AMSF Funded to Continue Debris Cleanup

Federal funding backed by matching grants has the Alaska Marine Stewardship Foundation on target to clean up another 51.6 metric tons of marine debris in 2015, in or adjacent to state and federal critical habitat areas in Alaska.

The $200,000 grant was announced in early October for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program. It will be used, along with the matching funds from community development quota programs, to remove debris at St. George, Nelson Lagoon, Nikolski, Port Heiden and Gambell.

NOAA allocated a total of $1,275,000 nationwide in similar grants.

Since 2006, this program has funded 87 marine debris removal projects, removing more than 4,800 metric tons of marine debris.

Matching funds came from the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp., and Norton Sound Economic Development Corp.

Because funding arrives late in the year, NOAA funds for fiscal 2013 were used for 2014 cleanup and funds allocated in 2014 will be used next year, said Dave Gaudet, executive director of AMSF.

Gaudet is a retired Alaska Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologist and a commercial salmon fish harvester. He joined AMSF as marine debris program coordinator in early 2009 and grew the organization through expanded projects and debris research.

Gaudet has a bachelor’s degree in fisheries management from the University of Wisconsin at Steven’s Point and a master’s degree in fisheries science from the University of Washington.

AMSF, formerly known as the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation, promotes conservation and restoration of Alaska’s coastlines through marine debris cleanup and public outreach. Through 2011, AMSF’s work has cleaned 1,794.8 miles of shoreline, removing 2,206,152 pounds of debris.

More information on the foundation’s work is at its website, (www.alaskamsf.org).

Federal Agencies Critique Susitna Hydropower Study

The National Marine Fisheries Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service have identified a number of problems with data collection and analysis in an Alaska Energy Authority report for a proposed Southcentral Alaska hydropower project.

In letters addressed to Susitna-Watana project manager Wayne Dyok, both agencies voiced concerns with the initial AEA study report.

The Susitna-Watana hydropower project, according to the AEA’s calculations, would provide a little more than half of the electric power to communities along Alaska’s Railbelt, stabilizing energy prices for 100 years or more. Conservationists have raised many questions over possible adverse impacts of the dam on salmon habitat.

“The Alaska Energy Authority has spent nearly $200 million on studies that further a pro-dam agenda rather than gather information about how a mega dam would impact salmon,” said Mike Wood, president of the Susitna River Coalition in Southcentral Alaska. Wood said the letter from NMFS confirms the coalition’s concerns that “AEA cannot be trusted either to spend state dollars wisely or to protect the fourth largest king salmon river in the state.”

Dyok said he felt it would be more appropriate to discuss comments from the two agencies during an initial study report meeting set for Oct. 15-17 in Anchorage, and declined to comment specifically on the Sept. 22 letters from NMFS or USFWA.

NMFS identified 14 primary concerns with the current status and implementation of aquatic studies. Jim Balsiger, administrator of the Alaska Region for the National Marine Fisheries Service, told Dyok in his letter that unless issues related to aquatic studies are addressed, many study objectives will not be met.

Among those concerns are incomplete habitat classification, lack of development of fish passage criteria, fish sampling locations that did not incorporate Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recommendations, and incorrect identification of fish.

The NMFS letter is online at http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20140923-5026 Socheata Lor, Anchorage field supervisor for USFWS, said that agency has significant concern with data collection and reporting, effective model integration, and development of decision support systems.

“Because the data were gathered outside timelines specified by the FERC-ordered process, and given the limited review time the (US Fish and Wildlife) Service will have, we will be unable to consider and comment on those study reports in advance of the October 2014 initial study review meeting,” Lor told Dyok.

UFA Reaffirms Endorsement of Begich for Senate

United Fishermen of Alaska, the umbrella group representing commercial seafood harvesters, has reaffirmed its endorsement of Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska for re-election to the US Senate. 

The endorsement came during UFA’s 40^th annual conference, in Anchorage, during which Begich outlined his goal of representing Alaska’s interests in reauthorization of the Magnuson-Steven Fishery Conservation and Management Act. 

