Saving Seafood

Killer whale deaths in Alaska trawl harvests prompt investigations and spark anger

October 2, 2023 — An unusually high number of whales have died in trawl fishing gear in Alaska waters, spurring a federal investigation and new criticism of the industry that uses big nets to scoop fish from the bottom of the ocean.

Ten killer whales, also known as orcas, were ensnared in trawl gear this year in the Bering Sea and along the Aleutian Islands, and nine of them died, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service. The toll compares to six killer whale deaths in Alaska fisheries documented over the five years spanning from 2016 to 2020, according to NOAA Fisheries records.

While pollock makes up the biggest volume of fish harvested in the Bering Sea and Aleutians, all of the trawlers involved in this year’s killer whale deaths were harvesting different types of groundfish. Those vessels, participants in what NOAA Fisheries classifies as the Amendment 80 trawl fishery, harvest yellowfin sole, Pacific ocean perch and other bottom-dwelling species.

Critics of bottom trawling speculate that the whales are dying after chasing fish discarded as bycatch by the vessels. Bycatch is the incidental harvest of non-targeted species.

It is possible that climate change has disrupted normal food supplies, said Jon Warrenchuk, a senior scientist with the environmental group Oceana.

“The food web is so out of whack in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska,” Warrenchuk said.

That means that orcas are turning to the food they find around trawl ships, he said. “The whales now have been conditioned to be feeding off the discards of the factory trawlers,” he said.

Halibut may be a particularly fatal attraction for the whales, Warrenchuk said.

He cited a relatively new practice called “halibut deck sorting,” which is allowed exclusively for the non-pollock Amendment 80 trawlers through a rule enacted in 2019.

The practice, a response to reduced halibut stocks, is intended to reduce impacts of halibut bycatch. Under the rule, trawlers within a particular fleet are allowed to send incidentally caught halibut back into the sea without penalty as long as certain requirements are met. The halibut must be alive, they must be returned to the water within 35 minutes and the entire process must be monitored by an onboard fisheries observer, according to the rule.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: NOAA Fisheries Releases its 2023 Alaska Aquaculture Accomplishments Report

September 29, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is dedicated to supporting the aquaculture (also known as “mariculture”) industry in Alaska. In Alaska, aquaculture initiatives primarily involve Pacific oysters, seaweed, and blue mussels (finfish farming is illegal in Alaska State waters).

The Alaskan aquaculture industry is in a period of growth, and many local, state and federal efforts are focused on supporting this developing industry. Aquaculture can be beneficial both to local communities and the environment, boosting coastal economies and providing habitat to marine organisms.

NOAA Fisheries promotes scientific research and economic development that can sustainably advance the growth of the Alaskan aquaculture industry.

The NOAA Fisheries Alaska Aquaculture Program has been engaged in a variety of projects over the last year, each of which aligns with NOAA’s recently released 2023-2028 Aquaculture Strategic Plan. Our FY23 aquaculture activities supported three of NOAA’s national Aquaculture strategic goals:

  1. Manage Sustainably and Efficiently
  2. Lead Science for Sustainability
  3. Educate and Exchange Information

NOAA Fisheries supports cutting-edge research, as well as policy-making and regulation. We work closely with partners to improve and expand opportunities to promote sustainable marine production of shellfish and seaweed in Alaska.

NOAA’s Alaska Aquaculture Program has just released its 2023 Aquaculture Accomplishments Report. In 2023, NOAA’s Alaska Aquaculture Program prioritized 10 of 17 national objectives listed in the 2023-2028 Aquaculture Strategic Plan. This report highlights the 14 projects that supported each of the above Alaska aquaculture priorities. It also provides updates on other accomplishments over the last year. These projects are diverse in scope and design. They all pursue the goal of promoting sustainable aquaculture growth in Alaska state waters.

ALASKA: Alaska’s new marine highway runs afoul of environmental group

September 28, 2023 — The Center for Biological Diversity intends to sue the federal government over a new marine highway in Alaska. The environmental group sent a notice letter on Sept. 21 to the U.S. Maritime Administration, which designated the new highway. The letter contends that the federal agency is violating the Endangered Species Act for failing to consider possible harm to endangered wildlife along Alaska’s coast.

Jared Margolis, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said increased shipping traffic along the highway could pose a threat to several protected species including humpback and North Pacific right whales.

He said the federal agency, known as MARAD, should have consulted with federal environmental agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Services prior to designating the new highway. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NMFS’s parent agency, announced Tuesday that it would revise Alaska’s critical habitat for right whales in response to a request from the Center.

“The (MARAD) regulators designated this new marine highway route — which goes right through critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale, a highly endangered species that’s susceptible to ship strikes — without giving any consideration to what that means for the species, in terms of targeting this area for increased vessel traffic,” Margolis said.

MARAD did not respond to requests for comment.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: ‘Too hot’ for salmon: How climate change is contributing to the Yukon salmon collapse

September 27, 2023 — Scientists know one thing for sure about the collapse of Yukon River king and chum salmon: there’s more than one culprit.

