Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Cod, salmon at top of agenda as Alaska Board of Fisheries gears up

October 4, 2022 — Though autumn marks the end of the fishing seasons for herring, salmon, halibut and blackcod,  there’s much afoot with changes in fisheries management when the Alaska Board of Fisheries ramps up for meetings beginning in October and running through March of 2023.

In the lives of Alaska’s proactive commercial fishermen, it’s either fishing season or meeting season.

For starters, the Board of Fisheries meets jointly with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council on Oct. 13. The agenda for the Joint Protocol Committee calls for a half day of discussions about small boat access in the state and federal Pacific cod fisheries, then reports and a rebuilding plan for beleaguered crab stocks in the Bering Sea. The meeting is open to public testimony, but the deadline for written testimony has been set for Oct. 5.

Board of Fisheries action resumes Oct. 27  and continues with meetings that stretch through March 13,  as the fish panel reviews 169 proposals that could spell regulation changes in commercial fisheries across major seafood production areas in the state.

The board will begin Oct. 27 with proposals for cod at Chignik, the Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands (BSAI) and Alaska Peninsula.  Beginning on Nov. 29 the board will delve into proposals pertaining to Bristol Bay salmon.

Alaska’s far west salmon topics, including the collapse of runs in the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, will be the focus of the meetings running from Jan. 14 through Jan. 18.   Salmon and other finfish will again dominate discussions at the meetings scheduled for Feb. 20 through Feb. 25.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Both sides dig in as EPA’s final decision on Pebble Mine nears

October 4, 2022 — Environmental advocates, Alaska Natives and commercial fishermen say they are at once confident and anxious as they wait for the EPA to announce a final ban on mining wastes in Bristol Bay, Alaska — home to one of the world’s largest salmon fisheries — that would effectively kill a gold and copper mine estimated to be worth $350 billion.

The Pebble Mine has endured a decadeslong fight spanning three administrations, all of which have moved to block the mine to protect the fishery. The developers, Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and other investors doing business as the Pebble Limited Partnership, are still determined to keep the project alive.

It would be unusual for the EPA to reverse its preliminary decision to ban mining wastes from Bristol Bay under a provision of the Clean Water Act, but the Pebble Limited Partnership won’t be reluctant to take the EPA to court to secure the permits it needs, according to a spokesman.

Meanwhile, Delores Larson, who lives in the Native Village of Koliganek, Alaska, on the Nushagak River, says the possibility of the Pebble Mine getting a green light is terrifying. There are no grocery stores where she lives, she said, no lettuce, bananas or any other imported foods. But there are native berries, moose and other wildlife, including the salmon that begin their northern journey to spawn about 125 miles downstream in the Bristol Bay fishery.

Her people are “salmon people,” she said in an interview in Washington last month as she scrolled through pictures of bright pink catch drying in a shed back home in Koliganek and the dark, glossy fillets of her famous salmon jerky. “Salmon is gold to us.”

Larson had traveled over 3,000 miles to pressure the EPA to finalize its “proposed determination” announced in May to “prohibit and restrict the use of certain waters in the Bristol Bay watershed (South Fork Koktuli River, North Fork Koktuli River, and Upper Talarik Creek watersheds) as disposal sites for the discharge of dredged or fill material associated with mining the Pebble Deposit.” The agency says the project would threaten the bay’s salmon fishery, which this year produced more than 76 million sockeyes, an all-time record harvest.

“Honestly, we would cease to exist as a people,” she said with a sigh, considering what would happen if the Pebble Mine was built. “It’s our whole life. We depend entirely on our salmon.”

But developers aren’t keen on letting the EPA strike down a multibillion-dollar project that would tap into what geologists say is one of the world’s largest reserves of gold, copper and other minerals. They hold that their plan to contain the wastes is sound, despite what the EPA has said in various reports.

“The record EPA has tried to create for this action is baseless,” said Mike Heatwole, vice president of public affairs for the partnership. “No matter the outcome, we will continue to press our case for this important mineral project.”

A final decision had been expected this month after the EPA received a flood of public comments mostly supporting the plan for banning waste. But the agency announced on Sept. 6 that it would postpone the final determination until December so it could fully review all the comments — though it hasn’t escaped notice that it means there will be no announcement before the midterm elections.

And the inevitable legal battle ahead would prolong an already lengthy fight for the project.

