Saving Seafood

Three Alaska tribes sue over permits for Donlin Gold Mine

April 11, 2023 — Three tribes in the Kuskokwim River region of Southwest Alaska filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, challenging federal agency permits for the Donlin Gold Mine, billed as potentially the world’s largest open pit gold mine.

Project backers NovaGold and Barrick Gold Corp. began working in 2012 for permits to open a mine 10 miles north of the Kuskokwim River. In echoes of the Pebble Mine project vetoed in January by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Donlin opponents say the planned mine and its rock waste would pollute salmon spawning streams that flow into the Kuskokwim River.

Tribes suing to halt the proposed project are Orutsararmiut Native Council, Tuluksak Native Council and the Organized Village of Kwethluk, represented in court by the nonprofit environmental law group Earthjustice.

“Citing three fundamental flaws in the environmental and subsistence analyses and authorizations for the project,” according to a statement from Earthjustice, “the lawsuit challenges key authorizations of the massive open pit mine including a federal permit allowing thousands of acres of wetlands to be filled and a federal authorization granting access across federal lands for a 316-mile pipeline from Cook Inlet to the mine site.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

In unprecedented move, federal council takes no action on Cook Inlet salmon plan

April 11, 2023 — A federal council made the unprecedented decision to take no action on choosing a new fishing management plan for Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishing Friday, after it said it was left with no good options on a tight, court-ordered timeline.

That means management of the fishery will likely fall to the federal government — which council members and Cook Inlet fishermen warn could severely limit the fishery.

At its April meeting in Anchorage, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council was supposed to choose between several potential management plans to delegate management of the Upper Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishery. The council manages fishing in Alaska’s federal waters, which start three miles offshore.

But council members, audibly frustrated, said none of the options before them were viable.

“The court-mandated timeline has forced this council into a box that we find ourselves in,” said Andy Mezirow, a charter boat captain out of Seward who sits on the council. “For these reasons, I can’t support any of the alternatives before us today, and I hope the public notes that fisheries management on a tight court-mandated timeline does not allow us to do our best work.”

The council’s been trying to figure out what to do with the fishery for years, following a lawsuit from the United Cook Inlet Drift Association over management of the fishery.

In 2020, in response, the council voted to close a large swath of Upper Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishing. That area — called the exclusive economic zone, or EEZ — is where drift fishermen say they catch a majority of their fish. Kenai Peninsula fishermen and advocates showed up, en masse, to the 2020 meeting to object to the closure.

UCIDA sued, once again, to overturn the decision. The court sided with them last June and the state reopened the fishery just as the 2022 season was starting up.

That was a temporary fix. At its meeting this month, the council was supposed to choose a new fishery management plan, or FMP. It’s under court order to have a plan in place by 2024.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Proposed Bering Sea Marine Sanctuaries Topic of Roundtable Thursday After First Day of NPFMC

April 5, 2023 — This Thursday, after the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s first day, a public roundtable discussion on two nominations for National Marine Sanctuaries in Alaska will take place from 5:30-7:30, Alaska time. Hosted by NOAA Fisheries, the discussion will cover the recently nominated St. George Unangan Heritage from St. George Island and Alagum Kanuux (Heart of the Ocean) from St. Paul Island, the two largest of the Pribilof Island group.

During this roundtable, NOAA will share information about the process for nominating and designating national marine sanctuaries and for attendees to share their perspectives and ask questions regarding the process and NOAA’s inventory of successful nominations.

Addition to the inventory does not guarantee that a nominated area will become a national marine sanctuary. National marine sanctuary designation is a separate public process that by law, is highly public and participatory, and often takes several years to complete.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

ALASKA: Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust Host Spring Fishermen’s Expo

April 4, 2023 — The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) are hosting a Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO on April 4 and 5, from 9AM-1PM to provide educational workshops to new and experienced local fishermen. ALFA and ASFT welcome those interested in the fishing sector to attend.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Love at first fish

April 4, 2023 — The Sitka Sac Roe fishery got quite a romantic start on Wednesday, March 29.

Fisherman Pete Feenstra, who fishes on the F/V Noble Provider, hailed fellow fisherwoman and captain Brannon Finney from the F/V Alaskan Girl on the radio to propose.

Feenstra had quite the audience- the entire fleet, ADFG, local processors, and many from the town of Sitka tuned into channel 10 for the proposal.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska Department of Fish and Game releases Kuskokwim Bay salmon fishery announcement

April 2, 2o23 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) released an announcement on March 29, 2023. The advisory announcement notes that ADF&G does not expect to open any commercial gillnet fishing in Districts 4 and 5 of Kuskokwim Bay.

This news may not come as a surprise to commercial gillnetters in that region. Those fisheries have been closed for most years since 2016 because there hasn’t been a commercial buyer.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust host Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO

March 28, 2023 — The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) are hosting a Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO on April 4 and 5, from 9AM-1PM to provide educational workshops and training to new and experienced local fishermen as well as others with interest in the fishing sector. During this EXPO all the workshops and presentations will be offered in a virtual format.

The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) are hosting a Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO on April 4 and 5, from 9AM-1PM to provide educational workshops and training to new and experienced local fishermen as well as others with interest in the fishing sector. During this EXPO all the workshops and presentations will be offered in a virtual format.

Read the full article at KINY

ALASKA: Unprecedented closures threaten setnet way of life

March 27, 2023 — When Lisa Gabriel was 22, she and her husband, Brian, now the mayor of Kenai, bought their first commercial setnet permit, worth $35,000.

The year was 1987 and Gabriel, pregnant with her third child, flew with Brian in a privately chartered plane to Anchorage, where they met up with a Cook Inlet fisherman who was selling his permit. After the papers were signed and the permit transferred, Brian and Lisa flew back to Kenai.

“We just jumped in a plane because that’s what we needed to do,” she said.

They have been commercial setnetting in the inlet ever since. The pair are fishing for sockeye but also harvest other kinds of fish, including chinook, or king, salmon. This year, however, they’re two of the hundreds of east side setnet fishers in upper Cook Inlet whose nets may stay out of the water entirely.

That’s because of an unprecedented preseason closure of the fishery by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game earlier this month. Among other things, 11 emergency orders handed down by the department completely closed the east side setnet fishery this season, as well as the Kenai River and Cook Inlet to sport fishing for king salmon.

The department issued those orders after preseason forecasts suggested that Kenai River late run would see only 13,630 king salmon longer than 34 inches, or “large” fish. Because that forecast falls below the department’s optimal escapement goal of at least 15,000 fish, the Kenai River’s late-run king salmon sport fishery was closed.

The closure of the fisheries threatens to upend not just the livelihood of anglers in the inlet, but a way of life for those who have spent decades working in the setnet industries.

Read the full article at Peninsula Clarion

ALASKA: Legislature passes resolution to protect Southeast Alaska troll fishery

March 26, 2023 — A resolution to protect the Southeast Alaska troll fishery passed in the state Legislature on March 20 by a unanimous vote in the Senate. House Joint Resolution 5 calls on state and federal governments to defend Alaska fisheries from a lawsuit filed by the Washington State-based environmental group, the Wild Fish Conservancy.

The suit seeks to stop the Southeast troll fishery over what the group sees as a threat to the Southern Resident killer whales in the Puget Sound. The organization’s position is that terminating Southeast’s king salmon troll fishery might allow chinook salmon to migrate back down the coast through key hunting grounds of the Southern Resident killer whales.

Read the full article at KTOO