Saving Seafood

Bristol Bay community leaders lay out minimum protocol needed to allow salmon season

April 7, 2020 — Leaders of several major community organizations in Bristol Bay have issued a list of minimum protocols they expect to be in place before the commercial salmon fishery can take place this summer.

Among other the protocol listed, fishermen and other seasonal workers would undergo a physical exam including a COVID-19 test with a negative result no more than 48 hours before traveling to the region. After arriving in Bristol Bay, the individuals would be transported to a quarantine location and remain in quarantine until a follow-up negative COVID-19 test is confirmed. The leaders listed out other expectations, including weekly health screenings, for the seafood industry to establish as minimum protocol for the 2020 season.

“We were hearing up until we came up with our own position statement for the lack of a better word, was that what everybody was advocating for was really based around quarantine – the 14 day quarantine period. That seemed to be what was going to fix everything and make us all comfortable. The reality is, our opinion is that it’s going to take multiple types of protocol, so we think that COVID-19 testing, in combination with quarantine gives us the lowest level of risk,” Norm Van Vactor, CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation said. “There’s still some risk there, and at the end of the day, our communities are going to have to decide whether even that level of risk is acceptable.”

Read the full story at KTUU

Safety protocols in Alaska evolving amidst growing COVID-19 concerns

April 7, 2020 — The seafood industry is adapting and tightening its safety protocols as fears grow over summer fishing activities spreading COVID-19 in rural Alaska.

In Bristol Bay, Alaska, a recently released document signed by local industry heavyweights like the Bristol Bay Regional Development Association and the Bristol Bay Native Corporation suggests that all workers test negative within 48 hours of traveling to the region.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Thousands of fishery workers, many from outside Alaska, are headed to Bristol Bay. One tiny hospital says its coronavirus plan can’t handle them.

April 6, 2020 — Later this spring, Alaska’s Bristol Bay will blossom into one of the largest annual salmon fisheries in the world.

The regional population of about 6,700 will triple with the arrival of fishermen, crews and seasonal workers on jets but also private planes and small boats, many traveling from out of state.

And yet the heart of the health care system in southwestern Alaska, where the Spanish flu once decimated entire communities, is a 16-bed hospital in Dillingham operated by the Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. Only four beds are currently equipped for coronavirus patients. There are no intensive-care unit rooms. As of Wednesday the hospital had a few dozen coronavirus tests for the entire Florida-sized region.

Chief nursing officer Lee Yale said in an email that the Kanakanak Hospital has four negative pressure rooms to treat COVID-19 patients without infecting others and two ventilators.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Coronavirus places 2020 Alaska salmon fishery ‘in question’, exec worries

April 2, 2020 — The escalating COVID-19 crisis places the 2020 Alaska salmon fishery in question, as the industry works on solutions to getting thousands of workers to the remote state without spreading the highly infectious coronavirus.

As many as 15,000 workers can descend on Alaska from the other US states and overseas for the season, but numbers are expected to be lower than this in 2020, if indeed the industry can find a workable solution, sources told Undercurrent News.

“If you asked me a month ago that a situation like this would be possible, that I was contemplating that the successful prosecution of our 2020 salmon fishery couldn’t take place, I would not have believed you,” said Norm Van Vactor, executive director of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation (BBEDC), a community development quota group, which owns half of processor Ocean Beauty Seafoods.

“If you know what we know today — and we don’t know a lot — then the prosecution of the fishery is in question,” Van Vactor told Undercurrent. “I’m optimistic that if we all pull together — understanding that communities are going to put health and public safety first, and that’s the foundation of how we move forward — we can make it happen, to some extent.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: Bristol Bay fishermen urged to delay travel as communities, industry formulate COVID-19 plan

March 27, 2020 — This summer 48.95 million sockeye salmon are forecast to run in Bristol Bay, but with the coronavirus pandemic rapidly expanding in the United States, non-local fishermen are urged to delay traveling to the region while processors, local government leaders and other stakeholders work to formulate a plan to prosecute the fishery in the wake of COVID-19.

On Thursday, the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, which represents the Bristol Bay drift gillnet fleet, issued its first COVID-19 advisory to the fleet asking that non-local Bristol Bay Fishermen delay travel to the region until at least May 1 and listed the state mandated quarantine protocol for anyone who does travel to Alaska from out of state.

“You do NOT want to be the outsider photographed or seen around town in public spaces if this situation turns for the worst. Such actions could quite literally jeopardize your business, your fishing career, and even personal health. Do not risk it, and make sure your crew does not place your business at risk either,” the BBRSDA advisory said.

