Saving Seafood

U.S. fisheries’ leader Oliver asserts ‘business-minded’ stance at Boston 2018

March 13, 2018 — BOSTON — The US’ top regulatory authority on fishing used his first appearance ever at a Seafood Expo North America (SENA) conference on Sunday to describe how he was reshaping the mission at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create more of a pro-business environment.

Commercial fishermen largely applauded the Donald Trump administration’s selection of Chris Oliver to serve as NOAA’s assistant administrator of fisheries in June 2017. But Oliver, who was confirmed in his new role in July, has maintained a relatively low profile since, his office not responding to requests for interviews.

In November, he told Alaska fishermen at a public meeting that he supported regulatory flexibility. The month before he had demanded the retraction of an article suggesting US seafood exported to Japan includes a high number of illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fish.

On Sunday, in Boston, he made it clear that he was using his leadership role to both follow the administration’s charge to combat excessive regulation and also looking out for harvesters.

“I’m a firm believer in a science-based approach to fisheries,” Oliver said. “… For 40 years, the North Pacific [Management] Council has been using annual catch limits, and I firmly believe those are the cornerstone to sustainable management. But I also believe that there is room for flexibility and a greater role for common sense frankly in our approach to fisheries management. And I want to bring a more business-minded approach to that process.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Alaska: Gov. Bill Walker calls for federal disaster declaration for Pacific cod fishery

March 13, 2018 — Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott signed a letter last week asking the federal government to declare the 2018 Pacific cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska a disaster.

That could make the fishery eligible for federal relief funds, although who specifically would receive money would be figured out later.

It follows a decline in stock and a deep cut to the 2018 Pacific cod quota in the gulf.

According to the letter, the value of the 2018 Pacific cod harvest is looking at a more than 80 percent drop in revenue from the five-year average. Barbara Blake, senior adviser to Walker and Mallott, said crossing that 80 percent threshold makes the fishery eligible for a disaster declaration.

Blake said the letter will go to the secretary of commerce for a decision.

“How we’ve seen this come about in the past is that request goes in along with other natural disasters, and that’s how we end up getting the appropriations for that, is they roll it into natural disasters like hurricane relief and things of that nature,” Blake said.

Read the full story at KTOO 

 

Southeast Alaska Longliners Become Bathymetric Cartographers to Avoid Bycatch

March 12, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A desire by Southeast Alaska longliners to avoid rockfish bycatch in 2009 evolved into a high-tech effort to collect bathymetric data for use in detailed seafloor maps. The maps would ultimately help fishermen avoid bycatch and sensitive habitats like coral and sponge areas. Next week, these detailed and data-rich maps will be available to the fishermen who helped make them.

For the last decade, members of the Fisheries Conservation Network (FCN) used scanning software to map the halibut and sablefish grounds. At the end of each fishing season, FCN members shared the data with ALFA, where it was combined into one database, then used to create the enhanced maps and sent back to the fishermen to continue adding data to.

ALFA Executive Director Linda Behnken, in an interview with KCAW radio in Sitka, said the result is one of the most complex bathymetric databases on the eastern side of the Gulf of Alaska.

“One hundred and forty million data points have been contributed,” she said. “It’s been a lot of years getting to this point. We’re really excited about the level of detail we have now and the quality of the maps.”

Read the full story with a subscription at Seafood News

 

ALASKA: Petersburg assembly joins call for increased sea otter harvest

March 12, 2018 — Petersburg’s borough assembly this month joined the call for measures to slow a growing population of sea otters in Southeast, as the marine mammals are impacting shellfish stocks.

The assembly passed a resolution at its March 5th meeting calling for the federal government to work with the State of Alaska and Alaska Native tribes to establish strategies for an ecological balance of shellfish resources and the reintroduced sea otters.

The municipal government sought input on the problem and received letters from commercial fishing organizations like the Petersburg Vessels Owners Association, United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters and the Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fisheries Association. Those letters call for measures to increase the harvest of otters and allowances for expanded use of their pelts by coastal Alaska Natives. Sea otters are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and only coastal Alaska Natives are allowed to hunt them and sell products made from otter pelts.

Petersburg assembly member Eric Castro was convinced to pass the resolution in support of changes to otter management. “All the letters written to this point have been very compelling by all the individuals and groups and I sincerely hope that our federal officials take note on our comments,” Castro said.

Read the full story at KFSK

 

NOAA rule sets dates for 2018 halibut season

March 12, 2018 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published an interim rule for the 2018 halibut season Friday that sets the season opening and closing dates to March 24 and Nov. 7. The rule also put quotas from 2017 in place, but that is likely to change.

The International Pacific Halibut Commission, which regulates halibut in U.S. and Canadian waters, typically sets both season dates and quotas.

But after surveys indicated halibut stocks were on the decline, U.S. and Canadian commissioners could not agree on cuts to the total allowable catch at the IPHC’s annual meeting in January.

When the commission cannot come to an agreement, quotas from the previous year are to be reinstated, but both sides did agree 2017’s numbers were too high.

