June/July 2021 – Fishermens News

NOAA-YDFDA Partner in Chinook Study

A partnership between federal and state agencies with local fishermen is underway to find answers to a decline of Chinook salmon populations on Alaska’s Yukon River. The partnership research involves NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association. It’s now part of NOAA’s new Citizen Science Strategy, released in January, in which community-based collaborations increase the cost effectiveness of projects and provide hands-on science, technology, engineering and math learning. They also connect the public directly with NOAA science missions. The combined efforts of NOAA Fisheries and YDFDA proved particularly valuable last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down NOAA’s ability to conduct fieldwork. COVID restrictions in place t...

Atlantic Cod Study May Have Implications for Other Fisheries in Trouble

Rutgers University researchers have for the first time sequenced genomes from Atlantic cod, drawing information that may have implications for other fish maturing earlier as a result of fishing. Author Malin Pinsky, an associate professor in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick, says there is evidence that many species of fish are maturing earlier as a result of fishing, including haddock, European plaice, whiting, American plaice, sole and sockeye salmon. The study, led by Rutgers and the University of Oslo, concludes that overfishing likely did not cause the Atlantic cod to evolve genetically and mature earlier. “Evolution has been used in part as an excuse for why cod and other species have not recovered from overfishing,” Pinsky said. “Ou...

Refrigeration Equipment: Trends & Technology

When it comes to bringing the freshest catch to market, refrigeration serves a vital role in that process, and the West Coast companies that do it well know it takes experience and an eye toward innovation to get the job done. Fishermen’s News reached out to some of the West Coast leaders in the refrigeration industry to talk about what’s trending in the industry, the latest in cold storage technology and where they see refrigeration heading in the coming years. Trends in Seafood The need to chill products faster than ever is on the rise as the demand for seafood grows, experts say. “The trend that we see is to start preserving the catch at an earlier stage,” said Lars Matthiesen, president of Highland Refrigeration. “That means immediately after catch, the fish will be submerged in ...

Bristol Bay Braces for the Gold, a Forecast of over 51 Million Sockeyes

Optimism rising as the pandemic ebbs, with an eye to another robust harvest Harvesters headed for the famed Bristol Bay wild sockeye salmon fishery are upbeat this year, buoyed by the forecast of a robust harvest, a reopening economy, more people cooking salmon at home and the ebbing of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Conditions are very favorable,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA), which represents some 1,800 drift gillnetters. “There is high demand … and there is a lot less fear and anxiety this year because we have been dealing with the pandemic for a much longer time.” The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is forecasting a run exceeding 51 million red salmon, with a harvest of 36.35 million fish, which would be 13...

NOAA Fisheries to Review Killer Whales’ Endangered Listing

On April 22, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced its intent to conduct a five-year Endangered Species Act (ESA) review of Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW), also known as “orcas.” The purpose: “to ensure that the listing classification remains accurate.” Currently, the Southern Residents are listed as endangered – “in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of (their) range,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It’s unlikely that status will be moderated since experts believe there are only 75-80 SRKW left. “The Southern Resident population remains small and vulnerable and has not had a net increase in abundance since the mid-1980s,” NOAA writes in its new, 2021-2025 “Species in the Spotlight” document, which presents upcoming a...

Why Healthy Fish Habitats Are Crucial to Our Fisheries

Part 1 of 2: This year, due to yet another year of forecasted low ocean salmon abundances, California commercial salmon harvesters have roughly 85 less days on the water (184 vs. 286 days) compared to 2020, and less in 2020 than in most previous years. This steady reduction in opportunity is intended to ensure that escapement goals for Sacramento River Chinook runs are met. The California portion of the Klamath Management Zone (CA/OR border to Fort Bragg) is also closed completely to commercial harvesters for the second year in a row, due to low fall Chinook returns forecasted for the Klamath River. Across the board, fishing opportunities have been steadily declining – but not as a result of fishing pressures or the need to prevent overfishing. Rather, fishery declines – particularly for ...

From the Editor: In Memoriam

The Fishermen’s News and Maritime Publishing families lost a beloved member recently. John Platt Hurwitz, who co-wrote the magazine’s “California Waypoints” column with his wife, Irene Marie Hurwitz, died in April. What turned out to be the final column written by John & Irene appeared in the April/May edition of the magazine, which happened to be the first issue of the relaunched version of the magazine. It went out to subscribers in late April, just days before John’s death on April 25. One last “California Waypoints” column appears in this issue; it’s be a tribute to John, co-written by Irene with John’s nephew, Ben Platt. It can be found at the end of the issue and believe me, it’s quite a read. Although I’m new to the job of managing editor, reading the magazine over the year...

John

My uncle John Hurwitz, who wrote this column since 2006, passed away after a heart attack at the age of 78 in Las Vegas on April 25, 2021. Born in 1942, he lived a fascinating life and enjoyed a long career as a commercial fisherman. Before writing for Fishermen’s News, he wrote for Pacific Fishing. Uncle John’s stories, co-authored by his wife, Irene, were a lively recollection of their days in West Coast commercial fishing. My uncle always seemed larger than life when I was growing up, and his adventures were like a Hollywood movie. His father, a US Marine, served in the Pacific during WWII and after the war was stationed along with his family in Japan. It was there that “Skip”, as the family called my uncle, first fell in love with fishing with his older brother, my dad Buzz. Event...

Pollock Tariffs: An Ongoing Problem for the Commercial Fishing Industry

According to a study by the European Commission, China is the largest and fastest growing seafood market in the world. However, due to an ongoing China-U.S. trade war, American Alaska Pollock producers are having their access to this expanding market limited during this period of growth. The path to this exclusion from such a lucrative market began in January 2018, with the onset of the U.S.-China trade war. The Trump Administration imposed tariffs on Chinese goods entering the United States while China in turn placed tariffs on U.S. exports, setting off a series of tit-for-tat measures that would see hefty tariffs against multiple U.S. products, including Alaska Pollock. The first round of Chinese tariffs went into effect on July 6th, 2018, and netted Alaska Pollock in its list of affec...

Legislation Before U.S. House Aims to Halt IUU Fisheries

Legislation introduced in the U.S. House on Tuesday, May 11, aims to end illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, expand transparency and stop seafood fraud, while also strengthening U.S. leadership on issues threatening oceans, consumers and human rights. The Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act, introduced by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-CA, and Rep. Garret Graves, R-LA, makes specific reference to the need to halt the mislabeling of seafood products, including complying with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Lacey Act amendments of 1981 and other federal laws, plus an end to oppressive child labor, other forced labor and human trafficking. Up to one-third of the annal global seafood catch — as much as 56 billion pounds — is estimated to be a p...