Saving Seafood

Investigation into Scandies Rose sinking points to faulty stability instructions

July 2, 2021 — The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the Scandies Rose sinking has found no fault with the captain or crew but pointed to inaccurate vessel stability instructions that could have led to dangerous ice accumulation.

Included in the NTSB report, which was released on Tuesday, were a series of findings voted on and accepted by the board. Among them was the finding that there were no issues with the conduct of captain or crew or problems with the vessel itself. The hearing looked closely at a series of welds made on the Scandies Rose, but the NTSB found they did not contribute to the sinking, either.

The NTSB also found that the ice accumulation on the F/V Scandies Rose likely would have been between 6 and 15 inches on the wind-facing side. This would have raised the boat’s center of gravity and lowered its stability, contributing to the capsizing.

Read the full story at KTOO

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute to receive millions in CARES Act funding

July 1, 2021 — The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) will receive USD 3 million (EUR 2.5 million) in CARES Act funding to help cover additional costs precipitated by COVID-19, money that should help the organization rework pandemic-era marketing strategies.

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy recently announced the allocation to ASMI, Alaska’s largest marketing association for seafood.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: More of the same a good thing as Bristol Bay gets underway

June 30, 2021 — Early indicators are pointing to yet another strong year in the massive Bristol Bay sockeye fishery, which is contrasted against the continued struggles in many of the state’s other large salmon fisheries.

Just more than 3.2 million sockeye had been harvested through June 27, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game figures, with the Nushagak District accounting for more than half of the catch so far at nearly 1.7 million fish. The 3.2 million-fish harvest to-date this year is between the comparable totals for recent years; 1.2 million sockeye were harvested through June 27 last year, while more than 4.4 million were caught by the same day in 2019.

With sockeye harvests of more than 40 million fish and total runs greater than 56 million sockeye, both of the last two years have been among the most productive in the history of the Bristol Bay fishery.

Dillingham Area Management Biologist Tim Sands said early June 29 that he’s confident there are a lot of fish still making their way to the head of Bristol Bay based on catches in the Port Moller test fishery.

He noted that returns to the Egegik River down the Alaska Peninsula have been particularly strong, with a harvest of more than 1.2 million fish and a total return estimated at more than 1.7 million sockeye through June 27, several-fold more than last year in each category.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

The Future of Ocean Farming

June 29, 2021 — Called regenerative ocean farming, this model involves growing shellfish and kelp in underwater gardens.

For all his life, Alaskan fisherman Dune Lankard has looked to the sea—for food, work and purpose. “I started fishing when I was five,” says Lankard, a member of the Athabaskan Eyak community, an Indigenous group from the Copper River Delta. “I really don’t have any skills beyond the ocean.”

Born in 1959, the same year Alaska became a state, Lankard has witnessed various natural and man-made disasters—including the commoditization of Indigenous peoples’ traditional fishing way of life—that have disrupted his industry and homeland. “As an Indigenous fisherman, I’ve seen it all,” he says.

In 1964, a massive magnitude 9.2 earthquake, fittingly called the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964, triggered a swell of tsunamis that killed more than 130 people and devastated fisheries. Exactly 25 years later, an Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef in the Prince William Sound, spewing 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the sea. The spill affected 1,300 miles of water and coastline, much of which is still considered to be in recovery.

Now, Alaskan fishermen are facing another urgent problem. Alaska is already feeling the effects of climate change, as the warming oceans have wreaked havoc on ecosystems of krill, wild kelp forests, salmon and birds. That’s all on top of the lingering losses caused by the 1989 oil spill. Before the Exxon spill, the Sound’s spring run of herring totalled more than 200,000 tons returning home. Today, there are only 4,000 tons returning annually. Lankard recently sold his fishing permit after several consecutive bad seasons.

To help mitigate the effects of warming waters, Lankard is now embracing an approach known as regenerative ocean farming, which involves growing seaweed and shellfish in small underwater gardens. Once a commercial fisherman, Lankard now mostly farms kelp.

“Alaska has always been based on extraction. We’re a natural resource extraction state,” says Lankard. “What regenerative ocean farming does is create a new regenerative economy that’s based on conservation, restoration and mitigation, as opposed to more extraction of resources.”

The burgeoning concept of regenerative ocean farming was developed and named by Bren Smith, a Canadian commercial fisherman turned ocean farmer. He believes ocean farming is the new farming model of the future.

Read the full story at Modern Farmer

Secretary of Commerce Approves Disaster Declarations in Four U.S. Commercial Fisheries

June 29, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA:

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced today her determination that fishery disasters occurred in four fisheries in 2018, 2019, and 2020 — for two states, Alaska and New York, and for two Tribes, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis, in Washington.

“Fisheries are essential to our communities and economy and we want to ensure America is in a position to remain competitive on the global stage,” Secretary Raimondo said. “These determinations allow us to lend a helping hand to the fishing families and communities that have experienced very real and difficult setbacks in the last few years.”

