Saving Seafood

Oregon ground fishing fleet could get loan-interest relief

December 30, 2019 — Bipartisan language was added to the 2020 spending bill Dec. 16 that will forgive more than $10 million in accrued loan interest that was forced on the Pacific Coast groundfishing fleet.

The language included in the 2020 spending bill was presented by Oregon’s Democratic Reps. Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader and Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden.

The language effectively cancels a massive loan interest burden owed by the Pacific Coast groundfish fishery to the federal government — interest that, through no fault of the industry, was added to their vessel buyback loan debt due to “bureaucratic incompetence,” said DeFazio.

“For years, Oregon’s groundfish vessels have been subject to a heavy financial loan burden, caused solely by government ineptitude,” DeFazio said. “Groundfish fisheries are a vital part of Oregon’s coastal economy that need support, not red tape, from Washington. I’m proud to have helped right this ridiculous wrong and ease the financial burden on our region’s fishermen. I will be vigilant to ensure the National Marine Fisheries Service follows through with Congress’s decision and does not short-change Oregonians.”

Merkley, a a member of the Senate committee that negotiated the spending bills, said, “Today’s news is a huge victory for our coastal communities in Oregon and up and down the West Coast. It was outrageous that the federal government forced family fishermen to foot the bill because of bureaucratic incompetence. This win will lift a huge burden off our trawlers’ backs, helping them keep their small businesses afloat and keep our coastal economies humming.”

Read the full story at The Bulletin

West Coast fishery rebounds in rare conservation ‘home run’

December 26, 2019 — A rare environmental success story is unfolding in waters off the U.S. West Coast.

After years of fear and uncertainty, bottom trawler fishermen ” those who use nets to catch rockfish, bocaccio, sole, Pacific Ocean perch and other deep-dwelling fish ” are making a comeback here, reinventing themselves as a sustainable industry less than two decades after authorities closed huge stretches of the Pacific Ocean because of the species’ depletion.

The ban devastated fishermen, but on Jan. 1, regulators will reopen an area roughly three times the size of Rhode Island off Oregon and California to groundfish bottom trawling ” all with the approval of environmental groups that were once the industry’s biggest foes.

The rapid turnaround is made even more unique by the collaboration between the fishermen and environmentalists who spent years refining a long-term fishing plan that will continue to resuscitate the groundfish industry while permanently protecting thousands of square miles of reefs and coral beds that benefit the overfished species.

Now, the fishermen who see their livelihood returning must solve another piece of the puzzle: drumming up consumer demand for fish that haven’t been in grocery stores or on menus for a generation.

‘It’s really a conservation home run,’ said Shems Jud, regional director for the Environmental Defense Fund’s ocean program. ’The recovery is decades ahead of schedule. It’s the biggest environmental story that no one knows about.”

The process also netted a win for conservationists concerned about the future of extreme deepwater habitats where bottom trawlers currently don’t go. A tract of ocean the size of New Mexico with waters up to 2.1 miles (3.4 kilometers) deep will be off-limits to bottom-trawling to protect deep-sea corals and sponges just now being discovered.

‘Not all fishermen are rapers of the environment. When you hear the word ‘trawler,’ very often that’s associated with destruction of the sea and pillaging,” said Kevin Dunn, whose trawler Iron Lady was featured in a Whole Foods television commercial about sustainable fishing.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at News Chief

Rep. Huffman, Pacific Coast Members Announce Major Win for Trawlers in Year-End Spending Bill

December 18, 2019 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):

Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA-2), joined by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Kamala Harris (D-CA), and U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR-4), Greg Walden (R-OR-2), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA-3), Kurt Schrader (D-OR-5), and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1), today announced a major, bipartisan victory for West Coast trawlers in the 2020 spending bill that passed the House today.

The bipartisan members of Congress last week sent a letter advocating for the change. The provision secured in today’s bill would forgive the interest resulting from the bureaucratic error, finally making West Coast trawlers whole and helping grow and revive coastal economies from Northern California all the way up to the Canadian border. The language proposed would forgive more than $10 million in accrued loan interest that was forced onto the West Coast groundfishing fleet because of mismanagement by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
 
“The recovery of the West Coast groundfish fishery is an environmental success story,” said Rep. Huffman. “We all know how vital this industry is: sustainable fisheries are critical to the economic health of communities up and down California’s North Coast. I have been working to ease the fleet’s unnecessary financial burdens since I was first elected to Congress. Along with Appropriations Committee leaders like Nita Lowey and Rosa DeLauro, and our west coast congressional delegation, it is incredibly rewarding to be able to announce that the 2020 funding package will direct the Commerce Department to finally and fully forgive the unwarranted loan interest on the West Coast groundfish trawl fleet. This is an essential step to ensure a sustainable economic future for this fishery.”
 
“Today’s news is a huge victory for our coastal communities in Oregon and up and down the West Coast,” said Senator Merkley, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which negotiated the spending bills.“It was outrageous that the federal government forced family fishermen to foot the bill because of bureaucratic incompetence. This win will lift a huge burden off our trawlers’ backs, helping them keep their small businesses afloat and keep our coastal economies humming.”
 
“After years of uncertainty for our fishers, I’m glad we were able to secure some much-needed relief for Washington state’s groundfishing fleet. Our fisheries play a vital role in the Pacific Northwest, and this provision is an overdue correction by Congress to lift an unnecessary burden off of our trawlers who do so much to support our culture, economy and communities,” said Senator Murray, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
 
“I’m glad this issue for West Coast fishermen will finally be resolved. Groundfish fishermen shouldn’t be held responsible for interest accrued on a disaster loan before the federal government had a repayment plan in place. Removing the unfair interest charges will go a long way toward helping these fishermen rebuild and flourish,” said Senator Feinstein.
 
“Oregonians working on trawlers along the coast can now enter the new year without this senseless burden on the bottom line of their fishing operations,” said Senator Wyden. “Fishing on the Oregon Coast for a living is a key piece of our state’s economy that never should have been a victim of this bureaucratic bungling, and I am glad to have teamed up with fishermen and my congressional colleagues to get this problem fixed.”
 
“This is a victory for West Coast groundfish fishermen and fishing jobs in the Pacific Northwest,” said Senator Cantwell. “This legislation is an important step to ensure year-round economic activity and stability for rural fishing communities.”
 
“For years, Oregon’s groundfish vessels have been subject to a heavy financial loan burden, caused solely by government ineptitude. Groundfish fisheries are a vital part of Oregon’s coastal economy that need support, not red tape, from Washington. I’m proud to have helped right this ridiculous wrong and ease the financial burden on our region’s fishermen. I will be vigilant to ensure the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) follows through with Congress’s decision and does not short-change Oregonians,” said Rep. DeFazio.
 
“Commercial fishing is an important part of Oregon’s economy. It’s hard enough work without government failures making business harder. Government inaction has left the fishing industry with a costly and unnecessary burden. This legislation corrects that wrong and I was glad to work with my colleagues to get this long overdue fix into law,” said Rep. Walden.
 
“For the groundfish trawlers that provide jobs along our coast, today’s news is a relief and a victory. As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, I was pleased to help successfully advocate for providing relief to these employers,” said Rep. Herrera Beutler.
 
“Fisheries are an integral part of the Oregon Coast’s economy,” said Rep. Schrader. “When the federal government asked West coast fishermen to make a sacrifice for the future of their fisheries, they did. But when the government failed to implement the buyback program correctly, they turned their back on those same fishermen. Today we are righting those wrongs. Thank you to all of those who have been tireless advocates for West coast fishermen for so many years.” 
 
“In Northwest Oregon, the robust groundfish fishery helps provide year-round economic stability for our coastal communities,” said Rep. Bonamici. “But the industry is still working to recover from the fishery disaster in 2000. I’m proud to have worked with colleagues to address debt accrued by the Pacific Coast groundfish trawl industry as a result of delays in NMFS regulations to collect loan payments for the buyback programs. This was the not the fault of the industry, and we are pleased to stand with them in securing these long-overdue federal dollars. As Co-Chair of the House Oceans Caucus, I know how important our fisheries are to the blue economy.  I will keep advocating for strong, effective management to help more species like the West Coast groundfish recover.”
 
“The West Coast congressional delegation has stepped up and righted a wrong that will have a huge economic benefit for Oregon trawl fishing businesses,” said Heather Mann, Director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. “The west coast trawl rationalization program, which has been an environmental success, will now start realizing some real economic benefits as well, thanks to our champions in Congress.”
 
After the Secretary of Commerce declared the West Coast groundfish fishery an economic disaster in 2000, the NMFS provided a $36 million buyout loan to retire one-third of the fishing fleet to reduce overcapacity. 
 
After providing the loan, however, the NMFS inexplicably failed for nearly two years to implement a repayment mechanism and refused to allow the owners of the remaining vessels to start paying off the loan. 
 
As a result, $4 million in interest accrued before repayment was even permitted to start. That additional interest has grown over time; the industry today owes at least $10 million more than it would have if repayment had started immediately as intended. Over the years, this additional interest has created an albatross around the neck of an industry that is already facing significant challenges.
 
The bill is expected to be passed by both the House and Senate this week, and to be signed into law prior to December 20 to avert a government shutdown.

100 years of tiny seashells reveal alarming trend threatening West Coast seafood

December 17, 2019 — Roughly 100 years worth of tiny shells resting on the Southern California seafloor have revealed an alarming trend that could spell trouble for the West Coast seafood industry, a new study says.

The research, published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, suggests that the Pacific Ocean along California is acidifying twice as fast as the global average, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a news release on the findings.

Acidification is a serious threat for the seafood industry, researchers said, explaining that “California coastal waters contain some of our nation’s more economically valuable fisheries, including salmon, crabs and shellfish. Yet, these fisheries are also some of the most vulnerable to the potential harmful effects of ocean acidification on marine life.”

Researchers said the findings looked at “the progression of ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem through the twentieth century.” That ecosystem extends from southern British Columbia in Canada to Baja California in Mexico, encompassing the Washington and Oregon coasts, according to NOAA.

Read the full story at The Sacramento Bee

Oregon closes salmon fishery after Chinook die-off

December 16, 2019 — The Oregon Department of Wildlife has initiated a total closure of salmon fishing on the state’s North Coast due to a die-off of fall Chinook salmon caused by a parasite, according to The Statesman Journal.

Some two hundred Chinook have been wiped out in the Wilson River by the parasite cryptoba, which was also found in dead salmon in the Nestucca, Trask, and Kilchis river basins. The majority of the salmon were killed before they had the opportunity to spawn. Though the parasite is deadly to fish, it poses no risk to humans.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Central California Dungeness opens, but Northwest awaits 2020

December 13, 2019 — With the danger of whale entanglements eased, the Dungeness crab season for central California will open Sunday. But lackluster meat quality led Northwest state fisheries manager to delay opening other coastal areas until the New Year.

Officials from California, Oregon and Washington state wildlife agencies conferred Dec. 6 and agreed on the delay, citing meat recovery values still below 25 percent in areas on the northern coast. The continuing closure will remain in effect from Point Arena, Calif., north to the Canadian border, “through December 3, 2019 at least,” according to a joint statement issued through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Testing protocols specify season delays for any area where sampled crabs do not meet the minimum standards for meat recovery, with additional testing before a new opening date can be set. The state agencies are sampling again in mid-December with an eye to having complete results Dec. 20.

It’s a rocky start to the beginning of the winter fishery that has had more than its share of problems, from domoic acid to marine mammal conflicts. The California opener originally set for Nov. 22 was delayed, after the Bodega Bay crabbing fleet voted to voluntarily hold back from deploying their gear until a large number of endangered humpback whales had finished feeding in their nearshore zone.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Building consumer trust: Wholechain pilots blockchain traceability tech

December 12, 2019 — The journey of the Fair Trade USA-certified shrimp harvested from Altata Bay in Mexico to Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. is tracked and documented using one of the most cutting-edge traceability technologies: blockchain.

