Saving Seafood

Copper River Seafoods no longer buying Cook Inlet salmon amid declining harvests

March 31, 2022 — Another seafood processor is moving out of Kenai this salmon season. Copper River Seafoods is ending its run in the old Snug Harbor Seafood plant, leaving one major salmon processor in the area but promising the addition of a new company soon.

Processors like Copper River buy catch from commercial fishermen and bring that catch to market. As commercial fishermen have dealt with declining salmon runs and management changes, processors from Kenai to Homer have left, too, leaving fishermen with fewer options.

In a letter, Copper River CEO Scott Blake said those factors were to blame for the company ending its salmon buying on the Kenai Peninsula, as well as increasing production costs.

The letter didn’t call out any particular management changes and a spokesperson for Copper River Seafoods could not be reached before airtime.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Scientists Use Innovative DNA Technology to Characterize Nearshore Marine Fish Communities in Southeast Alaska

March 31, 2022 — Alaska, known for its vast geography and cold, productive waters, supports some of the most valuable fisheries in the world. However, Alaska’s northern latitudes, diverse coastal habitats, and dynamic ocean conditions make studying these fisheries particularly challenging.

An innovative DNA technology may help to change that. Scientists recently demonstrated that environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding can characterize nearshore fish communities in different marine habitats and tidal conditions in Southeast Alaska. Researcher organizations included:

“Environmental or eDNA can revolutionize how we assess nearshore fish communities in Alaska,” said Wes Larson, manager of the science center’s genetics program. “Traditionally, the only way to sample nearshore fish communities is by using beach seines or similar gear types set from either shore or small boats. Now we have another technique for generating similar data sets analyzing a simple water sample with eDNA metabarcoding.”

Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries

Salmon travel deep into the Pacific. As it warms, many ‘don’t come back.’

March 30, 2022 — During a typical fall, almost a million chum salmon pour into Alaska’s Yukon River, a torrent of wild fish that has sustained the economy and Indigenous culture in the far north for generations. Last year, that run collapsed, with salmon trickling upstream at a 10th of normal levels, forcing the state to airlift frozen fish from other regions to feed the population.

About 400 miles to the south, in Bristol Bay, the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery set a record last year, with more than 66 million salmon returning to the rivers in the watershed. That total is expected to be broken again this year.

Salmon in the Pacific Ocean face dramatically different fates from one river system to the next. As the planet warms, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, scientists say changes in ocean conditions are helping drive these wild swings and collapses of key stocks. These North Pacific fish account for most of the world’s wild-caught salmon, and their survival has implications for economies and cultures around the Pacific Rim.

During her three decades as a government scientist, as climate change has intensified, Laurie Weitkamp has watched these fluctuations in salmon numbers become bigger and the models that predict how many salmon will return from sea become more unreliable.

“Salmon will go out, in what we think is a really good ocean, and then it collapses,” said Weitkamp, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration based in Oregon. “They don’t come back.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Unibond CEO challenges conclusions of study on Chinese processing

March 30, 2022 — A Chinese seafood industry executive has taken issue with a report by a group of Norwegian and U.S. academics that suggested mislabeling is commonplace in the huge Chinese seafood processing industry.

Unibond Seafood International CEO David Jiang said the data and conclusions in the report, “China’s Seafood Imports – Not for Domestic Consumption?” are incorrect because they don’t take into account the percentage of the fish volume reduced in processing.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Board votes to continue conservation measures for weak Southeast Alaska king salmon stocks

March 28, 2022 — Alaska’s Board of Fisheries this week voted to continue with conservation measures for chronically low returns of king salmon in Southeast Alaska. Some stocks are forecast to be at their lowest levels on record this year and others have rebounded a little under fishery closures.

The region has 34 stocks of king salmon and the board has listed seven as stocks of concern. That means for four years or more, those runs have not had enough fish making it back to spawn, or what managers call an escapement goal.

Ed Jones is an Alaska Department of Fish and Game coordinator specializing in king salmon research. He outlined to the board the measures taken to reduce harvest of those fish.

“Through the actions taken beginning in 2018 with the action plans, we have taken good steps towards achieving the escapement goals,” Jones said. “The problem is the production of these stocks has just continued to be low. And so right now we’ve not been able to provide a harvestable yield annually. The hopes are that that production will change, escapement goals will be met and we’ll also be able to identify yield.”

