Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska Gov. Dunleavy names ad consultant, talk show host Porcaro to commercial fisheries agency

August 26, 2023 — Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has appointed a GOP advertising consultant and talk show host to a highly paid state government job: a position overseeing commercial fishing permits.

Dunleavy this month appointed Mike Porcaro as one of two commissioners overseeing the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, or CFEC — an obscure, Juneau-based agency with some 20 employees.

The commission issues annual commercial fishing permits, grants and denies permit transfers in the event of illnesses and deaths and publishes fisheries reports and statistics.

Porcaro is a Dunleavy ally whose communications firm has worked for the governor’s campaigns, and who has hosted the governor as a guest on his talk radio show.

Porcaro will work remotely from his home in Anchorage, continue hosting his daily radio program from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and run his advertising agency outside work hours, he said.

Porcaro’s new job would pay $136,000 a year if he works full time, but he may work less than that and will only be compensated for the hours he reports having worked, said Glenn Haight, CFEC’s other commissioner.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News 

The scales of justice: Salmon fisheries in federal court, fighting to keep their lines in the water

August 21, 2023 — More than 90% of wild salmon are caught in Alaskan waters, where the fish travel from the coasts of California, the Pacific Northwest, and British Columbia. As the total number of fish have declined, limits of a catch have naturally decreased. The Wild Fish Conservancy, based in Washington, sued over technicalities in the Endangered Species Act. The salmon have been deeply compromised by dams and pollution, says third-generation Alaskan and journalist Julia O’Malley. Because the fish swimming up from the Lower 48 may be potentially endangered, Alaskan fisheries must come up with a mitigation plan. A judge was compelled by the Conservancy’s complaint of how to enact such a plan. Alaskan fisheries recently won a last minute reprieve in a lawsuit that would have kept lines out of the water this fishing season.

A pod of 73 endangered orcas in the region near Puget Sound feed on Chinook, also known as king salmon — the largest of the species, and whose populations are at historic lows. The orcas are in turn under threat of starvation,  not only because the salmon are less abundant, but because they are considerably smaller, dropping from a typical size of 60-100 pounds down to 30 pounds. As a result, the whales need to catch more of them to get the same amount of protein. Noise pollution and industrial runoff further compound the problem, interfering with the echolocation orcas use to locate salmon.

Alaska has a 100-year-old fishing tradition, according to O’Malley. For better or worse, communities around the state operate on an extraction economy, whether it’s oil, timber, or fishing.

Read the full story at KCRW

ALASKA: New quota system to start for trawl harvests of cod in Bering Sea and Aleutians

August 21, 2023 — Commercial fishermen netting Pacific cod from the Bering Sea and Aleutians region will be working under new individual limits starting next year designed to ease pressure on harvests that regulators concluded were too rushed, too dangerous and too prone to accidentally catch untargeted fish species.

The new system will require fishers who harvest cod by trawl – the net gear that scoops up fish swimming near the bottom of the ocean – to be part of designated cooperatives that will then have assigned quota shares. The fisheries service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it has notified eligible participants and is asking for applications.

The cod-trawling program, to start next January, is the first new fishery quota system started since 2012 in federal waters off Alaska, according to NOAA Fisheries.

The Pacific cod harvest is the second-biggest commercial groundfish catch in the waters off Alaska, after pollock, according to NOAA Fisheries. The 2021 commercial harvest totaled 330.4 million pounds and was worth $86.5 million, according to NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full story at KTOO

Biden administration announces more than USD 300 million for salmon recovery and fish passage projects

August 18, 2023 — The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has announced nearly USD 300 million (EUR 276 million) for salmon recovery and fish passage improvement projects.

This week, NOAA Fisheries recommended USD 106 million (EUR 98 million) in funding for 16 salmon recovery projects along the West Coast and in Alaska through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF). At the same time, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has unveiled USD 196 million (EUR 180 million) in funding for to fix or remove 169 culvert barriers to improve fish passage.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Economic storm hits Alaska’s fishing industry 2023 salmon harvest dips, prices dive

August 16, 2023 — As the fishing calendar in Alaska rolled over to August, the statewide harvest for all five species in all areas and all districts stood at 99.3 million fish. Overall, ex-vessel prices dropped to almost half of what brick-and-mortar processors had been willing to pay in 2022.

Of those fish, the sockeye harvest came out ahead of pinks (40 million), with a preliminary harvest just short of 47 million, but late-season pink seine fisheries in Southeast, Kodiak, Prince William Sound, and the Alaska Peninsula could surpass sockeye numbers as some runs peak in mid to late August. As expected, the chinook harvest was weak at 160,000 fish, while chums added up to 11.8 million. The coho harvest, meanwhile, stood at 466,000.

As the fishing calendar in Alaska rolled over to August, the statewide harvest for all five species in all areas and all districts stood at 99.3 million fish. Overall, ex-vessel prices dropped to almost half of what brick-and-mortar processors had been willing to pay in 2022.

Of those fish, the sockeye harvest came out ahead of pinks (40 million), with a preliminary harvest just short of 47 million, but late-season pink seine fisheries in Southeast, Kodiak, Prince William Sound, and the Alaska Peninsula could surpass sockeye numbers as some runs peak in mid to late August. As expected, the chinook harvest was weak at 160,000 fish, while chums added up to 11.8 million. The coho harvest, meanwhile, stood at 466,000.

Fishing began in early July on “open ticket,” meaning a price had not been settled with processors when the onslaught of sockeyes arrived. Fishermen set their nets in hopes that the initial price would be closer to the average base price of $1.15 per pound they received last year. With news of the 50 cents, some fishermen staged a protest in Naknek on July 20, while others folded up their operations and left for home.

“It was such a big shock,” says Danielle Larsgaard, a setnetter who fishes the Nushagak each summer. “Everyone kept asking, ‘When are they going to announce a price?’” 

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

 

Off Alaska coast, research crew peers down, down, down to map deep and remote ocean

August 15, 2023 — For the team aboard the Okeanos Explorer off the coast of Alaska, exploring the mounds and craters of the sea floor along the Aleutian Islands is a chance to surface new knowledge about life in some of the world’s deepest and most remote waters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel is on a five-month mission aboard a reconfigured former Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps. The ship, with a 48-member crew, is outfitted with technology and tools to peer deep into the ocean to gather data to share with onshore researchers in real time. The hope is that this data will then be used to drive future research.

“It’s so exciting to go down there and see that it’s actually teeming with life,” said expedition coordinator Shannon Hoy. “You would never know that unless we were able to go down there and explore.”

Read the full article at the Associated Press

ALASKA: Salmonfest’s environmental message shines through during music festival

August 15, 2023 — Ninilchik’s annual Salmonfest transformed the small Kenai Peninsula town into a packed music hub this weekend, with big-name artists from around the country. Behind the stages, however, is the festival’s enduring message about Alaska salmon, and omnipresent anti-Pebble Mine activism.

Thousands of people attended Salmonfest this weekend to see performances like Old Crow Medicine Show, Sierra Ferrel and Sam Nelson of the pop rock outfit X Ambassadors.

But at the opposite corner of the Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds in Ninilchik is an area known as the “causeway.” Here, dozens of fishing and environmental-related nonprofits line the pathway, from the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council, to the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association and Juneau-based SalmonState. U.S. Congresswoman Mary Peltola, who built her platform on a pro-fish position, has a booth here too.

Founded in 2011, the music festival has always been a venue for salmon activism. Thomas Tilden was at Salmonfest with United Tribes of Bristol Bay, a 15-tribe consortium that advocates for clean water and against Pebble Mine.

“I believe we have a really sound claim as to why they shouldn’t open the Pebble Mine in the spawning grounds of not only the Nushagak River, but also the Kvichak River,” he said.

Read the full article at KYUK

Citing market volatility and Russia’s war in Ukraine, Trident plans to halt salmon buying early

August 9, 2023 — Trident Seafoods, the country’s largest vertically integrated seafood company, announced a number of measures over the weekend that bode poorly for the Alaska salmon market, including an early end to its salmon buying season across much of the state.

In a letter over the weekend to fishermen who sell their catch to Trident, the company outlined the issues prompting low prices and a halt to most salmon purchases at month’s end.

“The current state of the salmon markets is volatile, and future indicators are even more concerning,” reads the letter, signed by Trident CEO Joe Bundrant and senior vice president for Alaska operations Jeff Welbourn. “We know this is not an easy time and we understand and empathize with our fishing community. Given how quickly things are changing we are committed to being as transparent as possible so you can make timely and informed decisions.”

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Reward quadrupled after more than 20 endangered sea lions illegally killed near Cordova

August 8, 2023 — More than 20 endangered sea lions have been found dead in the Copper River Delta this summer, many with gunshot wounds. The National Marine Fisheries Service has now quadrupled the reward for information on the illegal killings to $20,000.

Sadie Wright, a biologist with the agency, said the dead animals were found during surveys of the area east of Cordova. This year, she said, it’s an unusually high number.

“We’ve done this for a number of years,” Wright said. “And this year we’ve found a big spike in the number of dead sea lions on the islands there.”

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Alaskan city looks to join tribes’ Bering Sea groundfish lawsuit

August 8, 2023 — The city of Bethel, Alaska, U.S.A., wants to join a federal lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries led by two major tribal organizations.

In April, the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) and Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), which together represent around 100 Alaskan tribes, filed a lawsuit challenging NOAA Fisheries’ management of industrial trawl fisheries in the Bering Sea. The tribes, along with the nonprofit environmental law group Earthjustice, claim that the amount of salmon bycatch allowed in the pollock trawl fishery is reducing the king salmon and chum salmon populations, leading to restrictions on subsistence fishing in the Yukon and Kuskokwim regions.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource