January 7, 2021 — Washington’s Department of Ecology has revised four water quality permits to Cooke Aquaculture to farm steelhead in net-pens it formerly used to raise Atlantic salmon.
Cooke had already received approval from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, though conservation groups have sued to block their issuance. The facilities are located near Bainbridge Island and La Conner, and are now permitted for steelhead, also known as rainbow trout.
December 10, 2020 — The state announced this week that it has submitted a draft plan for how to distribute $50 million in federal relief funding to members of Washington’s commercial seafood, shellfish and charter industries to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Fisheries (NOAA-Fisheries) for review and approval.
Under Section 12005 of the CARES Act, Congress provided $300 million to states to distribute to fisheries participants with Washington and Alaska receiving the highest allocation of $50 million each.
“The pandemic had early and dramatic impacts to shellfish and commercial fishing businesses. These activities play an outsized role in our state, especially in our tribal and natural resources dependent economies,” Gov. Jay Inslee said. “I am pleased that we will soon have more assistance available to help these hurting businesses recover.”
“Submitting this plan for federal review brings us one step closer to getting this funding into the hands of commercial fishing and shellfish industry members who need it most,” said Ron Warren, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) fish policy director. “We applaud Washington’s congressional delegation for securing this relief for members of Washington’s commercial seafood, shellfish and charter industries.”
December 9, 2020 — The state said Tuesday that it submitted a draft plan to federal officials for how to distribute $50 million in federal COVID-19 relief to members of Washington’s commercial seafood, shellfish and charter industries.
The CARES Act provides $300 million to states to distribute to fisheries participants with Washington and Alaska receiving the highest allocation of $50 million each.
“The pandemic had early and dramatic impacts to shellfish and commercial fishing businesses. These activities play an outsized role in our state, especially in our tribal and natural resources dependent economies,” Gov. Jay Inslee said. “I am pleased that we will soon have more assistance available to help these hurting businesses recover.”
“Submitting this plan for federal review brings us one step closer to getting this funding into the hands of commercial fishing and shellfish industry members who need it most,” said Ron Warren, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) fish policy director. “We applaud Washington’s congressional delegation for securing this relief for members of Washington’s commercial seafood, shellfish and charter industries.”
The draft plan goes to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Fisheries for review and approval.
August 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
With news of multiple pregnancies among the endangered Southern Resident killer whales, agencies and partners are calling for boaters to steer clear of the whales. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries, whale watch leaders, and Soundwatch are asking boaters to give the whales extra space on the water at this critical time.
”The whales, for the first time in a couple years, are very, very present in Puget Sound; and unfortunately we’re having a lot of people get too close to orcas within these regulated boundaries,” said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police Captain Alan Myers. “That bubble of protection is extremely important in order to keep boaters either intentionally or unintentionally from interfering with these animals while they feed, forage, and move about in Washington’s waters.”
A photogrammetry team from SR3 and Southall Environmental Associates last month documented pregnancies in all three Southern Resident pods. While this is promising news, research has shown that many Southern Resident pregnancies fail or the calves do not survive beyond their first year.
The lack of sufficient Chinook salmon prey is a key issue for the whale population. Another concern is the sound from vessel traffic, which can interrupt echolocation clicks the whales use to hunt the salmon. In the presence of vessel traffic, the whales have been observed by researchers spending less time foraging and more time traveling. Research has also found that the speed of vessels, more so than their size, is the biggest factor in determining how much noise they produce. Slowing down is one of the best ways to allow pregnant females to find the prey they need.
March 4, 2020 — West Coast salmon fishermen are facing another grim year, trollers heard last week at state meetings in Washington, Oregon and California.
In Washington, lower numbers of coho are projected to return to the Columbia River and to Washington’s coastal streams. The low numbers will likely constrain both sport and commercial fisheries.
December 13, 2019 — With the danger of whale entanglements eased, the Dungeness crab season for central California will open Sunday. But lackluster meat quality led Northwest state fisheries manager to delay opening other coastal areas until the New Year.
Officials from California, Oregon and Washington state wildlife agencies conferred Dec. 6 and agreed on the delay, citing meat recovery values still below 25 percent in areas on the northern coast. The continuing closure will remain in effect from Point Arena, Calif., north to the Canadian border, “through December 3, 2019 at least,” according to a joint statement issued through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Testing protocols specify season delays for any area where sampled crabs do not meet the minimum standards for meat recovery, with additional testing before a new opening date can be set. The state agencies are sampling again in mid-December with an eye to having complete results Dec. 20.
It’s a rocky start to the beginning of the winter fishery that has had more than its share of problems, from domoic acid to marine mammal conflicts. The California opener originally set for Nov. 22 was delayed, after the Bodega Bay crabbing fleet voted to voluntarily hold back from deploying their gear until a large number of endangered humpback whales had finished feeding in their nearshore zone.
October 24, 2019 — The federal government is asking the public to weigh in on current and potentially new regulations for whale watching near endangered southern resident orcas.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has opened a so-called scoping period for 60 days to take public comment on whether existing federal regulations adequately protect killer whales from the impacts of vessels and noise in the inland waters of Washington state, and if not, what action the agency should take.
Southern resident orcas are an endangered species and have declined to only 73 animals. They are threatened by a combination of inadequate food, pollution, and vessel noise and disturbance that makes it harder for them to hunt salmon.
NOAA’s existing rules have been eclipsed by more strict regulations imposed both by the state of Washington and interim rules in Canada that sunset after this season. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife also is launching a process under the direction of the Legislature to enact further restrictions on whale watching.
