Saving Seafood

Fight renewed over Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska

April 5, 2019 — Opposition is growing to a renewed effort to launch a massive mining project near Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.

Mining conglomerate Pebble Limited Partnership applied for a permit in December 2017 for an open pit copper, gold, and molybdenum mine that would sit near critical headwaters that feed the Bristol Bay fishery. Opponents say the Pebble Mine would undermine the area’s pristine habitat – a calling card of the Bristol Bay brand – and that a tailings dam failure could prove catastrophic to the fishery. The most recent public opinion poll by the BBNC shows 58 percent of Alaskans oppose the mine, with 33 percent supporting it.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on 20 February, 2019, but the wide-ranging opposition in Alaska and beyond has lambasted the document.

“People around here understand on a very visceral level the importance of fisheries in general and Bristol Bay in particular. Commercial fishermen, sport fishermen, tribal entities that are interested in subsistence, biologists; we’re not always aligned, but we’re certainly aligned on this particular issue,” said Daniel Cheyenne, the vice president of lands and natural resources for the Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC).

Norm Van Vactor, the CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, said the EIS is incomplete.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska’s Salmon Forecasts for 2019 are Up By 85% Over Last Year as Pinks, Chums Rebound

April 3, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s salmon harvest forecast for the season is 213.2 million fish, some 97.5 million more than last year’s landings of 116 million salmon. The forecast was released late last week.

The increase is mostly due to larger harvests of pink and chum salmon compared to 2018. Harvest levels include:

112,000 Chinook salmon outside Southeast Alaska, 41.7 million sockeye, 4.6 million coho, 137.8 million pink, and 29.0 million chum salmon.

Odd-year returns of pink salmon have traditionally been higher than even-year returns, and this year is no exception. What is different, though, is the high uncertainty attached to this pink forecast, which is almost 100 million more pinks than 2018.

“We note that—except for Southeast Alaska—pink salmon forecasts are generally based on average returns from previous brood years,” notes management biologists who produced the report released last week. “The pink salmon run forecast for 2019 is partly an artifact of this method; there is a great deal of uncertainty in predicting pink salmon returns,” they wrote.

Compared to last year, there will be 8.9 million fewer sockeye or red salmon; 900,000 more coho salmon, and 8.7 million more chum salmon.

If realized, the projected commercial chum salmon harvest would be the largest on record for Alaska.

The phenomenal success in recent years of chum salmon returns in Southeast, Prince William Sound, Norton Sound, and Southcentral Alaska appears now to be a trend.

Very low expected harvests of pink salmon in Southeast Alaska may be offset by higher projected harvests in Prince William Sound. The point estimate for landings of pink salmon in SE Alaska is 18 million. In Prince William Sound nearly 11 million wild pinks and 22 million hatchery pinks are expected to be harvested with another several million coming from the Valdez Fisheries Development Assn.

Sockeye harvest in the Copper River, scheduled to begin in May, are expected to be just under 1 million fish, at 955,000 sockeye. Those red salmon will be augmented by a bumper year at the Coghill River weir of nearly half a million sockeyes, much larger than historical averages.

A modest 3 million sockeyes are expected to be harvested this year in the Upper Cook Inlet.

Kitoi Bay pink harvest is projected at 6.6 million fish.

A total of 40.18 million sockeye salmon are expected to return to Bristol Bay in 2019. This is 10% smaller than the most recent 10-year average of Bristol Bay total runs (44.4 million), and 16% greater than the long-term (1963–2018) average of 34.2 million.

The run forecast for each district and landings prediction is as follows:

Run: 16.12 million to Naknek-Kvichak District (6.95 million to the Kvichak river, 3.97 million to the Alagnak river, and 5.21 million to the Naknek river) for a projected harvest of 7.84 million sockeyes;
9.07 million to the Egegik District with harvest projections up to 7.04 million reds;
3.46 million to the Ugashik District or harvest prediction of 2.38 million;
10.38 million to the Nushagak District (4.62 million to the Wood river, 4.18 million to the Nushagak river, and 1.58 million to the Igushik river) and a total harvest prediction of 7.97 million reds; and
1.15 million to the Togiak District which translates to 870,000 reds.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

ALASKA: Pushing back on Pebble: Scientific community and Bristol Bay leaders offer testimony

April 3, 2019 — Nobody was fooling at the Alaska State House Resources Committee hearing on Monday, April 1, to address concerns about the proposed plan for Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay.

