Saving Seafood

‘Cautious optimism’ surrounds value of Alaska salmon fishing permits

October 30, 2017 — It’s steady as she goes for the values of Alaska salmon fishing permits, with upticks in the wind at several fishing regions.

“There’s a lot of cautious optimism,” said Jeff Osborn of Dock Street Brokers in Seattle.

As well there should be after a salmon fishery that produced 225 million fish valued at nearly $680 million, a 67 percent increase over 2016.

Bristol Bay drift salmon permits trade more than any other due to sheer volume (1,800), and it’s no surprise the value is increasing after one of the best fishing seasons ever. But they are not “rocketing up” in value, said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits at Homer.

“They’re over $140,000 right now, which is up from the start of the season when they were down around $130,000-$135,000,” Bowen said. “But they are inching up and it seems there’s as many people who want to get into the bay as there are who want to get out, and so the prices have kind of stabilized.”

Osborn at Dock Street agreed.

“They haven’t come up at Bristol Bay as much as I would’ve anticipated, but maybe that’s yet to come,” he said, referring to potentially strong 2018 salmon forecasts being released soon by state fishery managers.

Read the full story at the Alaska Dispatch News

Calculating the value of Alaska seafood

October 26, 2017 — Alaska has produced more than 169 billion pounds of fish since statehood was granted to the Last Frontier in 1959, and the Alaskan seafood industry brings in enough product annually to feed every person in the world a serving of Alaskan seafood.

These and other statistics relating to the seafood industry in the state can be found in “The Economic Value of Alaska’s Seafood Industry,” a joint report by The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) and the McDowell Group, a research and consulting firm, which details the impact of Alaska’s seafood economy. This is the second collaboration over the past two years between the groups.

The report is meant to provide statistics and figures on employment in the industry, labor income, seafood value, exports, and other related subjects. From fun facts (Alaska’s commercial fishing fleet is comprised of about 9,400 boats, which would measure 70 miles if they were lined up from bow to stern in a straight line) to precise tax numbers, the report is a gold mine of research about the Alaskan seafood industry.

The report reveals that in 2016, Alaska’s seafood harvest of 5.6 billion pounds had a total value of USD 1.7 billion (EUR 1.4 billion). Processors in Alaska produced 2.7 billion pounds of Alaska seafood products last year, valued at USD 4.2 billion (EUR 3.6 billion). The overall impact of Alaska’s seafood industry on the U.S. economy is USD 5.4 billion (EUR 4.6 billion) in direct output – that’s value that can be directly associated with fishing, processing, distribution, and retail. Such a figure doesn’t include USD 7.3 billion (EUR 6.2 billion) in additional multiplier effects generated as industry income circulates throughout the U.S. economy, the report said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source 

 

A closer look at the value of Alaska’s seafood industry

October 23, 2017 — Alaska’s fishing fleet of 9,400 vessels would span nearly 71 miles if lined up from bow to stern.

And Alaska’s fishing industry catches and processes enough seafood each year to feed every person on the planet one serving, or a serving for each American every day for more than a month.

Those are just a few of the fish facts highlighted in the annual “Economic Value of Alaska’s Seafood Industry” report compiled by the McDowell Group for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

The report breaks down the numbers of fishermen, processors, species caught, values and more by region.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

Arctic Refuge Drilling Closer as Senate Moves to Open Site

October 23, 2017 — WASHINGTON — Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one step closer to oil and gas drilling.

A budget measure approved by the Republican-controlled Senate late Thursday allows Congress to pursue legislation allowing oil and gas exploration in the remote refuge on a majority vote.

Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska said Congress can create jobs and enhance energy security by opening a small section of the 19.6 million-acre site to drilling.

“More energy production means more American jobs, more American economic growth, more American national security … and a more sustainable global environment, because no one in the world produces energy more responsibly than Americans, especially Alaskans,” Sullivan said.

But Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state said drilling was not worth the risks to a fragile ecosytem that serves as important habitat for polar bears, caribou and migratory birds.

 Read the full story by the Associated Press on US News

Senate Subcommittee to Continue Hearing Series on Magnuson-Stevens Act

October 20, 2017 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation:

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, will convene the hearing titled “Reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act: Fisheries Science,” at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 24, 2017. The hearing is the fourth of the series and will focus on the state of our nation’s fisheries and the science that supports sustainable management.

Witnesses:

  –  Mr. Karl Haflinger, Founder and President, Sea State, Inc
–  Dr. Ray Hilborn, Professor, University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
–  Dr. Michael Jones, Professor, Michigan State University Quantitative Fisheries Center
–  Dr. Larry McKinney, Director, Texas A&M University Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies

Hearing Details:

Tuesday, October 24, 2017
2:30 p.m.
Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard

This hearing will take place in Russell Senate Office Building, Room 253. Witness testimony, opening statements, and a live video of the hearing will be available on www.commerce.senate.gov.

Alaska: Electronic monitoring rolling out in 2018 after years of work

October 19, 2017 — JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska fishermen will see changes to the mandatory observer program next year.

After years of requests, testing and prepping, the National Marine Fisheries Service is rolling out a more-complete electronic monitoring program for small boat fishermen who are directed to have partial observer coverage as part of the 2018 observer program.

Electronic Monitoring uses cameras and sensors to record and monitor fishing activities, and help ensure the accuracy of catch records. Normally, that work is done by human observers who are placed on fishing vessels.

But when the North Pacific Fishery Management Council moved to put observers on smaller fishing vessels (those 60 feet or shorter) several years ago, to get a better sense of what was happening on those boats, captains said it could be problematic to take an extra person on their boats.

It was difficult to find them space to sleep, keep them safe and out of the way while actually catching fish and bringing them onboard, and hard (or burdensomely expensive) to ensure that there was enough life raft capacity and safety gear for an extra person. Instead, they asked for a camera system.

Developing such a system has taken several years, from the 2013 decision to restructure the observer program to see what was happening on smaller boats, to 2016, when 51 vessels participated in a pre-implementation program.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

NPFMC October Newsletter

October 18, 2017 — The following was published by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council 

Our digital newsletter is published!  For those of you who are interested, here’s a full print version of the articles for reference, and the three meeting outlook.  As always, you can access all other meeting information through the Agenda.

 

Could migrating squid help Alaska predict climate change?

October 17, 2017 — Juneau, Alaska — Chasing warmer waters, the market squid might be here to stay

Attracted to warming ocean temperatures, small, iridescent squid have been moving into Southeast Alaska waters. They could be a cipher to understanding how sea life reacts to climate change, said University of Alaska Southeast associate professor Dr. Michael Navarro at an Evening at Egan talk Friday at UAS.

Navarro, an assistant professor of marine fisheries, has been studying what are called market squid in partnership with researchers at Stanford University. With the help of undergraduate students, he opened his lab at UAS last month.

He’s trying to understand if market squid are setting up shop here or only visiting. The squid don’t historically range north of British Columbia. Alaska researchers, however, have encountered them in waters in the Gulf of Alaska and Southeast for more than a decade.

Read the full story at Juneau Empire

Survey shows GOA cod biomass down 71 percent

October 16, 2017 — CORDOVA, Alaska — Surveys and preliminary modeling for the 2018 Pacific cod stock assessment show that Pacific cod biomass is down substantially in the Gulf of Alaska, a NOAA Fisheries research biologist told the North Pacific Fishery Management Council during its fall meeting in Anchorage.

The data for the report by Steve Barbeaux of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle only became available several days before the council meeting and the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee expressed its appreciation of the rapid and extensive investigation that Barbeaux and others made, the SSC said.

The most salient survey result was a 71 percent reduction in the Gulf of Alaska bottom trawl survey Pacific cod biomass estimate from 2015 to 2017, a drop observed across the Gulf and particularly pronounced in the Central Gulf, Barbeaux told the SSC.

Barbeaux also presented additional data sets to the SSC that appeared to corroborate the trawl survey results, including a 53 percent drop in the National Martine Fisheries Service 2017 longline survey, and low estimates in recent years by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game large mesh trawl survey. Barbeaux said Pacific cod fishery data from 2017 indicated slower rates of catch accumulation and lower catch per unit effort over the season, at least in the central Gulf, compared to other recent years, and a change in depth distribution toward deeper waters.

Read the full story at The Cordova Times

Boom and Busted: Lessons from Alaska’s Mysterious Herring Collapse

In trying to untangle a herring crash from the aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, scientists in Prince William Sound are revealing just how resilient – and unpredictable – marine ecosystems can be.

October 13, 2017 — ON A COLD day in June, Scott Pegau leans toward the passenger window of a Cessna floatplane and peers out at the teal waters of Prince William Sound. The glacier-rimmed pocket of seawater on the southern coast of Alaska is protected from the open ocean by a string of rugged islands. It is both moody and alluring. Clouds dally on the snowy peaks and fray against the forested hillsides. The sea is flat and frigid, except for a single row of waves lapping at the rocky shore.

Pegau aims his gaze at the shallow waters behind the breakers. After a few minutes of searching, above a deep bay on one of the outer islands, he finally spots what he’s looking for: a school of juvenile herring. Pegau can distinguish them from other schooling species by the unique way they sparkle – an effect produced by sunlight playing off their silver flanks as the fish bank and roll. Try as I might, I can’t make out any twinkling, just the inky splotch of a few tons of small fish swarming below the surface.

“Small H1,” Pegau says into the headset microphone, tucked snugly under his thick, gray mustache. That’s code for a small school of one-year-old herring. He enters the location on his computer; huddled in the back seat, I make a tick mark on the backup tally. It’s the first of dozens of schools we’ll see on our flight.

Pegau conducts these surveys every year in hopes of understanding what’s in store for the herring population in Prince William Sound. The fish mature and begin to join the spawning stock at the age of three, so the counts give scientists and managers a clue about how many adults may be coming up the pipeline. Researchers and fishers alike always hope the answer will be many. But every year for the past quarter century, they have been disappointed.

The herring population in Prince William Sound crashed in 1993, just four years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill released 11 million gallons of crude into these waters. The collapse put an end to an $8-million-dollar-a-year fishery, and left a hole in the middle of the marine food web. Scientists have spent years trying to understand if and how the spill played a role in the herring’s demise here, and the results have been hotly contested. All of the legal proceedings finally closed in 2015, with herring listed as an impacted species but with most herring fishers feeling poorly compensated.

Even more concerning is the fact that, unlike most species hit by the spill, the herring haven’t bounced back over the decades since. Populations of forage fish are known to boom and bust, so most scientists thought it was only a matter of time before they rebounded. But 25 years later, there’s still no sign of recovery on the horizon.

“There’s definitely a possibility that the ecosystem went through a tipping point,” says Pegau, who coordinates the herring program at the Prince William Sound Science Center, an independent research institute whose work is funded in part by money from the spill settlement. A host of factors, which scientists are still trying to untangle, could be to blame, from hungry whales to virulent disease. “There’s no one thing that’s keeping them down,” Pegau says. “I think pretty much everyone is convinced of that.”

Read the full story at News Deeply