Saving Seafood

What Fish Fat Can Tell About the Value of Deep-Sea Coral and Sponge Habitat

September 22, 2021 — Rockfish have an affinity for structure, whether it is created by rocks, corals, or sponges. But do deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems offer benefits beyond structure? Are fish in these habitats more productive?

A new NOAA Fisheries study is the first to look at the relationship between fish condition and reproductive success in a variety of habitats, focusing on deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems. As part of the study, scientists are developing methods to accurately assess rockfish condition by measuring fat content. For rockfish in Alaska, fat means healthy.

The study looked at the most commercially important rockfish in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands: northern rockfish and Pacific ocean perch. Samples are being collected during 2021–2022 Alaska Fisheries Science Center bottom trawl surveys.

The research addresses a priority of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council: understanding the importance of deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems to commercially valuable fish.

“Developing a feasible method to accurately measure fish condition across  Alaska waters during annual surveys will provide a wealth of data to help us understand how habitat influences fish productivity. That knowledge will also help us track how climate change is affecting the ecosystem,” said study leader Christina Conrath, NOAA Fisheries biologist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

The new project is part of NOAA’s Alaska Deep-Sea Coral and Sponge Initiative, which is supported by the Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program. The initiative was established to provide the scientific data needed to inform management and protection of deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems in Alaska. Discoveries made previously and under this initiative have greatly advanced our knowledge of corals and sponges and their role in Alaska marine ecosystems.

Rockfish in Alaska waters are frequently found in coral and sponge habitat. Previous Alaska Fisheries Science Center research found that rockfish densities were highest in structurally complex habitat. But that research showed no evidence that structure created by corals and sponges was more important than that formed by rocks.

“We know that rockfish get value from structure. But we don’t really have evidence yet that coral and sponge habitat offers benefits beyond structure,” Conrath said. “We’re exploring that.”

Read the full story from NOAA

 

ALASKA: All major Bering Sea crab stocks are down alarmingly this season, surveys indicate

September 14, 2021 — Alaska’s Bering Sea crabbers are reeling from the devastating news that all major crab stocks are down substantially, based on summer survey results, and the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery will be closed for the first time in over 25 years.

That stock has been on a steady decline for several years, and the 2020 harvest dwindled to just 2.6 million pounds.

Most shocking was the drastic turnaround for snow crab stocks, which in 2018 showed a 60% boost in market-size male crabs (the only ones retained for sale) and nearly the same for females. That year’s survey was documented as “one of the largest snow crab recruitment events biologists have ever seen,” said Bob Foy, director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Crab Plan Team.

Again in 2019, the “very strong” snow crab biomass was projected at over 610 million pounds, and the catch was set at a conservative 45 million pounds for the 2020 fishery. No Bering Sea crab surveys were done that year due to the COVID pandemic, but the 2021 results indicated the numbers of mature male snow crab had plummeted by 55%.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

NPFMC October hybrid meeting

August 16, 2021 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The NPFMC will hold meetings over the period September 30-October 15, 2021. The SSC and Advisory Panel will meet entirely via webconference, and the Council will meet via webconference on October 6th, and tentatively in person from October 10-15th, at the Egan Center in Anchorage, AK.  The eAgenda, Schedule, and a list of when documents are available is now posted. Please note the SSC has a separate SSC eAgenda. More detailed information is available on our website.

You can submit comments for each agenda item through the Council and SSC eAgendas during the written public comment period, which opens September 17th and closes September 29th at 5:00 PM AST.  Submitted comments will be reviewed and publicly visible after the deadline, as per the Council’s comment policy. The Council will have remote testimony available if it meets in person.

If you have questions, please email npfmc.admin@noaa.gov.

Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization: “Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act” Introduced

July 28, 2021 — Last Friday the long-awaited “Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act”, a reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), was introduced by Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Ed Case (D-HI). Huffman is chair of the Water, Oceans, and Wildlife Subcommittee, within the House Natural Resources Committee.

This is the first time the MSA, the preeminent law on the management of the nations fisheries from 3- to 200-miles, has addressed climate change.

Read the full story at Seafood News

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

Adak stakeholders protest denial of proposed cod allocation

July 22, 2021 — Stakeholders of an isolated Aleutians fish plant contend state appointees on the federal fisheries management board have ignored calls for help to keep more of the area’s large Pacific cod catch in Alaska despite a court order that shot down the first attempt to do so.

Representatives from Aleut Corp., which owns the fish processing plant in Adak through a subsidiary, and Peter Pan Seafood Co., have said they need to be able to rely on a foundational allocation of cod from federal fisheries to reopen the currently shuttered plant.

It’s believed a reliable allocation of roughly 5,000 metric tons of Pacific cod to the plants in Adak and Atka, where a plant is also currently closed, would provide a base volume of fish that would allow an operator to keep it open year-round with purchases in the state waters cod and other fisheries throughout the year.

Doing so could provide the ultra-remote community of approximately 300 residents with nearly 200 jobs during peak activity and several dozen steady positions if the plant were operated year-round, they estimate.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council that oversees the largely Seattle-based trawl cod fishery is in the process of reforming those allocations amidst other regulatory changes.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Fish Out of Water: How Capture Affects Sablefish Health, Reflexes, and Survival

July 13, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Sablefish is a high-quality, deepwater fish that supports a valuable Alaska fishery. The fishery has seen dramatic changes in recent years. The highest abundance of young  sablefish in decades arrived with warming temperatures. At the same time, a rapidly-growing pot fishery has emerged alongside traditional hook-and-line fishing in the Gulf of Alaska. A new study shows that, with careful handling, they are able to withstand the stresses of capture on hook-and-line gear—but their.reflexes could be impaired.

In the directed sablefish fishery, commercial fishermen must retain all sablefish (regardless of size) until individual fishing quotas are filled. Then, all remaining catch is returned to sea. To accurately assess the fish stocks to set sustainable catch limits, managers need to estimate how many of the fish caught and released will survive.

A new collaborative study provides information essential for sustainable management of  the sablefish fishery as it evolves and adapts to changing conditions. NOAA Fisheries  Alaska Fisheries Science Center scientists teamed up with a veterinary professor at Oregon State University. They looked at how the stress of capture and time out of water affects the health and reflexes of sablefish, and whether that contributes to delayed mortality. Their findings provide a better understanding of mortality after release from pot fishing. They provide information essential for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to evaluate the implications of proposed “careful release” of small sablefish before fishing quotas are filled.

Read the full release here

On an Alaskan island, a mayor fights for fur seals – and a new future

July 13, 2021 — Fifty years ago, Patrick Pletnikoff spent his summers stripping blubber from the carcasses of seals clubbed to death in Alaska’s annual harvest, competing with other young men to show who wielded the fastest blade.

Now he’s fighting for a bigger prize: to transform his native St. George Island’s fortunes and protect dwindling colonies of northern fur seals by creating Alaska’s first marine sanctuary in the surrounding waters – a move that would empower local people to limit fishing for the seals’ prey.

Commercial sealing was once the lifeblood of St. George, a treeless speck of volcanic rock far from the U.S. mainland. But the indigenous Unangan community has struggled to find a new niche in the decades since the trade was banned, and there are now less than 60 inhabitants left.

As the long-serving mayor, Pletnikoff has spent years lobbying the federal government to add St. George to the network of 15 U.S. marine sanctuaries, hoping that a designation will kick-start a new “conservation economy” based on eco-tourism, scientific research and sustainable fishing.

Read the full story at Reuters

ALASKA: Council’s Swift Action on BSAI Cod Shuts Down Efforts to Restore Adak’s Seafood Economy

June 24, 2021 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council moved quickly to adopt a preliminary preferred alternative (PPA) to rationalize the last major race for fish in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands — trawl-caught Pacific cod — which also relegated Adak’s state-of-the-art seafood plant to the bottom of the pile in terms of access to the resource.

“I am announcing today that, based on the Council’s preliminary preferred alternative in the CV [catcher-vessel] trawl package, Peter Pan Seafood Company is suspending all further work in Adak,” said Steve Minor, Manager of Business Development for Peter Pan, on the day after the Council approved the motion.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Alaska pollock giant American Seafoods lands former top NOAA fisheries official

June 11, 2021 — Alaska pollock supplier American Seafoods has hired Chris Oliver, a former top administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as special advisor on government affairs in the company’s regulatory division.

Oliver has has a long career in fisheries. In 2017, he was designated by presidential appointment as Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at NOAA, where he was responsible for the management of commercial and recreational marine fisheries and protected species throughout the US Exclusive Economic Zone, which encompasses the Alaska pollock fishing grounds.

Oliver worked at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council — the government agency charged with managing the Alaska pollock fishery and setting its annual catch quotas– for more than 30 years, as a fisheries biologist, a deputy director, and finally as executive director for 16 years.

Read the full story at IntraFish