Saving Seafood

ALASKA: St. Paul government declares emergency in attempt to get ahead of looming crab crash

November 11, 2022 โ€” The recent closure of the Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries has some of Western Alaskaโ€™s coastal towns taking a hard look at their futures, and one small island is bracing for a huge hit.

The Pribilof Island of St. Paul runs on snow crab โ€” also known as opilio crab. The communityโ€™s Trident Seafoods is one of the largest crab processing plants in the world. So when fisheries management officials announced the species โ€œoverfishedโ€ and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shut down snow crab for the first time in the fisheryโ€™s history in October, City Manager Phillip Zavadil knew the community needed to act fast.

โ€œWeโ€™re trying to get creative and have people understand that this is going to happen more and more, and that we need to address it,โ€ Zavadil said. โ€œWe can do something now, instead of waiting for next year, when we donโ€™t have any funding or we canโ€™t provide services.โ€

About two weeks after ADF&Gโ€™s closure announcement, the city declared a cultural, economic and social emergency. At a meeting on Oct. 26, the St. Paul City Council voted unanimously in support of the emergency resolution, which identifies and anticipates effects of climate change on the islandโ€™s subsistence and commercial fisheries, and the subsequent impacts the closure of crab fisheries will likely have on the community of around 350 people.

Fish and Game biologists said 2021 brought the largest crash in snow crab ever seen. And while the disappearance is somewhat of a mystery, many researchers point to climate change as the likely culprit.

Rather than just reach out to state and federal representatives for help, which the municipal government has done, Zavadil said officials crafted the emergency resolution, which they hope will help soften anticipated blows caused by the crash in crab stocks.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Commentary: Our nationโ€™s fisheries face a common enemy: climate change

November 8, 2022 โ€” Recent precipitous declines in Alaskan fishery populations have resulted in devastating closures of key fisheries across the state. Billions of red king crab, Pacific cod, salmon and most recently snow crab have disappeared from the cold, productive waters of the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, resulting in cancellations of critical fishing seasons that support local fishermen, seafood processors, and coastal communities.

These far-reaching and calamitous effects reverberate here at home, where the Northern shrimp fishery faces permanent closure, the Atlantic cod fishery continues to weaken, and the threat of shutting down the lucrative and conservation-minded lobster fishery looms in the wake of troubling declines in North Atlantic right whales.

Climate change is a key factor in these disturbing bicoastal declines. In the Gulf of Maine, warming oceans have affected right whale reproduction rates and have also caused shifts in the availability and occurrence of their prey, prompting redistribution of whales into different fishing grounds and shipping lanes. Warm waters have affected important Atlantic cod bottom habitat, challenging recovery efforts. Long-depressed Northern shrimp stocks remain depleted in the Gulf of Maine as reproduction rates sag in water that is several degrees above spawning tolerance. Declines in New England have occurred despite cautious quota setting on these historically overexploited stocks.

Read the full article at the Press Herald

ALASKA: Canceled crab season could devastate Unalaska

November 4, 2022 โ€” As the top fishing port by volume in the nation, fishing runs in the veins of Unalaska.

Officials say that nearly everyone in the city relies on the robust seafood industry.

โ€œOur only industry is our fishing industry. So everything that goes on in communities are related,โ€ said Frank Kelty, the Fishery consultant for the City of Unalaska.

For decades, the snow crab industry was of critical importance to the city. However, in the past few years, the industry has been experiencing lower catch volumes.

Read the full article at Alaska News Source

ALASKA: U.S. Representative Mary Sattler Peltola calls for federal disaster funding for crab fisheries

November 4, 2022 โ€” On Oct. 25, Representative Mary Sattler Peltola sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro asking them to consider appropriating disaster relief funding for those impacted by this yearโ€™s total shut down of crab harvests.

This is the first time ever that the Bering Sea snow crab harvest is closed, and the second consecutive closed season for the fall red king crab harvest.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Bering Sea crabbersโ€™ emergency action plea opens for public comment

October 31, 2022 โ€” The National Marine Fisheries Service has opened a review and is taking public comment on Bering Sea crabbersโ€™ request to take emergency action to close the Red King Crab Savings Area and the Red King Crab Savings Subarea to all fishing gear that comes into contact with the ocean bottom.

