Saving Seafood

‘I thought it was going to be much worse’: Travelers landing in Anchorage navigate Alaska’s new COVID-19 testing rules

June 12, 2020 — Omar Jackson’s COVID-19 testing swab occurred just a few minutes after waiting in line near the Alaska Airlines baggage claim on Thursday at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

“My boys and I were pretty spooked about it,” Jackson said. “We thought it would be a big Q-tip, like, all the way up to the brain,” he said. “But it went pretty smooth.”

The 28-year-old from Portland, Oregon, had come to Alaska for a summer job as a seafood processor. He’s one of hundreds of new travelers to Alaska who are now having to navigate the state’s updated health mandate addressing interstate and international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the revised mandate, which went into effect on Saturday, out-of-state travelers who test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of boarding a plane to Alaska will be able to avoid the state’s 14-day quarantine requirement. Travelers can also get tested when they land and quarantine until they get a negative result.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Pacific reopens some plants after COVID-19 outbreak; Icicle reports new cases in Alaska

June 12, 2020 — Pacific Seafood has reopened some of its five facilities in Newport, Oregon, U.S.A., that were hit by a coronavirus outbreak last week, with 132 of its workers testing positive for COVID-19.

The Pacific Surimi and Pacific Bio plants reopened in a limited capacity on Wednesday, 10 June, according to Pacific Seafood General Counsel Tony Dal Ponte. Pacific Fillet restarted some operations on Thursday, 11 June, and the Pacific Whiting and Pacific Shrimp facility remain closed, Dal Ponte said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Pacific Seafood suspends operations at five locations due to COVID-19 outbreak

June 9, 2020 — Positive COVID-19 tests for 124 employees of Pacific Seafood and its contractors have led the company to suspend operations at its five processing facilities in Newport, Oregon, U.S.A.

The Clackamas, Oregon-based company said 53 of its employees and an additional 71 locally-based contractors tested positive for COVID-19, out of 376 workers tested, as of Sunday, 7 June.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

COVID-19 Outbreak In Pacific Northwest Seafood Industry As Season Ramps Up

June 8, 2020 — As America’s meat producers confronted thousands of COVID-19 cases, Pacific Northwest seafood companies drafted rigorous plans to ward off similar spread of the disease in an industry where processors also work in close quarters.

But just a few weeks into the summer season, the industry has been shaken by its first major outbreak aboard a huge vessel with an onboard fish processing factory. This week, Seattle-based American Seafoods confirmed that 92 crew from its American Dynasty ship had tested positive for COVID-19, nearly three-fourths of the 126 people onboard.

“It was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this.’ We had done so much. Each company had worked so hard to try to avoid this happening,” says Brent Paine, executive director of United Catcher Boats.

The trade group’s members fish for pollock and cod off Alaska, and another whitefish called hake off Washington and Oregon. “None of us have ever worked so hard in our lives than we have in the last two months, without a doubt.”

Read the full story at Spokane Public Radio

Responsible Offshore Development Alliance Calls for Changes to ‘Broken and Ineffective’ Wind Development Outreach

June 3, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) is calling on state and federal regulators to extensively revise their approach to planning offshore wind development off of Oregon, calling the current system “broken and ineffective” for preserving sustainable seafood production. The comments come in a public comment letter submitted by RODA on the engagement plan for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) Oregon Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force.

In the letter, RODA calls for BOEM to develop a new planning and engagement model that brings fisheries stakeholders into the process early, with greater participation from fisheries members on task forces and greater opportunities for public input.

Task forces need to work with the industry identify potential impacts on fishing before any offshore leases are issued. Often input from the fishing industry is sought too late in the process, after leases have been awarded and sites selected.

“Fisheries participants and experts must be wholly integrated into every step of the planning process through true collaboration,” the letter states.

Collaboration with the fishing industry is vital because of the many documented conflicts between fishing and wind energy development. These include potential environmental impacts on marine species and habitats; limiting fishing access; disruptions of scientific surveys; and interactions with protected species such as whales.

RODA is a membership-based coalition of fishing-related companies and associations committed to improving the compatibility of new offshore development with their businesses. RODA’s approximately 170 members represent every Atlantic coastal state from North Carolina to Maine, and Pacific coast members in California, Oregon and Washington.

Read the letter here

Disappearances, danger and death: what is happening to fishery observers?

May 22, 2020 — Liz Mitchell was on her laptop in her living room in Eugene, Oregon, when she got the news. Thousands of miles away, on a Taiwanese fishing boat, a fishery observer named Eritara Aati Kaierua had been found dead.

Details were scant. The ship’s name (Win Far No 636), the dead man’s passport number, and where the boat was now headed: the port of Kiribati, a central Pacific island nation on the equator.

But for Mitchell, president of the Association of Professional Observers (APO), it was sadly nothing new – another death, devoid of facts.

“We’ve recorded one or two deaths of fishery observers every year since 2015,” says Mitchell. “All with the same outcome: no information.”

Read the full story at The Guardian

Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast Coho Technical Workgroup to hold online meeting June 9

May 22, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) Coho Technical Workgroup (Workgroup) will hold an online meeting, which is open to the public   The online meeting will be held Tuesday, June 9, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time, or until business for the day has been completed.

Please see the SONCC Workgroup online meeting notice on the Council’s website for 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 industry seeks to weather coronavirus

May 19, 2020 — Two of the North Coast’s largest seafood processors have reopened in time for one of Oregon’s biggest fisheries after an outbreak of the coronavirus among workers.

Pacific Seafood in Warrenton and Bornstein Seafoods in Astoria are returning to business with numerous safety precautions in place to prevent the spread of the virus.

Fishing, an industry that always juggles some degree of uncertainty even in the best conditions, now faces many more unknowns because of the coronavirus.

“The whole thing is a nightmare,” said Lori Steele, the executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association.

Read the full story at The Astorian

West Coast Fishing Group Plans for Whiting Fleet Coronavirus Testing Prior to Season Opening

May 14, 2020 — A little forethought may help prevent the spread of the coronavirus among the West Coast whiting fleet. At the very least, it will give fishing captains some peace of mind.

The Newport, Ore.-based Midwater Trawlers Cooperative partnered with the Oregon Health Authority, Lincoln County Public Health and Samaritan Hospital to provide COVID-19 testing to crew members on Pacific whiting vessels prior to start of the season that starts Friday.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Pacific Seafood temporarily closes Oregon plant after first COVID-19 diagnosis

May 11, 2020 — Pacific Seafood temporarily closed a plant in Warrenton, Oregon, U.S.A. after a worker tested positive for COVID-19 last week. It was the first positive coronavirus test for Pacific Seafood, which is among the largest seafood companies in the United States.

John King, the general manager of the plant in Warrenton, released a statement late last week saying the seafood giant is now among “many businesses that have been directly touched by COVID-19.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source