October 4, 2019 — Cooke Aquaculture has moved a step closer to ensuring a long-term presence in Washington State after the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) confirmed earlier this week that it plans to issue a five-year marine aquaculture permit to the Canadian aquaculture company to farm all-female rainbow trout at its existing farms in Puget Sound.
Washington lawmakers voted to phase out and ban non-native finfish net-pen farming in the state following the 2017 collapse of a Cooke farm that released at least 250,000 Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound. If Cooke does not repurpose its salmon farms, they will be shut down by 2022.
October 1, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — At a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing last week on fisheries disasters, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the Ranking Member of the committee, highlighted the importance of responding to fisheries disasters and pushed for reforms to the process.
“In Washington, fisheries are a cornerstone of our maritime economy,” Cantwell said in her remarks. “Its related businesses and seafood processors, ship builders, gear manufacturers, support 60% of our maritime economy, which is about 146,000 jobs and $30 billion in economic activity. Washington has experienced 17 fishery disasters since 1992, including crab, groundfish, and salmon. Unfortunately, the fisheries disaster process has become more burdensome, and has resulted in less funding and lengthy delays, putting an unnecessary burden on fishermen and fishing communities.”
In particular, Cantwell discussed the 2016 coho salmon fishery disaster, which affected fisheries across the state.
The coho disaster affected tribes, commercial fishermen, charter and recreational fishermen but not all groups received adequate funding from NOAA, Cantwell said.
“In a shift from previous policy, the administration determined that the charter fishermen should not be included in the economic determination. Thus, I believe Washington did not receive adequate funding for this disaster,” Cantwell said in a press release.
Ron Warren, the Director of Fish Policy at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, testified at the hearing about the impact of that inadequate funding for Washington state’s economy.
“If you add the charters from the coast and charters from Puget Sound, as well as the troll fishery and other fisheries that had been included, you’d be looking at about $100 million to the state of Washington,” Warren said in the statement.
Other fisheries included charters
However, charter businesses in other fisheries received federal funding during the same time. Marine-related businesses and charters have also benefitted in the past, in other fisheries. The federal determination letter did not specifically exclude charter businesses.
For example, both the Washington coho request letter from Gov. Jay Inslee and the California Dungeness crab request letter from Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. included the recreational sectors, noting the importance of the sport fleets to their states’ respective economies.
“While the language in these acts is specific to commercial fishery failures, the economic impact of this fishery resource disaster will also affect communities beyond the ocean commercial fishing industry. Also affected are charter fleets, fishing guides, resorts, tackle and equipment vendors and other businesses … ,” Inslee wrote in the request letter of Sept. 24, 2016.
The federal determination letters for both the coho and Dungeness crab fisheries were worded similarly and issued on the same day by then-Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.
The Jan. 18, 2017 letter approving the fisheries failure for coho specifically included communities, of which charters are obviously a member: “This determination provides a basis for Congress to appropriate disaster relief funding under the MSA, Section 312(a), and then for the NMFS to provide assistance to the State of Washington and the affected communities,” Pritzker wrote.
The wording for the California Dungeness crab fishery was the same.
California charter businesses received a portion of the $26 million eventually approved by Congress, based on a plan submitted by the state. The funding approved for the Washington coho fishery was $834,401.
Concerns about the Pebble Mine
During the hearing, Cantwell also took the opportunity to ask one of the witnesses, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Chris Oliver, about NOAA’s role in the Pebble Mine. Cantwell spoke about her concern that NOAA chose not to be a cooperating agency with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as it related to the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska.
“When commercial fishing in Bristol Bay is over 135 years old and supports 14,000 fishing jobs and 10,000 industry jobs and is about $500 million in direct economic impact – valued at $1.5 billion. How is NOAA not warranted at this time to participate in a discussion about how that economy could be destroyed by a mine?” Cantwell asked.
Oliver said NOAA’s role is fairly limited. “We’re not a permitting agency. We will consult on essential fish habitat for per Magnuson Act. We will consult, as requested by the Army Corps, on the Endangered Species Act implications as well as the Marine Mammal Protection Act. So we have a relatively limited role.”
Oliver said the agency has to receive the requests and actual proposed action from the permitting agency before it can conduct a full consultation and the agency is still waiting.
But Cantwell was not finishing pressing her point.
“I think my colleague here this morning, and my other colleague from Alaska in the appropriations process is making it very clear. The Army Corps of Engineers should not move forward until the science says that it’s there. And every agency that has an impact and stewardship over a resource that’s going to be impacted should be participating in that process,” she said.
“So the Pacific Northwest is not going to stand by while the administration builds a gold mine in the middle of the largest salmon habitat area. We’re just not going to sit by. … But a science agency has to participate in the process.”
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
September 30, 2019 — The marine heatwave known as “The Blob” wreaked havoc on Northwest fisheries during 2015 and 2016, Ron Warren, fish policy director for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told a Senate committee Wednesday.
And before the federal government could even provide disaster relief for that event, another marine heatwave loomed, he said.
The Blob stoked marine temperatures nearly 7 degrees higher than normal, according to his testimony. Fewer coho salmon returned. Those that did return were smaller. Fisheries had to be closed.
Gov. Jay Inslee and representatives of several tribal governments in 2016 requested millions of dollars in federal fishing disaster funds to help offset the losses to fishing communities.
Now, more than three years later, the fishing disaster money has only just arrived from the feds, Warren told senators. The money, including some for tribes and about $1.5 million for nontreaty fishing communities in Washington state, is in the process of being distributed.