Saving Seafood

ALASKA: ‘Future of Fishing’ panel hopeful that Alaska’s near-term crises will be met with long-term vision

December 28, 2022 — Although a number of Alaska’s fisheries have collapsed, or are otherwise under threat, some of the people most deeply involved in fishing advocacy believe that recovery is not just possible, but necessary to the well-being of our communities and our planet.

KCAW in Sitka recently held a one-hour forum on the Future of Fishing (12-16-22), and the three panelists all found reasons to be hopeful that continued research, traditional knowledge, and historical perspective will all play a role in charting a path to the future.

Harvey Kitka is a lifelong Sitkan, whose father was a commercial seiner around the time of statehood, when fishermen were paid by the fish, rather than by the pound. His grandfather seined prior to the arrival of hydraulics, and pulled the weighted webbing by hand.

As an indigenous Alaskan, Kitka has one foot in a millenia-old subsistence tradition, but both eyes on the future. He’s uniquely positioned to bring deep perspective to policy decisions, and he’s been no stranger to the testimony table at the state Board of Fisheries. He is an advocate for rebuilding Southeast herring stocks.

Read the full article at KCAW

Murkowski outlines Alaska Fisheries and Oceans funding in Consolidated Appropriations Act

December 28, 2022 — U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said she secured significant funding for fisheries and oceans priorities in Alaska in the recently-passed Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2023.

The year-end omnibus includes $15 million in Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) allocations for ocean and river research to be performed by Alaskans in addition to significant programmatic support through agency budgets.

“Our fisheries and oceans provide foundational food security and economic opportunity for Alaskans statewide. I’m proud to champion our marine environment and cornerstone species like salmon and crab in this year-end package,” Murkowski said. “The language I secured provides support for fisheries disaster relief, research, indigenous co-management, surveys, fisheries management, marine debris removal, transboundary watershed monitoring, and many more Alaska priorities. Alaskans advocated for these projects, we worked together to deliver on them, and we can now look forward to their imp

Read the full article at KIFW

Update: US government omnibus bill includes $300 million to help Alaska Bristol Bay red king crab, Bering Sea snow crab and other fishery disaster areas

December 28, 2022 — This week Congress acted quickly to include $300 million (€282 million) in funds for fishery disasters in its massive omnibus appropriations bill. Earlier this month the US government determined fishery disasters in multiple Alaska and Washington state fisheries over the last several years, including the Alaska Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow crab fisheries.

“The $300 million included in the omnibus appropriation package for fishery disasters is a great start for much-needed money to help fishermen and communities pay their bills,” said Jamie Goen, executive director for Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. “We commend the Secretary of Commerce, NOAA Fisheries, and members of Congress, particularly the Alaska and Washington delegations, for their swift action and attention to this issue affecting so many hard-working Americans and family fishing businesses.”

Read the full article at Intrafish

Disaster aid for Alaska crab, salmon fisheries in spending bill

December 23, 2022 — Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo on Dec. 16 announced approval of fishery disaster requests for crab and salmon fisheries in Alaska and Washington over the last several years.

The declarations are for poor or closed Alaska harvests going back to 2020. They cover failures in the crab fisheries for this season and last season, including the recently canceled Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red crab harvests, as well as the closure of king crab fishing in Norton Sound in 2020 and 2021, the collapse of chum and coho harvests in the Kuskokwim River area, the poor salmon returns in the Chignik area in 2021, and low returns of pink and coho salmon om the Copper River and Prince William Sound areas in 2020.

For Washington, fishery disaster declarations were approved for the 2020 ocean salmon fisheries and the 2019 Columbia River, Willapa Bay, and Puget Sound Salmon fisheries.

“America’s fisheries are a critical part of our national economy and directly impact our local communities when disasters occur,” Raimondo said. “These determinations are a way to assist those fishing communities with financial relief to mitigate impacts, restore fisheries and help prevent future disasters.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

North Pacific council hears renewed demands on bycatch

December 22, 2022 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council met in Anchorage during the second week in December. Among items on its agenda the panel was to deliberate on action steps to mitigate the incidental take of chum and chinook salmon, red king crab, opilio crab and other species that come up in the tows of pollock trawlers.

Many from Kuskokwim and Yukon River villages, the crabbing industry and those representing other interests had hoped the council would take immediate action to close down trawling in vast areas of the Bering Sea.

That didn’t happen.

“The council has decided to protect the status quo and allow the trawl fleets to continue catching and discarding prohibited species such as chum salmon, chinook salmon and crab while entire western Alaska runs and crab stocks are in collapse,” says Lindsey Bloom, a campaign strategist, with SalmonState, in Juneau.  “This is a total failure in fisheries management.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Alaska crab fishery collapse seen as warning about Bering Sea transformation

December 20, 2022 — Less than five years ago, prospects appeared bright for Bering Sea crabbers. Stocks were abundant and healthy, federal biologists said, and prices were near all-time highs.

Now two dominant crab harvests have been canceled for lack of a catch. For the first time, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in October canceled the 2022-2023 harvest of Bering Sea snow crab, and it also announced the second consecutive year of closure for another important harvest, that of Bristol Bay red king crab.

What has happened between then and now? A sustained marine heat wave that prevented ice formation in the Bering Sea for two winters, thus vastly altering ocean conditions and seafood species’ health.

“We lost billions of snow crab in a matter of months,” said Bob Foy, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, at a public forum held Dec. 12 at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. “We don’t have a smoking gun, if you will. We don’t have one particular event that impacted the snow crab — except the heat wave.”

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Crabbers, fishermen seek US aid after disaster declaration

December 19, 2022 — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s disaster declaration for certain salmon and crab fisheries in Washington and Alaska opens the door for financial relief as part of an omnibus spending bill being negotiated by U.S. lawmakers.

The declaration Friday covers Bristol Bay king crab harvests suspended for two years, and the snow crab harvest that will be canceled for the first time in 2023. Also covered are 2021 salmon harvests from Alaska’s Kuskokwim River and 2019 and 2020 Washington salmon fisheries, The Seattle Times reported.

ALASKA: Federal government declares disasters for Alaska fisheries

December 19, 2022 — The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday announced a series of fishery disaster declarations in Alaska dating back to 2020, a key step toward securing federal disaster assistance.

Now that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has made the determination, the fisheries are eligible to receive disaster assistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, if Congress appropriates the necessary funds.

The announcement comes months after Alaska officials canceled this year’s Bering Sea king and snow crab fishing seasons due to dramatically diminishing populations, with impacts rippling across the industry and Alaska communities.

“These are not only devastating to Alaska’s fishing and seafood industry and Alaskan families, but Alaska’s economy as a whole,” Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a statement.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News 

ALASKA: Alaska board sets new Bristol Bay net rules

December 16, 2022 — The Alaska Board of Fisheries snuffed out proposals that would have limited the length of towlines between Bristol Bay drift vessels and their nets to 100 feet, opting instead to set the maximum towline length to 600 feet at its December meeting. But the board extended the distance that set gill nets can fish offshore in Bristol Bay.

The panel also voted down proposals that would have done away with permit stacking on drift vessels as it wrapped up its meetings for 2022.

In all, 62 proposals had been submitted for consideration in December, some of which saw no action and others which pertained to sport fishing or subsistence harvest regulations in Bristol Bay.

Previous regulations permitted tow lines of unlimited length between drift boats and their nets. Numerous proposals in this most recent meeting cycle specified a limit of 100 feet with the reasoning that shallow draft boats in recent years have adopted the tactic of setting nets with their shoreward ends in the mud on a falling tide. The long towlines enable the boats to hover offshore while the nets load up with salmon that swim in the first few inches of water when the tide turns to the flood.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Bristol Bay forecast indicates solid run with majority big fish

December 16, 2022 — Bristol Bay last season was complete madness. The final count on sockeye, including numbers from Area M on the South Peninsula, came in at over 82 million fish. And even more impressive, said University of Washington fisheries biologist and Bristol Bay savant Daniel Schindler, was the harvest.

“Obviously the total run was phenomenal, but the catch was even more incredible. To be able to catch and handle over 60 million fish is hard to believe,” Schindler said recently.

Just a few years ago a catch of 60 million fish was not even in the conversation. In fact, the total run in Bristol Bay eclipsed 60 million for the first time in 2018, and last year’s harvest was 170 percent above the average harvest since 1962.

The abundance is a boon for the industry, but it also comes with complications and a certain amount of chaos. Fishermen were taxed to the limit while processors, already struggling with labor shortages, faced logistical challenges from the massive number of fish. On the marketing end, the industry is now tasked with moving a far larger pack than normal.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman