Saving Seafood

The ‘humpback comeback’ is ‘great news’ for the species

September 8, 2016 — Federal authorities are taking many humpback whales off the endangered species list.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said that nine of the 14 distinct populations of humpbacks have recovered enough in the last 40 years to warrant being removed from the endangered list.

The agency says four distinct populations remain listed as endangered and one as threatened.

The National Marine Fisheries Service last year proposed removing most of the world’s humpback whales from the endangered species list. It said populations of the animals have steadily grown since the international community banned commercial whaling nearly 50 years ago.

Michael Harris of the Pacific Whale Watch Association says members couldn’t be more excited.

“This is great news,” he told KIRO Radio. “These are the poster child of species recovery.”

Read the full story at My Northwest

Seattle company debuts high-tech, sustainable fishing vessel

September 7, 2016 — SEATTLE — A new commercial fishing vessel, built in Washington, is charting new territory for sustainability and crew safety.

The F/V Blue North is a 191 foot freezer longliner owned by Seattle based Blue North Fisheries. The vessel was designed in Norway and built by Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes.

“I’m kind of pinching myself – we are finally here – we’ve got it,” said Patrick Burns who is the co-founder of Blue North. “It’s a state of the art vessel.”

The $36 million fishing boat has been under construction for several years. It was delivered last week and has been receiving some final touches at Seattle’s Pier 91 as it prepares to make fishing history in Alaska’s Bering Sea.

“This vessel is a game changer – it’s the greenest, most sustainable and highest tech commercial fishing vessel that’s ever been built in the United State and possibly the world,” said Kenny Down, President and CEO of Blue North Fisheries.

There is no other vessel like it in the Alaska hook and line cod fishery.

Read the full story at KOMO

ALASKA: Crashing Bering Sea crab numbers have fishermen on edge

September 6, 2016 — Bering Sea crabbers were stunned last week when outlooks for the upcoming fall and winter fisheries were revealed.

Results of the annual summer surveys by state and federal scientists showed numbers of mature male and females dropped sharply across the board for the big three:  opilio (snow crab), their larger cousins, bairdi Tanners, and red king crab.

“I don’t think anybody was expecting the numbers to be as low as they ended up. That was a shock,” said Ruth Christiansen, science adviser and policy analyst for the trade group Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

Managers use different criteria for setting quotas for the three crab species. For snow crab, the state chooses from what it believe is the most reliable of three data sets. Christiansen said she expects that fishery to be a go, albeit with a smaller catch quota.

“I’m not worried about that one not opening. But given the information we have and the state’s tendency to always be cautious, the catch will be lower than the 40.6 million pounds from last year,” Christiansen said.

Read the full story at the Alaska Dispatch News

NPFMC October 2016 Agenda

September 2, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

The Council meets the week of October 3, 2016 at the Hilton Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska.

The AGENDA and SCHEDULE are now available. Alaska Airlines offers Travel Discounts to the meetings. Documents will be posted through the links on the Agenda. The deadline for public comments is 5:00 PM (AST) Tuesday, September 27, 2016.

Submit comments to npfmc.comments@noaa.gov

ALASKA: State Rep. Stutes moves for disaster declaration for pink salmon

September 1, 2016 — Wheels are already in motion to provide two measures of relief for Alaska’s pink salmon industry, which is reeling from the lowest harvest since the late 1970s.

Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, began the process last week to have the Walker Administration declare the pink salmon season a disaster, which would allow access to federal relief funds.

Pinks are Alaska’s highest volume salmon fishery and hundreds of fishermen depend on the fish to boost their overall catches and paychecks. So far the statewide harvest has reached just 36 million humpies out of a preseason forecast of 90 million. That compares to a catch of 190 million pinks last summer.

“This is the worst salmon year in nearly 40 years, and that’s huge,” she said. “It doesn’t just affect the fishermen; it’s a trickle-down effect on the cannery workers, the processors, and nearly all businesses in the community. It’s a disaster, there’s no other way to describe it.”

Stutes, who chairs the House fisheries committee and is known as a straight talker, said she has gotten very positive response from the state Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.

“They are on it and already moving forward,” Stutes said.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: BOEM takes comments on Cook Inlet lease sale

August 25, 2016 — KENAI, Alaska — A few Kenai-area residents turned out Aug. 18 to offer their advice on a draft environmental impact statement for a proposed oil and gas lease sale in Lower Cook Inlet.

