Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska Cancels Snow Crab Season Amid Population Declines

October 17, 2022 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said this week that it had canceled the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea for the first time because of a decline in the crab population. The fishing industry described the cancellation as a crushing blow.

Biologists say the warming of the waters of the Bering Sea in recent years is a possible factor in the decline of the snow crab population. The number of crabs has now fallen below the threshold for opening a fishery, the fish and game department said in a statement, adding that the Bering Sea snow crab season, which typically opens on Oct. 15, would be canceled this year.

Read the full article at the New York Times

 

ALASKA: ‘It’s simply devastating in ways that many people don’t realize’ – Alaska cancels crab seasons

October 13, 2022 — On Monday, Alaska officials made an unprecedented announcement.

For the first time ever, they canceled the winter snow crab harvest in the Bering Sea.

They also nixed the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest for the second year in a row.

Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, says the total cancellation of the season came as a surprise.

“We were hoping for at least a small season,” Goen said. “It’s been devastating to get this news, and our fishermen are in shock and trying to figure out what’s next. ‘Cause we’re heading in to the second year now of record low levels for our king crab stocks and our snow crab stocks in Alaska.”

Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers represents around 350 people and a fleet of 60 vessels. They fish for king, snow and bairdi crabs in Alaska waters, and many of their boats are based in Seattle.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife says it’s trying to balance the needs of long-term conservation efforts, and the sustainability of crab stock.

A few years ago, Snow crab populations suddenly collapsed – likely the result of a warming event in the Bering Sea. Meanwhile the population of mature female red king crabs have been in steep decline since 2008.

Goen says this decision will have a major impact on their fishermen.

“There’s gonna be many boats tying up with the dock this year. Our vessels are facing bankruptcy,” she said. “They’re having to lay off crew and some of these crew had been working on these boats for 10 and 20 years.”

Read the full article at KUOW

ALASKA: Bering Sea king and snow crab seasons canceled amid population declines

October 13, 2022 — For the first time ever, the Bering Sea snow crab fishery will not open for the upcoming season. Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game announced the closure Monday afternoon. The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery will also be closed this year — for a second year in a row.

Gabriel Prout co-owns the F/V Silver Spray with his dad and brothers. The Silver Spray is a 116-foot steel crabber that’s homeported in Kodiak.

He said he wasn’t surprised that Fish and Game closed the king crab fishery — in a normal year, he’d go out for king crab, too. But numbers have been on the decline and that fishery didn’t open last year, either.

“The real shocking part is the total and complete collapse of the snow crab fishery which no one expected last year when it happened, and a complete closure this year was equally as shocking,” Prout said.

Read the full article at KTOO

ALASKA: Alaska’s Bering snow crab, king crab seasons canceled

October 12, 2022 — Alaska officials have canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest, and for the first time, have also scrapped the winter harvest of smaller snow crab.

The move is a double whammy to a fleet from Alaska, Washington and Oregon chasing Bering Sea crab in harvests that in 2016 grossed $280 million, The Seattle Times reported.

The closures reflect conservation concerns about both crab species following bleak summer populations surveys. The decisions to shut down the snow crab and fall king crab harvests came after days of discussions by Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists and senior agency officials who faced crabbers’ pleas for at least small fisheries.

“I am struggling for words. This is so unbelievable that this is happening,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, adding that some crabbers will go out of business.

Read the full article at KPTV

Alaska shuts down crab seasons after dismal survey results

October 11, 2022 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game canceled all opilio snow, red king crab, and blue king crab seasons for 2022-2023, in a devastating blow to North Pacific fishermen and processors after trawl surveys showed a continuing crash in abundance.

The announcement came Monday after Bering Sea crabbers had pressed the North Pacific Fishery Management Council during its October meeting to do more to reduce crab bycatch in trawl fisheries.

“On the heels of that decision came to an announcement that Bristol Bay red king crab will be closed for the second year in a row, and Bering Sea snow crab will close for the first time in the history of this fishery,” according to a statement from the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

The group projects lost revenue at $500 million and warned that “Many members of Alaska’s fleet will face bankruptcy, including second- and third-generation crabbers whose families are steeped in the culture of this industry. Long-time crew members who have worked these decks for decades will be jobless.”

“This decision just destroyed a fishing business of over 50 years and the crew that have a combined 100 years invested in it,” said Joshua Songstad from the F/V Handler. “Our crew of six has a combined 16 children to feed. No fishing model accounts for that.”

Andy Hillstrand from the F/V Time Bandit and the TV show Deadliest Catch said, “We’re going to have to let people go because there’s no work and we’ve lost the ability to make money for the upkeep of the vessel. Out of the 60-vessel crab fleet remaining since we consolidated years ago, we could lose up to half or more with this decision.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: At Kodiak fisheries debate, Gara and Walker find common ground while Dunleavy is a no-show

October 7, 2022 — At a forum on fishery issues held in the seaport town of Kodiak, two of the leading gubernatorial contenders spent time focusing on a man who was not there: incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

After about an hour of in-depth discussions of fishery issues that included climate change and its effects in the oceans, the role of hatchery fish in the ecosystem and economy, the infrastructure and workforce development needs of the fishing industry and state fiscal policies, former state Rep. Les Gara and former Gov. Bill Walker turned their fire directly on Dunleavy.

The Republican incumbent, who failed to attend, has shirked too many debates, showing a lack of regard for Alaska voters, they argued.

“You have to wonder about somebody who won’t share their ideas with you. You have to wonder about somebody who won’t come to listen with you,” Gara, a Democrat, said in his closing remarks. “If he doesn’t have the courtesy to show up at over 90% of the debates, then he’s got ideas that he doesn’t want to share with people.”

“I am running for governor because Alaska needs someone that will show up…someone who will represent not just their political donors but the entire state,” Walker, an independent, said in his summary remarks. “You can tell how hard someone will work as governor based on how hard they work to become governor. And this governor has not.”

In contrast to their disdain for Dunleavy, Gara and Walker expressed support for each other at the fishery forum, as they have done elsewhere. They urged voters to mark both their names in Alaska’s new ranked-choice system.

The Kodiak Chamber of Commerce has been hosting fishery forums for the past 30 years, and in the past the events were seen as musts for serious candidates seeking statewide office. They are considered the only election forums focused specifically on fisheries.

But in 2018, Dunleavy declined to go, and that year’s gubernatorial fishery forum wound up canceled.

Read the full article at the Petersburg Pilot

ALASKA: Salmon season winds down with ‘middle of the road’ statewide harvest

October 7, 2022 — Despite record-breaking sockeye harvests in Bristol Bay, data and experts point to an overall mediocre salmon harvest in Alaska for the 2022 season.

According to data provided by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute in its latest update, the statewide preliminary harvest is estimated to be more than 153 million salmon — across all species — caught during the 14 weeks spanning mid-June to mid-September that the data was analyzed.

That means the harvest is expected to be around 35% less than last year’s harvest, which capped at a total of 233.8 million salmon according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. However, this year’s harvest fulfilled 96% of what the ADFG had originally forecast for this season.

Forrest R. Bowers, ADFG Division of Commercial Fisheries’ division operations manager, said he would consider this year to be “a little better than average” and said fishing is still going on and ADFG won’t be releasing its preliminary harvest summary until early November.

Read the full article at Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Bristol Bay’s sockeye runs are breaking records, but the fishery’s growth has left many locals behind

October 7, 2022 — This summer, 79 million sockeye returned to Bristol Bay. It was the largest run on record. But over the past half-century, there has been a dramatic shift in who fishes commercially in Bristol Bay. Local permit ownership has declined sharply, and research shows that’s due in part to a regulatory change to Alaska’s fishery management from the 1970s.

Propelled by years of low salmon returns and more people coming to the state to fish, Alaskans voted in 1972 to amend the state’s constitution and implement a limited entry system. This system restricted the number of commercial fishing permits in areas around the state, including Bristol Bay.

Its purpose was to reduce pressure on the state’s fisheries and help financially sustain fishermen who depended on them. The original permit applications were also meant to favor rural residents. But since limited entry began, local permit ownership in Bristol Bay has declined by 50%. Residents now own around one-fifth of drift permits.

William P. Johnson finished his sixty-second year captaining his own boat last summer. He grew up commercial fishing with his mother in Igushik. He worked on drift boats before he eventually bought his own. He said fishing in the 1960s and 70s was tough — the runs were low and there was steep competition. Limited entry was meant to address some of those problems, and supporters say it did. But it also fundamentally changed how local people were involved in the industry — and how the industry affected communities closest to the state’s fisheries.

“In the early years, there were many people who were participating in a fishery,” said Johnson, who lives in Dillingham and is a member of the Curyung Tribe. “They hired their local people from their village to participate with them. And with the out-migration, you can see the effect that it has on the monetary return to individual village people through their commercial fishermen.”

Fred Torrisi came to Dillingham as a lawyer with the state’s legal services in the 1970s. He said before limited entry, anyone could fish as long as they had a gear license.

“Limited entry was a major switch in that you got [the permit] once, based on your past performance and economic reliance on the fishery. And then it was sort of like a piece of property: You could transfer it to somebody else, or you could use it, but without one you couldn’t fish,” he said.

Read the full article at KTOO

Rewrite of federal fisheries law navigates rough partisan waters

October 5, 2022 — There are two names that come up a lot in the Alaska fisheries world.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, named for U.S. Senators Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.) and Ted Stevens (R-AK), has been around since 1976 and sets the rules for federal fisheries in the U.S.

Management plans set in those waters have to stand up to the act and its national standards — for example, a plan that would’ve closed a large swath of Cook Inlet to commercial fishing was overturned earlier this year because the court said it did not comply with Magnuson.

The act has been renewed and revised twice, in 1996 and 2006. On Sept. 29, the House Natural Resources Committee passed a long-sought rewrite of the act that tightens restrictions on bycatch — which is the incidental catch of non-target species, like salmon — and calls out the threat of climate change in federal fisheries.

The resulting Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act would still need to pass Congress before taking effect. But if passed, it could have big implications for the way Alaska’s federal fisheries are managed.

“Anybody who is dependent on halibut is impacted by the language in this bill. Anybody who is dependent on salmon and interactions between salmon and pollock fishery, for example, is impacted by this bill,” said Marissa Wilson, of Homer, who directs the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

Read the full article at KTOO

ALASKA: Walker and Gara again question Dunleavy’s absence at Kodiak fisheries debate

October 5, 2022 — Two candidates running for Alaska governor blasted Republican incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy for missing a longstanding Kodiak debate focused on commercial fishing.

Democratic former state lawmaker Les Gara and independent former Gov. Bill Walker both agreed with each other more often than they disagreed as they shared a Kodiak stage Monday evening, facing a series of questions about the industry. Both said they would hire a dedicated fisheries adviser in the governor’s office if elected; both criticized the current governor’s administration for what they said was inaction on bycatch.

Gara and Walker drew distinctions between themselves and the sitting governor not on stage, criticizing his decision late last year to create a new task force to address issues relating to bycatch — incidental harvest of fish like salmon and halibut by commercial operators that cannot be processed or sold.

“All too often, a task force is used to avoid making a decision,” Walker said. “Every time you turn around, there’s another task force. I want a do-force.”

Both candidates have consistently criticized the governor for declining invitations to debates and forums as the November election draws near. And both have encouraged voters to rank the other candidate second.

“You have to wonder about somebody who won’t share their ideas with you. You have to wonder about somebody who doesn’t come to listen to you,” Gara said Monday. “I’m not ranking Gov. Dunleavy. If he doesn’t have the courtesy to show up to over 90% of the debates, then he’s got ideas he doesn’t want to share with people.”

Dunleavy traveled to Nome on Monday “to check on the recovery/rebuilding process” after the remnants of Typhoon Merbok last month caused widespread damage in communities along more than 1,000 miles of the Western Alaska coast. Asked about the specific goals of the trip to Nome, Dunleavy spokesman Jeff Turner said he had no timeline or itinerary for the trip.

Even before the storm struck, the Kodiak debate was not one of the five Dunleavy had confirmed he would join in an August announcement from his campaign, when Dunleavy said that the selected debates represent “as many interests as possible.” Dunleavy later canceled his participation in one of the five forums he had committed to, in order to respond to the storm fallout in Western Alaska.

“We picked five events out of easily more than a dozen invitations because for a full-time governor it is simply not possible to accept every invitation, and I think the justifications for that is certainly borne out yesterday because the governor was traveling and is still traveling today to Western Alaska to check on the recovery progress,” Dunleavy campaign spokesperson Andrew Jensen said Tuesday. “Certainly no disrespect is intended for the fishing community.”

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News