Saving Seafood

Court Says Antibiotic Use in Chilean Fisheries Should be Public Knowledge

September 20, 2015 — The organization Oceana won a landmark case last week against the Chilean government. The appeal, which went up against the National Fisheries and Agricultural Services (Sernapesca) found the judges unanimously decided that the Council for Transparency had to release its data regarding antibiotic usage in Chilean salmon.

The lawsuit began some time back, when reports were released that showed staggeringly high amounts of antibiotic usage within Chilean salmon fisheries. Salmon in Chile is susceptible to a disease called Piscirickettsiosis which can cause hemorrhaging, organ failure and death in salmon. A report by Reuters earlier this year showed Costco, along with a number of U.S. chains, had cut the amount of Chilean salmon it was buying in favor of salmon from Norway – which generally uses fewer antibiotics (although it should be noted that numbers for last year’s antibiotic use were not available from Norway).

However, those within the industry contest this accusation. They say the antibiotics used save these fish and heal them from the bacteria. They maintain that the fish are then weaned off these medications until no traces remain, before being shipped to market. Ricardo Garcia, the chief executive at Camanchaca, a large salmon producer in Chile, told Reuters that, “The final product consumers eat has no antibiotics.”

Read the full story at Care2

 

Salmon that will get you baked: weed-infused fish the latest in cannabis cuisine

September 17, 2015 — Sliced thin with flecks of dill peeking out, the salmon looks like any other of gravlax you would have for brunch. But put it on a bagel with a schmear of cream cheese, and you will get pretty stoned eating this delicacy.

The mastermind behind the THC-infused salmon – cured in salt, dill, lemon, sugar and a weed tincture – is Josh Pollack, owner of Rosenberg’s Bagels and Delicatessen in Denver.

“I love bagels and lox, and I love cannabis,” Pollack said.

Pollack, a New Jersey native who grew up going to establishments like Russ and Daughters, moved to Colorado for college. He loved the state, but missed the bagels from back east. After graduating, he worked in finance for a while, but tired of that and moved on to a more fulfilling passion: food.

“I’ve always been food obsessed,” Pollack said. “Bagels and lox has always been a comfort food.”

It was tough to find his favorite comfort food, so specific to the New York and New Jersey area, in Denver. So last year, Pollack opened Rosenberg’s Bagels and Delicatessen to serve up classics like bagels and lox.

Read the full story at The Guardian

 

Scientists Link Oil Exposure to Reduced Survival of Fish

September 8, 2015 — ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Federal scientists may have found a link between the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and a decline of herring and pink salmon populations in Prince William Sound.

In a study published Tuesday in the online journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that embryonic salmon and herring exposed to even very low levels of crude oil can develop heart defects.

Herring and pink salmon juveniles that were exposed to crude oil as embryos grew slower and swam slower, making them vulnerable to predators, said John Incardona, a research toxicologist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, in a prepared statement

“These juvenile fish on the outside look completely normal, but their hearts are not functioning properly and that translates directly into reduced swimming ability and reduced survival,” Incardona said. “In terms of impacts to shore-spawning fish, the oil spill likely had a much bigger footprint than anyone realized.”

The 986-foot Exxon Valdez struck a charted Bligh Reef at 12:04 am March 24, 1989, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. At the time, it was the largest spill in U.S. history. Oil extensively fouled shoreline spawning habitat of herring and pink salmon, the two most important commercial fish species in Prince William Sound.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Obama’s fish tale: salmon spawning on his shoes

DILLINGHAM, Alaska (AP) — September 3, 2015 — This oh-my moment was nowhere on the official schedule for President Barack Obama’s visit to Alaska: salmon spawning on his shoes.

“You see that?” Obama declared Wednesday as he gripped a fish with two hands. “Something’s got on my shoes. … Generally you don’t want fish spawning on your feet. He said the local fisherwoman who accompanied him said the fish was “happy to see me.”

Visiting an isolated fishing village on a grey, overcast day, the president was full of admiration for the whole operation: He pronounced salmon jerky “really good,” tried unsuccessfully to scare up a knife so he could attempt to filet a fish and carefully inspected smokehouse drying racks.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times

It’s been a roller coaster season for salmon

August 21, 2015 — Fishermen say it will be a stretch for total catch to reach forecasted 221 million fish

Alaska’s salmon season so far has been characterized by ups and downs, and it will be a stretch for the total catch to make the forecasted 221 million fish.

