Saving Seafood

Maine program aims to help recovery of endangered Atlantic salmon

It will be funded by fees on infrastructure projects paid in lieu of required environmental mitigation efforts.

October 29, 2018 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine is launching a new program to help pay for conservation work that benefits Atlantic salmon. The money will come from fees for road and bridge projects.

Salmon were once abundant in the rivers of New England, but they are now listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act after years of habitat loss and overfishing. The Atlantic Salmon Restoration and Conservation Program can help support the fish’s recovery, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said.

The program will allow public and private organizations working on road and bridge projects to pay a fee in lieu of environmental mitigation efforts that are required by law, the department said. Sean Ledwin, director of the sea-run fisheries division at the marine department, said the money will be used to “restore and enhance salmon habitat in Maine.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

 

Judge rules EPA must protect salmon from rising water temperatures in Washington

October 29, 2018 — A U.S. Federal Court in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. has issued a ruling that is intended to protect salmon and steelhead trout in the Columbia River basin from rising water temperatures.

In the mile-long lakes created by hydropower dams on the rivers, the water temperature has often exceeded 70 degrees Fahrenheit for days at a time, though the Clean Water Act bars the temperature in the river from exceeding 68 degrees. Cold water species such as sockeye and steelhead become stressed at temperatures over 68 degrees and stop migrating when the temperature exceeds 74 degrees.

The ruling instructs the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the species. The EPA will, within 60 days, come up with a “comprehensive plan to deal with dams’ impact on water temperature and salmon survival,” according to Columbia Riverkeeper Executive Director Brett VandenHeuvel, one of the plaintiffs of the case, which was initially filed in February 2017. Other conservation and fishermens’ groups were plaintiffs in the suit as well: Idaho Rivers United, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Snake River Waterkeeper, and The Institute for Fisheries Resources.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

The Cultural and Historical Importance of Atlantic Salmon in New England

October 29, 2018 — For thousands of years, Atlantic salmon – known as the King of Fish – ran almost every river northeast of the Hudson. And for decades, the first fish caught in Maine’s Penobscot River was actually presented to the president of the United States in a “first fish” ritual.

But overfishing and dams brought populations to their knees and the commercial fishery for Atlantic salmon closed seventy years ago in 1948. For most of us, the closest we’ve ever gotten to an Atlantic salmon is the farm-raised variety in the fish market.

But, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is celebrating the international year of the salmon, and the New England Aquarium is marking the occasion with a public lecture by Catherine Schmitt, author of The President’s Salmon: Restoring the King of Fish and its Home Waters; and Madonna Soctomah, former Passamaquoddy Tribal Representative with the Maine State Legislature and St. Croix International Waterway Commissioner. That’s the St. Croix River in Maine and New Brunswick, not the Caribbean island.

The Presidential “first fish” ritual started in 1912 with angler Carl Anderson. He decided that he wanted to give his fish – which was the first fish caught on opening day April 1st – to the president of the United States.

Read and listen to the full story at WCAI

 

Report confirms dismal state of salmon fishing on Alaska Peninsula

October 26, 2018 —  Commercial salmon fishing on the Alaskan Peninsula, Aleutian Islands and the Atka-Amlia Islands this year was a far cry from the 2017 season, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) confirms in a summary of the harvest numbers published Oct. 24.

Commercial harvesters in the region caught 3.7 million sockeye salmon, 48% fewer than the 7.1m caught in 2017, according to ADF&G. There were also far fewer pinks (805,639 in 2018 vs. 21.8m in 2017) and chum (1.2m vs. 2.0m in 2017) caught.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

New Maine program aims to help fund recovery of wild salmon

October 26, 2018 — Maine’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) has announced a new program aimed at helping to fund the recovery of wild caught Atlantic salmon in the US state while also reducing the regulatory burdens associated with road and bridge construction projects.

The Atlantic Salmon Restoration and Conservation Program (ASRCP) will provide public and private parties working on road and bridge construction projects the flexibility to pay a fee in lieu of the mitigation efforts required by federal law to offset the unavoidable environmental impacts of the construction activity, DMR explains in a press release.

The idea takes advantage of the existing In-Lieu Fee (ILF) program created in 2008 by the Army Corps of Engineers. It requires that funds paid by companies doing such work be used to support other restoration work that results in, at a minimum, no net loss of habitat or habitat function.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Here’s how $1.4M in NOAA grants will be used to help Maine’s fishing industry

October 25, 2018 — Sea lice infestation costs the salmon aquaculture industry an estimated at $15 million annually in the United States and $740 million globally — and remains the greatest barrier to continuing and expanding salmon aquaculture in the oceans.

That’s the industry context underscoring the relevance of the $725,365 grant awarded to a University of Maine team to study potential new treatments for sea lice infestation.

The grant is one of two to UMaine that were announced recently by National Sea Grant College, a program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both projects are expected to further advance the development of a sustainable marine and coastal aquaculture industry in the United States, according to a NOAA news release.

Heather Hamlin, Deborah Bouchard and Ian Bricknell of UMaine’s Aquaculture Research Institute will research an integrated approach to addressing sea lice control in the commercial culture of Atlantic salmon in sea pens. The project will address gaps in knowledge of sea lice biology and control methods, such as integrated pest management, and new, ecologically sensitive chemical compounds and their effects on nontarget species, such as lobsters.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Tri Marine to sell California wetfish plant to Silver Bay

October 25, 2018 — Bellevue, Washington-based tuna supplier Tri Marine International will sell its California wetfish processing business to Alaska salmon processor Silver Bay Seafoods, the companies announced.

