Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Southeast Alaska yelloweye rockfish fishery remains shuttered in 2024

February 1, 2024 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced this month that fishing for yelloweye rockfish is again prohibited in Southeast Alaska this year. Yelloweye are a popular species of rockfish but their populations declined significantly in recent decades, which has Fish and Game biologists concerned.

There are seven species of demersal shelf rockfish (DSR) lurking in the depths of Southeast Alaska – quillback, China, rosethorn, copper, canary, tiger rockfish, and yelloweye. According to Fish & Game, all of them have experienced population decline in recent years but yelloweye are the most populous and perhaps the most popular.

The Fish & Game announcement earlier this month isn’t a change – the commercial fishery in southern Southeast Alaska for demersal shelf rockfish closed in 2020. The fishery in the northern part of the region shuttered in 1995. In the intervening years, the Board of Fish has added restrictions to sport and recreational fishers as well.

All DSR species are still fair game for Southeast subsistence fishers. Nonresidents fishing in any capacity are banned from retaining any demersal shelf rockfish.

New harvest regulations are looser than in previous years. In 2021, retaining any DSR was illegal for a recreational fisherman. This year, Ketchikan residents can take home up to three rockfish, as long as none are yelloweyes.

“We support regulations,” said Chris Baldwin, who has run a charter fishing boat for over a decade. “If Fish & Game thinks that they’re declining, then they need to be protected. That’s kind of my take on the closure.”

Read the full article at KRBD

More than $42 million newly allocated to U.S. fishery disaster relief

January 30, 2024 — More than $42 million in federal fishery disaster relief is being allocated to help U.S. fishermen, from the hurricane-wracked Louisiana Gulf coast to Alaska’s Yukon River salmon communities.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced the disaster aid packages Monday for Alaska, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oregon and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and Yurok Tribe fisheries, from 2017 to 2022.

“Sustainable fisheries are essential to the health of our communities and support the nation’s economic well-being,” Raimondo said in announcing the funding. “With these allocations, it is our hope that these funds help the affected communities and tribes recover from these disasters.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman 

North Pacific heat waves speed hatching, increasing mortality of juvenile cod

January 30, 2024 — Marine heat waves appear to trigger earlier reproduction in juvenile Pacific cod, leading to higher mortality in the species’ early life stages and fewer juvenile fish surviving in the Gulf of Alaska, according to research from the Oregon State University.

During 2014 to 2016 and again in 2019, unusually high ocean temperatures were followed by steep declines in adult Gulf of Alaska cod. The fishery was closed in 2020, and a federal fishery disaster was declared in 2022.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Cod harvests are down, a trend likely to continue

January 30, 2024 — Global cod landings are down 33 percent over the past decade, and the downward trend has accelerated over the past three years.

On 25 January, at the 2024 Global Seafood Market Conference in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers Director of Industry Relations, Partnerships, and Fishery Analysis Ron Rogness reported global cod catch declined to 1.12 million metric tons (MT) in 2023.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaskan producers launch Wild Alaska Sole Association to boost sole’s “significant advantages”

January 26, 2024 — Several Alaskan flatfish producers have teamed up to form a nonprofit marketing association aimed at increasing both consumer and industry awareness around Alaska sole.

The new venture, dubbed the Wild Alaska Sole Association (WASA), aims to catapult the fish’s popularity both domestically and abroad. Members include Fishermen’s Finest, North Star Fishing, Ocean Peace, O’Hara Corporation, and U.S. Seafoods, with American Seafoods and Glacier Fish Company serving as associate members. The latter company’s president, Jim Johnson, is serving WASA in the same capacity.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Peter Pan Seafoods cancels A season processing at King Cove

January 24, 2024 — Peter Pan Seafoods has canceled processing for the A season of 2024 at its large King Cove facility, citing “tumultuous” conditions in global seafood economics, but vowed to be open for the B season, and firmly committed to Alaska, its fleet and communities where they do business.

“We did not come to this decision quickly or easily,” the company said when announcing the forthcoming closure on Jan. 12. “The industry is facing inflation, interest rates hikes, financing challenges, and high fuel costs. We have worked through these issues as diligently as possible and have explored possible options.”

“We remain committed to continuing to provide the best service and support possible to our fleet, communities, and stakeholders while continuing our mission to be an exemplary global supplier of top-quality and responsibly sourced seafood. Looking to the future, we will employ more than 1,000 this year as we open the King Cove facility for the 2024 B Season and our other three facilities as normal for the salmon season,” the company said.

In years past the King Cove processing facility has processed seafood on a year-round basis and been closed down only for a couple of weeks at year’s end. Workers there, brought in on a seasonal basis, have processed king crab, opilio crab, Tanner crab, Alaska pollock, cod salmon halibut, and black cod.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

Wild Fish Conservancy seeks endangered species listing of Alaska Chinook salmon

January 16, 2024 — The Wild Fish Conservancy has petitioned NOAA Fisheries to list Alaska king salmon under the Endangered Species Act.

The organization claims the petition is a response to “the severe decline and poor condition of Chinook populations” in Alaska.

“For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm that Alaska’s Chinook are in dire trouble,” Wild Fish Conservancy Executive Director Emma Helverson said. “Despite existing management plans and years of efforts by the state of Alaska, Chinook salmon continue to decline in abundance, size, diversity, and spatial structure throughout the state. Through this action, we are asking the federal government to undertake a formal status review and implement protections warranted under the Endangered Species Act, including designating critical habitat protections, to ensure the survival of these iconic fish.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Conservation group petitions for Alaska king salmon to be listed as an endangered species

January 13, 2024 — A Washington-based conservation group filed a petition with federal regulators Wednesday, requesting that they list Alaska king salmon as an endangered species.

The Wild Fish Conservancy argued in its 67-page petition that king, or chinook, salmon numbers have declined to the point where the species is at risk of extinction in Alaska. The group cites state data indicating that the decline has been predominately caused by climate change, habit destruction and hatchery salmon competing for food with wild fish.

The group is asking that the National Marine Fisheries Service formally review king salmon numbers across the Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and Southeast Alaska before considering stricter protections. Those could include critical habit protections and expanding ways to protect king salmon smolt — among other measures the group lists.

The petition is a first step in a process that could take years to be resolved with court challenges possible. But legal experts say there could be broad implications if the request is approved to list Alaska king salmon as threatened or endangered under the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Supreme Court won’t consider Pebble Mine appeal

January 11, 2023 — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a challenge by the State of Alaska to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s block of the Pebble Mine project.

The state sought to go directly to the high court and overturn the EPA’s January 2023 decision to veto the mine project based on the federal Clean Water Act and the danger of open-pit mining damaging the Bristol Bay watershed and its salmon fishery.

 Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy in July filed the lawsuit, arguing that the agency decision against the mine and its effect on Alaska economic development warranted an immediate top judicial review.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman