Saving Seafood

Adak’s Seafood Plant Not Processing Bering Sea Cod Because of Damage, Not Over Deliveries Lawsuit

February 24, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Yesterday morning National Marine Fisheries Service closed the “A” season for Pacific cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) effective today at noon, Alaska time. The TAC had been reached which prompted the closure on the earliest date ever for the “A” season. In 2016, the A season trawl P-cod fishery remained open until March 9.

The early closure is a defining note in a fishery that has historically included deliveries to Adak’s cod processing plant since it opened in 1999.

Those years were also marked by the American Fisheries Act, the BSAI crab rationalization program, and Amendment 80 to the BSAI groundfish plan, actions that changed the face of Alaska fisheries. Each of those landmark laws rationalized vast sections of pollock, cod, and crab fisheries. All three species have been delivered to and processed at the Adak plant over the years.

Rationalizing a fishery means putting management tools in place that, among other goals, eliminate the race for fish and protect historic users both onshore and offshore. But until last fall, shoreplants in the Aleutians west of 170 degrees longitude were not included in any of the rationalization plans in the area.

There are only two plants in the area: Atka and Adak. Atka has only processed halibut and sablefish.  Adak, which since it opened in 1999 has been reliant on cod, but has also processed crab, halibut and sablefish and limited amounts of pollock.

Since 2008, the North Pacific Council has been aware of the need for “fishing community protections in the Aleutian Islands” precisely because of the rationalization schemes.

Then last October, the Council passed Amendment 113 to respond to the issue, noting the “…increased risk that the historical share of BSAI cod of other industry participants and communities that depend on shoreplant processing in the region may be diminished. The BSAI Pacific cod TAC split and relatively low Pacific cod stock abundance n the Aleutian Islands further increase the need for community protections.”

Amendment 113 set aside 5,000 mt of Pacific cod for delivery to the Adak plant, but it is not a ‘guarantee’ of deliveries.  AM 113 creates a time-limited priority for shoreside processing in the Aleutians until March 15, but only if the Aleutian shoreside processors have taken at least 1,000 tons by Feb. 28.

Prior to the rationalization of the AI cod fishery, Adak processed on average 8,000 – 10,000 mt of cod per year, but the ability to plan for even 5,000 tons has been made difficult by factors related to fishing behavior that eventually led the Council to adopt AM 113.

One of the factors is that catcher processors who are part of the rationalized fisheries can also act as motherships and accept deliveries from other catcher vessels to process only. AM 113 does not prohibit this, but obligates deliveries under certain conditions to shoreplants during the A season.

There are three triggers in the amendment that would relieve vessels of the obligation. First, if the plants notify NMFS by December 1 that they will not be taking deliveries, catcher boats can deliver anywhere. Second, if the plants have not taken at least 1,000 mt by February 28, then the 5,000 mt set-aside will become available for any other processors, including motherships. Third, by March 15 the restriction to deliver shoreside is lifted.

Shortly after the amendment was adopted, The Groundfish Forum, representing six companies and 20 trawl catcher processors, along with United Catcher Boats, B and N Fisheries, and the Katie Ann LLC, filed suit against NOAA Fisheries saying the amendment violated national standards and other laws. Part of their position is the “harvest set-aside” part of the amendment is unlawful.

“There are trawl catcher vessel owners, who have delivered a fair amount of cod to the Adak plant over the years when it was operating, that would be willing to deliver to another renovated shore plant if it was in operation,” said Brent Paine, executive director of the United Catcher Boats, a plaintiff in the suit. “They just want the option to deliver their catch to multiple markets, onshore or offshore.”

Since the filing, the Adak Community Development Corporation (ACDC), the Aleutian-Pribilof Island Community Development Association (APICDA), and the city of Adak have joined as intervenors in the lawsuit, supporting AM113. The cities of Adak and Atka may also join as intervenors.

“NMFS did an excellent job in responding to comments on national standards in the Federal Register comments,” said Dave Fraser, board member for ADCD. “I think the record is good.”

