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Did salmon actually use the Skagit River before the Seattle dams were built?

December 20, 2022 — Beneath the city of Seattle’s Gorge Dam an unnatural silence reigns. This stretch of the Skagit River, known as the bypass reach, is a sacred gateway to the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe’s Valley of the Spirits. But now it’s completely dry, as the city diverts the river into a three-mile-long tunnel through a mountain to a power-generating facility below. Gorge Dam is the lowermost of the three large dams in the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project; the other two, Diablo and Ross, lie upstream. Together, they form the Skagit hydroelectric project and provide 20% of the energy Seattle City Light, the city’s public utility, produced in 2021.

The utility is applying for a new license to operate the dams which, if granted, could remain in effect for the next 50 years. But the process has come up against a seemingly simple question with huge implications: Did salmon, steelhead and trout ever actually use the river above these dams? If they did, the city may be required to provide access to the fish habitat above.

Seattle City Light, which has had a monopoly on energy in the city since 1951, has argued that the fish never accessed the stretches of the river where its dams and reservoirs now stand, at least not in significant numbers, and that because of this, the utility should not be required to take on the major infrastructure work of adding fish passage. However, a chorus of people, from federal agencies to tribal nations and their biologists, have offered up formidable evidence to the contrary, citing historical records, tribal histories and research, federal agency findings — even newspaper stories from the time the dams were being constructed in the early 1920s — which suggest fish did ascend the river, and that today they may need access to that habitat in order to survive.

If the dams were taken down or fish passage installed, Indigenous nations could see fish return to traditional fishing grounds and endangered species that rely on the river could be restored.

Read the full article at High Country News

Court ruling on endangered killer whales could force a rewrite of federal fisheries policy

August 19, 2022 — A federal judge in Seattle has ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated a key provision of the Endangered Species Act in 2019 when it published research on the harvest of king salmon in Southeast Alaska that failed to address its impact on a small population of killer whales in Puget Sound.

In a summary judgment granted to the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy, U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Jones on Aug. 8 ordered that an “appropriate remedy” be found, that — while it could limit commercial trolling for chinook in Southeast — will more likely result in a rewrite of the biological opinion that led to the problem.

“I think we’ve won the recognition that this fishery was actually causing harm to threatened and endangered species, and for all intents and purposes was illegal,” said Kurt Beardslee, director of special projects for the conservancy.

The Wild Fish Conservancy filed suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service in March of 2020, arguing that the government failed to adequately address the impact of Alaskan king salmon harvests on southern resident killer whales, whose population has dropped to critically low levels.

The Wild Fish Conservancy says 97% of king salmon harvested by Southeast Alaska trollers don’t originate in Alaska, depriving southern resident killer whales of their primary food source.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game puts the share of out-of-state chinook in the Alaska harvest much lower — 30-80%, depending on the year.

Matt Donohoe, president of the Alaska Trollers Association, says few if any of those are from Puget Sound, where southern resident killer whales spend several months each year.

Read the full article KTOO

Judge blasts ‘mitigation’ that would imperil both orca and salmon

August 11, 2022 — A federal judge has rejected the National Marine Fisheries Service’s “mitigation” for allowing continued “maximum” commercial harvests of the endangered Chinook salmon the imperiled Southern Resident killer whales need to survive — among the mitigations, that the agency will figure out better mitigations before the orcas go extinct.

U.S. District Judge Richard Jones accepted a magistrate judge’s recommendation for summary judgment in a lawsuit filed by Wild Fish Conservancy in 2020. The recommendation revealed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries agency violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by authorizing commercial salmon harvest at levels that are pushing protected wild Chinook salmon and Puget Sound orcas to extinction.

The Washington-based nonprofit challenged the authorization of the Southeast Alaska Chinook troll fishery, which the agency approved based on vague plans to fund production of 20 million young salmon annually to increase prey for the orcas by 4 to 5%. But the agency had no plans for where to get the young fish, who would release them and where, the age of the fish at release, the juvenile-to-adult return ratio, how many fish would be needed for future broods and whether all of this would be enough to sustain the orca in the long term.

Read the full article from Courthouse News Service

Washington shellfish aquaculture permitting challenged again

December 22, 2021 — For the second time in four years, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) has taken the federal government to court to keep the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from approving projects in Washington state that expand shellfish aquaculture without considering their environmental impact.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, 19 December in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, by CFS claims the Corps’ policies violate the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and other federal laws. It comes after the Corps finalized a new permit in January 2021, during the final days of the Trump administration.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Ports of Seattle, Tacoma facing new set of pandemic-related pressures

December 2, 2021 — A year after scrambling to stave off collapse, the U.S. ports of Seattle and Tacoma are dealing with an overload of traffic.

