Saving Seafood

The Pacific Hake/ Whiting Agreement U.S. Delegation Meeting

March 25, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

March 25, 2021

Online Meeting

The U.S. Delegation to the Joint Management Committee (JMC) and Advisory Bodies created under the Pacific Hake/Whiting Agreement between the Governments of the United States and Canada (Agreement) will meet by webinar to discuss the lack of a bilateral agreement on the 2021 Pacific hake/whiting coastwide total allowable catch (TAC) during the JMC and Advisory Panel (AP) meeting held March 15-17, 2021.  In addition, NMFS will provide information on the procedures to establish the 2021 Pacific whiting U.S. TAC as identified in the Pacific Whiting Act of 2006 (16 U.S.C. 7007(c)) when the JMC does not recommend a final coastwide TAC.

The U.S. Delegation meeting is open to U.S. members of the public.

Meeting Time:   Thursday, March 25, 2021   2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Webinar Meeting Information:

To join from your computer, smartphone or tablet: 
Meeting link:   https://noaanmfs-meets.webex.com/noaanmfs-meets/j.php?MTID=md36d86074802d683c53c129c1ceba2a8
Meeting number:  199 730 7021
Password:   5033437777

To join by phone:  +1-415-527-5035 US Toll
Access code: 199 730 7021

West Coast Whiting Season to Open May 15; Pandemic Creating Uncertainties

April 20, 2020 — This year’s high-volume Pacific hake fishery will open on time, but it’s already been a rocky road to set the coastwide total allowable catch for the U.S. and Canada.

Fishery managers, scientists and industry representatives from both countries met in March, as usual, to review the stock assessment and negotiate a coastwide TAC that would support fisheries in both areas. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, negotiations were held via webinar. This year, for the first time in the history of the whiting treaty, the countries couldn’t agree.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Pacific Hake Researchers Hustle to get U.S. Data into Stock Assessment After Government Shutdown

February 1, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Pacific Hake Joint Technical Committee, comprising both U.S. and Canadian scientists, is hustling to include U.S. Pacific hake age data in the coastwide draft stock assessment, the Committee said in an email to interested parties this week.

The researchers made the update this week after the partial U.S. government shutdown ended. U.S. scientists Ian Taylor and Aaron Berger, both with the NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center, were furloughed during the shutdown. The JTC is responsible for producing the coastwide whiting stock assessment upon which both countries’ allocations are based.

At the time of the shutdown in December 2018, U.S. age data was not included in the modelling. Canadian researchers said then they would do their best to produce the stock assessment based on information they had at the time. The draft assessment is due for publication on Feb. 6.

In this week’s email notice, the JTC said it will “present the assessment based on the modelling done so far, without 2018 age data included for the base model and sensitivities. The Executive Summary will be based on the model which does not include 2018 age data.”

However, they are still hoping to get 2018 U.S. age data included.

“If this happens within the next few days, the model with 2018 age data included will be run as an MCMC and presented as an appendix with all projections and decision tables, the same as what appear in the Executive Summary,” the JTC said in the email. “It will be subject to review and can be chosen to be the model for providing advice by the [Scientific Review Group] should they choose to do so.”

The SRG is scheduled to meet Feb. 19-22 in Vancouver, British Columbia, to review the assessment.

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

Bycatch an Issue in 2018 Pacific Hake Fishery; Uncertainty Lies Ahead Amid Shutdown

January 10, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — None of the three sectors in the U.S. Pacific hake fishery attained its specified sector allocation in 2018 and all reported problems with bycatch — either smaller sizes of whiting or other species.

The catcher-processor sector achieved the highest percentage of its allocation, catching 116,074 mt of its 139, 612 mt allocation, or 85 percent. The shoreside sector harvested 76 percent of its 169,127 mt allocation for a total of 129,180 mt in landings. The mothership sector struggled the most last year and attained only 69 percent of its 96,614 mt allocation for 67,096 mt in landings.

“It was one of our better seasons,” Pacific Seafood’s Mike Okoniewski said, noting that the company’s Newport plant did exceptionally well while the Astoria plant had adequate production. “There was a greater amount of nice fish off of Newport this year, so fishermen didn’t have to travel far.”

Similarly, the Arctic Storm Management Group, a mothership company based out of Seattle, generally had a good season but that was not representative of the whole mothership sector, said Sarah Nayani, Arctic Storm’s director of compliance.

“In 2018 our company processed 38 percent of the mothership catcher vessel catch and 26 percent of the total mothership sector allocation. Unfortunately, 31 percent of the mothership sector allocation went uncaught, which is more than any single company processed,” Nayani said. “For next year we’ve planned additional trips to improve attainment and provide more MSC-certified sustainable product to the market.”

Around the Columbia River and into Washington, particularly near Willapa Bay, fishermen struggled to find larger fish, around 450 to 500 grams. The CPs and motherships, like shoreside fishermen, traveled north or south of the Willapa area to find bigger, more marketable hake.

However, traveling north led to other problems. The CP and mothership sectors said a lot of other species were mixed with whiting schools and many of those other species had hard caps. Pacific ocean perch rockfish bycatch was an issue as was sablefish, so both sectors continually moved their operations to avoid those other species. Southern areas were problematic as well, since Chinook salmon were frequently prevalent. Both of the at-sea sectors stopped fishing in November to avoid bycatch interactions.

“2018 was a good year for Arctic Storm overall,” Nayani said. “We saw demand and prices up for Pacific hake and a strong spring fishery with minimal bycatch. However, even with extra processing capacity from putting Arctic Fjord out on the water this fall (in addition to Arctic Storm) the fall fishery was slow for us due to patchy fishing, higher bycatch rates, and frequent movement to avoid bycatch.”

Now, everyone is looking forward to this year’s season, but any uncertainty now is due to the U.S. government shutdown and the inability of U.S. scientists to contribute to the stock assessment routinely done collaboratively with Canadian scientists. The stock assessment draft is due to be released Feb. 6, so scientists would normally be assimilating data and running models right now.

In an email to some Pacific hake stakeholders and U.S. fishery managers and scientists, Canadian stock assessment author Joint Technical Committee member Chris Grandin wrote Tuesday that Canadian scientists would produce the whiting stock assessment on time — but without the U.S. fishery dependent age composition data.

“If the government comes back online before Jan. 14, and U.S. JTC members are back at work we will be producing the hake assessment as usual without any changes,” Grandin wrote.

“If not, Andy and I will be producing a hake assessment on time for delivery Feb. 6. It will consist of adding 2018 catch to the base model from last year’s assessment, and some common sensitivity cases. Unfortunately, we cannot get access to the U.S. age composition data due to the shutdown and therefore will not include any 2018 age composition data in the models. Note that the assessment will be of the standard format with an executive summary, and all decision tables and projections in place for the base model.

“We realize the importance of this assessment to the fishery, and will endeavour to do as much as is possible given the constraints placed before us.”

U.S. industry representatives and scientists remain hopeful the shutdown will end soon so the stock assessment and management process will get back on track.

“We’re hoping we get a good quota this year, but won’t really know until we see the stock assessment,” Okoniewski said.

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

West Coast fisheries science halted by government shutdown

January 3, 2019 — The federal government shutdown has scientists nationwide locked out of their labs, and many of them study fish. It’s work that is central to fishing seasons along the west coast.

“I love my U.S. federal job at @NOAAFish_NWFSC but it’s immensely frustrating to have #shutdown be such a common disturbance,” tweeted NOAA Stock Assessment Scientist Ian Taylor. “Last time it was short, science got done, and U.S. #pacifichake catch was ~300,000 tons in 2018. Now 2019 assessment needs to happen yet here we go again.”

Taylor works at a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility with a now-closed entrance gate and a sign blaming the closure on the government shutdown. It’s filled with offices of scientists working on research that ranges from toxic algae to whales to analysis that sets fishing seasons, like Taylor’s work.

Read the full story at KING

Call for Nominations to U.S. Advisory Panel on Pacific Whiting Treaty

July 14, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service is soliciting nominations for appointments to the United States Advisory Panel (AP) to the Pacific Hake/Whiting Treaty. The position is for a four year term beginning in 2018.

Nominations must be received by August 11, 2017.

The Pacific Whiting Act implements the 2003 agreement between the U.S. and Canada that provides for the establishment of an Advisory Panel (AP). The AP makes recommendations to the Joint Management Committee on bilateral Pacific whiting management issues.

AP members must be knowledgeable or experienced in the harvesting, processing, marketing, management, conservation, or research of the offshore Pacific whiting resource. Eight individuals represent the United States on the AP, and nominations for one of those positions are being solicited through this notice.

Nomination packages for appointments should include:

1. The name of the applicant or nominee, position they are being nominated for and a description of his/her interest in Pacific whiting; and

2. A statement of background and/or description of how the nominee is knowledgeable or experienced in the harvesting, processing, marketing, management, conservation, or research of the offshore Pacific whiting resource. Letters of support for nominees will also be considered.

Candidates may submit nominations by any of the following methods:

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

Are big ups and downs normal for forage fish?

February 16, 2017 — Forage fish stocks have undergone fluctuation swings for hundreds of years, research shows, with at least three species off the US West Coast repeatedly experiencing steep population increases followed by declines long before commercial fishing began.

The rise and fall of Pacific sardine, northern anchovy, and Pacific hake off California have been so common that the species were in collapsed condition 29 to 40 percent of the time over the 500-year period from CE 1000 to 1500, according to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters.

Using a long time series of fish scales deposited in low-oxygen, offshore sedimentary environments off Southern California, researchers described such collapses as “an intrinsic property of some forage fish populations that should be expected, just as droughts are expected in an arid climate.”

Even though they are expected, the findings still have implications for the ecosystem, and for fishermen and fishery managers, who have witnessed several booms, followed by crashes every one to two decades on average and lasting a decade or more.

Read the full story at Futurity.com