Saving Seafood

Buy Local Fish

March 25, 2020 — Local and domestic sources of wild American seafood shipped to you or available locally for pick-up. The top listing is all domestic seafood suppliers who will ship anywhere in the country. Below that, find listings for all local suppliers by state. Both are listed in alphabetical order.

Don’t see your company? Submit your info here.

Find more community supported fisheries and local direct marketers at Local Catch.

*All suppliers are listed based on information submitted by the suppliers themselves and have not been endorsed, verified or vetted by National Fisherman.

SHIPPED TO YOU

Atlantic Sea Farms
Saco, ME

Fresh-frozen and fermented Maine kelp
Delivering to the Continental U.S.
Food Service and Retail available!

Contact: Jesse Baines
(207) 807-9185
jbaines@atlanticseafarms.com
atlanticseafarms.com
89 Industrial Park Road, Saco, Maine 04072

Product List:
Ready-Cut Kelp
Kelp Cubes
Fermented Seaweed Salad
Sea-Chi
Sea-Beet Kraut

Bristol Bay Wild
Sitka, AK

Bristol Bay sockeye

Delivered anywhere, click for local deliveries and pick-ups

Contact: Lilani Estacio
lilani@bbrsda.com
(907) 677-2371
P.O. Box 6386
Sitka, AK 99835
find.bristolbaysockeye.org

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Halibut Fishermen Face Flattened Market, Firesale Prices

March 24, 2020 — The Pacific halibut fishery opened on March 14 amid little fanfare and flattened markets.

The first fish of the eight month season typically attracts the highest prices and is rushed fresh to high-end buyers, especially during the Lenten season. But that’s not the case in this time of coronavirus chaos, when air traffic is stalled and seafood of all kinds is getting backlogged in global freezers.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Alaska’s halibut season gets rocky start under transportation constraints and global competition

March 24, 2020 — The Pacific halibut fishery opened on March 14 amid little fanfare and flattened markets.

The first fish of the eight-month season typically attracts the highest prices and is rushed fresh to high-end buyers, especially during the Lenten season. But that’s not the case in this time of coronavirus chaos, when air traffic is stalled and seafood of all kinds is getting backlogged in global freezers.

Alaska’s share of the 2020 halibut catch is about 17 million pounds for nearly 2,000 fishermen who own shares of the popular flatfish. A week into the fishery, fewer than 50 landings were made totaling just over 262,000 pounds and, as anticipated, prices to fishermen were in the pits.

Earliest price reports at Homer were posted at $4.20 to $4.40 per pound, Kodiak prices were at $3.25 for 10-20 pounders, $3.50 for halibut weighing 20-40 pounds and $4 for 40-ups Prices ranged from $3.75 to $4.00 at Yakutat and $3.50 “across the board” at Wrangell, according to Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer.

The highest prices of $5.00, $4.75 and $4.50 were reported at Southeast ports that have regular air freight service, although they are expected to drop by $1-$2 per pound, according to a major buyer.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Alaska’s 2020 commercial halibut season begins with lower catch limits

March 20, 2020 — The 2020 Pacific halibut season in Alaska got underway on 14 March, with overall catch limits some 9 percent lower than they were last year.

Regulations for the season were adopted at last month’s annual International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) meeting in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. and were put into effect immediately. These rules are applicable to both the commercial and sport fisheries in Alaska.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Conservationists Say Salmon Fishing Plan Imperils Whales

March 19, 2020 — The government allowed salmon fishing in Alaska at rates its own reports said will push endangered Southern Resident killer whales closer to extinction, environmental groups claim in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Salmon born in the rivers and streams of Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia migrate to the Pacific Ocean and through the Gulf of Alaska, home to a major troll fishing fleet. In southeast Alaska, 97% of the Chinook salmon fishermen harvest were born elsewhere. The fish they take never make it back to their home waters, where they could have been dinner for the 72 remaining Southern Resident killer whales – a genetically distinct group of orca that are starving due to a lack of their main prey.