Read the full article at Roll Call

ALASKA: Fish for Families completes salmon distributions to communities experiencing record-low salmon returns

September 29, 2022 — In July and August, the Fish for Families project delivered more than 14,000 pounds of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to families in the Chigniks and Yukon River regions where communities saw record-low wild salmon returns and subsistence fisheries were shut down.

In response to the summer’s low salmon returns and the growing demand for donated salmon throughout Alaska, the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust collaborated with the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and small-boat fishermen around the state to launch the Fish for Families initiative.

Read the full article at Ketchikan Radio Center

Rep. Peltola’s fight for salmon debuts in Resources Committee

September 23, 2022 — Alaska’s new congresswoman wants her new colleagues on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee to understand how dire the fish crisis is for families in her home region, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, where people depend on salmon for food. On Wednesday, she told them about one Kuskokwim fisherman who usually harvests 2,000 chum salmon a year.

“Because he has a dog team, and a very large family. So typically, every summer he would harvest 2,000 chum salmon,” Rep. Mary Peltola said. “Two summers ago, he was only able to harvest two chum salmon.”

The impact of her anecdote in the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee room was hard to measure. Republicans attended in force to skewer many provisions in a Democratic bill to re-write the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary federal fishing law. Some spoke of how important sportfishing is to their families and communities.

It was an unfinished goal of the late Congressman Don Young to renew the bill. Now Peltola, in her first committee session as a member of Congress, is trying to pass a version that will refocus fisheries management to address the needs of subsistence fishermen — particularly in Western Alaska, where salmon have become painfully scarce. One of her main campaign themes is that she’ll fight for salmon but she’s facing strong headwinds.

The bill includes a change Peltola has advocated for in November, when she came to the committee as a hearing witness: adding two seats on the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council for Alaska tribal members.

Without those seats at the table, she argues, the fisheries management council will always be more receptive to the large trawl fleet. They catch salmon by accident. Peltola said this bycatch is one reason the fish don’t return to the rivers like the used to.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Alaska Democrat’s arrival signals change in fisheries debate

September 19, 2022 — As the first Alaska native elected to Congress, Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola will bring a new twist to a long-running fisheries debate when the House Natural Resources Committee votes on a proposed overhaul of the nation’s premier fishing law this week.

It’s a top issue for Peltola, who was sworn in last week and promptly won a seat on the committee.

It’s also an issue that Peltola knows well, having served as director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and getting a very early start on fishing herself.

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: Peltola lands a spot on House Resources. Next up: the Magnuson-Stevens fisheries bill

September 19, 2022 — New Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola was awarded a seat on the House Natural Resources Committee, where Chairman Raúl Grijalva said she will sometimes be at odds with her fellow Democrats.

“I think she brings a perspective – and it’s not just an Alaska Native perspective, it’s an Alaska perspective – to us,” said Grijalva, D-Ariz.

The Resources Committee considers issues of huge importance to Alaska: Oil development. Oceans and fisheries. Federal land management. Native Affairs. Peltola’s predecessor, the late Don Young, was on the committee for decades and used to be its chair.

Next week, the Resources Committee will take up a rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the law governing fishing in federal waters. Before he died in March, Young was working on it with Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif.

Read the full article at KTOO

Federal survey delivers more bad news to the Bering Sea crab fleet

September 12, 2022 — A Bering Sea survey by federal scientists contains more bad news for Alaska, Washington and Oregon-based crabbers hoping for an upturn in upcoming harvests that last year fell to rock-bottom levels.

The federal survey results for Bristol Bay king crab are bleak and crabbers have been warned that — for a second consecutive year — there may not be a fall harvest, according to Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

The new survey results, released late last week, show that the population of mature male snow crab targeted by crabbers decreased by 22% from 2021, which at 5.6 million pounds was at the lowest level in more than 40 years. The snow crab population crashed amid a Bering Sea warming, and the new survey results are likely to result in an even smaller harvest for the upcoming winter season.

Alaska, within the limits of a federal management plan, determines how many crabs can be caught based on these surveys, as well as analysis by state and federal scientists. When more crabs are found in these surveys, the harvest levels generally climb. When the surveys indicate crab populations are in decline, the managers typically slash the quotas to give the populations a better chance to rebound. And, when the numbers fall too low, the harvests may be shut down.

As recently as 2016, the Bering Sea crab harvests grossed more than $280 million for a fleet that uses baited steel-framed traps — called pots — along the bottom of the ocean.

Snow crab and king crab historically have been the biggest-dollar harvests for Bering sea crabbers, some of whom also pursue smaller populations of other species. And the harvest cuts expected this year will put some fishermen who have big debt loads at risk of financial disaster, Goen said.

“We have got an emergency,” Goen said. “I’m trying to get Congress to act to help.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service survey does offer hope for improved harvests three to five years from now, as young snow crabs grow to adult size.

“The positive news is that we saw a significant increase in immature snow crab abundance, both males and females,” said Mike Litzow, survey lead and director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Kodiak Laboratory. “Depending on how many of these young crabs actually survive to adulthood, this could be one bright spot for the fishing industry in a few years.”

Read the full article at the Anchorage Daily News

Chinook lawsuit still looms over Alaska trollers

September 7, 2022 –A lawsuit filed against National Marine Fisheries Service in 2020 reared its head in a Washington district court on Aug. 8, and it could spell changes in fisheries management for Southeast Alaska trollers.

The case stems from a suit brought by the 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 NMFS, in its biological opinion, did not consider a portion of the commingling stocks as forage fish for a pod of 74 killer whales in Puget Sound, rendering the agency out of compliance with the Endangered Species Act.

Like other legal battles between the fishing industry and environmental groups, this case stems from differing interpretations of the data.

The Wild Fish Conservancy contends that 97 percent of the troll-caught chinooks originate in drainages outside of Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, meanwhile, estimates those numbers between 30 and 80 percent, and that the percentages vary each year.

Though some feared that a subsequent injunction filed by the conservancy could stop the fishery after the initial case was filed in 2020, that didn’t happen.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Green crabs have already invaded Washington’s shorelines. Now they’re heading to Alaska.

September 7, 2022 — The first signs of the Alaskan invasion were discovered by an intern.

In July, a young woman walking the shoreline of the Metlakatla Indian Community during an internship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found a shell of a known menace in the U.S. — the European green crab.

Two more were soon discovered. It was a day many had been dreading for years.

“We always knew we were eventually going to see evidence of green crab,” said Dustin Winter, a member of the Metlakatla Indian Community and the program director of its fish and wildlife department. “I didn’t think it was going to happen so quickly.”

Within a month and half, more than 80 live green crabs had been trapped along the Metlakatla shoreline, Winter said, making the community ground zero in the fight against the species in Alaska, though it’s possible other areas of Alaska have been colonized already.

The green crab is a notorious invasive species that has reshaped U.S. ecosystems and hammered East Coast commercial fisheries for decades. The discovery of the species in Alaska represents a profound risk in a state that accounts for about 60% of the nation’s seafood harvest.

They’re also almost impossible to remove. Nowhere in the world have green crabs been eradicated after they’ve established a population, scientists say. The discovery, which experts say is likely tied to warming waters due to climate change, threatens Alaskan economies, ecosystems and longstanding ways of life.

Read the full article at NBC News

NFI Submits Comments in Support of EPA Clean Water Act Proposed Determination Regarding Pebble Mine

September 7, 2022 –The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) submitted comments on Tuesday supporting the EPA’s updated Proposed Determination to veto development of the Pebble Limited Partnership’s 2020 Mine Plan.

According to NFI, if finalized the EPA’s Determination would protect the Bristol Bay watersheds and rivers that support the world’s largest and most economically valuable sockeye salmon fishery. Most recently the harvest accounted for 57% of the world’s sustainable wild salmon harvest. Estimates also suggest that the Bristol Bay sockeye fishery provides over 15,000 jobs and generates roughly $2 billion in annual economic activity.

NFI’s comments were sent to EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan and Regional Administrator Casey Sixkiller. The comments can be read in their entirety below:

The National Fisheries Institute (“NFI”) submits these comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), with respect to the EPA Clean Water Act (“CWA”) Section 404(c) Proposed Determination to prohibit and restrict the use of certain waters in the Bristol Bay watershed as disposal sites for the discharge of dredged or filled material associated with the Pebble Deposit.

NFI supports EPA’s updated, Proposed Determination to veto development of the Pebble Limited Partnership’s 2020 Mine Plan. If finalized, EPA’s Determination would protect the Bristol Bay watersheds and rivers that support the world’s largest and most economically and ecologically valuable sockeye salmon fishery, a fishery that in the most recent harvest accounted for 57 percent of the world’s sustainable wild salmon harvest. The Pebble Mine project poses a significant threat to the Bristol Bay fishery. The project as proposed by the Pebble Limited Partnership (“PLP”) should not proceed.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com