Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Bristol Bay sets record value for 2019 salmon harvest

September 25, 2019 — Bristol Bay salmon fishermen are set to take home their biggest paychecks ever.

The 2019 preliminary ex-vessel (dockside) value of $306.5 million for all salmon species ranks first in the history of the fishery, and was 248 percent of the 20-year average of $124 million, according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The 2019 sockeye salmon run of 56.5 million fish was the fourth largest, and also the fifth consecutive year that inshore runs topped 50 million fish.

The all-species salmon harvest of 44.5 million is the second largest on record, after the 45.4 million taken in 1995. This year over 43 million of the Bristol Bay salmon harvest was sockeyes.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Biomass of snow crab in Bering Sea grew slower than expected

September 24, 2019 — Last week’s Crab Plan Team, an advisory group to the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, heard some good news about increased biomass of mature male snow crab in the US state of Alaska’s Bering Sea, but the survey showed less than what was predicted earlier this year.

The quota for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab fisheries will be set by Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) in mid-October. Alaska’s crab resources are jointly managed by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the ADF&G.

There was a “smaller increase in mature male biomass (MMB) of snow crab than projected, but it is still increasing”, noted stock assessment author Cody Szuwalski of NMFS. He and other scientists recommended one of eight assessment models that would result in a preferred MMB of 111.4 metric tons, with an OFL of 54,900t, 85% higher than last year, to the plan team.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: Warmer waters threaten to make the commercial salmon fishery less predictable

September 18, 2019 — “Unpredictable” is the way salmon managers describe Alaska’s 2019 salmon season, with “very, very interesting” as an aside.

The salmon fishery is near its end, and a statewide catch of nearly 200 million salmon is only 6% off what Alaska Department of Fish and Game number crunchers predicted, and it is on track to be the eighth largest since 1975.

The brightest spot of the season was the strong returns of sockeye salmon that produced a catch of over 55 million fish, the largest since 1995 and the fifth consecutive year of harvests topping 50 million reds. The bulk of the sockeye catch – 43.2 million – came from Bristol Bay, the second largest on record.

It was a roller coaster ride in many regions where unprecedented warm weather threw salmon runs off kilter and also killed large numbers of fish that were unable to swim upstream to their spawning grounds. Many salmon that made it to water faced temperatures of 75 degrees or more in some regions.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Comfish cuts: Alaska fisheries officials cope with nearly $1 million in budget losses

September 4, 2019 — Now the shuffling begins at Alaska fisheries offices around the state as the effects from the state’s veto volleys become more clear.

For the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, an $85 million budget, about half of which is from state general funds, reflects a $997,000 dollar cut for FY 2020. Where and how the cuts will play out across Alaska’s far-flung coastal regions is now being decided by fishery managers.

“Now that the salmon season is about over, we’re taking a good close look at this and what we’re going to put in the water next season. We’ve been assured we can look at our commfish budget in total and reduce the lowest priority projects,” said Doug Vincent-Lang, department commissioner.

Some layoffs are likely, and vacancies and retiree positions may not be filled to save money, he added.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Pink salmon harvest running late but surging in Alaska’s Prince William Sound

August 30, 2019 — The pink salmon harvest is running behind in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, a problem that’s been linked to a record heat wave and drought conditions, but it’s making a strong push, the Cordova (Alaska) Times reports.

Typically by this date, 90% of the catch is complete, but instead, it seems that the harvest is just beginning, Charlie Russell, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, reportedly told the newspaper. Russell said his agency is seeing a lot of die-offs before the fish are successful in spawning.

“They are still hanging out at the mouth of rivers. There is no rain. Until it rains the fish are in a holding pattern waiting at the creek’s mouth. This run is so late that it doesn’t follow a historical run timing curve,” Russell said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Shellfish and seaweed farms are a growing industry in Alaska

August 28, 2019 — Underwater and out of sight are the makings of a major Alaska industry with two anchor crops that clean the planet while pumping out lots of cash: shellfish and seaweed.

Alaskans have applied for over 2,000 acres of new or expanding undersea farms, double the footprint from two years ago, ranging from .02 acres at Halibut Cove to nearly 300 acres at Craig.

