BC Mine Impact on Transboundary River Challenged

A conservation group is challenging results of a water quality study conducted for Chieftain Metal’s Tulsequah Chief Mine in British Columbia that says ongoing acid mine drainage from the abandoned mine is not affecting the Taku River watershed.

Rivers Without Borders, a conservation advocacy group operating across the Alaska-BC border, released an independent analysis today that contends there are significant flaws in that water quality study, which was done in response to the unauthorized closure of the water treatment plant at the mine.

The mining company’s study relied on an insufficient sample design, inappropriate receptor species, failed to address some study objectives altogether and reported information haphazardly, according to Rivers Without Borders. Consequently its conclusion of low risk to aquatic life from the Tulsequah Chief’s acid mine drainage is unreliable, the conservation group said.

This contradicts BC Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett citing the Chieftain study as evidence that pollution is minor and thus a low priority for remedial action, Rivers Without Borders contends.

Since the Tulsequah Chief mine was abandoned nearly 60 years ago, acid mine drainage has flowed from that mine into the Tulsequah River, the largest tributary to the transboundary Taku River, which flows into Southeast Alaska.

Chieftain Metals built and briefly used a water treatment plant at the mine site about four years ago, but shut it down in June 2012, because of the cost of operating.

Rivers Without Borders is now calling on BC agencies to assume responsibility for stopping the flow of acid mine drainage.

PFMC to Meet in Tacoma

The Pacific Fishery Management Council and its advisory bodies will be at the Hotel Murano in downtown Tacoma, Washington from June 21 through June 28 to address a number of fisheries issues related to salmon, groundfish, highly migratory species, Pacific halibut and habitat.

The West Coast Trawlers’ Network has identified seven key agenda items to be considered by the council, including adoption of final preferred management measures for the 2017-2018 groundfish fisheries.

Adoption of a final list and schedule of groundfish stocks for assessment in 2017, and adoption of in-season adjustments to groundfish fisheries are also on the list.

The council will also take up swordfish deep-set buoy gear and federal permit updates, highly migratory species biennial management measures, highly migratory species international issues and Pacific halibut allocation scoping.

Copper River Harvest Grows

The latest harvest update on the celebrated Copper River salmon fishery from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shows the total harvest through the end of last week to be 130,722 sockeyes, 5,716 Chinooks, plus 2,399 chums.

According to ADF&G’s Cordova office the average weights were 4.9 pounds for reds, 16.1 pounds for kings and 6.5 pounds for chums. Updates on the May 28 and May 30 openers were not yet available.

Demand in retail markets was high.

At Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, whole fresh Copper River sockeyes were listed at $99.96 apiece, fresh Copper River sockeye fillets were $34.99 a pound, fresh whole Copper River kings were $36.99 a pound, and fresh Copper River king fillets were $49.99 a pound. At one point last week Pike Place had so many orders for the fresh Copper River sockeye fillets that they ran out of them.

10th & M Seafoods in Anchorage was busy filled orders for fresh Copper River sockeye fillets at $32.95 a pound. FishEx, an online purveyor of seafood in Anchorage, was taking orders for fresh Copper River premium king fillets at $64.95 a pound in advance of its next anticipated shipment on June 2.

BSAI Crab Rationalization Review on NPFMC Agenda

Among the major issues before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council during its meeting at Kodiak June 6-14 is the 10-year review of Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands crab rationalization.

Crab rationalization, implemented in 2005, was designed to address conservation and management issues associated with the previously over-capitalized derby fishery, reduce bycatch and associated discard mortality, and to increase the safety of harvesters by ending the race for fish. The program also introduced harvest quota shares to vessel owners and captains, as well as processor quota share to processors, based on their historical participation to protect investment in and reliance on the program fisheries.

The program has been controversial from the start on several levels, including processor shares and crew employment, and they are among many issues subject to discussion at this meeting.

The 244-page document concludes that in a general way the crab rationalization program has worked to reduce excess harvesting and processing capacity issues, provided greater opportunity for efficiency and efficient resource utilization, increased stability and predictability in preseason planning, and provided for a system of higher economic returns, along with better resource conservation, and reduced bycatch.

Read the full document online at www.npfmc.org.

AK Groundfish and Crab Values Holding Steady

A new report funded by the National Marine Fisheries Service shows that Alaska groundfish and crab values have held their own in value over the past five years.

The report released this week by the McDowell Group, a Juneau based research firm, also notes that Alaska’s commercial fisheries are the most productive in the nation, accounting for 60 percent of the total 2014 US commercial fishery harvest volume.

