Saving Seafood

Northern Maine was once home to robust salmon population. Now a new strategy could bring them back

June 12, 2019 — A new generation of Atlantic salmon is getting acquainted with the headwaters of the Aroostook River watershed this spring, as a coalition of organizations works on a long-term effort to restore populations of the fish in northern Maine.

More than 40,000 newly hatched Atlantic salmon were released into tributary streams of the Aroostook River in early June. They are the first cohort of hatches sourced from wild, genetically diverse salmon in the greater St. John River watershed, said David Putnam, a member of the volunteer-run Atlantic Salmon for Northern Maine group.

Most salmon releases have relied on captive-raised fish, and releases over the last several decades in northern Maine and elsewhere have not been successful in establishing new populations of the fish, Putnam said.

These new fish represent a “new strategy,” said Putnam, a long-time natural history and sciences instructor at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. The young salmon come from eggs taken from wild fish that were “selected to get a broad genetic diversity from St. John River salmon,” Putnam said.

The young salmon “fry” were released without being fed in a hatchery and should have a better chance at long-term survival and adaptation than hatchery-raised offspring, Putnam said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

ALASKA: Feds still working on plan for $56M in disaster relief funds

June 12, 2019 — Alaska fishermen are still awaiting disaster relief funds for the 2016 pink salmon run failure that was the worst in 40 years.

Congress approved $56 million that year for Alaska fishermen, processors and communities hurt by the fishery flop in three Alaska regions: Kodiak, Prince William Sound and Lower Cook Inlet.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and National Marine Fisheries Service finalized plans and procedures for payouts last August. Since then, the paper push has stalled on various federal agency desks.

NMFS missed a promised June 1 sign off deadline and now says the funds will be released on the first of July, according to Rep. Louise Stutes of Kodiak, who has been tracking the progress.

“It affects all the cannery workers all the processors, all the businesses in the community,” she said. “This has a big trickle-down effect.”

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Canadian Farmed Salmon Will Face Additional Tests for Viruses

June 10, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fisheries and Oceans Canada will test for two foreign strains of piscine orthoreovirus in young Atlantic salmon before they are transferred to ocean-based salmon farms after being told by the Federal Court to tighten its policy.

Salmon farms will also be required to test salmon in net-pen farms for jaundice and heart and skeletal muscle inflammation, which some scientists believe is associated with a native strain of piscine orthoreovirus, also known as PRV.

“These are two key measures that reflect precaution where there is some debate about the science,” said Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

The Icelandic strain of PRV was found in a Washington state hatchery last year, leading to the destruction of 800,000 smolts. The Norwegian strain has caused harm to farmed and wild Atlantic salmon in Norway, leading to significant production losses.

“We are going to require testing (in hatcheries) for both of those strains because we are concerned about them,” said Wilkinson.

Earlier this year, a federal scientific advisory panel found that the native strain of PRV is widely distributed in B.C.’s coastal waters, but poses a minimal threat to Fraser River sockeye. B.C. PRV is commonly found in farmed Atlantic salmon and wild Chinook salmon, but in laboratory testing its presence is not predictive of disease, they said.

Nonetheless, testing for heart and skeletal muscle inflammation and jaundice will address concerns raised by independent biologist Alexandra Morton that the native strain of PRV is affecting farmed salmon, Wilkinson said.

The Namgis First Nation went to court last year seeking an injunction to prevent salmon from being transferred to farms in their traditional territory without having been tested for PRV. Ecojustice – acting for Morton – sued the federal government for an order to test for the virus.

In February, the Federal Court gave Ottawa four months to come up with a testing regimen, ruling that failure to test for PRV did not comply with the precautionary principle.

“This is absolutely amazing and wonderful news,” said Morton.

“While I am waiting to see who will conduct the tests and what the protocol will be when they find the virus, I recognize this as a bold and important step that no other minister of Fisheries and Oceans has taken.”

These interim measures will be in place while the federal government seeks public input on a pair of policy proposals aimed at reducing the risks of salmon farming.

“Salmon farmers already test for several known pathogens and these new tests will become part of that process,” said B.C. Salmon Farmers Association spokesman Shawn Hall.

“It’s our understanding that the native strain of PRV is in the water naturally and that is it benign.”

Failing to test for B.C. PRV is a missed opportunity to fill in gaps in the science about that strain, said David Suzuki Foundation science adviser John Werring.

“It is heartening to hear that the minister for Fisheries and Oceans Canada acknowledges that there is a great deal of uncertainty concerning PRV and the potential impacts this virus may have on both wild and farmed fish,” Werring said.

The Fisheries Department has also struck three working groups comprised of government scientists, First Nations, environmental groups and the farm industry to provide input on permanent changes to the department’s risk-management policy, specifically the switch to area-based management of aquaculture, land-and oceanbased farm design and fish health.