“It just depends on how these late returning pink salmon at Prince William Sound perform, and whether or not pinks pick up at Southeast.

It’s possible, but we would still have to harvest around 30 million more salmon,” mused Forrest Bowers, Deputy Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division.

One of the biggest fish stories of the season, of course, was the surprising double runs of sockeye salmon (reds) to Bristol Bay. As soon as a slow going first run petered out and the fishery was declared a bust, a surge of late reds caught everyone by surprise and pushed the catch to nearly 36 million fish.

Alaska’s sockeye salmon fishery sometimes accounts for almost two-thirds of the value of the total salmon harvest. A statewide tally of 51.5 million by August 14 makes it unlikely the sockeye harvest will reach the projected take of 58.8 million fish.

Read the full story at the Arctic Sounder

 

 

Alaska’s salmon harvest numbers indicate large harvest despite perceptions

August 19, 2015 — Alaska’s salmon season so far has been characterized by ups and downs, and it will be a stretch for the total catch to make the forecasted 221 million fish.

“It just depends on how these late returning pink salmon at Prince William Sound performs, and whether or not pinks pick up at Southeast. It’s possible, but we would still have to harvest around 30 million more salmon,” mused Forrest Bowers, Deputy Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division.

One of the biggest fish stories of the season, of course, was the surprising double runs of sockeye salmon (reds) to Bristol Bay. As soon as a slow-going first run petered out and the fishery was declared a bust, a surge of late reds caught everyone by surprise and pushed the catch to nearly 36 million fish.

Alaska’s sockeye salmon fishery sometimes accounts for almost two-thirds of the value of the total salmon harvest. A statewide tally of 51.5 million by mid-August 14 makes it unlikely the sockeye harvest will reach the projected take of 58.8 million fish.

Reds might be the big money fish but pinks are fishermen’s bread and butter, and Prince William Sound scoops the story there. Record returns to some hatcheries and better than expected wild pink salmon returns have pushed catches above 75 million and the humpies are still coming home. Will it top the Sound’s record 93 million pinks taken in 2013?

“You never know,” Bowers said.

Conversely, the much anticipated pink salmon boom at Southeast Alaska has yet to materialize with the catch nearing 23 million.

“There’s still a bit of fishing time remaining and the harvest will continue to tick upward, but right now it doesn’t look like we’ll hit that forecast of 58 million pinks,” Bowers said.

The statewide catch forecast for pink salmon this year is 140 million; the take by mid-August was 128 million fish.

Other salmon highlights:

Cook Inlet’s sockeye harvest of 2.7 million is just slightly higher than last year’s.

 

Read the full story at Capital City Weekly

 

Season of ups and downs leaves salmon short of forecasted 221 million

August 19, 2015 — Alaska’s salmon season so far has been characterized by ups and downs, and it will be a stretch for the total catch to make the forecasted 221 million fish.

“It just depends on how these late-returning pink salmon at Prince William Sound perform, and whether or not pinks pick up at Southeast. It’s possible, but we would still have to harvest around 30 million more salmon,” mused Forrest Bowers, Deputy Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division.

One of the biggest fish stories of the season, of course, was the surprising double runs of sockeye salmon (reds) to Bristol Bay. As soon as a slow-going first run petered out and the fishery was declared a bust, a surge of late reds caught everyone by surprise and pushed the catch to nearly 36 million fish.

Alaska’s sockeye salmon fishery sometimes accounts for almost two-thirds of the value of the total salmon harvest. A statewide tally of 51.5 million by Aug. 14 makes it unlikely the sockeye harvest will reach the projected take of 58.8 million fish.

Reds might be the big money fish, but pinks are fishermen’s bread and butter, and Prince William Sound scoops the story there. Record returns to some hatcheries and better-than-expected wild pink salmon returns have pushed catches above 75 million — and the humpies are still coming home. Will it top the Sound’s record 93 million pinks taken in 2013?

Conversely, the much-anticipated pink salmon boom at Southeast Alaska has yet to materialize with the catch nearing 23 million.

“There’s still a bit of fishing time remaining, and the harvest will continue to tick upward, but right now it doesn’t look like we’ll hit that forecast of 58 million pinks,” Bowers said.

The statewide catch forecast for pinks this year is 140 million; the take by mid-August was 128 million fish.

Read the full story at the Homer Tribune

Atlantic Salmon Smolts Survive the Dam but Die Downstream

August 4, 2015 — Salmon are famous for boldly fighting their way upstream to spawn. But their trip downstream as young smolts is no less heroic. In the case of Atlantic salmon, many must pass through or around dams, and new research reveals that even if they survive the initial hazard, they may suffer injuries that make them more likely to die days or weeks later in the estuary, where the river meets the sea. What’s more, the effects are cumulative: for each dam a smolt passes, its chance of dying in the estuary increases by 6 to 7 percent.

“The effects of dams aren’t limited to a 500-meter stretch below the dam, but extend tens of kilometers out to sea,” said Dan Stich, the lead author of the study, which appeared recently in the journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries. “In fact, the number of fish killed by the delayed effects of dams can be greater than the number killed at the dam itself.”

Atlantic salmon are endangered in the United States, and these findings suggest that making dam passage safer for smolts can help the recovery of the species.

Stich conducted the study as a Ph.D. student at the University of Maine and is now a biologist with NOAA Fisheries. John Kocik, a research fisheries biologist at NOAA and a co-author of the study, said, “We already knew that we were losing a lot of fish in the estuary. Now that Dan’s research has identified some critical mechanisms behind that loss, something can be done about it.”

Toll Booths along the River

For this study, scientists surgically implanted acoustic tags into 941 smolts in the Penobscot River between 2005 and 2013. Those tags emit a coded sound roughly once a minute that uniquely identifies the fish carrying it.

As the fish travel downstream, the sound is picked up by receivers that span the river and the mouth of the estuary. The receivers function like electronic tollbooths, logging each fish as it passes so that scientists can track its progress. When a fish stops moving, it is assumed to have died.

The acoustic tags are about the size and shape of the metal eraser holder on a standard wooden pencil. Experiments have shown that implanting them in the 5- to 7-inch smolts does not harm the fish enough to significantly skew the results of the study.

A Dangerous Passage

At almost 1,000 tagged smolts, this study was the largest of its kind on Atlantic salmon, and it gave scientists enough statistical power to tease apart the factors that influence smolt survival. Of all the variables tested—including temperature, hours of daylight, distance traveled, and many more—one of the factors that most affected a smolt’s chances of survival was the number of dams it passed on its way to the ocean.

In the Penobscot River, most smolts pass dams in sluices or spillways. Those diversions keep most fish out of the generating turbines, but the ride can be rough and leave the fish injured or partially de-scaled. That can make them more vulnerable to predators and less able to withstand saltwater when they first encounter it days or weeks later.

“There are a lot of things waiting in the estuary to eat them,” Kocik said, including cormorants, seals, and striped bass. “Any fish that’s injured is easy prey.”

Timing Matters

As they make their way downstream, the smolts transform into ocean-going fish. They become longer and slimmer, acquire the ability to excrete salt from their gills, and are soon ready to migrate thousands of miles to Greenland.

This study showed that if smolts hit the estuary at peak saltwater readiness, their survival rate increases by up to 25 percent. The study also showed that scientists can estimate when that optimum window opens based on variations in stream temperature. This new understanding has already changed the way hatchery managers time the release of their smolts.

As for the effect of dams on downstream survival, now that it has been measured it can be managed. Two dams were recently removed from the main stem of the Penobscot River. In addition, NOAA Fisheries, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and dam operators are working to aid recovery by making the remaining dams more salmon-friendly.

A large fraction of Atlantic salmon die in the ocean, where little can be done to increase survival. But in freshwater, there are options. In addition to removing dams and improving fish passages, several projects are underway to restore freshwater spawning and rearing habitats.

“The best thing we can do is boost the number of fish going out,” Stich said. “And understanding how dams affect fish survival will help us do that.”

Read the story and watch the video from NOAA

 

Alaska Salmon season might miss forecast

August 10, 2015 — The state’s salmon harvest topped 160 million fish over the weekend, but it’s questionable whether the catch will meet preseason expectations.

In Southeast, catches are running well below the forecast set earlier this year. As of Sunday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported 22.6 million salmon caught in Southeast, including only 15 million pink salmon. Heading into the season, the spot forecast called for 58 million pink salmon, and forecasters were 80 percent confident that the harvest would be between 37 million and 79 million fish.

Instead, figures now seem to indicate a harvest below the bottom end of that range.

In an average year, Southeast’s salmon harvest peaks in what ADFG calls “statistical week 32,” or between Aug. 2-8. The five-year average harvest for that week is 11.1 million salmon, mostly pinks, but recent years have been higher. Last year, 12.1 million fish were caught during that period.

Read the full story from Juneau Empire