Saving Seafood

Campaign regulators levy $1,925 fine against group opposing salmon ballot measure

September 13, 2018 — The agency overseeing Alaska campaign finance laws handed down a $1,925 fine against Stand for Alaska — Vote No on One, saying the group violated requirements associated with previously using a name that did not clearly show opposition to the Stand for Salmon ballot measure.

But the Alaska Public Offices Commission reduced the potential top fine of $7,700 that could have been levied against the industry-backed group. The harm to the public was not enough to justify a larger amount, the three-member commission said in an eight-page decision Friday.

The opposition group had called itself Stand for Alaska but changed its name in June, adding the tagline showing dissent. The group should have changed its name March 13, when the state certified the initiative for the ballot. It was improperly named for about three months.

Other violations were related to YouTube videos with “paid for by” lines incorrectly bearing the group’s previous name for roughly two to three weeks, depending on the video.

The measure — called Ballot Measure 1 by the state — goes before voters Nov. 6. Opponents have argued it will stop development projects across Alaska. Supporters say it will protect salmon and other fish without hurting the economy.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Sen. Murkowski Questions International Trade Administration on Alaskan Seafood Industry Concerns

September 12, 2018 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Lisa Murkowski:

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) participated in a Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee hearing yesterday, to review the President’s Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) funding request for the Bureau of Industry and Security, the International Trade Administration, and the United States International Trade Commission.

Witnesses participating in the hearing included: Nazak Nikakhtar, Assistant Secretary for Industry and Analysis at the International Trade Administration (ITA); Richard Ashooh, Assistant Secretary for Export Administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS); and David S. Johanson, Chairman at the United States International Trade Commission (USITC).

During the hearing Senator Murkowski expressed some of the concerns of Alaskan stakeholders regarding the seafood industry.

“Until recently, a positive trade relationship was developing between Alaska and China—of our salmon exports, 40% of those exports went to China. For cod, 54% of our exports went to China. In 2017, we saw roughly 1/3 of Alaska’s seafood exports end up in China, worth nearly $1 billion. So this is considerable” said Senator Murkowski. “Now, Alaskans are facing steep Chinese tariffs on these exports—a pretty significant trade barrier. This is on top of lost market share due to the Russian embargo on American seafood, which has been in place since 2014 as retaliation for sanctions, and challenging import quotas that currently exist in the EU, Japan, and South Korea.”

Murkowski went on to question Assistant Secretary Nikakhtar on the ITA’s strategy towards the retaliatory tariffs imposed on the seafood industry and barriers to seafood industry trade.

Read the full release here

Permit holders, processing workers included in pink salmon disaster money draft plan

September 10, 2018 — Under a draft plan released this summer, commercial fishermen in Southeast Alaska would get only a small portion of the $56.3 million appropriated by Congress to address a pink salmon disaster in 2016.

However, those who worked at seafood processing plants that year could be in line for some of the money as well.

A year and a half ago, the U.S. Commerce Secretary declared the 2016 pink season across the Gulf of Alaska a fishery failure due to unusual ocean and climate conditions. The state of Alaska and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have come up with a draft spending plan for how to allocate the money to fishermen, processors, municipalities and researchers.

The money will be paid out by an agency called the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Sebastian O’Kelly is a lobbyist in the nation’s capital. His clients include the Petersburg borough and that commission. O’Kelly briefed the Petersburg borough assembly on the spending plan Monday.

“I wanna talk a little bit about the allocation and the break out and the criteria that will be used in distributing the relief because you will have fishermen, processors and the borough itself as active participants and recipients of this funding,” O’Kelly said.

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Sockeye run winds down with strong summer numbers

September 7, 2018 — Sockeye salmon returned to Haines’ Chilkoot River in strong numbers this summer. The run is winding down, but tracking near the upper end of the escapement goal set by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

ADF&G Haines Area Management Biologist Wyatt Rhea-Fournier says a large portion of the sockeye run came in a big pulse of 38,000 fish.

“Kind of uncharacteristic if you look at the long term patterns for that lake,” Rhea-Fournier said. “Now, two of the last three years we’ve had these really large pulses of sockeye into the Chilkoot Lake.”

Now, as the run comes to an end, just over 84,000 fish have passed through Fish and Game’s weir on the Chilkoot River. That’s a good number, just below the upper bound of the escapement goal.

Rhea-Fournier says those numbers have allowed the department to open up fishing.

“We’ve given a lot of opportunity since that large pulse of fish came through,” Rhea-Fournier said. “Opening up the Lutak Inlet all the way up to the river mouth for extra days. The last couple days we’ve been open four days a week and five days a week. This next week it will be open for six days.”

On the Chilkat side, however, Fish and Game is still waiting. They still have a ways to go before meeting the escapement goal on the Chilkat River. But, Rhea-Fournier says that’s not unusual. He says the run tends to be more prolonged.

“If you look at over the last 10 years, by the end of August we have about half of our escapement through,” Rhea-Fournier said. “So that means we still have more fish to come. Right now we’re only at 44,000 fish. So we’re hoping that there is a whole second half of the run coming. Because, of course, our minimum goal on the Chilkat side is 70,000 fish.”

Read the full story at KTOO

US and Canadian negotiators reach tentative deal over Pacific salmon

September 7, 2018 — Diplomats are reviewing a Pacific salmon treaty deal. Negotiators from Canada and the United States reached the tentative deal over Pacific salmon almost two weeks ago.

“The proposed amendments to the treaty – and there are a number of them – have been transmitted to the capitals: Ottawa and Washington D.C. for review and consideration by the national governments,” said John Field, executive secretary of the Pacific Salmon Commission in Vancouver, British Columbia.

That was on August 24. But the 10-year annex of the Pacific Salmon Treaty isn’t official until it’s signed by both countries.

