Saving Seafood

Government employees return to work, but concerns linger

January 28, 2019 — Monday morning 800,000 federal employees will return to work for the first time in 35 days after the longest government shutdown in history.

It all stems from the ongoing political dispute over a border wall.

On Friday a deal was struck to temporarily open the government for three weeks. Federal workers are uneasy about the future after already missing two paychecks.

For more than a month Anna Kagley has been ready to return to her job at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She’s worked at the agency for three decades.

“I’m a little nervous after missing 30 plus days,” said Kagley.

The fishery biologist who lives in Everett works with Chinook salmon and is concerned the shutdown has harmed the agencies long term work.

“I’m concerned we’ll be missing the beginning of the pulse of the fish migrating for some of our monitoring projects,” said Kagley.

The mother of five and primary bread winner for her family says she still doesn’t know when she’s get her next paycheck.

Read the full story at KOMO News

Importance of Russian king crab grows as Alaska supplies tighten

January 25, 2019 — Quotas of Russian-landed red king crab from the Far East and Barents Sea fisheries are growing even as Alaskan landings shrink due to concerns about the health of the stock.

However, members of the Global Seafood Market Conference’s Shellfish Panel said last week that US supplies of red king crab are dropping due to the lower Alaska quotas and reduced Russian imports as more crab is sent live to China and South Korea.

The US supply situation could get worse before it gets better, John Sackton of Seafood Datasearch told the audience.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game set the Bristol Bay King Crab quota at 4.3 million pounds for the 2018/19 season, which compares to 6.6m lbs in 2017/18. This year’s effective spawning biomass was 33.3m lbs, greater than the 14.5m lbs needed to open the fishery. But there is concern that the biomass could shrink further in future years, Sackton said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Alaska Longline Group Seeks Applicants for Crewmember Apprenticeship Program

January 25, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), a Sitka-based fishing group, is seeking applicants for its Crewmember Apprenticeship Program. The program aims to provide young people an opportunity to gain experience in, as well as an understanding of, commercial fishing and its importance to supporting coastal communities.

In late 2017, ALFA was awarded a $70,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to expand this program in Sitka and to support efforts tolaunch similar programs in other parts of the state. The grant, leveraged with support from the City of Sitka and ALFA members, was awarded as part of NFWF’s Fisheries Innovation Fund.

Last year, ALFA’s apprentice program received over 100 local, national, and international applicants, and ALFA placed 13 apprentices on commercial fishing boats over the 2018 fishing season.  In 2019, ALFA plans to increase the number of participating apprentices, skippers, and fishing vessels and to enhance local employment opportunity.

Executive Director of ALFA, Linda Behnken explains, “With support from NFWF, we plan to expand the program to include more boats, crew, and communities. Our goal is to provide young people with a safe introduction to Alaska’s fisheries and to share the curriculum we have developed through our program with fishing groups in other parts of the State and country”.

Lea LeGardeur, a crewmember apprentice from last year, says of her experience in the program, “Beyond giving me an entry point into an industry that I otherwise would have had a harder getting into…the skippers in the program all wanted to teach, and sign up to take greenhorns so they could pass on what they know.”

ALFA is seeking applicants for the 2019 fishing season. Crewmember application period is currently open and will close February 28th, 2019. Applicants must be 18 years or older to qualify. It’s free to apply; application information can be found at http://www.alfafish.org/apprenticeship/.

This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

USDA confirms major US pollock purchase

January 25, 2019 — A USD 30 million (EUR 26.5 million) commitment from the United States government to buy Alaska Pollock will help mitigate the effects of the U.S.-China trade war on producers.

Due to the U.S. government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Agriculture notified the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) via phone that it will soon publish a solicitation so that Alaska pollock suppliers can bid on USD 30 million worth of deliveries to food banks across the country.

The USD 30 million solicitation is in addition to the USD 7.6 million (EUR 6.7 million) that USDA is already purchasing to support the National School Lunch Program, GAPP CEO Craig Morris said.

Morris said the purchase was a win for the U.S. pollock sector.

“We should be really proud that people who are in need are going to get a really nutritious product, and it is great for our industry, which has had challenging times,” Morris said. “There is a lot of demand for our product and this announcement … shows that we are going to have even more demand than a couple of days ago.”

