Saving Seafood

US House minibus bill includes amendment to stop Pebble Mine

June 24, 2019 — The U.S. House of Representatives has advanced a fiscal 2020 “minibus” appropriations bill that includes an amendment that could hit the brakes again on efforts to mine for copper and other minerals in close proximity to the Bristol Bay, Alaska, wild-caught salmon fishery.

The legislation, which covers the budgets of the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, State-Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development, was passed on Wednesday by a party-line vote of 226-203.

Earlier in the day the House voted, 233-201, to attach an amendment from representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, that cuts off funding to the Corps of Engineers to finish the environmental process needed to secure permits for the proposed Pebble Mine. In his argument for the change, Huffman, who is co-chair of the Wild Salmon Caucus, said what Pebble Limited Partnership wants to do near the headwaters of Bristol Bay is unprecedented, Alaska Public Media reported.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

California fishermen report the biggest salmon season in a decade

June 24, 2019 — California commercial fishermen are reporting the biggest king salmon season in a decade, on the heels of three years of disastrously low catches because of the drought. The sudden bounty has resulted in a price drop for the coral-pink, fatty fillets to $20 per pound in many markets, down from the $30- to $35-per-pound range of recent years.

“You might say this is the old normal, because we’ve been so used to catastrophe,” said Noah Oppenheim, executive director at the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “Consumers who have been facing tough prices because of scarcity of California salmon are seeing a much more accessible product.”

Traditionally a signal of summer in Northern California, the fish will finally be plentiful again in time for Fourth of July barbecue season. While supermarkets like Safeway and Lucky didn’t have fresh local salmon in stock this week, Whole Foods had it on special for $22.99 per pound and Monterey Fish in Berkeley and Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco for $19.99, which a Bi-Rite employee said was its lowest price of the season.

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

Salmon sales surge helps Scotland set new export record

June 24, 2019 — Scottish food and drink exports achieved record sales of GBP 1.4 billion (USD 1.8 million, EUR 1.6 billion) in the first quarter of this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 14 percent, with sales of whiskey and salmon driving much of the growth, new U.K. government figures show.

In total, Scottish beverage exports in the first three months of 2019 were worth GBP 1 billion (USD 1.3 billion, EUR 1.1 billion), up 16 percent on Q1 2018. Fish exports in the same period accounted for GBP 210 million (USD 267.4 million, EUR 234.8 million), while fruit and vegetables exports increased by 37 percent to GBP 21 million (USD 26.7 million, EUR 23.5 million). Dairy and egg sales rose by 24 percent to GBP 17 million (USD 21.6 million, EUR 19 million).

British whiskey sales, almost all from Scotland, rose by 19 percent, and salmon exports were up by 41 percent – the strongest growth of all the top 10 U.K. food and drink products. There was a 20 percent increase in the volume of farmed salmon exported from Scotland in the quarter.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Restaurants could be 1st to get genetically modified salmon

June 21, 2019 — Inside an Indiana aquafarming complex, thousands of salmon eggs genetically modified to grow faster than normal are hatching into tiny fish. After growing to roughly 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) in indoor tanks, they could be served in restaurants by late next year.

The salmon produced by AquaBounty are the first genetically modified animals approved for human consumption in the U.S. They represent one way companies are pushing to transform the plants and animals we eat, even as consumer advocacy groups call for greater caution.

AquaBounty hasn’t sold any fish in the U.S. yet, but it says its salmon may first turn up in places like restaurants or university cafeterias, which would decide whether to tell diners that the fish are genetically modified.

“It’s their customer, not ours,” said Sylvia Wulf, AquaBounty’s CEO.

To produce its fish, Aquabounty injected Atlantic salmon with DNA from other fish species that make them grow to full size in about 18 months, which could be about twice as fast as regular salmon. The company says that’s more efficient since less feed is required. The eggs were shipped to the U.S. from the company’s Canadian location last month after clearing final regulatory hurdles.

As AquaBounty worked through years of government approvals, several grocers including Kroger and Whole Foods responded to a campaign by consumer groups with a vow to not sell the fish.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

WASHINGTON: Outdoor notes: Application submitted to lethally remove sea lions from Columbia River

June 20, 2019 — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in partnership with several stakeholders, has submitted an application to remove by lethal force, California and Stellar sea lions that are preying on protected salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia River and many of its tributaries.

Sea lion numbers have been growing alarmingly in the last decade, and they have been gathering below the Bonneville Dam to intercept salmon and steelhead as they make their way upstream. Many of the fish they are feeding on are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Many runs of salmon, particularly chinook, are struggling. Chinook runs this year are so low that fishing closures have been enacted.

“The vast majority of these animals remain in coastal and offshore waters, but several hundred have established themselves in upriver locations,” said Kessina Lee, Region 5 director with WDFW in a news release. “Where salmon and steelhead numbers are low, any unmanaged increase in predation can cause serious problems.”

Read the full story at The Columbian

US House approves anti-Pebble amendment; Young votes no, defends permit process

June 20, 2019 — The U.S. House voted 233-201 for an amendment that would block the Corps of Engineers from proceeding on a permit for the proposed Pebble Mine.

The sponsor, Rep. Jared Huffman, said what Pebble Limited Partnership wants to do near the headwaters of Bristol Bay is unprecedented.

“There is no other U.S. hardrock mining operation that captures and treats such a massive volume of contaminated mine water, which is harmful to fish and to public health,” Huffman said in the debate over his amendment. “We know that mines are not invincible. Things go wrong.”

Huffman, D-Calif., said an accident at the mine could devastate Bristol Bay’s valuable salmon fishery, degrade Native cultures and ruin businesses that rely on the region’s world-class sportfishing. His amendment cuts off funding to the Corps of Engineers to finish the environmental process that’s underway.

Alaska Congressman Don Young voted against the amendment – not to defend the mine, he said, but to support the permitting process.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

How Scottish salmon exports its way around the world and maintains its reputation

June 20, 2019 — Three days, that’s all it takes. That’s the maximum time needed to get salmon from the cold waters of a pristine sea loch in the far north-west of Scotland to an upmarket restaurant in Beijing, Sydney or Cape Town. Often it’s quicker than that. Salmon harvested just after midnight in Mallaig are in the main transport hub at Larkhall, just off the M74 south of Glasgow, by lunchtime that day, often arriving at Heathrow the same evening.

Sent out in the bellies of passenger aircraft, the fish can then be presented on dinner plates in New York the following day.

Salmon is Scotland’s biggest food export and in the top-three of UK food exports too.

It is, quite clearly, a hugely successful product. It is renowned globally for its quality and regularly comes top of surveys rating the best salmon in the world.

But, because it is a perishable product, the routes to market have to be swift. That is why so much effort goes into getting from the sea to the customer as quickly as possible.

That is also why the harvesting often begins at midnight. That way, the normally quiet hours of the night are utilised to transport the fish and get them to the processors by the morning.

There they will be packed in ice boxes and sent to Larkhall.

Read the full story at The Scotsman

Alaska Congress members ask to tap relief funds for seafood

June 20, 2019 — Alaska’s congressional delegation said the state’s fishermen and seafood processors should be included in a federal trade war relief package, a report said.

Lawmakers asked the Trump administration to give its seafood industry access to $15 billion earmarked for farmers, The Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday.

“Unjustified retaliatory” tariffs are eroding Alaska seafood’s market share in China, U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young said in a June 11 letter.

“New market growth has stopped and Alaska seafood consumption has dropped,” the legislators wrote to Perdue.

China’s 25% tariff on Alaska salmon, pollock, cod and other fish implemented in July boosts the overall tariff to 32% on some fish species, they said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

Iceland to vote on changes to aquaculture policy

June 19, 2019 — The Icelandic parliament is set to vote on proposed amendments to the country’s aquaculture act, coinciding with a major public effort to curb the use of open cages in salmon farming nations, reports Visir.

The US outdoor clothing brand Patagonia, in collaboration with the wild salmon stocks fund and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, has received 140,000 signatures for its challenge to open pen salmon farming in Iceland, Norway, Scotland, and Ireland.

The signatures are set to be handed to parliament ahead of the vote on the bill proposed by the minister of fisheries and aquaculture. A second debate on the bill was postponed on June 13.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Whale Watchers Accused Of Loving Endangered Orcas To Death

June 19, 2019 — Whale watching is generally regarded as innocent fun. Unlike an aquarium park, whale watching boats take you to see majestic animals that remain free in their natural habitat.

But when it comes to marine mammals that are already struggling to survive, are the boat-based watching tours really harmless?

That question has become more urgent in Washington state, where Southern Resident killer whales that feed around the San Juan Islands in the summer months have been declining since the 1990s. There are only about 75 left. Orcas are a form of dolphin, though the cetaceans are also sometimes classified as “toothed whales.”

Experts blame the shrinking runs of chinook salmon, the Southern Residents’ preferred meal. (Other kinds of orcas hunt other sea mammals, and are not declining the same way.)

The plight of the Southern Residents gained international attention last summer, when one of the orca females was seen “grieving” for its dead calf, keeping the body afloat for 17 days.

Read the full story at NPR