Read the full story at KBBI

 

North Pacific Research Board Seeks Nominations for Fishing Industry Seat

March 8, 2018 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The North Pacific Research Board is accepting nominations and self-nominations for the FISHING INDUSTRY SEAT on the BOARD until Friday, April 6, 2018. For more information, please visit this link:

BOARD Fishing Industry Seat Nominations

Our mailing address is:

North Pacific Fishery Management Council

605 W 4th Ste 306

Anchorage, AK  99501

NPFMC: Council meets April 2-10, 2018 in Anchorage, Alaska

March 7, 2018 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The meetings are held at the Hilton Hotel, 500 W. 3rd Avenue, in Anchorage, Alaska. The Agenda and Schedule are available, as well as a list of documents for review posted to the agenda prior to the meeting. Other meeting information follows:

  • Submit and review comments at comments.npfmc.org
  • Public comment deadline is March 30, 2018 at 12 noon (AST)
  • Hilton Hotel offers discounted room rates HERE
  • Alaska Airlines offers Discount Code: ECMZ242
  • Hotel wifi / password:  Hilton_Conference / summertime
  • Listen Online while the Council is in session

Salmon FMP:

The Council will review comments received from stakeholders and will determine the scope of work for a Salmon Committee. A staff report will provide context about how stakeholder recommendations comport with the Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements for fishery management plans, and whether the FMP applies to state waters and the sport fishery in the EEZ. Although the Council has already received submissions for membership (which are being held on file), the Salmon Committee will not be appointed until the Council has formally issued a call for nominations, as is scheduled to occur at this meeting.

Halibut ABM:

The discussion paper on BSAI halibut abundance-based management is being prepared to help the Council refine alternatives with respect to elements of the control rule. The paper will provide: an overview of the current Council motion and suite of alternatives (the control rules aspects), a suggested restructuring of the Council’s suite of alternatives with details on their complexity, and an evaluation of these to help the Council narrow the control rule options to a more reasonable range of control rule types, stepping through each individually (as was done with indices) and then providing the Work Group’s rationale for what might be reasonable for analysis. The draft alternatives brought forward are focusing largely on linear control rules and their application in 2-3D look up table for purposes of setting a PSC limit that may be influenced by information from the trawl survey and/or the IPHC setline survey. Draft alternatives also will also explore setting PSC limits by gear type separately to one or both indices and consider formulations which address halibut stock status.

Learn more about the NPFMC here.

 

Rhode Islanders march against offshore drilling

March 5, 2018 — PROVIDENCE, R.I. — More than a hundred Rhode Island residents gathered at the State House Wednesday to protest the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management proposal to lift the long-standing ban on offshore fossil fuel drilling in large swaths of US coastal waters.

The protest, organized by Save the Bay, an independent, nonprofit organization devoted to protecting and improving Narragansett Bay, was preceded by a press conference wherein several state officials spoke out against BOEM’s proposal.

Concerned RI residents packed into the State Room as Governor Gina Raimondo, Senator Dawn Euer, Mayor Scott Avedesian of Warwick and others railed against the expansion of offshore drilling in RI and elsewhere.  The proposal came after President Donald Trump’s latest executive order to reverse existing policy that protects waters from oil and gas drilling.

According to BOEM, the proposal, “The Five Year Program, is an “important component” of the President’s executive order to allow domestic oil and natural gas production “as a means to support economic growth and job creation and enhance energy security.”

“While offshore oil and gas exploration and development will never be totally risk-free, since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill, the U.S. Department of the Interior has made, and is continuing to make, substantial reforms to improve the safety and reduce the environmental impacts of OCS oil and gas activity,” reads the proposal.

However at Thursday’s press conference, Raimondo said the proposal is a “terrifying” move in the wrong direction, citing “tragedies like Exxon Valdez and the BP oil spill.”

“We should be focusing on harnessing our offshore wind power – not digging for oil off our coast. The proposal that came out of Washington in January to open up our coastal waters to offshore drilling is terrifying,” Raimondo said, to thunderous applause.  “Rhode Island won’t stand for it.”

Reaching the coastlines of all five Gulf Coasts, the long-term impacts of the Deepwater spill are still felt today, taking a devastating impacts on birds, mammals, fish, and other creatures.

Read the full story at the Narragansett Times

 

ALASKA: Oil spill cleanup under way north of Kodiak

March 1, 2018 — A unified command has been established and efforts for clean-up operations are under way at the site of an oil spill north of Kodiak that supports northern sea otters and Steller sea lions, both of which are listed under the Endangered Species act.

Eagles, waterfowl and seabirds are likely present and Pacific halibut, Pacific cod, walleye Pollock and Pacific herring also are resent in surrounding waters, DEC officials said.

The spill reportedly happened on Feb. 26 after an abandoned building collapsed at Port William on the southern end of Shuyak Island, some 50 miles north northwest of the city of Kodiak. Estimated were that the entire contents of the bladder were released, with up to 3,000 gallons of bunker fuel spilled. The owner of the building had not been identified.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

 

Alaska: Unalaska Holds Firm, Demanding Congress Restrict Fishermen’s Finest Trawler

March 1, 2018 — The Unalaska City Council is standing by its request that Congress place restrictions on a troubled factory trawler commissioned by Fishermen’s Finest.

The company urged councilors earlier this month to rescind a letter they sent to Alaska’s Congressional delegation.

But councilors stood firm on Tuesday, arguing that sideboards must be imposed on the catcher-processor America’s Finest.

Without restrictions, Vice Mayor Dennis Robinson said the vessel could stay offshore and swipe profitable cod deliveries that should go to Unalaska’s shoreside processing plants.

“The shore sector is the lifeblood of this community,” said Robinson. “Without them, we wouldn’t be building a library. We wouldn’t be doing the stuff that we’re able to do.”

The rest of the council agreed after an hour of testimony dominated by representatives from shoreside fish processors.

UniSea President Tom Enlow said he’s sympathetic to the situation in Anacortes, Washington, where America’s Finest sits unfinished in a shipyard. The vessel can’t get in the water until Congress waives a construction mistake that broke federal law.

Read the full story at KUCB