Alaska
Legislative task force meets to address concerns throughout Alaska's seafood industry
Alaska News Source by Jonson Kuhn - December 10, 2024
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Struggles around insurance for fishing boats and pack loans for small-scale processors were just some of the topics addressed during a meeting between state senators and various members of Alaska’s seafood industry.
Salmon Hatcheries Issues Come Before Alaska Board of Fisheries
Fishermen's News - December 11, 2024
At the Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting taking place in Cordova, Alaska from Dec. 10-16, the agenda includes several proposals to decrease hatchery production of pink and chum salmon in Prince William Sound.
ADF&G Releases 2025 Southeast Alaska Chinook Salmon Run Forecast
Fishermen's News - December 11, 2024
Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials on Dec. 9 announced that Chinook salmon run forecasts for the Taku, Situk, Chilkat, Stikine and Unuk rivers stocks have been completed.
Kenai gets fishery disaster dollars from feds
KDLL by Ashlyn O'Hara - December 10, 2024
The City of Kenai accepted nearly $80,000 in fishery disaster money last week.
International
Trump Tariffs Loom for US Seafood Imports
Expana by Craig Elliott - December 11, 2024
The re-election of Donald Trump as US president on November 5 has sparked speculation among industry players about the outlook for the global trade environment. Trump has stated that he will implement a stringent import tariff regime, with a particular focus on products from China. He has proposed a blanket tariff of 10% for all imports to the US and a 60% tariff for Chinese goods.Some market sources anticipated a significant pull forward of imports, in which importers rushed to increase their inventory before the new tariffs came into effect. However, such a rush has yet to materialize, with importers hesitant to freeze capital in goods.However, once tariffs are eventually implemented, importers of agri-food commodities may feel an impact. According to Angel Rubio, lead analyst at Expana, the US imports a significant amount of cod and pollock that is reprocessed in China, along with other seafood items like tilapia. “This category relies heavily on imports,” he stated. “Imported seafood accounts for more than 80% of all seafood consumed in the US. Overall, tariffs are likely to squeeze US importers’ margins.”Rubio added that, on the grains side, exports of US soybean meal are likely to face retaliatory tariffs.“So, we could have a double increase in prices: overseas shrimp, salmon, and tilapia farmers see an increase in feed prices as a result of retaliatory tariffs on soybean meal, and in response, they will try to raise their prices on their fish or shellfish harvests. Then US importers absorb some of the increased cost and try to pass it along to the next stage, in addition to passing a percentage of the newly imposed tariffs.”“Effectively,” Rubio continued, “The tariffs are a tax on importers that are likely to be compounded by retaliatory tariffs.”
Size Matters When it Comes to Chinook Spawning Success in Alaska’s Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers
SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - December 11, 2024
In a new study titled “Body size and early marine conditions drive changes in Chinook salmon productivity across northern latitude ecosystems,” scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks found that the size of a Chinook salmon, which has been steadily decreasing in recent years, impacts their ability to reach adulthood, successfully spawn, and produce young that are as capable of surviving their first few years in fresh water and subsequent years in the ocean.Scientists looked at 26 Chinook salmon populations in Alaska’s two biggest rivers to identify drivers that have resulted in dramatic downturns in both rivers. In the Yukon, a complete moratorium on catching any Chinook, not even for subsistence, is in place to protect the treaty-mandated number of Chinook that spawn in Canada's Big Salmon Mountain Range. On the Kuskokwim river, a moratorium on all types of fishing except subsistence is in effect.The agreement sets a 71,000 Canadian-origin Chinook annual border passage target. It’s been seven years since that many Chinook salmon have crossed the border into Canada, according to a report in KUAC. Last year’s passage estimate was under 15,000. It also requires development of a Yukon River chinook salmon rebuilding plan.Researchers began the study in 2020, finding more correlations between body size and climate changes — happening five times faster in the Arctic than in more southern regions of the world — and in 2022 began a collaboration with “salmon experts”, the community members who have observed salmon for generations on both rivers.“Agency employees at the state and federal level, community members, Elders — whoever was interested in sharing with us things that they had observed and things that they were interested in as it relates to Yukon and Kuskokwim salmon populations,” Megan Feddern, a biologist and lead author of the study, said.Feddeern and her team held listening sessions throughout the watersheds and workshops in Fairbanks, asking the people who knew best what they were seeing change.What stood out was the smaller size in recent years. “One of the really cool things about this project is just the extent to which we combined different data sources,” Feddern told KYUK radio in an article published last week. Feddern said that with the help of hydrologist Rebecca Shaftel, one of the paper’s co-authors, the research cross referenced climate data — like precipitation and temperature reports — with locally collected salmon reports from over the past 30 years.By using both types of data to examine a total of 26 chinook salmon populations, a link emerged between the decline in population productivity with smaller spawner body size and climate impacts. Salmon that are smaller are less likely to produce as many, or as nutritious of eggs as larger fish. In both rivers, the study was able to connect size to productivity, which represents the population's ability to sustain itself over time.The study also found a correlation between above average temperatures in the Yukon River and lower productivity. But temperatures in the Kuskokwim River did not seem to directly affect the chinook populations.“Working with fish, you know, you often are just thinking about the climate and the fish themselves, but you can't remove that from the communities, and the culture, and everything that those fish support and that those fish are a part of,” Feddern told KYUK.Feddern said that they were able to find success in honoring the knowledge of others by informing a path of research with the testimonies of those impacted by the changing climate.“And the true experts in this region aren't folks like me who are sitting at their computer coding and modeling to try and address these questions, but are the people who have been observing these fish for generations. And so doing this work together, I think, is what is really important to have success,” Feddern said.Earlier results have shown that smaller fish have a long list of challenges to spawn, which salmon do only once, at the end of their lives. There’s less likelihood smaller salmon will make it up to the spawning grounds. If they do, they’ll be carrying fewer eggs and those eggs will likely be in poorer condition than eggs from big fish. Feddern added that smaller fish, whether female or male, are less robust and less likely to make the full journey, especially up the full length of the nearly 2,000-mile Yukon River, in an interview with the Alaska Beacon last week.“It carries over into that next generation,” Feddern said. “The females and males that are making the migration and have that better body condition are able to produce more, but then it also sets that next generation up for success.”Other factors found to have hindered productivity for Yukon and Kuskokwim fish were warm summers at sea during the first year in the ocean for any given Chinook salmon age group; unusually winter cold conditions encountered by fish in their first winters at sea; and unusually warm temperatures in freshwater river habitat.Feddern and other researchers at the UAF want to know more about why Alska’s most iconic fish is disappearing, and that means learning more about its lifecycle, all phases of it. For instance, why cold winters in the Bering Sea present big problems is not clearly understood yet.“I don’t think we have a good grasp on what exactly is happening when it comes to those cold winters,” she she told the Beacon. “We suspect it’s just, these young adults that are in the ocean are just not surviving through those really cold conditions.”UAF researcher Erik Schoen Schoen hopes these results will help fisheries and subsistence fishing communities plan for the future, reported KTUU last week."If you know what the conditions have been, say there's a heat wave in the Bering Sea or there there were abnormally high temperatures in the Yukon River or, say, fall floods when the eggs are in the gravel in certain areas. If we know, based on our study that those are expected to impact future populations, then that can help set expectations for, for fishing communities," Schoen said.Schoen and other researchers said they plan to follow up on this study by looking into other factors, including how predators may impact salmon population.
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