Saving Seafood

Fish Sticks Make No Sense

April 26, 2021 — There are many curious facts about fish sticks. The invention of this frozen food warranted a U.S. patent number, for instance: US2724651A. The record number of them stacked into a tower is 74. And, every year, a factory in Germany reportedly produces enough fish sticks to circle Earth four times.

But the most peculiar thing about fish sticks may be their mere existence. They debuted on October 2, 1953, when General Foods released them under the Birds Eye label. The breaded curiosities were part of a lineup of newly introduced rectangular foods, which included chicken sticks, ham sticks, veal sticks, eggplant sticks, and dried-lima-bean sticks. Only the fish stick survived. More than that, it thrived. In a world in which many people are wary of seafood, the fish stick spread even behind the Cold War’s Iron Curtain.

Beloved by some, merely tolerated by others, the fish stick became ubiquitous—as much an inevitable food rite of passage for kids as a Western cultural icon. There’s an entire South Park episode devoted to riffing off the term fish stick, and the artist Banksy featured the food in a 2008 exhibit. When Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 90th birthday, in 2016, Birds Eye presented her with a sandwich that included blanched asparagus, saffron mayonnaise, edible flowers, caviar, and—most prominently—gold-leaf-encrusted fish sticks.

Paul Josephson, the self-described “Mr. Fish Stick,” is probably best at explaining why the fish stick became successful. Josephson teaches Russian and Soviet history at Colby College, in Maine, but his research interests are wide ranging (think sports bras, aluminum cans, and speed bumps). In 2008, he wrote what is the defining scholarly paper on fish sticks. The research for it required him to get information from seafood companies, which proved unexpectedly challenging. “In some ways, it was easier to get into Soviet archives having to do with nuclear bombs,” he recalls.

Josephson dislikes fish sticks. Even as a kid, he didn’t understand why they were so popular. “I found them dry,” he says. Putting aside personal preference, Josephson insists that the world didn’t ask for fish sticks. “No one ever demanded them.”

Instead, the fish stick solved a problem that had been created by technology: too much fish. Stronger diesel engines, bigger boats, and new materials increased catches after the Second World War. Fishers began scooping up more fish than ever before, Josephson says. To keep them from spoiling, fishers skinned, gutted, deboned, and froze their hauls on board.

Read the full story at The Atlantic

Skagway Traditional Council monitors wildlife activity to forecast seasonal hooligan run

April 26, 2021 — The arrival of the hooligan, at one time, meant the difference between survival and starvation at the end of a long hard winter in Southeast Alaska.

Traditionally, hooligan — also known as eulachon, candlefish or saak — provided not only food for the Chilkat and Chilkoot Tlingit people of the Upper Lynn Canal, but also medical, social and spiritual well-being.  Their arrival is often forecasted by the presence of gulls, ducks, seals, sea lions and orca.

Reuben Cash is the environmental coordinator for the Skagway Traditional Council and is working on the Northern Southeast Alaska Eulachon Population Dynamics Monitoring program. The purpose of the program is to learn more about these anadromous fish, their ecology, population dynamics and distribution.

For the last three to four years, the STC has been utilizing a relatively new type of science to study the fish.

“We’ve been using a new methodology using environmental DNA. So every critter has DNA, right, that’s what makes up our, our entire makeup is based on this DNA,” Cash said. “And we’re constantly shedding ourselves. So DNA goes into the environment, so they call it environmental DNA, and you’re able to detect whether or not something is there.”

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: New report estimates at least $5M cost to replace subsistence salmon with other protein sources in Bristol Bay

April 23, 2021 — A third of the state’s subsistence salmon harvest was caught in Bristol Bay in 2017, according to a new report from the McKinley Research Group. The subsistence economy is critical to Bristol Bay’s culture, and it’s the oldest and most continuous use of salmon.

The report, “The Economic Benefits of Bristol Bay”, attempts to quantify what it would cost to replace subsistence salmon with other protein sources from stores in the region.

Bristol Bay subsistence fishers caught over 500,000 pounds of salmon in 2017, according to the latest data available. The research group estimates that it would cost $5-$10 million to replace that catch with other sources of protein. Rebecca Braun is one of the researchers who worked on the report.

“Because the world speaks in dollars, we tried to translate the subsistence harvest into dollars,” Braun said. “And it’s kind of an inherently impossible exercise because subsistence values goes beyond economics.”

Read the full story at KTOO

Juneau judge denies Sitka Tribe’s motion on constitutional grounds

April 23, 2021 — The commercial and subsistence herring seasons in Sitka have drawn to a close. But the legal case between Sitka Tribe of Alaska and the state continues, with a Juneau Superior Court judge recently denying Sitka Tribe’s motion for summary judgement on constitutional grounds.

Last fall, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska won two victories against the state in the fight over its management of the Sitka Sound Sac Roe Herring Fishery. And in January the legal team representing STA made its third case, arguing that the state had not met its constitutional duties in its operation of the fishery. Juneau Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally denied STA’s claim in a ruling issued last month.

Read the full decision here

During oral argument in January, attorneys representing STA argued that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is required under certain clauses of the Alaska State Constitution to use the “best available information” when making management decisions about the fishery. They argued that the state had not used the “best available information” during the 2018-2019 season when it failed to provide a subsistence harvest data report and a scientific study reviewing the state’s model to the Board of Fish.

After the hearing, it took Judge Schally nearly eight weeks to issue a ruling. In his 13 page decision, Schally wrote that the state’s constitution does not require the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to use the “best available information.”

