Saving Seafood

Environmental groups sue U.S. Army Corps over Willamette dams, say salmon and steelhead at risk of extinction

March 14, 2018 — Three environmental groups followed through on a threat to sue the federal government Tuesday over the decline in wild salmon and steelhead in the Upper Willamette watershed.

The groups say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Marine Fisheries Service have failed to take required steps to improve conditions for the threatened fish.

The lawsuit targets the Willamette watershed’s system of dams and its negative impact on fish habitat.

“Federal dam operators in the Willamette River basin must act now to protect our native fish,” said Mark Sherwood, executive director of the Native Fish Society.

The lawsuit is derived from a legal agreement, called the Biological Opinion, issued in 2008, that essentially requires the Corps to modify dams to improve fish habitat.

Read the full story at the Statesman Journal

Fishin’ Company leading MSC certification effort for Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery

March 14, 2018 — An agreement between the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission and The Fishin’ Company will pave the way for the Dungeness crab fishery in Oregon to seek Marine Stewardship Council certification.

The memorandum of agreement signed on 7 March will see The Fishin’ Company, a Munhall, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.-based  company that is a major buyer of the crab, provide financial resources and personnel to work alongside the fishery as it enters the MSC pre-assessment process.

“The Oregon Dungeness crab fishery is committed to a sustainable fishery through proven methods of management,” The Fishin’ Company Director of Sustainability Justin Baugh said. “They are focused on continuous improvement through science-based research and we believe the ODCC should be recognized for this and are excited to place our support behind them.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

West Coast sardine fishing closed for 4th year; ‘alarming’ 97% population decline

March 8, 2018 — Sardine fishing nets will remain empty for a fourth straight year along the West Coast, where biologists are comparing the dramatic decline of the schooling fish to the infamous collapse that led to the downfall of Monterey’s once-thriving Cannery Row.

The northern Pacific sardine population, stretching from Mexico to British Columbia, has plummeted 97 percent since 2006, according to an assessment released this week by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

The perilously low numbers give regulators no choice but to close fishing, which had been scheduled to start July 1, from Mexico to the Canadian border.

The 14 voting members of the fishery council, which makes policy along the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, will meet April 8 in Portland, Ore., to discuss the results, but everyone agrees a fishing ban is inevitable. The council is required by federal law to close ocean fishing when the numbers fall this far below conservation objectives.

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

 

Salmon seasons off S. Oregon coast in jeopardy

March 6, 2018 — MEDFORD, Ore. — Continued problems with Sacramento River salmon survival means there likely will be very little, maybe even zero, sport and commercial salmon fishing this summer off the Southern Oregon coast.

The Medford Mail Tribune says preliminary stock assessments estimate only 229,400 Sacramento River fall Chinook will be in the ocean. That’s 1,300 fewer than last year’s small run, whose protection shut down sport and commercial Chinook fishing off Southern Oregon.

Salmon managers heading into the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s March 8-14 meeting say they think the council will be able to propose at least possible sport and commercial seasons with as little impact to Sacramento stocks as possible.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KTVZ

 

Oregon considers new rules for crab

February 28, 2018 — As closures related to harmful marine toxins continue to plague Oregon’s lucrative commercial Dungeness crab fishery, new rules are under consideration that will help state fishery managers trace crab after it is caught and respond with more flexibility.

In April, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider making permanent several rules introduced this crab season. A related bill is working its way through the Legislature.

Right now, large swathes of the coast can get closed down due to high levels of toxins like domoic acid. The rule changes would narrow the areas to be closed if there is an increase in toxin levels, based on records that may be required as a result of the bill. It would also allow for more flexibility in evisceration orders, like the one in place along a portion of the southern coast where only crab with their guts removed can be sold.

Seafood businesses have to keep more detailed records on who they buy crab from, where it was harvested and who they sell it to this season — information the state said is “essential to support and strengthen crab traceability through the market chain.” The state also included measures to make biotoxin testing procedures and fishery management responses more transparent.

The state hopes to achieve two outcomes with these changes, said Caren Braby, marine resources program manager with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Fishery managers want to protect consumers by making crabs more traceable as they travel from boats to processors and then to other buyers, but they don’t want to leave fishermen behind. They want to keep areas open when possible by modifying how crabs are processed and sold even when domoic acid levels are high.

“Our ultimate goal for Oregon is that if there’s a public safety issue, we deal with that first,” Braby said. “But the economic viability of the fishery and the economic support of coastal communities that harvest that crab is right up there as our second goal. Being able to do that as much as we possibly can, given we’ve taken care of our first goal, is to everybody’s benefit.”

Domoic acid can accumulate in a crab’s guts, but remove the guts and the crab meat is still good. Commercial crab caught from Cape Blanco to the Oregon-California border has been under an evisceration order since mid-February. Whole or live crab are not on the menu there for now.

Read the full story at the Daily Astorian

 

Alaska: Sullivan offers legislators six reasons for optimism

February 27, 2018 — In his final reason for optimism, Sullivan echoed Alaska’s official slogan and said the state can be “a land of the future” with high technology investment.

He said that as a member of the committee in charge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he has been seeking ways to move NOAA facilities and employees to Alaska.

Currently, many of NOAA’s Alaska offices — including the National Marine Fisheries Service region for the state — are found in Washington and Oregon. The City and Borough of Juneau has long sought to transfer some or all of those offices to the capital city.

“As for science, we have so much potential to be a vibrant hub of research, but the federal government needs to be a better partner,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan concluded his remarks by urging the Legislature to act on its opportunity.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

 

‘Fish Hub’ Plans To Restore Monterey’s Fishing Roots, One Piece At A Time

February 22, 2018 — Cities along the Monterey Bay are full of seafood restaurants. But what ends up on your plate can often come from another part of the country, even another part of the world. The Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust wants to change that by breathing new life into Monterey’s commercial fishing industry.

Scott Fosmark opens the metal gate to the Monterey Municipal Marina. He’s wearing a black baseball cap with a logo for his family business, Fosmark Fisheries, LLC.

It’s a sunny winter day on the waterfront. We walk down a ramp that leads us to the rows of white sailboats, each tightly tied to the dock with rope. It’s a beautiful scene, but Fosmark seems almost homesick.

This whole harbor used to be completely filled with commercial fishing boats. I can remember coming down here with my grandfather and having him unload his salmon right here,” says Fosmark.

Fosmark is a fifth generation commercial fisherman from Monterey. He grew up on his parents’ boat, pulling in albacore at just six-years-old. But now, his boats are up in Oregon.

“I’m sure a lot of people are probably scratching their heads, why are there no fishing boats here? Well, you know, the fish stocks were challenged,” Fosmark says.

Twenty years ago, the federal government declared many of the popular species caught off Monterey, like rockfish, overfished. This limited the number that could be caught. To help the fish recover, what’s called the “catch share” program was created. It requires fishermen to own fishing rights, which are expensive and hard to get. Many local fishermen got priced out by bigger companies with deeper pockets.

Fosmark says, “They left Monterey, they went up to the Pacific Northwest.”

Then, in 2014, the non-profit Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust formed to support smaller, local fishing operations. It currently has rights to fish about six and a half million pounds of groundfish, which it leases to local fishermen at a discounted price. Sherry Flumerfelt is the Executive Director of the Fisheries Trust.

“Having access to fishing rights is one piece of a much larger puzzle,” says Flumerfelt.

She says another piece of the puzzle is the buyer. Because when the boats left, local restaurants, stores and cafeterias had to form other relationships with other suppliers.

Read the full story at KAZU

 

NW governors urge Congress to act on sea lion predation bill

February 14, 2018 — The governors of Oregon, Washington and Idaho in a letter urged members of the Northwest congressional delegation to support legislation that would help reduce predation by sea lions on salmon and steelhead, sturgeon and lamprey.

H.R. 2083 is sponsored by Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.). The House bill has cleared the Natural Resources Committee. The federal legislation gives local agencies the ability to better control predation by sea lions in the Columbia and Willamette rivers.

“I am pleased to see bipartisan support for my bill continue to grow,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement. “As the governors stated in their letter, we must act to protect our native Columbia River salmon and steelhead. I am hopeful that the senators from Oregon and Washington will also join in supporting this bill to successfully move it through Congress.”

Gov. Kate Brown (Oregon), Gov. Jay Inslee (Washington) and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter (Idaho) sent the letter Jan. 25 to the 17 members of Congress who represent the three states, urging them to support legislation ”aimed at reducing sea lion predation on threatened and endangered and other at-risk fish populations.”

“Although several hundred million dollars are invested annually to rebuild these native fish runs, their health and sustainability is threatened unless Congress acts to enhance protection from increasing sea lion predation,” the letter says. “Over the last decade, predation by sea lions on salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and lamprey in the Columbia River has increased dramatically.”

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

 

No agreement yet on conservation cuts in halibut harvest

February 2, 2018 — Commercial fishing for halibut opens on March 24 and runs through Nov. 7, with no decision reached by the International Pacific Halibut Commission at its annual meeting in Portland, Ore., on conservation cuts for 2018.

NOAA Fisheries is considering the implications of the IPHC meeting and now trying to determine what steps to take, and some are hoping the impasse may yet be resolved by an additional IPHC meeting soon.

Bob Alverson, general manager of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association in Seattle, and one of three U.S. commissioners, is one of those hoping for another meeting soon.  “I think we have an excellent corps of scientists and the inability of the commissioners to come to an agreement is unfortunate,” he said. “I think it is worth one more shot for the commissioners to try to figure it out. I knew it was going to be difficult going in to it.”

Back in 2014 harvest reductions put in place included 33 percent in Area 3A, 30 percent in Area 3B, 42 percent in 4A, 20 percent in 4B and 20 percent in 2C, but Canada did not take such aggressive reductions, Alverson said.  That done, U.S. percentage reductions are less for this year, while Canada needed almost a 42 percent reduction and it was too much to bite off, he said.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

 

Attorneys general urge offshore drilling plan’s cancellation

February 2, 2018 — The top lawyers for a dozen coastal states want the U.S. Interior Department to cancel the Trump administration’s plan to expand offshore drilling, warning it threatens their maritime economies and natural resources.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and her fellow attorneys general, all Democrats, wrote Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday about his agency’s proposed five-year oil and gas leasing plan that opens new ocean waters.

“Not only does this irresponsible and careless plan put our state’s jobs and environment at risk, but it shows utter disregard for the will and voices of thousands of local businesses and fishing families,” said Healey in a prepared statement. “My colleagues and I will continue to fight this plan.”

Healey first announced her opposition to the plan in an August 2017 letter to Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The Northeast Seafood Coalition and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association agreed with her that the Interior Department’s plan to expand offshore drilling threatens Massachusetts’ $7.3 billion commercial fishing industry — the third largest in the country — and more than 240,000 jobs in the state.

The plan also could devastate the state’s robust recreation and tourism industries, according to Healey, as well harm the state’s coastal environment and protected endangered species, including the Northern Right Whale, which feeds in the waters off of Cape Cod and Nantucket, according to the comment letter. There are only about 460 critically endangered Northern Right Whales remaining worldwide.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times