NMFS GOA Groundfish Plan

A final rule has been implemented to allow reapportionment of unused Chinook salmon prohibited species catch in the Gulf of Alaska trawl fisheries among specific trawl sectors, based on specific criteria and within specified limits.

The National Marine Fisheries Service published the final rule to implement Amendment 103 to the fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska in the Federal Register, effective on Sept. 12.

The complete document is online at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/09/12/2016-21808/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-chinook-salmon-bycatch-management-in-the-gulf-of.

Reapportionments of unused Chinook salmon PSC may not exceed 3,342 Chinook salmon to vessels participating in the Western GOA pollock sector, 9,158 Chinook salmon to vessels participating in the Central GOA pollock sector, 600 Chinook salmon to the rockfish program catcher vessel sector, and 1,250 Chinook salmon to the non-rockfish program catcher vessel sector.

The final rule also acknowledges that NMFS’s ability to reapportion unused Chinook salmon PSC does not offer any certainty for any pollock or non-pollock sector that a fishery will remain open. Kodiak harvester and processor Duncan Fields, who recently completed his tenure on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, noted that there was general recognition that the council’s previous actions to reduce Chinook bycatch in pollock and non-pollock fisheries had been substantial, and that individual processing facilities can opt to donate the PSC Chinooks to SeaShare, the Seattle entity that accepts and distributes large quantities of donated seafood to food banks and other entities in need.

While SeaShare does a wonderful job, the percentage of total salmon and halibut bycatch that is donated to SeaShare is relatively small, Fields said. “I think that salmon and halibut bycatch should be better utilized. While I appreciate that donations to SeaShare are voluntary, I also see the need for more directive regulations with regards to the SeaShare program.”

Fields noted that he had twice moved for 100 percent retention of PSC and having it donated to SeaShare, but some companies did not want this because they wanted to have the choice of whether to process and donate bycatch, based on their economics and capacity. They told the NPFMC that making retention of and donation to SeaShare of all PSC took away from the spirit of the program, Fields said.

Push for SE Alaska River Protection

Alaska fishermen are renewing their pursuit of State Department action to protect transboundary watersheds in Southeast Alaska from adverse affects of mining.

Fishermen are calling on Secretary of State John Kerry to secure agreements with Canada to protect transboundary rivers and indemnify from loss those who could be harmed by mining activity along the border, says Dale Kelley, executive director of the Alaska Trawlers Association.

Kelley’s comments came in the wake of a fourth letter sent by Alaska’s congressional delegation in early September seeking a meeting with Kerry along with his efforts to ensure that British Columbia institutes appropriate safeguards to prevent potential negative impacts from mining to fisheries habitat.

The transboundary watershed conservation entity Rivers Without Borders meanwhile noted that Chieftain Metals Corp., owner of the defunct Tulsequah Chief mine in the transboundary Taku watershed since 2010, is in receivership, and that the majority of directors of the company had resigned.

The court order resulted from West Face Capitol, which owns about one third of Chieftain, issuing a repayment demand in August for $26 million in loans to Chieftain that the company has not paid back. Since the mining companies have been unable to halt the ongoing acid mine drainage into the Tulsequah River, which has been going on for over two decades, it is time for the government of British Columbia to honor the promises made last August by Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett and clean it up, said Chris Zimmer, Alaska Campaign Director for Rivers Without Borders.

Bennett had visited the site in August 2015 and pledged to do something about it.

A spokesperson for the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines had no immediate response on what action, if any, the ministry planned to take.

In their letter to Kerry, the Alaska congressional delegation expressed their frustration over seeing little action from the State Department regarding transboundary waters.

Homer Celebrates Halibut

Wooden boats, a community fish fry and an update on research by the International Pacific Halibut Commission under warm, sunny skies attracted several hundred people to the combined Homer Halibut Festival and Wooden Boat Festival.

Claude Dykstra, research scientist, and Tracee Geernaert, survey coordinator for the IPHC, gave an update on their research and survey work at the Islands and Oceans Visitor Center in Homer, one of several events during the four day festival, which ran through Sept. 11.

The main focus of IPHC research currently is reproduction, growth (using models), oceanographic and environmental monitoring, and the migration, Dykstra said, during his talk on halibut ecology. The IPHC halibut surveys cover some 1,265 stations each year, and 705 of those stations have been identified for expansion, to collect more data.

The expansions will come in shallower and deeper waters, as well as some standard depth ranges not previously covered before, including some a little further north in the Bering Sea and a little further South in California, areas seen as showing gaps in the commission’s knowledge, Dykstra said. The normal survey footprint is from 20 fathoms to 275 fathoms, but the expansion will cover 10 fathoms to 20 fathoms in shallower waters and from 275 fathoms to 400 fathoms in deeper waters, Dykstra said.

The Alaska Marine Conservation Council, lead sponsor of the Homer Halibut Festival, joined with the Kachemak Bay Wooden Boat Society’s Wooden Boat Festival in other events, from the annual Kachemak Bay CoastWalk, to clean up the shores of Kachemak Bay, to the singing of sea shanties, recitation of fish poetry, a dinner-dance-auction benefitting KBWBS and AMCC and the 5k Halibut Hustle fun run on the end of the Homer spit.

The events attracted an eclectic group, including veteran commercial harvesters and several generations of their families.

Sponsors included the Homer-based North Pacific Fisheries Association, local processors and farmers and Alaska Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer.

Kelly Harrell, executive director of AMCC, said this salute to Homer as the halibut capital of the world would be back again in Homer in 2017.

Proposed Timber Sale Prompts Habitat Concern

A US Forest Service decision to hold an old growth timber sale on Kuiu Island in Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska has raised concerns that logging would adversely impact salmon habitat.

As of Sept. 6, nobody had put in a bid for the 866-acre sale, of which 341 acres lie in high priority salmon producing watersheds, but bids were being accepted through Sept. 13.

The cold water fisheries conservation organization Trout Unlimited Alaska contends that the Forest Service is fast-tracking what it seems an irresponsible old-growth timber sale from some of the best salmon habitats on the Tongass National Forest.

According to Trout Unlimited, the Forest Service is relying on outdated environmental analysis to prop up unsustainable logging at the expense of the region’s important fishing and tourism industries, without meaningful opportunity for public participation.

Trout Unlimited would like the Forest Service to go back and review that environmental assessment and reconsider whether the offering is in the best interests of Alaska, said Austin Williams, spokesman for TU.

According to Jason Anderson, deputy forest supervisor for the Tongass, timber harvest activities under the Tongass National Forest Plan are very conservative, in recognition of the importance of salmon to the people and economies of Southeast Alaska. “All timber harvest under our plan requires the implementation of 100 foot ‘no harvest’ buffer on all fish bearing streams, in addition to other ‘best management practices’ designed to protect important fish habitat during and after timber harvest activities,” Anderson said, noting the agency’s duel responsibilities of providing timber resources and protecting salmon streams.

Under the proposed amendment to the current forest plan, new old growth sales in the Tongass 77 – the area of the Tongass’ most productive and valuable salmon and trout watersheds –would not be planned, he said.

“However, sales with existing records of decision, such as this one being advertised now, would not be retroactively affected,” he said. “This specific sale would be allowed under the new plan. The draft record of decision for the plan amendment out on the street now would not apply the new standards and guidelines to previous decisions.”

Yukon River Kwik’Pak Harvest Tops 1 Million

Kwik’Pak Fisheries, in Alaska’s Lower Yukon River community of Emmonak, is winding up a very good year, with more than one million salmon delivered, in a season that will conclude just four days from now.

Preliminary harvest estimates from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game would put deliveries through Sept. 6 to Kwik’Pak, a subsidiary of the Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association, at a total of 1.2 million salmon.

The breakdown includes some 942,000 chums, including more than 500,000 from the summer chum run, plus 153,000 silvers and 127,000 humpies.

“We’ve had a really good, really successful season, the best we’ve ever had,” said Jack Schultheis, general manager for Kwik’Pak. “We feel very fortunate to have had the season we had this year,” he said. “It’s good for the community. The people are happy. The people made money. It’s a very positive thing for the community.”

During peak production, Kwik’Pak had a work force of some 300 workers. At one point, between harvesters, processors, tenderers and equipment workers, there were 15 villages represented, he said.

A healthy run of the oil-rich summer chum was followed by a fall run of very robust fish, averaging about 7.5 pounds, “really nice fish,” said Schultheis.

The Yukon cohos, not a big fish by nature, were averaging 6.4-6.5 pounds.

Markets this year have been good for Kwik’Pak, with market prices up maybe 10 percent to 20 percent over 2015, he said.

A lot of Kwik’Pak’s fall chums went out fresh to domestic markets, while others were frozen and are selling as fillets and headed and gutted product. Coho salmon went to domestic markets, groceries in the Lower 48, as fillets and headed and gutted fish.

Kwik’Pak’s fish also found markets in the United Kingdom, France and Japan.

BSAI Crab, Monitoring on NPFMC Agenda

Final specifications for six stocks of Bering sea/Aleutian Island crab are on the agenda, along with an initial review of electronic monitoring integration when the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meets in Anchorage in early October.

The council has already posted online the agenda and schedule for the meeting and accompanying documents are expected to be posted well in advance of the meeting.

Also on the list of major issues are proposed specifications for groundfish harvests, the 2017 observer program annual deployment plan, and reviews of the halibut/sablefish individual fishing quota program, and Area 4 halibut IFQ leasing.

Discussion papers on the agenda include one on Bering Sea/Aleutian Island halibut abundance-based prohibited species catch.

The council session, at the Anchorage Hilton Hotel, will be held from Oct. 5-11.

Related meetings, also at the Hilton, include the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee meeting Oct. 3-6; Advisory Panel, Oct. 4-8; Halibut Management Committee, Oct 5; Enforcement Committee, Oct 4; and Ecosystem Committee, Oct. 4.

All meetings are open to the public, except executive sessions. The deadline for written comments is Sept. 27. Email them to npfmc.comments@noaa.gov.

The council meeting will be broadcast at https://npfmc.adobeconnect.com/october2016 Log into www.npfmc.org for more details.

NOAA to De-List Most Humpbacks

A final rule issued by the federal government has declared humpback whales in nine of 14 newly identified distinct population segments recovered enough to no longer need listing under the Endangered Species Act.

The announcement on Sept. 6 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said international conservation efforts to protect and conserve whales over the past 40 years has proven successful for most populations.

Four distinct population segments are still protected as endangered and one is now listed as threatened.

Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries, saluted the event as a true ecological success story. “Whales, including the humpback, serve an important role in our marine environment,” she said. “Separately managing humpback whale populations that are largely independent of each other allows us to tailor conservation approaches for each population.”

Two of the four populations that remain endangered are found in US waters at certain times of the year. The Central America population feeds off the West Coast, while the Western North Pacific population feeds in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. The Mexico population, which is listed as threatened, also feeds off the West Coast of the United States and Alaska.

Two separate, complementary regulations fired today maintain protections for whales in waters off Hawaii and Alaska by specifying distance limits for approaching vessels. All humpback whales remain protected in US waters and on the high seas under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, regardless of their status under the Endangered Species Act.