Alaksa Archives - Saving Seafood

Fisheries council shuts down commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet federal waters

December 9, 2020 — The council that controls fishing in most federal waters off Alaska on Monday closed a large chunk of Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishing.

The decision came despite a wall of opposition from commercial fishermen and community and state leaders who said the move threatens seafood processors on the Kenai Peninsula and hundreds of fishing operations.

The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council accepted the proposal, presented to the council by the Dunleavy administration in October, to close federal waters starting 3 miles offshore.

Stretching from Homer to Ninilchik off the southern Kenai Peninsula, the waters are where some boats fish exclusively, fishermen said, and it’s where the commercial driftnet fleet typically lands about half its salmon.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

COVID and climate: Alaska seafood talks zoom in on 2020 and the future of fish

November 13, 2020 — The pandemic and a growing public concern about the effects of climate change loomed large over the committee conversations at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s virtual All Hands on Deck conference this week.

Alaska fisheries had a remarkably successful story to tell in terms of coping with the threat of covid-19 over the spring and summer, as tens of thousands of fishing and seafood industry workers converged on remote coastal towns across the state.

While the Bristol Bay salmon fleet matched that success with robust returns and a harvest of 39 million fish, statewide salmon returns were down overall, and the bay’s base price was half what it was in 2019, coming in at 76 cents. This year marks the state’s seventh lowest salmon volume since 1976 with run failures in the Chignik and Artic-Yukon-Kuskokwim districts, and disaster declarations in Cordova, Petersburg and Ketchikan.

“The [chum salmon] didn’t show up, with only 45 percent of the forecast harvested. On top of that, the ex-vessel prices were quite low,” said Dan Lesh with McKinley Research (formerly McDowell Group). Total value for the 2020 chum fishery was $26 million, less than half the previous 10-year low of $63 million in 2014.

Alaska’s salmon export volumes overall were down 48 percent as of September. A low global wild supply managed to compensate for a glut of farmed salmon and pushed export prices up 26 percent for wild Alaska salmon.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: State projects low returns of salmon to Upper Cook Inlet

January 30, 2020 — Another year of poor salmon returns is forecast this summer on one of the world’s most famous salmon streams.

Forecasts for Kenai River chinook (king) and sockeye (red) salmon are below average, according to estimates released this week by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

According to state biologists, this year’s forecast of large, early run Kenai River chinook salmon is just 4,794 fish, a return that would rank as the eighth-lowest return in the last 35 years but would be slightly higher than last year’s run of 4,216 fish. The average return over the past 35 years is more than 9,100 kings in the early run, fish that enter the river through June 30.

The department classifies large fish as those greater than 34 inches in length in order to differentiate 5-, 6- and 7-year fish from their younger, smaller counterparts.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

At-Sea Processors’ Jim Gilmore announces retirement

March 1, 2019 — After 30 years with the At-sea Processors Association, Jim Gilmore, its director of public affairs, has announced that he will retire on June 30.

During his tenure at the association, Gilmore directed public affairs and corporate social responsibility programs, which helped to establish the Alaska pollock industry’s leadership position in global seafood sustainability.

“We are very grateful to Jim for his years of staunch advocacy and unwavering commitment to strengthening the Alaska pollock industry, and we couldn’t be happier to announce Matt’s coming onboard,” said Executive Director Stephanie Madsen.

Among Gilmore’s accomplishments are his work to enact the landmark American Fisheries Act, which paved the way for a catch-share program for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Alaska pollock fishery. The advent of catch-share management enabled the Alaska pollock catcher/processor sector to optimize food production, further minimize fishing effects on the environment, and strengthen the fleet’s international market competitiveness, according to the organization.

“Matt’s been a leader in the NGO community, promoting precautionary, science-based fisheries management. We are excited to have him put his considerable talents to work at APA,” said Madsen.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

CHRIS BROWN & BOB DOOLEY: Electronic Monitoring — Straight talk about New England’s fisheries

April 28, 2016 — In any relationship, uncertainty and mistrust tend to circle back and magnify themselves over time. In the case of New England fishermen and federal regulators, the result is what we see today. These two parties — who can and should be working together to ensure the economic and environmental health of our fisheries — are deadlocked in mistrust while the fishing industry lurches between federal bailouts and major criminal busts.

As fishing industry leaders with a combined seven-plus decades on the water, we know it doesn’t have to be this way.

A far more promising fisheries future is unfolding today in Alaska and, increasingly, on the West Coast. Its watchword is “accountability.” It is based on the straightforward idea that fishermen need to keep track of their catch, both the fish they bring to the dock and any unwanted “bycatch” they may discard at sea.

Why? Because in the absence of comprehensive catch monitoring, there is no basis upon which fishermen and scientists can establish a productive level of trust and cooperation. This means that fishery managers often assume the worst when they estimate fish stocks and are required, under federal law, to take very conservative approaches in order to account for that uncertainty when they set catch limits and allocations. Completing the negative feedback loop, fishermen interpret low allocations as bad science and the cycle of mistrust rolls on.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times