Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Aleut community pivots from fishing to research, education as climate change threatens its economy

February 3, 2025 — As warming waters threaten traditional fishing economies in the Bering Sea, the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) is building a new future focused on research and higher education.

Plummeting populations of snow crab and halibut in the Bering Sea have cost ACSPI roughly $2.7 million a year in lost harvest revenue, according to the tribe’s president, John Melovidov. The federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say the losses will worsen, with a 2024 report projecting the conditions supporting snow crab are 200 times more likely to disappear compared to the pre-industrial era.

“Fishing isn’t always what it used to be,” Melovidov told Tribal Business News. “Outlooks aren’t so great, but we can’t sit here and hope that things come back. We have to do something different.”

The community has begun diversifying its fishing-based economy through partnerships. In July 2024, ACSPI signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Iḷisaġvik College, an Iñupiaq tribal college on Alaska’s North Slope, to establish a satellite campus and research station on the island. The agreement builds on a partnership that began with workforce training in 2018 and expanded to MOAs in 2022 and 2023 that focused on educational opportunities and dual-credit programs for high school students.

Read the full article at Tribalism Business News

ALASKA: Policy shifts, genetic insights shape the king crab fishery

February 3, 2025 — The future of Alaska’s red king crab fishery is at a turning point.

Proposed changes to the fishery’s management in Southeast Alaska could provide more opportunities for commercial fishermen, while new genetic research shows the species’ resilience. Together, these developments may help shape the sustainability of this valuable fishery.

Proposed Changes to Southeast Alaska’s Red King Crab Fishery

The commercial red king crab fishery in Southeast Alaska has struggled over the last decade, with only one opening in the past ten years. Currently, state regulations only allow for a fishery when the regional stock exceeds 200,000 pounds, a threshold originally set based on processor requirements when red king crab sold for much lower prices. However, that threshold is being reconsidered with individual crabs now fetching over $100 each.

According to KTOO, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has proposed lowering the stock requirement to allow smaller commercial openings, even when the 200,000-pound mark isn’t met. Adam Messmer, regional shellfish biologist for ADF&G, explained, “The 200,000-pound threshold… isn’t a biological threshold. It was created by the processors many years ago, saying that they couldn’t make money on anything less than 200,000 pounds. That was back when red crab was three or four dollars a pound. And times have changed…”

If approved by the Alaska Board of Fisheries, this change could provide more flexibility for commercial fishermen, creating opportunities for harvests during years when stocks are lower but still commercially viable.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Legislative seafood industry task force finalizes report to forward to fellow lawmakers

January 30, 2025 — A joint legislative task force centered on bolstering Alaska’s seafood industry has forwarded its in-depth report after voting to make its amended version official on Wednesday.

State lawmakers, who shared a draft version of the report earlier this month, are making multiple recommendations to try and alleviate what they called a crisis in our state, citing some 18 different fisheries disasters within the last decade or so.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report released this past fall showed the seafood industry suffered a $1.8 billion loss from 2022 to 2023 alone, with about $191 million in state and local tax revenues for Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California combined.

“This gives the public a very pointed direction of what we’re looking at,” said Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, of the task force report. “Now is the time that we have to roll up our sleeves, and develop good policy, and make sure that we are not creating loopholes and missing some things along the way.”

Read the full article at Alaska News Source

ALASKA: Bering Sea snow crab season kicks off for first time in three years

January 29, 2025 — Earlier this month, commercial snow crabs started hitting Unalaska’s docks again, for the first time in nearly three years.

The Bering Sea snow crab fishery reopened in mid-October, after billions of the crab disappeared and the fishery was shut down in October 2022. This season’s first catch was delivered on Jan. 15. Opilio, or snow crab, is generally fished in the new year and into the early spring. The season runs through May.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Area Management Biologist Ethan Nichols said nine vessels are actively participating in the Bering Sea commercial fishery.

“The fleet is just getting started, for the most part,” Nichols said. “Fishing so far — the reports from the grounds — there seems to be good numbers of nice, new shell, large snow crab on the far northern portions of the grounds.”

