Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Working the night shift: Snagging salmon in Seward

June 13, 2019 — It’s midnight, and Seward is getting sleepy. Orange campfire embers smolder along the flat black water of Resurrection Bay as the last bits of midsummer twilight fade from the sky.

A group of men sit near a motorhome speaking Filipino as “No Touch” by the Juan Dela Cruz Band drifts down the rocky beach like campfire smoke. A dozen fishermen stand in the water nearby, their headlamps cutting through the night as they cast comically oversized treble hooks into the black before retrieving them violently in hopes of blindly gouging the belly or back of a big chinook.

“Fish on!” someone shouts, and now everyone is wide awake.

Welcome to Snag City.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Council turns down petition sought to protect Adak processor

June 13, 2019 — The Aleutian Islands won’t be getting an emergency boost in quota for Pacific cod, despite stakeholders’ assertions that the processing plant in Adak needs it to survive the next season.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council decided not to approve an emergency petition from a group of Aleutian Islands stakeholders at its meeting June 9, instead taking a longer route through a discussion to look at the set-aside options for the area.

The petition had sought an emergency quota set-aside of Pacific cod, separate from the general Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands quota, to help sustain the shore-based plant and thus the community.

Adak, a small community on an island west of Unalaska that once housed a naval base, relies heavily on Pacific cod processing. The community there taxes fishery landings to pay for public services as well. In recent years, the shore-based processors have had to increasingly compete with larger companies’ catcher-processor vessels participating in the Bering Sea Pacific cod fishery.

The fishery has grown as well, and as the fishery is not under rationalization, fishermen have complained of an increasingly dangerous “race for fish” that makes the season shorter and shorter. In spring 2019, the Bering Sea Pacific cod “A” season lasted less than two weeks.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: Feds still working on plan for $56M in disaster relief funds

June 12, 2019 — Alaska fishermen are still awaiting disaster relief funds for the 2016 pink salmon run failure that was the worst in 40 years.

Congress approved $56 million that year for Alaska fishermen, processors and communities hurt by the fishery flop in three Alaska regions: Kodiak, Prince William Sound and Lower Cook Inlet.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and National Marine Fisheries Service finalized plans and procedures for payouts last August. Since then, the paper push has stalled on various federal agency desks.

NMFS missed a promised June 1 sign off deadline and now says the funds will be released on the first of July, according to Rep. Louise Stutes of Kodiak, who has been tracking the progress.

“It affects all the cannery workers all the processors, all the businesses in the community,” she said. “This has a big trickle-down effect.”

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

New book reveals the history and ephemera of salmon canneries in Southeast Alaska

June 7, 2019 — Juneau Afternoon host Sheli DeLaney sat down with the editor of the newly-published book “Tin Can Country: Southeast Alaska’s Historic Salmon Canneries” on Thursday’s show.

The book takes a look at the historical impact of salmon canneries and how they built the economic foundation of Southeast Alaska. The editor, Anjuli Grantham, is also a fisheries historian.

“Canneries are really essential to the identity and the economy of Alaska,” Grantham said. “However, the seafood industry in general hasn’t gotten the attention that other industries have in the history of Alaska. For example, mining. People often think about the gold rush, but they don’t think about the salmon rush that created much of coastal Alaska.”

Grantham is quick to mention that this book was a culmination of years of work and research by many people. One of those people was the late Pat Roppel of Wrangell, an Alaskan historian who spent decades researching the history of canneries across the state, specifically in Southeast.

Roppel died in 2015 before finishing her work. Her best friend, Karen Hofstad of Petersburg, had been collecting salmon can labels, original cans and fisheries materials for 50 years with the intention of creating a book. Hofstad and Grantham collaborated to finish Roppel’s effort, using Hofstad’s extensive collection to illustrate it.

Read the full story at KTOO

Alaska’s fledgling mariculture industry expands its reach; former Dunleavy staffer named to fish board

June 6, 2019 — More Alaskans are turning to seaweed farming as the state’s fledgling mariculture industry expands to more regions. Shellfish growers also are finding that an oyster/aquatic plant combo boosts their bottom line.

Sixteen applications were filed for new or expanding aquatic farms from January through April, of which 56% were for growing various kelp, 31% for a combination of Pacific oysters and kelp, and 13% for oysters only.

While 2019 saw the same number of applications as 2018, the underwater acreage increased considerably, said Cynthia Pring-Ham, aquatic farming coordinator at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which issues the farm permits.

“There were about 616 acres that were applied for in 2019 compared to 462 acres in 2018. That’s about a 33% increase,” she said, adding that Fish and Game partners with the state Department of Natural Resources, which leases the tidal and submerged lands where aquatic farming takes place.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Feds declare emergency as gray whale deaths reach highest level in nearly 20 years

June 3, 2019 — Alarmed by the high number of gray whales that have been washing up dead on West Coast beaches this spring, the federal government on Friday declared the troubling trend a wildlife emergency.

The declaration by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration technically, the agency dubbed the deaths an “unusual mortality event” kicks in a provision of federal law that provides funding for scientists to figure out the cause when such die-offs of marine mammals occur, from whales and dolphins in the Pacific or Atlantic to manatees off Florida.

So far this year, at least 70 gray whales have been found dead and stranded along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska the most in nearly 20 years, scientists from NOAA said Friday. In recent weeks, whales have washed up in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

On average about 35 of the giant marine mammals wash up dead on the West Coast in a year, or around three per month. Last year, 45 were found.

But the average number found dead for the first five months of the year on the West Coast is 15, so this year is seeing five times the average rate.

“There have been juveniles but adults as well. There have been males and females. It’s been all across the board at this point,” said Justin Viezbicke, NOAA’s California Stranding Coordinator.

Read the full story at The Chicago Tribune

As sea ice melts, fish are showing up farther north off Alaska. A federal fishing trip will investigate if they’re sticking around.

May 31, 2019 — Last fall, Adem Boeckmann, a commercial fisherman who lives outside Nome, pulled up some of the pots he uses to fish for crab on the ocean floor.

“Had 10 24-inch cod in each pot,” Boeckmann said. “I never saw anything like that.”

Cod, which is used in fish sticks and fish and chips, is caught in huge numbers by commercial boats in the Bering Sea. But not near Nome – typically, the fish is caught hundreds of miles south. Historically, the ecosystem where Boeckmann fishes has been centered on the ocean floor, without big populations of large fish.

Federal scientists are setting off on their own Bering Sea fishing trip this summer, to investigate whether observations like Boeckmann’s – bolstered by the government’s own previous findings – could be indicators of profound shifts in the ocean ecosystem driven by global warming. The results of the summer fieldwork could have major implications for the Bering Sea’s billion-dollar fisheries, as well as for Alaskans who live, hunt and fish along the Arctic coast.

“Is this part of an environmental shift, where with the warming, the northern Bering Sea is going to become a top-down system?” asked Lyle Britt, a federal fisheries scientist who will spend more than a month at sea this summer. “Or, is this more like an ephemeral trend that just happened because we had an unusually warm year, and things will reset? We don’t really know.”

The surveys are done by the Seattle-based Alaska Fisheries Science Center, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at KTOO

Alaska senator requests tariff exemption for state’s seafood

May 30, 2019 — An Alaska senator has written to the U.S. trade representative asking for Alaska fish species to be removed from a list of goods facing tariffs, a report said.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last week, The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Tuesday.

As part of an ongoing trade dispute with China, earlier this month the Trump Administration announced an increase in tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of products and tariffs on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese imports.

Sullivan said he asked Lighthizer to consider removing tariffs from seafood fished in Alaska including salmon, some species of rockfish and flatfish, Pollock, and Pacific cod.

The increase in tariffs is “creating tremendous uncertainty” for the industry and “is deeply troubling, because they continue to potentially negatively impact the very Americans the administration is trying to help,” Sullivan’s letter said.

The letter was also signed by Sen Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young, who are both Republicans.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

2019 Southeastern Bering Sea Shelf Bottom Trawl Survey Gets Underway

May 30, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On May 31 the Southeastern Bering Sea Bottom Trawl Survey will depart Dutch Harbor to collect data on the distribution and abundance of crab, groundfish, and other bottom-dwelling species in the southeastern Bering Sea. These data are used to estimate population abundances to manage commercially important species in Alaska. NOAA Fisheries has conducted this survey annually since 1975.

As we did last year, we intend to provide regular updates on water temperatures collected near the seafloor at all of our survey stations. When we conduct surveys for fish and other species, we also collect information about the environment in which they live — their habitat. For fish and other species water temperature is important. It affects their spawning, access to food, and growth rates.

We had another unusually warm winter and expect to see a reduction in the cold pool. The cold pool is a natural, thermal barrier created by melting winter sea ice. It tends to separate Arctic species, usually found in the northern Bering Sea, from commercially important pollock, Pacific cod and other species, typically found in the southeastern Bering Sea. Last year after a similar warm winter, a partial survey of the northern Bering Sea was conducted. Large numbers of pollock were found there.

Once scientists complete this year’s survey of the southeastern Bering Sea, they will move northward to conduct a full survey of the northern Bering Sea bottom-dwelling community. Additional surveys are planned in the northern Bering Sea using surface trawls and hydro-acoustics to monitor key components of the marine ecosystem and environmental conditions. Be sure to check back here for regular updates on ocean temperatures collected during the Bering Sea bottom trawl surveys.

The southeastern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey will be conducted from approximately May 31 to August 2.  The northern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey will be conducted from about August 3 to 25.

Read the full release here

Fishery observer survey seeks answers for high turnover

May 30, 2019 — Many of Alaska’s commercial fisheries depend on observers having a place on board, but fewer than a fifth of them feel appreciated by the industry, according to a new survey.

Fishery observers sail on vessels with fishermen in federal waters and keep track of catch and bycatch and take biological samples throughout trips. Managers use this information to evaluate stocks and manage fisheries.

The job can be tough, requiring up to a month at a time on the water in rough conditions, and turnover can be high. The survey, conducted by the National Marine Fishery Service in 2016, asked 553 observers why they did the job and what their experiences have been like.

Although three-quarters of them thought the job helped them in their careers and about 69 percent said the days at sea matched their expectations, nearly half them reported being harassed. Only 20 percent said they felt valued by the fishing community, and many said they were disappointed by a lack of opportunity to learn more about science and management, according to the survey findings, published in May.

The original intent of the survey was to help improve retention. Most observers quit after a few years — the West Coast, with about 5½ years, has the longest average tenure. Alaska’s average tenure is about 4.8 years, according to the survey data. Although observers have to have some training or education before taking the job, there’s a lot they learn through experience.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce