Wednesday, December 2, 2020

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Please consider SeaShare in your end of year donation plans: SeaShare’s seafood partners are working harder than ever to keep markets supplied, shelves filled, and families fed. Despite all the challenges, these same partners — fishermen, processors, distributors, and others — have donated over 6 million seafood servings to food banks across the country so far this year. Our collective response to the unprecedented need has been incredible. Together we are supplying the best protein to families who can really use a good meal. Please consider donations to SeaShare as you finalize your end-of-year donation plans. Just $1 helps provide 8 servings of seafood to hungry neighbors nationwide. We at PSPA and SeaShare hope you have a safe and happy holiday season!

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Alaska Assembly to take up legislation opposing closure of federal inlet waters to commercial fishing The assembly will discuss the resolution at their Dec. 1 meeting Peninsula Clarion by Ashlyn O'Hara - November 29, 2020 The Kenai Peninsula Borough will consider at their Dec. 1 meeting legislation opposing the closure of federal waters in Cook Inlet to commercial fishing. https://www.peninsulaclarion.com/news/assembly-to-take-up-legislation-opposing-closure-of-federal-inlet-waters-to-commercial-fishing/ Alaska Fish Radio: Trident and OBI Talk Next Year’s Salmon and Seafood Trade SeafoodNews by Laine Welch, Alaska Fish Radio - December 1, 2020 This is Alaska Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Trident and OBI talk next year’s salmon and seafood trade. More after this – The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association provides Coast Guard accepted Drill Conductor and other training for fishermen across Alaska. Learn more at amsea.org Did you know that eating wild and sustainable Alaska seafood can boost your immune system? Learn more about Alaska seafood’s many proven nutritional benefits at www.wildalaskaseafood.com. Two of Alaska’s biggest seafood company reps already are voicing optimism about next year’s salmon season. Both shared outlooks at ASMI’s recent All Hands webinar series. Mark Palmer is CEO of OBI Seafoods - “We don't see entering the 2021 season with any real big carryovers. And that's always one of the downsides as we head into a new season if there's an abundance of two to four sockeyes or something. We've gone into seasons like that and it influences the new season pricing. But I think that as we go into 2021, we should have a pretty clean slate and be ready to buy and ideally put it up in a better product form than we did this last year.” Allen Kimball, head of global and domestic sales for Trident Seafoods, agreed. “I'm a little more conservative in terms of looking at next year. I think the positive things are we don't have inventories around and we have good demand. I think that we're going to see a lot of adjustments and positive things in terms of the demand existing at retail and it's going to continue. And I think if we get this food service piece back to full giddy up, it's going to be quite good.” With Covid crippling food service, non-stop farmed fish has gone into retail more aggressively than ever and has pushed down prices, OBI’s Palmer said. “And these aquaculture produced salmon had a huge, huge piece of the food service market and as their market evaporated, they're still pulling fish out of the water and processing them. And that fish is focused on retail and we've watched the aquaculture industry go after the retail market more aggressively than they ever have. Because they've got the fish, they're going to find someplace to move it. We've watched prices go down so we're slugging it out every day to keep our products on the shelf.” Roughly 75% of the world’s salmon is now farmed, added Kimball. For Alaska, a new headwind could come from a 35% tariff the Trump Administration has imposed on wild salmon going into Europe. “It is going to have an effect on our ability to get wild salmon into the European Union. With that kind of tariff, it's going to make it pretty darn tough. But I would say that like it is with many of these tariff challenges, what we've seen in China and other countries, the dynamics of this could change in two weeks. And so we're heavily working on this from a political position standpoint. But if this remains, there is no question this is going to have a big influence on fish next year.” Tariffs continue to average 35% on most U.S. seafood going to China. Both men called the trade wars a “nightmare” and agreed the biggest imbalance of all is with Russia since 2014. Mark Palmer - “The disappointing thing is that Russia has open access to our markets and we don't have any restrictions on Russian products entering our market. And that's something thing that I just don't understand the fairness of this. We would rather just see open markets. We will compete against anyone. But if they're not going to give us access to their market, they shouldn't have unfettered access to ours.” Trident’s Kimball says trade deals with Russia and others are likely to change with a new administration. “If we can't sell our fish in Russia, they shouldn't be able to sell their fish in the United States. And I think that's going to continue to be a battle. We'll have to see with the next administration how that's going to materialize. But I anticipate that we're going to have to be at the table really early and carefully with our groups to make sure that we get our voices heard in this particular issue. Again, I would say this could change quickly, or it could require some time before we get into the first and second quarter of next year with a new administration. 10 Find links at www.alaskafishradio.com and on Facebook and Twitter. Fish Radio is also brought to you by OBI Seafoods -- an Alaska corporation proudly supporting Alaska’s coastal communities and the Alaskans who depend on fishing for their livelihoods and culture. In Kodiak, I’m Laine Welch. www.oceanbeauty.com https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1186332/Alaska-Fish-Radio-Trident-and-OBI-Talk-Next-Years-Salmon-and-Seafood-Trade Cook Inlet Fishermen, Communities Call New Alternative Salmon Plan “Appalling”, “Ludicrous” SeafoodNews by Peggy Parker - November 30, 2020 Cook Inlet salmon management is tough enough, with several user groups lobbying for a bigger piece of the annual pie, but added to the challenge is its location. Cook Inlet is at the center of the state’s largest population density and, unlike other salmon areas in Alaska, accessible by road for more than 60% of Alaska’s population. The area has been ground zero for the ‘recreational vs commercial’ battle for generations. Now, a successful 2013 lawsuit brought by United Cook Inlet Drift Association (UCIDA) against the National Marine Fisheries Service, challenging a decision by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to remove federal waters in Cook Inlet from the scope of the federal salmon fishery management plan, has finally reached decision time by that Council. While the lawsuit sought federal management standards to be used by state salmon managers, a recently added option before the Council calls for the closure of all commercial fishing in a part of Cook Inlet. Before the lawsuit, NMFS authorized the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to manage the fishery, including extensive in-season management, a difficult but effective way to manage a fishery that happens only during the weeks and months the salmon are traveling through. The added fourth alternative came last month during a Council meeting. Next week the Council will take action on the four options before them. Alternative 1 is always Status Quo, but the court order prohibits that. Alternative 2 would establish federal authority in the Cook Inlet EEZ, but would allow some management measures to by established by the State of Alaska. Alternative 3 would occur entirely at the federal level. This would be similar to how fisheries are managed under the Council’s GOA and BSAI Groundfish Fishery Management Plans Alternative 4 would mandate that commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet would only occur in state jurisdictional waters, involving established state management processes, and no changes to Federal management would be necessary. More than 200 letters protested the added Alternative 4, nearly all of them supporting Alternative 2 or an amendment version of it. Alternative 4 “intentionally closes the EEZ waters to commercial fishing, certainly guarantees substantial harm to fishermen and coastal economies through the loss of those traditional fishing grounds,” wrote Hannah Heimbuch, a third-generation fisherman and resident of Homer, AK. “This loss would be particularly felt in Homer, as EEZ closure would transfer the majority of fishing to the more northern areas. Homer would see a drastic decline in port deliveries, vessel moorage and many other associated economic drivers. Closure is an unacceptable outcome for communities that rely upon these fisheries and the revenue they generate. It is also unreasonable to put this option on the table at this late stage of development, particularly considering the severity of the impacts it poses. This is a sharp departure from the focus of the past two years, which has been on Alternative 2.” She added, “The political and allocative tensions in Cook Inlet are exhausting. Our solution to that contention cannot be eliminating an entire stakeholder group, at great cost to our coastal economies and cultures. That is the clear messages from our community leaders, marine business leaders, local residents and our fishermen.” Erik Huebsch, Vice President of UCIDA, the group that brought the lawsuit against the agency, pointed out the problems with current management. “ADF&G is now deliberately and explicitly setting escapement goals substantially lower than 90% of MSY (maximum sustainable yield)," Huebsch wrote. He said that a few of the many Cook Inlet salmon stocks that are not being managed to MSY, are being managed with “wider goals” and “lower performance requirements.” That results, Huebsch says, in reduced harvests and unnecessarily high escapement goals. “Harvests have been even further reduced by escapements exceeding the upper limit of already too-high escapement goals. They are using incorrect escapement goals and prescriptive management plans that limit in-season adaptive management and the result is diminished returns and continued lost yield. In other words, the state is managing the Cook Inlet salmon fishery with the objective of putting the commercial fishing industry out of business,” he wrote. The United Fishermen of Alaska wrote, ”Option 4 is not a benign action that would treat all Alaska stakeholders equitably. The analysis points out that it is highly likely that closing the EEZ waters of Cook Inlet will reallocate fish resources from the drift gillnet fishery to the other Cook Inlet user groups. "While the MSA [Magnuson-Stevens Act] does allow for reallocation, under national standard 4 there are criteria that must be considered in allocation decisions including that the allocation is 'fair and equitable to all such fishermen...' UFA is unable to find the Council’s analysis regarding the allocative impacts of Alternative 4. Will it trim the drifter’s commercial catch by 5% or 95%? Will it be the tipping point to put Cook Inlet commercial drift fishermen out of business? Will the reallocation’s additional escapement result in a net loss of salmon in the entire fishery? How does increasing over-escapement align with National Standard (2) regarding using the best scientific information, which would be the escapement goals themselves?,” ask UFA President Matt Allward and Executive Director Frances Leach. Lindsey Wong of Wong Seafoods, a small processor in the Kenai Peninsula who also runs a bed and breakfast, said, “Don't make the year 2020 more worse than it already is. Approve alternative 2 with amendments to comply with Magnuson-Stevens Act National Standards as required by law!!! Reject alternative 4 entirely. This was unethically late submitted, is unvetted and would collapse the longstanding viable Cook Inlet salmon fishery in direct opposition to the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, common sense, and the benefit and sustainability of the local communities and economies." https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1186298/Cook-Inlet-Fishermen-Communities-Call-New-Alternative-Salmon-Plan-Appalling-Ludicrous Environment/Science Using eDNA to Monitor Alaskan Waters for Invasive European Green Crabs Voracious crustacean known to gobble juvenile salmon and outcompete Dungeness crab. NOAA Fisheries - December 1, 2020 Natural resource managers in British Columbia discovered several adult male and female European green crabs on Haida Gwaii this past July. Alarm bells immediately went off for biologists in Alaska. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/using-edna-monitor-alaskan-waters-invasive-european-green-crabs?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery Federal Register Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Reallocation of Pacific Cod in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 12/02/2020 NMFS is reallocating the projected unused amounts of Pacific cod total allowable catch (TAC) from catcher/processors using hook-and-line gear, catcher vessels less than 50 feet using hook-and-line gear, catcher vessels greater than or equal to 50 feet using hook-and-line gear, and vessels using pot gear to catcher vessels using trawl gear and catcher/processors using trawl gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to allow the 2020 TAC of Pacific cod in the Central Regulatory Area of the GOA to be harvested. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/02/2020-26573/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-reallocation-of-pacific-cod-in-the-central

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