The request from the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers is dated Sept. 29, after the association failed to sway the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to take new steps for setting aside crab habitat and further reducing bycatch from other fisheries.

Warning signs months before pointed toward declining snow and king crab numbers, and on Oct. 10 Alaska state officials announced sweeping closures in response to dismal survey results. Crab fleet advocates predict direct revenue loss of $500 million from losing the 2022-2023 season and possibly twice that in broader economic impact.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Bering Sea crabbers call for new โ€˜crisis responseโ€™ to fishery disasters

October 28, 2022 โ€” The closing of the Bering Sea snow and red king crab fisheries poses a $1 billion economic hit and continued danger of future fishery collapses from climate change in the North Pacific, the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers say.

โ€œAcross the country, fisheries are racing the clock to adjust to changing climate and growing uncertainty,โ€ according to a statement issued by the association Wednesday. โ€œIn the North Pacific, ABSC is proposing a 3-prong approach for crab and disasters like it:  provide rapid financial relief, develop adaptive and responsive management, and bolster continued science and research. Alaskaโ€™s snow crab fishery is the perfect test case for innovating these crisis responses.โ€

โ€œThis is a defining moment in U.S. fisheries management,โ€ said Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. โ€œWe must focus on what we can control: helping hard-working fishing families and coastal communities and using the information we have to make better, more balanced, holistic management decisions.โ€

Read the full article at the national Fisherman

Fishermen face shutdowns as warming hurts species

October 28, 2022 โ€” Fishing regulators and the seafood industry are grappling with the possibility that some once-profitable species that have declined with climate change might not come back.

Several marketable species harvested by U.S. fishermen are the subject of quota cuts, seasonal closures and other restrictions as populations have fallen and waters have warmed. In some instances, such as the groundfishing industry for species like flounder in the Northeast, the changing environment has made it harder for fish to recover from years of overfishing that already taxed the population.

Officials in Alaska have canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest and winter snow crab harvest, dealing a blow to the Bering Sea crab industry that is sometimes worth more than $200 million a year, as populations have declined in the face of warming waters. The Atlantic cod fishery, once the lifeblood industry of New England, is now essentially shuttered. But even with depleted populations imperiled by climate change, itโ€™s rare for regulators to completely shut down a fishery, as theyโ€™re considering doing for New England shrimp.

The Northern shrimp, once a seafood delicacy, has been subject to a fishing moratorium since 2014. Scientists believe warming waters are wiping out their populations and they wonโ€™t be coming back. So the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is now considering making that moratorium permanent, essentially ending the centuries-old harvest of the shrimp.

Itโ€™s a stark siren for several species caught by U.S. fishermen that regulators say are on the brink. Others include softshell clams, winter flounder, Alaskan snow crabs and Chinook salmon.

Read the full article at ABC News

ALASKA: Governor requests fishery disaster determination for snow, red king crab

October 26, 2022 โ€” Gov. Mike Dunleavy has requested that the United States Department of Commerce expedite a disaster declaration for the 2022-2023 Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow crab fisheries.

Dunleavy asked via a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo for the declaration in accordance with Section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and Section 308(b) of the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. Dunleavy also asked Raimondo to expedite a disaster determination for the 2021-2022 Bristol Bay red king crab fishery season.

Read the full article at Alaska News Source

Fisheries disaster declaration sought in Bering Sea crab fishery

October 25, 2022 โ€” With a virtually complete shutdown of Bering Sea crab fishing at hand, fishermen, and Alaska communities are seeking an expedited fishery disaster declaration from the federal government.

The emergency is felt acutely on St. Paul Island, where the largely Aleut community of about 400 live on an economy dependent on the now-closing snow crab fishery.

โ€œWeโ€™re predicting a 90 percent loss from two years ago and 85 percent of revenue from last year, said Ray Melovidov, chief operating officer of the Central Bering Sea Fishermenโ€™s Association based in St. Paul.

Other revenue streams come in from pollock and cod fishing, but crabbing carries the freight for St. Paul. The money pays for fully funded preschool programs, home heating aid for residents, and community-wide broadband internet access among others said Melovidov, who serves on the city council.

Revenue from the big boats help maintain a local halibut fleet of 15 boats and about 80 crewmembers, a subsidy to buy their catch at prices competitive with other ports, said Melovidov.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman