Saving Seafood

Alaska sees nearly half-billion dollar loss in commercial fisheries revenue

January 20, 2021 — A federal agency has put some dollar amounts to the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on commercial and charter fishing industries nationwide in the first part of last year.

On Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report on the economic impact on the seafood catch and recreational fishing nationwide through last summer. NOAA Fisheries deputy assistant administrator for operations Paul Doremus called the report a snapshot of an industry in transition.

“We’re trying to account in great detail with the data and information in this report on the bearing of COVID-19 on the sector as a whole and provide this in a way that can help businesses and communities understand what has happened, where the losses have been concentrated and to inform long-term recovery and resilient strategies,” Doremus said during a conference call with reporters.

Nationwide, the commercial fishing industry started off 2020 with increases in revenue from seafood sales. But as the pandemic hit in March, that income dropped off 19% compared to the most recent five-year average. Those declines swelled to 45% by July.

Read the full story at KTOO

Trident Seafoods reports 4 COVID-19 cases at plant in Alaska

January 20, 2021 — A Seattle-based seafood company has reported that four workers at its Alaska seafood plant tested positive for COVID-19, including one who was taken to a hospital.

Trident Seafoods reported that the four employees were all roommates and have returned to work after undergoing a 14-day quarantine and testing negative, The Seattle Times reported.

The company said in a statement on Monday that it is assessing any potential operational impacts of COVID-19 spreading at the facility. Currently, the company is holding off on sending an additional 365 workers to the plant.

The Trident Seafoods’ plant is a processing center for Bering Sea harvests of pollock, crab and cod in Akutan, about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. The plant is the company’s largest Alaska location. It currently employs about 700 workers.

Read the full story at The Columbian

Trident Seafoods scrambling to contain COVID-19 outbreak ahead of pollock A season

January 19, 2021 — Trident Seafoods is scrambling to contain a coronavirus outbreak at a plant on the Aleutian Islands on the eve of the pollock A season.

The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based company announced on Monday, 18 January, that four roommates had tested positive at Trident’s plant in Akutan, Alaska, a processing center that takes in crab and cod as well as pollock from the Bering Sea fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Nearly all Alaska and West Coast fishermen badly hurt by pandemic, survey indicates

January 19, 2021 — The single biggest hit to fishermen from the COVID-19 virus is lower dock prices, according to Alaska and West Coast harvesters, and 98% said their businesses have been badly bashed by the pandemic.

That’s based on survey results compiled by Ocean Strategies, a public relations firm that focuses on fisheries that helped profile the Pacific region for a larger federal study.

Nearly 400 fishermen responded to the short, confidential survey launched last November, said senior consultant Hannah Heimbuch of Kodiak.

“NOAA uses any information they collect on economics to report to Congress on how the industry is being impacted, the major trends they are seeing, and then that informs the decisions that Congress or other government agencies might make in response to those trends,” she said.

In the survey, 82% said fishing is their primary source of income and 91% said their revenues have decreased by 15% -100% since January of 2020. A whopping 70% said they stopped fishing last year; 65% stopped for three months or less.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

CARES Act relief funding straggles into 2021

January 19, 2021 — As 2020 drew to a close, one-third of the USD 300 million (EUR 246 million) in aid set aside for the fishing industry through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act remained for delivery as states labored to complete distributions.

Lagging farthest behind were Alaska and Washington state, the nation’s top volume seafood producers, and at USD 50 million (EUR 41 million) each the largest designated shares of the aid package. The states finally released their final draft spending plans on 7 December and 8 December, for approval by NMFS.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska predicts commercial herring harvest will fall short of annual limit

January 15, 2021 — In an unusual move, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game has set a large guideline harvest level for the commercial herring fishing in Sitka this spring, on the understanding that the fleet is not likely to hit that mark.

In a news release Monday, ADF&G announced a guideline harvest level — or GHL — of just over 33,000 tons for the upcoming Sitka sac roe herring fishery.

But that much probably won’t be harvested. In the same news release, Fish and Game predicts that the commercial harvest will likely not exceed 20,000 tons. Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis says the state arrived at that number after speaking to processors about the potential market demands.

“Just from our conversations, like what the individual markets want in terms of herring,” he said. “Part of the reason why we put that in the announcement was, I guess just to temper people’s’ expectations for what will likely get harvested in the fishery. “

Dupuis says 33,000 is already a conservative estimate. The GHL is reduced by 20% of what the state would typically allow from the forecasted population of fish, a mature biomass of 210,453 tons. Even so, he says the state is gearing up as usual for a fishery this year.

Read the full story at KTOO

Pebble petition: Alaska governor appeals on mine’s behalf

January 15, 2021 — On 8 January, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy announced the state would take action to appeal the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to deny a permit application for the Pebble Mine.

The Pebble Limited Partnership submitted its plan for a mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region almost two years ago. The 1,500-page document was immediately and widely panned by scientists, fishery managers, fishermen, and many representatives of Bristol Bay’s Native tribes.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Under new ownership, Peter Pan says it will focus on value added products

January 15, 2021 — Peter Pan, the seafood processing company with an array of plants in Southwest Alaska, had been struggling to keep up with competitors.

So, when its owner, Japanese seafood giant Maruha Nichiro, initially announced its sale of Peter Pan to three buyers, it said it expected a loss of almost $28 million.

The deal means the company is now vertically integrated, so all stages of production and marketing — usually operated separately — are now under one owner. It also places Peter Pan under American ownership.

One of the three buyers is Northwest Fish. Its owner, Rodger May, is the president of “New Peter Pan.” The Na’-nuk Investment Fund, managed by McKinley Capital, a private equity group, is another. The RRG Global Partners Fund is the third buyer.

McKinley Chairman Rob Gillam said the buyers see the deal as an investment in sustainably harvested Alaska seafood. But they agree that Peter Pan needs to up its marketing game.

“The best fish in the world isn’t any good if you can’t get it to people who want to buy it. So, that was really critical,” he said.

Read the full story at KDLG

ALASKA: UniSea’s Unalaska plant locked down after COVID-19 outbreak

January 14, 2021 — Redmond, Washington, U.S.A.-based UniSea has partially locked down its seafood processing facility in Unalaska, Alaska, after seven of its employees tested positive for COVID-19.

The company, which is owned by Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui), is in the process of testing most of the staff at the facility and conducting contract tracing to determine the full scale of the outbreak, according to KUCB.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Supporting small-scale fisheries with seafood direct marketing

January 13, 2021 — For commercial fishing enterprises and other seafood businesses, alternative marketing arrangements, such as direct sales to consumers, can be a great way to increase sales or diversify a customer base.

Sea Grant extension personnel, who have served as trusted advisors to the US fishing industry for decades, have developed several go-to information sources for fishermen interested in alternative marketing. These include Alaska Sea Grant’s Fishermen’s Direct Marketing Manual first published in 1997 and California Sea Grant’s Market Your Catch website.

A new report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) now brings this expertise to a global audience. The report includes case studies from leading fisheries experts around the world to address recommendations contained in FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines to Secure Small-Scale Fisheries. The guidelines, published in 2015, aim to support sustainable small-scale fisheries as an important part of the food system, end hunger and poverty, and strengthen human rights.

California Sea Grant and Alaska Sea Grant contributed a case study to the report highlighting the approach Sea Grant extension personnel take in working with fishing communities, and the information products they have created since the mid 1990s.

Read the full story at Medium