Saving Seafood

US West Coast lawmakers want USDA to buy more seafood from their states

May 11, 2022 — A group of Democratic U.S. senators and representatives from West Coast states have written a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack calling on his agency to spend more on seafood purchases from producers in their states.

The letter notes that California, Oregon, and Washington state produce more than USD 500 million (EUR 473.6 million) worth of seafood annually, more than an eighth of total domestic production in the U.S., and 25 percent of the country’s processing and wholesale jobs are located in the three Pacific Coast states.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

WASHINGTON: $3M will help tribes study salmon reintroduction in the Upper Columbia Basin

April 12, 2022 — Bringing salmon back to the Upper Columbia River will take a lot of time and a lot of money, according to the Upper Columbia United Tribes.

The tribes recently received $3 million from Washington’s supplemental budget — a big chunk of change that tribes said will help kick off the second phase of a decades-long study.

However, the tribes still will need to find significant funding sources, especially from federal agencies, to cover the entire study phase, which adds up to an estimated $176 million spread over 21 years, said Laura Robinson, a policy analyst with Upper Columbia United Tribes.

Recently, momentum has built to help along the Upper Columbia reintroduction studies, Robinson said.

“To get this large investment of funds from the Washington state Legislature and governor is really helping increase this momentum,” Robinson said.

Read the full story at OPB News

 

Working with West Coast Tribes to Protect Endangered Species

April 5, 2022 — In late 2019, the National Science Foundation proposed to fund a high-energy seismic research survey in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. It would take place off the coasts of Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver Island in the summer of 2021. These surveys inform earthquake and tsunami hazards in the highly populated Pacific Northwest. The surveys deploy airguns, which create sound waves that transmit through the water. Any marine life in the area could be affected by the sound, including salmon and Southern resident killer whales, which are culturally important to many Pacific Northwest Tribes.

Through an academic study, the National Science Foundation  proposed a marine geophysical survey to collect geological data from Cascadia Subduction Zone. To collect the survey data, the National Science Foundation Research Vessel Marcus G. Langserh would tow airguns that send out sound waves into the water.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

 

California Seeks to Modify Coldwater Pink Shrimp Management

March 31, 2022 — Rules that Oregon and Washington pink shrimp trawlers are already accustomed to may be implemented in California soon.

The California Fish and Game Commission will consider changes to its pink shrimp fishery management plan when it meets in June.

“The effort to develop and implement this FMP began in 2017, and the adoption of the FMP by the Commission is expected in April 2022,” the Notice of Proposed Regulations reads, although the Commission calendar now has the action scheduled in June. “The purpose of the FMP and its implementing regulation is to update the management of California’s pink shrimp fishery to be in line with Oregon and Washington. Updating the fishery’s management would also assist the fishery in obtaining the Marine Stewardship Council certification. This effort is expected to result in a more sustainable and less environmentally impactful fishery.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

Cooke gets two wins, advancing Salish Fish steelhead project in Washington

March 1, 2022 — Cooke Aquaculture Pacific has won two victories allowing its plan to farm steelhead in the U.S. state of Washington to advance.

In a unanimous, 9-0 decision, the Washington Supreme Court upheld a decision by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to allow Cook to convert its idle Atlantic salmon net-pen farms to raise steelhead. The move was precipitated by Washington’s ban on farming of non-native species in its waters.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

NOAA Biological Opinion Concludes Marine Finfish Aquaculture Has No Adverse Impact on Salmon, Orcas, and Other Native or Endangered Species in Puget Sound

March 1, 2022 — The following was released by the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance:

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service has released a biological opinion regarding marine finfish aquaculture in Puget Sound, finding little to no negative impact on native species such as endangered salmon, Orcas, or their habitat.

The NOAA analysis was initiated in October of 2018 to analyze the effects of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of the Washington Department of Ecology’s Sediment Management Standards regarding marine finfish rearing facilities.

In its analysis, NOAA found that EPA’s approval:

  • Is “not likely to jeopardize the continued existence” of Puget Sound (PS) and/or Georgia Basin (GB) species, including Chinook salmon, PS steelhead, Hood Canal summer-run chum, PS/GB yelloweye rockfish, or PS/GB bocaccio.
  • Is “not likely to result in the destruction or adverse modification of the designated critical habitats for any of the listed species.”

In response to this opinion, the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance (NWAA), which advocates for the sustainable production of aquatic foods in the Pacific region, is calling on regulators and policymakers to follow the science in making key decisions regarding marine aquaculture in Washington waters.

