Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Alaska In King Cove, Interior Secretary Haaland gets an earful from residents and receives an honor Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary, made no commitments to building a road long sought by residents that would cut through a national wildlife refuge on the Alaska Peninsula. But she listened intently on a whirlwind day of flights, tours and meetings. Anchorage Daily News by Nathaniel Herz, Photos by Marc Lester - April 22, 2022 KING COVE — As Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s trip to the Southwest Alaska village of King Cove approached this week, aides feared bad weather could force her flight’s cancellation — an ironic twist, since locals’ most urgent message for her was their need for more reliable transportation. https://www.adn.com/politics/2022/04/21/in-king-cove-interior-secretary-haaland-gets-an-earful-from-residents-and-receives-an-honor/ *requires subscription Proposed rule would revise regs for Pacific halibut quota Cordova Times - April 26, 2022 The National Marine Fisheries Service has issued a proposed rule to revise regulations for the Individual fishing quota (IFQ) Pacific halibut fisheries for 2022, with a 14-day comment period ending on May 4. https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2022/04/26/proposed-rule-would-revise-regs-for-pacific-halibut-quota/ House passes two Alaska bills sponsored by late-Rep. Don Young The Hill by Mychael Schnell - April 26, 2022 The House on Tuesday passed two bills sponsored by the late Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who died last month after serving 49 years in the House. https://thehill.com/news/house/3466055-house-passes-two-alaska-bills-sponsored-by-late-rep-don-young/ Record 74 Million Sockeye Run Forecast for 2022, Low Return for Pinks, as Expected SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - April 25, 2022 Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game has released their final “Run Forecasts and Harvest Projections for 2022 Alaska Salmon Fisheries and Review of the 2021 Season” and once again Bristol Bay is outdoing its own record of consistently massive returns. The forecast for the statewide total salmon return is lower than last years by 800,000 salmon, but it doesn’t detract much from the forecasted run in the Bay. The 2021 inshore Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run of 67.7 million fish is the largest total run on record — 64% above the 41.3 million average run for the latest 20-year period. It was also the third time on record that the sockeye run exceeded 60.0 million fish. Last year’s 42.0 million harvest was 15% above the 36.4 million fish preseason forecast and the third largest harvest on record. It was also the third time in the last 4 years that landings exceeded 40.0 million fish. This year's forecast is significantly higher yet. More than 75 million reds (75.27m to be precise) are expected to return, for a commercial harvest of 59.94 million. In the Bay, the Nushagak district is expected to sweep the harvest numbers again with an estimate of 18.3 million sockeyes landed. Naknek-Kvichak and Egegik come next at 9.2 million and 8.6 million salmon respectively. Ugashik is expecting a harvest of 5.2 million reds and Togiak just under 700,000 red salmon. ADF&G says their forecasts over the last two decades have, on average, underforecast the run by 12% and have ranged from 44% below the actual run in 2014 to 19% above the actual run in 2011. Statewide pink salmon harvests are, not surprisingly, expected to be less than half of last year’s odd-year harvest of 161.4 million, at 67.2 million pinks. Most of those will be landed by the Prince William Sound seine fleet (about 25 million, including wild and hatchery-reared), with 19.4 million forecasted catch in Kodiak, and 16.5 million pinks caught in Southeast Alaska. In addition to reds and pinks, the 2022 total commercial salmon harvest includes a projected statewide harvest of 310,000 Chinook salmon, 3.6 million coho and 15.4 million chum salmon. That’s 35,000 more Chinook, 800,000 more coho salmon, and 2.2 million more chum salmon. Stronger returns on Chinook are expected this year in Westward areas, particularly in the south Peninsula (14,000 Chinook projected for harvest) with 9,000 Chinook each project for the PWS/Copper River and Kodiak harvests and 7,000 Chinook in Bristol Bay. Although higher than last year, these projections are still low compared to long-term trends. Pink salmon harvest forecasts are generally based on harvests from previous brood years. A notable exception is Southeast Alaska where a joint ADF&G and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) survey and juvenile pink salmon outmigration index is the basis for predicting harvests the following year. While pink salmon returns have tended to be larger during odd years, there is much regional variation to this trend. ADF&G’s forecast details how salmon managers come up with the forecasts and define uncertainty that is part of the annual forecast in each area. Because salmon productivity, survival, and resulting returns are influenced by conditions in freshwater and the marine environment, the authors have linked NOAA’s Ecosystem Status Reports for further information. The Alaska all-species salmon harvest for 2021 totaled approximately 235.0 million fish, about 44.8 million more fish than the preseason forecast of 190.1 million fish. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1224220/Record-74-Million-Sockeye-Run-Forecast-for-2022-Low-Return-for-Pinks-as-Expected Federal Register Fisheries Off West Coast States; Modification of the West Coast Salmon Fisheries; Inseason Actions #1 and #2 A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 04/27/2022 NMFS announces two inseason actions in the 2022 ocean salmon fisheries. These inseason actions modify the commercial and recreational ocean salmon fisheries in the area from Cape Falcon, OR, to Point Arena, CA. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/04/27/2022-08887/fisheries-off-west-coast-states-modification-of-the-west-coast-salmon-fisheries-inseason-actions-1 Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska; Pollock in Statistical Area 630 in the Gulf of Alaska A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 04/27/2022 NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pollock in Statistical Area 630 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the A season allowance of the 2022 total allowable catch (TAC) of pollock for Statistical Area 630 in the GOA. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/04/27/2022-08988/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-pollock-in-statistical-area-630-in-the-gulf-of FYI’s New workshop hopes to inaugurate a new generation of Kelp processors KMXT by Dylan Simard - April 22, 2022 Some 20 aspiring kelp entrepreneurs got hands-on experience on Thursday processing ribbon and sugar kelp in a few different ways. Some are involved in pilot growing programs scattered around the Alaska coast, some are involved in recently opened farms- all of which are convinced that they are slicing, grinding, brining and freeze drying the crop of the future. https://kmxt.org/2022/04/new-workshop-hopes-to-inaugurate-a-new-generation-of-kelp-processors/ Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee this Wednesday KCAW - April 26, 2022 Heather Bauscher joins KCAW’s Peter Apathy, to discuss the upcoming Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee happening this Wednesday, April 27 at 6pm, via Zoom . Advisory committees are local groups that meet to discuss fishing and wildlife issues and to provide recommendations to Alaska Board of Fisheries and Alaska Board of Game. On the agenda will be a report on Board of Fisheries Southeast Regional Meeting which happened this past March in Anchorage, and a discussion of potential Board of Game Proposals for submission to Southeast Region meeting (Proposals due April 29th). The member election is also this Wednesday with seven seats open, including Longline, Power Troll, Conservation, At Large, Guide, Shellfish, and Alternate. Listen Below: https://www.kcaw.org/2022/04/26/sitka-fish-and-game-advisory-committee-this-wednesday/ 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.