Trade war, COVID and now Ukraine invasion eat into Alaska seafood sales
First a trade war, then a battle against an infectious virus and now a real war are all affecting Alaska seafood exports. Shipments to China fell from as high as 30% of Alaska’s total seafood export value in the 2010s to 20% in 2020. “The U.S.-China trade war has displaced $500 million of Alaska seafood,” Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, told legislators last week.
Fish Factor: Halibut, sablefish and Tanner crab fisheries underway
March means more fishing boats are out on the water with the start of the Pacific halibut and sablefish (black cod) fisheries on March 6, followed by Alaska’s first big herring fishery at Sitka Sound. A Tanner crab fishery kicked off on March 1 at Prince William Sound with a 61,800-pound catch limit. It could run through March 31 unless the quota is taken earlier.
Fish Factor: Alaska seafood industry wants Russia’s seafood out of US
“If they don’t buy from us, we shouldn’t buy from them,” Alaska’s seafood industry has grumbled since 2014 when Russia abruptly banned all food imports from the U.S and several other countries. Then, as now, the face-off stemmed from Russia’s invasion and subsequent takeover of chunks of Ukraine which prompted backlash and severe sanctions.
Melting glaciers will bring many miles of new Pacific salmon habitat
Alaska is about to get thousands of miles of new salmon habitat — and how we manage that habitat will have long term implications for the salmon that find it. By the year 2100, melting glaciers will open up new watersheds containing thousands of miles of salmon habitat across Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, according to an aptly titled scientific paper, “Glacier retreat creating new Pacific salmon habitat in western North America,” out recently in the journal Nature Communications.
NPFMC ponders changes in the halibut catch sharing plan
When the North Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted its halibut Catch Share Plan back 2014, charter operators were granted 125% of their historic catch at low levels of abundance, with that additional 25% coming out of quota for the commercial longline sector.
Copper River forecast: 928,000 sockeyes
State fisheries biologists are forecasting another challenging year for commercial harvesters of wild Copper River sockeye salmon, but a better than average even year harvest of wild pink salmon in Prince William Sound.
Copper River, PWS fisheries approved for disaster relief
Copper River and Prince William Sound salmon fisheries are among 14 Alaska fisheries disasters from 2018 to 2021 approved on Jan. 21 by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo for relief funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Vessels sought for PWS Tanner crab test fishery
State fisheries officials are accepting bids through noon on Feb. 17 for vessels to conduct a test fishery using pot gear to harvest up to 30,000 pounds of Tanner crab in the Prince William Sound area.
NOAA researcher: Goal is to offer seafood harvesters more resilience to climate change
Social scientist Marysia Szymkowiak’s research focus with Gulf of Alaska seafood harvesters is a lot of talk: telephone interviews and virtual workshops to learn how they feel their coastal communities can best adapt to climate change.
Fish Factor: Tanner crab harvesters will get $8.10 a pound
$8.10 per pound! That’s the jaw-dropping advance price being paid to Kodiak fishermen for Tanner crab in the fishery that opened Jan. 15.
