Salmon Archives - Page 18 of 135

OREGON: West Coast Salmon Trollers Get Federal Support for Disaster Request

November 2, 2021 — Oregon’s coastal delegation is going to bat for the state’s salmon fishermen.

Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, with Reps. Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader and Suzanne Bonamici, all democrats, are urging the U.S. Department of Commerce to grant a catastrophic regional fishery disaster declaration for Oregon, the lawmakers said in a press release. Three consecutive years of challenging weather and conditions have hit salmon populations particularly hard, they said.

“The value of salmon to Oregon cannot be overstated. In addition to the economic activity generated by this industry, salmon are an important part of the cultural heritage of Pacific Northwest tribes, generate recreational activity, and are a treasured natural resource across the state,” they wrote in a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo last week. “However, the challenging impacts of climate change, increased drought, and changing ocean conditions complicate the recovery of salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

ALASKA: Southeast commercial salmon harvest 4 times higher than last year

November 2, 2021 — Southeast Alaska’s salmon harvest was over four times more than last year’s, according to a preliminary report from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game released on Monday (November 1).

Commercial fishermen in Southeast harvested 58 million salmon across the five species this year: almost 7 million chum salmon, 48 million pinks, 1.5 million coho, 1.1 million sockeye, and 216,000 king salmon.

That’s a marked improvement in harvest for every species. Even the embattled Southeast king salmon had a commercial harvest increase of more than 16,000 fish. In total, commercial salmon fishermen in the region caught and sold 44 million more salmon than last year.

Read the full story at KSTK

As tribal leaders, we urge collective action for Western Alaska salmon now

November 1, 2021 — This past summer, fish racks, smokehouses and fish camps across the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers and Norton Sound region in the western part of our state stood empty. Chinook and chum salmon are critical to the lifeblood of our nearly 100 regional tribal communities and are central to our cultures. However, they did not return this year throughout much of our regions. Our people are now facing a winter without this essential food source and missing an essential part of our traditions and way of life.

While tribes along our rivers were not allowed to harvest a single salmon or were severely restricted in their harvests last summer, the largely out-of-state industrial Bering Sea pollock trawl fleet is allowed to catch vast quantities of salmon as bycatch. In 2021 alone, 12,000 Chinook salmon and over 500,000 chum salmon thus far have been caught as bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. Wasting is not acceptable according to our cultural values, which guide us to take only what we need and use everything we take. This level of bycatch – viewed by the industry as discarded salmon – is disrespectful and should not be allowed.

Tribes and communities have been doing our part to help protect and restore our salmon runs by foregoing our subsistence harvests, engaging in research, and testifying about our experiences amid this salmon collapse. Earlier this month, we called on the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council to do their part by reducing this bycatch to zero for 2022 and taking strong steps towards a long-term solution to eliminate salmon bycatch and restore salmon runs to abundance.

Read the full op-ed at the Anchorage Daily News

Nordic Aquafarms wins legal victory, moving planned farm in Maine a step forward

November 1, 2021 — Nordic Aquafarms, which has plans to build a large land-based salmon farm in Belfast, Maine, U.S.A., has won a “complete and total victory” in a court case brought against the company by project opponents.

Nordic Aquafarms has been embroiled in a court battle over the ownership of intertidal land adjacent to property the company purchased rights to in order to route inflow and outflow pipes essential to the operations of the company’s proposed recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Keith Decker to lead American Aquafarms

October 28, 2021 — American Aquafarms, a Maine-based aquaculture company with plans for ocean-based salmon operations, a hatchery, fish farm and processing plant, announced Wednesday that 30-year industry veteran Keith Decker will join the company as chief executive officer.

Decker has extensive experience in seafood production and processing, with particular experience guiding and directing fast-paced organizations through substantial change and development. He is currently CEO of Blue Harvest Fisheries, which he joined in 2018 as the firm moved from start-up to growth phase.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

California, Hoopa Valley Tribe try to save salmon and a way of life

October 22, 2021 — California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials are completing an unprecedented effort to save more than 1 million Chinook salmon, a campaign that also may help preserve a way of life for a Native American tribe.

In June, salmon hatched at the Klamath River’s Iron Gate hatchery were temporarily trucked to a Trinity River hatchery in Northern California. The finger-length fish were held back from a scheduled release to the Pacific Ocean out of concern the river was too warm and too full of parasites for them to survive.

Over the past two weeks, they have been released as six-inch (150 mm) yearlings, when their natural mortality is lower and when the water is a little colder and to their liking.

It’s one step to address threats to fish populations that have declined since the Trinity and Klamath rivers were dammed in the 20th century.

Read the full story at Reuters

Parties in federal salmon lawsuit seek pause in litigation

October 22, 2021 — Fishing and conservation groups on Thursday joined with the state of Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe and the Biden administration to seek a pause in litigation challenging the latest federal plan for hydropower operations on the Snake and Columbia rivers in an effort to save endangered salmon runs.

If the federal court in Portland, Oregon, grants the stay, these parties will use the time to develop a comprehensive solution that could resolve decades of litigation.

The federal lawsuit, filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, involves the most recent plan for dam operations issued by the Trump administration in late 2020.

The conservation groups, along with the state of Oregon and the Nez Perce, had sued to block the Trump administration plan and also filed a request for an immediate injunction to dramatically increase water flow through the dams to help salmon migrate to the ocean. Thursday’s settlement covers only that injunction request. The lawsuit intended to save salmon is still moving forward.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

Fishery Closures and the Ghosts of Past Mistakes

October 22, 2021 — David Christian, a 63-year-old gill-netter, first heard about the Pacific salmon fishery closures via cellphone while he was getting his 11-meter Grizzly King gill-netter ready to fish for salmon. The news spread quickly across the calm June waters off the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, as fishers jumped on the radio to figure out what had just happened.

The radio chatter was incessant as fishers wondered aloud where they’d be allowed to fish, if they would be out of business, and what the future would hold. “Everyone was freaking out because all of those questions were unanswered,” Christian says, adding this policy will likely end British Columbia’s commercial salmon industry.

Announced on June 29, the closures are part of the latest plan by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to overhaul the Pacific salmon commercial industry in an attempt to save crashing salmon stocks. Pacific salmon harvests are down to just eight percent of their historical averages. The fishers were reacting to the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI), a CAN $647.1-million plan covering everything from habitat restoration to financial aid for fishers. Its goal: save the salmon and shrink the size of the commercial industry built around them.

Under the PSSI, DFO plans to close 57 percent of the 138 Pacific salmon fisheries along the west coast of British Columbia and Yukon. Closures will help protect at-risk salmon stocks from ending up as by-catch, says Neil Davis, DFO acting regional director of fisheries management. Fishing for salmon in the ocean—unlike traditional practices where Indigenous communities fish in rivers—makes it practically impossible to separate at-risk stocks from healthy stocks.

Davis says closures will protect more than 50 salmon stocks, such as the interior Fraser River coho and Okanagan River chinook, which are being evaluated by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada for listing under the Species at Risk Act.

Read the full story at Hakai Magazine

Mostly good Alaska commercial salmon season pushes up prices for fishing permits, but buyers have been scarce

October 19, 2021 — Optimism is the word that best sums up the attitude among most Alaska salmon fishermen after a good season, according to people in the business of buying and selling permits and boats.

Most fishermen in major regions ended up with good catches, and dock prices were up from recent years. That’s pushed up permit prices, notably at the bellwether fishery at Bristol Bay, where driftnet permits have topped $200,000.

“The highest has been $210,000, but it’s a pretty tight market,” said Maddie Lightsey, a broker at Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. “A lot of fishermen had a great year out there and made a lot of money. But buyers are hesitant to pay these really high prices. Many are hoping it’s a pretty short spike.

“Meanwhile, sellers are holding out for high prices while at the same time expressing concerns over increased tax burdens if they sell this year following such a good season. Those two things combined have really restricted the market and there haven’t been that many sales,” she added.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Pacific Fishery Management Council to hold online webinar only meeting in November 2021 to adopt management measures for ocean fisheries

October 19, 2021 – The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC or Council) and its advisory bodies will meet November 15-19 and 21-22, 2021 by webinar only, to address issues related to coastal pelagic species, groundfish, highly migratory species, salmon, Pacific halibut, and administrative matters.

Please see the November 2021 Council meeting webpage for further updates and details regarding webinar participation; schedule of advisory body meetings, our E-Portal for submitting public comments, and public comment deadlines. The meeting of the Council general session will be streamed live on the internet. The broadcast will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST) Tuesday, November 16, 2021. The meeting will continue daily at 8 a.m. through Monday, November 22nd, except there will be no meetings scheduled on Saturday, November 20th. Broadcasts end daily at 5 p.m. or when business for the day is complete.

Instructions for how to connect to the online meetings will be posted on the Council’s November 2021 meeting webpage prior to the first day of the meeting.

For further information:

•Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff at 503-820-2280; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Instructions for how to connect to the online meetings will be posted on the Council’s November 2021 meeting webpage prior to the first day of the meeting.

For further information:

•Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff at 503-820-2280; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.