Saving Seafood

PFMC: West Coast Salmon Season Dates Set

April 11, 2018 — PORTLAND, Ore. — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

This week the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that provide recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the Pacific coast, and achieve conservation goals for the numerous individual salmon stocks on the West Coast.

The recommendation will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 1, 2018.

“It has been another challenging year for the Council, its advisors, fishery stakeholders and the public as we strive to balance fishing opportunities with the conservation needs we are facing on Chinook and coho salmon stocks, both north and south of Cape Falcon,” said Council Executive Director Chuck Tracy. “The Council has recommended ocean salmon seasons on the west coast this year that provide important protections for stocks of concern, including Lower Columbia River natural fall Chinook, Puget Sound Chinook, Washington coastal coho, and Sacramento River fall Chinook.”

“This year’s package includes some very restrictive seasons in both commercial and recreational fisheries along the entire coast. Low abundances of Chinook and coho are in part due to the poor ocean conditions the adult fish faced as juveniles when they entered the ocean, and poor in-river habitat and water conditions. Tribal, commercial, and recreational fishers continue to bear a large part of the burden of conservation,” said Council Chair Phil Anderson.

Washington and Northern Oregon (North of Cape Falcon)

Fisheries north of Cape Falcon (near Nehalem in northern Oregon) depend largely on Columbia River Chinook and coho stocks. Overall, Columbia River fall Chinook forecasts are considered low to moderate compared to the recent 10-year average.  Hatchery coho stocks originating from the Columbia River together with natural stocks originating from the Queets River and Grays Harbor are expected to return at low levels resulting in very low harvest quotas as was the case in 2017.

North of Cape Falcon, the overall non-Indian total allowable catch is 55,000 Chinook coastwide (compared to 90,000 last year) and 47,600 marked hatchery coho (the same as last year). Fisheries are designed to provide harvest opportunity on healthy Chinook returns primarily destined for the Columbia River, while avoiding coho stocks of concern.

Commercial Fisheries

Non-Indian ocean commercial fisheries north of Cape Falcon include traditional, but reduced, Chinook seasons in the spring (May-June) and summer season (July through mid-September). Non-Indian ocean commercial fisheries in this area will have access to a total of 27,500 Chinook (compared to 45,000 Chinook last year), and a marked coho quota of 5,600 (the same as last year).

Tribal ocean fisheries north of Cape Falcon are similar in structure to past years, with quotas that include 40,000 Chinook and 12,500 coho (the same as last year).

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Alaska: Trifecta of falling fish revenues anticipated

April 9, 2018 — Alaska is expecting a reduced salmon harvest this year, setting up a trifecta of falling fish revenues for Alaska fishermen, coastal communities and state coffers.

Coming on the heels of an 80 percent crash of cod stocks in the Gulf of Alaska and a 10 percent decline in halibut catches, state fishery managers are projecting a 2018 salmon harvest at 149 million fish, down 34 percent from last season.

The shortfall stems from lower forecasts for returning pink salmon. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is forecasting a humpie harvest of just 70 million fish, down by more than half from last summer.

For sockeye salmon, a statewide catch of about 52 million is down 1.8 million fish from 2017, which was the 5th largest red salmon harvest since 1970.

By far, most of the sockeyes will come from Bristol Bay’s nine river systems where a projected harvest of 37.5 million would be down by more than a million, still well above the 10- and 20-year averages for the Bay.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

 

Salmon survival: ‘We need more lethal removal of sea lions. Hazing is not the answer’

April 6, 2018 — Ted Walsey’s shotgun cracked like thunder, lobbing a cracker shell into the Columbia River and sending the big brown sea lion beneath the surface in search of friendlier waters. But the boat and the noises emanating from it weren’t far behind.

Just as crews from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission have for a number of years, Walsey, Bobby Begay and Reggie Sargeant patrolled the river just below Bonneville Dam on Wednesday afternoon, harassing but not killing sea lions with cracker shotgun shells and so-called seal bombs — both essentially big firecrackers, the former shot from a shotgun, the latter dropped by hand — downstream and away from the fish ladders, where endangered migratory salmon congregate.

For the salmon, it’s the first chokepoint on a long journey to their spawning grounds. For hungry sea lions, it’s like a quick trip to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries division estimates about 45 percent of spring chinook salmon are lost between the mouth of the Columbia and Bonneville Dam, with sea lions being primarily responsible.

Sea lions — as well as whales, dolphins and porpoises — are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. For the last 15 years or so, states and tribes have been able to kill some sea lions, but they have to go through a long and laborious permitting process to do so on an animal-by-animal basis.

Read the full story at TDN

 

Alaska: Pebble lays out smaller mine plan

April 6, 2018 — The Pebble Limited Partnership is changing its plans and its tone as it continues its permitting process.

The Pebble Mine, a gold, copper and molybdenum mine proposed for the Bristol Bay region in southwestern Alaska, has been one of the most controversial resource development projects in the state. Bristol Bay fishermen and environmental activists statewide have raised concerns about the mine’s potential impacts on the salmon streams in the region, one of the most productive wild sockeye salmon fisheries in the world. Proponents have argued that it would bring jobs to a rural area without many other economic development projects and revenue to the state as well as provide metals for products like electronics and hardware.

At first, Pebble was proposing an open-pit mine stretched over several waterways near Lake Iliamna and Lake Clark, with a trucking road around the north end of Lake Iliamna to a deep water shipping terminal on Cook Inlet. Opponents objected to the size of the mine, plans to dam streams and potential contamination to downstream fish stocks.

Read the full story at Peninsula Clarion

 

Alaska: Salmon harvests, halibut prices take sharp turn down

April 5, 2018 — Alaska is expecting a reduced salmon harvest this year, setting up a trifecta of falling fish revenues for Alaska fishermen, coastal communities and state coffers.

Coming on the heels of an 80 percent crash of cod stocks in the Gulf of Alaska and a 10 percent decline in halibut catches, state fishery managers are projecting a 2018 salmon harvest at 149 million fish, down 34 percent from last season.

The shortfall stems from lower forecasts for returning pink salmon. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is forecasting a humpie harvest of just 70 million fish, down by more than half from last summer.

For sockeye salmon, a statewide catch of about 52 million is down 1.8 million fish from 2017, which was the fifth-largest red salmon harvest since 1970.

By far, most of the sockeyes will come from Bristol Bay’s nine river systems where a projected harvest of 37.5 million would be down by more than a million, but still well above the 10- and 20-year averages for the Bay.

Alaska’s chum salmon catch last year of 25 million also was the largest haul since 1970. This year’s statewide catch is expected to produce 21 million chums, down by nearly four million.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

 

Will Alaska learn from salmon’s history?

April 5, 2018 — Fifteen years ago when I researched and wrote the book “King of Fish: The Thousand Year Run of Salmon,” I spent a lot of time looking at where societies got it wrong on salmon. That has made it all the more refreshing every time I have come to Alaska to enjoy a place that has gotten it right — so far. More than anywhere else in the world, Alaska has enabled its people to enjoy the rich and varied benefits that come with healthy salmon runs.

But it’s also clear to me that Alaska is at a crossroads in its salmon history. While many Alaskans can still depend on strong fisheries, the first serious signs of decline in locales across the state raise critical questions about the long-term health of Alaskan salmon. And if there’s anything to learn from the history of places where people have lived with salmon, it is to beware another “death by a thousand cuts” playing out in a blind march toward degraded habitat and dwindling runs.

Over the last 1,000 years, humans inadvertently conducted several full-scale experiments on how salmon fare when people make big changes to rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. The takeaway? A slow-motion train wreck with grim results for salmon in Great Britain and across Europe, then New England, and finally California and the Pacific Northwest.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

 

Science Ignored in New Anti-Aquaculture Law

March 23, 2018 — OLYMPIA, Wash. — As the leading trade association representing Washington’s multi-million-dollar finfish aquaculture industry, WFGA is deeply disappointed by Governor Inslee’s failure to take science into consideration by signing into law HB 2957. Our organization holds the position—supported by leading fisheries scientists—that this law completely lacks any scientific basis.

We are additionally dismayed by the fact that in early March of this year, a group of concerned scientists reached out to the state legislature, refuting the basis of HB 2957 and outlining the best peer-reviewed science available to date. In an Open Letter to the State Legislature, nine leading fisheries scientists challenged the key assumptions in HB 2957 having to do with purported interbreeding between Atlantics and native species, colonization, disease transfer, and competition for food. In passing HB 2957 by a 31-16 vote, it was clear that the legislature chose to ignore the science in favor of other political considerations.

After the vote, we reached out to Governor Inslee, urging him to veto HB 2957.

At the same time, the signatories to the Open Letter to the legislature requested a meeting with the Governor. While the Governor was not available to meet, a small group of scientists met with the Governor’s staff to present the science and request that the Governor veto the most troublesome sections of HB 2957 or postpone implementation until the study in Section I was completed.

By the actions taken today by Governor Inslee, it is clear that science has taken a back seat to politics in our state’s natural resources policymaking.

Our association includes many Washington subsidiaries of international companies, representing all sectors of the seafood value chain, from egg producers to feed suppliers, equipment manufacturers, vaccine companies, technology companies, and producers of freshwater species such as trout and steelhead.

We are concerned that this ill-conceived and fundamentally flawed legislation may be sending the wrong message to companies seeking to do business in Washington.

Read the full statement by the Washington Fish Growers Association at Value Spectrum

 

Pacific Fishery Management Council Chooses Options 2018 Salmon Season

March 19, 2018 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

ROHNERT PARK, Calif. – The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted for public review three alternatives for the 2018 salmon seasons off the West Coast of the United States. The Council will select a final alternative at their next meeting in Portland, Oregon April 6-11. Detailed information about season starting dates, areas open, and catch limits for all three alternatives are available on the Council’s website at www.pcouncil.org.

Fisheries north of Cape Falcon (in northern Oregon) are limited by the need to reduce catch of lower Columbia natural tule Chinook and coho stocks of concern. Additionally, three stocks of coho (Queets River, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Snohomish) currently meet the criteria for overfished status, which is also a concern when structuring 2018 fisheries. The Council also provided guidance to structure ocean fisheries so that the ocean escapement of Columbia River upriver bright fall Chinook is at least 200,000 fish, which will allow more access to that healthy stock in Columbia River treaty Indian and non-Indian fisheries.

Fisheries south of Cape Falcon are limited by the need to reduce catch of Oregon Coast natural coho, Klamath River fall Chinook, Sacramento River fall Chinook, and Rouge/Klamath coho.  Klamath River fall Chinook and Sacramento River fall Chinook contribute significantly to ocean harvest, but both met the criteria for overfished status as a result of poor returns over the past three years.  However, the forecast for Klamath River fall Chinook is substantially improved over last year, and both stocks are projected to meet their spawning escapement objectives under this year’s management alternatives.

“Although some abundance forecasts are improved over last year, the 2018 salmon runs still present a challenge for ocean fishermen and managers throughout the west coast,” said Executive Director Chuck Tracy. “In the north, low returns of some Puget Sound and Washington coastal coho runs and lower Columbia River natural tule fall Chinook will constrain fisheries. In the south, the conservation needs of Sacramento River fall Chinook and Rogue/Klamath coho will constrain fisheries.”

“Once again, the Council adopted a range of management alternatives for public review designed to conserve and rebuild a broad range of Chinook and coho stocks of concern. Commercial and recreational fisheries will face restrictions in areas along the entire west coast in response to the Council’s conservation efforts” said Council Chair Phil Anderson.

Northern Oregon and Washington (north of Cape Falcon)

Sport season alternatives

Ocean sport fishery alternatives north of Cape Falcon in Oregon and off the Washington coast include Chinook recreational quotas ranging from 22,500 to 32,500, a decrease from 2017. For coho, recreational quotas range from 16,800 to 42,000 hatchery coho, compared to 42,000 in 2017.  Starting dates range from June 23 to July 1, and in all alternatives, recreational fisheries are scheduled to run through early September. Both coho and Chinook retention are allowed in all alternatives.

Commercial season alternatives

Non-Indian ocean commercial fishery alternatives north of Cape Falcon include traditional Chinook seasons between May and September. Chinook quotas for all areas and times range from 22,500 to 32,500, compared to 45,000 in 2017. Coho quotas in the commercial fishery alternatives range from 3,200 to 5,600 marked coho, similar to 2017.

Read the release in its entirety here.

 

Premium scallop line, rebranding effort part of the next chapter for Northern Wind

March 15, 2018 — New Bedford, Massachusetts-based seafood supplier Northern Wind, celebrated a milestone 30-year anniversary at the 2018 Seafood Expo North America event in Boston, Massachusetts. Company founders Ken Melanson and Michael Fernandes, along with Northern Wind’s co-CEO George S. Kouri, said they look forward to blossoming the success of Northern Wind even further in the years to come.

“We’re looking forward to the next chapter, because the first 30 years have been so robust and fruitful for the company,” Kouri said. “The next chapter for this company brings a lot of different opportunities for us – it brings opportunity for change; it brings opportunity to increase channels of distribution; it brings opportunities for new product sourcing; it brings opportunity for our re-branding efforts in packaging, re-facing the company in the image we want to project. It goes on and on, including Fair Trade.”

Besides scallops, the supplier has established a wide-ranging portfolio including ahi tuna, Atlantic salmon, North American lobster, monkfish, headfish, skate, and value-added seafood offerings. But the business has made its name with scallops.

“We have strict and strong historical relationships with vessels. We have state-of-the-art facilities with very well-financed capital improvements that enable us to process and produce probably more scallops than anyone in this industry,” Kouri said. “We’re very much known for our quality, our credibility, our loyalty to our supply side, and our customer service.”

A year ago, the company was the first scallop producer in the nation to receive Fair Trade certification. Building off demand from the foodservice sector for premium scallops, the company has launched its Captain’s Call Five-Star Premium Scallops.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Alaska: Cook Inlet salmon plan back in front of federal council in April

March 15, 2018 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council will continue its discussion of who should manage Cook Inlet salmon fisheries, and how, at its April meeting in Anchorage.

The council is continuing court-ordered work to develop a federal fishery management plan, or FMP, for the salmon fisheries currently managed by the state in Cook Inlet, including creation of a new salmon management committee.

From October 2017 to this February, the council solicited proposals regarding the membership of the new committee and the work it might do. Those are expected to be made public around March 16, and the council will discuss them at its April meeting in Anchorage.

According to information provided by the council, the comment period generated 33 responses, 25 nominations or applications for participation on the new salmon committee. Those nominations won’t be considered right away, however.

The council is also expected to issue the formal call for salmon committee members at the April meeting, and a decision on membership won’t come until after that comment period.

The committee and other work to re-tool Cook Inlet salmon management all stems from a lawsuit brought by the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, or UCIDA, that challenged the council decision in 2011 to formally remove the Cook Inlet, Alaska Peninsula and Prince William Sound salmon fisheries from the federal management plan.

The council is now working to write a Cook Inlet management plan at the directive of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed a U.S. District Court of Alaska judge’s decision to dismiss UCIDA’s lawsuit in 2016.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce