Saving Seafood

Scientists: Southeast Alaska vulnerable to ocean acidification

February 22, 2019 — Southeast Alaska is poised to be among the first regions in the world affected by ocean acidification.

The Alaska Ocean Acidification Network hosted a public presentation Wednesday about the phenomenon that is making ocean water more acidic, and Alaska scientists explained why Southeast is likely to be impacted more quickly than other parts of the world.

Ocean acidification occurs when water absorbs carbon dioxide, which causes the water to become more acidic, and Southeast Alaska waters are uniquely positioned to be particularly susceptible to it, said Jessica Cross, an oceanographer for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

“There’s a couple of reasons for that,” Cross said. “One of them is glacial discharge. The second reason Southeast Alaska is more vulnerable to ocean acidification than other areas around the state is because of the communities themselves. When we talk about OA risk, we’re very interested in communities that rely on threatened species or threatened marine resources for economic value, cultural perspectives or subsistence food sources.”

Also, Cross said there are a few factors that make the water in the area naturally more acidic.

“I like to say Alaska waters are old and cold,” Cross said after the presentation.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

ALASKA: North Pacific council to study catch-share proposal for cod trawlers

February 22, 2019 — As pressure continues to build on Pacific cod landings in the Bering Sea, the US’ North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) is taking a hard look at the number of trawl vessels and offshore processors there, Alaska Public Radio reports.

A year after federal regulators dramatically cut the quota in the Gulf of Alaska, trawlers say the congestion is causing a race for the fish.

“You got kind of a perfect storm going on here: You have more and more vessels entering a fishery, you’ve got less fish available to be caught, and now this year in 2019, we ended up with a 13-day season,” Brent Paine, executive director of United Catcher Boats, is quoted as saying. “Four years ago, it never even closed.”

The NPFMC has taken up a request from Paine and others to study a catch share plan for trawl catcher vessels, splitting up the sector’s landings between individual boats before the season begins. A scoping paper is due from its staff later this year.

Such a management structure, which is already used by halibut and pollock fisheries, would limit the number of vessels that can participate in the fishery and reduce competition, the article notes. A specific date range would determine historical participation and therefore who gets shares and how many.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: Governor proposes redirecting money from fishing communities to state

February 22, 2019 — The governor is proposing taking fishing tax money from municipalities and directing it to the state to help balance his budget.

Senate Bill 63, backed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, would repeal a revenue sharing provision that is written into the state’s fisheries business tax. Should the bill pass, the state coffers would gain an additional $29.1 million in 2020, according to a fiscal note attached to the bill.

Every year, 50 percent of the fisheries business tax revenue is distributed to Alaska’s fishing communities. The amount each community receives hinges on the how much fish was taxed in that community. If SB 63 passes, the revenue sharing program would end. It is one of many bills that are being proposed to change Alaska statutes so that Dunleavy’s budget proposal is feasible.

The City and Borough of Juneau receives about $400,000 annually as part of this fisheries tax revenue sharing program, according to CBJ Finance Director Bob Bartholomew.

Bartholomew says this money is deposited into the Juneau’s harbor fund, which is about $4 million. So this bill would impose a 10 percent hit on the CBJ’s harbor fund.

“We used some revenue bonds to help pay for a commercial loading float at Auke Bay,” Bartholomew said. “That (loss of fisheries tax revenue sharing) is equivalent to the debt service.”

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

Alaska fishing communities would take hit under Dunleavy proposal to end fish tax revenue-sharing

February 22, 2019 — Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed legislation this week that would keep commercial fish tax revenue that has for years been shared with Alaska fishing communities in the state’s coffers instead, a move that mayors in some of those cities say would be devastating.

At play are two taxes: Alaska’s fisheries business tax, and the fishery resource landing tax. Dunleavy’s legislation would repeal the fisheries business tax allocation to municipalities and repeal revenue sharing for the fishery resource landing tax. Those shared funds go to local governments in communities where fish processing and landings occur.

Under the proposed bill, about $28 million would stay in the state’s general fund in fiscal year 2020 instead of being shared with communities.

Dunleavy’s plan to close a $1.6 billion state budget deficit includes deep cuts, especially in education and health care, and does not include new taxes. His proposed budget still needs to go through the Legislature.

The fish taxes are crucial to many small Alaska fishing communities. The fisheries business tax is levied on fish caught commercially in Alaska waters, and is based on the price paid to commercial fishermen for the raw resource. The fishery resource landing tax is levied on fish caught commercially in federal waters and landed in Alaska, based on its unprocessed value.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Bristol Bay sockeye campaign moves into Hy-Vee, QFC, and Pavilions

February 22, 2019 — The Bristol Bay Regional Development Association (BBRSDA) is expanding a marketing campaign it believes will make Bristol Bay sockeye salmon a nationally recognized brand.

In 2016, the association launched a pilot marketing program in nine grocery stores in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.. The association put its new eye-catching, salmon-hued logo on aprons, printed fish wrap, and stickers, and handed out recipe cards and branded mugs while their representatives touted wild-caught sockeye from the pristine water of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Point-of-sale promotions were bolstered by a social media push, which included vivid photographs of Bristol Bay and interviews with the men and women who fish there.

