Saving Seafood

Outsiders in Alaska sparked COVID-19 fears and drove up case counts. Now they’re barely a blip.

September 28, 2020 — Alaskans eyed the coming of summer’s fishing, resource and tourist seasons warily.

The influx of outsiders brought new risks of the spread of COVID-19 to a state that had so far escaped the deadly surges overfilling emergency rooms in other places.

Daily coronavirus case counts for people from out of state, dubbed “nonresidents” in state data, rose quickly by July. On some days, they accounted for a quarter or a third of all the new reported infections.

Now the number of out-of-state workers and visitors with confirmed COVID-19 cases has dropped to zero some days, single digits most others.

The reason is pretty simple.

By early September, the tourists and thousands of fishing industry workers who made up the bulk of Alaska’s nonresident population all but disappeared.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Concerns linger over rising Bristol Bay seafood industry COVID-19 cases

June 29, 2020 — The number of positive COVID-19 cases in the seafood industry is on the rise. On Friday, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reported five more cases in the Bristol Bay and Lake and Peninsula Boroughs. On Thursday the state reported nine additional cases in the same area.

Mary Swain, executive director of the Camai Community Heath Center in Naknek, said they’ve seen 29 positive cases since June 11. She said most of them are seafood plant workers and two are fisherman.

Local officials have said they’ve seen some seafood workers not wearing masks at some public gatherings. While others in town said they haven’t seen issues with workers.

“You have a lot of fisherman who are taking this seriously and being respectful. And then you have a lot of fisherman who don’t necessarily believe or understand the threat that COVID poses for a community like rural Alaska,” said Kendra Gottschalk, Naknek Native Village Council’s administrative assistant.

Read the full story at KTVA

12 of Alaska’s 35 new coronavirus cases are seafood workers in Dillingham

June 24, 2020 — A dozen of Alaska’s new cases of COVID-19 reported Tuesday by state health officials are out-of-state seafood workers in Dillingham, a small fishing town with limited health care capacity where locals had been wary of outsiders bringing in the virus.

The 12 workers are among 19 new cases in nonresidents, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services COVID-19 dashboard. That’s the highest daily nonresident count since the pandemic began in March.

The state’s active-case count also hit new high of 264, as reported Tuesday. That number reflects residents who test positive and aren’t yet considered recovered.

The state reported one new resident sick enough to be hospitalized Tuesday, for a total since March of 63.

Along with the nonresident cases, the state reported another 16 new cases in Alaska residents, most of them in Anchorage, with other individual cases scattered from Nome and Bethel to Mat-Su, Homer and Fairbanks.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Dunleavy eases in-state travel restrictions, issues health mandate on commercial fishing vessels

April 24, 2020 — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy Thursday eased restrictions on intrastate travel and released a new health mandate aimed at the commercial fishing industry in the battle against the novel coronavirus.

Dunleavy eased the rules first laid out in Health Mandate 12, which restricted non-essential intrastate travel. Alaskans are now allowed to travel within the state, on the road system, for outdoor recreation.

Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum said Alaskans may recreate outdoors on day trips as long as no more than 20 people are in a group. Alaskans still need to keep their distance from recreation companions that are not a part of their household.

While state campgrounds are closed, Gov. Dunleavy said private campgrounds and RV parks are allowed to operate.

“We hope you go camping. We want you to go and visit this state.,” Dunleavy said. “And unfortunately for us because of this pandemic, we might not get a lot of visitors to the state of Alaska. That could be a silver lining in that you Alaskans get to own Alaska this year, and this could be the opportunity to see see parts of Alaska that you’ve never experienced before.”

Read the full story at KTUU

Uptick in scombroid poisoning from fish spooks Alaska health officials

October 23, 2019 — Alaskan health officials are concerned about an increase in scombroid poisoning from fish and some are pointing the finger at Alaska’s unusually warm summer, according to an Alaskan Public Media report.

At least seven people became sick with scombroid poisoning between May and August of this year, whereas only five people reported the illness during the three-year period from 2015 to 2018, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Network seeks to bring together data on harmful algal blooms

February 6, 2018 — A group of scientists is coming together to share information related to harmful algal blooms in Alaska.

Under the umbrella of the Alaska Ocean Observation System, part of the national ocean observation system network, a partnership of state agencies, Alaska Native organizations and the University of Alaska has launched the Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom Network. The intent is to stitch together a statewide approach to researching, monitoring, responding to and spreading information about harmful algal blooms in the state.

Algal blooms are natural processes in the ocean and occur when the population of algae in a certain area increases dramatically. However, they can turn toxic when certain types of algae proliferate and produce chemicals that can be harmful to other plants, animals and people, or consume all the oxygen in the water as they decay. The events, called harmful algal blooms, occur all over the planet, in both freshwater and the ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve been seeing more and more of these bloom events happening,” said Ginny Eckert, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Juneau and co-chair of the Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom Network’s executive committee. “It’s always a question: Are we seeing more because we’re paying attention more? But … the more information we can get out to people, (the better).”

Harmful algal blooms can have devastating consequences. In 2014, nearly 500,000 Ohio residents had to go without clean drinking water because of harmful algal blooms near a water treatment plant in Lake Erie. A harmful algal bloom in a lake that flowed into the ocean near Monterey Bay, California in 2007 is thought to have killed 11 sea otters with infections of microcystin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every year in Alaska, a number of alerts go out to shellfish gatherers to be careful because some of the clams, oysters and mussels may have high levels of a toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, a fatal condition in humans.

Read the full at the Peninsula Clarion