Author: Fishermen's News

The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted three alternatives for 2022 ocean salmon fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and California for public review. The Council intends to make a final decision on salmon seasons at its April 6-14 meeting. Detailed information about season starting dates, areas open, and catch limits for the three alternatives are available on the Council’s website at www.pcouncil.org. Although forecasts for many Chinook and coho stocks have improved over last year, the Council has said that it’s constrained by requirements to conserve Fraser River (Canada) coho, lower Columbia River natural tule1 fall Chinook, and Klamath River fall Chinook. “Meeting our conservation and management objectives continues to be the highest priority for the Council,” Counc...

The Seafood For Heroes program, organized and managed through the Napa Seafood Foundation, is using donations from seafood companies to provide healthy meals to first responders in Ukraine through the World Central Kitchen. The program was formed in the early days of the global COVID-19 pandemic, as a way for participants in the foundation’s program to give back to first responders and health care workers on front lines. “When COVID hit, we got together as a group and said ‘What can we do?’,” Food Group CEO Mark Cotter, who serves as a board member for the Napa Seafood Foundation, explained. The idea was to provide seafood meals for frontline workers working hours under difficult situations. Cotter said the idea was to help healthcare workers and the struggling restaurant i...

The Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation announced its full slate of winners for the 2022 Alaska Symphony of Seafood on Thursday, Feb. 24, including three first place prizes for Edmonds, Wash.-based Alaskan Leader Seafoods. Alaskan Leader Seafoods’ Wild Caught Alaskan Black Cod in Japanese Miso Marinade won both the Seattle People’s Choice and the Juneau People’s Choice. Alaskan Leader’s Wild Caught Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon also took the inaugural Bristol Bay Choice award, as chosen by the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, a competition partner and major sponsor. “Alaskan Leader did an excellent job highlighting the quality of Bristol Bay Sockeye, something our fleet has worked extremely hard to improve and maintain season after season,” Bristol Bay Regio...

Lawmakers in Alaska are applauding a ban of Russian seafood imports that was instituted this month by the Biden Administration in response to Russia’s invasion of neighboring country Ukraine. In a March 11 executive order, President Biden prohibited “the importation into the United States of the following products of Russian Federation origin: fish, seafood and preparations thereof.” The ban is something that had been pushed for by elected officials in Alaska for years. Russia has banned imports of U.S. fish since 2014, after the U.S. sanctioned Russia following its annexation of the previously independent region Crimea. “I appreciate and strongly support the announcement by President Biden … that the United States will ban the importation of Russian seafood,” U.S. Sen. Dan Su...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced an investment of about $50 million in grants to support seafood processors, processing facilities and processing vessels through the Seafood Processors Pandemic Response and Safety Block Grant Program (SPRS). This grant funding, which was announced in mid-February and is to be distributed through state agencies, is to help defray costs incurred by seafood processing facilities and processing vessels preparing for, preventing exposure to, and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is funded by the pandemic assistance provided in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. SPRS recipients include state agencies, commissions, or departments responsible for agriculture, fisheries, wildlife, seafood, commercial processing,...

At the annual Salmon Information Meeting held virtually on March 2, state and federal fishery scientists presented updates on the numbers of spawning salmon that returned to California’s rivers in 2021 and shared the expected abundance for the upcoming fishing season. The 2022 ocean abundance projection for Sacramento River fall Chinook, a main salmon stock harvested in California waters, is estimated at 396,500 adult salmon, higher than the 2021 forecasts. The Klamath River fall Chinook abundance forecast also came in slightly above the 2021 value, with 200,100 adult Klamath River fall Chinook salmon predicted to be in the ocean this year, a value that remains well below the stock’s historical levels. During the meeting, recreational anglers and commercial salmon trollers pro...

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has set Jan. 1, 2022 as the control date should it consider a limited entry structure for the state’s growing commercial market squid fishery in the future. This means that if the Commission decides to change from an open access to limited entry fishery at some point, only commercial fishermen participating before Jan. 1, 2022 could be considered for permits that are allocated based on historical participation. Commercial market squid is a relatively new fishery for Oregon but growing in popularity, leading to concerns about the resource’s sustainability. Also during its February meeting, the Commission directed ODFW staff to come back with a proposal to prohibit light boats in the fishery beginning in 2023. More information about other ...

Officers with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marine Enforcement Division said March 1 they’ve seen an uptick in the number of commercial Dungeness crab cases in North Coast waters in the past few months. Since Dec. 9, 2021, there have been seven cases regarding possession of undersize crabs by commercial crab fishermen, according to the CDFW. “Commercial Dungeness crab fishermen are expected to measure their entire catch and keep only crabs that are equal to or greater than 6 ¼ inches, which is slightly more than the required 5 ¾ width required of recreational crabbers,” CDFW said in a statement. “There is a provision in the law to authorize possession of no more than one percent of the catch to be undersize.” In all seven cases, citations were written, the l...