Native Steelhead trout grown in Washington State by Cooke Aquaculture Pacific. Photo Credit: Cooke Aquaculture

“After years of meticulous research and study, the scientists at NOAA have concluded, with full scientific certainty, that net-pen aquaculture in Puget Sound is safe for the environment and safe for the endangered species that live in these waters,” said Jim Parsons, NWAA President. Parsons is also CEO of Jamestown Seafood.

“This study, along with the recent unanimous Washington Supreme Court decision upholding Cooke Aquaculture Pacific’s permit to raise native steelhead in Puget Sound, finally puts to rest one of the biggest myths of all: that fish farming has a negative impact on endangered Chinook salmon and Orcas,” Parsons said.  “As aquatic farmers, we depend on a healthy ecosystem to grow a range of aquatic food products–from steelhead trout to black cod to oysters, clams, mussels, and sea vegetables—instead of importing these foods. Sustainable aquaculture not only produces the nutritious, affordable food our world needs, but it also benefits working families in our rural communities.”

Parsons added: “Given the current world situation, it’s time for Washington to lead the way in delivering fresh, locally produced, seafood to consumers throughout the Pacific Northwest and the United States. We encourage our leaders to rely on science rather than politics or claims made by certain anti-aquaculture activist groups in making key decisions about the future of aquatic farming and the Blue Economy in Washington.”

US resumes bilateral mollusk trade with EU after 10-year ban

February 4, 2022 — The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced on 4 February that the U.S. and European Union will resume bilateral trade of live, raw, and processed bivalve molluscan shellfish.

The negotiated agreement marks the first time bilateral trade of mollusks between the E.U. and U.S. will be allowed since 2011. The new agreement will allow producers in the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Washington to send mollusks to the E.U., and will allow producers in Spain and the Netherlands to send products to the U.S.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Cool Ocean Waters, Abundant Nutrients Provide Rosy Outlook for Washington Salmon

February 1, 2022 — Scientific markers used to predict the health and productivity of marine species such as juvenile salmon were positive in 2021, the second most favorable since 1998, according to analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Fisheries biologists are cautiously optimistic that those conditions will persist into the near future, supporting the health of juvenile, ocean-run salmon off the coasts of Washington and Oregon.

The report looked at a number of oceanic health markers: atmospheric conditions, water temperature, salinity, oxygen levels, current movement, and biomass of Chinook and Coho salmon, along with food sources such as plankton and small crustaceans. Many of those indicators were more favorable than every year in the last 24, outside of 2008.

“Every once in a while, things are in alignment. … In 2021, everything from water temperatures to phytoplankton, zooplankton, and larval fishes were pointing in the same direction,” Brian Burke, a fishery biologist with NOAA, told MyNorthwest.

Burke attributes those conditions to a strong upwelling in the Pacific along the 45-degree parallel north, a term which refers to atmospheric and ocean conditions that bring cold, nutrient rich water from the deep ocean toward the surface.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Washington Supreme Court sides with Cooke, upholds fish-farm permit

January 14, 2022 — The Washington Supreme Court has sided with Cooke Aquaculture in a unanimous 9-0 ruling that upholds the company’s fish farming permits in the state.

The lawsuit has its origins in a five-year permit that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) granted to Cooke in January 2020, allowing the company to farm steelhead trout in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Soon after the permit was granted, a consortium of conservation and environmental groups including the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) filed a lawsuit challenging the permit, claiming the department was allowing the farms without fulling considering what the impacts would be on water quality in the surrounding areas.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Glaciers’ retreat could open new Alaska salmon habitat

January 12, 2022 — Melting glaciers in Alaska and British Columbia could open up new stream habitat for Pacific salmon – conceivably almost equal to the length of the Mississippi River by 2100, under one scenario of “moderate” climate change.

But on balance a warming climate will continue to take its toll on salmon populations on the U.S. Pacific coast.

Researchers from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and the NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Wash., published their findings from modeling glacier retreat in the journal Nature Communications, looking at how new salmon spawning streams might appear as ice melts, bedrock gets exposed and new streams thread over the exposed landscape.

“We predict that most of the emerging salmon habitat will occur in Alaska and the transboundary region, at the British Columbia – Alaska border, where large coastal glaciers still exist,” lead author professor Kara Pitman of Simon Fraser University says in a NMFS summary of the findings.

Read the full story at National Fisherman