Fishermen’s News Online

Joint at-sea exercises at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, Hawaii, the North Pacific Ocean and Japan’s Ogasawara Islands are helping to strengthen maritime cooperation and mutual respect between the United States and Japan, U.S. Coast Guard officials say. Over the past year, the U.S. and Japan have shared exercises between Coast Guard cutters and their Japanese counterparts several times, the latest being in late September between the Coast Guard Cutter Kimball and the Japanese Military Special Defense Forces, aboard their Naval Training Vessel Kashima in the Aleutian Chain near Dutch Harbor. Capt. Thomas D’Arcy, commanding officer of the Kimball, said his crew welcomed the opportunity to meet the Kashima and conduct those exercises. “Seeing the crews aboard the Kimball and the Kashima line ...

Alaska’s 2021 commercial salmon season drew to a close in mid-September, with the preliminary catch standing at an estimated 219.3 million fish, and sockeye and pink harvests exceeding the forecast. While the novel coronavirus pandemic raged on in Alaska, combined efforts of harvesters, processors and others to stem the spread of COVID-19 through vaccinations, testing, masking and social distancing resulted in much less of an overall impact of the multi-million-dollar fishery in 2021 than in the first year of the pandemic. Commercial fisheries consultant Dan Lesh, who produces in-season commercial salmon updates for McKinley Research Group on behalf of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, noted that while harvest numbers were large that the low average fish sizes led to much less ...

Donations of thousands of pounds of chum salmon are coming to Alaska’s Yukon River villages, but the big gap left when record low fish runs resulted in a ban on all commercial and subsistence fishing remains a challenge. Overall donations from commercial processors and the state of Alaska through the third week of September were about 94,000 pounds, according to processors and the office of Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. That amounts to about five to 10 fish per household, probably closer to five, said Jack Schultheis, general manager of Kwik’Pak Fisheries in Emmonak. Most Yukon River household puts up 50 to 150 chums a year and maybe 20 to 25 kings, depending on family size, he said. Yukon River residents fish commercially and for subsistence, but there were not enough fish for the harv...

A key market promoter of wild Alaska Pollock says its partners are preparing to launch new products featuring the nutritious, sustainable white fish. The announcement was made in mid-September by the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP), which recently awarded over $1.6 million in funding to 14 partners that are engaged in creating new products. GAPP’s chief executive officer, Craig Morris, said competition ranged from the Hawaiian firm Okuhara Foods to a luxury branded retailer and a significant foodservice distributor. “You’re going to see wild Alaska Pollock products popping up in countless new ways, places and menus in the coming year thanks to these partners and their vision for our fish,” he said. In addition to new partners, GAPP focused on new products -- especially ...

Net Your Problem, a Seattle-based company whose goal is recycling end of life fishing gear into new products, has reached the one-million-pound mark with its latest collection of old discarded nets at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. “I feel like I am just cracking the ice on what’s available,” said Nicole Baker, the founder, Pacific Northwest division coordinator and recycler liaison for NYP. “I’ve only been doing this in a couple of places in Alaska primarily, and we have the whole rest of the U.S. to go.” The former North Pacific groundfish fisheries observer first became interested in recycling discarded commercial fishing gear a couple of years after she finished her work as an observer, when she heard about a Danish company that was recycling old fish nets into new products. “And I tho...

Coast Guard entities from six nations, led by the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area, gathered virtually for three days in mid-September for their annual forum summit, to discuss topics including the need for coordinated responses to challenges in the North Pacific Also under discussion was the Japan Coast Guard’s best practices and lessons learned in support of the Tokyo Olympics. The North Pacific Coast Guard Forum, formed in 2000, comprise the coast guard and maritime law enforcement agencies of Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States. Its main focus includes combating illegal trafficking, combined operations, emergency response, fisheries enforcement, information exchange and maritime security. A non-binding memorandum of cooperation signed by all participat...

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials say they plan to accept public requests for applications soon regarding two new grant programs for stakeholders that have yet to receive federal financial assistance to deal with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Seafood Processors Pandemic Response and Safety Block Grant program, with $50 million available in funding, focuses on seafood processing facilities, including processing vessels, and other engaged in the shellfish and aquaculture industries. The Pandemic Response and Safety Grant program is focused on the small businesses engaged in certain commodities, including meat, with $650 million in available grants. USDA will allocate block grant funding to states and territories based on a formula to provide relief for costs...

Kloosterboer International Forwarding LLC and Alaska Reefer Management LLC are seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop U.S. Customs and Border Protection from what they say threatens their ability to supply Alaska seafood to consumers. The two companies filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, Alaska after receiving notices of penalty to companies that harvest, process, store and transport Alaska seafood products to the eastern U.S. via the port of Bayside, New Brunswick, in alleged violation of the Jones Act. The plaintiffs say this was a shock to the industry because the route targeted by U.S. Customs has been in place for some 20 years and relies on a long-established statutory exception to general Jones Act requirements. The route has a...

Cooperative agreements reached by NOAA nationwide, including Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and the Pacific Islands, will support expansion and modernization of climate, coastal and ocean observing capabilities in those states over the next five years. The $41 million effort is a competitive process funded by U.S. IOOS (Integrated Ocean Observing System), with NOAA’s National Ocean Service, Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Weather Service, NOAA Fisheries, Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, U.S. Geological Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency. The network is customized to meet regional needs that help NOAA understand and forecast changes in the ocean and climate, prepare for and respond to coastal disasters, and balance needs of resource us...

Efforts to protect fishery habitat in Alaska’s Bristol Bay are underway in Washington D.C., led by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan, who has declared the spawning grounds of the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery a national treasure. The EPA is seeking to reinitiate the process of making a Clean Water Act Section 404(c) determination to protect certain waters in Bristol Bay. Such a determination, if finalized, would protect over the long term waters essential to commercial subsistence and recreational fisheries, with other activities that support Alaska Natives and communities in the state. “What’s at stake is preventing pollution that would disproportionately impact Alaska Natives and protecting a sustainable future for the most productive salm...