Commercial Salmon Harvest in Alaska Climbs to 11.5 Million Fish

Overall commercial harvests of wild Alaskan salmon more than doubled over the past week, boosting the catch to 11.5 million salmon of all species, up from 5 million fish harvested through June 18.

The preliminary commercial harvest report issued June 25 by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game included 8.6 million sockeye, 2.5 million chum, 333,000 pink, 107,000 Chinook and 16,000 silver salmon.

The biggest jump came in the central region, including Bristol Bay, Cook Inlet, and Prince William Sound, where the catch rose from 2,465,000 salmon of all species to 7,151,000 fish.

The Egegik harvest alone in Bristol Bay reached 1,679,000 sockeyes.

Elsewhere in Bristol Bay, the harvest of red salmon included 953,000 fish from the Ugashik district, 906,000 fish from the Naknek-Kvichak, 500,000 fish from the Nushagak and 8,000 from Togiak.

Bristol Bay harvesters also brought in 54,000 chum and 8,000 king salmon.

The central district of Upper Cook Inlet brought in 20,000 reds and the southern district of Lower Cook Inlet had a catch of 11,000 reds.

In Prince William Sound, the Copper River drift district saw its harvest rise to over 1 million sockeye, 9,000 chum, 8,000 king and 4,000 pink salmon.  The Coghill district delivered 974,000 chum and 17,000 reds, and the Prince William Sound general seine district had a catch of 141,000 pink, 131,000 chum and 17,000 reds.

The Prince William Sound hatchery district fishermen delivered 240,000 chum, while the Montague drift district caught 177,000 chum and 1,000 each of sockeye and pink salmon.

In the Westward region, harvesters in the Alaska Peninsula caught 1.4 million reds, 303,000 chum, 158,000 pink and 2,000 king salmon.

Chignik harvesters delivered 959,000 reds, 39,000 chum, and 8,000 pink, while in Kodiak, processors received 850,000 reds, 78,000 chum, 16,000 pink and 10,000 king salmon.

The preliminary Alaska commercial salmon harvest totals are updated daily by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game at www.adfg.alaska.gov

Brazil Begins Importing Alaska Seafood

Wild Alaska salmon, cod and pollock are in the spotlight this week at SIAL Brazil, a major food and beverage trade show in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The promoter at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s booth at SIAL Brazil is Noronha Pescados of Recife, which is targeting middle class and upper middle class shoppers in retail markets. The company plans in-store demonstrations, and recipes will be included with the packages of filleted fish. The big seafood competition in this beef-eating nation, according to ASMI, is Atlantic cod and Chilean salmon.

The company will also benefit from ASMI’s generic promotional efforts in the market, including trade shows, advertisements and recipes in food magazines, Sao Paulo Restaurant week, and more, ASMI officials said.

“The market for Alaska seafood in Brazil is showing rapid growth,” said Michael Cerne, executive director of the state’s seafood marketing entity.

ASMI opened an office in Brazil in the fall of 2011 and conducted trade missions there in March and December of 2012. ASMI’s market research indicates exports from Alaska to Brazil doubled last year and that the trend should continue.

ASMI officials said that Noronha Pescados will be importing the frozen headed and gutted salmon, cod and pollock for further processing, to be sold directly to Walmart, Pao de Acucar, Cencosud and other retail stores in Brazil.

In prior years, Alaska cod destined for Brazil was first exported to Portugal and Norway, where it was reprocessed as high value bacalhau- dried, salted cod. Under the new agreement with Noronha Pescados, Alaska will retain full traceability and final product quality control.

Lower Yukon Commercial Dip Net Fishery Better than Anticipated

Harvesters on the Lower Yukon River have landed close to 50,000 oil rich Yukon summer chums to date in the river’s first commercial dip net fishery.

“It’s going very well, way better than anyone anticipated,” said Jack Schultheis, sales manager for Kwik’Pak Fisheries at Emmonak, a subsidiary of the Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association established in 2001. “We bought the gear in anticipation that they would have the fishery and they opened it on June 18, and it kind of took hold.” 

“This is the second day in a row that I did 10,000 fish,” Schultheis said in an interview on June 25. “Last year at this time I had nothing, so I’m well ahead of last year.

“It’s very successful.  The fishermen are enjoying it, and I’ve had some customers down here who just loved the fish they saw.”

Kwik’Pak has buyers coming from the Lower 48 states, as well as Europe.

The dip net caught chums are very high quality, with no net marks, and average 6.4 pounds to 6.5 pounds, he said.

The dip nets allow for a chum fishery while protecting king salmon escapement up the Yukon River toward the Canadian border, in compliance with an agreement with the Canadian government. Regulations adopted by the Alaska Board of Fisheries this past winter allow for this first time use of dip nets for commercial harvests, with any king salmon caught in the nets to be released.

Schultheis said he had 164 people working and that he expected the summer chum drift fishery to open by this coming weekend. Kwik’Pak’s efforts are aimed at improving the regional economy through local employment, training and educational opportunities, while supporting small businesses in villages along the river.

Legislation to Label Frankenfish Moves Forward in Congress

An amendment to the Agricultural Appropriations bill that allocates $150,000 to implement a requirement to label genetically engineered salmon has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee, making it ready for a vote on the Senate floor.

The measure offered by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was approved during the Senate Appropriation Committee meeting on June 20. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska was a co-sponsor. Alaska’s congressional delegation and the Alaska Legislature have opposed efforts by the Food and Drug Administration, which has the matter under review, to approve use of genetically engineered salmon for human consumption.

In a draft assessment released last year, the FDA said genetically modified salmon would not jeopardize U.S. populations of Atlantic salmon, but Murkowski said approving genetically engineering salmon for human consumption would be “messing with Mother Nature in a very serious and big way.”

“This proposal under review by the FDA is being promoted and funded by a Russian entity,” she said. “The genetically engineered eggs would include material from an eel that’s grown in Canada, and then this GE fish is grown in Panama and introduced to us,” she said. “I’m confused how support of those foreign based activities is going to help with jobs here. It’s going to have the potential to devastate a salmon industry in my state.”

Should the genetically modified fish get FDA approval, at a minimum it should be labeled, Murkowski said.

“These fake fish are a serious threat to the health of American seafood lovers and consumers have a right to know what’s on their dinner plate,” Begich said.

Chinook Bycatch Limit Set for GOA Trawl Fleet

Federal fisheries managers voted June 8 in Juneau to put a 7,500-fish limit on Chinook salmon bycatch by some 60 bottom trawlers harvesting flatfish, rockfish and Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska.

The action during the June meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council still needs approval from Commerce Secretary John Bryson, and there will be a public comment period, so when the new limit will go into effect is still uncertain.

The Chinook, prized by all salmon harvesters, has been on the decline in abundance and harvests for more than 50 years in Alaska, and on the entire Pacific coast.

National Marine Fisheries Service is required by law to the extent possible to minimize bycatch, and minimize the mortality of bycatch that cannot be avoided.

“Overall, it is a good thing,” said Jon Warrenchuk, a senior scientist for the environmental organization Oceana, based in Juneau. “Not catching salmon will be the first thing on the trawlers’ minds, or they will risk being shut down for the season. It will force these guys to work together, share information, maybe tow shorter distances,” said Warrenchuk, whose organization had advocated for a Chinook salmon bycatch cap of 5,000 fish.

But Julie Bonney, executive director of the Groundfish Data Bank in Kodiak, said that from a trawl perspective “it is going to be very painful. We’re looking at between $28 million and $40 million in economic loss, assuming the fleet can’t change its behavior,” she said. That loss would hit hard at Kodiak, with the residential processing labor force seeing the biggest impact, she said.

What would have been better, she said, would be to have individual vessel accountability, stop the race for fish and build a cooperative system.

“Basically there is nothing the vessels can do. We will hit the cap and will get shut down,” she said. “From a fleet perspective, it is scary as hell because there are so many kings on the grounds right now. It’s pain for no gain,” she said. “I am sympathetic to what is happening to other resource users for king salmon, but this is not going to solve the problem.”

Salmon in the Gulf of Alaska come from over 100 river systems, the bulk of them in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, but there is no science to know which rivers are hit hardest, Bonney said. “We do know there is no presence of western Alaska stocks in the Gulf of Alaska, so we are not affecting those river systems at all.”

The decline in king salmon runs statewide has been a matter of growing concern for Alaska’s commercial, sport and subsistence harvesters. Salmon harvesters’ concern mounted extensively in 2010 when the number of king salmon caught incidentally to the Gulf of Alaska pollock fisheries reached 54,449 fish. In 2011, the incidental harvest was 20,769 fish and in 2012 the number was 5,909, according to statistics provided by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Last August, the limits on Chinook salmon bycatch for pollock trawlers went into effect, with a 25,000 Chinook salmon limit. That rule also required that all Chinook salmon caught by pollock trawlers be delivered to a processing facility where an observer could count the number of salmon and collect scientific data or biological samples.

