Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Board of Fisheries passes new Kenai king salmon plan

March 11, 2024 — New management policies for Kenai River king salmon mean that sockeye bag limits in the river are up, and commercial setnet fishing is likely to be closed for the foreseeable future.

Kenai River late run king salmon are now officially designated a stock of concern, which means a host of changes in the management plan. The Alaska Board of Fisheries finalized the designation at its meeting in Anchorage on March 1, and as part of it, revised the management plan for the fishery to help conserve more of the fish.

King salmon in general have been in trouble across coastal Alaska. The Kenai River run of kings has been declining for more than a decade, with increasing restrictions on sportfishing and commercial fishing in the area. Commercial setnet fishermen, who fish off the beach on the east side of Cook Inlet, were closed entirely in 2023, while sportfishing for kings was entirely closed because of low returns. The management plan, which the Alaska Department of Fish and Game uses to determine what regulations to set on the run, provided a number of tools to conserve the run, but the numbers of fish returning have continued to decline.

At its October 2023 meeting, the board reviewed the Stock of Concern designation for the late run, which covers July and August in the Kenai River. At its March meeting, the board decided how to change the management plan to help rebuild the run over time.

The main issue in Cook Inlet is the complex web of different user types and how they affect the kings making their way upriver. The Kenai River is one of the most heavily fished systems in Alaska, with drift gillnetters fishing in Cook Inlet, setnetters fishing the beaches up and down the Kenai Peninsula, personal use dipnetters fishing the mouth of the Kenai in July, and sportfishermen lining nearly all 87 miles of the Kenai River. Most of them target sockeye salmon, but kings are coming back during the same time, and are inevitably caught as well.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Murkowski calls proposed endangered listing for Alaska king salmon ‘wrongheaded’

February 28, 2024 — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski believes an effort by a Washington-state conservation group to put Alaska king salmon on the federal endangered-species list is misguided.

The Wild Fish Conservancy filed a petition with NOAA Fisheries in January, but Murkowski says the organization has missed the mark.

“They are attempting to utilize a very legitimate law, the Endangered Species Act, for what I would consider to be a very wrongheaded purpose,” Murkowski said by phone. “And that is to basically stop our wild fisheries.”

Murkowski says Alaska’s fisheries are under threat from several sources, including environmental pressure from climate change and warming oceans, and economic pressure from Russia’s oversupply of traditional seafood markets. And there’s also ongoing litigation by the Wild Fish Conservancy itself, which sued NOAA Fisheries in 2020 to shut down the commercial troll fishery for kings in Southeast Alaska.

That tactic has yet to succeed, so Murkowski is not surprised that the Wild Fish Conservancy is trying another.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Portion of Washington hydroelectric dam harms salmon and must be removed, federal judge rules

February 21, 2024 — A portion of a dam on the Puyallup River in Washington, operated by the utility company Electron Hydro, must be removed because it harms fish protected by the Endangered Species Act, a federal judge ruled Friday morning.

In December 2020, Electron Hydro attempted to replace a central portion of the dam, which lies on the Puyallup River near Tacoma. A temporary bypass channel was lined with field turf, rubber and other materials. Then it ruptured, spilling its contents into the river.

Once authorities were notified of the spill, Electron Hydro was ordered to clean up the river before continuing any construction on the dam. Where the temporary bypass channel once stood, Electron erected a temporary rock dam which remains in place to this day.

The Puyallup Tribe, a federally recognized tribe in western Washington, sued Electron Hydro in 2020, claiming that the company polluted the river with toxic materials when the the temporary bypass ruptured.

The tribe also claimed the rock dam impeded the upstream travel and spawning of endangered Chinook salmon, bull trout and steelhead trout. This amounts to an illegal taking of the fish, the tribe says, because Electron Hydro does not possess permits to take any of the fish.

In an 11-page opinion, Senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour found the tribe presented extensive evidence that the rock dam impedes safe passage for the fish. (Electron Hydro had not argued otherwise.) Since the case is an Endangered Species Act case, he wrote, the tribe needs only to prove that irreparable injury has occurred.

A Reagan appointee, Coughenour pointed to evidence presented by the tribe of “attraction flows” — that is, accelerated water which attracts migrating fish to the rock structure and away from the fish ladder that would allow them to continue upstream.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

Reviews Find “Nearshore Calculator” Uses Best Available Science in Valuing Salmon Habitat

February 16, 2024 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

Five independent reviewers have found that NOAA Fisheries’ “Nearshore Calculator” is based on the best available science. Our scientists developed the tool to assess the value of salmon habitat in Puget Sound. The professional feedback indicates that the calculator can help accurately estimate the effects of development, and what it will take to offset that impact.

In one of the reviews, Steven J. Cooke of Carleton University praised the way the calculator was “thoughtfully developed drawing upon published literature, grey literature, and expert knowledge.”

NOAA Fisheries developed the calculator to help developers and other project proponents quantify the impact of their projects on the value of salmon habitat. Puget Sound’s nearshore habitat is especially important to juvenile Chinook salmon during their first few months in saltwater, before they leave for years in the open ocean. The larger the fish are when they set off, the better their odds of surviving and returning to their home rivers to spawn.

We published three biological opinions between 2020 to 2022 assessing the impacts of development projects such as bulkheads and piers on salmon habitat. They determined that further losses of nearshore habitat in Puget Sound were likely to jeopardize the existence of threatened Puget Sound Chinook salmon and endangered Southern Resident killer whales.

Following those opinions, the Army Corps of Engineers’ 2022 Salish Sea Nearshore Programmatic Biological Opinion required project proponents to offset the impacts of their projects on the habitat. The Nearshore Calculator provides a scientifically based means of valuing lost salmon habitat so developers know up-front how much they must offset.

California salmon disaster funding falls far short, say fishing advocates

February 6, 2024 –The $20.6 million allocated for federal relief to California’s Chinook salmon closure is just two-thirds of the state’s aid request, and threatens the survival of fishing businesses, California commercial anglers and for-hire recreational groups said Monday.

In a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Golden Gate Fisherman’s Association, and the Northern California Guides and Sportsmen’s Association called for “immediate full funding of salmon disaster funding assistance” in the $30.7 million figure sought by state officials.

“The State’s economic analysis already falls short of expected needs, and the federal disaster assistance package add insult to injury,” leaders of the fishing groups wrote in their joint letter. “Additionally, nearly a year after the declaration of the complete season closure, not one dollar of relief funds have been made available to affected businesses or their employees.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

US government provides USD 21 million in financial relief for California salmon season closure

February 5, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Commerce has allocated USD 20.6 million (EUR 19.2 million) in financial relief to the state of California following the closure of its Chinook salmon season in 2023.

“Fishery disasters have wide-ranging impacts and can affect commercial and recreational fishermen, subsistence users, charter businesses, shore-side infrastructure, and the marine environment,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. “These funds will help affected California communities recover and improve sustainability.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Largest Dam Removal Project in U.S. History Begins Final Stretch, Welcoming Salmon Home

January 23, 2024 — The Klamath River in California and Oregon is one step closer to a healthy new beginning.

Officials gathered earlier this month at the Iron Gate Dam in Hornbrook, California, to unlatch a gate at the base of its reservoir. As the water flowed through, it signaled the beginning of the end of the largest dam removal project in United States history, report Erik Neumann and Juliet Grable for NPR.

The gate’s opening, formerly just a crack, was extended to three feet wide. Dark brown waters rumbled through the gap, washing years of sediment buildup downriver. Over the next week, 2,200 cubic feet of water per second were expected to flow, lowering the reservoir between two and four feet per day. Eventually, the channel’s entire width—stretching 16 feet across—will allow the uninhibited passage of water and sediment.

Opening the Iron Gate Dam represents a critical advancement in the historic demolition project, which was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November 2022. The effort will remove four aging hydroelectric dams in the Klamath River, restoring hundreds of miles of salmon habitat. The first and smallest dam, Copco 2, was already deconstructed this past autumn, and the rest are slated for removal this year.

Read the full article at the Smithsonian Magazine

Wild Fish Conservancy seeks endangered species listing of Alaska Chinook salmon

January 16, 2024 — The Wild Fish Conservancy has petitioned NOAA Fisheries to list Alaska king salmon under the Endangered Species Act.

The organization claims the petition is a response to “the severe decline and poor condition of Chinook populations” in Alaska.

“For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm that Alaska’s Chinook are in dire trouble,” Wild Fish Conservancy Executive Director Emma Helverson said. “Despite existing management plans and years of efforts by the state of Alaska, Chinook salmon continue to decline in abundance, size, diversity, and spatial structure throughout the state. Through this action, we are asking the federal government to undertake a formal status review and implement protections warranted under the Endangered Species Act, including designating critical habitat protections, to ensure the survival of these iconic fish.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Conservation group petitions for Alaska king salmon to be listed as an endangered species

January 13, 2024 — A Washington-based conservation group filed a petition with federal regulators Wednesday, requesting that they list Alaska king salmon as an endangered species.

The Wild Fish Conservancy argued in its 67-page petition that king, or chinook, salmon numbers have declined to the point where the species is at risk of extinction in Alaska. The group cites state data indicating that the decline has been predominately caused by climate change, habit destruction and hatchery salmon competing for food with wild fish.

The group is asking that the National Marine Fisheries Service formally review king salmon numbers across the Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and Southeast Alaska before considering stricter protections. Those could include critical habit protections and expanding ways to protect king salmon smolt — among other measures the group lists.

The petition is a first step in a process that could take years to be resolved with court challenges possible. But legal experts say there could be broad implications if the request is approved to list Alaska king salmon as threatened or endangered under the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News