Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Fundraising campaign aims at testing Anchorage salmon streams for toxin traced to tires

April 27, 2021 — Are toxins from road runoff a threat to salmon in Anchorage’s most popular fishing streams? A Go Fund Me campaign has been launched so Alaskans can chip in to find out.

The push stems from an organic compound in tires called quinone that was newly identified by researchers at the University of Washington, said Birgit Hagedorn, a geochemist and longtime board member of the Anchorage Waterways Council.

“The little flakes that rub off of tires, especially larger truck tires, can be transported into the streams via stormwater. And they leach out the compound that they discovered was highly toxic to salmon. They were specifically looking at coho salmon,” she explained.

Hagedorn hopes to raise $5,500 to test the urban waters that run off the Seward and Glenn highways into Ship Creek and Campbell Creek. The Ship Creek salmon sport fishery is the region’s most popular and successful, with anglers targeting stocked chinook and coho salmon. Other stocked coho fisheries have been established in Campbell and Bird creeks, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

StarKist says all its salmon and tuna now sustainably-sourced

April 26, 2021 — Starkist is now sourcing all of its tuna and salmon from sustainable sources.

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.-based company is now sourcing 100 percent of its tuna and salmon from suppliers that meet the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard for sustainable fishing or are working toward certification, including those participating in a comprehensive fishery improvement project (FIP), the tuna supplier said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trial shows Calysta’s FeedKind can replace 30 percent of fishmeal in yellowtail feed

April 26, 2021 — A trial at Japan’s Kindai University has shown that Menlo Park, California-based Calysta Inc.’s FeedKind bacterial protein meal (BPM) can replace up to 30 percent of fishmeal protein – or up to 20 percent of total feed – in the diet of yellowtail without any impact on growth rate, digestibility, daily feeding rate, or feed efficiency.

The paper, “Methanotroph (Methylococcus capsulatus, Bath) bacteria meal as an alternative protein source for Japanese yellowtail, Seriola quinqueradiata,” written by a group of researchers led by Amal Biswas, was published in the journal Aquaculture. It details two trials – one of 1,500 yellowtail fish, and the second of 800 – analyzed over an eight-week period. In both cases, a control diet was used alongside increasing concentrations of FeedKind. Fish survivability was 100 percent across all tests, with no significant difference between the control diets and the 25 percent inclusion rate across both trial groups.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: New report estimates at least $5M cost to replace subsistence salmon with other protein sources in Bristol Bay

April 23, 2021 — A third of the state’s subsistence salmon harvest was caught in Bristol Bay in 2017, according to a new report from the McKinley Research Group. The subsistence economy is critical to Bristol Bay’s culture, and it’s the oldest and most continuous use of salmon.

The report, “The Economic Benefits of Bristol Bay”, attempts to quantify what it would cost to replace subsistence salmon with other protein sources from stores in the region.

Bristol Bay subsistence fishers caught over 500,000 pounds of salmon in 2017, according to the latest data available. The research group estimates that it would cost $5-$10 million to replace that catch with other sources of protein. Rebecca Braun is one of the researchers who worked on the report.

“Because the world speaks in dollars, we tried to translate the subsistence harvest into dollars,” Braun said. “And it’s kind of an inherently impossible exercise because subsistence values goes beyond economics.”

Read the full story at KTOO

Notice of availability: Salmon Preseason Report III (April 2021)

April 23, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The following document has been posted to the Council’s website:

Preseason Report III describes the 2021 ocean salmon fishery management measures adopted by the Council at their April 2021 meeting for submission to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and characterizes their expected impacts on ocean salmon fisheries and the stocks which support them.

For Further Information

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Robin Ehlke at 503-820-2410; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Continuing Species in the Spotlight Initiative Empowers NOAA Fisheries’ Endangered Species Conservation Efforts

April 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries has released nine new Species in the Spotlight Priority Action Plans. These plans highlight the most vital actions that NOAA Fisheries and our partners can take to reverse the declining populations of nine endangered marine species that are most at risk of extinction. Building on the successes of the past five years, NOAA Fisheries is renewing the initiative through 2025 to sustain momentum toward recovery.

The Species in the Spotlight initiative, launched in 2015, focuses time, energy, and resources on the most imperiled marine species. It motivates partners and community members to join the effort to save these species from extinction. The nine species are all listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act:

These species are at high risk of extinction in the near future because of a rapid population decline or habitat destruction. They face human-caused threats such as construction, development, or other economic activity.

