Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: California’s commercial Dungeness crab season delayed again

December 10, 2022 — The start of the commercial Dungeness crab season in California has been delayed further to protect humpback whales from becoming entangled in trap and buoy lines.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife said Wednesday that commercial crabbing will be delayed until at least Dec. 30. The situation will be reassessed on or before Dec. 22.

It’s the third delay for the start of the commercial season, which traditionally begins Nov. 15 for waters between the Mendocino county line and the border with Mexico.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Del Mar, Silver Bay, Lund’s collaborate to push MSC assessment of California squid fishery

November 28, 2022 — The California market squid purse-seine fishery, one of the largest commercial squid fisheries by tonnage in the United States, has started the Marine Stewardship Council assessment process.

A completion of an initial draft of the MSC assessment report found the fishery preliminarily qualified for certification. Three seafood companies; Del Mar Seafoods, Silver Bay Seafoods, and Lund’s Fisheries, as well as supplier Sun Coast Calamari, collaborated to push the assessment process, which is being conducted by with the independent certification body SCS Global Services.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Whales Off California Coast Delay Commercial Crab Season

November 25, 2022 — For the fourth year in a row, the start of the commercial Dungeness crab season in California will be delayed to protect humpback whales from becoming entangled in trap and buoy lines, it was announced Monday.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that it was delaying the start of the commercial season, which traditionally begins Nov. 15, until further notice for waters between the Mendocino county line and the border with Mexico.

Authorities first announced a delay late last month. The situation will be reassessed on or before Dec. 7 and if conditions allow commercial crabbing could be permitted on Dec. 16, the department said.

Read the full article at NBC San Diego

California Market Squid Fishery Begins MSC Assessment

November 23, 2022 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Standard assessment process has begun for the California market squid fishery.

Over a month ago, SeafoodNews covered how squid purse seiners and processors in the state were looking to land MSC certification.

Del Mar Seafoods, Silver Bay Seafoods and Lund’s Fisheries, supplied by Sun Coast Calimari, have engaged with independent certification body SCS Global Services to complete the assessment of the fishery against the MSC Standard.

The aforementioned coalition explained that the California market squid fishery is the largest commercial squid fishery by tonnage in the U.S. with the squid serving as a popular option as calamari due to its flavor.

CALIFORNIA: Dungeness crab season delayed due to concerns for whale safety and meat quality

November 23, 2022 — Dungeness crab fans may find the holiday staple more difficult to find in northern California after the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced delays to the commercial fishing season.

According to CDFW, the commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Fishing Zones 3-6 will remain delayed due to the presence of high numbers of humpback whales and the potential for entanglement with lines and traps in this fishery.

Read the full article at KRCR

Panelists say BOEM, fishing industry still far apart on offshore wind

November 21, 2022 — With the first offshore wind lease sales impending off California, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and commercial fishermen still have a chasm to gap before the new and old industries can reasonably co-exist, panelists said at the Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle Friday.

BOEM’s early years of reviewing and permitting the first U.S. federal waters wind projects off southern New England failed to anticipate and head off conflicts with the region’s 400-year-old fishing industry, said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

While the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project is moving ahead, BOEM and the developers are still contending with a lawsuit brought by Northeast fishermen with the assistance of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

1st lease sale to be held for offshore wind on West Coast

October 20, 2022 — The Biden administration will hold the first-ever lease sale for offshore wind energy on the West Coast, officials said Tuesday.

The Dec. 6 sale will target areas in the Pacific Ocean off central and northern California— the first U.S. auction for commercial-scale floating offshore wind energy development. The administration hailed the upcoming sale at at a conference for offshore wind developers and experts in Providence, Rhode Island.

“We’re not just committed to the country’s transition to a clean energy economy, one that combats climate change, creates good-paying jobs and ensures economic opportunities are accessible to all. We’re actually taking action and driving results,” Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Amanda Lefton told the group.

The final sale notice for the auction will outline the details and lease terms for five areas off California, enough for 4.5 gigawatts of offshore wind to power more than 1.5 million homes and create thousands of new jobs, she said. The notice will include lease stipulations to promote a domestic supply chain and create union jobs.

Read the full article at Associated Press 

MAINE: Maine petitioners ask California seafood group to remove lobster listing

September 22, 2022 — Maine’s lobster industry has launched an online petition seeking to convince a California-based seafood group to back off its calls for a boycott of the popular crustacean food.

The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative’s petition calls on the Monterey Bay Aquarium to remove lobster caught in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank from its “red” list of food to avoid, saying the designation is “not supported by the facts.”

“Maine Lobster has always been sustainable, and the baseless decision by the Seafood Watch program greatly impacts an industry that is the backbone of the economy in Maine, supporting entire communities, composed of generations of fishermen who have always prioritized the health of the fishery and the Gulf of Maine,” the petition reads.

Read the full article at The Center Square

EDITORIAL: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Strategy to Reintroduce Sea Otters is Flawed

August 12, 2022 — The USFWS study fails to estimate costs to taxpayers; impacts to key local fisheries such as Dungeness crab and sea urchin; neglects to fully examine the impacts to local port and harbor activities and fishing communities and fails to directly clarify to impacted Tribal Nations that no ceremonial and subsistence uses – or control of otter populations negatively impacting other important Tribal resources – are permitted under current Federal law.

For Oregon and California coastal communities dependent on Dungeness crab, sea urchin, and other shellfish, reintroducing sea otters in an area where they have been absent for more than 100 years will spell big trouble. Yet, a recent report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) concludes it is “feasible” to reintroduce them to Southern Oregon and Northern California. In June 2022, the USFWS report, Feasibility Assessment: Sea Otter Reintroduction to the Pacific Coast, was released in response to a largely-unvetted Congressional mandate. In this report, the Agency lays out the potential benefits of reintroducing sea otters to new areas of the West Coast. It identifies some – but not all – significant areas of concern.

When plentiful, shellfish and crabs account for a most of a sea otter’s diet. Their voracious feeding activity, especially related to the almost certain impacts to the West Coast heritage Dungeness crab fishery and sea urchin harvests, alarms West Coast fishermen and processors. Otters eat 23% to 33% of their body weight daily. Just 169 otters weighing an average of 50 pounds each, feeding full time on urchins, would consume an amount equal to the entire annual commercial catch, making a commercial fishery not viable. Dungeness crabs are caught near small ports from Oregon to Central California, and the sea urchin fishery operates in Oregon and California.

Read the full article at Seafood News

CALIFORNIA: Endangered salmon will swim in California river for first time in 80 years

July 19, 2022 –California’s Chinook salmon haven’t been able to reach the McCloud River since 1942, when the construction of Shasta Dam blocked the fish from swimming upstream and sealed off their spawning areas in the cold mountain waters near Mount Shasta.

After 80 years, endangered winter-run chinook are about to swim in the river once again.

State and federal wildlife officials collected about 20,000 winter-run salmon eggs from the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery near Redding and drove them for three hours to a campground on the banks of the McCloud River.

Members of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, who have long sought to return salmon to the river where their ancestors lived, held a ceremony as the eggs arrived in a cooler.

During the ceremony, Sisk and others sang as two women carried the cooler with the salmon eggs, leading a procession around a fire as children followed.

Taylor Lipscomb, the hatchery’s manager, reached into the cooler and lifted out a cup filled with orange salmon eggs, then handed it to one of the children.

Each child participated, lowering a cupful into the water and tipping it until the eggs tumbled out and settled on a metal screen.

Last year, the water flowing from Shasta Dam got so warm that the Sacramento River turned lethal for winter-run salmon eggs. Most of the eggs and young fish died. State biologists estimated that only 2.56 percent of the eggs hatched and survived to swim downriver, one of the lowest estimates of “egg-to-fry” survival yet.

Read the full article at The Columbian