May 31, 2023 — A federal judge has rejected a motion from the U.S. state of Alaska, the Alaska Trollers Association, and NOAA Fisheries to stay his order earlier this month that will effectively close the winter and summer commercial chinook troll fishery in Southeast Alaska.
The groups are now looking to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for relief as they race against the clock to ensure the commercial fishery can open on July 1.
May 30, 2023 — The United States Department of Justice will appeal a federal court order forcing the closure of the commercial king salmon troll fishery in Southeast Alaska.
In early May, Washington US District Court Judge Richard Jones upheld an earlier recommendation that the Southeast summer and winter king fisheries were catching too much of the food source of a dwindling population of Southern Resident Killer Whales in Puget Sound in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Judge Jones’s order required the fishery closures and required the National Marine Fisheries Service to vacate and rewrite the rules that allow for the fisheries to happen.
The DOJ’s notice to appeal was submitted on May 23, on behalf of the Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The defendant intervenors in the case, the Alaska Trollers Association and the State of Alaska filed motions earlier this month calling for a “partial stay” of the order, pending an appeal to allow the fisheries to proceed. The state argued that the court order had failed to account for the economic cultural and social harm to the troll fleet and Southeast Alaska.
May 24, 2023 — Alaska’s subsistence fishing advocates want to change the nation’s primary fishing law to crack down on the accidental catch of salmon by the Bering Sea trawl fleet. Changing the law is looking increasingly unlikely, but there might be another way.
Congresswoman Mary Peltola focused on revising the Magnuson-Stevens Act since the start of her campaign. But she said it’s not in the cards now.
“I think everybody recognizes that there’s a very slim chance that Magnuson-Stevens will be authorized this year” or next, Peltola said in a recent video call arranged by a public affairs firm called Ocean Strategies.
Rather than change the law, the new strategy is to change a set of guidelines for the law that’s already on the books.
It’s a fallback position. It’s not likely to yield quick results. But this year is shaping up to be another grim one for chinook and chum runs on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. Peltola and other salmon advocates say it’s important to take some kind of action now to preserve the possibility of a return to salmon abundance.
May 25, 2023 — Plastic, wood, fishing nets and buoys are just some of the waste that washes up on even the most remote parts of Alaska’s coastline. Now, programs aimed at cleaning up that marine debris are getting a funding boost from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – thanks to an influx of grant money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Nearly $14 million in federal funding is earmarked for two separate programs aimed at cleaning up marine debris in the state. The money is distributed through NOAA’s Marine Debris Program and funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed in 2021.
Peter Murphy is Alaska’s regional debris coordinator with NOAA. He said the new programs go beyond just cleaning up existing debris.
May 22, 2023 — As $216 million in federal aid is flowing to help Alaskans cope with salmon and crab collapses over the past three years, conditions that caused some of the harvest failures persist.
The Alaska congressional delegation announced on Friday that the U.S. Commerce Department released the disaster aid. The money is to go to harvesters, processors and communities affected by designated disasters in salmon and crab fisheries that occurred between 2020 and 2022. Some money will also go to research programs, the delegation said in the joint statement released by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
“This disaster funding comes at a time when several of our state’s fisheries are experiencing traumatizing and devastating collapses—so it will make a real difference for impacted fishermen and communities,” Murkowski said in the statement.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in December issued disaster declarations for the salmon and crab problems in Western Alaska and the Bering Sea, as well as some extremely weak salmon runs in 2020 in the Prince William Sound and Copper River areas. The biggest chunks of resulting disaster aid now arriving are designated as responses to Bering Sea and Norton Sound crab collapses
May 22, 2023 — Fishing groups and tribes in the U.S. state of Alaska are eyeing potential updates to federal fishing guidelines as a chance to change how several hallmark fisheries in the state are regulated.
Last week, NOAA Fisheries issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, welcoming public input on a number of topics, including climate change, equity in the representation of local fishing communities, and trawl bycatch. The agency will be accepting public comments offering suggestions on how to improve national standards to address those issues until 12 September, 2023.
May 19, 2023 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the allocation of over $220 million in fishery disaster funding, appropriated by Congress in the 2022 and 2023 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Acts. The funding will address fishery disasters that occurred in multiple Alaska and Washington fisheries between 2019 and 2023.
“Fishery disasters have devastating effects on local communities and our blue economy,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “This disaster funding provides much needed assistance to our fishing industry and we will work with the affected communities to begin the difficult work of helping them recover.”
May 19, 2023 — For more than a decade Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, has helped advocate for the cause to protect Bristol Bay in Southwest Alaska and the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery from a proposed open-pit gold and copper mining project near the bay’s headwaters.
She did so even though Gloucester, the nation’s oldest seaport, and Bristol Bay are some 3,600 miles apart on opposite coasts of the United States.
On Thursday at 4 p.m., Sanfilippo attended a celebration in the Rose Garden of the White House that marked the protection of Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine project.
According to his remarks, President Joe Biden told advocates his administration had used its authority under the Clean Water Act to ban the disposal of mine waste in the Bristol Bay watershed. Sanfilippo helped advocate for this cause, got others in the local and regional fishing industry onboard, and helped those in Alaska organize in their David vs. Goliath fight.
Biden pointed out the Bristol Bay salmon fishery supports 15,000 jobs in fishing, processing and tourism with an economic value of $2.2 billion.
Once back in Gloucester, Sanfilippo said in an interview Tuesday that Biden was so on point she wondered how she could get him to protect the Massachusetts fishery with its 70,000 jobs from the threat posed by looming offshore wind energy projects.
May 19, 2023 — Thursday, Representative Peltola applauded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Fisheries division announcement of an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, which would allow revisions to the division’s Guidelines for National Standards, specifically sections (NS) 4 (allocations), 8 (communities), and 9 (bycatch).
May 17, 2023 — Bering Sea pollock fishermen have almost met their “A” season quota.
Since the fishery opened in late January, nearly 100 vessels have caught about 1.2 billion pounds of Alaska pollock. That leaves about 43 million pounds still available to catch.
“It’s definitely a lot of fish,” said Krista Milani, a fisheries resources management specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Unalaska. “Sometimes when you think about the amount of pollock that they’re able to sustain in the Bering Sea, it’s kind of mind-blowing how much pollock is actually there.”
Milani said this “A” season quota is back on par with recent years, after a decrease last season.