Part of a pilot project between Fair Trade USA and blockchain solution provider Wholechain, the Del Pacifico-distributed shrimp in the frozen section of New Seasons Market demonstrate the promise of blockchain to ensure full transparency for a seafood sector rife with obscure supply chains and, sometimes, fraud.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

West Coast Crab Managers Delay Primary Dungeness Season Again

December 10, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — State fishery managers confirmed Friday the primary Dungeness crab season will be delayed until after Christmas in Washington, Oregon and California due to spotty meat quality. The delay will last until at least Dec. 31.

Some areas showed improvement in the last month to meet season-opening criteria of either 23 or 25 percent, depending on the area. However, too many areas in between the improved areas were still below the thresholds and managers decided to delay the season from the U.S./Canadian border to Point Arena, Calif., again to let the crab fill out more.

The third round of meat recovery testing will be conducted sometime in mid–December, targeting completion by Dec. 20. The results will determine if the season should open Dec. 31, be further delayed or be split into separate areas with different opening dates.

Industry members in all three states generally agreed with the decision, choosing to wait in the hopes the whole coast can open at once. The delay will also ensure consumers get the best and fullest crab available with the season does open.

But not everyone was happy with the decision. Some fishermen were counting on a big payday in December to cover bills. Other fishermen simply wanted to access full, healthy crab after seasons in which some ports had to wait while domoic acid levels dropped or the crab became fuller.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said last year’s delayed crab season opening still brought in the second-highest ex-vessel value ever, $66.7 million, with 18.7 million pounds landed, just above the 10-year average.

In central California, crabbers are getting anxious to drop their gear. California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton Bonham in late November delayed the season until mid-December after a survey showed 49 humpback and four blue whales in the area. A subsequent survey on Dec. 3 showed four humpback whales and one blue whale present in the same survey area.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Study finds declining costs make Oregon offshore wind ‘promising’

December 10, 2019 — The prospects for the development of wind power projects off the coast of Oregon are “promising” but would require floating wind turbine technologies, according to a new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Offshore wind has become prevalent in Europe, but was slow to catch on in the United States before 2016 when the country’s first offshore wind project, the 30-megawatt (MW) Block Island Wind Farm, went online in Rhode Island.

Until then, the higher costs of offshore wind compared with onshore wind inhibited development, but technological improvements and economies of scale have brought costs down, resulting in a surge in projects, particularly in New England where several large projects are under way.

In December, Anbaric filed an application with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for the right to develop the Southern New England OceanGrid, an open-access offshore transmission system that would be capable of connecting up to 16,000 MW of offshore wind to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. And in October, the newly launched Offshore Wind California coalition called for setting a state goal of reaching 10 GW of offshore wind by 2040.

Oregon, in particular the southern coastal regions, has some of the best wind resources in the United States with average wind speeds near 10 meters per second, according to the NREL report, Oregon Offshore Wind Site Feasibility and Cost Study. But unlike the East Coast with its Continental Shelf, water depths off the Oregon coast present a challenge.

Read the full story at the American Public Power Association

New regulations to expand protections for seafloor habitats, reopen fishing grounds off US West Coast

December 5, 2019 — New regulations for essential fish habitat off the West Coast of the United States that go into effect in 2020 will extend protections for deep-sea habitats and corals while reopening fishing grounds where fish populations have rebounded.

The new rules were finalized by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (known as NOAA Fisheries) last month, and will go into effect on January 1, 2020. The updated regulations were recommended to NOAA by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and enjoy broad support from the fishing industry and environmentalists alike. The changes will be implemented via an amendment to the Fishery Management Plan for groundfish off the US West Coast.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is responsible for minimizing impacts of human activities on essential fish habitat (EFH), which are habitats deemed vital to maintaining sustainable fisheries. In 2005, the Council established area closures in groundfish habitat that limited the use of bottom trawling and other types of fishing gear that come into contact with the ocean floor.

According to NOAA Fisheries, groundfish fisheries contribute $569 million to household incomes in West Coast communities, from the state of Washington down to Southern California. About 3,000 square miles that had been closed to bottom trawling for groundfish will be reopened when the changes take effect, including 2,000 square miles of a Rockfish Conservation Area off the coasts of California and Oregon that have been off-limits to bottom trawling since 2002.

Read the full story at Mongabay