Issue: June/July 2021

Resolution Urges Senate to Ratify  UN Convention on the Law of the Sea

Resolution Urges Senate to Ratify UN Convention on the Law of the Sea

Senators from Alaska, Hawaii and Virginia have joined forces in a resolution calling on the U.S. Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced the resolution in the Senate on May 18. A similar resolution was introduced in the U.S. House in April by Representatives Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Don Young (R-AK). UNCLOS, which is already ratified by 166 nations and the European Union, details rights and responsibilities of countries regarding the world’s oceans, including guidelines for businesses and management of marine natural resources. Hirono noted that the world currently is facing challenges from those seeking to prevent international freedom of navigation worldwide, incl...
Elliott Bay Design Group Appoints Robert Ekse  as President

Elliott Bay Design Group Appoints Robert Ekse as President

Board members of Elliott Bay Design Group in Seattle have named Robert Ekse as president, succeeding Brian King, who most recently served as president and chief engineer. King, who is retiring after 33 years with the firm, plans to still remain active in EBDG projects on a limited capacity. Ekse was promoted from director of project operations to president, while remaining a principal of the firm. He now directly supervises the company’s business affairs, including subsidiary company SeeSaw Services. He also has assumed responsibility for advancing EBDG’s major strategic objectives while leading team planning in business management, engineering, personnel development and sales. Ekse has 30 years’ experience in the maritime industry, including prior employment with Vigor, Alaska Marine H...
Bipartisan Bill Would Strengthen NOAA Response to Sexual Harassment, Assault

Bipartisan Bill Would Strengthen NOAA Response to Sexual Harassment, Assault

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives recently would strengthen NOAA’s response to sexual assault and sexual harassment and offer more resources for survivors. The NOAA Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention Improvements Act was introduced by Representatives Jared Huffman, D-CA, Suzanne Bonamici, D-OR, Don Young, R-Alaska, and Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, R-Puerto Rico. The legislation would expand coverage of NOAA’s sexual harassment prevention and response policy and direct NOAA to provide a clear mechanism for anonymous reports of sexual harassment. It would also strengthen advocacy resources for survivors and provide them a secure reporting structure. Additionally, the bill would also improve the ability of NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement to enforce ...
Pacific Coast to Open  for Commercial Scale Offshore  Wind Energy Projects

Pacific Coast to Open for Commercial Scale Offshore Wind Energy Projects

Northern and central coasts of California are opening up to commercial scale wind energy projects under a plan announced Tues., May 25 by the Biden Administration. White House officials said the move to catalyze offshore wind energy is part of the president’s commitment to build new American infrastructure and a clean energy future that creates good paying, union jobs. The Interior Department, in coordination with the Defense Department, has identified the Morro Bay 399 area to support three gigawatts of offshore wind on roughly 399 square miles off of California’s central coast region, northwest of Morro Bay. The two areas would potentially enable development of a significant new domestic clean energy resource for years to come, White House officials said. Interior Secretary Deb Haalan...
Public Comment Opens on Draft EIS for Offshore Aquaculture in Pacific Islands Region

Public Comment Opens on Draft EIS for Offshore Aquaculture in Pacific Islands Region

NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comment through Aug. 5 on a draft programmatic environmental impact (PEIS) statement evaluating the potential environmental impacts of a management program for offshore aquaculture in federal waters of the Pacific Island Region. The area includes the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, Cnmi in the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. The draft PEIS analyzes the potential direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of several management alternatives on the human, physical and biological environment. NOAA officials say they will consider all comment in any final PEIS and within future management action by NOAA Fisheries and the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council. Any future aquaculture management program would be designed to regulate, manage and promote de...
USDA to Buy $70.9 Million of Seafood  for Food Assistance Programs

