Saving Seafood

Despite Ukraine invasion, the U.S. and Russia are still working together to solve salmon mysteries

March 3, 2022 — Tensions continue to simmer between Moscow and Washington in the wake of Russia’s invasion of  Ukraine.

In many respects, the divide between East and West is deepening: Oil companies are canceling partnerships with Russian firms. State legislators are calling for the state’s sovereign wealth fund to dump Russian investments. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the U.S. would close its airspace to Russian aircraft.

But the United States and Russia are continuing to work together on at least one issue: salmon.

There’s a map scattered with orange, green, blue and red dots spanning most of the North Pacific above 46 degrees latitude.

Read the full story at KRBD

Seaweed, salmon and sablefish win big in Alaska seafood competition

March 2, 2022 — The Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation celebrated its final round of prizes for the annual Alaska Symphony of Seafood competition in Juneau Thursday, Feb. 24.

The contest for new value-added products made from Alaska seafood is designed to propel product development that diversifies markets, improves utilization and reduces fish waste.

The winners will now head to Boston for Seafood Expo North America’s Seafood Excellence Awards in March.

“For the first time, we are especially proud to say that three of the Symphony’s first place winners are in the top 10 finalists in the Seafood Excellence Awards, a national competition,” said Julie Decker, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, based in Wrangell. “This demonstrates that the Alaska seafood industry is a national leader in product innovation and that the Alaska Symphony of Seafood is an excellent path to a national stage.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Paper finds hotter, drier conditions negatively impact salmon spawns

March 2, 2022 — A new paper published 15 February in Fisheries Magazine confirms that salmon spawns fared worse in hotter, drier conditions.

The new paper, “Premature Mortality Observations among Alaska’s Pacific Salmon During Record Heat and Drought in 2019,” found salmon had higher spawning success in glacier and snow-fed streams than in rain-fed streams in hot, dry conditions.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Ban on US purchases of Russian seafood opposed by some national food marketers

March 1, 2022 — Quid pro quo. Tit for tat. An eye for an eye.

“If they don’t buy from us, we shouldn’t buy from them,” Alaska’s seafood industry has grumbled since 2014, when Russia abruptly banned all food imports from the U.S. and several other countries. Then, as now, the faceoff stemmed from Russia’s invasion and subsequent takeover of chunks of Ukraine, which prompted backlash and severe sanctions.

Yet U.S. purchases of Russian seafood through 2021 have totaled over $4.6 billion and counting, according to federal trade data.

Alaska’s congressional delegation has finally taken first steps to end the trade imbalance. On Feb. 9, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan introduced the United States-Russian Federation Seafood Reciprocity Act of 2022 that would prohibit imports of any Russian seafood products into the U.S. until that country ends its ban on buying U.S. seafoods.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Massachusetts vs. Alaska fish fight over Russian imports

February 24, 2022 — A proposal by Alaska’s two U.S. senators to ban seafood imports from Russia has met resistance in the form of Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass.

On Feb. 9 , Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, both R-Alaska, filed S.3614, the U.S.-Russian Federation Seafood Reciprocity Act, which seeks to respond to Russia’s embargo of American fish and other seafood products that was put in place after the U.S. with a reciprocal ban.

Sullivan sought to have the bill approved in the Senate by unanimous consent. However, Markey objected to the bill, saying it could create unintended consequences for U.S. seafood importers.

“I have heard from seafood processors in my home state with concerns about potential sudden effects of a new immediate ban on imports on their workforce, including hundreds of union workers in the seafood processing industry,” said Markey. “And that would be right now.”

Sullivan noted that Massachusetts processors handle a large amount of Russian pollock, and suggested that product could be sourced from Alaska instead.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

American Seafoods appoints new CEO, COO

February 23, 2022 — American Seafoods Group, one of the largest at-sea processors of Alaska pollock and Pacific hake in the world, announced it has appointed Einar Gustafsson to take over as CEO from Mikel Durham.

The company announced the shift on 18 February, as Durham announced she was stepping down and that was looking forward to “taking a break and spending time with family.” Durham was hired in 2016 and helped turned around the company’s operations after previous debt issues. She also led the company as Bregal sought a suitor for its stake – an effort that has thus far been unsuccessful.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Glaciers’ retreat could open new Alaska salmon habitat

February 22, 2022 — Melting glaciers in the U.S. state of Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia could open up new habitat for Pacific salmon – conceivably almost equal to the length of the Mississippi River – by 2100, under one scenario of “moderate” climate change.

But, on balance, a warming climate will continue to take a negative toll on salmon populations on the U.S. Pacific coast.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

ALASKA: Bycatch task force works to refine mission ahead of November deadline

February 17, 2022 — The governor’s task force to review the effect of bycatch in Alaska fisheries is working to organize against its tight timeline for submitting recommendations to state and federal policymakers. It also has to balance commercial and subsistence interests.

Bycatch is when fishing vessels catch something they’re not targeting. It could be tanner crab caught in a black cod pot, or halibut scooped up in a pollock trawl net. It’s been an incendiary issue in Alaska’s fisheries for decades. Now, as stocks of crab, salmon and halibut decline, trawl fisheries have come under fire for their role, which represents the vast majority of incidental catch in and around Alaska.

The governor’s office took notice. Gov. Mike Dunleavy established a task force to review bycatch late last year with a deadline of November to submit its recommendations.

But during that time, the Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force also has to establish its own priorities, break into subcommittees, and decide what it’s going to focus on before its mandate expires in just nine months. And there’s a lot of information to sort through already as it plays catch-up.

Read the full story at KSTK

Alaska fisherman’s photos could be first visual evidence of North Pacific right whales in the Bering Sea in winter

February 17, 2022 — Josh Trosvig is the captain of the Cerulean, a 58-foot boat currently fishing for cod in the Bering Sea, about 80 miles northeast of Unalaska.

On a sunny day earlier this month, while he was waiting for the tide to change, he said he spotted something that looked like a large tote bobbing on the surface of the water, about 300 feet from his boat.

It turned out to be a group of whales.

But not just any whales.

“I’ve seen a lot of whales — thousands, tens of thousands in my 35 years of fishing out here,” Trosvig said. “But this was unique. I’ve never seen whales feed like that.”

Trosvig didn’t know it at the time, but the whales he was watching were North Pacific right whales. They’re critically endangered. And scientists say Trosvig is likely the first person to take photos and video of the whales feeding in the Bering Sea in the winter.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

While Chignik fishermen wait on 2018 relief funds, some look beyond the fishery to survive

February 16, 2022 — Aloys Kopun sat in the small harbormaster’s office in Chignik Bay last July as a few boats gently bobbed in the harbor’s turquoise water.

“When we were fishing like we normally fished here, the whole harbor was always plump full,” he said. “As you can see, now, we had hardly nobody in here. And everybody’s gone tendering or went to other areas to fish, or some of them went broke.”

Kopun fished in Chignik, on the Alaska Peninsula, for decades before becoming the summer harbormaster.

He said the harbor used to be so full that it had a waiting list for boats to dock there. But last summer, it was almost empty. Significantly fewer boats have returned since the Chignik sockeye run failed in 2018. Fishermen who depend on the salmon closed out that season without making a paycheck.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media