Saving Seafood

Alaska salmon exports should fetch high prices this year

May 30, 2018 — Forces are aligned for a nice pay day for Alaska’s salmon fishermen.

There is no backlog from last season in cold storages, a lower harvest forecast is boosting demand, prices for competing farmed salmon have remained high all year and a devalued U.S. dollar makes Alaska salmon more appealing to foreign customers.

“Over the past year the dollar has weakened 11 percent against the euro, 9 percent against the British pound, 5 percent against the Japanese yen, and 7 percent against the Chinese yuan. That makes Alaska salmon and other seafood more affordable to those top overseas customers,” said Garrett Evridge, a fisheries analyst at the McDowell Group.

Last year, Alaska seafood exports set records in terms of volume and value — 1.1 billion metric tons valued at $3.45 billion. Alaska salmon accounted for 22 percent of the volume and 36 percent of the value.

On the home front, the weaker dollar will make imports from Chile, the largest farmed salmon importer to the U.S. followed by Norway, more expensive. That also will apply to imports of competing wild salmon from Canada where — if it materializes — a big sockeye run is predicted at nearby British Columbia.

Read the full story at National Fisherman 

 

Financial outlook sunny for salmon fishermen, plus commercial salmon openers around Alaska

May 29, 2018 — Forces are aligned for a nice payday for Alaska’s salmon fishermen.

There is no backlog from last season in cold storages, a lower harvest forecast is boosting demand, prices for competing farmed salmon have remained high all year, and a devalued U.S. dollar makes Alaska salmon more appealing to foreign customers.

“Over the past year the dollar has weakened 11 percent against the euro, 9 percent against the British pound, 5 percent against the Japanese yen, and 7 percent against the Chinese yuan. That makes Alaska salmon and other seafood more affordable to those top overseas customers,” said Garrett Evridge, a fisheries analyst at the McDowell Group.

Last year Alaska seafood exports set records in terms of volume and value — 1.1 billion metric tons valued at $3.45 billion. Alaska salmon accounted for 22 percent of the volume and 36 percent of the value.

On the home front, the weaker dollar will make imports from Chile, the largest farmed salmon importer to the U.S. followed by Norway, more expensive. That also will apply to imports of competing wild salmon from Canada where — if it materializes — a big sockeye run is predicted in nearby British Columbia.

“About every four years we expect a relatively large harvest from the Fraser River run in B.C. In 2014 they produced about 83 million pounds of salmon and sockeye was the largest component,” Evridge said. “Likewise, a weaker dollar will make wild salmon imports from Russia and Japan more expensive for U.S. buyers.”

Russia, which had grown from a $10 million customer of primarily pink salmon roe to $60 million in 2013, has banned all imports of U.S. seafood since 2014. Meanwhile, that country continues to send millions of tons of salmon and other seafood into the U.S.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

ALASKA: Transboundary mine meeting includes State Department, B.C. reps

May 25, 2018 — Alaskans concerned about possible impacts of British Columbia mines on cross-border rivers will get an update during a June 1 meeting in Juneau.

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott will host the third annual transboundary mining meeting.

Mallott aide Albert Kookesh said officials from the federal, state and British Columbia governments will attend. So will tribal, industrial, environmental, fisheries and other leaders.

Kookesh said this year’s meeting will allow more time for discussion than previous gatherings.

“This is a chance for stakeholders, people who are interested in those types of transboundary issues, to come and talk to the powers that be, if you want to say it that way,” Kookesh said.

Read and listen to the full story at Alaska Public Media

 

Alaskan fishermen aren’t the only ones noticing the rise of Atlantic halibut

May 22, 2018 — As prices and demand for Pacific halibut have fallen in Alaska, commercial fishermen say a new Canadian competitor is to blame. Since 2012, Canadian imports of fresh Atlantic halibut have grown roughly 60 percent.

Historically, Atlantic halibut has not competed with its close relative on the West Coast since New England and Canadian fishermen overfished stocks in the late 1880s. But as the catch continues to grow north of the border, fishermen in New England are working towards restarting a fishery in U.S. waters.

That could have a serious impact on Alaska’s halibut industry.

Atlantic halibut seems to have been on the tip of the commercial fishing industry’s tongue in Alaska as imports from Canada continue to carve out a significant slice of the New England fresh halibut market.

Prices on the docks in Alaska have fallen about $2 per pound, and there’s a surplus of halibut in the freezer from last year that isn’t selling.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

 

Marine mammals protected by federal law

May 21, 2018 — Federal fisheries officials have issued a reminder that the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits killing marine mammals, except for exemptions for subsistence harvests by Alaska Natives.

“Marine mammals are an integral part of a healthy ecosystem,” said NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional Administrator Jim Balsiger. “Unless it is being harvested for subsistence purposes, or is otherwise authorized, intentionally killing a marine mammal is illegal.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act also protects marine mammals from harassment, which is defined as “any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance which has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild; or has the potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering.”

Penalties for violation of the MMPA include up to a fine of $28,520 and/or one-year imprisonment.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

 

Alaska fishermen: Sea otter comeback is eating into profits

May 18, 2018 — ANCHORAGE, Alaska —  Northern sea otters, once hunted to the brink of extinction along Alaska’s Panhandle, have made a spectacular comeback by gobbling some of the state’s finest seafood – and fishermen are not happy about the competition.

