Saving Seafood

Feds May Look at Spring-Run Chinook Salmon as Genetically Distinct

March 16, 2021 — The National Marine Fisheries Service is considering whether the spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon that occupy the rivers of Northern California and southern Oregon are genetically distinct.

The decision has huge implications for fish populations as the number of spring-run Chinook salmon has plunged to such depths it would almost certainly result in a listing under the Endangered Species Act if seen as a separate species.

“The science is in on that,” said Rich Nawa, an ecologist who petitioned the agency a year ago to consider the spring-run Chinook salmon as genetically distinct. “There are several papers so no one disputes the science, it’s just how to incorporate it into policy at this point.”

The fisheries service said Monday it will consider the new science as it analyses whether an update to its listing policy is warranted.

“We find that the petition presents substantial scientific and commercial information indicating the petitioned action may be warranted,” the agency said in a document.

The key word in the phrase is “may,” as a significant dispute exists in the scientific community whether the spring-run Chinook is what is referred to as an “evolutionarily significant unit.”

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Pacific Fishery Management Council releases alternatives for 2021 West Coast ocean salmon fisheries

March 11, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted three alternatives for 2021 ocean salmon fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and California for public review. The Council will make a final decision on salmon seasons at its meeting on April 6-9 and 12-15. Detailed information about season starting dates, areas open, and catch limits for the three alternatives are available on the Council’s website at www.pcouncil.org.

Forecasts for many Chinook and coho stocks have improved over last year; however, the Council is constrained by requirements to conserve Fraser River (Canada) Washington coastal and Puget Sound natural coho runs, lower Columbia River natural tule[1] fall Chinook, and Klamath River fall Chinook.

“Meeting our conservation and management objectives continues to be the highest priority for the Council,” said Council Executive Director Chuck Tracy. “Balancing those objectives while providing meaningful commercial and recreational seasons remains a challenge in 2021.”

Council Chair Marc Gorelnik said, “the Council is considering the needs of Southern Resident killer whales as part of its deliberations. We are also considering the need to rebuild some Chinook and coho stocks that have been designated as overfished.”

Read the full release here

PFMC: 2021 Public hearings on salmon management (via webinar only)

March 11, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

Public hearings to review the Council’s proposed ocean salmon fishery management alternatives will be conducted via webinar only. The links below will take you to the specific hearing information:

For further information on the salmon hearings, please contact Robin Ehlke at 503-820-2410; toll-free 1-866-806-7204, extension 410.

Fishermen’s wives: how unsung efforts keep a way of life afloat

March 11, 2021 — In spring 2020, the fishing community of Newport, Oregon, shuttered along with the rest of the country. A coronavirus outbreak at a local Pacific Seafood processing plant left fishermen sitting on docks with no buyers for their Dungeness crabs, while restaurants closed and families found themselves housebound.

That’s when Taunette Dixon and her organization, the Newport Fishermen’s Wives, stepped in. This group quickly mobilized to provide food, supplies, infant formula, pet food, fuel cards, masks, gloves and money for past-due utility payments to fishing families who had been hit by the pandemic.

For 50 years, groups like Dixon’s have formed the behind-the-scenes backbone of their communities, often lobbying on behalf of their husbands, who leave for months at a time to fish.

In fishing towns where fishermen’s spouses stay onshore, fishermen’s wives associations have served as mutual aid groups, social support networks and political agitators. Dixon and her colleagues mend nets, keep books, care for families, fight for or against environmental regulations, navigate byzantine quota systems and act as onshore brokers communicating information to husbands out at sea.

Data about these women is scarce, and there’s not much research quantifying exactly how much work they perform for the industry, but social scientists call their labor an “informal subsidy”. And yet, when policymakers talk about supporting fishermen, women like Dixon are often left out of the conversation. And at a local level, members of these groups say their individual efforts can go unnoticed or taken for granted.

Read the full story at The Guardian

OREGON: Crab fishery adapts following climate shock event

March 10, 2021 — An unprecedented marine heat wave that led to a massive harmful algal bloom and a lengthy closure of the West Coast Dungeness crab fishery significantly altered the use of ocean resources across seven California crab-fishing communities.

The delayed opening of the 2015-16 crab-fishing season followed the 2014-16 North Pacific marine heat wave and subsequent algal bloom. The bloom produced high levels of the biotoxin domoic acid, which can accumulate in crabs and render them hazardous for human consumption.

That event, which is considered a “climate shock” because of its severity and impact, tested the resilience of California’s fishing communities, researchers from Oregon State University, the University of Washington, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center found.

The study is the first to examine impacts from such delays across fisheries, providing insight into the response by the affected fishing communities, said James Watson, one of the study’s co-authors and an assistant professor in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

Read the full story at the Newport News Times

OSU researcher leads NOAA-funded project to study West Coast response to ocean acidification

March 4, 2021 — The following was released by Oregon State University:

An Oregon State University researcher is part of a new federally supported project investigating how communities along the West Coast are adapting to ocean acidification, with the goal of determining what they need to be more resilient.

Ana K. Spalding, an assistant professor of marine and coastal policy in OSU’s College of Liberal Arts, is leading a team looking into how shellfish industry participants in several towns along the Oregon and California coasts are responding to ocean acidification and where gaps in policy or resources have left them vulnerable.

The $1 million, three-year interdisciplinary project is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through its Ocean Acidification Program. At OSU, Spalding is working with Erika Wolters, assistant professor of public policy, and Master of Public Policy students Victoria Moreno, Emily Griffith and Ryan Hasert.

“The goal of this project is to better align policy responses with the immediate and very local needs of shellfish-reliant communities,” Spalding said. “This is both understanding that vulnerability and proactively thinking, ‘What can we do to respond to better support members of the shellfish industry and their needs?’”

Ocean acidification and its impact on shellfish first became a major concern for West Coast farmers after a 2007 mass oyster larvae die-off at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts Bay, Oregon. OSU scientists definitively linked that die-off to increased carbon dioxide in the water in a 2012 study.

Read the full release here

PFMC: Notice of availability: Salmon Preseason Report I

March 1, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

This is the second report in an annual series of four reports prepared by the Salmon Technical Team of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) to document and help guide ocean fishery salmon management off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. The report focuses on Chinook, coho, and pink salmon stocks that have been important in determining Council fisheries in recent years, and on stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with established National Marine Fisheries Service ESA consultation standards. This report will be formally reviewed at the Council’s March 2021 meeting.

Please visit the Council’s website to download Preseason Report I:  Stock Abundance Analysis and Environmental Assessment Part 1 for 2021 Ocean Salmon Fishery Regulations (Published March 2021).

For further information:

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

REP. DEFAZIO RE-INTRODUCES SOUTHWESTERN OREGON SALMON AND WATERSHED PROTECTION ACT TO MAKE SW OREGON MINING BAN PERMANENT

March 1, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR):

Rep. Peter DeFazio yesterday re-introduced legislation to make permanent a twenty-year ban on new mining projects in the Pistol River and Rough and Ready Creek watersheds in southwest Oregon.

“These watersheds provide critical drinking water for several communities and support highly sensitive ecosystems for salmon as well as the highest concentrations of rare plants in Oregon,” said Rep. DeFazio. “This legislation is necessary to maintain the current 20-year ban on mining in the area and will enable Congress to make that ban permanent.  For the health of our communities and ecosystems throughout the region, it is imperative to protect this area from the threat of foreign-owned mining companies.”

“The headwaters of our wild rivers are no place for strip mining,” said Ann Vileisis, President of the Kalmiopsis Audubon Society, Port Orford. “We’re grateful that Rep. DeFazio continues to fight to protect Southwest Oregon’s cherished rivers.”

“As a brewer, I care deeply about protecting the source of the water I use to make great beer,” said James Smith, Arch Rock Brewery, Gold Beach. “I applaud Congressman DeFazio for introducing legislation to permanently protect the headwaters of Hunter Creek and other amazing wild rivers in southwestern Oregon from the threat of strip mining.”

“I so appreciate that Rep. DeFazio has reintroduced the Southwestern Oregon Watershed and Salmon Protection Act,” said Dave Lacey, South Coast Tours, Gold Beach. “It means so much to local residents of Curry County to protect our rivers. My business, South Coast Tours, is completely reliant on thriving and resilient ecosystems that would be imperiled by strip mining the headwaters of our Wild Rivers Coast streams.”

In 2017, the Obama administration agreed to DeFazio’s request to establish a 20-year ban on new mining projects in the Pistol River and Rough and Ready Creek watersheds.

Researchers demonstrate new method to track genetic diversity of salmon and trout

February 19, 2021 — Scientists at Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service have demonstrated that DNA extracted from water samples from rivers across Oregon and Northern California can be used to estimate genetic diversity of Pacific salmon and trout.

The findings, just published in the journal Molecular Ecology, have important implications for conservation and management of these , which are threatened by human activities, including those exacerbating climate change.

“There has been a dearth of this kind of data across the Northwest,” said Kevin Weitemier, a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon State and lead author of the paper. “This allows us to get a quick snapshot of multiple populations and species all at once.”

In addition to demonstrating that environmental DNA, or eDNA, can be used to measure , the researchers also made unexpected discoveries about the history of these species, including a connection that links watersheds in northern and southern Oregon.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

PFMC: Notice of availability: Review of 2020 Ocean Salmon Fisheries

February 17, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Salmon Technical Team and staff of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) have prepared this stock assessment and fishery evaluation document as a postseason review of the 2020 ocean salmon fisheries off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California to help assess Council salmon fishery management performance, the status of Council area salmon stocks, and the socioeconomic impacts of salmon fisheries. The Council will formally review this report at its March 2021 meeting prior to the development of management alternatives for the approaching fishing season.

Please visit the Council’s website to get the Review of 2020 Ocean Salmon Fisheries (Published February 2021).

For further information: