January 6, 2021 — More than 58 million sockeye salmon returned to Bristol Bay this summer. It’s another in a series of enormous runs to the fishery. The commercial harvest was just as impressive — Bristol Bay’s fleet hauled in 39.5 million fish, which is the fifth-largest harvest on record.
But while the Bay’s run exceeded 50 million fish for the sixth year in a row — 46% above the 20-year average — many other areas of the state were far below their forecast.
January 6, 2021 — More than 58 million sockeye salmon returned to Bristol Bay this summer. It’s another in a series of enormous runs to the fishery. The commercial harvest was just as impressive — Bristol Bay’s fleet hauled in 39.5 million fish, which is the fifth-largest harvest on record.
But while the Bay’s run exceeded 50 million fish for the sixth year in a row — 46% above the 20-year average — many other areas of the state were far below their forecast.
“When you take Bristol Bay out of the picture and look at sockeye harvests in Alaska, the non-Bristol Bay sockeye harvests this year were the lowest on record since 1976,” said Dan Leash, an economist with the McDowell Group.
Across all species, the value of the state’s commercial salmon season dropped more than 50% from last year — 56% below last year. 2020 was valued at $295.2 million, while last year was valued at $673.4 million. Harvests were also down by 44%.
“Sometimes when you have a low harvest year, the prices will rise. But that didn’t happen this year,” Leash said. “It was sort of a death by 1,000 cuts in terms of the impact of the seafood on the harvesters this year.”
December 31, 2020 — An aquaculture worker who got hurt tending to salmon raised in offshore pens is covered under state law, but not under the federal law that defines some of the rights for mariners, Maine‘s supreme court ruled.
The court ruled unanimously on Tuesday in a Workers’ Compensation Board appellate division decision involving a woman who was injured while working for Cooke Aquaculture’s salmon operation off the coast of Eastport.
The woman, Darla Potter, slipped and hurt her knee while caring for salmon, which were raised in cages located less than a mile offshore.
Great Falls Insurance Company contended that the Workers’ Compensation Board lacked jurisdiction because Potter should be considered to be a “seaman” under federal admiralty law known as the Jones Act.
The Supreme Judicial Court said the closest analogy to an aquaculture operation is an offshore oil platform, and it noted that oil platform workers have never been found to fall under the Jones Act jurisdiction.
December 30, 2020 — More than 58 million sockeye salmon returned to Bristol Bay this summer. It’s another in a series of enormous runs for the fishery. The commercial harvest was just as impressive. Bristol Bay’s fleet hauled in 39.5 million fish, the fifth-largest harvest on record.
But while the Bay’s run exceeded 50 million fish for the sixth year in a row — 46% above the 20-year average — many other parts of the state were far below their forecasts.
“When you take Bristol Bay out of the picture and look at sockeye harvests in Alaska, the non-Bristol Bay sockeye harvests this year were the lowest on record since 1976,” said Dan Leash, an economist with the McDowell Group.
Across all species, the value of the state’s commercial salmon season dropped more than 50% from last year — 56% below last year. The 2020 season was valued at $295.2 million, while last year was valued at $673.4 million. Harvests were also down by 44%.
“Sometimes when you have a low harvest year, the prices will rise. But that didn’t happen this year,” Leash said. “It was sort of a death by a thousand cuts in terms of the impact of the seafood on the harvesters this year.”
December 28, 2020 — Overcoming serious doubts, Alaska’s salmon processors managed to squeak out a season this summer – but it came at a cost.
According to a McDowell Group report, processors spent as much as USD 50 million (EUR 42.4 million) on COVID-19 protocol compliance, which included moving workers into Alaska early for quarantine, putting them up in hotels for their quarantine period, flying them on chartered planes, food costs, and paying for significant coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment, as well as security to ensure closed campuses. In a few cases, companies had medical professionals embedded onsite in remote locations to ensure care to their employees (and to limit any potential spread of coronavirus that would have crippled the functionality of the facility).
December 23, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) Salmon Technical Team (STT) will hold a work session February 16-19, 2021. The start and ending times of this work session will be determined shortly and posted to our website when they become available.
Please see the STT February 2021 work session notice on the Pacific Council’s website for the purpose of the online work session.
For further information:
December 22, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) Salmon Technical Team (STT) will hold a work session January 19-22, 2021. The start and ending times of this work session will be determined shortly and posted to our website when they become available.
Please see the STT January 2021 work session notice on the Pacific Council’s website for the purpose of the online work session.
For further information:
December 18, 2020 — A freak storm descended on Cook Inlet this month. The fallout threatens my family business and hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital investment. Over a thousand other similar businesses around Cook Inlet face the same peril. The disaster? Earlier this month, Gov. Mike Dunleavy made the bizarre decision to effectively shut down the commercial salmon fishing industry here.
At the very end of a four-year process intended to bring the Cook Inlet salmon fishery into compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the state announced that it would refuse to cooperate with the program and basically forced the closure of federal waters in Cook Inlet to commercial fishing.
Before you conclude that this action was some kind of noble defiance to federal overreach, you should know that the state of Alaska already has multiple collaborative agreements with the federal government on managing numerous other fisheries in Alaska, including crab, cod, rockfish and salmon.
December 18, 2020 — Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced on 17 December it plans to phase out all existing salmon farming facilities in the Discovery Islands – located in British Columbia – with the upcoming 18-month period being the last time the area can be licensed.
The news comes in the wake of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau writing a letter in 2019 to Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Bernadette Jordan mandating that she “work with the province of British Columbia and Indigenous communities to create a responsible plan to transition from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters by 2025 and begin work to introduce Canada’s first-ever Aquaculture Act.” The mandate was a reflection of the Canada Liberal Party’s platform, which called for a shift of all net-pen fish farming in British Columbia to land-based, closed-containment systems by 2025.
December 17, 2020 — The Government of Canada announced on Tuesday $349,948 in funding will be provided to the University of Guelph for a “two-year research project to evaluate how Coho salmon, in the early stages of life, are impacted when exposed to diluted bitumen (dilbit) – a crude oil found in natural oil sands deposits that is mixed with a lighter diluent.”
The Honourable Bernadette Jordan, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard announced the funding and explained that the research builds on previous University of Guelph projects looking at impacts dilbit exposure has on salmon.