Friday, October 3, 2025
- admin04655
- Oct 3
- 7 min read
Alaska
Two Economic Reports Highlight Pollock Industry’s Impact in Alaska
Alaska Business Magazine - October 2025
A pair of new studies validate the economic importance of the Alaska pollock industry. The Alaska Pollock Fishery Alliance (APFA) paid for two studies prepared independently by Northern Economics and the McKinley Research Group.
Government shutdown has US seafood industry bracing for impact
The second shutdown under the Trump administration raises concerns across US fisheries and federal agencies.
Intrafish by Rachel Sapin - October 1, 2025
The US federal government entered a shutdown early Wednesday after lawmakers failed to pass a stopgap funding bill, triggering widespread disruption across federal agencies. The impasse stems from a deadlock over Democratic demands to extend expiring health care subsidies. The shutdown marks the second under President Donald Trump’s tenure.
NOAA Fisheries continuing seafood inspections, fisheries management despite US government shutdown
Seafood Source by Nathan Strout - October 1, 2025
NOAA Fisheries will continue conducting seafood inspections, fisheries management, and law enforcement operations during the U.S. federal government shutdown, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), although most research efforts will be paused. The federal government officially entered a partial shutdown 1 October after Congress failed to pass appropriations bills funding several departments and agencies into fiscal year 2026. While the Republican-controlled House of…
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Environment/Science
Temperature impacts vary for Alaska salmon species
Cordova Times by Margaret Bauman - October 2, 2025
Salmon are super weird fish on the front line of environmental change, according to Fairbanks researcher Peter Wesley, moving from fresh water to the ocean and then fighting their way home.
Salmon Bycatch Reduction Efforts Use AI in Bering Sea Pollock Fishery
SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - October 2, 2025
Meet YOLOv11, a model used to detect and identify salmon bycatch in the pollock trawl fishery in the Bering Sea. YOLOv11, which stands for You Only Look Once, version 11, was highly accurate and accomplished it more quickly than humans can.Scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center customized it to detect and identify both pollock and salmon in fishing nets. This allows scientists to semi-automate the video review process used to evaluate the effectiveness of bycatch reduction devices. They can also observe fish behavior to improve the performance of these devices.Example image of the salmon excluder that is placed in the last taper section of the net with the camera placement (white box) and the approximate field of view (dashed triangle) shown. The diameter of the net is approximately 2 m at the beginning of the excluder. Credit: NOAA Fisheries.There were record-high bycatch levels for Chinook salmon in 2005 and chum salmon in 2006. Since then, the commercial fishing industry has been working with fishery scientists and engineers to improve the efficiency of their gear and avoid and reduce salmon bycatch.This new study used deep learning to evaluate the effectiveness of bycatch reduction devices. These devices, known as salmon excluders, allow salmon to exit while keeping pollock in the net. A camera with lighting is positioned with full view of the entry to the bycatch reduction device. It collects video, which scientists review to monitor these devices during fishing. In recent years, video collection has increased as low-cost, high-quality camera systems that work in many different environments, have become more available. But more footage means scientists need more time to review the video.“We were able to train a publicly available deep learning object detection model to identify salmon and pollock,” said Katherine Wilson, study lead and physical scientist at NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center.“The model compared well to human performance, with some variability. And the models save us so much time. They can process fishing tows in a matter of hours; humans would need days to weeks to review the same data,” said Wilson.NOAA Fisheries scientists worked with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission on the project, and a contracted B&N Fisheries vessel collected the data. Wilson added, “There are improvements to be made, but this work shows promise. It was challenging for people familiar with identifying salmon to review so many hours of video and identify every salmon. Long-term automated video monitoring will be more cost effective and reduce human error.” Deep learning is a subset of machine learning. It uses neural networks to capture complex patterns and relationships in data. Convolutional neural networks are a class of deep learning models that perform well with image recognition. For research and other marine applications, convolutional neural networks have been used to classify or detect many marine fish species to assist in imagery analysis. Deep learning uses image annotation—the process of labeling and tagging images that will train computer vision models to detect or identify objects. This research used 11,572 salmon and 73,394 pollock annotations from 16,998 video frames.The best model detected 97 percent of fish with 82 percent prediction accuracy. Model results varied across the different conditions; there were many incorrect salmon detections when herring was present in the videos. However, there was a reduced number of misidentified salmon detections for the multi-class salmon and pollock model, compared to a model that only identifies salmon. This indicates that some of the herring errors could be minimized by including it as a class for the model to detect.“Automating video analysis has the potential to save time and money,” said Wilson. “This research gives more tools to the fishing industry to reduce bycatch and be more sustainable.”
