News

A new company known as Dutch Harbor Acquisitions LLC has purchased the assets of the Harbor Crown processing plant located in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Dutch Harbor Acquisitions LLC is led by Siu Alaska Corporation and Copper River Seafoods.Siu Alaska Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC), a private, non-profit Community Development Quota corporation which represents fifteen member communities in the Norton Sound Region including over 8,500 residents. NSEDC owns quota for red king crab, snow crab, and golden king crab, as well as halibut and sablefish IFQ and CDQ quotas. NSEDC and Siu also have ownership interests in a number of Bering Sea vessels including Pollock at-sea catcher processors, a cod freezer-longliner and crab vessel...

United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) last week announced its endorsement of Senator Lisa Murkowski for the United States Senate. UFA is a statewide organization representing 38 commercial fishing associations and hundreds of additional independent commercial fishermen from fisheries throughout the state and its offshore federal waters. The group organized a special endorsement meeting on August 5 after being approached by the Murkowski campaign for an endorsement prior to the August 24 primary.“With this early endorsement, Alaska fishermen are recognizing Senator Murkowski’s extraordinary efforts to improve their businesses and the communities they live in”, said UFA President Arni Thomson.UFA provided an early endorsement for Senator Murkowski in 2004 and now recognizes her strong accomplishm...

On June 22nd, two commercial fishermen based in Brookings, Oregon filed a class action suit against Pacific Seafood Group (PSG), alleging that company founder Frank Dulcich and his company have used its size and clout to control the West Coast seafood industry and suppress prices paid for certain seafood product by as much as 15 to 50 percent.According to the suit filed in US District Court, father and son plaintiffs Lloyd and Todd Whaley are representatives of a class of West Coast fishermen or fishing vessel owners who delivered certain seafoods to seafood processors in Oregon, Washington or California any time between June 21, 2006 and “three months before the date of trial in this case.”The suit alleges that since at least 2005, Pacific Seafood Group has possessed monopoly power in the...

New Zealand’s Regal Salmon Pastrami has landed the meat and smallgoods award at the 6th annual Food Magazine Challenge Awards in Australia.The Awards recognise and reward industry leaders in their drive for ‘best practice’ food and drink processing in Australia and New Zealand. They also acknowledge those brands that most successfully demonstrate product innovation and excellence.NZ King Salmon chief executive Grant Rosewarne says the accolade is testament to the brand’s ongoing efforts to meet consumer needs in innovative ways. “Pastrami and salmon is not the sort of product you’d ordinarily expect to come across in the supermarket chiller. We constantly strive to surprise and exceed consumer expectations and globally, food professionals seem to agree that Regal Smoked Salmon Pastrami doe...

California Sea Grant has awarded funding to 17 marine research projects to further the program’s expertise along new avenues of scientific inquiry.In total, about $550,000 was awarded to the year-long projects, including traineeships for 13 graduate student researchers.“We are excited to see some new faces in the Sea Grant fold and some new research approaches,” says California Sea Grant Assistant Director Shauna Oh.Some of the new names – people who have never before received California Sea Grant research funds – include Diana Steller, a marine biologist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, who will be studying red coralline algae nodules around the Channel Islands. Not your typical slimy algal goo, these algae (called rhodoliths) tricked even the first scientists into thinking they were...

From Slashfood.com by way of the National Review Online comes an innovative answer to invasive species.Move over Asian carp, you’re not the only pesky species to be eyed by the seafood industry as a potential food source. Officials in Virginia have set their sights on the homely cownose ray, whose population has exploded, in part because of a sharp decline in their natural predator, the inland coastal shark. The population boom is bad news for valuable Chesapeake oysters, clams and scallops. Hungry rays have been known to wipe out entire shellfish beds with their powerful crushing jaws.Mike Hutt, executive director for the Virginia Marine Products Board has been working to develop a market for the red-fleshed cownose ray (renamed a more appealing Chesapeake Ray), but don’t expect it to tas...

NOAA researchers at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Behavioral Ecology Laboratory in Newport, Oregon, conducted experiments to explore how temperature mediates growth and energy allocation in newly settled red king crab juveniles. Crabs used in the experiments were reared at the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery and were shipped to Newport in May 2009. Juvenile crabs were held at four temperatures, ranging from 1.5 to 12°C, for 60 days. Temperature did not affect survival; however, growth increased exponentially with temperature. Crabs molted more frequently in warmer temperatures and had a greater increase in size with each molt. Twenty percent of the crabs held at 1.5°C never molted, while more than 90% of the crabs at 12°C molted four or more times. Biochemical analysis showed that l...

California Sea Grant has awarded funding to 17 marine research projects to further the program’s expertise along new avenues of scientific inquiry.In total, about $550,000 was awarded to the year-long projects, including traineeships for 13 graduate student researchers.“We are excited to see some new faces in the Sea Grant fold and some new research approaches,” says California Sea Grant Assistant Director Shauna Oh.Some of the new names – people who have never before received California Sea Grant research funds – include Diana Steller, a marine biologist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, who will be studying red coralline algae nodules around the Channel Islands. Not your typical slimy algal goo, these algae (called rhodoliths) tricked even the first scientists into thinking they were ...

Alaska’s Bering Sea crab fisheries have gone from being the nation’s deadliest catch to the safest catch.A new study by the Anchorage-based National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) details 504 fishing-industry deaths from 2000 through 2009. Shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Mexico was by far the most deadly fishery with 55 lives lost. That compares to a death toll of 12 Bering Sea crabbers during the same time. In fact, the Bering Sea crab fisheries can claim the lowest loss of life for all of Alaska’s major fisheries.Since 2005, when the crab fishery began operating under a slower paced catch share system, one life has been lost in the Bering Sea; there have been no vessel sinkings.Prior to catch shares, hundreds of boats would race to load up with Bering Sea crab in wild...

Newport Fishermen's Wives has announced an exciting new annual event premiering in Newport, Oregon on September 11& 12 of 2010.The Newport Wild Seafood Weekend is a two day celebration of our Northwest's vital wild-caught seafood industry and the men and women who make it thrive; hard working fishermen and families who are small business owners harvesting our seafood.On Saturday the Newport Wild Seafood Weekend will feature the third annual Great Newport Wild Seafood Cook-Off, which has become one of the most popular culinary events in the Northwest. Twenty teams, both professional and amateur will battle for mroe than $2,500 in prize money and the honor of being “Best at the Bay.”Sunday's The Wild Brunch will feature a delicious wild seafood dining experience on the Bayfront overlooki...