Fast forward two years, and that same program that started in a handful of stores in Boulder has expanded to more than 1,000 across the country, forming partnerships with major chains like Hy-Vee, QFC, and Pavilions.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: U.S. Army Corps releases draft report on Pebble Mine

February 21, 2019 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released Pebble Mine’s draft environmental impact statement on Wednesday, one of the biggest stepping stones in the permitting process for the proposed copper-and-gold mine near the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

The purpose of the draft EIS is to analyze the project’s proposal and present alternative plans. The environmental review, totaling more than 1,400 pages, the Army Corps proposes multiple actions including an analysis of permitting the mine, alternate transportation corridors and rejecting the mine proposal altogether.

A 90-day public comment period will begin March 1, allowing stakeholders to give their thoughts on the report before a final version is delivered to federal agencies. Opponents of the mine are pushing back against the comment period, claiming in isn’t a long enough timeline for thorough feedback.

“A 90-day comment period is far too short of a time period to review and comment on the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “The speed at which insufficient materials are being pushed through this mine’s permitting process is irresponsible given that the Bristol Bay salmon ecosystem is a biological wonder of the world. This region contains the world’s largest wild salmon runs, which have supported a rich culture for millennia and sustained a thriving commercial fishery for more than 130 years.”

“A 270-day comment period on the Draft EIS is the first – and necessary – step in holding the Pebble Limited Partnership accountable during the permitting process,” said Bristol Bay Native Corporation CEO Jason Metrokin. “Bristol Bay cannot become a laboratory to test unproven and unprecedented mining practices.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Part of Bering Sea Pacific cod fishery could move toward quota system

February 20, 2019 — About a year after federal regulators dramatically cut the Pacific Cod quota in the Gulf of Alaska, some fishermen in the Bering Sea say there are too many boats fishing for the declining species.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is looking into the problem, but potential solutions are likely to be controversial.

Since Pacific cod stocks crashed in the Gulf of Alaska in recent years, members of the fishing industry say fishermen are focusing their efforts farther west.

Tom Enlow is the president of UniSea, which operates a large shore-side processor in Unalaska. He said more vessels — especially trawlers — are crowding the fishing grounds. He also said there are more offshore processors competing for their cod.

“You’re seeing people who have historically not participated in these fisheries – as a processor standpoint – now coming into the fishery,” Enlow explained. “So there’s a lot of excess capacity now and pressure on this resource.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Ocean Acidification Could Affect Pacific Cod Development

February 20, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists released results of a study showing that larval Pacific cod response to elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels varies depending on its stage of development. In laboratory experiments, NOAA Fisheries scientists and partners specifically examined larval cod behavior, growth, and lipid composition (the fats needed for storing energy and building muscles). As excess CO2 from the atmosphere dissolves in the ocean, pH is lowered and the ocean increases in acidity, in a process called ocean acidification. Studies like this are important because most marine fish mortality occurs at the larval stage of development and the high-latitude oceans where Pacific cod and other important commercial fisheries occur are expected to be among the most vulnerable to ocean acidification.

“Changing environmental conditions can impact species in multiple ways and not all life stages may respond in the same way,” said Tom Hurst, NOAA Fisheries scientist and lead author of a new paper in Marine Environmental Research. “We wanted to explore this because it has implications for the sustainability of Pacific cod and other important fish stocks in Alaska.”

Hurst and a team of scientists from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center; and the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies at Oregon State University conducted two laboratory studies to evaluate larval fish sensitivity to elevated CO2.

Read the full story here

Multinational salmon research trip underway in Gulf of Alaska

February 20, 2019 — The International Gulf of Alaska Expedition 2019 is underway, according to the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission, with the chartered 62-meter Russian research vessel Professor Kaganovskiy having departed Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Saturday, 16 February.

The expedition is setting out to study salmon while they are at sea, rather than when they journey back to rivers and streams to spawn at the end of their lives. The study is the first comprehensive winter study of Pacific salmon in the Gulf of Alaska. According to a press released provided by the NPAFC, the study will visit 72 stations in the Gulf and will return to Vancouver next month on 18 March.

Researchers hope the study will provide information and understanding of the abundance, condition, country of origin, and location of stocks from Pacific salmon-producing countries.

The NPAFC is comprised of the five Pacific salmon producing countries: Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America. The expedition is comprised of 21 researchers from those five countries.

The project, expected to cost USD 1.3 million (EUR 1.2 million), has received funding from multiple sources including government, industry, NGO, and private contributions.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Early signs show strong wild Alaska salmon market for 2019

February 19, 2019 — A lot can change in a few months, fisheries economists are quick to say, but early indications point to very favorable conditions for wild Alaska salmon prices in 2019, especially for sockeye, the state’s top-dollar species.

Andy Wink, a fisheries economist who also heads the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA), is happy with how the market is looking for the upcoming season.

“I think we’re at a pretty good place, and have been for the last few years in salmon markets. We’ve seen growing demand and the farmed salmon supply hasn’t grown as fast as it did in different points in the past,” Wink said. “It’s left producers in a good position.”

Leading farmed fish producers Norway and Chile, regulated by their respective governments, are bumping up against a threshold for the maximum number of salmon they can produce, and both are fighting blight. Norway, the world’s top farmed salmon producer, has had persistent problems with sea lice, while second-place producer Chile has been struggling with disease, primarily piscirickettsiosis, prompting environmental groups and health organizations to raise concerns over Chile’s overuse of antibiotics.

Read the full story at Seafood Source