Saving Seafood

PACIFIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL CHOOSES OPTIONS FOR 2017 SALMON SEASON

March 13, 2017 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

VANCOUVER, Wa. — The Pacific Fishery Management Council today adopted three public review alternatives for the 2017 salmon seasons off the West Coast of the United States. The Council will select a final alternative at their next meeting in Sacramento, California on April 6-11. Detailed information about season starting dates, areas open, and catch limits for all three alternatives are available on the Council’s website at www.pcouncil.org or http://tinyurl.com/salmon2017.

Fisheries south of Cape Falcon (in northern Oregon) are limited by the need to protect Klamath River fall Chinook, and south of Point Arena (in northern California), they are also affected by the need to protect Sacramento River winter Chinook. Returns of spawning Klamath River fall Chinook are projected to be the lowest on record in 2017 due to drought, disease, poor ocean conditions, and other issues. At the same time, the Council must protect Sacramento winter-run Chinook, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Because both of these fish intermix with other stocks in the ocean, fisheries targeting more abundant stocks must be constrained.

“The salmon runs this year will present a challenge for ocean fishermen and managers throughout the West Coast,” said Executive Director Chuck Tracy. “In the north, several coho runs will keep ocean quotas lower than normal. In the south, the low forecast for Klamath River fall Chinook is unprecedented, and the most restrictive alternative the Council will consider allows no ocean fishing between Cape Falcon, Oregon and the U.S./Mexico border after April 30 this year.”

“This year will be an exceptionally difficult year for ocean salmon fisheries, especially in Oregon and California. However, there are alternatives that may provide at least limited opportunity for both commercial and recreational ocean salmon fishing along much of the coast,” said Council Chair Herb Pollard.

Northern Oregon and Washington (north of Cape Falcon)

Sport season alternatives

Ocean sport fishery options north of Cape Falcon in Oregon and off the Washington coast are focused on Chinook salmon this year. One alternative includes a mark-selective Chinook fishery in June, while all alternatives include Chinook fishing opportunity in June or July-September, which are not mark-selective. Chinook recreational quotas range from 40,000 to 54,500. For coho, two alternatives allow modest coastwide opportunity. One allows opportunity for 58,800 hatchery coho in late June through September; the other allows opportunity for 50,400 hatchery coho in late June through September. A third alternative permits limited coho fishing only in the Columbia River area between Cape Falcon and Leadbetter Point, with a coho quota of 18,900 hatchery coho that starts in July and runs into September.

Commercial season options

Non-Indian ocean commercial fishery alternatives north of Cape Falcon include traditional Chinook seasons between May and September. Chinook quotas for all areas and times range from 40,000 to 50,000, compared to 35,000 in 2016. Two commercial fishery alternatives allow retention of coho, with quotas of 5,600 and 9,600 marked coho (compared to only one alternative in 2016 with a quota of 7,200 marked coho). A third alternative prohibits coho retention in the commercial fishery.

Tribal ocean fisheries north of Cape Falcon

Chinook and coho quotas for tribal ocean fishery alternatives range from 30,000 to 50,000 for Chinook salmon, and from 12,500 to 40,000 for coho. Seasons open May 1 and run through September 15.

 California and southern Oregon (south of Cape Falcon) 

Sport season options

From the north, recreational season alternatives south of Cape Falcon are heavily constrained this year to protect Klamath River fall Chinook. Alternatives for Oregon Chinook fishing in the Tillamook, Newport, and Coos Bay areas all open March 15 and run either continuously through October 31 or are closed May through August.

Oregon ocean recreational alternatives include mark-selective coho fishing seasons starting in June or July, and running through July or into early August in the area between Cape Falcon and the Oregon/California border. Quotas range from 20,000 to 30,000 marked coho. In addition, a non-mark-selective fishery is proposed for the area between Cape Falcon and Humbug Mt. in September, with a quota of 10,000 coho.

Due to the poor status of Klamath River fall Chinook, none of the alternatives provide for Chinook–directed fisheries in the Klamath Management Zone, which extends from Humbug Mt., Oregon to Horse Mt., California. One alternative does include a mark-selective coho fishery in the Oregon portion of the Klamath Management Zone and extending north to Cape Falcon.