Nearly 60% of the newest applicants plan to grow kelp with the remainder a mix of kelp and/or Pacific oysters, said Cynthia Pring-Ham, aquatic farming coordinator at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which issues the permits. Fish and Game partners with the state Department of Natural Resources, which leases the tidal and submerged lands for farms.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Drought and dry conditions impacting salmon across state

August 22, 2019 — This summer has been hot and dry in Alaska — so hot, in fact, that even the fish are feeling it.

All over coastal Alaska, temperatures have hovered significantly greater than normal. The state began sweltering in mid-June and crested on July 4, with Anchorage hitting 90 degrees Fahrenheit and Bethel reaching 91. The bright, sunny days brought Alaskans out to swim and recreate, but they also left the waters where salmon were returning exposed to the direct, unforgiving heat.

Shallower lakes and rivers across Southcentral and Southeast Alaska were the first to heat up. In the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, lakes like Larsen and Judd, where the Alaska Department of Fish and Game operates weirs for sockeye salmon, reached 80 degrees. The Kuskokwim River in western Alaska registered water temperatures about 10 degrees greater than normal, likely contributing to a reported salmon die-off as the fish headed upstream.

On the lower Kenai Peninsula, the Anchor River hit its warmest temperature on record on July 7: 73 degrees. It’s dropped since then to about 66.2 degrees, but the spike was troubling, said Sue Mauger, a scientist with Homer-based conservation nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper. The lack of rain has contributed to the temperature increases too.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: Sockeye salmon continue to surge into Kenai River

July 30, 2019 — Sockeye salmon continue to pour into the Kenai River, where biologists have increased personal use fishing hours and sport bag limits to deal with the flood of fish.

On Friday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued emergency orders allowing personal use fishermen more fishing time at the mouth of the river and increasing the sport limit to six fish per day downstream of Skilak Lake as the river’s escapement approached 1 million sockeye.

Nearly 100,000 fish were counted past the department’s sonar site at river mile 19 on both Saturday and Sunday, capping a week that saw more than half a million sockeye swim upriver.

As of Saturday night, dipnetting is now allowed 24 hours a day in the open area at the mouth of the Kenai River. The personal use fishery is open to Alaska residents only with a valid sportfishing license and personal use permit. The fishery runs through Wednesday.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: ADFG receives barest of cuts among Dunleavy’s vetoes

July 18, 2019 — Fisheries fared better than most in terms of Gov. Michael J. Dunleavy’s budget cuts.

Just less than $1 million was cut from the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, leaving it with an $85 million budget, half from state general funds.

“To give the governor credit, he recognized the return on investment,” said ADFG Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang. “It’s a theme I had all the way through the Legislature that we take a $200 million budget of which about $50 million is unrestricted general funds and we turn that into an $11 billion return to our state. And I think he got that.”

Vincent-Lang added that Dunleavy also did not veto the travel budget for the Board of Fisheries and its advisory committees.

It’s indefinite still how the budget cuts will play out, and Vincent-Lang said he is trying to avoid staff cuts to the 700 comfish positions.

“I suspect we may have some but we will try to do that through vacancies and a variety of other things as we have retirements,” he said.

Also set to get axed is funding for research projects, such as salmon in-season sampling and Tanner crab surveys at Prince William Sound, and five salmon weirs at Kodiak and Chignik. Salmon counting is likely to be reduced at the Yukon River’s Eagle and Pilot Station sonars, along with various stock assessment surveys for groundfish.

“I’ve asked my staff to look at their overall program, and not necessarily cut the projects, but take the ones that have the least impact on the management of our fisheries across our state in terms of economic value back and cut those,” he explained, acknowledging that the cutbacks could lead to more cautious management.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Alaska salmon season stays hot

July 17, 2019 — Record high temperatures might be slowing down some fish pickers in Alaska’s commercial salmon fleet, but you wouldn’t know it from their landings.

The Alaska Department of Fish & Game predicted a statewide annual harvest of 42 million sockeye salmon. Just six weeks into the summer season, the total harvest already stands at 39 million.

Last week, Bristol Bay’s districts landed 14.5 million fish in what could be the third-largest weekly harvest on record for the bay. Overall, the region is 19 percent ahead of 2018 figures, and most other areas of the state are trending above 2018. That fishery typically peaks around the Fourth of July, but the run has not been terribly predictable for several years.

Read the full story at National Fisherman