Alaska/Pacific Coast
Employees plead for wages due: Over a month since Global Seafoods’ cannery workers paid Kodiak Daily Mirror by Alistair Gardiner - November 13, 2018 KODIAK — Employees of Global Seafoods North America’s Kodiak processing plant have remained unpaid for more than a month while the firm addresses “financial difficulties,” according to sources from within the company. http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/news/kodiak_news/article_d4db9d14-e70d-11e8-b956-9f1d8dc19a39.html National America’s Finest Wins Jones Act Exemption in Senate Coast Guard Bill, but will have Sideboards on Po SeafoodNews by John Sackton - November 15, 2018 The bitter intra-industry fight over the certification of F/V America’s Finest has ended with the approval by the Senate of a Jones Act waiver. The House has already twice approved such a waiver. The language, included in the Coast Guard Authorization Bill, says “Notwithstanding sections 12112 and 12113 of title 46, United States Code, the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating may issue a certificate of documentation with a coastwise and a fishery endorsement for the vessel AMERICA’S FINEST (United States official number 1276760). The waiver, which was heavily sought by Washington Senator Maria Cantwell, will prevent the Anacortes based shipyard Dakota Creek from going under. The $75 million vessel, ordered by Fishermen’s Finest, would have to be sold at a substantial loss if it could not get a US fishery endorsement. Dakota Creek has maintained that putting too much foreign steel in the vessel was an inadvertent mistake, but critics claim the company knew it was taking a chance. Since the controversy, Dakota Creek has moved to bring the cold formed steel technology used in the foreign panels to the US. The Senate bill’s waiver is conditional, calling for the US Secretary of Commerce to revoke the waiver should an investigation find the Jones act violation was intentional. The waiver is further circumscribed with language sought by Alaska shoreside fish processors and the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, that puts in place sideboards governing Alaska pollock and cod in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. These sideboards will be in place for six years, or until the N. Pacific Council comes up with a rule to regulate deliveries to catcher processor vessels at sea. The shore plants have already seen some of the vessels that sell to them migrating some of their deliveries to at sea catcher processors, and the fear was that a modern vessel like America’s Finest would accelerate that trend. The sideboard prevents F/V Amerca’s Finest from increasing its landings of these species through these kinds of transfers until such transfers are regulated by the N. Pacific Council. The reauthorization bill is expected to easily sail through the House as well. The House has already twice passed bills with the waiver language in them, so not further opposition is likely. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1123517/Americas-Finest-Wins-Jones-Act-Exemption-in-Senate-Coast-Guard-Bill-but-will-have-Sideboards-on-Po Consumers seek certainty about sustainable seafood labelling Eco-certification program ‘is simply something to make rich people feel good,’ fisheries scientist says BIV by Nelson Bennett - November 6, 2018 If you are a conscientious consumer, you may look for sustainable seafood labels when buying fish or ordering seafood in a restaurant. You may look for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label when buying tuna in the grocery store, for example. https://biv.com/article/2018/11/consumers-seek-certainty-about-sustainable-seafood-labelling Environment/Science Lack of ice in Bering Sea casts uncertainty over future of Alaska fish stocks Seafood Source Brian Hagenbuch - November 13, 2018 Last winter, something unprecedented happened in Alaska. For the first time on record, there was no sea ice in the northern Bering Sea, and biologists are now scrambling to figure out how that will affect scores of area fisheries – from crab to salmon to rockfish to various pelagic stocks – in the coming years. https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/environment-sustainability/lack-of-ice-in-bering-sea-casts-uncertainty-over-future-of-alaska-fish-stocks Scientists acknowledge key errors in study of how fast the oceans are warming A major study claimed the oceans were warming much faster than previously thought. But researchers now say they can’t necessarily make that claim. Washington Post by Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis - November 13, 2018 Scientists behind a major study that claimed the Earth’s oceans are warming faster than previously thought now say their work contained inadvertent errors that made their conclusions seem more certain than they actually are. https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/11/14/scientists-acknowledge-key-errors-study-how-fast-oceans-are-warming/?utm_term=.3f1085c4fa46 FYI’s Bean’s Cafe’s Children’s Lunchbox wins pediatrics award Anchorage Press - October 3, 2018 The Children’s Lunchbox, a program of Bean’s Cafe, received the 2017 Children's Organization of the Year award from the Alaska Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics(ACAAP). On hand to present the award were Lily Lou, MD, FAAP and Jody Butto, MD, FAA. https://www.anchoragepress.com/news/bean-s-cafe-s-children-s-lunchbox-wins-pediatrics-award/article_08625e70-c779-11e8-85c3-cbc74b9fdb71.html Letters Letters: Ray Hilborn Clarifies Thoughts on MSC Seafood News - November 12, 2018 Letter to the Editor: I think the quotes in your lead article Friday (Is MSC Just Something to Make Rich People Feel Good? Label Criticized in Vancouver- Friday Nov. 9th) may have given the wrong impression about my views on the MSC. I have consistently found that the MSC label is the most authoritative assessment of the sustainability of a fishery and was a co-author on a paper showing that the MSC certified fisheries are among the best in the world. Showing that other organizations like Greenpeace rate fisheries differently was to highlight the confusion for consumers, not to suggest that Greenpeace's or other NGOs assessment is better or done with the same transparency and care as the MSC. I don't think there is any question that MSC certified fisheries are generally the best managed in the world -- but what I do question is how much eco-labeling is changing fisheries management especially given the confusion over different ratings by different NGOs and the confusion this causes with consumers in rich countries. Now that the larger well managed fisheries have generally achieved MSC certification, new fisheries will likely have to improve their management to reach the MSC standard. But how much of world fisheries is this going to affect? It also will almost certainly not affect the large number of poorly managed fisheries in the world -- the overall impact will be at the margins. We will really improve fisheries management when international organizations and governments enact stronger regulation of their fisheries. Sincerely, Ray Hilborn https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1123125/Letters-Ray-Hilborn-Clarifies-Thoughts-on-MSC
Ann Owens Pacific Seafood Processors Association Office Manager 1900 W Emerson Place Suite 205, Seattle, WA 98119 Phone: 206.281.1667 E-mail: pspafish@gmail.com; Website: www.pspafish.net Our office days/hours are Monday-Friday 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. *Inclusion of a news article, report, or other document in this email does not imply PSPA support or endorsement of the information or opinion expressed in the document.