Nichols said right now the number of keepers per pot, also known as CPUE or catch per unit effort, is somewhat low coming in at 134, but that will increase as the season progresses.

“That’s only coming from a handful of our first deliveries, and that includes some prospecting by vessels early on in the season,” he said. “So far, the highest CPUEs are being seen on the northern portion of the grounds. And as vessels get more dialed in on those hot spots or those productive areas of fishing, they’ll be coming with full loads of crab that are more reflective of the hot spots on the grounds.”

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Red king crab proposals could change future of Southeast Alaska’s commercial fishery

January 28, 2025 — In the last decade, there was just one commercial red king crab fishery in Southeast Alaska. But a proposal going before the Alaska Board of Fisheries could potentially change the tide for future openings.

The proposal, submitted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, could allow a smaller commercial fishery to open when stock levels are lower than required.

“It would create opportunity where there hasn’t been many opportunities in the past,” said Adam Messmer, regional shellfish biologist for Fish and Game.

Read the full article at KFSK

ALASKA: Alaska’s “A” pollock season labeled make-or-break for fishing communities

January 27, 2025 — Alaska’s “A” pollock season kicked off on 20 January, and the Alaska Pollock Fishery Alliance (APFA) is calling it a high stakes season for the economy of the communities it supports.

Alaska’s pollock fishery is one of the largest in the world, and last year it caught 99.9 percent of its 1,263,580 metric ton (MT) quota. In 2025, Alaska’s federal fisheries in the Bering Sea will be able to access 1.375 million MT, a 6 percent hike over 2024, and fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska will be allowed to target 171,000 MT.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Invasive freshwater fish able to swim through Alaska’s Cook Inlet, study proves

January 27, 2025 — In the fall of 2018, officials with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and their partners celebrated what they thought was a milestone: an end to the infestation of invasive northern pike in the Kenai Peninsula.

Their laborious program – they thought – had ridden the peninsula of the salmon-gobbling species that has wreaked havoc on the natural runs that are important to commercial and sport fishers, as well as to the overall ecological system.

“We were all excited, you know. We spent, like, 15 years eradicating them off the peninsula. it was like this big, monumental moment,” said Kristine Dunker, a biologist who coordinates the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s program addressing invasive northern pike.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

Federal fisheries study finds new climate-resilient genetic diversity in crab stocks

January 21, 2025 — Results of new genetic research on Alaska red king crab stocks – included in the depressed Gulf of Alaska fishery – suggest the species has previously undetermined genetic diversity, making these crab more resilient to climate change.

Researchers at the NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center collaborated with Cornell University, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on the study involving whole genome sequencing data on red king crab across Alaska.

The benefit of genome sequencing over previous methods is that it’s akin to reading the full story of an organism’s makeup rather than just a chapter or two, said the study report released on Jan. 2.

Red king crab inhabit diverse environments, from coastal bays in the north to open sea shelves in the Bering Sea, as well as small bays and fjords fed by glacial melt in the Gulf of Alaska and Southeast Alaska. This environment generally includes the Gulf of Alaska, Southeast Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, the Eastern Bering Sea, Norton Sound and the Chukchi Sea. Scientists previously hypothesized that king crab in these regions are divided into three genetic groups: Gulf of Alaska/East Bering Sea, Southeast Alaska, and Aleutian Islands/Norton Sound.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

USDA to purchase USD 50 million worth of Alaska pollock

January 21, 2025 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to purchase USD 50 million (EUR 48 million) worth of Alaska pollock in 2025 in support of the federal government’s food bank and nutrition programs.

“We all appreciate the quick response by USDA to address the needs of the seafood industry and, at the same time, food-insecure Americans by committing to purchase what may be more than 15 million pounds of wild Alaska pollock products,” Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) Global Food Aid Director Bruce Schactler said in a statement. “These nutritious seafood products, which may include fillet portions, fish sticks, and nuggets, will strengthen the nutrition profile of USDA offerings as recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans while at the same time helping to address the extreme market challenges that are so present and causing so much disruption across the entire Alaska seafood industry.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource