Alaska Sea Grant Funding 6 New Research Projects 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafood News] - January 26, 2018

Six research projects have been selected by Alaska Sea Grant to receive funding between 2018 and 2020.

Alaska Sea Grant received 47 pre-proposals and 18 full proposals for funding. Out of those proposals, the organization chose six to receive $1.3 million to conduct their studies. They’re listed below:

- Integrating local ecological knowledge and survey data to improve assessment and management of rockfishes in Alaska

- Kelp reproduction and harvest rebound in Kachemak Bay, Alaska

- Metabolic and growth physiology of early life history stages of ...

Laine Welch Gives Her 27th Annual Fish Picks and Pans, Plus Biggest Fish Story of 2017

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Factor] by Laine Welch  Jan 4, 2018

For 27 years this weekly column has featured news for and about Alaska’s commercial fishing industry. It began in 1991 in the Anchorage Daily News and now appears in more than 20 news outlets across Alaska, nationally and in the UK. 

Today, Alaska fishermen and processors provide 65 percent of our nation’s wild-caught seafood, and 95 percent of the wild salmon. The industry puts more people to work than oil/gas, mining, timber and tourism combined.

Here are my annual Fishing Picks and Pans – a no holds barred look back at the best and worst fish stories of 2017 in no particular order, and my choice for the biggest fish story of the year ...

Halibut Recreational Quota Entity: Business Insurance or Quota Grab? Rule Heading for Approval

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafood News] by Peggy Parker - November 27, 2017

The final rule on whether Recreational Quota Entities (RQE) will be allowed for the Alaskan charter halibut sector is on its final step to regulation. Final comments on the proposed rule were submitted last week. Responses mirrored the contentious atmosphere that marked the discussion at the North Pacific Council for the past few years. 

At the heart of the issue is the concept that the charter industry needed more quota than was allocated to them through the catch sharing plan approved by ...

News Summary November 3, 2017 

Today's Main Story: Cod, Shrimp and Pangasius See Gains in US Consumption

Today's lead item from SeafoodNews.com publisher John Sackton reports that cod is the big winner in per capita consumption numbers. Cod has taken an increased share of the whitefish market over the past five years. Meanwhile, the per capita consumption numbers released by the National Fisheries Institute Thursday show that shrimp grew from 4.0 to 4.1 lbs per capita, and that pangasius consumption grew from 0.743 to 0.89 lbs per person ...

West Coast, Alaska Senators Urge Disaster Aid for Multiple Fisheries

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Susan Chambers - October 31, 2017

In a bipartisan push led by Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., all eight West Coast senators — Merkley, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. — this week called on congressional leaders and the Trump administration to include disaster aid for fisheries in the next 2017 disaster funding package.

As the senators pointed out in letters to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and to congressional appropriations leaders, commercial fishing is a bedrock of the economy in many coastal communities, and leaving recent fisheries disasters unaddressed could have negative ripple effects for years to come.

“While the impacts of an extremely low run in a fishery or a complete fishery closure are harder to visualize t

News Summary October 17, 2017 

Today's Main Story: Fish Traps Were Banned, but Some Now Say ‘‘It’s the Future” for Columbia River Salmon 

Today's opening headline reports that more than eight decades after their demise, fish traps are getting a fresh look from researchers convinced they offer a more sustainable way to catch Columbia River salmon. These traps are formed by nets attached to pilings that gently guide the fish into a kind of underwater corral. Wild fish protected under the federal Endangered Species Act can be released to resume their upstream journey, while their more abundant hatchery brethren are sent to the processors. The Wild Fish Conservancy received permission to operate a two-year fish trap experiment funded largely by state and federal grants. Read more about it here. 

In other news, Alaska commercial salmon fishermen across the state have had a “banner year,” according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) which released a preliminary harvest summary that estimates fishermen caught 224.6 million wild salmon this year and earned $678.8 million selling the fish to processors. Learn more about this year's harvest here. 

In North Carolina, shrimp is the second largest ...

Alaska Working to Build Blue Economy

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] September 14, 2017

Climate Change Will Impact SE Alaska Rivers, and Salmon

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio]With Laine Welch Sept. 13, 2017

This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Protecting Southeast’s salmon streams from changing water flows. More after this – 

One third of Alaska’s salmon harvest each year comes from fish produced in the 17,000 miles of streams in Southeast’s Tongass rainforest. 

A changing climate is altering rain and snowfall patterns that affect that habitat – for better or worse. Now, a first of its kind study details the potential changes and how people can plan ahead to protect the fish.

 In general the global climate models are saying it’s going to get warmer and wetter. I’ve also heard another rule of thumb that the wetter places in the world are going to get wetter..

Fish Radio: Alaska Salmon Catch Topped Projections, But it Could Have been Higher

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio] With Laine Welch  Sept 12, 2017

Salmon catch tops forecast, could have gone higher

This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Alaska’s salmon catch tops projections but it could have gone much higher. More after this –

Salmon fishing is a wrap except for around Kodiak and Southeast, where cohos and late run chums and sockeyes are still being hauled in.

Trolling for cohos in Southeast is usually the last fishery to close in Alaska’s salmon season.

The statewide catch of 214 million is five percent over the forecast and it could have gone even higher...

NFI Loses Challenge to Seafood Labeling Law; Full Implementation Will Go Ahead for 2018

SEAFOODNEWS.COM  by John Sackton August 29, 2017

NFI has lost its lawsuit over the promulgation of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program by NOAA and the Department of Commerce.

As a result, the rule, as published, will go forward with an effective date of January 1, 2018.  The monitoring program will require significant record keeping for both a range of wild caught and aquaculture species, and is estimated to cost as much as $18 to $20 million per year, or .005% of the total $9 billion value of US seafood imports.

NFI and the member companies that participated in the lawsuit challenged the rule on a series of grounds:  First, they argued that the rule was put forward without the proper constitutional authority of the executive branch, secondly that Congress had not granted this authority to ...

Industry Steps in to Protect Economic Value of Bristol Bay Fisheries in Face of ADF&G Budget Cuts

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafoodnews] by Peggy Parker - August 23, 2017

Over the last five years, in an effort to reduce the state's budget deficit, Alaska’s Fish and Game budget was reduced by 30%, eliminating projects that informed and supported in-season salmon management, in the Bay and elsewhere. 

The cuts begin a cascade of belt-tightening and lost opportunity for the industry: less data from fish monitoring means managers make more cautious decisions which mean less ...

Electronic Monitoring Instead of Human Observers Now an Option for Some Alaska Fishermen

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Peggy Parker - August 10, 2017

Alaska’s decades-old fishery observer program now offers an electronic option for non-trawl fishermen beginning in 2018. This is a victory for many in the longline and pot fleets who have been working for years to get approval of electronic monitoring (EM) using current technologies.

The purpose of the North Pacific Observers Program is to collect data necessary for the conservation, management, and scientific understanding of the groundfish and halibut fisheries off Alaska. Their data verifies catches, including bycatch, and helps managers get an accurate count of catch and mortality.

Until 2013 the program did not include hundreds of vessels in the halibut fishery, in part due to the difficulty of finding room for an extra body on a 40-foot vessel. But in 2013, the program was updated and added the 40-foot and over fleet.

The challenge to halibut skippers was immediately clear when the Council first considered including small boats -- Where would the observer sleep...

Senate Bill on New National Fisheries Marketing Advisory Panel Moves Through Committee

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Peggy Parker - August 4, 2017

A bill to create an advisory committee to guide seafood marketing and research projects nationwide was approved by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday, August 2, 2017.

Introduced by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), S. 3087, The American Fisheries Advisory Committee Act would create a 25-member national panel to advise the Secretary of Commerce on projects aimed at boosting fisheries research and/or seafood marketing initiatives in six regional areas across the country.

The advisory panel would assist the Secretary of Commerce "in the awarding of fisheries research and development grants.”  It establishes six regions within the AFA Committee...

Alaska Fishing Season Booming With Salmon, Pollock, Cod and More

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] August 2, 2017

This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch –Lots of fishing going on besides salmon. August updates after this –

Salmon takes center stage all summer but lots of other fisheries are out on the water as well. For salmon, the catch is on its way to 111 million fish, with sockeyes totaling about 50 million and pinks nearing 43 million - over half of the humpies are from Prince William Sound.

The total Alaska salmon catch for this year is pegged at...

News Summary July 27, 2017

Today's Main Story: Huge Bristol Bay Run Meant $ Millions in Lost Revenue Due to Congress’ Disastrous Labor Policies 

Topping today's headlines is a look at how while celebrating the fantastic run of salmon into Bristol Bay, which saw sockeye harvests exceed forecasts by 35%, there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction. SeafoodNews' John Sackton and Peggy Parker write that bad governmental policy decisions crippled the Alaska processing labor force, and meant that some packers in Bristol Bay were operating with 15-20% fewer workers than they had originally planned. In the Bay, where over a thousand permit holders vie for their share of 37 million sockeye salmon, mostly within a one-week time period, a 15-20% shortage in plant workers is big news, an it had a ripple effect throughout the area and the industry. 

In other news, there appears to be a significant fall-out from Carlos Rafael’s case of massive fisheries corruption. One thread seems to be a concerted effort by the Dept. of Justice to look at tax evasion in the seafood industry in both New Bedford and Gloucester. New tax evasion charges were added to the Rafael case in March, 2017. The charges were that Rafael failed to pay taxes in the sum of $108,929. The U.S. attorney also alleges Rafael omitted $267,061 in reportable cash income in 2014. Since then there have been a flurry of tax evasion charges against seafood executives in both New Bedford and Gloucester. 

In Virginia, the blue crab pot season is officially shorter than last year after the Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted unanimously to reduce bushel limits and end the season 16...

OSU Inks Largest Research Grant in History for Research Vessel

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafood News] by Mark Floyd - July 14, 2017

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University has just received a grant of $121.88 million from the National Science Foundation to spearhead the construction of a new class of research vessels for the United States Academic Research Fleet. It is the largest grant in the university’s history.

This grant will fund the construction of the first of three planned vessels approved by Congress for research in coastal regions of the continental United States and Alaska. When funding for the next two ...

NFWF Announces More Than $760,000 in Grants to Support Sustainable Fisheries

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafood News] by Susan Chambers - December 1, 2017

Foundation awards seven grants to reduce bycatch, build capacity of fishermen and fishing communities, and improve recreational fisheries’ strategies

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently announced $766,871 in grants to support fishermen and community-led projects to promote sustainable fisheries across the United States. The grants will generate $840,887 in matching contributions for a total conservation impact of more than $1.6 million.

The grants were awarded through the Fisheries Innovation Fund, a partnership between NFWF, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and ...

International "Tools of the Trade" Tech Conference Slated for February in Alaska 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] - November 21, 2017

The 69th annual Pacific Fisheries Technologists Conference (PFT) will be held at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska, February 5-7, 2018. Technology professions from around the Pacific Rim, as well as government officials, will meet to bring each other up to date on advances in seafood technology and research.

"This year our keynote speakers will address our theme of “Tools of the Trade” and we are planning an exciting line up of papers and presentations which focus on cutting edge equipment, diagnostics and technologies which aid today’s seafood technologist," said Chris Sannito of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the president of PFT.

"We will also discuss how the regulatory environment adapts with the...

NOAA Awards $9.3 Million to Support 32 Aquaculture Grant Projects

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafood News] by Amanda Buckle - October 1

NOAA announced on Tuesday that they will be awarding $9.3 million in grants for 32 aquaculture research grant projects. The projects will be led by university-based NOAA Sea Grant Programs, and tackle issues like: improving efficient production of seafood, permitting of new businesses, management of environmental health issues and economic success of aquaculture businesses ...

Oregon Researchers Studying Effect of Acidity, Warm Water on Dungeness Crab

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Curry Coastal Pilot] by Jane Stebbins - October 25, 2017

Juvenile Dungeness crabs are about to become lab rats for Aaron Galloway and Julie Schram of the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston.

And with a lot of work and a little luck, the two researchers might be able to help the crab fishery — if needed — in the face of warming water and increasing acidity in the ocean ...

New Sea Grant Bulletin a Boost for Alaskans Wanting to Farm Kelp

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] - September 21, 2017

The global market for seaweed products has grown exponentially in recent years to $10 billion per year. Demand is outstripping supply with major market buyers in China, Japan, and South Korea.

Of the more than 18 million tons produced each year, 96 percent is cultured and 4% gathered from the wild.

In the U.S. farming seaweed is a recent industry, but established farms are operating on both coasts.

Alaska is poised to take off as the state develops a mariculture policy for seaweed and institutions like Alaska Sea Grant, the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center and others expand research projects on kelp farming.

The new Sea Grant bulletin Seaweed Farming in Alaska, will help. Author Gary Freitag describes...

Alaska Lt. Gov. Mallott Rejects Salmon Habitat Ballot Initiative

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Morris News Service-Alaska/Alaska Journal of Commerce] By Elwood Brehmer - September 14, 2017

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott denied an application on Sept. 12 to put a voter initiative on the 2018 statewide ballot that would have tightened the state’s permitting requirements for development projects with the potential to impact salmon streams.

Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Bakalar wrote a Sept. 6 letter to Mallott recommending he not certify the initiative because it would strip the Legislature of its power to allocate resources — in this case salmon habitat — and thus violate the Alaska Constitution.

The lieutenant governor’s primary responsibility in Alaska is to manage state...

Alaska Sea Grant Gears Up for Smoked Fish Training, and Processing Workshop

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafood News] by Amanda Buckle September 13, 2017

The Alaska Sea Grant, an organization created to help Alaska’s marine coastal and watershed ecosystems through research and education, is offering two programs to ensure that the seafood industry in the area continues to grow.