California ocean sport fishing alternatives for areas south of Horse Mountain provide seasons that are fairly conservative in comparison to recent years to protect Klamath River fall Chinook and Sacramento River winter Chinook. These protective measures include shortened seasons and mid-season closures.

Commercial season options

As with recreational seasons, commercial season alternatives south of Cape Falcon are heavily constrained this year to protect Klamath River fall Chinook. Chinook salmon seasons under Alternative 1 include an opening in the Tillamook and Newport areas from mid-April through October, with several closed periods.

In Alternative 2, the Tillamook, Newport and Coos Bay area seasons would be open most days beginning in mid-April through early June and two days in August. Under Alternative 3, commercial salmon fishing would be closed in these areas.

As in the sport fishery, commercial salmon fishing is not allowed in the Klamath Management Zone in any of the alternatives to protect Klamath River fall Chinook.

 

Commercial season alternatives south of the Klamath Management Zone are also heavily constrained this year to protect Klamath River fall Chinook and Sacramento River winter Chinook. In the Fort Bragg management area (Horse Mt. to Pt. Arena), two of the alternatives are completely closed, and the third only provides for a September fishery. There is more opportunity south of Pt. Arena, but seasons are still constrained compared to recent years. Two of the alternatives include August-October fisheries in the San Francisco management area (Pt. Arena to Pigeon Pt.) and May-June fisheries in the Monterey management area (Pigeon Pt. to the U.S./Mexico border), but the third alternative has these areas closed for the whole season.

Management Process

Public hearings to receive input on the alternatives are scheduled for March 27 in Westport, Washington and Coos Bay, Oregon; and for March 28 in Fort Bragg, California. The Council will consult with scientists, hear public comment, revise preliminary decisions and choose a final alternative at its meeting April 6-11 in Sacramento, California.

The Council will forward its final season recommendations to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for its approval and implementation by May 1.

All Council meetings are open to the public.

Council Role

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 for the purpose of managing fisheries 3-200 miles offshore of the United States of America coastline. The Pacific Council recommends management measures for fisheries off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.

 

Oregon Sea Grant funding in the crosshairs

March 7, 2017 — A budget proposal reportedly being floated by the Trump administration would end Oregon State University’s Sea Grant program and could potentially gut other OSU programs as well.

The proposal calls for a 17 percent budget reduction to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which funds research on climate change, ocean conditions, weather patterns and other aspects of earth science. Among the NOAA programs targeted for elimination is Sea Grant, a research and education initiative at 33 U.S. universities, including Oregon State.

The proposed cuts were reported on Friday by the Washington Post, based on a four-page budget memo that has not been made public by the administration.

Oregon Sea Grant Director Shelby Walker said the funding cuts, if approved, would devastate her program. Currently, Walker said, Oregon Sea Grant gets about $2.4 million of its annual budget of $5 million from the federal agency, with another $1.2 million in matching funds from OSU tied directly to NOAA dollars.

“It would basically eliminate the program,” she said of the White House budget proposal.

Read the full story at the Corvallis Gazette-Times

“Internet of Things” Solution for Trawl Net Fishermen

January 25, 2017 — It’s an early foggy morning in November off the coast of Oregon. The F/V Seeker is out searching the cold, choppy water for the perfect place to drop its trawl net. This is only going to be a test run for the captain, meant to find out what kind of fish lie in wait below his ship on the ocean’s floor. The captain is noticeably concerned about staying within the strict new regulations and catching only the fish he is permitted to, particularly with a fisheries inspector standing by on board. He’s been worried since the US West Coast adopted an individual boat quota allotment system, which stipulates that each boat has a biomass weight allotment for a given time period for each fishery based on that boat’s historical average yield – the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ). There are reports that these new regulations are effective in rebuilding some fish stocks, but the stricter regulations are also making it harder for the smaller fleets to stay in business and for the larger fleets to stay profitable. If the captain fails to comply with these regulations, he may be fined, lose his boat or even face criminal charges.

For a small boat like his, the margins are razor thin. An unproductive catch will end up losing him money. Ongoing challenges from the various NOAA “manned observer programs” continue to take their toll on profits and the need for more cost effective measures.

The captain chooses his site carefully, even surveying it with sophisticated side scan sonar, trying to divine whether there’s anything worth fishing for. Sonar, a “ping-back” technology invented in the 1940s, only produces a fuzzy image. It has been slowly becoming more sophisticated but still cannot reliably distinguish between fish species, or even between fish and the ocean floor. Unwilling to rely on just his intuition about what lies below, the captain readies the crew to drop the net for a “test tow”.

Read the full story at Fishermen’s News

Warmer oceans are now linked to dangerous neurotoxins in shellfish

January 10, 2017 — A mysterious, potentially deadly neurotoxin that poisons humans by way of shellfish has now been linked to warming ocean waters. The new findings could help fisheries predict spikes of this substance in their catches, allowing them to protect human consumers and mitigate their own financial losses. But one question remains unanswered: as climate change edges ocean temperatures higher and higher, will blooms of the dangerous neurotoxin follow suit?

Domoic acid is natural, but it ain’t pretty. It’s a substance produced by tiny algae called phytoplankton—but no one is quite sure why.

“The shellfish that eat these algae blooms don’t seem to be affected by the toxin,” Morgaine McKibben, a PhD student at the University of Oregon, tells PopSci. But while the algae’s direct predators are seemingly impervious to the substance, the animals that eat them can suffer terrible consequences: domoic acid mimics a neurotransmitter called glutamate, and does a better job of binding with the brain than the real thing. It essentially kicks the neurotransmitter out of place, causing symptoms like seizures and memory loss. Some research suggests the toxin is causing an Alzheimer’s-like illness in sea lions, and it’s been blamed for the mass deaths of everything from whales to seabirds. It’s killed humans, too.

“Why do these little bitty single-celled creatures in the ocean make a toxin that only works a couple levels up the food chain? It could be an accident. We don’t have a good answer yet,” McKibben says.

But while the evolutionary purpose behind this sinister trick of the food web is still a mystery, McKibben and her colleagues have started to answer another important question: how can we predict increases in domoic acid to keep the substance off of human dinner plates? In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, McKibben presents over two decades worth of evidence that warmer oceans can trigger domoic acid production.

Read the full story at MSN.com

Northeast Pacific is the region producing most Marine Stewardship Council fish

December 23, 2016 — The Northeast Pacific fishing area annually produces a total of 2.6 million metric tons of certified seafood from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) sustainable fishing standard, representing 83 per cent of the total catch of the area.

The MSC certified seafood from the area — covering Northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea waters — ranks first for the percentage and includes MSC certified salmon, albacore tuna, pink shrimp, hake, halibut, sablefish, Pacific cod, and Alaska pollock fisheries.

Another North American fishing area, the Northwest Atlantic — waters from North Carolina, the US mid-Atlantic, New England, and Eastern Canada — ranked seventh globally with 32 per cent (580,000 metric tons) of the total catch being MSC certified.

This area is home to MSC certified swordfish, spiny dogfish, sea scallop, lobster, Acadian redfish, haddock, pollock, Atlantic halibut, snow crab, Northern shrimp and Arctic surf clam fisheries.

The analysis and ranking was done as part of the recently published MSC Annual Report 2015-2016, which also reported that MSC certified fisheries caught more than 9.3 million metric tons of seafood in 2015-16, representing almost 10 per cent of the total global wild caught seafood by volume.

The global volume of MSC certified catch has increased by 6 per cent since 2014-15, while the MSC certified supply chain has climbed 16 per cent over the same period.

Between April 2015 and March 2016, the number of processors, restaurants and caterers with MSC Chain of Custody grew from 2,879 to 3,334 companies, operating in 37,121 sites across 82 countries. More than 20,000 products now carry the blue MSC label and can be traced back to fisheries which meet the MSC’s world-class standard for sustainable fishing.

Commenting on the results, Brian Perkins, MSC Regional Director – Americas, said, “When people purchase MSC certified seafood, their choice supports fishermen around the world who are working hard to meet the world’s most rigorous standard for environmental sustainability.”

“While we’re proud of the MSC certified fisheries here in North America, it takes a global effort to safeguard seafood supplies for the future,” pointed out Perkins.

For her part, Christina Burridge, Executive Director, B.C. Seafood Alliance and Chair, International Association of Sustainable Fisheries, stressed that fishermen on the Pacific Coast of the US and Canada are proud to be recognized by the MSC for their responsible stewardship of a renewable food resource for their countries and the world.

Read the full story at Fish & Information Services

Was 2015 a peek at dismal future commercial fishing in the Pacific Northwest?

November 3, 2016 — For fishing communities, NOAA Fisheries’ annual publication about commercial landings makes great reading. As we’ve observed in the past, “Fisheries of the United States” is interesting here in much the same way crop reports are a topic of fascination for farmers.

Analysis of multi-year trends points out some concerning news about the strength of commercial fisheries on the Lower Columbia. The 2015 edition of the annual fisheries compendium from the National Marine Fisheries Service (tinyurl.com/2015FishReport) finds Lower Columbia River landings at something of a low ebb.

With crabbing delayed into 2016 due to a marine toxin bloom, Ilwaco/Chinook landings dipped to their lowest level in at least half a dozen years. It remains to be seen whether the same problem recurs this December — a possibility, considering the ongoing toxin-related delay in razor clam season.

With about 92 million pounds of landings, Astoria area ports were in 13th place nationwide in terms of volume in 2015. Reflecting the relatively low price of some local harvests — such as hake and sardines — the south shore ports were in 27th place nationwide in the value of landings — about $38 million. South-side ports were far behind Westport in terms of value of the 2015 catch — Westport was 12th in the U.S. with a 2015 total of $65 million. Ilwaco/Chinook fell off the top-50 list.

More important than annual “horse race” statistics between ports is how well fishing fleets succeed over time. Current trends are worrisome.

The largest worry in terms of fishing trends are the ways in which the northeast Pacific Ocean’s productivity was hammered from 2013 to 2015 by the ocean heatwave called the Blob, along with an associated surge in toxic algae. The Blog showed some initial signs of coming back to life this fall, but thankfully has now faded again. Scientists have little doubt it will return, adding to problems in a generally warmer and more acidic ocean in coming decades. These changes will be a permanent damper on a long-vital economic sector.

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

DAILY ASTORIAN: Fishing essential in monetary and cultural ways

November 1, 2016 — For fishing communities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual publication about commercial landings makes great reading. As we’ve observed in the past, “Fisheries of the United States” is interesting here in much the same way crop reports are a topic of fascination for farmers.

Make no bones about it: Irrespective of decades of impressive economic diversification, the Lower Columbia and nearby places like Garibaldi, Newport, Willapa Bay and Westport, Washington, are fishing communities in essential cultural and monetary ways. Fishing dollars bounce around coastal towns and bolster the business climate in much the way fish fertilizer makes plants prosper.

Analysis of multiyear trends points out some disturbing news about the strength of commercial fisheries on the Lower Columbia. The 2015 edition of the annual fisheries compendium from the National Marine Fisheries Service (tinyurl.com/2015FishReport) finds Astoria-area landings at something of a low ebb.

With about 92 million pounds of landings, we were in 13th place nationwide in terms of volume in 2015. Reflecting the relatively low price of some local harvests — such as hake and sardines — we were in 27th place nationwide in the value of landings — about $38 million. In our vicinity, we were far behind Westport, Washington, in terms of value of the 2015 catch — Westport was 12th in the U.S. with a 2015 total of $65 million.

More important than annual “horse race” statistics between ports is how well fishing fleets succeed over time. In Astoria’s case, current trends are worrisome. Despite the superficial pleasure of remaining the mainland West Coast’s No. 1 fishing port by volume, other 2015 indicators exhibit a troubling descent from recent heights.

Read the full editorial at the Daily Astorian

Pacific Northwest fishing industry took big hit in 2015

November 1, 2016 — ILWACO, Washington — Demonstrating links between ocean health and the economy, the definitive annual federal report on U.S. fisheries released last week showed a plunge in some West Coast catches in 2015.

Washington state’s total commercial catch in 2015 was 363 million pounds valued at $274.2 million, a decline of 35 percent by volume and 23.5 percent by value from 2014, according to “Fisheries of the United States 2015,” published last week by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

But all was not gloom and doom: For example, West Coast landings of shrimp and albacore tuna were up, despite the warmer and less-nutritious waters associated with the ocean heat wave dubbed the Blob. This patch of warm water off the Pacific Northwest began forming in 2013 and persisted for two years before temporarily dissipating.

