Saving Seafood

ALASKA: State of salmon is no rosy picture, UAF professor says

April 26, 2023 — As wild salmon stocks continue to struggle across Alaska, advances in research are creating a clearer picture of the many factors contributing to lower returns, lowers sizes and lower survivability.

That’s the good news, by the way — that there’s a greater understanding of all the bad news impacting wild salmon stocks.

“If really the question is, ‘Do I think that we’re just sort of in a down cycle? The bright side is coming next year or some year down the road?’ I don’t think so,” said Dr. Peter Westley, associate professor of fisheries with the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Last year’s surplus sockeye from Bristol Bay could compete with this year’s catch

April 25, 2023 — Bristol Bay saw a record-breaking harvest of more than 60 million sockeye last summer. The fishery provided roughly two-thirds of the global sockeye supply. It also made up most of the state’s largest harvest on record, which was up 40% from the year before.

“That’s a lot more fish to sell through the system,” said Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association’s executive director, Andy Wink, at a virtual presentation on market conditions earlier this month.

The huge volume of sockeye from 2022 means companies are still selling off those fish, which has tamped down this year’s market, and some processors are still waiting for money from last year’s harvest.

“That big harvest from 2022 needs to sell to create working capital for 2023,” Wink said. “What’s left of it is just a cost, right? It costs money to continue to finance it, costs money to store it and ship it and all the things.”

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Bristol Bay’s sockeye runs are expected to be strong, but nothing like last year’s

April 24, 2023 — Bristol Bay should see relatively strong sockeye runs this summer, though they’re not expected to be near last year’s record-breaking run and harvest.

Around 50 million sockeye are forecasted to return to the bay, according to the state’s forecast for the 2023 fishing season. The total escapement is projected to reach 13 million with around 37 million fish available to harvest.

That’s a good deal lower than last year, and it’s also lower than the average over the last 10 years. But looking a little further back, this summer’s run is still expected to be 40% above the bay’s long-term average.

The University of Washington produced its own forecast for Bristol Bay’s 2023 season.

The strength of the salmon returns varies across river systems, and the Nushagak District, on the west side of the bay, has seen some of the biggest sockeye runs and highest harvests in recent years.

“I think the reason why we’re getting these big runs in the Nushagak is because the warmer winters allow for a longer growing season,” said Tim Sands, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s management biologist for the area, at a recent presentation in Dillingham. “So there’s just that extra growing period where there’s more food for them to eat. And they get a little bit bigger. And as they’re bigger going out to the ocean. They’re more competitive and they survive at a little higher rate.”

In the 2023 commercial fishing outlook, the department also raised concerns about fishermen under-reporting of king salmon harvests and said tenders should expect to be boarded and checked for undocumented king salmon.

Here’s a rundown of this summer’s forecasts and regulations by district.

Read the full article at KTOO

Sullivan, colleagues introduce FISH Act to combat illegal foreign seafood harvest

April 23, 2o23 — U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) Thursday introduced S.1227, the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act.

This legislation is to combat foreign illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by blacklisting offending vessels from U.S. ports and waters, bolstering the U.S. Coast Guard’s enforcement capabilities, and advancing international and bilateral negotiations to achieve enforceable agreements and treaties.

The FISH Act would build on prior landmark legislation against IUU fishing, including the Maritime SAFE Act, authored by Senators Wicker and Chris Coons (D-Del.) and signed into law in December 2019 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Read the full article at KINY

What’s the best way to monitor for mercury in Alaska seafoods? Test human hair, says these researchers

April 19, 2023 — It’s an unpleasant fact for everyone who eats fish in Alaska: Mercury is in the food chain, and it’s particularly prevalent in seafood.

And while the amount of mercury found in Alaska seafood remains far below dangerous levels, a pair of researchers want to keep an eye on it long-term. The best way to do this, they’ve found, is not by testing fish coming over the docks, but by testing human hair. They recently visited Sitka to report the findings of a pilot study begun five years ago.

Todd O’Hara is a veterinarian, but don’t bring him your cat to be spayed.

“I’m a veterinarian who has a PhD in toxicology,” he said. “I’ve never had any desire to be a clinical veterinarian. I’ve applied my veterinary degree to wildlife and fish research in toxicology and environmental agents of disease. So that’s how I got into this business.”

O’Hara is a researcher with Texas A&M and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. A lot of pathologists who study human disease are veterinarians, which is not surprising when you consider how closely humans and animals are linked on this planet.

Read the full article at KCAW

ALASKA: Fisheries protester removed from Alaska Capitol in handcuffs, arrested after fight

April 19, 2023 — Eric Osuch has been outside the Capitol for more than a week, urging legislators and staff to take action against trawling

A man urging Alaska lawmakers to take action against trawling was removed from the state Capitol in handcuffs and banned from the building after disrupting a committee hearing on Monday.

After his removal, former fisheries worker Eric Osuch went to the nearby State Office Building and was arrested by the Juneau Police Department after a fight was reported there. He was charged with criminal trespass, the department said.

Osuch was the first person forcibly expelled from the Capitol in three years. Though legislators frequently deal with contentious and emotional topics, protests are typically orderly and held outside the front doors during the lunch hour.

Jessica Geary, director of the nonpartisan agency that operates the Capitol, said no one has received a trespass notice barring them from the Capitol since 2020, and before that, the most recent incident was in 2016.

“The process is outlined in the Capitol Complex Security Operating Procedures Manual. Capitol Security can verbally trespass someone for 24 hours; anything over that requires a formal trespass notice, which must be written and given to the subject with a copy retained for Legislative records,” she said by email.

Read the full article at KINY

Red king crab surveying update has Bering Sea fishermen hopeful

April 18, 2023 — A collaborative survey project began mid-March, funded primarily by NOAA Fisheries, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG), with help from the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation (BSFRF), and the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers trade organization (ABSC). These organizations got two boats back out surveying for 25 days.

This surveying effort will inform spatial management decisions and the possible red king crab season openings as early as the fall. Over a dozen vessels were eager to get back to work, and the two randomly selected were the F/V Summer Bay and F/V Silver Spray.

National Fisherman was able to interview Gabriel Prout of the F/V Silver Spray. Gabriel provided us with the insider scoop from a fisherman’s point of view.

The last two Eastern Bering Sea trawl surveys indicated a continuing decline in Alaska red king crabs in the 2021 and 2022 fall seasons, with female levels falling below the threshold to close the fishery.

More specifically, the surveys showed a continuing low abundance of mature females, while the male king crab has shown some stability. Researchers say the fishery will not open again until the stock levels of females increase enough for it not to be a concern.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Record-low quota caught as Bering Sea Tanner crab season wraps up

April 18, 2023 — The fishing season has ended for Bering Sea Tanner crab. Crabbers caught the record-low quota of 2 million pounds just before the end of March.

Seventeen vessels went out for tanner across the fishery’s east and west districts, said Ethan Nichols, the assistant area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Unalaska.

“Some boats caught their quota in the fall. Some caught it in the spring,” Nichols said. “Overall, the fishery performance was pretty good.”

Nichols said the average size of the crab caught was smaller than in seasons past. That could be because buyers agreed to accept crab they would’ve previously turned away.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Proposed Bering Sea marine sanctuary draws pushback from fishing industry

April 18, 2023 — A proposed marine sanctuary in the Pribilof Islands has drawn major pushback from the commercial fishing industry, ever since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration accepted the nomination last June.

The Aleut Community of St. Paul — the tribal government for the Pribilof Island community of around 500 people — says the sanctuary designation would give it greater authority to protect the region’s vast ecosystems and resources, including rich fishing grounds and habitat for the federally protected northern fur seal.

The national marine sanctuary would be named Alaĝum Kanuux̂, or Heart of the Ocean — and if approved, it would be the first of its kind in Alaska, possibly creating a new precedent for resource management in the state.

Lauren Divine is the director for the tribe’s ecosystem conservation office. She said the sanctuary designation would make the tribe a co-manager for the region’s resources, which are currently managed by the State of Alaska and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“That co-management aspect is really important because it’s a step towards self determination, sovereignty,” Divine said in an interview. “It really speaks to going back to Indigenous stewardship of lands and waters, which have operated successfully and sustainably since time immemorial.”

Divine also said the sanctuary would act as a spotlight, bringing tourism, research, and education dollars to the region.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: ADF&G predicts weak pink salmon harvest, tightens Chinook harvest restrictions

April 17, 2023 — Southeast Alaska’s pink salmon run is predicted to be weak this summer. The region’s commercial harvest is expected to increase by just five percent this year compared to last year, according to a report from the Alaska Department of Fish & Game released earlier this month. But it’s forecast to be more than a 60% drop from the last odd-year harvest in 2021 – pink salmon runs in Southeast peak in odd years and fall in even years.

The 2023 pink salmon harvest is predicted to be around 19 million fish, with a probable range of between 12 and 19 million. That’s what the department classifies as a weak run. It’s nowhere near Southeast’s record harvest of 2013, which saw more than 89 million pink salmon.

The estimate comes mostly from analysis of juvenile pink salmon abundance indicators collected by researchers in Southeast in previous years.

Read the full article at KSTK