Saving Seafood

Not Too Late To Save Critically Endangered Orcas Say State Leaders And Feds

March 15, 2018 — The Pacific Northwest’s beloved orcas will not survive unless humans do more to ensure adequate food and cleaner, quieter waters. That was one of the messages at a crowded signing ceremony in Seattle convened by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

The population of genetically-distinct resident orcas has dwindled to a critically low level. Deaths outpace births. Only 76 remain as of the last count.

“This is a dangerously low number for a species that is already endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act,” Jeff Parsons of the Puget Sound Partnership said at a legislative hearing in Olympia earlier this month.

”We’re at a critical juncture with orcas and we need to act now if we’re to save the species,” added Bruce Wishart, a Sierra Club lobbyist.

The resident killer whales face three main threats topped by lack of prey. Their favorite food is Chinook salmon, which is also dwindling. Then there’s disturbance from vessels and underwater noise. A third threat is toxic pollution in the water and marine food chain.

“If they’re not getting enough food, they’re going to use their blubber where contaminants can often be stored,” said Lynne Barre, the federal orca recovery coordinator at NOAA Fisheries. . “But once they’re using that blubber and they circulate, it can cause immune dysfunction and that may be affecting reproduction as well.”

So is this dwindling population doomed?

“I don’t think it’s doomed,” Barre said. “We have seen the whales be at an even lower level in the past but that was following removals for public display and aquariums. So following those removals and low numbers we’ve seen in the past, we have seen this population be resilient and be able to grow—and even at a pretty high rate of two percent or more per year.”

That’s what Barre is hoping happens again now that the federal and state governments have complementary recovery plans. Inslee on Wednesday signed an executive order directing seven state agencies to take a wide variety of short and long-term actions.

Read the full story at NW News Network

 

Environmental groups sue U.S. Army Corps over Willamette dams, say salmon and steelhead at risk of extinction

March 14, 2018 — Three environmental groups followed through on a threat to sue the federal government Tuesday over the decline in wild salmon and steelhead in the Upper Willamette watershed.

The groups say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Marine Fisheries Service have failed to take required steps to improve conditions for the threatened fish.

The lawsuit targets the Willamette watershed’s system of dams and its negative impact on fish habitat.

“Federal dam operators in the Willamette River basin must act now to protect our native fish,” said Mark Sherwood, executive director of the Native Fish Society.

The lawsuit is derived from a legal agreement, called the Biological Opinion, issued in 2008, that essentially requires the Corps to modify dams to improve fish habitat.

Read the full story at the Statesman Journal

Limiting the Spread of Disease in Farmed Salmon

March 14, 2018 — Currents in the ocean spread viruses that are killing large numbers of Norway’s farmed salmon. Where should fish farms be built? And should they all be in use at the same time? Researchers now know more about how to limit the virus problem.

Pancreas disease is a viral infection in farmed salmon that causes major economic losses because it reduces how much the fish grow and increases mortality. When farmed salmon are weakened, they also become more susceptible to other diseases. Pancreas disease (PD) can resolve on its own, but often mortality is high.

Researchers monitored the ocean currents in the Romsdalsfjord and in Nord- Trøndelag county in 2014. Data from the observations have been transferred to a digital model, where researchers then depicted virtual virus particles in order to understand how the disease can spread from one fish farm to another. In addition to threatening fish welfare, every year the disease leads to major losses for Norwegian salmon breeders. A single outbreak can quickly cost a small aquaculture operation more than $1 million.

Ocean currents are one of the most important pathways for the disease, carrying the virus from one fish farm to the next. Planning for where best to locate aquaculture facilities, and knowledge of which facilities to use when combatting the disease, can prevent the spread of the disease, new research from NTNU in Ålesund shows.

Read the full story at Maritime Executive

 

This Is Why You Don’t See People-Size Salmon Anymore

March 13, 2018 — While the orcas of Puget Sound are sliding toward extinction, orcas farther north have been expanding their numbers. Their burgeoning hunger for big fish may be causing the killer whales’ main prey, Chinook salmon, to shrink up and down the West Coast.

Chinook salmon are also known as kings: the biggest of all salmon. They used to grow so enormous that it’s hard to believe the old photos now. Fishermen stand next to Chinooks almost as tall as they are, sometimes weighing 100 pounds or more.

“This has been a season of unusually large fish, and many weighing from 60 to 70 pounds have been taken,” The Oregonian reported in 1895.

Now, more than a century later, “it’s not impossible that we see individuals of that size today, but it’s much, much rarer,” University of Washington research scientist Jan Ohlberger says.

Ohlberger has been tracking the downsizing of salmon in recent decades, but salmon have been shrinking in numbers and in size for a long time. A century’s worth of dam-building, overfishing, habitat loss and replacement by hatchery fish cut the size of the average Chinook in half, studies in the 1980s and 1990s found.

Dam-building and fishing have tailed off, but Chinooks have been shrinking even faster in the past 15 years, according to a new paper by Ohlberger and colleagues in the journal Fish and Fisheries. Older and bigger fish are mostly gone.

Read the full story at KUOW

 

NOAA is pro-aquaculture, but won’t weigh in on salmon farm ban

March 13, 2018 — BOSTON — Don’t look for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to challenge the recent decision by Washington state to end salmon farming off its coast. The federal government’s hands are tied, said a senior NOAA official at the Seafood Expo North America, in Boston, Massachusetts, on Sunday afternoon.

“We do have separation of powers in the United States between the federal government and the state government,” said Michael Rubino, NOAA’s director of aquaculture, when asked. “And this was largely a state government matter.”

Washington state governor Jay Inslee is expected to soon sign House Bill 2957, a bill passed by the state’s Senate, 31-16, on March 2 that would allow the leases for offshore aquaculture facilities there to expire by 2025. The state’s House voted roughly two weeks earlier to support the bill.

Washington state’s dramatic action followed the much-publicized escape, in August, of more than 250,000 Atlantic salmon from a Cooke Aquaculture facility near Cypress Island.

When asked if NOAA might weigh in, Rubino simply responded that NOAA doesn’t have a say in the matter.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

British Columbia minister will push to move salmon farming onshore

March 13, 2018 — The minister of forest, land and natural resource operations, and rural development in British Columbia, Canada has called for moving open-net fish farms from the ocean to land-based operations.

Doug Donaldson stated publicly that though the option to ban Atlantic salmon farming is not currently available to him, as it’s regulated by the federal government, he is in favor of phasing out ocean-based salmon farming in favor of closed containment.

“We’re very concerned as a government about protecting wild salmon and the migratory routes that they use and we’re very interested in moving to closed containment where feasible,” he said in an interview with CBC News.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Cooke Aquaculture continuing to fight Washington ban even as it ponders next steps

March 9, 2018 — In an interview with SeafoodSource, Cooke Vice President of Communications Joel Richardson discussed his company’s efforts to convince Washington Governor Jay Inslee of the merits of the industry as the governor considers signing a bill that would phase out non-native finfish aquaculture in his state. Richardson also discussed the formulation of his company’s back-up plan in case it was unsuccessful in convincing the governor to veto the bill.

SeafoodSource: Is Cooke making any efforts to reach out to Gov. Inslee as he considers signing the bill?

Richardson: Yes, we will continue to reach out to Gov. Inslee over the coming days to urge him to veto HB 2957. Over the last few months we have provided Gov. Inslee and all legislators in Washington with evidence-based science from well-respected, credible fishery scientists to inform and educate on sea farming practices.  We are also aware that the Washington Fish Growers Association is now urging Governor Jay Inslee to veto the bill this week calling on a ban on Atlantic salmon aquaculture in state waters “Ill-conceived and politically motivated rather than based on the best available science.”

SeafoodSource: In what ways was science not taken into proper account by legislators as they considered the bill?

Richardson: You will have to ask the governor and legislators to answer that question.  However, in the aquaculture industry’s view, it’s appalling that that lawmakers have ignored calls to drop the ban from some of the world’s top aquaculture and fisheries scientists, including from the state Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, who refuted false and misleading claims made by anti-sea farming groups, tribes, and politicians that Atlantic salmon, when and if they escape, could interbreed with Pacific stocks or colonize rivers. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that the science from decades of peer-reviewed research does not support the conspiracy theory that Atlantic salmon that escape from net pens will colonize our rivers and/or interbreed with native stocks.

