Pollock Archives - Page 20 of 25

Making a better “hot dog of the sea”

April 24, 2018 — When people think of Alaska seafood, salmon and halibut come to mind. But the state also produces a lesser-known fish product sought after all around the world: surimi, the base for imitation crab.

Now the guy who helped establish surimi in America — more than 30 years ago — is on a mission to improve how it’s made.

Tyre Lanier is a food scientist at at North Carolina State University, where he’s been since the 1970s. He has a background in the science of hot dogs.

So, working on seafood initially was a bit of a stretch for him.

“I started off trying to make hot dogs out of fish believe it or not,” Lanier said. “Then I heard about surimi.”

Or as Lanier refers to it, “the hot dog of sea.”

For thousands of years, surimi seafood has been part of Japanese cuisine. Sometimes referred to as kamaboko, it comes in a variety of flavors and shapes.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Radio

US Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank Waiting on MSC Final Consultation for Haddock, Pollock and Redfish

April 19, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The U.S. Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank haddock, pollock and redfish trawl fishery are one step closer to receiving Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.

A determination was reached by certification body Acoura Marine Ltd., who found that the fishery should be certified “according to the MSC Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fisheries.” However, the fishery must wait until the final consultation period has concluded before receiving their official MSC certification. Any party that disagrees with the determination has 15 working days to object in a written letter.

Objections must be submitted by May 9. The fishery will be able to use the MSC logo on their products once the final consultation period has ended without objections.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it it republished here with permission.

Pollock and salmon projected for big year in 2018

December 28, 2017 — Next year is looking like another big one for pollock in the Bering Sea and sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay. But times are tough for cod fishermen, especially in the Gulf of Alaska.

At its December meeting in Anchorage, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council increased the already huge Bering Sea pollock quota to 1.345 million metric tons for 2018, up from 1.34 million mt in 2017. That’s good news for the pollock-dependent community of Unalaska for local revenues and jobs.

Pollock is the fish that annually makes the Aleutian Islands community the nation’s No. 1 port in volume. For the 20th year in a row, Unalaska/Dutch Harbor was the nation’s top fish port with 770 million pounds of seafood landings in 2016, primarily pollock, which accounted for nearly 90 percent of that total, according to a Nov. 1 report from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In the Gulf of Alaska, the cod quota declined by 85 percent, from 64,442 metric tons in 2017 to 13,096 mt for 2018. That greatly impacts Kodiak, and King Cove and Sand Point in the Aleutians East Borough.

The Gulf pollock quota is also down significantly, from 208,595 metric tons, or mt, in 2017, to 166,228 mt in 2018.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Alaska: Bering Sea cod conflict brewing between on and offshore buyers

December 21, 2017 — “Cod Alley” is getting crowded, and some fishermen want to limit the boats in the narrow congested fishing area in the Bering Sea.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is looking at changes, including restricting flatfish factory trawlers from buying cod offshore.

The Pacific Seafood Processors Association is pushing for restrictions on factory trawlers to protect its members’ shore plants in Unalaska, Akutan, King Cove and Sand Point.

According to the PSPA’s Nicole Kimball, seven factory trawlers bought cod from 17 catcher boats in 2017, up from just one factory trawler that traditionally participated in prior years. The Amendment 80 factory trawlers act as motherships, processing but not catching the Pacific cod.

“The share delivered to motherships increased from 3.3 percent in 2016 to 12.7 percent in 2017, while shoreside processors had a reciprocal decline. This is a meaningful shift. At this point it is open-ended, and there is nothing to prevent future growth in this activity,” Kimball testified at the council’s December meeting in Anchorage.

Local government representatives shared the shoreplants’ concerns, citing a loss of tax revenues needed for schools and other services. On a smaller scale, it’s reminiscent of the inshore-offshore battle in the pollock fishery about 20 years ago.

“This is a big deal,” said Unalaska Mayor Frank Kelty. “It looks like we’ve got trouble coming down the road again.”

Cod is Unalaska’s second-most important product, behind pollock, he said.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Fisheries council boosts Gulf of Maine quotas for cod, haddock, pollock

December 11, 2017 — The New England Fishery Management Council voted to increase cod and pollock quotas for 2018, a move that is expected to benefit New England’s fishing industry.

