Saving Seafood

Alaska’s Bering Sea crab crisis is a sign of big changes in the future, scientists warn

February 9, 2023 — The first-ever cancellation of Alaska’s Bering Sea snow crab harvest was unprecedented and a shock to the state’s fishing industry and the communities dependent on it.

Unfortunately for that industry and those communities, those conditions are likely to be common in the future, according to several scientists who made presentations at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium held in late January.

The conditions that triggered the crash were likely warmer than any extreme possible during the preindustrial period but now can be expected in about one of every seven years, said Mike Litzow, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric scientist based in Kodiak. By the 2040s, those conditions can be expected to occur one out of every three years, he said.

Blame “borealization” for the disaster befalling snow crab, which is an Arctic species, Litzow said. That term refers to an ecosystem becoming boreal, with groups of organisms – called “taxa” by scientists – that have been south of the Arctic until recently.

“If we think about an Arctic animal at the southern edge of its range that’s exposed to really rapid warming, that leads us sort of inevitably to the concept of borealization,” said Litzow, director of NOAA Fisheries Kodiak laboratory and shellfish assessment program. “As you warm Arctic ecosystems, those systems become prone to a state change, where Arctic taxa such as snow crab become replaced by subarctic taxa that are better able to tolerate ice-free and warm conditions.”

Snow crab are dependent on the winter sea ice and the cold conditions created even after the seasonal melt, he said. While they are widely dispersed through the Bering Sea, the sweet spot for the commercial harvest – the place where the crab are big enough to be commercially valuable – is in the southeastern Bering Sea.

Read the full article at Arctic Today

ALASKA: A Mine That Threatened Alaskan Salmon May Be No More

February 8, 2023 –A proposed mine project in Alaska may have been dealt its final blow. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effectively vetoed the project, citing its potential harm to salmon fisheries in the state’s Bristol Bay watershed.

Called Pebble Mine, the proposed development included a mile-wide open-pit mine, a power plant, a gas pipeline, access roads and a port to take advantage of gold and copper deposits thought to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

The EPA issued a final determination last week, banning the local disposal of dredged waste from building and operating the mine. This dumping would have “unacceptable adverse effects” on local waters, including around 100 miles of streams and 2,000 acres of important breeding grounds for the bay’s salmon, per the agency.

“The Bristol Bay watershed is a vital economic driver, providing jobs, sustenance and significant ecological and cultural value to the region,” says EPA Administrator Michael Regan in a statement. “With this action, EPA is advancing its commitment to help protect this one-of-a-kind ecosystem, safeguard an essential Alaskan industry, and preserve the way of life for more than two dozen Alaska Native villages.”

Read the full article at Smithsonian Magazine

ALASKA: Climate change takes back seat in Alaska’s bycatch showdown

February 7, 2023 — A debate over the potential impact of climate change in a rapid deterioration of Alaska’s crab fisheries is taking a back seat to a clash over the issue of bycatch.

Closures of the Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow crab fisheries have resulted in losses of USD 287.7 million (EUR 278.6 million) over the past two years for Alaska’s crabbers.  Scientists have said warming waters may have played a role in the disappearance of billions of snow crab to from Alaskan waters, resulting in a 90 percent decline in population. It’s a point acknowledged by Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers (ABSC) Executive Director Jamie Goen. But she said fisheries managers need to focus on measures they can directly control.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

OPINION: Rural Alaska is suffering. Shutting down the Area M fishery isn’t the answer.

February 6, 2023 — I was born and raised in the Interior, in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region, to be exact. I grew up in a community that depends on subsistence fishing, and my childhood memories are dominated by recollections of my father, my mother and countless other members of my family and broader community going out on boats and bringing back the fish that our people have harvested and survived on for generations. I grew up fishing for subsistence, and I know how deeply important it is not only for physical survival but for the survival of our cultures and the identities of Native people across Alaska.

I have lived in False Pass seasonally over the past 10 years and have raised my kids there. They have been raised to know subsistence and value it. They have created their own memories, both in False Pass and in the AYK region with my family. I have seen the harvests change in my lifetime, from years of abundance to some years where there is nothing at all, and I am brokenhearted by the impossible situation many communities in the AYK — including the one I grew up in — find themselves in with increasingly diminished salmon runs. However, I know that shutting down the fishery often referred to as Area M that my community and many, many other communities in Western Alaska depend on will not solve any of the problems the AYK is facing. Instead, it will cause more communities to suffer. We know this because every major research study and dataset demonstrates that limiting or shutting down Area M fisheries will not solve the salmon return crisis in the AYK. This conclusion is also that of the Department of Fish and Game, supported by both NOAA and Fish and Game studies demonstrating the impact that five-plus years of poor ocean conditions have had on AYK chum salmon.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Southeast Alaska communities set to join growing chorus opposing lawsuit that threatens Chinook shutdown

February 6, 2023 — Local governments around Southeast Alaska are speaking out against a lawsuit that threatens to shut down trolling for king salmon, also known as Chinook salmon, across the region this year. The lawsuit aims to protect an endangered population of orcas in Washington state.

Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg are set to join a growing chorus of Alaska voices highlighting the impact the suit could have on the region’s fishing fleet.

The lawsuit from the Washington state-based Wild Fish Conservancy centers on an endangered Puget Sound population of orcas known as Southern Resident Killer Whales.

Killer whales eat salmon — especially big, meaty king salmon — and the conservation group argues federal officials haven’t properly accounted for the impact the Southeast king salmon fishery has on the Puget Sound orcas.

Read the full article at KRBD

What’s next for Pebble mine, now that the federal government has taken extraordinary action to stop it?

February 2, 2023 — After a decades-long controversy, the Biden administration took a rare step this week to stop the giant Pebble copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska. But observers of the project say the fight could live on in court for years to come.

In separate statements, mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership and the state of Alaska on Tuesday threatened to sue the Environmental Protection Agency after it issued a preemptive veto of the project using its special power under the Clean Water Act.

Conservation and tribal groups and other entities opposed to the mine have said they’re equally ready to fight back to support the agency’s decision, if it must defend itself in court. They’re also looking for additional protections for the Bristol Bay fishery, beyond the EPA action, through potential legislation in Congress.

The EPA action means the project can’t be permitted for construction, even if Pebble wins its ongoing administrative appeal of a 2020 decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny the company’s permit application.

The decision blocks a project that would have been among the largest open-pit mines in the world. The mine would have unlocked billions of dollars in mineral wealth. But the agency says scientific and technical records dating back more than two decades show the mine would unacceptably harm the world’s largest commercial sockeye salmon fishery and about two dozen Alaska Native villages in the region.

Less certain is what will happen to the project in the court battle likely to follow, though people familiar with past vetoes by the EPA — made only three times in the last 30 years — suggest that Pebble has little hope of winning in court.

The EPA’s decision also would seem to dim financial prospects for the project, though a financial analyst who tracks stocks tied to Pebble said major mining companies will always have the Pebble deposit on their radars because of its massive potential value.

The project is located on state land 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near headwaters of the Bristol Bay fishery.

But Pebble Limited, led by small Canadian mining company Northern Dynasty Minerals, has shown remarkable resilience for many years. The project has survived the loss of major mining partners and resistance from the presidential administrations of Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Donald Trump and now Democrat Joe Biden.

Pebble is “like a zombie. They never die,” said Dan Cheyette, a vice president with the Bristol Bay Native Corp., the region’s Alaska Native corporation and a mine opponent. “We’re the persistent ones who will pursue every avenue we have to stop them.”

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Combined threats keep Alaska’s Cook Inlet beluga numbers perilously low, scientists say

February 2, 2023 — The dire state of the endangered Cook Inlet beluga population, which is now below 300 animals and has continued to decline, is blamed on a variety of factors. They include industrial noise, urban pollution, vessel traffic, oil and gas activities, food stress and climate change.

What about all of the above?

And for scientists working on how the beluga population can recover, the sheer range of problems can make it hard to come up with answers.

Scientists are studying several of these threats, and their research was a major focus of the Alaska Marine Science Symposium held last week in Anchorage.

One project maps numerous combined stressors in the endangered belugas’ habitat. The map was created by independent scientist and consultant Mandy Migura for Defenders of Wildlife and in collaboration with other organizations.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Huge Harvest of The Alaska Crabber’s Favorite Crab

February 2, 2023 — Many consumers may not be familiar with bairdi crab, commonly referred to as Tanner crab, harvested in the Gulf of Alaska. For commercial fishermen in fishing communities throughout the gulf, including Kodiak, my hometown, the Tanner/bairdi crab fishery is the talk of the town. The anticipation and excitement are palpable around the community as the fleet gets ready to fish.

Tanner crab, Chionoecetes bairdi, is often marketed as snow crab but is technically a meatier relative of the species Chionoecetes opilio. Whether you want to sell it at retail as snow, bairdi or Tanner, I like to say just call it Alaska crab, and you’ll be good to go.

While lacking the fame of king crab, Gulf of Alaska Tanner/bairdi crab are renowned by seafood connoisseurs and particularly prized for their texture and sweet flavor. In fact, of all the crab species, many fishermen, including my family, prefer the large gulf Tanner/bairdi crab over all others. The meat is particularly sweet, with a delicate flavor and tender texture. It is not quite as rich as some other crab species, and the subtle flavor of the meat is often met with sighs of delight. The crab is harvested from the pristine Alaska marine environment, and the light taste seems to capture the sea spray, the clean air and the beauty of Alaska’s great land!

Read the full article at Progressive Grocer

OPINION: A modest proposal for Alaska fisheries

February 2, 2023 — At the behest of Alaska’s Sen. Ted Stevens and Congressman Don Young, in 1976 Congress enacted the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which authorizes the U.S. secretary of commerce to regulate commercial fishing in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska seaward of Alaska coastal waters.

The Act established an 11-member North Pacific Fishery Management Council. While the Council purportedly is “advisory,” with only the rare exception, the secretary — in the guise of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — rubber-stamps whatever the Council recommends.

And there is the rub.

The Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game has a permanent seat on the council. The secretary appoints five of the 10 other members from a list of three names for each seat that the governor of Alaska submits to the secretary. That enables the six Alaska members to control Council decision-making if they vote together.

The Council’s principal task is to decide how commercial fishing for pollock and other groundfish is conducted. Since catcher and catcher-processor vessels participating in the groundfish fishery earned $811 million in 2020, even minor regulatory restrictions can have significant adverse financial consequences for the companies, most headquartered in Seattle, that own the vessels.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News 

ALASKA: Kodiak crab strike ends after 2 weeks

February 1, 2023 — After two weeks of staying at the dock, Kodiak’s tanner crab fleet is finally going fishing. Crabbers agreed to a price with the island’s processors on Saturday.

Each of Kodiak’s four canneries offered slightly different deals — Alaska Pacific Seafoods agreed to $3.35 per pound plus a retro payment — which can boost the final payout to fishermen after the season. Pacific Seafood also agreed to $3.35 per pound with a possible retro to fishermen. OBI settled with crabbers for $3.25 plus profit sharing, and Trident Seafoods stayed at $3.25 per pound.

It wasn’t exactly the deal Kodiak crabbers were hoping for, and some boats from Kodiak may still take their crab out west where processors are offering slightly more per pound. But ultimately, 80% of those in attendance at Saturday’s meeting agreed — it was time to go fishing.

Read the full article at KTOO