The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, includes Tri Marine’s San Pedro processing plant but not an affiliated fleet of vessels. Those vessels, owned by the Tri Marine affiliate Cape Fisheries, will continue to deliver fish to the facility under Silver Bay’s ownership.

Tri Marine said in a press release that the move was made to focus on its core tuna business.

“I’m delighted that we’ve reached an agreement to sell to a highly regarded, strategic and successful company like Silver Bay,” ” Renato Curto, Tri Marine’s chief executive officer, said. “The sale of our California coastal pelagic assets and business will enable Tri Marine to concentrate our efforts and our resources on our core business – global tuna supply.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Omega 3 fatty acids found in seafood tied to healthy aging

October 24, 2018 — People may be more likely to age without health problems when they have more omega 3 fatty acids in their blood, a recent study suggests.

The study authors focused on so-called healthy aging, or the number of years people live without developing disabilities or physical or mental health problems. They examined data on 2,622 adults who were 74 years old on average, following them from 1992 to 2015. Only 11 percent of participants experienced healthy aging throughout the entire study period.

“We found that older adults who had higher levels of omega 3 from seafood were more likely to live longer and healthier lives,” said lead study author Heidi Lai of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.

“These findings support current national dietary guidelines to consume more seafood,” Lai said by email.

Adults should get about eight ounces a week of seafood, ideally by eating it twice a week in place of meats, poultry or eggs, according to U.S. dietary guidelines. Some options that are high in omega 3s include salmon, anchovies, herring, shad, sardines, oysters, trout and Atlantic or Pacific mackerel.

Read the full story at Reuters

 

HEATHER HANSON: Fish-friendly development is cost effective for taxpayers

October 24, 2018 — As Alaskans are faced with the question of whether or not to support Proposition 1 in the upcoming election, I want to share my experience working as a civil engineer in the salmon habitat restoration field. I started my career working on projects in the 1990s to retrofit the dams on the Columbia River in Washington state. We poured hundreds of millions of dollars into floating fish passage structures, drilling tunnels and trucking fish around the dams with very little result. It is now widely accepted that dams have a pretty negative impact on salmon runs.

I now live in Alaska and work on stream restoration and fish passage here. The undersized culverts on many of our existing road stream crossings act like small dams that make it difficult for adult salmon to get upstream to spawn. They are an even bigger problem for juvenile salmon that spend up to four years in fresh water before heading out to the ocean. Juvenile salmon need to move between their summer and winter homes in the small streams and lakes that make up their habitat in order to find food in the summer and avoid ice packed streams in the winter. Culverts are such a problem that the Department of Fish and Game has been assessing culverts around the state since 2001 for their ability to pass fish. On the Fish and Game website, you can see if there are undersized culverts in your neighborhood that are blocking fish passage.

Another problem for salmon in Alaska has been the destruction of vegetation in the riparian areas, or the areas along the banks of rivers and streams. This vegetation provides shade, hiding places and food for fish and helps protect against bank erosion. Many landowners who live along Alaska’s rivers have also discovered that removing vegetation leads to accelerated bank erosion and are now investing in replanting these banks to protect their land with the help of state and federal tax dollars.

Habitat restoration is a slow, expensive process that is largely funded by federal and local taxpayer dollars. We have learned a lot about how to build fish friendly infrastructure during the past 30 years, and this infrastructure has also greatly reduced maintenance and flood damage costs. For these reasons, the municipality of Anchorage, the Mat-Su Borough and the Kenai Borough have passed ordinances to protect salmon habitat. In areas of the state without adequate protections, there are still undersized culverts being installed that prevent salmon from getting to their habitat and changes to riparian areas that reduce habitat quality. A recently published article in the Alaska Business Magazine has some good information on the long-term cost benefits of doing it right the first time when it comes to building roads over streams.

Read the full opinion piece at Anchorage Daily News

Growing pains as companies try to move fish farms from ocean to land

October 23, 2018 — They are Ocean Wise recommended and a Seafood Watch green light best choice — a conservationist’s dream. The flesh is invitingly red, delicious and rich in omega-3s.

Land-based tanks are dimly lit to simulate winter light levels in order to trick the fish into growing faster, while delaying sexual maturity. It is one of many tricks needed to grow salmon outside the ocean, its natural environment.

Consider the difficulties of raising cattle underwater while keeping their living space and air pristine and you get a sense of the challenges faced by land-based fish farms growing coho, tilapia and especially Atlantic salmon.

Most Atlantic salmon are grown in net pens in the ocean, drawing criticism from First Nations and environmentalists. Washington state’s decision to end net-pen farming gave some hope that a breakthrough in B.C. could be at hand.

But fish farmers say a large-scale move is not commercially feasible.

“It’s a life-support system and it’s really hard to do,” said Don Read, president and owner of Willowfield Enterprises, which markets the Golden Eagle Aquaculture fish as West Creek Coho.

Because biological setbacks come often, you need deep pockets just to try. The Aquilini Investment Group bought the farm in Agassiz about six years ago.

“Last year, we grew out a cohort of fish and they all performed like you’d hope and the fish were a certain size,” said Read. “We did everything the same this year and 30 per cent of them didn’t mature.”

Read the full story at the Vancouver Sun