During 2014, the latest year for which complete data was available, first wholesale production of 1.28 million metric tons of all Alaska species combined was valued at $4.27 billion, researchers found.

Key markets for finished products derived from Alaska groundfish and crab are the United States, Europe and Japan, typically accounting for more than 80 percent of first wholesale value, the report said.

About one-third of Alaska groundfish and crab production volume is reprocessed in China, and after secondary processing there, a large share of that product is re-exported to markets in Europe, the United States and Japan. A significant amount of product exported to South Korea meanwhile is held in cold storage facilities or reprocessed before being re-exported to Japan and Europe.

While species profiled in this report represent a significant proportion of the global seafood trade between nations, most species face market competition from fisheries in other countries, the report said.

The report was produced and funded by the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. Funding was awarded through competitive contracts to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and McDowell Group, in Juneau, Alaska. The analysis was conducted during the summer and fall of 2015, based primarily on 2014 harvest and market data, with a final review by AFSC staff completed in February of this year, and finalized in March.

NOAA Fisheries Embarks on Bering Sea Surveys

NOAA Fisheries scientists are scheduled to depart from Dutch Harbor in late May to begin three groundfish and crab bottom trawl surveys and one midwater acoustic-trawl survey to gather data considered crucial to sustainable Alaska fisheries.

What they learn helps them determine sustainable fishery harvest levels.

NOAA scientists conduct groundfish and crab surveys annually in the Eastern Bering Sea continental shelf from May through July, and biennially in the eastern Bering Sea upper continental slope from May through August, and the Aleutian Islands, from June through August.

The midwater survey, from June through August, focuses mainly on walleye Pollock. It is conducted biennially on the Eastern Bering Sea shelf and typically extends into Russian waters.

Doug DeMaster, science and research director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, noted that understanding how well fish stocks are doing is critical because fishermen and managers rely on such data to set sustainable annual fishing quotas.

During surveys, NOAA scientists sort, weigh and count species collected by each trawl, with an emphasis on biological data for target species. They will also collect specimens and data on a variety of species, as requested by cooperating scientists, agencies and institutions.

NOAA officials also said that information collected as part of these surveys, as well as other available data on oceanographic conditions fisheries and protected species, are integrated to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how marine ecosystems are affected. The Eastern Bering Sea groundfish, and crab shelf survey, for example, is a collaborative effort between NOAA and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Should a trawl bring in rare fishes and invertebrates, scientists would collect and preserve them.

For four decades, NOAA Fisheries has conducted annual bottom trawl surveys of the continental shelf and Eastern Bering Sea. Their focus species include walleye Pollock, Pacific cod, Greenland Turbot, yellowfin sole, northern rock sole, red king , snow, and Tanner crab.

Trident Akutan Facilities Featured on The Science Channel

Trident Seafoods’ processing facility at Akutan, in Alaska’s eastern Aleutian Islands, is featured today on a new program entitled “Alaska Mega Machines”, on The Science Channel, a network created by Discovery.

The “mega” series, focused on impressive machinery in use throughout Alaska, highlights in the Akutan segment, Trident equipment that works at high speed to process seafood quickly, safely and efficiently.

“Akutan is a very remote location,” said John Salle, senior vice president of marketing and innovation at Trident, “and we were honored to showcase the operation and the people that keep this facility processing millions of pounds of seafood day-in and day-out.”

The program, said Salle, highlights the success story of Alaska Pollock and how it is processed into a variety of convenient, quick-frozen products for customers around the world. “This is a rare opportunity to get a glimpse of pollock processing first-hand,” he said.

Trident’s Akutan facility processes Alaska Pollock primarily into individual quick frozen fillets, frozen fillet blocks and surimi. The plant also supports full utilization of virtually the entire fish, including roe products, stomachs, fish meal, bone meal and fish oil.

Trident’s mission, Salle said, “is to make fish the food of the future.

“We are working diligently to make Alaskan Pollock easy to love by turning this incredible, renewable resource into convenient value-added products such as surimi seafood snacks under the Louis Kemp brand, fully cooked ready-to-serve grilled Pollock fillets for food service operators, and of course, our all-new Alaskan Pollock Burgers,” he said.

“Our goal is pretty simple,” he said. “We want more people, eating more fish, more often, and it’s our job to make it delicious and easy for them to do it.”

More information about the show and schedule is online at http://www.sciencechannel.com/schedule/.