Saving Seafood

Environmental law group threatens to sue tire manufacturers over pollutants

August 22, 2023 — On Aug. 15, environmental litigation group, Earthjustice, notified more than a dozen American tire manufacturers of their intent to sue them over violations of the Endangered Species Act if they do nothing to stop their alleged chemical pollution.

In the letter to the tire manufacturers, Earthjustice acknowledges that the suit is being made on behalf of the Institute for Fisheries Resources and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, because chemicals used in the production of tires has had adverse impacts on coho, steelhead and Chinook salmon species.

Read the full story at Seattle Weekly

The scales of justice: Salmon fisheries in federal court, fighting to keep their lines in the water

August 21, 2023 — More than 90% of wild salmon are caught in Alaskan waters, where the fish travel from the coasts of California, the Pacific Northwest, and British Columbia. As the total number of fish have declined, limits of a catch have naturally decreased. The Wild Fish Conservancy, based in Washington, sued over technicalities in the Endangered Species Act. The salmon have been deeply compromised by dams and pollution, says third-generation Alaskan and journalist Julia O’Malley. Because the fish swimming up from the Lower 48 may be potentially endangered, Alaskan fisheries must come up with a mitigation plan. A judge was compelled by the Conservancy’s complaint of how to enact such a plan. Alaskan fisheries recently won a last minute reprieve in a lawsuit that would have kept lines out of the water this fishing season.

A pod of 73 endangered orcas in the region near Puget Sound feed on Chinook, also known as king salmon — the largest of the species, and whose populations are at historic lows. The orcas are in turn under threat of starvation,  not only because the salmon are less abundant, but because they are considerably smaller, dropping from a typical size of 60-100 pounds down to 30 pounds. As a result, the whales need to catch more of them to get the same amount of protein. Noise pollution and industrial runoff further compound the problem, interfering with the echolocation orcas use to locate salmon.

Alaska has a 100-year-old fishing tradition, according to O’Malley. For better or worse, communities around the state operate on an extraction economy, whether it’s oil, timber, or fishing.

Read the full story at KCRW

Appeals court allows Southeast Alaska king salmon fishery to open 1 July

June 22, 2023 — The king salmon troll fishery in Southeast Alaska will be allowed to open in just over a week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit paused a district court ruling that threatened to keep the fishery closed this summer and winter.

“This has been an extremely challenging time for all of us,” Alaska Trollers Association (ATA) Executive Director Amy Daugherty said. “But thankfully, with the state’s help and the tribes recent declarations and our delegation, we have alerted the court to the disastrous consequences of a summer in [Southeast Alaska] without trolling.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Gearing up for season’s start, Alaska’s pollock fishery faces salmon bycatch questions

February 22, 2023 — A vigorous debate over bycatch and calls for marine habitat protections is underway in advance of the beginning of Alaska’s lucrative pollock fishery in March.

The pollock fishery hit a wholesale value of USD 1.329 billion (EUR 1.358 billion) in 2022; However, that coincided with a devastating collapse in the state’s crab stocks and deteriorating returns in chinook and chum salmon fisheries. All of those fisheries are interconnected.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Some hope the EPA will veto Pebble Mine, a project that has long divided SW Alaska

January 27, 2022 — ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

What would be one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world might never break ground. The EPA is expected to issue its final decision at the end of the month on the Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska. From member station KDLG, Izzy Ross reports.

ROSS: The EPA is exercising a rarely-used authority under the Clean Water Act, commonly called its veto authority. Agency officials declined to be interviewed for this story, but in a statement said the mine could harm fish spawning and breeding areas and that this action would protect the commercial and sport fisheries and a traditional way of life based on wild salmon. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied Pebble’s mining permit two years ago, but the company appealed that decision. Pebble spokesperson Mike Heatwole says the EPA is not following normal protocol by using this Clean Water Act authority before the appeal has even been processed.

MIKE HEATWOLE: We continue to say that it is largely unlawful and unprecedented, what the EPA is attempting to do regarding this project.

ROSS: And Heatwole says the company may sue. But the EPA’s use of this authority reflects its serious concerns about the mine’s impact on the region, says Joel Reynolds with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

JOEL REYNOLDS: It’s about as much opposition as one will ever see to a development project anywhere really but in particular, in a development-friendly state like Alaska.

Listen to the full story at KUNC

 

Oregon, California coastal Chinook Salmon move closer to Endangered Species Protection

January 27, 2023 — In response to a petition by the Native Fish Society, Center for Biological Diversity and Umpqua Watersheds, the National Marine Fisheries Service determined today that the Oregon Coast and southern Oregon/Northern California Coast Chinook salmon may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

“I’m pleased that Chinook salmon in Oregon and Northern California are that much closer to being protected under the Endangered Species Act,” said Meg Townsend, freshwater attorney at the Center. “These giants among Pacific salmon are irreplaceable icons of the Pacific Northwest. Chinooks bring important nutrients from the ocean to our forests, feed endangered Southern Resident orcas, and are a source of food and admiration for communities up and down the coast.”

Chinook are anadromous, returning from the ocean to the freshwater streams where they were born to reproduce. The Oregon and California Chinook salmon populations contain both early and late-run variants, otherwise known as spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon.

Spring-run Chinook salmon enter coastal rivers from the ocean in the spring and migrate upstream as they mature, holding in deep pools in rivers through the summer, and spawning in early fall in the upper reaches of watersheds. Conversely, fall-run Chinook enter the rivers in the fall and spawn shortly thereafter.

Read the full story at the Tillamook Headlight Herald

Seven Seas International salmon recalled over potential listeria contamination

November 9, 2022 — St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.A.-based seafood supplier Seven Seas International is voluntarily recalling Giant Food private-label Sockeye Smoked because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

The recalled product, which includes 540 cases under only one lot number, was distributed by Carlisle, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.-based Giant Food in the U.S. states of Maryland, Virginia, Washington, Delaware, and the city of Washington D.C.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ASC’s updated salmon standard raises sea lice controversy

September 12, 2022 — The Aquaculture Stewardship Council has released an updated version of its salmon standard with a new approach to sea lice monitoring that environmental groups have criticized.

ASC released version 1.4 of its salmon standard on 5 September, following a science-based review process. The new edition of the standard has a specific scope on sea lice management, with the aim of establishing more robustness in sea lice sampling and monitoring and the requirement that salmon farmers take immediate action to remediate sea lice problems if they pass certain thresholds, ASC said.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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