May 21, 2020 — Americans are cooking more seafood while stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The New York Times.
For Ren Ostry, the owner of Culver City, California-based Kitchen Catch, that trend has resulted in a tripling of sales for her subscription seafood service, which touts the environmental and social benefits of eating bycatch and lesser-known species.
May 20, 2020 — The cool, nutrient-rich water of the California Current supports a variety of marine life, including invisible phytoplankton, economically important salmon, rockfish, and Dungeness crab, and majestic orcas.
For the study in Science Advances, researchers used recent understanding of water breathability and historical data to explain population cycles of the northern anchovy. The findings for this key species could apply to other species in the current.
“If you’re worried about marine life off the west coast of North America, you’re worried about anchovies and other forage fish in the California Current. Ultimately it’s what underpins the food web,” says lead author Evan Howard, a postdoctoral researcher in oceanography at the University of Washington.
May 18, 2020 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Friday unveiled a batch of complex new rules designed to reduce the risk to endangered whales and sea turtles of becoming entangled in commercial Dungeness crab fishing gear.
The draft regulations are set to be finalized before the next commercial season starts in November after a period of public review.
They expand on a framework established under a legal settlement reached last year that allows for the state’s $60-million-a-year crab fishery to be delayed or closed when surveys and other observations suggest a high risk of concentrated fishing gear and marine life overlapping in the same place. The new rules are meant to allow more nuanced risk assessment and precise management actions rather than the closure of large swaths of ocean, as seen in recent seasons.
Among the provisions are options to restrict fishing in certain depths, require crabbers to set only a share of the traps for which they’re permitted or limit intervention to any of six newly established geographic zones, rather than the larger Northern and Central California management districts that currently exist.
May 18, 2020 — At San Diego’s Dockside Tuna Harbor Market on a recent Saturday, hundreds of people lined up along the pier. They came to this market to get their hands on some fresh fish, caught and butchered by local fishermen.
The restaurant business has changed dramatically in the last couple of months, and that’s made it hard for the San Diego seafood industry to stay afloat. So, fishermen are turning to the market to make up the lost profit.
But seafood businesses are also hurting. They may get some relief from a government stimulus package, but how quickly they can bounce back could depend on the types of fish they supply.
May 11, 2020 — The Bay Area’s fishing industry has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. But, local fishing companies are hoping salmon season will help change their fortunes.
The fishing industry says the closure of restaurants has been devastating. Now, they’re hoping they’ve weathered the brunt of the economic storms.
The fishing industry’s fates have always been ruled by nature, but long time fishermen and distributors say there’s no way they could have seen the economic blow the coronavirus pandemic would land on their industry.
Paul Johnson from Monterey Fish Market says in the days after the shelter-in-place order was put in place he had to lay off workers. Distributors say restaurants closed and stopped ordering fish, and in turn supply chains collapsed which devastated their bottom lines.
“Since COVID-19 everyone in the seafood business has just been crushed,” said Johnson. “Where there’s no profit, my business disappeared by 90% to 95%.”
May 8, 2020 — The following was released by Lund’s Fisheries:
Jeff Reichle, Chairman of Lund’s Fisheries, Inc., issued the following statement on President Trump’s “Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth”:
Lund’s Fisheries has been in business since 1954; I myself have been with the company since 1974. This is the first time in my memory that a sitting President has taken the time and initiative to recognize the hard work and value of this country’s fishing industry and its importance in feeding Americans.
Fishermen are notoriously independent people, seldom looking for help, and most often overlooked by their government. It is refreshing, to say the least, that the President has chosen to recognize our industry in this time of national crisis.
We at Lund’s Fisheries are extremely grateful to this Administration for this recognition and Executive Order. With 5 processing companies employing over 300 people in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California, we are ready to continue to meet the country’s needs during this crisis.
We are especially grateful to hear that the Administration will help us with trade barriers and inequities in our international import/export business. Far too often trade barriers have been put in place by foreign nations against our products with no pushback from the U.S. government. We cannot thank the President enough for his tough negotiations on these matters, and look forward to working with his Administration on these issues following his welcomed announcement yesterday.
