July 8, 2021 — A new app through The Skipper Science Partnership will allow fisherman to contribute info directly to a database, aiding in the monitoring of changing ocean conditions throughout Alaska. Heather Bauscher, Lauren Divine, and Lindsey Bloom join host, Brooke Schafer to discuss the program and how fisherman can get involved.
New Tribal Research Coordinator for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center
July 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries is pleased to announce that we have hired a new Tribal Research Coordinator. Mabel Baldwin-Schaeffer joins the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Communications Program and will be based in Anchorage, AK.
Baldwin-Schaeffer will provide technical support to help enhance existing communications and outreach efforts. She will also foster relationships with subsistence communities and fishing sectors to identify opportunities for scientific collaboration and co-production of research.
“This is a first for us and we couldn’t be more excited to have Mabel working with us. Mabel was very successful in building partnerships with diverse stakeholder groups to co-produce data when she was at the Fisheries, Aquatic Science and Technology Laboratory at Pacific University,” said Robert Foy, Director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “We know our efforts to identify research needs and to more effectively communicate with and design collaborative research projects with Alaska Indigenous communities, Tribal governments, and Alaska Native organizations will benefit greatly from Mabel’s knowledge and experience.”
Baldwin-Schaeffer has both a science background—a Bachelor’s degree in Sustainability Studies and a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from Alaska Pacific University—and ties to local communities. Given her direct experience with Alaska Native community cultures, traditions, and ways of communicating, Baldwin-Schaeffer will help to strengthen collaborative relationships with Indigenous communities in Alaska. She will also build staff capacity at Alaska Fisheries Science Center to engage effectively in these efforts. This will help facilitate greater information sharing and opportunities to develop mutually beneficial research priorities.
“I am committed to making positive steps in improving collaboration within and between Alaska’s tribal communities and the institutions and agencies committed to supporting sustainable subsistence-based livelihoods and healthy marine ecosystems,” said Baldwin-Shaeffer.
Promising prices, record landings for Bristol Bay sockeye
July 7, 2021 — Alaska’s Bristol Bay salmon season is off to a strong start in what is expected to be another harvest hovering around all-time highs for both catch and value in the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.
Fish were already pouring in to at least two of Bristol Bay’s four major river systems. As of July 1, the bay had produced 9.02 million commercial sockeye landings — 46 percent above the five-year average — on a preseason prediction of more than 36 million sockeye, according to area biologist Tim Sands with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
By Tuesday, July 6, that total was above 14 million sockeye.
While early returns look good, test fishing indicates the run should sustain for a relatively long period of time, which should help the fishery avoid bottlenecks in fishing and processing.
Last season’s compressed run, coupled with covid-19 complications, strained Bristol Bay’s fishermen and processors. The Bristol Bay fishery also slogged through the pandemic last season with a disappointing base price of just $0.75, but got early, unexpected news that Peter Pan Seafoods will pay a base price of $1.10.
New app lets Alaska mariners report real-time changes in the marine ecosystem
July 7, 2021 — Fishermen are the ears and eyes of the marine ecosystem as a changing climate throws our oceans off kilter.
Now a new phone app is making sure their real-life, real-time observations are included in scientific data.
The new Skipper Science smartphone app, released June 18, comes from the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea as a way “to elevate the thousands of informal-yet-meaningful environmental observations by fishermen and others into hard numbers for Alaska’s science-based management,” said Lauren Divine, director of ecosystem conservation for St. Paul’s tribal government whose team created and owns the dataset for the app.
“How do we take what has historically been called anecdotal and create some structure around it that is rigorous and has scientific repeatability?” Divine told KCAW in Sitka.
“There is a vast body of deep knowledge that fishermen hold from their experience on the water, indigenous and non-indigenous alike, that they use for decision making and risk evaluation and to execute a likelihood on the water. And we have very much underutilized that knowledge for years, especially here in the North Pacific,” she added in a phone interview.
The free app, which works on or off the internet, is an offshoot of an Indigenous Sentinels Network started 16 years ago at St. Paul Island to monitor wildlife and the environment in the Bering Sea.
To broaden its reach, St. Paul partnered with advocacy group SalmonState’s Salmon Habitat Information Program. Through its surveys and other outreach, SHIP quantifies what’s regarded by scientists as fishermen’s “informal observations” and shares the information with managers and decision makers.
Texas captain dies after F/V Pneuma capsizes in Alaska’s Bristol Bay
July 7, 2021 — Record-breaking salmon hauls in Bristol Bay were met with tragedy on July 1, when the captain of the F/V Pneuma died after the gillnetter capsized in the Nushagak District fishery, sending the whole crew overboard.
Lance Eric Norby, 45, of Texas, was identified as the captain, according to the Alaska State Troopers.
“Pneuma was stuck on a sandbar when a large wave knocked the entire crew overboard. The F/V Fortress, and tenders Provider and Last Frontier responded to the call,” said OBI Seafoods in a statement released over the weekend.
The Alaska Wildlife Troopers reported that they received a call just before 6 a.m. on July 1 that a commercial fishing boat was taking on water on the South end of Nushagak Bay. All three crew members went into the water, and two troopers patrolling the area in a skiff immediately responded. They were able to pull one of the survivors to safety aboard the skiff. The good Samaritan commercial fishing boats pulled the other deckhand and Norby from the water.