Begich, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, supported inclusion in the continuing resolution passed recently by Congress of a number of budget items critical to commercial fisheries. These included marine resource research and management, tsunami debris cleanup from the 2011 Japanese tsunami event, salmon management activities, ocean acidification, fishery stock assessments and survey and monitoring projects, marine mammal research, mapping, salmon conservation in federal waters, and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.

Begich will debate Republican opponent Dan Sullivan on commercial fisheries issues for one hour tonight at Kodiak. The debate – an election year tradition since 1990 – will be broadcast live statewide on the Alaska Public Radio Network from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Alaska time. Questions posed by journalists and by one candidate to another are limited to the single topic of Alaska’s fisheries industry. The second hour of the Kodiak fisheries debate, sponsored by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, pits incumbent Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, against challenger Forrest Dunbar, who grew up working as a commercial fisherman in Cordova.

USDA Purchase Reduces Inventories of Pink Salmon From Record Harvest

The US Department of Agriculture has completed a $12.8 million purchase of canned pink salmon harvested from Alaska waters for child nutrition and other domestic food assistance programs. The purchases from four major processors of Alaska seafood will help reduce large inventories of pink salmon from last year’s record harvest.

USDA bought the canned humpies from Trident Seafoods Corp., Ocean Beauty Seafoods LLC, Icicle Seafoods Inc., and Peter Pan Seafoods Inc.

The purchases amounted to $4,733,863 for Ocean Beauty Seafoods, $4,314,673 for Icicle, $3,056,688 for Trident Seafoods and $712,160 for Peter Pan Seafoods.

USDA said deliveries would be made from Oct. 16 through Jan. 31 to child nutrition and food assistance programs from Florida to Hawaii, including northeastern, southern, midwestern and western communities.  The distribution list is online at http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5109066

Alaska officials asked the federal government this summer to make a second major purchase of canned pink salmon to help reduce inventories and slow the price decline looming for Alaska’s commercial harvesters.  The request in late July came in the midst of another robust season for pink salmon.

Earlier in the year USDA purchased $20 million worth of Alaska canned pink salmon, part of the bumper crop of unsold canned inventory from the record-breaking 2013 harvest of 219 million humpies.

The previous record harvest of commercial pink salmon harvests was 161 million fish in 2005.

AMSEA Updates Guide to Commercial Fishing Safety

The seventh edition of  “Beating the Odds: A Guide to Commercial Fishing Safety,” by Susan Clark Jensen and Jerry Dzugan of the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, is hot off the presses, with updated information on survival at sea. 

The 250-page book tackles a wide range of issues, from reading the weather and handling fishing gear safely to fatigue, hydration and nutrition, putting out fires onboard and the importance of safe seamanship.

Since the first edition was first published in the early 1990s, it has been given to over 15,000 commercial fishermen in Alaska and throughout the United States in every drill conductor workshop taught by AMSEA, says Dzugan, director of AMSEA.

The new seventh edition has more updated information on survival equipment and procedures and first aid, an outline on safety drills for solo operators , and more examples of casualties from parts of the United States beyond Alaska, information on safety and survival related to warmer fishing environments and much more.

It’s a book that “every fisherman should have on board and should read cover to cover,” says Jennifer Lincoln, an injury epidemiologist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, based in Anchorage, Alaska.  Lincoln, who has worked collaboratively with AMSEA for two decades, says the training and education provided by AMSEA has proven critical in improving commercial fishing safety across the United States.

The decline in vessel sinkings and fatalities notwithstanding, fishing is still a dangerous industry to work in and commercial fishing remains the most dangerous job in the nation, says Lincoln.

The chapter on orientation, emergency instructions and drills gets into the fine details of vessel safety orientation, vessel safety and survival equipment, specific duties in the event of an emergency, how to don an immersion suit, how to make a distress broadcast, and more.

The softcover book and the 5.5 MB PDF download may be ordered online at seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/MAB-41.html