Saving Seafood

Tribes, fishermen decry Alaska and B.C.’s decision not to extend transboundary monitoring

March 2, 2021 — A 22-page final report released on Thursday culminates two years of data collected from water, sediment and fish tissue in three transboundary watersheds that straddle the frontier. And now, Alaska and British Columbia governments say their work is done.

“Given the existence of other sampling programs planned by state, federal or provincial agencies throughout the transboundary region, there is no need to continue the joint program,” the state and province said in a joint-statement.

Congress appropriated more than $3 million for renewed stream monitoring at border stream gauges operated by the U.S. Geological Survey.

“With all the resources didn’t feel like it was necessary for multiple agencies to be collecting the same thing,” Terri Lomax, a program manager with the state Department of Conservation, told CoastAlaska.

She’s been part of the cross-border effort ever since Gov. Bill Walker signed a landmark agreement in 2015 with B.C. to set up joint water quality monitoring for a shared watershed that hosts a booming Canadian mining sector that drains into Southeast Alaska.

“We’ve developed a lot of partnerships and a lot of relationships over the last couple of years,” she said. “We didn’t have these relationships with British Columbia.”

Provincial officials say they agree that the program has run its course.

Read the full story at KRBD

B.C. commercial salmon fishermen discuss cures for an industry on the brink

January 26, 2021 — No issue is off the table this week as more than 100 B.C. fishermen, fleet leaders, First Nations leaders and other salmon stakeholders gather for a two-day virtual round-table in a desperate bid to bring the ailing commercial fishery back from the brink.

The United Fishermen And Allied Workers’ Union (UFAWU-Unifor) and active fishermen’s associations convened the conference, Future of BC Commercial Salmon Fishing, at the request of the federal standing committee on fisheries asking for recommendations on how to revitalize commercial fishing on the west coast.

“The commercial salmon fleet is pretty well broke,” Joy Thorkelson, president of UFAWU-Unifor said. “And DFO’s outlook is as depressing this year as it has been for the past two years. Yes, we need more salmon, but that’s not the only issue.”

The issues are complex and sometimes controversial. Allocation of stocks with recreational and First Nations fisheries, and access to healthy runs are priority issues, but interwoven are challenges with policy and governance that are not meeting the economic-development needs of fishing communities, a licensing regime established in the 1990s that’s consolidated power into the hands of corporations and so-called “armchair fishermen”, and an explosion in pinniped predation rates on juvenile salmon, to name a few.

Read the full story at Saanich News

Using eDNA to Monitor Alaskan Waters for Invasive European Green Crabs

December 1, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Natural resource managers in British Columbia discovered several adult male and female European green crabs on Haida Gwaii this past July. Alarm bells immediately went off for biologists in Alaska.

The archipelago of Haida Gwaii, off the coast of Prince Rupert in British Columbia, is very close to Alaska. The July discovery is the closest confirmed finding of the invasive crustacean since it was first detected in the San Francisco Bay area in 1989.

European green crabs were first introduced to North America in the 1800s, likely hitching a ride in the ballast water of merchant ships from Europe. Experts believe the invasive crab was transported to the West Coast in ballast water as well.

The green crab is considered one of the most invasive species in the marine environment. It has few predators, aggressively hunts and eats its prey, destroys seagrass, and outcompetes local species for food and habitat. It has been documented that European green crab devour juvenile king crab as well as juvenile salmon.

Read more.

‘Salmon’ author pans Patagonia’s anti-fish farm activism

December 1, 2020 — Mark Kurlansky, the New York Times bestselling author of “Salmon”, is urging anti-fish farm activists to work with salmon farmers and boost the production of affordable and sustainable seafood from the oceans.

In an interview with SeaWestNews, Kurlansky said replacing sea farms with land-based operations, as the activists are demanding in British Columbia, is not a good idea because it will exacerbate climate change and substantially increase Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions.

“Land based farming greatly increases energy use and the carbon footprint…I do not think that is a good idea,” said Kurlansky, who spent five years researching his book, which was published by Patagonia, the outdoor clothing conglomerate, which ironically supports activism to stop ocean-based fish farming.

“Farming salmon in the oceans has almost no carbon footprint…almost all of the energy used, apart from packaging the food, is provided by the natural force of the ocean…so you will be taking a low energy industry and turning it into a high energy industry,” he said.

