January 6, 2021 — More than 58 million sockeye salmon returned to Bristol Bay this summer. It’s another in a series of enormous runs to the fishery. The commercial harvest was just as impressive — Bristol Bay’s fleet hauled in 39.5 million fish, which is the fifth-largest harvest on record.
But while the Bay’s run exceeded 50 million fish for the sixth year in a row — 46% above the 20-year average — many other areas of the state were far below their forecast.
January 6, 2021 — Some fishermen in the North Pacific Ocean are on edge ahead of a traditionally fruitful winter fishing season, following a rough 2020 that saw catch rates fall below long-term averages.
The coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of some research surveys, making it more difficult to determine how many fish are in the Bering Sea off Alaska, the Seattle Times reported Monday.
The Seattle-based Alaska Fisheries Science Center canceled five of six research missions that help scientists measure fish stocks because of fears of virus outbreaks at sea.
Fishermen have begun their two-week coronavirus quarantines ahead of the Jan. 20 start of the fishing season and aren’t sure what they’ll find once ships largely based in Washington state make their way to the Bering Sea.
“This is the best time of year,” said Kevin Ganley, who captains a 123-foot (37-meter) boat called American Beauty. “If (the fish) are not there, we’re in trouble.”
January 6, 2021 — As an Alaska committee prepares to vote this week on which groups to include in the next round of COVID-19 vaccinations, people from a wide range of backgrounds and industries — along with those most vulnerable to a severe infection from the virus — are vying for a spot.
Nearly 50 people — including teachers, seniors, seafood industry workers, pilots, judges, veterinarians and utility plant workers — made their case during a public hearing held Monday evening by the Alaska Vaccine Advisory Committee.
The group also received over 300 written public comments.
Teachers, older adults and seafood industry workers made up a large share of the comments.
“As health care professionals, your job should be to protect those who face the greatest medical dangers from COVID,” said Cynthia Pickering Christianson, who identified herself on the call as an Alaska resident over the age of 65. “This committee should vaccinate our oldest residents first.”
Ole Christenson spoke next, and said he agreed, “100 percent.”
January 6, 2021 — More than 58 million sockeye salmon returned to Bristol Bay this summer. It’s another in a series of enormous runs to the fishery. The commercial harvest was just as impressive — Bristol Bay’s fleet hauled in 39.5 million fish, which is the fifth-largest harvest on record.
But while the Bay’s run exceeded 50 million fish for the sixth year in a row — 46% above the 20-year average — many other areas of the state were far below their forecast.
“When you take Bristol Bay out of the picture and look at sockeye harvests in Alaska, the non-Bristol Bay sockeye harvests this year were the lowest on record since 1976,” said Dan Leash, an economist with the McDowell Group.
Across all species, the value of the state’s commercial salmon season dropped more than 50% from last year — 56% below last year. 2020 was valued at $295.2 million, while last year was valued at $673.4 million. Harvests were also down by 44%.
“Sometimes when you have a low harvest year, the prices will rise. But that didn’t happen this year,” Leash said. “It was sort of a death by 1,000 cuts in terms of the impact of the seafood on the harvesters this year.”
January 5, 2021 — Skipper Kevin Ganley spent most of the summer and fall pulling a massive trawl net through the Bering Sea in a long slow search for pollock, a staple of McDonald’s fish sandwiches. The fish proved very hard to find.
“We just scratched and scratched and scratched,” Ganley recalls. “It was survival mode.”
Ganley’s boat is part of a fleet of largely Washington-based trawlers that have had a difficult year as they joined in North America’s largest single-species seafood harvest. Their catch rates in 2020 during the five-month “B” season that ended Nov. 1 were well below long-term averages. They also encountered more skinny, small fish — fit for mince but not prime fillets — than in a typical year, according to a federal review of the season.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 greatly complicated the essential task of keeping crews healthy as one company, Seattle-based American Seafoods, was hit with outbreaks on three vessels. The pandemic also resulted in the cancellation of some research surveys that help scientists measure fish stocks in a body of water that has been undergoing climatic changes as temperatures warm.
This has added an unwelcome element of suspense as crews start their COVID-19 two-week quarantines before the Jan. 20 start of the “A” season.
Read the full story from The Seattle Times at the Anchorage Daily News
January 5, 2021 — This year marks the 30th year that the weekly Fish Factor column has appeared in newspapers across Alaska and nationally. Every year it features “picks and pans” for Alaska’s seafood industry – a no-holds-barred look back at some of the year’s best and worst fishing highlights, and my choice for the biggest fish story of the year. Here are the choices for 2020, in no particular order:
Best little known fish fact: Alaska’s commercial fisheries division also pays for the management of subsistence and personal use fisheries.
Biggest fishing tragedy: The loss of five fishermen aboard the Scandies Rose that sank southwest of Kodiak.
Biggest new business potential: Mariculture of seaweeds and shellfish.
Most daring fish move: Fishermen in Quinhagak formed a cooperative of 70 harvesters to revitalize commercial salmon fishing in Kuskokwim Bay, including members from Goodnews Bay, Platinum and Eek. It’s the first fishery since 2016 when the region’s “economic development” group abruptly pulled the plug on buying local fish.
Biggest fish challenge: Getting whaled. Many fishermen say they can lose up to 75% of their pricey sablefish catches when whales strip their lines.
January 5, 2021 — This week, on the opening day of the 117th Congress, Congressman Don Young (R-AK) introduced the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act. This legislation reauthorizes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery and Conservation Management Act – landmark fisheries management and conservation legislation first written by Congressman Young in 1975. The Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) was last reauthorized in 2006.
“Alaska’s seafood industry is one of the primary drivers of our state economy, and for over forty years, the Magnuson-Stevens Act has allowed our fishermen, processors, and coastal communities to thrive,” said Congressman Young. “In 1976, I was proud to fight for our Nation’s fishermen alongside my dear friend Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA) as we first drafted this bipartisan legislation, and I am proud to continue the fight. As the nature of our ecosystem and fishing industry changes, we must ensure our laws are updated to keep pace in an evolving world. COVID-19 has impacted Alaska’s fishermen and processors, and we need to help them bounce back from this public health crisis. One crucial way of securing economic opportunity is to manage our fisheries sustainably, so that our fishermen have product to bring to market in the first place. I am pleased to work with industry leaders, and stakeholders in Alaska and throughout the country to update this important law. Future generations must have access to our ocean’s renewable resources. Simply put, sustainability is not a partisan issue – Alaskans know that more than anyone else. This reauthorization takes important steps to protect one of our most important renewable resources, and ensures that generations of fishermen to come can earn a living by putting sustainable seafood on the tables of families across the country. I will be working diligently to earn bipartisan support for our reauthorization so that it gets across the finish line and is signed into law.”
“Congressman Young has always fought for Alaska’s fishing industry in Washington, D.C., and he knows first-hand how important sustainable fisheries are to our state,” said Clay Koplin, Mayor of Cordova, Alaska. “I am very pleased that he has introduced legislation to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which has had an incredibly positive impact on Alaska for over 40 years. Commercial fishing has a significant footprint here in Cordova, and this bill will help Alaska continue to be a model for the nation on sustainable seafood practices. I am very grateful for Congressman Young’s long-time leadership on this vital issue. For the sake of fishermen in Alaska and across the country, I call on Congress to help us get the job done by taking up Congressman Young’s MSA reauthorization bill.”
January 4, 2020 — The company behind a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska faces lawsuits from investors claiming it misled shareholders who have seen an 85% drop in stock value since the summer.
Two lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in New York claim Northern Dynasty Minerals violated federal securities law when project executives did not fully provide information about the project, The Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.
Developer The Pebble Limited Partnership and parent company Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. sought to build a mine about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage and near the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay.
The project was criticized by environment groups and also condemned by Alaska Republican U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Seattle Times
December 30, 2020 — The COVID-19 relief bill signed into law this week includes hundreds of millions of dollars more for the fishing industry.
That legislation appropriates nearly $900 billion for COVID-19 aid and was part of the consolidated measure passed by Congress this month and signed by the president this week.
It will mean another payment of $300 million for fishery assistance nationwide. That mirrors the amount in the first stimulus bill from earlier in the year. Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan says the money will help Alaskans in the industry.
“Of course the Alaska fishing community in my view needs this very significantly, which is why we put it in the CARES Act originally — and this is just a plus up to that exact program,” Sullivan said in a teleconference with reporters before Christmas.
Alaska permit holders and companies could see a total of $50 million from the CARES Act in March, and this new bill will mean additional payments.
December 30, 2020 — Every other year, NOAA Fisheries conducts an acoustic-trawl survey from crewed research vessels to measure pollock abundance in Alaska’s eastern Bering Sea. As a result of COVID-19, many research surveys were canceled, and we weren’t able to conduct our walleye pollock surveys. Data collected from these surveys are critical to manage pollock, which comprise the nation’s largest commercial fishery.
NOAA Fisheries scientist Alex De Robertis at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center developed a contingency plan: conducting the survey with saildrone wind- and solar-powered ocean-going robots. The hope was to collect some data despite the vessel survey cancellation.
For the past several years, De Robertis and colleagues at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center have been working with partners at NOAA Research’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Saildrone and Kongsberg. They use uncrewed surface vehicles equipped with low-power sonar (acoustic) sensors to conduct research in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. The pollock survey contingency plan was an opportunity to apply what they had learned to collect data for resource management.