Saving Seafood

Homer company evolves into a ‘digital fishmonger’ with expanding subscription seafood service

December 16, 2020 — The Wild Alaskan Company based in Homer has taken “mission based” seafood e-commerce to a whole new level.

While many Alaska fishermen and groups sell boxes of seafood directly to customers and can claim several hundred monthly customers, Wild Alaskan has notched more than 140,000 seafood regulars since 2018 and since COVID hit, the company is adding 100 to 200 customers every day. The average order for their subscription service is $160 per month.

Founder Arron Kallenberg calls it a “three generation overnight success,” referring back to 1926 when his grandfather moved from New Jersey to fish at Bristol Bay.

“My dad grew up fishing with my grandfather, I grew up fishing with my father, but that being said, I was the nerdy kid that took his laptop out to sea in Bristol Bay,” Kallenberg said, adding that his grandfather, Robert, served on the Alaska territorial Board of Fisheries, as an adviser to the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission and wrote his Master’s thesis at Cornell University on conserving Bristol Bay’s red salmon fishery.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Sen. Murkowski “Disappointed” by Cook Inlet Closure, Supports “Long-Term Solution” for CI Fleet

December 14, 2020 — Two days after Monday’s decision to close the federal waters of Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishermen, Alaska’s senior Senator Lisa Murkowski called for “the need to collaboratively resolve tensions that have long persisted in Cook Inlet.”  The decision came at the beginning of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s December meeting.

The ‘historical tensions” the senator referred to have been between both commercial and recreational fishermen and between all fishermen and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Cook Inlet is home to Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, the nearby Matenuska-Susitna Borough, and the state’s most popular recreational area, the Kenai Peninsula. About two-thirds of the state’s population lives on or near Cook Inlet, which is accessed by the state’s only road system.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Canada makes commitments to bolstering blue economy

December 14, 2020 — Over the past two weeks, the Canadian government has made multiple funding and administrative commitments to bolstering the country’s blue economy – both in terms of growing ocean and inshore fisheries and in boosting salmon survivability.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and 13 other heads of state or government announced the endorsement of the “Transformations for a Sustainable Ocean Economy: a Vision for Protection, Production, and Proseprity.” The new document is a product of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, a multi-nation panel committed to sustainably manage all of the ocean under the countries’ respective national jurisdictions by 2025.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood industry execs optimistic for 2021 after troubled pandemic year

December 9, 2020 — A lack of fish in the freezers is an encouraging sign for Alaska salmon as we head into the new year, driven by increasing customer demand. But headwinds from trade disputes and the COVID pandemic also loom large on the 2021 horizon.

Those are some prime takeaways shared by Mark Palmer, president and CEO of OBI Seafoods, and Allen Kimball, vice president of global operations and sales for Trident Seafoods.

“We don’t see entering the 2021 season with any real big carryovers. And that’s always one of the downsides as we head into a new season, if there’s an abundance of two to four (pound) sockeyes or something. We’ve gone into seasons like that and it influences the new season pricing. But as we go into 2021, we should have a pretty clean slate and be ready to buy and ideally put it up in a better product form than we did this last year,” said Palmer, speaking at a webinar hosted by United Fishermen of Alaska.

The COVID pandemic this year forced a shift from workers producing fresh salmon fillets to lower value canned and frozen fish when the labor force was reduced and costly restrictions were imposed on processing lines.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Fisheries council shuts down commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet federal waters

December 9, 2020 — The council that controls fishing in most federal waters off Alaska on Monday closed a large chunk of Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishing.

The decision came despite a wall of opposition from commercial fishermen and community and state leaders who said the move threatens seafood processors on the Kenai Peninsula and hundreds of fishing operations.

The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council accepted the proposal, presented to the council by the Dunleavy administration in October, to close federal waters starting 3 miles offshore.

Stretching from Homer to Ninilchik off the southern Kenai Peninsula, the waters are where some boats fish exclusively, fishermen said, and it’s where the commercial driftnet fleet typically lands about half its salmon.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Commercial fishermen outraged by state of Alaska’s proposal to close much of Cook Inlet

December 7, 2020 — A Dunleavy administration proposal to shut down a large chunk of Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishing has drawn a tidal wave of opposition from Alaska fishermen.

The state’s proposal, alongside two other viable options, is under consideration by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, as the federal government prepares to assume oversight of the salmon fishery in federal waters.

The state has managed salmon fishing in those waters — west of Homer and Ninilchik off the southern Kenai Peninsula — for decades.

But two Cook Inlet groups representing commercial fishermen filed a lawsuit in 2013 challenging the state’s management. A federal appeals court sided with the groups in 2016. It ordered the council, which oversees fishing in most federal waters off Alaska, to include the inlet’s federal waters in its fishery management plan.

The council is expected to decide the issue on Monday, after taking public testimony at a virtual meeting. The court has given the council until Dec. 31.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

PFMC: Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast Coho Workgroup to host online meeting January 5, 2021

December 7, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) Coho Workgroup will host an online meeting that is open to the public.  The meeting will be held Tuesday, January 5, 2021 from 9 a.m., Pacific Standard Time, until 5 p.m., or until business for the day has been completed.

Please see the SONCC Workgroup online meeting notice on the Council’s website for purpose and participation details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff Mike Burner at 503-820-2414; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Study finds California salmon face deadly threat from car tires

December 4, 2020 — A highly toxic chemical used in the production of millions of tires every year is killing salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and it is being detected in streams across Northern California, a new study finds.

Scientists have known for decades that stormwater runoff from roads, highways and other urban areas has been linked to high rates of coho salmon deaths in Washington state, where as many as 90% of salmon in the Puget Sound area have died before they could spawn.

The new study published in the research journal Science on Thursday has identified a culprit chemical for the first time — a commonly used preservative called 6PPD used to give tires longer life.

“I think the broader impact is as we have already found this in San Francisco (Bay) creek water as well as the road runoff,” said the study’s lead author, Zhenyu Tian, a researcher at the University of Washington Tacoma. “We believe this thing is a prevalent contaminant. Wherever you have a busy highway, you have runoff from there and you probably will detect it. Our detection rate for this chemical in runoff is almost always 100%. For coho salmon, it’s definitely a threat.”

Read the full story at The Mercury News

SEATTLE TIMES: Salmon-rich Bristol Bay deserves permanent protection

December 2, 2020 — After the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision last week to reject a key permit for Alaska’s proposed Pebble Mine, it’s clear that federal protection is now needed to permanently preserve this uniquely valuable resource. The project threatened too much destruction to the immense salmon runs of Bristol Bay.

The list of reasons to protect the bay’s watershed is long. Its annual chinook and sockeye salmon runs are the largest on Earth. All five species of Pacific salmon live in Bristol Bay, and its watershed produces about half the world’s annual sockeye harvest. The commercial and recreational fisheries support large portions of the region’s economy, and Bristol Bay’s salmon have sustained Alaska natives for many generations. Thousands of Washingtonians fish those salmon each year, for work and recreation.

The bay’s diverse salmon runs feed other populations, too — from orcas to the thousands of brown bears on the Alaska peninsula. The mine was predicted to disrupt this food chain mightily in the name of extracting rich veins of copper and gold, and potentially molybdenum and rhenium.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

Southeast Alaska organization asks the governor to declare a region-wide economic disaster

December 2, 2020 — An organization representing Southeast Alaska communities is asking that the governor declare a region-wide economic disaster due to the loss of the 2020 cruise ship season and “the collapse” of the salmon fishing season.

Southeast Conference sent a letter to Gov. Mike Dunlevy on Nov. 17, describing an economic disaster of “unprecedented proportions.”

“A disaster declaration will start the process to allow the hardworking Southeast Alaskans to get federal disaster aid. This help is vital to our regional communities and economy,” said Markus Scheer, the president of Southeast Conference.

It is not uncommon for a community or region to request for the governor to declare a disaster after a bad fishing season to access federal aid. It is also not uncommon for the governor to declare a disaster after a specific event like a wildfire, earthquake or winter storm.

Read the full story at Alaska’s News Source