“If Pebble goes in, the Bristol Bay Sockeye brand and the entire Alaska Seafood brand will be tarnished,” said Norm Van Vactor, CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation. “The state of Alaska has invested millions into building these brands and establishing Alaska as a premium brand in the marketplace. That brand is based on pristine habitat, sustainability, and high quality, not open-pit mining districts and acid mine drainage.”

Bristol Bay residents, fisheries leaders and scientific experts offered testimony about a range of inadequacies in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers draft Environmental Impact Statement, as well as the economic, social and environmental value of Bristol Bay’s salmon watersheds that would be at risk under the proposed plan.

“They did not assess the risk appropriately. The draft Environmental Impact Statement is misleading about the probability of a [catastrophic tailings dam]failure,” said Dr. Cameron Wobus, a senior scientist at Lynker Technologies who authored a report on tailings dam failure scenarios.

The draft’s 20-year time line, scientists say, is too short to evaluate the long-term risks. A 100-year analysis would have been more transparent, because the tailings dam has a 1 in 5 chance of failing over a century.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

EPA, Alaska seek to relax water pollution rules

April 3, 2019 — The Trump administration is quietly reviving a long-stalled effort by state regulators to loosen pollution standards where fish spawn. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation proposed the rule change more than a decade ago to change how it enforces the federal Clean Water Act.

After a dozen-year hiatus, it’s making its way through the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule-making process. But opponents warn if the EPA gives the 2006 “mixing zone” rule the thumbs-up, it could help pave the way for controversial projects like Pebble Mine.

The Clean Water Act is the primary tool used by the feds to regulate water pollution. Industry often argues these standards are difficult to meet.

“Alaska’s a beautiful, pristine place, and there is no pollution and certainly the background water quality is excellent,” said Frank Bergstrom, an Alaska mining consultant with 40 years of experience. “So if you follow the Clean Water Act to the detail, you pretty much have to discharge distilled water.”

That’s overstating the state’s water quality standards. Basically the limits are designed to prevent water bodies from being degraded. But years ago, Alaska and other states took the industry’s view in mind when it came up with “mixing zones.” This compromise allows things like wastewater plants, mines and oil refineries to exceed water pollution standards in designated areas.

Read and listen to the full story at KTOO

Coastal communities fight for Alaska’s fish tax

April 3, 2019 — Bills submitted to the Legislature by the governor would remove the ability of towns to keep their share of local fisheries business and landing taxes. For decades, the taxes have been split 50/50 with the state.

Dunleavy has proposed taking all of the funds for state coffers, meaning a combined loss of $29 million to fishing towns come October.

More than 20 mayors, financial officers, harbormasters and fishermen testified at the committee hearing, outlining how the tax grab would devastate coastal Alaska.

“Fisheries is our only industry, and fish tax revenues make up 26 percent of our $31 million general fund revenues, over $8 million annually. We use fish and sales taxes to pay our own way,” said Frank Kelty, mayor of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, the nation’s top fishing port for over two decades. “If the state takes away the share of fish taxes, who will step up to assist communities across Alaska with projects needed to support the seafood industry, which is the economic engine of all fishery dependent communities?”

Jon Erickson, Yakutat City/Borough manager, said the loss would likely close down the community’s lone fish plant.

“What part of shutting down rural Alaska equates to Alaska is open for business?” he asked, quoting the governor’s new motto for the state.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

ALASKA: Scientists: Pebble Mine study doesn’t account for all risks

April 2, 2019 — Representatives have been grappling with the a proposal to develop a mine near Bristol Bay.

As a part of the wider discussion, the House Resources committee heard Monday from a group of scientists and advocates who disagree with the Pebble Mine project which proposes developing the Pebble copper-­gold­-molybdenum porphyry deposit (Pebble Deposit) in southwest Alaska as an open-pit mine, with associated infrastructure.

A group of scientists and Bristol Bay residents held a press conference, detailing concerns with the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in February. Some critics have said the 90-day comment period for this DEIS is not long enough, considering the length of the document.

The chief concerns were that the DEIS used too short of a time frame to associate the risks of the mine, it used an inappropriate fish habitat assessment, cumulative risks were essentially ignored, there was very little mention of long-term risks associated with climate change and that it used selective use of scientific literature when backing up claims.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

USDA seeking even more Alaska pollock

April 2, 2019 — Soon after announcing its multimillion-dollar purchase of Alaska pollock from several key North American suppliers, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking more of the frozen fish.

