Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Stand for Salmon ballot initiative has big implications for Donlin mine

July 6, 2018 — In the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the stakes are especially high for the controversial Stand for Salmon ballot initiative because it could kill one of the biggest proposed gold mines in the world — the Donlin Mine.

Backers of Stand For Salmon visited Bethel a month ago. This is when Bethel resident Danielle Craven first heard of it.

“After learning about it, I realized that this was a coalition of people who are really interested that we as Alaskans and rural Alaskans have a voice in the decisions that are impacting salmon and our waters,” Craven said.

Craven is a member of the Orutsaramiut Native Council. The tribe held their first public demonstration against the proposed Donlin gold mine last week and is the first one to do so in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Craven sees Stand For Salmon as a way to protect the region’s subsistence way of life.

Craven is also one of the leaders of a new local working group called the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Alliance; its goals align with the ballot initiative.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Alaskans fret as Chinese, US tariffs go into effect

July 6, 2018 — The next phase of the Chinese-U.S. trade war kicked into effect on Friday, 6 July, as each country imposed USD 34 billion (EUR 28.9 billion) worth of tariffs on a range of goods that, on the Chinese side, include a variety of seafood products.

According to a list issued from the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, more than 170 seafood products are subject to the new tariffs, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on 6 July. However, confusion remains as to exactly which products are subject to the tariffs – especially amongst those engaged in sending seafood to China for reprocessing and re-export.

That’s a big question for many involved in the seafood industry in Alaska, which relies heavily on Chinese labor to complete the difficult task of removing pinbones from much of its catch. In fact, in large part due to the seafood industry, China is Alaska’s largest trading partner, with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of salmon, flatfish, and cod heading to China for reprocessing and re-export.

Glenn Reed, president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, which represents companies operating onshore processing plants for Alaska salmon, crab, and pollock, as well as Pacific cod, said there is still uncertainty on the issue.

“We’re watching the situation closely. We know we this could affect us all from fishermen, processors, support business, communities, the state, etc. We just don’t have good info at this point,” he told SeafoodSource via email. “We may not know the impact until after 6 July.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: How ‘pickers’ and ‘lickers’ help Bristol Bay’s fleet

July 5, 2018 — Preschool teacher Hannah Hendrickson said there are two distinct duties for catch samplers working at salmon processing plants around Bristol Bay.

“People oftentimes nickname this job as the pickers and the lickers, so I said, ‘I’m not a licker. I’m only a picker!’ ” she said.

‘This is worrisome,’ Murkowski on Chinese sanctions to Alaska seafood

July 3, 2018 — China is slated to impose a 25 percent tariff on U.S. seafood — including Alaska’s — by the end of this week, as part of increasingly heated trade negotiations between the two nations.

According to a recent report by the McDowell Group, seafood is Alaska’s second largest employer — with 41,200 jobs created by the $2.1 billion industry. China is the state’s largest trading partner.

“This is worrisome, we’ll work this through with the administration,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said of the sanctions, set to take effect on Friday, July 6.

Murkowski was in Anchorage Monday with U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, as part of his tour around the state.

While worried about seafood, Murkowski said she is encouraged that China isn’t going after natural gas. In April, Gov. Bill Walker’s administration hoped the state’s potential partnership with China on a natural gas pipeline project could protect the state in a national trade war. But this latest threat to seafood indicates that may not be the case.

“It does raise a question about how they view what Alaska has available in terms of trade,” Murkowski said.

While in Alaska this weekend, Acosta visited a fishery in King Salmon.

Read the full story at KTVA

ALASKA: Kodiak May See $11.5 Million in Salmon Disaster Relief

July 2, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A National Marine Fisheries Service internal document sent to the Kodiak Island Borough on Monday details preliminary estimates for regional allocation of the federal relief funding for the 2016 pink salmon disaster. According to the document, of the $56 million in relief funding that was allocated to the Gulf of Alaska for those affected by the 2016 pink salmon disaster, $11,477,873 might be set aside for Kodiak.

NOAA spokesperson Julie Speegle said that the numbers in the document are simply an estimate and are not set in stone.

“The $56.3 million allocation across all impacted fishing districts and gear types has not been determined. That is being worked on over the next month by PSMFC in consultation with the State of Alaska and NOAA,” Speegle wrote in an email. “Finalization occurs when the spend plan has been completed and the grant award has been approved.”

According to Speegle, the estimate of the regional allocations is based on preliminary ex-vessel losses to commercial pink salmon harvesters in 2016 and it is “difficult to predict” the likelihood of final allocation.

With regards to the rest of the $56 million, preliminary estimates for regional allocation are as follows: Southeastern – $10,030,734; Yakutat – $46,712; Lower Cook Inlet – $310,352; Prince William Sound – $32,200,363; South Alaska Peninsula – $1,752,664; Chignik – $542,635.

Another $63 million will be allocated among seven other regions for various fishery disasters in Washington and California.

At a recent Kodiak Fisheries Workgroup meeting, the City of Kodiak and the Kodiak Island Borough’s D.C. lobbyist Brad Gilman explained that NMFS and the office of the Governor have to come to a spend plan that identifies the categories of entities which could receive funding and then quantifies how much each of the categories receive within the

available funds. Gilman said that once approved, the Pacific State Marine Fisheries Commission (the entity charged with administering the funds) will likely “start cutting checks immediately.”

A spokesperson for PSMFC said that a distribution method is still pending.

“We were notified that we’ll be administering the funds,” the spokesperson said. “Currently, we don’t have a distribution method figured out.”

Rep. Louise Stutes (R-Kodiak) once again expressed her delight that Kodiak will be receiving some relief funding. Stutes said she’s been pressing the governor’s office to ensure that the funds are distributed, not just to fishermen, but to all of those who were affected.

“I want to make sure that our processor workers receive some of those dollars,” she said.

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

Heightened protection for at risk North Atlantic salmon stocks

June 29, 2018 — New regulatory measures for salmon fisheries around the Faroe Islands and off west Greenland have been adopted by the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO).

While the measure applying to the Faroes is a rollover of the previous zero-catches measures, the European Commission (EC) said that the agreement on a new regulatory measure for western Greenland was “particularly significant.” This is because the latter addresses several shortcomings in terms of control and monitoring of the catches and sets an annual total allowable catch (TAC) of 30 metric tons (MT) for the period 2018-2020.

Under the previous regulatory measure in place since 2015, no agreement could be reached on the TAC, and Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland) had autonomously declared an annual quota of 45 MT.

The EC said that the new agreement illustrated a renewed willingness of all parties to improve cooperation toward the conservation of these salmon stocks and represented an important step to protect the especially endangered southern populations.

These new protection measures were agreed at NASCO’s 35th annual meeting, held in Portland, Maine, U.S.A.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Early in the season, Alaska commercial salmon harvests are lagging

June 29, 2018 — Early in the season for most Alaska salmon fisheries, commercial harvest numbers are well below where they were at the same time in 2017, according to data put out on Thursday by Anchorage consulting firm the McDowell Group and the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

The sockeye harvest was 64 percent lower this year through June 23 than it was through the same time frame last year, according to the McDowell Group. The harvest of king salmon was 49 percent lower, as expected, and the pink salmon harvest was down 67 percent. Chum salmon harvest numbers were up 5 percent.

Slow sockeye harvests in Prince William Sound, Kodiak and Chignik are a main reason for the lagging numbers, McDowell Group economist Garrett Evridge said in an email.

Still, he cautioned, it’s early in the season and a couple good weeks of fishing can significantly change the harvest trajectory for many areas. A good week in Bristol Bay alone can double the statewide harvest, Evridge added.

“We’re still in the early weeks,” he said in an interview, “but early indications are definitely difficult. If you’re a Copper River fisherman or a Kodiak fisherman, it’s not reassuring to hear that overall it’s too early.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Killer bill: House approves lethal removal of Columbia River sea lions

June 29, 2018 –A bill that would allow officials and local tribes to lethally remove sea lions from specific areas of the Columbia River passed its first hurdle on Tuesday, June 26, with a 288-116 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is part of an effort to improve salmon survival rates in parts of Oregon and Washington.

The Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act, or H.R. 2083, amends Section 120 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act to give the Secretary of Commerce the ability to authorize state and local tribes to manage sea lions. Tribes would be able to apply for permits to kill sea lions preying on salmon runs.

“The passage of my bipartisan bill signals a return to a healthy, balanced Columbia River ecosystem by reining in the unnatural, overcrowded sea lion population that is indiscriminately decimating our fish runs,” said bill author Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.). She sponsored the legislation with Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.).

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that sea lions consumed between about 4 and 6 percent of the salmon and steelhead runs below Bonneville Dam in recent years.

“For the salmon and steelhead fighting to make it upstream, [the]vote in the U.S. House significantly improves their chances of survival,” Beutler said. “We’re not anti-sea lion. We’re just for protecting a Pacific Northwest treasure: salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other native fish species iconic to our region,” Beutler added.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act already allows state agencies to kill up to 96 “individually identifiable” sea lions seen eating endangered salmon. The amendment would allow state agencies and specific tribes in the region the authorization to grant permits allowing hunters to kill up to 100 sea lions per year after completing natural resources management training.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Chinese Supermarkets Update Their Salmon Labels to Show Country of Origin

June 28, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Last week one influential Cantonese newspaper, Yangcheng Evening News, reported that some local supermarkets had written that salmon products’ places of origin were the supermarkets themselves — not the foreign country or domestic region — on product labels in the stores. Such labels provide little help to consumers when they try to distinguish imported salmon from the domestic ones. One local consumer complained to the Guangdong Administration of Ocean and Fisheries about the labels through the bureau’s hotline. In response to the complaint, the bureau head, Wang, said that eating domestic freshwater salmon makes it easy for consumers to be infected with parasites. Furthermore, local sellers should provide clear information about salmon products’ places of origin, so consumers have a better understanding of what they are buying, he said.

This report caught great public attention. After its publication, Aeon has updated the salmon labels of its 21 supermarkets in Guangdong to provide more detailed information. For example, one Aeon supermarket in Tianhe district of Guangzhou has added in the “ingredient” section of the product label that the salmon products are from the Faroe Islands, though it still has words that say that the supermarket is the place of origin. According to its manager, this supermarket got these salmon from foreign suppliers, filleted and then packed them in the store. And in accordance with relevant regulations, it had to tell consumers that the place of origin was that supermarket. But now it has also provided extra information in the ingredient sections to let consumers know exactly whether the salmon are from foreign countries like the Faroe Islands or Norway.

In the retail store ParknShop, instant salmon food products have labels that show that they are from Norway, while the cooked products are said to come from Chile. In Grandbuy supermarkets, frozen salmon have labels that read that they are Atlantic salmon. Wang has emphasized the importance of telling consumers exactly where their salmon are from on labels. He also added that different departments should work together to ensure that this becomes an unspoken rule among salmon sellers, though it is not a written regulation yet.

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

House votes to curb salmon eaters: Bill would allow problem sea lions to be euthanized; Senate still must act

June 28, 2018 — A bill to expand the authority of Northwest fisheries agencies to help struggling native species in the lower Columbia and Willamette rivers by killing sea lions there passed the U.S. House on Tuesday.

The legislation, co-sponsored by Jamie Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., was approved by a 288-116 vote following years of inaction.

“For the salmon and steelhead fighting to make it upstream, today’s vote in the U.S. House significantly improves their chances of survival,” Herrera Beutler said.

“We are not anti-sea lion. We’re just for protecting a Pacific Northwest treasure: salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other native fish species iconic to our region,” she said in a news release.

Schrader said salmon are central to the culture, identity and economy of the region.

“It is one of the reasons why we’ve, as a region, put so much time, energy and resources into protecting and recovering these iconic fish.”

Read the full story at The Spokesman-Review