Saving Seafood

Community Steps Up to Continue Yukon River Salmon Research During Pandemic

May 20, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On the Yukon River, Chinook salmon are woven into the fabric of life and culture. They are a resource that indigenous people have harvested for more than 1,000 years. But over the last 20 years or more, the Chinook populations have declined dramatically. Fewer Chinook are returning to the river each year, and those that do are smaller and younger than they have been in the past. This has created hardship for the people who rely on this resource. It is nurturing a strong desire to understand and contribute to solutions to address the dwindling returns.

Ragnar Alstrom, Executive Director of Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association, explains it this way: “We want to be a part of figuring out why our Chinook aren’t returning. Instead of standing by and waiting for someone else to figure it out, we want to be engaged in the science.”

So began a special partnership between NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and local fishermen from the villages of Emmonak and Alakanuk. Starting in 2014, the Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association (YDFDA) worked with scientists to identify nine permanent sampling stations on the three main lower Yukon distributaries. Each summer, local fishermen and NOAA Fisheries biologists work together. They set and retrieve salmon sampling nets, identify and count the catch, and measure water temperature and depth. They send salmon samples to the NOAA Fisheries Auke Bay Laboratories where their diet and body condition are analyzed.

Read the full release here

Cannery workers document the Chinese history of Alaska’s fishing industry

May 19, 2021 — Like other parts of the country, Asian immigrants have a long history in Alaska. Besides building railroads and working in mines, they also played a major role in the cannery industry.

As Alaska Public Media’s Jeff Chen reports, the Chinese immigrants who arrived before statehood helped grow Alaska’s wild salmon industry into the international, multi-billion-dollar economy that it is today.

Watch the video here

For more information on the historical documentation projects discussed in this video, check out the links below.
https://nncanneryproject.com/
https://chinesecannerylaborers.home.blog

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Alaska seafood marketing arm hopes to finally benefit from federal pandemic relief dollars

May 18, 2021 — Alaska’s lone seafood marketing arm gets zero budget from the state and to date has received no pandemic funds.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is hoping to get a breather from the more than $1 billion coming to Alaska in the latest round of federal relief dollars under the American Rescue Plan (ARP).

The influx also provides $518 million of nondiscretionary funds to Alaska and $220 million for public health and safety, workforce development, education, transportation and emergency management.

ASMI put in a $20 million request two months ago, but Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy made no mention of it in mid-April when he released his proposals for the ARP money nor anything since.

Dunleavy did include $150 million for Alaska Tourism Revitalization, citing the need for “industry relief to promote tourism and adapt services for potential loss of cruise ship season.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: OBI donates first Copper River salmon sale to nonprofit supporting restaurants

May 18, 2021 — The highly anticipated Copper River salmon season, which opens Tuesday, 18 May, has chefs, seafood retailers, and consumers paying top-dollar for the first fish to be caught and sent to the mainland United States from Alaska.

Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based OBI Seafoods opted to donate some of its first fish to the Seattle nonprofit We Got This Seattle, which supports frontline workers and Seattle restaurants.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska Congressional Delegation Applauds Historic USDA Purchase of Seafood for Food Assistance Programs

May 18, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK):

U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, all R-Alaska, applauded the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) approval of a Section 32 purchase of up to $159.4 million in domestically produced seafood, fruits, legumes, and nuts for distribution to food assistance programs in Alaska and across the country.

“Whether it is farmers, ranchers, food workers, seafood harvesters or others, the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for Alaska’s farm and food economies, both on land and at sea. These impacts have only exacerbated longstanding disparities in food insecurity, with millions of American households struggling to put enough food on the table. Food banks are busier than ever as families across the U.S. worry about where their next meal will come from,” said the Alaska Congressional Delegation. “This historic purchase of foods to assist our food producers and hungry Americans – including the largest single seafood purchase in the USDA’s history – will have a tremendous impact on the struggling seafood sector, and will also ensure food assistance programs can provide nutritious and healthy food for Americans as we continue to navigate the pandemic. We thank Secretary Vilsack and the Administration for their focus on addressing these dual needs and look forward to continuing to work with the USDA to expand seafood support in their programs in the future.”

Background: These foods are being purchased with Section 32 funds, so named because the funds are authorized by Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act.  The Act authorizes a percentage of customs receipts to be transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture to support the prices of surplus domestic commodities and to distribute those commodities through various USDA programs designed to feed hungry Americans.  Foods purchased with Section 32 funds are distributed to schools, childcare programs, senior citizens, food banks, victims of disasters, and Indian tribes through programs such as the National School Lunch Program, the Summer Food Service Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and the Emergency Food Assistance Program.  The Section 32 purchase announced today will include: Alaska pollock, apricots (canned, dried, and frozen), chickpeas, dry peas, Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic wild-caught shrimp, lentils, navy beans, Pacific pink shrimp, Pacific rockfish fillets, Pacific whiting fillets, pistachios, prepared peaches, and sockeye (red) salmon.

Analyst says China not meeting US seafood purchase commitments under trade agreement

May 17, 2021 — China is not living up to its commitments to purchase U.S. seafood under the 2020 trade agreement between the two sides, according to a trade analyst at a U.S. fishery trade body.

The U.S. China Economic and Trade Agreement, also known as the “phase one deal,” was signed in early 2020 and bound China to USD 200 billion (EUR 164.5 billion) in purchases from the U.S. through increasing orders of certain commodities, including seafood. The increase was based on figures for 2017 – the last full year before the trade war began.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Copper River salmon harvest set to begin May 17

May 17, 2021 — Alaska’s 2021 salmon officially starts on Monday, May 17 with a 12-hour opener for reds and kings at the Copper River.

All eyes will be on early Cordova dock prices for Alaska’s famous “first fresh salmon of the season” as an indicator of wild salmon markets. COVID-forced closures in 2020 of high-end restaurants and seafood outlets tanked starting prices to $3 per pound for sockeyes and $6.50 for king salmon, down from $10 and $14, respectively the previous year.

But early signs are looking good.

Heading into Mother’s Day on May 9, demand for seafood was “fanatic” said Mitch Miller, vice president of national upscale seafood restaurants Ocean Prime in Nation’s Restaurant News.

National Retail Federation President Matthew Shay said there is a lot more consumer optimism this year as more people are getting vaccinated and stimulus checks are being distributed, and friends and family are moving about more freely.

Alaska’s 2021 salmon harvest is projected to top 190 million fish, a 61% increase over the 2020 catch. The breakdown includes 46.6 million sockeye salmon, 3.8 million cohos, 15.3 million chum salmon, 296,000 Chinook and 124.2 million pinks.

Read the full story at The Cordoba Times

Alaska’s seafood processors expect to spend more this year than last on the pandemic; seafood market looks promising in some areas

May 17, 2021 — Alaska’s seafood industry has a lot of moving parts. There are the fishermen, the processors, the market, as well as the fish themselves.

By all accounts, the pandemic has been hard on the processors. Last year, they spent about $70 million in mitigation measures and responding to the pandemic. But this year it’s expected to be even more…over $100 million.

In fact, a lot of it has already been spent this year.

“There were challenges and some plant closures that happened despite all these protocols,” Lesh said.

Dan Lesh is with McKinley Research Group that surveyed processors and others in March about the effects of COVID on Alaska’s seafood industry. He says the flat fish industry was hit hard with outbreaks in January causing expensive plant closures. Those costs are in addition to the ongoing price for pandemic mitigation.

“A lot of these costs are already baked and my understanding is that most the mitigation measures will be continued.”

So, basically there are more months this calendar year dealing with the pandemic.

Read the full story at KFSK

MARY PELTOLA, SCOTT VAN VALIN, & MICHAEL KAMPNICH: Fisheries managers should reverse course on censoring public comments

May 14, 2021 — The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council process is difficult to navigate. It is a world of acronyms, statistics and legal jargon; but decisions made there impact the lives of all Alaskans, and directly affect allocations of federally-managed species — including king salmon and halibut — to Indigenous, sport and commercial stakeholders. Meetings occur over weeks and can last more than 10 hours per day. It requires significant time to participate, time the average Alaskan does not have. Recently, the Council enacted a policy that makes it more difficult for Alaskans to effectively advocate for their communities, businesses and food sources.

At the April meeting, a policy tightening restrictions on written public comment was quickly proposed and passed. This meeting drew an outpouring of testimony on two items: halibut and king salmon bycatch by the trawl sector. The overwhelming majority of testimony favored reducing that bycatch and managing it based on abundance. People expressed their viewpoints passionately. A few included profanity, but those were dwarfed by the number who respectfully expressed concerns about the future of our ocean ecosystems, fisheries, communities, cultures and livelihoods.

Late on the final day of the meeting, the Council adopted a policy that significantly tightened the rules on written testimony and gave Council staff broad authority to censor and filter comments. Part of their stated rationale for the new policy was that “members of the public linked the comment portal… and broadcast it on social media platforms (Facebook, Reddit), which generated numerous comments from people not familiar with the Council process” and “numerous comments were made prior to any documents being uploaded, and many comments were unrelated to the eAgenda item under which they were posted.” It may be frustrating to the Council when stakeholders are not as familiar with their process and culture as paid advocates whose lobbying contracts are compensation for intimate knowledge of the complex rules and relationships within the system. However, this is not a valid rationale for censoring the public, nor is it inappropriate to share information on how to participate with a broad audience of Alaskans for whom the process may be new or discouraging.

Read the full opinion piece at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska’s Fisheries Committee Gets Seafood Market Report from ASMI in Last Days of Session

May 13, 2021 — Alaska’s House Fisheries Committee had the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) slated for a marketing update last Tuesday, but the meeting — and the presentation — were cancelled. As it was, committee members got a copy of the presentation, which brings the state up to date on Alaska’s seafood marketing activities and impacts of COVID-19 on the seafood sector.

The full presentation is still available on the House Fisheries Committee website. It gives a snapshot of ASMI’s structure, mission, funding sources, recent consumer research results, and the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Read the full story at Seafood News