Saving Seafood

West Coast lawmakers try again for drilling ban

February 10, 2021 — U.S. senators from the West Coast, looking to build on the Biden administration’s pause on new offshore oil leases, are again pushing for a ban on drilling off Washington, Oregon and California.

At the end of January Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., introduced the “West Coast Ocean Protection Act” to permanently ban offshore drilling in federal waters off the West Coast. Cantwell is a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and in a position to push the measure there.

Murray and Cantwell say their intent is to make permanent an existing moratorium on drill leasing in those federal waters, to prevent a repeat of the Trump administration’s attempt to reopen them for oil and gas exploration.

“The Pacific Ocean provides vital natural resources for Washington state, and offshore drilling puts everything from local jobs and ecosystems at risk,” Murray said in a Jan. 29 joint statement with Cantwell. “We need this permanent ban to safeguard our coastal environment and our state’s economy, including fisheries, outdoor recreation, and so much more.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Cantwell, Murray Introduce Bill to Permanently Ban Drilling Off West Coast

February 5, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

This week, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the West Coast Ocean Protection Act to permanently ban offshore drilling in federal waters off the coast of Washington, Oregon, and California.

The bill introduction comes after President Biden issued an executive order halting new federal oil and gas drilling leases. The senators’ bill would make the moratorium permanent in federal waters off the West Coast. This would prevent future administrations from opening up West Coast waters to drilling, which the Trump administration attempted to do.

“Washington’s $30 billion dollar maritime economy supports over 146,000 jobs from fisheries, trade, tourism and recreation—but it could all be devastated in an instant by an oil spill,” Senator Cantwell said. “We must permanently ban offshore drilling on the West Coast to protect our coastal communities, economies, and ecosystems against the risk of an oil spill.”

“The Pacific Ocean provides vital natural resources for Washington state, and off-shore drilling puts everything from local jobs and ecosystems at risk,” Senator Murray said. “We need this permanent ban to safeguard our coastal environment and our state’s economy, including fisheries, outdoor recreation, and so much more.”

Washington’s maritime sector contributes more than $21.4 billion in gross business income, and directly employs nearly 69,500 people. Including indirect and induced impacts, the state’s maritime economy is worth $30 billion in economic activity, and supports more than 146,000 jobs in the fishing, seafood processing, shipbuilding, trade, and other maritime sectors. The state’s maritime economy also provides jobs with substantially better pay than the average for all industries. The average pay for a job in Washington is $52,000, while maritime workers are paid an average of $70,800 — totaling over $4.7 billion in wages. Tourism on the coast adds thousands of jobs for anglers, charter boats, guides, restaurants, hotels and more. Oil spills and activities related to exploration pose a grave threat to these jobs, which rely on clean water and healthy oceans.

Senators Cantwell and Murray have led the fight to ban oil drilling on the West Coast, introducing similar legislation in multiple previous congresses.

In addition to Cantwell and Murray, the legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Edward Markey (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Companion legislation will be introduced by Congressman Jared Huffman (D, CA-02) in the House of Representatives.

CHINOOK OBSERVER: Crabbing families deserve TLC in this tough year

February 2, 2021 — In normal times, this year’s disastrous Dungeness crab season would be big news beyond the coast. Even in this abnormal year, it’s time for elected officials and agencies to pay closer attention to how local families are being hurt by lack of crabbing.

Typical measures of economic pain fail to capture the extent of damage. Last week it was wrenching to see Pacific County with the worst joblessness in Washington state. But the reported rate of nearly 11% was largely pinned on the pandemic-struck hospitality industry. Based on statistical modeling, county-level job reports often fall short in revealing exactly what’s going on — and that is surely true of crabbing.

The most immediate problem for both commercial crabbing and recreational clamming is the marine toxin domoic acid, created by ocean microorganisms run amok. Federal rules ban crab harvests when the toxin rises above 30 parts per million in the yellowish viscera — also sometimes called crab butter — that some people eat. Some crab sampled off Long Beach have been unsafe, leading to what is now the longest-ever delay in starting the season. (Meanwhile, from the central Oregon coast south into California, toxin levels have been acceptable and crabbing is ongoing.)

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

As Warming Oceans Bring Tough Times to California Crab Fishers, Scientists Say Diversifying is Key to Survival

February 1, 2021 — California’s Dungeness crab fishermen have had a rough year. Poor meat quality, endangered whales migrating too close to shore and price disputes with wholesalers kept crab pots on boats for nearly two months. The delays left families without their cherished holiday centerpiece and fisherman without the funds that normally pay their bills the rest of the year.

But as rising ocean temperatures threaten to make fishery closures routine, it will be even harder to count on crab for holiday meals—or livelihoods. Over the past decade, warming sea waters have produced harmful algal blooms that contaminate crab meat with domoic acid, a neurotoxin that can cause seizures, memory loss and other serious symptoms and has been blamed for poisoning and stranding scores of sea lions in California every year. State officials delayed three out of the last six crab seasons to protect public health after an unprecedented multiyear marine heat wave, dubbed “the blob,” hit the north Pacific Ocean in 2013.

The blob precipitated a series of extraordinary events: it caused a massive harmful algal bloom that led to record-breaking domoic acid concentrations, which in turn caused first-of-its-kind closures of the West Coast’s most valuable fishery, from southern California to Washington state. But in doing so, it also set up a natural experiment that researchers harnessed to reveal strategies that could help food-producing communities recover from climate-driven disturbances.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News

Halibut Area 2A License Applications Open for Submission for 2021

January 27, 2021 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission has opened the license application period for fishermen in Area 2A, Washington, Oregon and California.

While the IPHC sets the overall total fishery removals (mortality limit) for the area, the Pacific Fishery Management Council and National Marine Fisheries Service adopts a catch-sharing plan for all three states to further allocate the amount of fishery removals between sectors.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Sen. Cantwell Calls on Commerce Secretary Nominee to Put Science First, Protect Salmon, Act on Washington Economic Priorities

January 26, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing with Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, President Biden’s nominee to be U.S. Secretary of Commerce. At the hearing, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the incoming Chair of the committee, spoke about the importance of the Department of Commerce to the economy and way of life in the Pacific Northwest and asked Raimondo about her plans for salmon and fisheries management, protecting scientific integrity, and COVID-19 recovery.

In her opening statement, Cantwell talked about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Washington’s maritime economy and highlighted the critical need to get recovery funds to those impacted: “One of the key responsibilities will be in response to the larger COVID pandemic in the country and what we should do about it. I hope that the Secretary of Commerce will play an important role in strengthening our economy, in trying to defeat the pandemic and recover from its economic impacts,” Cantwell said.

“All of our sectors have been impacted. Congress appropriated $600 million in fisheries assistance for state and Tribal needs, but so far, the fishermen and our state have yet to receive $1 from this program, so I hope we can get her assistance in implementing and moving forward on this.”

Later in the hearing, Cantwell secured commitments from Raimondo to work on increasing investments in salmon habitat and prioritizing fisheries management. Cantwell asked: “As we’re talking about a seafood and fishing economy, salmon is particularly important to the Pacific Northwest. Keeping salmon habitat and restoration in a very robust state is very critical to keeping salmon. So will you work with us on a more targeted, larger-scale investment in stormwater restoration and in building critical habitat for everything from oyster reefs to eel and seagrass and critical habitat?”

“Yes, I would very much look forward to working with you and other members of the committee,”Raimondo responded.

“We believe in good fisheries management policy, and the key to that is stock assessment. And so I hope you’ll work with us on increasing the amount of dollars that go into the science behind stock assessment so we can make good management plans,” Cantwell continued.

“Yes, again absolutely. I plan to lead with science and lead with data,” Raimondo said.

As part of her focus on reprioritizing science and data, Cantwell also spoke about increasing the department’s investment in weather forecasting and emphasized the importance of safeguarding scientific integrity and listening to science throughout the department: “In my opinion, there’s no reason why the United States should not be a leader in weather forecasting. This is an important issue for us, whether you’re talking about fires or you’re talking about ocean issues. Making a better, crucial investment in the science for maritime, aviation, space, and agriculture industries will be very important for us moving forward,”Cantwell said.

“I appreciate that [Raimondo] will lead the agency in making decisions based on science and data that will help our economy grow in the future, everything from oceans issues and fisheries to spectrum and space issues. We in the Pacific Northwest know that we can’t always agree on issues, but we know we can agree on science, and that’s why science needs to continue to prevail.”

Cantwell also emphasized the importance of trade to Washington’s economy: “I hope that we will continue to look at this issue of competitiveness. In my state, [roughly] one in four jobs are related to trade, and I hope the Secretary and the administration will make a goal for export advancement. Increasing exports is a great way to grow our economy.”

Video of Senator Cantwell’s opening statement can be found HERE and audio is HERE.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s Q&A with Raimondo can be found HERE and audio is HERE.

Northwest’s Salmon Population May Be Running Out of Time

January 21, 2021 — A Washington State report put it bluntly: Because of the devastating effects of climate change and deteriorating habitats, several species of salmon in the Pacific Northwest are “on the brink of extinction.”

Of the 14 species of salmon and steelhead trout in Washington State that have been deemed endangered and are protected under the Endangered Species Act, 10 are lagging recovery goals and five of those are considered “in crisis,” according to the 2020 State of Salmon in Watersheds report, which was released last week.

“Time is running out,” said the report, which is produced every other year by the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office. “The climate is changing, rivers are warming, habitat is diminishing, and the natural systems that support salmon in the Pacific Northwest need help now more than ever.”

Researchers say recovery efforts — involving state and federal agencies, Native American tribes, local conservation groups and others — have helped slow the decline of some salmon populations. The report found that two species — the Hood Canal summer chum and Snake River fall chinook — were approaching their recovery goals. It also noted that no new salmon species had been added to the endangered list since 2007.

Read the full story at The New York Times

CARES Act relief funding straggles into 2021

January 19, 2021 — As 2020 drew to a close, one-third of the USD 300 million (EUR 246 million) in aid set aside for the fishing industry through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act remained for delivery as states labored to complete distributions.

Lagging farthest behind were Alaska and Washington state, the nation’s top volume seafood producers, and at USD 50 million (EUR 41 million) each the largest designated shares of the aid package. The states finally released their final draft spending plans on 7 December and 8 December, for approval by NMFS.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: UniSea’s Unalaska plant locked down after COVID-19 outbreak

January 14, 2021 — Redmond, Washington, U.S.A.-based UniSea has partially locked down its seafood processing facility in Unalaska, Alaska, after seven of its employees tested positive for COVID-19.

The company, which is owned by Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui), is in the process of testing most of the staff at the facility and conducting contract tracing to determine the full scale of the outbreak, according to KUCB.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

More management measures lead to healthier fish populations

January 12, 2021 — The study, led by Michael Melnychuk of the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, draws upon the expertise of more than two dozen researchers from 17 regions around the world. The research team analyzed the management practices of nearly 300 fish populations to tease out patterns that lead to healthier fisheries across different locations. Their findings confirmed, through extensive data analysis, what many researchers have argued for several years.

“In general, we found that more management attention devoted to fisheries is leading to better outcomes for fish and shellfish populations,” Melnychuk said. “While this won’t be surprising to some, the novelty of this work was in assembling the data required and then using statistical tools to reveal this pattern across hundreds of marine populations.”

The research team used an international database that is the go-to scientific resource on the status of more than 600 individual fish populations They chose to analyze 288 populations that generally are of value economically and represent a diversity of species and regions. They then looked over time at each fish population’s management practices and were able to draw these conclusions:

  • In regions of the world where fish and shellfish populations are well studied, overall fisheries management intensity has steadily increased over the past half century
  • As fisheries management measures are implemented, fishing pressure is usually reduced toward sustainable levels, and population abundance usually increases toward healthy targets
  • If fish populations become depleted as a result of overfishing, a rebuilding plan may be implemented. These plans tend to immediately decrease fishing pressure and allow populations to recover
  • If strong fisheries management systems are put in place early enough, then overfishing can be avoided and large, sustainable catches can be harvested annually, rendering emergency measures like rebuilding plans unnecessary

Read the full story at Science Daily