Saving Seafood

ALASKA: As salmon defenders gather, more signs of a 2018 fish fight

June 8, 2017 — There are more signs that the hook has been set for Alaska’s biggest fisheries fight in a decade.

As members of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the International Pacific Halibut Commission gather in Juneau this week, salmon-supporting groups have been holding meetings about a double-barreled proposal to significantly strengthen legal protections for rivers that contain salmon.

That proposal has major implications for the state’s construction and mining industries.

Speaking Wednesday in downtown Juneau, Emily Anderson of the Wild Salmon Center said the proposal — now in the Legislature and simultaneously being considered for a 2018 ballot measure — is intended to fix a law created at statehood.

“It’s a very old law. It’s actually a holdover from the territorial government. It was changed just a little bit, but it’s very, very simple,” she said.

The law is Alaska Statute 16.05.871, which says in clause (d) that the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game should approve a project that disrupts a salmon stream “unless the commissioner finds the plans and specifications insufficient for the proper protection of fish and game.”

“The only standard there is the proper protection of fish and game. So what does that mean?” Anderson asked. “There’s nothing in statute, there’s nothing in regulation that actually defines what the proper protection of fish and game is. That’s a problem.”

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

Alaska Peninsula fisheries could harvest more than 20 million salmon if averages stay true

June 8, 2017 — The Alaskan Peninsula extends from the mainland toward the southwest between the waters of Bristol Bay and Kodiak. There are several commercial fisheries included along its shores and in the archipelagos to the west. If the averages of the past five years stay consistent, these districts could collectively harvest more than 20.6 million salmon this 2017 season.

The South Alaska Peninsula district is expected to carry the lion’s share of this catch. While there is no formal forecast for sockeye, area biologists predict a South Pen pink run ranging up to 15.6 million fish, with a pink harvest projected at 12.4 million.

“It’s a decent year,” said area management biologist Lisa Fox—the outlook being far better than last year’s pink harvest, which was part of a statewide bust. However, pink runs during odd years are generally measured against other odd years. “It’s not going to be as strong as that 2015 year,” said Fox.

ADF&G is projecting a South Pen sockeye harvest of 2.26 million, which is based on the recent five year average. There are three sockeye systems with escapement goals in the South Pen: biologists hope to see 15,000 to 20,000 sockeye in Orzinski Lake, 14,000 to 28,000 in Thin Point, and 3,200 to 6,400 in Mortensen Lagoon.

The Chignik sockeye fishery is on the south side of the Peninsula, just west of Kodiak. Chignik’s sockeye forecast is down from last year, but close to the district’s ten year average. Biologists in the region are forecasting a total run of more than 2 million fish, with an expected commercial harvest of 1.2 million.

Read the full story at KDLG

Success of Alaska Pollock Fishery is focus of SeaWeb Seafood Summit Panel

SEATTLE (Saving Seafood) — June 7, 2017 — The success of the industrial pollock fishery in the Eastern Bering Sea, which generally harvests in excess of one million metric tons each year, was the focus of a panel at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit on Tuesday. The panel, “Moving Beyond Fishery Certification: Using Collaboration, Technology and Innovation to Further Improve Sustainability” was moderated by Tim Fitzgerald of the Environmental Defense Fund. Panelists were Allen Kimball of Trident Seafoods, Richard Draves of American Seafoods, and Karl Bratvold of Starbound LLC. Trident Seafoods is a large, vertically integrated company, which processes Alaska pollock at shoreside facilities. Vessels owned by Starbound and American Seafoods harvest and process Alaska pollock at sea.

Panelists discussed the development of the Alaska pollock fishery: from before extended jurisdiction through the period of transition to a fully domestic fishery, to the years before rationalization when catcher-processors and catcher vessels competed in an Olympic-style race for fish, to the advent of an effective and efficient enterprise with the establishment of catch shares under the American Fisheries Act (AFA). Under the AFA, quota share is permanently allocated between the at sea and shoreside processing sectors, and among cooperatives (groups of fishing companies) within each sector. AFA provisions encourage cooperation and collaboration within and between sectors and cooperatives, which has brought about many improvements.

Examples of successful collaboration and cooperation include avoidance of salmon bycatch, which is facilitated by comprehensive observer coverage, daily electronic communication of catch and bycatch information that is shared across the fishery, and binding agreements that require vessels to relocate to avoid bycatch or suffer substantive financial penalties. Similarly, collaboration on development of selective gear, development of gear with reduced drag, and other shared innovations have been effective in reducing bycatch and greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing operating efficiency. All of the panelists highlighted their commitment to science-based management, their support for federal government science, and the extent to which they collectively fund scientific research. They also spoke about the importance and value associated with Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.

Additionally, the panelists emphasized the extent to which rationalization through catch shares has improved the harvesting and processing processes, as well as increased safety and operational efficiency.

This session told the story of Alaska pollock and illustrated the benefits of a well crafted and well implemented catch share program, as well as MSC certification. Other fisheries can learn from this experience, but it’s important to note that this is not a “one size fits all” solution that is immediately applicable in all types and scales of fisheries.

Data crunchers work to build comprehensive Alaska salmon database

June 2, 2017 — Scientists are gathering temperature data to determine what warming waters mean for salmon.

There’s still a lot scientists don’t know and it’s become a hot topic.

One of the first studies in Alaska was published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences this month, as  part of a larger effort to design a statewide database on all things salmon.

The five-year study collected stream and temperature readings in 48 non-glacial streams every 15 minutes to capture high and low temperatures every hour.

Cook Inlet Keeper science director Sue Mauger led the effort and has been working for over a decade monitoring temperatures in salmon streams on the Kenai Peninsula.

Her results provide a baseline for salmon habitat in the Cook Inlet Basin.

“This kind of information that’s on a large regional scale but is site specific gives us that real important tool to decide where should we do one type of protection or conservation activity versus another kind of development  project,” she said.

Mauger studied multiple streams in a single watershed, streams fed by wetlands, lakes and at high and low elevations.

All of these factors play into how susceptible each stream is to climate change, which she said is a concern.

Read the full story at KTOO

Trump budget delivers body blows to Alaska fisheries

May 27, 2017 — The 2018 budget unveiled May 23 by the Trump administration is bad news for anything that swims in or near U.S. waters.

The Trump budget will cut $1.5 billion from the U.S. Commerce Department, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration taking the hardest hit.

The NOAA budget for its National Marine Fisheries Service operations, research and facilities would be slashed by about $43 million, eliminating NOAA’s coastal research efforts as well as its Sea Grant program.

The Trump dump also includes pulling the budget from NOAA’s Coastal Zone Management Program and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, which targets recovery of West Coast and Alaska salmon runs.

Funding for management and enforcement of U.S. catch share programs, such as halibut, sablefish and Bering Sea crab, would be cut by $5 million.

Budgets for Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency Grants, Interjurisdictional Fisheries Grants, the Chesapeake Bay project, the Great Lakes Restoration Project and the National Estuary Program also would be eliminated.

Another $193 billion would be cut from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over 10 years. SNAP is a program used by more than 42 million needy Americans to supplement food purchases and often includes government-purchased seafood.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told McClatchy News that the Trump administration “looked at the budget process through the eyes of the people who were actually paying the bills.”

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

Alaska city residents worry about herring population decline

May 25, 2017 — The value of commercial landings in Alaska was unchanged from 2014 to 2015, according to a federal report, but some popular fisheries such as herring were down.

The Peninsula Clarion says the report released this month by the National Marine Fisheries Service shows the value of all commercially fished species in the North Pacific was $1.7 billion in 2015, virtually unchanged from the previous year.

The salmon market remains troubled because of an ongoing embargo on selling to Russia and was down 24 percent from 2014.

The value of the herring fishery was down 39 percent and also hurt by the Russia embargo. The Clarion reports a cut in the Sitka Sound herring sac roe fishery by about half affected total landing values.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KTVA

RFM Certification Underway for Five Alaska Crab Fisheries, ASMI Calls for Stakeholders Input

May 23, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — It’s been five years since the Bering Sea king and snow crab fisheries were certified as responsibly managed against the FAO-based standards under the Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) Certification Program.

Today, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute announced that stakeholders who want to review the draft re-assessment reports for Bristol Bay Red King crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus), St. Matthew Island Blue King crab (Paralithodes platypus) and Eastern Bering Sea Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) and new assessments for Eastern Bering Sea Tanner Crab (Chionoecetes bairdi), Aleutian Islands Golden King Crab (Lithodes aequispinus) can register their interest to:

Jean Ragg Alaska RFM Scheme Administrator,
Global Trust Certification Ltd.
Quayside Business Park,
Mill Street, Dundalk,
County Louth,
Ireland
T: +353 (0) 42 9320912
F: +353 (0) 42 9386864
E: jean.ragg@saiglobal.com

Stakeholders should register their interest with name, organization and e-mail contact details to Global Trust Certification at the above address, preferably by e-mail.

