Saving Seafood

Alaska’s Rural Fishing Communities Are The Next Front Line Of COVID-19

June 8, 2020 — In a normal season, the village of Naknek in southwestern Alaska would be bustling by the end of May, with people arriving from all over the world to work Bristol Bay’s renowned salmon run.

The village’s population of around 500 swells as over 13,000 workers come to Bristol Bay to spend about six weeks fishing, canning and cleaning the products of the world’s primary source of wild-caught sockeye salmon.

This year, with the season opening just days away, “it still feels like a ghost town,” said Nels Ure, a second-generation Bristol Bay fisherman. Because of the pandemic, “it’s not business as usual.”

Seafood industry workers are under 14-day quarantine orders once they arrive in Alaska from elsewhere. Cannery workers are being quarantined either in hotels in Anchorage before they arrive at the bay, or with a group of other newly arrived employees at their facility, so they can start work while in quarantine together. Fishermen are expected to quarantine on their vessels, either in the boatyard or on the water ― or they can stay in their seasonal cabins or homes around the bay, as long as they are self-isolated.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post

COVID-19 Outbreak In Pacific Northwest Seafood Industry As Season Ramps Up

June 8, 2020 — As America’s meat producers confronted thousands of COVID-19 cases, Pacific Northwest seafood companies drafted rigorous plans to ward off similar spread of the disease in an industry where processors also work in close quarters.

But just a few weeks into the summer season, the industry has been shaken by its first major outbreak aboard a huge vessel with an onboard fish processing factory. This week, Seattle-based American Seafoods confirmed that 92 crew from its American Dynasty ship had tested positive for COVID-19, nearly three-fourths of the 126 people onboard.

“It was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this.’ We had done so much. Each company had worked so hard to try to avoid this happening,” says Brent Paine, executive director of United Catcher Boats.

The trade group’s members fish for pollock and cod off Alaska, and another whitefish called hake off Washington and Oregon. “None of us have ever worked so hard in our lives than we have in the last two months, without a doubt.”

Read the full story at Spokane Public Radio

ALASKA: Bristol Bay Bracing for a Season Like None Other

June 4, 2020 — For millions of wild sockeye salmon returning to Bristol Bay in 2020 it will be the traditional journey, but for thousands of people coming to harvest and process the world’s largest run of red salmon it will be a fishing season like none other.

Veteran harvesters like Robert Heyano of Dillingham, said he plans to fish the Nushagak area of Bristol Bay, just as he has since he was a boy on board his dad’s drift gillnetter. “I’m not looking forward to it this year, not with this virus,” he said. “I’d like to see the fishery conducted in a safe manner.”

Heyano said he had not heard fishermen say outright that they would not fish this year because of COVID-19. “It all depends how safe they feel,” he said. “If we could focus our energy on the safest practices that would go a long way,” he said.

Read the full story at Fishermen’s News

Alaska’s COVID-19 plans for fishing communities are now being put to the test

June 4, 2020 — In a normal fishing season, Dan Martin would fly straight from the Pacific Northwest to the Aleutian Islands, where his pollock trawler, the Commodore, would be waiting for him to take the wheel.

But this year, the veteran skipper is stepping onboard in Seattle, where he, four crew and two federal fisheries observers are taking COVID-19 tests and hoisting a quarantine flag. Then they’ll squeeze onto the vessel for a week-long voyage to Alaska’s biggest fishing port, Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.

“We might have to eat in shifts,” Martin quipped. “Because I don’t know that we can fit that many people at our galley table.”

There’s no hospital anywhere in the Aleutians, and Dutch Harbor has not yet seen a single confirmed case of COVID-19. Martin says the industry’s biggest fear is bringing the virus in with them.

Read the full story at KTOO

Alaska eases quarantine protocol as COVID-19 cases rise

June 4, 2020 — Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy released a revised travel protocol on 3 June that gives travelers options to get around the 14-day quarantine period, but the state is experiencing a hike in COVID-19 cases as the summer fishing season ramps up.

