Friday, April 21, 2023

Alaska Seawatch: Tanner crab season wraps up Homer News by Cristy Fry - April 20, 2023 The Bering Sea tanner crab season, the only one that was open this season after the closure of the snow crab and king crab fisheries, wrapped up at the end of March with only 17 boats fishing. https://www.homernews.com/news/seawatch-tanner-crab-season-wraps-up/ Gillnet and time restrictions put in place in Kuskokwim area The Board of Fisheries held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss a proposal to limit vessels to one gillnet and to close fishing on Sundays in the Kuskokwim area. Alaska News Source by Joe Kinneen - April 20, 2023 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The Board of Fisheries voted Wednesday to cap gillnet fishing for a period of time this summer in the waters off Western Alaska. https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/04/20/gillnet-time-restrictions-put-place-kuskokwim-area/ Press Release: Preserving Alaska’s living marine resources USCG News - April 20, 2023 ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska supports some of the most abundant and diverse marine ecosystems in the world. With more than 46,000 miles of shoreline – more than all of the lower 48 U.S. states combined – the ocean is an integral part of Alaska’s ecosystems, economy, history and culture. According to National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Fisheries of the United States 2020 report, U.S. commercial fisheries landed 8.4 billion pounds of seafood valued at 4.7 billion dollars, 199-million saltwater recreational fishing trips were taken, and recreational anglers caught one billion fish with 65 percent released alive. According to the 2019 report, commercial and recreational saltwater fishing supported 1.8 million. Alaska produces more than half the fish caught in waters off the U.S. coast, provides jobs and a stable food supply for the nation, and supports a traditional way of life for Alaska Natives and local fishing communities. Protection of the state’s 5.7-billion-dollar domestic fishery has never been more crucial. https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3357611/preserving-alaskas-living-marine-resources/ International FISH Act Introduced to Combat Illegal Foreign Seafood Harvest SeafoodNews - April 21, 2023 This week a group of politicians including Alaska Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski introduced the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act. The legislation was created to combat foreign illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by blacklisting those offenders from U.S. ports and waters. It would also provide further support to the U.S. Coast Guard in their enforcement efforts, as well as advance “international and bilateral negotiations to achieve enforceable agreements and treaties.” “Alaska is the superpower of seafood, the source of roughly two-thirds of all seafood harvested in the United States,” said Senator Sullivan. “Our fishery’s extraordinary abundance is the result of responsible stewards who’ve followed the rules and sustainably managed this incredible resource. But not all vessels and countries abide by these rules, ravaging fish stocks without regard for other users or future generations – particularly the worst offender, China.” Sullivan and his colleagues developed the package to build on the Maritime SAFE Act, which was signed into law in December 2019 in an effort to combat IUU fishing. Sullivan says that the FISH Act is an “all-hands-on-deck effort to crack down on foreign IUU fishing for the sake of our fish, our environment, and our coastal communities.” “Nearly 50 years ago, the Magnuson-Stevens Act established a framework that continues to be a model of sustainable fisheries management,” added Senator Murkowski. “Unfortunately, foreign illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing undermines the laws that make U.S. fisheries some of the best managed in the world. We must ensure that we have the appropriate policies in place to ensure the sustainability of Alaska’s – and our nation’s – oceans and fishing communities. I’m proud to help introduce legislation that will fight back against IUU fishing, to help safeguard the livelihoods of U.S. fishermen and women – key players in supporting America’s economy and food security – and ensure the sustainability of our fisheries remains a focus at home and abroad.” https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1251110/FISH-Act-Introduced-to-Combat-Illegal-Foreign-Seafood-Harvest FYI’s Alaska Airlines’ flying salmon travels the Inside Passage a final time KSTK by Sage Smiley - April 18, 2023 The world’s largest flying salmon took its final swim upstream Tuesday. KSTK went to greet Alaska Airlines’ Salmon-Thirty-Salmon in Wrangell on its ceremonial last flight. https://alaskapublic.org/2023/04/18/alaska-airlines-flying-salmon-travels-the-inside-passage-a-final-time/ NMFS’ Furuness Honored with Distinguished Service Award Fishermen's News - April 19, 2023 Federal fisheries managers have honored Mary Furuness, a supervisory fish management specialist with the agency’s Alaska regional office, with the Bob Mace Distinguished Service Award for her years of work moving in-season management forward to the electronic system used today. https://fishermensnews.com/nmfs-furuness-honored-with-distinguished-service-award/ 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.