Saving Seafood

Federal fisheries aid will be $50 million, half what Alaska had expected

May 8, 2020 — The state of Alaska will receive $50 million in federal coronavirus aid for fisheries, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Thursday.

While that amount ties with Washington for the most given to any individual state, it’s only half what state officials had expected. In 2018, Alaska landed 58% of the nation’s seafood by volume and 32% when measured by value. (Alaska waters are home to large stocks of pollock, the inexpensive fish used in fast-food sandwiches and fish sticks.)

With those facts in mind, the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy had expected Alaska would receive one-third of the $300 million set aside in the federal CARES Act for fisheries dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, going so far to request in advance that the Alaska Legislature’s budget and audit committee give it authority to accept $100 million in federal fisheries aid.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

DOUG VINCENT-LANG: Alaska has plans to manage this year’s fisheries

April 24, 2020 — Alaska’s fisheries are world-renowned. They feed Alaskans through subsistence, sport and personal use fishing. Our commercial fisheries feed the world, and our charter and guide industries provide much-needed fishing access to both Alaskans and our guests. All contribute greatly to our state and local economies.

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has touched us all and impacted our daily lives in many ways. From hunkering down in our homes, to school closures, to lost jobs and income, to not being able to join friends at the local watering hole, these are trying times.

Trying to find the right balance to protect public health while ensuring we do not destroy the economic foundation of our state is challenging. Our knowledge of the virus is rapidly growing, and as we learn more, our strategies for addressing the pandemic are evolving. This flux is understandably causing uncertainty and uneasiness as we gradually move back to normalcy and a reopening of our economy.

In this light, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is preparing to prosecute fisheries this summer as close to normally as possible. We have plans in place to deploy the necessary research and management infrastructure to allow us to manage the state’s fisheries and we are developing implementation plans to protect the health of our employees, the health of fishery participants and the health of the communities where fishing takes place.

Read the full opinion piece at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska’s 2020 salmon catch expected to be down 36% after a big 2019 season

April 22, 2020 — Alaska’s total salmon catch for 2020 is projected to be down 36 percent from last year’s haul of 207 million fish, the eighth largest on record that was valued at nearly $658 million at the docks.

In the Run Forecasts and Harvest Projections and Review of the 2019 Season just released by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, managers are calling for a harvest of just under 133 million salmon across Alaska. The decline is driven by a much lower forecast for those hard-to-predict pink salmon of just over 60 million fish, down nearly 53 percent.

Here are the salmon harvest forecasts and outlooks for most Alaska regions:

A catch of 4.2 million coho salmon is projected this year, a 300,000 fish increase. For chums, a catch of 19.5 million would be a drop of 100,000 fish.

For sockeye salmon, a harvest forecast of just over 48 million compares to 55.5 million reds taken in Alaska last year, or a drop of 13.3 percent.

A run of nearly 50 million sockeyes is expected to surge into Bristol Bay’s nine river systems, 6 percent higher than the 10 year average. That should produce a catch of 37 million reds, down from nearly 42 million last year.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: No plans to close Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery over COVID-19

April 20, 2020 — Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang says it would be premature at this time to decide to close the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery, since there are a couple months before it even gets going. However, he says the state is keeping a close eye on things, including the Copper River salmon fishery.

“From that experience, which brings in an influx of fishermen into the Cordova area, we’re meeting with the local representatives of the Cordova community as well as the fishing processing sector to figure out how to safely bring in processing workers to make sure that that fishery can occur. Right now that’s scheduled to occur. What we learn from that will inform us on how we manage the Bristol Bay fishery,” said the commissioner.

Dillingham Mayor Alice Ruby and First Chief of the Curyung Tribal Council Thomas Tilden wrote a letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy asking him to consider closing the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery because of the many fish processing employees who will come to the area.

“There is no way to prevent a potential mass disease situation when a few hundred people are in close proximity with each other. There is no way that they can comply with Health Mandate 11 on Social Distancing. Whether it is infection spread in the community by direct contact with residents during their travel to and within the community, or whether it will by draining precious resources when processing employees becomes infected,” read the letter.

Read the full story at KTVA

Safe conduct of Alaska salmon fisheries is possible during coronavirus crisis, Fish and Game says

April 17, 2020 — State fisheries managers insist it is too early to close commercial salmon fisheries to prevent the spread of COVID-19 despite growing concerns from many in small communities about the coming influx of seasonal workers.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in an interview that he is certainly aware of the issues that could arise from holding spring and summer salmon fisheries that start next month as everyone also attempts to limit the spread of the disease, but he stressed state officials are drafting plans to provide extra protection to local residents and fisheries workers.

