Saving Seafood

Port of New Bedford ranks No. 1 for 18th consecutive year

December 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Death, taxes and New Bedford ranked as the most valuable fishing port in the country remain certainties in life.

NOAA announced its annual fish landings data on Thursday for 2017, and for the 18th consecutive year the Port of New Bedford topped all others in terms of value. The port landed $389 million in 2017, more than $200 million more than Dutch Harbor, Alaska, which landed $173 million.

“New Bedford has been a seaport for a long time and our bread-and-butter industry is the commercial fishing industry,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said. “What we’re seeing now is not only are we maintaining our status as the top fishing port in the country, we’re gaining market share.”

The total increased by $62 million from last year when the port’s landings valued $327 million.

The gap between New Bedford and the second most valuable port increased over the year from $129 million to $216 million.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Farm bill, with US fish requirement, passes Senate, now heads to House

December 12, 2018 — American seafood is one step closer to being served exclusively in school lunches across the country.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday, 11 December, passed the Farm Bill, by an 87-13 margin. Now, the five-year agriculture-related appropriations and policy making bill goes to the House, which is expected to vote on this issue today, Wednesday, 12 December.

While the bill is making headlines elsewhere for legalizing hemp and increasing farm subsidies, it will also have an impact on American fishermen. That’s because the bill includes language from the “American Food for American Schools Act,” a proposal offered by U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington).

The senators’ bill called for school lunch programs, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to buy U.S. commodities for student meals. While most products were already American grown or made, there were a loopholes in it that allows school districts to purchase imported products, such as bananas and fish, because they either could not be produced in sufficient quantities or could be purchased at a lower price.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

‘Buy American’ provision survives in US Farm Bill, big win for Alaskan pollock

December 12, 2018 — Alaskan pollock harvesters and processors have scored a major victory over their Russian competitors in the waning moments of the 115th US Congress, promising to end their dominance in US school meals.

A provision championed by senator Dan Sullivan, an Alaskan Republican, to close a major loophole in the US Department of Agriculture’s “buy American” food rules for school systems, has survived and is included in the text of the final 2018 farm bill conference report released Monday night by House and Senate agriculture committee leaders, Undercurrent News has confirmed.

The legislation must still go back to the floors of both chambers for final votes before Congress concludes, which is expected to happen by Dec. 21. But those final steps are considered largely perfunctory and president Donald Trump could wind up signing the bill before the end of this week.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: State to allow higher herring harvest next year, STA promises ‘drastic action’

December 11, 2018 — Despite a poor season last spring, the forecast for the 2019 Sitka Sound Sac Roe Herring Fishery is up. Biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game expect a spawning biomass of just over 64,000 tons of herring in Sitka Sound next March, about 9,000 tons greater than was forecast for this year.

That means the state will allow more herring to be taken next year.

In light of this news, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska announced they would take “drastic action” to protect the herring population from their fear of overfishing.

In a press release published Thursday, Dec. 6, Tribal Council Chairman KathyHope Erickson expressed disappointment at the increased harvest levels “despite the fact that the herring, and the future of all fish and other animals that rely on herring as a forage fish, are in a dire situation.”

Sitka Tribe of Alaska did not specify what their action would be or provide additional comment to KCAW.

Fish & Game assistant area management biologist Aaron Dupuis said department dive surveys turned up far more spawn than first thought. Aerial surveys measured only 33 miles of spawn along the shoreline — about half of the  average year. But there was an upside.

“The spawn that we got, the eggs were quite a bit more dense than what we’ve seen in previous years,” Dupis said. “So, while the total mileage was down — and that’s kind of the visible thing that everybody can see is the mileage — the density of the eggs was higher, and the total area offshore, especially on Kruzof Island, was higher than normal.”

Read the full story at KCAW

ALASKA: NPFMC advisory panel proposes 33,000t hike in Bering Sea pollock TAC, 7,000t drop in cod

December 7, 2018 — The advisory panel to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) voted in favor of a 33,000-metric-ton increase in the eastern Bering Sea pollock total allowable catch (TAC), as well as a 7,000 drop in the Pacific cod TAC.

This draft TAC sheet will then go to the vote at the NPFMC meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday. The supply outlook comes with prices for cod and pollock set firm.

According to an Undercurrent News source, the advisory committee is recommending a pollock TAC of 1.397 million metric tons for 2019, up from 1.364m in 2018. The panel also recommended a Pacific cod TAC of 181,000t, down from 188,136t in 2018. For Pacific cod in the Aleutian Islands, the panel voted in favor of a TAC of 20,600t.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ASMI requests federal aid to cushion losses in US-China trade war

December 7, 2018 — The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) is crossing its fingers that its request goes through for several million dollars in federal aid to defray costs of the trade war between U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and China.

ASMI, a state-run entity, has requested USD 9 million (EUR 7.9 million) over three years as tariffs threaten to undermine the market for Alaskan seafood in China. The request was submitted to the Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP), a U.S. Department of Agriculture program designed in part to mitigate the adverse effects of tariffs.

The organization has been getting around USD 4.25 (EUR 3.74) million a year in federal aid for over a decade, according to Jeremy Woodrow, ASMI’s communications director and current interim executive director. This new aid money would be on top of that.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

GOP senator: Arctic Ocean may be ice-free in summer within 20 years

December 7th, 2018 — Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) on Thursday said the U.S. must prepare for an Arctic Ocean that is ice-free in the summer months within the next 20 years.

Sullivan, speaking at a hearing for the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, which he chairs, pointed to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicating that as of 2011, Arctic sea ice was “42 percent thinner than it was in 1979.”

“If this trend continues, the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free during the summer months within the next 20 years,” he said.

Read the full story at The Hill

Trump signs Coast Guard bill into law, includes Jones Act waiver for America’s Finest

December 6, 2018 — When Dakota Creek Industries took America’s Finest out for its first sea trial on Tuesday 4 December, it looked like the 264-foot vessel was taking a victory lap.

The Anacortes, Washington-based shipbuilder held an event that day to celebrate the Jones Act waiver elected officials were able to get for the processor-trawler. Later in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Coast Guard Authorization Act, which contained the labor provision, into law.

The process itself is not quite finished. The Coast Guard will get 30 days to review information to make sure neither Dakota Creek nor Fishermen’s Finest – the company that commissioned construction of the USD 75 million (EUR 65.9 million) vessel – committed a deliberate violation of the Jones Act in building the ship.

Coast Guard officials did not return a request for comment.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Announces Another Buyout for Southeast Alaska Purse Seiners to Remove an Additional 36 Licenses

December 5, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NOAA announced that a second buyout would take place in the Southeast Alaska salmon purse seine fishery.

In 2011, Congress approved loans of up to $23.5 million for a buyout program, and existing permit holders voted to support a loan of $13.1 million to buyback 64 licenses.

In 2018, the Southeast Revitalization Association submitted a request to NOAA to use the remainder of the funds, $10.4 million, to fund another buyout round.

NOAA will hold a referendum among the 315 existing permit holders, who will have to gain majority approval to take on the additional loan.  If the plan is approved, NOAA would retire an additional 36 licenses.

Those remaining in the fishery agree to repay the loan through a landings tax, administered by NOAA.

The voting period is scheduled to begin January 15, 2019, and end 30 days later on February 14th.

The Southeast Alaska purse seine fishery harvests primarily pink salmon and some chum salmon.

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

 

Bleak outlook for Pacific cod could see 2019 US pollock TAC hike, despite reduced biomass

December 5, 2018 — Although the biomass for pollock in the US eastern Bering Sea fishery is coming down, the total allowable catch (TAC) for 2019 could actually be increased, due to the outlook for further cuts to Pacific cod.

The TACs for pollock and cod, especially in light of the gloomy outlook for the latter, will be a major focus of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, this week, which will go ahead, after an earthquake hit the city last Friday. With whitefish prices set high, the Barents Sea cod and haddock fisheries coming down for 2019 and the Russians only increasing their pollock quota for next year marginally, industry players globally are looking to what happens at the meeting.

First, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists present their views on the outlook for 2019, then the council will decide on TAC levels for pollock, cod, yellowfin sole and other fish. There is uncertainty around pollock and cod moving further north, as previously reported by Undercurrent News. 

Read the full story at Undercurrent News