Crab–Snow Quota Up, Red King Quota Down

Bering Sea snow crab are continuing to rebound from three years ago, prompting the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to announce a 34,019,000-pound quota for the 2019-2020 fishery, up from 27,581,000 pounds in 2018 and 18,961,000 pounds in 2017.

Holders of individual fishing quota (IFQ) permits are allocated 30,617,100 pounds, with another 3,410,900 pounds allocated for community development quota (CDQ).

The fishery opened in Bering Sea district waters west of 165 degrees west longitude at noon on Oct. 15 and will remain open through May 15, 2020 in the Eastern Subdistrict, east of 173 degrees west longitude, and through May 31, 2020 in the Western Subdistrict, west of 173 degrees west longitude.

Due to closure of the 2019-2020 Eastern and Western Bering Sea Tanner crab fisheries, east and west of 166 degrees west longitude, retention of Tanner crab during the Bering Sea snow drab fishery is prohibited.

The quota for Bristol Bay red king crab, also opening on Oct. 15, was reduced to 3,797,000 pounds from the 2018-2019 season 4,330,000 pounds based on trawl survey studies, ADF&G said.

Harvesters with individual fishing quota will share in 3,417,300 pounds, down from 3.9 million pounds a year ago. Holders of community development quota permits were allocated a total of 379,700 pounds of the red king crab, down from 430,800 pounds.

The Bering Sea Tanner crab fisheries east and west of 166 degrees west longitude are closed for the 2019-2020 season due to estimated mature male biomass in those Bering Sea waters being below thresholds required for the fishery to open.

Last year the western district for Tanner crab opened with a total allowable catch of 2,439,000 pounds, down slightly from 2,500,200 pounds a year earlier. The eastern district was closed, as it was in 2017.

Pribilof district red and blue king crab again remained closed due to failure to meet federal minimum harvest strategy thresholds required for the fishery to open. ADF&G crab biologists said that the stocks had been declared over fished. The total mature biomass also fell below minimum harvest strategy thresholds required for a fishery, the agency said.

Alaska Salmon Harvest Exceeds 203 Million

Alaska’s wild salmon harvest reached more than 203 million fish as the season drew to a close in October, largely exceeding last year’s 115.7 million fish, with the sockeye proving to be a star performer.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) biologists had predicted a statewide 2019 harvest of 213.2 million salmon, including 41.7 million reds. However, by Oct. 3, ADF&G’s preliminary harvest data showed some 55.3 million sockeyes delivered to processors statewide.

Chinook catches met their modest forecast of 274,000 fish while pink salmon totaled some 125.7 million fish, compared to a forecast of 137.8 million. Keta salmon harvests stood at 18.3 million, nearly 12 million fewer fish than anticipated, and coho production also lagged, down roughly 25 percent from the expected harvest of 4.6 million fish, noted Garrett Evridge, of the McDowell Group, who produces weekly Alaska salmon harvest updates during the fishery for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

The 2019 sockeye harvest is the fourth largest on record, measured in numbers of fish, with Bristol Bay accounting for 78 percent of the total. The Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands accounted for 7 percent while Prince William Sound came up with 5 percent, and Southeast Alaska with 16 percent of the total, while other areas of Alaska brought in the last 4 percent, Evridge said.

The keta harvest of some 18 million fish is the 16th largest on record and nearly equal to the five-year average. Southeast Alaska harvests accounted for 42 percent, followed by Prince William Sound with 31 percent, the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands with 8 percent and the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim with 7 percent. All other areas, led by Bristol Bay, accounted for the remainder, Evridge said.

The Chinook harvest of some 274,000 fish proved slightly larger than the 2018 catch, but still ranked among the lowest harvests since 1975. The biggest region for kings, at 63 percent, was Southeast Alaska. Bristol Bay was the second biggest producer for kings, at 13 percent. The Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands had 11 percent and Prince William Sound 7 percent.

Climate change brought rising temperatures again to Alaska and drought conditions resulted in unknown thousands of salmon dying before they reached spawning grounds due to lack of sufficient water in streambeds. In some areas, including Prince William Sound, salmon milled around for days waiting for waters to rise. Several state biologists said they likely won’t know the impact of those temperatures and drought conditions until 2021.

“It was a dry summer and the way climate conditions are continuing this is more than likely to become more commonplace,” said Charlie Russell, a seine management biologist for ADF&G in Cordova.

Effort Continues to Remove Marine Debris

Several efforts are underway in the Pacific Northwest to remove tons of marine debris washed up on the tidal shorelines of Oregon and Washington, as well as areas of Alaska, in coordination with NOAA Fisheries’ marine debris program.

Professional fishers and diver services are often needed to remove lost fishing gear from both commercial and recreational harvesters along the outer coast, in rivers and inland waters, but a larger issue is marine debris washing up along sparsely populated coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest from all across the Pacific Rim. The latter is testimony to the global nature of the marine debris problem, NOAA officials said.

Volunteers remove most of the debris from remote and largely inaccessible coastal areas. Fall and winter weather conditions bring more of it on the beaches, making removal more challenging.

One project from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at the College of William and Mary is working to reduce ecological and economic impacts associated with lost gear in coastal Washington and Alaska. The goal is to reduce ecological and economic impacts associated with lost gear by incorporating an innovative bio-hinge mechanism into Dungeness crab traps. The project is funded by a Fishing for Energy grant, a partnership between the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Covanta and NOAA’s Marine Debris Program.

The Northwest Straits Foundation and its partners are in the midst of a three-year derelict crab pot survey and removal project supplemented with a targeted outreach campaign to recreational crabbers in Washington marine waters of the Salish Sea. The project, which runs through Nov. 30, 2021, directly addresses actions identified in the Puget Sound Lost Crab Pot Prevention Plan and in the Washington Marine Debris Action Plan.

A third marine debris removal project involves the University of Washington’s Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) in collaboration with the NOAA Marine Debris Program. The team is conducting shoreline monitoring field trials for evaluation and to update the NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project and COASST marine debris monitoring protocols. This citizen scientist initiative engages both domestic and international volunteers in conducting standardized shoreline surveys for marine debris items larger than 2.5 centimeters.

In Alaska, a community-based marine debris removal grant that concluded in October worked to remove debris from more than 80 local beaches accessible from the road system on Kodiak Island. Volunteers gathered, sorted and measured debris to better understand the composition and trends of debris accumulating onshore. Island Trails Network, with support of a NOAA community-based Marine Debris Removal grant, worked with the local community at Kodiak.

Federal Fisheries Board Meets in Homer

Final 2019-2020 specifications for five crab stocks are on the agenda at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s fall meeting under way in Homer, Alaska, through Oct. 9. Specifications will be determined for Eastern Bering Sea snow crab, Bristol Bay red king crab, Eastern Bering Sea tanner crab, Pribilof Island red king crab and St. Matthew blue king crab.

According to the council’s crab plan team members, Aleutian Islands golden king crab, Eastern Bering Sea snow crab and Pribilof Island red king crab are currently estimated to be above biomass maximum sustainable yield for 2019/2020. Eastern Bering Sea Tanner crab, Bristol Bay red king crab and Norton Sound red king crab are estimated to be below maximum sustainable yield.

Saint Matthew blue king crab was declared to be overfished in October of 2018. Pribilof Islands blue king crab stock remains overfished and is estimated to be well below is sustainable yield, but according to the crab plan team overfishing is not occurring for any crab stocks.

Also on the agenda, an initial review of the preliminary draft environmental impact statement for Bering Sea/Aleutian Island (BSAI) halibut abundance-based management prohibited species catch limits. A major change from current bycatch limits is under consideration. Restrictions would fluctuate up and down annually with changes in Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands halibut abundance. Prohibited species catch limit modifications are being considered for various groundfish sectors including the Amendment 80 and BSAI trawl limited access sector, longline catcher vessels, longline catcher processors and the Community Development Quota sector.

The meeting is open to the public and will be broadcast via https://npfmc.adobeconnect.com/october2019.

Sustainability of Current Tuna Fishing Habits Questioned

A new report by researchers at the University of British Columbia and University of Western Australia has found that global tuna catches have increased more than 1,000 percent in the past six decades, fueled by a massive expansion of industrial fisheries.

Their findings, published in Fisheries Research, by scientists engaged in the Sea Around Us initiative, indicate that these fisheries, which have caught nearly six million tons of tuna annually in recent years, are operating substantially over capacity. Researchers said fisheries have fully exploited or over-exploited populations of tuna and other large fish species and spread out to a point where no new fishing grounds remain to be explored.

According to the research, continuation of tuna fisheries’ catch and revenue at similar levels to present day will depend on long-term sustainable management of the fisheries and fleets exploiting these stocks and ecosystems, as well as the cooperation of over 100 countries engaged in tuna fisheries.

Lead study author Angie Coulter of UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and her colleagues, have produced the first comprehensive global data set since 1995 that estimates the amount of tuna taken from the ocean and where the fish are being caught.

They found that skipjack and yellowfin are the most commonly caught species of tuna, with combined catches of four million tons annually in recent years. Meanwhile catches of the sushi-favorite blue fin tuna have declined heavily since the mid-20th century, with that species now considered critical.

Researchers also found that the Pacific Ocean provides 67 percent of the world’s total tuna catches, which are mostly taken by Japanese and US fleets. Another 12 percent is caught in the Indian Ocean by mostly Taiwanese, Spanish, Indonesian and French fleets. An additional 12 percent comes from the Atlantic Ocean taken by Spanish, French and more recently Japanese and Korean vessels operating under Ghana’s flag.

Coulter said that hopefully results of this study will encourage stakeholders and policymakers to boost monitoring, share information and agree on coordinated efforts like cutbacks, to foster sustainability of tuna stocks.

Congress Urged to Speed Relief for Fishery Failures

A bipartisan effort is underway in the US Senate to provide harvesters hard hit by fisheries disasters with more funding and timely relief. During a Sept. 25 hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Senators Roger Wicker, R- Miss., chairman, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., ranking member, voiced concerns for the importance of responding to fisheries disasters and pushed for reforms.

Wicker said he welcomed news from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross of approval of a federal fishery disaster declaration and relief process for Mississippi, “but problems remain with the fisheries disasters declaration process. Our fishermen deserve more timely consideration and relief,” he said.

“In Washington, fisheries are a cornerstone of our maritime economy,” Cantwell said. “Its related businesses and seafood processors, ship builders, gear manufacturers, support 60 percent of our maritime economy, which is about 146,000 jobs and $30 billion in economic activity.” Cantwell spoke of the importance of fisheries and particularly of the 2016 salmon fishery disaster, which impacted fisheries across the state. “Washington has experienced 17 fishery disasters since 1992 including crab, groundfish and salmon,” she said. “Unfortunately, the fisheries disaster process has become more burdensome, and has resulted in less funding and lengthy delays, putting an unnecessary burden on fishermen and fishing communities.”

“The coho disaster impacted tribes, commercial fishermen, charter and recreational fishermen, but not all groups received adequate funding from NOAA,” Cantwell wrote.

Commercial fishermen in Alaska hard hit by the 2016 Prince William Sound pink salmon disaster are still waiting for compensation under the promised disaster relief.

“[NOAA] need to address the timeliness in facilitating these disasters, but they need some clarifying parameters,” said Alaska Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak. “They need to involve stakeholders. They did not involve the fishermen” (in determining the formula for payment in the 2016 pink salmon disaster). “Without stakeholder input that’s how the formula got screwed up. They need to make sure that the people affected are appropriately compensated. If not then it needs to be an even distribution across the board,” she said.

The current application period for those impacted by the Prince William Sound 2016 disaster is Oct. 31, 2019. The amount of time it has taken for those impacted to get paid “is almost criminal,” she said. “There is no excuse for it.”

New Director Named at Auke Bay Fisheries Science Center

NOAA Fisheries has named Dana Hanselman to be the new director of the Auke Bay Laboratories Division of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Juneau, Alaska.

Prior to this appointment, Peter Hagen had served as acting division director.

The federal fisheries agency said in his 16 years with the science center that Hanselman has distinguished himself through his innovative analytical methods and that he has been recognized by his peers as a leader in stock assessment methods.

Hanselman is the sablefish stock assessment lead and co-author on several rockfish assessments. He also served as co-chair of the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands groundfish plan team and is a member of the councils scientific and statistics committee.

Hanselman has earned a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for his contributions to the NOAA Scientific Integrity Committee and is a past winner of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.