“Poor weather combined with an uneven fish load is likely what caused the vessel to capsize,” said Austin McDaniel spokesman for the troopers, based on the agency’s preliminary investigation.
A Coast Guard rescue swimmer assisted with initial medical care for the crew. Despite extensive life-saving efforts, the captain was declared deceased by Coast Guard personnel at about 9:40 a.m.
UAA researchers present link between commercial fishing and local economies
July 7, 2021 — The following was released by the University of Alaska Anchorage:
Fishing season is back! Commercially, fishing constitutes considerable economic activity in Alaska, generating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in value. However, despite the industry’s size, mostly anecdotal evidence is available about how commercial fishing activity benefits residents of coastal communities compared to those who travel from the Lower 48 or internationally to participate in the season.
Brett Watson, Ph.D. and researcher for UAA’s Institute of Social and Economic Research, along with UAA economics professors Mouhcine Guettabi, Ph.D. and Matthew Reimer, Ph.D., as well as National Marine Fisheries Service economist Alan Haynie, Ph.D., developed a statistical model to bridge this gap: “Commercial Fisheries and Local Economies,” published in the January 2021 issue of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.
“If you go to Seward, Homer or Bristol Bay, you can see the fishing happening. But seeing activity doesn’t mean the benefits are going to stay in that place,” said Watson. “In the paper we cite that if you drive through rural Texas or rural North Dakota, you can see oil rigs for miles and miles. But the ones getting the checks live in Houston, Oklahoma City, New York or LA.”
Alaska pollock: Alaska product now 86 percent of U.S. consumption
July 6, 2021 — The Bering Sea TAC for pollock has been ratcheted back to 1.375 million metric tons — that’s down from last year’s 1.425 million and close to what it was set at in 2019. In the Aleutian Islands harvest area, the quota has been set at 19,000 metric tons, unchanged from last year. For the Gulf of Alaska waters, the TAC fell from the 115,930 metric tons to 113,227 metric tons for 2021.
In May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the purchase of $159.4 million in domestic seafood and agricultural products. Of that, seafood will account for $70.9 million. Alaska pollock products have always been high on the list of purchases by the USDA for school lunch and other institutional food programs, and pollock contracts in 2021 will tally up to $20 million.
Also in May, data released by the National Fisheries Institute indicated that pollock pulled ahead of tilapia to rank fourth place in domestic seafood consumption. Though shrimp, salmon and canned tuna continue to rank above pollock, NFI noted that consumption of pollock products increased by a quarter pound per capita from 2018 to 2019. Meanwhile, the NFI research conducted for the Seattle-based Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers found that wild Alaska pollock products comprised 86 percent of that national increase from 2018 to 2019.
ALASKA: 2019 Norton Sound crab fishery gets disaster status
July 6, 2021 — The 2019 Norton Sound red king crab fishery has been determined by Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo to qualify for disaster status.
Positive determinations make this and other fisheries eligible for disaster assistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They may also qualify for disaster assistance from the Small Business Administration.
Raimondo worked with NOAA Fisheries to evaluate the fishery in the Nome area. A declared fishery disaster must meet specific requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act or the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. For example, there must be commercial fishery economic impacts and declines in fishery access or biomass resulting from specific allowable causes due to the fishery disaster event.
ALASKA: Dungeness catch down from 2020 but price is up
July 6, 2021 — Commercial Dungeness crabbers will have a full two-month summer and two-month fall season in most of the region, based on the first week’s catch.
The 2021 Southeast season isn’t off to as strong a start as last year. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports the preliminary catch estimate from the first week is around 711,000 pounds, landed by 163 permit holders. Those numbers are expected to increase as more landings are reported. Nevertheless, that’s under half of the bumper crop harvested in 2020. Last year saw a first-week catch of around 1.5 million pounds and the full season harvest went on to be the second highest on record, 6.7 million pounds.
Based on that first week catch, Fish and Game estimates this year’s total catch will wind up around 3.4 million pounds. That’s well above the threshold to allow a full season. Fishing time’s been shortened only a few times in the past two decades, because of a weak catch or poor quality crab.
Authorities identify man who died after fishing boat sinks in Nushagak
July 6, 2021 — A commercial fisherman has died after a vessel sank in the south end of Nushagak Bay on Thursday morning with three people on board.
Authorities on Friday identified the deceased as Lance Eric Norby, 45, of Arlington, Texas. He captained the F/V Pneuma. Norby’s next of kin has been notified.
Alaska State Troopers report receiving a call around 5 a.m. Thursday morning that a commercial vessel was taking on water. Two wildlife troopers responded immediately. Before they got there, they heard reports that the three people on board were in the water.
Authorities credit Good Samaritans on the scene with helping in the rescue. Among those was skipper Caleb Mikkelsen, who said his crew was getting ready for an opener when he got a call from a friend that there was a vessel in distress on the VHF radio.
“We could hear that there were two boats and a skiff trying to help this vessel that was sinking out on those Snake River flats there,” he said.
The people at the scene said they still needed help. So Mikkelsen piloted his boat, the F/V Fortress, about seven miles to help.
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