He also noted that salmon is just one sector of the state’s diverse and year-round fishing industry.

“I think people are wondering whether we’re going to have fisheries; I think they forget that we actually have a lot of fisheries in the water right now and we’re geared up to manage those,” Vincent-Lang said.

In addition to numerous federally managed fisheries, commercial boats are currently targeting crab, halibut, rockfish, pollock, Pacific cod and other species in state waters.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska shellfish farmers and divers object to paying for federally required lab tests

March 18, 2020 — Alaska shellfish farmers and divers fear they won’t be “open for business” much longer if they’re forced to pick up the tab for federally required lab tests as outlined in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed shifting the cost to the harvesters, which last year totaled almost a half million dollars.

Geoduck clam divers in Southeast Alaska, for example, pay about $150,000 each year to collect samples that are sent to the single federally approved laboratory in Anchorage and tested for paralytic shellfish poison and other toxins. Divers also pay $20,000 for water quality samples twice a year, and $8,000 to test for inorganic arsenic.

“And then we pay the Alaska Department of Fish and Game about $25,000 a year for them to do the management and assessment of the geoduck resource,” said Phil Doherty, co-director of the Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Association.

The geoduck divers also tax themselves 7% to cover SARDFA’s $50,000 administrative costs. In all, Doherty said it adds up to $266,00 a year.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska’s national forests contribute 48 million salmon a year to state’s fishing industry

February 10, 2020 — Alaska’s Tongass and Chugach National Forests, which contain some of the world’s largest remaining tracts of intact temperate rainforest, contribute an average of 48 million salmon a year to the state’s commercial fishing industry, a new USDA Forest Service-led study has found. The average value of these “forest fish” when they are brought back to the dock is estimated at $88 million per year.

Led by the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, the study used Alaska Department of Fish and Game data and  estimates from 2007 to 2016 to quantify the number and value of Pacific salmon originating from streams, rivers, and lakes on the Tongass and Chugach, which are, respectively, the largest and second-largest national forests in the country. The study focused on five commercially important salmon species—Chinook, coho, sockeye, pink, and chum—caught primarily in four commercial salmon management areas adjacent to these two forests.

“Pacific salmon fisheries are absolutely central to Alaska’s economy and culture,” said Adelaide Johnson, a Juneau-based hydrologist with the Pacific Northwest Research Station and the study lead. “We suspected that many of the ocean-caught Pacific salmon that support the  likely began their lives in forest streams that drain the Tongass and Chugach National Forests.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Alaska governor’s budget proposal would trim some fishery programs

February 3, 2020 — Cuts proposed by Alaska governor Mike Dunleavy to his state’s Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) next fiscal budget could be felt in a number of commercial fisheries, reports Alaska Fish Radio‘s Laine Welch.

Dunleavy, a Republican elected in 2018, has proposed nipping $1 million next year from the agency’s nearly $67m budget, of which $36m comes from state general funds, according to Welch.

That would mean the closure of an office in Southeast Alaska and the elimination of red king crab assessments. Cuts also are on deck for stock assessments for Southeast urchin and sea cucumber fisheries, which will likely reduce dive time, Welch reported.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: State projects low returns of salmon to Upper Cook Inlet

January 30, 2020 — Another year of poor salmon returns is forecast this summer on one of the world’s most famous salmon streams.

Forecasts for Kenai River chinook (king) and sockeye (red) salmon are below average, according to estimates released this week by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

According to state biologists, this year’s forecast of large, early run Kenai River chinook salmon is just 4,794 fish, a return that would rank as the eighth-lowest return in the last 35 years but would be slightly higher than last year’s run of 4,216 fish. The average return over the past 35 years is more than 9,100 kings in the early run, fish that enter the river through June 30.

The department classifies large fish as those greater than 34 inches in length in order to differentiate 5-, 6- and 7-year fish from their younger, smaller counterparts.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

State will open small Alaska cod fishery

January 10, 2020 — A small cod fishery will occur in Gulf of Alaska state waters (out to three miles) for 2020, putting to rest speculation that no cod would be coming out of the Gulf next year.

A catch quota of about 5.6 million pounds, down from 10.2 million pounds, will be split among five regions: Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet, Kodiak, Chignik, and the South Alaska Peninsula, with limitations on gear and staggered openers.

Read the full story from National Fisherman at Seafood Source