Saving Seafood

USDA tweaks farm assistance program to fund fishermen hurt by U.S.-China trade war

September 14, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it’s setting aside more than half a billion dollars for fishermen hurt by tariffs associated with the U.S.-China trade war. Some Alaskans are applauding the move, but others worry the program leaves some out.

Jeremy Leighton is a dive fisherman based in Ketchikan. That means that as often as he can, he spends his days on the cold, murky seafloor looking for sea cucumbers and geoduck clams.

He was among the first Alaskans to see the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic — most of Alaska’s geoduck clam harvest is sold to consumers in China. When China locked down as the coronavirus spread, demand for the husky bivalves collapsed and managers closed the market.

Leighton and other fishermen were already facing a tough market — they were already looking at a 25% tariff on seafood exported to China.

“So the last year prices dropped since […] the tariffs were put on,” Leighton said.

But it’s not just geoduck fishermen. Frances Leach heads up United Fishermen of Alaska, a fishing industry group.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

The David And Goliath Story Playing Out In Alaska’s Fisheries

September 14, 2020 — One day in April 1991, a large fishing boat sliced through the cobalt waters of the North Pacific, not far from Sitka, Alaska, on its way to the Bering Sea. For some reason, perhaps to make sure its gear was in order, the boat dropped its weighted trawling net, dragging it across the ocean floor. As the boat drifted by, thousands of pounds of rockfish got scooped up in the mesh. Just like that, the local rockfish season was over.

“Outraged.” That is how Linda Behnken, a Sitka-based fisherman and director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, described her reaction to news of the trawler’s nets rising from the ocean full of strangled or struggling fish, leaving the area’s fishing territory depleted. “It was a major catalyzing event.”

Facing the loss of a resource that had supported generations of fishing families, Behnken and the local community set out to protect the pristine waters of Southeast Alaska from the ravages of industrial fishing and banish trawling boats that drag wide nets to indiscriminately collect fish. A David to industrial fishing’s Goliath, Behnken was told to give up, that the cards were stacked against her. It took years of lobbying and rallying local support, but with the passage of the Southeast Alaska Trawl Closure in 1998, she had helped enact what at that time was the world’s largest ban on trawling, protecting 70,000 square miles of ocean habitat.

“The trawling ban is the reason we still have healthy small-scale fisheries in Southeast Alaska,” she said.

In the decades since, as the global fishing industry has consolidated into fewer, larger corporate fleets and environmental changes have threatened the ocean’s resources, Alaska’s Southeastern panhandle has emerged as a bastion for sustainable, small-scale fishing.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post

USDA wants to buy more US wild shrimp, pollock

September 14, 2020 — Not long after purchasing hefty amounts of U.S. pollock, salmon, and other seafood, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now asking for bids on large quantities of wild shrimp and wild Alaska pollock nuggets.

The USDA is asking suppliers to bid on 318,000 containers of frozen peeled and deveined shrimp – required to be in two- or five-pound primary packages further packaged into 20-pound shipping containers – by 18 September. The shrimp will be delivered to several U.S. cities between 1 November, 2020, and 31 January, 2021.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Pink salmon could prosper in warmer Arctic rivers and streams, study says

September 9, 2020 — A new study has found that global warming could produce higher numbers of pink salmon in the Arctic by making rivers and streams more hospitable for spawning.

The analysis was published by U.S. and Canadian scientists in the journal Deep Sea Research Part II, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported Monday.

The findings bolster reports by Alaska subsistence fishermen that pink salmon numbers have increased as the Arctic warms at more than double the rate of the rest of the globe.

“Maybe in the past, they’d see a few adult pink salmon here and there every few years. Now they’re seeing them every year,” said Ed Farley, a federal fisheries scientist at the Auke Bay Laboratories in Juneau.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

32 members of US Congress call for veto of Alaska’s Pebble Mine permit application

September 8, 2020 — A group of 32 members of the U.S. Congress have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to veto permits for Bristol Bay, Alaska’s Pebble Mine, a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine at headwaters that feed part of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) led the letter to EPA Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, whose agency holds the power veto the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ Final Draft Environmental Impact Statement, a document that has been criticized as rushed and incomplete.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Harbor porpoise bycatch near Point Barrow contributes to larger study on Bering Sea population

September 4, 2020 — When James Judkins began pulling up his fishing nets out near Point Barrow this month, the weight of the catch pulled back at him.

“Man, this is a really big fish,” Judkins thought. Then, he glimpsed the dorsal fin. Then another. “Dolphins?” he wondered.

Close. Harbor porpoises, a marine mammal resembling dolphins, but in the same family as whales, have made several appearances in Utqiaġvik recently.

In recent weeks, local fishermen have caught at least four porpoises in subsistence fishing nets near Point Barrow. Judkins recovered two, along with a seal, on Aug. 12 in Elson Lagoon. The other two were bycatches in Christian Stein and Charlie Sikvaguyak’s separate nets set in the same area. For some fishermen, it was their first time seeing the mammal.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Seeking Nominations for Candidates for the Marine Mammal Atlantic Scientific Review Group

September 4, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries published a Federal Register Notice on September 3, 2020 soliciting nominations to three independent marine mammal scientific review groups.

