Friday, June 4, 2021

Alaska NEW REPORT: Processor Survey Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association - June 02, 2021 BBRSDA’s annual processor survey, prepared by Northern Economics, gathers prior season information from Bristol Bay processors. This survey captures raw product data, finished product forms, chilled product volumes and quality impact, ice production capacity, and respondents’ opinions of trends and priorities within the fishery. Read all about the state of Bristol Bay salmon quality in the report HERE. https://www.bbrsda.com/updates/2020-processor-survey-report Icicle to buy pinks, brings processor to Norton Sound The Nome Nugget by Julia Lerner - June 3, 2021 Icicle Seafoods wants to buy Norton Sound’s pink salmon. This summer, Icicle, which recently merged with Ocean Beauty Seafoods LLC to create OBI Seafoods LLC, plans to bring a processing vessel as well as four or five fishing tenders to buy pinks from local fishermen and expand their market from Bristol Bay and Prince William Sound. Icicle’s headquarters are in Seattle, but the company has roots in Alaska. Icicle’s processing vessels operate in Alaskan waters and the shore-based processing facilities are in southeast Alaska, near Anchorage, Bristol Bay, Dillingham and Kodiak; administrative offices are in Alaska, Seattle and Tokyo. http://www.nomenugget.com/news/icicle-buy-pinks-brings-processor-norton-sound Snapshot of Alaska Salmon Fisheries: June 3, 2021 SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - June 3, 2021 It’s early June and coastal Alaskans are living, breathing, and thinking salmon. This week was a week of first openings for Bristol Bay, Prince William Sound, and Southeast Alaska. The first run of the year opened on May 17 in south-central Alaska’s Copper River, followed this week by Prince William Sound. The Copper had three openers before the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) paused fishing to allow more escapement up the river. Harvest reached 57,000 salmon (52,000 sockeye, 5,000 Chinook) as the closure came and all eyes turned to the sonar counters up river that monitor the escapement. As of June 2 “the sonar count is the 13th lowest on record (1978-2021),” said ADF&G in a statement yesterday. "Cumulative commercial harvest this year is the 4th lowest harvest to-date in the last 50 years," ADF&G managers wrote of the Copper River fishery. "Cumulative sonar count through 6/1 is 63,585 fish, whereas 148,048 fish are projected by this date to meet the Inriver Run Goal. The 0600 count for 6/2 is 3,015 fish,” they reported. This week Prince William Sound’s seine fishery in the Montague and Southwestern districts, and gill net fisheries in Coghill and Eshamy opened. No seine harvest reports yet, and slow returns on the gill net sockeye fishery: less than 800 sockeye caught as of ADF&G’s last report. Chum salmon are showing up in larger numbers than expected: nearly 18,000 have been caught so far by the gill net fleet in Prince William Sound. The 2021 forecast for pinks in PWS is 54.8 million, compared to last year’s harvest of 23 million. Overall harvest for both PWS and Copper River areas in 2020 was composed of 6,878 Chinook, 941,807 sockeye, 288,617 coho, 23.0 million pink, and 2.0 million chum salmon. In Southeast Alaska, the spring troll season has started with 4,000 (mostly hatchery sourced) Chinook salmon caught in the spring fishery. The winter troll season landed 15,000 Chinook in that area. Southeast Alaska’s pink salmon forecast is 28 million, about 18% less than the recent 10-year average harvest of 34 million pink salmon. That forecast is 7 million salmon more than the 2019 harvest and just over half of the average odd-year harvest since 2001. Last year’s total pink salmon harvest in Southeast Alaska was 8.8 million pinks. In Cook Inlet last year, 880,000 sockeye and 2.8 million pink salmon were landed. The 2021 forecast for that area is 2.15 million sockeye and 2.7 million pinks. Test fisheries are underway in Kodiak this week for the pink salmon fishery, forecasted across the Kodiak Management Area as a harvest of 22.5 million, slightly higher than last year’s landings of 21.6 million. In addition to the pinks, which are split almost 50:50 between natural and hatchery production, Kodiak is expecting 2 million sockeye landings this year. Chignik, where runs have all but disappeared in recent years, is looking at another dismal year, but perhaps one where there will be some fishing. ADF&G has issued a 2021 forecasted harvest of 165,000 sockeye in Chignik. The South Peninsula is looking at a forecasted 12.9 million pink salmon harvest this year, compared to last year’s 5 million catch. Also forecasted is a harvest of 2 million sockeye. Bristol Bay’s forecast this year is a catch of 34.6 million sockeyes, compared to last year’s catch of 39.6 million. The 2021 statewide salmon forecast of 190.1 million salmon is composed of 269,000 Chinook salmon, 46.6 million sockeye, 124.2 million pink salmon, 3.8 million coho salmon, and 15.3 million chum salmon. That forecast compares to Alaska's 2020 salmon harvest of 118.3 million fish. Over half of this harvest was pink salmon (60.7 million), followed by sockeye (46.4 million). Most of the 2020 pink salmon harvest occurred in the Central and Westward regions, and Bristol Bay continued to be the largest sockeye salmon producing region in Alaska. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1200389/Snapshot-of-Alaska-Salmon-Fisheries-June-3-2021 International Kamchatka to Become Center of Russian Fish Processing in Years to Come SeafoodNews.com by Eugene Gerden - June 4, 2021 The authorities of the Russian Kamchatka region, together with a private investor, plan to increase investments in the development of the fish processing sector of the region in years to come. As Vladimir Solodov, the governor of the Kamchatka region, said in an interview with the Russian Komsomolskay Pravda business paper during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the region continues an active building of its fish processing sector and fishing fleet. Over the past five years the overall volume of investments in the industry has exceeded RUB 50 billion (US$683 million). According to Solodov, due to the closure of Chinese ports for Russian pollock this year, one of the main tasks for the industry was ensuring 100% processing of domestic pollock catch within the territory of the region. A serious progress in this field has been achieved as the local authorities, together with private investors, are ready to start building new fish factories that will have the capacity to process more than 300,000 tons of pollock a year. Part of the plans of the Kamchatka authorities is also ensuring a year-round utilization of domestic fish processing facilities and a gradual shift from seasonal work. A significant part of fish products that will be produced at the Kamchatka plans will be supplied to the European part of Russia by the Northern Sea Route. Finally, according to Solodov, a particular attention will be paid for the building of fish trawlers within the territory of the region. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1200479/Kamchatka-to-Become-Center-of-Russian-Fish-Processing-in-Years-to-Come Russia modernizes its pollock fleet, but struggles to find buyers Seafood Source by Ivan Stupachenko - June 3, 2021 Russia’s pollock fishery was faced with an unprecedented season in 2021 as the nation’s products were shut out of Chinese ports – a sudden loss of the destination market for 60 percent of the country's seafood exports. https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/russian-pollock-a-season-brought-less-fish-and-money-higher-productivity-with-shift-in-strategies Labeling and Marketing Seafood Market Bulletin Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute - June 2021 McKinley Research Group (formerly McDowell Group), an ASMI contractor, produces annual market bulletins as part of ASMI’s Seafood Market Information Services which provide the latest analysis of market conditions and news on the performance of Alaska’s seafood product portfolio. Find out about supply expectations, key factors impacting demand, and much more by clicking on the reports below. https://www.alaskaseafood.org/industry/seafood-market-info/seafood-marketing-bulletin/ Federal Register Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Cook Inlet Salmon; Amendment 14 A Proposed Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 06/04/2021 NMFS proposes regulations to implement Amendment 14 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Salmon Fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Off Alaska (Salmon FMP). If approved, Amendment 14 would incorporate the Cook Inlet EEZ Subarea into the Salmon FMP's West Area, thereby bringing the Cook Inlet EEZ Subarea and the commercial salmon fisheries that occur within it under Federal management by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and NMFS. The management measure implemented by Amendment 14 would be to apply the prohibition on commercial salmon fishing that is currently established in the West Area to the newly added Cook Inlet EEZ Subarea. This proposed rule is necessary to comply with a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling and to ensure the Salmon FMP is consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). This proposed rule is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Salmon FMP, and other applicable laws. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/04/2021-11716/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-cook-inlet-salmon-amendment-14 FYI’s CRWP seeks volunteers for net recycling event Cordova Times - June 3, 2021 The Copper River Watershed Project is seeking volunteers to help with a multi-day fishing web recycling event and BBQ fundraiser, sponsored by the Alaska Commercial Company. https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2021/06/03/crwp-seeks-volunteers-for-net-recycling-event/

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