“We’ve rebounded in 2021 and you’ve probably heard about congestion,” Northwest Seaport Alliance CEO John Wolfe told the audience at the 2021 King County Maritime Economic Forecast breakfast on Friday, 19 November.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Heydays of Bristol Bay, Alaska: Pushing back on Pebble

November 19, 2021 — We’ve got the most sustainable fishery in the world,” said Michael Jackson, board president of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association on Thursday in Seattle. “We didn’t do anything to earn that. But it’s there.”

Jackson spoke on behalf of the Alaska fishing organization for a Pacific Marine Expo panel discussing the future of Bristol Bay’s salmon fishery and the increasing hopes that locals, fishermen and other stakeholders may be able to put a wrap on threats from the proposed Pebble Mine.

News this week that the EPA put dates on the time line to reinstate Clean Water Act protections propelled the hopeful vibe at this standing Expo session, along with a robust projection for 71 million to 75 million salmon to return to the bay in 2022.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Loki Fish recalls salmon lox over listeria concerns

August 25, 2021 — Loki Fish Company is recalling four-ounce packages of its Keta Salmon Lox due to the potential it is contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based supplier is recalling the lox after the possibility of contamination was discovered during a U.S Food and Drug Administration inspection at its co-packer, Felix Custom Smoking in Monroe, Washington, Loki said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

WASHINGTON: Five Fast Facts about Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial

May 11, 2021 — The following was released by The Port of Seattle:

Standing tall near the water’s edge at Fishermen’s Terminal is Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial, a tribute to more than 675 local commercial fishers  who lost their lives at sea. This monument serves as a place of reverence, reflection, and healing for their families and the tight-knit commercial fishing industry. Further, the organization behind the monument, also called Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial, provides valuable services to support fishers and their families. Here are five fast facts about Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial, the sculpture, and the organization:

1.    The sculpture depicts fishers as larger-than-life heroes. 

The bronze figure topping the monument is heroic and larger than life by design. Its size reflects the immensely important, challenging, and often dangerous work undertaken by fishers – the work of heroes. The figure is posed landing a massive, mythical fish imagined by the artist as a composite of many species: cod, salmon, herring, rockfish and others — a hero’s bounty.

2.    The memorial design was chosen from 92 submissions.

In 1986 the Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial planning committee opened a contest to design and build the monument.  Sculptor Ron Petty’s design was chosen among 92 submissions. It took Petty two years and four months to complete the work. The monument was dedicated October 8, 1988.

Today, Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial stands between Docks 8 and 9 at Fishermen’s Terminal. The monument features a 30-foot bronze and granite column flanked by two granite walls. These walls bear the names of local fishers lost at sea since the start of the 20th century.

Read the full release here

WASHINGTON: Seattle Harbor Expansion Would Push Out Endangered Whales, Conservation Group Says

March 5, 2021 — The Trump administration rushed through a project to expand Seattle Harbor for ultra-large container ships that would further threaten endangered Southern Resident killer whales, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Only 75 Southern Resident killer whales swim the Salish Sea — a number that has increased since three baby whales were born in the relatively quiet waters of the pandemic. Noise from whale watching boats and ships headed to and from ports across the Pacific will increase when pandemic restrictions are lifted.

Added to that is a new worry: the underwater cacophony of ultra-large container ships that would visit Seattle Harbor, in the heart of the whales’ home waters, and the release of hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of toxic material dredged during the harbor project.

The three pods, or family lines, of Southern Residents took a major hit in the late 1960s when aquariums stole 45 Southern Residents from their families, and killed another 14 in the process. Only one of the whales taken during that time survives today: a 53-year-old whale who lives at the Miami Seaquarium. The Seaquarium calls her Lolita, while supporters who want her returned to a protected cove of the Salish Sea call her Tokitae.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Alaska’s Peter Pan doubles down on value addition with Northwest Fish merger

January 11, 2021 — Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based Northwest Fish and Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A.-based McKinley Capital Management have beat out Trident Seafoods, Canfisco, and Silver Bay Seafoods to scoop up the assets of Peter Pan Seafood Co. from Japanese conglomerate Maruha Nichiro.

The sale, which was announced by Maruha Nichiro in November 2020, was finalized on 31 December, 2020. Northwest Fish and McKinley collaborated with London, United Kingdom-based RRG Investments on the transaction. Peter Pan Seafood Co. now comprises Peter Pan Seafood’s assets and the value-added sales channels of Northwest Fish Co. The new ownership group is Rodger May of Northwest Fish, the Na’-Nuk Investment Fund (managed by McKinley Capital Management), and the RRG Global Partners Fund (managed by RRG Capital Management).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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