October 22, 2019 — Trawlers in the Bering Sea have hauled up some 2,500 metric tons of black cod in bycatch circa the end of last month, according to a NOAA fisheries report.
An Alaska Public Media report suggests that small-boat fishermen who have bought black cod (also known as sablefish) fishing rights are frustrated that there will be fewer fish to harvest after the accidental catch of the trawlers.
October 18, 2019 — Gray whales had a rough go last season as they made their annual migration — skinny, emaciated, even dead whales showing up along the West Coast prompting concern over the health of the species.
With the new season’s first gray whales being spotted in recent weeks off the South Bay, Long Beach and Orange County, whale researchers and enthusiasts are hopeful for a healthier season, one that would indicate the whales found enough food to forage in Alaska as they make their trek to the warm waters of Baja, Mexico.
A young gray whale was spotted last week by Harbor Breeze Cruises, which followed it from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Long Beach. Another was seen off the PV Peninsula earlier in the month, and another around Torrance Beach.
Orange County’s first gray whale sighting was reported Tuesday, Oct. 15, first by a diver near the Newport Pier and then by a Dana Wharf boat captain.
October 18, 2019 — More than 9 million acres of Southeast Alaska’s 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest could lose clearcutting protections with a proposed repeal of the 2001 Roadless Rule.
The U.S. Forest Service will publish its draft environmental impact statement in the Federal Register this week with a preferred alternative to remove all protections for the roadless acres. A 60-day comment period will follow publication.
The statement provides analysis of six alternatives related to the management of the Tongass.
The alternatives range from no action to the removal of the Tongass from the 2001 Roadless Rule (details below). The Department of Agriculture has identified Alternative 6, which is a full exemption, as its preferred alternative. A final decision is expected in 2020.
“As an Alaska salmon troller, I am increasingly dependent on coho salmon reared in the watersheds of Southeast Alaska. Coho live at least a year in fresh water and need the habitat provided by old growth forests,” said 2007 NF Highliner Eric Jordan of Sitka, Alaska. “Meanwhile, the forest service still has a huge list of salmon habitat restoration projects needing funding from the previous era of Industrial clear cut logging in Southeast Alaska. “
October 17, 2019 — The population of cod in the Northern Bering Sea has increased immensely since 2010, and scientists are using fish DNA to find out why.
Think of it like a genetic ancestry test, but for fish.
Until recently, pacific cod were rarely found in the Northern Bering Sea. A 2010 survey showed cod made up only three percent of the entire fish population. That’s been changing, fast.
A survey in the summer of 2017 showed that number shot up 900 percent.
Ingrid Spies is a research fisheries biologist who led the way on this research to determine whether the population spike is evidence of a growing population or of an existing population migrating from elsewhere?
One thought was that cod could have migrated from Russia or the Gulf of Alaska, where they observed cod numbers decline significantly in 2017. Scientists were able to come to a conclusive answer to the question using genetic testing.
October 17, 2019 — The supply of the big stocks of wild whitefish are set to remain stable for 2020, lifting by less than 1%, according to a forecast from the Groundfish Forum.
The forecast at the forum for the US supply of Alaska pollock for 2020 is 1.528 million metric tons, down from 1.552m in 2019. Undercurrent News previously reported the science on pollock points to possible cuts in the next couple of years.
For Russian pollock, the forum predicts a slight lift in supply for 2020, from 1.685m metric tons to 1.70m. Global pollock supply is set to be 3.44m metric tons, down marginally from 2019’s 3.45m.
For Atlantic cod, the total supply is forecast to rise very slightly, from 1.131m metric tons in 2019 to 1.132m. In June, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advised the cod quota in the Barents Sea for 2020 be set at a level 2% higher than its advised level for 2019 of 674,678t. At 689,672t, its 2020 advice comes in at 5% lower than the total allowable catch for 2019 set by the Norwegians and Russians, of 725,000t.
October 17, 2019 — The Pacific Seafood Processors Association (PSPA) successfully transferred the clientship and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificate for Alaska salmon over to the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation (AFDF) as of 1 October.
The development brings about the conclusion of “a deliberate and cooperative transfer process,” PSPA and AFDF said in a press release.
October 16, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — There will be a Bristol Bay red king crab fishery this year, though at an extremely low level, continuing a downward trend that probably hasn’t yet hit the bottom.
“Red crab is not looking well at all, everything is down,” said Miranda Westphal, shellfish management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Unalaska. “There’s not a lot coming into the system.”
The crab season opens Oct. 15, and crab fishermen are busy working around Unalaska docks rigging pots for the red crab. The snow crab season officially opens the same day, but fishermen won’t start targeting the smaller opilio snow crab for several months.
Bering Sea crab quotas were announced Sunday by ADF&G’s Division of Commercial Fisheries. The red king harvest level is set at 3.79 million pounds, down 12% from last year’s 4.3 million, Westphal said.
“I don’t know if it’s ever been this low,” she said.
In one bright spot, at least for this year, the snow crab quota increased by 23%, at 34 million pounds, up from last year’s 27.6 million pounds. But future snow crab populations appear weak, and don’t bode well for upcoming years, she cautioned.
The Tanner crab season is closed in both the eastern and western districts, a “depressing” development, said Frank Kelty, who steps down as Unalaska mayor later this month. Yet despite this year’s closure, Westphal said Tanners appear to have a bright future.
