Saving Seafood

Anchorage talk will dive into ocean acidification’s impact on Alaska marine life

October 16, 2019 — Hundreds of fishery stakeholders and scientists will gather in Anchorage next week as the state Board of Fisheries begins its annual meeting cycle with a two-day work session.

The seven-member board sets the rules for the state’s subsistence, commercial, sport and personal use fisheries. It meets four to six times each year in various communities on a three-year rotation; this year the focus is on Kodiak and Cook Inlet.

The fish board and the public also will learn the latest on how a changing climate and off-kilter ocean chemistry are affecting some of Alaska’s most popular seafood items at an Oct. 23 talk and Q&A on ocean acidification in Alaska.

They may also be surprised to learn that only two studies have looked at salmon response to ocean acidification, and both were conducted outside Alaska.

Most of the research to date has focused specifically on crab and fish stocks, said Bob Foy, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center at the NOAA Auke Bay lab in Juneau who will lead the Anchorage presentation.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Groups say seismic blasts are hurting belugas in Cook Inlet

October 8, 2019 — Two conservation groups want the federal government to stop allowing seismic surveying in Cook Inlet. The Cook Inletkeeper and Center for Biological Diversity said the noise is harming beluga whales.

The survey work by Hilcorp involves blasting high pressure seismic airguns into the water. The sound waves that result help map the ocean floor and point to areas where oil and gas finds are likely.

Bob Shavelson, with the Cook Inletkeeper, said studies show loud noises can harm Cook Inlet beluga whales, which are considered highly endangered. He’s also concerned about the impacts on other creatures that inhabit the area where Hilcorp is testing.

“Imagine if a heavy metal band set up under your bedroom window,” Shavelson said. “How that would be if they were pounding 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for a couple months on end. You would go nuts.”

Read the full story at KTVA

Lawsuit claims Cook Inlet exploration would diminish endangered belugas

September 5, 2019 — Two environmental groups are suing the Trump administration for its decision allowing Hilcorp to disturb beluga whales as it explores Cook Inlet for offshore oil and gas.

Cook Inlet keeper is one of groups suing. Advocacy Director Bob Shavelson says seismic blasts and other exploration work would devastate a population already suffering from the effects of climate change and other factors.

“The Cook Inlet beluga whales are literally teetering on the edge of extinction,” he said. “There was a general idea that, with the halt to Native subsistence hunting in 1999, that the population would rebound. But that didn’t occur.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Council committee struggles with federal Cook Inlet salmon plan

April 18, 2019 — Two-and-a-half years after a federal court directed the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to develop a fishery management plan for the Cook Inlet salmon fishery, there is still a lot of work to do.

The commercial salmon fisheries of Alaska are primarily managed by the state, including in Cook Inlet, where part of the fishery takes place in federal waters. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council for years deferred management of the salmon fishery there to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, finally removing Cook Inlet completely from its FMP in 2012.

The United Cook Inlet Drift Association and the Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund sued, saying the federal government had a responsibility to manage that fishery to ensure it complies with the Magnuson-Stevens Act. In 2016, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, and the council reluctantly turned back to developing a management plan.

Many of the commercial fishermen there have a longstanding dissatisfaction with the Alaska Fish and Game and the Board of Fisheries, stemming from a belief that the department’s allocation decisions governed by the board are politically rather than scientifically motivated and that the escapement goals for sockeye salmon on the Kenai River are too high.

They sought to exercise federal influence over state management through the lawsuit, and now are running into roadblocks on federal authority to do so.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: Cook Inlet sockeye forecast improves; kings closed in North

January 10, 2019 — After two disappointing sockeye seasons in a row, the 2019 season may look up for Upper Cook Inlet commercial fishermen.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s sockeye salmon forecast, published Jan. 4, predicts a total run of 6 million sockeye to Upper Cook Inlet stream systems, with an expected commercial harvest of 3 million and 1 million for sportfishing and subsistence harvest.

If the forecast proves true, the run will be nearly double the 2018 run of 3.1 million.

The Kenai River, the largest sockeye-producing river in the region, is projected to receive a run of about 3.8 million sockeye, the majority of which are the 1.3 age class (one year in freshwater, three years in saltwater).

The Kasilof River, the second-largest producer, is projected to see about 873,000 sockeye come back, with a slight majority in the 1.3 age class.

The Kenai’s forecast is greater than its 20-year average of 3.5 million, while the Kasilof’s is behind its 20-year average of 979,000 fish.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: Work continues on federal plan for Cook Inlet salmon

December 28, 2018 — More than two years after a court ruling ordered the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to develop a management plan for the Cook Inlet salmon fishery, a stakeholder group has made a first set of recommendations.

The council convened a Cook Inlet Salmon Committee last year composed of five stakeholders to meet and offer recommendations before the council officially amends the Fishery Management Plan, or FMP, for the drift gillnet salmon fishery in Upper Cook Inlet, which occurs partially in federal waters.

The committee presented a report with three main findings: first, that the fishery be managed cooperatively with the State of Alaska; second, that the committee schedule another meeting before the April 2019 council meeting; and third, that fishery participants be prohibited from retaining groundfish.

The council went into rewriting the FMP for Cook Inlet unwillingly. The whole battle began in 2012 when the council voted unanimously to pass Amendment 12 to the existing Cook Inlet FMP, which essentially delegated all management authority for the fishery to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, along with the management of two other salmon fisheries in Prince William Sound and the Alaska Peninsula.

The Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund and the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, the trade group for the drift gillnet fleet in the area, sued the National Marine Fisheries Service to restore the FMP to the fishery. After losing in the U.S. District Court of Alaska, the groups prevailed at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in fall 2016.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: Kenai asks the state to declare this year’s upper Cook Inlet fishery an economic disaster

October 23, 2018 — Wednesday night, the Kenai City Council unanimously voted to request that Gov. Bill Walker declare an economic disaster for the upper Cook Inlet fisheries region and support a recovery plan.

Clam Gulch resident David Martin spoke in support of the resolution. He’s the president of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association.

“I appreciate the city council bringing this resolution forward and I hope it’s unanimously supported,” Martin said. “I’ve fished here 47 years and this is probably the worst season I’ve seen. We need a little economic help from the state to carry the people through.”

Council member Bob Molloy, who co-sponsored the resolution, said a potential recovery plan could take many forms.

“The state could commit resources to assist permit holders who participate in the Commercial Fishing Revolving Loan Program to avoid default, and who may be unable to meet payment terms who may not be able to pay because of the poor season,” Molloy said.

Vice Mayor Tim Navarre noted that offering relief to the fishing families here will encourage them to stay here and continue their work.

“If they are given some leeway they will stay in the fishery and work,” Navarre said. “That’s really what it’s all about. This isn’t a welfare program. There’s some real relief here and opportunity for people to benefit from it and continue with their livelihood.”

Mayor Brian Gabriel excused himself from the vote, at the advice of city attorney Scott Bloom, who said it could be a potential conflict of interest since Gabriel is a commercial set-netter and could potentially benefit from the passing of the resolution.

Read the full story at The Peninsula Clarion

ALASKA: Board of Fish agenda heavy with hatchery issues

October 16, 2018 — The Alaska Board of Fisheries will kick off its annual work session in Anchorage Monday and salmon hatcheries will once again be a prominent topic of discussion. The board will consider whether to add issues surrounding production levels to future agendas and it will kick off a broader discussion on the hatchery industry Tuesday.

Disagreements over salmon hatcheries have been roiling over the past few years, and those arguments have played out at Board of Fish meetings.

Hatchery opponents want the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to conduct more studies on the effects of hatchery fish spawning with wild populations and to start examining potential ocean carrying capacity issues. The department is currently in the midst of a large hatchery-wild spawning study.

Hatchery operators point to that as an example of due diligence by the department. Operators like Cook Inlet Aquaculture Executive Director Gary Fandrei say they’re ready for the board’s broad discussion on the state of hatcheries Tuesday afternoon, which may touch on some of those issues.

“We’re prepared for it. The hatchery programs are based on good sound science and we follow those principals,” Fandrei said. “They’re well regulated by the Department of Fish and Game, and we believe we are above board with everything we’re doing.”

An emergency petition back in March sparked the board’s discussion. The petition asked the board to look into Prince William Sound pinks that have been straying into lower Cook Inlet streams.

Valdez Fisheries Development Association Executive Director Mike Wells thinks the discussion will help the public better understand how hatcheries operate.

Read the full story at KBBI

Alaska razor clam harvest expected to dip

October 11, 2018 — Cook Inlet clammers dug on a quota of more than 350,000 pounds as the season got underway in May. The diggers arrive at Polly Creek in spring, put up semi-permanent camps and hit the low tides each morning in search of razor clams, which are lugged back up the beach, where the sands are solid enough to land small airplanes. The planes ferry them from the west side of the inlet to a processing plant at Nikiski, which is north of Kenai on the Kenai Peninsula.

Clam meat recovery runs 40 to 50 percent. In 2016, the clammers dug 284,800 pounds of razors, and the harvest fell to 177,147 pounds in the 2017 season. Preliminary harvest data for 2018 suggests the harvest will wind up around 175,940 pounds, down sharply from the 380,912 pounds that diggers dug just five years ago.

The decline in production could be tied to a couple of factors, according to Pat Shields, a regional management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Soldotna.

“There are fewer diggers working for the company now,” said Shields. “They used to average around 20 to 22 diggers per year, and now they’re down to something like 14 to 15.”

Most of the product winds up in retail markets along the West Coast. Diggers are paid 90 cents a pound for food-grade clams and 60 cents for those with broken shells, which are used for bait.

According to Shields, 2018 revenues tallied up to $175,624 for food-grade clams and $2,344 for bait.

Meanwhile, Alaska’s fleet of just two scallop dredgers worked on a statewide guideline harvest level of 265,000 pounds (shucked meat) The majority of the 145,000-pound GHL for the 2018-19 season has been set for harvest areas near Yakutat, with another 85,000 pounds available for harvest areas surrounding Kodiak. The Cook Inlet harvest area has been closed in an effort to conserve dwindling biomass.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA marks second annual whale count

September 21, 2018 — Citizen scientists of all ages turned out on Sept. 15 to help NOAA Fisheries count endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales and learn more about the importance of healthy marine habitat.

The second annual beluga whales count drew over 2,000 people to 14 scientist-manned viewing stations along Cook Inlet from Homer to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in the morning and the afternoon beluga festival at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage.

Both events were free and open to the public as part of NOAA Fisheries’ effort to increase public awareness and stewardship of Cook Inlet belugas, who were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2008.

Participating educators at the zoo included Rick Rowland, land and natural resources manager for the Tyonek Native Corp., who said the corporation’s presence there was to remind people that there is still an interest in subsistence hunting, but that won’t happen again until the beluga population increases. The tribe decided 14 years ago to cease those subsistence hunts because of the low population of whales, Rowland said. More research is needed to determine why the population is so low and what needs to be done to assure recovery, he said.

Read the full story at The Cordova Times