Issue: December 2022

Two major national retail supermarket chains, Cincinnati-based Kroger and Albertsons, which is headquartered in Boise, Idaho, have entered into an agreement to merge their organizations. In an announcement this past week the two companies said that they plan to expand customer reach to delivery fresh, affordable food to some 85 million households. The online publication SeafoodSource said the acquisition is likely to impact how the retailer sources its seafood products. Kroger operates over 2,700 stores compared to nearly 2,300 owned by Albertsons. Insider Intelligence Senior Analyst Blake Droesch said in a statement provided to SeafoodSource that seafood suppliers are likely to be negatively impacted, as the two mammoth retailers—given an expanded base of 85 million households and 66 d...

Federal fisheries officials and their partners have released their National Five-Year Strategy for Combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, a global problem impacting ocean ecosystems, the economy and food security.  The strategy, announced in mid-October, details U.S. priorities and plans for the next five years to promote maritime security worldwide. The strategy includes a U.S. Interagency Working Group on IUU Fishing, composed of 21 member agencies building an expanding toolbox for partners to combat IUU fishing. Over the next five years, the working group plans to engage with five priority flag states and administrations: Ecuador, Panama, Senegal, Taiwan and Vietnam, focusing on helping them in their ongoing efforts to combat IUU fishing and related threats. ...

The state of Alaska is set to receive up to $59.9 million in federal money to provide funding opportunities for Alaskans in commercial fishing and other sectors, the U.S. Treasury Department revealed on Oct. 11. The money is part of up to $1 billion in funding approved under the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). Alaska is using its funding to help lenders provide new opportunities for Alaskans in commercial fishing, mariculture, manufacturing, tourism and other sectors with capital needs. Alaska is to operate four programs, including a loan-guarantee plan to which $32 million has been allocated. The program would help ensure capital goes to commercial fishing operations and other kinds of small businesses facing reductions in revenues that make it difficult to meet lender...

Effective Nov. 2, a new rule has implemented electronic monitoring (EM) program regulations for vessels using groundfish bottom trawl and non-whiting midwater trawl gear in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program.  The rule, which was announced NOAA Fisheries in mid-October, allows vessels using bottom trawl and non-whiting midwater trawl gear to use EM in place of human observers to meet their requirements for 100% at-sea catch monitoring.  The final rule is intended to boost operational flexibility and reduce monitoring costs for vessels in this groundfish trawl fishery. It also revises some language in existing regulations for EM vessels and EM service providers to clarify and streamline program requirements.  The Pacific Coast Groundfish Management Plan specifies me...

The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) in Sitka has received a $40,000 grant for a pilot project to convert the Alaska fishing fleet to hybrid diesel/electric in order to help lower the carbon footprint within the seafood industry. The project, supported by the Energy Transitions Initiative Project Partnership, joins ALFA with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Kemp Energetics to transfer technologies proven through other forms of transportation to small-scale commercial fishing boats. The Seafood Industry Climate Award (SICA) from the Acme Smoked Fish Foundation in Brooklyn, N.Y., will be used to purchase equipment for ALFA’s hybridization and decarbonization project, ALFA Executive Director Linda Behnken said. Together with TD Bank of Anchorage as the catalyst sp...

A local seafood summit designed to strengthen community-based seafood systems at the local, regional and national levels has concluded in Alaska, energizing a group of small boat harvesters, researchers, marketers and others to continue building such seafood systems. “Meeting salmon people for the first time in my life was overwhelming,” said Jason Jarvis, president of the board of the North American Marine Alliance, whose focus is building a movement toward healthy fisheries and fishing communities. “The connections we’ve made here collectively are powerful. Where do we go from here?” he asked. “What do we do now?” Jarvis was among 170 participants from across the U.S. and Canada who gathered Oct. 2-3 to network with others engaged in community-based seafood systems. The Alyeska Hote...

NOAA Fisheries, the leader in the Alaska Large Whale Entanglement Response Program, recently held workshops in four communities on how to best respond to entangled whales. The training sessions in Metlakatla, Auke Bay and Gustavus in Southeast Alaska, and Cordova, on Prince William Sound, taught safety skills needed to approach whales in distress, especially entangled whales.  Participating NOAA employees and partner agencies included a team of advanced, authorized responders and trainers who use specialized equipment to safely and legally respond to entangled whales. The program emphasizes the importance of assessment and documentation from a safe, legal distance from the on-water communities. Christine Gabriele of the Humpback Whale Monitoring Program at Glacier Bay National Park an...

A collaborative effort of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) has brought thousands of pounds of sockeye salmon to communities in the Chignik and Yukon River regions of Alaska banned from fishing because of low salmon runs.  “It was really important to us that we expand our salmon distributions to the Yukon where they are facing a true food security crisis due in part to climate change’s impacts on our marine ecosystem and the health of our wild salmon runs,” said Linda Behnken, a veteran commercial harvester, executive director of ALFA and president of the ASFT board. “We recognize that this summer’s salmon donations are a band-aid at best and that we ultimately need to address the underlying causes of these devastating decl...