Read the full story at KTUU

Coronavirus strains preparations for 2020 sockeye season in Bristol Bay, Alaska

March 27, 2020 — Alaska issued a mandate late on Monday, 24 March, qualifying the state’s commercial fishing industry as “critical infrastructure,” a move that frees up the Bristol Bay fishery to move forward with preparations for the 2020 season.

But uncertainty looms as the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery discusses how it might bring nearly 12,000 non-resident workers into remote western Alaska amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

In Bristol Bay, America’s largest salmon fishery, preparations begin for coronavirus prevention ahead of the season

March 17, 2020 — Around Bristol Bay, community leaders, health facilities and local entities are working to coordinate their preparations for the coronavirus.

Thousands of fishermen, processors, and cannery workers will travel to Bristol Bay in the coming months to participate in the commercial fishery. As of Thursday afternoon, no one in the region had been tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Alaska’s first known case of the disease was announced Thursday afternoon.

The Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation can now send Q-tip swabs to commercial labs to test for the disease. Dr. Cathy Hyndman is the clinical director for BBAHC.

“Once again, you still have to get the Q-tip in the viral juice to keep it alive until it gets down to the testing center,” Hyndman said. “And there are time limits on how quickly the thing must get there. It seems to be within 72 hours of obtaining the sample. Which is a challenge in the bush.”

Hyndman said they are discussing ways to get the swabbing materials needed for testing out to village clinics if necessary. BBAHC is holding continual education meetings with health aides on prevention, who needs to get tested, and how to administer the test.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Pebble pulse: Bristol Bay leaders testify in federal court, say EPA went rogue

March 4, 2020 — Bristol Bay fishermen, tribal leaders and fisheries advocates once again offered their testimony on the value of protections for the world’s most productive sockeye salmon habitat.

On Monday, March 2, members of the Bristol Bay Defense Alliance testified in federal district court in support of a lawsuit the group filed against the Environmental Protection Agency in October.

The suit asserts the EPA’s withdrawal of proposed Clean Water Act protections was arbitrary and unlawful, and runs counter to the scientific and public record. The plaintiffs now await a ruling from Judge Sharon Gleason on whether the suit will move forward.

“Although we are now waiting for the judge’s ruling in this case, our primary goal is unchanged: protecting and promoting the Bristol Bay fishery,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “The science still supports 404 protections in Bristol Bay, and we will continue working to secure them.”

In 2010, six Bristol Bay Tribes requested the protections and soon were supported in the effort by commercial and sport fishing groups.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Pebble offers mitigation plans while opposition condemns preliminary EIS

February 14, 2020 — One week ago, the Pebble Partnership unveiled a draft plan for mitigating the potential impacts of a proposed copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska. The company says that just under 5 square miles of wetlands would be affected, with nearly 70% of that land facing irreversible changes. To combat the side effects of opening the mine, Pebble is focusing on three strategic projects related to it’s impact on the region – which is home to the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world.

“In our review of some other projects up here, we looked at creative ways that we could, within the watershed, improve upon upon fish habitat and water resources within the areas that we will affect,” said Mike Heatwole, a spokesperson for the Pebble Partnership.

The three specific areas that Pebble plans to address will be: Improving the water treatment facilities in Newhalen, Nondalton, & Kokhanok- Clearing roughly 7 miles of coastline on the western side of the Cook Inlet- and improving accessibility for over 8.5 miles of salmon habitat to compensate for the streams expected to be affected by the mine.

Days after the publishing of Pebble’s mitigation plans, the preliminary version of a final environmental impact statement drew criticism from multiple groups who stand in opposition to the mine. Many of these organizations feel that the ACOE has rushed the process, ignoring important data and research regarding the impacts that the mine could have on Bristol Bay’s salmon.

Read the full story at KTUU

ALASKA: Pebble sees signs in new federal report that mine will secure key approval

February 13, 2020 — A new version of a federal environmental review for the proposed Pebble mine has angered the mine’s opponents and encouraged its developer.

The Army Corps of Engineers will use the final review to decide whether to give the controversial mine a key permit it needs before it can be built.

The Corps had provided the report to several cooperating agencies involved in the review process, such as state and federal agencies and tribal governments. The Anchorage Daily News obtained an executive summary of the Corps’ preliminary final environmental review that was leaked to reporters.

The report could foreshadow what’s to come.

Tom Collier, chief executive of developer Pebble Limited Partnership, is pleased. He said the report’s release, and its major conclusions, indicate the company will see a decision in its favor by mid-2020.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News