Saving Seafood

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

Republicans vow EPA scrutiny in Pebble veto’s wake

February 1, 2023 — A top Senate Republican is promising to ramp up oversight of EPA’s Clean Water Act veto power after the agency used its authority to block a contentious gold and copper mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, home to a world premier salmon fishery.

Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) blasted EPA’s final determination that barred waters within the Bristol Bay watershed from receiving dredge and fill. The federal action essentially killed the proposed mine.

Capito accused the agency of circumventing the agency review process and said upcoming talks on permitting reform legislation may address the issue. Capito and 38 other Republicans last year floated a bill called the “Simplify Timelines and Assure Regulatory Transparency (START) Act.”

“The environmental permitting process should have clear rules of the road, both for applicants and for the agencies to follow,” said the senator. “The EPA summarily denying an application before it is submitted sets a dangerous precedent for future economic development and infrastructure projects across the country.”

EPA stated considering vetoing Pebble during the Obama administration, before the mine had entered the permitting process. The Army Corps of Engineers denied a Clean Water Act Section 404 dredge-and-fill permit, but the company behind it appealed. EPA this week used its veto power over such permits to make sure the mine is never built.

Capito, a longtime critic of EPA’s history with vetoes, said her legislation would address retroactive decisions that have “negatively impacted West Virginia in the past” and said she will be “examining the agency’s use of prospective vetoes as well.”

Read the full article at E&E News

EPA decision on Bristol Bay draws criticism and praise

February 1, 2023 — The Environmental Protection Agency’s order limiting the use of some waters in Alaska’s Bristol Bay drew ire from Gov. Mike Dunleavy and praise from others.

The order prohibits using some waters in Alaska’s Bristol Bay as “disposal of dredged and fill material associated with developing the Pebble deposit in certain waters.”

The EPA is setting a dangerous precedent, Dunleavy said Tuesday.

“Alarmingly, it lays the foundation to stop any development project, mining or non-mining, in any area of Alaska with wetlands and fish-bearing streams,” Dunleavy said.

Read the full article at The Center Square

ALASKA: Alaska salmon troll fleet under the gun over chinooks and killer whales

February 1, 2023 — Alaska’s Southeast salmon troll fishery is again in the crosshairs with the latest round of legal action threatening the loss of its key chinook fisheries.

In December, a western Washington district court released recommendations to suspend fishing under the Incidental Take Statement, a provision within the Pacific Salmon Treaty that allows Alaska trollers to take wild chinooks throughout the year.

The legal battle began in 2020 with a lawsuit filed by the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy that challenges the biological rationale in setting allocations of Pacific Salmon Treaty chinooks that Southeast trollers catch.

The premise of the case is that when the National Marine Fisheries Service rendered its biological opinion in the formation of the treaty, it did not consider a portion of the commingling stocks as forage fish for the population of 73 killer whales in Puget Sound. The WFC suit rides on the contention that the agency acted out of compliance with the Endangered Species Act.

In a 2021 ruling the same court agreed that NMFS was out of compliance. Since then, the agency has been working on language that it hopes will satisfy mandates within the ESA. But the question remains whether the Alaska troll fishery will be able to operate or not.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

U.S. EPA’s move to block Pebble project in Alaska ‘unlawful’ – CEO

February 1, 2023 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to block the proposed Pebble copper and gold mining project near Alaska’s ecologically sensitive Bristol Bay watershed is “unlawful” and hurts the state, said the top boss of the mining project.

The EPA has moved to stop the company from storing mine waste at the watershed, home to important salmon species, including the world’s largest sockeye salmon fisheries that support critical wildlife and a multibillion-dollar industry.

Read the full article at Reuters

E.P.A. Blocks Long-Disputed Mine Project in Alaska

January 31, 2023 — The Biden administration on Tuesday moved to protect one of the world’s most valuable wild salmon fisheries, at Bristol Bay in Alaska, by effectively blocking the development of a gold and copper mine there.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final determination under the Clean Water Act that bans the disposal of mine waste in part of the bay’s watershed, about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Streams in the watershed are crucial breeding grounds for salmon, but the area also contains deposits of precious-metal ores thought to be worth several hundred billion dollars.

A two-decades old proposal to mine those ores, called the Pebble project, has been supported by some Alaskan lawmakers and Native groups for the economic benefits it would bring, but opposed by others, including tribes around the bay and environmentalists who say it would do irreparable harm to the salmon population.

Alannah Hurley, executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay, which has long opposed the mine, said the decision “was a real moment of justice for us.”

Read the full article at The New York Times

EPA vetoes Pebble mine

January 31, 2023 — EPA will use a rare authority under the Clean Water Act to block the proposed Pebble mine and bar similar projects to dig up a massive gold and copper deposit in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, home to one of the world’s premier salmon fisheries.

The agency’s decision marks yet another move by the Biden administration in recent days to protect sensitive areas critical to tribes, including sealing protections for the Tongass National Forest and restricting mining in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for decades (Greenwire, Jan. 26).

Read the full article at E&E News