Saving Seafood

Connecting Fishermen with Hungry Communities Can also Benefit Local Food Systems

September 15, 2020 — While delivering food boxes this summer to tribal communities in Oregon’s Columbia River watershed, Bobby Rodrigo was floored by what he saw. Tribal members were living in campers and RVs with no electricity, a single hose for running water, and no permanent structures except for a bathroom. Meant to be temporary, these “in-lieu fishing communities” were created in the 1950s when the federal government-built dams that forced tribal members to leave their ancestral fishing grounds.

It was like “being in a homeless shelter, without the infrastructure,” said Rodrigo, who is part Mohawk, a member of the Native American Committee of the American Bar Association, and legal and operations director for We Do Better Relief.

Rodrigo was handing out food boxes as part of a pandemic relief effort led by a new Pacific Northwest coalition called The Wave. Efforts started earlier that day at an event in Cascade Locks, Oregon, focused on tribal members, but open to the public, before moving out to the in-lieu fishing communities.

Rodrigo brought 850 pounds of fresh-frozen Alaskan lingcod, a type of groundfish, to add to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers to Families Food Boxes provided by the Oregon Food Bank. The Wave also provided a food truck, KOi Fusion, that served 400 free teriyaki fish rice bowls, cooked with more of the lingcod.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

OREGON: Bandon Pacific Seafood in Coos Bay Linked to at least 5 COVID-19 Cases

September 8, 2020 — An outbreak of COVID-19 has been reported at Bandon Pacific Seafood in Coos Bay, Oregon.

The Coos Bay Public Health Department released a statement late last week revealing that at least five cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at the seafood plant, which is owned by Pacific Seafood. In order to protect privacy, workplace outbreaks are only reported when a workplace has at least 30 employees and five or more of them test positive for COVID-19.

Read the full story at Seafood News

OREGON: Federal plan for Columbia River system dams sees opposition

September 3, 2020 — A final plan impacting the Columbia River system released earlier this month has some anglers and conservationists still looking for more answers.

The Preferred Alternative in the Columbia River System Operational Final Environmental Impact Statement includes structural modifications to some of the dams to benefit passage of adult salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey.

Greg Haller, of Pacific Rivers, said the plan does not represent a major system overall and he is not convinced the spill option benefits juvenile fish.

“Going with a flexible spill agreement as a long-term solution is a bad choice,” he said. “Breaching the dams has been identified as the best thing for fish. I think they gave that analysis short shrift.”

Additionally, proposed operational changes in the upper basin would avoid adverse effects to resident fish, including federally protected bull trout and Kootenai River white sturgeon.

Read the full story at The East Oregonian

Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast Coho Technical Workgroup online meeting October 6-7, 2020

September 3, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The online meeting will be held Tuesday, October 6 through Wednesday, October 7, 2020; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time each day.  The meeting times are an estimate; the meeting will adjourn when business for the day is complete.

Please see the SONCC Workgroup online meeting notice on the Council’s website for purpose and participation details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Robin Ehlke at 503-820-2410; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Seafood Could Account for 25% of Animal Protein Needed to Meet Increase in Demand in Coming Years

August 24, 2020 — Policy reforms and technological improvements could drive seafood production upward by as much as 75% over the next three decades, research by Oregon State University and an international collaboration suggests.

The findings, published recently in Nature, are important because by 2050 the Earth will have an estimated 9.8 billion human mouths to feed, a 2 billion increase in population from 2020. Seafood has the potential to meet much of the increased need for protein and nutrients, researchers say.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Pacific Squid: Trade hurdles to China remain, but prices are steady

August 21, 2020 — The California squid fleet faced stiff tariffs, covid-crimped markets and a slow start to the season. Oceanic conditions, on the plus side, appear to have improved for the 2020 season.

“It’s been going OK,” says Diane Pleschner-Steele , executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association, in Buellton. “I don’t think they’re setting the world on fire, but they’re catching.”

According to PacFIN, the 2020 harvest of squid for California, Oregon and Washington stood at around 42,000 short tons as of early July. Based on data from previous years, Pleschner-Steele adds that this year’s preliminary catch of 10,107 short tons for California (according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife as of June 26) and other oceanographic data suggests that the fishing grounds indeed felt the effects of El Niño conditions in 2018 and 2019. 

Read the full story at National Fisherman

SEATTLE TIMES: Sea lion culling is necessary for salmon runs

August 20, 2020 — One of the most obvious, inexpensive and beneficial ways to help endangered salmon will begin in earnest this winter.

Some of the sea lions that travel far up the Columbia River to gorge on dwindling salmon and steelhead runs will be culled by a coalition of states and tribes in the river basin.

Congress and regulators made the right call in allowing this to happen.

Sea lions may eat up to 44% of the Columbia spring chinook run and 25% of the Willamette River winter steelhead run each year, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A federal permit issued last week rightly authorizes the removal of up to 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lions over the next five years, though far fewer are expected to be taken.

Read the full opinion piece at The Seattle Times

Relief funds available to Oregon fishing businesses

August 10, 2020 — Financial assistance is available to Oregon fishermen and fishing-related businesses impacted by the coronavirus.

An application period for nearly $16 million in federal CARES Act funds has opened and extends through Sept. 8. The money is available to a wide range of fishing-related businesses, from small fishing vessels run by a handful of one or two people to large processing operations.

State leaders anticipate the federal funds will not be enough to address all the coronavirus impacts to the fisheries industry. They have provided an additional $2.5 million in state CARES Act relief funds.

Read the full story at The Astorian

Endangered orcas at risk from U.S. Navy, activists warn

August 3, 2020 — In the Pacific Northwest, an endangered community of killer whales has been on the decline for years due to a variety of factors, all related to human activity. Now, advocacy groups are warning of another looming threat which could further weaken the killer whale population: the U.S. Navy.

The Southern Resident killer whales are a small, close knit community of animals — more accurately known as orcas, the largest species of dolphins — which live primarily along the coast of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. When they were listed as endangered in 2005, there were 88 Southern Resident orcas — but now, due to declines in their favorite food, Chinook salmon, as well as other manmade threats like toxins, shipping traffic and warming waters due to climate change, their numbers have dwindled to 72.

That’s why a recent request from the U.S. Navy seeking authorization for 51 “takes” of killer whales in the region each year for the next seven years alarmed many environmental groups.

Read the full story at CBS News

Beavers Could Be A Key Species For Endangered Salmon Recovery In Oregon

July 21, 2020 — Recent guidance from the federal government is, for the first time, promoting the importance of beavers in the recovery of endangered salmon and steelhead in Oregon rivers.

A recently released biological opinion is encouraging landowners to use non-lethal means of dealing with beavers on private property.

“We know that they can provide important benefits that help support recovery of these fish that a lot of people are working toward,” says Michael Milstein, a spokesperson with the National Marine Fisheries Service. “But at the same time, it’s clear that they can cause conflict.”

The study advocates for private landowners to prioritize management tools like fencing when beavers dam culverts. It also asks that beavers be relocated rather than killed, and it sets an average limit of 13 removals of beaver sites per year across the state.

The biological opinion was prompted by a 2017 legal threat from environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity and Western Environmental Law Center over the killing of beavers and their role in creating fish habitat.

Read the full story at KLCC