Saving Seafood

State and Local

MASSACHUSETTS: Large concentration of sei spotted near the Vineyard

June 18, 2024 — Over 160 whales were spotted just south of the Vineyard and Nantucket and 7 different whale species were identified during a single survey as reported by marine observers last week.

3Of these species spotted was the sei whale, with 93 found, one of the highest concentrations of that particular species that the survey team had ever seen during a single survey flight.

A Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s North Atlantic Right Whale team spotted the whales on May 25.

“It’s not uncommon to see a lot of whales in the area, just because there’s a lot of food this time of year,” said Teri Frady, Chief of Communications at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “But it’s unusual to see this many on one particular day.”

Read the full article at MV Times

ALASKA: An influx of chum salmon in the Canadian Arctic could be the same fish missing from Western Alaska

June 17, 2024 — Johnnie Storr grew up fishing with his dad in the hamlet of Aklavik, a small town on the Mackenzie River delta in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Depending on the season, they looked for Arctic char, Dolly Varden or whitefish.

“We fished for char in the fall time,” Storr said. “Soon as there was enough ice we walked out and set nets for whitefish.”

Storr is Inuvialuit and Gwich’in, and heads the local Hunters and Trappers Committee, which helps manage Indigenous hunting rights in the region. He said elders say chum salmon have always lived in small numbers in the Mackenzie River, but in the last decade there has been a clear uptick.

“I think it was 2019 where we have seen a big jump,” he said. “I think we had at least 300 salmon brought into the Hunters and Trappers Committee.”

In recent years, all five salmon species have shown up in rivers from northeast Alaska to Nunavut, in Canada’s eastern Arctic. Chum salmon, one of the most cold-tolerant salmon species, are the most commonly found.

Storr said some people eat them, but personally he doesn’t prefer salmon.

“We were releasing them just because we really prefer char around here,” he said.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

OREGON: Oregon seafood groups urge Governor Kotek to prioritize state-led wind energy plans

June 14, 2024 — The state’s seafood commodity commissions have expressed concerns to Governor Kotek, urging them to prioritize that states own planning process and utilize it as a guide for responsible offshore wind energy development. According to Oregon Trawl, Oregon Dungeness Crab, Oregon Albacore and Oregon Salmon, the alternative would be following a rushed federal process; keeping impacted communities from having a voice.

According to the seafood commodity commissions should the state follow the federal process the viability of the state’s seafood industry and the health of the ocean would not be prioritized.

“Being situated in the middle of one of the world’s four most productive marine regions, Oregon is blessed with its healthy abundant fisheries, which are known to be among the top well-managed fisheries in existence today,” said Yelena Nowak, the executive director of the Oregon Trawl Commission. “It is critically important for Oregon to step up our efforts in ensuring Oregon’s impacted communities and the pristine natural environments are respected and protected in the pursuit of offshore wind energy development.”

Read the full article at KMTR

ALASKA: Alaska Gov. Dunleavy picks second ex-talk radio host for lucrative fish job after first rejected

June 14, 2024 — In May, the Alaska Legislature narrowly rejected a conservative talk radio host’s appointment to a highly paid position regulating the state’s commercial fisheries.

Now, after the failure of that pick, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has chosen a new appointee with a similar — though not identical — background for the six-figure job at the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, or CFEC.

In an unannounced decision, Dunleavy selected Rick Green last month, according to a letter to Green that the governor’s office released Wednesday as part of a response to a Northern Journal public records request.

Green’s first day on the job is July 1, according to the commission’s chair, Glenn Haight; Green will serve at least through the Alaska Legislature’s next round of confirmation votes in the spring of 2025.

On the airwaves for more than 15 years, Green was known as Rick Rydell during a colorful career as a talk host. His on-air character was that of an “unabashed redneck,” according to one of the books he wrote.

One of those books also chronicled how, with two other hunting enthusiasts, Rydell once attempted to shoot, legally, 30 bears in a single long weekend.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

North Carolina Wildlife Federation Calls for Inshore Shrimp Trawling Ban

June 13, 2024 — N.C. Wildlife Federation (NCWF) CEO Tim Gestwicki called on state legislators Tuesday to “put a stop to inshore shrimp trawling as soon as possible.”

In a news release, Gestwicki said the call is in response to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF) canceling the recreational southern flounder season for 2024.

“This is the first time that decision has had to be made, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time,” Gestwicki said. “Southern flounder and other important fisheries in North Carolina are in dire condition, and strong action is needed now to save them. While there are many reasons why southern flounder and other fisheries fall under overfished and overfishing status, one of the most significant contributing factors is bycatch from inshore shrimp trawling. That’s why allowing this practice in our sounds must stop now and shrimp trawling should only take place in coastal ocean waters.

“Bycatch is the unintended part of a catch taken because of the non-selectivity of the fishing gear used, in this case, shrimp trawls,” he continued. “The most reliable bycatch study done to date shows that for every pound of shrimp harvested in North Carolina’s waters (most of which are caught by trawls), over four pounds of non-target catch, including juvenile finfish, such as southern flounder, are discarded.”

Gestwicki said North Carolina is the only state on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that still allows large-scale shrimp trawling in its estuaries.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

ALASKA: Trawl industry responds to concerns of vessels fishing too close to Kuskokwim Bay

June 13, 2024 — Coastal communities near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River have expressed concern about bottom-trawling vessels operating in close proximity to where salmon enter the river. But trawl industry leaders say that this is nothing new.

In recent weeks, posts widely shared on a popular Facebook group critical of the trawl industry have raised issues with vessels apparently just a few miles offshore. The posts on the STOP Alaskan Trawler Bycatch page featured marine traffic maps showing the location of the trawlers, with one post reading “six trawlers right outside the mouth of Kuskokwim.”

Chris Woodley, executive director of Groundfish Forum, a trawl industry association that represents 17 catcher-processor vessels operating in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands regions, testified about the issue before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council during its June 7 meeting in Kodiak.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Scientists will collect data on Unalaska’s salmon at new weir this summer

June 13, 2024 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Qawalangin Tribe were unable to get funding to count fish and collect data this summer at Unalaska’s McLees Lake, where the community harvests a large majority of its subsistence sockeye salmon.

But the organizations will be installing a brand new weir and counting salmon for the first time at Iliuliuk Creek.

Annie Brewster, a fisheries biologist with ADF&G, said they will be counting the number of pinks and reds that make it up the creek and into Unalaska Lake.

“We’re expecting to get around 6500 pink salmon and around 500 sockeye salmon,” Brewster said.

Those numbers are based on past foot and drone surveys, which don’t provide reliable data because the lake is so cloudy, according to Brewster.

“That system has so much erosion, it’s hard to see salmon for those surveys, so those numbers are up in the air,” she said.

The banks of the lake are eroding quickly, causing the muddiness of the water, which has also been polluted from World War II activity.

“There is still a lot of solid waste from the war,” Brewster said. “There were suspected chemical barrel dumps during the war into the lake.”

ADF&G weir technicians won’t just be counting salmon. They’ll also be collecting data on the limnology of the area — that’s the water quality and zooplankton.

“That provides us with information on the rearing capacity of the lake,” Brewster explained. “So at what capacity can the lake raise baby salmon and what amounts? What’s the number of salmon eggs that can be laid in beds and gravel nests in the lake and grow up to be mature salmon that will return to the stream?”

Read the full article at KYUK