Issue: July 2022

A newly formed partnership between the Prince William Sound Stewardship Foundation and Alaska Plastics Recovery is planning a recycling project this summer to collect shrink wrap removed from winterized commercial fishing boats for conversion into recycled plastic lumber. “The recycled plastic lumber that we will be producing will be ideal for outdoor construction for projects such as outdoor stairs, fences, decks, retaining walls and walkways,” explained Patrick Simpson, owner of PKS Consulting, the parent company of Alaska Plastics Recovery. Simpson, who grew up in Anchorage, has been researching options for recycling various plastics for several years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of California at San Diego. Simpson said the plastic lumber can...

A fisherman-owned seafood processing company in Sitka, Alaska with deep ties to Ukraine has reached out in a humanitarian effort with the donation of a 20-foot container filled with wild Alaska canned salmon and $130,000 USD to World Central Kitchen’s hunger relief program. “Silver Bay Seafoods is deeply connected to Ukraine,” company spokeswoman Abby Fredrick said. “Our employees have family friends and colleagues who have been seriously impacted by the situation in Ukraine.” “In particular, one of our long-standing fleet managers, Chris ‘Coach’ Hansen, was in Kharkiv with his wife and her daughter from the beginning of the attacks until they eventually found refuge in the Czech Republic,” she explained. Hansen, a former Eastern Washington University football player, became the subje...

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) officials say that the drought that is having a significant impact on the state’s water supply is also putting the state’s salmon at serious risk. To that end, CDFW, along with California’s Water Resources department (DWR), are joining in funding and research efforts to identify challenges facing salmon and promote salmon health and survival. These projects include restoring critical habitat for salmon and other fish species, improving salmon migration corridors to and from the ocean, and increasing monitoring efforts to better track fish populations and devise new strategies to improve their status. In April, DWR and CDFW staff began work to remove vegetation from a key migratory path for adult spring-run Chinook salmon in the Sutter...

A newly released “Status of Stocks” report for 2021 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concludes that more than 90% of stocks in the U.S. are not subject to overfishing, or when the annual rate of catch is too high. The report, which was released in mid-May, shows the number of stocks on the overfished list holding steady at 26 (out of a total of 296) and the number of overfished stocks, where the population size is too small, increasing slightly to 51, up from 49. The report also states that in 2020, seafood landings in the U.S. were down 10%—likely due to the impact of the COVD-19 pandemic—and that overall annual seafood consumption fell slightly from the previous year to 19 pounds per individual. For the first time, Fisheries of the United States data is now a...

Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design Group has partnered with Tacoma, Wash.-based Silverback Marine to design a compact, 500 horsepower tugboat that can be transported to job sites over by truck, the companies revealed in early May. The tug, with an overall length of 25 feet, 10 7/8 inches, a beam of 14 feet, 6 inches and a draft of 3 feet, 4 inches, is designed to produce a bollard pull over 12,500 pounds and has a still water range of 60 nautical miles pushing about 10,000 pounds at 4.1 knots. A bollard pull is a measure of pulling power of a vessel, comparable to horsepower. The design is available with electric, hybrid or outboard propulsion options and can be customized to fit a specific operation, according to EBDG. The tug can be used in a fleet as an alternative to a traditional,...