Saving Seafood

Alaska’s Salmon Harvest Nears 48 Million Fish

July 18, 2017 — Preliminary harvest data show the catch in Alaska’s wild salmon fisheries is nearing the 48 million fish mark. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ASF&G) count includes 31.6 million sockeyes, 8.4 million chums, 7.6 million pinks, 198,000 silvers and 193,000 Chinook salmon.

More than 25 million of those sockeyes were caught in the Bristol Bay fishery, including 9.6 million in the Nushagak district, 8 million in the Egegik district, in excess of 4 million in the Naknek-Kvichak district and 2.2 million in the Ugashik district.

State fisheries biologist Tim Sands, Dillingham, Alaska, described the sockeye fishery in the Nushagak district as “gangbusters,” as fishermen there brought in a record 1.2 million salmon on July 3. It was the second time this year, and in the history of the Nushagak district, that the daily sockeye salmon harvest exceeded one million reds, Sands said.

Processors on the Lower Yukon have taken deliver of some 331,000 oil rich keta salmon, and another 66,000 keta salmon were caught on the Upper Yukon.

Processors in Prince William Sound have received 7.9 million fish, including 482,000 Copper River reds and another 417,000 sockeyes from the Eshamy District, 51,000 from the Coghill District, 33,000 from the PWS general seine fishery, 2,000 from the Bering River drift and 1,000 from the Unakwik District drift fisheries.

Read the full story at Alaska Native News

Feds reviewing status of New England’s endangered salmon

July 2, 2017 — The federal government is starting a five-year review of the Gulf of Maine’s population of Atlantic salmon, which are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Atlantic salmon were once plentiful off New England, but dams, loss of habitat, pollution and overfishing dramatically reduced the population. The National Marine Fisheries Service says it is reviewing the health of the stock to get more updated information on its current status.

The fisheries service says the review will be based on scientific and commercial data. One group, the New Brunswick, Canada-based Atlantic Salmon Federation, says recent data are troubling. The group says total estimated returns of the fish to North America in 2016 showed a 27 percent decrease from the previous year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Daily Progress

Jellied sea creatures confound scientists, fishermen on U.S. Pacific Coast

June 28, 2017 — Drifting throngs of jelly-like, glowing organisms native to tropical seas far from shore have invaded Pacific coastal waters from Southern California to the Gulf of Alaska this year, baffling researchers and frustrating fishing crews.

Known as pyrosomes, they are tubular colonies of hundreds or thousands of tiny individual creatures called zooids, enmeshed together in a gelatinous tunic roughly the consistency of gummy bear candy.

No relation to jellyfish, they resemble bumpy, opaque pickles in the water, typically a few centimeters or inches long, though some grow 1 or 2 feet (30cm or 60cm) in length.

They feed by filtering microscopic algae, or phytoplankton, as they float with the current, and are known to glow in the dark – a bioluminescent characteristic that gives the organism its scientific name — Pyrosoma, Greek for “fire body.”

Pyrosomes have rarely if ever been seen along the U.S. West Coast until 2012, when first spotted in California waters. Since then, they have gradually multiplied and spread north, before exploding in numbers this spring, according to scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Although harmless to humans, they have been especially troublesome to the commercial salmon catch in Oregon, with large globs of the rubbery critters clogging fishing gear by the thousands in recent months. Some have even washed ashore.

“It gets to a point where they’re so abundant, you can’t even fish out there, so you have to pick up your gear and move elsewhere,” Nancy Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Oregon Salmon Commission, said on Monday.

A single five-minute trawl with a research net by scientists off the Columbia River in late May scooped up roughly 60,000 pyrosomes, NOAA reported.

Fishermen were also hit in southeastern Alaska, where some crews suspended operations earlier this year when pyrosome densities were at their height, said Aaron Baldwin, a fishery biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Read the full story at Reuters

Celebrating Efforts to Restore Endangered Atlantic Salmon

June 22, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

On a bright June evening, a group of people who care passionately about the plight of Atlantic salmon gathered at the Veazie Salmon Club on the banks of the Penobscot River.

Researchers, academics, fisheries managers, non-governmental organizations, and members of the local salmon club came together to recognize the hard work that has gone into restoring the Penobscot River’s habitat for sea-run fish. The Penobscot River Restoration Project removed two dams and improved passage around two others. As a result, critically endangered Atlantic salmon, as well as river herring, shad, American eel, and other sea-run fish have improved access to hundreds of miles of their historic habitat.

“Rivers like the Penobscot are where we make fish. Sea-run fish are indicators of the health of our estuaries, our groundfish stocks, and our communities,” said John Bullard, regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region, who was there to present the awards. “It’s amazing to hear about the signs of ecosystem recovery that we are seeing. While we haven’t seen strong returns of Atlantic salmon yet, the results of the restoration project for other sea-run fish are encouraging. To go from fewer than 3,000 river herring in 2013 to more than 1.2 million returns in 2016 is awe-inspiring.”

The evening’s festivities included recognition of the efforts of two individuals, Claude Westfall and Andy Goode, who have been instrumental in helping to restore this population of endangered fish. 

Read the full release here

NOAA Fisheries Announces Initiation of Atlantic Salmon Status Review

June 22, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries is initiating a five-year review of the Gulf of Maine distinct population segment (DPS) of Atlantic Salmon, as required by the Endangered Species Act. The Gulf of Maine DPS of Atlantic salmon is listed as endangered by NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. NOAA Fisheries is taking the lead for this review. 

In a five-year review, we evaluate the best scientific and commercial data available to review the current status of listed species. We use these reviews to ensure that listing classifications are accurate.

Through this announcement, we are requesting submission of information on the Gulf of Maine DPS of Atlantic salmon, including any information on the status, threats, and recovery of the species that has become available since the final listing determination in 2009.

Please submit your information by July 20, 2017, either through the e-Rulemaking portal or by mail to:

Dan Kircheis

NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region

Maine Field Station

17 Godfrey Drive

Orono, Maine 04473

Questions? Contact Dan Kircheis at 207-866-7320 or Dan.Kircheis@noaa.gov.

2017 SeaWeb Seafood Summit packs a sustainable, newsy punch

June 19, 2017 — The 2017 SeaWeb Seafood Summit, which took place 5 to 7 June in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., brought together more than 580 global representatives of the seafood industry, the conservation community, academia, government, and the media for in-depth discussions, presentations and networking around the issue of sustainable seafood.

Here’s a review of the news that was made at this year’s summit:

A major topic of discussion at the conference was pre-competitive collaboration, with several panels and keynotes approaching the issues from different angles. In the pre-conference on Sunday, 4 June, attendees heard from Nira Desai, the director of strategy and learning for the World Cocoa, a key player in the development of CocoaAction, a sustainability movement in the cocoa industry:

Cocoa industry offers seafood a crash course in pre-competitive collaboration

Pre-competitive collaboration will also play a key role in the future of global aquaculture, according to experts at the conference:

Success of “blue revolution” will depend heavily on pre-competitive collaboration, seafood experts say

In other big news for aquaculture, on Monday, 5 June, Seafood Watch upgraded farmed salmon certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council to its “Good Alternative” rating, marked “a watershed moment for the sustainability credentials of farmed salmon”:

Seafood Watch upgrades ASC-certified farmed salmon to “Good Alternative”

Later on Monday, 5 June, the 2017 Seafood Champion Awards were handed out at a ceremony in Chihuly Gardens in Seattle. SeafoodSource profiled each of this year’s winners:

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska budget deadlock would spell disaster for state’s fisheries

June 12, 2017 — Want a fishing license to crew on a salmon boat this summer? Got friends or family visiting who want to wet a line for a prized Alaska catch? Don’t count on it.

If the Alaska legislature continues to defy its constitutional obligation to pass a budget, those opportunities will be lost because there won’t be any state workers to issue fishing licenses. Layoff notices went out on June 1 to thousands of state employees who will be off the job at the July 1 start of the fiscal year.

That’s just one of the lesser impacts of the legislative impasse, hundreds of which are now being outlined by the governor and state agencies as the deadline approaches.

Here’s an overview of potential fishery related impacts from various divisions:

The Commercial Fisheries Division, which receives nearly all its management money from the state general fund, will be hit the hardest. The budget deadlock would bring all state fisheries to a screeching halt, and thousands of processing workers who live in or come to Alaska each summer would suddenly find themselves out of a job.

The biggest punch, of course, would be felt by the salmon fisheries — and the harm could extend well beyond this year.

