Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Payments For 2016 Pink Salmon Fishery Disaster Delayed

November 21, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fishermen who were expecting payments from the 2016 Gulf of Alaska pink salmon fishery disaster relief in December will have to wait until March to receive their checks, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Many Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission permit holder applicants misreported their crew percentages or did not list any crew at all, said Karla Bush, the Fish and Game federal fisheries coordinator.

The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission will delay payments until after the crew member application deadline on Jan. 31.

“I know participants were expecting checks to come six to eight weeks after the Oct. 31 deadline. That’s now going to be pushed back,” Bush said.

The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission is an interstate agency that helps resource agencies and the fishing industry manage fisheries resources. Member states include Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

After crew members send in their applications, Fish and Game will match crew members to the permit holders they work for. Payments will be sent to permit holders and crew at the same time, Bush said.

Payments to crew will be deducted from the permit holder’s total disaster payment based on the crew shares provided in the permit holder’s application.

The amount each permit holder received was calculated by averaging the value of pink salmon caught in even years from 2006 to 2014, minus the value of fish caught in 2016.

However, fishermen were concerned that the payment calculation did not take into account the unique circumstances in the fishing industry.

For example, some fishermen switched from a lower volume gear type to a higher volume gear type. Others had a partial catch history instead of a full or no catch history, causing their payments to be substantially less than others who fished alongside them, according to a letter written by Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak.

To address such issues and review calculations, an appeal process was put in place. Friday was the deadline to appeal.

These payments are part of the $53.8 million approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in July to restore losses caused by a poor 2016 salmon season in the Gulf of Alaska. The areas receiving funds are Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Chignik, Lower Cook Inlet, South Alaska Peninsula, Southeast Alaska and Yakutat.

Fishery permit holders and crew will receive $31 million, fish processors will receive $17.7, municipalities will receive $2.4 million and $3.63 million will go to research.

The payments to municipalities will be based on losses of fish taxes, Bush said.

Calculations for municipality payments are not yet available because NOAA is working the office of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on the approval process.

Municipalities will use the funds for specific projects related to the pink salmon fishery such as projects that support the pink salmon fishing fleet.

“The people at NOAA grants are trying to work with the office of OMB in the White House to see at what level the projects need to be approved,” Bush said. “OMB wants to approve the list of projects that each municipality will put forward themselves. We know that that will cause some additional delays, so we hope those will be approved by Pacific States or NOAA grants and not have to be forwarded all the way to the highest level.”

Fish and Game is also waiting on fishery tax information from the Alaska Department of Revenue as a basis to calculate the payments, Bush said.

The tax information is vital before calculating the payment amount, because the Department of Revenue does a “split between the cities and boroughs and so I would expect the city of Kodiak and the Kodiak Island Borough would be getting a share of those moneys,” Bush said.

To expedite future fisheries disaster funding, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, sponsored legislation that would reform NOAA’s Fishery Resource Disaster Relief program of the National Marine Fisheries Service to expedite relief for fishermen during fishery disasters.

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

Bill Monroe: Oregon seeking expanded sea lion controls following success of steelhead protections at Willamette Falls, Bonneville Dam

October 28, 2019 — Having fended off the threat of extinction of wild winter steelhead over Willamette Falls, Oregon biologists are now joining counterparts in Washington, Idaho and Native American tribes to expand that success.

Tuesday is the deadline set by the National Marine Fisheries Service for comments on a state and tribal proposal to reduce protections for both California and Steller sea lions in the Columbia river and its tributaries.

Changes in federal rules to streamline the control of sea lions have been approved by congress, but the states and tribes must still apply for authorization.

Current permits only allow the capture and killing of specific California sea lions at either Willamette Falls or Bonneville Dam.

The new proposal calls for the lethal take and euthanization of both California and Steller sea lions from anywhere in the Columbia River between the Interstate 205 bridge upriver to McNary Dam and from any lower Columbia tributaries such as the Willamette, Cowlitz and Lewis rivers. While there are no known sea lions upriver from The Dalles Dam (and only rumors of one between there and Bonneville), the area brings key fishing areas into the fold for six Native American tribes.

Read the full story at The Oregonian

Pacific Fishery Management Council to Hold Meeting In September 2019 to Adopt Management Measures for Ocean Fisheries

August 9th, 2019 — The following was published by the Pacific Fishery Management Council: 

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and its advisory bodies will meet September 11-18, 2019 in Boise, Idaho, to address issues related to groundfish, ecosystem, salmon, Pacific halibut, highly migratory species, habitat, and administrative matters. The meeting of the Council and its advisory entities will be held at the Riverside Hotel, 2900 Chinden Blvd., Boise, Idaho 83714; telephone, 208-343-1871.

Please see the September 11-18, 2019 Council Meeting notice on the Council’s website for meeting detail, schedule of advisory body meetings, our new E-Portal for submitting public comments, and public comment deadlines.

Key agenda items for the meeting include Council considerations to:

  • Adopt Final Rebuilding Plans for Strait of Juan de Fuca, Queets River, and Snohomish River Coho
  • Adopt a Final Preferred Alternative for Highly Migratory Species Deep-Set Buoy Gear Fishery Authorization
  • Adopt Public Review Options for Pacific Halibut 2020 Catch Sharing Plan Changes and Options for 2020 Directed Commercial Fishery Regulation Changes
  • Approve Final Groundfish Stock Assessments for 2021-2022 and Beyond
  • Adopt Initial Groundfish Harvest Specifications and a Preliminary List of Potential New Management Measures for the 2020-2021 Regulation Process
  • Adopt Final Groundfish In-season Adjustments and Consider Extending Midwater Trawl and Electronic Monitoring Exempted Fishing Permits into 2020
  • Adopt a Preliminary Preferred Alternative for Salmon Mitigation Measure in Groundfish Fisheries
  • Adopt Proposed Revisions to 2020 Harvest Specifications for Cowcod and Shortbelly Rockfish for Public Review
    For further information:

Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff at 503-820-2280; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

US senators take aim at Canadian mines’ impact on salmon

June 17, 2019 — A bipartisan group of US senators has written to the premier of Canada’s British Columbia province, airing concerns about the effects the country’s mines are having on salmon populations in four US states.

The eight senators, from Alaska, Idaho, Washington and Montana, asked John Horgan, the province’s premier, to undertake “dedicated efforts to monitor transboundary water quality”.

“While we appreciate Canada’s engagement to date, we remain concerned about the lack of oversight of Canadian mining projects near multiple transboundary rives that originate in B.C. and flow into our four US states,” the senators wrote.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Idaho Plan Safeguards Wild Steelehead, Per NOAA

March 22, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries has determined that Idaho’s Fishery Management and Evaluation Plan for their recreational steelhead fishery provides necessary protections for salmon and steelhead listed under the ESA.

NOAA Fisheries has determined that Idaho’s Fishery Management and Evaluation Plan (FMEP) for their recreational steelhead fishery provides necessary protections for salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). NOAA fisheries has approved Idaho’s plan under section 4(d) Rule.

Under section 4(d), NOAA Fisheries can specify how an activity can be exempt from additional ESA regulations. This applies particularly to “take,” which can include any act that kills or injures fish, and may include habitat modification. The ESA prohibits any take of species listed as endangered, but some take of threatened species that does not interfere with survival and recovery may be allowed.

“Idaho has developed a plan that provides continuing recreational fishing opportunities while ensuring that ESA-listed salmon and steelhead have the protection they need to recover,” said Allyson Purcell, Branch Chief in NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region.

Idaho’s plan came together through collaboration with fishery managers across the Snake River Basin and includes a new basin-wide framework designed to limit total impacts on steelhead from all fisheries in the Snake River Basin. Under Idaho’s plan, fishermen will continue to be required to release any wild steelhead they encounter.

Read the full story at the Fishing Wire

U.S. Senate passes bill making it easier to kill sea lions on Columbia River

December 10, 2018 — A bill that would make it easier to kill sea lions that feast on imperiled salmon in the Columbia River has cleared the U.S. Senate.

State wildlife managers say rebounding numbers of sea lions are eating more salmon than ever and their appetites are undermining billions of dollars of investments to restore endangered fish runs.

Senate Bill 3119, which passed Thursday by unanimous consent, would streamline the process for Washington, Idaho, Oregon and several Pacific Northwest Native American tribes to capture and euthanize potentially hundreds of sea lions found in the river east of Portland, Oregon.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KATU

But Sea Lions Seem So Cute…

June 26, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources: 

We’re seeing another busy week unfold for us at Nat. Resources this week, as the Rules Committee officially announced that a vote for H.R. 2083, the Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act, is set for tomorrow. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), the bipartisan bill provides states and tribes the necessary tools to humanely manage sea lions that have migrated outside their historic range and pose an imminent threat to fish species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

But Sea Lions Seem So Cute…

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Sea lions pose a significant threat to ESA-listed salmon and steelhead, and while the world took notice of last year’s viral sea lion attack, tribal, subsistence and commercial fisheries have long felt the effects of the hearty appetite of non-native sea lions across the Columbia River watershed. Endangered salmon have become the victims of conflicting federal laws that make it illegal to responsibly manage the obvious predator: sea lions.

Broad Member & Stakeholder Bipartisan Support

The bill enjoys a strong bipartisan backing, with U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) as an original cosponsor, and a significant list of local and regional groups voicing support, including the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the Columbia Intertribal Fish Commission, the Coastal Conservation Associations of Washington and Oregon, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, and more than 100 local and recreational fishing businesses.

Learn more about the House Committee on Natural Resources here.

 

Paddlefish caviar, the next big thing?

June 3, 2018 — Everybody has a food thing, right? Everybody has that one item that you wouldn’t eat unless you were stranded on a deserted island or someone had a shotgun pressed securely to your lumbar region. Or both. And maybe not even then.

For us, it’s eggs. Oeuf, there it is.

No fried eggs. No omelets. No scrambles. No frittatas. Soft boiled, hard boiled, you can keep them. We’d rather stay dirty than submit to an egg wash. We can’t even watch other people eat eggs, especially when they start jamming their toast into the yokes and creating all sorts of Jackson Pollard-looking stuff on their plates. Our little phobia probably goes a long way toward explaining why we tend to be solitary breakfasters.

Needless to say, we’re not exactly down with caviar (thank God we’re poor). But we have to admit we were intrigued by a New York Times story out of Montana about a program to harvest the roe of giant freshwater paddlefish — which can run anywhere from 50 to 100 pounds — and sell it as caviar.

“It winds up on cruise ships, it winds up in restaurants, it winds up everywhere,” Dennis Scarnecchia, a fisheries professor at the University of Idaho, told the Times.

Scarnecchia (any relation to Pats line coach Dante, we wonder?) oversees paddlefish caviar programs in Montana, North Dakota and Oklahoma, from whence profits are funneled into research and monitoring of the massive fish.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

NW governors urge Congress to act on sea lion predation bill

February 14, 2018 — The governors of Oregon, Washington and Idaho in a letter urged members of the Northwest congressional delegation to support legislation that would help reduce predation by sea lions on salmon and steelhead, sturgeon and lamprey.

H.R. 2083 is sponsored by Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.). The House bill has cleared the Natural Resources Committee. The federal legislation gives local agencies the ability to better control predation by sea lions in the Columbia and Willamette rivers.

“I am pleased to see bipartisan support for my bill continue to grow,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement. “As the governors stated in their letter, we must act to protect our native Columbia River salmon and steelhead. I am hopeful that the senators from Oregon and Washington will also join in supporting this bill to successfully move it through Congress.”

Gov. Kate Brown (Oregon), Gov. Jay Inslee (Washington) and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter (Idaho) sent the letter Jan. 25 to the 17 members of Congress who represent the three states, urging them to support legislation ”aimed at reducing sea lion predation on threatened and endangered and other at-risk fish populations.”

“Although several hundred million dollars are invested annually to rebuild these native fish runs, their health and sustainability is threatened unless Congress acts to enhance protection from increasing sea lion predation,” the letter says. “Over the last decade, predation by sea lions on salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and lamprey in the Columbia River has increased dramatically.”

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

 

Scientists go big with first aquatic species map for US West

November 25, 2016 — BOISE, Idaho — It sounds like a big fish story: a plan to create a biodiversity map identifying thousands of aquatic species in every river and stream in the western U.S.

But scientists say they’re steadily reeling in that whopper and by next summer will have the first Aquatic Environmental DNA Atlas available for the public.

Boise-based U.S. Forest Service fisheries biologist Dan Isaak is leading the project and says such a map could help with land management decisions and deciding where to spend limited money and resources.

“It’s kind of the Holy Grail for biologists to know what a true biodiversity map looks like,” he said. “To have that formatted digitally so you can do lots of science with it will be transformative in terms of the quality of information we’ll have to conserve species.”

Isaak said annual surveys could provide snapshots so scientists can see how biodiversity and ecosystems change over time. Because of the project’s immense scale, he said, sample collecting likely will require help from many entities, including citizen scientists.

The map eventually will include everything from insects to salmon to river otters. It’s possible because of a new technology that can identify stream inhabitants by analyzing water samples containing DNA. The technology also can be used to identify invasive species.

That technology is evolving, said Michael Schwartz, the Forest Service’s director of the National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation in Missoula, Montana. Currently, he said, scientists can detect only one species at a time in a stream sample. He said the goal is to identify multiple species in a single test from one sample. A rough estimate for when that might be possible is about a year, he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WFTV