Saving Seafood

Announcement of NPFMC appointments coming this week

June 27, 2024 — North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) appointees must be announced by June 27; shakeups are expected.

Governors of AK and WA have ‘preferred’ nominees

The deadline to name names is June 27 – and if you’re making bets, the odds are in favor of two new Alaskans being seated on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) on August 10.

The NPFMC has jurisdiction over the 900,000-square-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Alaska that includes oversight of dozens of groundfish and crab species. Alaskans hold five voting seats on the Council.

In mid-March, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy submitted to the US Secretary of Commerce the names of John Moller of Juneau, John Jensen of Petersburg and Sam Rabung of Juneau to be considered for the obligatory commercial fishing seat.

Jensen has been a member of the NPFMC since 2018 and Rabung currently is head of the Commercial Fisheries Division of the AK Dept. of Fish and Game.

Industry watchers predict Moller will be “a slam dunk” for the NPFMC seat.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Regional council opposes further regulations in Bristol Bay savings area

March 12, 2024 — At their February meeting, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council decided not to move forward with the request to close the Bristol Bay red king crab 4000-square nautical mile saving area to all commercial fishing. The council investigated the effectiveness of closing this eastern Bering Sea section to commercial trawl, pot, and longline fishing. However, they advised that they will not tighten regulations in this area.

The savings box was established in 1996 as a haven for red king crabs. However, other fishing, such as midwater/ pelagic trawlers, pot fishing, and longlining, is allowed in the area. According to the AFDG Status of King Crab Stocks, the area is closed to bottom trawling. The year after the saving box was established, the mature male red king crab stock increased from 8.5 million to 10.5 million.

According to KUCB, at this meeting, the Council also evaluated a pot gear closure of a large section in the eastern portion of Bristol Bay, known as Area 512, to address drops in the Bristol Bay red king crab stock. Trawling has also previously been prohibited in that area.

Read the full article at The National Fisherman

US House bill would add tribal seats to North Pacific Fisheries Management Council

July 27, 2021 — A key Democrat in the U.S. House introduced a bill Monday to renew the Magnuson Stevens Act. Magnuson Stevens is the primary law that covers fishing in federal waters. Past bills have languished in Congress, in part because many in the industry were generally happy with the law as it is.

But Jared Huffman, D-Calif., included a few provisions in his bill that certain Alaska groups have been requesting for a long time. Huffman chairs the Oceans subcommittee of the House Resources Committee.

The bill emphasizes the need to consider the impacts of climate change on marine resources. It would, for the first time, recognize the importance of subsistence fishing. It would also put two tribal representatives on the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council — the committee responsible for fisheries in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

MARY PELTOLA, SCOTT VAN VALIN, & MICHAEL KAMPNICH: Fisheries managers should reverse course on censoring public comments

May 14, 2021 — The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council process is difficult to navigate. It is a world of acronyms, statistics and legal jargon; but decisions made there impact the lives of all Alaskans, and directly affect allocations of federally-managed species — including king salmon and halibut — to Indigenous, sport and commercial stakeholders. Meetings occur over weeks and can last more than 10 hours per day. It requires significant time to participate, time the average Alaskan does not have. Recently, the Council enacted a policy that makes it more difficult for Alaskans to effectively advocate for their communities, businesses and food sources.

At the April meeting, a policy tightening restrictions on written public comment was quickly proposed and passed. This meeting drew an outpouring of testimony on two items: halibut and king salmon bycatch by the trawl sector. The overwhelming majority of testimony favored reducing that bycatch and managing it based on abundance. People expressed their viewpoints passionately. A few included profanity, but those were dwarfed by the number who respectfully expressed concerns about the future of our ocean ecosystems, fisheries, communities, cultures and livelihoods.

Late on the final day of the meeting, the Council adopted a policy that significantly tightened the rules on written testimony and gave Council staff broad authority to censor and filter comments. Part of their stated rationale for the new policy was that “members of the public linked the comment portal… and broadcast it on social media platforms (Facebook, Reddit), which generated numerous comments from people not familiar with the Council process” and “numerous comments were made prior to any documents being uploaded, and many comments were unrelated to the eAgenda item under which they were posted.” It may be frustrating to the Council when stakeholders are not as familiar with their process and culture as paid advocates whose lobbying contracts are compensation for intimate knowledge of the complex rules and relationships within the system. However, this is not a valid rationale for censoring the public, nor is it inappropriate to share information on how to participate with a broad audience of Alaskans for whom the process may be new or discouraging.

Read the full opinion piece at the Anchorage Daily News

MSC Certification of Gulf of Alaska Cod Reinstated

January 26, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

On January 22, 2021, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) region was reinstated, effective January 1, 2021, and announced by MRAG Americas, Inc., the independent certification body responsible for conducting the annual audits of the fishery.

From April 5, 2020 through December 31, 2020, the MSC certification for GOA Pacific cod had been suspended due to a decline in the stock. According to MRAG Americas, the suspension was “not due to overfishing or a lack of a responsible management response, rather, the depressed stocks of Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska below the B20% limit is climate driven and caused by the Gulf of Alaska marine heat wave.”

From 2017 through 2019, the GOA Pacific cod stock had declined due to the effects of an anomalous warm water event in 2014-2016. This marine heat wave, among other things, reduced food availability for cod and dramatically increased natural mortality. In response, federal and state fishery managers took swift and immediate action to severely restrict commercial fishing efforts — a responsible and precautionary management decision responding to ecosystem uncertainty. In 2018 and 2019, harvests were reduced by 80% to maintain the future viability of the fishery. In 2020, commercial fishing was closed in the federal GOA fishery and the small state fishery was further reduced.

“The decision to lift the suspension comes as a result of an expedited audit that was announced on December 22, 2020. The audit was based on new information on the stock status provided by NOAA Fisheries and decisions by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council,” explains MRAG Americas in its announcement.

Read the full release here

NPFMC Narrows Focus on Abundance-Based Management for Pacific Halibut Bycatch in Bering Sea

October 20, 2020 — The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council clarified their focus to tie the management of halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea to abundance in a new motion that, after one amendment, was passed unanimously.

The final Council motion revised the purpose and need statement and the alternatives for an initial review analysis that will likely come at the April council meeting, scheduled for April 5-6, 2021.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Re Trump’s May Executive Order: North Pacific Council Prioritizes Surveys and Catch Monitoring

October 19, 2020 — In response to Last May’s Executive Order 13921, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) submitted a list of prioritized recommendations to “reduce burdens on domestic fishing and to increase production within sustainable fisheries.” At the top of their list is groundfish surveys in the Gulf and Bering Sea, and improved observer coverage and electronic monitoring.

The president’s order “Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness Economic Growth” tasked each of the nation’s eight regional management councils with providing ways to reach four goals and asked them to provide recommendations by November 2. Implementation plans for the changes are to be submitted within a year of the President’s May 7, 2020 order.

Read the full story at Seafood News

North Pacific Council Approves Three Halibut Proposals, Rejects Two on Friday

May 19, 2020 — The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, in their first-ever special electronic meeting, acted on five requests for emergency rules triggered by the corona virus outbreak, in less than a day last Friday.

Halibut fishermen and fleet associations asked the 11-member council for relief on requirements to make medical quota transfers during the pandemic. Council members agreed to an option that would “allow the temporary transfer of halibut and sablefish IFQ for all quota share holders for the remainder of the 2020 fishing season,” without changing anything else in the program.

Read the full story at Seafood News

North Pacific Council to Hear From Alaska Charter Operators on Halibut Catch Limits

January 30, 2020 — This week the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) will hear from eminent scientists about prioritized research in Alaska that is underfunded, ways to change data reporting that maintains “best science available” standards, how to best fund the all-important observer program in areas not yet 100% covered, how to balance bycatch with directed halibut fishing, and what will done about the sablefish overage from last year, among other agenda items.

The solidly-packed agenda is not unusual, but among those weighty issues, the one that has illicited the most comments from industry — 62 compared to 5 for the next most commented-on topic — was the halibut catch limit for Gulf of Alaska (Area 3A) charter operators.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Marine Stewardship Council’s Certifier MRAG Americas Calls for Audit on Gulf of Alaska Cod

January 9, 2020 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Marine Stewardship Council’s certifying agency for Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod, MRAG Americas of Florida, announced an expedited audit for the GOA Pcod based on the new stock assessment that resulted in the fishery’s 2020 closure last month.

“New information on stock status provided by NOAA Fisheries and decisions of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council in December of 2019” is the basis for a desk-based audit covering Principle 1 (stock status) only, the MSC announcement reads.

Read the full story at Seafood News