Sea otters dive for red sea urchins, geoduck clams, sea cucumbers – delicacies in Asia markets – plus prized Dungeness crab. They then carry their meals to the surface and float on their backs as they eat, sometimes using rocks to crack open clams and crab. The furry marine mammals, which grow as large as 100 pounds (45 kilograms), eat the equivalent of a quarter of their weight each day.

Phil Doherty, head of the Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fisheries Association, is working to save the livelihood of 200 southeast Alaska fishermen and a $10 million industry but faces an uphill struggle against an opponent that looks like a cuddly plush toy.

Fishermen have watched their harvest shrink as sea otters spread and colonize, Doherty said. Divers once annually harvested 6 million pounds (2.7 million kilograms) of red sea urchins. The recent quota has been less than 1 million pounds (454,000 kilograms).

“We’ve seen a multimillion-dollar fishery in sea urchins pretty much go away,” he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WPXI

 

Why Alaska Is Crafting a Plan to Fight Climate Change: It’s Impossible to Ignore

May 15, 2018 — WASHINGTON — In the Trump era, it has mainly been blue states that have taken the lead on climate change policy, with liberal strongholds like California and New York setting ambitious goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Now, at least one deep-red state could soon join them: Alaska, a major oil and gas producer, is crafting its own plan to address climate change. Ideas under discussion include deep cuts in state emissions by 2025 and a tax on companies that emit carbon dioxide.

While many conservative-leaning states have resisted aggressive climate policies, Alaska is already seeing the dramatic effects of global warming firsthand, making the issue difficult for local politicians to ignore. The solid permafrost that sits beneath many roads, buildings and pipelines is starting to thaw, destabilizing the infrastructure above. At least 31 coastal towns and cities may need to relocate, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, as protective sea ice vanishes and fierce waves erode Alaska’s shores.

“Climate change is affecting Alaskans right now,” wrote Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott in a recent op-ed in the Juneau Empire. “To underestimate the risks or rate of climate change is to gamble with our children’s futures and that is not a bet that we are willing to make.”

The state is still finalizing its climate plan. In October, Governor Walker, a former Republican who won election as an independent in 2014, created a task force headed by Lieutenant Governor Mallott that would propose specific policies to reduce emissions and help the state adapt to the impacts of global warming. The recommendations are due by September.

Read the full story at the New York Times

 

Halibut surplus and competition on East Coast drives dock prices down

May 15, 2018 — Halibut prices have fallen about $2 per pound, and decreasing demand has left plenty sitting in the freezer from last year.

Billy Sullivan owns a small fish-buying operation in Homer, and he said years of historically high prices – about $20 to $30 per pound at your typical supermarket – have driven consumers away from purchasing Pacific halibut.

That begs the question: will Pacific halibut maintain its spot on the menu or be replaced?

“Fish business goes: first you’re on the menu, then you go on the chalk board, then once you go off the chalk board, you’re done,” Sullivan said as he sliced open a rock fish. “Halibut is off the chalkboard right now.”

Consumers are reluctant to buy expensive fillets in grocery stores and restaurants. A new competitor also is taking over a large portion of the market.

“They went and found alternatives to expensive halibut and the East Coast fish fills in,” Sullivan said.

Fishermen cashed in on high prices last year. Fish buyers in Alaska were eager to buy loads of Pacific halibut, Sullivan said.

By the fall, the market seemed to soften as cheaper Atlantic halibut started to swallow up portions of the market on the East Coast.

Read the full story at KTOO

 

U.S. Is Likely to Add About 15,000 Work Visas This Summer

May 11, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expected to make about 15,000 additional H-2B visas available for low-skilled foreign workers this summer, a modest supplement to the popular program, lawmakers and aides familiar with the planning said.

The number of visas available each year is capped by statute at 66,000, evenly divided between the summer and winter seasons. Congress declined to lift that cap during negotiations this spring. It did, however, give the secretary of Homeland Security authority to issue up to 69,000 more this summer if she determines there is sufficient need.

A range of businesses—including fisheries, landscapers and those in summer tourist spots—have been waiting to see if Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will use that authority.

Rep. Andy Harris (R., Md.), who is concerned about the need for visas among Maryland crab processors, said Ms. Nielsen told him to expect about 15,000 additional visas. An aide to another GOP member of Congress said he was told the same.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) said that in her home state, fisheries, which are heavy users of the program, are in desperate need of a decision within a week in order for the companies to have workers in place for the summer fish run.

“We are in a situation where, once again, our processors aren’t able to be on the ready to receive the fish when they hit. We can control lots of things. We cannot control when the fish come,” she said. “We are asking you, urging you, politely and then forcefully, to address this very, very quickly.”

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal

 

Alaska: Management impact on fishing families studied

May 9, 2018 — In a series of workshops in five Alaska communities, National Marine Fisheries Service hopes to learn more about the impact of fisheries management on Alaska’s fishing families.

Perspectives on fishing family dynamics that emerge from the workshops will inform the next phase of this research, according to Marysia Szymkowiak, a social scientist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Juneau, and Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Workshops have already been held in Juneau, Homer, Sitka and Anchorage, and a fifth workshop is slated for June 4 at Kodiak.

During the Anchorage workshop on May 7, several participants spoke about the value of family fisheries as a source of nutritional food, income and family dynamics, particularly in a multi-generational setting, for teaching the next generation a strong work ethic.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times