Saving Seafood

Sen. Wyden introduces bill to expand disaster relief to fisheries harmed by tariffs

June 27, 2019 — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.), and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, (D-Mass.), recently introduced legislation to expand disaster relief to fisheries harmed by tariffs.

Currently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) guidelines used to identify the causes of fishery disasters does not explicitly include tariffs. Wyden’s bill would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Act to require NOAA to evaluate the impacts of duties imposed on American seafood, ensuring the Department of Commerce receives a complete overview of factors affecting a fishery in all fishery disaster declaration designations.

“American businesses are being hit hard by retaliatory tariffs from Trump’s ill-conceived trade agenda,” Wyden said. “Fisheries unfortunately are no exception. West Coast seafood is sought after internationally, and Oregonians earning a living in fisheries should be able to command top dollar on the global market, rather than be ensnared in the cross-fire of Trump’s escalating trade war.”

In March of this year, Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley, (D-Ore.), secured $2.1 million in federal disaster recovery aid for coastal fisheries in Oregon. Multiple years of drought in California, parasites within the Klamath River Basin and poor ocean conditions led to low returns of the Oregon Klamath River Fall Chinook Salmon Fishery in 2016 and 2017.

Read the full story at The News Guard

West Coast Rockfish Rebound Faster Than Expected

June 10, 2019 — Thirty miles off the coast of Newport, Oregon, Mikey Retherford Jr. is watching rockfish in the ocean below him on a screen in the wheelhouse of the Winona J fishing trawler.

“See that right there?” he says, pointing at a yellow blob on the screen. “Boom! We don’t want to miss that. That’s there is widow rockfish. That’s what we’re targeting right there. That’s a very large school of fish.”

About 30 minutes later, his crew reels in a massive tube of netting stuffed with widow rockfish – one of dozens of groundfish species that live at the bottom of the ocean. The fish pour out of the net in a steady stream, and as they pile up, deckhands hose and shovel the giant pool of fish into hold under the deck.

Altogether, they land 60,000 pounds of widow rockfish. Retherford, 37, says for most of his career, a haul like this was unthinkable.

“When I started working for my dad as an adult full-time, it was like oh, we can’t catch rockfish,” he said.

Read the full story at JPR

Feds declare emergency as gray whale deaths reach highest level in nearly 20 years

June 3, 2019 — Alarmed by the high number of gray whales that have been washing up dead on West Coast beaches this spring, the federal government on Friday declared the troubling trend a wildlife emergency.

The declaration by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration technically, the agency dubbed the deaths an “unusual mortality event” kicks in a provision of federal law that provides funding for scientists to figure out the cause when such die-offs of marine mammals occur, from whales and dolphins in the Pacific or Atlantic to manatees off Florida.

So far this year, at least 70 gray whales have been found dead and stranded along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska the most in nearly 20 years, scientists from NOAA said Friday. In recent weeks, whales have washed up in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

On average about 35 of the giant marine mammals wash up dead on the West Coast in a year, or around three per month. Last year, 45 were found.

But the average number found dead for the first five months of the year on the West Coast is 15, so this year is seeing five times the average rate.

“There have been juveniles but adults as well. There have been males and females. It’s been all across the board at this point,” said Justin Viezbicke, NOAA’s California Stranding Coordinator.

Read the full story at The Chicago Tribune

Opinion: Congress should continue investing in salmon recovery fund

May 17, 2019 — Sportfishing is a tie that binds. It can bridge the urban-rural divide, business and conservation interests, Republicans and Democrats. People everywhere love to fish.

But fishing is only possible when there are abundant fish in our rivers. That’s why we need Oregon’s members of Congress to make sure there is funding next year for the Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund.

Congress established this recovery fund in 2000 to help support restoration of the streams, creeks, rivers, and wetlands that salmon and steelhead need to thrive. Salmon recovery is important to Oregon. More than half a million people fish in Oregon each year, spending $1.4 billion per year and sustaining nearly 13,000 jobs, according to the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association.

Read the full story at The Oregonian

Hearing held on Oregon crab boat sinking that killed 3

May 14, 2019 — The captain of a crabbing vessel that sank in high waves, killing him and two other fishermen, had methamphetamine and alcohol in his system, according to testimony Monday at the opening of a five-day U.S. Coast Guard hearing.

Stephen Biernacki, 50, and crew members James Lacey, 48, of South Toms River, New Jersey, and Joshua Porter, 50, of Toledo, Oregon, all died Jan. 8 after their 42-foot crabbing boat was battered by waves up to 20 feet (6 meters) tall as it crossed the Yaquina Bar near Newport, Oregon, during the lucrative but fickle Dungeness crab season.

Toxicology tests found cannabis in Lacey’s system; Porter had no drugs or alcohol in his body when he died, according to results shared at the hearing, which was streamed live from Newport, Oregon.

The bar — where the Yaquina River meets the ocean current — can be so treacherous that the dangers of crossing it with a fully loaded crab boat were the premise of a spin-off of the “The Deadliest Catch,” a reality TV show about commercial fishermen that aired on the Discovery channel.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Oregon backs down on terms of proposed processing pollution permit

May 10, 2019 — The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has backed down on the terms of a proposed pollution permit for seafood processors in the state, after the last iteration of the permit expired eight years ago, according to the Statesman Journal.

