Saving Seafood

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

ALASKA: Legislative task force offers possible actions to rescue troubled Alaska seafood industry

January 13 2025 — Alaska lawmakers from fishing-dependent communities say they have ideas for ways to rescue the state’s beleaguered seafood industry, with a series of bills likely to follow, according to Yereth Rosen of the Alaska Beacon.

Members of a legislative task force created last spring now have draft recommendations that range from the international level, where they say marketing of Alaska fish can be much more robust, to the hyper-local level, where projects like shared community cold-storage facilities can cut costs.

The draft was reviewed at a two-day hearing in Anchorage Thursday and Friday of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry. It will be refined in the coming days, members said.

The bill that created the task force, Senate Concurrent Resolution 10, sets a deadline for a report to the full Legislature of Jan. 21, which is the scheduled first day of the session. However, a final task force report may take a little longer and be submitted as late as Feb. 1, said Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, the group’s chair.

Read the full article at Alaska News Source

ALASKA: City votes to put fisheries disaster funds into Cordova’s Permanent Fund

January 13, 2025 — Members of the Cordova City Council have voted to invest $772,628 in federal fisheries disaster funds into the municipality’s permanent fund – something the body says will get the best use on the money.

The decision, which followed a lengthy discussion during the council’s Dec. 18 meeting, was unanimous.

City Manager Samatha Greenwood noted in a memo to the council on Dec. 5 that the city received $772,628 for the 2018 and 2020 Copper River and Prince William Sound salmon fisheries disasters. The council did consider a proposal to use a portion of that money for harbor expenses, but ultimately voted unanimously to place the entire amount in Cordova’s permanent fund.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

ALASKA: Alaska hatchery operators warn against proposed 25 percent cut in egg take

January 10, 2025 — The operators of salmon hatcheries in Southeast Alaska are warning that a proposed 25 percent reduction in the egg take of pink and chum salmon would have devastating consequences for the hatcheries, leading to job losses and the eventual closure of facilities.

Conservation groups have argued that the release of hatchery-raised salmon harms wild populations for decades. The backers of the proposal – Proposal 156 – claim that salmon hatcheries are one of the five biggest threats to the state’s wild Chinook populations, along with climate change, bycatch, intercept, and disease. However, advocates of ending or curtailing hatchery operations have struggled to convince state regulators to turn against the practice.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource