Lawsuit questions ways that managers have evaluated environmental impacts of trawl fisheries By Evan Erickson KYUK/Bethel June 15, 2023 LW Note: Bethel, the largest community on the Kuskokwim River, is located just outside of the region that includes 20 villages that belong to the Alaska Native operated Coastal Villages Region Fund. CVRF is one of six Alaska CDQ group that gets annual shares of groundfish and crab from the Bering Sea. CVRF owns several large fishing vessels including the 341 pollock trawler, Northern Hawk. Coastal Villages is headquartered in Anchorage and Seattle. The C ..read more

Per capita consumption jumped to all-time high Intrafish provided the following analysis on US consumers’ top 10 seafood favorites for 2021: US consumers are stepping away from former stalwarts such as canned tuna in favor of farmed seafood. US per capita seafood consumption rose 7.9 percent to 20.5 pounds in 2021, according to newly released figures from the National Fisheries Institute (NFI). Shrimp consumption grew by nearly a pound per person, solidifying its place as America’s favorite seafood. The jump is a remarkable 18 percent higher from 2020, the most recent available statistics pri ..read more

Amount of garbage thrown into ocean by fishing fleets is cause for “growing concern” Commercial salmon catches throughout the North Pacific dropped in 2022 to the second lowest harvest of this century after reaching all-time highs in 2018. That’s according to the annual report by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) which tracks salmon abundances and catches as reported by its five member countries -the U.S., Canada, Japan, Korea and Russia.   The preliminary combined 2022 North Pacific salmon catch by the five nations of 354 million fish weighed in at nearly 1.6 billion ..read more

“Disclosure of salmon prices by AK’s largest processors remains in the dark ages.” Credit: Depositphotos By John Fiorillo June 12, 2023 The secretive nature of price setting in Alaska salmon fisheries strains relationships between processors and independent fishermen and puts both on precarious financial footing. It’s just one of those things that causes you to ask: “How can they still do it that way?” I’m talking about how wild salmon prices paid to fishermen are set and revealed. In this day and age of overwhelming flows of information, the disclosure of salmon prices by Alaska’s largest pro ..read more

It’s the 4th year for no fishing on both rivers By Liz Ruskin/Alaska Public Media June 8, 2023 People on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers are expecting another dismal year for harvesting salmon, the food that used to fill their smokehouses and freezers. It’s a disaster that repeats annually, felt acutely in the region and accepted elsewhere as the new, bad normal. Here’s a primer on the Y-K Delta salmon crisis and how this year is shaping up. Which salmon are affected? Chinook (king) and chum are the major salmon species on the Yukon and Kuskokwim. They’ve been at historically low numbers in bo ..read more

No action was taken against trawl gear on bottom in protected zones, says NOAA in June report to NPFMC In its June 2023 report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council going on now in Sitka, NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) admits that current pelagic trawls (mid-water) are being fished on the bottom and there is little they can do about it — because the gear doesn’t fit the regulatory definition in the federal rule books. The brief OLE report provides details of patrols and actions throughout Alaska waters from October 2022 to March 2023. In January, NOAA agents, in partnership ..read more

Task force has 1 year to develop a coordinated research plan for salmon in Alaska From NOAA Fisheries, June 9, 2023 In response to historic declines of salmon runs on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, Congress passed the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act and President Biden signed it into law in December 2022.   The Act requires the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Governor of Alaska, to convene an Alaska Salmon Research Task Force. The Task Force will identify data gaps and produce a coordinated science plan 1 year after coming into force.  The Task Force is c ..read more

Plans to seek Endangered Species Act closures for king salmon at Southwest AK, Cook Inlet By Nathaniel Herz at Northern Journal June 8, 2023 Southeast AK troller A Washington-based conservation group whose actions have already caused the closure of an iconic Southeast Alaska fishery is now planning to ask the federal government to list several Alaska king salmon stocks under the Endangered Species Act. The Wild Fish Conservancy, last month, formally notified the state of Alaska of its plans to file the ESA petition for multiple populations of king salmon, also known as chinook — in Southeast A ..read more

AMCC report outlines how “mid-water” nets from the “largest food fishery on the planet” contact the seafloor, harm essential habitats A February 2023 report by the Alaska Marine Conservation Council outlines the findings in a North Pacific Council report from last April that revealed for the first time that pelagic, or mid-water, trawl nets contact the seafloor on average from 40% to 80% of the time, with rates up to 100% on factory ships, also called catcher/processors. Some Background: When the 2021 red king crab fishery was cancelled last October for the first time in 25 years, the NPFMC t ..read more

Multi-year process will select areas in state waters From NOAA Fisheries June 1, 2022 NOAA and partners in the State of Alaska are announcing plans to identify Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs) in Alaska state waters. These areas will be selected through engagement with tribes and the public, a process that allows constituents to share their community, tribal and stewardship goals for sustainable aquaculture development in Alaska’s coastal and marine waters. Alaska will join Southern California and the Gulf of Mexico as the third region in which NOAA is working with partners to identify AO ..read more