The council passed a rule Thursday that sets new quotas and has a number of other groundfish adjustments.

The species with substantial quota increases are Georges Bank cod, Gulf of Maine cod, Gulf of Maine haddock and pollock.

The biggest percentage increases all were in the Gulf of Maine, where haddock has been nearly tripled to 8,738 tons, and pollock doubled to 37,400 tons.

Cod was increased 156 percent on Georges Bank and 39 percent in the Gulf of Maine, both signs of improving health of the cod stock.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Alaska’s seafood marketing agency expands its reach

December 1, 2017 — On a domestic and international scale, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute expanded its reach over the past year to promote domestic and overseas sales of wild Alaska seafood, and educate the industry on seafood technical issues.

In presentations Nov. 28, at the start of ASMI’s three-day All Hands meeting in Anchorage, some 200 participants heard progress reports on these and other related issues, including ASMI’s sustainability program.

Fisheries market researcher Andy Wick, presenting for the McDowell Group in Juneau, noted that the cumulative first wholesale value of wild Alaska seafood from 1959 through 2016 totaled $170 billion, equal to the value of all major professional sports teams in North America.

Eighty percent of the state’s commercial seafood harvests from 2011 through 2015 was in high volume groundfish, including Pollock and cod, while salmon garnered on average 15 percent of the catch, halibut and black cod 1 percent, and crab 1 percent.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

ALASKA: Bering Sea Pollock and Cod in Good Shape But Could Be Moving North

November 17, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s Groundfish Plan Team recommended an allowable biological catch (ABC) for 2018 of Pacific cod in the Eastern Bering Sea of 172,000 mt down from this year’s ABC of 239,000 mt.

The actual catch limits will be determined by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council in early December.

Reasons for the downturn in ABC were:

* a 46% drop from 2016 to 2017 in the EBS shelf trawl survey abundance, or numbers of fish — the biggest drop in history.

* A 37% drop in EBS biomass (weight) from 2016 to 2017 — also the biggest in history.

There is good news for P-cod elsewhere near the Bering Sea, though. In the Aleutians, which supports a much smaller P-cod fishery, survey biomass is on a general upward trend — 15% each year since 2012.

There, the recommended ABC for this year increased to 22,700 mt from last year’s 21,500 mt.

And in the northern Bering Sea — there is serious consideration that stocks of P-cod and pollock that would normally be in the EBS may be spending more time during the summer in the northern areas.

The Northern Bering Sea survey indices show the relative change in biomass there from 2010 to 2017 as an increase of 907%. Relative change in abundance (numbers of fish) during that time is up 1421%. NBS biomass in 2017 is equal to 83% of the biomass change in the Eastern Bering Sea.

The Plan Team posed a question at the end of the presentation: “Given that the cause of the decline in EBS survey biomass is unknown, but that one plausible hypothesis is that a substantial portion of the biomass simply moved to the NBS survey area while remaining part of the same spawning population as the fish in the EBS survey area, does the given model impose drastic reductions in ABC that have a significant probability of later being shown to have been unnecessary?”

As of November 4 the catch of PCod in BSAI was 186,800 mt.

Pollock changes ahead

Pollock stocks look healthy enough for the Plan Team to recommend an ABC at 2.592 million mt in 2018 and 2.467 million mt in 2019. This reflects slight decrease in biomass from the ABC previously set for 2017 of 2.8 million mt, with a forecasted 2.9 million mt for 2018.

The current TAC for pollock in BSAI is 1.345 million mt. a slight increase over 2016’s TAC of 1.34 million mt.

The key factors scientists are looking at for Bering Sea pollock are:

* A potential decline described as being “expected, quite quickly”

* Is there a shift in distribution? The ecosystem survey in the northern Bering Sea this summer found increases in pollock.

* There are relatively few one-year-old pollock in the 2017 trawl survey.

* Future catches near current levels will require more effort.

The presentation noted “..the ability to catch the same amount as in 2017 through to 2020 will require about 35% more effort with a decline in spawning biomass of about 28% compared to the current level (based on expected average recruitment).”

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

ALASKA: Seafood jobs in 2016 mirrored decline in harvests

November 15, 2017 — Fewer men and women went out fishing in Alaska last year, in a familiar cycle that reflects the vagaries of Mother Nature.

A focus on commercial fishing in the November Economic Trends by the Alaska Department of Labor shows that the number of boots on deck fell by 5 percent in 2016 to about 7,860 harvesters, driven by the huge shortfall in pink salmon returns and big declines in crab quotas.

Fishing for salmon, which accounts for the majority of Alaska’s fishing jobs, fell by 6.4 percent statewide in 2016, a loss of 323 workers.

The only Alaska region to show gains in fishing jobs last year was Southcentral, which includes the Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet fisheries, as well as fishing boats out of Homer, Seward and Kenai. All of the region’s fisheries added jobs in 2016, even salmon, scoring the state’s second-highest total employment at 1,661 harvesters.

Southeast Alaska had the state’s largest slice of fishing jobs in 2016 at 29 percent, or 2,275 fishermen. But that reflects a decline for the third straight year. The Panhandle’s harvesting employment dipped 0.8 percent in 2015 and then 2.3 percent in 2016, declining by 53 jobs.

Fishing jobs at Kodiak fell by 8.5 percent in 2016, erasing the job gains of the few prior years. That reflected a poor salmon season, where fishing jobs dropped 14 percent, combined with slight drops in fishing for pollock, cod and other whitefish.

Bristol Bay, where fishing jobs rely almost entirely on salmon, took the hardest hit last year. The 1,276 permits fished reflect a loss of 133 fishing jobs, or 9.5 percent.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

This fisherman is determined to fight the rising tide of government quotas

November 10, 2017 — There’s another species in the ocean that is slowly disappearing. This one doesn’t have fins, but orange waders, heavy rubber gloves, and fishing tackle. It’s the commercial fishermen. The industry in which they work, fishermen say, is being choked by unmanageable fines and regulations.

Jim Ford of Lisa Ann Fisheries is one of those still standing. Fewer and fewer boats are going out to sea, to Ford’s dismay. While there used to be dozens of draggers going out of Newburyport, he’s now the only fisherman doing it full-time — pulling a net or trawling the rocky seabed to scoop up his catch.

Ford, 47, disagrees that the sea is being depleted. One of his recent 14-hour runs yielded 1,000 pounds of gray sole (worth about $3 a pound at auction), 300 pounds of monkfish, and some flounder. On his 52-foot fiberglass boat, Lisa Ann III, Ford typically steams out at midnight for a three-hour trip to Jeffreys Ledge with two crewmen on deck and a federal observer — a third-party ombudsman — to monitor overfishing.

This government watchman, a stranger with notepad and pen — and sometimes getting seasick — has spoiled fishing excursions for Ford. The thrill of the hunt, the wild unpredictability of the wind and the waves has turned into a list of quotas, trip limits, and gear restrictions.

He hopes that “some day the marine fishery agencies will figure out there’s more cod and other fish in the ocean then they think there is now. The government doesn’t see what I see out there every day.” Still, fishing policies aside, Ford never fails to get excited when the catch sensor blinks, indicating that there’s plenty of fish in the net. “I love fishing. Otherwise, I’d put my anchor down and call it quits,” Ford said. He spoke with the Globe about why he remains hooked.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Gorton’s giving 214K pounds of pollock to food banks in areas hit by Harvey

November 13, 2017 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — There’s just something about a guy in a Sou’wester that makes you know that you can trust him when things get a tad sticky. Which is the complete opposite of guys in visors. Them, we keep a eye on.

One of the Gloucester companies that helped make the sou’wester an iconic image of the fishing life is Gorton’s Seafood over at the east end of Rogers Street. And the company has done a very good thing.

Last week, the seafood company announced it is donating 214,000 pounds of its pollock tenders — which breaks down into about 858,000 separate servings (curiously, the exact daily amount called for in the Tom Brady diet) — to food banks in areas ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.

Gorton’s donated the fish to SeaShare, a nonprofit that helps distribute seafood all over the country to folks in need of food assistance through the local organizations which help provide it.

SeaShare set a goal of delivering 2 million servings to the distressed areas damaged by the hurricane and Gorton’s single contribution sure gets the ball rolling in the right direction.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times