The amendment is the result of nearly a decade of consideration, during which Amendment 80 and 85 were passed. Those regulations created community development quota entities and cooperatives in the groundfish fisheries and amended cod allocations in the BSAI. It was also the time of sea lion protection measures, and a version of AM 113 was included in the proposed mitigation regulation. In the end, Fraser believes the process has developed an amendment that has “passed muster” on all the national standards and requirements.

“Amendment 113 does not change by a single pound any of the fish allocated under AM 85,” said Fraser. “The only thing that will change is who processes it.

“The set aside for Adak is less than our historic average annual plant production,” he noted. Prior to 2010, Adak received 3-6 percent of the total BSAI allocation, with an average of 4.7 percent. Figuring 4.3 percent of the aggregate of 2015’s TAC, according to NMFS analysis, is 10,836 mt.

“It’s a minimal program because the Council had to balance competing interests,” Fraser notes.

The Adak plant has been out of commission since a severe 2015 winter storm damaged portions of the roof. The city sent a letter to NMFS, according to AM 113 protocol, notifying them they would not be buying cod this winter, last fall. The plant is expected to be in full operation by 2018.

The lawsuit was filed in the D.C. District Court.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Phil Thompson: Changing our U.S. fish trade is not just for the halibut

February 15, 2017 — In the past five years I have monitored hundreds of halibut offloads from small fishing vessels in Nova Scotia, from Eastern Passage to Marie Joseph.

It’s a rare privilege to be present first thing in the morning while many generations of Maritimers work together with small cranes and strong hands to make a hard living from this dangerous ocean.

To put this fishery in perspective, it was halibut the five young men on the Miss Ally were seeking when they lost their lives in a rogue wave while trying to get home.

I was at the dock in Seaforth that terrible day in February 2013, and the skipper landing halibut had just returned with his catch. He was pale from the storm he had just survived. It was dangerous even at the dock.

We had been listening to the Coast Guard radio communications on his radio regarding the lost crew. We were both devastated. It was the saddest and most poignant offload I have ever monitored.

Read the full opinion piece at The Chronicle Herald

Alaska Halibut’s Responsible Fisheries Management Certification is Renewed

February 13, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Alaska halibut fishery has been awarded continued certification to the Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) Certification Program. Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) announce the finding late last week.

This is the first reassessment of Alaska halibut under Alaska’s RFM program, after initially being certified in April 2011. The fishery is also certified by the Marine Stewardship Council’s program. The fishery client is the Fishing Vessel Owners Association, based in Seattle.

In the more than 125 management standards used in RFM sustainability certification, the Alaska halibut fishery received highest marks in all but one: observer coverage. Although National Marine Fisheries Service changed the federal observer program to include the halibut longline fleet in 2013, the new plan, which was paid for by the halibut industry, was fraught with problems. Many longline vessels cannot support an additional observer onboard without significant impact on their crew size and efficiency, so have preferred electronic monitoring (EM) as an alternative data and observation source.

The assessment report includes details for what it describes as a “minor” non-conformance.

“For 2016, 58 fixed-gear vessels 40-57.5 ft LOA will [sic] participate in the EM selection pool and will carry EM systems as described in the EM Plan. The Observer Program Annual Report (NMFS 2015a) and the Observer Program Supplement Environmental Assessment (NMFS 2015b) have highlighted the data gaps caused by not having any observer information on vessels less than 40 ft LOA. In 2014, vessels less than 40 ft took about 20% (in value) of the longline halibut catch in Alaska (Fissel et al. 2015). NMFS recommended in its 2016 Deployment Plan138 that vessels less than 40ft LOA be considered for electronic monitoring in the future, and there are plans to partially implement EM in this sector in 2017.”

Details of the assessment can be found in the Final Assessment Report.

For more information on Alaska RFM certification, visit here.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission

North Pacific Council Reviews Bering Sea Pollock and IFQ Halibut Progams

February 9, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council oversees all federal fisheries between three and 200 miles off the Alaska coast. One of eight regions, the North Pacific fishery is by far the country’s most profitable, having produced two-thirds of the country’s total seafood value in 2015.

At their Seattle meeting Feb. 1-6, the council focused on some of the structures at the core of fisheries management, reviewing catch share programs and looking for areas to tune up in both the halibut IFQ fishery and the Bering Sea pollock fishery, Alaska’s largest fishery by volume.

For the IFQ halibut fishery, the council asked that some information be refined and sent back to it, including effects on the outmigration of rural employment, the amount of Community Development Quota ownership, and the individual ownership for catcher vessels.

The American Fisheries Act, signed into law in 1998, was designed to end foreign control of the Bering Sea pollock fishery. Under the new rules, vessels must be a minimum 75 percent U.S.-owned.

As with most of the continually evolving North Pacific fisheries, the biggest points in the AFA review included how the program has encouraged U.S. and Alaskan ownership and employment.

Indeed, the program did produce some consolidation. At the start of 2000, 18 companies owned the 19 catcher-processors in the Bering Sea fishery. By 2015, seven companies owned them.

Impacts to fishing communities have been “largely beneficial,” according to the review’s authors, Marcus Hartley and Gary Eaton of the research firm Northern Economics.

Frank Kelty, the city manager of Unalaska, talked of stability as the program’s best feature. Unalaska is the town home of Dutch Harbor, perennially the nation’s largest seafood port and where Kelty said AFA has led to steadier employment and steadier school enrollment.

Stakeholders and council members both acknowledge that the AFA program was a big step in fisheries management, bringing a host of management tools into practice.

“We never talked about co-ops before AFA,” said Stephanie Madsen, executive director of the At-Sea Processors Association. “We never talked about sideboards.”

Because issuing quota in the pollock fishery may free up opportunity to move into other fisheries, the sideboards set limits on the extent of those harvests so as not to crowd out other individuals not involved in harvesting pollock.

Both co-ops and sideboards continue to feature heavily in management talks, including a recently discarded program for groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska.

The review was not without problems, however. The council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee hadn’t reviewed the study, leaving several questions.

Among other areas, council members wanted more information that the study had related to Community Development Quota, or CDQ, ownership and individual vessel ownerships.

The CDQ program that gives 10 percent of the overall groundfish harvest quota to 65 western Alaska villages within 50 miles of the coast.

The program was designed to promote economic health in those regions, and some of the review’s statistics point to success.

Over the length of the pollock-based program, royalties going to CDQ groups from the AFA fishery have increased.

From 2001 through 2005, CDQ royalties ranged between $42.6 million and $60.5 million per year, with increases every year. Pollock accounted for 79 percent to 86 percent of total all-species royalties in any given year during this period.

From 2007 to 2013, estimates ranged between $59.9 million and $79.5 million per year, with a general upward trend.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner and council member Sam Cotton wanted a more detailed breakdown of CDQ ownership in the fishery.

“The question here is how much of that fishery is staying in Alaska,” said Cotten. “How big a share of the fishery is owned by CDQ groups? In terms of percentage of the vessels, or harvesting capacity, revenue?”

Hartley said that he has made those calculations before, but not for the current study.

The study had similar gaps where the AFA’s 100 individual catcher vessels were concerned. By AFA design, none of these vessels can have anything less than 75 percent U.S. ownership. Council member Buck Laukitis wanted to make sure that these vessels weren’t skirting the rules.

Inshore catcher vessel ownership info, Hartley explained “was insufficient to determine changes in ownerships pattern.”

Those records are held by the U.S. Maritime Administration, or MARAD, which is tasked under the AFA with ensuring compliance with the U.S. ownership rules. Hartley said Northern Economics could not get access to much of the proprietary information.

This story appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

ALASKA: Halibut gets bump; salmon prices soar

February 1, 2017 — More Pacific halibut will be going to market this year due to an overall boost in the harvests for the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska. The coastwide catch of 31.4 million pounds reflects a 5.1 percent increase, and for the first time in decades, not a single fishing region met with a decline in halibut catches.

The heartening news was released on Jan. 27 by the International Pacific Halibut Commission, overseer of the stocks since 1923.

Halibut catch limits are determined by summer surveys at more than 1,200 stations from Oregon to the Aleutians. In 2016, the results showed the stock had remained stable over a span of three years, although the fish remained small for their ages.

Alaska always gets the lion’s share of the Pacific halibut catch and a take of 22.62 million pounds this year adds up to an extra million pounds for longliners who hold quota shares of the fish.

The good news has been dampened somewhat by a potential delay to the March 11 start of the fishery due to the bureaucratic freeze by our new president.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce 

Halibut season in jeopardy even as catch limit rises

January 31, 2017 — Despite a 5 percent hike in the total halibut catch limits, the start of the 2017 season will likely be delayed because of a 60-day freeze on federal regulations in the United States.

On 27 February, the International Pacific Halibut Commission increased the total allowable catch (TAC) to 31.4 million pounds. It marks the first time in around 10 years that there were no cuts in any region’s quotas.

While the IPHC approved the halibut season to start on 11 March, that date is expected to be pushed back because of President Donald Trump’s freeze on new and pending regulations – which would include regulations on the federally-managed fishery. The freeze went into effect on 20 January, so the earliest starting date for the Pacific halibut fishery would likely be 27 March, according to Alaska Dispatch News.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Alaska commercial halibut fishermen get big boost in catch limit

January 29, 2017 — More Pacific halibut will be going to market this year due to an overall boost in harvests for the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska. The coast-wide limit of 31.4 million pounds reflects a 5.1 percent increase and, for the first time in decades, not a single fishing region faces a decline its allowable catch.

The heartening news was released Friday by the International Pacific Halibut Commission, overseer of the stocks since 1923.

Halibut catch limits are determined by summer surveys at more than 1,200 stations from Oregon to the Aleutians. In 2016, the results showed the stock had remained stable over a span of three years, although the fish remained small for their ages.

Read the full story at the Alaska Dispatch News

MAINE: Are halibut headed for trouble?

January 11, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Go to Scales, an elegant waterfront restaurant on a Portland pier, and a plate of pan-roasted halibut with hazelnuts, brown butter and new potatoes will cost you $38, tax and tip extra.

Go down to the dock in Lubec or Stonington during May and June, when Maine fishermen are allowed to harvest halibut from state waters inside the three-mile limit, and $38 would buy you about 5 pounds of halibut, if you could buy less than a whole fish directly off the boat.

And that’s the problem.

Over the decade between 2006 and 2015, the last year for which the Department of Marine Resources has figures, the boat price for halibut increased some 44 percent and landings increased from just 30,018 pounds worth about $139,000 to more than 93,000 pounds that brought fishermen some $623,000.

Now federal fisheries regulators are saying that halibut may be in trouble.

Of course, it isn’t just that Maine fishermen are landing more halibut. It’s fishermen from all over New England who are pulling in plenty of the pricy and delicious flatfish from federal waters.

In 2006, only Maine recorded halibut landings. In 2015, according to NOAA Fisheries, halibut landings throughout New England reached almost 216,000 pounds – worth about $1.4 million. Of that, about 123,000 pounds were landed outside Maine.

That may not be a lot of money compared to the nearly $511 million that Maine’s lobster fishermen reaped in 2015, but it is enough to attract more boats into the fishery and to have regulators and fisheries scientists worried. Early in December, the New England Fishery Management Council announced that a review of the rules governing the halibut fishery would be a priority during 2017.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Are Maine halibut heading for trouble?

December 28, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Go to Scales, an elegant waterfront restaurant on a Portland pier, and a plate of pan-roasted halibut with hazelnuts, brown butter and new potatoes will cost you $38, tax and tip extra.

Over the decade between 2006 and 2015, the last year for which the Department of Marine Resources has figures, the boat price for halibut increased some 44 percent and landings increased from just 30,018 pounds worth about $139,000 to more than 93,000 pounds that brought fishermen some $623,000. Go down to the dock in Lubec or Stonington during May and June, when Maine fishermen are allowed to harvest halibut from state waters inside the three-mile limit, and $38 would buy you about 5 pounds of halibut, if you could buy less than a whole fish directly off the boat. And that’s the problem.

Now federal fisheries regulators are saying that halibut may be in trouble.

Of course, it isn’t just that Maine fishermen are landing more halibut. It’s fishermen from all over New England who are pulling in plenty of the pricy and delicious flatfish from federal waters.

In 2006, only Maine recorded halibut landings. In 2015, according to NOAA Fisheries, halibut landings throughout New England reached almost 216,000 pounds — worth about $1.4 million. Of that, about 123,000 pounds were landed outside Maine.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American