Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Will lab-grown fish save Alaska’s wild salmon stocks?

November 7, 2022 — The following conversation is from a KDLG transcript: 

KCAW: Hey, how are you doing?

Dalton Thomas: Nice to meet you. I’m Dalton.

KCAW: Nice to meet you.

Inside the Wildtype offices, a group of young scientists mills around in sneakers, and graphic-t’s obscured by white lab coats. Dalton Thomas, the company’s head of food service sales, seats me at a kitchen bar. Behind it, an in-house sushi chef prepares me a plate of their product before it hits the US market – lab grown salmon.

It’s a square block of marbled pink flesh, almost indistinguishable from traditional salmon – except this fish has never touched the ocean.

Thomas: So we have the nigiri version of the wild type salmon. It’s already brushed  with soy sauce, so it’s just ready to eat. Here are some mustard, miso, and chives. And then this is more like a typical salmon avocado roll.

Wildtype’s fish is intended to be enjoyed raw, a decision made in part because of the sheer size and profitability of the sushi industry. However, as Thomas explains, “cell cultured” salmon is simply not as appetizing when cooked.

KCAW: It does have a sea flavor. But it’s like not as soft.

Thomas: It’s not fishy.

KCAW: It’s really smooth, that’s how I’d describe it.

Thomas: Kind of homogenous.

KCAW: It does taste like fish, which is weird.

Thomas: It’s not weird, because it’s fish!

Read the full transcript at KDLG 

ALASKA: AFN delegates push for measures to decrease salmon bycatch

October 26, 2o22 — Two resolutions brought before the Alaska Federation of Natives during this year’s annual convention called for efforts to reduce salmon bycatch for fish that return to the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. Debate over both resolutions was contentious and revealed a regional rift among tribes.

One resolution calls on Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game to support measures that decrease salmon bycatch by commercial trawlers in a region along the Aleutian Island chain known as Area M. A second resolution requests the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council address bycatch amounts in the same region.

“I really have to take a step back here and talk about how sad I am that we have to fight so hard here to be heard to try to protect our salmon,” said Brian Ridley. Ridley is the chairman of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, an Interior region tribal organization that brought both resolutions to the floor of this year’s annual Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage.

“I know this is a controversial issue,” Ridley told a crowd of hundreds, after the resolutions were introduced on the floor Saturday. “There’s a lot of people that didn’t want to have this discussion here, but if we don’t have it here and we don’t get the support of AFN, the problem is, we’re gonna be out of the fish on the Yukon and Kuskokwim and we’re gonna be talking endangered species.”

Read the full article at KTOO

ALASKA: Scientists use genetics to track Alaska salmon bycatch

September 1, 2022 — Salmon stocks from up and down the Pacific coast congregate in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea to feed.

That’s also where trawlers go to harvest millions of pounds of pollock and other groundfish. And those trawlers often accidentally scoop up salmon and other fish in their nets, too — a problem known as bycatch.

Scientists with NOAA Fisheries, which oversees federal fisheries in those waters, want to understand where the bycatch is coming from — and where those fish would return to — so that they can understand the impacts of bycatch on specific stocks. That’s especially true for stocks in western Alaska, an area of the state that is seeing dismal salmon returns.

“100 percent, that’s our focus for chum, given its overweighted importance to subsistence fisheries,” said Wes Larson, a fisheries geneticist with NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Generosity runs deep: Copper River Prince William Sound fishermen donate salmon for seniors and students

August 16, 2022 — The 2022 edition of Senior Salmon Day was held in the small remote fishing community of Cordova, Alaska, in early July.

Home to the Copper River Prince William Sound commercial fishing fleet of 550 small independent fisherman, Cordova is where fishermen launch their boats to catch the regional king, sockeye, coho, keta and pink salmon. It’s also where many of these independent family fishermen choose to share a portion of their treasured catch to seniors and students during the season’s designated donation days.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Calculating the value of Alaska seafood

October 26, 2017 — Alaska has produced more than 169 billion pounds of fish since statehood was granted to the Last Frontier in 1959, and the Alaskan seafood industry brings in enough product annually to feed every person in the world a serving of Alaskan seafood.

These and other statistics relating to the seafood industry in the state can be found in “The Economic Value of Alaska’s Seafood Industry,” a joint report by The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) and the McDowell Group, a research and consulting firm, which details the impact of Alaska’s seafood economy. This is the second collaboration over the past two years between the groups.

The report is meant to provide statistics and figures on employment in the industry, labor income, seafood value, exports, and other related subjects. From fun facts (Alaska’s commercial fishing fleet is comprised of about 9,400 boats, which would measure 70 miles if they were lined up from bow to stern in a straight line) to precise tax numbers, the report is a gold mine of research about the Alaskan seafood industry.

The report reveals that in 2016, Alaska’s seafood harvest of 5.6 billion pounds had a total value of USD 1.7 billion (EUR 1.4 billion). Processors in Alaska produced 2.7 billion pounds of Alaska seafood products last year, valued at USD 4.2 billion (EUR 3.6 billion). The overall impact of Alaska’s seafood industry on the U.S. economy is USD 5.4 billion (EUR 4.6 billion) in direct output – that’s value that can be directly associated with fishing, processing, distribution, and retail. Such a figure doesn’t include USD 7.3 billion (EUR 6.2 billion) in additional multiplier effects generated as industry income circulates throughout the U.S. economy, the report said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source 

 

ALASKA: When sailboats ruled Bristol Bay

May 21, 2017 — One hundred and thirty-two years ago, the Bristol Bay commercial fishery began on the shores of the Nushagak River when the first cannery went into operation and canned a little more than 4,000 salmon.

Within four years, three more canneries appeared on the Nushagak, and within a decade canneries were built on the Naknek and Kvichak rivers. The dawn of the 20th century saw dozens of canneries around Bristol Bay catching, processing and canning millions of pounds of sockeye salmon every summer. By 1910, Bristol Bay accounted for 40 percent of Alaska’s commercially caught salmon. Even today, Bristol Bay makes up about 40 percent of Alaska’s salmon value.

Canneries are large industrial operations. In the early days, coal and steam provided the power to run complex systems of boilers, belt-driven pulleys and winches needed to butcher, cook, can and deliver salmon to the world. But when it came to actually catching fish in Bristol Bay, canneries relied upon the muscle of men and the power of wind.

To catch fish in Bristol Bay, canners imported and adapted a wooden sailboat developed for use on the Columbia River — a boat propelled by wind and crewed by two fishermen who pulled heavy cedar-corked linen nets by hand. The sailboat, roughly 30 feet long, was commonly known as a Bristol Bay “double-ender” because the shape of its bow and stern were similar.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

How to Tell If That Fish Behind the Counter Is Actually Fresh​

March 16, 2017 — You know fish is good for you, but shopping for it is dicey. Much of the fish behind the counter is mislabeled, or not exactly fresh. And even if you can trust the labels, there are just so many of them: Should you buy American or Chilean? Wild-caught or farmed? Follow these six steps to guarantee you bring home the freshest, tastiest, and healthiest filet.

1. Buy American
A fish’s country of origin must be disclosed; it’s an FDA rule. Stick to USA seafood: Reports have revealed worker exploitation and unsanitary processing and storage methods in Asian fisheries, says Norah Eddy, cofounder of Salty Girl Seafood. Also look for the phrase “processed in the United States.” Some Alaskan salmon is sent to China for processing, a journey that can take more than two weeks before you buy the fish, Eddy says.

2. Keep the Skin On
Fish such as salmon, mackerel, and lake trout bring a healthy dose of omega-3s to the table. (Here’s why you need those good fats.) Skip the skin and you’re not maxing out on these good fats, says dietitian Robert Lazzinnaro, R.D. Chef Tenney Flynn of GW Fins in New Orleans crisps the skin this way: Melt butter in a pan over medium high. Scale the fish and score the skin in a crosshatch pattern; season both sides. Start skin side down; cook 3 to 4 minutes. Flip. Repeat. Eat.

Read the full story at Men’s Health

ALASKA: State appeals to U.S. Supreme Court to overturn salmon decision

March 1, 2017 — In the midst of the Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries meeting, the battle for state management of Cook Inlet salmon fisheries continues.

The State of Alaska has filed with the U.S. Supreme Court to review a recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeal decision that would require some of Alaska’s salmon fisheries to conform to federal management.

The state says this is the wrong move.

“This is an area where the federal government recognizes the State’s expertise and agrees that the State is better equipped to manage the fishery, even in federal waters,” said Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth in a press release Feb. 27. “We hope the U.S. Supreme Court will review this important issue and reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision.”

Last September, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2011 decision by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to remove several Alaska salmon fisheries from the federal management plan.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Karl Johnstone: Alaska needs to update fisheries management

February 15, 2017 — The Alaska of today is not the Alaska of statehood. The 49th state has grown and changed radically.  The economy of the state is wholly different, and yet Alaska salmon management continues to be treated as if we just became a state.

Almost all major fisheries in the state have, for decades, been managed on the premise that commercial catches are always the highest and best use of Alaska salmon resources. This is especially true in upper Cook Inlet.

This premise ignores the changes that have occurred. In 1976, 191,000 sportfishing licenses of all types — resident and nonresident — were sold in Alaska. Nonresidents accounted for only 47,000 of them. By 2015, nonresident license sales alone had topped 278,000 — a six-fold increase.

Read the full opinion piece at the Alaska Dispatch News