Saving Seafood

Anti-Pebble group asks SEC to investigate possible ‘insider trading’ involving project owner

October 23, 2019 — A conservation group on Monday asked federal regulators to investigate possible insider trading involving the owner of the Pebble copper and gold mine and an analyst who tracks the company’s stock.

Earthworks believes securities analyst John Tumazos “received and disclosed insider information” to investors in the weeks before the Trump administration in July released a decision favoring the project, according to a complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The value of Northern Dynasty Minerals’ stock rose sharply following the July announcement. Northern Dynasty Minerals is based in Canada and owns the Pebble Partnership, the company aiming to develop the mine.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Unalaska Mayor Laments ‘Depressing’ Year for Crab

October 16, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — There will be a Bristol Bay red king crab fishery this year, though at an extremely low level, continuing a downward trend that probably hasn’t yet hit the bottom.

“Red crab is not looking well at all, everything is down,” said Miranda Westphal, shellfish management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Unalaska. “There’s not a lot coming into the system.”

The crab season opens Oct. 15, and crab fishermen are busy working around Unalaska docks rigging pots for the red crab. The snow crab season officially opens the same day, but fishermen won’t start targeting the smaller opilio snow crab for several months.

Bering Sea crab quotas were announced Sunday by ADF&G’s Division of Commercial Fisheries. The red king harvest level is set at 3.79 million pounds, down 12% from last year’s 4.3 million, Westphal said.

“I don’t know if it’s ever been this low,” she said.

In one bright spot, at least for this year, the snow crab quota increased by 23%, at 34 million pounds, up from last year’s 27.6 million pounds. But future snow crab populations appear weak, and don’t bode well for upcoming years, she cautioned.

The Tanner crab season is closed in both the eastern and western districts, a “depressing” development, said Frank Kelty, who steps down as Unalaska mayor later this month. Yet despite this year’s closure, Westphal said Tanners appear to have a bright future.

“It’s actually looking the best out of all the stocks,” said Westphal, citing survey results showing large populations of juvenile Tanner crab, especially in the western district.

Two smaller Bering Sea crab fisheries that are frequently closed did not open this year. The St. Matthew’s blue king crab, and Pribilof Islands red and blue king crab fisheries are both closed again.

The quotas are set based on the summer trawl survey of the Bering Sea conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service in an annual research projects that catches all species with nets, and uses the results to determine the quotas of crab and pollock and flatfish in the various commercial fisheries.

Kelty said he wasn’t surprised by the bad news when the quotas were announced over the weekend.

“This is what I expected,” he said.

Kelty, like Westphal, is also worried about the future of the snow crab fishery. He said warming waters will attract Pacific cod to the area north of St. Matthew’s Island, which he said is the “nursery” of snow crab, and their babies are the “favorite food” of the cod.

Previously, the cod stayed to the south, blocked by a deepwater “cold pool” of seawater, which is now shrinking. And as the water warms in the depths, the cod travel further north. Kelty said he knows cod like baby snow crab from personal experience, “cutting a lot of cod bellies open,” as a former Unalaska seafood worker.

According to NMFS, “In 2017 and 2018 the maximum extent of sea ice in the Bering Sea was the lowest on record. The cold pool was dramatically smaller than usual and large numbers of Pacific cod and pollock were found in the northern Bering Sea in the spring and summer months.”

Meanwhile, another Bristol Bay red king crab survey project is underway in the Bering Sea, this one involving the unmanned wind and solar-power Saildrones, which are tracking acoustic tags attached to the crab during the summer trawl survey.

“All vessels are asked to avoid the saildrones,” which look like red kayaks with big red rigid sails and solar panels.

The Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation is conducting the study with the federal agency NOAA Fisheries to “better understand crab movement in the Bering Sea.”

“Any commercial fisherman that captures a tagged red king crab should note the capture coordinates and tag number and quickly release it unharmed in the same location it was captured,” according to a postcard sent to fishermen.

Two representatives from the study attended a recent Unalaska City Council meeting to explain the project, Leah Zacher a NOAA scientist, and Scott Goodman, the executive director of BSFRF. More information is available at bsfrf.org, or facebook.com/BSFRF.

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

Groups pledge to fight Pebble Mine with their ‘last penny’

October 10, 2019 — Standing on the steps of the James M. Fitzgerald United States Courthouse in 40-degree Farenheight weather, speaker after speaker behind a banner declaring “Defend Bristol Bay”, lambasted recent federal actions that appear to ready the way for the development of Pebble Mine.

The proposed open-pit gold, copper and molybdenum mine is nearly universally opposed by the fishing industry out of concern that it could imperil salmon stocks in the prolific Bristol Bay fishery, the major driver of the state’s sockeye supply. That passion was on full display at the press conference held to mark the filing of a lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency over its decision to withdraw protections implemented in 2014 under the Clean Water Act that could have posed a hurdle to the proposed mine.

In response to a reporter’s question about the cost of of the federal lawsuit, the plaintiffs — the Bristol Bay Native Association, the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, United Tribes of Bristol Bay, the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association and the Bristol Bay Reserve Association — spoke of the cost of inaction rather than detail a dollar figure.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: Fisheries managers announce crab quotas, season closures

October 8, 2019 — With the fishing season starting next week, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has released crab quotas for Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea.

The total allowable catch for red king crab is 3.8 million pounds. That’s about 12 percent less than last season, which was already the lowest since 1996.

Meanwhile, the tanner crab season has been closed entirely due to below-threshold estimates of mature males.

Managers have also canceled the St. Matthew Island blue king crab fishery, which has been declared “overfished,” and continued the longtime closures for Pribilof Island red and blue king crab, which have fallen below federal minimums for two decades.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Fishermen catch 2 billionth sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay this year

October 3, 2019 — This year, during the fishery’s second largest harvest on record, Bristol Bay commercial fishermen hit another historic number: the 2 billionth sockeye salmon caught by commercial fishermen since record-keeping began in the late 1800s.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen this fast, but the last couple of seasons had huge returns,” said Nushagak/Togiak Area Management biologist Timothy Sands.

2019 was the fifth consecutive year that more than 50 million sockeye salmon returned to Bristol Bay.

In 2018, fishermen caught 41.9 million sockeye out of a record overall return of 62.3 million sockeye. In 2019, fishermen caught 43 million sockeye during a return of 56.5 million sockeye, meaning this year fishermen caught a higher percentage of the total return. (All rivers met their escapement goals — the amount of salmon swimming upriver necessary to ensure healthy future runs.)

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Bristol Bay is outgrowing its wastewater infrastructure. Could a fish tax help fix it?

October 2, 2019 — The Bristol Bay Borough has a problem.

In the summer, its population of under 1,000 residents increases exponentially, as processors, fishers and cannery workers travel to work in the fishery. That puts a lot of strain on the outdated sewer system, including how much wastewater the sewage lagoon can hold.

“The end of May, we waited till as long as we could, then we discharged the Naknek lagoons,” said Bristol Bay Borough Public Works Director Roylene Gottschalk, speaking at a borough assembly meeting last month. “We were at nearly four times the capacity at some points. So it did put stress on the system.”

A proposed fisheries business tax is aimed at fixing that problem. The borough assembly voted unanimously in August to put it on the ballot in the borough’s upcoming election.

The measure would place a 1.5% tax on processed fish. That would impact processors in King Salmon, Naknek and South Naknek. Money collected by the tax would help pay for updates to the sewer system, which the borough estimates will cost a total of around $30 million.

Read the full story at KTOO

Voicing the Stories of Women in Alaska Fisheries

October 2, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Alaska women’s experience and knowledge are fundamental to the social, cultural, economic, and ecological sustainability of Bristol Bay salmon fisheries, a new NOAA Fisheries study finds.

This study used oral history and visual ethnography methods to provide a means for women to voice their stories about the importance of fishery resources in their communities. We used this approach to capture their knowledge to inform fisheries management, preserve cultural diversity, and share with communities. The interview audio and video shorts are available on NOAA’s new Voices from the Fisheries website.

The study, a collaboration with the Bristol Bay Native Association (BBNA), is focused on the daily life and fishing practices of Alaska Native fisherwomen in the Bristol Bay area.

“Bristol Bay is an ideal place to explore women’s roles in fisheries because women are highly engaged in its salmon fisheries,” said Anna Lavoie, a scientist with NOAA Fisheries who led the research. “Women own over 30% of commercial set net permits there. In Alaska women are very proactive in promoting conservation and sustainability. There should be avenues for incorporating women’s knowledge into resource management. They are actively engaged in fisheries but there is very little information available about their experience and contributions.”

Read the full release here

Murkowski questions data gaps on Alaska’s Pebble Mine

September 30, 2019 — On Thursday, Sept. 26, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski released a report calling for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take its time to address the concerns of key state and federal agencies, as well as the region’s stakeholders, before submitting its decision on permitting for Pebble Mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that it would perform a “thorough and transparent review” before issuing its final decision.

The announcement came after Murkowski again raised questions about the EPA’s criticism of the Army Corps’ Draft Environmental Impact Statement, including data gaps and inaccurate statements.

“If the data, if the science out there that has been raised by these agencies can’t demonstrate that you can have a successful mining project in an area that is as sensitive as the Bristol Bay watershed, then a permit should not issue,” Murkowski said.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Hugely successful Alaskan sockeye season smashes regional value records

September 27, 2019 — Alaskan salmon fishermen on the shores of Bristol Bay have enjoyed one of their most successful harvesting seasons on record, according to preliminary reports from Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game.

In 2019, the bay saw a total return of 56.5 million sockeye salmon, making it the fourth-largest return in the fishery’s 130-year history, as well as the fifth consecutive year with a return of more than 50m specimens.

Furthermore, fishermen in the Bristol Bay area harvested over 43m sockeye in 2019, the second-largest figure on record. When combined with catches of other salmon species, they netted a record-breaking $306m, nearly double the 20-year average.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: Murkowski says Pebble mine shouldn’t be permitted unless data ‘gaps’ get explained

September 25, 2019 — Sen. Lisa Murkowski last week expressed strong concerns about the permitting process for the Pebble copper and gold mine, saying at an event organized by a mine opponent that Pebble should not be permitted unless key questions are answered.

The Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies have raised “justifiable” issues with the Army Corps of Engineers’ 1,400-page draft review of the project’s potential impacts, she said.

“We have read what the EPA has said, and their very strong criticism of inadequacy of statements that just didn’t hold up, of data that wasn’t sufficient,” she said Sept. 18.

“So I look at that and say if the data, if the science out there that has been raised by these agencies can’t demonstrate that you can have a successful mining project in an area that is as sensitive as the Bristol Bay watershed then a permit should not issue,” she said.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News