Saving Seafood

Alaska: With New Report, CVRF Continues Its Fight for More Fish

May 9, 2018 — CVRF is one of six nonprofit groups that manage NOAA’s Community Development Quota (CDQ) program. CDQ was set up in 1992 to bring money into cash-strapped Western Alaska communities by setting aside a portion of Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands fisheries for local commercial use.

Coastal Villages has long been advocating for more fish. Michelle Humphrey is the group’s outreach manager.

According to the report, prepared by the Seattle-based research firm Community Attributes, the most impoverished communities in Western Alaska are served by CVRF and the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC). These two represent nearly 70 percent of the total CDQ-eligible population. But they receive only about 40 percent of the total CDQ quota.

Sarah Marrinan is an economist with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees the CDQ program. She says when the program started in the 1990s, each CDQ group submitted a business plan to the state, which determined the allocations based on a variety of factors.

Read the full story at KNOM

 

Majority of voters oppose Trump offshore drilling plan: poll

May 8, 2018 — More than half of voters oppose proposed plans by the Trump administration to expand oil and gas drilling off coastal states, according to a poll out Tuesday.

The survey conducted by the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland found that 60 percent of voters surveyed are against the Interior Department’s plan to lift a ban on oil drilling along coastlines and expand drilling around Alaska.

Additionally, 70 percent of respondents supported states’ rights to request a drilling exemption through a waiver, the study found.

Support for lifting the ban on drilling largely fell along party lines. Democrats and independents opposed lifting the ban by 86 and 60 percent, respectively, and similarly supported granting states waiver authority by 86 and 65 percent, respectively. On the other hand, two-thirds of Republicans surveyed supported lifting the offshore drilling ban, with 56 percent of Republicans supporting state waiver rights.

When the study asked respondents who lived in one of the the 15 coastal U.S. states currently requesting an exemption, 88 percent of Democrats approved of their state’s request, as did 50 percent of Republicans.

Read the full story at The Hill

 

Alaska: NOAA vet named head of crab group

May 8, 2018 — Jamie Goen, a veteran of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service as well as the International Pacific Halibut Commission, is the new executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

Goen most recently worked as branch manager with the International Pacific Halibut Commission, overseeing its fisheries data collection programs.

Before that, she worked as the congressional affairs liaison to the head of NOAA. While at NOAA for 15 years, she worked on fishing quota programs, including serving as the lead on implementation of the Trawl Rationalization Program. In addition, she also worked in New England on the Atlantic Sea Scallop Quota Program.

“Goen comes with a wealth of experience in fisheries management, starting in her career traveling the world on oceanographic vessels running scientific equipment, having sailed every ocean except the Arctic,” Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Study: Of 204 U.S. fishermen who died falling overboard, none wore a flotation device

May 7, 2018 — Commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation, with a fatality rate that is 23 times higher than for all other workers.

Vessel sinkings account for half of all fishing fatalities; second is falling overboard — deaths that are largely preventable.

From 2000 through 2016, 204 U.S. fishermen died after falling overboard, according to a just released study called Fatal Falls Overboard in Commercial Fishing by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH. Nearly 60 percent of the falls were not witnessed, and almost 90 percent of the victims were not found.

In all instances, not a single fisherman was wearing a personal flotation device.

“I think there is a social stigma against it. It’s a sort of macho thing. I also think there is a lack of awareness that there are really comfortable PFDs,” said Jerry Dzugan, director of the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association for over three decades.

Today’s life jackets are not the bulky, cumbersome clunkers that most people are familiar with from childhood or have stashed in the cubbies of recreational boats. Newer models are lightweight and built right into rain bibs, or fit comfortably over or into deck gear.

“I’ve got a couple that are so comfortable that when I leave my boat, I forget I have them on,” Dzugan said.

He estimated that less than 10 percent of Alaska fishermen wear PFDs while working, whereas “a few years ago it was less than 5 percent.”

According to the NIOSH report, the number of falls overboard decreased on average by 3.9 percent annually during the study’s time frame. Most falls occurred on the east coast (62), followed by the Gulf of Mexico (60). Alaska ranked third with 51 deaths overall.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

Murkowski: Fight against Frankenfish isn’t over

May 4, 2018 — AquaBounty may have won federal approval on April 26 for a genetically engineered salmon facility in Indiana, but they won’t be able to produce GE salmon there, says Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

The Alaska Republican’s comments on May 1 came in the wake of Federal Drug Administration approval of an application for an AquaBounty salmon facility in Indiana last week. The company began developing genetically engineered salmon in 1996 and received an FDA approval in 2005 to sell it for human consumption.

Murkowski said the fight against “Frankenfish” is not over and she would continue to push for clear labeling of the product if it is to enter into the U.S. marketplace and for proper oversight.

Genetically engineered salmon currently are evaluated under the FDA’s New Animal Drug Application, a program intended to oversee antibiotics and medicines used on animals and livestock.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

 

Market Grows for Community Supported Fisheries Bringing Expanded Benefits to Fishermen

May 3, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fishermen from every coastal state in the nation are expanding markets for their catch through community supported fisheries (CSF), a way to get fresh-caught fish into the hands of discerning customers who also want to know more about how and where the fish were caught, and even who the fisherman was.

The growth of CSFs, modeled largely after community supported agriculture (CSA), has been impressive. The first one began in Port Clyde, ME, in 2007 as an effort to revitalize a small village’s fishing legacy. Port Clyde Fresh Catch sold shares in the early days and subscribers got whatever the small (about a dozen vessels) fleet caught that season.

Today Port Clyde has a retail store, website, and drop-off locations for customers to pick up their fish or purchase without becoming a member.

The largest CSF in the country is Cape Ann Fresh Catch out of Gloucester, with over 700 members. This week, they are featuring “wicked fresh” spring scallops for $20/lb. But if you want something else, go online or to their retail store for smoked fish, fresh fish & shellfish, baked goods, and their own line of prepared foods.

While the structure of the 30-plus individual CSFs in the U.S. may differ — some sell shares or subscriptions, others have evolved to processing plants and storefronts — they all operate with three goals in mind: environmental stewardship, economic stability, and social improvements.

In the case of two Alaska-based CSFs, those goals are also the core mission of the organizations that formed the CSF. The oldest of the two, Alaska’s Own, is part of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association based in Sitka. All profits from Alaskans Own go directly towards supporting fishery conservation research, initiatives to keep fishing access rights local and ensure new entrants to the fishery are able to buy in.

Alaskans Own will deliver fish to their CSF cities of Sitka, Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Seattle or will ship anywhere for custom orders.

The Alaska Marine Conservation Coalition, based in Anchorage, formed Catch 49 four years ago and so far are uniquely focused on Alaskans only. Many Alaskans would never have access to Norton Sound red king crab, Kodiak tanner crab or Prince William Sound spot prawns without Catch 49. The CSF delivers to a designated site in Anchorage, Fairbanks or Homer, about two weeks after the ordering period closes.

“Although the program is quite consumer focused, we have had a high level of interest from foodservice operators in Alaska,” Catch 49 spokesman Cassandra Squibb said in an interview with IntraFish earlier this year. All profits go towards AMCC’s fisheries conservation efforts.

The process is usually pretty simple. As the Port Orford Sustainable Seafood CFA says: “You Join. We Catch, Package and Deliver. You Enjoy.”

The reason fishermen in central Oregon created a CSF is a familiar story on both coasts.

The large traditional buyers still operating in the area bought fish from the fleet but shipped it elsewhere. “We set out to pay a fair-trade price to local fishermen for their fish, to process the fish right here in Port Orford and to pay processing employees a fair wage,” the CSF explained on their website.

“We wanted to sell Port Orford fish in Port Orford, and to provide high-quality, sustainable, traceable fish to Oregonians.

“In the beginning, we marketed fish at a handful of retail outlets, several high-end restaurants, and farmers markets. CSF members are closer to the communities that catch and process their local seafood. It encourages sustainable fishing practices, and it strengthens relationships between fishermen and consumers.

“The ocean is a public resource – it’s as much yours as it is mine.  Fishermen are just licensed agents to access seafood for you,” they said.

As with most CSFs, additional information on where the fish was caught, what gear was used, the name of the vessel and information on the skipper and crew is provided. Indeed, knowing each step in the supply chain and offering a much shorter delivery from dock to kitchen, is a key advantage to CSFs.

Another key is the ‘custom’ nature of CSFs — every fish is brought on board with care, the beauty of the environment and the responsibility commercial fishermen feel as stewards of it is described and photographed by people who obviously love what they do. Recipes are offered along with stories of the family.

There are now more than 420 locations across the nation where individual fishermen sell their catch.

Local Catch, a network of CSFs supporting the sustainability concept, offers an interactive map to find CSF delivery locations in Canada and the U.S. Among the hundreds shown is one in Wibaux, so far east in Montana it’s almost North Dakota.

It’s a delivery spot for Cedar Plank Seafoods, a family fishing operation out of Petersburg, AK.

The connection between a CSF delivery station on a ranch in eastern Montana and a third-generation fisherman from Petersburg entails a long-ago grandmother’s visit to Washington’s San Juan Islands, bringing Alaska salmon from her brother back to Wilbaux to serve during the annual cattle branding. Then decades later her granddaughter helps to host pheasant hunters at that ranch, meets hunters who fish in Alaska and who eventually invite her up for a season, where she, a little later, meets the fisherman who will become her husband from Petersburg.

Exactly the kind of story CSF members love to hear.

This story was originally published on Seafood News, it is republished with permission.

 

Senators Feinstein, Harris introduce bill to ban drift nets in California

April 30, 2018 — A bipartisan bill to ban controversial drift net fishing off California’s coast was introduced Thursday by Democratic California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, along with West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

The nets, which can be more than a mile long, are intended to catch swordfish but end up trapping dolphins, sea lions and a host of other marine life, many of which die.

“The use of drift nets to target swordfish harms too many endangered or protected marine animals and should be phased out,” Feinstein said in an emailed statement. “It’s unacceptable that a single California fishery that uses this type of drift net is killing more dolphins and porpoises than the rest of the West Coast combined.”

Large mesh drift nets are already banned in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, as well as off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii, according to Feinstein. Additionally, the United States is a signatory to international agreements that ban large drift nets in international waters.

Read the full story at the Orange County Register

 

Funding for Alaska’s commercial fisheries division in good shape, with $300K going to chinook project

April 30, 2018 — A shuffle in some funding leaves Alaska’s commercial fisheries division in good shape to manage the resources and target important projects across the state.

At first glance, the $69 million operating budget for FY19 appears to be down slightly from last year’s $72.3 million, but that’s not the case.

“Most of that difference is a sort of ‘cleanup’ in authority we no longer had funding for, such as the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund, test fishing and some interagency items. The rest is due to (a) $1.1 million shortfall in Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission revenue, which was made up from other department funds,” said Scott Kelley, commercial fisheries division director.

Added to the budget was a nearly $1 million unrestricted increment offered by Rep. Dan Ortiz of Ketchikan, which got the nod from Alaska lawmakers.

The extra money will be distributed among 11 projects in four regions: Southeast, Central, Westward and the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim, or AYK.

 The biggest project focuses on research to help determine the causes of declining chinook salmon.

“It’s a $300,000 project for a juvenile chinook marine survey in the Bering Sea,” Kelley said. “Almost the first thing I get asked at meetings around the state is what’s going on with king salmon. That project looks at the early marine survival, which is where we think these mortality events are most affecting the species. It’s the only project in the state that really gives us a first look at what’s going on there.”

Other projects back on the funding track include Southeast and Togiak herring research, westward salmon weirs, Southeast sablefish research and Prince William Sound Tanner crab.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

Rubio, Murkowski Introduce Bill to Promote U.S. Shark Conservation as a Global Model of Sustainability

April 27, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the Office of  Senator Marco Rubio:   

U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act (S. 2764), bicameral legislation that recognizes the sustainable and economically-valuable fishing practices of U.S. shark fishermen and promotes U.S. standards for shark conservation and humane harvest. U.S. Representative Daniel Webster (R-FL) has introduced similar legislation (H.R. 5248) in the House.

“Sharks play an important role in maintaining the health of the ocean ecosystems for which Florida is known for,” said Senator Rubio. “Sharks are already sustainably and humanely harvested in federal waters per U.S. law, providing sustained economic benefits to coastal communities through fishing, trade, and tourism. This bill will help promote those same standards for sustainable and humane shark harvesting among our global trade partners as well. This bill protects international shark populations as well as the fishermen in Florida and throughout the U.S. who continue to fish by the rules.”

“While the practice of shark finning is already banned in U.S. waters, we do have a small population of fishermen who legally harvest whole sharks for their meat, oil, and other products,” said Senator Murkowski. “This legislation sets a strong policy example for global nations that wish to prevent shark finning in their waters, while respecting the cultures of communities that rely on subsistence, protecting the rights of American fisherman that operate in the legal shark fisheries, and supporting the efforts of shark conservationists. Together, we can find solutions to protect our fisheries, our communities, and our marine ecosystems, worldwide.”

“Fishing is a long-standing profession and treasured American pastime,” said Representative Webster. “We must pursue conservation, while balancing the needs of the industry and recreation. This bill recognizes the sacrifices American fishermen have made to rebuild and sustain our shark populations. It encourages other nations wishing to export shark products to the United States to adhere to the same high standards for conservation and management.”

Specifically the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act would:

  •  Create a shark conservation and trade fairness certification for nations wishing to import shark products to the U.S.;
  • Prohibit the importation of shark products originating from any nation without a certification, and the possession of such products in the U.S. with limited exceptions for law enforcement, subsistence harvest, education, conservation, or scientific research;
  • Update the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act to reflect the U.S. commitment to promote international agreements that encourage the adoption of shark conservation and management measures and measures to prevent shark finning that are consistent with the International Plan of Action for Conservation and Management of Sharks;
  • Direct the Secretary of Commerce to include rays and skates into the seafood traceability program to ensure that shark products are not smuggled into the U.S. falsely labeled as rays and skates, two closely related groups.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

North Pacific Fishery Management Council June Agenda

April 26, 2018 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:   

The Council will meet June 4-11, 2018 at the Best Western Convention Center in Kodiak, Alaska.  The Agenda and Schedule are available, as well as the list of documents for review. Public comments on all agenda items will be accepted until 12 noon (Alaska time) on Friday, June 1, 2018.

Other meeting information follows:

  • Submit and review comments at comments.npfmc.org
  • Public comment deadline is June 1, 2018 at 12 noon (AST)
  • Alaska Airlines discount code: ECMZ244

IFQ Outreach Meeting

The Council will hold a public outreach session concurrent with its June 2018 meeting in Kodiak, Alaska. The session will be Tuesday, June 5, from 5:00-6:30 pm in the Pavilion Room, and will provide an open forum for stakeholders to give insight on the present state of the halibut and sablefish IFQ Program and provide direction for future actions that might be considered by the Council and its IFQ Committee. The Council is particularly seeking input on issues related to entry level opportunities and rural participation in the fishery.

More Information is available here