Dunleavy and state health officials announced they are waiving the state’s 14-day quarantine period for travelers who test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of their flight. The quarantine can also be avoided with a negative test five days before departure and another test upon arrival in Alaska, the document said, or by testing and self-isolating in Anchorage until test results are received. The new travel protocol will go in place Friday, 5 June.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Sen. Murkowski pushes for an additional $1 billion in federal fisheries relief funds

June 3, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK):

Alaska’s fishing industry was allocated $50 million in CARES Act funding in early May to ease financial losses tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commercial and sport fishing businesses that incur more than 35% in losses will be eligible for aid. NOAA Fisheries and The Pacific Marine Fishery Commission will evaluate each entity’s spending plan. According to NOAA, submissions and approvals will “occur on a rolling basis.”

Additional money could be on the way for the fishing industry. Senator Lisa Murkowski said that she is working to add more fisheries funding in the next round of pandemic relief legislation.

“As we think about the impact to our fisheries, $50 million is not going to be sufficient to address the need,” she said. “I have been working with colleagues to urge us in this next round of relief to include $1 billion in fishery assistance funds.”

Murkowski also wants to change language in the second rollout of funding to help individual fishermen access the Paycheck Protection Program. She says the original PPP did not accommodate fishing wages and crew payroll expenses.

“The PPP really didn’t account for the fact that so many of our businesses in Alaska are seasonal,” she said. “When you think about the fisheries in Bristol Bay that’s certainly a seasonal business. It’s the very definition of it. And so we’ve been successful in changing the definition, but now we’re working with treasury to allow for when those funds need to be paid out.”

The House of Representatives passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act May 12. The bill now moves on to the Senate. Murkowski hopes they can negotiate and address some of the shortcomings from the CARES Act.

“We moved this legislation through very, very quickly. In the matter of a couple weeks, and a couple trillion dollars in spending,” she said. “It is not unusual that we didn’t get the legislation right the first time. It’s been frustrating, I know, for many, but we remain pretty vigilant in trying to address the areas where we did not meet the mark, where we underestimated or we just — we built it wrong.”

Alaska and Washington both received most of the $300 million made available nationwide to the fishing industry. Halibut and salmon fishing are currently underway around the state, and Bristol Bay’s salmon fishery kicks off this month.

EPA opts not to delay controversial Alaska mine for now

June 1, 2020 — A top official at the Environmental Protection Agency informed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Alaska late Thursday that the EPA would not formally object at this point to the proposed Pebble Mine, a massive gold and copper deposit where mining could damage the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Christopher Hladick, the EPA’s regional administrator for Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, wrote to the Alaska district engineer, Col. David Hibner, that the agency still has serious concerns about the plan, including that dredging for the open-pit mine “may well contribute to the permanent loss of 2,292 acres of wetlands and … 105.4 miles of streams.”

But Hladick said the EPA would not elevate the matter to the leadership of the two agencies, which could delay necessary approvals for the project to advance. The EPA “appreciates the Corps’ recent commitment to continue this coordination into the future,” he wrote.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

New Modeling Approach Provides Valuable Insights into the Important and Complex Role of Environmental Variables in Juvenile Fish Survival

May 29, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Variation in the productivity and sustainability of fish resources is determined, in part, by large changes in juvenile fish production from year to year. This is defined as “recruitment.” Fisheries oceanographers and fish stock assessment scientists have been trying to better understand and predict this variation for more than 100 years.

“We are seeing a lot of changes in the Bering Sea ecosystem. With analytical tools like this, we should be able to quickly identify factors affecting juvenile fish survival in a given year to generate reliable estimates of future productivity. This may help resource managers to more effectively target their management efforts,” said Jim Thorson, Habitat Ecological Processes Research Program Lead, Alaska Fisheries Science Center and lead author for the paper.

For the first time, scientists glimpsed how ocean temperature in different parts of Alaska’s Bering Sea may have influenced juvenile fish survival over the past three decades. They also gained valuable insights into how it may be affected under warmer ocean conditions in the future.

