Saving Seafood

Trump COVID-19 task force backs Alaska mandate for face masks at seafood processing facilities

July 31, 2020 — The Trump administration’s coronavirus task force has recommended that Alaska mandate face masks, “especially [in] workplaces like seafood processing centers,” according to a 26 July federal report obtained by The New York Times.

Although Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has not required that masks be worn statewide, the state has mandated that seafood processing plant workers use face masks since 15 May. Though the average number of cases in Alaska per 100,000 people is lower than the national average – meriting Alaska’s status in the “yellow zone” – the top four COVID-19 outbreaks in the state have been linked to the seafood industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska fishing communities feared getting COVID-19 from industry. They haven’t.

July 23, 2020 — As this year’s summer fishing season approached, local leaders across Alaska issued dire warnings about the thousands of plant workers and fishermen headed to their communities.

They feared the workers could bring COVID-19 in with them, quickly overwhelming small local hospitals and clinics. In Bristol Bay, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, some residents called on Gov. Mike Dunleavy to cancel the season, citing the region’s traumatic experience with the 1918 pandemic flu, which killed at least 30% of its population.

In the month since the Bristol Bay season kicked off, some seafood companies have experienced isolated cases among workers in their processing plants. And other outbreaks have infected dozens of seafood workers elsewhere in the state — most recently, 85 crew members on board a Bering Sea factory trawler.

But midway through summer, with the Bristol Bay season winding down, seafood company executives and public health authorities can point to a remarkable fact: The industry has been almost completely successful in keeping its seasonal workers and fishermen from infecting Alaska residents.

“We haven’t seen any evidence of jumping the fence from the seafood industry to the community,” Bryan Fisher, a top state emergency response official, said in an interview earlier this month.

In the Bristol Bay Borough, home to the region’s largest concentration of fish processing plants, there have been dozens of cases of COVID-19 among nonresident seafood workers — but just one case among residents.

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Gov. Dunleavy’s controversial Fish Board appointees will get a legislative hearing in September

July 15, 2020 — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s controversial selections to the state Board of Fisheries will get a legislative hearing in early fall, and the call is out for public comments.

The board oversees management of the state’s subsistence, commercial, sport and personal use fisheries. Appointments were made on April 1 and would normally go through a vigorous vetting process by the Alaska Legislature with public input. But COVID-19 sent lawmakers home early from the last session, leaving the confirmation process in limbo.

Now, state Rep. Louise Stutes (R-Kodiak) has set the date for a hearing.

“I tried to push it out as far as I thought I safely could because I know there’s a lot of guys out fishing. But I just didn’t dare push it any further than Thursday, Sept. 3, at 10 a.m. at the Anchorage Legislative Information Office,” she said in a phone interview.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska’s Rural Fishing Communities Are The Next Front Line Of COVID-19

June 8, 2020 — In a normal season, the village of Naknek in southwestern Alaska would be bustling by the end of May, with people arriving from all over the world to work Bristol Bay’s renowned salmon run.

The village’s population of around 500 swells as over 13,000 workers come to Bristol Bay to spend about six weeks fishing, canning and cleaning the products of the world’s primary source of wild-caught sockeye salmon.

This year, with the season opening just days away, “it still feels like a ghost town,” said Nels Ure, a second-generation Bristol Bay fisherman. Because of the pandemic, “it’s not business as usual.”

Seafood industry workers are under 14-day quarantine orders once they arrive in Alaska from elsewhere. Cannery workers are being quarantined either in hotels in Anchorage before they arrive at the bay, or with a group of other newly arrived employees at their facility, so they can start work while in quarantine together. Fishermen are expected to quarantine on their vessels, either in the boatyard or on the water ― or they can stay in their seasonal cabins or homes around the bay, as long as they are self-isolated.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post

Alaska eases quarantine protocol as COVID-19 cases rise

June 4, 2020 — Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy released a revised travel protocol on 3 June that gives travelers options to get around the 14-day quarantine period, but the state is experiencing a hike in COVID-19 cases as the summer fishing season ramps up.

Dunleavy and state health officials announced they are waiving the state’s 14-day quarantine period for travelers who test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of their flight. The quarantine can also be avoided with a negative test five days before departure and another test upon arrival in Alaska, the document said, or by testing and self-isolating in Anchorage until test results are received. The new travel protocol will go in place Friday, 5 June.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

In survey, Alaska fishermen offer guidance for use of pandemic relief funds

May 27, 2020 — A rapid survey response by nearly 800 Alaska fishermen will provide a guideline for giving them a hand up as the coronavirus swamps their operations.

The online survey from April 14 to May 3 by Juneau-based nonprofit SalmonState asked fishermen about their primary concerns both before the COVID-19 outbreak and in the midst of the pandemic in April. It also asked what elected officials at local, state and federal levels can do to help them directly.

Over half of the 817 responses came in over four days, said Tyson Fick, SalmonState communications adviser.

“Clearly, people were interested to have their stories heard and to weigh in. In several ways we feel like we had a very broad swath of regions and gear types and fishermen,” he said.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska Fisheries to Get $50M in Federal Aid Amid Pandemic

May 11, 2020 — Alaska will receive $50 million in federal coronavirus aid for fisheries, the U.S. Department of Commerce has announced, about half what state officials had expected.

Alaska is home to large stocks of pollock, an inexpensive fish used in fast-food sandwiches and fish sticks, and landed 58% of the nation’s seafood by volume in 2018, officials said.

Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his administration expected the state to receive about $100 million, or one-third of the $300 million allocated to fisheries in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act because of the state’s contributions to the industry, Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.

State officials even requested in advance that the state Legislature budget and audit committee give it authority to accept the expected federal aid. It has not yet been granted authority.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Federal fisheries aid will be $50 million, half what Alaska had expected

May 8, 2020 — The state of Alaska will receive $50 million in federal coronavirus aid for fisheries, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Thursday.

While that amount ties with Washington for the most given to any individual state, it’s only half what state officials had expected. In 2018, Alaska landed 58% of the nation’s seafood by volume and 32% when measured by value. (Alaska waters are home to large stocks of pollock, the inexpensive fish used in fast-food sandwiches and fish sticks.)

With those facts in mind, the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy had expected Alaska would receive one-third of the $300 million set aside in the federal CARES Act for fisheries dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, going so far to request in advance that the Alaska Legislature’s budget and audit committee give it authority to accept $100 million in federal fisheries aid.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: With pandemic procedures in place, Copper River fishery set to open

May 4, 2020 — With about two weeks until the Copper River salmon season, the industry is pulling together the details of how to execute a safe fishery amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of vessels and workers flood into Prince William Sound each May for a chance to harvest the first fresh wild king salmon of the year, followed by the famous Copper River sockeye and the broader Prince William Sound pink salmon fisheries. However, with limited road access and health care facilities, city and state officials have been coordinating with the fleet and stakeholders about how to safely allow in deckhands, captains, and processing workers from Outside without inviting the pandemic to Cordova as well.

As of April 28, Cordova had not reported any positive tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. With no ferry service this winter and no connection to the road system, Cordova has limited physical contact with the rest of Alaska and the Lower 48 except during the fishing season. Bringing in seafood workers from outside the area poses a risk, but not doing so means the fishery — a vital economic driver in the region — wouldn’t be able to operate as normal.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration released Health Mandate 17 on April 23, offering guidelines for commercial fishermen to help control the spread of COVID-19. Fishermen often work in close quarters on boats and in harbors, as do processing workers. The mandate outlines requirements such as screening procedures for crew, quarantine for workers coming into the state, and prohibiting non-essential trips into town for non-local crew, among others.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

In Alaska town, calls to shut down fishing season amid coronavirus fears

May 4, 2020 — Robin Samuelson grew up hearing stories about mass death in his Alaska community, victims of a pandemic so brutal that dogs were found feeding on human bodies.

The 68-year-old’s father-in-law was among the hundreds of children orphaned by the 1918 flu epidemic, which some scholars estimate killed at least 30 percent of the population in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

Some locals fear that history could repeat itself unless Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) shuts down the upcoming salmon fishery, which attracts more than 12,000 workers from across the country for a frenetic, two-month season that begins next month.

Dunleavy’s administration has pledged to implement safety measures to prevent the importation of the novel coronavirus, including a mandated two-week quarantine for arriving fishers. But some local officials say they’re not convinced the state can enforce those rules.

“Our streets, they start looking like Fifth Avenue in New York during the summer,” Samuelson said. “It puts you in a real funny mood listening to the stories [about the 1918 pandemic] and what our people had to go through.”

There have been no confirmed infections of the coronavirus in the region, and Alaska has one of the lowest infection rates of any state. It has recorded just 368 cases and nine deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Read the full story at The Washington Post