Saving Seafood

ALASKA: A new nominee to the Bering Sea fisheries management council would tip its balance toward tribes and away from trawlers

March 27, 2024 — Tribal and environmental advocates calling for a crackdown on salmon and halibut bycatch are set to gain a new ally on the federal council that manages Alaska’s lucrative Bering Sea fisheries.

Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee last week nominated Becca Robbins Gisclair, an attorney and conservation advocate, to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

If U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo accepts Inslee’s recommendation, Gisclair, senior director of Arctic programs at the environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy, would assume one of the council’s 11 voting positions.

She would replace Anne Vanderhoeven, a previous choice of Inslee’s who works at Seattle-based Arctic Storm Management Group. Arctic Storm’s parent company owns vessels that participate in the trawl industry, which sometimes accidentally scoop up salmon in their nets while they’re trying to catch pollock, a whitefish that goes into fish sandwiches sold by McDonald’s and other companies.

Inslee’s choice comes amid an intense fight at the council about tighter regulation of bycatch, and after what advocates described as a last-minute flurry of lobbying in an effort to convince Inslee to pick an ally of one side or the other in that dispute.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Bottom trawling experiment delayed in Northern Bering Sea

March 7, 2024 — NOAA postponed the Northern Bering Sea Effects of Trawling Study (NETS), a controversial bottom trawling experiment. Tribal and environmental groups, determined to sue to block the project’s progress, accepted the decision to postpone the study this year.

NETS was set to be an experiment to examine the impacts of commercial bottom trawling in a banned area in the Bering Sea. According to the official study, shifts in fish populations due to climate change may increase the need for bottom trawling in the future. Bottom trawling, also known as dragging on the seafloor, produces about one-half as much food as global beef production, according to a 2022 NF article.

The study was designed to be a multi-year project conducted by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, part of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The decision to postpone came in a letter from the director of NOAA Fisheries, Janet Coit, who directly emailed tribal organizations that opposed the study.

The letter sent on Feb. 23 said, “To provide more space for continued dialogue, NOAA Fisheries has decided not to move forward with the NETS research project this year. We value our responsibilities to and partnerships with Alaska Native communities and want to ensure NOAA is creating space for respectful dialogue and trust building.”

Read the full article at The National Fisherman

Alaska tribes plan to sue to stop experimental northern Bering Sea bottom-trawl study

February 13, 2024 — Several tribal governments in Alaska, as well as the Center for Biological Diversity, plan to sue NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop the government from conducting an experimental bottom-trawl study in the northern Bering Sea.

“In light of the rapid and dramatic environmental and human-caused changes that are threatening our iconic marine environments in Alaska, we expect our federal government to act responsibly and follow their own regulations and guidance to protect these vulnerable areas,” Tribal Council President for the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island John Wayne Melovidov said. “This proposed study is a crowbar into the northern Bering Sea for commercial exploitation.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Alaska tribes, green group take aim at planned bottom-trawling study in northern Bering Sea

February 13, 2024 — Three tribal governments and an environmental organization on Thursday served notice to federal agencies that they are planning a lawsuit to block a fishing experiment along the seafloor in the northern Bering Sea.

The practice of bottom trawling — sweeping a net to catch fish on or near the seabed — is currently prohibited in the Northern Bering Sea, which is abbreviated in legal documents as NBS. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service is planning to deploy some commercial trawling gear in selected spots over the coming summers to see what impacts, if any, result to the habitat and the marine life dependent on it.

The research project is called the Northern Bering Sea Effects of Trawling Study, or NBET. It is focused on specific areas north and south of St. Lawrence Island and would potentially simulate effects of commercial harvests.

The plaintiffs planning to sue — tribal governments in Savoonga, Shishmaref and St. Paul, along with the Center for Biological Diversity — said in their notice that the research itself will wreak damage on the ecosystem near the seafloor in what is known as benthic waters while setting up the region for more damage in the future. They also said the agencies have not properly consulted with Native tribes and communities.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

Alaska tribes, green group take aim at planned bottom-trawling study in northern Bering Sea

February 10, 2024 — Three tribal governments and an environmental organization on Thursday served notice to federal agencies that they are planning a lawsuit to block a fishing experiment along the seafloor in the northern Bering Sea.

The practice of bottom trawling — sweeping a net to catch fish on or near the seabed — is currently prohibited in the Northern Bering Sea, which is abbreviated in legal documents as NBS. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service is planning to deploy some commercial trawling gear in selected spots over the coming summers to see what impacts, if any, result to the habitat and the marine life dependent on it.

The research project is called the Northern Bering Sea Effects of Trawling Study, or NBET. It is focused on specific areas north and south of St. Lawrence Island and would potentially simulate effects of commercial harvests.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Small Bering Sea red crab quota fills fast; starvation theory in opilio disappearance

December 31, 2023 — The Bering Sea fleet fished on a total allowable catch (TAC) quota of 2.15 million pounds of red king crab in October. Though the regulatory season runs until Jan. 15, the 2023-2024 fishery just lasted until Nov. 18, with 31 vessels delivering nearly all the quota.

Weighing in at an average 6.6 pounds each, the crabs were a bit larger this year than the average 6.11 pounds during the 2020-2021 fishery.

Biomass estimates from National Marine Fisheries Service trawl surveys conducted last summer put the crab population above the threshold to set a quota and warranted the season this year. The fishery had been closed since the 2020-2021 season. Ex-vessel prices averaged $8 per pound.

“Overall, most vessels reported good fishing and did not have trouble catching this year’s small quota,” says Ethan Nichols, area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Dutch Harbor.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Bottom-trawl gear to blame for most of this year’s fishery-related killer whale deaths, NOAA says

December 5, 2023 — A federal investigation into the unusually large number of Bering Sea and Aleutian killer whales found dead this summer determined that most but not all of the deaths were killed by entanglement in fishing gear.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center on Friday released some details about the deaths in the Bering Sea and Aleutians, which had spurred sharp criticism of seafood trawling practices.

Of the nine killer whales that were found ensnared in bottom-trawling gear, six were killed by those entanglements but two others were already dead before they were netted, the investigation found. The other whale was seriously injured by the gear entanglement but escaped alive, the agency said.

In addition to the nine whales found in bottom-trawl gear, there were two other cases of dead killer whales found entangled in other types of fishing gear.

Read the full story at the Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers Receive Vital Support from Community

November 18, 2023 — Grundens threw quite the Cappy Hours at this year’s Pacific Marine Expo (PME) on Wednesday and Thursday of the show. They offered beer, hats, and a Yeti cooler filled with both Grundens and Yeti swag throughout all three days of the expo. Though the beer and hats were free, they were accepting donations to raise money for the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers (ABSC). PME generously matched the funds raised during both the Cappy Hours and Grundens x Yeti Raffle. They ended up raising $2,860, which comes to a grand total of $5,720 for Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

ABSC is a non-profit organization seeking to provide economic stability to the crab industry and Alaska’s coastal communities, promote safety at sea, and produce premier crab products for American and global customers. They have been actively involved in all aspects of crab fishery research, sound management, and marketing. They are tireless advocates for the Alaska Bering Sea crab fisheries and continue to make positive impacts on the fishing fleets and families that depend on these fisheries for their livelihoods.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

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

October 10, 2023 — 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.

“The 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,” said Mark Stichert, the state department’s ground fish and shellfish management coordinator,

“Based 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,” he said.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Activists urge reforms after Bering Sea trawlers haul up 9 dead orcas

September 28, 2023 — Federal officials are looking into the deaths of nine orcas that were hauled up by groundfish trawlers in Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands fisheries this year, and conservation groups say more needs to be done to prevent such deaths.

According to NOAA Fisheries, a tenth whale was released alive, but the nine other orcas incidentally caught in trawl nets weren’t so lucky.

“NOAA Fisheries is analyzing collected data to determine the cause of injury or death and determine which stocks these whales belong to through a review of genetic information,” said Julie Fair, public affairs officer with the federal agency’s Alaska office, reading from a statement published Thursday. She declined to be interviewed, except to read the statement aloud.

Killer whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which requires boat owners or operators to report the deaths and injuries of the mammals during commercial fishing and survey operations.

Fair said NOAA Fisheries monitors bycatch of protected species to determine whether the animals were dead before being caught or were killed or seriously injured by commercial gear.

The vessels involved in these incidents weren’t named, but Fair said the boats involved were all required to carry two federal observers on board.

This isn’t the first time killer whales have been caught in trawl gear off Alaska, but the numbers seem to have spiked this year.

Read the full article at KYUK