Saving Seafood

North Pacific council declines hard cap for chum bycatch

October 17, 2023 โ€”  Although it took steps to mitigate chum salmon bycatch in Bering Sea pollock trawls, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council fell short of imposing a hard cap at its meeting in October.

 A hard cap would restrict or shut down pollock trawling when the fleet reaches a maximum number of incidental salmon. The councilโ€™s inaction marks the latest round in a skirmish between trawling interests and local residents and fishermen living in western Alaska and from other regions in the state.

โ€œWe have submitted comments previously in support of a half-million chums,โ€ says Tim Bristol, executive director of SalmonState, in Juneau. โ€œWe certainly donโ€™t believe thatโ€™s a magic number, but a hard cap for trawlers, when essentially every other sector is facing some kind of restriction or closure, would have sent a message that the council is taking what is a crisis for many Alaskans seriously.โ€

For the past several years various conservation groups and fisheries associations have railed against the councilโ€™s failure to take more action in reducing the bycatch of salmon and crab, and impact on marine habitat. Recommendations by the groups have ranged from complete trawl closures in the Bering Sea to the use of hard caps.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: At fishery council meeting, tribal groups and pollock industry at odds over how to limit trawl bycatch of chum salmon

October 16, 2023 โ€” The North Pacific Fishery Management Council approved options for limiting the Bering Sea pollock fleetโ€™s take of chum salmon during an October meeting that displayed the fault lines separating the pollock industry and Western Alaska tribal representatives.

The council motion approved Sunday calls for consideration of caps ranging from a low of 200,000 chum to as many as 550,000 annually that could be incidentally taken by trawl vessels targeting pollock. It will be sent out for study along with a broader set of alternatives.

The council will be required to select an alternative and take a vote by December 2024.

Many Western Alaska communities have been buffeted by weak returns of salmon that have brought a sense of crisis as some commercial fisheries have been shut down and subsistence fishing opportunities have been reduced or in some cases eliminated.

Their tribal representatives backed a proposal to study a much lower range of caps for the trawl fleet โ€” from 0 to 280,000 chum annually. That amendment was rejected by a council advisory panel and did not make it into the final council motion.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: A struggle to dodge salmon in pursuit of a massive pollock bounty

October 16, 2023 โ€” Some 400 miles northwest of Dutch Harbor, Bering Sea pollock congregated in spectacular fashion.

In the wheelhouse of this factory trawler, Captain Jim Egaas scanned a sonar displaying a dense red band that represented millions of fish in a school that stretched for miles.

He could see the pollock up close on another screen that relayed images from an undersea camera stitched in the mesh of a quarter-mile-long net. The video feed showed swarms of them deep in the funnel-shaped trap.

Once pulled on board, the tail end of the net bulged with more than 220,000 pounds of tightly packed pollock. A crewman unstitched a seam. Raised by a powerful winch, the net spewed a silver avalanche of fish into below-deck holding tanks to await processing in a plant primed to operate 24 hours a day.

Egaas was in hurry-up mode. Even before the last of this catch was shaken from the webbing, he called for crew members to unfurl a second net from a giant reel.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Scientists observe chum salmon spawning in North Slope rivers

October 11, 2023 โ€” University of Alaska Fairbanks associate professor of fisheries Peter Westley is clear that thereโ€™s nothing new about salmon straying into Arctic Ocean waters. Westley says the fish have long been occasionally observed and caught, but their numbers appear to be increasing.

โ€œAnd we were interested in whether the change in the sort of frequency of salmon being encounteredโ€ฆis that a perhaps indicator that the salmon are not only showing up in the ocean but are showing up in rivers and are potentially working to establish populations in a new region,โ€ Westley said.

Last month, Westley lead a team that aerially surveyed two Colville River tributaries, the Anaktuvuk and the Itkillik, and counted about 100 chum salmon equally split between the two Arctic rivers. He says movement of a species farther north is a clear signal of climate change.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media 

ALASKA: Alaska cancels snow crab harvest again due to population concerns

October 10, 2023 โ€” The Bering Sea snow crab fishery will be closed again this year due to population concerns.

Crabbers from the Pacific Northwest who fish in Alaska had been watching and waiting for recommendations from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which met Thursday and Friday. Following the meetings, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said Bering snow crab season will be closed for 2023-2024; Bristol Bay red king crab will open. Tanner crab will also be open for commercial fishermen.

Both the snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab seasons were closed in 2023. Crabbers and industry associations warned of the massive impact the decision would have on many small businesses, prompting calls by Congressional officials for an emergency declaration and federal aid.

Last year was the first time in history the U.S. snow crab fishery was closed. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said the harvests were closed over concerns about long-term conservation and the sustainability of crab stocks.

Read the full article at KTVB

ALASKA: Alaska fishermen will be allowed to harvest lucrative red king crab in the Bering Sea

October 10, 2023 โ€” Alaska fishermen will be able to harvest red king crab for the first time in two years, offering a slight reprieve to the beleaguered fishery beset by low numbers likely exacerbated by climate change.

There was no such rebound for snow crab, however, and that fishery will remain closed for a second straight year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Friday.

โ€œThe Bristol Bay red king crab fishery for the prior two seasons were closed based on low abundance and particularly low abundance of mature-sized female crabs,โ€ said Mark Stichert, the state departmentโ€™s ground fish and shellfish management coordinator,

โ€œBased on survey results from this year, those numbers have improved, some signs of modest optimism in terms of improving abundance in Bristol Bay red king crab overall and that has allowed for a small but still conservative fishery for 2023 as the total population size is still quite low,โ€ he said.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

ALASKA: Crabbers get 2 million pound quota for Bristol Bay red king crab

October 10, 2023 โ€” Alaska fishermen will get a brief respite from crab closures, with a modest three-month opening for Bristol Bay red king crab, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said Friday.

Bering Sea crabbers get their shot at Bristol Bay red king crab from Oct. 15 to Jan. 15 under a quota of 2.150 million pounds, 1.95 million pounds of which has been allocated to IFQ holders with the remaining 215,000 pounds reserved for Community Development Quota (CDQ) shares. The Oct. 6 announcement had been predicated upon earlier trawl surveys which indicated a harvestable surplus of crab.

โ€œBased on preliminary review of 2023 NMFS trawl survey and stock assessment results, ADF&G has determined that the estimate abundance of mature size Bristol Bay red king crab exceeds minimum population thresholds established in the state regulatory strategy,โ€ says Ethan Nichols, area management biologist with ADF&G in Dutch Harbor.

The Bering Sea tanner crab population survey also warranted a fishery opening with a quota of 2.8 million pounds. The season opens on Oct. 15 and closes on March 31. 

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Dispute about salmon and whales between Alaska and Washington again before federal regulators

October 10, 2023 โ€” The fishing of chinook or king salmon is back on the desk of the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the whipsaw rulings this past summer that saw the king salmon season shut down โ€” and then reinstated โ€” as a case brought by environmentalists wound its way through the courts.

NMFS issued a notice Wednesday it is beginning work on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and a review of alternatives to its incidental take statement (ITS). The ITS is the amount of take allowed to occur in compliance with the Endangered Species Act.

NMFS is accepting public comments through noon on Nov. 20, said Gretchen Harrington, assistant regional administrator for the Sustainable Fisheries Division. The EIS is required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The case, Wild Fish Conservancy v. Quan, was filed in U.S. District Court in March 2020. Lawyers for WFC argued fishery managers and representatives of the Pacific Salmon Treaty were ignoring their own research by allowing fishing that harmed the endangered king salmon and the southern resident killer whale population, which feeds on them.

Read the full article at Juneau Empire

Trawl catch of killer whales brings new scrutiny to federal science behind Alaska take levels

October 4, 2023 โ€” Up to 19 fish-eating resident North Pacific killer whales can be accidentally killed annually by Alaska fishing fleets or other human activity without triggering a federal effort to reduce this toll.

This take number has received renewed scrutiny in the aftermath of a Sept. 21 NOAA Fisheries disclosure that 10 killer whales were incidentally caught this year by Bering Sea trawl vessels. One was released alive.

It represents a NOAA Fisheries determination of the toll that humans can take each year without impacting the optimum population of resident killer whales off Alaska. Some scientists say it is based on an outdated assessment, and is likely too high to protect smaller genetically distinct populations.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News