Tag: seafood

Hearing on Oregon Water Quality Permit Set for Aug. 30
30Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
Fishermen's News Online, News

Hearing on Oregon Water Quality Permit Set for Aug. 30

Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has scheduled a public hearing for 6 p.m. today, Aug. 30, on a proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for Da Yang Seafood, which processes seafood at its facilities at the Port of Astoria. The facility discharges processing waste into the Columbia River. The West Coast Seafood Processors Association (WCSPA) in Astoria contends that the newly issued draft permit would set precedent for the entire seafood processing industry in Oregon. A recent commentary by WCSPA executive director Lori Steele argues that the new wastewater discharge permits are overly complicated, technically infeasible and fail to consider the seafood processing industry’s unique traits and changing seasons. The commentary also all...
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Trident Seafoods Engaged in Site Work for Unalaska Construction Project
9Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Trident Seafoods Engaged in Site Work for Unalaska Construction Project

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 c...
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USDA Purchases $68M of Wild Alaska Seafood
2Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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USDA Purchases $68M of Wild Alaska Seafood

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 of 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 purch...
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Bristol Bay Fishermen, Processors Clash Over 50 Cents Per Pound Base Price
26Jul By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Bristol Bay Fishermen, Processors Clash Over 50 Cents Per Pound Base Price

Harvesters and processors in Alaska’s Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery are at odds over the 50 cents per pound that processors are offering for the robust catch, a price harvesters say will leave them with little, if any, income after expenses are paid. Processors have cited not only their increased cost of doing business, but the large amount of the 2022 catch still unsold after last year’s record Bristol Bay harvest. Veteran Bristol Bay fisherman Robert Cheyne Blough organized a protest at Naknek on July 20. He said that more than 100 fishing boats that were tied together paraded back and forth from of the dock at Naknek for about 12 hours, but did not interfere with deliveries to processors there. What if any impact their protest had on the price of fish is still uncer...
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Subsistence Fishermen Share Catch with Yukon, Chignik Families
26Jul By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
Fishermen's News Online, From the Fleet

Subsistence Fishermen Share Catch with Yukon, Chignik Families

Subsistence salmon gathered by Dillingham, Alaska area residents in advance of the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery are sharing over 5,000 pounds of their catch with families along the Yukon River and Chignik area that are unable to fish in 2023 because of low run returns. Plans are for Grant Aviation to fly the whole, cleaned and frozen fish in August to Alakanuk, Pitkas Point, Saint Mary’s, Chignik Lagoon and Chignik Bay. Some fish will also be used by the Yukon River Drainage Fishermen’s Association Educational Exchange program where several youth will travel to communities on the Yukon and share their experiences with salmon. The salmon donation project is a collaborative effort of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association’s (ALFA) Seafood Distribution Network, plus No...
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Fisheries Development Foundation Issues Call for Symphony of Seafood Products
12Jul By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Fisheries Development Foundation Issues Call for Symphony of Seafood Products

On July 7, the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation (AFDF) issued a ‘Call for Product’ for its 2024 Alaska Symphony of Seafood competition. For the upcoming contest, a new ‘Around the Plate’ category has been added to the existing categories of ‘Retail,’ ‘Foodservice’ and ‘Beyond the Plate’ for this year’s competition, which commemorates the Symphony of Seafood’s 30th anniversary. There will also be awards for best packaging and best grab-and-go item. The new category will feature competing entries that are not the center-of-the-plate, such as condiments, appetizers, snacks or desserts. The Call for Product can be downloaded at https://tinyurl.com/3znjeus2. The awards are being presented alongside the Grand Prize, Salmon Choice, Whitefish Choice, Seattle People’s Choice, Ju...
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Copper River Reds Still in High Demand
14Jun By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Copper River Reds Still in High Demand

Demand for Copper River sockeye salmon fillets remains high, with some shoppers ordering on average 12-15 pounds of the succulent fish at $12.95 a pound, as salmon aficionados remain mindful that when they’re gone, they’re gone. The celebrated red salmon fillets, in what is well known as the season opener for commercial salmon fishing in Alaska, was selling in mid-June for $11.95 a pound at Costco stores, $12.95 a pound at 10th & M Seafoods, $13.99 a pound at New Sagaya, all in Anchorage, and $29.99 a pound at the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle.   Fishmongers at 10th & M Seafoods in Anchorage said sockeye fillet orders were averaging 12-15 pounds, while at Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market orders were averaging three-to-five pounds.  The online seafood market FishEx in Ancho...
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Market Demand, Rising Costs to Play Role in 2023 Bristol Bay Prices
3May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Market Demand, Rising Costs to Play Role in 2023 Bristol Bay Prices

Market demand for sockeye salmon is strong, but rising costs for harvesters and processors are expected to influence the ex-vessel price during the 2023 Bristol Bay season, according to Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA) Executive Director Andy Wink. Wink said while there’s strong demand overall, the cost of everything -- from financing and carrying costs to labor, insurance and shipping -- keeps rising. Wink made the comments during an April 11 “Lunch and Learn” program presentation offered on the Bristol Bay campus of the University of Alaska in Dillingham, hosted by Marine Advisory Program Agent Tav Ammu. Wink said he wasn’t about to predict the prices to be paid to fishermen this summer in Bristol Bay, with that task being best left for processors to dec...
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Early Bird Seafood Shares Program Feeds Buyers, Benefits Communities
5Apr By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
Fishermen's News Online, News

Early Bird Seafood Shares Program Feeds Buyers, Benefits Communities

A seafood program delivering monthly shares to buyers throughout Alaska and the Seattle area is off and running for the 14th year, with profits going directly to affiliated programs benefitting fishery conservation, community health and resilience efforts. This year, Alaskans Own is again offering customers the option of choosing their shares in a variety package, salmon or white fish, all of which feature hook-and-line caught wild Alaska seafood harvested by Southeast Alaska’s troll and longline fishermen. To date, the program, created by the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), has helped deliver more than 650,000 donated seafood meals to more than 100,000 families, according to ALFA. It also has given longline fishermen some certainty that they have a market before headin...
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NOAA Urged to Expand Seafood Import Monitoring Program
29Mar By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NOAA Urged to Expand Seafood Import Monitoring Program

Three U.S. House of Representatives members are calling on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to expand and update the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), and are advocating as well for SIMP expansion to all species. Rep. Jared Huffman, ranking member of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, Natural Resource Ranking Member Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Jimmy Panetta, also of California, led a letter to NOAA commenting on what they see as shortcomings of recent NOAA proposed rulemaking on SIMP. Other signers of the letter included representatives from California, Texas, North Carolina and Hawaii. The March 27 letter said that as the world’s largest seafood-importing country that the United States has the purchasing power and th...
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