Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Unsound mine: Pebble commentary closes today

July 2, 2019 — Over the last 13 years that I’ve been watching and covering the ebbs and flows of Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska, I’ve followed the data trail, news stories about tailings ponds failures at similar mines, and the Pebble Corp.’s struggle to put together a plan and maintain financial backing.

My first take was that Alaskans understand the value of the full range of resource extraction — from finite fossil fuels and minerals to sustainable fisheries and wildlife hunting. They are pretty good at striking a balance since learning some hard lessons after the Exxon Valdez disaster and decades of lawsuits that followed, leaving fishermen and entire communities on the hard and Exxon comparatively unscathed.

Most Alaskans appreciate that their state is truly — and potentially perpetually — rich with a renewable bounty that should not be sacrificed for a short-term gain that is served with a side of toxic ponding. When it comes to fisheries, Alaska’s reach is expansive. People come from all over the Lower 48 and the world to fish Bristol Bay every summer — and millions of salmon lovers around the globe reap the benefits of that harvest.

After today, the fate of this fishery will be in the hands of the federal government. If you haven’t submitted public comment on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ draft environmental impact statement, now is your last chance. If you’re not sure what to write, consider using Quality Comment to help.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NPFMC October Meeting Information/Call for Nominations

July 1, 2019 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The October Council meeting will be in Homer, AK at the Land’s End Hotel, September 30th to October 9th.  For planning purposes, we are releasing a preliminary agenda and schedule which will be finalized in early September.  Please be aware the Advisory Panel will start on TUESDAY OCTOBER 1, and the Council will begin on THURSDAY OCTOBER 3.  Because of logistics, changes may occur with the scheduling of agenda items.  Please call (907) 271-2809 if you have questions.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
The Council is seeking nominations for membership for two taskforces to work on two Action Modules, or projects, that implement the Council’s Bering Sea Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP). The two initiated Action Modules are the following:

  • Climate Change Action Module: Evaluate short- and long-term effects of climate change on fish, fisheries, and the Bering Sea ecosystem, and develop management considerations.
  • LK/TK/Subsistence Action Module: Develop protocols for using local knowledge (LK) and traditional knowledge (TK) in management, and understanding impacts of Council decisions on subsistence use.

More information on the nominations HERE.

ALASKA: Pebble Mine opposition: Wrong mine for the wrong place

June 26, 2019 — Six rallies around the state this week have one purpose — spurring Alaska’s U.S. senators and representative to stop Pebble Mine permitting.

The U.S. House of Representative passed an amendment last week that would suspend funding for permitting for the Proposed Pebble Mine project near Bristol Bay, and a rally held outside Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s Juneau office Tuesday is part of a statewide push to get the Senate to do the same.

“We need to send a message to the Trump administration, and we need to send them back to the drawing board,” said Lindsey Bloom, representative for Commercial Fisherman For Bristol Bay.

Bloom said those who oppose Pebble Mine are particularly hoping to prompt action from Murkowski, who previously wrote to the Corps of Engineers requesting an extension for public comment period on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Bristol Bay opens as public comments close

June 26, 2019 — Fishermen in Alaska’s Bristol Bay kicked off the region’s commercial salmon season this week. Most of the fleet and other stakeholders, however, have been focused on their long-term prospects in the bay since the February release of the Army Corps’ draft environmental impact statement on the proposed Pebble Mine.

“Our industry in Bristol Bay is in the fight of our lives against relentless attempts by the Pebble Limited Partnership fueled by a ‘dig baby dig’ attitude from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to develop the world’s largest and most dangerous open pit mine at the headwaters of our fishery,” said Alaskan Alexus Kwachka of the F/V No Point on opening day in Naknek. “At this point, Bristol Bay fishermen and Alaskans, who still overwhelmingly oppose Pebble, are looking to Sen. Lisa Murkowski to deliver on her longtime promise of ensuring a permitting process that protects the interests of Alaskans and does not trade one resource for another.”

Murkowkski has continued to deflect direct action against the proposed mine.

“As I have said in the past,” the Alaska senator wrote in response to fishermen’s requests for her intervention, “we must have confidence that Bristol Bay’s world-class fisheries are protected, and I expect the Corps’ process to remain fair, rigorous and transparent as Alaskans provide their views.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

‘Derelict vessel’ law snags Alaska fishermen

June 26, 2019 — A well-intended new Alaska law has gone awry from a botched rollout that has turned thousands of Alaskan fishing vessel, tender, barge and sport fish operators into lawbreakers.

Since the start of 2019, all vessels over 24 feet are required to be registered with the state at a Department of Motor Vehicles office. Previously, vessels that were documented with the Coast Guard were not required to also register with the state. The state registration costs $24 and is good for three years.

“You need to get down to the DMV whether you’re documented or not,” explained Frances Leach, executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska.  “If you’re documented you have to register, and if you’re not documented, you have to register and get a title.”

The new rule stems from Senate Bill 92, the Derelict Vessels Act introduced last year by Sen. Peter Micciche (R-Soldotna) and passed by the Legislature. It is intended to help harbormasters and others track down owners of abandoned vessels.

But virtually no mariners know about the new registration requirement.

“We found out about it from a DMV personnel in Haines who told one of our gillnetters, and he told me. And we both called the troopers and they didn’t know anything about it,” said fisherman Max Worhatch of Petersburg. “Later they got back to us and said it was indeed the law.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Rep. DeFazio Applauds Fisheries Decision to Use Electronic Monitoring

June 25, 2019 — Congressman Peter DeFazio is applauding a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service to allow ground vessels in the Pacific Northwest to monitor their catch restrictions electronically instead of using expensive on-board human observers.

DeFazio said he has been pushing for years to get rid of “onerous restrictions on our coastal fishing industry”. He said lifting what he called “an outdated rule” will finally level the playing field between Pacific Northwest and Alaska fisherman and many of the nation’s other fishers, who are “not subject to the same archaic rules”.

Read the full story at KQEN

US House minibus bill includes amendment to stop Pebble Mine

June 24, 2019 — The U.S. House of Representatives has advanced a fiscal 2020 “minibus” appropriations bill that includes an amendment that could hit the brakes again on efforts to mine for copper and other minerals in close proximity to the Bristol Bay, Alaska, wild-caught salmon fishery.

The legislation, which covers the budgets of the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, State-Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development, was passed on Wednesday by a party-line vote of 226-203.

Earlier in the day the House voted, 233-201, to attach an amendment from representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, that cuts off funding to the Corps of Engineers to finish the environmental process needed to secure permits for the proposed Pebble Mine. In his argument for the change, Huffman, who is co-chair of the Wild Salmon Caucus, said what Pebble Limited Partnership wants to do near the headwaters of Bristol Bay is unprecedented, Alaska Public Media reported.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Alaska senators gain support on transboundary mining issues

June 20, 2019 — Senators from the Western U.S. are joining the Alaska congressional delegation to press the issue of Canadian mining practices in transboundary watersheds .

The bipartisan group of six senators — Mike Crapo, R-Idaho; Jim Risch, R-Idaho; Jon Tester, D-Mont.; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; and Patty Murray, D-Wash. — sent a letter along with Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan June 13 to British Columbia Premier John Horgan highlighting the steps states and the federal government have taken to monitor transboundary rivers and what they want provincial officials to do in return.

They were compelled to send the correspondence because there weren’t enough delegates to the International Joint Commission from either country to hold its biannual meeting in April, according to the letter.

IJC spokeswoman Sally Cole-Misch said it took roughly a year for President Donald Trump’s three appointees to the commission to be confirmed by the Senate and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed three new Canadian commissioners as soon as the terms of those appointed by his predecessor were completed.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

US House approves anti-Pebble amendment; Young votes no, defends permit process

June 20, 2019 — The U.S. House voted 233-201 for an amendment that would block the Corps of Engineers from proceeding on a permit for the proposed Pebble Mine.

The sponsor, Rep. Jared Huffman, said what Pebble Limited Partnership wants to do near the headwaters of Bristol Bay is unprecedented.

“There is no other U.S. hardrock mining operation that captures and treats such a massive volume of contaminated mine water, which is harmful to fish and to public health,” Huffman said in the debate over his amendment. “We know that mines are not invincible. Things go wrong.”

Huffman, D-Calif., said an accident at the mine could devastate Bristol Bay’s valuable salmon fishery, degrade Native cultures and ruin businesses that rely on the region’s world-class sportfishing. His amendment cuts off funding to the Corps of Engineers to finish the environmental process that’s underway.

Alaska Congressman Don Young voted against the amendment – not to defend the mine, he said, but to support the permitting process.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Alaska Congress members ask to tap relief funds for seafood

June 20, 2019 — Alaska’s congressional delegation said the state’s fishermen and seafood processors should be included in a federal trade war relief package, a report said.

Lawmakers asked the Trump administration to give its seafood industry access to $15 billion earmarked for farmers, The Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday.

“Unjustified retaliatory” tariffs are eroding Alaska seafood’s market share in China, U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young said in a June 11 letter.

“New market growth has stopped and Alaska seafood consumption has dropped,” the legislators wrote to Perdue.

China’s 25% tariff on Alaska salmon, pollock, cod and other fish implemented in July boosts the overall tariff to 32% on some fish species, they said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle