Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Scientist Puzzled Over Declining King Salmon Runs

March 15, 2017 — The statewide study of king salmon decline has not yielded any definitive conclusions. The results of the three-year study of the incidental catch of Chinooks showing up in the state’s commercial salmon fisheries ended with no real information about kings headed into the Bering Sea.

Kyle Shedd is a fisheries geneticist with the Marine Conservation Laboratory at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He says that the genetic study of incidental catch of kings showed that most of the fish caught were not Alaska king salmon, but ones headed south to British Columbia and even further south down the west coast of the U.S.

“The vast majority of Chinook salmon incidentally harvested in commercial fisheries, and also caught in the sport fisheries, were from southern stocks, so British Columbia and the West Coast of the United States. Very few of them were Alaska.”

Read the full story at KYUK

PACIFIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL CHOOSES OPTIONS FOR 2017 SALMON SEASON

March 13, 2017 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

VANCOUVER, Wa. — The Pacific Fishery Management Council today adopted three public review alternatives for the 2017 salmon seasons off the West Coast of the United States. The Council will select a final alternative at their next meeting in Sacramento, California on 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 or http://tinyurl.com/salmon2017.

Fisheries south of Cape Falcon (in northern Oregon) are limited by the need to protect Klamath River fall Chinook, and south of Point Arena (in northern California), they are also affected by the need to protect Sacramento River winter Chinook. Returns of spawning Klamath River fall Chinook are projected to be the lowest on record in 2017 due to drought, disease, poor ocean conditions, and other issues. At the same time, the Council must protect Sacramento winter-run Chinook, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Because both of these fish intermix with other stocks in the ocean, fisheries targeting more abundant stocks must be constrained.

“The salmon runs this year will present a challenge for ocean fishermen and managers throughout the West Coast,” said Executive Director Chuck Tracy. “In the north, several coho runs will keep ocean quotas lower than normal. In the south, the low forecast for Klamath River fall Chinook is unprecedented, and the most restrictive alternative the Council will consider allows no ocean fishing between Cape Falcon, Oregon and the U.S./Mexico border after April 30 this year.”

“This year will be an exceptionally difficult year for ocean salmon fisheries, especially in Oregon and California. However, there are alternatives that may provide at least limited opportunity for both commercial and recreational ocean salmon fishing along much of the coast,” said Council Chair Herb Pollard.

Northern Oregon and Washington (north of Cape Falcon)

Sport season alternatives

Ocean sport fishery options north of Cape Falcon in Oregon and off the Washington coast are focused on Chinook salmon this year. One alternative includes a mark-selective Chinook fishery in June, while all alternatives include Chinook fishing opportunity in June or July-September, which are not mark-selective. Chinook recreational quotas range from 40,000 to 54,500. For coho, two alternatives allow modest coastwide opportunity. One allows opportunity for 58,800 hatchery coho in late June through September; the other allows opportunity for 50,400 hatchery coho in late June through September. A third alternative permits limited coho fishing only in the Columbia River area between Cape Falcon and Leadbetter Point, with a coho quota of 18,900 hatchery coho that starts in July and runs into September.

Commercial season options

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 40,000 to 50,000, compared to 35,000 in 2016. Two commercial fishery alternatives allow retention of coho, with quotas of 5,600 and 9,600 marked coho (compared to only one alternative in 2016 with a quota of 7,200 marked coho). A third alternative prohibits coho retention in the commercial fishery.

Tribal ocean fisheries north of Cape Falcon

Chinook and coho quotas for tribal ocean fishery alternatives range from 30,000 to 50,000 for Chinook salmon, and from 12,500 to 40,000 for coho. Seasons open May 1 and run through September 15.

 California and southern Oregon (south of Cape Falcon) 

Sport season options

From the north, recreational season alternatives south of Cape Falcon are heavily constrained this year to protect Klamath River fall Chinook. Alternatives for Oregon Chinook fishing in the Tillamook, Newport, and Coos Bay areas all open March 15 and run either continuously through October 31 or are closed May through August.

Oregon ocean recreational alternatives include mark-selective coho fishing seasons starting in June or July, and running through July or into early August in the area between Cape Falcon and the Oregon/California border. Quotas range from 20,000 to 30,000 marked coho. In addition, a non-mark-selective fishery is proposed for the area between Cape Falcon and Humbug Mt. in September, with a quota of 10,000 coho.

Due to the poor status of Klamath River fall Chinook, none of the alternatives provide for Chinook–directed fisheries in the Klamath Management Zone, which extends from Humbug Mt., Oregon to Horse Mt., California. One alternative does include a mark-selective coho fishery in the Oregon portion of the Klamath Management Zone and extending north to Cape Falcon.

California ocean sport fishing alternatives for areas south of Horse Mountain provide seasons that are fairly conservative in comparison to recent years to protect Klamath River fall Chinook and Sacramento River winter Chinook. These protective measures include shortened seasons and mid-season closures.

Commercial season options

As with recreational seasons, commercial season alternatives south of Cape Falcon are heavily constrained this year to protect Klamath River fall Chinook. Chinook salmon seasons under Alternative 1 include an opening in the Tillamook and Newport areas from mid-April through October, with several closed periods.

In Alternative 2, the Tillamook, Newport and Coos Bay area seasons would be open most days beginning in mid-April through early June and two days in August. Under Alternative 3, commercial salmon fishing would be closed in these areas.

As in the sport fishery, commercial salmon fishing is not allowed in the Klamath Management Zone in any of the alternatives to protect Klamath River fall Chinook.

 

Commercial season alternatives south of the Klamath Management Zone are also heavily constrained this year to protect Klamath River fall Chinook and Sacramento River winter Chinook. In the Fort Bragg management area (Horse Mt. to Pt. Arena), two of the alternatives are completely closed, and the third only provides for a September fishery. There is more opportunity south of Pt. Arena, but seasons are still constrained compared to recent years. Two of the alternatives include August-October fisheries in the San Francisco management area (Pt. Arena to Pigeon Pt.) and May-June fisheries in the Monterey management area (Pigeon Pt. to the U.S./Mexico border), but the third alternative has these areas closed for the whole season.

Management Process

Public hearings to receive input on the alternatives are scheduled for March 27 in Westport, Washington and Coos Bay, Oregon; and for March 28 in Fort Bragg, California. The Council will consult with scientists, hear public comment, revise preliminary decisions and choose a final alternative at its meeting April 6-11 in Sacramento, California.

The Council will forward its final season recommendations to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for its approval and implementation by May 1.

All Council meetings are open to the public.

Council Role

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 for the purpose of managing fisheries 3-200 miles offshore of the United States of America coastline. The Pacific Council recommends management measures for fisheries off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.

 

ALASKA: State appeals to U.S. Supreme Court to overturn salmon decision

March 1, 2017 — In the midst of the Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries meeting, the battle for state management of Cook Inlet salmon fisheries continues.

The State of Alaska has filed with the U.S. Supreme Court to review a recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeal decision that would require some of Alaska’s salmon fisheries to conform to federal management.

The state says this is the wrong move.

“This is an area where the federal government recognizes the State’s expertise and agrees that the State is better equipped to manage the fishery, even in federal waters,” said Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth in a press release Feb. 27. “We hope the U.S. Supreme Court will review this important issue and reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision.”

Last September, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2011 decision by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to remove several Alaska salmon fisheries from the federal management plan.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Alaska’s mysteriously shrinking Kenai king salmon

February 28, 2017 — I attended a book signing at a Ninilchik book club meeting in early January of this year and met a bubbly lady by the name of Shirley, who, it turned out, is the stepdaughter of Les Anderson.  You may remember that Anderson, fishing with friend Bud Lofstedt, caught the largest king salmon ever taken on rod and reel in North America.

The great fish was caught in the Kenai River on May 17, 1985. The behemoth weighed a whopping 97 pounds 4 ounces after laying in the bottom of Les’ boat and then later his pickup truck for several hours. Reports indicate that the fish was beached around 7 a.m. but not weighed until 2 p.m. Many believe the fish would have topped 100 pounds had it been weighed immediately. We’ll never know.

As Shirley and I bantered back and forth, she shared with me that she still has cans of Les’ big king tucked away on the shelves of her pantry.

“Really!” I reacted with amazement.

She had my attention. Coincidentally, I had just finished reading several scientific papers written by fisheries scientists who used protein electrophoresis and mitochondrial DNA to separate the first run of Kenai River kings from second-run fish — or perhaps more accurately, tributary spawners from mainstem spawners.

My mind immediately began to race, thinking back on the last 32 years of Cook Inlet salmon fisheries management on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers. I wondered what that DNA in those cans might reveal if we could analyze it. With today’s technology and the king salmon DNA baseline data now available for many streams in the Kenai watershed, we could tell a lot about that fish if we just had a small tissue sample.

Turns out, once the flesh has been cooked, it renders it useless for DNA analysis. In addition, Les had the fish mounted, and all the tissue, head, entrails, and fins were disposed of long ago.

Still, it piqued my interest and got me thinking about the years since Les caught his great fish and how we moved from the king salmon abundance and size on the Kenai in 1985 to the low abundance and smaller kings seen in the 21st century.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

Downstream from the stricken Oroville Dam, the Feather River Fish Hatchery manages to save millions of fish

February 22, 2017 — On Friday, the staff at the Feather River Fish Hatchery, just downstream from the stricken Oroville Dam, took stock of their losses, gave thanks for their victories and girded for a long, hard recovery after being inundated with debris-laden water the color of chocolate milk.

A few thousand Chinook salmon fry didn’t make it. But millions of others survived, as did 1 million federally endangered steelhead trout eggs.

The dirty water had been spewed from a jagged crater in the dam’s main, concrete-lined spillway discovered after California Department of Water Resources officials increased releases of reservoir water a week ago to offset inflows of rainfall. By the time they halted the releases to inspect the damage, the Feather River below had been transformed into a torrent of fouled river water.

“Our hatchery, which rears salmon and steelhead, draws all of its water from the river,” said facility manager Anna Kastner, 52, wincing at the memory. “Suddenly, it was awash in liquid mud.”

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

Karl Johnstone: Alaska needs to update fisheries management

February 15, 2017 — The Alaska of today is not the Alaska of statehood. The 49th state has grown and changed radically.  The economy of the state is wholly different, and yet Alaska salmon management continues to be treated as if we just became a state.

Almost all major fisheries in the state have, for decades, been managed on the premise that commercial catches are always the highest and best use of Alaska salmon resources. This is especially true in upper Cook Inlet.

This premise ignores the changes that have occurred. In 1976, 191,000 sportfishing licenses of all types — resident and nonresident — were sold in Alaska. Nonresidents accounted for only 47,000 of them. By 2015, nonresident license sales alone had topped 278,000 — a six-fold increase.

Read the full opinion piece at the Alaska Dispatch News

The gross reason your salmon is about to get (even more) expensive.

January 25, 2017 — The bad news is you may have to cut back on how much salmon you eat. The good news is when you find out the gross reason why, you might not have much of an appetite anyway.

Salmon farms in Norway and Scotland, two of the world’s largest exporters, have been decimated by sea lice, a parasite that has feasted on the blood and skin of salmon for millennia. Farther south in Chile, a toxic algae bloom has killed enough of the fish to fill several Olympic swimming pools.

As the salmon die by the millions, it’s causing a supply-and-demand ripple effect that’s reaching deep into American wallets.

Worldwide farmed salmon production fell by 8.7 percent in a year, according to the Financial Times. And the Nasdaq Salmon Index showed a nearly 15 percent jump in salmon prices in the last three months.

In the near future, it only promises to get worse. And the dying fish and rising prices could fan the debate about whether growing salmon in giant ocean farms is sustainable.

For fans of salmon nigiri or frozen fillets plucked from supermarket freezers for quick, heart-healthy protein, expect salmon portions to shrink — and prices to grow, experts say.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

FDA, EPA Release Final Fish Consumption Advice

January 24, 2017 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have issued final advice regarding fish consumption, with the aim of helping pregnant women and those of childbearing years, along with breastfeeding mothers and parents of young children, make better choices about healthy and safe-to-eat fish, including shellfish.

To simplify the selection process, the agencies have created a reference chart (pictured) that sorts 62 types of fish into three categories: “Best choices” (two to three weekly servings recommended), “Good choices” (one weekly serving), and “Fish to Avoid.” According to FDA and EPA, “Best Choices” fish make up almost 90 percent of fish consumed in the United States.

An FDA analysis of fish consumption data discovered that half of pregnant women surveyed ate fewer than 2 ounces a week, much less than the recommended amount. Because the nutritional advantages of fish consumption are key to healthy development during pregnancy and early childhood, the agencies are advising two to three weekly servings of lower-mercury fish for pregnant women and women who may become pregnant, or 8 to 12 ounces. However, since all fish contain at least traces of mercury, which can be harmful to the brain and nervous system after prolonged exposure, the maximum level of consumption recommended in the final advice is still the previously recommended weekly level of 12 ounces, consistent with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

For adults, a usual serving is 4 ounces of fish, measured before cooking, while serving sizes for children should be smaller and adjusted by age and total calorie needs. The agencies recommend that children eat fish once or twice weekly, chosen from a variety of species.

Read the full story at the Progressive Grocer

Disaster Declared for West Coast Fisheries

January 23, 2017 — SEATTLE — Nine West Coast salmon and crab fisheries have been declared a disaster, allowing fishing communities to seek relief from the federal government.

Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker declared the disaster on Jan. 18.

Nine salmon and crab fisheries in Alaska, California and Washington suffered “sudden and unexpected large decreases in fish stock biomass or loss of access due to unusual ocean and climate conditions,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

The fisheries include Gulf of Alaska pink salmon, California Dungeness and rock crab, and several tribal salmon fisheries in Washington.

Read the full story at Courthouse News

Fisheries disasters declared for 9 species on United States West Coast

January 19, 2017 — The United States Secretary of Commerce declared nine salmon and crab fisheries in Alaska, California and Washington as fisheries disasters on Wednesday, 18 January, opening federal coffers for relief assistance.

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker announced each of the fisheries covered by the decision had “experienced sudden and unexpected large decreases in fish stock biomass due to unusual ocean and climate conditions.”

The newly designated fisheries disasters are:

In Alaska:
• Gulf of Alaska pink salmon fisheries (2016)

In California:
• California Dungeness and rock crab fishery (2015-2016)
• Yurok Tribe Klamath River Chinook salmon fishery (2016)

In Washington:
• Fraser River Makah Tribe and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe sockeye salmon fisheries (2014)
• Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay non-treaty coho salmon fishery (2015)
• Nisqually Indian Tribe, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and Squaxin Island Tribe South Puget Sound salmon fisheries (2015)
• Quinault Indian Nation Grays Harbor and Queets River coho salmon fishery (2015)
• Quileute Tribe Dungeness crab fishery (2015-2016)
• Ocean salmon troll fishery (2016)

Read the full story at Seafood Source