Saving Seafood

Habitat Committee and Salmon Technical Team to hold online meeting May 12, 2020

April 8, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council will convene an online meeting of its Habitat Committee (HC) and Salmon Technical Team.  This online meeting is open to the public and will be held Tuesday, May 12, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, or until business for the day has been completed.

Please see the Habitat Committee and Salmon Technical Team online meeting notice on the Council’s website for participation details and the purpose of the meeting.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Jennifer Gilden  at 503-820-2418; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Bristol Bay community leaders lay out minimum protocol needed to allow salmon season

April 7, 2020 — Leaders of several major community organizations in Bristol Bay have issued a list of minimum protocols they expect to be in place before the commercial salmon fishery can take place this summer.

Among other the protocol listed, fishermen and other seasonal workers would undergo a physical exam including a COVID-19 test with a negative result no more than 48 hours before traveling to the region. After arriving in Bristol Bay, the individuals would be transported to a quarantine location and remain in quarantine until a follow-up negative COVID-19 test is confirmed. The leaders listed out other expectations, including weekly health screenings, for the seafood industry to establish as minimum protocol for the 2020 season.

“We were hearing up until we came up with our own position statement for the lack of a better word, was that what everybody was advocating for was really based around quarantine – the 14 day quarantine period. That seemed to be what was going to fix everything and make us all comfortable. The reality is, our opinion is that it’s going to take multiple types of protocol, so we think that COVID-19 testing, in combination with quarantine gives us the lowest level of risk,” Norm Van Vactor, CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation said. “There’s still some risk there, and at the end of the day, our communities are going to have to decide whether even that level of risk is acceptable.”

Read the full story at KTUU

Thousands of fishery workers, many from outside Alaska, are headed to Bristol Bay. One tiny hospital says its coronavirus plan can’t handle them.

April 6, 2020 — Later this spring, Alaska’s Bristol Bay will blossom into one of the largest annual salmon fisheries in the world.

The regional population of about 6,700 will triple with the arrival of fishermen, crews and seasonal workers on jets but also private planes and small boats, many traveling from out of state.

And yet the heart of the health care system in southwestern Alaska, where the Spanish flu once decimated entire communities, is a 16-bed hospital in Dillingham operated by the Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. Only four beds are currently equipped for coronavirus patients. There are no intensive-care unit rooms. As of Wednesday the hospital had a few dozen coronavirus tests for the entire Florida-sized region.

Chief nursing officer Lee Yale said in an email that the Kanakanak Hospital has four negative pressure rooms to treat COVID-19 patients without infecting others and two ventilators.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

West Coast Salmon Fishing and Southern Residents: Part 1

April 3, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Southern Resident killer whales have long pursued the biggest and most nourishing Chinook salmon from coastal Pacific waters. Chinook salmon fishing is also a mainstay of the West Coast economy, generating nearly $72 million in income last year.

Is there room for both?

The answer is yes, with safeguards. NOAA Fisheries prioritizes the needs of Southern Residents in setting salmon fishing seasons, as the Endangered Species Act requires. We also recognize the importance of salmon fisheries to port communities up and down the West Coast, as outlined by laws including the Magnuson Stevens Act.

We are working with states, tribes, and the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council). We are examining in detail how West Coast fisheries affect prey for the Southern Residents. So far, the analysis has indicated that Council fisheries have been taking a small proportion of the available Chinook salmon each year.

Read the full release here

Alaska fishing community takes precautions as it prepares for salmon season

April 3, 2020 — As Alaska’s top doctor put it, “We know the fish are coming regardless of COVID-19 or not and we can’t ask them to stay home.”

As a result, government officials and fishing stakeholders statewide are working to ensure Alaska can still have a strong summer salmon season even amidst a potentially prolonged COVID-19 winter.

Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink made the comment during a March 30 press briefing, adding that the state has a specific fisheries work group trying to figure out ways small communities can handle an influx of fishermen and processing workers while also adhering to important health guidelines that run counter to the realities of a traditional fishing season.

While Alaska’s diverse fisheries continue year-round, the famed Copper River sockeye and king fishery that unofficially kicks off the salmon harvest in mid-May each year will be one of the first testing grounds for trying to find that balance.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Emergency meeting in Chile paints dire picture of salmon supply chain

April 3, 2020 — Workers in Chile’s salmon processing sector have been protesting on the island of Chiloé – an industry production hub – arguing the companies they work for are not doing enough to protect them from the COVID-19 virus.

Last week, the national government closed off Chiloé to much of outside traffic, only allowing the circulation of transport it deemed essential, which includes the salmon industry. Declaring the measures inadequate, Chiloé residents and even town mayors have taken to the streets in protest, closing highways to prevent all traffic, including salmon industry trucks, from circulating.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coronavirus places 2020 Alaska salmon fishery ‘in question’, exec worries

April 2, 2020 — The escalating COVID-19 crisis places the 2020 Alaska salmon fishery in question, as the industry works on solutions to getting thousands of workers to the remote state without spreading the highly infectious coronavirus.

As many as 15,000 workers can descend on Alaska from the other US states and overseas for the season, but numbers are expected to be lower than this in 2020, if indeed the industry can find a workable solution, sources told Undercurrent News.

“If you asked me a month ago that a situation like this would be possible, that I was contemplating that the successful prosecution of our 2020 salmon fishery couldn’t take place, I would not have believed you,” said Norm Van Vactor, executive director of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation (BBEDC), a community development quota group, which owns half of processor Ocean Beauty Seafoods.

“If you know what we know today — and we don’t know a lot — then the prosecution of the fishery is in question,” Van Vactor told Undercurrent. “I’m optimistic that if we all pull together — understanding that communities are going to put health and public safety first, and that’s the foundation of how we move forward — we can make it happen, to some extent.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

April 4-10, 2020 PFMC Meeting Webinar Information

April 1, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC or Council) and its advisory bodies will meet April 4‐10, 2020 by webinar only, to address issues related to groundfish, salmon, Pacific halibut, coastal pelagic species, and administrative matters.

Information on how to access the Council meeting live stream is now available on our April 4-10, 2020 Council meeting webpage.

Please note that the evolving public health situation regarding COVID‐19 may further affect the conduct of the April Council and advisory body meetings. Pacific Council staff will continue to monitor COVID‐19 developments and will determine if there is a need for additional measures. If such measures are deemed necessary, Council staff will post notice of them prominently on our website (www.pcouncil.org). Potential meeting participants are encouraged to check the Pacific Council’s website frequently for such information and updates.

Sernapesca implements 14-point measures to avoid salmon health emergency amid COVID-19

March 30, 2020 — While safeguarding workers’ health and taking preemptive measures against the closing of markets have topped Chilean salmon industry executives’ list of priorities throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) has raised another concern: What happens if the fish die?

A number of seafood company employees have already implemented a work-from-home policy for most employees to allow them to minimize contact with other humans and reduce the spread of the virus, but the continued operations of salmon farms require the presence of some workers at farming facilities. A curfew was declared on 18 March as part of Chilean President Sebastian Piñera’s emergency measures, and  isolation and the closing off of cities in the south was decreed for Puerto Williams and Chillán, as well as for Chiloé, an island with a large presence of salmon-farming firms. However, salmon farms and their employees are exempt from the restrictions, according to Chile’s Sub-Secretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca), as they must be compatible with a fundamental need of guaranteeing the availability of the country’s food supply.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coronavirus strains preparations for 2020 sockeye season in Bristol Bay, Alaska

March 27, 2020 — Alaska issued a mandate late on Monday, 24 March, qualifying the state’s commercial fishing industry as “critical infrastructure,” a move that frees up the Bristol Bay fishery to move forward with preparations for the 2020 season.

But uncertainty looms as the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery discusses how it might bring nearly 12,000 non-resident workers into remote western Alaska amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Read the full story at Seafood Source