Issue: September 2023

NOAA Fisheries has issued a final rule allocating Pacific cod harvest quota to qualifying groundfish License Limitation Program license holders and qualifying processors, in order to, the agency has said, improve management of the fishery, increase its value and minimize bycatch to the extent practicable. The final rule, Amendment 122, for groundfish management in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI), establishes the new Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program PCTC). The rule was printed in the Federal Register on Aug. 8 and goes into effect on Sept. 7. Fishing under the PCTC program is scheduled to begin on Jan. 20, 2024. Jon Kurland, NOAA regional administrator for Alaska, noted that PCTC also aims to provide for the sustained participation of fishery-dependent communities, ensur...

Los Angeles television personality and celebrity chef Antonia Lofaso is on tap to headline the fifth annual Wild Alaska Pollock meeting on Sept. 28 at the Four Seasons Seattle hotel. The annual meeting of the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) brings together a number of individuals and companies engaged in the groundfish industry. Craig Morris, chief executive officer of GAPP, said Lofaso was a hit at the 2022 annual meeting, as she demonstrated live, on stage, a signature dish from her influencer work with GAPP. Lofaso is part of GAPP’s “Always On” awareness and demand campaign launched last year on social media. GAPP’s plan is to continue the promotion with three waves of content this year, with the first launch coming this summer. The agenda of this year’s eve...

In late July, Trident Seafoods began laying the groundwork for the first bunkhouses for a new processing plant at Captains Bay in Unalaska, located at the heart of robust Bering Sea and Aleutian Island region fishing grounds. Marc Kielmeyer, an engineering technician for the city of Unalaska, said that Trident has been granted the required permits and that site work for the bunkhouses got underway in late July. Construction of the actual bunkhouses, however, was still in the works, he said.  Unalaska Community Broadcasting, a community radio station, noted in late July that Trident Seafoods began a feasibility study in 2017 to explore ways to upgrade its plant at Akutan, but ultimately decided that a complete rebuild was the only reasonable option. Subsequently, Trident began construc...

Cambo Her, a filleter of fish in the seafood section of specialty grocer New Sagaya in Anchorage, offers up fresh, wild caught silver salmon from Bristol Bay, Alaska, on sale for $5.99 a pound in mid-August, four dollars less than the regular price. New Sagaya was doing brisk business with the cohos, which were filleted free of charge. Regular priced fillets of silver salmon were $13.99 a pound earlier the same month. Photo: Margaret Bauman.   

Federal agriculture officials have purchased more than $68 million in wild Alaska sockeye salmon and $8 million in Pacific rockfish fillets from Alaska and the West Coast, taking a lot of the leftover 2022 harvest off the market. An added bonus, according to Bruce Schactler, food aid program and development director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), is that this could give millions of people their first taste of wild Alaska sockeye salmon. Efforts to market the past season’s abundance, mostly millions of pounds of sockeyes from the Bristol Bay fishery, have been in motion since the 2022 season ended. “It finally came to fruition, a little later than we hoped,” Schactler said. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has a variety of domestic programs, and its purchases of seafo...

Canadian fishery officers are leading their first mission in the Indo-Pacific, during which, officers are conducting patrols—including high seas boardings and inspection operations—as well as to ensure compliance with regulations and detect illegal and unreported catch. Officers are to also collect scientific data to inform an understanding of the high seas environment, including the migration range of species of interest, like Pacific salmon, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), the federal institution responsible for safeguarding Canada’s waters and managing the country’s fisheries and oceans resources. DFO has contracted Atlantic Towing, a company that specializes in diverse marine services including port tug services and coastal towing to provide a vessel for the operation...

Legislation now before the U.S. House of Representatives would ensure that certain federal lands in Southwest Oregon are permanently “withdrawn” from eligibility for mining. Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., who introduced the Southwestern Oregon Watershed and Salmon Protection Act (SOWSPA) on July 27, said the bill would protect high-quality salmon and steelhead strongholds, clean drinking water in the outdoor recreation and tourism economy, and a high concentration of rare plants in the area of the Rogue, Smith, Illinois and Chetco National Wild and Scenic Rivers. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-CA, is a co-sponsor of the bill. “It’s hard to overstate the ecological, cultural, and economic importance of salmon and their habitat in this Southwestern Oregon watershed—they support thousands of jobs, susta...

San Diego-based Maritime Institute has signed a new 10-year lease to locate its newest mariner training facility at the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place. The new satellite at the Port of Everett will be Maritime Institute’s first in Washington state. The company currently has campuses in Norfolk, Va. and San Diego, as well as satellite locations in Alameda, Calif. and Honolulu. The company has said that the Everett site, located at 1130 West Marine View Drive, fills a growing need by providing closer training opportunities for existing and aspiring mariners throughout the Pacific Northwest. Both classroom and on-the-water instruction are to take place in Everett and would result in recognized certifications for the maritime industry. Courses are anticipated to begin in January 2024. ...

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is seeking public comment regarding research priorities for fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Alaska for a triennial review. The council is mandated to develop research priorities for fisheries, habitats and other areas necessary for management purposes and reviews those priorities every three years. Comments may be sent via the council’s eAgenda meeting portal up until 5 p.m. Alaska Time (6 p.m. Pacific) on Oct. 31. Written comments should be sent via “Request for Information: Research Priorities Triennial Review,” https://tinyurl.com/2k6p9xym using either the “Comment Now” function on the eAgenda page or by using the comment form, https://tinyurl.com/3x35x266, by the Oct. 31 deadline. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conserva...