Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Copper River salmon fishery nears without travel restrictions from Cordova City Council

April 15, 2020 — While coastal communities across Alaska grapple with the questions of if and how they should allow commercial fishing and processing operations in their communities this summer, the time table for deciding how to move forward is running short in Cordova.

As of Monday, commercial salmon fishing operations in Cordova are moving forward with few protections in place for residents beyond statewide health mandates.

“We live in a bubble, and I very much think our bubble is about to burst,” lifelong Cordova resident Sylvia Lange said. “While we are pretty much first, we are not alone, and I feel for every single community that has to go through this.”

The Copper River’s sockeye and Chinook salmon are the state’s first commercial salmon fishery, and the demand from chefs in Seattle, Anchorage and other urban restaurants for the season’s first salmon has traditionally driven strong prices.

Although it is not business as usual for fishermen preparing for the mid-May opening, some people in the community fear that not nearly enough has changed to protect the town from a coronavirus outbreak.

Cordova is home to just over 2,000 people, and the population swells in the summer during fishing season.

Read the full story at KTUU

ALASKA: What if there’s no salmon fishery? How covid-19 could affect salmon populations

April 15, 2020 — The covid-19 public health crisis spreading across the globe is causing economic turmoil in most industries, including fisheries. For Alaska salmon fisheries, covid-19 presents unique challenges that are an immediate threat to the 2020 season.

The seasonal influx of thousands of harvesters and workers from around the world, starting in May, represents a substantial risk for introducing covid-19 to remote communities — where it has yet to be detected, and where people are particularly vulnerable and medical resources are distinctly limited. Further risks are associated with the often crowded conditions aboard fishing vessels and in fish processing facilities that create perfect conditions for the rapid spread of covid-19.

Concern that the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery represents a substantial public health risk has prompted requests for severe restrictions or even complete closure of the fishery until the threat of covid-19 has passed. In addition to the immediate economic impacts of such a policy, these discussions have generated widespread concern about “over-escapement” — that severely restricted fishing would result in spawner abundances (escapements) beyond what watersheds can withstand, thereby severely depressing future salmon production.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

WASHINGTON: Coronavirus concerns play out in fisheries

April 14, 2020 — Fishermen are looking at a reduced ocean salmon season this spring because of low salmon returns. But the industry is also hoping to buy time for seafood markets that are reeling from the impact of the coronavirus.

The industry has had to shift how it does business and many are still adapting as local restrictions due to the pandemic shutter usual seafood outlets.

The markets are slow now, but they may reinvent themselves, said Michael Burner, the deputy director of the Pacific Fishery Management Council. “There is still a demand for seafood,” he said.

The council recently adopted ocean salmon season recommendations for commercial and recreational fishermen for most of the Pacific coast, which include “some very restrictive seasons,” according to Phil Anderson, the council’s chairman.

Read the full story at The Daily Astorian

Feds Looking at Protections for Spring-Run Chinook Salmon in Oregon

April 13, 2020 — A petition seeking to extend federal wildlife protections to spring-run Chinook salmon found along Oregon’s coast has merit and could warrant listing the fish under the Endangered Species Act, the Trump administration said Friday.

The spring-run salmon are the main food source for the Southern Resident killer whales, an endangered population of orca living in the Pacific Northwest.

Chinook salmon populations are also found in Washington state, Idaho and California.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) decision came after a 90-day review process and means the Chinook salmon could be listed as threatened or endangered pending an additional one-year in-depth analysis.

After the year-long study, the agency could determine that the salmon — scientific name Oncorhynchus tshawytscha — could be listed as a threatened or endangered Evolutionarily Significant Unit, or ESU, under federal law.

The process will allow scientists, commercial fishing representatives, wildlife advocates and others to submit additional information on impacts stemming from protecting the salmon population and its habitat under the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

ALASKA: Cordova faces big decisions over how to run its famous early-season salmon fishery during a pandemic

April 13, 2020 — Like other Alaska commercial fishing hubs, the Prince William Sound town of Cordova is wrestling with the question of how — or if — it can safely host its summer salmon fishing season in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.

But in Cordova, the timeline for decision making is especially tight: The famous Copper River drift gillnet season, known for prized fish that fetch high prices and high demand across America, is the earliest salmon fishery to start in the state, usually kicking off the first or second week of May.

Thousands of fishermen and processing and support workers are expected to enter Cordova, a community with about 2,500 year-round residents and a hospital without any ICU beds. Some residents have called on officials to restrict travel into town, seeing it as the best way to keep the new coronavirus from spreading.

In Cordova, more than 400 people have signed a petition calling on the mayor, Clay Koplin, to restrict all travel into the town except for medical personnel, law enforcement, child protective services and cargo. A website, Keep Cordova Safe, includes a growing vault of open letters by community members making the case for why Cordova should halt an influx of summer workers.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Pacific Fishery Management Council sets 2020 salmon seasons

April 13, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that provide recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the Pacific coast and achieve conservation goals for the numerous individual salmon stocks on the West Coast. Due to the COVID-19 social distancing requirements, all meetings associated with the decision were held via webinar for the first time in the Council’s history.

The recommendations will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 6, 2020.

“This year’s package includes some very restrictive seasons in both commercial and recreational fisheries along much of the coast. Uncertainties associated with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on markets, angler effort, and critical catch sampling, coupled with low Chinook and coho forecasts, made structuring the fisheries even more challenging this year,” said Council Chair Phil Anderson.

The Council heard reports from commercial, recreational, and tribal representatives about the challenges created by the pandemic, including difficulties in selling seafood to reduced markets, recreational fishery closures to protect public health, needed access to traditional food sources for tribal communities, and the inability to plan for the near future.

Read the full release here

Alaska Seafood Industry Launches Massive Effort to Fish the Bay Without Spreading the Virus

April 10, 2020 — Bristol Bay’s processors and fishermen have been working non-stop for the past several weeks to establish protocols that will allow this summer’s sockeye season to happen. Eleven major companies have announced they will process this year and as of today, seven have submitted detailed plans to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

The conditions the processors and fishermen are facing are anathema to any business — no one knows how bad the COVID-19 spread will be in June when the fishery opens, or in July when harvesting is at its peak. No one knows how lethal it will be during the summer in Bristol Bay, which in recent years has been significantly warmer for both humans and salmon.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Alaska community asks for fishery shutdown because of virus

April 9, 2020 — An Alaska tribe and city asked have the governor to shut down a prosperous fishery this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Curyung Tribal Council and the city of Dillingham requested the closure of the Bristol Bay fishery in a letter to Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy Tuesday, Indian County Today reported.

The Bristol Bay fishery typically opens in June and harvests more Sockeye salmon than anywhere else globally. Fish harvesters there caught 56.5 million salmon in 2019.

The fishery brings about 14,000 people to the region for work with fish processing plant companies while drawing about 1,800 fishermen who have been named essential workers by the state.

“Our community does not have the capability to control the movement of this group,” the letter to Dunleavy said. “This is unacceptable and places us in an impossible situation.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

ALASKA: Bristol Bay processors offer plan aimed at keeping massive salmon fishery safe

April 9, 2020 — A group of seafood processors has offered details on how they would ensure safety in Alaska’s lucrative Bristol Bay commercial fishing season amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, a day after Dillingham leaders told the governor the fishery poses an “unacceptable” risk to local communities and should be canceled.

On Tuesday, Dillingham’s mayor and tribal first chief sent an open letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, asking him to cancel this summer’s Bristol Bay salmon fishery, the biggest by volume in the world. Last year, the total value of the catch set a record at $306 million.

Eleven seafood companies planning to participate in the Bristol Bay fishery this summer released a letter Wednesday “to confirm our commitment that we are prioritizing health and safety” of local communities.

The letter is addressed to the “communities and tribal councils of Bristol Bay.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

How genetics is leveling the aquaculture playing field

April 9, 2020 — Genetics-breeding programs are no longer limited only to affluent fish farming behemoths; there’s an increasing number of cost-effective services coming on-stream to help get small and medium sized operations on the right track.

The rapid growth of the aquaculture sector has seen two different producer models come to the fore. First, there are those operations that will source their eggs from a centralized breeding program and grow them out to market size. Many companies follow this strategy, particularly in the Atlantic salmon and other salmonid sectors. In the other camp, there are those companies that have their own breeding programs in place and manage them in-house.

Read the full story at Seafood Source