Saving Seafood

International fleet studying North Pacific salmon populations

February 9, 2022 — The largest-ever ecosystem survey of salmon across the North Pacific Ocean is bringing together 60 scientists from five nations and a flotilla of four research vessels to learn more about increasingly extreme climate variability and its effects on salmon survival.

The USD 10 million (EUR 8.8 million) research effort was organized through the International Year of the Salmon, a project support by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission, a treaty organization including the U.S., Canada, Russia, Japan, and South Korea that was originally created to control high-seas driftnetting for salmon. The 2022 Pan-Pacific Winter High Seas Expedition will engage in detailed sampling, using the four research vessels to scan areas 60 nautical miles apart on the high seas. Researchers hope the sea sweep can offer some explanation for fluctuations in salmon populations in reaction to big swings in ocean temperatures, and better predict the future of key salmon spawning populations affected by climate change.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

NMFS refuses emergency action on Bering Sea salmon bycatch

February 7, 2022 — A request by Alaskan Native groups for NMFS emergency action on salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery has been denied by the agency, saying the petition in effect asks for closure of the fishery, and would not address recent salmon run failures in western Alaska.

The request was submitted on Dec. 21 by Kawerak, Inc., the Association of Village Council Presidents, the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, and the Bering Sea Elders Group.

“It effectively asked Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to close the Bering Sea pollock fishery in 2022,” according to a statement from NMFS announcing the decision. “The petitioners also asked for Tribal consultation with Western and Interior Alaska Tribes to develop long-term measures to reduce chum salmon bycatch, which NOAA Fisheries is currently undertaking.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

NOAA Fisheries Denies Petition For Emergency Action on Bering Sea Salmon Bycatch

February 2, 2022 — Four days after the Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo approved eight fisheries in Alaska for official disaster determinations, including the 2020 Kuskokwim River salmon fishery and the 2020 and 2021 Yukon River salmon fisheries, NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit denied a petition for emergency action to lower the number of salmon caught incidentally in the Bering Sea.

The petitioners — the Association of Village Council Presidents, the Bering Sea Elders Group, Kawerak, Inc., the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, representing over 118 Alaska Tribes — saw significant salmon declines both years. The Yukon was particularly hard hit: the fishery had its lowest runs ever last summer. The commercial fishery remained closed. Yukon River families were not allowed to fish for subsistence salmon.

Th petition asked Raimondo for emergency action to eliminate Chinook salmon bycatch and set a cap on chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery in the 2022 season.

Coits letter of denial reached them a few days after news of the fishery disaster approvals was reported, opening the door for relief funds. Responding to the disaster declaration, which was requested by Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, the state’s Congressional delegation issued a joint written statement that the federal funds could help compensate “crews, seafood processors, and research initiatives in the impacted regions.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

Cool Ocean Waters, Abundant Nutrients Provide Rosy Outlook for Washington Salmon

February 1, 2022 — Scientific markers used to predict the health and productivity of marine species such as juvenile salmon were positive in 2021, the second most favorable since 1998, according to analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Fisheries biologists are cautiously optimistic that those conditions will persist into the near future, supporting the health of juvenile, ocean-run salmon off the coasts of Washington and Oregon.

The report looked at a number of oceanic health markers: atmospheric conditions, water temperature, salinity, oxygen levels, current movement, and biomass of Chinook and Coho salmon, along with food sources such as plankton and small crustaceans. Many of those indicators were more favorable than every year in the last 24, outside of 2008.

“Every once in a while, things are in alignment. … In 2021, everything from water temperatures to phytoplankton, zooplankton, and larval fishes were pointing in the same direction,” Brian Burke, a fishery biologist with NOAA, told MyNorthwest.

Burke attributes those conditions to a strong upwelling in the Pacific along the 45-degree parallel north, a term which refers to atmospheric and ocean conditions that bring cold, nutrient rich water from the deep ocean toward the surface.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Alaskan Indigenous leaders fear impacts on salmon streams by mining project

January 27, 2022 — For Indigenous tribes living in Alaska’s remote Yukon-Kuskokwim region, southwest of the state, the future is bleak and uncertain. Tribal councils worry that plans to construct a 6,474-hectare (15,990 acres) open-pit gold mine near the Kuskokwim River watershed will have grave impacts on salmon habitats, their traditional ways of life and their health.

“This development could possibly destroy our livelihood, rivers and sea mammals that we depend on,” said Fred Phillips, representative of the Indigenous Village of Kwigillingok tribal council. According to him, tribes are not willing to take the risk.

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) drainage is part of a rich biome encompassing coastal wetlands, tundra and mountains that supports the subsistence lifestyle of three distinct Alaskan Native groups; The Yup’ik, Cup’ik and Athabascan. To access the remote region, one needs to go by boat when the Kuskokwim River is flowing, or truck, snow machine and four-wheeler when the river is frozen.

Draining into the Bering Sea to the west, the Kuskokwim River, and many of its tributaries, are designated as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH), under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act for Pacific Salmon. This is a legislation that manages marine fisheries in US waters.

The sprawling river is a vital source of food for the 38 communities that reside alongside it, serving as a running ground for the chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka). Given the remoteness of the region, the communities rely on subsistence fishing. Salmon makes up more than 50 percent of the tribe’s annual diet.

Read the full story at Mongabay

 

Tribal groups petition federal government to eliminate or limit Bering Sea salmon bycatch

January 27, 2022 — In their latest bid to halt or limit chinook and chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea, tribal organizations in Western Alaska have signed onto a petition calling on the federal government to take action.

The petition asks the U.S. Department of Commerce to eliminate chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea completely and to put a cap on chum salmon bycatch. It does not specify an acceptable limit for chum bycatch.

The tribal groups signing the petition mostly represent areas of Alaska where salmon runs have crashed or declined dramatically in recent years. They include the Kuskokwim River Inter-tribal Fish Commission, the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the Association of Village Council Presidents, Kawerak, Inc., the Bering Sea Elders Group and the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island.

“The recent crashes of Chinook. And now the chum on the Kuskokwim River is pretty evident that we need to take emergency action on this issue,” said Mike Williams Sr., chair of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “I think we need to begin to take drastic measures.”

Read the full story at KTOO

 

Past Fishing and Development Makes California Salmon More Vulnerable To Climate Change

Janaury 27, 2022 — California’s native salmon have been harmed by more than a century of mining, dam building, floodplain reclamation, fishing pressure, hatchery practices, and introduced predators. These stressors have undermined the resilience of California’s native salmon to the accelerating effects of climate change, new research shows.

Researchers from NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers chronicled the loss of habitat and genetic diversity that once helped salmon withstand a changing climate.

“The eggs are in fewer baskets,” said Stuart Munsch, an ecosystem scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center and lead author of the new study published today in Global Change Biology. “The same landscape diversity in California that lets you go skiing and surfing in the same day used to support diverse salmon populations and a fishery well buffered against climate”.

“Now, that salmon diversity is mostly lost, and dams confine salmon to the hottest part of the watershed, where nonnative predators and a lack of rearing habitat reduce their survival. The result of all these stressors is that today’s salmon track climate more tightly than they used to in a warming landscape that routinely experiences drought.”

They said restoring degraded habitat and access to habitat above dams could help revive that diversity. By reopening and improving different areas, restoration can reclaim lost niches and adaptations that help spread the risk. In addition, other recovery actions such as increasing streamflow can make the restoration more effective.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

‘Should have happened a long time ago’: Hope and skepticism ahead of first meeting of governor’s Bycatch Task Force

January 27, 2022 — Bycatch – or species accidentally caught while targeting a different fish – has been a hot-button issue in Alaska for decades. But it rose to the forefront last year when Alaska Native organizations and fishing groups called for dramatic reductions to halibut, crab and salmon bycatch at federal fisheries meetings.

The state legislature took notice, holding a special meeting on bycatch in mid-November. Also in mid-November, Governor Mike Dunleavy announced the formation of the Alaska Bycatch Task Force.

On the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, subsistence and small commercial salmon fisheries were severely curtailed or completely shuttered last year. That same year, federal data show trawlers in the Bering Sea scooped up more than half a million chum, pink and silver salmon, and almost 14,000 king salmon. In the Gulf of Alaska, groundfish harvesters caught more than 17,000 king salmon as bycatch. That fish can’t be sold, although some of the bycatch is donated.

For more than a decade, commercial and subsistence fishermen in Western Alaska have felt the impacts of declining salmon runs and didn’t have a task force to address the problem.

During a recent Tribal listening session with the National Marine Fisheries Service, John Lamont from Lamont Slough on the lower Yukon River told federal fisheries managers that he supports the idea of an Alaska Bycatch Task Force.

Read the full story at KSTK

 

Alan Parks: I’m against Alaska House Bill 52. Here’s why

January 26, 2022 — Rep. Sarah Vance’s Bill HB 52 is irresponsible, anti-commercial fishing, anti-community and presented with false and misleading statements.

HB 52 is about removing approximately 123 acres of land from Kachemak Bay State Park that the Tutka Bay Lagoon Hatchery sits on. And basically, handing the land over to the contractor of thirty years, Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association.

For 38 years, my income primarily came from commercial fishing, we raised a family on fish. I’m not against commercial fishing, or salmon hatcheries, but I am against HB 52 which makes me pro-commercial fishing and pro-community.

Rep. Vance is charging ahead with HB 52 without basic financial information from CIAA, no business plan, profit and loss statement, nothing but a wink and nod.

Read the full opinion piece at the Juneau Empire

Federal disasters declared for 14 Alaska fisheries

January 26, 2022 — Fourteen Alaska fisheries have been declared federal disasters by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Gina Raimondo issued the declarations last Friday, and the announcement could lead to federal funding for fishermen.

The disaster declarations include the 2020 Kuskokwim River salmon fishery and the 2020 and 2021 Yukon River salmon fisheries. These fisheries saw significant salmon declines both years, with the Yukon salmon fishery seeing its lowest runs ever in the summer of 2021. Yukon River families were not allowed to fish for subsistence, and the commercial fishery remained closed.

Executive director for the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, Serena Fitka, helped lead a group of Yukon River tribal and fishing organizations to campaign for the Yukon disaster declarations.

“I give the credit to the Yukon River communities, everyone that pulled together to make their voices heard that we are in crisis mode right now,” Fitka said.

Read the full story at KTOO