Washington Halts on Net Pen Permits until Investigation is Complete

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has put a hold on any new permits for net pens until a thorough investigation is completed into the escape of Atlantic salmon from net pens on Cypress Island.

Inslee said this week that the release of net pen-raised Atlantic salmon into Washington’s waters has created an emergency situation that has state agencies working together to protect the health of Washington’s salmon.

The governor said those who fish Washington’s waters deserve a comprehensive response to the incident, including answers to what happened and assurances that it won’t happen again.

Inslee said the company–Cooke Aquaculture–must do everything it can to stop any additional escapes and to recover as many fish as possible, including adequate compensation for those working to remove Atlantic salmon from our waters.

Washington’s Department of Natural Resources has estimated that as many as 185,700 fish were released. DNR officials said they would be working with other state agencies and tribes to find a solution “to this serious threat to our native salmon species.” The incident took place on aquatic lands leased to Cooke Aquaculture by DNR.

DNR, along with the Washington departments of Fish and Wildlife and Ecology have joined with the governor’s office and state Emergency Management Division in setting up an incident command structure in Anacortes to respond to the incident.

As of Aug. 27, the incident command said that Cooke Aquaculture had removed 119,266 Atlantic salmon from the damaged cage structure at its Cypress Island farm site No. 2.

Company officials have not yet issued a firm number on how many fish escaped.

Cooke Seafood, the parent company of Cooke Aquaculture, acquired ownership of Icicle Seafoods last year. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is also asking sport anglers and commercial fishermen to report harvests of Atlantic salmon.

“Atlantic salmon are not native to the Pacific Ocean and their presence in Alaska waters is biologically undesirable,” said ADFG Commissioner Sam Cotten.

New Marine Environment Protections Announced for Canadian Arctic

The Canadian government has announced an investment of more than $175 million to help protect Arctic waters as part of an Oceans Protection Plan launched late last year by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Minister of Transport Marc Garneau said this week that the funds would be spread over seven areas, including $94.3 million for more efficient Arctic resupply operations through safety equipment and basic marine infrastructure in a Northern Communities initiative.

More than $29 million is earmarked for a new Arctic National Aerial Surveillance Program Complex in Iqaluit, Nunavut, to further improve spill prevention. Another $16.89 million will fund establishment of Transport Canada’s Office of Incident Management, which will modernize and standardize the department’s incident response processes. This will improve the department’s response capability in emergency situations and improve seamless coordination with other response partners, the government said. Also included is funding for continued expansion of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary in the Arctic to boost the collective ability to respond to maritime all-hazard incidents in the future. The auxiliary is made up of trained volunteers who use their own vessels to respond to incidents in Canadian waters.

Communities Want More Science, Accountability in Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization

Veteran harvesters and conservation advocates are urging Congress to include greater accountability and conservation measures in reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Sitka’s Linda Behnken testified this week in Alaska at a field hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard that “in the long run no one wins if the resource losses.”

“As Congress works to strengthen the Magnuson-Stevens Act to support community based fishermen, we firmly believe that maintaining productive fisheries through resource conservation is step one in that process,” she said. “The heightened emphasis on resource rebuilding that was central to the last reauthorization is still essential to long term resource health and we ask that Congress recommit to conservation goals,” she explained.

Behnken is a harvester of more than three decades, longlining for halibut and black cod and trolling for salmon out of Sitka with her family. She is also president of the Halibut Coalition and executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association.

“Rebuilding fish populations benefits not only fish and fishermen, but also those who are part of the larger seafood economy, including the chefs, restaurants, retailers and other seafood businesses that rely on a steady supply of seafood,” she said. “As U.S. consumers increasingly demand sustainably managed and caught seafood, the conservation requirements of the MSA are a win for both business owners and their customers,” she added.

Behnken was one of 14 people testifying in three panels during the subcommittee hearing chaired by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.

Transcripts of their testimony are online at https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings

Harvest of Salmon in Alaska Tops 201 Million Fish

Commercial harvesters in Alaska have now exceeded the 201 million fish mark in their catch so far this year. The latest preliminary harvest data released by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADG&F) includes delivery to processors of 123.9 million pink, 51.8 million sockeye, 21.8 million chum, 3.5 million coho and 243,000 king salmon.

State biologists noted in their weekly summary on Southeast Alaska fisheries that the preseason pink salmon harvest forecast for 2017 was 43 million fish with a range of 27 to 59 million. Pink salmon harvests to date now project a total harvest of less than 10 million for Southern Southeast Alaska districts and 25-28 million fish in Northern Southeast Alaska districts.,. By statistical week 34, on average, pink salmon harvest in Southern Southeast districts was 88 percent complete, while at 92 percent in Northern Southeast districts. In general, pink salmon escapement was near average in most Southeast Alaska districts.

In Prince William Sound, harvesters have delivered more than 46 million humpies to processors, while the Westward region, including the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak and Chignik, have brought in 47.4 million pink salmon.

Chum harvest totals include 8.5 million in the Southeast region, 7.2 million in the Central region, 4.3 million in the Westward region and 1.6 million in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region. The preliminary catch totals for silver salmon are led by a harvest of 2 million coho in the Southeast region, 667,000 in the Westward region, 565,000 in the Central region and 267,000 for the Arctic-Yukon Kuskokwim.