 

…Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle

Those of us who have grown up in the Puget Sound region are deeply committed to the fishing industry, and appreciate that Seattle, as the homeport of the North Pacific fishing fleet, plays an important role in the survival and success of the companies and individuals whose livelihoods, families and history are tied to the commercial fishery.

Unfortunately, the City of Seattle seems not to appreciate our industry– and why would they? Mayor Mike McGinn is from Long Island, New York. Peter Hahn, the Director of the Department of Transportation, is also from the East Coast. They must have liked Seattle’s culture and quality of life enough to move here – why are they working so hard to change it?
The current administration has been systematically dismantling the city’s surface transportation system, replacing vehicle lanes with bike lanes, narrowing roadways and increasing traffic congestion, in an effort to reduce the number of vehicles, commercial and otherwise, on the streets of Seattle.

To add insult to injury, early last month, as the fishing fleet was preparing their vessels for the annual Alaska salmon season, putting the final touches on major repairs and refurbishments at the local boatyards, stocking up on supplies at chandlers and fuel docks and preparing for a successful season, the city closed Shilshole Avenue Northwest, the main thoroughfare that provides access to dozens of commercial businesses, for an entire day, with no notice.

For a bicycle race.

Dozens of businesses were directly affected, hundreds indirectly, and the only notice many of them received was the barricaded road they encountered on the way to their business that morning.

Bicycles and industry don’t work together very well, which is why the North Seattle Industrial Association, Seattle Marine Business Coalition and others have been working tirelessly to keep the powerful Seattle bicycle lobby, led by Mayor McGinn (former Washington State chairman of the Sierra Club) from building a bike trail through the heart of the Ballard industrial core. An effort to push through an extension of a trail that already passes through the eastern part of the city’s industrial area has met enough opposition to require an Environmental Impact Statement from the city. In response, the city is making “safety improvements” including the narrowing of lanes and the addition of a bike lane on each side of the road giving priority to bicycles over vehicular traffic.

In a state where the Fish and Wildlife Commission continues to make policy in spite of more than four years without mandated commercial representation, and the largest city can unilaterally close roads to commercial traffic or severely restrict that traffic with impunity, the lure of other ports of call is becoming stronger every day. Newport, Oregon won the NOAA fleet, and Bellingham, Washington is working hard to take business from Seattle as well.

The Port of Seattle commission has shed ineffectual commissioner Rob Holland, and an upcoming election promises to further restructure the commission, which will put them in a good position to exert some influence on behalf of the businesses that validate their jobs.

Seattle is a maritime city, and needs to retain that heritage. Mayor McGinn will probably never have the same love of the maritime heritage as someone who was raised with it, but if he can’t learn to love the taxes paid by the successful fishing industry, perhaps he should find a more suitable position in another field.

Wild Salmon Harvest in Alaska Hits 5 Million Fish

As the Copper River harvest begins to wind down, commercial harvesters from Cook Inlet to Chignik, Kodiak and Bristol Bay are starting to deliver, with the catch as of June 19 at 5,116,000 salmon of all species delivered.

For Prince William Sound, the commercial fleet had brought in over 2 million fish, including 1,138,000 chum and 882,000 sockeye salmon, plus 8,000 kings.  Most of the reds  - 838,000 fish – came from the Copper River drift fleet, while most of the chum – 680,000 fish – came from the Coghill district drift fleet.

Prices for Copper River salmon remained robust, as well as promotions for famed fish, but those prices were coming down as the market began offering more salmon from Cook Inlet. Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle was offering fresh Copper River sockeye fillets for $20.00 a pound and fresh Copper River king fillets at $43.00, plus fresh whole Copper River reds for $64.95 each. Copper River Seafoods meanwhile was offering options that included 5-pound packages of fresh sockeye salmon fillets for about $164, with next day air shipment included.

The commercial harvest in Bristol Bay reached 414,000 salmon, with the majority  -338,000 sockeye – from the Egegik district, while the Naknek Kvichak had 48,000 reds and the Ugashik some 21,000 reds.

Cook Inlet’s Central district has harvested 12,000 reds and in the Southern district of Lower Cook Inlet, some 8,000 reds have been delivered.

In the westward region, meanwhile, the Chignik fishery delivered 729,000 fish, including 690,000 reds, 32,000 chum and 6,000 pink salmon.  For Kodiak, the catch stood at 608,000 fish, including 563,000 reds, 33,000 chum, 7,000 king and 5,000 pink salmon.  In the South Alaska Peninsula, the harvest was 1.1 million fish, including 903,000 reds, 195,000 chum, 39,000 pink and 2,000 kings.

All totals are preliminary and are updated daily online by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game at www.adfg.alaska.gov