China Trade Mission & Sea Lion Litigation
Through tomorrow, Washington companies Airfresh Seafoods, Land ‘O Lakes Purina, Sage Hill Northwest, and Valley Pride Sales, along with other U.S. agri-businesses and federal and state agriculture leaders, are in China taking part in the largest USDA ag trade mission to that nation ever. Mission leaders and ag business representatives spent the weekend meeting with potential Chinese buyers of U.S. ag products and viewing Chinese production facilities. USDA Under Secretary Darcy Vetter talks of potential opportunities for U.S. exporters resulting from such trade missions.
VETTER: It is often the case that they leave those meetings contracts in hand, but if they don’t they often leave with a much better understanding of what the customer base in China is, what kinds of products they might be interested in in the future, or even what kinds of adjustments they might need to make to their current product mix to be more attractive.
The number of California sea lions feasting on salmon spawners below the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam peaked at 104 in 03. Thursday a federal judge denied an HSUS request that sea lion trapping below the lower dam be forestalled while newly filed litigation played out. However, he did alter the rules for the planned lethal removal effort - limiting the federally authorized number of California sea lions that can be lethally removed in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to 30, none of which may be killed by shooting. Prior NOAA Fisheries authorization approved removal of up to 92 California sea lions, and the use of firearms as a removal tool.
I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.