Issue: December 2023

The Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP), a nonprofit based in Arlington, Va., on Oct. 4 launched its “Fall in Love with Seafood” campaign to boost consumption of seafood nationally. Fewer than a quarter of Americans currently eat seafood two or more times a week, as recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the American Heart Association and World Health Organization, SNP said in announcing the promotion, which is expected to run through 2024. The goal is to educate consumers that seafood is a lean protein with health benefits they can enjoy and count on every day,” SNP President and Founder Linda Cornish said. SNP said in a statement that the campaign “aims to break through” social and digital media avenues to showcase the taste appeal of a wide variety of seafood through ...

A new study by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ (UAF) College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences has confirmed that salmon are spawning in an Arctic Ocean watershed, suggesting that at least some salmon species could be expanding to new territory due to climate change. Researchers found about 100 chum salmon in the Anaktuvuk and Itkillik rivers on Alaska’s North Slope. Both rivers flow into the Colville River, which empties into the Arctic Ocean. All the fish caught by researchers in mid-September 2023 were either actively spawning or had finished spawning at sites where groundwater appeared to be flowing to the surface, according to Jeff Richardson, the college’s communications manager. Similar conditions have supported chum salmon reproduction throughout their typical range. Westle...

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are calling for federal action in response to investigative reports in The New Yorker magazine documenting human rights abuses in the seafood supply chain in the People’s Republic of China’s fishing fleet and seafood processing centers. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz. and Jared Huffman, D-Calif., voiced their concerns Oct. 20 via letters to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  Their letters referenced reports in The New Yorker that Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in the People’s Republic of China are being forced to work throughout the seafood supply chain. They urged Customs and Border Protection officials to use their authority to...

Concerns over warming waters in the Bering and Chukchi seas and reduction in the extent and duration of seasonal sea ice have prompted the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) to issue a request for pre-proposals for its Northern Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program. The NPRB has stated that it’s specifically interested in how environmental conditions and processes in the Northern Bering Sea influence species of commercial, ecological and subsistence importance, and implications for state and federal fisheries management and communities dependent on the resources.  About $6.5 million has been made available by NPRB to pursue answers to these questions in the Northern Bering Sea, in hope that partners may offer additional funding to support research of mutual interest. The N...

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) is scheduled to meet in December in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, to negotiate a new tropical tuna measure, covering key tuna stocks of skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye. The meeting comes in the wake of an informal meeting in September of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) and the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, (MIMRA), who met at WCPFC headquarters in Pohnpei, Micronesia, to discuss longline fishery management components of the WCPFC. Workshop participants included individuals from the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), Parties of the Nauru Agreement (PNA), other Pacific Island Countries, the United States, Taiwan and South Korea. The workshop was the third one held this year ...

Alaskan Leader Seafoods has begun expanding its miso sablefish foodservice product line into club and retail stores. The product marketing expansion was announced Oct. 23. The packaged, portioned and marinated Alaska black cod, paired with Hikari Miso, offers a trifecta of restaurant-quality entrees at home, wild Alaska seafood and an infusion of miso, according to Alaskan Leader. Miso is a fermented soybean paste made by fermenting soybeans with koji, an ingredient made from either fermented rice, barley (or other grains) or soybeans. The combination of Japanese miso with buttery sablefish is a staple white-tablecloth offering on the U.S. West Coast that has been working its way east to fine-dining establishments across the country. “Add this Hikari Miso marinade to our wild Alaska s...

Trident Seafoods will accept applications for 10 spots in its 2024 Skilled Trades Trainee Program, to meet industry needs for skilled trades personnel for shore-based plant processing operations, from March 1-31, 2024. The Seattle-based seafood processing giant announced Oct. 15 that through a partnership with Alaska Vocational Technical Center (AVTEC) Trident will embark on its 2024 class of a two-year skilled trades training course, with an additional two-year post-commitment of employment with the company. Trident welcomed its inaugural class of four trainees in 2022, and expanded enrollment to 10 new trainees this fall. The company focused on recruiting efforts within Alaska by visiting Kodiak, Cordova, Anchorage, Petersberg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Craig and Metlakatla, as well as c...

From Crescent City to San Diego, California is home to a string of vibrant and diverse fishing communities. Well managed fisheries for albacore, black cod, lobster, crab, white sea bass, squid, spot prawn, spiny lobster and more provide nutritious, sustainably produced seafood many Americans value and rely on. But the state’s fishermen aren’t working on the water in isolation. They’re sharing that blue space with a wide variety of other activities including recreation and tourism, military operations, communications, oil and gas production and more. Add in an emerging interest in expanding ocean aquaculture opportunities and those vast open waters can suddenly feel crowded. Despite its well-managed wild fisheries, America has a seafood deficit problem. It’s both an economic challenge a...

Attracting new customers in Malaysia is the focus of the latest sales effort of the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP), based on market research that has identified the southeast Asia country of as a favorable market for wild Alaska pollock. Conclusions of a recent market research study on current and potential future markets conducted for GAPP by McKinley Research Group in Anchorage, Alaska showed that Malaysians embrace wild Alaska pollock in both its fillet and surimi forms, with wild Alaska pollock and other whitefish being cooked at home as a center-of-the-plate entrée, with the head on and bones in, fried or cooked in sauce. During Chinese New Year each February, fish is served with the head and tail on, signifying the start of and an end to the year. Surimi i...