Fishermen’s News Online – Page 2

Congressional Group Urges USDA to Purchase Seafood Products

8Mar

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Congressional Group Urges USDA to Purchase Seafood Products

Four U.S. senators and six U.S. House of Representatives members from Washington, Oregon and California have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to continue purchases of West Coast seafood products for the economic benefit of the industry and coastal communities. Pacific Northwest and West Coast seafood products are currently being produced in large volumes, easily accessible and easily transportable for immediate distribution to food assistance program, they told Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack in a letter, noting economic challenges the seafood industry has been facing, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine. The purchases are being made under Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935, which authorizes USDA to support prices of commodities in surplu...

ComFish 2023 Comes to Kodiak, Alaska March 16-18

8Mar

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ComFish 2023 Comes to Kodiak, Alaska March 16-18

ComFish Alaska, billed as the state’s premier commercial fisheries trade show, opens for its 44th year in Kodiak on March 16, with forums ranging from federal and state fisheries issues to bycatch harvests, vessel safety, marine debris and the future of kelp mariculture in the state. Forty-five vendors, ranging from gear vendors to government agencies and non-profit entities will make up this year’s trade show at Kodiak High School, where three days of forums are also slated. The presentations are set to open with a federal legislative update from Alaska’s congressional delegation, followed by a review of Gulf of Alaska bycatch-related recommendations proposed by the Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force. A forum on marine ecosystem partnerships is planned to include highlights of the Skip...

8Mar

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Bristol Bay Chinook Issues On Tape for Alaska Board of Fisheries Meeting

The Alaska Board of Fisheries is scheduled to take up statewide finfish issues, including an amended plan for managing Chinook salmon in the Nushagak-Mulchatna rivers of Southwest Alaska, when the board meets in Anchorage from March 10-14. Statewide declines in salmon stocks in several area, including the Nushagak Chinook stocks of concern, have been an increasing topic of discussion among fisheries managers, who are researching multiple related issues ranging from warming ocean waters to the nutritional values of changes in the predator-prey relationships of fish and sea mammals. Proposal 11 on the agenda for the board of fisheries meeting identifies several specific management objectives, including consistent sport fishing opportunity and a directed commercial king salmon fishery pro...

Report Contends that Alaska’s Fisheries are Collapsing

8Mar

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Report Contends that Alaska’s Fisheries are Collapsing

A report in the online publication Politico contends that while nearly 250 trawl boats continue to have banner seasons, harvesting between 3-4 billion pounds of fish annually, the Alaska fisheries overall are collapsing. The report, produced in partnership with Type Investigations – where the article’s author, Adam Federman, is a reporting fellow – states that what makes this inequity especially jarring is that the trawlers are dragging huge nets long the sea bottom, scooping up millions of pounds of species they don’t want and most of that catch is thrown overboard, no matter its value. That undirected bycatch includes roughly two-thirds of the total halibut caught in the Bering Sea since 2006, most of which is dumped back in the ocean, Federman said. In 2021, while subsistence fishe...

1Mar

By Mark NeroNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, From the Editor

From the Editor: Borealization

The first-ever cancellation of Alaska’s Bering Sea snow crab harvest due to population declines was a shock to the state’s fishing industry last fall, but in the decades to come, the ocean conditions that triggered the snow crab crash and harvest closure are expected to become common. This is according to according to several scientists who gave presentations at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium that took place in late January. Mike Litzow, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist based in Kodiak, Alaska said that the conditions that triggered the crash can be expected about once every seven years. By the 2040s, those conditions can be expected to occur one out of every three years, he said. Litzow said that the cause of the snow crab disaster is something called “b...

1Mar

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Fisheries Board Votes to Limit Restrictions on Area M Commercial Chum Harvest

Alaska’s Board of Fisheries has voted against a proposal to reduce significantly commercial fishing times and areas in the South Alaska Peninsula region known as Area M. Instead, the board this past weekend approved another measure to reduce fishing times in early June for salmon also sought by the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region to the north. The board’s decision on the intercept fishery of Chinook, sockeye and chum salmon came after several days of emotional testimony from fishermen and residents of Area M and the AYK, with both sides speaking out on the socioeconomic and cultural significance of chum salmon to their region. Proposal 140 would have amended the South Unimak and Shumagin Islands June Salmon Management Plan, written by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, to redu...

Washington Salmon Still Face Multiple Challenges: State Report

1Mar

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Washington Salmon Still Face Multiple Challenges: State Report

Salmon at every phase of their lives are continuing to struggle from the impact of climate change and other challenges, including habitat loss, according to the latest biennial report of the Washington state Salmon Recovery Office. “We can’t wait to save them – we have to invest in their recovery right away by restoring habitats and doing everything possible to repel threats to their survival,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said. Data compiled for the “State of Salmon in Watersheds” report concludes that of the 14 population groups of salmon and steelhead in Washington listed as at-risk of extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act 10 are in crisis or falling further from recovery goals. The report, released in late February, and accompanying website, https://stateofsalmon.wa.go...

Bering Sea Crabbers Partner With Alaska, Feds to Study Red King Crab

1Mar

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Bering Sea Crabbers Partner With Alaska, Feds to Study Red King Crab

Harvesters in the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery are partnering with federal and state agencies to collect critical winter data in a month-long project that was slated to start in March to help inform management decisions. The research goal is to collect data sought by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to help the council decide what actions might improve those stocks to a level to allow for the multi-million-dollar fishery to resume. The study’s lead, Mike Litzow of NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center, said the collaborative effort offered an exciting chance to study these crab stocks in winter. “That’s when people really interact with the stock — the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery and many other fisheries that potentially interact with crab take place in...

Peter Pan Seafoods Wins Grand Prize at New Product Competition

1Mar

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Peter Pan Seafoods Wins Grand Prize at New Product Competition

Wild Alaska sockeye salmon with ribbon kelp chimichurri by Peter Pan Seafoods claimed the grand prize at the 2023 Alaska Symphony of Seafoods, an annual competition promoting new products made with wild Alaska seafood. Peter Pan’s entry also claimed first place in retail competition with this recipe, which was the first time a major Alaska processing company has integrated Alaska kelp into a new product. Ocean Beauty Seafood’s Ocean Beauty Grill House Burger won the food service competition and Trident Seafoods’ Pure Catch Wild Alaska Omega-3 Triple Strength took top honors in Beyond the Plate competition. Also honored in retail competition was Kelp Chili Crisp by Barnacle Foods, which received second place. Kelptastic Farms’ CBD Kelp Brownies and Thunder’s Catch Wild Salmon Chowder ...

1Mar

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Dockside Market in Bellingham, Wash. Features Keep It Simple Seafood (KISS) Recipes

Bellingham SeaFeast’s dockside program, which takes place on the first and third Saturdays of the month, plans to feature Louisiana-born chef Matthew Boudousquie at Fishermen’s Pavilion during its Dockside Market event on March 18. Boudousquie, who’s scheduled to offer a lesson in cooing seafood gumbo, is the executive chef at The Bistro at Skuksan, located inside the Shuksan Golf Club. The Bistro is a Southern-inspired farm to table concept focused on sustainable ingredients. The dockside seafood market is featuring cooking demonstrations every third Saturday of the month through May. Other upcoming events can be found by checking https://bellinghamseafeast.org/events. Also starting on the first Friday of the month from June through August, Bellingham SeaFeast Dockside Market organiz...