Author: Sarah Spangler

By Mark Nero, Managing Editor As some who have been part of the commercial fishing industry on the West Coast can attest to, it’s not just luck and Mother Nature that fishermen and women have to contend with while plying their trade, but sometimes furry and winged creatures, as well. And with so much competition for fish within the animal kingdom, particularly sockeye salmon returning from the ocean, sometimes there isn’t enough to go around for everyone, as some parties take more than their fair share. Such a scenario led to the Wuikinuxv (pronounced “Oh-wee-key-no”) Nation indigenous people on the coast of British Columbia teaming up with scientists to collaborate on how to strike a balance between the needs of people and the needs of grizzly bears when divvying up the annual su...

Bristol Bay’s multi-million-dollar red king crab fishery has been shuttered for the 2021-2022 season in the wake of a National Marine Fisheries Service trawl survey that revealed that crab stocks failed to meet the regulatory threshold to open the fishery. It’s the first time the famed fishery has been closed in over 25 years. While fishery managers are still trying to determine harvest levels for crab fisheries that will open, the Bering Sea crab fleet and others across the Pacific Northwest engaged in crab fisheries are bracing for the economic fallout and calling for new conservation measures. News of the closure is incredibly disappointing and concerning, said Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, but it is also a sign of sustainability in action. In...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Marine Fisheries Service have been ordered by U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez in Portland, Oregon to take immediate action to improve passage for Chinook salmon and winter steelhead trout at dams in Oregon’s Willamette Basin. Hernandez found that the Corps had failed to provide adequate fish passage and to mitigate water quality issues causing substantial, irreparable harm to the salmonids. The injunction requires the Corps to conduct a deep drawdown of Cougar Reservoir on the South Fork McKenzie River and spill operations at Foster Dam on the South Fork Santiam River this fall. Further actions will include dams on the North Santiam River and Middle Fork Willamette. “The implementation of this order is a giant step forward to ensur...

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the state’s public-private partnership with the seafood industry, will hold its annual marketing conference virtually in November due to health and safety concerns over the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. The complete agenda, now posted online at www.alaskaseafood.org/all-hands-on-deck, outlines the current agenda for the Nov. 10-13 meeting. The general session on the first day will include a presentation from McKinley Capital Management (formerly the McDowell Group) on COVID-19 impacts on seafood marketing over the past year, and a roundtable discussion on Alaska seafood around the world. Day two includes presentations by the salmon, halibut and sablefish, whitefish and shellfish species committees, plus the international marketing committee ...

New research published on Tuesday, Sept. 7, in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering links the ongoing steep decline of northern fur seals in Alaska’s Pribilof Islands to competition for Alaska Pollock. The harvest of Bering Sea Pollock, with the annual allowable catch set at 4.4 billion pounds, has an annual dollar value of nearly half a billion dollars. It is the largest fishery in the United States and the second largest in the world. While the fishery remains robust, the Pribilof northern fur seal population in the eastern Bering Sea has declined by 70% since the 1970s. Competition between commercial fisheries and the fur seals for Pollock has been suspected as a contributing factor, but until now no correlative relationship between fishing activities and fur seal populat...

Owners of the Seattle Kraken professional ice hockey team have a new partnership with Bristol Bay seafood processors that puts wild Alaska sockeye salmon and Pacific cod options on the home game menu beginning with the 2021-22 season for this National Hockey League team. The menu prepared by Molly DeMers, executive chef at the Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, ranges from Wild Alaska Panko Cod and Grilled Wild Sockeye Street Tacos to Wild Alaska Cod Fish N Chips, Bristol Bay wild sockeye fillets on a baguette and seasonal clam and Bering Sea Wild Alaska Cod Chowder. The Bristol Bay Wild Market inside Climate Pledge Arena is a collaboration between Bristol Bay Native Corp., its subsidiary Bristol Wild Seafood, and the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “This new ma...