Saving Seafood

Pacific Northwest tribes want a new strategy to manage marine mammals

November 15, 2022 — The following is an excerpt from Alabama Public Radio:

Tribes in the Pacific Northwest say a law that protects seals and sea lions undermines their fishing rights. They want a new strategy that would better manage the marine mammals eating their salmon. From member station KNKX, Bellamy Pailthorp reports.

BELLAMY PAILTHORP, BYLINE: On the Nisqually River Delta near Olympia, Wash., you can see the effects of the Marine Mammal Protection Act playing out.

WILLIE FRANK: Hopefully we didn’t scare them, but there’s about 200 sitting right there.

PAILTHORP: Willie Frank III maneuvers his boat to the mouth of the river, where hundreds of harbor seals have been sunning themselves on the banks.

FRANK: Yep. See? There they go. They’re scooting.

PAILTHORP: Frank is chairman of the Nisqually Indian tribe. He’s the son of the late Billy Frank Jr., who led the fishing protests in the 1960s and ’70s that secured tribal treaty fishing rights here. But he says those rights are threatened by growing numbers of hungry seals. When the tide comes in, the seals follow the fish upriver for miles.

FRANK: I mean, these are areas where they never used to come. They wouldn’t come up to the I-5 bridge, but now they go well past that.

PAILTHORP: And he says when fishermen are out on the water, the seals head straight for their nets.

Read the full article at Alabama Public Radio

The last Salish Sea reefnetters don’t want to be the last

October 7, 2022 — Only 12 commercial fishing captains still hold permits to go reefnet fishing in the Pacific Northwest out of a fleet that once numbered in the hundreds. The distinctive fishing technique dates back thousands of years as an Indigenous method to catch salmon. Its practitioners today say the gear should proliferate as the preferred way to harvest healthy salmon runs while avoiding fragile stocks.

If you are among the minority of people who have seen the rare and eye-catching reefnet fishing contraptions on the water, you likely remember the sight. A spotter on a swaying tower, and often a second spotter watching underwater camera feeds, alerts the crew to quickly lift the net when they spy the flashes of a school of salmon entering the net strung between two pontoon barges. The small barges are anchored in front of a funnel of lines and ribbons facing the incoming tide — the artificial reef that gives reefnetting its name.

“It’s really an amazing thing this exists and the way it’s all done,” said Matthew King, who took a sabbatical from his Los Angeles-based job in commercial real estate development to join a reefnet crew for the summer. “It’s been a thrilling experience to say the least.”

Read the full article at KNKX

WASHINGTON: Breaching Dams ‘Must Be an Option’ to Save Salmon, Washington Democrats Say

September 1, 2022 — Two top Democrats in Washington State have come out in favor of eventually breaching four hydroelectric dams in the lower Snake River to try to save endangered salmon runs, a contentious option that environmentalists, tribes and business groups in the region have argued over for decades.

In recommendations issued on Thursday, Senator Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee provided their most definitive stance in the fight to save salmon in the Columbia River basin and honor longstanding treaties with tribal nations in the Pacific Northwest.

A draft version of a study that Ms. Murray and Mr. Inslee commissioned found this summer that removing the four dams was the most promising approach to salmon recovery. The report said it would cost $10.3 billion to $27.2 billion to replace the electricity generated by the dams, find other ways to ship grain from the region and provide irrigation water. But the draft stopped short of taking a position on removing the dams.

In the recommendations, the governor and the senator said that breaching the dams “must be an option we strive to make viable.”

Ms. Murray said in a statement that salmon runs were clearly struggling, and that extinction of the region’s salmon was not an option. But because breaching the dams would need congressional authorization and bipartisan support, she said, there had to be credible possibilities for replacing renewable energy sources, keeping shipping costs down and countering the effects of climate change.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Bringing sea otters back to Oregon faces ideological challenges

August 9, 2022 — If asked to choose between the environment and commercial interests, most environmentalists would naturally side with the former. But the reality is more complicated, particularly when Indigenous tribes — long left out of the conversation on how the federal government navigates issues concerning natural resources and commercial interests — are brought to the table.

In the case of mitigating climate change by reintroducing sea otters to habitats where they once thrived, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is faced with such a dilemma. Particularly so because bringing sea otters to the Northern California and Oregon coasts sounds promising to everyone except those who are already living near the endangered species.

Known by some local tribes as the Elekha, sea otters are a small marine mammal of the family Mustelidae, characterized by their furry, weasel appearance and their hallmark tendency to float on their back while using a rock to open hard-shelled invertebrates. The animal is objectively cute, with its furry white face that pops over the top of the ocean to stare out like a teddy bear with tiny eyes and an extra wide nose.

The southern and northern sea otters, Enhydra lutris, are distinct by geography and marginally by their DNA, as fur traders nearly hunted the animal to extinction during the 18th and 19th centuries. Southern sea otters live in small pockets along the Southern California coastline while northern sea otters live from northern Washington state to southeastern Alaska — the latter a direct result of preservation and reintroduction.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

The search for the source of plastic pollution

July 21, 2022 — From large pieces, such as bottles, cups, and even a Smurf action figure, to tiny microplastics — fragments, films, fibers, or foams less than 5 mm long — plastic is one of the most common pollutants this group will find, mirroring what cleanup crews regularly see across the country. 

Recently, international attention has homed in on the problem, which is only growing worse as plastic doesn’t decompose but degrades into smaller pieces that will remain in the environment for thousands of years. Single-use plastics will be phased out of national parks by 2032 after an announcement in June from the Biden administration, and by the end of 2024, the United Nations plans to have a legally binding plan to end plastic pollution globally. 

These volunteers are following the “Escaped Trash Assessment Protocol,” which was developed in Washington state from 2018 to 2021 and is now being used by volunteer groups around the country with guidance from the Environmental Protection Agency. The idea is to provide standardized data to state and local regulators so they can better attack sources of pollution.

While the fibers the volunteers find on the beach are mostly too large to be categorized as microplastics, some of these materials could ultimately break down to that size. 

And although groups like this conduct cleanups around the country every day, they are starting to direct their attention away from the end life of plastic to focus on the beginning. If anything is going to change, they say, plastic production and packaging choices around the world need to shift.

Marine debris and plastic bags found along rivers are visible reminders that plastic is in the waters we rely on, but it’s also most likely coming out of your water tap at home. Highway litter is an obvious sign the land is contaminated with plastic, and now ice and snow samples at remote locations on the planet, including in the Arctic, have been shown to contain plastic, suggesting it’s traveling through the very air we breathe. 

Luckily, with a rising interest in microplastics research over the last decade, scientists are starting to understand the sources and what can be done to stop them.

Read the full article at Grist

OREGON: Offshore wind proposals worry fishing industry

July 11, 2022 — From her home overlooking Yaquina Bay, Kelley Retherford can watch as commercial fishing boats arrive at the nearby Port of Newport, delivering their catch to one of several seafood processors that line the waterfront.

Saltwater is in her family’s blood, she said. Along with her husband, Mike, and their four adult children, they own and operate four fishing trawlers, harvesting everything from Pacific whiting to pink shrimp to Dungeness crab.

That way of life, however, may be disrupted by a growing interest in offshore wind generators to help achieve ambitious government-mandated zero-carbon energy goals.

Earlier this year, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management identified two call areas off the southern Oregon Coast — one near Coos Bay and the other near Brookings — to assess potential wind energy leases in federal waters.

The push to harness wind energy in the Pacific Ocean has raised concerns within Oregon’s $1.2 billion commercial fishing industry, with families such as the Retherfords worried it will limit access to highly productive fisheries and impact the marine ecosystem.

A 60-day comment period ended in June for developers to nominate locations within the two areas that would be best suited for wind projects.

Deep Blue Pacific Wind is a joint venture between Simply Blue Group, an offshore wind developer based in Ireland, and TotalEnergies, a French energy company with U.S. headquarters in Houston. In January, the venture hired Peter Cogswell as director of government and external affairs.
Rather than being fixed to the seabed, turbines in the Pacific would have to be built on floating platforms to capture wind where it blows the hardest. Cogswell estimated it would take between 50 and 60 turbines to generate 1 gigawatt of energy.
John Romero, a spokesman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said the call areas are meant to identify where offshore wind “may be safely and responsibly developed,” while soliciting feedback from the public.
Losing fishing grounds inside the call areas could be harmful to fishermen along the Oregon Coast, said Heather Mann, the executive director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative.
The areas are particularly bountiful due to the California Current, which provides a strong upwelling of water and nutrients for seafood. Mann estimated more than 25% of Pacific whiting harvested in the last decade has come from the two call areas proposed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

 

The drive for 100% clean energy in Oregon has raised the stakes for building new renewable energy projects statewide — including offshore wind generators.

House Bill 2021, signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown in 2021, requires retail electricity providers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity sold to Oregon consumers by 80% by 2030, 90% by 2035 and 100% by 2040.

Several state and federal lawmakers are also urging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to slow down and fully consider impacts on coastal communities before moving forward with leasing.

Further limiting fishing grounds in the call areas “could spell economic disaster for these towns,” the letter continued.

Kelley Retherford said the fishing industry will continue to push back against the call areas, fighting for their livelihoods.

Read the full story at the Astorian 

The US has spent more than $2B on a plan to save salmon. The fish are vanishing anyway.

May 25, 2022 — The fish were on their way to be executed. One minute, they were swimming around a concrete pond. The next, they were being dumped onto a stainless steel table set on an incline. Hook-nosed and wide-eyed, they thrashed and thumped their way down the table toward an air-powered guillotine.

Hoses hanging from steel girders flushed blood through the grated metal floor. Hatchery workers in splattered chest waders gutted globs of bright orange eggs from the dead females and dropped them into buckets, then doused them first with a stream of sperm taken from the dead males and then with an iodine disinfectant.

