Saving Seafood

Citing failed sockeye runs, Alaska Gov. Walker declares economic disaster for Chignik fisheries

August 24, 2018 — ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Citing a preliminary harvest count of 128 sockeye salmon and rapidly declining escapement counts, Gov. Walker declared an economic disaster for the Chignik fisheries region Thursday.

According to a Thursday release, the governor’s decision is a result of harvest numbers that pose a threat to communities in the region that rely on subsistence and commercial salmon fishing, including Chignik, Chignik Lake, Chignik Lagoon, Ivanof Bay and Perryville.

“Chignik is used to catching more than a million sockeye every year. This year, they caught 128 fish,” Gov. Walker said in the statement. “Salmon is the economic and subsistence staple in these communities and the failure of this year’s fishery is a one-two punch. It is critical that we do what we can to support them as they work to recover: that’s what we’re here for.”

Read the full story at KTUU

 

ALASKA: Roundtable discussion focuses on salmon sustainability, culture

August 24, 2018 — With participants from a broad swathe of the salmon spectrum, the Kenai River Sportfishing Association’s Classic Roundtable discussion Wednesday focused on new research and management tools to preserve troubled salmon returns in the state.

Part of the Soldotna-based sportfishing association’s annual Classic event, the roundtable discussions invite experts and stakeholders to address various issues related to fishing and fisheries management. This year, the panelists focused on science related to recent changes in salmon size and age, the cultural and economic impacts of the declines and market-based strategies to change salmon fishery allocation.

Presiding as the keynote speaker was National Marine Fisheries Service Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver, who previously lived in Alaska for 27 years and served as the executive director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Since taking the role as the head of the National Marine Fisheries Service, which among other functions regulates fisheries in federal waters and enforcing the Marine Mammal Protection Act, he said he’s made a few adjustments to overall identified goals and gotten a broad perspective on issues in fisheries nationwide.

Read the full story at The Peninsula Clarion

For small boat fishermen in Alaska, the business can be boom or bust

August 23, 2018 — The Alaskan seafood industry is one of the many industries with its eyes on the back-and-forth between the U.S. and China. Seafood was one of the U.S. exports to get slapped with a retaliatory tariff from China, and that’s an issue for Alaska seafood producers because a lot of their seafood exports are sent there.

But in this installment of our on-going series My Economy, we’re looking beyond the news headlines to see how people are actually doing. And there are a variety of things that might be on an Alaskan fisherman’s mind right now, as fisherman Hannah Heimbuch describes from Homer, Alaska.

My name is Hannah Heimbuch. I’m a commercial fisherman from Homer, Alaska. My brother and I are drift gillnetters. We fish for sockeye salmon. We grew up deckhanding with our dad on his boat in a couple different areas in Alaska. And two years ago we decided to invest in our own operation. You know we’re in our early 30s and kind of looked at each other and were like, well, I guess we’re in this together.

Probably our biggest annual investment is our boat payment. That runs about $11,000. We also have permit payments, that’s another $5,000. And then after that you have the basic maintenance. You know we spend a few thousand dollars upgrading. So we have a boat that’s in tip top shape, but we needed to make more than $20,000 to breakeven this year. We did not come close to that.

Read the full story at the Marketplace

Cool ocean temps, reduced salmon bycatch likely to boost Alaska groundfish catches

August 22, 2018 — Reduced salmon bycatch and increased catches of rockfish bode well for Alaska’s groundfish trawlers in 2018. As of July, most of the boats had off-loaded their dragging gear and switched over to massive deck pumps to fill out salmon tendering contracts in Bristol Bay and elsewhere around the state.

That’s typical for many of the Kodiak-based catcher boats in the off-season, but the kicker in their year (so far) began during fisheries directed for arrowtooth flounder and various rockfish species months earlier.

“Things have been off in recent years, in the way that the fisheries have been functioning,” said Julie Bonney, executive director of the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, in Kodiak.

Incidental catches of king salmon and halibut during the 2017 season caused closures that not only put a crimp in the potential harvest of the groundfish quotas but caused an unfavorable pulse of supplies in markets that favor a steady flow of fish to end consumers.

But 2018 brings hope of a turnaround. Ocean conditions seem to have gifted the trawlers in terms of distribution and density of rockfish. As of July 1, the fleet had harvested 68 percent of the rockfish quota compared to 2017 when they caught 43 percent.

