Fishermen’s News Online – Page 62

Final Decision Coming on Northern Edge 2023 Military Exercises in Alaska

7Sep

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Final Decision Coming on Northern Edge 2023 Military Exercises in Alaska

U.S. Navy officials have released a final document on plans for 2023 training exercises in the Gulf of Alaska, with a final decision on which action alternative to implement coming a minimum of 30 days after publication of the final supplemental document. The final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Overseas Environmental Impact Statement (EIS/OEIS) is available for review at www.GOAEIS.com. The document includes consideration of a number of comments made during public comment periods in 2020 and 2021. While no additional public comment periods are now anticipated, new and different comments from those previously submitted would still be considered, according to Julianne Stanford, environmental public affairs specialist with the Navy Region Northwest. The 30-day wait ...

7Sep

By Michael Anderson Jr.No Comments

Fishermen's News Online, From the Editor

Guest Column: Doing More with Less

It would appear that “doing more with less” could be the unofficial motto for today’s society, especially regarding the workplace. Restaurants, offices, tech companies and many other businesses are feeling the squeeze of being short staffed and finding it hard to recruit and retain qualified long-term help. What does this mean for the employees who are in the workforce? It means doing more than your normal duties in your job description. While it is a fact that sometimes you just do what needs to be done to perform the task at hand, this extra effort is creating an environment for workers that leads to extra stress, longer hours, fatigue and eventually burnout. This does not create a healthy and sustainable model for businesses to succeed and thrive. The COVID-19 pandemic w...

Roadway Runoff Lethal to Coho, Chinook Salmon, Steelhead: Report

31Aug

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Roadway Runoff Lethal to Coho, Chinook Salmon, Steelhead: Report

Researchers with NOAA Fisheries have released a report showing that stormwater runoff containing a toxic compound from automobile tires washed into streams is lethal to protected coho salmon, Pacific steelhead and Chinook salmon, while sockeyes appear to be largely unaffected. The report, which was released Aug. 24, could help inform mitigation efforts for construction and overhaul of highways on the West Coast, to protect salmon and steelhead in the future, researchers said. Steelhead are rainbow trout that migrate to the ocean like salmon. Some Western states are already designing highways with inexpensive filtration measures proven to protect salmon. According to Barbara French, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, biofil...

FISH Act Legislation Would Blacklist Vessels, Owners Guilty of IUU Offenses

31Aug

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FISH Act Legislation Would Blacklist Vessels, Owners Guilty of IUU Offenses

Federal legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate would blacklist vessels engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing from entering U.S. ports and waters. The Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act would bolster U.S. Coast Guard enforcement capabilities and advance international and bilateral negotiations to reach enforceable agreements and treaties, according to Senators Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who introduced the bill on Aug. 25. The FISH Act would direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a blacklist of foreign vessels and owners who have engaged in IUU fishing, direct the Coast Guard to boost its at-sea inspection of foreign vessels suspected of IUU fishing, and coordinate with regional...

2022 Seafood Donations to Yukon River Villages Via SeaShare Reach 74,000 Pounds

31Aug

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2022 Seafood Donations to Yukon River Villages Via SeaShare Reach 74,000 Pounds

For a second year in a row, the Seattle-based nonprofit SeaShare has coordinated delivery of thousands of pounds of salmon to communities along Alaska’s Yukon River whose residents were banned from commercial and subsistence fishing, due to weak runs of wild salmon. SeaShare officials coordinate the donations of fish from harvesters and processors and logistics companies in Alaska to get the fish to communities in need. This year’s donations from Bristol Bay and Kodiak seafood processors includes 74,000 pounds of frozen king and chum salmon, which is 20,000 more pounds than in 2021. Donors included Alaska General Seafoods, Leader Creek Fisheries, North Pacific Seafood, OBI Seafoods, Silver Bay Seafoods and Trident Seafoods. For a second year in a row Kwik’Pak, a subsidiary of ...

AFSC Speeds Up Data Collection To Tackle Bycatch Issues

31Aug

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AFSC Speeds Up Data Collection To Tackle Bycatch Issues

Researchers with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) say they’re speeding up the process of gathering data to share with the fisheries managers and others on the decline of Chinook and chum salmon runs, particularly in western Alaska. The AFSC, which is collaborating with state and federal researchers, as well as those at the university level, reported in late August that the center has developed models to better understand and help resource managers address bycatch impacts. “These models, after accounting for natural mortality, produce estimates of the number of adult fish that would be expected to return to their natal rivers to spawn if they hadn’t been taken as bycatch in the Eastern Bering Sea Pollock fisheries,” their report states. Salmon bycatch levels vary year...

Acid Drainage from Abandoned BC Mine Steps Closer to Cleanup

31Aug

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Acid Drainage from Abandoned BC Mine Steps Closer to Cleanup

Efforts to halt acid drainage from an abandoned British Columbia mine flowing into the salmon-rich Taku River watershed in Southeast Alaska has come a step closer to resolution, with the future of the Tulsequah Chief Mine now in the hands of the provincial government. The BC government is currently in its third season of preliminary work at the site upstream of Southeast Alaska and has committed to its environmental cleanup, but efforts were slowed because the Tulsequah Chief’s bankrupt owner, Chieftain Metals, was searching for a new owner for the copper, zinc and lead mine, which ceased operations in 1957. In mid-August, a court-mandated deadline for that to happen ended for West Face Capital, the creditor that had hoped to find a buyer for the mine. The conclusion of the re...

24Aug

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Alaska’s Commercial Salmon Harvest Tops 148M Fish

Alaska’s commercial salmon harvests continue to rise for all five species, with all but the coho fishery having peaked. As of Tuesday, Aug. 23, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game documented the preliminary harvest on its online Blue Sheet at nearly 149 million fish, including nearly 74 million sockeyes, 62.5 million pinks, over 11 million chum, 815,000 cohos and 255,000 Chinook salmon. In a single day, the preliminary numbers indicated the catch of more than another 100,000 sockeye, more than two million humpies, nearly 300,000 chums, 58,000 silvers and 6,000 kings. For statistical week 34, following a string of three unseasonably slow harvest weeks, the state’s salmon harvests rose up nearly 18% year-to-date from 2021, according to research analyst Sam Friedman, who compi...

Report Recommends That Fisheries Service Share Climate Resilience Information

24Aug

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Report Recommends That Fisheries Service Share Climate Resilience Information

A report prepared for Congress by the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends that National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) work with regional fishery management councils to identify and prioritize opportunities to enhance climate resilience of federal fisheries. The report to congressional committees, released Aug. 18, found that many fisheries managers are leading initiatives that could advance the use of climate information in operations, such as addressing distributional shifts in species. Initiatives include the creation of a special task force to identify actions and tools to better incorporate climate information in fisheries management. Several fisheries managers from the eight regional councils told GAO that they were not aware of climate-related fisher...

24Aug

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NOAA Study Recommends Steps to Support Young Fishermen

New research compiled by NOAA Fisheries supports equipping beginning fishermen facing start-up challenges with tools that have been successful in helping young farmers. The study, led by Marysia Szymkowiak at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, notes the similarities between the two professions, both of which ensure food security, provide jobs and support the well-being of rural communities. “The parallels are really stark,” said Szymkowiak. “Given that, we can really learn a lot from how these issues are being addressed in farming.” For both new fishermen and farmers there are formidable challenges to entry and success, as they are highly risky businesses, subject to weather, variable harvests, uncertain markets, climate change and high start-up costs, plus constantly evolvi...