Saving Seafood

ALASKA: No plans to close Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery over COVID-19

April 20, 2020 — Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang says it would be premature at this time to decide to close the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery, since there are a couple months before it even gets going. However, he says the state is keeping a close eye on things, including the Copper River salmon fishery.

“From that experience, which brings in an influx of fishermen into the Cordova area, we’re meeting with the local representatives of the Cordova community as well as the fishing processing sector to figure out how to safely bring in processing workers to make sure that that fishery can occur. Right now that’s scheduled to occur. What we learn from that will inform us on how we manage the Bristol Bay fishery,” said the commissioner.

Dillingham Mayor Alice Ruby and First Chief of the Curyung Tribal Council Thomas Tilden wrote a letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy asking him to consider closing the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery because of the many fish processing employees who will come to the area.

“There is no way to prevent a potential mass disease situation when a few hundred people are in close proximity with each other. There is no way that they can comply with Health Mandate 11 on Social Distancing. Whether it is infection spread in the community by direct contact with residents during their travel to and within the community, or whether it will by draining precious resources when processing employees becomes infected,” read the letter.

Read the full story at KTVA

As Alaska fishing season set to begin, fearful communities and seafood industry try to prevent spread of coronavirus

April 20, 2020 — Early next month, Trident Seafoods vessel-operations manager Tod Hall will bid his wife goodbye, then leave his Lakewood home for the start of a six-month season catching and processing fish off Washington and Alaska. This year, instead of boarding the 316-foot Island Enterprise now moored at a Tacoma dock, he first will check into a hotel on the outskirts of Seattle. For the next 14 days, he will remain quarantined in his room with all meals delivered and even an occasional hallway stroll off-limits.

Hall will be one of the first of some 4,000 Trident shoreside processing workers and at-sea crew to undergo this two-week quarantine in Seattle-area and Alaska hotel rooms. Their confinement will be monitored by security guards and nurses who will do daily temperature checks. Two days before they exit, if Trident can secure enough supplies, they will be tested for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

Such measures might seem extraordinary, but these are extraordinary times for Alaska’s seafood industry, which each year delivers more than half of the U.S. harvest from coastal and offshore waters.

Trident and other seafood-company officials hope to ensure that factory trawlers making their way through remote swaths of the Bering Sea do not replay any of the harrowing scenarios that unfolded on cruise ships this year, when waves of the virus sickened passengers.

Read the full story from The Seattle Times at the Anchorage Daily News

Safe conduct of Alaska salmon fisheries is possible during coronavirus crisis, Fish and Game says

April 17, 2020 — State fisheries managers insist it is too early to close commercial salmon fisheries to prevent the spread of COVID-19 despite growing concerns from many in small communities about the coming influx of seasonal workers.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in an interview that he is certainly aware of the issues that could arise from holding spring and summer salmon fisheries that start next month as everyone also attempts to limit the spread of the disease, but he stressed state officials are drafting plans to provide extra protection to local residents and fisheries workers.

He also noted that salmon is just one sector of the state’s diverse and year-round fishing industry.

“I think people are wondering whether we’re going to have fisheries; I think they forget that we actually have a lot of fisheries in the water right now and we’re geared up to manage those,” Vincent-Lang said.

In addition to numerous federally managed fisheries, commercial boats are currently targeting crab, halibut, rockfish, pollock, Pacific cod and other species in state waters.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Seafood Market Craters After Restaurants Shuttered Worldwide

April 16, 2020 — Just one kilogram of freshly caught squid a day was almost enough to live on for Thai fishermen like Wisut Boonnak. Now the catch has halved in price and he’s spending more time on village duties.

“It’s the biggest price drop that I can remember,” said Wisut, who’s been fishing for the past 40 years off the southern Thai coast. “There are fewer buyers around now because exports are lower.” Wisut used to go to sea daily to catch squid and mackerel. These days he’s out just once or twice a week.

The global seafood industry, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, is seeing demand crater. From lobster fishermen in North America to salmon farmers in Norway and shrimp producers in Vietnam, people are hurting as the coronavirus shuts cafes and restaurants and wreaks havoc with supply chains. Whether farmed or wild, fresh or processed, few areas have escaped the impact.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

PFMC: Notice of availability: Salmon Preseason Report III

April 16, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The following document has been posted to the Council’s website:

Preseason Report III describes the 2020 ocean salmon fishery management measures adopted by the Council at their April 2020 meeting for submission to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and characterizes their expected impacts on ocean salmon fisheries and the stocks which support them.

For further information

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Robin Ehlke at 503-820-2410; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

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