“It’s actually looking the best out of all the stocks,” said Westphal, citing survey results showing large populations of juvenile Tanner crab, especially in the western district.
Two smaller Bering Sea crab fisheries that are frequently closed did not open this year. The St. Matthew’s blue king crab, and Pribilof Islands red and blue king crab fisheries are both closed again.
The quotas are set based on the summer trawl survey of the Bering Sea conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service in an annual research projects that catches all species with nets, and uses the results to determine the quotas of crab and pollock and flatfish in the various commercial fisheries.
Kelty said he wasn’t surprised by the bad news when the quotas were announced over the weekend.
“This is what I expected,” he said.
Kelty, like Westphal, is also worried about the future of the snow crab fishery. He said warming waters will attract Pacific cod to the area north of St. Matthew’s Island, which he said is the “nursery” of snow crab, and their babies are the “favorite food” of the cod.
Previously, the cod stayed to the south, blocked by a deepwater “cold pool” of seawater, which is now shrinking. And as the water warms in the depths, the cod travel further north. Kelty said he knows cod like baby snow crab from personal experience, “cutting a lot of cod bellies open,” as a former Unalaska seafood worker.
According to NMFS, “In 2017 and 2018 the maximum extent of sea ice in the Bering Sea was the lowest on record. The cold pool was dramatically smaller than usual and large numbers of Pacific cod and pollock were found in the northern Bering Sea in the spring and summer months.”
Meanwhile, another Bristol Bay red king crab survey project is underway in the Bering Sea, this one involving the unmanned wind and solar-power Saildrones, which are tracking acoustic tags attached to the crab during the summer trawl survey.
“All vessels are asked to avoid the saildrones,” which look like red kayaks with big red rigid sails and solar panels.
The Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation is conducting the study with the federal agency NOAA Fisheries to “better understand crab movement in the Bering Sea.”
“Any commercial fisherman that captures a tagged red king crab should note the capture coordinates and tag number and quickly release it unharmed in the same location it was captured,” according to a postcard sent to fishermen.
Two representatives from the study attended a recent Unalaska City Council meeting to explain the project, Leah Zacher a NOAA scientist, and Scott Goodman, the executive director of BSFRF. More information is available at bsfrf.org, or facebook.com/BSFRF.
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
October 16, 2019 — Hundreds of fishery stakeholders and scientists will gather in Anchorage next week as the state Board of Fisheries begins its annual meeting cycle with a two-day work session.
The seven-member board sets the rules for the state’s subsistence, commercial, sport and personal use fisheries. It meets four to six times each year in various communities on a three-year rotation; this year the focus is on Kodiak and Cook Inlet.
The fish board and the public also will learn the latest on how a changing climate and off-kilter ocean chemistry are affecting some of Alaska’s most popular seafood items at an Oct. 23 talk and Q&A on ocean acidification in Alaska.
They may also be surprised to learn that only two studies have looked at salmon response to ocean acidification, and both were conducted outside Alaska.
Most of the research to date has focused specifically on crab and fish stocks, said Bob Foy, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center at the NOAA Auke Bay lab in Juneau who will lead the Anchorage presentation.
October 15, 2019 — Native tribes in the US Pacific Northwest and First Nations in Canada have jointly declared a state of emergency due to diminishing salmon stocks in watersheds that cross the US and Canadian border.
According to a press release from the Lummi Nation, indigenous groups from Alaska, Washington and British Columbia made the declaration due to “rapid rate of destructive resource extraction in the waters and lands these nations have called home for thousands of years”.
The groups have committed “to work together to protect, defend, and assert their human rights by protecting clean water and the health and habitat of the wild salmon stocks”.
October 15, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
There is a growing interest in understanding where our food is coming from and in supporting local farmers. There has also been an increased focus on local fare on many menus at eateries coast to coast. In fact, the once-obscure term “locavore” is now in the dictionary and is a highlighted feature on menus. When thinking about farm-to-fork many envision rolling hills, red barns, and a farmer in overalls tending his or her flock. But what about a farmer in waders or swim trunks? Can we trade the rolling hills for blue waves and the barn for a boat? That is just what the tide-to-table farmers are hoping to do.
Aquaculture, also known as farming in water, is the fastest growing food production system in the world. In the United States, aquaculture farmers raised and harvested more than 80 million pounds of seafood in coastal waters and the open ocean. These farms can vary from seaweed production in Alaska, oyster gardens in New England, and even offshore farms in the clear waters of Hawaii.
Seafood is vital to the Hawaiian economy and culture. Fish, shellfish, and seaweeds are an important part of local diets. Seafood demand is further increased by millions of visitors who crave high-quality, fresh, and local seafood.
Blue Ocean Mariculture, the nation’s only offshore fish farm, is located just off the rocky Kona coast. It is helping provide a native Kanpachi species to meet this growing demand for seafood. “Among local species, Hawaiian Kanpachi was a clear choice for its high quality, versatility, and natural ability to hit sustainability benchmarks,” said Blue Ocean Mariculture farmer Tyler Korte.
The fish, marked by dark blue-green upper body and a lavender-tinted belly, are grown in floating pens that can be raised and lowered in the water column. The series of pens on the farm can grow around 900,000 pounds of fish a year.