From October 12th to the 13th the Alaska Sea Grant will be hosting a smoked seafood workshop for those interested in smoking and processing fish. Registration is open to anyone with an interest, including home-fish smoking enthusiasts, smokehouse operators and commercial fisherman. The workshop, which costs $270, and is a collaboration between the Alaska Sea Grant and ...

Catch Shares Panned by ADF&G at MSA Hearing

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] September 1, 2017

This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Lay off fishing limited access plans the state tells the feds.

Limited access to fisheries was a dominant theme before a congressional panel last week in Soldotna. Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan chairs the Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard committee. 

They are on the road with hearings as part of the renewal of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which sets the rules for all ...

Studies Show How Acidic Oceans are Affecting Alaska Species

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] August 25, 2017

This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch. Latest lab results show impacts of acid oceans on key Alaska species.

The chemistry showing that our oceans are becoming more acidic can’t be denied. So how does all that absorption of increasing carbon dioxide affect some key Alaska fisheries?

"The direct effect of carbon dioxide increase may be the pH effect on the ability of a pollock or cod to grow or to have gas exchange across the ...

Electronic Monitoring Instead of Human Observers Now an Option for Some Alaska Fishermen

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Peggy Parker - August 10, 2017

Alaska’s decades-old fishery observer program now offers an electronic option for non-trawl fishermen beginning in 2018. This is a victory for many in the longline and pot fleets who have been working for years to get approval of electronic monitoring (EM) using current technologies.

The purpose of the North Pacific Observers Program is to collect data necessary for the conservation, management, and scientific understanding of the groundfish and halibut fisheries off Alaska. Their data verifies catches, including bycatch, and helps managers get an accurate count of catch and mortality.

Until 2013 the program did not include hundreds of vessels in the halibut fishery, in part due to the difficulty of finding room for an extra body on a 40-foot vessel. But in 2013, the program was updated and added the 40-foot and over fleet.

The challenge to halibut skippers was immediately clear when the Council first considered including small boats -- Where would the observer sleep...

Oregon Fisheries to Benefit From Merkley’s Senate Commerce, Justice Appropriations Bill

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafood News] by Amanda Buckle August 4, 2017

The Oregon fishing community has reason to celebrate.

Key provisions in the Senate Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations committee bill by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley will help aid the state’s fishing industries. The bill will be sent to the Senate floor for a vote before it’s merged with a counterpart bill from the U.S. House of Representatives, which is necessary in order to be passed and signed into law...

U.S. Coast Guard Celebrates 227th Birthday on August 4

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] August 3, 2017

This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch. Happy Birthday to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Tomorrow - August 4^th - marks the 227th birthday of our nation’s oldest sea going service – the U.S. Coast Guard.

It was launched in 1790 as the U.S. Lighthouse Service when the first Congress gave orders to build 10 vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws under the newly formed Treasury Department. 

At the time, that was the only source of revenue for the federal government. It was called the Revenue Cutter Service until 1915 when...

First MSA Reauthorization Hearing Acknowledged Successes, Identified Needed Changes

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Peggy Parker - August 2, 2017

At the first of a series of hearing on the Magnuson-Stevens Act held yesterday at the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, senators from both sides of the aisle voiced support for regional management council system, NOAA Fisheries, and the science that supports fisheries management, despite the deep cuts proposed in the President’s budget.

“With regard to the budget, I think some of these cuts may not survive the [reauthorization] process,” said Chairman Dan Sullivan (R-AK). “I think we’re going to be adding a lot back to the projects that we think are vital.”

Sullivan was responding in part to a series of questions from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to Chris Oliver, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries, about the current administration’s proposed budget for the agency.

“My question concerns the budget submitted by the president of the United States. The budget slashes funding for programs like Sea Grant and the Milford Lab at the University of Connecticut [Northeast Fisheries Science Center],” Blumenthal said. ...

News Summary July 14, 2017 

Today's Main Story: Stronger King and Chum Return in Yukon Result of Precautionary Management 

We open today's news reporting that for the first time since 2003, and before that 1997, the Yukon River king salmon run has exceeded 253,000 fish. On July 12, the 253,250th chinook was counted at Pilot Station. ADF&G has revised the run outlook to be as high as 287,000 Chinook for this year and relaxed subsistence fishing restrictions. There will be no commercial season for Chinook this year. The higher numbers mean the Canadian-bound kings, which the U.S. is treaty-bound to protect so they can reach their spawning grounds in Canada, will be above the upper end of pre-season estimates. It also means that subsistence take of these highly-nutritional fish will now be open for residents of Alaska's largest river system. 

In other news, thus far, the Trump administration has pursued an agenda that has basically alarmed scientists and environmentalists. The administration has also been slow to appoint scientific leadership, both in the White House and across federal agencies. But the appointment of fisheries biologist Chris ...