Issue: February 2023

NOAA Fisheries Proposes Rule to Expand Seafood Import Monitoring

NOAA Fisheries has announced a proposed rule that would expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), a risk-based program for targeted species of seafood imported into the United States. SIMP currently includes reporting and recordkeeping requirements for nearly half of all seafood imported, in order to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and misrepresented seafood from entering US commerce. SIMP would provide a screening and deterrent tool for IUU fish and fish products and misrepresented seafood products seeking entry into domestic markets. The rule proposes to expand the species currently subject to SIMP, including red snapper and tuna, to include all species in the snapper family and additional tunas, to minimize the risk of mislabeling and product subst...
UW Study Shows Parasite Decline in Puget Sound

UW Study Shows Parasite Decline in Puget Sound

A University of Washington fisheries scientist says her research shows that fish parasites in Puget Sound have been in decline over the last century. “We all have this sense that as climate change proceeds that what we get is increased parasite outbreaks; that we are messing with Earth and that Earth is messing (with us) right back,” Associate Professor Chelsea L. Wood of the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, said. The study, titled “A reconstruction of parasite burden reveals one century of climate-associated parasite decline,” was published online in January on PNAS News, a website that releases Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Until the study was conducted, Wood said, there was little information on wildlife parasites other than the impact of parasites on h...
PRPA Funds Aid Salmon Research Projects in Skeena River Estuary

PRPA Funds Aid Salmon Research Projects in Skeena River Estuary

More than $94,000 from the Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) is expected to help fund two unique projects supporting salmon populations in British Columbia’s Skeena River estuary and its tributaries. The funds were allocated through the Port Authority’s Skeena River Salmon Enhancement Program, an initiative established in 2019 to provide $1 million in financial support to projects that increase salmon productivity and the maintenance and rehabilitation of habitat in the river’s watershed.   The Port Authority contributed $70,142 toward the Multi-Year Juvenile Salmon Habitat and Eulachon Inventory Study via its partnership with Lax Kw’alaams Fishing Enterprises Ltd. The project, according to the PRPA, aims to build the knowledge base for healthy wild runs and successful enhancement o...
California Hatchery Boosting Fall Run Projection of Chinook Salmon to 9.5M Fish

California Hatchery Boosting Fall Run Projection of Chinook Salmon to 9.5M Fish

The Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville, Calif. is expected to increase production of fall-run Chinook salmon in 2023 to some 9.5 million fish to combat the impacts of drought and a thiamine deficiency affecting natural spawning and in-river production. The plan, announced jointly in mid-December by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), marks the second straight year that the Feather River Fish Hatchery would exceed its typical production quota of six million fall-run Chinook salmon to help sustain the state’s commercial and recreational salmon fisheries. In 2022, the hatchery raised and released eight million fall-run Chinook salmon smolts, according to Fish and Wildlife data. The hatchery, owned by DWR and o...
Silver Bay Seafoods Acquires Orca Bay Foods

Silver Bay Seafoods Acquires Orca Bay Foods

Silver Bay Seafoods, a Sitka, Alaska-based integrated processor of salmon, herring and squid products, has acquired Seattle-based food processing company Orca Bay Foods, a nationwide distributor of value-added seafood and battered and breaded vegetables, among other products. The two companies have been working together for several years, with Silver Bay supplying large volumes of seafood and Orca Bay managing secondary processing, sales and marketing. The acquisition, announced in early January, allows Silver Bay to “enter secondary processing with a partner who has decades of experience and demonstrated success,” Cora Campbell, president and chief executive officer of fishermen-owned Silver Bay Seafoods, said. Orca Bay Foods will continue to operate as a separate business with current...

California Sea Grant Releases 2024-2027 Strategic Plan

California Sea Grant, administered through the University of California San Diego, has released its 2024-2027 strategic plan, with a goal of better preparing the state’s coastal communities for extreme weather and coastal hazards, economic disruptions and other threats to communities’ well-being. The report notes the intimate connection between all California residents and the state’s coastal and marine resources, which are located along the 3,425 miles of coastline, meandering along the rugged open coast, around bays and in the ocean. The first healthy coastal ecosystem goal centers on a better understanding of natural and anthropogenic influences on these ecosystems in a changing environment and collaborators that reflect the diversity of those with interest in these ecosystems to iden...
Canadian Government Offering to Buy Back Commercial Fishing Licenses

Canadian Government Offering to Buy Back Commercial Fishing Licenses

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has put out notice of $123 million earmarked to buy back Pacific salmon commercial fishing licenses from harvesters who want out of the industry. The effort would also help protect dwindling stocks of the fish. The funds are part of the nearly $650 million Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative announced by the government agency last year. The Canadian Press news agency reported in mid-December that the licenses would be purchased at market rate, then removed from circulation. While there is no way to know how many license owners will participate, the federal agency’s goal is to substantially reduce the size of the fleet. DFO plans multiple rounds of commercial license retirement, with the first round to assist license holders who have expressed the desire...
Fishing Boat Fuel Spill Cleaned Up on Santa Cruz Island

Fishing Boat Fuel Spill Cleaned Up on Santa Cruz Island

Crews worked to contain and clean up diesel fuel spilling out of a 60-foot fishing boat that ran aground on Santa Cruz Island on Dec. 15, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. At about 2 a.m., members of Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles/Long Beach watchstanders were alerted to a report from Vessel Assist Ventura about f/v Speranza Marie, which ran aground in Chinese Harbor on Santa Cruz Island. The boat was carrying six people and about 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, according to the Guard. A unified command was created by the Coast Guard, California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) and Santa Barbara County to respond to the incident with a plan for removing and mitigating the pollution.  “Diesel fuel is considered a non-persistent oil, compa...
Coast Guard Station Honolulu Partners on Search-Rescue Training Course

Coast Guard Station Honolulu Partners on Search-Rescue Training Course

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Station Honolulu teamed up with the Hawaii Department of Transportation’s Airport Division Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting Unit for five days of training. The agency revealed on Dec. 14 that the crews both took the National Association of Boat Law Administrators’ Boat Operator for Search and Rescue course.  Developed to standardize the training, qualification, credentialing and typing process for maritime first responders, the course centers around “on-the-water risk management, team coordination, navigation, search patterns (and) rescue and towing,” according to the Coast Guard.  This helps strengthen the working relationship between the USCG and the firefighting unit, the first responding agencies in the USCG area of responsibility, according to Petty O...
Comment Period on Bering Sea Halibut Management Proposal Open

Comment Period on Bering Sea Halibut Management Proposal Open

NOAA Fisheries is seeking comment through Feb. 7 on a plan for abundance-based management of halibut in the Bering Sea. The proposed rule would implement Amendment 123 to the fishery management plan for groundfish within the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area, as they relate to the Amendment 80 trawl sector prohibited species catch limit for Pacific halibut. NOAA Fisheries said in its request for comment that Amendment 123 balances the interests of the two largest halibut user groups in the Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands Fishery Management Area. The Amendment 80 sector is a fleet of nearly 20 trawl catcher-processor boats targeting Pacific cod, Pacific Ocean perch, Atka mackerel and rock, yellowfin and flathead sole in the Bering Sea. The action was initiated at the December ...