*********************************** Please Help Hungry Families eat more seafood: PSPA and APA have a joint venture underway to help feed hungry families, children, and communities more seafood in 2020. We realize that in this age of COVID-19 all of us in the seafood industry are navigating challenging times. Even so, there are friends and neighbors in our nation that have it even worse than we do. Food banks are struggling to keep up with demands to feed hungry people protein and seafood is largely absent from their menus. SeaShare is a nonprofit organization that was established 25 years ago to help us maximize the results of our collective donations and we’ve once again partnered with them to get food to people in need. PSPA and APA have worked with others to donate over one million pounds of high protein seafood over the last 3 months, but the need remains. We know there is more seafood available for hungry families if we can raise the funds needed to process and distribute to food banks. PSPA and APA are asking our friends, colleagues, and associates to consider giving during this time of incredible need. We have set up a live donation page at https://www.seashare.org/donate/pspa-apa-donate. Please make a donation to help. Thank you. ***********************************
Alaska Biden Vows to Block Alaska Mine Project if Elected Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Sunday that if he’s elected, his administration would stop a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. USNews by Associated Press - August 9, 2020 JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Sunday that if he’s elected, his administration would stop a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2020-08-09/biden-vows-to-block-alaska-mine-project-if-elected Humpy harvest in PWS surges to exceed 12M fish Keta landings are down considerably from a year ago Cordova Times by Margaret Bauman - August 8, 2020 Harvests of over 9 million pink salmon over the past week have pushed Alaska’s yearly total to over 25 million fish, including upwards of 12 million humpies caught in Prince William Sound. https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2020/08/08/humpy-harvest-in-pws-surges-to-exceed-12m-fish/ Where are the chums? Dog days of summer a no show in Southeast KFSK by Joe Viechnicki - August 6, 2020 It’s been a woeful year for hatchery chum salmon returns in Southeast Alaska. Hatchery managers are taking unusual steps just to ensure they’re able to collect enough eggs for future generations. It’s a far cry from the bumper crop that has bolstered commercial salmon catches in the region for many years. https://www.kfsk.org/2020/08/06/where-are-the-chums-dog-days-of-summer-a-no-show-in-southeast/ Alaska Daily Case Count Drops, Seafood Related Cases Remain 10-11% of Total Statewide SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - August 7, 2020 Alaska’s daily case counts of the coronavirus have dropped from the highs seen in late July, with most of the last week’s daily cases below 100. That changed yesterday when news came of an outbreak at the OBI Seafood’s Alitak plant on Kodiak Island of 37 employees. The state’s COVID-19 dashboard at press time reported cases only through Wednesday, August 5. At that time, seafood-related cases remain about 10% of the total positive cases in the state. The Alitak cases include one found on July 28 after the person developed symptoms. Then a few others after contact tracing was done and more positive, but asymptomatic cases were found. All of these employees were immediately isolated in a separate facility on the company property, already remote from the city of Kodiak or other population centers. OBI temporarily closed the facility itself to conduct enhanced cleaning and sanitation protocols. “Because of the remote location of the plant and out of an abundance of caution, positive cases are being transported to Anchorage via safe transport where they will remain in isolation and in the care of our medical team,” the company wrote in a press release on Wednesday. The company is working closing with Kodiak Public Health and Emergency Operations teams as well as with the Kodiak Area Native Association and state health experts “to identify further quarantine recommendations, adopt aggressive testing schedules, initiate contact tracing, and identify any potential risks to employees.” The Alitak cases bring the case count to 58 for Kodiak, with 42 of those cases considered active, reported the Kodiak Daily Mirror yesterday. The Alitak plant is closed to visitors and employees aren’t allowed to leave, said Meagan Christiansen, public information officer with the operations center, according to an ADN report. “We are really lucky that this little bit of outbreak isn’t in town,” Else DeHart, Kodiak’s public health nurse, told the Mirror yesterday, noting that these cases will not affect community spread in town, but added that the recent cases show how fast the virus can spread in a group. Alaska’s case count as of Wednesday was 3,484 resident cases, centered around high-density population areas, and 739 positive cases in non-residents, scattered throughout the state. Of the non-resident cases, seafood-related positives numbered 451 as of August 5, 2020. Seafood-related cases were 62% of all non-resident cases, up from a 59% share of on July 24. But in terms of all positive cases in the state, seafood related cases as of August 5 are 10.7%, nearly identical to the ratio on July 24 of 10.8%. The Alitak outbreak follows several large outbreaks in the Alaska seafood industry. An OBI processing plant in Seward saw 139 of 252 employees test positive, while an American Seafoods factory trawler had 85 of 119 workers onboard test positive, including one who was hospitalized, ADN reported this week. Workers from the OBI plant in Seward and the American Seafoods vessel were taken to Anchorage for isolation and quarantine. There was also an outbreak among 76 of 135 workers at an Anchorage-based processor as well as one in Juneau, where 62 of 150 workers tested positive, reported ADN. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1177826/Alaska-Daily-Case-Count-Drops-Seafood-Related-Cases-Remain-10-11-percent-of-Total-Statewide Labeling and Marketing 3MMI - Pebble Mine : What Could Actually Happen to Alaska's Sustainable Salmon TradexFoods - August 10, 2020 If you've followed the headlines surrounding the Pebble Mine recently, it's evident that what should be a science-based environmental debate, has been turned into an epicenter for political controversy. We spoke to experts on the ground in Alaska to bring you the precise scientific facts regarding the extent of damage to the ecosystem this mine could incur. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNEmOdCrb2Q&feature=emb_logo Federal Register North Pacific Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting A Notice by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 08/07/2020 The Economic Data Reporting (EDR) Stakeholder Discussion will be held on August 26, 2020. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/07/2020-17289/north-pacific-fishery-management-council-public-meeting FYI’s Marine Safety Instructor course slated for Sitka Cordova Times - August 8, 2020 A marine safety instructor training class Sept. 21-26 in Sitka will train participants to teach cold water survival procedures, use of marine safety equipment and vessel safety drills. https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2020/08/08/marine-safety-instructor-course-slated-for-sitka/
Pacific Seafood Processors Association 1900 W Emerson Place Suite 205, Seattle, WA 98119 Phone: 206.281.1667 E-mail: admin@pspafish.net; 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.