This unique approach combines oceanographic data collected from research surveys (1982-2018) with recruitment data into a single model. It also incorporated end-of-century projections of bottom and sea surface temperatures for the eastern Bering Sea. Scientists then used global climate models to develop regional-scale projections.

The authors see this an important step to understand the complex relationship between fish stock production and long-term climate processes. The ongoing collection of biological and environmental data will help to further improve these predictions.

Read the full release here

Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods Announce Merger

May 29, 2020 — The following was released by Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods:

Two of Alaska’s oldest and largest seafood companies, Ocean Beauty Seafoods LLC and Icicle Seafoods, Inc., announced today that they are merging their wild salmon and Gulf of Alaska groundfish operations. The new company will be named OBI Seafoods LLC.

“The Alaska salmon business is experiencing significant market and resource fluctuations. In order to flourish in this rapidly changing environment, we need to develop flexible and efficient business models and form innovative partnerships,” said Mark Palmer, President and CEO of Ocean Beauty Seafoods, who will serve as CEO of the newly merged company. “The merger will enable more focus on selling seafood products in the global marketplace by leveraging both strong sales teams. Increased sales will bring additional investment to support growth and jobs,” he added.

The agreement will allow the new partnership to make strategic investments to enhance its ability to compete in the world seafood market. Initial plans include modernizing processing facilities and combining marketing and value-added product expertise. The changes are designed to grow the value of the Alaska seafood resource in a way that benefits the company’s customers, employees, and fisherman partners.

Included in the merger are all five Icicle shoreside plants and all five Ocean Beauty shoreside plants in Alaska. Ocean Beauty Seafoods’ smoked salmon and distribution operations will remain under its current ownership and will operate under the name OBS Smoked & Distribution, LLC. The Ocean Beauty and Icicle Seafoods Gulf of Alaska groundfish operations and all salmon operations will operate under the newly formed OBI. Icicle Seafoods’ processing operations on the P/V Gordon Jensen and the permanently moored craft Northern Victor in Dutch Harbor are not included in the merger. These plants will continue to operate in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Western Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries, and will operate under Icicle Seafoods, Inc.

“The two companies’ cultures will blend well,” Palmer said. “We will be combining two very talented workforces that are highly motivated to compete successfully in today’s challenging market. This merger also presents the best opportunity for the new company to optimize our branded value-added seafood and make strategic long-term investments.”

John Woodruff, Chief Operating Officer of Icicle Seafoods, will become Executive Vice President of Alaska Operations for the new company. A respected Alaska fishing industry leader, he has built deep relationships across the state.

According to Mr. Woodruff, “Partnerships can provide employees with additional career growth opportunities in a wider variety of positions and locations.  As a unified team, we are confident we can make improvements to benefit employees, fishermen, customers and vendors. To be more competitive globally, operational efficiencies in processing must be realized, along with continuing strong fleet relationships and placing an added focus on sales, marketing and distribution.”

Founded in 1910, Ocean Beauty Seafoods LLC is owned by the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation and a group of individual owners with experience in the seafood industry. Founded in 1965, Icicle Seafoods, Inc. has been owned by the Cooke family since 2016. Upon close of the merger transaction, Icicle Seafoods, Inc. and Ocean Beauty Seafoods Inc. will each own a 50% stake in the new company. The merger will take effect on June 1, 2020, in line with the 2020 wild Alaska salmon season.

Alaska’s Controversial Pebble Mine Was Dead. Not Anymore.

May 28, 2020 — The Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska is home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run, a resource that brings in $1.5 billion annually and provides a vital food source for thousands of Alaska Native residents who live there.

It’s also home to a vast copper and gold deposit worth an estimated $500 billion, known as the Pebble Deposit. A plan to extract that wealth by building a massive open pit mine at the heart of the environmentally sensitive Bristol Bay watershed has become the environmental fight of the century for Alaska.

FRONTLINE told that story in Alaska Gold, broadcast in 2012, when the mine’s opponents seemed to have won the day.

But the Pebble mine got a new lease on life under the Trump administration, and in late 2017, the Pebble Partnership, the company behind the mine, filed for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Read the full story at Frontline