Field staff at remote weirs, towers and salmon sonar counting projects from Southeast to Kotzebue will be pulled, said Scott Kelley, division director with the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game.

“A ballpark count is 40-50 projects for commercial fisheries. That doesn’t include projects operated by Sport Fish which are oftentimes equally important for overall salmon assessment, as well as aerial and foot surveys,” he said.

The stall means that managers’ ability to forecast future salmon escapement goals and collect other critical data also would be significantly compromised.

Cancelled harvests also could force too many salmon to head upstream and exceed the carrying capacity of food and oxygen in their home lakes or streams.

“That entirely depends on the strength of a given run,” Kelley explained. “In rearing limited systems, where the more spawners we put in the more fry we get, we could see significant impacts in terms of future yields. If we put a big number of sockeye into a system above the upper end of an escapement goal, the result could be reduced yield when that brood year returns over 3 to 5 years. If there are more fry than feed, they could have reduced in-lake survival, reduced marine survival because they leave freshwater smaller and less fit than normal. Prey densities also take a hit and take a while to recover.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

West Coast Senators Add Voices To Request For Salmon Disaster Declaration

June 9, 2017 — Four West Coast senators are calling on the Trump administration to declare a salmon fishery emergency and provide aid to economically struggling coastal communities.

Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon — as well as Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris from California — released a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Friday calling for the declaration. It comes in the wake of a similar appeal two weeks ago from the two states’ governors, Kate Brown of Oregon and Jerry Brown of California.

So far, the Trump administration has not publicly responded.

Concerns about idled salmon fishing fleets this year were raised after recommendations to restrict salmon fishing off the coasts of California and Oregon.

Read the full story at KUOW

Shutdown puts salmon fisheries at risk

June 9, 2017 — Alaska Department of Fish & Game workers are heading out to weirs and counting towers this month to prepare for the opening of salmon fisheries across the state, but with the Alaska Legislature unable to reach agreement on an operating budget, uncertainty remains about how to pay them.

State workers have already received notice of potential layoffs should the Legislature pass the July 1 deadline.

Fish & Game is rolling out management plans under the assumption that the Legislature will pass a budget before July 1. If lawmakers don’t pass that budget, a government shutdown would result in the layoff of thousands of state workers, ADF&G Commissioner Sam Cotten told the Empire in an interview Thursday at the State Office Building in Juneau.

Lucrative salmon fisheries are set to open in Bristol Bay and Southeast Alaska in coming weeks. Bristol Bay salmon runs traditionally peak around Independence Day. Because salmon only spawn during the summer, the shutdown makes them particularly vulnerable, Cotten said.

“If we’re talking about cod fish, you can wait a few months and the cod fish will still be there. But with salmon, the timing is pretty critical,” Cotten said.

In 2015, ADF&G estimated the value of Alaska’s commercial salmon harvest at $414 million.

“There’s thousands of jobs that are involved here, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and logistic planning,” Cotten said. “Big ships are in Bristol Bay waiting to haul fish out and people are being moved there and processing crews are getting the equipment ready to roll and it’s a situation we don’t want to find ourselves in. It’s hard and I’m struggling a little bit because there is so much uncertainty.”

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

ALASKA: As salmon defenders gather, more signs of a 2018 fish fight

June 8, 2017 — There are more signs that the hook has been set for Alaska’s biggest fisheries fight in a decade.

As members of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the International Pacific Halibut Commission gather in Juneau this week, salmon-supporting groups have been holding meetings about a double-barreled proposal to significantly strengthen legal protections for rivers that contain salmon.

That proposal has major implications for the state’s construction and mining industries.

Speaking Wednesday in downtown Juneau, Emily Anderson of the Wild Salmon Center said the proposal — now in the Legislature and simultaneously being considered for a 2018 ballot measure — is intended to fix a law created at statehood.

“It’s a very old law. It’s actually a holdover from the territorial government. It was changed just a little bit, but it’s very, very simple,” she said.

The law is Alaska Statute 16.05.871, which says in clause (d) that the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game should approve a project that disrupts a salmon stream “unless the commissioner finds the plans and specifications insufficient for the proper protection of fish and game.”

“The only standard there is the proper protection of fish and game. So what does that mean?” Anderson asked. “There’s nothing in statute, there’s nothing in regulation that actually defines what the proper protection of fish and game is. That’s a problem.”

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire