Saving Seafood

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

MASSACHUSETTS: Fish column debuts

January 16, 2017 — There’s a whole, wide world of fishing and maritime stories taking place outside the realm of Cape Ann and New England, stuff that doesn’t necessarily merit full stories here in the Gloucester Daily Times, but still is worth knowing.

And that brings us to FishOn, a new weekly roundup column that will feature fishing-related briefs and items from around the globe, as well as serving as a forum for advancing important public meetings and events related to commercial and recreational fishing.

The column is scheduled to run in print and online on Mondays and public submissions are welcome. The column is strictly for the purposes of entertainment and information. So, no wagering.

Slow down, enjoy the spawning

You think it’s easy being a salmon? Think it’s all just swimming around, searching for a little nosh and nookie? Well, think again.

In a study produced at Sweden’s Umea University, researchers claim that human anti-depressants that make their way into salmon habitats are having a debilitating effect on young Atlantic salmon.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

The global chain that produces your fish

January 16, 2017 — PARIS — That smoked salmon you bought for the New Year’s festivities has a story to tell.

The salmon may have been raised in Scotland — but it probably began life as roe in Norway.

Harvested at a coastal farm, the fish may have been sent to Poland to be smoked.

It may even have travelled halfway around the world to China to be sliced.

It eventually arrived, wrapped in that tempting package, in your supermarket.

Globalisation has changed the world in many ways, but fish farming is one of the starkest examples of its benefits and hidden costs.

The nexus of the world fish-farming trade is China — the biggest exporter of fish products, the biggest producer of farmed fish and a major importer as well.

With battalions of lost-cost workers, linked to markets by a network of ocean-going refrigerated ships, China is the go-to place for labour-intensive fish processing.

In just a few clicks on Alibaba, the Chinese online trading hub, you can buy three tonnes of Norwegian filleted mackerel shipped from the port city of Qingdao for delivery within 45 days.

“There is a significant amount of bulk frozen fish sent to China just for filleting,” said a source from an association of importers in an EU country.

“The temperature of the fish is brought up to enable the filleting but the fish are not completely defrosted.”

The practice has helped transform the Chinese coastal provinces of Liaoning and Shandong into global centres for fish processing.

Read the full story at Yahoo

New York’s Best Smoked Fish Secretly All Comes From One Place

January 6, 2017 — “This looks like jewelry,” said Bloomberg Pursuits’ food editor, Kate Krader. “Like beautiful, luscious jewelry.”

The “this” in question was a small pile of smoked salmon from Barney Greengrass, and Krader, who’d spent the last five hours trudging across Manhattan and Brooklyn in an exhaustive attempt to sample some of the best smoked fish in New York, had hit a wall. “For what it’s worth,” she said with a faraway look in her eyes, “it tastes like it’s floating in the air.” (Krader was subsequently given a piece of a bagel and a glass of water and offered the opportunity to take a break. She persevered.)

Our restaurant expert is used to mouthwatering food binges, but Wednesday’s trip to Barney Greengrass, Zabar’s, Russ & Daughters, and Shelsky’s was a little different. Each of those delis, famed for their glistening stacks of smoked fish, uses one supplier, Brooklyn’s Acme Smoked Fish, for at least some of their stock. Each location, however, prices that same smoked salmon differently (from $39.96 to $45 a pound), and each location has its own dedicated following.

Krader was on a quest to see if the differences between each location’s Acme fish boiled down to mere marketing, or if there was something more sophisticated at play.

By the end of the day, stark distinctions between each store’s Acme fish had become apparent. “Our suppliers do special stuff for us,” said Joshua Russ Tupper, whose family founded Russ & Daughters in 1914 and who spoke to Krader as he was slicing fish behind the store’s Lower East Side counter. “They know our tastes.”

It was a claim made by virtually every location: Each store had specific criteria, and a special relationship with Acme, that made their fish “the best.”

“We have different types of salmon: wild fish, farmed fish—and then we have different sides of the fish,” said Ellen Lee-Allen, the senior marketing director at Acme Smoked Fish. “These are all variables that affect the finished product.”

What does not differ, she said, is the process in which the salmon in question is made—all of it cured with salt and then “cold smoked” in an oven at approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Lee-Allen confirmed that each store has its own particular methodology for choosing its salmon—based on preferences in flavors or textures.

Read the full story at Bloomberg