Read the full interview at Seafood Source

 

These Chinook almost went extinct during California’s drought. Can this $100 million plan save them?

March 9, 2018 — During the worst of California’s five-year drought, thousands of eggs and newly spawned salmon baked to death along a short stretch of the Sacramento River below Shasta Dam.

The winter-run Chinook, already hanging by a thread, nearly went extinct.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of that dire scenario, fisheries officials announced Thursday the launch of a plan — nearly 20 years and $100 million in the making — they say would expand the spawning range of the fish to include a cold-water stream called Battle Creek. The idea is that the stream could keep the fragile winter-run alive as California’s rivers get hotter because of a warming climate.

The stakes are high and go well beyond the fate of the fish. Concerns about this run of salmon have a major impact on how water is distributed to farms and cities across California.

During the drought, for example, farmers experienced cuts to their water supply as dam managers held water in Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir, in a frantic effort to ward off extinction of the Chinook.

Read the full story at the Sacramento Bee

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Unveils New Database to Evaluate Aquaculture Management

March 7, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) announced on Tuesday that they have launched a new approach to assessing sustainable aquaculture management in major production regions.

The nonprofit organization has published 35 profiles of farmed shrimp, salmon and pangasius across 10 countries. The profiles, which are available at www.fishsource.org, were written to “allow corporate buyers to assess specific production regions and better understand risks in their procurement strategies.”

“In SFP’s view, sustainably managed aquaculture requires best practices at the farm level, production zone level and national policy level,” SFP CEO Jim Cannon said in a press release. “The new methodology and profiles on FishSource offer a broad vision for sustainability managed aquaculture. SFP is inviting partners and industry to join us in adopting this ambitious new approach for aquaculture.”

SFP says that they plan to “continue developing and adding profiles to the database.” They hope that the tool will help businesses understand the risks affecting their supply chain.

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

 

NPFMC: Council meets April 2-10, 2018 in Anchorage, Alaska

March 7, 2018 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The meetings are held at the Hilton Hotel, 500 W. 3rd Avenue, in Anchorage, Alaska. The Agenda and Schedule are available, as well as a list of documents for review posted to the agenda prior to the meeting. Other meeting information follows:

  • Submit and review comments at comments.npfmc.org
  • Public comment deadline is March 30, 2018 at 12 noon (AST)
  • Hilton Hotel offers discounted room rates HERE
  • Alaska Airlines offers Discount Code: ECMZ242
  • Hotel wifi / password:  Hilton_Conference / summertime
  • Listen Online while the Council is in session

Salmon FMP:

The Council will review comments received from stakeholders and will determine the scope of work for a Salmon Committee. A staff report will provide context about how stakeholder recommendations comport with the Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements for fishery management plans, and whether the FMP applies to state waters and the sport fishery in the EEZ. Although the Council has already received submissions for membership (which are being held on file), the Salmon Committee will not be appointed until the Council has formally issued a call for nominations, as is scheduled to occur at this meeting.

Halibut ABM:

The discussion paper on BSAI halibut abundance-based management is being prepared to help the Council refine alternatives with respect to elements of the control rule. The paper will provide: an overview of the current Council motion and suite of alternatives (the control rules aspects), a suggested restructuring of the Council’s suite of alternatives with details on their complexity, and an evaluation of these to help the Council narrow the control rule options to a more reasonable range of control rule types, stepping through each individually (as was done with indices) and then providing the Work Group’s rationale for what might be reasonable for analysis. The draft alternatives brought forward are focusing largely on linear control rules and their application in 2-3D look up table for purposes of setting a PSC limit that may be influenced by information from the trawl survey and/or the IPHC setline survey. Draft alternatives also will also explore setting PSC limits by gear type separately to one or both indices and consider formulations which address halibut stock status.

Learn more about the NPFMC here.