“It’s really hard and probably unrealistic to just point your finger at one thing and say that’s what’s doing it,” said Jayde Ferguson, a fish pathologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Researchers have identified many threats facing Yukon king and chum salmon, and those threats pop up at each stage of the salmon life cycle — when salmon hatch in freshwater streams, as they swim down the Yukon to the ocean, where they spend most of their lives and on their arduous journey back upriver to spawn and die.

Scientists think many of these threats are connected to climate change. Ferguson studies one of them, a parasite named ichthyophonus, at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game lab in Anchorage.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Federal manager for Yukon River highlights resiliency in the face of salmon crashes

September 27, 2023 — When federal fisheries managers rescinded control of the Yukon River on Sept. 2, it marked the close of another season of alarmingly poor salmon runs and few opportunities to harvest them. Nets went unused and smokehouses went unfilled, yet subsistence remains a necessity and a way of life for many living along the nearly 2,000-mile river that extends deep into Canada.

Fortunately, in an attempt to understand what is happening to Yukon River salmon, traditional knowledge and Western science have been increasingly intersecting.

“I love the coordination we have with the stakeholder groups, with the tribes,” said Holly Carroll, the Yukon River federal subsistence fisheries manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The more of that coordination you have, the more buy-in you have to the data that is collected.”

Carroll said that she values keeping lines of communication open.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: A 50-year situation: The market dynamic between fishing fleets and processors in Bristol Bay

September 27, 2023 — This year, Bristol Bay’s $0.50-per-pound base price had fleet members questioning the industry’s longevity. The dynamic between fleets and processors has existed for decades, with permit-holding fishing crews delivering their catch before knowing its cost, and processors relying on them to do so.

KDLG’s Christina McDermott sat down with economist Gunnar Knapp, who spent decades studying Bristol Bay’s salmon markets, to learn more about the history of this relationship, and what it means going forward.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

As climate change and high costs plague Alaska’s fisheries, fewer young people take up the trade

September 26, 2023 — Lane Bolich first came to work in Alaska for the freedom and excitement that comes with being a fisher.

A self-described adrenaline junkie, Bolich moved from his hometown in rural Washington state because he loves being on the ocean even in cold winter weather and it gave him the chance to make more money than back home. After working as a deckhand for two years on a family friend’s boat, Harmony, he took the wheel as captain this year at just 20 years old.

Bolich is a rarity in an aging industry with high barriers to entry — equipment and access rights are costly — and increasing unpredictability as human-caused climate change alters marine habitats. As some fish populations dwindle and fewer people pursue the trade, fishers and conservation groups are actively working to bring in and retain the next generation of fishers through grants and training even as the industry continues to shrink in Alaska.

Read the full article at the Independent

Millions pegged for salmon, steelhead recovery

September 25, 2023 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is recommending sending $106 million to 16 salmon and steelhead recovery efforts in five Western states.

NOAA and the Department of Commerce recommended grants to state agencies with salmon protection missions, tribes and tribal partnerships in Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, Washington and California.

The funding “provides an important opportunity to bolster salmon and steelhead recovery and invest in the communities that rely on them,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Read the full article at The Challis Messenger

Trawl vessels caught 10 killer whales in ’23 off Alaska, federal agency says

September 25, 2023 — A federal agency that takes an active role in “shaping international ocean, fisheries, climate, space and weather policies” reported last week one of its teams is “evaluating data collected” on 10 killer whales incidentally caught in Alaska by Bering Sea and Aleutian Island groundfish trawl fisheries in 2023.

In a statement, NOAA Fisheries, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said just one whale ended up being released alive. For the other nine, the agency is in the process of determining the cause of injury or death and which stocks these whales belong to through a review of genetic information.

In addition, NOAA Fisheries is reviewing information regarding “a killer whale incidentally caught during the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s longline survey for sablefish and groundfish this summer.” The agency added that on June 7, a dead killer whale was observed entangled in gear on the Central Bering Sea slope.

Read the full article at KIRO

Trawlers accidentally caught 10 orcas off Alaska this year — only one lived

September 25, 2023 — A federal fishery agency reported last week that 10 killer whales were caught in the gear of trawl net vessels fishing this year in the Bering Sea and North Pacific waters off the Aleutian Islands.

Only one was released alive, according to a brief Alaska NOAA Fisheries statement posted online. A team is analyzing data collected about the other nine whales to determine the causes of injury or death, and also to determine which stocks these whales belonged to through reviewing genetic information.

Killer whales, also known as orcas, have been entangled in trawl gear off Alaska in years past, but the numbers reported in 2023 are higher.

“The agency is working quickly to evaluate these incidents and will share findings as soon as possible, after all required analyses are completed,” the statement said.

The agency reported that another killer whale was entangled with longline gear set out by a vessel conducting a federal fishery survey in the Central Bering Sea. On June 7, a dead whale was observed caught up in gear, the statement said. NOAA Fisheries scientists were on board the survey vessel, which was designed to provide an assessment of black cod — also known as sablefish — populations, and that incident is also under review.

Read the full article at The Seattle Times