Saving Seafood

As sea ice melts, fish are showing up farther north off Alaska. A federal fishing trip will investigate if they’re sticking around.

May 31, 2019 — Last fall, Adem Boeckmann, a commercial fisherman who lives outside Nome, pulled up some of the pots he uses to fish for crab on the ocean floor.

“Had 10 24-inch cod in each pot,” Boeckmann said. “I never saw anything like that.”

Cod, which is used in fish sticks and fish and chips, is caught in huge numbers by commercial boats in the Bering Sea. But not near Nome – typically, the fish is caught hundreds of miles south. Historically, the ecosystem where Boeckmann fishes has been centered on the ocean floor, without big populations of large fish.

Federal scientists are setting off on their own Bering Sea fishing trip this summer, to investigate whether observations like Boeckmann’s – bolstered by the government’s own previous findings – could be indicators of profound shifts in the ocean ecosystem driven by global warming. The results of the summer fieldwork could have major implications for the Bering Sea’s billion-dollar fisheries, as well as for Alaskans who live, hunt and fish along the Arctic coast.

“Is this part of an environmental shift, where with the warming, the northern Bering Sea is going to become a top-down system?” asked Lyle Britt, a federal fisheries scientist who will spend more than a month at sea this summer. “Or, is this more like an ephemeral trend that just happened because we had an unusually warm year, and things will reset? We don’t really know.”

The surveys are done by the Seattle-based Alaska Fisheries Science Center, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at KTOO

2019 Southeastern Bering Sea Shelf Bottom Trawl Survey Gets Underway

May 30, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On May 31 the Southeastern Bering Sea Bottom Trawl Survey will depart Dutch Harbor to collect data on the distribution and abundance of crab, groundfish, and other bottom-dwelling species in the southeastern Bering Sea. These data are used to estimate population abundances to manage commercially important species in Alaska. NOAA Fisheries has conducted this survey annually since 1975.

As we did last year, we intend to provide regular updates on water temperatures collected near the seafloor at all of our survey stations. When we conduct surveys for fish and other species, we also collect information about the environment in which they live — their habitat. For fish and other species water temperature is important. It affects their spawning, access to food, and growth rates.

We had another unusually warm winter and expect to see a reduction in the cold pool. The cold pool is a natural, thermal barrier created by melting winter sea ice. It tends to separate Arctic species, usually found in the northern Bering Sea, from commercially important pollock, Pacific cod and other species, typically found in the southeastern Bering Sea. Last year after a similar warm winter, a partial survey of the northern Bering Sea was conducted. Large numbers of pollock were found there.

Once scientists complete this year’s survey of the southeastern Bering Sea, they will move northward to conduct a full survey of the northern Bering Sea bottom-dwelling community. Additional surveys are planned in the northern Bering Sea using surface trawls and hydro-acoustics to monitor key components of the marine ecosystem and environmental conditions. Be sure to check back here for regular updates on ocean temperatures collected during the Bering Sea bottom trawl surveys.

The southeastern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey will be conducted from approximately May 31 to August 2.  The northern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey will be conducted from about August 3 to 25.

Read the full release here

Port of Seattle would sink without Alaska’s fisheries

May 24, 2019 — If not for Alaska’s fisheries, the Port of Seattle would not be what it is today.

How important is Alaska to its bottom line?

An economic report released this month by the Port of Seattle reveals that Seattle is home  to about 300 fishing vessels and of those, all but 74 make their fishing living in Alaska. The Seattle-based boats harvest Alaska pollock, Bering Sea crab, flounders, salmon and many other high value species, and they vary in size from huge, 150 crew catcher-processors to much smaller seiners and trawlers.

In 2017, fishing vessels that moored at one of Seattle’s three terminals and operated in the Alaskan fisheries generated gross earnings of more $455 million, or nearly half of the gross earnings from Alaska’s fisheries. That represented 44% of all gross earnings from the North Pacific fisheries.

Boats fishing in Puget Sound and other Washington areas earned $26.6 million at the Seattle docks.

An estimated 7,200 jobs were directly associated with commercial fishing at the Port of Seattle in 2017. Of that, 5,100 jobs were on fishing vessels, of which all but just 200 operated in Alaska fisheries.

Read the full story at Alaska Fish Radio

6 Reasons Why Alaska’s Aleutian Islands are a Hot Spot for Sea Life

May 17, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

  1. The Aleutian Island ecosystem supports a rich diversity of species found in few other places in the world. Such intense biodiversity, more typically associated with tropical rainforests or coral reefs, is especially rare at high latitudes.
  2. A convergence of seas, storms, and volcanoes create the dynamic environment that supports incredible biodiversity. The Aleutians separate the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. They are whipped by notorious winds and battered by 50 foot waves. They form the 1,200-mile northern arc of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
  3. NOAA Fisheries scientists continue to discover new species of fish and invertebrates in the Aleutians. Some Aleutian species show promise in medicine, including a potential treatment for cancer.
  4. Whales, porpoises, sea otters, seals, sea lions, and seabirds live and feed in the Aleutian ecosystem. Some islands are important rookeries for seals and sea lions. Passages between islands are critical migration routes for endangered whales.
  5. Not only a great diversity, but a great abundance of life thrives in seas surrounding the Aleutians. Overall Alaska is responsible for more than half of the nation’s seafood harvest.
  6. The Aleutian Islands are home to Dutch Harbor, America’s biggest and busiest fishing port. Alaska Pollock is the highest volume fishery, but other important harvests include halibut, cod, rockfish, and crab.

Read the full release here

Vanishing Bering Sea ice threatens one of the richest U.S. seafood sources

May 16, 2019 — When ice failed to cover much of the eastern Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia in early 2018, oceanographer James Overland chalked it up to a freak chance. Then, it happened again this year, with late-winter sea ice falling to some of the lowest levels seen in at least 4 decades.

Now, scientists are studying whether this is the meteorological equivalent of drawing the ace of spades twice in a row, or another sign of the systemic changes sweeping the Arctic as a result of climate change. “I’m not ruling out that we really have a new regime over the Bering Sea,” says Overland, who works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle, Washington.

A lasting shift could dramatically transform a region with some of the nation’s most valuable fisheries and indigenous communities whose way of life relies on ice. Already scientists have documented changes in algae as well as zooplankton, fish, and seabird populations. The shifts are “a bit of a warning sign that these things can happen rather quickly,” says Robert Foy, the Juneau-based science and research director for NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which is headquartered in Seattle.

Read the full story at Science Magazine

ALASKA: Optimism abounds in the Bering Sea crab fishery

May 14, 2019 — Bering Sea crabbers saw upticks in crab recruits during a good fishery for the 2018-19 season, along with strong prices.

The crab season opens in mid-October for red king crab, tanners and snow crab (opilio), and while fishing goes fast for red kings in order to fill orders for year-end markets in Japan, the fleet typically drops pots for the other species in January.

Crabbers said they saw strong showings of younger crab poised to enter the three fisheries. Only male crabs of a certain size can be retained for sale.

“For Bristol Bay red king crab, the reports were very positive,” said veteran crabber Jake Jacobsen, director of the Inter-Cooperative Exchange, which represents the majority of Bering Sea crabbers. “I got a lot of reports from people saying they saw a lot of recruitment around, a lot of females and small crab, but some boats didn’t see any. So it depended on where you were. Overall, the catch seemed to go pretty fast and the fishing was good. It wasn’t scratchy at all for most of the boats.”

The price also was good. The red king crab fetched $10.33 per pound, up from $9.20 last season, for a catch of 4.3 million pounds.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: U.S. May Ease Rules Restricting Alaska Natives From Harvesting Seal Meat

May 8, 2019 — Nearly year-round, northern fur seals can be found on the beaches of the Bering Sea island of St. Paul, Alaska, or in the waters nearby.

The small island’s remote location — more than 250 miles from mainland Alaska — makes the seal meat particularly attractive to residents of St. Paul. Groceries have to be barged in or flown into the island’s sole store, and prices reflect that: Ground beef is $6 a pound, and a 12-ounce package of Oscar Mayer beef bologna costs $10.

St. Paul’s Alaska Natives refer to themselves as the Unangan people. Through the mid-1980s they, as employees of the U.S. government, killed the seals by the tens of thousands annually to supply a global fur trade. The Unangan people worked largely in exchange for goods and services in an arrangement that a federal supervisor described a century ago as “actual slavery,” according to Barbara Boyle Torrey’s book, Slaves of the Harvest.

But since the end of the commercial harvest in 1984, strict federal regulations have granted access to the seals solely during a 47-day subsistence harvest in the summer. St. Paul residents freeze as much meat as they can; for the rest of the year, the animals are off limits, forcing residents to turn to pricey store-bought food and the occasional illegal harvest.

Read the full story at NPR

 

Scientific Teams Set Out to Track Unprecedented Changes in the Eastern Bering Sea

April 24, 2019 — Over the past five years, winter atmospheric conditions that influence the Bering Sea have been markedly different from previous years. Strong, warm winds out of the south—sometimes lasting more than 30 days—have forced sea ice northward. Water temperatures have been warmer than normal and NOAA scientists have observed some significant changes in marine species. They are in unexpected places, in larger or smaller numbers than normal, and many are thin. Scientists are also seeing changes in the numbers of young fish that are reaching maturity.

“We predict that changing environmental conditions will continue to affect the marine food web structure—and potentially the productivity of the northeastern Bering Sea shelf ecosystem,” said Robert Foy, Director, Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “This is going to be a critical year to survey this region.”

Beginning in April and continuing through September, NOAA scientists will conduct vessel surveys in the Bering Sea. Four of these are annual surveys that have been conducted for several decades, providing a good basis of data so scientists can detect trends and changes in the ecosystem. Another survey, the northeastern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey, has been fully conducted just two times in the past decade. In 2018, Researchers completed a partial survey of the area. This year scientists intend to conduct a full survey to further establish a baseline of data for longer-term monitoring of changes that are taking place.

Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries at Alaska Native News

Pace of Bering Sea Changes Startles Scientists

April 15, 2019 — The Yupik Eskimo village of Kotlik on Alaska’s northwest coast relies on a cold, hard blanket of sea ice to protect homes from vicious winter Bering Sea storms.

Frigid north winds blow down from the Arctic Ocean, freeze saltwater and push sea ice south. The ice normally prevents waves from forming and locks onto beaches, walling off villages. But not this year.

In February, southwest winds brought warm air and turned thin sea ice into “snow cone ice” that melted or blew off. When a storm pounded Norton Sound, water on Feb. 12 surged up the Yukon River and into Kotlik, flooding low-lying homes. Lifelong resident Philomena Keyes, 37, awoke to knee-deep water outside her house.

“This is the first I experienced in my life, a flood that happened in the winter, in February,” Keyes said in a phone interview.

Read the full story at NBC Los Angeles

ALASKA: North Pacific Council Restricts Motherships in Bering Sea Trawl Cod Fishery

April 8, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — In a final action that was described as “too fast” and “incomplete” by critics and “difficult and very tough” by members of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the panel reduced the number of vessels that can act as motherships in the Bering Sea trawl cod fishery to only two: the Seafreeze Alaska owned by United States Seafood and the Katie Ann owned by American Seafoods.

The move left several vessels locked out of providing mothership services, including at least four that have established histories of taking trawl cod deliveries for several years in both the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands.

The final action, expected to be implemented next year, was in response to a shift from shoreside to offshore deliveries of trawl-caught cod in recent years. In 2016, about three percent of the target cod fishery was delivered to offshore motherships. In 2017, that percentage grew to almost 13%, then last year was over 18%. In this year’s A season, the shortest season on record, about 29% of the BSAI trawl cod TAC was delivered offshore. The increased offshore deliveries at the expense of the shore-based plant deliveries was done during a time of decreasing catches.

This week’s action on restricting mothership operations for trawl cod was done in possibly record time for the council. From their first action on this issue in December of 2017 to yesterday’s final action was ten days short of just 16 months.

There is more on the Council’s plate for Bering Sea and Aleutian Island trawl cod. The ‘race for fish’ that has compressed season lengths for both the A season and B season to record periods — this year’s B season lasted one day — is prompting a restructuring that will be addressed at the Council’s meeting in Homer, AK in October. The Council will review a scoping paper at that meeting that will look at options for rationalizing the fishery.

Another critical issue is Amendment 113, recently vacated by court order, which created a 5,000 mt cod set aside for the Adak shoreplant. The rule is no longer in place and the Department of Commerce says they will not appeal. NOAA Fisheries will need to address the issues noted in the judge’s decision before Golden Harvest, the plant in Adak, will have the protection of a set aside.

The Council’s recent action was welcomed by Golden Harvest spokesman Steve Minor.

“In Adak, Golden Harvest has invested millions of dollars rebuilding and updating the plant, rehabilitated more than 40 community housing units, and as recently as December, committed to the State of Alaska to rebuild the outfall and build a new $6 million fish meal plant, not as a profitable investment but to address serious issues inherited form previous operators.

“All of these investments are now at risk because of the Groundfish Forum members’ efforts through the courts and this process to use the money, excess capacity, and leverage they gained under Amendment 80 to take Pacific cod away from Alaska’s coastal communities.

“We believe there are two mothership operations — and only two — which have participated both pre-2008 and on a continued, sustained basis in the Aleutian Islands, and we therefore support Alternative 2, Option 1, suboption 1.3 and Option 2.”

The motion was made by the state of Alaska’s council member Rachel Baker, Deputy Commissioner of Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and was passed by a 10-1 vote.

This story was originally published on Seafood News.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.