Saving Seafood

Killer Whale Recovery Begins With Salmon Habitat, and That Begins With You

May 12, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Consider this Northwest twist on a familiar saying: “Give a killer whale a salmon, and it will eat for a day. Restore the habitat the salmon and whales depend on, and they will live for generations to come.” At NOAA Fisheries we are determined to get more Chinook salmon to the endangered Southern Resident killer whales, and that begins with more and better habitat.

It is up to everyone to maintain room for these magnificent creatures as our own footprint on the Puget Sound region grows ever bigger.Focusing on salmon habitat is essential.

Improving Salmon Habitat

Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s Orca Task Force emphasized habitat. It highlighted actions such as removing culverts that block salmon migration, protecting shoreline habitat, and building on other efforts throughout the region. We must work together to restore the streams where salmon spawn and grow, and protect the dwindling nearshore habitat that shelters and nourishes juveniles.

Improving fish passage through dams must continue. It is important to get salmon into their prime habitat.

Through partnerships, we’ve made progress in recent years on these goals. Restored habitat in the Skagit River estuary, funded in part by the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, now supports hundreds of thousands more Chinook salmon smolts. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is constructing fish passage at Mud Mountain Dam, renewing access to miles of habitat in the White River. The Nisqually Tribe led one of Puget Sound’s most ambitious tidal marsh restoration efforts in the Nisqually River Delta—just to name a few.

Read the full release here

Feds will send $50 million in coronavirus relief to Washington seafood firms, fishermen, tribes, charter boat operators

May 8, 2020 — Washington state will receive about $50 million in federal-relief dollars to assist both the commercial-seafood and sport-fishing-charter industries stung by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement released Thursday by the federal Commerce Department.

The money is carved out of the massive economic stimulus package known as the CARES ACT that was passed by Congress in March and is intended to assist in both direct and indirect fishery-related losses. Those eligible to apply for the funds include fishermen, tribes, processors and aquaculture companies.

Washington state’s seafood industry has many ties to Alaska, which also received $50 million of the $300 million that will be awarded nationally to assist the seafood and charter boat industries, according to the statement.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

As some in Congress question CARES Act allocations, lawmakers begin effort to secure more aid

May 8, 2020 — On Thursday, 7 May, the Trump administration finally rolled out its plan for allocating the USD 300 million (EUR 276.6 million) in fishery relief aid earmarked in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). Reaction on Capitol Hill was nearly unanimous – more money will be needed, according to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

The U.S. Commerce Department awarded a third of the funding to two states, Alaska and Washington. Both states received USD 50 million (EUR 46.1 million) in aid. While Alaska is by far the leading seafood-producing state, producing 5.4 billion pounds of seafood worth USD 1.8 billion (EUR 1.66 billion) in 2019, some questioned the method by which the allocation was determined.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Statement From Glenn Cooke Commending President Donald Trump On His Executive Order That Will Improve US Aquaculture Competitiveness and Economic Growth

May 8, 2020 — The following was released by Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Seafood:

Glenn Cooke, CEO of the Cooke family of companies, provided the following statement after President Donald Trump signed the first ever Executive Order that includes provisions to improve U.S. aquaculture competitiveness and economic growth on Thursday.

“I am very pleased President Trump has recognized that domestic farmed production of aquaculture seafood is vital to help correct the severe trade imbalance and strengthen local food security. This should be viewed as a call to State and local governments that the country is in dire need of domestically produced seafood protein and that they should find ways to support, promote, and expand this essential food sector as other countries have.

As a family company, with marine fish farming operations in Maine and Washington and shellfish farming in North Carolina, and wild fisheries in other states including Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alaska, we are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that our people put in every day to produce healthy seafood meals for families across the USA. Cooke Aquaculture USA in Maine was very proud to have been chosen as the supplier of sustainably farmed Atlantic salmon for the President’s 2017 inauguration. Our strong operations have shown that aquaculture presents a tremendous opportunity to create thousands of jobs and build vibrant working waterfronts co-existing with traditional fisheries in rural coastal communities.

President Trump and his Executive Agencies are to be commended for their leadership to address the regulatory challenges with establishing seafood farms by revising the National Aquaculture Development Plan and implementing a Nationwide Permit authorizing finfish, seaweed or multi-trophic culture in federal marine waters.”

Read the full release here

WASHINGTON: Fisheries finally get $8.4M aid with help of Murray, Cantwell

May 4, 2020 — After funds were held up for two years, Washington tribes and fishing communities will receive more than $8.4 million in fishery disaster assistance.

Washington Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell helped include the funding in a 2018 spending bill, according to a press release. However, the funds were held up by the Office of Management and Budget.

Murray and Cantwell sent a letter to the acting OMB director earlier this month, urging him to distribute the funds.

Read the full story at The Daily News

Alaska Chinook Fishermen Push Back on Wild Fish Conservancy Injunction to Stop Fishery

April 29, 2020 — Alaska environmentalists, commercial fishermen, charter operators and recreational anglers have pushed back on an injunction filed by Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy that would prevent Chinook salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska.

WFC sued NOAA Fisheries in March for mismanaging Chinook salmon, a prime prey for the critically endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales. While that lawsuit is pending, WFC filed an injunction on April 17 to prevent Chinook salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska effective July 1, 2020.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Washington lawsuit targets Alaska trollers

April 29, 2020 — Nearly 1,600 trollers who fish for king salmon in Southeast Alaska could be beached this summer over a lawsuit to protect killer whales — in Washington’s Puget Sound.

On April 16 the Wild Fish Conservancy filed an injunction against NMFS to block the summer king salmon season set to open July 1 until the lawsuit is resolved.

KCAW in Sitka reported the Conservancy claims NOAA has failed to allow enough king salmon to return to Puget Sound to feed endangered resident killer whales. Their lawsuit says that 97 percent of the kings caught in Southeast’s troll fishery are from British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Alaska data show catches range from 30 to 80 percent, depending on the year.

Amy Daugherty, director of the Alaska Trollers Association, said her group is in shock and has intervened in the lawsuit.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Controversy descends on Pacific sardine fishery over stock surveys

April 23, 2020 — The Pacific sardine fishery on the U.S. West Coast appears to be headed for another year of being shut down after a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) assessment showed a low biomass.

The NOAA assessment estimated the Pacific sardine biomass will be at 27,547 metric tons by the summer – significantly less than the 150,000 metric tons needed to reopen the fishery to commercial fishing. Any fishery at less than 50,000 metric tons is considered to be overfished. The assessment estimates the sardine biomass was around 1.8 million metric tons in 2006.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Return of ‘the Blob’ could intensify climate change impacts on Northeast Pacific fisheries

April 22, 2020 — A large marine heatwave would double the rate of the climate change impacts on fisheries species in the northeast Pacific by 2050, says a recently released study by researchers from the University of British Columbia and University of Bern.

In 2013, a large marine heatwave, nicknamed the ‘Blob’, occurred in the northeast Pacific Ocean. From the coast of Alaska to Baja California, the Blob had a significant impact on the  and fisheries in this region; an impact that lasted for several years.

The new study, released in the journal Scientific Reports, combined the latest , ocean and fish modelling approaches to quantify the future impacts of marine heatwaves like the Blob on fish stocks along the west coast of Canada and USA. The resulting models showed that future ‘blobs’ would exacerbate climate change impacts on these important fish stocks, causing them to decrease in biomass and generating shifts in their distribution, which, in turn, would impact the fisheries sectors in this region.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

As RFMOs waive observer requirements, NGOs caution against permanence

April 16, 2020 — As fisheries councils in the U.S. and abroad begin relaxing observer requirements in order to meet safety needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple NGOs have issued a joint statement cautioning against those relaxed requirements becoming permanent.

The letter comes as the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that it is suspending West Coast observer coverage, in response to a recommendation made by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. The council suggested in a letter to the NMFS that the waiver could “match the duration of ‘shelter-at-home’ or similar orders by the governors of Washington, Oregon, and/or California.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source