Saving Seafood

By plane, boat and man basket, COVID-19 vaccines flow to Alaska’s Aleutian seafood workers

March 30, 2021 — Thousands of Alaska seafood workers are getting vaccinated for COVID-19 three months after outbreaks swept through Aleutian plants, shuttering some just as the lucrative Bering Sea fishing season began.

The effort is taking different forms, ranging from clinics in Sand Point to a one-day mass event in the Unalaska gym and aboard Dutch Harbor boats that vaccinated about 1,500 plant workers and deep-sea fishermen.

Probably the most only-in-Alaska method involved Eastern Aleutian Tribes community health aide Joe McMillan, who on Thursday clambered into a small man basket suspended in the air to swing aboard two large processing vessels and vaccinate more than a hundred people on each.

The doses now going into seafood worker arms are coming from a federal allocation provided to Eastern Aleutian Tribes rather than from state supplies of vaccine.

They came via a Biden administration plan to expand vaccine availability to community health centers in underserved communities. The Eastern Aleutian Tribes is one of just two tribal entities in Alaska participating in that program as of March 22.

The tribal health organization has probably given out 2,500 shots in the past week and 4,000 since January, according to CEO Paul Mueller, who described one chartered flight Wednesday to deliver food and vaccine that skipped from Nelson Lagoon to Cold Bay, False Pass, Sand Point, Dutch Harbor and King Cove.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Additional $255 MIllion in Fisheries Assistance Funding Being Allocated Through CARES Act

March 29, 2021 — Even more funding for fisheries assistance is being made available. NOAA Fisheries announced on Monday that an additional $255 million will be allocated to states and territories with coastal and marine fishery participants who have been negatively affected by COVID-19. The new funding will be provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and will support activities previously authorized under Sec. 12005 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

It’s been a year now since a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, known as the CARES Act, was passed. For the seafood industry, Section 12005 gave the Department of Commerce the right to provide assistance to fishery participants who had been affected by COVID-19. A total of $300 million was set aside for the fisheries sector, with funds ultimately broken down by state, tribe and territory. NOAA turned to their partners – the Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission – to disburse the funds. Alaska and Washington came out on top with $50 million each in funding being allocated to them, while Massachusetts landed a little over $28 million and Florida over $23.6 million.

Read the full story at Seafood News

In historically tough year, Maine fishermen brought in history’s 9th-most valuable catch

March 26, 2021 — Despite unprecedented market losses, Maine fishermen brought in over a half-billion dollars for their catch in 2020.

Valued at $516.8 million, the ex-vessel value, or price paid at the dock, of Maine’s commercially harvested marine species was the ninth-highest on record.

Maine’s lobster fishery once again accounted for most of the state’s overall landed value, with the lobster catch totaling $405.98 million.

While the landed value was down from $491.2 million in 2019 and the 2016 peak of $540.7 million, it was the seventh straight year that the lobster fishery exceeded $400 million.

“Maine’s lobster industry faced tremendous uncertainty in 2020,” Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in a news release. “At this time last year, the industry was facing a pending market collapse due to COVID-19, but industry’s response was remarkable.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

MAINE: As elver season opens, fishermen hope prices will rebound

March 26, 2021 — The commercial elver fishery opened for the 2021 season on March 22 for Maine fishermen who hold a license for the lucrative commercial market. 

And while 2020 may have been an elver season unlike any other, the 2021 season will be conducted with the same COVID-19 protocols in place. For a second consecutive year, harvesters may fish for and sell the quota of another licensed harvester provided they follow the necessary COVID-19 protocols. 

Under this rule, first introduced for the 2020 season, a license holder may fish and sell elvers for several license holders but may not “take, possess or sell” more pounds of elvers than the aggregate quota of all the license holders for whom they are fishing. 

A new rule for 2021 requires fishermen to check their nets every 16 hours so as to limit bycatch and elver mortality rates. 

“New fishermen all the time are getting into the industry and sometimes don’t check nets for three or four days,” Maine Elver Association President Darrell Young said. “When they come back, there could be 1 pound of live eels and 1 pound of dead ones.” 

And what fishermen wants to find dead elvers in their nets when prices may double from the 2020 harvester price that averaged $506 a pound? 

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Emergency Action to Continue to Waive Observer Coverage

March 26, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries issued an interim final rule to continue to provide the authority to waive observer coverage, some training, and other program requirements, on a case-by-case basis. The rule is a continuation of NOAA Fisheries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authority to waive coverage has resulted in a successful balance between public health and the safety of fishermen, observers, and others, while maintaining fishery operations and the monitoring necessary for sustainable management.

Learn more about the emergency action to continue to waive observer coverage

Application Deadline Extended For Relief Funding To Seafood Sector Industry Members

March 26, 2021 — The application deadline has been extended for federal relief funding to commercial fishing, shellfish aquaculture, charter, and seafood sector industry members.

Eligible commercial fishing, shellfish, charter and seafood sector industry members who have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic now have through April 9 to apply with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) for assistance.

The 15-day extension includes additional time for industry members who fish or land their fish in Alaska but live in Washington to apply. Washington-based commercial fishers who fish in Alaska should apply to the Washington spend plan for assistance.

“This extension helps us to ensure that everyone who believes they’re eligible for this funding has the chance to apply,” said Ron Warren, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) fish policy director. “We recognize that the commercial fishing, shellfish aquaculture, and charter fishing industries are hurting right now and this marks an important step in getting this funding out to those who need it most.”

Read the full story at KXRO

MASSACHUSETTS: Casting a wide net: Vaccinating New Bedford’s fishing workforce is a tall task

March 26, 2021 — Sitting behind a plastic barrier, a masked volunteer with Centro Comuntario de Trabajadores (CCT) helped two seafood processing workers register for the COVID-19 vaccine Monday afternoon. In another room, two more workers signed a form to be helped next.

On Monday, fishing industry workers — many of whom go out to sea for lengthy stretches and with ever-changing schedules — became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts.

According to a report from the New Bedford Port Authority, more than 6,200 people worked directly in the harbor’s commercial fishing and seafood processing industry in 2018.

Adrian Ventura, executive director of CCT, said through interpreter Lisa Knauer that their goal is to register 25 seafood processing workers per day for the vaccine.

Ventura and a representative from Fishing Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to the health and safety of commercial fishermen, said the biggest challenge to getting the thousands of fishing industry workers vaccinated will likely be one of logistics.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Despite pandemic, Maine’s 2020 lobster haul was better than expected

March 25, 2021 — Maine’s lobster industry weathered the coronavirus pandemic better than expected, with the value of the 2020 landings decreasing only 17 percent from the previous year despite the closure of many of its traditional markets such as restaurants and cruise ships.

The overall haul was valued at almost $406 million, a decrease from 2019’s $491 million but still only the seventh time in the history of the fishery that the landed value exceeded $400 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the state Department of Marine Resources.

Maine fishermen hauled 96.6 million pounds of lobster in 2020, a 5 percent decrease from the 101 million pounds in 2019 and the first time in almost a decade that landings fell below 100 million pounds.

Dustin Delano, a lobsterman in Friendship and a vice president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, attributes the drop to a decrease in effort, not in supply.

“We decreased effort significantly from March to July, from when we heard about the virus,” he said, “We were skeptical, so guys took their time setting their gear out for summer.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Seafood Show Osaka Pleased Exhibitors Despite 60% Drop in Visitors in Two Days

March 25, 2021 — The Japan Fisheries Association (JFA) organized the Seafood Show Osaka on March 17-18 at ATC Hall in Osaka. The show’s initial plan was February, but JFA postponed it due to COVID-19. The number of exhibitors was 270. Visitors totaled 5,474 for the two days, a significant 60% fall from the previous show in 2020.

The show management office continued the Seafood Show Tokyo‘s exact measure last September with extra caution to prevent the new coronavirus spread with visitors’ pre-registration, hands disinfection, and body temperature check.

Read the full story at Seafood News