Better yet, the incidental take of king salmon was down. Bonney reported on June 28 that the fleet in the Gulf of Alaska logged 6,200 salmon of a total allowable 32,250 salmon.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

“Strength of the Tides” pledge promotes safety of women who fish

August 22, 2018 — A little over a year ago, the project “Strength of the Tides” launched a website with a mission to help women working in fisheries find safe places to work. You may have spotted the tees and tank tops around the boatyard—black with the simple message: “The strength of the tides is hers also.”

It is no secret that fishing is a male-dominated industry. But increasingly, women are becoming skippers, joining crews, and working on tenders.

Elma Burnham is one among them, and she wanted to make sure there was an organization looking out for them.

She said, “’Strength of the Tides’ is a community organization to empower women who work on the water.”

For seven years, Burnham has been coming to Bristol Bay in the summer to fish for sockeye. This year she was based in Pilot Point. She is the main person behind “Strength of the Tides,” which she founded a little over a year ago.

The organization uses Instagram to profile women involved in fisheries. It also hosts gatherings to build community and offers a pledge for people to sign to hold them accountable for how women are treated on the water.

Burnham said the pledge is really the heart of the organization’s mission.

“I basically published this pledge that asked people who work in the industry to declare and sign on that they will respect women.” She continued, “There is a list of different criteria of what that means while in this unique workplace we are in.”

Everyone who signs the agreement also can list the vessel they are on and where they fish. It is posted on the website, and Burnham said this is a helpful resource for women trying to get on a boat because they can see if the skipper has signed the pledge. So far over 200 people have signed.

Read the full story at KDLG

Alaska seafood organization seeks comments on US tariffs

August 22, 2018 — An Alaska seafood organization is encouraging industry members to comment on the proposed U.S. tariffs on products imported from China that could negatively affect the state’s seafood industry.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is asking members to comment before the September deadline on the proposed increases to tariffs that include seafood products from China, the Peninsula Clarion reported Sunday.

About $2.7 billion in U.S. seafood is processed in China and sent back to the U.S. annually with most of that coming from Alaska, according to the organization that promotes the state’s seafood industry.

In response to U.S. tariffs, China levied a 25 percent tariff on U.S. seafood imported for consumption, including Pacific salmon, cod, Alaska Pollock, and other commonly exported products. The tariffs went into effect last month, but China excluded seafood shipped into the country that is intended for re-export after processing.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative proposed increasing tariffs last month from 10 percent to 25 percent on Chinese products, including seafood. The U.S. seafood processed in China could be hit with tariffs upon re-entering the country.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Daily-News Miner

A Dwindling Catch Has Alaskans Uneasy

August 22, 2018 — After just a few hours of letting the current comb through his net in the Copper River, Shane Cummings knew that something wasn’t right.

Dr. Cummings, a sports medicine specialist, had driven 250 miles east of Anchorage with a seasoned fishing party, including a few men who had gone to the river every summer since the 1960s. They motored between sandbars to a familiar spot, and slid the wide hoops of their nets into the steel-colored water.

In a good year, they could pull 70 or 80 red salmon from the river, which they would later brine in sugar and salt and bathe in alder smoke, their Little Chief smokers puffing in their driveways. They would carry Ziplocs of fish to the neighbors and set long tables in their backyards, pulling fillet after fillet off the grill.

But as the hours passed on this day in early June, nobody on the river netted a red, or even saw one. “It wasn’t usual at all,” Dr. Cummings said.

Read the full story at The New York Times

ALASKA: Mariculture industry has vast potential

August 21, 2018 — As Gov. Bill Walker prepares to sign a bill this week enacting the Alaska Mariculture Development Plan, 16 new applicants hope to soon begin growing shellfish and seaweed businesses in just more than 417 acres of tideland areas in Alaska.

The new growers will add to the 35 farms and six hatchery/nurseries that already are producing a mix of oysters, clams, mussels and various seaweeds. Eventually, sea cucumbers, scallops, giant geoduck clams and algae for biofuels will be added into the mix.

Most of the mariculture requests in Alaska are located in Southeast and Southcentral regions and range in size from 0.02 acres at Halibut Cove to 292 acres for two sites at Craig.

Data from the state Department of Natural Resources show that two farms have applied at Kodiak totaling nearly 37 acres, and one Sitka applicant has plans for a 15-acre plot. Other communities getting into the mariculture act include Seldovia, Port Chatham, Juneau, Naukati, Cordova, Ketchikan and Gustavus.

In 2017, Alaskan farms produced 11,456 pounds of clams, 1,678 pounds of mussels, 16,570 pounds of seaweeds and 1.8 million oysters.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: Fraser Sockeye Season Gearing Up; Landings of 1.3 Million Salmon So Far

August 20, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Fraser River sockeye season has netted landings of about 600,000 sockeye in the U.S. and 735,000 sockeye in Canada as of early this week. In Canada there have been three separate openings and an updated announcement on openings just this week, indicating a ramping up of a fishery that will peak in the coming few weeks.

This year’s return to the Fraser is estimated to be 14 million sockeye, within a wide range of possibilities. The return is made up of four distinct runs: Early Stuart, Early Summer, Summer, and Late runs. More than half — about 7.4 milion sockeyes — are estimated to make up this year’s Late run.

Once escapement, test fishing, and other management adjustments are taken off the total return, the TAC is calculated, currently at 6.2 million sockeye. Of that, the U.S.’s share is 1.02 million sockeye.

So with the landings as of last Tuesday, the U.S. season is about half over. For Canada, the bulk of the return is still ahead.

Mike LaPoint, chief biologist for the Pacific Salmon Commission, said stock assessments of the four different runs are being made as they come in. This week, assessments of Early Summer and Summer-run sockeye abundance are being calculated as test fishing results and data on age, origin, and other components of the different populations are analyzed. Updated run-size estimates could be available as early as later today, after this afternoon’s meeting of the Fraser River Panel.

“It is important to note that that TAC continually changes through the season as data on abundance, etc. are updated,” LaPoint said. “So far this season, the only change has been to the Early Stuart Run size – pre-season was 84,000, now 125,000. All other stock groups are being actively assessed right now and so far no changes from pre-season.”

The Fraser has seen three years in a row of low sockeye returns. “2016 was actually the lowest return since we started to keep records in 1892, about 700,000 fish,” Lapointe told Undercurrent News last month.

Fraser sockeye, for the most part, are four year fish. The 2014 return was over 20 million sockeye. While the returning salmon, and the subset of successful spawners in the return, is important, more focus in recent years has been on conditions the salmon face after that. Sockeye spend a year in the lake, then outmigrate as juveniles through the Fraser basin, and go north for a few years of feeding in the Gulf of Alaska before returning. In 2016-17, when these young salmon were feeding, temperatures in the Gulf were still above average from the 2014-16 warm water event referred to as The Blob.

Conditions in the Fraser River itself, according to Tuesday’s announcement from the Fraser River Panel, continue to show low volume of water and higher temperatures than historically normal, although in recent years these numbers have been similar.

“On August 13, the Fraser River water discharge at Hope was approximately 2,801 cms, which is approximately 20% below average for this date. The temperature of the Fraser River at Qualark Creek on August 13 was 19.5 degrees C, which is 1.5 degrees C above average for this date. Fraser River water temperatures are forecast to decrease to slightly to 18.9 degrees C over the next few days.

“Sustained water temperatures in this range can cause severe stress to migrating sockeye and may lead to significant en route mortality. Migration conditions for Fraser sockeye will be monitored closely over the next several weeks and appropriate management actions will be taken,” the announcement read.

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

ASMI to comment on impact of proposed tariffs

August 17, 2018 — Board members of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute are keeping watch on the trade war between the U.S. and China and plan to submit formal comments in advance of the Sept. 6 deadline, says Jeremy Woodrow, ASMI’s communications director.

“We are going into this with the assumption that this is an opportunity to educate the U.S. trade representative on the importance of Alaska fisheries to the U.S. economy and Alaska workers,”

Woodrow said. “While we understand the reasons behind the proposal, the intended impact doesn’t achieve the goal. Instead of having consequences to Chinese consumers, this negatively impacts us consumers and products and U.S. fishermen and companies,” he said.

Woodrow said ASMI’s understanding at this time is that seafood products going from Alaska to China would be subject to these proposed tariffs only if consumed in the Chinese domestic market. If that seafood is being reprocessed to ship elsewhere, it would not be subject to tariff, but if it is being shipped back to the U.S., there is potential that it will be subject to the tariffs because of the proposal by Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative.

The proposed U.S. tariffs came under consideration in the wake of China’s decision to implement an additional 25 percent tariff for exported products destined for China’s domestic market. The proposed tariffs could impact the bottom line for Alaska companies that sell black cod, rockfish, flatfish and salmon roe into Chinese domestic markets.

Read the full story at The Cordoba Times