The Secretary, working with NOAA Fisheries, evaluates each fishery disaster request based primarily on data submitted by the requesting state or tribe. A declared fishery disaster must meet specific requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and/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.

The Secretary found that the following fisheries met the requirements for a fishery disaster determination:

  • 2019 Norton Sound Red King Crab in Alaska
  • 2019/2020 Peconic Bay Scallop in New York
  • 2018 Port Gamble S’Klallam Puget Sound Coho Salmon in Washington
  • 2019 Chehalis and Black River Spring Chinook Salmon in Washington

Positive determinations make these fisheries eligible for disaster assistance from NOAA.They may also qualify for disaster assistance from the Small Business Administration. The Department of Commerce has balances remaining from previously appropriated fishery disaster assistance and will determine the appropriate allocation for these disasters.

The Secretary also determined, working with NOAA Fisheries, that red tides in Florida did not cause a fishery disaster for Florida fisheries between 2018 and 2019.

Learn more about fishery disaster assistance.

Alaska House votes to avert government shutdown

June 29, 2021 — The Alaska House of Representatives voted Monday to allow the budget bill to go into effect on Thursday, July 1, averting what would have been the state’s first-ever government shutdown.

The vote was 28-10.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he’s reviewing the budget for any line items he may veto, and then he’ll prepare the budget for implementation.

House Speaker Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, said Monday’s vote will likely come as a relief to many, including the state workers who would’ve gotten laid off under a shutdown.

“We’ve got a lot of Alaskans that are probably jumping for joy about now, thinking that their paychecks are going to continue on coming,” she said.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

US maritime economy grew at a pace double the entire national GDP in 2019

June 28, 2021 — The nation’s maritime economy grew at pace that nearly doubled the growth of the entire U.S. GDP in 2019.

GDP stands for gross domestic product and reflects the total market value of all finished goods and services in a specific time frame. It is used to estimate the size of an economy and its growth rate – a sort of comprehensive scorecard of a country’s economic health.

A first-ever report released this month by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that the so-called “blue economy” grew by 4.2% and generated nearly $400 billion to the GDP.

Along with the oceans, the report includes the Great Lakes and looks at the contributions from shoreside businesses. Those businesses generated almost $666 billion in sales in 2019 and supported 2.4 million jobs.

Commercial fishing, including aquaculture, contributed $27 billion making it the sixth-largest segment of the blue economy.

The top marine economic activity in 2019 was tourism and recreation, including coastal trips and travel, and offshore boating and fishing. That accounted for 35.3% of gross output totaling $235 billion.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

With help from a new app, fishermen can track changing ocean conditions in real time

June 25, 2021 — A new smartphone app hit the market last week (6-18-21), with the potential to transform the debate over Alaska’s ocean resources.

“Skipper Science” will allow users along Alaska’s entire coastline to contribute observations about changes in fish and animal populations, which can then be collected and quantified as data for Alaska’s science-based resource management.

Anywhere the Alaska Board of Fisheries meets, there is always a certain amount of frustration among some of those who testify, because their years of experience — sometimes over many generations — doesn’t seem to carry much weight in management decisions, which tend to be driven by data.

In Sitka this is particularly acute around herring season, where subsistence harvesters have noted drastic declines in the abundance of the species over many decades, while 40-odd years of data collection by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game suggests everything is okay.

Skipper Science was created for exactly this purpose. Developed by the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, it’s a way for Alaska’s harvesters and managers to at least speak the same language.

“How do we take what has historically been called anecdotal and create some structure around it that is rigorous, has scientific repeatability?” asks Lauren Divine. She’s the Director of Ecosystem Conservation for the Aleut Community of St. Paul, the tribal government of St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea.

Read the full story at KCAW

ASMI report finds COVID-19 pandemic boosted seafood consumption

June 24, 2021 — A new report sponsored by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) showed that at-home seafood consumption has risen during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many consumers intentionally moving away from red meat to seafood as a healthier form a protein.

The report – put together by Datassential for ASMI – found that 26 percent of consumers bought seafood for the first time during the pandemic, while 35 percent are cooking more seafood than they did previous to the pandemic, with around 60 of general consumers maintaining their pre-pandemic levels of seafood consumption.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Council’s Swift Action on BSAI Cod Shuts Down Efforts to Restore Adak’s Seafood Economy

June 24, 2021 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council moved quickly to adopt a preliminary preferred alternative (PPA) to rationalize the last major race for fish in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands — trawl-caught Pacific cod — which also relegated Adak’s state-of-the-art seafood plant to the bottom of the pile in terms of access to the resource.

“I am announcing today that, based on the Council’s preliminary preferred alternative in the CV [catcher-vessel] trawl package, Peter Pan Seafood Company is suspending all further work in Adak,” said Steve Minor, Manager of Business Development for Peter Pan, on the day after the Council approved the motion.

Read the full story at Seafood News