Saving Seafood

The China problem: Coronavirus creates a bottleneck for Alaska seafood

March 3, 2020 — Seafood coming from and going to China is piling up in freezer vans and cold storages indefinitely as the coronavirus continues to cause commerce chaos around the world.

Virus precautions mean that many ships can’t get into Chinese ports, others are stuck at docks waiting for workers to return, and still more are idling in “floating quarantined zones,” as countries refuse to allow crews of ships that have docked at Chinese ports to leave the boat until they have been declared virus-free.

Alaska seafood exports to China of nearly $1 billion include products for their own markets, but the bulk goes there for reprocessing and shipment back to the United States and other countries.

“If you have plants that have product coming in and no workers to fill it, you’re going to get that overflowing cold storage situation. So it’s definitely a problem on the reprocessing side. On the consumption side, if people aren’t going out to eat and going out to the market to buy seafood, that’s going to take consumption down as well. So there’s a couple different ways that it’s working against moving seafood through the supply chain,” said Andy Wink, director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association and an economist who has tracked world salmon markets for more than a decade.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

US Commerce Department allocates $35 million for Alaska fisheries disasters

March 2, 2020 — Fishermen affected by the 2018 Pacific cod and Chignik sockeye disasters will soon have access to about $35 million in relief funding.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross allocated about $65 million to fisheries disaster relief, about $35 million of which is for Alaska, according to a Feb. 27 announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Within Alaska, about $24.4 million will go to the Pacific cod fishery disaster and about $10.3 million to the Chignik sockeye fishery. The funding was appropriated when Congress passed the 2019 Consolidated and Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Fisheries disasters can be declared under the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Management and Conservation Act when natural disasters or management actions significantly negatively impact stakeholders’ ability to participate in a fishery.

In the case of the Pacific cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska, scientists are linking the decline in stock abundance to environmental causes; in Chignik, the salmon decline seemed to be linked to poor environmental conditions for sockeye that summer.

Both disaster requests had already been granted, but the amount of funding that the fisheries would have allocated to them was yet to be determined. The National Marine Fisheries Service determines how much funding to allocate to fisheries based on commercial revenue loss information.

Affected fishermen will be able to apply for funding to help with infrastructure projects, habitat restoration, state-run vessel and fishing permit buybacks, and job retraining, according to the announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

NOAA grants Alaskan Fisheries $24.4 million in disaster relief funding

February 28, 2020 — Thursday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), approved a $24.4 million dollar disaster relief package to help restore the loss of fisheries impacted by the 2018 pacific cod fishery disaster and sockeye salmon failure in Chignik.

The money will be administered by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission who will distribute the relief payments to fishermen and their deckhands, processors, and fishery research in the affected regions.

Read the full story at KTUU

NOAA investing in Alaska’s mariculture development

February 27, 2020 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is investing resources in Alaska, a move seen helping move the state’s mariculture development forward.

The agency has appointed a Regional Office Mariculture Coordinator for the Alaska region for the first time.

Alaska’s Mariculture Initiative has a goal of building a $100-million industry in 20 years. Among Alicia Bishop’s many tasks as regional coordinator is to bring together stakeholders that will help lay the foundation for achieving that goal.

The head of the Task Force that developed the Initiative said the creation of the coordinator position for Alaska signals NOAA’s commitment to the state.

Read the full story at Aquaculture North America

Abnormally Warm Years Caused a Sea Change in Coastal Alaska Ecosystems

February 27, 2020 — Rapidly warming Alaska is already a poster child for climate change, from its vanishing sea ice to its thawing permafrost. But over the last three years, the state’s northwestern coast has experienced a series of unusual climate-related changes—remarkable even for the long-altered Pacific Arctic.

Beginning in 2017, a combination of abnormally high temperatures and unusually strong, southerly winds swept the Bering and Chukchi seas. An alarming cascade of ecological consequences ensued—record-low sea ice, shifting algae blooms, migrating fish populations and sudden seabird die-offs were just a few.

“Most of my own research is with people living in the coastal communities, so talking to them and hearing about what they’re seeing,” said Henry Huntington, an independent Alaskan researcher and consultant. “And they saw some very unusual things, and things that struck them.”

“Ridiculous” water temperatures and unstable sea ice were among the most common complaints raised in interviews with coastal residents, Huntington noted.

“Adding to that, what we’re hearing from folks on the research cruises, it just became apparent that things were really a lot different from what any of us expected,” he said.

Read the full story at Scientific American

ALASKA: Dutch Harbor stays on top among U.S. fishing ports

February 26, 2020 — Dutch Harbor remained the top fishing port in the U.S. for the 22nd year in a row with 763 million pounds crossing the docks in 2018 valued at $182 million. And Naknek ranked as the nation’s second most valuable port for fishermen with landings worth $195 million. (Naknek also ranked No. 8 for landings at 191 million pounds.)

Empire-Venice, Louisiana, held the second spot for fish volume (569 million). The “Aleutians” was close behind (539 million), thanks to Trident’s plant at Akutan, the largest processing facility in North America. Kodiak fell to fourth place with landings dropping from 530 million pounds to 391 million in 2018.

Those are just a few of the gems in the annual Fisheries of the U.S. Report, described as “a yearbook of fishery statistics on commercial landings and values, recreational fishing, aquaculture production, imports and exports and per capita consumption” by Cisco Werner, chief scientist at NOAA Fisheries, who gave highlights to reporters Friday.

