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Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association Seeks Applications for Crew Training Program
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Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association Seeks Applications for Crew Training Program

A fishing crew training program in Sitka, Alaska is accepting applications through March 31 to teach the next generation of young people interested in a career in commercial fisheries. Since 2015, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and its partner, the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT), have trained more than 100 apprentices and placed them on fishing vessels in Southeast Alaska. The program is an effort to attract younger entrants into an industry where the average fishermen’s age in Alaska is now over 50. The program was formalized as part of ALFA’s Young Fishermen Initiative in 2015. In 2017, ALFA was granted funds to get more boots on deck statewide. Over several years, one of the skipper participants, ALFA Member Eric Jordan of the f/v I Gotta, ...
Federal Aid Sought in Wake of 2023 California Salmon Season Closure
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Federal Aid Sought in Wake of 2023 California Salmon Season Closure

Three major California fisheries organizations are urging the U.S. Department of Commerce to support more than $30 million in disaster assistance in the wake of closure of the 2023 salmon season in California to protect and preserve the fishery. The organizations are the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), the Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association (GGFA) and the Northern California Guides and Sportsmen’s Association (NCGASA). The leaders of each noted that while the state of California and California Department of Fish and Wildlife requested a total of $30,784,670 to be shared across commercial, processor, bait and charter industries that the Department of Commerce in late January announced that the state would receive only $20,605,103. The three organi...
Legislation on Working Waterfronts Introduced; Aims to Boost Coastal Economies
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Legislation on Working Waterfronts Introduced; Aims to Boost Coastal Economies

Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate on Feb. 12 aims to boost coastal workforces, fisheries, food security and shoreside infrastructure of coastal fisheries communities nationwide. The Working Waterfronts Act, submitted by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would also support efforts to mitigate impacts of climate change on coastal communities and strengthen federal conservation research projects. Given Alaska’s 66,000 miles of coastline and the thousands of people reliant on Alaska’s rivers and oceans for fishery operations, tourism, mariculture and more, Murkowski said there is a need to capitalize on opportunities existing through the blue economy with the infrastructure and workforce needed to meet those goals. The legislation would also boost research and climate change ...
Tens of Thousands of Chinook Salmon Discarded as Bycatch in Canadian Trawl Fishery: DFO Report
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Tens of Thousands of Chinook Salmon Discarded as Bycatch in Canadian Trawl Fishery: DFO Report

A new report from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) confirms that an estimated 28,117 salmon were caught and discarded as bycatch in the groundfish trawl fishery off the coast of British Columbia in the 2022-2023 fishing season, including some 26,273 Chinook salmon. The DFO report, released Jan. 22, said that over 20,000 Chinook salmon were likely thrown overboard, while 3,700 were landed and subsequently discarded as waste. The discard of the Chinooks, a major food source for a remaining 75 endangered Southern Resident killer whales, comes as the Canadian government is investing millions of dollars into protecting Southern Resident orca whales, plus millions of dollars to support wild salmon. “The is an appalling waste for not just a salmon species that is listed as threatene...
Alaska Board of Fisheries Plans Final Action on Hatchery Production Issue
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Alaska Board of Fisheries Plans Final Action on Hatchery Production Issue

Final action on a proposal to reduce hatchery production of pink salmon is scheduled to be heard at the next meeting of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, which is scheduled for Feb. 23-March 5. The board took testimony on Proposal 43 during its meeting in Homer, Alaska from Nov. 28 through Dec. 1, and received additional written testimony in advance of the Anchorage meeting, which is being held at the Egan Convention Center. According to Board of Fisheries Executive Director Art Nelson, Proposition 43 is slated for discussion by Group 6 of the board’s committee on March 2, with final action set for after further deliberations on March 3. Proposition 43, proposed by the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee, calls for reduction of overall hatchery production of pink salmon to...
SPRFMO Adopts New Monitoring Standards
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SPRFMO Adopts New Monitoring Standards

Members of the New Zealand-based South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), while meeting in Manta, Ecuador from Jan. 29-Feb. 2, adopted U.S. proposals to boost observer coverage and combat labor abuse in South Pacific fisheries. NOAA Fisheries said that the U.S. delegation, including members of the State Department, offered proposals to continue strengthening management and monitoring of the squid fishery in the South Pacific. According to NOAA Fisheries, the fishery has been the focus of claims of rampant illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in recent years. U.S. efforts led to adoption of a comprehensive high seas boarding and inspection program last year, a program that has increased opportunities for monitoring the fleet. NOAA Fisherie...
From the Editor: Fishing and Climate Change
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From the Editor: Fishing and Climate Change

If ocean temperatures keep steadily rising as they have been for some time due to climate change, then the U.S. fishing industry will have a big problem on its hands. This is according to experts who recently testified before a U.S. Senate committee on the issue of how climate change affects businesses that depend on the ocean and the creatures in it to sustain their livelihoods. During a 90-minute session titled “Warming Seas, Cooling Economy: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Ocean Industries” held Jan. 24 by the Senate Budget Committee, five people – a fishing guide, an economist, and three professors – testified on the effects that climate change have and could have. “The risks of a changing climate are, by far, the most limiting factor of my potential growth and success as an ...
Unalaska, Tribal Entities at Odds Over Chinook Salmon Bycatch
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Unalaska, Tribal Entities at Odds Over Chinook Salmon Bycatch

Increasingly low returns of prized Chinook salmon in Alaska have become a hot new point of contention between the city of Unalaska and tribal entities calling for a cap of zero king salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) advised the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) on Jan. 28 that six tribal entities have asked NMFS to begin an emergency rulemaking under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) that would halt the bycatch of Chinook salmon in the Bering Sea pollock travel fishery. The NMFS has urged the NPFMC to review the request and provide input. If the council does not review the request, NMFS is expected to independently review it consistent with section 305(c) (1) of the MSA,...
9th World Fisheries Congress Convenes in Seattle March 3-7
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9th World Fisheries Congress Convenes in Seattle March 3-7

Some 1,500 fisheries delegates from around the world are expected to convene in Seattle from March 3-7 for the 9th World Fisheries Congress (WFC), to discuss perspectives on research, emerging issues and governance related to fisheries science, industry, conservation and management. WFC officials say they’ve already received more than 1,200 oral and poster presentations from 70-plus countries for the meeting. Plans are for major topics of discussion to range from bringing back salmon from the brink and road maps for incorporating new methods into science-based fisheries management to dam removal as a river restoration tool at the water-energy-food nexus. The session on bringing salmon back from the brink, organized by Gary Morishima of Quinault Management Center, in Bellevue, ...
AMSS Offers Updates on Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska Research
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AMSS Offers Updates on Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska Research

Marine scientists focused on the Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska presented a plethora of research results to several hundred participants at the 2024 Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage Jan. 29-Feb. 2, while acknowledging the unknowns that are still to be determined. Associate Professor Peter Westley of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences offered an update on his research into chum salmon on tributaries of the Colville River in Arctic Alaska, where fish are caught for subsistence from Kaktovik to Point Hope. Ongoing studies, which Westley said he hopes will yield more information by the fall of 2024, are to determine the diet of these chum, their size and abundance. All five species of Pacific salmon have been encoun...