Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Alaska Gov. Dunleavy allows bills on fishing and accounting to become laws Alaska Beacon by James Brooks - July 28, 2025  The Alaska and American flags fly in front of the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Gov. Mike Dunleavy allowed three bills to become law last week without his signature, creating two fishing-related laws and one that updates the rules governing accountants in the state. https://alaskapublic.org/news/politics/alaska-legislature/2025-07-28/gov-dunleavy-allows-bills-on-fishing-and-accounting-to-become-laws Begich proposes to roll back parts of the Marine Mammal Protection Act KMXT by Brian Venua - July 29, 2025 Alaska Republican Congressman Nick Begich III proposed a U.S. House subcommittee rollback parts of the landmark legislation to “modernize” it. Conservation groups warn that it’s a gutting that endangers already struggling whale populations around the state. https://www.kmxt.org/news/2025-07-29/begich-proposes-to-roll-back-parts-of-the-marine-mammal-protection-act Tsunami warning downgraded to advisory for western Aleutians and Pribilof Islands after M8.8 earthquake in Russia KUCB by Sofia Stuart-Rasi - July 29, 2025  For up-to-date tsunami alerts are here. This is a developing story.UPDATE July 29, 2025 at 10:42 p.m.Atka, Adak, St. Paul and St. George are no longer under a tsunami warning, according to the National Tsunami Warning Center. They have been downgraded to a tsunami advisory. https://www.kucb.org/regional/2025-07-29/m8-earthquake-in-russia-prompts-tsunami-warning-for-western-aleutians-and-pribiolof-islands

Alaska Sea Grant Funds New Workforce Programs for Seafood Industry

SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - July 29, 2025

New funding to support five new and continuing workforce development programs for seafood harvesters and processors was announced recently, as part of the state’s Technical and Vocational Education Program (TVEP).

The projects include three Alaska Seafood School programs focused on food and processing regulations and safety, automated processing and refrigeration equipment, and processing plant management.

Two TVEP-funded projects support commercial seafood harvesters. The Skipper Apprentice program in Bristol Bay provides training and mentorship for new crew, while an innovative “Scaled Seafood” project provides fisheries business training. Both start this fall for fishermen throughout Alaska.

The statewide Alaska Technical Vocational Education Program was established in 2000, enabling industry and state agencies to collaborate on providing a comprehensive and unified response to Alaska’s training needs. Alaska Sea Grant received a portion of the funding allocated to the University of Alaska.

“Support from TVEP is instrumental for Alaska Sea Grant to support Alaska’s seafood workforce,” said Gabe Dunham, fisheries specialist and leader of Alaska Sea Grant’s Marine Advisory Program. “It allows us to leverage the talent of our extension agents and specialists with partners, respond to training needs, and create impacts that benefit Alaskans.”

Last year, Alaska Sea Grant provided training to over 600 workers, resulting in an economic benefit of more than $17 million.

“Supporting coastal communities and economies is central to the work that we do, and the support from TVEP allows us to serve the people that live and work there,” Dunham said.

The $6 billion seafood industry is the state’s largest private employer, employing more than 26,000 Alaskans. Alaska Sea Grant has provided workforce development assistance and training to Alaska’s coastal industries and communities for more than five decades.

https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1314305/Alaska-Sea-Grant-Funds-New-Workforce-Programs-for-Seafood-Industry

International US Coast Guard Responds to and Photographs Chinese Research Vessel off Alaska SeafoodNews.com by Peggy Parker - July 29, 2025 Last Friday the US Coast Guard’s 17th District, now called the Arctic District, detected and responded to a China-flagged research ship Xuelong-2 (Snow Dragon 2) about 334 miles north of Utqiagvik, Alaska’s northern most community on the Beaufort Sea. Utqiagvik was formerly known as Barrow.A Coast Guard C-130J Hercules, a long-range surveillance aircraft from Air Station Kodiak, flew over the Chinese icebreaker, noting its position as 150 miles inside the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS).  “The US Coast Guard, alongside partners and other agencies, vigilantly monitors and responds to foreign government vessel activity in and near US waters to secure territorial integrity and defend sovereign interests against malign state activity,” Rear Adm. Bob Little said in a statement released the next day. Little was named Commander of the US Coast Guard Arctic District on July 11, 2025.The C-130J aircraft operates under the Arctic District’s Operation Frontier Sentinel, which is designed to “meet presence with presence” in response to adversary activity in or near Alaskan waters.In 2023, the US State Department announced the geographic coordinates defining the outer limits of the U.S. continental shelf in areas beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast. There are seven offshore areas with ECS areas: the Arctic, Atlantic (east coast), Bering Sea, Pacific (west coast), Mariana Islands, and two areas in the Gulf of America.China’s reaction to the flyover and announcement was sharp.  “China's position on Arctic maritime rights and interests has been made clear that they must be handled in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and China opposes any country's unilateral self-interpretation,” Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Sunday. "The US, not even a party to the Convention, imposes its domestic laws on other nations through a typical long-arm jurisdiction, which is a blatant disregard for international law.”The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun has stressed that China carries out normal research activities at sea in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS, and hopes the relevant parties will have a right understanding of this and stop the groundless suspicion and speculations.Guo said that the ECS the US claims that Xuelong-2 passed through US waters was a “self-drawn area, a unilateral claim of its territory.”Grigory Karasin, chair of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, responded by stating that "we have taken and will continue to take all measures that are necessary for our national interests in this geographical area." Similarly, Nikolai Kharitonov, head of the State Duma Committee on the Arctic, said that unilaterally expanding boundaries on this area is "unacceptable" and could lead to "increased tension."Under international law, the Arctic and its surrounding waters in the Northern Ocean do not belong to any single country. Apart from the US, nations including Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Russia have all made sovereignty claims over sections of the Arctic seabed, the Global Times reported.In 2013, China was granted observer status in the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental organization of the eight Arctic nations: Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. In 2018, Beijing announced its Polar Silk Road strategy — greater Chinese involvement in Arctic governance, along with mining and scientific exploration of the region.According to the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Russia is the only Arctic country that allows a significant Chinese presence. Their well-known "Dragon and Bear" axis has been on display in the Arctic, with joint military exercises (such as naval drills and air patrols near Alaska) and cooperation in controlling the Northern Sea Route.  While Russia wants to sell resources to China and China wants to use Russian sea routes to Europe, the alliance has its problems. A recent leak from Russian Security Services was published by the New York Times. The Russian service accused Chinese researchers of spying. In 2022, Norway caught an alleged Russian spy posing as a Brazilian Arctic researcher.Xuelong-2 is China's first domestically built polar icebreaker. Launched in 2019, it is a major platform for China's oceanic environmental survey and scientific research in the polar regions, according to Xinhua News Agency. A second Chinese icebreaker, the new polar research vessel  Jidi, set sail for the Arctic in mid-July from Qingdao. A third icebreaker Tan Suo San Hao will join Xuelong-2 in the Arctic Ocean later this summer, according to an article published in GCaptain last week.Last summer Xue Long 2 became the first Chinese icebreaker to visit the Russian city of Murmansk highlighting the increasingly close relations between Russia and China in the Arctic.The two countries also conducted their first joint Arctic patrol in September 2024, sending four vessels, two Chinese coast guard ships and two Russian border patrol cutters, through the Bering Strait and into the Arctic Ocean, GCaptain reported. The flotilla passed within sight of Alaska during its southbound leg back into the Pacific Ocean.Russia leads the world in operational icebreakers with a fleet of 57 as of 2022. Canada is next with 18, followed by Finland with 10, Denmark with 7, Sweden and the US, each with 5, China with 3 and Norway with 2. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1314400/US-Coast-Guard-Responds-to-and-Photographs-Chinese-Research-Vessel-off-Alaska Environment/Science Climate change will increase labor risks in fisheries, study warns Global Seafood Alliance by Responsible Seafood Advocate - July 29, 2025 Industrial fishing is one of the world’s most physically strenuous, hazardous and deadly jobs.According to the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, a quarter of fishers (26 percent) have been harmed in their job over the last two years, while nearly three quarters (73 percent) have never received any safety training. Industrial fishing is also one of the highest-risk sectors for forced labor. https://www.globalseafood.org/advocate/climate-change-will-increase-labor-risks-in-fisheries-study-warns/ Scientists discover thriving corals in unexplored Aleutian waters KUCB by Sofia Stuart-Rasi - July 29, 2025  A team of 23 researchers spent two and a half weeks at sea on the research vessel Atlantis exploring the deep sea in the Western Aleutians. They left Dutch Harbor June 15, and traveled as far west as Semisopochnoi Island, collecting data on the deep sea. https://www.kucb.org/science-environment/2025-07-29/scientists-discover-thriving-corals-in-unexplored-aleutian-waters

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