May 11, 2021 — While its standing in the federal District Court case involving the historic 1974 Boldt decision remains in question, Fish Northwest has filed another lawsuit.
The regional nonprofit, spearheaded by the owner of an Anacortes fishing charter company, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on April 28.
May 10, 2021 — The Biden administration issued a conservation plan Thursday called “America the Beautiful.”
At 22 pages, it’s more of a statement of principles. The centerpiece is a goal of conserving 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030, in part to combat climate change.
Republicans in Congress immediately criticized it as vague and an attempt to lock up natural resources.
Meanwhile, conservation groups are eyeing parts of Alaska they’d like to see protected. Their eyes are on salmon.
“It’s hard to think of two better candidates than the Tongass in Southeast Alaska and Bristol Bay in Southwest Alaska,” said Tim Bristol, executive director of Salmon State.
He said conservation measures in the Tongass and Bristol Bay would protect fish, wildlife and save thousands of jobs which depend on renewable resources.
May 7, 2021 — Divisive opinions around Maine’s growing aquaculture industry, particularly a proposed salmon farming operation in Frenchman Bay, are driving lawmakers to consider studying coastal development in general.
The Legislature’s Marine Resource Committee held a public hearing Tuesday on LD 1211, “Resolve, To Create the Study Group To Research Balancing Development and Conservation in Maine’s Coastal Waters and Submerged Lands,” introduced by state Rep. Lynne Williams, D-District 135.
A goal of the bill is to establish regional units functioning in individual bay areas, composed of municipal representatives and consultants, that would be able to provide input into how each bay is used.
The resolve would establish the group “to address current system deficiencies in the regulation of the state’s coastal waters and submerged lands.”
May 7, 2021 — The first time salmon were released above Chief Joseph and, later, Grand Coulee dams, Hemene James watched elders from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Many weren’t even old enough to remember when salmon last swam in those waters.
In their faces he saw pure emotion, as salmon slipped into the waters where they hadn’t been since Grand Coulee Dam blocked their path in 1942.
Then, he looked at the children. Their excitement was infectious. They jumped and ran into the water, trying to catch the fish swimming upstream.
“It was a little, tiny glimpse of what our world used to be like in the days that the fish were here. So it was very moving and very encouraging,” James says. “This work gets monotonous at times and you feel like you’re spinning your wheels. But that was that glimmer of hope from the old ones that you guys are on the right path. Keep moving.”
Now a tribal council member, James remembers his grandfather telling stories of when they could still fish for salmon in the Upper Columbia.
At salmon camps, cousins and relatives would gather together, often only seeing each other at that time of year. Leaders from different bands would meet.
May 6, 2021 — Personal attacks and profanity laced five of the 250 written comments submitted to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council last month on just one of the half dozen issues before the Alaska fisheries management panel. Council staff pulled the comments after they’d been live for a few hours and reached out to each author to ask them to resubmit their comments without the offensive language. Only one did.
The issue was abundance based management (ABM) of halibut in the Bering Sea, where far more halibut is taken as incidental bycatch in bottom trawls than by halibut quota holders with their longline gear, and salmon bycatch in mid-water trawls in an area that has seen precipitous drops in Chinook returns. Public testimony during the meeting was intense but for the most part civil. ABM and bycatch is one of a few lightning-rod issues — like the on-shore/off-shore fight over the Bering Sea/Aleutian Island fisheries and others — that the council has faced in the nearly half century it has managed Alaska’s federal fisheries.
May 5, 2021 — At OBI Seafoods, a sprawling operation with outposts throughout Alaska, there’s all sorts of extra machinery for workers to master. At Whole Foods Market, there are new guidelines for purchasing salmon from wholesalers. And at Ivar’s, a fixture on Seattle’s waterfront for eight decades, the chef is sending back skimpy salmon delivered to his kitchen.
Behind all these changes is an alarming trend that’s been building for years: The giant schools of wild Pacific salmon that can turn southeast Alaska’s ice-cold waters into a brilliant orange blur are thinning out, and those that do survive are shrinking in size.
It’s the shrinking part that’s causing the biggest logistical snarl right now. Many salmon are so small they’ve thrown off OBI’s fish-sorting process and no longer meet the purchasing specifications at Whole Foods and culinary demands at Ivar’s. There, head chef Craig Breeden snaps photos of the fish next to his knife to illustrate their diminutive size before shipping them back.
May 5, 2021 — Alaskan Salmon has launched a new direct-to-consumer online business that offers a VIP waitlist for Americans who want to be the first to have Copper River king and sockeye salmon delivered directly to their homes.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cordova, Alaska-based Alaskan Salmon supplied Copper River salmon solely to foodservice buyers.
May 3, 2021 — Climate change and other threats to one of the world’s last bastions of wild salmon are already roiling the food supply chain and could alter U.S. export sales of the widely sought-after fish.
About 40% of the world’s wild salmon comes from Alaska, where fishermen are seeing fish size shrink. Scientists are still delving into the precise causes — it’s complicated because there are five different species of Pacific salmon in North America — but the consensus is that climate change is a main culprit.
The size conundrum could end up disrupting global trade flows. American exporters may soon find they’re selling more to Japan, which typically favors smaller fish. Meanwhile, European markets, especially those with heavy demand for smoked salmon, prefer bigger products, according to Elizabeth Herendeen, marketplace manager at Alaska-based Salmon State, which advocates for the protection of Pacific salmon.
It’s the latest example of how climate change is changing how food is produced and where it gets shipped. Rapidly warming temperatures are forcing some lobster boats to move further offshore, and hotter Midwest summers are a threat to yields. Agriculture futures have surged recently as bad weather makes it harder to grow crops at a time when food inflation is already on the rise.
May 3, 2021 — OBI Seafoods and Trident Seafoods will not be opening salmon processing plants in Alaska as a result of low projected salmon returns.
OB Seafoods’ processing plant in Excursion Inlet, Alaska, will be not be processing fish for the 2021 salmon season due to a string of poor runs in the Southeast district.
April 29, 2021 — In a series of indoor tanks 40 miles south west of Miami, Florida, five million fish are swimming in circles a very long way from home.
The fish in question are Atlantic salmon, which are far more typically found in the cold waters of Norway’s fjords or Scotland’s lochs.
As the species is not native to Florida, and would be unable to cope with the state’s tropical heat, the water tanks are kept well chilled, and housed in a vast, air-conditioned and heavily insulated warehouse-like building.
The facility, called the Bluehouse, opened its first phase last year, and intends to be the world’s largest land-based fish farm.
Targeting an initial production of 9,500 metric tonnes of fish per year, its owner – Atlantic Sapphire – plans to increase that to 222,000 tonnes by 2031, enough to provide 41% of current US annual salmon consumption, or a billion meals.
The company is at the forefront of a growing movement in Europe, Asia and the US towards land-based, indoor aquaculture. But what could it mean for traditional sea-based salmon farms, and most importantly – what about the welfare of the fish?