Article Category: News

Scientists at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center say their research shows that shifting ocean conditions associated with climate change will likely send high-value sablefish into deeper waters off the West Coast. This means vessels may have to travel farther and fish deeper in order to keep catching fish. The new report, which provides a glimpse of what West Coast fisheries will look like with climate change, notes that fishing crews must always balance the value of different commercial species against the distances involved in catching them, but that climate change could alter that equation in new ways. Researchers studied how four species of West Coast groundfish commonly caught together may respond to climate change. They include sablefish, Dover sole, shortspine thornyhead an...

NOAA Fisheries has issued a final rule allocating a Pacific cod harvest quota to qualifying groundfish License Limitation Program license holders and qualifying processors. The goal, the agency has said, is to improve management of the fishery, increase its value and minimize bycatch to the extent practicable. The final rule, Amendment 122, for groundfish management in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI), establishes the new Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program PCTC). The rule was printed in the Federal Register on Aug. 8 and goes into effect on Sept. 7. Fishing under the PCTC program is scheduled to begin on Jan. 20, 2024. Jon Kurland, NOAA regional administrator for Alaska, noted that PCTC also aims to provide for the sustained participation of fishery-dependent communities,...

Nineteen people have been announced as appointees to the new Alaska Salmon Research Task Force, which will study the increased variability in Pacific salmon populations in Alaska, including unprecedented declines in some regions. The group is expected to eventually provide recommendations on research priorities to support the understanding of the salmon species. The task force was formed as a result of the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act, legislation introduced by Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan in the Senate and introduced in the House by the late Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). It was later carried by Young’s successor, Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in the House, then signed into law in 2022. The legislation directs the Research Task Force to form a working grou...

Three Washington tribes are seeking to outlaw the manufacture of tires using chemicals that break down into a toxic chemical that flows from roads into waterways, killing salmon within hours. The nonprofit Earthjustice petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in early August on behalf of the Yurok, Port Gamble S’Kallam and Puyallup tribes, to prohibit the manufacturing, processing, use and distribution of 6PPD in and for tires. 6PPD is an antioxidant and antiozonant that helps prevent the degradation and cracking of rubber compounds caused by exposure to oxygen, ozone and temperature fluctuation. It’s used industry-wide to help tires resist degradation and cracking, which is considered vital for the safety of those riding in vehicles equipped with them. Studies have shown t...

The University of Washington’s Fisheries Research Institute (UW-FRI) on Aug. 18 issued a preliminary preseason 2024 forecast run of 38.9 million Bristol Bay sockeye salmon, with a harvest of 26.4 million fish. The forecasted run would be 32% below the 2013-2022 10-year average, with the fish weighing an average of 5.5 pounds, according to the forecast. The UW-FRI report is based on 2023 daily in-season data from Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports. The preliminary preseason forecast suggests that 63% of the total 2024 Bristol Bay run will be 2-ocean sockeye and 37% 3-ocean sockeye. The standard UW-FRI Preseason Forecast, slated for release in November, is to include abundance estimates by age class for all nine rivers in Bristol Bay, plus anticipated 2024 harvest in numbers and...

Litigation filed in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage in early September seeks to have the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule reinstated as soon as possible. The complaint filed Friday, Sept. 8, maintains that the state is defending its right to protect the economic and socioeconomic development of Southeast Alaska, which includes Tongass National Forest. The Tongass, at 17-million-acres, surrounds Alaska’s capital city  of Juneau. Each year, an abundance of wild salmon return from the ocean to streams in the Tongass to spawn and die, bringing with them nutrients from the productive North Pacific Ocean to a much less nutrient-rich land. Currently the Roadless Rule, which prohibits new road construction and reconstruction in inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands, protect...

The grounding and capsizing of the fishing vessel Challenger last year was likely due to human error on part of the vessel’s captain, according to a report on the incident released Aug. 17 by the National Transportation Safety Board. “We determined that the probable cause of the grounding of the fishing vessel Challenger was the captain’s decision to navigate close to shore in an area known to him to have an uncharted rock,” the report states. Contributing to the capsizing of the vessel, according to the NTSB, was the lack of a watertight collision bulkhead and subdivision or compartmentalization below the main deck, which allowed for progressive flooding. The incident occurred around 7 a.m. Alaska time on Aug. 7, 2022. While transiting the northwestern shore of Kodiak Island, Alaska,...

New research published in the journal Nature finds that despite the devastating impact marine heatwaves may have on marine ecosystems, that these heatwaves generally have not had lasting effects on the ocean waters that are home to many of the world’s most robust fisheries. The study by a team of researchers funded through FISHGLOB, an international consortium of scientists who collect, curate, share and use date from scientific bottom trawl surveys, looked at how fish biomass and community composition was affected in the year following a marine heatwave. Researchers found that in general, these marine heatwaves do not have a major impact on regional fish communities. “This is the year of marine heatwaves, which now cover nearly half of the world’s ocean,” said Malin Pinsky, a study c...

Mike Porcaro, a radio talk show host and advertising consultant, has been appointed by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy to serve on the state’s Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC), which oversees the state’s commercial fishing permits.  The Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC) is a two-member agency that’s independent from the state’s executive branch. Its mandate is to provide due process hearings and appeal processes for disputes related to limitations on fishery participation.  The commission was established in the 1970s after Alaska voters approved a constitutional amendment to limit access to the state’s commercial fisheries—a right that had previously been guaranteed to all residents.  Porcaro’s appointment occurred in August, but no formal announcement was made at the...