The treaty has governed salmon catches, research and enhancement in Alaska, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia since 1985. It’s renegotiated every 10 years.

No details have been released on this latest agreement which would last until 2029.

But Field said he’s confident it’ll be approved before the current deal expires at the end of this year.

“The salmon treaty has a long history with these two countries,” Field said by phone on Thursday. “It’s in their mutual interest to have the treaty to enter into force and I’m confident that both countries are doing everything they can to have them enter into force on time.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Tariffs throw wrench into seafood supply chain

September 6, 2018 — Many seafood processors, fishermen and support businesses have been watching with increasing dismay as the trade war between U.S. and China heats up and impacts billions of dollars in trade.

In March, President Donald Trump’s administration announced its intention to levy tariffs against China in connection with “unfair” trade practices, including theft of intellectual property. When the first round of tariffs on Chinese products were announced, the seafood industry hoped to escape the list of impacted items.

That hope faded when a host of seafood products were included on the list of proposed retaliatory tariffs from the Chinese government. Then Office of the U.S. Trade Representative proposed another set of tariffs, including seafood products, at 10 percent in July. Then that number was upped to 25 percent in August.

In a hearing hosted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Aug. 20–24, Bob DeHaan of the National Fisheries Institute said the tariffs will effectively punish American fishermen for Chinese intellectual property theft, which has nothing to do with them. Of the $2.7 billion in proposed tariffs on seafood, more than $95 million came from Alaskan fishermen.

“In many cases such as the iconic Bristol Bay salmon run that just concluded this year, the fishermen are family-owned enterprises who sell their catch to seafood companies for processing, distribution and sale around the world,” he said. “How punishing these harvesters and these businesses for in effect buying American will convince China to respect its obligations regarding intellectual property rights and technology transfers is difficult to fathom.”

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Alaska wary of federal push for marine aquaculture

September 6, 2018 — During a recent stop in Juneau, NOAA Fisheries chief Chris Oliver said that wild seafood harvests alone can’t keep up with rising global demand.

But there’s another way.

“Aquaculture is going to be where the major increases in seafood production occur whether it happens in foreign countries or in United States waters,” Oliver told a room of fishermen, seafood marketing executives and marine scientists.

Aquaculture is a broad term: it’s farming in the sea. That could be shellfish like oysters or seaweed which Alaska permits. But it also includes fish farms — which Alaska does not allow.

The nation’s federal waters are vast. They begin 3 miles offshore and extend 200 nautical miles. There isn’t any aquaculture in federal waters — yet.

Acting U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Timothy Gallaudet said during a Juneau visit that streamlining regulations and boosting aquaculture production – both part of the Commerce Department’s 2018-2022 strategic plan – could help change that.

Read the full story at KTOO

Here’s how smartphones are being used to track lost fishing gear

September 5, 2018 — Cell phones are being used by fishermen to bounty hunt for lost fishing gear for pay.

California fishermen created the retrieval project last year along with the Nature Conservancy to get ropes, buoys, pots and anchors out of the water after the dungeness fishery so they wouldn’t entangle whales, and Washington and Oregon quickly followed suit.

“They are using their cell phones and its GPS to take a picture of what the gear looked like, tell when they found it, and any identifying markings on the buoy – the vessel, the ID number, and also the latitude and longitude of exactly where they found it,” said Nat Nichols, area manager for groundfish and shellfish at the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game office in Kodiak. He added that gear loss rates in different fisheries can be “anywhere from 3 to 23 percent.”

Under a special permit, the West Coast bounty hunters head out two weeks after the dungeness crab fishery closes to search for derelict gear.

“Dungies tend to be in shallower water and that means there is more wave energy and the gear can get lost or rolled up on the beach. A lot of it has a tendency to move around because it’s in the tidal surge,” Nichols said.

The fishermen get paid $65 for every pot they pull up. The gear then goes back to the original owners who pay $100 per pot for its return.

Saving whales was the prime motivator for pot retrievals on the West Coast. In Alaska’s crab and pot cod fisheries, it’s ghost fishing and gear conflicts.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

Alaskans worried by prospect of deep-sea fish farms

September 4, 2018 — In a Centennial Hall listening session, Alaskans raised concerns about federal plans to boost open-ocean fish farms under a new strategic plan for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

On Friday afternoon, Tim Gallaudet, acting undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, hosted a listening session at the end of a weeklong gathering of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration experts in Juneau.

NOAA is an agency of the Department of Commerce, and Gallaudet is among the figures hosting meetings across the country as part of the process that creates the strategic plan.

In a speech opening the listening session, Gallaudet said the strategic plan is an “initiative to grow the American ‘blue economy.’”

That phrase is used as an umbrella term that includes fisheries, oceanic tourism and other aspects of the national economy that relate to the oceans.

Gallaudet echoed the familiar refrains of the Trump Administration, saying the department is interested in deregulation and “reducing the seafood trade deficit.”

President Donald Trump’s trade war with China has resulted in Chinese tariffs on Alaska seafood exported to that country, and American tariffs on processed Alaska seafood products imported from China.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Groups claim feds glossed over public concerns in Pebble mine report

September 4, 2018 — Groups fighting the Pebble gold and copper prospect on Friday swiftly condemned a new federal report summarizing public concerns about the project after a three-month comment period, asserting that the report glosses over key issues.

Supporters of the project shot back, saying the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has undertaken painstaking efforts to gather information before it prepares an environmental review of potential development scenarios.

The Corps released the report on Friday.

Deantha Crockett, executive director of Alaska Miners Association, said the Corps has shown its willingness to listen, allowing a 90-day period to take public input on the Southwest Alaska project, instead of the original 30.

“We’re happy we’re seeing progress (on the project),” she said.

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News