Alaska/Pacific Coast
West Coast Crab Meat Recovery Results Show Consistent Range from CA to WA SeafoodNews.com by Susan Chambers - November 8, 2019 The first round of coastwide meat recovery results are in from all three West Coast states, with crab from Brookings, Ore., showing the highest recovery percentage, at 22.3 percent. The areas bound by the Tri-State agreement, northern California, Oregon and Washington, all had boats on the water in October or early November to gather samples for meat recovery and domoic acid testing. Washington was the only state to take advantage of early-season testing. The results showed a range between a low of 19.1 percent from Long Beach, Wash., in October to the high of 22.3 percent in Brookings this week. All Oregon and California Dungeness showed recovery rates higher than 20.2 percent. Crab from areas north of Cascade Head, in Oregon, which includes both Garibaldi and Astoria ports, and Washington must meet a threshold of 23 percent for the season to open. South of Cascade Head, including all of Oregon and northern California, crab must reach 25 percent meat recovery. The central California fishery that includes San Francisco and Bodga Bay are not bound by the Tri-State agreement. Testing for domoic acid levels will continue this week with the result available later today or early next week. Crab from most California ports have already been shown to have low levels. Oregon fishery managers told fishermen and processors Thursday they will work with other Tri-State fishery managers to determine the next steps after domoic acid testing samples become available and make an announcement about the season next week. California has already stated it will delay the central California season until Nov. 22 due to the risk of whale entanglements. Oregon and Washington are working with their industry members and state commissions to make changes to their fisheries to reduce the risk of entanglements as well. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1156686/West-Coast-Crab-Meat-Recovery-Results-Show-Consistent-Range-from-CA-to-WA Alaska Fisheries Keep Port of Seattle Afloat SeafoodNews by Laine Welch - November 8, 2019 This is Alaska Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Alaska’s fisheries keep the port of Seattle afloat. Updates after this -- Want to make energy efficiency improvements on your boat? Check out the Fishing Vessel Energy Analysis Tool online at www.AFDF.org Integrated Marine Systems is the leader in marine refrigeration in Alaska. Simple, reliable, built to last. Visit www.imspacific.com/ If not for Alaska’s fisheries, the port of Seattle would not be what it is today. How important is Alaska to its bottom line? A new economic report reveals that Seattle is home port to about 300 fishing vessels and of those, all but 74 make their fishing living in Alaska The Seattle-based boats harvest Alaska pollock, Bering Sea crab, flounders, salmon and many other high value species, and they vary in size from 300 foot, 150 crew catcher-processors to small seiners and trawlers. In 2017, fishing vessels that moored at one of Seattle’s three terminals and operated in the Alaskan fisheries generated gross earnings of over $455 million, or nearly half of the gross earnings from Alaska’s fisheries. That represented 44% of all gross earnings from the North Pacific fisheries. Boats fishing in Puget Sound and other Washington areas earned $26.6 million at the Seattle docks. An estimated 7,200 jobs were directly associated with commercial fishing at the Port of Seattle in 2017. Of that, 5,100 jobs were on fishing vessels, of which all but 200 operated in Alaska fisheries. Additional revenues came from various support services and staff and on-shore port tenants, including seafood processing and cold storage facilities. Factoring in all segments of commercial fishing at the Port of Seattle, these fishing activities generated more than $671 million in business output in 2017. They also produced over $13 million in state of Washington taxes. Most of the seafood produced in Alaska comes to Seattle or Tacoma ports in containers. Nearly four million, 20-foot containerized vans carrying more than 26 million tons of seafood and other cargo were handled there, directly supporting almost 15,000 jobs. Finally, according to United Fishermen of Alaska’s Fishing Facts, of the 6.4 Billion pounds of fish and shellfish landed in Alaska in 2016, just shy of 4 billion pounds were taken by Washington residents. And sign up now for Pacific Marine Expo, November 21-23 in Seattle. See the line up at www.pacificmarineexpo.com - Find links at www.alaskafishradio.com and on Facebook and Twitter. Fish Radio is also brought to you by Ocean Beauty Seafoods - who salutes and says thanks to the men and women fishing across Alaska for their hard work and dedication. (www.oceanbeauty.com) In Kodiak, I’m Laine Welch. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1156540/These-Three-Alaskans-are-Disrupting-the-Salmon-Business International Despite trade war, US seafood companies still see positives in China SeafoodSource by Chris Chase - October 31, 2019 Since the start of the trade war between the United States and China over a year ago, certain sectors of the seafood industry have seen sharp drops of trade between the two countries. https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/despite-trade-war-us-seafood-companies-still-see-positives-in-china?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_content=newsletter&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0dJelpUUTBZbVF3TURkaiIsInQiOiJKTEZMYWRubmhwQUJqK3 ZDQkZFN3NYVmVWYXpNQlZ2Z1BcL3plWjdUMjRHXC85ckhPY2FPazJpQ21FWT ZuSzBJayt0YTFEOXQ3K2hWM3VkMndHckZjQzgwNmcrTXp4dDdKMXBmdkhVSX Rmd21hbVwvM2xFOHBXUWV5QlRsQXBIbHFUYiJ9 Environment/Science Alaska Officials Seek to Revise Oil Spill Prevention Standards Fishermen's News - November 6, 2019 Alaska’s environmental conservation agency is looking for public input into revising oil spill prevention and contingency plan requirements, prompting criticism from the advisory council created in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster. http://fnonlinenews.blogspot.com/2019/11/alaska-officials-seek-to-revise-oil.html 2019 Net Spread Study Targets Flatfish, Reveals Subtle Differences Fishermen and researchers continue collaboration to better understand research survey trawl gear performance NOAA Fisheries - November 7, 2019 The 2019 twin-trawling experiment aboard the F/V Karen Elizabeth in late September tested scientific survey net performance at different "spreads"—or how widely the net is open.The differences in capturing fish at different water depths that can be attributed to that spread.They found subtle differences between the two options. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/2019-net-spread-study-targets-flatfish-reveals-subtle-differences Feds Propose PNW Habitat Protections For Orcas And Humpback Whales OPB by Jes Burns - November 6, 2019 Federal wildlife regulators are proposing to designate large swaths of the Pacific Ocean off Oregon, Washington and California as critical habitat for endangered humpback whales and orcas. https://www.opb.org/news/article/orcas-humpback-whales-pacific-northwest-protections-habitat/ Scientists using aerial drones to compare northern and southern whale behaviour Aerial drones offer new perspective on resident killer whale behaviour The Canadian Press by Hina Alam - November 4, 2019 VANCOUVER - A University of British Columbia scientist says he was delightedly caught off guard when he spotted a southern resident killer whale calf appearing to use a fish as her teething ring and swimming with her mother this summer. http://www.chroniclejournal.com/news/national/scientists-using-aerial-drones-to-compare-northern-and-southern-whale/article_a739185e-7007-58cd-83f3-85714125b22f.html FYI’s New NTSB report details loss of Alaska vessels KMXT by Maggie Wall - November 3, 2019 NTSB Report hightlights three Alaska vessel accidents, including the F/V Destination lost with all hands in 2018. Click here to view report online. The Alaska incidents are on pages 22, 50, and 66 of the report. (Note: The page numbers of the pdf document are not the same as that of the report. Look for page numbers in top left corner of report pages.) http://kmxt.org/2019/11/new-ntsb-report-details-loss-of-alaska-vessels/ SeaShare donates fish, freezer to local food bank KINY Radio - November 7th, 2019 Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Southeast Alaska Food Bank has accepted a gift of a 40-foot freezer van and more than 20,000 pounds of seafood as a donation from the non-profit SeaShare. http://www.kinyradio.com/news/news-of-the-north/seashare-donates-fish-freezer-to-local-food-bank/
Ann Owens Pacific Seafood Processors Association Office Manager 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.