Last fall Alaska legislators pushed for the USD 30 million (EUR 26.5 million) purchase to help offset losses from the U.S.- China trade war, and the news is finally official.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

North Pacific fishing industry raising money for Alaska Coast Guard families

January 25, 2019 — Fishing companies that work off Alaska are donating money to Coast Guard workers who — despite missing paychecks — continue to conduct safety exams and patrols, and stand ready to respond to disasters at sea.

The fundraising effort was kicked off earlier this week by Chris Woodley, a retired Coast Guard captain who now serves as executive director of the Groundfish Forum, a Seattle-based trade group that represents five companies that operate 19 catcher-processors off Alaska.

The fundraiser is part of a much broader effort to help federal workers facing financial difficulties in the partial government shutdown that has resulted from the political impasse between Congress and President Donald Trump over funding of a border wall.

“As a former Coast Guardsman stationed in Alaska, I cannot overstate how much our assistance can mean to a Coast Guard family in need,” Woodley wrote in an online fundraising letter.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

Halibut Commission to Address a Request for Minimum Area Allocation Next Week

January 24, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The agenda for the week-long annual meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission is brimming with new ways to look at catch limits, new tools to assess risk, and new ideas for research, but the issue grabbing the most attention is allocation of this year’s fishery.

Which regional area gets how much of the coastwide catch is a perennial topic, but it’s sharper this year by a stock that remains low compared to a decade ago, little sign of recruitment, and the yet unresolved issue that created an impasse between Canada and the U.S. at last year’s meeting.

Indeed, progress at the 2018 meeting to reach an agreement on catch limits ran aground on the issue of Canada’s catch limit allocation. British Columbia longliners fish waters off the Canadian west coast that make up 12-13% of the total coastwide area fished by both countries. Yet their catch limit has persistently been higher than that based on the argument that much of B.C.’s halibut are resident and the Canadian authorities long ago implemented a robust accounting program for all mortalities, compared to what is being used in Alaska.

The two sides have met throughout the year since and are now considering a handful of options to use this year. Those options, and perhaps more, will be discussed at the meeting that begins Monday, January 28.  The meeting is complicated by the US government shutdown.  Two US commissoner terms expired at midnight on Thursday, and they will not be available to vote on final motions Friday.  As a result, the Commission may skew its agenda so that all votes take place before the US Commissioners go poof.

This year’s meeting has only two stakeholder proposals, both from the Pacific Norwest, or Area 2A. The first, a request for a minimum fixed amount of 1.5 million pounds for commercial and sports fleets. That fishery amount would mean a total mortality of 1.67 mlbs, including subsistence, bycatch, and other incidental mortalities.

The proposal was initially made by the Makah Tribe but now has the support of most stakeholders in Washington, Oregon, and California.

Because it is the first official regional request for a catch limit floor — a minimum that fleets and processors can expect for years to come — it has garnered attention and prompted comments that if they are allowed a guaranteed miminum, what about other areas?

Supporters of Proposal 2A say conditions in that region support establishing a floor and add that 1.67 mlbs. is only a small percentage of any coastwide total. They say — and the IPHC agrees — that the proposal presents no conservation problems because of that.

“The Tribe’s proposal is based on, but less than, the average total removals from Area 2A during the seven-year period before the current coastwide stock assessment and distribution methodology was implemented in Area 2A in 2009. During that period, total removals from Area 2A averaged 1.79Mlb,” Patrick Depoe said in his proposal.

That is precisely the issue for Canada as well. When the IPHC moved from a regional to a coastwide assessment in 2009, there were winners and there were losers. Canada lost 5-7% of their average share of their apportionment. They have compensated for it ever since by setting higher than recommended catch limits for their area, 2B, than IPHC staff suggests.

The second stakeholder proposal was submitted by Michael Pettis, a Newport, OR longliner, and is in response to the IPHC’s request for a change from the current 10 hour derby fishery to a more extended fishery for safety and business planning reasons. The change would not affect that group’s allocation.

The Pacific Council’s Groundfish Advisory Panel discussed the issue and supported an analysis of longer periods. Fishermen on the GAP also proposed assigning the entire commercial halibut quota to incidental catch in the sablefish fishery.

In November 2018, the GAP supported the option again, “if the IPHC does not move forward with a 5-, 10- or 20-day season as discussed in or inferred from its report.”

The five Newport fishermen who submitted the proposal to the IPHC have not supplied public comment to the PFMC or the GAP.

