Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Why biologists fear Pebble could risk Bristol Bay salmon’s resilience

August 3, 2020 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ final environmental review of Pebble says that under normal operations, it does not expect the mine to have a significant effect on fish populations in Bristol Bay. But the Corps does say the mine would harm fish around the mine site. Some scientists say the project could also put a specific salmon population in the Koktuli River at risk and remove genetic diversity from the region.

The mine would be built at the headwaters of the Koktuli River drainage, and it would eliminate about 20% of available habitat there, though the Corps says that does not necessarily represent fish habitat.

Daniel Schindler has spent decades studying salmon in the Bristol Bay watershed. He’s a professor of fisheries sciences at the University of Washington

“If you looked at the Koktuli all by itself, and you assumed that all sockeye salmon are interchangeable across all of Bristol Bay, then you would say that the Koktuli River is a very small piece of habitat, and it’s not that important,” he said.

According to Schindler, the variety of different life strategies and genetic identities of sockeye throughout Bristol Bay ultimately stabilizes the returns of fish back to the rivers every year.

Read the full story at KTOO

Trump COVID-19 task force backs Alaska mandate for face masks at seafood processing facilities

July 31, 2020 — The Trump administration’s coronavirus task force has recommended that Alaska mandate face masks, “especially [in] workplaces like seafood processing centers,” according to a 26 July federal report obtained by The New York Times.

Although Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has not required that masks be worn statewide, the state has mandated that seafood processing plant workers use face masks since 15 May. Though the average number of cases in Alaska per 100,000 people is lower than the national average – meriting Alaska’s status in the “yellow zone” – the top four COVID-19 outbreaks in the state have been linked to the seafood industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Pandemic pushes fishing activists to call for more government support

July 30, 2020 — Before this year’s salmon season, federal disaster funding was mostly unavailable to small-boat fishing businesses. Then, Congress amended the Paycheck Protection Program at the beginning of July so that fishermen could apply. A little later, it extended the program’s application deadline until August 8.

That was a big relief for many fishermen in Alaska.

“My family and I are salmon fishermen,” said Jamie O’Connor, a Bristol Bay set-netter who fishes in Ekuk and serves as the Working Waterfronts director for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council. “It was really difficult for us to quantify our impacts before our season had happened, so we were really happy to see that there had been an extension and some alterations to the program to allow us to participate.”

At the peak of this year’s sockeye run, O’Connor’s processor put the fleet on limits — the company, and many others in Bristol Bay, told fishermen not to fish due to freezer and capacity issues.

“We missed probably half to a third of our season in those three days,” O’Connor said. “It was a hard thing to sit through, especially with all of the effort that went into preparing for this season. To have done more on the front end to make sure we could do this safely and then just sit out the run was crushing.”

Read the full story at KTOO

Bristol Bay catch lifts sluggish Alaska summer salmon season

July 29, 2020 — Alaska’s summer salmon season drifts into its second half as Bristol Bay’s sockeye fishery is winding down from another strong catch of around 38 million fish, leaving pink salmon to take center stage.

In his weekly report for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Garrett Evridge said preliminary data from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game put average Bristol Bay sockeye size at just over five pounds, continuing a trend of larger runs of smaller fish in the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. Total state-wide catch for sockeye sat at 42 million fish, which was on par with 10-year averages, according to data compiled by Evridge.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Sen. Cantwell Slams Trump Administration for Rushing to Approve Pebble Mine Despite Grave Risk

July 29, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

In today’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) slammed the Trump administration for ignoring more than a decade of scientific analysis on the devastating impacts the proposed Pebble Mine will have on Alaska’s Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Cantwell has been vocal about the disaster that the Pebble Mine would bring to the Pacific Northwest, and she has repeatedly criticized various members of the administration for downplaying the threat of the mine.

“Instead of focusing on getting recovery dollars out the door to protect the seafood sector, the administration is paving the way towards permitting the Pebble Mine,” Ranking Member Cantwell said in today’s hearing. “It is beyond unconscionable that the administration continues to threaten the largest salmon fishery in the world instead of focusing on the catastrophic failure that we are seeing because of the pandemic. This is like a one, two gut punch to the industry…So as I have said many times, we must let science lead, and the administration is not listening to science and NOAA is not sticking up for the science.”

The Pebble Mine threatens to permanently damage the Bristol Bay watershed, the 40-60 million salmon that return to it every year, and the fishermen and industries that rely on Bristol Bay salmon. A three-year study by the Environmental Protection Agency released in 2014 found that the mine as proposed would result in irreparable harm to Bristol Bay salmon and the fisheries that depend on them. This year, EPA Region 10 found that the mine even in the course of normal, safe mine operations, would destroy 3,560 acres of wetlands, 55 acres of lakes and ponds, 81 miles of streams and 11 acres of marine waters.

The seafood sector is the cornerstone of the 30 billion dollar maritime economy in Washington state. Fisheries and fishery related businesses, such as commercial fishing, seafood processing, shipbuilding, and gear manufacturing, make up 60 percent of Washington’s maritime economy, which as a whole supports over 146,000 jobs.

In her Q&A with the witnesses at the hearing, Cantwell asked Mr. Phil Anderson, Chair of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, what the Pacific Northwest and the U.S. maritime economy at large stands to lose from the impacts of the Pebble Mine. He responded, “The project, from some of the information I’ve read from the Army Corps of Engineers…from a fishery management perspective, and a harvesting perspective, and businesses that are dependent on renewable resources, this is a huge concern to those of us here in the Pacific Northwest.”