The three independent regional scientific review groups, covering Alaska, the Atlantic (including the Gulf of Mexico), and the Pacific (including Hawaii), were established under section 117(d) of the Marine Mammal Protection Act to provide advice on a range of marine mammal science and management issues.

We would like your assistance to identify qualified candidates for the Atlantic (including the Gulf of Mexico) review group. We are seeking individuals with expertise in one or more of the following priority areas (not in order of priority): Protected species conservation, wildlife management, and policy/science interface especially in the non-governmental sector; line-transect methodology, mark-recapture methods, survey design, and quantitative ecology; life history and ecology, particularly large cetaceans and delphinid species; Gulf of Mexico cetacean population dynamics; Southeast U.S. cetaceans; Northeast U.S. Large Marine Ecosystem (LME); marine mammal health, physiology, energetics, and toxicology; genetics; fishing gear and practices, particularly fisheries with marine mammal bycatch, fishery bycatch estimation, and bycatch reduction; ecosystem climate impacts; and manatees.

As you consider nominating candidates, please remember

  • A Scientific Review Group member cannot be a registered Federal lobbyist or foreign agent;
  • Service is without pay, except for reimbursable travel and related expenses; and
  • Individuals serve for a term of three years, for no more than three consecutive terms if re-appointed.

Nominations are due by October 5, 2020.

On campuses closed by COVID-19, seafood workers trade freedom for paychecks

September 3, 2020 — Seafood companies bring thousands of seasonal workers to Alaska’s fishing towns every year, but this year’s summer workers were largely unseen. In Petersburg, due to COVID precautions, workers were restricted closed campuses — they were only allowed to go between the plant, dorms and cafeteria. Some workers said they felt resigned to it. Others said it felt like jail.

There are two major processing plants in Petersburg: OBI Seafoods — formerly Petersburg Fisheries, Inc — and Trident Seafoods. But before we get to the plants, we should start with the fishermen.

Nick Rahaim is a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat. During the pandemic, he and other fishermen have to stay on deck, away from the seafood processing workers who come on board to offload the catch.

“It’s been compared to the NBA bubble, like Disney World in Florida,” Rahaim said. “While it is a bubble, it’s very different because on the one hand you have people making millions, on the other you have people making close to minimum wage.”

Read the full story at KTOO

Alaska fishing industry likely incurred tens of millions of dollars in coronavirus-related expenses

September 2, 2020 — Alaska seafood processors are paying tens of millions of dollars extra to cover costs from the COVID-19 pandemic, and most of it is coming out of pocket.

Intrafish Media provides a first, in-depth look at how costs for providing protective gear like masks and gloves, testing thermometers, extra staff to handle sanitizing demands between work shifts, and modifying worker lines for social distancing are playing out in the nation’s seafood processing sector.

At Bristol Bay, for example, where around 13,000 workers from outside Alaska come to work on fishing boats and in 13 plants of varying sizes, it’s estimated that all major processors combined likely spent $30 million to $40 million on COVID-related costs during the two peak fishing months of June and July this summer.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

More MSC Certified Supplements Hitting Shelves, Steward Supplements Launches 100% MSC Certified Product Line

September 2, 2020 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

Cod liver oil and salmon oil in new Steward Supplements products are now 100% MSC certified sustainable, joining more than 170 other fish oil products in the US market that carry the MSC blue fish logo. Steward Supplements launched the new product line today with fish oils sourced from certified US fisheries, with all products manufactured in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

The MSC is recognized as the world’s leading certification program for sustainable, wild-caught seafood. For products to be sold as MSC certified, seafood from MSC certified fisheries can only be handled, processed and packaged by organizations with a valid Chain of Custody certificate. These companies are audited regularly by independent certification bodies to ensure that they comply with the MSC Chain of Custody Standard. This requires that MSC certified seafood is only purchased from certified suppliers and is always identifiable, segregated from non-certified seafood and sold with the correct paperwork identifying it as certified. Steward Supplements is a MSC certified Chain of Custody holder.

“More than ever, consumers want to support companies that are socially and environmentally responsible, and by providing MSC certified products, Steward Supplements is achieving that desire”, said Brian Perkins, regional director for the Americas at the MSC. “Products that carry the MSC blue fish label are traceable to a sustainable source so shoppers can trust that it is good for them and good for the ocean.”

Stewards marine superfoods are comprised of an array of pro-resolving mediators, natural high levels of Vitamin A & D as well as a portfolio of omega-3 fatty acids. All the products contain no synthetic additives, with only non-GMO ingredients, and with each purchase, 1% of the proceeds go to protecting our oceans.

“Steward Supplements believes in sustainability, transparency, & quality. It is our responsibility to meet the MSC’s global standards for sustainable harvesting of marine ingredients in creating our health products. We are proud to have the MSC eco-label on all of our products,” said Tommy Little, Steward Supplements Co-Founder.

The MSC standard was established in 1997 and is the only wild caught seafood standard and ecolabeling program to meet United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) guidelines as well as meet Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) benchmarking criteria. The standards used to evaluate fisheries have been developed in deliberation with scientists, industry, and conservation groups, and reflect the most up-to-date fisheries science and management practices.