However, since Area 2A is entirely within the U.S. EEZ, management of any system would fall primarily to the federal government. Some industry members have suggested the NMFS cost of establishing a quota system for Area 2A would be far more than the fishery is worth.

On Friday February 1, catch limits for the 2019 season, as well as opening and closing dates, and any proposals that make it through the meeting, will be announced.

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

Alaska’s small crab fisheries kick-off, boosting coastal communities

January 24, 2019 — When most people think of Alaska crab, they envision huge boats pulling up “7 bys” (the 7-foot-by-7-foot-by-3-foot size of the crab pots) for millions of pounds of bounty in the Bering Sea. But it is the smaller, local crab fisheries that each winter give a big economic boost to dozens of coastal communities across the Gulf of Alaska. They occur at a time when many fishing towns are feeling a lull while awaiting the March start of halibut and herring openers. The gearing up means a nice pulse of extra work and money for just about every business tied to fishing.

High winds and overall snotty weather delayed Kodiak’s Tanner crab fishery, but 83 boats dropped pots a day late on January 16th. They will compete for a 615,000 pound catch quota, an increase from 400,000 pounds last season. At an average weight of 2.2 pounds, that will yield about 280,000 crabs.

The fishery will go fast, said Natura Richardson, assistant area manager for shellfish at the Department of Fish and Game office at Kodiak.

“It could be as quick as a couple days but it’s looking more like four to six days, something like that,” she said, adding that the mid-winter crab season picks up the pace at work.

“Oh yeah, there’s a lot of activity with all the registrations and figuring out who’s going where. There’s a lot of excitement in the office. It’s fun,” she said.

Reports of prices starting at $4.65 a pound also were exciting, an increase from $4.50 last year. That could mean a payout of nearly $3 million to Kodiak fishermen.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Alaska management untouched under revised Modern Fish Act

January 24, 2019 — Though a landmark piece of fisheries legislation will affect how many Lower 48 federal sportfisheries are managed, there won’t be many changes for Alaska.

President Donald Trump signed the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Act — known as the Modern Fish Act — into law on Dec. 31, 2018. The law revises the management framework for recreational fisheries in federal waters, heralded by supporters as a way of differentiating sportfishing from commercial fishing and providing more fishing opportunity in the recreational sector.

In Alaska, though, the act won’t have much direct impact. Mike Leonard, the vice president of government affairs for the American Sportfishing Association, said it’s fair to say the provisions in the bill don’t herald many changes in the Pacific Northwest saltwater sportfisheries.

The final version of the bill itself removed some of the particular provisions directly changing management strategies, but the essential purpose of the bill remains, Leonard said.

“The passage of a bill itself that is focused on saltwater recreational fishing … I don’t know that Congress has ever done that,” he said. “The motivations behind this were to get a recognition within the (Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act) that recreational fishing is important but that (commercial and sport) are fundamentally different activities.”

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: Pollock ‘A’ season starts amid federal shutdown

January 23, 2019 –Pollock “A” season began Sunday at noon.

This year the total allowable catch is 1.397 million metric tons up from last year’s 1.364 million metric tons.

The partial federal government shutdown has caused some hiccups for the fishery, but it still started as scheduled Sunday.

Unalaska Mayor Frank Kelty said Juneau has two regular fish managers on the job, but local National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) offices like Unalaska’s are closed.

Read the full story at Alaska Pubic Media

Research on environmental DNA in salmon monitoring could have economic benefits

January 22, 2019 — Each year wild salmon return to the streams in which they were born to spawn and die. Salmon fishery managers must ensure that adequate numbers of fish return each year to spawn and produce offspring for future harvest. It is expensive and labor intensive to count returning salmon, especially in remote streams.

Researchers at the University of Alaska Southeast, Auke Bay Laboratories, Oregon State University, the UK and China have found that  DNA collected in water samples from Auke Creek can be used to infer the number of salmon passing upstream to spawn. Two of the authors on the published paper who contributed to the research are former UAS Biology students now in graduate school, Josh Russell and Donovan Bell. Russell is currently enrolled in the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences program, and Bell is in the biology graduate program at the University of Montana.

This form of DNA, termed “environmental DNA” or “eDNA”, can be collected from water samples. Water samples are then filtered and probed using molecular genetic techniques to quantify the amount of DNA belonging to each salmon species, providing insights into the number of salmon upstream.

Read the full story at PHYS.org