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PRESS RELEASE: PSPA ANNOUNCES NEW PRESIDENT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Pacific Seafood Processors Association (PSPA) is thrilled to announce and welcome Julie Decker as its new President.
PSPA’s members are shoreside and mothership seafood processing companies with operations in 21 Alaska communities and in Washington. They purchase, process, and market hundreds of millions of pounds of seafood from just about every commercial fishery and gear type in Alaska, including wild Alaska salmon, Alaska pollock, Pacific cod, crab, halibut, and rockfish, among others.
https://e5808bbb-07ea-46ca-8834-6f76827d6684.usrfiles.com/ugd/e5808b_c442e164bc6c4615a090b0bac640fe85.pdf
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Alaska Alaska’s Halibut/Sablefish Landings at Half of Quota, Salmon Catch Now at 87% of Forecast SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - August 17, 2023 Alaska’s commercial landings for salmon, halibut, and sablefish are close to where they should be for mid-August, given historical catches by this time of year, and how much time is left in the season. The state’s total salmon catch as of August 16 is now over 164.6 million fish, about 87% of the pre-season forecast of 189.44 million salmon. The breakdown by species is as follows: * Sockeye: 49 million sockeyes landed or 101.7% of the predicted 48.2 million statewide. Bristol Bay leads that production with 39.4 million sockeyes, followed by the Copper River and Prince William Sound with 1.9 million, then Cook Inlet with 1.8 million, the South Peninsula with 1.6 million, Kodiak with 1.55 million sockeyes landed, the North Peninsula with 1.1 and Chignik with over 900,000 sockeye. * Pinks: Statewide landings as of August 16 are 99.2 million or 81% of this year’s projected 122.2 million salmon. The highest volume of pinks are coming from Prince William Sound (44.8 million pinks landed as of August 16) and Southeast (34.6 million landed so far). Kodiak’s pink landings are now at 10.8 million salmon. In Cook Inlet 2.6 million pinks have been landed so far, compared to 1.1 million landed at this time in 2021. Pinks are dominant in the South Peninsula with 6.2 million caught as of August 16. * Chum or keta: Landings are at 15.3 million fish, closing in on the pre-season projection of 16 million salmon. The biggest producers for chum this year have been Southeast Alaska with over 8.4 million fish caught so far and Prince William Sound with 4.7 million fish. The Westward Region, which includes Kodiak, Chignik, the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutians, has caught 1.6 million chum so far. * Coho or silver salmon came in early and followed the five year average for volume and timing until two weeks ago, when landings dropped in a few areas. In Prince William Sound/Copper River, for example, coho landings to date of 15,000 fish are 571% higher than year-to-date landings there. In Kodiak coho landings to date are 440% higher than the same time last year and in the Alaska Peninsula, landings are 354% higher than this time last year. The statewide catch is now just under one million fish with a pre-season forecast of 2.96 million and a historical season that lasts into late September. The season for Pacific halibut is now a solid 8 months and statewide landings reflect the halfway point with a total of 8.97 million pounds landed out of the 2023 allocation of 17.8 million pounds in Alaska. As usual, the biggest producer is Area 3A, the Gulf of Alaska, with 4.4 million pounds landed as of today, according to NOAA Fisheries statistics. In Area 2C southeast Alaska, 2.23 million pounds have been landed to date. Area 3B, the western Gulf, holds the third spot in landings with 1.6 million pounds caught so far. Those three areas landings represent 62%, 56%, and 51% of their annual allocations respectively. In British Columbia, halibut landings are now at In Washington, Oregon, and California, commercial non-treaty halibut landings are 259,226 net pounds, slightly over their allocation of 257,819. Treaty tribes landings are 310,304 pounds in an allocation of 502,500 pounds. British Columbia's fleet has caught 3.1 million pounds, 61% of its 5.02 million pounds. For sablefish, with an annual allocation of 62 million pounds in Alaska, only 25.8 million or 42% have been landed according to NOAA Fisheries. Highest catches are recorded in the Central Gulf, with 8.1 million pounds or 46% of their allocation landed to date. Southeast Alaska shows the second highest catch of 6.9 million pounds to date, or 55% of their allocation. In terms of percentage of their allocation, Alaska’s furthest along area is West of Yakutat, reaching 67% of its allocation as of today with 4 of 6.1 million pounds caught. Southeast has caught 55% of its annual quota and the Bering Sea about 33% of the quota in that area. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1259628/Alaskas-Halibut-Sablefish-Landings-at-Half-of-Quota-Salmon-Catch-Now-at-87-percent-of-Forecast Introducing the New Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program As one of the most abundant and valuable groundfish species harvested off Alaska’s coast, Pacific cod require a more efficient solution to regulate harvest. NOAA Fisheries - August 9, 2023 NOAA Fisheries issued a final rule to implement a new program that will improve management of the Pacific cod trawl fishery. Amendment 122 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Management Area allocates Pacific cod harvest quota share to qualifying groundfish License Limitation Program (LLP) license holders and qualifying processors. It requires participants to form cooperatives to harvest the quota. A groundfish LLP license authorizes a vessel to participate in a BSAI groundfish fishery in accordance with specific stipulations. With some limited exceptions, the LLP requires that each vessel that participates in federally managed groundfish fisheries off Alaska be designated on a groundfish LLP license. The Amendment 122 regulations are effective on September 7, 2023. Fishing under the Pacific cod Trawl Cooperative (PCTC) Program is scheduled to start on January 20, 2024. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/introducing-new-pacific-cod-trawl-cooperative-program Environment/Science On Alaska visit, Buttigieg touts funding boost to help salmon cross the road Alaska Public Media by Liz Ruskin - August 16, 2023 It sounds like an Alaska transportation riddle, but how does a salmon cross a road? The answer will soon be “with financial help from the federal Transportation Department.” https://alaskapublic.org/2023/08/16/on-alaska-visit-buttigieg-touts-funding-boost-to-help-salmon-cross-the-road/ Climate Change: Consortium of 43 scientists warn of a decline in Arctic cod Scientists say a warming ocean is leading to habitat loss, a decline in reproduction, and a lack of food for the species. Vancouver Sun by Tiffany Crawford - August 15, 2023 Forty-three scientists from 26 institutions are sounding the alarm about a looming decline in Arctic cod because of climate change and human activity. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/climate-change-consortium-of-43-scientists-warn-of-a-decline-in-arctic-cod Labeling and Marketing New Alaska Seafood Videos Wrap Up Multi-Year Project Alaska Seafood Marketing - August 16, 2023 ASMI is thrilled to announce the release of our latest video project, the end cap to a larger series, with the Alaska Seafood brand anthem we are calling “Wild Alaska Seafood: Our Story”, which showcases Alaska Seafood in all its glory. https://www.alaskaseafood.org/news/new-alaska-seafood-videos-wrap-up-multi-year-project/ FYI’s Virtual meeting on bycatch for Sept. 5 Cordova Times - August 16, 2023 A virtual meeting on the incidental commercial catch of fish species not targeted has been scheduled by the Alaska Bycatch Advisory Council to be held starting at 9 a.m. on Sept. 5. https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2023/08/16/virtual-meeting-on-bycatch-for-sept-5/ 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.