January 3, 2020 — Even though a federal judge ruled in December that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the authority to regulate genetically modified salmon, a commercial fishing group that sued the agency is declaring “partial victory.”
That’s because, in May, the judge will hear arguments on the second part of the case, which questions whether the FDA’s approval of GM salmon was deficient.
January 3, 2020 — Alaska’s fisheries in 2019 had several bright spots, yet many areas of concern will return into the next year.
Once again the sockeye fishery in Bristol Bay was the shining star of the commercial sector. Fishermen caught Bristol Bay’s 2 billionth sockeye salmon since records were first kept. The in-shore run of 57 million fish clocked in at the fourth-largest run on the record books, but the ex-vessel value of $306 million ranks as the best of all time.
“We had really good fisheries out in Bristol Bay,” ADF&G Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said. “In Southeast Alaska we were able to meet all our treaty obligations, provide commercial fishing opportunity and most importantly protect all our stocks of concern in Southeast Alaska.”
2019 brought a mixed bag for sport fishermen in Southcentral.
The early run sockeye on the Kenai and Russian River quickly surpassed escapement goals even with the ADF&G increasing bag limits and opening areas usually closed to fishing. At one point, anglers could keep nine daily and have 18 in possession.
“We’ve had other years where we went up to six and 12 daily, but we’ve never had it go up that high. We just had a tremendous return of sockeye, and we use that return to provide opportunities for Alaskans and visitors to our state,” Vincent-Lang said.
Even with additional limit increases for late-run Kenai River and Resurrection Bay sockeye, the 2019 season was tarnished by two major events.
The Swan Lake Fire loomed over of much of the Alaskan summer, and sportfishing didn’t escape the impacts. The Upper Kenai River was temporarily closed for public safety and firefighting efforts during a time period that is one of the most important of the year for trout fishing guides on the Peninsula.
December 31, 2019 — Chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, are getting smaller, and a team of scientists at the University of Washington think they know why. A new study says killer whales might be behind Chinook’s declining size.
Chinook salmon are an important part of life in Southeast Alaska. Part of the prized fish’s value is its size. Chinook are the largest Pacific salmon.
But in the last two years, returns have been low. Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg all saw their king salmon derbies cancelled in 2018 and 2019. And forecasts for 2020 don’t look much better.
But it’s not just their numbers that are declining.
University of Washington researcher Jan Ohlberger published a paper last year that shows Chinook are getting smaller, too. Up to 10 percent smaller.
That discovery intrigued the researcher.
“The question is, what is the cause of that?” said Ohlberger in a recent phone interview.
A causal claim is difficult to make. Correlation, of course, doesn’t always imply causation.
December 30, 2019 — Limits on bass and walleye fishing — alongside other warmwater species — were liberalized by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission on Saturday.
New rules, going into effect mid-February, remove size limits and daily limits on rivers and streams throughout the state.
The rules also double the daily limits for most species on 77 lakes throughout Washington, said Steve Caromile, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s warmwater fish program manager.
The changes are in response to new legislation aimed at increasing chinook survival in hopes of helping struggling orca populations in the Puget Sound.
Bass and walleye eat salmon smolts, although to what extent they impact the migrating fish is disputed.
Initially, WDFW officials proposed removing bag limits statewide, but the commission directed them to narrow their proposal.
December 30, 2019 — It seems that at election time, our candidates will do everything they can to show themselves as big proponents of our fisheries, posing as lovers of salmon, with pictures of themselves splashed across the media holding a king or coho, while touting our commercial and sport fishing industries. Yet once election season is over, our amazing natural resources — our salmon especially — seem to be all but forgotten, slipping back into the far reaches of memory, taking a second seat to all other issues, a neglected priority.
This is too bad, because as anyone who is aware of the history of once great fisheries around the world knows, ours are but a few of the last great remaining intact salmon runs. Cook Inlet- sized populations were once the norm throughout Europe, as were runs far into the 1800’s along the northeastern seaboard of the United States. Much more recently, over the past 50 years, 300 documented runs of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest have met their demise, many of these during our lifetime.
With current changes, such as the very real prospect of Pebble Mine, and with the lifting of restrictions on the discharge of pollutants on both a state and federal level, there is no reason to believe this will not eventually be the case here in Alaska, as well, that our salmon will not face the same fate as those around the world. We need to hold our politicians’ feet to the fire and demand that they adhere to what they say when running for office. Finally, stop just paying lip service to our salmon and adopt a “fish-first” policy.
December 23, 2019 — The Food and Drug Administration can regulate salmon that’s genetically engineered to grow faster, according to a decision in a California federal court case over concerns about so-called frankenfish.
Fishing, consumer, and environmental groups that challenged the FDA’s approval of such salmon from AquaBounty Technologies Inc. failed to convince the court that the agency lacks authority to regulate the fish. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Dec. 19 sided with the FDA, leaving to a later date a decision on whether the regulator failed to consider potential risks.
AquaBounty won the FDA’s first greenlight for changing the genetic makeup of an animal destined for the dinner table. The case could have implications for similar modifications in the works for fish like tilapia and trout or other animals down the line, according to the Center for Food Safety, one of the groups that sued.
“That’s why we were so concerned about this approval,” said Amy van Saun, a senior attorney at the center. “We want to make sure people and the environment are protected.”
Genetically engineered salmon are meant as an alternative to endangered wild salmon. AquaBounty plans to harvest its salmon starting in late 2020.
December 20, 2019 — The Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board (WSRFB) announced Monday over $26 million in grants for projects across Washington that aim to help revive salmon populations, which have long been in decline due to developmental infrastructure that ignores them.
Twenty-eight of the state’s 39 counties will receive the funds distributed across 96 projects.
Investments will be targeted to remove barriers that prevent salmon from migrating, increase available salmon habitats and conserve important ecological areas surrounding them.
Projects are selected in collaboration with local watershed-based groups including tribes, local governments, nonprofits and citizens. They are designed to fit community priorities while addressing state and federal issues surrounding salmon ecology.
Jefferson County will receive the largest donation, with more than $3 million for the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement group to remove and replace the U.S. Route 101 causeway and related projects.
Skagit County will receive the second largest grant in western Washington at $1,952,176, and King County will receive $1,536,826.
December 19, 2019 — Well before online retail became the juggernaut it is today, The Fish Society was pioneering the idea of selling seafood, via delivery, on a website.
The Fish Society started life in 1993 as a mail order business with a small advert in BBC Good Food Magazine. At that time, The Fish Society founder Alistair Blair was working as a journalist, writing for the Investors Chronicle and the Financial Times, running The Fish Society as a hobby business on the side. But the founder said that he always had the intention to do “something bigger” with it, recognizing an opportunity to capitalize on the “disappointing” range of fish available in supermarkets.
December 18, 2019 — Trade on permits in Alaska’s salmon fisheries has been generally sluggish, as high prices in booming fisheries, warming waters, and market uncertainties are giving fishermen pause.
Fishermen are still looking to get into Bristol Bay after consecutive seasons of robust runs have coincided with strong prices, culminating in a 2019 season that was the most lucrative in history. Last year’s record-breaking preliminary ex-vessel value of USD 306.5 million (EUR 275.7 million) in Bristol Bay was nearly 250 percent of the 20-year average, and permits prices reflect the recent boom.
December 18, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The salmon frenzy that started in the western Arctic earlier this year has gone on to reach a historic high.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has been studying Arctic salmon populations since 2000, and collects samples every year as part of the Arctic Salmon Project. This year, 2,400 salmon were submitted to the department.
Last year, less than 100 salmon were collected from western Arctic waters.
Karen Dunmall, a biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said they got more salmon from harvesters in the western Arctic and Nunavut this year than in the last 20 years combined.
She said they also found that salmon appeared earlier than normal.
Dunmall said years when they would see lots of salmon were once “exceptional,” but high counts are becoming more of a regular thing.
“So the highs are becoming more high and they’re becoming closer together,” said Dunmall. “This year was an exceptionally high high.”
Dunmall said they heard from people that there was more ice in the water last summer, compared to this year, when there was no ice.
“So the salmon are responding to environmental variability and change,” said Dunmall. “Generally, things are warming up, but there are lots of other cues that the salmon are responding to.”
Dunmall said people caught salmon everywhere in the western Arctic, from Sachs Harbour and Banks Island, to all the way up the Mackenzie River in Fort Smith.
Each community in the Beaufort Delta region offered grocery gift cards in exchange for up to 10 whole salmon samples, as well as an unlimited number of fish heads.
Fisheries and Oceans then evaluates the samples to gather more information about Arctic salmon — including why their numbers are booming in the first place.
‘Pretty Crazy’ Catch In Norman Wells
Norman Wells resident Kevin Kivi has only been fishing for about three years. Last year, he caught no salmon, so it was quite a shock for him catch nearly 100 salmon this summer.
“There was a period where I put my net in for just over a week… and in those eight days it was 73 salmon I caught,” said Kivi.
He said the size of his catch grew over the course of the season, until he was pulling in 17 fish every time. He said catching big schools of fish like that is unusual.
“It was pretty crazy, the amount that were coming,” he said.
Kivi said that usually he catches lots of whitefish, but this year, he only caught about four.
He tends to give a lot of his fish to elders and other community members in town, or keep them for his family.
However, he said he feels it’s important to help Fisheries and Oceans with their research “to find out why they are coming up here.”
Community Helps With Sampling
The large number of samples meant that the Arctic Salmon Project had to rely on the help of community members to process the whole catch.
The territorial department of Environment and Natural Resources partnered with Mackenzie Mountain School in Norman Wells to help with monitoring.
Kevin Chan, a regional biologist with the department in the Sahtu, said kids at the school played a crucial role in collecting the samples.
The department taught them about the science behind the work of fisheries monitoring and management.
Chan said the students measured the heads, recorded data about where and when the salmon were caught, and collected muscle tissue and bones from the ear of the salmon.
Fisheries and Oceans will be continuing the salmon project next year, and hope harvesters continue to submit salmon samples and inform them if they see anything unusual.
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.