Issue: January 2022

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley say their study of genomes assembled from Pacific Ocean rockfish have given them new insight into the genetic determinants of aging. At some point, though not in the near future, ways to control the mutation of certain genes could perhaps lead to increased life span of people. Rockfish in the Pacific Ocean exhibit variation in life span from 11 years to as many as 200 years. The research project identified the genes that allow DNA repair pathways and 137 longevity-associated genes that affect life span both directly – through influencing insulin signaling and other pathways – and indirectly, by affecting size and environmental adaptations. The findings illustrate the genetic innovations that underlie the diversity of life histories...

Interior Department officials have published a revised draft environmental impact statement for public comment on a proposed 2022 oil and gas lease sale on federal submerged lands in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, an area critical to commercial and subsistence seafood harvesters. The draft EIS analyzes potential environmental impact of the proposed activity that would follow the lease sale. The area identified for the potential sale includes 224 outer continental shelf blocks toward the northern part of the inlet and covers about 1.09 million acres of seafloor, stretching roughly from Kalgin Island in the north to Augustine Island in the south. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management statement said the draft EIS analyzes a range of alternatives to be considered for leasing and the leasing area’s ...

Robust harvests of Alaska’s sockeye salmon, plus renewed restaurant demand and changes in consumer buying habits, have apparently added up to a very good 2021 season for Alaska Marine Lines, part of the Lynden Inc. companies. The Bristol Bay sockeye salmon had a record 66.1 million catch, with a catch of some 40-plus million red salmon, according to AML seafood sales manager Tyler Maurer. All Lynden companies stayed busy keeping up with the volume of fish this year, prompted by larger returns, restaurants reopening after pandemic closures and new consumer buying habits, he said. Lynden Air Cargo annually flies fresh fish from Naknek, Emmonak, Cold Bay, Sand Point and Dillingham to Anchorage. Lynden Logistics then provides support for transloading to AML, Alaska West Express and Lynden...

Retired Rear Adm. Ann Phillips, who served nearly 31 years of active duty with the U.S. Navy, has been nominated by the Biden administration to serve as administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration within the Department of Transportation. The White House announcement of her nomination lauded Phillips’ ability to coordinate federal, state, local and other partners to create equitable strategies to address rising waters and climate impact to government, maritime and other critical coastal infrastructure assets in Virginia. She has been serving as the first special assistant to the governor of Virginia for coastal adaptation and protection. In that capacity, in mid-October, Phillips was building a collaborative approach to address the impact of coastal flooding across the commonwealt...

A NOAA Fisheries final rule prohibiting commercial salmon fishing in federal waters off Cook Inlet beginning in 2022 is being challenged in federal court in Alaska by three commercial fishermen represented by a libertarian public interest law firm in Arlington, Virginia. The final rule implementing Amendment 14 to the Fishery Management Plan for Salmon Fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Alaska was announced by NOAA Fisheries on Nov. 3. The EEZ extends from three nautical miles to 200 nautical miles off Alaska, and will close an area historically used by the Cook Inlet drift gillnet fleet. Those harvesters would then be limited to harvesting only in state waters. Seven days later, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed their suit, Humbyrd v. Raimondo, in the U.S. District Cour...

A fisheries closure implemented in early October after more than 25,000 gallons of oil leaked from a pipeline has been lifted, and fisheries from Huntington Beach to Dana Point in Orange County, California, are back in business. California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) notified the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Tuesday, Nov. 30, that there’s no further risk to public health from seafood consumption in the affected area and recommends that fishing and consumption of seafood from the area resume. The closure implemented by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Oct. 3 prohibited the take of all fish and shellfish in that area, including the shorelines and offshore areas and all bays. OEHHA had determined that a threat to public hea...

Alaska fisheries biologists are predicting a run of 75.27 million sockeye salmon returning to Bristol Bay in 2022, with a potential harvestable surplus of 61.82 million fish. That would be a run, with a range of 61.01-89.54 million fish, that’s 44% larger than the most recent 10-year average of Bristol Bay total runs. It would also be 111% greater than the long-term (1963-2021) average of 35,73 million fish, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates in a forecast released Nov. 16. The overall forecast includes 59.94 million fish in Bristol Bay and 1.88 million fish in South Alaska Peninsula fisheries. A Bristol Bay harvest of this size would be 75% greater than the most recent 10-year average harvest of 34.24 million, which has ranged from 15.38 million to 42.94 million, and 170%...

Residents of Alaska’s Yukon River villages who were banned from fishing in 2021 due to weak runs of keta and Chinook salmon are still in need of this traditional sustenance, and a concerned Stanford University senior from Alaska is going to great lengths to make it happen. Sam Schimmel, a political science major at Stanford, addressed participants in November at the opening of the U.S. Pavilion in Glasgow to start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference on how the phenomenon has impacted salmon runs on the Yukon, where oil rich Chinook and keta salmon have been harvested commercially and for subsistence for decades. Schimmel said that after he spoke he was approached by the CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, who offered his organization’s help. Schimmel said he planned to stay in ...