In a 29 March bid notice, the USDA said it’s looking to buy 646,000 pounds of frozen Alaska pollock fish sticks for the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs.

Trident Seafoods, High Liner Foods, and Channel Fish are the beneficiaries of the USDA’s March purchase of nearly USD 28.1 million (EUR 25 million) worth of frozen Alaska pollock.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Could Prize-Based Competitions Help Pacific Northwest Shellfish Cope With Acidic Seawater?

April 1, 2019 — As human activities continue to add greenhouse gases to the planet’s atmosphere, the oceans absorb nearly one-third of all CO2 emissions. Through a series of chemical reactions, increasing CO2 levels in the ocean have caused seawater to become 30% more acidic over the past century. This process, termed “ocean acidification“,  can disrupt animals’ abilities to smell, regulate their metabolism, and build their shells.

The Pacific Northwest region of the United States, where many economically and culturally valuable fisheries and shellfish farms exist, is especially vulnerable to ocean acidification. The shoreline that stretches from northern California to Alaska is the final destination for globally circulating seawater that accumulates nearly 1,000 years worth of CO2 from the respiration and decomposition of flora and fauna. Seasonal “upwelling” of these millennium-aged deep sea waters and additional CO2 from human activities makes them particularly acidic. Thus, understanding how these acidic waters affect the $220 million Dungeness crab fishery and the $9.4 billion mussel, clam and oyster farming industries in Washington (among many other potentially susceptible operations) is becoming increasingly urgent.

Earlier this week, four United States Congressmembers from Washington, Oregon and Alaska reintroduced a bill called the “Ocean Acidification Innovation Act”. Just like its predecessor from 2017, this bill would allow federal agencies to run prize-based competitions that would increase capacity for studying ocean acidification and mitigating its impacts.

“Our coastal communities depend on a healthy shellfish and fishing industry,” says one of the bill’s co-sponsors Rep. Herrera Beutler (WA-3), while another co-sponsor, Rep. Derek Kilmer (WA-6) added, “There are generations of folks in our coastal communities who have worked in fishing and shellfish growing, but that’s endangered if we don’t maintain a healthy Pacific Ocean.”

Read the full story at Forbes

Tariffs force Alaska seafood industry to look beyond China

April 1, 2019 — Chinese tariffs are forcing Alaska’s seafood industry to look for markets beyond the Asian giant, according to an industry marketing organization.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is exploring how to expand the state’s seafood brand in response to a 25 percent tariff on Pacific Northwest seafood imposed by China in summer 2018, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday.

Alaska’s seafood sales are off by more than 20 percent so far this year and could take a big hit in China, said Jeremy Woodrow, the institute’s interim executive director.

“Because of the conflict, it makes our product less competitive in that marketplace,” Woodrow said.

A $5.5 million, three-year federal agricultural trade promotion grant awarded in January will be used to develop nontraditional markets such as Japan, Southeast Asia and parts of South America, according to Woodrow. The funds will also aid continued marketing in China and other established markets such as Germany, he said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Alaska’s Bering Sea is the Focus of a New NOAA Effort to Accelerate Science Delivery to Fisheries Managers

March 29, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Bering Sea is home to some of the nation’s largest and most profitable commercial fisheries, including Alaskan pollock and Pacific cod. It’s also one of the fastest warming parts of the world, with fish stocks becoming increasingly vulnerable to marine heat waves, the loss of sea ice, low-oxygen waters, harmful algal blooms, and other conditions that stress species, ecosystems, and economies.

Environmental changes in this area are happening so rapidly that researchers are continuously seeking ways to deliver more timely and actionable information on changing ocean conditions to help resource managers, commercial and recreational fishermen, Alaska Native communities, and coastal communities prepare and respond.

For this reason, NOAA scientists selected the Bering Sea as a testbed for what they hope will be a new system that provides decision-makers with robust projections of ocean and fisheries conditions over short-term (daily or annual), medium-range (1–20 years), and long-run (10–50 years) scenarios, and then evaluates how different fishery management strategies might perform under those future conditions.

“Unlike other modeling approaches, we not only look at how climate change affects the marine environment but also the people who rely on it,” said Kirstin Holsman, who along with Anne Hollowed, has co-led a team of more than two dozen researchers from NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Research, the University of Washington, and other partner agencies in this effort. “Fisheries managers and affected communities across the United States. are interested in the impacts and opportunities that are associated with changing oceans. It is our hope that this strategy will help them achieve their immediate needs and long-term sustainability goals.”

Read the full release here