Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) has been applied in Alaska for decades with great success. Alaska’s valuable commercial fisheries are among the most productive and sustainable in the world. However, current EBFM policies were not designed to address climate change.
See full story at NOAA Fisheries: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/ecosystem-based-fisheries-management-strengthens-resilience-climate-change
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Seafood Trade Relief Program has set aside $530 million for commercial fishermen hurt by the U.S.-China trade war. Applicants can receive up to $250,000. This is a great opportunity for eligible fishermen and is especially timely given the additional fallout from COVID-19.
Q: Who is eligible to participate in the Seafood Trade Relief Program (STRP)?A: U.S. commercial fishermen who have a valid federal or state license or permit to catchseafood who bring their catch to shore and sell or transfer them to another party. That otherparty must be a legally permitted or licensed seafood dealer. Alternatively, the catch can beprocessed at sea and sold by the same legally permitted entity that harvested or processed the product.
Q: What seafood is eligible?A: Eligible seafood species must have been subject to retaliatory tariffs and suffered more than$5 million in retaliatory trade damages.Eligible species are Atka mackerel, Dungeness crab, King crab, Snow crab, SouthernTanner crab, Flounder, Geoduck, Goosefish, Herring, Lobster, Pacific Cod, Pacific Ocean Perch, Pollock, Sablefish, Salmon, Sole, Squid, Tuna and Turbot.
Here is the USDA page where the application and instructions can be found. Applications opened on September 14 and will be open through December 14.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/david-goliath-story-sitka-alaska-fisheries_n_5f5a65e8c5b62874bc1a0129
One day in April 1991, a large fishing boat sliced through the cobalt waters of the North Pacific, not far from Sitka, Alaska, on its way to the Bering Sea. For some reason, perhaps to make sure its gear was in order, the boat dropped its weighted trawling net, dragging it across the ocean floor. As the boat drifted by, thousands of pounds of rockfish got scooped up in the mesh. Just like that, the local rockfish season was over.
“Outraged.” That is how Linda Behnken, a Sitka-based fisherman and director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, described her reaction to news of the trawler’s nets rising from the ocean full of strangled or struggling fish, leaving the area’s fishing territory depleted. “It was a major catalyzing event.”
Facing the loss of a resource that had supported generations of fishing families, Behnken and the local community set out to protect the pristine waters of Southeast Alaska from the ravages of industrial fishing and banish trawling boats that drag wide nets to indiscriminately collect fish. A David to industrial fishing’s Goliath, Behnken was told to give up, that the cards were stacked against her. It took years of lobbying and rallying local support, but with the passage of the Southeast Alaska Trawl Closure in 1998, she had helped enact what at that time was the world’s largest ban on trawling, protecting 70,000 square miles of ocean habitat.
“The trawling ban is the reason we still have healthy small-scale fisheries in Southeast Alaska,” she said.
In the decades since, as the global fishing industry has consolidated into fewer, larger corporate fleets and environmental changes have threatened the ocean’s resources, Alaska’s Southeastern panhandle has emerged as a bastion for sustainable, small-scale fishing.
From Yakutat to Ketchikan, family-owned and -operated boats like Behnken’s “Woodstock” form the backbone of community-supported fisheries (CSFs) that often sell their catch directly to local customers and have lately seen a spike in orders from as far away as the Midwest and East Coast. Through their cooperative model, fishermen here have avoided exhausting ocean resources, protecting the marine biodiversity that keeps the ecosystem resilient to the mounting impacts of climate change. They’re also ensuring their own livelihoods; business is good even amid the turmoil of COVID-19 pandemic.
“No one wants to catch the last fish,” said Nic Mink, CEO of Sitka Salmon Shares, one of the more popular CSFs in southeast Alaska. “Our mentality is to take care of small boat fishermen that are harvesting with low-impact gear. They’re the best stewards of the resource.” Nationally, in the past eight years, the number of CSFs has jumped from around 20 to nearly 100, he said.