The draft, prepared by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal agency that oversees oil and gas leasing in federal waters, outlines a proposed sale in an area of Cook Inlet beginning south of Kalgin Island and ending at a line extending westward from Seldovia. If the Secretary of the Department of the Interior approves the plan, a lease sale would take place in June 2017.

Mark Storzer, the regional supervisor for BOEM’s Office of Environment in Anchorage, said the EIS will simply set up the structure for a lease sale to take place in the future.

“We always make sure to emphasize with people that this does not mean a lease sale is going to take place,” Storzer said.

The current plan presents 224 blocks, each nine square miles, in the region that would be offered for lease. A number of alternatives accommodate critical habitat for endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales, threatened Northern sea otters and the drift gillnet fishery that operates in the area north of a line extending west from Anchor Point.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Researchers developing cheaper, faster monitoring method for paralytic shellfish poisoning

August 22, 2016 — Researchers are developing a field test kit that would make it easier to monitor for paralytic shellfish poisoning.

Project partners include NOAA researchers from the Lower 48 as well as community testers based on Kodiak Island and in the Alaska Peninsula.

Despite the high level of toxicity found in shellfish in the Kodiak Archipelago, people still harvest them.

Julie Matweyou, who works in the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program and has been a long-term researcher of PSP, said a person becomes sick when they eat shellfish that have consumed toxic plankton.

She explains paralytic shellfish poisoning is exactly what it sounds like.

“The PSP toxins can cause tingling of the mouth, paralysis, tingling of the extremities, nausea, headache, people describe a floating sensation,” she said. “And in a severe toxin event, the person would experience paralysis of the limbs, which would progress into paralysis of your diagram, which would cause respiratory paralysis.”

A faster, cheaper way to monitor for PSP could prevent sickness in harvesters and even save lives. The testing also would be helpful in collecting more data about when toxicity peaks and when it declines.

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Sockeyes are silver lining in an otherwise miserable year for Alaska salmon

August 22, 2016 — Alaska’s 2016 pink salmon fishery is set to rank as the worst in 20 years by a long shot, and the outlook is bleak for other salmon except sockeyes, too.

“Boy, sockeye is really going to have to carry the load in terms of the fishery’s value because there’s a lot of misses elsewhere,” said Andy Wink, a fisheries economist with the Juneau-based McDowell Group.

The peaks of the various salmon runs have passed. The pink salmon catch so far has yet to break 35 million during a year when the forecast called for 90 million fish. Last year, 190 million were harvested.

Weekly tracking through Aug. 15 shows:

— The king salmon harvest (341,000) down 42 percent from last year in net fisheries (though the troll-caught catch is strong);

— Silvers (fewer than 2 million) down 20 percent;

— Chums (12 million) down 25 percent. “We’re probably looking at the second-worst harvest in the past 10 years,” Wink said.

Read the full story at the Alaska Dispatch News

ALASKA: Requesting Letters of Intent for Project Funding

August 18, 2016 — The following was released by the Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center:

The Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center (PCCRC) is requesting Letters of Intent for projects to receive funding in 2017.

PCCRC has $500,000 available to fund projects that will begin in 2017. PCCRC projects must include a PI who is associated with one of the University of Alaska campuses but may include co-PIs from other institutions or organizations.

Click here for details on how to apply and all other relevant information. The deadline for submission is September 26, 2016.

Alaska Fish Factor: New Programme Allows Fishermen to Share Information on Salmon Stocks

August 1, 2016 — Who knows more about local salmon and their habitats than Alaska fishermen? That’s the impetus behind a new information-gathering project spawned by United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) that aims to provide useful and timely news about the health of the state’s salmon runs.

The Salmon Habitat Information Program (SHIP) launched last week with an online survey to provide commercial fishermen with a way to share their local intelligence.

“We are asking people what issues they are most concerned about in their region,” said SHIP manager Lindsey Bloom.

“We also ask what sources they use to get habitat related information, such as newspapers, websites, or social media, and who they trust and are listening to for information as well.”

UFA wants to recognize and tap the wisdom and knowledge of Alaska’s 10,888 current salmon permit owners in 26 distinct fisheries to ensure that the SHIP information is useful and relevant. Bloom said the survey results also could be helpful in shaping fishery rules and regulations.

“Fishermen are some of the smartest and best equipped people to guide fish policy,” Bloom asserted.

“With the multi-generational nature of salmon fishing in Alaska, they are grounded in community and family and sustainability and stewardship. We believe that by working together, fishermen can be powerful advocates for pro-salmon policies that ensure commercial fishing jobs remain strong for generations to come.”

Read the full store at The Fish Site