Results of a study on new and emerging aquaculture technologies – including ocean-based closed-containment systems and land-based farms – are due later this month.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

New book reveals the history and ephemera of salmon canneries in Southeast Alaska

June 7, 2019 — Juneau Afternoon host Sheli DeLaney sat down with the editor of the newly-published book “Tin Can Country: Southeast Alaska’s Historic Salmon Canneries” on Thursday’s show.

The book takes a look at the historical impact of salmon canneries and how they built the economic foundation of Southeast Alaska. The editor, Anjuli Grantham, is also a fisheries historian.

“Canneries are really essential to the identity and the economy of Alaska,” Grantham said. “However, the seafood industry in general hasn’t gotten the attention that other industries have in the history of Alaska. For example, mining. People often think about the gold rush, but they don’t think about the salmon rush that created much of coastal Alaska.”

Grantham is quick to mention that this book was a culmination of years of work and research by many people. One of those people was the late Pat Roppel of Wrangell, an Alaskan historian who spent decades researching the history of canneries across the state, specifically in Southeast.

Roppel died in 2015 before finishing her work. Her best friend, Karen Hofstad of Petersburg, had been collecting salmon can labels, original cans and fisheries materials for 50 years with the intention of creating a book. Hofstad and Grantham collaborated to finish Roppel’s effort, using Hofstad’s extensive collection to illustrate it.

Read the full story at KTOO

WASHINGTON: Salmon merging onto new ‘highway’ in Seattle, complete with rest stops and restaurants

June 4, 2019 — Next time you’re visiting Seattle’s downtown waterfront and gazing out across Elliott Bay toward the majestic Olympic Mountains, look down. You might see a shoal of silvery baby salmon, each about 3 inches long.

You might also see a snorkeler counting fish, because University of Washington researchers are studying habitat improvements built along the city’s $410 million new seawall, which stretches 3,100 feet between the Seattle Aquarium and the Colman Dock ferry terminal.

Their observations are preliminary — yet promising. Since the wall was completed in 2017, the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences researchers have repeatedly witnessed juvenile salmon swimming under the wooden piers that extend out over the waterfront, where they almost never ventured before.

During the wall’s construction, workers added shelves and grooves meant to help algae grow and critters like mussels take hold. They laid rock beds below the wall because young salmon prefer to forage and hide in shallow-water nooks. They even installed translucent glass panes in a cantilevered sidewalk between the wall and the piers to allow light through, down to the water.

Juvenile salmon prefer swimming and eating in sunlight, and the improvements are meant to act like a migratory highway, complete with rest stations and restaurants. Taken together, they represent what might be the most sweeping seawall habitat-restoration project anywhere.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

FDA study finds “forever chemicals” in grocery-store seafood

June 4, 2019 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released the results of a wide-scale study investigating the presence of so-called “forever chemicals” in U.S. supermarket food.

The FDA found levels of per- and polyfluoroalykyl (PFAs) and other fluorocarbon resins – which are grease-proofing agents used in non-stick cookware, fast food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags and numerous other foodservice and food retail applications in many foods, including seafood – in market basket sampling done at grocery stores and supermarkets in three undisclosed U.S. cities in the mid-Atlantic region.

The FDA found PFAs at levels ranging from 134 parts per trillion to 865 parts per trillion in tilapia, cod, salmon, shrimp, and catfish, as well as numerous meat products, according to an FDA presentation at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in late May, the Associated Press reported.

FDA spokesperson Tara Rabin told the AP that her agency rated PFAs as “not likely to be a human health concern,” but the levels of chemical contamination found in the seafood tested were more than double the FDA’s recommended 70-parts-per-trillion limit for safe drinking water.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Norway’s deadly algae bloom may be waning, government says

June 3, 2019 — A deadly algae bloom that has killed nearly eight million Atlantic salmon being farmed in northern Norway appears to be dispersing, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries.

The bloom, first reported in mid-May, has killed 3.8 million farmed salmon in the Nordland area, the equivalent of 6,400 metric tons, and four million salmon in Troms, or 6,820 metric tons, according to Norway’s Fiskeridirektoratet. Affected companies include Ballangen Sjøfarm, Ellingsen Seafood, Mortenlaks, and Nordlaks in Nordland and South Rollerfish, Northern Lights Salmon, Kleiva Fish Farm, Gratanglaks, Nordlaks, and Salaks in Troms.

“It may seem that blooming is on the way down. Generally lower numbers of algae are recorded, the cells are smaller in size and there are observations suggesting that the bloom/species is less harmful,” the directorate wrote in a 2 June update. “As reported in recent days, there have been high concentrations of algae without causing fish to die. It may happen that the algae bloom up again in smaller areas.”

Many salmon-farming companies in northern Norway have transferred their fish to locations less likely to be affected by the algae bloom. Cermaq, Nordlaks, Ellingsen Seafood, and Nordnorsk Stamfisk have moved fish and broodstock out of Nordland, while Lerøy had issued a notice that it was considering moving fish out of Troms, but delayed its decision as local water conditions improved.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine’s Atlantic salmon prognosis remains grim despite all-time low harvest and more adult returns to North American rivers

May 31, 2019 — On Thursday, as national delegations prepare to meet in Norway to discuss Atlantic salmon conservation, there’s a mixed bag of news for those who are passionate about salmon and salmon angling.

The headline on an Atlantic Salmon Federation press release, in fact, sounds downright cheery, as it announces that harvest of the fish in the North Atlantic is at an all-time low, and adult returns to North American rivers increased from 2017 to 2018.

That’s the attitude the ASF is taking heading into the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, at least.

In an accompanying report, “State of the North American Atlantic Salmon Populations,” a more sober picture begins to emerge.

According to that report, salmon returns to U.S. rivers in 2018 met only 3 percent of the conservation limit for fish that had spent two winters at sea. And what’s a “conservation limit?” That’s defined as the number of spawning adults below which populations are unable to sustain themselves, and begin to decline.

And that pretty much defines the Atlantic salmon situation here in Maine; the fish is listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Fishing for Atlantic salmon here is not allowed, and the population that does exist is almost entirely dependent on the annual stocking of hundreds of thousands of hatchery fish.

In 2018, according to the ASF, the Penobscot had 480 large salmon and 289 small salmon return. That run of 769 fish was lower than 2017’s 849 returning salmon.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Mowi CEO: GSI will continue to be a game-changer

May 30, 2019 — The Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) recently published its annual Sustainability Report, providing six years of data across 14 indicators for more than half of the global salmon industry. The report identified a number of key trends within the salmon farming sector and its membership, including:

  • A 50 percent decrease in the use of sea lice treatments, coupled with a 120 percent increase in the use of non-medicinal methods – due both to technological advancements and best-practice sharing;
  • The amount of fishmeal and fish oil in feed has reduced by 17 percent and 9 percent, respectively, resulting in an overall 11 percent decrease in the sector’s use of marine ingredients;
  • Farmed salmon continues to be one of the most eco-efficient forms of animal protein production, with the lowest carbon footprint, lowest feed conversion ratio, and lowest land-use;
  • More than 620,000 metric tons (MT) of salmon farmed by GSI members are now certified to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standard. Coming from over 185 farms worldwide, this represents almost 60 percent of their total production.

In an interview with SeafoodSource, Alf-Helge Aarskog, CEO of Mowi and co-chair of GSI, explained how the group’s collaborative endeavors and focus on transparency will continue to drive improved sustainability across the industry for a long time to come.

SeafoodSource: Has GSI achieved what you hoped it would over the past six years, and what have been its defining moments so far?

Aarskog: Having been involved in the GSI since it began in 2013, I am very pleased with how far the group has come. There is still a lot for us to work on, but in only six years to see the progress the industry has made in improving its transparency, focusing more on its sustainability challenges, and the speed at which we have approached the ASC standard, I think it is well beyond what any of us expected.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

4 years after California’s largest dam removal project, how are the fish doing?

May 28, 2019 — Four years ago, construction crews with huge jackhammers tore apart a 10-story concrete dam in the wooded canyons of the Carmel River, between the Big Sur hills and the beach front town of Carmel.

The destruction of the San Clemente Dam, which had blocked the river since 1921, remains the largest dam removal project in California history. It’s still early, but one of the main goals of the project seems to be on track: The river is becoming wilder, and struggling fish populations are rebounding.

“We don’t want to do the touchdown dance yet, but so far things are looking good,” said Tommy Williams, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who has monitored the Carmel River’s recovery. “It’s just amazing how fast these systems come back. Everything is playing out like we thought.”

Removal of the century-old dam is being watched closely around the country as a potential model for how to demolish other aging, dangerous and obsolete dams and restore rivers to a natural state not seen in generations.

The 106 foot-tall dam had been located 18 miles up river from Monterey Bay. In 2016, the first year after it was removed, researchers found that no steelhead trout, an iconic type of rainbow trout listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, swam past its former site to a tagging location seven miles upriver. By 2017, seven steelhead had made the trip. Last year, the count was 29. So far this year, 123 steelhead have traveled upriver.

“We’re seeing progress. I’m surprised that it has been happening in such a short time,” said Aman Gonzalez, who managed the dam removal project for California-American Water, the company that owned it.

Read the full story at The Chicago Tribune