Since the permit expired, more than a dozen Oregon seafood processors have been operating under an administrative extension as negotiations have taken place.

The Department of Environmental Quality began regulating the discharges of seafood producers in 1982, in an attempt to crack down on the shells, bones, blood and fish waste as well as chemical byproducts that were being dumped into bodies of water by companies.

When the department put out the initial version of a proposed permit in spring of last year, politicians representing fishing communities on Oregon’s coast had called the regulations “extreme.”

“In Oregon, seafood processing is a key component of coastal economies and we ask that the state revisit the revision process for the [permit] in a way that supports the success of this critical industry,” state legislators wrote in a letter to the DEQ.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Salmon-eating sea lions targeted at Columbia River dam

May 6, 2019 — More California sea lions preying on imperiled salmon in the Columbia River below a hydroelectric project on the Oregon-Washington border are being killed under a revised policy, federal authorities said Friday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service made public reduced criteria for removing sea lions at Bonneville Dam about 145 miles (235 kilometers) from the Pacific Ocean.

The new guidelines that went into effect April 17 permit any California sea lion seen in the area on five occasions or seen eating a fish to be put on a list for lethal removal.

The former criteria required both those marks to be met. Officials say 10 sea lions have been killed so far this year, most as a result of the policy change.

Robert Anderson, the agency’s marine mammal program manager, said the Pinniped-Fishery Interaction Task Force decided to make the change after dissatisfaction with current efforts. A study found the change could increase the number of sea lions killed by 66 percent.

Officials are authorized to remove 92 California sea lions annually from the area, but have never come close to that number. Meanwhile, billions of dollars have been spent in Idaho, Oregon and Washington to save 13 species of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

They smell, bark and snatch pet dogs. Sea lions cause trouble at Northwest ports

May 3, 2019 — A big rebound in the sea lion population along the West Coast in recent years has created a constant battle to wrangle the protected animals. They’re smart and fun to watch from a safe distance, but also noisy, smelly and proving to be a headache for some coastal marinas.

“It’s a free zoo kind of, just don’t pet ’em!” observed Dennis Craig of Olympia while he watched a pier at Washington’s Westport marina nearly sink under the weight of dozens of burly bulls jostling and snoozing in the sun.

“You notice when the charters come in, they’ll swing wide just so people can get a closer look because, like I say, it’s entertaining,” Craig said.

The flip side of these flippered fish fiends can be seen in the mounting bill to the marina, including the cost of busted docks, broken electric stanchions and lost business.

“Nearly all of our net revenue was used to repair damage caused by sea lions this year, taking those funds away from infrastructure improvements and replacements that are critical to the marina facility and our users,” said Westport Marina business manager Molly Bold in an email.

Sea lions have blocked people from mooring their boats. In other cases, commercial fishermen have had to run through a sea lion gauntlet just to get onto their vessels. The sea lions even snatched a few pet dogs right off the piers, said Westport Aquarium co-owner Marc Myrsell, who volunteers to monitor the marine mammals.

Read the full story at KPBX

Should seals and sea lions be killed to help save the orcas?

April 26, 2019 — Seals and sea lions are competing with the Southern Resident killer whales for limited Chinook salmon stock. That has some people calling for a cull where the government would organize the hunting and killing of a certain percentage of sea lions and seals.

Sea lions and seals are often seen as adversaries of fishermen. Last year, more than a dozen sea lions were shot, many in the head, and washed up around Puget Sound; mostly in West Seattle.

A recent paper published by federal scientists shows pinnipeds eat twice as much salmon as Southern Resident killer whales in Puget Sound, and six times more salmon than recreational and commercial fishermen combined.

It’s created quite the debate over the recovery of Southern Resident killer whales who depend on salmon as their main food source.

Should seals and sea lions be killed to save orcas? The question is complex and scientists don’t all agree. Most aren’t sure if it would work. They’re also turning their attention to what they believe is the preferred prey of pinnipeds: forage fish.

At National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Manchester lab, scientists are studying steelhead migration through Puget Sound.

Read the full story at K5 News

Seafood subscription box sets up shop on the Oregon Coast

April 22, 2019 — The subscription box business model is on the rise, even on the South Coast, with Port Orford Sustainable Seafood, a sea-to-online store business.

Jayme Halasz and her family are getting hooked on their subscription.

“I love the idea of having super fresh seafood and i love the idea of it coming straight from the boat itself,” said Halasz

This is her first month after seeing it on Facebook, and she says she’ll order more.

This is the company’s first Coos Bay pick up location at Coos Head Food co-op.

Michael Baran and fellow program manager, Kean Fleming, say it’s a community supported fishery model, in business for 10 years and operating on a subscription basis for six years.

“You’re supporting a fishing heritage that’s existed for a long time and you’re directly supporting commercial fisherman,” said Baran.

Each pack even shows the angler and their vessel.

Customers can create an online account, log into the online store, select their fish and pick it up at a designated location near them.

The minimum buy-in is $100 that can be used on items like Rockfish to Pacific Halibut, ranging from $12-$30 per pound depending on fishing efforts.

Read the full story at KATU