“I would certainly not want to see all fish farms move on land, and I also would not want to see all ocean fish farming stopped, because I think it has a good contribution and it is a supply of affordable protein. That is not something to turn your back on.”

Read the full story at SeaWest News

B.C.’s Open-Net Salmon Farms On The Way Out, But Replacement Systems May Differ By Region

November 16, 2020 — The federal government’s plan to phase out open-net salmon farms on the B.C. coast could result in different rules for different areas of the province.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it is exploring the use of an “area-based management approach” to aquaculture that would take into account the cumulative impact of groups of fish farms in a certain area.

Read the full story at Seafood News

New drone, underwater footage of orcas stuns researchers, gives intimate look at killer whales’ family life

November 6, 2019 — Who knew orcas were so playful, so full of affection, so constantly touching one another?

New footage taken by drone as well as underwater stunned researchers who spent two days with the southern resident orca J pod off the British Columbia coast, including with the newest baby, and more time with northern resident killer whales in B.C.’s Johnstone Strait. The footage taken during three weeks in August and early September was filmed in collaboration with the Hakai Institute, a science research nonprofit.

“It took our breath away,” said Andrew Trites, professor at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Department of Zoology and director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Trites is co-lead researcher on a study that over five years is taking a close look at resident killer whales and their prey.

The drone footage was gathered non-invasively, with the camera hundreds of feet above the whales, who did not seem to even know it was there, Trites said. Combined with underwater microphones, tracking devices used to follow adult chinook, and underwater footage, a spectacular new look into orcas and their day-to-day life in the wild is emerging.

The big standout so far is just how much the orcas touch one another, something not as visible from a boat.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

Why a Hollywood producer bought a fish farm … or eight

October 17, 2019 — Fishing for wild salmon in British Columbia is what inspired famed Hollywood television writer and producer David E. Kelley to enter the aquaculture industry six years ago.

At the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California on 16 October, Kelley – who is the producer of TV shows such “Big Little Lies” and “Ally McBeal” – explained how he became founder and chairman of Riverence, a sustainable steelhead trout farming operation in Filer, Idaho, as well as a salmon and trout egg producer in Olympia, Washington.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

British Columbia group self-suspends MSC certification for wild salmon

October 7, 2019 — The Canadian Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Society (CPSFS) has self-suspended its Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the sockeye, pink and chum salmon fisheries in British Columbia, effective Nov. 27, the organization has announced.

Its members represent most processors and exporters of wild salmon.

“Everyone who cares about wild salmon in British Columbia should be worried,” said the CPSFS’s Christina Burridge, who is also executive director of the BC Seafood Alliance, adding in a statement that the decision means “there will now be no independent oversight of how Fisheries and Oceans Canada Pacific Region (DFO) manages these fisheries”.

“Though we are disappointed, saddened and frustrated to be forced out of the program,” she said, “we believe the fishery is sustainable and we are working on a plan to have these difficulties addressed in order to have the fishery evaluated and re-certified by the MSC at a future date.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

US senators take aim at Canadian mines’ impact on salmon

June 17, 2019 — A bipartisan group of US senators has written to the premier of Canada’s British Columbia province, airing concerns about the effects the country’s mines are having on salmon populations in four US states.

The eight senators, from Alaska, Idaho, Washington and Montana, asked John Horgan, the province’s premier, to undertake “dedicated efforts to monitor transboundary water quality”.

“While we appreciate Canada’s engagement to date, we remain concerned about the lack of oversight of Canadian mining projects near multiple transboundary rives that originate in B.C. and flow into our four US states,” the senators wrote.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Commercial catches of Pacific halibut increase for most Alaska regions

February 11, 2019 — Contrary to all expectations, commercial catches of Pacific halibut were increased for 2019 in all but one Alaska region.

The numbers were revealed Friday at the International Pacific Halibut Commission annual meeting in Victoria, British Columbia.

The reason was due to increased estimates of the overall halibut biomass based on expanded surveys last summer from Northern California to the Bering Sea, said Doug Bowen who operates Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer.

“There’s a couple of strong year classes from 2011 and 2012 that are just starting to show up in the commercial catches and I think the scientists are cautiously optimistic that we could see some better harvests as a result of those halibut entering the fishery,” he said in a phone call as he was leaving the meetings.

Read the full story at National Fisherman