Thursday, June 9, 2022

Alaska Kodiak’s salmon season kicks off Thursday KMXT by Dylan Simard - June 8, 2022 The first sockeye salmon are beginning their run for the season, and commercial fishermen in one of North America’s largest fishing fleets will soon get a chance to fill their holds. https://kmxt.org/2022/06/kodiaks-salmon-season-kicks-off-thursday/ National NOAA Seeks Nominations for Regional Fisheries Management Organizations Fishermen's News - June 8, 2022 NOAA Fisheries is seeking nominations by July 8 for non-government U.S. commissioners for eight regional fisheries management organizations, including the International Pacific Halibut Commission and North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. Both are treaty-based entities that play a critical role in the global system of fisheries governance. https://fishermensnews.com/noaa-seeks-nominations-for-regional-fisheries-management-organizations/ International Russia Revises Fisheries Agreement With Japan, Ready to Do Same With U.S. SeafoodNews.com by Eugene Gerden - June 9, 2022 Amid the ever tightening sanctions pressure from West, Russia is considering limiting cooperation in the field of fisheries with so-called "unfriendly" states. Following the recent ban on Japanese fishermen to conduct catch in the South Kuriles area, the Russian Parliament (State Duma) may consider the introduction of other counter-sanctions, particularly those, which could limit the United States in the Bering Sea. On June 7, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that Russia suspended an agreement with Japan on cooperation in the field of fisheries in response to Japan's decision to freeze its annual payments under the agreement. The agreement with Japan was signed in 1998. Its suspension means Japanese fishermen will no longer be able to fish near the southern Kuril Islands. At the same time, according to Zakharova, Russia, from its side, is ready to resume implementation of the agreement when Japan resumes fulfilling its financial obligations. In the meantime, representatives of the Russian fish community believe that the suspension of this agreement will have a minimal impact on the Russian fisheries industry. That has been recently confirmed by German Zverev, president of the All-Russian Association of Fisheries Industry (VARPE), in an interview with the Russian RBC business paper. At the same time, there are other agreements of Russia with the West that seriously impact the fishing industry. One of them is the document signed in 1990 by Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, which delimited economic zones on the continental shelf. As a result, fishermen from Russia, as the successor of the USSR, got about 20% of the reserves of the Bering Sea, or 400,000 tons per year. The remaining 80%, or 1.4 million tons, are developed by American fishermen. According to the VARPE, as of 2019, Russia received less than 150-180 billion rubles as a result of this agreement. After the start of the military conflict in Ukraine, the issue of the revision of the agreement was raised at a meeting with the presidential envoy in the Far Eastern Federal District, Yuri Trutnev. The head of the Federal Agency for Fishery, Ilya Shestakov, proposed on March 23 to revise the existing rules for fishing in the Bering Sea of the Russian Federation and the United States. At that meeting, Shestakov proposed to increase the total allowable catch (TAC) for fishermen from the Russian Federation or completely abandon the existing quotas. At the same time Trutnev proposed to achieve parity in the volume of TAC, fixing them for Russian and American companies at the level of 50% to 50 %. According to Alexei Kornienko State Duma deputy, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia, he is currently preparing a request to the national government "to review the quotas for fishing between Russia and the United States in the Bering Sea in favor of the Russian Federation." Anton Orlov, director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Politics, in an interview with Vedomosti, says that the agreement on the distribution of the Bering Sea, reached between Shevardnadze and Baker in 1990, “was signed by the Soviet side under compulsion, actually under pressure.” According to him, “Russia, as the successor, complied with it, although it was contrary to its own interests. As Orlov has also added it made sense as long as the United States fulfilled its obligations under other treaties.” https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1227669/Russia-Revises-Fisheries-Agreement-With-Japan-Ready-to-Do-Same-With-US Environment/Science Prof. Ray Hilborn Announced as Keynote Speaker For 2022 Seafood Directions Conference Urner Barry by Amanda Buckle - June 8, 2022 Marine biologist and fisheries scientist Prof. Ray Hilborn has been announced as the keynote speaker for the 2022 Seafood Directions Conference. “Ray is a world-leading professor at the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, University of Washington, specializing in natural resource management and conservation, who will present a talk titled, ‘How to sustain food from the seas while protecting marine ecosystems,” said Veronica Papacosts, the CEO of conference organizer Seafood Industry Australia. This year the theme of the conference is “One Voice, One Future.” According to Hilborn, this conference is “spot on for where researchers and commercial seafood producers, both capture and aquaculture, need to be as they move forward.” “I am excited to be able to travel again and reconnect with Australian colleagues at the Seafood Directions conference,” said Hilborne. The three-day event, which will take place in Brisbane in September, will feature industry workshops and training sessions, as well as conference sessions and exhibitions. The Seafood Directions Conference will take place from September 13-15 at the Sofitel Brisbane Central, 248 Turbot Street Brisbane.. More information on the conference can be found here. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1227592/Prof-Ray-Hilborn-Announced-as-Keynote-Speaker-For-2022-Seafood-Directions-Conference FYI’s Newly Built USCG Cutter Heads for Ketchikan, Alaska Homeport Fishermen's News - June 9, 2022 The 49th fast response cutter, Douglas Denman, was delivered to the Coast Guard May 26, 2022, in Key West, Florida. Thirteen Denman family members attended the delivery ceremony. The cutter will be homeported in Ketchikan, Alaska. U.S. Coast Guard photo. https://fishermensnews.com/newly-built-uscg-cutter-heads-for-ketchikan-alaska-homeport/ 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. 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