NOAA Fisheries Releases 2025 Alaska Aquaculture Accomplishments Report
SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - October 2, 2025
The 2025 Aquaculture Accomplishments Report reads like an update of what’s going on with aquaculture in Alaska, plus some progress on tools being designed to help aquaculureists in the far north survive. It highlights the growth of the aquaculture industry in Alaska and provides details about local, state, and federal efforts aimed at supporting this important maritime industry.Currently, at least 70 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from other countries, and over half of that is farm-raised. Produced responsibly, as it is here in the United States, aquaculture is one of the most resource-efficient ways of making healthy food, and it can help reduce reliance on imports, providing a more stable and secure seafood supply.Alaska’s aquaculture industry consists of seaweed and shellfish farming. Oysters, mussels, sugar kelp, ribbon kelp, and bull kelp are the primary species grown in the state.The Alaska Aquaculture Program aligns their annual activities to support the President’s Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth, and NOAA’s 2023-2028 Aquaculture Strategic Plan. We translated these directives into annual accomplishments through four goals:Manage sustainably and efficientlyLead science for sustainabilityEducate and exchange informationSupport economic viability and growth Aquaculture Project HighlightsImplementing the Alaska Aquaculture Opportunity Area ProcessWe released the preliminary results of the marine spatial planning study in April 2025. This new step in the process, used first in Alaska, significantly increased public and tribal input through sharing draft spatial modeling results and 97 draft AOA options. We received 39 comments, which enabled us to gather new information and make improvements before finalizing the results and developing the Alaska Atlas. We expect to publish the Atlas in the coming months. Developing Improved Pacific Oyster SeedAlaska’s waters are colder than in other regions, so there’s a demand for oyster strains optimized for Alaskan waters. Hatcheries in Alaska struggle to spawn Pacific oysters successfully, consistently, and cost effectively. This creates a reliance on larvae supplied from outside the state. The goal of this project is to produce larvae and seed that are optimized for growth, but not reproduction, in Alaska waters. Researchers at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center acquired oysters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Pacific Shellfish Research Unit. We also acquired oysters from private industry partners, such as Pacific Hybreed, which specialize in the selective breeding of oysters. The development of improved seed includes:Producing genetically distinct lines at partnering research hatcheries and field testingDeveloping technology and techniques to produce seed at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center Mariculture Research Hatchery using Alaskan broodstockSo far, researchers have developed systems and techniques for housing, conditioning, and spawning broodstock and subsequent generations at the hatchery.Mapping Wild Seaweed Beds for Spatial AnalysisTo support farmers in meeting the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s “50-50 Rule” guidelines, the Alaska Regional Office led the seaweed source inventory. This project updated data on the location of wild seaweed beds within AOA study areas to aid in the AOA spatial and National Environmental Policy Act analyses. This effort involved two components: Participatory mapping process using SeaSketch, in which active seaweed farmers, hatchery workers, and others with local knowledge were interviewed and asked to map known wild kelp bedsCompiling best available existing seaweed data sources.Together, these approaches developed updated maps for wild seaweed beds.In general, bull kelp, sugar kelp, and ribbon kelp appear to be broadly distributed across all the AOA study regions. These are the primary species cultivated by the farmers who participated in the mapping effort and are also the three main species currently grown in Alaska.
Federal Register
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Cod by Catcher Vessels Using Trawl Gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska
A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 10/02/2025
NMFS is opening directed fishing for Pacific cod by catcher vessels using trawl gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to fully use the 2025 total allowable catch of Pacific cod allocated to catcher vessels using trawl gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the GOA.
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Modify the Timing of Haul Designation for Trawl Catcher Processors in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fisheries
A Proposed Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 10/02/2025
NMFS proposes to revise regulations to standardize the time limit in which trawl catcher/processors (C/Ps) participating in the groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) management areas must assign a management program to each haul. This proposed rule is necessary to improve consistency for when trawl C/Ps are required to assign a specific management program to a haul. It would also allow additional time for vessel operators participating in the Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) and non-CDQ fisheries on the same trip to determine which management program to assign to a haul. This rule is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) for Groundfish of the GOA and BSAI Management Areas, and other applicable laws.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/10/02/2025-19385/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-modify-the-timing-of-haul-designation-for-trawlNorth
Pacific Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting
A Notice by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 10/02/2025
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) Charter Halibut Management Committee will meet October 23, 2025.
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