“Once available, the Draft Assessment Reports will then be sent directly to the registered stakeholders’ e-mail address,” said a spokesperson for the Certification Body (CB) Global Trust Certification.  The reports will also be available via http://www.gtcert.com/ alaskarfm/.

The assessments will be using the latest version of the standard. The new version 1.3 (V1.3) was adopted by the ASMI board of directors in November 2015 for use in all new fisheries that wish to be certified and for fisheries seeking re-certification to the Alaska RFM program from January 1, 2016.

A separate web-announcement will be made notifying stakeholders of the commencement of the 30-day Stakeholder Comment Period for the above mentioned Alaska crab fisheries Draft Assessment Reports.

For information on the history of crab certifications under the Alaska standard click here.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

ALASKA: When sailboats ruled Bristol Bay

May 21, 2017 — One hundred and thirty-two years ago, the Bristol Bay commercial fishery began on the shores of the Nushagak River when the first cannery went into operation and canned a little more than 4,000 salmon.

Within four years, three more canneries appeared on the Nushagak, and within a decade canneries were built on the Naknek and Kvichak rivers. The dawn of the 20th century saw dozens of canneries around Bristol Bay catching, processing and canning millions of pounds of sockeye salmon every summer. By 1910, Bristol Bay accounted for 40 percent of Alaska’s commercially caught salmon. Even today, Bristol Bay makes up about 40 percent of Alaska’s salmon value.

Canneries are large industrial operations. In the early days, coal and steam provided the power to run complex systems of boilers, belt-driven pulleys and winches needed to butcher, cook, can and deliver salmon to the world. But when it came to actually catching fish in Bristol Bay, canneries relied upon the muscle of men and the power of wind.

To catch fish in Bristol Bay, canners imported and adapted a wooden sailboat developed for use on the Columbia River — a boat propelled by wind and crewed by two fishermen who pulled heavy cedar-corked linen nets by hand. The sailboat, roughly 30 feet long, was commonly known as a Bristol Bay “double-ender” because the shape of its bow and stern were similar.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

FISH FACTOR: Seafood values stable, new crab surveys and a fish promotion

May 17, 2017 — The U.S. seafood industry’s contribution to the nation’s economy sank a bit, while Alaska’s output increased slightly and dollar values held steady.

An eagerly anticipated annual report released May 9 by NOAA Fisheries measures the economic impacts of U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries.

It highlights values, jobs, and sales for 2015, along with a 10-year snapshot of comparisons. A second report provides the status of U.S. fish stocks for 2016.

The Fisheries Economics Report shows that including imports, U.S. commercial fishing and the seafood industry generated $144 billion in sales in 2015, a six percent decline from the previous year, and supported 1.2 million jobs, a 15 percent decline.

“However, it’s important to consider these figures are still above the five-year average. In fact, 2015 represents the second-highest level during that period,” Alan Risenhoover, Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs said at a May 9 press teleconference.

For Alaska, commercial fishermen landed more than 6 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2015, a 6 percent increase from 2014, while the value of the catch held steady at $1.7 billion.

Fishing and processing in Alaska generated $4.4 billion in sales in 2015 and 53,400 jobs, of which 38,000 were fishermen.

Other highlights:

Pollock accounted for 54 percent of the total Alaska harvest volume.

Alaska crab values totaled $284 million, the highest level since 1999. Halibut received the highest dock price at $4.85 per pound in 2015; herring fetched the lowest price, averaging just one penny a pound.

Alaska pollock ($509 million), salmon ($413 million), and crab ($284 million) dominated landings revenue.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Anticipated fish report shows Alaska volume up, prices flat

May 13, 2017 — The U.S. seafood industry’s contribution to the nation’s economy slipped in 2015, while Alaska’s output increased slightly and dollar values held steady.

An eagerly anticipated annual report released by the fisheries branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) measures the economic impacts of U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries. It highlights values, jobs, and sales for 2015, along with a 10-year look at comparisons. A second report evaluates the status of U.S. fish stocks for 2016.

The Fisheries Economics Report shows that, including imports, U.S. commercial fishing and the seafood industry generated $144 billion in sales in 2015, a 6 percent decline from the previous year, and supported 1.2 million jobs, a 15 percent decline.

“However, it’s important to consider these figures are still above the five-year average. In fact, 2015 represents the second highest level during that period,” Alan Risenhoover, acting deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs, said in a May 9 teleconference.

Alaska commercial fishermen landed more than 6 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2015, up 6 percent from the prior year — even though the value held steady at nearly $1.7 billion.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News