Alaska
COVID-19 funding opportunities for Bristol Bay businesses Guidelines for federal, state and local COVID-19 funding for people and organizations in Bristol Bay. KDLG by Isabelle Ross - August 18, 2020 From fishing to tourism to childcare, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how Bristol Bay operates. There are a host of local, state and federal funding opportunities available for people and businesses affected by COVID-19. For more on who can apply where for funding and financial assistance, KDLG's Izzy Ross spoke with Gabe Dunham, of the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Council, and Michelle Kern, of the Alaska Business Development Center. https://www.kdlg.org/post/covid-19-funding-opportunities-bristol-bay-businesses National Eat Seafood America! Messaging Drives Consumers to Eat More Seafood During COVID-19 Crisis Perishable News by Seafood Nutrition Partnership Seafood - August 18, 2020 Eat Seafood America!, a rapid-response initiative launched in early April aimed at helping Americans stay healthy during the COVID-19 public health crisis as well as help boost the U.S. seafood economy, has been successful in encouraging consumers to eat more fish and shellfish. Of consumers surveyed in June and July, those who reported seeing the Eat Seafood America! messaging were three times more likely to have increased their seafood consumption in the last two months. https://www.perishablenews.com/seafood/eat-seafood-america-messaging-drives-consumers-to-eat-more-seafood-during-covid-19-crisis/ Seafood Could Account for 25% of Animal Protein Needed to Meet Increase in Demand in Coming Years SeafoodNews.com by Susan Chambers - August 20, 2020 Policy reforms and technological improvements could drive seafood production upward by as much as 75% over the next three decades, research by Oregon State University and an international collaboration suggests. The findings, published recently in Nature, are important because by 2050 the Earth will have an estimated 9.8 billion human mouths to feed, a 2 billion increase in population from 2020. Seafood has the potential to meet much of the increased need for protein and nutrients, researchers say. Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco, university distinguished professor in the OSU College of Science, joined scientists from the United States, China, Chile, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Norway, Argentina and Malaysia in analyzing how much food the ocean could be expected to sustainably produce 30 years from now. Examining the sea's primary food-producing sectors - wild fisheries and the mariculture of finfish such as tuna and snapper as well as bivalves like clams and oysters - the researchers determined estimates of "sustainable supply curves" that take into consideration ecological, economic, regulatory and technological limitations. Mariculture means cultivating marine organisms for food and other products in coastal seawater environments or the open ocean. The scientists framed those supply curves against future demand scenarios to predict how much food the ocean, which presently accounts for just 17% of the animal production industry, could supply as the global population swells. "As mariculture technology improves and policies surrounding the ocean and its resources are reformed, food from the sea could increase by between 21 million and 44 million metric tons annually," Lubchenco said in a press release. "Those increases amount to between 12% and 25% of the estimated animal protein increases needed to feed the almost 10 billion people expected to live on the Earth in 2050. Rising incomes and shifts in food preferences will greatly increase demand for nutritious food in the coming decades, and the ocean can be a big part of meeting that demand." Producing more and more food from land-based crops is challenging due to declining yield rates and competition for land and water, Lubchenco said, as well as various environmental and health concerns associated with large-scale agriculture. And while land-derived seafood - freshwater aquaculture and inland fisheries - plays an important role in the global food picture, its expansion faces some of the same hurdles and causes some of the same problems. "Land-based sources of fish and other foods are certainly part of the solution, but we show that sustainable food from the sea can play a major role in global food supply and food security as well," Lubchenco said in the statement. "Stories of overfishing, pollution and unsustainable mariculture give the impression that it is impossible to sustainably increase the supply of food from the sea. But unsustainable practices, regulatory barriers and other constraints may be limiting seafood production - meaning shifts in policies and practices could benefit both conservation and food production. "We've seen, for example, how changes in policy in U.S. fisheries resulted in significantly reducing overfishing and rebuilding wild stocks, thus increasing the abundance of fish in U.S. waters as well as fishery yields," she added. Lubchenco and colleagues, including lead author Christopher Costello of the University of California, Santa Barbara, describe four primary routes to sustainably increasing ocean-based food production: Better management of wild fisheries, which account for 80% of the sea's meat production; reforms for policies governing mariculture; improvements in feeds used in mariculture; and shifts in demand to drive increased production from all ocean food sectors. Nutritionally diverse and less environmentally burdensome than land-based food production, seafood is uniquely positioned to help feed the Earth's growing population, Lubchenco said. And directing resources away from subsidies that enhance fishing capacity toward building institutional and technical capacity for fisheries research, management and enforcement will be a key step, according to the authors. Seventy-five percent of mariculture production requires some feed inputs, like fishmeal and fish oil, derived from wild forage fisheries. But alternatives like terrestrial plant- or animal-based proteins, seafood processing waste, microbial ingredients, insects, algae and genetically modified plants are in the works - innovations that could decouple mariculture from wild fisheries. And the largest potential for expansion of food from the sea will come from the farming of bivalves. "We have shown that the sea can be a much larger contributor to sustainable food production than is currently the case, via a collection of plausible and actionable mechanisms," Lubchenco said. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1178751/Seafood-Could-Account-for-25-percent-of-Animal-Protein-Needed-to-Meet-Increase-in-Demand-in-Coming-Years Environment/Science Alaska’s salmon are getting smaller, affecting people and ecosystems A comprehensive study of four salmon species across all regions of Alaska finds salmon are returning to rivers smaller and younger than in the past UC Santa Cruz by Tim Stephens - August 19, 2020 The size of salmon returning to rivers in Alaska has declined dramatically over the past 60 years because they are spending fewer years at sea, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/08/salmon-size-declines.html Labeling and Marketing Support Alaska And Alaskans When You Choose Alaska Seafood Perishable News by Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Seafood - August 19, 2020 Food security and safety are essential, now more than ever. When you choose Alaska’s wild, delicious and healthy seafood, you support the generations of sustainable fishing communities working hard, safely and responsibly to put food on your plate today and for years to come. https://www.perishablenews.com/seafood/support-alaska-and-alaskans-when-you-choose-alaska-seafood/ Federal Register Pacific Fishery Management Council; Public Meetings A Notice by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 08/20/2020 The Pacific Council and its advisory entities will meet online September 8-11 and September 14-18, 2020, noting there will be no meetings on Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13. The Pacific Council meeting will begin on Friday, September 11, 2020 at 8 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), reconvening at 8 a.m. Monday, September 14, and each day through Friday, September 18, 2020. All meetings are open to the public, except a Closed Session will be held from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., Friday, September 11, to address litigation and personnel matters. The Pacific Council will meet as late as necessary each day to complete its scheduled business. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/20/2020-18250/pacific-fishery-management-council-public-meetings
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