USDA to Buy $70.9 Million of Seafood for Food Assistance Programs

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials plan to purchase $70.9 million worth of seafood harvested in U.S. waters for domestic food assistance programs in what Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says is the largest single seafood purchase in the agency’s history. Bids were being solicited online via the Web-Based Supply Chain Management (WBSCM) system and on the Agricultural Marketing Service›s website at www.ams.usda.gov/selling-food, with deliveries expected to begin in mid-August. Seafood purchases all from domestic waters include $25 million for Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic wild caught shrimp, $20 million for Alaska Pollock, $9 million for Pacific whiting fillets, $8.9 million for sockeye salmon and $4 million each for Pacific pink shrimp and Pacific rockfish fillets. Lori Steel...
Complaint by Ex NOAA Fisheries Biologist Questions Bristol Bay Red King Crab Fishery Data

Complaint by Ex NOAA Fisheries Biologist Questions Bristol Bay Red King Crab Fishery Data

A complaint filed with NOAA Fisheries contends that the agency paved the way for collapse of the Alaska red king crab fishery by sampling bias and data falsification, which inflated annual population estimates and led to years of overfishing. The complaint was filed through Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) by Braxton Dew, a now-retired fisheries biologist who spent 25 years with NOAA Fisheries. NOAA officials said they are looking into the matter and would respond within guidelines of the formal review process. According to the complaint, National Marine Fisheries Service corrupted its standard systematic sampling design during the 1970s by conducting extra, non-random trawl sampling in areas known from previous surveys to be prime habitat for large male king cra...
Transboundary Report on Salmon Rich Rivers Gets Mixed Review

Transboundary Report on Salmon Rich Rivers Gets Mixed Review

Final reports of a transboundary rivers water quality monitoring program and a reclamation plan for a mine that has been leaking acid drainage for decades have been released by British Columbia and Alaska officials are drawing mixed reviews. “We are proud of the joint water quality monitoring work we completed with B.C. in the Taku, Stikine and Unuk watersheds,” said Kyle Moselle, executive director of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Project Management and Permitting. Their findings, he said, contribute to a growing scientific understanding of the current and evolving ecological conditions in these watersheds. As for the Tulsequah Chief Mine, which has for decades continued to leak acid drainage into transboundary waterways, Moselle acknowledged that it’s complicate...
For 23rd Straight Year, Dutch Harbor  is Top Fishing Port by Volume

For 23rd Straight Year, Dutch Harbor is Top Fishing Port by Volume

Seafood deliveries totaling 763 million pounds led the Port of Dutch Harbor to a 23rd consecutive title as the nation’s top port by volume. Also ranking in the top 10 by volume were Aleutian Islands, 589 million pounds; Kodiak, 397 million pounds, Naknek Alaska, 206 million pounds; Alaska Peninsula, 181 million pounds and Astoria Oregon, 171 million pounds. Ranked by value, the Port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, took top honors for the 20th year, with deliveries garnering $431 million. The top 10 for value also included Naknek, $289 million; Dutch Harbor, $190 million; Aleutian Islands, $142 million, Bristol Bay, $129 million; Kodiak, $120 million; and Honolulu, $90 million. The statistical updates are detailed in NOAA Fisheries’ 2019 Fisheries of the United States report, released on ...
Yukon River’s Kwik’Pak Fisheries Optimistic About 2021 Harvest Potential

Yukon River’s Kwik’Pak Fisheries Optimistic About 2021 Harvest Potential

Officials with Kwik’Pak Fisheries, near the mouth of the Yukon River in western Alaska, say they’re looking forward to a full fishing season in the summer of 2021, taking delivery from its 300 small boat Yupik Eskimo harvesters of the oil-rich keta salmon. The keta salmon harvested by Kwik’Pak, a subsidiary of Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association, navigate annually up to 2,000 miles of cold, powerful currents to where the Bering Sea meets the mouth of the Yukon. Manager Jack Schultheis says that the company, which is now in its 20th year at Emmonak, is looking forward to a full fishing season, after just three openings last summer. The fishing season for Kwik’Pak is expected to start from mid-to-late June, officials say, with the 300 to 400 processing employees hailing from Emm...