Read the full story at KTOO

NOAA Fisheries Names Jon Kurland New Regional Administrator in Alaska

March 25, 2022 — Today, NOAA Fisheries announced that Mr. Jon Kurland is the new Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Region. He will assume his new duties on March 27, 2022. Mr. Kurland has been with the agency since 1990, serving in two regional offices and headquarters, including three senior leadership roles in the Alaska Region: Assistant Regional Administrator for Habitat Conservation, Acting Deputy Regional Administrator. Since 2012, he has served as  Assistant Regional Administrator for Protected Resources. He succeeds retiring Regional Administrator Dr. Jim Balsiger who had been in the position for 21 years.

“I am extremely pleased to announce this appointment,” said NOAA Fisheries’ Assistant Administrator Janet Coit. “Alaska’s waters support some of the most productive and valuable commercial fisheries in the world, and are also home to nationally and globally significant marine mammal populations and habitats. For Alaskans, the effects of climate change on these resources is real. I am confident that Jon will bring a unique awareness of these changes to this new role. I am excited for him to dive in.”

As Regional Administrator, Mr. Kurland will head the agency’s regulatory and management programs for fisheries, marine mammals, and habitat conservation. This includes the responsibility for managing approximately 105 employees and 20 contractors and other affiliates. The Alaska Regional Office is located in the capital city of Juneau, with field staff in offices in Anchorage, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The office works closely with its counterpart, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, in the science-based stewardship of marine life and their habitats in the waters of the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans off Alaska.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

 

Hooked on Data: How Numbers Guide Alaska’s Commercial Fisheries

March 23, 2022 — Alaska fisheries run on data–data and the hard work of those in the Last Frontier’s seafood industry. Data inform every aspect of the management of the state’s fisheries, from policy decisions and regulations to how much fish can be caught in a season. Data also play a vital role in understanding the markets for Alaska’s various seafood products, as well as the economic impact of the sector.

The Alaska Constitution entrusts the Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to “manage, protect, maintain, improve, and extend the fish, game, and aquatic plant resources of the state in the interest of the economy and general well-being of the state.” Given the weight of the responsibility, the department has developed a robust, data-driven method for managing the state’s fisheries, from sea cucumbers to salmon and everything in between.

“We collect assessment information for basically all of our fisheries so that we understand the status of the population, allowing us to operate under long-term sustainable management principles,” explains Bert Lewis, a regional supervisor for the Division of Commercial Fisheries at the ADF&G.

Each assessment program is designed to provide a basic count or an estimated biomass for a target species. The programs are based on an understanding of a species’ lifecycle and include what information needs be collected in the field, such as size, age, sex, and location the catch came from, Lewis says.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Hatcheries produced a third of Alaska’s salmon catch in 2021

March 22, 2022 — Salmon returning home to Alaska hatcheries again accounted for nearly a third of the statewide catch for commercial fishermen with 64 million fish in 2021. It was the eighth largest hatchery homecoming since 1977. And at a payout of $142 million, the salmon produced 25 percent of the overall value at Alaska docks.

An additional 220,000 salmon that got their start in a hatchery also were caught in Alaska sport, personal use and subsistence fisheries.

Nearly 70 million adult hatchery salmon returned last year, according to the annual salmon enhancement report by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Pinks comprised the bulk of the pack, topping 57 million, followed by chum salmon at 9.4 million.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Gruff, warm, combustible, shrewd: For 49 years, Don Young’s ideology was ‘Alaska’

March 21, 2022 — Don Young, the irascible riverboat captain who did not so much represent Alaska as personify it for half a century in Congress, died Friday as he was flying home to Alaska for yet another political campaign.

Young was 88, the oldest and longest-serving member of the current Congress. In serving the 49th state for 49 years, he had become the longest-serving Republican congressman in history.

No cause of death has yet been given. The congressman lost consciousness on a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle and could not be revived. His wife, Anne, was traveling with him.

Young was first elected to Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election in March 1973. Four months earlier, he had lost the regular election to Democrat Nick Begich, the incumbent congressman who had disappeared on a campaign flight but would not be declared dead until December.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

National Fisheries Institute Statement on the passing of Representative Don Young

March 21, 2022 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

Congressman Don Young was a champion of Alaska fisheries. A co-author, stalwart supporter, and defender of the Magnuson Stevens Act—his commitment to fisheries management was acclaimed far from just the bountiful waters of the state he represented.  

His long history of legislative work was appreciated by his constituents and colleagues. After 49 years in office, as the longest serving Representative, he was the Dean of the House. 

His delivery and dialogue were often called colorful, but his passion and commitment were never questioned. His dedication to Alaska and the men and women who work its waters, as well as his willingness to get even the difficult things done will be missed. 

John Connelly

President