Oregon’s commercial landings also were down, falling to about 195.5 million pounds last year, 33 percent less than in 2014. That catch was sold for $115.7 million, 26.6 percent less than 2014.

How ports compare

Ports on the U.S. Pacific mainland experienced downturns in 2015 compared to 2014.

The ports of Ilwaco and Chinook reported landings of 15 million pounds in 2015, down 44.5 percent from 2014 and less than half 2013’s total. Ilwaco/Chinook 2015 landings were the lowest since at least 2010 and dropped the ports out of the U.S. top-50 list.

Astoria was the mainland West Coast’s largest fishing port in 2015, with landings of 92 million pounds, down 24.6 percent from 2014. Westport was second, with 84 million pounds in 2015 landings, off 16 percent from 2014. Newport was in third place, with 65 million tons in 2015, 47.6 percent less than 2014.

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

Removal of Klamath Dams Would Be Largest River Restoration in U.S. History

October 25, 2016 — “The eagles are perched up here in the tree,” says Mike Belchik, a fisheries biologist for the Yurok tribe, whose lands extend 44 miles from the Pacific Coast inland. “The osprey is dive-bombing them.”

Belchik claps loudly to break up the birds. “They both live around here and they fight all the time,” he laughs.

People along the Klamath once fought bitterly over this river, too. But that’s beginning to change.

Four hydroelectric dams may soon be demolished along the Klamath, near the California-Oregon border. Hundreds of miles of the Klamath would run free to the Pacific Ocean — opening up the largest river restoration in U.S. history.

What’s made this possible is compromise, forged over years of negotiation, among upriver and downriver interests, in California and Oregon, farmers and tribes and fishery advocates.

Two incidents of deep and painful loss, in 2001 and 2002, sparked this new era. First, the federal Bureau of Reclamation cut off water supplies to almost all irrigators on the Klamath Irrigation Project upriver, to protect water flows to endangered fish, including salmon. Angry farmers who were losing their crops converged at the main irrigation canal’s controls in Klamath Falls, Oregon, turning the water back on. A crowd of 18,000 cheered them on.

Read the full story at KQED

To Protect Native Culture, Bring Back the Salmon

October 25, 2016 — The people who have lived along the Klamath River for millennia are now facing crisis levels of violence, disease and depression. Diabetes and heart ailments run rampant in their communities, and suicide rates have skyrocketed.

To save his people, Leaf Hillman, Director of the Karuk Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources, believes there is one thing to do: Bring back the salmon.

“We’re salmon people,” says Hillman, a tribe member in his early fifties who lives in the riverside town of Orleans. “Our very identity is based on salmon.”

His tribe, working with the neighboring Yurok and Hupa tribes, has been at the front lines of the political battle to save and restore the Klamath’s dwindling Chinook runs, both by demanding better management of water flowing out of the upstream reservoirs and by calling for removal of four dams that make hundreds of miles of salmon habitat inaccessible. In protests and marches the Klamath basin tribes have often targeted PacifiCorp, which owns the Klamath’s dams. They have crashed company meetings and even dumped bucketfuls of toxic river algae – which thrives in the slow-moving, sun-warmed reservoir water – on the front steps of PacifiCorp’s Portland, Oregon headquarters. They’ve done the same several times at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Sacramento office.

The tribes, working together as the Klamath Justice Coalition, have also negotiated over dam removal with state and federal agencies, and soon their efforts are going to pay off. The giant concrete barriers, built between World War I and the 1960s, are now slated to be removed – which will certainly go down in the books as one of the greatest environmental and cultural victories in the West.

Salmon, primarily Chinook but also coho, were the core of many California Indians’ nutrition, wealth and culture. For young Karuk boys, catching and killing a Chinook was an important rite of passage, and the villages along the river subsisted on salmon almost all year. Of several seasonal runs of Chinook, the spring run was the most plentiful and important on the Klamath. Using nets and spears, fishermen caught tens of thousands of the big fish, which often weighed more than 40 pounds. Tribes on other river systems along the north coast of California and in the Central Valley were similarly dependent on Chinook salmon.

Read the full story at KCET