Daily updates are posted online at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyfisherysalmon.bluesheet

Deadline for Saltonstall-Kennedy

NOAA Fisheries officials have put out a reminder about the October 10 deadline for pre-proposals for the Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant program.

Saltonstall-Kennedy is a nationwide competitive grant program to fund projects addressing the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining sustainable fisheries, and increase other opportunities to keep working waterfront viable.

The 2018 solicitation is seeking applications that fall into one of four priorities:

• Marine aquaculture

• Adapting to environmental changes and other long-term impacts in marine ecosystems

• Promotion, development and marketing

• Territorial science

This year’s solicitation consists of two separate submission processes.

All interested applicants must first submit a two-page pre-proposal as directed at the website www.grants.gov. Following the review process, those interested can submit a full application through the same web page.

This past June NOAA Fisheries announced more than $10 million in recommended grants through the 2017 Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant competition.

Recommended projects among the applicants from Alaska included three from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), the University of Alaska Southeast, Fishext Research LLC, Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, Prince William Sound Science and Technology Institute and the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

Requested amounts ranged from $78,224 for development of age determination methods for Alaska crab to $299,652 for a 2018-2020 Southern Bering Sea juvenile Chinook salmon survey. ADF&G applied for both projects.

West Coast applications included two from the University of Washington for nearly $300,000 each in marine aquaculture. The first was for development of genetic risk assessment tools and management strategy evaluation for aquaculture of Native shellfish. The second was for modeling transmission of a bacterial pathogen among farmed and wild abalones in the face of climate change and declining wild populations.

An application from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, for about $299,000 was also recommended, for development of combined hydro-acoustic and visual survey.

The complete list can be found at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/mb/financial_services/fy17_sk_grants_successful_applicants.htm

Farmed Atlantic Salmon Spilled from Damaged Net Pen

Washington state salmon managers are encouraging anglers to harvest thousands of Atlantic salmon that escaped after a net pen failure on August 19 at Cooke Aquaculture on Cypress Island, along Rosario Strait between Guemes and Blakely islands.

About 305,000 salmon were in the net pen at the time, although it was initially estimated that only 4,000 to 5,000 fish escaped, state fisheries officials said in a statement issued on August 22.

The state has authorized Cooke Aquaculture to fish with beach seine nets, and encouraged anglers to also harvest fish.

“Our first concern, of course, is to protect native fish species, so we’d like to see as many of these escaped fish caught as possible,” said Ron Warren, who heads the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fish Program (WDFW).

Warren said there is no evidence that these fish pose a threat to native fish populations, either through disease or crossbreeding with Pacific salmon. He noted that to date there is no record of Atlantic salmon successfully reproducing with Pacific salmon in Washington.

Participating anglers must have a current fishing license and must observe gear regulations identified in the 2017-2018 sport fishing pamphlet, but they do not have to report Atlantic salmon on their catch record cards. To help anglers identify Atlantic salmon, WDFW has posted a salmon identification guide on its webpage at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/atlantic.html

In a statement issued by Cooke, and published in The Seattle Times, the aquaculture company said “exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week’s solar eclipse” caused the damage. Cooke said the incident was due to a “structural failure” of a net pen.

The Puget Soundkeeper countered that the fish escaped at a time “when charts show that tides and currents were well within predictions.” The Puget Soundkeeper said Cooke’s statement was misleading, “distracting from their failure to secure the pens safely and to adequately prepare for predictable tide events.

“In fact, over the last month, there were at least 11 days with higher tides than occurred on August 19th,” Soundkeeper said. “And king tides during the winter are routinely much higher than those reported this month.” Cooke Industries meanwhile has plans to expand a net pen site near Port Angeles, and install up to 20 more sites in the Puget Sound area. A hearing is scheduled on the Port Angeles proposal on September 7.

(See our editorial on the subject in the September, 2017 Fishermen’s News.)

Fire Engulfs Peter Pan Plant at Port Moller

A fire of undetermined cause that began late on August 15 engulfed the 100-year-old Port Moller seafood processing plant owned by Peter Pan Seafoods.

Company officials declined to comment but posted on the Peter Pan Seafoods’ Facebook page that all crew and personnel were reported safe and uninjured, and that the damage is extensive enough to halt operations for the rest of the 2017 season.

The company did note that all the processing workers were safely evacuated from the premises. Peter Pan spokesman Dale Schiffler said the investigation into the cause of the fire was ongoing.

Port Moller, the company’s most remote facility, is a salmon processing plant some 550 air miles southwest of Anchorage, on the north side of the Alaska Peninsula. It primarily processes sockeyes, but also produces small amounts of king, coho and chum salmon. Before the fire, the plant was able to process about 250,000 pounds of salmon a day, in product forms including frozen headed and gutted, fillets, salted fillets and sujiko (salted salmon eggs). During peak production, it employs a crew of 140 people.

Peter Pan was buying fish from and supporting a fleet of 105 drift gill netters and 30 set netters, both resident and non-resident fishermen.

An Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist, Bob Murphy, who is living at Port Moller for the summer, talked about the fire with Dave Bendinger of Dillingham’s public radio station, KDLG. Murphy told Bendinger that plant workers used a fire suppression system, water lines and hoses to fight the fire, but that their efforts were no match for flames fueled by dry timbers from the 100-year-old buildings.

Port Moller has no fire department.