July 19, 2022 — The sockeye salmon harvest in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska is expected to be among the largest on record. State officials are reporting a run of 74 million fish, mostly from Bristol Bay, during a season that started on June 1 and continues until early August.
COOKE AQUACULTURE INC. APPOINTS PHILIP WIESE AS MANAGING DIRECTOR OF EAST COAST AQUACULTURE OPERATIONS
July 14, 2022 — The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture Inc:
Blacks Harbour, N.B. – Cooke Aquaculture Inc. is very pleased to announce the appointment of Philip Wiese as Managing Director of East Coast Aquaculture Operations in Canada.
Mr. Wiese joins family-owned Cooke from his most recent leadership role as Chief Executive Officer at Huon Aquaculture Group Limited, Australia’s second largest, vertically integrated salmon farming company employing 800 Tasmanians.
Wiese brings significant aquaculture expertise to Cooke having successfully delivered for nearly 15 years with Huon including as Chief Financial Officer with responsibility for financial management, information technology, human resources and operations.
Over the course of his career, Wiese was Director of the Tasmania Salmon Growers Association where he led collaboration across the Tasmanian salmon industry and managed the Tasmanian salmon brand globally. He has held various senior commercial management roles in finance, insurance and trading in the manufacturing, distribution and retail business areas.
In response to significant global growth in recent years, Cooke has created the role of Managing Director of East Coast Aquaculture Operations to augment North American leadership and provide additional structure, ensuring the company’s long-term success while maintaining an employee-centric culture.
Reporting to Glenn Cooke, Chief Executive Officer, the Managing Director oversees and leads all operations of Cooke Aquaculture’s Atlantic Canadian organization by fostering the alignment of people and resources and championing operational excellence and sustainability by driving efficiency, financial performance and profitability, employee engagement and stakeholder relations.
ALASKA: Pebble mine supply camp a ‘near total loss’ in Southwest Alaska wildfire
July 14, 2022 — A supply camp that supported operations for the controversial Pebble Mine prospect in Southwest Alaska was destroyed by a wildfire last weekend.
The camp suffered a “near total loss” during the Fourth of July weekend, said Mike Heatwole, a spokesman with mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership.
The fire razed several items such as a quonset-like facility that stored tools, safety equipment and other gear, shack-like structures that supported crews and operations, he said.
The Pebble copper and gold prospect is located about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage in a remote area, near headwaters that support the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. The wildfire is one of several fires in the region this summer and is known as the Upper Talarik fire.
The supply camp was used to support exploration and environmental studies in year’s past, Heatwole said. But activities have slowed at the deposit, which is currently awaiting decisions from two federal agencies about whether a mine can be built.
This summer, the camp supported a small maintenance and reclamation program that includes closing off holes from drilling in previous years, Heatwole said. He said the crew had recently finished its work and left the site before the blaze reached the camp.
The Environmental Protection Agency in May, under the Biden administration, proposed an effort to block the mine. It’s taking public comment on the issue. The agency’s proposal would prevent waterbodies such as Upper Talarik Creek, the fire’s namesake, from being used as disposal sites for dredged or fill material that would result from mining activity.
ALASKA: Area M, Where Alaska commercial and subsistence fishing interests collide
July 14, 2022 — There have been clashes over regulating Area M for decades, but the battle heated up after the Yukon-Kuskokwim chum crashes began. This is the first in a three-part series.
Kuskokwim fisherman Fritz Charles grew up in Tuntutuliak, on the lower river. There were so many fish then that his parents would put away literal barrels of them. His job as a child was to pack the dry fish tight in the barrels using a special method.
In 2021, chum runs took a sharp downward turn. It was the worst year on record for them on the Yukon River, and it’s the same story on the Kuskokwim. This year, the runs on both rivers are at their second lowest.
In 2021, 153,497 summer chum salmon swam up the Yukon River. That’s compared to an average of about 1.7 million summer chum. The river was missing about 1.5 million fish.
At the same time, Area M commercial fishermen caught 1,168,601 chum at sea while subsistence fishing on the rivers was closed. In the midst of the smallest chum run western Alaska subsistence users had ever seen, Area M fishermen were catching more than ever before.
Do the subsistence fishermen in the Y-K Delta or the commercial fishermen in Area M have a greater claim to the chum? About a decade ago, a comprehensive salmon genetics study of the Area M fishery confirmed that most of the chum caught in the region, around 60%, are bound for coastal Western Alaska. But when you start to break that number down further, that’s where things get complicated.
World’s Largest Fish Factory Vessel Stays on IUU List
February 6, 2019 — Following an investigation by Oceana, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) has decided to keep the fish factory vessel Damanzaihao (now named Vladivostok 2000) on its list of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels. The organization has also issued warnings to China, Panama and Cook Islands for providing assistance to the vessel.
The Commission has currently 15 members: Australia, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Cuba, Ecuador, E.U., Denmark, South Korea, New Zealand, Peru, Russia, Chinese Taipei, the U.S. and Vanuatu.
Oceana investigated the Damanzaihao’s movements using Global Fishing Watch’s mapping platform. “Oceana applauds SPRFMO’s decision and views this as an important example of how transparency at sea can help enforce rules that combat IUU fishing,” said Beth Lowell, deputy vice president of U.S. campaigns at Oceana. “With the help of technology, we can see what vessels are doing beyond the horizon and take steps, like Oceana did, to hold the responsible parties accountable.”
The Vladivostok 2000, currently flagged to Moldova, is one of the world’s largest vessels with a history of changing names and reflagging to different countries. Originally designed as an oil tanker measuring 228 meters, the vessel was rebuilt to function as a one-stop-shop fish processor, with the ability to store, freeze, process and transfer fish. According to a New York Times article, the vessel (named Lafayette and flying a Russian flag when the article was published in 2012) can process up to 547,000 metric tons of fish each year.
Read the full story at Maritime Executive
NOAA Announces Another Buyout for Southeast Alaska Purse Seiners to Remove an Additional 36 Licenses
December 5, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NOAA announced that a second buyout would take place in the Southeast Alaska salmon purse seine fishery.
In 2011, Congress approved loans of up to $23.5 million for a buyout program, and existing permit holders voted to support a loan of $13.1 million to buyback 64 licenses.
In 2018, the Southeast Revitalization Association submitted a request to NOAA to use the remainder of the funds, $10.4 million, to fund another buyout round.
NOAA will hold a referendum among the 315 existing permit holders, who will have to gain majority approval to take on the additional loan. If the plan is approved, NOAA would retire an additional 36 licenses.
Those remaining in the fishery agree to repay the loan through a landings tax, administered by NOAA.
The voting period is scheduled to begin January 15, 2019, and end 30 days later on February 14th.
The Southeast Alaska purse seine fishery harvests primarily pink salmon and some chum salmon.
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
ABTA: ICCAT Meeting Ends After ‘Spectacular Failure’ to Protect Bigeye Tuna
November 27, 2018 — NORWELL, Mass. — The following was released by the American Bluefin Tuna Association:
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) concluded its annual plenary meeting on November 19 after a spectacular failure to arrive to a comprehensive agreement on badly needed management measures to address the present poor state of Atlantic bigeye tuna stock. Bigeye tuna is highly coveted by sashimi markets worldwide, similar to bluefin tuna.
ICCAT’s eight-day meeting, held this year in Dubrovnik, Croatia, was attended by over 700 people representing 52 countries.
In October, the Standing Committee for Research and Statistics (SCRS), the scientific arm of ICCAT, issued a new stock assessment on Atlantic bigeye tuna which stated that the stock is significantly overfished, with overfishing taking place. An approximate 40% cut in overall Atlantic-wide allowed catch would be required to end overfishing. Discussion and “heated” negotiations regarding new management measures aimed at addressing the dire status of this important fish stock dominated the 8-day meeting. However, when the meeting drew to a close, the Commission had failed to agree upon any measures to address the numerous problems in the Atlantic bigeye tuna fishery.
The U.S., Canada, South Africa and a handful of other nations strongly advocated for the adoption of measures that would end overfishing immediately and rebuild the stock within 10 years. However, a strategy aimed directly at achieving quantifiable reductions of catch of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tuna in the West Africa purse seine skipjack fishery, although strongly urged by ICCAT scientists and considered key to the recovery of Atlantic bigeye stock, was notably absent from the various conservation measures proposed.
Thus, the failure by ICCAT to come to an agreement on a conservation and management plan for Atlantic bigeye will result in the further erosion of the stock’s status until ICCAT succeeds in taking decisive action on this critical issue. This will undoubtedly have a negative effect on the U.S. East Coast commercial handgear, pelagic longline and recreational fishermen that catch bigeye tuna. The next opportunity to achieve these goals will be at the annual ICCAT meeting in 2019.
Numerous issues unrelated to bigeye tuna were taken up during this meeting with mixed results. A 47-page recommendation drafted by the European Union establishing a multi-annual management plan for East Atlantic-Mediterranean bluefin tuna, first tendered at the plenary meeting in 2017, was finally concluded at the current meeting.
The U.S. succeeded in obtaining consensus on its proposal to address ICCAT’s Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) protocols that will result in a badly-needed increase in VMS polling time for purse seine from four to a one-hour intervals. Also, under the same proposal, longline vessels are now required to transmit VMS data at two-hour intervals. The U.S., the EU, Norway and Senegal proposed new port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and this succeeded in obtaining support from the Commission.
The U.S. attempted to establish conservation measures for overfished blue and white marlin stocks but failed to obtain the needed support from ICCAT countries. Similarly, the U.S., Panama, Cape Verde, Nicaragua and Guatemala proposed measures to reduce bycatch of sea turtles in longline fisheries, but this too did not obtain a consensus.
Massachusetts: Budget funds GMGI project
August 1, 2018 — The new state budget Gov. Charlie Baker signed last week includes $150,000 for a new marine program to be run by the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute in coordination with the University of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries.
It also carries $125,000 in matching grant money for Gloucester’s approaching 400th anniversary celebration, and money for service programs such as The Open Door, Wellspring House and The Grace Center.
But while a $2 million package to boost the Fishing Partnership — which provides health care coverage, safety training, and legal and financial services to fishermen and their families — and $1.3 million for new infrastructure and technology for the GMGI project are included in a House economic bill, those dollars are not in the Senate version and must be hashed out in conference committee, Andrew Tarr, chief aide to state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, confirmed Monday.
The funding for the GMGI/stateprogram and the money to help with the planning for Gloucester’s 400th anniversary celebration in 2023 were both part of the $41.9 billion fiscal 2019 budget signed by the governor last Thursday.
The budget also included $75,000 to improve Gloucester’s public safety communications systems, but that money was vetoed by the governor. The House overrode the veto, Tarr said, but the state Senate had not yet taken up its override veto of that money as of Monday morning, he said.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times
NOAA: New Voluntary Slow Speed Zone to Protect Right Whales
April 19, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries announces that a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area or DMA) has been established to protect a group of five right whales sighted 12 nautical miles east of Boston on April 18.
Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.
VOLUNTARY DYNAMIC MANAGEMENT AREAS (DMAs)
Mariners are requested to avoid or transit at 10 knots or less inside the following areas where a group of right whales has been sighted. Find out more about ship strike reduction efforts.
East of Boston – In effect through May 3.
42 43 N
42 00 N
071 17 W
070 20 W
ACTIVE SEASONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS (SMAs)
Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:
- Cape Cod Bay SMA in effect through May 15, 2018
- Block Island SMA in effect through April 30, 2018
- New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk SMA in effect through April 30, 2018
Right Whales in Crisis
The year 2017 was devastating for North Atlantic right whales, which suffered a loss of 17 whales, plus an additional mortality in January 2018–about 4 percent of their population–an alarming number for such a critically endangered species with a population currently estimated at about 450 animals.
In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.
More Info
Download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone
Acoustic detections in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston TSS
Send a blank message to receive a return email listing all current U.S. DMAs and SMAs.
Details and graphics of all ship strike management zones currently in effect.
Reminder: Approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law.