Saving Seafood

Alaska Seafood Industry Launches Massive Effort to Fish the Bay Without Spreading the Virus

April 10, 2020 — Bristol Bay’s processors and fishermen have been working non-stop for the past several weeks to establish protocols that will allow this summer’s sockeye season to happen. Eleven major companies have announced they will process this year and as of today, seven have submitted detailed plans to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

The conditions the processors and fishermen are facing are anathema to any business — no one knows how bad the COVID-19 spread will be in June when the fishery opens, or in July when harvesting is at its peak. No one knows how lethal it will be during the summer in Bristol Bay, which in recent years has been significantly warmer for both humans and salmon.

Read the full story at Seafood News

ALASKA: Fishermen concerned over Pebble employee appointed to Board of Fisheries

April 9, 2020 — While communities and fishermen in Bristol Bay are facing an immediate challenge in deciding if and how to hold the $300 million salmon fishery in a few weeks, an appointment to the Board of Fisheries is adding to the stress felt by many in the region.

On April 1, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced appointments to boards and commissions. Among the governor’s appointments is Abe Williams, who is an employee of the Pebble Partnership, the company looking to build a open pit copper, gold and molybdenum mine in Southwest Alaska. According to the company’s preferred alternative plan submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the fully-developed mine site would be more than 8,300 acres, a land area the size of the City of Wasilla.

Williams was born and raised in Naknek, currently lives in Anchorage, and is a fourth-generation Bristol Bay fisherman. However, his position on Pebble Mine has bothered both commercial and sport fishermen in Bristol Bay. Williams is currently the Director of Regional Affairs for the Pebble Partnership.

In 2015, Williams was elected to serve as the Board President for the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. His election and reports that followed prompted the organization to issue a notice to its members that “The position of the BBRSDA and the near-unanimous views of its 1,650 members are unchanged. A resolution passed by the board of directors in 2014 stating that the BBRSDA opposes large-scale mining in Bristol Bay’s watersheds is, and continues to be, the position of this organization.”

In April of 2019, Williams and five other fishermen sued the BBRSDA for using part of its 1
percent tax collected from the Bristol Bay drift fleet to advocate against the Pebble Mine. The Pebble Partnership funded the lawsuit. The judge dismissed the case the following month.

Read the full story at KTUU

Alaska community asks for fishery shutdown because of virus

April 9, 2020 — An Alaska tribe and city asked have the governor to shut down a prosperous fishery this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Curyung Tribal Council and the city of Dillingham requested the closure of the Bristol Bay fishery in a letter to Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy Tuesday, Indian County Today reported.

The Bristol Bay fishery typically opens in June and harvests more Sockeye salmon than anywhere else globally. Fish harvesters there caught 56.5 million salmon in 2019.

The fishery brings about 14,000 people to the region for work with fish processing plant companies while drawing about 1,800 fishermen who have been named essential workers by the state.

“Our community does not have the capability to control the movement of this group,” the letter to Dunleavy said. “This is unacceptable and places us in an impossible situation.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

ALASKA: Bristol Bay processors offer plan aimed at keeping massive salmon fishery safe

April 9, 2020 — A group of seafood processors has offered details on how they would ensure safety in Alaska’s lucrative Bristol Bay commercial fishing season amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, a day after Dillingham leaders told the governor the fishery poses an “unacceptable” risk to local communities and should be canceled.

On Tuesday, Dillingham’s mayor and tribal first chief sent an open letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, asking him to cancel this summer’s Bristol Bay salmon fishery, the biggest by volume in the world. Last year, the total value of the catch set a record at $306 million.

Eleven seafood companies planning to participate in the Bristol Bay fishery this summer released a letter Wednesday “to confirm our commitment that we are prioritizing health and safety” of local communities.

The letter is addressed to the “communities and tribal councils of Bristol Bay.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Call for comments on cod disaster funds and coronavirus impacts

April 8, 2020 — The state of Alaska wants input on plans to distribute nearly $24.5 million in federal disaster relief funds for stakeholders and communities hurt by the 2018 Gulf of Alaska cod crash.

Better make it quick – the deadline to comment is Friday, April 10.

Cod is Alaska’s second-largest groundfish harvest (after pollock), but the Gulf stock dropped by 80% in 2018 following a three-year heat wave that disrupted food webs, fish metabolism and egg survival on the ocean floor. It combined to push down cod catches to just 28.8 million pounds, compared to nearly 142 million pounds the previous year.

The catch in 2019 was cut again to just over 27 million pounds; for 2020, the Gulf of Alaska was closed to cod fishing from 3 to 200 miles offshore.

Federal data show the number of boats targeting Gulf cod has dwindled to just 64, down from 275 six years ago.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Salmon shutdown? Alaska city requests Bristol Bay fishery closure

April 8, 2020 — City officials in Dillingham, Alaska, have requested that the state consider closing the Bristol Bay salmon fishery to protect the region’s year-round residents from widespread infection of covid-19.

A letter to Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy from Dillingham Mayor Alice Ruby and First Chief Thomas Tilden of the Curyung Tribal Council urges the governor to consider closing the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery to prevent an influx of workers to the region.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Bristol Bay community leaders lay out minimum protocol needed to allow salmon season

April 7, 2020 — Leaders of several major community organizations in Bristol Bay have issued a list of minimum protocols they expect to be in place before the commercial salmon fishery can take place this summer.

Among other the protocol listed, fishermen and other seasonal workers would undergo a physical exam including a COVID-19 test with a negative result no more than 48 hours before traveling to the region. After arriving in Bristol Bay, the individuals would be transported to a quarantine location and remain in quarantine until a follow-up negative COVID-19 test is confirmed. The leaders listed out other expectations, including weekly health screenings, for the seafood industry to establish as minimum protocol for the 2020 season.

“We were hearing up until we came up with our own position statement for the lack of a better word, was that what everybody was advocating for was really based around quarantine – the 14 day quarantine period. That seemed to be what was going to fix everything and make us all comfortable. The reality is, our opinion is that it’s going to take multiple types of protocol, so we think that COVID-19 testing, in combination with quarantine gives us the lowest level of risk,” Norm Van Vactor, CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation said. “There’s still some risk there, and at the end of the day, our communities are going to have to decide whether even that level of risk is acceptable.”

Read the full story at KTUU

Safety protocols in Alaska evolving amidst growing COVID-19 concerns

April 7, 2020 — The seafood industry is adapting and tightening its safety protocols as fears grow over summer fishing activities spreading COVID-19 in rural Alaska.

In Bristol Bay, Alaska, a recently released document signed by local industry heavyweights like the Bristol Bay Regional Development Association and the Bristol Bay Native Corporation suggests that all workers test negative within 48 hours of traveling to the region.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

JESSICA HATHAWAY: We’re not going anywhere

April 6, 2020 — As the spread of coronavirus shut down commercial fishing and seafood supply chains and restaurants throughout the country in March, stakeholders on every coast jumped to action to find ways to support local wild fisheries, keep fishermen fishing and put some of the world’s finest protein on the tables of sequestered American consumers.

Although we are not in our offices or traveling to the events and conferences where we get to connect face to face with so many of you, our digital doors are open.

The NF crew is excited to offer our May issue to download or view on the site with no paywall or restrictions. This is an extension of the same offer for our April issue, which is still available.

Read the full opinion piece at National Fisherman

Thousands of fishery workers, many from outside Alaska, are headed to Bristol Bay. One tiny hospital says its coronavirus plan can’t handle them.

April 6, 2020 — Later this spring, Alaska’s Bristol Bay will blossom into one of the largest annual salmon fisheries in the world.

The regional population of about 6,700 will triple with the arrival of fishermen, crews and seasonal workers on jets but also private planes and small boats, many traveling from out of state.

And yet the heart of the health care system in southwestern Alaska, where the Spanish flu once decimated entire communities, is a 16-bed hospital in Dillingham operated by the Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. Only four beds are currently equipped for coronavirus patients. There are no intensive-care unit rooms. As of Wednesday the hospital had a few dozen coronavirus tests for the entire Florida-sized region.

Chief nursing officer Lee Yale said in an email that the Kanakanak Hospital has four negative pressure rooms to treat COVID-19 patients without infecting others and two ventilators.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News