Saving Seafood

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

Merkley, Murkowski, Reed Lead Bipartisan Push to Support Fishermen and Seafood Processors

May 6, 2020 — The following was released by the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR):

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, along with Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Jack Reed (D-RI), are leading a bipartisan group of 25 lawmakers in pushing to make sure urgently needed federal assistance is delivered to America’s fishermen and seafood processors, who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

In their letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the senators request that upcoming coronavirus relief legislation include funding and provisions to support this critical industry.

“Our seafood processors and fishermen have been dealt a significant economic blow as a result of coronavirus and are in desperate need of federal assistance,” the senators wrote. “It has been reported that many of the nation’s fisheries have suffered sales declines as high as 95 percent. In addition, while many other agricultural sectors have seen a significant increase in grocery sales, seafood has been left out of that economic upside, as stores have cut back on offerings.”

“The seafood industry is currently facing an unprecedented collapse in demand because of the novel coronavirus. We urge you to facilitate the government purchase of seafood products that would both ensure stability in this key sector and provide healthy, domestically produced food for Americans,” the senators continued.

Specifically, the senators recommend the allocation of $2 billion to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase and redistribute seafood products to food banks—just as the agency is currently doing for other agricultural products. In addition, the letter requests that $1 billion be allocated to the Department of Commerce and NOAA to support direct payments to fisheries, seafood producers, and processors.

Not only do fisheries help Americans put food on the table for their families, they have long been the lifeblood of local and regional economies across the country. In 2016, the industry supported over one million good-paying jobs and generated more than $144 billion in sales, adding an estimated $61 billion to the nation’s GDP. In addition to the jobs, families, and communities it supports along every part of our country’s coastlines, the seafood industry fuels jobs throughout the country in processing, distribution, and food service industries.

Merkley, Murkowski, and Reed were joined in sending the bipartisan letter by U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tom Carper (D-DE), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Angus King (I-ME), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chris Coons (D-DE), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

Read the full letter here

Oceans should have a place in climate ‘green new deal’ policies, scientists suggest

May 6, 2020 — The world’s oceans play a critical role in climate regulation, mitigation and adaptation and should be integrated into comprehensive “green new deal” proposals being promoted by elected officials and agency policymakers, a group of ocean scientists suggests in a new paper.

“The ‘green new deal’ has been the headline, but very few have been talking about the oceans in those conversations,” said Steven Dundas, an environmental and resource economist in Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences and the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station in Newport, Oregon.

“We think it’s important to add a touch of ocean blue to this conversation because the oceans play an important role in efforts to mitigate effects of climate change,” he said. “Our proposed ‘teal deal’ is an integrated approach that is more likely to generate cost-effective and equitable solutions to this global threat.”

Dundas is one of three senior authors of the paper, which was published recently by the journal Conservation Letters. The other senior authors are Arielle Levine and Rebecca Lewison of San Diego State University. Additional authors include OSU’s Angee Doerr, Ana Spalding and Will White.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

West Coast Salmon, Sardine Fisheries to Receive $18 million in NMFS Disaster Funding

May 4, 2020 — At long last, some disaster relief funding is headed to the West Coast for state and tribal salmon industries and the commercial sardine industry.

NMFS notified Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., this week of a more than $18 million award, which was appropriated in 2018. It is now up to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission to distribute the funds according to state spending plans and in accordance with NMFS guidance and terms of the awards, NMFS said when notifying congressional staff.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Controversy descends on Pacific sardine fishery over stock surveys

April 23, 2020 — The Pacific sardine fishery on the U.S. West Coast appears to be headed for another year of being shut down after a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) assessment showed a low biomass.

The NOAA assessment estimated the Pacific sardine biomass will be at 27,547 metric tons by the summer – significantly less than the 150,000 metric tons needed to reopen the fishery to commercial fishing. Any fishery at less than 50,000 metric tons is considered to be overfished. The assessment estimates the sardine biomass was around 1.8 million metric tons in 2006.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Return of ‘the Blob’ could intensify climate change impacts on Northeast Pacific fisheries

April 22, 2020 — A large marine heatwave would double the rate of the climate change impacts on fisheries species in the northeast Pacific by 2050, says a recently released study by researchers from the University of British Columbia and University of Bern.

In 2013, a large marine heatwave, nicknamed the ‘Blob’, occurred in the northeast Pacific Ocean. From the coast of Alaska to Baja California, the Blob had a significant impact on the  and fisheries in this region; an impact that lasted for several years.

The new study, released in the journal Scientific Reports, combined the latest , ocean and fish modelling approaches to quantify the future impacts of marine heatwaves like the Blob on fish stocks along the west coast of Canada and USA. The resulting models showed that future ‘blobs’ would exacerbate climate change impacts on these important fish stocks, causing them to decrease in biomass and generating shifts in their distribution, which, in turn, would impact the fisheries sectors in this region.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

As RFMOs waive observer requirements, NGOs caution against permanence

April 16, 2020 — As fisheries councils in the U.S. and abroad begin relaxing observer requirements in order to meet safety needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple NGOs have issued a joint statement cautioning against those relaxed requirements becoming permanent.

The letter comes as the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that it is suspending West Coast observer coverage, in response to a recommendation made by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. The council suggested in a letter to the NMFS that the waiver could “match the duration of ‘shelter-at-home’ or similar orders by the governors of Washington, Oregon, and/or California.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Restaurant Closures Put Oregon Seafood Industry In Limbo

April 15, 2020 — Commercial fisherman Clint Funderburg should be on the ocean right now, catching Dungeness crab on his fishing boat, the Widgeon. Instead, he’s in his shop in Newport, and his boat is parked at the dock — likely until June.

When crab prices tanked a few weeks ago, he shifted gears to his off-season side gig. So, he’s building a refrigeration system for one of the many fishing boats that are stuck at the dock right now.

The coronavirus pandemic dealt its first blow to the West Coast fishing fleet back in January, cutting off lucrative live crab sales to China for the Chinese New Year.

From there, things only got worse as the virus spread across the globe and restaurants everywhere closed their dining rooms. This time of year, Funderburg would normally be getting $7 or $8 a pound for Dungeness crab. When it got down to just $2 a pound last month, he gave up.

“The company was starting to lose money,” he said. “We just quit fishing, called it a season. There are very few people left fishing. You know, you basically can’t hardly get rid of the crab. Normally, we would crab through May, and a lot of the guys do. Especially the smaller boats count on March, April, May to really make their seasons.”

Read the full story at OPB