“It is reckless and irresponsible for NOAA to approve this harvest, these salmon don’t belong to Alaska, they belong to Southern Resident killer whales, indigenous peoples, and fishing communities down the coast,” Kurt Beardslee, Wild Fish Conservancy’s executive director, said Wednesday in a press release.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Alaska shellfish farmers and divers object to paying for federally required lab tests

March 18, 2020 — Alaska shellfish farmers and divers fear they won’t be “open for business” much longer if they’re forced to pick up the tab for federally required lab tests as outlined in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed shifting the cost to the harvesters, which last year totaled almost a half million dollars.

Geoduck clam divers in Southeast Alaska, for example, pay about $150,000 each year to collect samples that are sent to the single federally approved laboratory in Anchorage and tested for paralytic shellfish poison and other toxins. Divers also pay $20,000 for water quality samples twice a year, and $8,000 to test for inorganic arsenic.

“And then we pay the Alaska Department of Fish and Game about $25,000 a year for them to do the management and assessment of the geoduck resource,” said Phil Doherty, co-director of the Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Association.

The geoduck divers also tax themselves 7% to cover SARDFA’s $50,000 administrative costs. In all, Doherty said it adds up to $266,00 a year.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Seafood Shipping Concerns Rise Amid Coronavirus Outbreaks

March 18, 2020 — There’s no denying that coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has had a massive impact on the world. Here’s an overview of the ramifications on seafood shipping and related topics.

Demand and customer levels are down

Industry experts say the coronavirus factors into a downward trend related to demand. For example, Alaska’s Sitka Sac Roe Herring Fishery likely won’t happen this year. The department overseeing fish and game in the state reportedly contacted all processors with an assumed interest, and the response was that none intended to purchase herring this year.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Alaska Halibut Season Opens March 14

March 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

From Southeast Alaska to the Bering Sea, Alaska fishermen are heading out to catch halibut with the March 14 opening of the 2020 halibut season.

This season’s regulations were adopted at the annual meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission last month and are included in a Final Rule NOAA Fisheries filed with the Federal Register. They go into effect immediately.

Included in this season’s federal regulations are the catch limits established by the IPHC, and basic regulations for the commercial and sport halibut fisheries. Overall, the 2020 catch limits for the combined commercial and charter halibut fisheries in Alaska are 9 percent lower than the 2019 limits.

This final rule also implements management measures for the charter halibut fisheries in Areas 2C and 3A. These measures are necessary to keep charter harvests to within their respective allocations under a catch sharing plan with the directed commercial fishery.

Charter management measures in Area 3A (Gulf of Alaska) are more restrictive than 2019. All Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be closed to halibut retention in Area 3A. There is a daily bag limit of two halibut, but one fish must be no greater than 26 inches.

In Area 2C (Southeast Alaska), charter anglers are restricted to one halibut per day, with a reverse slot limit where retained halibut must be less than or equal to 40 inches, or greater than or equal to 80 inches.

Unguided halibut sport fishers in Alaska will continue to observe a daily bag limit of 2 fish of any size per person per day.

Alaska commercial IFQ halibut season dates are March 14 through November 15, 2020 for all IPHC management areas in Alaska.

Endangered Cook Inlet belugas continue to decline, scientists aren’t sure why

March 17, 2020 — Cook Inlet beluga whales are continuing to decline in number, according to a NOAA abundance estimate released last month. From Alaska’s Energy Desk, Kavitha George has the story of how the decline in belugas is both controversial and largely unexplained.

The decline of the white whales in the inlet in view of Anchorage has been going on for decades. In the 1970’s they numbered around 1400. In 2008, Cook Inlet belugas were listed as endangered, and still numbers continued to drop. With new analysis methods today there are even fewer whales than previously thought — less than 300, and steadily declining from there.

Still, the reasons why Cook Inlet belugas are disappearing are still largely a mystery to researchers.

“It’s such a frustration to not be able to really understand why the population is not recovering,” said Paul Wade, a NOAA researcher who has done aerial surveys of Cook Inlet belugas since the 1990s. “So we are just stuck with hypotheses that we really cannot yet prove or disprove.”

Read the full story at KNBA