The fertilized eggs were trucked around the corner to an incubation building where over 200 stacked plastic trays held more than a million salmon eggs. Once hatched, they would fatten and mature in rectangular concrete tanks sunk into the ground, safe from the perils of the wild, until it was time to make their journey to the ocean.

Read the full story at OPB

 

OREGON: Coastal Leaders Push Back Against Location of Wind Energy Plants

May 24, 2022 — There is little doubt that floating offshore wind farms are coming to the southern Oregon coast. The region’s small, ocean-reliant communities are worried about potential damage to sea habitat and the loss of fishing grounds.

In February, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) designated 2,100 square miles of federal water for potential development of floating offshore wind as part of the Biden administration’s goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. On the day of the announcements regional stakeholders started pushing back, asking why BOEM would consider placing hundreds of 980-foot-high wind turbines in a globally productive ecosystem.

On April 7, in a rare display of unity, 27 conservation groups and fishing organizations wrote  BOEM asserting, “Siting of wind energy facilities is the single most important decision that will be made for wind development off Oregon’s Coast.”

The following week, Nick Edwards, a southern Oregon fisherman, addressed Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden on behalf of Oregon’s seafood industry during a virtual Town Hall meeting.

“Senator, I’ve been a commercial fisherman for 43 years and a board member of the Oregon Wave Energy Trust in Portland for seven. If there ever was a fisherman involved with ocean renewable energy, I would be that person.

I’m here to tell you the current BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Management) process for siting offshore wind in Oregon waters is extremely flawed. [In January] Governor [Kate] Brown sent a letter to BOEM providing a list of parameters to develop offshore wind in Oregon. She stated, ‘This is an opportune time to move these Wind Energy Areas offshore to 1300 meters (4265 feet) in depth and beyond. This would essentially protect the NW upwellings providing one of the most sustainable ecosystems in the world.’ Instead, BOEM is doing the opposite.

Senator Wyden, for the sake of our ocean resources, are you willing to sit down with a small advisory group to discuss these important issues with sighting OSW (offshore wind) in Oregon waters?”

Representatives of the fishing industry, environmental groups, and civic organizations have stated that offshore wind-energy production should be sited in waters deeper than 1,300 meters to protect the region’s coastal upwelling, which is vital to southern Oregon’s sea habitat.

Susan Chambers, deputy director of West Coast Seafood Processors Association, stated in an interview with me:

“It’s infuriating. Yes, we need to transfer away from fossil fuels to clean energy, but I’m not sure if anyone has thought through the damages this technology could do to our oceans. Everyone has been full steam ahead. Until now. We have no bargaining power except to keep pushing in the media, pushing to our congressmen, to our local legislators, to our governor. We just keep pushing.”

Read the full story at the Daily Yonder

Commercial fish and seafood workers rally against wind farms on the Oregon coast

May 12, 2022 — Commercial fish and seafood workers rallied along the Coos Bay boardwalk on Tuesday taking a stand against proposed wind farms that are slated for the Southern Oregon coast.

The rally was hosted on the second day of an “Offshore Wind Industry Fly-In” held just down the street at the Mill Casino. The industry conference, hosted by three non-profits with missions dedicated to developing energy along the pacific and Oregon coast, is described as an event that “will bring leadership from the floating offshore wind industry to the coast of Oregon for direct engagement with state and local leadership,” with the goal of “charting the course for Oregon’s first 3 gigawatts of offshore energy.”

This comes less than two weeks after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced its call areas in Brookings and Coos Bay for offshore energy projects it has been in talks with Oregon about. Tickets for the five-day fly-in event were sold for between $1000 and $1500.

One of the rally’s organizers, Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association said the event was, at least in part, held as a way to show energy companies and leaders at the conference that “there’s already a very, very big industry here for seafood and fishing,” and that “we are here to stay.”

Read the full story at KMTR

Progressive and export-dependent: Oregon is a test for Democrats on trade

April 25, 2022 — Democrats’ conflicting impulses over the future of U.S. trade policy are playing out here in the nation’s Pacific Northwest.

Oregon, in particular, embodies the tension: The state’s economy is highly dependent on free trade and yet its progressive-leaning voters are typically skeptical of its benefits. That tug-of-war is vexing both parties as lawmakers weigh how much to push for more foreign market access for U.S. companies and investors despite the potential for political backlash.

In his visit to Portland late last week, President Joe Biden touted his administration’s investments in ports, airports and other infrastructure projects to speed the movement of goods, while at the same time acknowledging that snarled supply chains have sparked historic inflation.

“All across Oregon, we’re sending the message: These ports and airports are open for more business,” Biden told the crowd at Portland International Airport.

While back home in Oregon last week, [Sen. Ron] Wyden joined [U.S. Trade Representative Katherine] Tai and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on tours of a commercial fishing vessel and semiconductor development facility. The trio heard from seafood industry groups who say they’re being bested on the global market by Chinese rivals who have been accused of overfishing waterways, taking government subsidies and using forced labor.

“On a good day, we struggle to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace,” said Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association. “Our days have not been good lately.”

Read the full story at Politico