Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Golden King Crab Quota Increases for First Time in Twenty Years

August 8, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS –For the first time in 20 years, the small fleet of vessels harvesting golden king crab in the remote waters of the Aleutian Islands can take 3.9 million pounds of golden king crab east of Adak and 2.5 million pounds west of Adak, increases of 18 percent and 11 percent respectively over last year. The 9-month season opened last week under a management system that relies on data from federal observers and fishermen themselves.

This is good news for Adak marketers of golden king crab, who last year shipped live by air directly to Shanghai and this year want to expand the market.

Golden king crab, also called brown king crab, is found throughout Alaska but in highest numbers in the deep water in an 800-mile swath of ocean east and west of Adak, AK. The crab live in deeper waters than any other commercially harvested species in Alaska, and on rocky bottoms. Fishermen use pots that are set on a longline, a hybrid approach not used for any other crab.

The remote location of the fishery, the relatively small stock size, the difficult terrain, and the short window of good weather all made surveys problematic. Historically the fishery used triennial surveys with commercial vessels and commercial gear: crab pots on longlines.

But the cost was prohibitive for such a small fishery, so in 1996 ADF&G adopted a constant catch harvest policy which set a cap that could not be increased, even when catch data, such as Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) radically increased. The quota dropped occasionally in the past twenty years, but for the most part, it worked.

“It’s been quite successful,” said Mark Stichert, shellfish management coordinator for ADF&G in Kodiak. “We’ve not seen a closure in twenty years, we have a tremendous amount of stability in that fishery. We found a sweet spot; 3.3 million pouds in the east and 3 million pounds in the west turned out to be a pretty good ball park estimation of what we could catch from this stock.”

But when the fishery became rationalized in 2005, moving from a competitive, dangerous effort by 20-some vessels competing against each other in a short season, to a reduced fleet of about five boats, each with their own quota they can harvest over nine months.

Crab rationalization split the management between the federal managers, tasked with setting allowable biological catch (ABC) and overfishing limits (OFL), and the state managers who set the total allowable catch (TAC) and the season dates.

In order to set ABC and OFL limits the federal managers needed a stock assessment, which is usually based on surveys. In this case, the scientists worked on creating a stock assessment of golden king crab with the data they had, calculating the uncertainty limited data gives managers and running the model through the peer review process many times.

Finally last year, stock assessment model was approved by the North Pacific Council last year. The Alaska Board of Fish gave the state managers authority to increase the quota, but didn’t provide specific direction. The state managers needed to set a harvest policy.

“We’re taking a hybrid approach to partner with industry,” explained Stichert. “We have the benefit of working with a small fleet, we can all get in the same room together and find common objectives. What are your priorities? Do you want stability? We’re developing some exploitation rates to be reviewed.

In the process, the fleet has brought in their own stock assessment reviewers.

“We want a strategy that advances the science and allows us to make better decisions, but we don’t want to forget that we don’t know everything. We need a harvest strategy allows management to grow along with the improvements in data,” Stichert said. “It takes cooperation and committment.”

Since 2015, the fleet has worked with the state to conduct a hybrid survey on the eastern stock of golden king crab. The plan benefits both the managers and the harvesters. The first trip of the season will be a data collection effort using smaller mesh gear to catch sublegals, females, and males. The controlled catch will give managers information on recruitment, stock size and demographics.

“We’ll take care of the science if you take care of the gear,” Stichert said he told the fleet.

“On the very first trip you take, we’re going to tell you where to put the gear and we’re going to put out small mesh pots,” he said.

Meanwhile, Stichert said, “They get to sell the legal catch, the scientists onboard will document everything, then they’re off when the trip ends. The second trip they’re on their own.”

This week, the scientists are on crabbers fishing both eastern and western stocks for the first time. With the added information from both areas over time, the fishery could have the most data-rich management in its history.

The state approach will be reviewed by the Board of Fish for final approval later this year.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

NPFMC Separates Adak Cod Issue from Broader Cod Allocation issues, Expects Action by Dec 2018

June 18, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Management of Pacific Cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands is a study in complexity, founded on the earnest principles of protecting historical deliveries to the village of Adak and balancing the needs of the rationalized fishery with the non-rationalized Aleutian Island cod fishery.

Amendment 113 to the BSAI groundfish plan was intended to navigate this warren of concerns, but in the first year of its implementation a perfect storm of sorts resulted in the North Pacific Council asking certain fishing vessels to ‘stand down’ last February to allow other cod deliveries to Adak, while the body set out to correct the regulations.

At their April meeting, the Council created a Purpose and Need statement acknowleding that “changes in fishery participation patterns and total allowable catches in the BSAI, resulted in the fishery progressing in a manner that may have been counter to the intent of providing community protections in the Aleutian Islands.”

The Council went on to state it “intends to modify Amendment 113 such that the prosecution of the BSAI cod fishery aligns with the council’s original objective of addressing the risk that participants in BSAI rationalized fisheries may diminish the historical share of BSAI cod of other industry participants and communities that depend on shoreplant processing in the region.”

Thus the process began for alternatives to consider, analyses of the options, and public comment periods, with resolution now estimated for the 2020 fishing season.

But part of the perfect storm of complexities was another problem — the emergence of the Amendment 80 fleet (BSAI trawlers that mostly target flatfish and other non-pollock species) acting as motherships and taking deliveries that may otherwise have gone, at least in part, to shorebased plants.

Any reference to an imbalance in deliveries to on-shore and off-shore facilities triggers memories of perhaps the most contentious issue the North Pacific Council has ever addressed, the ‘inshore/offshore’ debate that resulted in the American Fisheries Act, which rationalized the BSAI pollock fleet.

The Council decided to treat each problem as a separate one, but asked that the discussion paper include “tradeoffs and benefits of combining this action with the BSAI [catcher vessel] cod action the Council will address in June.”

Action taken at last week’s meeting confirmed that the Adak cod set-aside issue will continue independently of the AM80 mothership issue.

The schedule for resolving Amendment 113 and fixing the Adak cod set-aside is to review the analysis of four alternatives in October with final action tentatively set for December 2018. With public comment periods and regulatory reviews, the final rule’s earliest publication could be late 2019 with implementation in the 2020 cod season.

June’s discussion paper crystalized the complexity of current regulations in the Aleutian Island fishery.  After describing the allocations and limitations for BSAI cod, NPFMC analysts Jon McCracken and Darrell Brannan describe what happened next.

“Participants began to realize that under the current regulations the AI shoreplant would not be able to take deliveries of the entire 5,000 mt AI set-aside after the BSAI trawl CV sector was closed to directed fishing for the A season.

“Prior to that time some participants were under the impression that the AI set-aside essentially guaranteed the shoreplants would be allowed to take delivery of the 5,000 mt AI set-aside if they achieved the 1,000 mt before February 28. However, after February 11 all of the federal Pacific cod CV sectors except jig gear were close for directed fishing in the A season in the BSAI.

“Given that 6,515 mt of Pacific cod was available to trawl CVs to deliver to any processor in the AI, at least two companies made plans to harvest a portion of that allowance and deliver the catch to processors other than the AI shoreplant. One company was using its CV to deliver to one of its C/Ps.

“However, this occurred during the February Council meeting, and when the Council was made aware of the issue it asked this company to not participate in the unrestricted fishery, due to the impacts to the AI shoreplant. This company had already taken a small amount of Pacific cod, but they agreed to stand-down from the fishery at the request of the Council.

“After the 2018 A-season was underway, a second company requested that their CVs be allowed to deliver to the AI shoreplant. In part due to capacity constraints and the timing of the request, the AI shoreplant did not offer a market to those CVs. The company decided later in February to have some of its trawl CVs deliver AI Pacific cod to Dutch Harbor.

“CVs that were delivering to the AI shoreplant are reported to have self-imposed trip limits and a one-day stand-down after a delivery to help reduce wait times at the plant. Trawl CVs set the trip limit at 400,000 lbs. for the larger CVs and 100,000 lbs for smaller CVs. These trip limits were abandoned when NMFS announced the BSAI A season trawl CV closure for March 4, 2018, which resulted in a larger volume of Pacific cod being delivered during a short period of time.

“The shoreplant operator has indicated during testimony to the Council that the shoreplant has a daily capacity of 1.2 million lbs. to 1.5 million lbs. At 1.2 million lbs. per day, the shoreplant could process the AI set-aside in about 9.2 days. During the 2018 A-season, daily processing of GHL and federal Pacific cod combined never exceeded 1 million lbs. and was typically much lower.

“Once trawl CVs harvested an amount that was projected to be equal to the BSAI trawl CV sector A-season allowance22, they were closed to directed fishing on March 11.

“NMFS In-season Management’s ability to close a fishery exactly on the amount a sector’s TAC is limited by variations in daily landings and the fact that closures are announced ahead of time for 12 noon on a specific day.

“Catch in the AI set-aside and unrestricted fishery resulted in the trawl CV sector AI season being closed in the BSAI prior to the entire 5,000 mt AI set-aside being delivered. That meant the only CV sector that remained open25 to directed fishing was the BSAI jig gear sector.

“The BSAI allocation to the jig sector was insufficient to allow the AI shoreplant to take deliveries of the remaining 5,000 mt AI set-aside.

“NMFS announced that the 5,000 mt AI set-aside had not been landed at the AI shoreplant by March 15th. Because the 5,000 mt AI set-aside was not reached by that date the BS non-CDQ trawl CV A-season sector limitation remained in effect until March 21 and the AI set-aside to not apply for the remainder of the year. The amount of the 5,000 mt AI set-aside that was delivered to the AI shoreplant cannot be reported due to confidentiality restrictions.

“The AI shoreplant could report their Pacific cod deliveries or agreed to waive the confidentiality restrictions associated with NMFS or the Council reporting the Pacific cod deliveries they received.

“The BSAI Pacific cod non-CDQ trawl CV B-season opened to directed fishing on April 1. The 2018 B-season allowance was set at 4,425 mt at the start of the fishing year. Directed fishing was closed on April 3 as a result of the B-season allowance being reached. The AI shoreplant took Pacific cod deliveries during the B-season.”

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Alaska: With New Report, CVRF Continues Its Fight for More Fish

May 9, 2018 — CVRF is one of six nonprofit groups that manage NOAA’s Community Development Quota (CDQ) program. CDQ was set up in 1992 to bring money into cash-strapped Western Alaska communities by setting aside a portion of Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands fisheries for local commercial use.

Coastal Villages has long been advocating for more fish. Michelle Humphrey is the group’s outreach manager.

According to the report, prepared by the Seattle-based research firm Community Attributes, the most impoverished communities in Western Alaska are served by CVRF and the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC). These two represent nearly 70 percent of the total CDQ-eligible population. But they receive only about 40 percent of the total CDQ quota.

Sarah Marrinan is an economist with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees the CDQ program. She says when the program started in the 1990s, each CDQ group submitted a business plan to the state, which determined the allocations based on a variety of factors.

Read the full story at KNOM

 

Alaska cod quotas light up a loophole

February 16, 2018 — The fallout of shifts in Alaska cod quotas has sparked another scramble among the region’s cod fishermen. Overall P-cod quota is down, but the Aleutian Islands saw a small uptick, which led more boats to target the area in the A-season this year. The allocations, however, have had some unintended consequences.

For some background, in the wild and harsh fishing environments of the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska, a 60-footer qualifies as a small boat. A fleet of these smaller pot-cod boats typically fishes inshore waters and relies on deliveries to the remote Bering Sea island of Adak to run their Aleutian operations.

The remoteness of the region, however, has historically made running a processing plant there logistically implausible without guarantees of landings. This led the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to set aside 5,000 tons of cod quota that must be processed in the remote Aleutian Island community of Adak rather than off-loaded to offshore factory processors, as the larger catcher vessels — sometimes referred to as the Amendment 80 fleet after the legislation that put them into operations — do in the offshore fishery.

“This harvest set-aside provides the opportunity for vessels, [Aleutian Islands] shoreplants, and the communities where AI shoreplants are [located]to receive benefits from a portion of the AI Pacific cod fishery,” according to the council.

Read the full story at National Fishermen

 

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 Continues to Lead All States in Volume of Seafood Landings

December 1, 2016 — A new federal report on the nation’s fisheries confirms that Alaska, with six billion pounds, led all states in volume of seafood landings in 2015, and that seafood consumption by the average American rose by nearly a pound.

The National Marine Fisheries Service report on Fisheries of the United States rounded out the top five states in harvest volume with Louisiana, 1.1 billion pounds; Virginia, 410.3 million pounds, Washington, 363 million pounds, and Mississippi, 304.1 million pounds.

Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for the 19th consecutive year, was the leading US port in quantity of commercial fishery landings, with 787 million pounds, followed by Kodiak, Alaska, 514 million pounds; Aleutian Islands (Other), Alaska, 467 million pounds; Intracoastal city, Louisiana, 467 million pounds, and Empire-Venice, Louisiana, 428 million pounds.

Other Pacific Northwest ports included among the top 20 for quantity were Alaska Peninsula (Other) 268 million pounds; Naknek, 176 million pounds, Cordova, 162 million pounds; Seward, 94 million pounds; Astoria, Oregon, 92 million pounds; Sitka, 87 million pounds; Ketchikan, Alaska, and Westport, Washington, 84 million pounds; and Petersburg and Bristol Bay (Other), 70 million pounds each.

Read the full story at Fishermen’s News

Alaska SeaLife Center Collaborates with NOAA

October 27, 2016 — SEWARD, Alaska — Scientists from the Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) recently returned from the first research mission to utilize new satellite technology for the study of harbor seal populations.

The month-long expedition to the Aleutian Islands on board the research vessel Norseman, was conducted in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Polar Ecosystems Program.

“The population trends and factors that may be influencing harbor seals remain poorly understood,” said ASLC President and CEO Tara Riemer. “We are excited to increase our understanding of harbor seals and for the potential to better inform the science community and resource managers.”

Co-funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the study brings together scientists from two different organizations to collaborate on the next steps toward understanding and addressing shared concerns. Using Life History Transmitters (LHX), developed by Dr. Markus Horning, ASLC Science Director, in collaboration with Wildlife Computers, Inc. under funding from the National Science Foundation, researchers will be able to collect survival and reproductive data to better understand harbor seal population trends.

Read the full story at Alaska Business Monthly

Mixing new technology and people power for an accurate count of endangered Steller sea lions

October 4, 2016 — Fall at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center means researchers are sifting through all the data they collected over the summer months in the field. For the Steller sea lion team that means reviewing hundreds of thousands of photos.

Every summer AFSC’s Marine Mammal Lab scientists conduct Steller sea lion surveys along the Aleutian Island chain, an area of concern for the endangered Steller sea lion. Sea lions in the central and western Aleutian Islands have continued to decline.

During the surveys, scientists take expansive photographs from the air and ground, capturing rugged coastlines filled with thousands of sea lions. They also look for permanently marked animals to learn how certain individuals are faring over the course of their lives.

Advanced technology like hexacopter drones offer easier access to hard to reach locations where Steller sea lions live. Sophisticated maps and data visualizations clearly showcase detailed information and effectively demonstrate patterns and trends, especially to the general public. All of this leads to better insights and more accurate assessments about the health of the endangered population.

Read the full story at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center

Scientists use drones to study sea lions in Aleutians

September 30, 2016 — ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Scientists are using drone technology to track declining Steller sea lion populations in Alaska.

Every summer researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Fisheries Science Center study the animals along the Aleutian Island chain.

They use a variety of methods to count the sea lions including stationary game cameras and manned aircraft that fly over a region where scientists can take pictures.

Since 2014, they’ve been using a hexacopter, or drone, to survey areas as well.

Fish biologist Katie Sweeney said the drones won’t replace the manned aircraft but are useful in Alaska’s inclement weather.

“They tried to survey around the Delarof Islands and there wasn’t good weather. It was foggy, low ceilings, which is a challenge,” Sweeney explained in a Skype interview from Seattle. “That means those sites that were missed we can go to next year when we’re on our research vessel cruise and survey them with a hexacopter so we can fill in those gaps.”

Read the full story at KTVA

46 people rescued from sinking vessel off Alaska

July 28, 2016 — ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Latest on the rescue of 46 crew members who abandoned a fishing vessel in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Tuesday (all times local):

9 p.m.

Officials say two Good Samaritan vessels have rescued 46 people who abandoned a fishing boat in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Lauren Steenson says there were no reports of any injuries as the crew members were transferred from life rafts to the vessels in a fairly calm Bering Sea.

She says the ships then embarked on a 13-hour voyage to Adak, Alaska, a port in the Aleutians.

The Good Samaritan ships Spar Canis and the Vienna Express rushed to the scene as did two other merchant vessels, all responding to a Coast Guard’s emergency broadcast for help.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times