Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Alaska Trident Seafoods asks to test new pollock trawl gear that could minimize sea floor impact The company said the results of a new pilot gear program are promising. Intrafish by Rachel Sapin - October 1, 2024 Seattle-based fishing and processing group Trident Seafoods is seeking permission to test different trawl gear that could minimize impact with the sea floor during Alaska pollock harvesting in the Bering Sea. https://www.intrafish.com/sustainability/trident-seafoods-asks-to-test-new-pollock-trawl-gear-that-could-minimize-sea-floor-impact/2-1-1718194 *Requires Subscription Struggling Alaska seafood industry dealt another blow by early closure of pollock season Roughly 50,000 metric tons of quota will be left in the water in the Gulf of Alaska after a Chinook salmon bycatch incident Seafood Source by Chris Chase - October 1, 2024 Alaska's seafood industry – already dealing with an uncertain future caused by crab season closures and a down year for the salmon fishery – has been dealt yet another blow with the early closure of Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (CGOA) pollock fishery. https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/struggling-alaska-seafood-industry-dealt-another-blow-by-early-closure-of-pollock-season *Requires Subscription National NOAA Fisheries Releases National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan The plan outlines actions we can take to enhance industry resilience and competitiveness in the face of climate change and other stressors. NOAA Fisheries - October 1, 2024 NOAA Fisheries released its National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan (PDF, 14 pages). Our National Seafood Strategy, released in 2023, outlines our direction for supporting the U.S. seafood economy and enhancing the resilience of the seafood sector, including wild-capture and aquaculture, in the face of many challenges. This plan outlines actions we are currently implementing as well as those we can take to support the strategy. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/noaa-fisheries-releases-national-seafood-strategy-implementation-plan 2024 Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program Awards NOAA Fisheries is recommending more than $2.6 million in funding for 13 projects under its 2024 Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program. NOAA Fisheries - September 30, 2024 NOAA Fisheries is recommending 13 projects for funding to partners around the country to support innovative bycatch reduction research through its Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/2024-bycatch-reduction-engineering-program-awards NOAA Fisheries Unveils National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan Expana by Ryan Doyle - October 2, 2024 Last August, NOAA Fisheries released its National Seafood Strategy, a document designed to outline the direction over the next five years to support a “thriving domestic U.S. seafood economy.A little over a year later, NOAA has now released its National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan, a 14-page document that will outline actions taken to support the national strategy.“The Implementation Plan is where the rubber meets the road,” said NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit. “It outlines the specific actions to achieve the goals we laid out in the strategy to support our nation’s seafood sector and the benefits it provides.”The plan focuses on NOAA Fisheries’ industry services, including the Seafood Inspection Program, Fishery Finance Program and Saltonstall-Kennedy grant program. NOAA’s socio-economic activities, including seafood market and supply chain analyses and communication efforts around domestic seafood sustainability, are also highlighted.NOAA shared in its announcement that the plan identifies ongoing, new, and aspirational activities, with a focus on those currently within our capacity.Four pilot initiatives are showcased in the plan. All of which are aimed at enhancing partnerships to tackle cross-cutting issues within the seafood sector. The initiatives include efforts to:- Bolster industry resilience in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic shrimp fishery- Support revitalization of the Port of Port Orford, Oregon- Increase climate resilience in highly migratory species fisheries- Support Alaska’s seafood sector resilience“No one entity can do this work alone. To truly achieve a more resilient and competitive seafood sector, we all need to work together. The National Seafood Strategy and now our Implementation Plan demonstrates what we at NOAA Fisheries can do to reach those goals,” Coit said.NOAA Fisheries said the strategy was developed through years of input, and the newly shared implementation plan was created by recommendations for specific actions from more than 150 public comments. NOAA also gathered further input from various seafood sector representatives.The plan was described as a living document that will be revisited and updated based on additional comments.“We will continue to consult with seafood industry members, management councils, states, tribes, and other constituents as we execute this implementation plan,” said Michael Rubino, the agency’s Senior Advisor for Seafood Strategy.“The U.S. seafood industry is critical to enhancing public health and nutrition, creating jobs, and building a climate resilient food strategy. It is facing unprecedented challenges—including climate change, new ocean uses, significant labor shortages, and aging infrastructure. This has resulted in an urgent situation for many fisheries and connected communities and put our supply of sustainable seafood at risk,” NOAA stated in its release.“Ensuring a supply of sustainable seafood for consumption is a key part of NOAA Fisheries’ mission,” Rubino said. “Given the urgency, this plan is more important now than ever.”The overall strategy, which was released last August, focused on four goals:- Maintain or increase sustainable U.S. wild capture production- Increase sustainable U.S. aquaculture production- Foster access to domestic and global markets for the U.S. seafood industry- Strengthen the entire U.S. seafood sector https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1286737/NOAA-Fisheries-Unveils-National-Seafood-Strategy-Implementation-Plan Labeling and Marketing Total Familiarity of Wild Alaska Pollock Hits the Highest Recorded Since Tracking Began Seafood News from The Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) - October 1, 2024 Total familiarity with Wild Alaska Pollock increased by an astounding 6 percentage points since tracking consumer familiarity began in 2019, said data experts from Ketchum Analytics at the Wild Alaska Pollock Annual Meeting this morning in Seattle. During the sixth industry annual meeting, hosted by the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP), data experts Melissa Kinch and Lauren Hasse of Ketchum noted that, in looking at other white fish as a benchmark for performance, Wild Alaska Pollock last year, for the first time, outpaced Haddock on familiarity, positive opinion and intent to eat, and this year, Wild Alaska Pollock is—for the first time—closing the gap with both Tilapia and Cod on those same indicators.“We specifically saw an increase in familiarity among Millennials (up 10ppts), low-income consumers (up 10ppt) and those who think fish sustainability is important (up 5ppt) compared to last year,” said Hasse to the nearly 300 attendees joining the meeting both in person and online. “The last spike in familiarity we [Wild Alaska Pollock] had was in 2022—which is also a year where GAPP had a very active influencer campaign, with one of the waves launching right before the survey was fielded.”Similarly, the results saw that positive opinion of Wild Alaska Pollock is up this year, by 3 percentage points. While positive opinion is up, both Hasse and Kinch noted that there’s opportunity to continue pushing consumers down the purchase funnel as growth in familiarity is slightly outpacing positive opinion.“We see that the more people know about Wild Alaska Pollock, the more positive opinion they have of it,” explained Kinch. “Seventy-two percent of those who know a lot about Wild Alaska Pollock have an excellent or very good opinion of it versus forty-eight percent who know ‘some’ and twenty-six percent who know ‘a little’.”Ketchum noted that GAPP’s marketing and communications priorities have greatly contributed to the sharp spike in total familiarity, emphasizing that the communications emphasis on both the origin and sustainability of Wild Alaska Pollock are closely aligned with what’s “top of mind” for U.S. consumers.Similarly, Ketchum commended GAPP’s work with influencers to drive awareness and familiarity and introduce more consumers to Wild Alaska Pollock, noting that the last time the year-over-year survey showed a similar increase in familiarity corresponded with the very active GAPP influencer marketing campaign in 2022 where the survey was fielded immediately after a “wave” of the campaign.GAPP’s Craig Morris showcased GAPP’s work on this front, as well, during his remarks earlier in the morning, noting that GAPP has worked over the last year to strengthen its influencer program, and the current GAPP influencer have combined followings of more than 1.65 million consumers. Similarly, GAPP has grown its own social media following and presence, using video content to attract consumers to learn more about the fish and fishery.“While it’s one thing to create fun, lively and engaging content—it’s another thing to achieve the intended results. Our [GAPP’s owned social media] total impressions are up over 1000 percent and our engagements are up over 2000 percent,” said Morris, GAPP’s Chief Executive Officer.  “We’ve seen massive video growth across all of our platforms—let’s just say ‘Dutch’ [the Alaska Pollock mascot] has become quite the star—with total views on TikTok surpassing 1.5 million.”Importantly, Ketchum’s experts encouraged the industry to embrace current economic circumstances—like inflation—that may be negative for consumers as they are a potentially huge opportunity for Wild Alaska Pollock.“Consumers are becoming more price sensitive, and fish has an inherent connotation as expensive,” said Kinch. “As such, fish eaters are turning to frozen fish options that they view as more affordable. Over one-fourth of fish eaters who have noticed a price increase in fish over the last year are turning to frozen fish options—Wild Alaska Pollock needs to embrace and own its ‘frozen-ness’.”“Consumers are becoming even more price sensitive, and fish has an inherent connotation as expensive,” said Kinch. “Three-fourths of consumers have noticed a price increase in fish over the last year—with beef, dairy and chicken the only animal products outpacing fish. Amid these rising prices, fish eaters are prioritizing affordability and value in their fish purchases—and turning to frozen. Wild Alaska Pollock needs to embrace its ‘frozen-ness’ and see it as a positive attribute not a negative.”Ketchum also noted that the industry needs to continue to focus messaging on Wild Alaska Pollock’s ease of preparation and create recipe content that is similarly few ingredients and quick and easy for busy consumers to follow and prepare. Similarly, Ketchum continued to push the industry to work on increasing the fish’s visibility at retail, doing more in-store activations, cooking demonstrations and partnerships with retailers.Interestingly, Ketchum noted a huge increase in documentary video content—nearly five percentage points and encouraged the industry to continue looking to video for its storytelling efforts.“While family & friends and fishers remain the top sources fish eaters trust when it comes to news & info about fish, we saw an increase in trust of documentaries compared to last year. This is likely driven by the increase in food documentaries that have been released over the last year and we particularly see younger consumers leaning more on documentaries,” explained Hasse. “There’s opportunity to lean into this style of content, both branded and unbranded, to drive trust with our fish-eating audience.”“We should be telling the Wild Alaska Pollock story—whether it’s messaging around sustainability, provenance, value or ease via earned media that reaches a fish-eating audience,” added Kinch.The meeting once again brings together representatives across all segments of the Wild Alaska Pollock industry for a day-long agenda at the W Hotel, Seattle. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1286688/Total-Familiarity-of-Wild-Alaska-Pollock-Hits-the-Highest-Recorded-Since-Tracking-Began Federal Register Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska; Several Groundfish Species in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 10/01/2024 NMFS apportions amounts of the non-specified reserve to the initial total allowable catch (ITAC) of Bering Sea (BS) “other rockfish”, BS Pacific ocean perch, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Kamchatka flounder, and BSAI skates. This action is necessary to allow the fisheries to continue operating. It is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the fishery management plan for the BSAI management area. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/10/01/2024-22518/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-several-groundfish-species-in-the-bering-sea-and FYI’s ADF&G Reminds Crabbers of Observer Coverage for Pre-Season Registered Vessels Fishermen's News - October 2, 2024 Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials on Sept. 27 issued a reminder that all vessels pre-season registered for the 2024-2025 Bristol Bay red king, Eastern and Western Bering Sea Tanner (bairdi), and Bering Sea snow (opilio) crab fisheries are selected for crab observer coverage. https://fishermensnews.com/adfg-reminds-crabbers-of-observer-coverage-for-pre-season-registered-vessels/

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