We further look forward to working with the Administration to ensure that the commercial wild fishing industry is able to stay healthy and vibrant without being impeded by the installation of wind turbines on historical fishing grounds. We hope that the opening sentence in section 1, which states “America needs a vibrant and competitive seafood industry to create and sustain American jobs, put safe and healthy food on American tables, and contribute to the American economy” will include safeguarding this historic industry by ensuring that our ability to produce seafood into the future will not be lost in a rush to produce subsidized wind energy at any cost.
May 8, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):
Today, the Secretary of Commerce announced the allocation of $300 million of congressionally directed CARES Act funding for fisheries assistance to states, Tribes, and territories with coastal and marine fishery participants who have been negatively affected by COVID-19. Of this funding, $18.3 million is being awarded to California fishery participants and $5 million to Federally Recognized West Coast Tribes.
May 6, 2020 — Numerous meat processing plants have closed, leaving ranchers with nowhere to bring their livestock and fearing that the animals may be sold at drastically reduced prices or euthanized. A surplus in dairy and vegetables has forced farmers to dump their milk and throw out or plow under their crops. Fishermen catching sablefish, halibut and black cod are now left without restaurants — their biggest market — to buy their food, as others waiting to catch king salmon and albacore wonder whether it’s even worth going out to fish when the season opens in July.
In Sitka, Alaska, it’s the height of the longline fishing season for halibut and black cod, and Linda Behken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, has been working hard to keep her members informed on the latest regarding COVID-19.
“I would say it’s about the most exhausting month I’ve ever been through since I’ve been running [the association],” said Behnken, whose organization represents about 130 vessel owners. “Just the worry about our fleet immediately and in the long-term.”
Behnken says prices for halibut and black cod have already dropped 60% relative to recent years in large part because restaurants have closed. She expects similar price drops in king salmon when that season opens in a limited capacity in July.
“Most Americans eat their seafood at restaurants, and with restaurants closed, that higher volume, higher quality product is where we really lost markets. So the impact to the fishermen has been really significant,” Behnken said.
Behnken said a lot of people are fishing anyway, “hoping that prices will improve.”
For some fishermen, however, the risk of losing money is too high. California’s commercial salmon season began on Friday, but Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, says that with the markets “upended” and 75% of California salmon purchased by restaurants, many fishermen might not go through the trouble of fishing.
May 4, 2020 — Squid boats dotting the Central California coastline have been joined by salmon fishermen and women as both seasons are now underway. While the salmon fishery is just getting started up, the squid fishery is already showing signs of a promising season.
“I can tell you that the squid seems to be going really well,” said Moss Landing Harbormaster Tommy Razzeca, “we have a bunch of vessels working out of the harbor.”
The squid fishery is among the most lucrative and productive in the state, frequently valued in the double-digit millions. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, landings from California market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) were over 34,000 short tons in the 2018-2019 season, generating more than $33 million in revenue.
But according to Diane Pleschner-Steele, the executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association, these charming and elusive animals can be difficult to pin down. The statement has proven true in the last couple of years.
May 1, 2020 — Coronavirus and Chinese trade tariffs put California’s spiny lobster industry in a stranglehold this past season. If the trade tariffs going into the season weren’t enough, ex-vessel prices plummeted to a third of what they’d been in previous years with announcements that the coronavirus outbreak warranted stopping shipments of live lobsters to primary markets.
Lunar New Year celebrations in China traditionally mark the highest demand for lobsters shipped across the water from the West Coast. But that market deflated as coronavirus kept Chinese consumers home, slashing demand.
As of mid-March, spiny lobster fishermen had put in 76.5 metric tons of product, according to data posted in PacFIN. Ex-vessel prices averaged $12.26 per pound. Much of that value was predicated by deliveries and shipments previous to the outbreak of the virus in China. Both production and values were down significantly from the same period in the 2018-19 season, when the harvest stood at 194.4 metric tons and average ex-vessel prices of $17.04 per pound.