quite enough lubrication and bingo, you get a spun rod bearing!  I checked all my options and concluded I will be better off putting a "slightly" used engine in it and continuing my trek north.  It will take two and a half days to get it done and be on my way again.  I really really didn't need this!!!        PS: This is the view from the hotel room

The Halibut industry in disarray.

The international commission which manages Halibut from the lower 48 to the Bering Sea passed down its verdict on the catch limits for 2011 this week.  They aren't very pretty.  2A is up 12% - 2B is up 2% - 2C is lowered a whopping 47% - 3A is lowered 28% - 3B is lowered 24% - 4A,B,C,D all up a little bit.  The reason for the big downward adjustments in several area catch limits, we are led to believe, is smaller fish.  The scientists would have us believe that fish which used to be 100 lbs. at 12 to 15 years of age are now only 35 lbs.  They cite competition for food by Arrow tooth flounder as the culprit.  I don't know about you, but I doubt very much a 2 lb. flounder can out muscle a 35 lb. Halibut or almost any sized Halibut for that matter.  Where did all the Arrow Tooth, that are competing with the Halibut for food, come from? Are there really that many flounder in area 2C? Of course not, but they do have a problem or two. So do areas 3A & 3B.   There are several 800 lb. gorillas in the room here which have to be dealt with, once and for all, or Halibut will continue to be unmanageable.  The charter fleet must be brought into Federal and State compliance and there has to be 100% observer coverage in the trawl fleet.
To start with, you have to designate what sport and charter really are.  If it's sport, it's catch and release.  If the fish are harvested it's a commercial fishing enterprise and should be managed according to the State and Federal laws, already in place, for these "fully utilized" species of fish.  Only when you can account for every lb. of fish removed from the ocean, can you have a good enough data-set to manage a resource from.