“The Species in the Spotlight initiative is a critical effort by NOAA Fisheries and our partners to leverage our resources and make the greatest impact to reverse the decline of these endangered species. I’m pleased to build upon our successful efforts to date with the renewal of these Species in the Spotlight Priority Action Plans,” says Sam Rauch, Deputy Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Regulatory Programs.

Read the full release here

ALASKA: Commercial and subsistence harvesters speak out against trawler bycatch of Chinook salmon

April 22, 2021 — Alaska’s commercial fishermen have been speaking out against big trawlers for years, complaining that the large vessels in federal waters are scooping up mature and juvenile fish. The regional council that manages federal fisheries recently heard from hundreds concerned about the number of salmon and other species that end up as bycatch in trawl nets.

For Alaska’s troll fleet, king salmon is their money fish. In state waters, small crews on these 40 to 50-foot boats — or even small skiffs — will catch a fish at a time, and it’s worth it: Chinook salmon can fetch $6 a pound from a processor.

But there’s another big-money fish in Alaska: Pollock. It’s the white fish found in a McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish® or an imitation crab stick. And the factory trawlers that ply the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska in search of pollock and other groundfish scoop up Chinook salmon and other species in their wide nets.

Federal fisheries data show trawlers in the North Pacific took about a tenth of the Chinook — or king salmon — caught by Alaska’s commercial salmon fleet last year. And those numbers are tracking the same this year. But none of that catch happens on purpose.

Preliminary ADF&G data show about 263,000 kings were commercially harvested last year statewide. As of last week (April 15), bycatch in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska areas for 2021 was around 16,000 fish, over six percent of last year’s statewide commercial harvest. Last year’s trawler bycatch was 26,000 kings, or about a tenth of the 2020 commercial Chinook harvest in-state.

Read the full story at KSTK

Collaboration Offers the Best Hope for Lasting Puget Sound Salmon Solution

April 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Lorraine Loomis and Kelly Susewind got it right. Their joint column called for collaboration as the state and tribal co-managers of Puget Sound salmon “struggle to share a shrinking resource.”

That commitment, along with collaboration, will be key to reaching an agreement for salmon fishing in Puget Sound. The agreement will fulfill tribal treaty rights, provide opportunity for recreational and non-tribal commercial fishing, and conserve salmon. The co-managers have reached agreement on plans to share the catch of available Puget Sound salmon in 33 of the last 34 years. I know it has never been easy.

The depressed status of many Puget Sound salmon stocks continue to make it even more challenging.

The answer is not about winning or losing, as the co-managers said. Rather, “it’s about working together to meet one another’s needs by carefully crafting conservative fisheries that protect the weakest salmon stocks while providing for harvest when possible.”

Everyone who depends on Puget Sound salmon knows just how restrictive the fisheries have become. Most Puget Sound Chinook migrate north as young fish and rear off the coasts of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. The Pacific Salmon Treaty has reshaped salmon fisheries across those boundaries. This has led to agreements with harvest cutbacks of 20 to 45 percent in Alaskan and Canadian fisheries since the early 2000s.

Read the full release here

Cleaner fish from salmon farming affect wild populations

April 21, 2021 — A growing demand for cleaner fish in salmon farms raises concerns about overfishing and human-mediated geneflow to wild populations. A recent study reveals that up to 20 percent of the local populations of corkwing wrasse in mid Norway may constitute escapees and hybrids.

Every year, millions of wrasses are caught along the Swedish and Norwegian coasts, and transported to  for parasite control. Effects on the wild harvested populations, and the risks from  escaping the farms, are poorly investigated.

Two recently published studies take a closer look at how the current fishery is affecting source populations and ecosystems, and to what degree translocated fish are escaping and mixing with populations outside the fish farms.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Safe Catch charts rapid growth, earns plastic neutral certification

April 21, 2021 — Safe Catch, which tests its tuna and salmon for mercury, is seeing high demand for its products in the U.S. and has plans to expand throughout the country and abroad.

The San Francisco, California-based supplier recently became the first rePurpose Certified Plastic Neutral seafood company via a partnership with rePurpose Global. The organization funds the collection, processing, and reuse of as much plastic waste as it uses across its packaging and operations, Safe Catch said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source