Saving Seafood

Alaska’s 2019 fisheries bring new records, continued concern

January 3, 2020 — Alaska’s fisheries in 2019 had several bright spots, yet many areas of concern will return into the next year.

Once again the sockeye fishery in Bristol Bay was the shining star of the commercial sector. Fishermen caught Bristol Bay’s 2 billionth sockeye salmon since records were first kept. The in-shore run of 57 million fish clocked in at the fourth-largest run on the record books, but the ex-vessel value of $306 million ranks as the best of all time.

“We had really good fisheries out in Bristol Bay,” ADF&G Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said. “In Southeast Alaska we were able to meet all our treaty obligations, provide commercial fishing opportunity and most importantly protect all our stocks of concern in Southeast Alaska.”

2019 brought a mixed bag for sport fishermen in Southcentral.

The early run sockeye on the Kenai and Russian River quickly surpassed escapement goals even with the ADF&G increasing bag limits and opening areas usually closed to fishing. At one point, anglers could keep nine daily and have 18 in possession.

“We’ve had other years where we went up to six and 12 daily, but we’ve never had it go up that high. We just had a tremendous return of sockeye, and we use that return to provide opportunities for Alaskans and visitors to our state,” Vincent-Lang said.

Even with additional limit increases for late-run Kenai River and Resurrection Bay sockeye, the 2019 season was tarnished by two major events.

The Swan Lake Fire loomed over of much of the Alaskan summer, and sportfishing didn’t escape the impacts. The Upper Kenai River was temporarily closed for public safety and firefighting efforts during a time period that is one of the most important of the year for trout fishing guides on the Peninsula.

Read the full story at KTUU

5 crew members feared dead after Alaska fishing boat sinks

January 3, 2020 — Five crew members are feared dead after a crab fishing vessel sank in the frigid waters off Alaska. The Coast Guard announced Wednesday that it had called off the search for those working in one of the most dangerous industries in the U.S.

Two other crew members were rescued after the disaster Tuesday, telling authorities they were the only ones who made it into a life raft, the Anchorage Daily News reported. A press release from the Coast Guard identified them as Dean Gribble Jr. and John Lawler. They were hypothermic and have since been released from a hospital.

The Coast Guard also identified the five crew members who remain missing: Gary Cobban Jr., David Lee Cobban, Arthur Ganacias, Brock Rainey, and Seth Rousseau-Gano. The military branch added that it used helicopters, planes and a boat to look for the missing crew members for 20 hours before calling off the search, because they were not likely to have survived.

“The decision to suspend an active search and rescue case is never easy, and it’s only made after careful consideration of a myriad of factors,” said Rear Admiral Matthew Bell, commander of the 17th district. “Our deepest condolences to the friends and families impacted by this tragedy.”

Read the full story at CBS News

Coast Guard Suspends Search for 5 Missing After Fishing Boat Sinks Off Alaska

January 2, 2020 — After a 20-hour search covering 1,400 square miles, the Coast Guard called off a search for five people who were missing after the fishing boat they were on sank off Alaska, officials said.

The search for the missing crew members was suspended at 6:08 p.m. local time on Wednesday, “after exhausting all leads and careful consideration of survival probability,” according to a statement released early Thursday morning.

“The decision to suspend an active search and rescue case is never easy, and it’s only made after careful consideration of a myriad of factors,” said Rear Adm. Matthew Bell, the 17th District Commander. “Our deepest condolences to the friends and families impacted by this tragedy.”

Two crew members were rescued after the boat, a 130-foot-long crab fishing vessel called the Scandies Rose, sank near Sutwik Island around 10 p.m. on Tuesday with seven aboard, the Coast Guard said in an statement.

They were rescued from a life raft by a Coast Guard helicopter, officials said.

The crew members were taken to a hospital and were in stable condition, said Petty Officer Second Class Melissa McKenzie of the 17th District.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Chinook salmon are getting smaller, and researchers say killer whales may be to blame

December 31, 2019 — Chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, are getting smaller, and a team of scientists at the University of Washington think they know why. A new study says killer whales might be behind Chinook’s declining size.

Chinook salmon are an important part of life in Southeast Alaska. Part of the prized fish’s value is its size. Chinook are the largest Pacific salmon.

But in the last two years, returns have been low. Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg all saw their king salmon derbies cancelled in 2018 and 2019. And forecasts for 2020 don’t look much better.

But it’s not just their numbers that are declining.

University of Washington researcher Jan Ohlberger published a paper last year that shows Chinook are getting smaller, too. Up to 10 percent smaller.

That discovery intrigued the researcher.

“The question is, what is the cause of that?” said Ohlberger in a recent phone interview.

