Saving Seafood

Alaska salmon: Bristol Bay opens with Pebble Mine decision pending

June 30, 2020 — The biggest red salmon run in the world is building at Bristol Bay.

Up to 50 million fish could surge into its eight river systems in coming weeks, on par with past seasons. When it’s all done, the fishery will provide nearly half the global supply of wild sockeye salmon.

But this summer is different.

Beyond the restrictions and fears and economic chaos caused by covid-19, fishermen are waiting to learn if the development of a massive gold and copper mine that’s been hanging over their heads for two decades will get a greenlight from the federal government. The news is expected to come at the height of the summer season.

In mid-July, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to unveil its federal record of decision on the permit application by Northern Dynasty of Vancouver, Canada, to build the Pebble Mine at the sprawling mosaic of headwaters that provide the spawning and rearing grounds for the region’s salmon.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Blockchain Will Let You Track Salmon From Sea to Dinner Plate

June 26, 2020 — Consumers around the world will soon be able to know intricate life details of the salmon they eat with a new blockchain initiative from top exporter Norway.

The Norwegian Seafood Association has partnered with International Business Machines Corp. and technology provider Atea ASA to gather data on how salmon is bred, stored and shipped, information that consumers will eventually access by scanning a QR code. That will help Norway’s suppliers differentiate their premium products from other exporters, curb origin fraud and cut waste.

“Blockchain lets us share the fish’s journey from the ocean to the dinner table,” said Alf-Goran Knutsen, chief executive officer of Kvaroy Arctic, a supplier that’s part of the initiative. “This is now more timely than ever.”

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Fear and fishing: Tiny Alaskan village tries to manage influx of commercial fishermen amid COVID-19

June 24, 2020 — “It’s just how the earth is supposed to be,” says third-generation commercial fishing boat captain Katherine Carscallen. She’s talking about her homeland, Bristol Bay, Alaska. Every June and July, more than half of the world’s supply of sockeye salmon are pulled from these waters.

It sounds excessive, but it’s not; in a highly regulated practice, thousands of fish are left to return home and spawn, allowing the industry to support the region for generations.

The yearly salmon fishery brings in an estimated $200 million in direct revenue to the community of Bristol Bay, says Norm Van Vactor, president and CEO of Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation.

“Overall, it’s a multi-billion dollar fishery,” he says of the thousands of fisherman who come from all over the world to fish for salmon. On average, 10,000 fishermen come each year — but oftentimes that number is upwards of 15,000. In addition, 6,000 fish processing workers also descend on the tiny community.

Read the full story at ABC News

What is Nearshore Habitat and Why Does it Matter to Orcas?

June 23, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

There is an especially valuable environment in Puget Sound made up of the beaches, bluffs, inlets, and river deltas: the nearshore. Nearshore habitat matters to Southern Resident killer whales because their primary prey, Chinook salmon, need them to grow and find safety when they are young. Unfortunately, we have been losing these habitats in Puget Sound to industrial and residential development and agriculture.

Southern Resident Killer Whales eat salmon, primarily Chinook salmon. The whales search out and rely upon the ever-changing abundance of many different Chinook salmon runs up and down the Pacific Coast. Puget Sound Chinook salmon are one of the most important of these for the Southern Residents’ recovery. Puget Sound Chinook salmon, however, are themselves threatened with extinction.

Killer whales eat Chinook salmon when the fish have grown into adults three years old and weighing close to 30 pounds. The salmon are headed back from the ocean through Puget Sound to their home rivers to lay their eggs. To make it to adulthood, though, these fish need to survive their adolescence as “juveniles” or “fry.” That’s where the nearshore zone comes in.

Tiny young Chinook salmon emerge from the gravel where they hatched from eggs in the rivers of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea—the Skagit, Elwha, Nisqually, and others. Then the young fish follow one of several different strategies to grow as juveniles before heading out to the ocean. They can rear in the river and freshwater floodplains or head downstream to the great tidal river deltas. They can also head all the way out into Puget Sound looking for safety along the shore in pocket estuaries, kelp and eelgrass beds, coastal creeks, or lagoons.

Read the full release here

150 cannery workers are in forced quarantine at L.A. hotel without pay, suit claims

June 23, 2020 — About 150 seasonal employees hired to work at a salmon cannery in Alaska are instead being forced to quarantine without pay at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport after three of them tested positive for the coronavirus, a lawsuit claims.

The workers, most of them from Mexico and Southern California, were hired June 2 by North Pacific Seafoods to work at its Red Salmon Cannery in Naknek, Alaska, through August, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in San Francisco Superior Court.

Instead, they’ve been stuck at the Crowne Plaza LAX Hotel since June 10, attorney Jonathan Davis said Saturday.

“Tomorrow is Father’s Day,” Davis said. “I have two young sons, and I’d be sick to my stomach if I knew one of my children was being held in this type of situation.”

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

Alaska’s salmon industry contends with a rumor from China that you can get COVID-19 from seafood

June 19, 2020 — China has stopped imports from European salmon suppliers due to fears of a connection between salmon imports and coronavirus, according to a report by Reuters. State-run newspapers in China reported the coronavirus was discovered on chopping boards used for imported salmon at a market in Beijing. The initial cluster of infections came from the same market, and some fear the discovery of virus there indicates a second wave of the coronavirus in China.

Several fisheries organizations are pushing back against those reports. The National Fisheries Institute compiled statements on Tuesday  from health professionals and agencies like the World Health Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration saying there is no connection between seafood and COVID-19.

Fish marketing experts are assessing how the rumors could affect Alaska salmon’s image in the world. If people think eating salmon could put them at increased risk of contracting the virus — even if that information is incorrect — that could harm markets.

“Any time there’s information or misinformation, we have to wait and see how consumers respond to that,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association.

Read the full story at KTOO

Norway Wants To Resume Salmon Sales After China All-clear

June 18, 2020 — Norway said Wednesday it wanted to resume exports of its salmon to China after Beijing appeared to rule it out as a possible source of COVID-19.

Norwegian salmon came under scrutiny after a recently discovered cluster of new coronavirus cases was reportedly traced to the Xinfadi meat market in Beijing and a chopping board used for cutting up imported salmon.

However, Norwegian and, crucially, Chinese health officials appear to have now given the salmon the all-clear.

“We currently have no evidence that salmon is a carrier or an intermediate carrier of the coronavirus,” the deputy director of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shi Guoqing, said on Tuesday.

Stressing that no case of contamination by food had been reported, the authorities responsible for food safety in Norway said their salmon was fit for consumption.

Read the full story at the International Business Times

Salmon Farmers Hit by China Boycott After New Virus Outbreak

June 17, 2020 — Salmon farmers have been hit by restrictions in China, where a new outbreak of the coronavirus was blamed on imported fish.

The red-fleshed fish is now being boycotted in China after new infections were traced back to the chopping board of a seller of imported salmon at a market in the capital. Orders have been canceled and “it’s difficult to ship fish to Beijing” in the near term, said Anders Snellingen, manager for global operations at the Seafood Council for Norway, the world’s biggest producer.

China still represents a small share of global salmon demand, making up less than 5% last year, but it’s also one of the fastest growing markets and fish farmers were already feeling the squeeze of pandemic restrictions.

“We had to rebook our shipments to China and direct it toward other markets,” Grieg Seafood ASA spokeswoman Kristina Furnes said by phone. While there is now closer scrutiny of salmon, the same applies to other food imports as well, she said. Grieg doesn’t export large volumes to China and hasn’t had any cases of Covid-19 in its organization.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Alaska’s Rural Fishing Communities Are The Next Front Line Of COVID-19

June 8, 2020 — In a normal season, the village of Naknek in southwestern Alaska would be bustling by the end of May, with people arriving from all over the world to work Bristol Bay’s renowned salmon run.

The village’s population of around 500 swells as over 13,000 workers come to Bristol Bay to spend about six weeks fishing, canning and cleaning the products of the world’s primary source of wild-caught sockeye salmon.

This year, with the season opening just days away, “it still feels like a ghost town,” said Nels Ure, a second-generation Bristol Bay fisherman. Because of the pandemic, “it’s not business as usual.”

Seafood industry workers are under 14-day quarantine orders once they arrive in Alaska from elsewhere. Cannery workers are being quarantined either in hotels in Anchorage before they arrive at the bay, or with a group of other newly arrived employees at their facility, so they can start work while in quarantine together. Fishermen are expected to quarantine on their vessels, either in the boatyard or on the water ― or they can stay in their seasonal cabins or homes around the bay, as long as they are self-isolated.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post