Saving Seafood

OREGON: Disaster funds available from 2018-2020 Chinook salmon fishery

October 22, 2023 — With the 2024 Chinook salmon season underway, lawmakers including Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced on October 13 that the 2018-2020 Chinook salmon fishery has been declared a disaster by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The announcement allows local fishermen to apply for disaster assistance funds to help recover from low fishing returns during those years.

“This means that they’re going to be able to cover their rent, and their groceries, and their gas bill, and maybe get a pair of shoes for their kids. It’s going to help them get back on their feet,” said Wyden.

The 2023 Chinook salmon season was closed along the Pacific Northwest, aside from limited opportunities with tight catch limits.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s 14 members comprised of representatives from California, Washington, and Oregon manage salmon fishing 3-200 miles off shore and set those limits with help from fisheries managers.

Jeff Reeves, chairman of the Oregon Salmon Commission has fished Oregon’s waters the last 50 years and says the fishery’s downturn in 2018 led to a broad reaching economic wipe out among fishermen.

Read the full article at KPIC

Judge keeps Alaska chinook fishery closure in place, state scrambles to save summer season

May 31, 2023 — A federal judge has rejected a motion from the U.S. state of Alaska, the Alaska Trollers Association, and NOAA Fisheries to stay his order earlier this month that will effectively close the winter and summer commercial chinook troll fishery in Southeast Alaska.

The groups are now looking to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for relief as they race against the clock to ensure the commercial fishery can open on July 1.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Southeast Alaska communities set to join growing chorus opposing lawsuit that threatens Chinook shutdown

February 6, 2023 — Local governments around Southeast Alaska are speaking out against a lawsuit that threatens to shut down trolling for king salmon, also known as Chinook salmon, across the region this year. The lawsuit aims to protect an endangered population of orcas in Washington state.

Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg are set to join a growing chorus of Alaska voices highlighting the impact the suit could have on the region’s fishing fleet.

The lawsuit from the Washington state-based Wild Fish Conservancy centers on an endangered Puget Sound population of orcas known as Southern Resident Killer Whales.

Killer whales eat salmon — especially big, meaty king salmon — and the conservation group argues federal officials haven’t properly accounted for the impact the Southeast king salmon fishery has on the Puget Sound orcas.

Read the full article at KRBD

SE Alaska trollers and conservation group await judge’s decision on possible Chinook fishery closure

January 23, 2023 — The Southeast Alaska troll fishery of wild Chinook salmon is facing a potential shutdown due to a lawsuit filed by the Wildfish Conservancy, a non-profit conservation organization based in Seattle.

The lawsuit was filed as a course of action to protect the Southern Resident killer whales and the wild chinook salmon that migrate to Southeast Alaska from rivers in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon

On Dec. 13, 2022, the Magistrate for the U.S. Western Washington District Court released a Report and Recommendation with a proposed order that includes temporarily vacating the Incidental Take Permit (ITS) that allows Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery to harvest wild Chinook salmon year-round. The National Marine Fisheries Service is currently working to revise the Biological Opinion, including the ITS.

The Wildfish Conservancy, based in Washington State, filed the lawsuit to stop trollers in Southeast Alaska summer and winter king fishing, citing its impact on the endangered population of Southern Resident Killer Whales in Puget Sound and its lack of food, particularly Chinook salmon. The Wildfish Conservancy states the Southern Resident killer whales are down to a population of 73 whales, down from 100 25 years ago. The conservancy of the population decline is due in large part to a lack of prey, particularly wild chinook caught in Southeast Alaska during the summer and winter troll fishery

On Jan. 10, the due date for objections, all parties filed their objections.

The Wildfish Conservancy filed objections, finding that the analysis governing the Columbia River in Washington state prey increase programs was flawed under federal law and that the Incidental Take Statement covering the Southeast Alaska troll fishery was also legally deficient.

Read the full article at Sikta Radio Center