Saving Seafood

OREGON: Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab season to see limited opening on Jan. 15

January 10, 2023 — The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced that the state’s commercial crabbing season will see a partial opening on Jan. 15 from Cape Falcon in Tillamook County to Cape Arago in Coos County.

The news comes after more than a month of delays caused by dangerously high domoic acid levels and undesirably low meat levels among Dungeness crab populations in the Western Pacific. The commercial season will open from Cape Falcon to the Washington border on Feb. 1, per the tri-state protocol agreed upon by Oregon, Washington and California, as tested crabs in the region reportedly now meet industry standards. California’s Commercial crabbing season opened statewide on Dec. 31, 2022.

Executive Director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission Tim Novotny said the seasonal fishing delays aren’t ideal for the industry, but that the quality testing is crucial for maintaining consumer confidence year after year.

“Look, everyone wants to start Dec. 1,” Novotny said. “But the fishermen know that this process sets a high bar on purpose, so consumers know they’re getting the highest quality and safest product possible.”

Preferred Dec. 1 openings, which allow crabbers to set prices and get meat into markets during the holiday season, have become uncommon in recent years. The industry has seen one undelayed, coastwide opening since 2014.

Read the full article at KOIN

OREGON: Oregon commercial Dungeness crabbing season to open Jan. 15 after weekslong delay

January 9, 2023 — Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab season opens Jan. 15 for much of the coast after a weekslong delay.

Oregon Fish and Wildlife initially had a targeted opening date of Dec. 1, but that was delayed after pre-season tests showed crabs had too little meat yield as well as elevated levels of domoic acid.

The state agency says commercial crabbers can begin fishing between Cape Arago near Coos Bay up to Cape Falcon near Cannon Beach, since all crabs tested within that region have passed meat and biotoxin tests. The season will open from Cape Falcon up to Washington state on Feb. 1. More info.

Read the full article at OPB

OREGON: Crabbers protest delay of Dungeness season

January 5, 2022 — A group of crabbers on the Oregon Coast is pushing back on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s decision to continue to delay the commercial Dungeness crab season.

While the season, one of Oregon’s most valuable fisheries, is traditionally scheduled to open Dec. 1, delays — based on several different factors — have been common in recent years.

The state has postponed opening day three times this season. On Dec. 22, the state announced that the season would start no sooner than Jan. 15, citing preseason testing that showed low meat yield on the southern and northern coasts. The state also pointed to elevated domoic acid in some crab viscera.

On Tuesday, in a letter to Caren Braby, a marine resources program manager for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, over 20 crabbers — many from Newport and Garibaldi — criticized the state’s decision making and called for opening the fishery in areas where thresholds have been met.

The crabbers, who state that they all own or operate a small commercial vessel, claim that the decision to repeatedly delay the season has “caused severe hardship on multiple fronts.”

The letter points to economic losses and dangerous fishing conditions during January and February, as well as impacts to consumers and potential ecological risks.

Read the full article at The Astrorian

OREGON: Dungeness crab season closure has ‘cut off a key economic lifeline to small coastal fishing communities’

January 4, 2022 — As previously reported, the ocean commercial Dungeness crab season remains closed until at least Jan. 15, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW).

As Oregon Dungeness crab fishers wait for the opening of the new season, stalled by state and federal health and safety regulations, the following has been released by members of the Oregon Dungenness crab fishers.

Read the full article at Tillamook Headline Herald

OREGON: Crab quality delays season open

November 22, 2022 — Along Oregon’s coast, commercial crabbers will wait a few weeks longer than expected to make their first catch of the season.

It has to do with crab quality.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) announced Friday that commercial crabbers could expect a delay to the December 1 open of Dungeness crab season.

The projected opening date, December 16, could also be delayed if crab quality hasn’t improved.

ODFW says the crabs have not yet reached meat fill and meat quality standards.

Caren Braby Marine Resources Program Manager for ODFW also stressed product safety.

“We test for biotoxins that come just naturally from plankton that grow in the ocean, and if there’s any sign of those biotoxins, we delay the season for that as well.”

Domoic acid found in crab guts during this year’s testing is harmful to marine life, but close monitoring by ODFW prevents the toxin from impacting people with potentially fatal symptoms.

Read the full article at KATU

OREGON: Climate change is impacting the health and population of valuable Dungeness crab in Oregon

November 17, 2022 — Researchers at Oregon State University are working to find out how climate change is affecting marine life along the Oregon coast – specifically Dungeness crab and krill.

“The ocean is changing, and we want to make sure that we know what is coming ahead,” said marine ecologist Francis Chan. “And we want to know what are the levers that we might pull now or in the future to make sure the fisheries stay really productive.”

Read the full article at KATU

EDITORIAL: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Strategy to Reintroduce Sea Otters is Flawed

August 12, 2022 — The USFWS study fails to estimate costs to taxpayers; impacts to key local fisheries such as Dungeness crab and sea urchin; neglects to fully examine the impacts to local port and harbor activities and fishing communities and fails to directly clarify to impacted Tribal Nations that no ceremonial and subsistence uses – or control of otter populations negatively impacting other important Tribal resources – are permitted under current Federal law.

For Oregon and California coastal communities dependent on Dungeness crab, sea urchin, and other shellfish, reintroducing sea otters in an area where they have been absent for more than 100 years will spell big trouble. Yet, a recent report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) concludes it is “feasible” to reintroduce them to Southern Oregon and Northern California. In June 2022, the USFWS report, Feasibility Assessment: Sea Otter Reintroduction to the Pacific Coast, was released in response to a largely-unvetted Congressional mandate. In this report, the Agency lays out the potential benefits of reintroducing sea otters to new areas of the West Coast. It identifies some – but not all – significant areas of concern.

When plentiful, shellfish and crabs account for a most of a sea otter’s diet. Their voracious feeding activity, especially related to the almost certain impacts to the West Coast heritage Dungeness crab fishery and sea urchin harvests, alarms West Coast fishermen and processors. Otters eat 23% to 33% of their body weight daily. Just 169 otters weighing an average of 50 pounds each, feeding full time on urchins, would consume an amount equal to the entire annual commercial catch, making a commercial fishery not viable. Dungeness crabs are caught near small ports from Oregon to Central California, and the sea urchin fishery operates in Oregon and California.

Read the full article at Seafood News

Bringing sea otters back to Oregon faces ideological challenges

August 9, 2022 — If asked to choose between the environment and commercial interests, most environmentalists would naturally side with the former. But the reality is more complicated, particularly when Indigenous tribes — long left out of the conversation on how the federal government navigates issues concerning natural resources and commercial interests — are brought to the table.

In the case of mitigating climate change by reintroducing sea otters to habitats where they once thrived, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is faced with such a dilemma. Particularly so because bringing sea otters to the Northern California and Oregon coasts sounds promising to everyone except those who are already living near the endangered species.

Known by some local tribes as the Elekha, sea otters are a small marine mammal of the family Mustelidae, characterized by their furry, weasel appearance and their hallmark tendency to float on their back while using a rock to open hard-shelled invertebrates. The animal is objectively cute, with its furry white face that pops over the top of the ocean to stare out like a teddy bear with tiny eyes and an extra wide nose.

The southern and northern sea otters, Enhydra lutris, are distinct by geography and marginally by their DNA, as fur traders nearly hunted the animal to extinction during the 18th and 19th centuries. Southern sea otters live in small pockets along the Southern California coastline while northern sea otters live from northern Washington state to southeastern Alaska — the latter a direct result of preservation and reintroduction.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

OREGON: Offshore wind proposals worry fishing industry

July 11, 2022 — From her home overlooking Yaquina Bay, Kelley Retherford can watch as commercial fishing boats arrive at the nearby Port of Newport, delivering their catch to one of several seafood processors that line the waterfront.

Saltwater is in her family’s blood, she said. Along with her husband, Mike, and their four adult children, they own and operate four fishing trawlers, harvesting everything from Pacific whiting to pink shrimp to Dungeness crab.

That way of life, however, may be disrupted by a growing interest in offshore wind generators to help achieve ambitious government-mandated zero-carbon energy goals.

Earlier this year, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management identified two call areas off the southern Oregon Coast — one near Coos Bay and the other near Brookings — to assess potential wind energy leases in federal waters.

The push to harness wind energy in the Pacific Ocean has raised concerns within Oregon’s $1.2 billion commercial fishing industry, with families such as the Retherfords worried it will limit access to highly productive fisheries and impact the marine ecosystem.

A 60-day comment period ended in June for developers to nominate locations within the two areas that would be best suited for wind projects.

Deep Blue Pacific Wind is a joint venture between Simply Blue Group, an offshore wind developer based in Ireland, and TotalEnergies, a French energy company with U.S. headquarters in Houston. In January, the venture hired Peter Cogswell as director of government and external affairs.
Rather than being fixed to the seabed, turbines in the Pacific would have to be built on floating platforms to capture wind where it blows the hardest. Cogswell estimated it would take between 50 and 60 turbines to generate 1 gigawatt of energy.
John Romero, a spokesman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said the call areas are meant to identify where offshore wind “may be safely and responsibly developed,” while soliciting feedback from the public.
Losing fishing grounds inside the call areas could be harmful to fishermen along the Oregon Coast, said Heather Mann, the executive director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative.
The areas are particularly bountiful due to the California Current, which provides a strong upwelling of water and nutrients for seafood. Mann estimated more than 25% of Pacific whiting harvested in the last decade has come from the two call areas proposed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

 

The drive for 100% clean energy in Oregon has raised the stakes for building new renewable energy projects statewide — including offshore wind generators.

House Bill 2021, signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown in 2021, requires retail electricity providers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity sold to Oregon consumers by 80% by 2030, 90% by 2035 and 100% by 2040.

Several state and federal lawmakers are also urging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to slow down and fully consider impacts on coastal communities before moving forward with leasing.

Further limiting fishing grounds in the call areas “could spell economic disaster for these towns,” the letter continued.

Kelley Retherford said the fishing industry will continue to push back against the call areas, fighting for their livelihoods.

Read the full story at the Astorian 

Our View: We must have a say in offshore wind plans

June 30, 2022 — Few dispute the need to develop alternative ways to generate electricity that don’t produce greenhouse gases, but our response to a proposed floating offshore wind farm in Washington state isn’t a straightforward “yes.”

Similar complications arise regarding floating wind turbines off the southern Oregon Coast. These prompted the Astoria City Council and the Port of Astoria Commission to recently ask the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Oregon Department of Energy to take their time before granting permission. Local officials want a demonstration project before grander plans are authorized, along with a full-scale environmental impact analysis.

In Washington state, the development being pursued by Seattle-based Trident Winds is generating misgivings among some users of offshore waters, who fear the wind farm located about 45 miles west of the mouths of Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor — and the cables linking it to the shore — could be one more blow to fisheries and the environment.

To put these concerns in a historical context, hydropower development in the 20th century in the Columbia River watershed came with many promises about preserving salmon runs and small-town economies. We all know how that turned out.

Read the full story at The Daily Astorian