A causal claim is difficult to make. Correlation, of course, doesn’t always imply causation.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

ROGER SENSABAUGH & BOB MIRES: Alaska’s fisheries deserve support outside election season

December 30, 2019 — It seems that at election time, our candidates will do everything they can to show themselves as big proponents of our fisheries, posing as lovers of salmon, with pictures of themselves splashed across the media holding a king or coho, while touting our commercial and sport fishing industries. Yet once election season is over, our amazing natural resources — our salmon especially — seem to be all but forgotten, slipping back into the far reaches of memory, taking a second seat to all other issues, a neglected priority.

This is too bad, because as anyone who is aware of the history of once great fisheries around the world knows, ours are but a few of the last great remaining intact salmon runs. Cook Inlet- sized populations were once the norm throughout Europe, as were runs far into the 1800’s along the northeastern seaboard of the United States. Much more recently, over the past 50 years, 300 documented runs of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest have met their demise, many of these during our lifetime.

With current changes, such as the very real prospect of Pebble Mine, and with the lifting of restrictions on the discharge of pollutants on both a state and federal level, there is no reason to believe this will not eventually be the case here in Alaska, as well, that our salmon will not face the same fate as those around the world. We need to hold our politicians’ feet to the fire and demand that they adhere to what they say when running for office. Finally, stop just paying lip service to our salmon and adopt a “fish-first” policy.

Read the full opinion piece at the Anchorage Daily News

NPFMC Meets Jan 27-Feb 2 in Seattle

December 30, 2019 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The NPFMC will meet January 27 – February 2, 2020, at the Renaissance Hotel in Seattle. The AGENDA and SCHEDULE are now available. If you’re planning a flight, you can use the EasyBiz Discount Code: ECMC935. You can submit and review comments through each Agenda Item and the deadline for comments is Friday, January 24, 2020, at 12:00 pm (Alaska time).

ALASKA: GCI applies to bring fiber optic to Aleutian communities

December 27, 2019 — GCI has applied to bring broadband communications to communities along the Aleutian chain.

The proposed project would bring fiber optic cable from Kodiak to Unalaska, spanning approximately 428 miles.

Dan Boyette, Vice President and General Manager of GCI, said getting the financing arranged and support from the business community for this project has proved to be a challenge.

“We’ve been working on the business case to bring fiber optic services to Unalaska along with all the communities on the southern side of the Alaska Peninsula and the Eastern Aleutians for a couple years,” Boyette said. “So that cable would originate in Kodiak and terminate in Unalaska and make stops in a total of 11 communities.”

The fiber optic cable would be loaded onto a ship that’s specifically constructed to do undersea fiber optic installations, and would be laid over 428 discontiguous miles on state-owned, Department of Mining, Land, and Water-managed tide and submerged lands, according to Boyette.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Controversial mining company coached Alaska’s governor to lobby White House

December 23, 2019 — A mining company secretly collaborated with the governor of Alaska to lobby the Trump administration to move forward with a mining project that Environmental Protection Agency scientists warned could devastate the world’s most valuable wild salmon habitat, according to newly released emails obtained by CNN.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office was given detailed talking points, ghostwritten letters and advice on lobbying strategies by Pebble Limited Partnership executives, emails show. Dunleavy and his office then used that material, sometimes adopting the company’s language word for word, in an effort that culminated in President Donald Trump promising favorable action on the mine, according to emails.

One striking example of the governor using Pebble’s language is an official letter Dunleavy sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in April about the length of a public comment period on the mine’s draft environment impact statement.

Read the full story at CNN

ALASKA: Trident’s Sand Point plant closed for the winter due to low cod stocks

December 23, 2019 — The precipitous drop in Gulf of Alaska cod recently closed the federal fishery for the upcoming season. Its effects are also being felt by processors who rely on the fish for their winter workload. The Trident Seafoods plant in Sand Point closed last month for the winter, leaving a gaping hole in the city’s budget, and sowing uncertainty about the future.

The city of Sand Point was founded on cod. Settled less than 150 years ago, it’s had a processing plant in some form for nearly a century. This year is the first that the plant, now owned by Trident Seafoods, won’t be processing cod — and that’s because of climate change.

“It’s no fault of the plant at Sand Point, however, there’s not enough fish to process. So for the first time in my life, it’s closed,” Paul Gronholdt, an Aleutians East Borough assembly member testified at the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council meeting earlier this month. “That’s going to be pretty devastating to Sand Point and it’ll hurt the other communities in our region too.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Alaska salmon permit trade sluggish amid high prices, uncertainties

December 18, 2019 — Trade on permits in Alaska’s salmon fisheries has been generally sluggish, as high prices in booming fisheries, warming waters, and market uncertainties are giving fishermen pause.

Fishermen are still looking to get into Bristol Bay after consecutive seasons of robust runs have coincided with strong prices, culminating in a 2019 season that was the most lucrative in history. Last year’s record-breaking preliminary ex-vessel value of USD 306.5 million (EUR 275.7 million) in Bristol Bay was nearly 250 percent of the 20-year average, and permits prices reflect the recent boom.

Read the full story at Seafood Source