In her questioning with Dr. Paul Doremus, Deputy Assistant Administrator of Operations at NOAA, Cantwell criticized Neil Jacobs and NOAA for their lack of review of Pebble Mine’s impact saying, “Well I want you to hear that NOAA hasn’t fulfilled its role, Mr. Jacobs hasn’t fulfilled his role, and there’s a lot at stake.”

Ranking Member Cantwell has led the fight to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay, one of the largest salmon fisheries in the world. In October of 2017, Cantwell and other members of the Washington state congressional delegation urged President Trump to listen to Washington fishermen and businesses before removing protections from Bristol Bay. In May 2018, Cantwell called on the Trump administration to hold public meetings in Washington state on the proposal and increase transparency for the permitting process. In July 2019, Cantwell slammed the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw protections for Bristol Bay. And just this month, Cantwell criticized an environmental analysis released by the Trump administration that could pave the way for approval of the proposed Pebble Mine.

A video of Ranking Member Cantwell’s opening statement can be found HERE and audio HERE.

A video of Cantwell’s Q&A with witnesses can be found HERE and audio HERE.

Number of COVID-19 cases across global seafood industry surpasses 1,000

July 28, 2020 — There are now over 1,000 workers across the global seafood industry who have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to data released by companies and government agencies that IntraFish has been tracking since coronavirus outbreak began.

The largest outbreaks in the past few weeks have been occurring in Alaska, where Bristol Bay and other salmon fisheries have been facing a challenging season. Most recently, over 40 percent of the 134 employees at Copper River Seafoods’ (CRS) Anchorage processing plant have tested positive for COVID-19.

Almost all of the 56 employees who tested positive between July 17-22 are residents of Anchorage, Alaska, according to the city.

“This is a concerning situation for the people of Anchorage,” said Dr. Bruce Chandler, the Anchorage Health Department’s chief medical officer. “With so many workers now testing positive, it is likely that this outbreak has been in progress for some time and that transmission has already occurred among family, friends and others in the community.”

Read the full story at IntraFish

ALASKA: As Pebble closes in on federal permit, supporters and critics disagree on impacts

July 28, 2020 — The Pebble Limited Partnership is now one step away from receiving a federal permit for the proposed Pebble Mine, a deeply controversial development that would tap large copper and gold deposits at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

Pebble CEO Tom Collier says the finished environmental impact statement shows the mine can be built without harming the environment.

“The final EIS is the first time that a federal agency has engaged in a rigorous review of the specific plan that we intend to use to build this project,” Collier said. “After doing that, in the draft and preliminary final, they concluded that the project won’t damage the fishery.”

The report says construction of the mine will impact up to 200 miles of streams and 4,000 acres of wetlands.

Lisa Reimers is a board member of Iliamna Natives Limited. She supports Pebble’s development and says the environmental impact statement provides enough safeguards to protect the environment around the project. Reimers says this affects her on a personal level as well.

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Bristol Bay setnetters get their hands dirty (and sometimes lose a finger) to put salmon on your dinner table

July 27, 2020 — Most Alaskans know that commercial fishing is very important to the economy of our state. A small number of folks understand the ins and outs of a commercial gillnet operation. Fewer still understand what a setnet fishery is.

When one speaks of the gillnet fishery, the picture that comes to mind is one of a picturesque vessel with a long line of glistening white floats strung out behind. That is a semi-accurate depiction.

The setnet fishery bears little resemblance to that picture.

Setnetting is hard, dirty work — at least in Bristol Bay. If you are wearing name-brand raingear, few would recognize it because it would be covered in mud.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Trump administration signals controversial mine can move ahead, reversing Obama-era position

July 27, 2020 — A controversial gold and copper mine proposed in Alaska was given a major push forward Friday as the Trump administration issued a final report concluding the Pebble Mine project would not cause long-term harm to one of the world’s largest remaining salmon runs.

The new report, by the Army Corps of Engineers, is a sharp reversal to the Obama administration Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusions of the project, which essentially blocked progress on the mine because of environmental concerns by citing the potential for permanent damage to the pristine Bristol Bay watershed.

The Pebble Mine project has been a lightning rod for controversy for some two decades and has been widely assailed by numerous interest groups in Alaska and the lower states, and also faced opposition from many Alaskans.

The new report by the Army Corps is a major triumph for the project developers, illustrating the Trump administration’s opposite approach to the project from the Obama administration and echoing other large environmental reversals it has ordered on other findings from the previous administration.

Perhaps the new report’s most striking finding is that the colossal mine and its development “would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers and result in long-term changes to the health of the commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay.”

Read the full story at CNN

Seafood companies kept COVID-19 from infecting Alaskans. Now they’re trying to keep the virus out of their plants.

July 27, 2020 — This spring, as Alaska hunkered down and kept COVID-19 rates low, residents of the state’s fishing towns raised strong objections to the arrival of thousands of fishermen and seasonal plant workers, fearful that the visitors could bring the virus with them.

Available state data appears to show that strict state and local mandates, plus tight restrictions imposed by seafood companies, ended up stopping those visitors from spreading the virus. The Bristol Bay Borough, Alaska’s salmon hub, had just one resident case of the virus through Monday.

And now, as infection rates rise among the Alaska public, the dynamic has flipped: It’s the seafood companies that have to protect their workers from Alaska residents.

Many of Alaska’s processing plants, particularly in Bristol Bay, are staffed exclusively by seasonal workers who live on company property. And this year, companies operating in the region have avoided major outbreaks by barring workers from leaving their property.

Read the full story at KTOO