“U.S. fishermen landed 9.4 billion pounds valued at about $5.6 billion, an increase of $150 million, or 2.8% from 2017. That’s on par with recent years with economic benefits both up and down depending on the seafood supply chain,” Werner added.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Commercial fisheries report: Alaska salmon reigns as the top finfish in the nation

February 25, 2020 — According to NOAA’s annual report on commercial fisheries landings, production and value, the top five species in order of value are:

  • Lobster at $684 million
  • Crabs at $645 million
  • Salmon at $598 million
  • Scallops at $541 million
  • Shrimp at $496 million

Alaska produces the overwhelming majority of our nation’s wild salmon landings (more than a third of which comes from the imperiled Bristol Bay region), topping out at just over 650 million pounds of salmon worth $595 million in 2018. That means Alaska salmon alone takes that same spot as the top-value finfish in the nation.

Alaska pollock, which helped lock in Dutch Harbor as the top port by volume for the 22nd year running, is the sixth most valuable species on the list at $451 million in value for 3.4 billion pounds landed.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New Study Shows Pacific Cod Eggs are Highly Vulnerable to Changes in Bottom Temperature

February 21, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The 2013 to 2016 marine heatwave—known as “The Blob”—is the largest warm anomaly ever recorded in the North Pacific. In the Gulf of Alaska, scientists have connected low numbers of Pacific cod larvae, juveniles, and adults to loss of spawning habitat. This occured during and immediately following the heatwave. Compounding the ecological loss is the significant economic impact on the second most valuable commercial fishery in Alaska. The fishery experienced large reductions in their annual catch limits in 2018 (a 58 percent cut) and a fishery closure in 2020.

“We combined results of laboratory studies, stock assessment model output and survey data to help us better understand what happens to Pacific cod in warm and cold years,” said Benjamin Laurel, NOAA Fisheries biologist and lead researcher for this new study. “We found that the recent three-year heatwave and return to similar conditions in 2019 potentially had the greatest effect on spawning habitat for the years we had available data (1994 to 2019).”

Water temperature is an important component of fish habitat. Temperature influences every stage of a fish’s life. During the first year of life, fish eggs are particularly sensitive to changes in environmental conditions.

Laurel and colleague Lauren Rogers determined that Pacific cod eggs have a narrow optimal range for hatching success, only 3-6º C. This is much narrower than other related species like walleye pollock and Atlantic cod.

“Early life stage distribution and survival may set biogeographic boundaries and limit productive capacity for fish stocks,” added Rogers. “Pacific cod are unique among cod species; they only spawn once in a season and have eggs that adhere to the seafloor. Pacific cod females can actually place their eggs in habitats with temperatures that optimize hatch success. However, during these warm years, it may have been more challenging to find suitable habitat because the warmer water temperatures extended into the ocean depths.”

Read the full release here

Gulf of Alaska cod exemplifies commitment to sustainability

February 19, 2020 — Recent headlines discussing a potential suspension of the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification for Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod have included some misleading and even inaccurate depictions of the status of the fishery. As the client for both MSC and Responsible Fisheries Management certifications for all Alaska Pacific cod, Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation feels it is important to provide necessary context and clarification.

Most importantly, all Alaska Pacific cod is currently certified under both the MSC and RFM programs, with only a small percentage (6 percent or less) of the commercial harvest under review in 2020 by the certification bodies. Alaska’s Pacific cod fishery is split into three primary commercial fishing regions — the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska — which will account for about 78 percent, 16 percent, and 6 percent of the 2020 harvest, respectively. Only the Gulf of Alaska harvest is under review and subject to a potential change in certification status. The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands produce 343 million pounds of Alaska Pacific cod, and recent surveys from these fisheries show abundant populations.

To say that sustainability certification and fisheries management standards are complicated is an understatement. Yet every aspect of fisheries management in Alaska is based on the best available scientific data, effective management practices, and a precautionary approach designed specifically to sustain the long-term health of the species and ecosystem. In Alaska, we are now challenged by the fact that climate or environmental changes are often the key drivers in fisheries health and management. This makes our investment in and commitment to federal surveys, annual stock assessments, monitoring, and catch accounting data even more important.

Adherence to our robust management systems, even when climate-driven events necessitate a fishery closure, is the strongest demonstration of Alaska’s sustainable fisheries.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Russia-Alaska seafood trade remains a one-way street benefiting Russia

February 19, 2020 — Lost in the headlines about the hits to seafood sales from the Trump administration’s trade war with China is another international barrier that’s been going on far longer.

In August 2014, Russia placed an embargo on all U.S. food products to retaliate for sanctions the U.S and other Western countries imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. The ban included Alaska seafood, which at the time accounted for more than $61 million in annual sales to Russia, primarily pink salmon roe.

But here’s the bigger hurt: For the nearly six years that the embargo has been in place, no corresponding limits have ever been imposed on Russian seafood coming into the U.S.

At first, Alaska seafood companies and the state’s congressional delegation made some “tit for tat” noise about imposing a ban on Russian seafood. But in fact, the value of Russian imports has grown nearly 70% since 2014 — and it all comes into the U.S. almost entirely duty-free.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News