Read the full story at KCAW

ALASKA: Commercial and subsistence harvesters speak out against trawler bycatch of Chinook salmon

April 22, 2021 — Alaska’s commercial fishermen have been speaking out against big trawlers for years, complaining that the large vessels in federal waters are scooping up mature and juvenile fish. The regional council that manages federal fisheries recently heard from hundreds concerned about the number of salmon and other species that end up as bycatch in trawl nets.

For Alaska’s troll fleet, king salmon is their money fish. In state waters, small crews on these 40 to 50-foot boats — or even small skiffs — will catch a fish at a time, and it’s worth it: Chinook salmon can fetch $6 a pound from a processor.

But there’s another big-money fish in Alaska: Pollock. It’s the white fish found in a McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish® or an imitation crab stick. And the factory trawlers that ply the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska in search of pollock and other groundfish scoop up Chinook salmon and other species in their wide nets.

Federal fisheries data show trawlers in the North Pacific took about a tenth of the Chinook — or king salmon — caught by Alaska’s commercial salmon fleet last year. And those numbers are tracking the same this year. But none of that catch happens on purpose.

Preliminary ADF&G data show about 263,000 kings were commercially harvested last year statewide. As of last week (April 15), bycatch in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska areas for 2021 was around 16,000 fish, over six percent of last year’s statewide commercial harvest. Last year’s trawler bycatch was 26,000 kings, or about a tenth of the 2020 commercial Chinook harvest in-state.

Read the full story at KSTK

NPFMC 2021 April Newsletter

April 22, 2021 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Council met via web-conference April 5-16. The digital newsletter is published, the 3 meeting outlook is updated, and you can listen to the audio recording on box.net. Please note that the Council made changes to the written comment policy which will be effective for the June Council meeting. As always, you can access all other meeting materials including motions through the eAgenda.

A decade after Fukushima nuclear disaster, Alaska expands seafood monitoring

April 21, 2021 — State environmental regulators announced Monday they’re expanding radiation testing of commercially harvested Alaska seafood to include crab using a Gamma radiation detector at a state laboratory in Anchorage. That’s thanks to continued federal funding from the Food and Drug Administration.

A devastating earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan in 2011 killed tens of thousands and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant which released radioactive material into the air and ocean.

That led to global concern about the safety of Pacific seafood. Alaska began screening fish samples in 2014. It now routinely tests prime export products including Bristol Bay salmon and Bering Sea pollock to reassure consumers that Alaska seafood is safe.

“We have not detected any elevated levels that are deemed harmful for consumption or for the health of the animal,” Bob Gerlach told CoastAlaska.

He’s the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s chief veterinarian and runs Alaska’s seafood monitoring program. He says the agency is now finalizing plans to begin testing several species of crab to capture more of the complex marine food web.

Read the full story at KCAW

Snow crab and other premium crab saw huge retail growth in 2020

April 20, 2021 — “Insatiable” is the word being used to describe the demand for snow crab as the world’s largest fishery got underway on April 5 in eastern Canada. And while more snow crab will be available this year, buyers expect a tight supply.

Global seafood supplier Tradex said snow crab and other “premium crab” saw huge growth at retail in 2020 and demand is even higher this year.

Seafoods like crab and lobster are now perceived as being affordable to buy and cook at home compared to the cost in restaurants. Tradex spokesperson Tasha Cadence said that shift has spawned a new pandemic-inspired word by market experts.

“It’s ‘premiumization,’ or customers recognizing a higher value for a product and paying a higher price,” she said, referring to comments by industry veteran Les Hodges in his April Crab Update.

The combined Canadian catch for snow crab through September, most of which is sold to the U.S., tops 157 million pounds, 11 million pounds higher than 2020. The Canadian crab makes up 62% of the U.S. market share, according to Urner-Barry which has provided information for the food industry since 1858.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Annual blessing remembers Sitkans ‘who go down to the sea in ships’

April 20, 2021 — A spring tradition resumed in Sitka on Friday (4-16-21) — on what felt like the first real day of spring in Southeast: The Annual Blessing of the Fleet.

Southeast Alaska Women in Fisheries organizes the event, in conjunction with the Sitka Lutheran Church and St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral. Last year the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the blessing, and this year the traditional large ceremony at Crescent Harbor was replaced with a scaled-back ceremony at the Mariner’s Wall at ANB Harbor.

Read the full story at KCAW

On the Water in Alaska, Where Salmon Fishing Dreams Live On

April 19, 2021 — My camera lens is pressed against the window of the small floatplane as it flies below a thick ceiling of clouds. The mist clings to the hillsides of a temperate rainforest that descend steeply to the rocky coastline of southeast Alaska.

The plane banks, and a tiny village comes into view. A scattering of houses are built on stilts on the water’s edge. We circle and I see fishing boats tied up next to a large dock and a floating post office. The pilot throttles down and the pontoons skim across the glassy water inside the bay. We taxi to the public dock and I step out in front of the Point Baker general store.

Life along the Alaska coast is economically and culturally dependent on fishing. Each summer, millions of salmon — after maturing in the ocean — begin their journey back to the rivers in which they were spawned. Fishermen, along with whales, eagles and bears, share in the abundance.

Alaska is home to five species of Pacific salmon. These fish are anadromous; they begin their lives in freshwater rivers and lakes and eventually make their way down rivers and into the ocean. Depending on the species, salmon may spend between about one and seven years in the ocean before beginning their journey home to the freshwater where they were born.

The ability of salmon to find their way home is one of nature’s greatest miracles. Among other navigational aids, salmon can detect a single drop of water from its home stream mixed in 250 gallons of saltwater.

Read the full story at The New York Times