Here in Alaska’s southeast, the economy relies primarily on fishermen who own their own small boats and troll the water with lines and tackle, rather than raking the ocean with trawling nets. Policies, including localized caps on the amount a single operation can catch, as well as limits to a boat’s size, have been added to the trawling ban. These measures have kept industrial operations farther north, in the waters of central Alaska and the Bering Sea.
The southeast is unique in that, said Forrest Bower, deputy director of commercial fisheries for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It’s the only part of the state where salmon are caught commercially with hook and line, and fishermen here have earned a reputation for bringing in high-quality fish that serve a high-end consumer market.
Historically, Alaska’s fishing industry, which accounts for about 60% of the nation’s total seafood harvests and exports $3.3 billion worth of fish each year, has not prioritized family-owned operations that sell directly to customers. Even 10 years ago, when Mink started his CSF, there was still enormous pressure in the state to “get big or get out.” Big boats backed by big money can haul more catch and follow fish hundreds of miles farther out to sea than smaller operations.
But factory trawling boats, which account for about a quarter of global fishing production, can ensnare huge amounts of bycatch and wreak havoc on marine ecosystems by disturbing the seafloor and reducing biodiversity ― as Behnken saw firsthand back in 1991.
The results of her underdog victory against Big Fishing are apparent in the southeast today. This section of the North Pacific, which laps against the planet’s largest tract of undisturbed coastal temperate rainforest, is home to one of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems. It produces over 300 million pounds of seafood a year and typically leads the state in commercial salmon production by volume. Wrenching them from the ocean supports over 8,000 harvesting and processing jobs and brings an estimated $700 million total economic impact to a sparsely populated archipelago that makes coastal Maine look metropolitan.
Though still only a niche within the state’s greater fishing industry, CSFs like Sitka Salmon Shares and Alaskans Own — the state’s first CSF, which Behnken founded in 2009 — have become integral to many southeast communities. They function like community-supported agriculture, in which members buy “farm shares,” funding farmers’ operations and reaping bundles of produce in return.
Fishermen and women bait lines to catch fish, and keep them on ice until returning to port where they are processed and packed for delivery. Each month, customers collect boxes from pickup spots and farmers markets, or have them delivered directly to their doors thousands of miles away. Alaskan’s Own sells monthly shares starting around $100 that include any of five species of salmon, as well as black cod, crab, shrimp and other shellfish.
As with community-supported farms, boat owners can make more selling through the CSF than to an industrial supply chain diluted by a series of profit-skimming middlemen: processors, wholesalers, distributors and grocery stores. And customers, who appear more interested in the source of their seafood than ever before, know that their fillets were caught and cleaned by individuals invested in maintaining a healthy resource.
Still, as encouraging as the landscape in the southeast may be, it’s far from immune to the challenges threatening fisheries across the globe.
Logging is a big industry in Alaska, and clear cutting destroys forests that shelter salmon spawning in inland rivers. Open-pit mines, like the bitterly contested project proposed in Bristol Bay, can leak toxic waste into waterways. The ocean is acidifying and warming, which is drastically changing the timing and distribution of critical salmon runs.
“The Coho salmon season has been iffy this year, almost a total bust,” Mink said, referring to the species of salmon also called “silvers” that run in late summer. “Five years ago I couldn’t imagine a fishery like Coho shutting down, but I no longer think it’s off the table for us.”
Add to all that President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, which has driven the seafood business into downward-trending chaos. And, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic, which has sent shudders throughout the industry, resulting in a 50% drop in some fish prices, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported.
“We’re seeing climate change impacts overlaid with pandemic impacts for a pretty tough season,” Behnken said.
But fishermen who sell direct to customers through CSFs have been insulated from some of the global market chaos. This year, as large supply chains have sputtered, many have experienced the same COVID-19-inspired shot in the arm that has buoyed CSAs and small-scale ranchers across the country. Alaskan’s Own has seen as much as a 30% increase in sales, with local customers buying more and new customers from across the country placing orders for the first time.
“Everyone’s been growing beyond their wildest imagination this year,” Mink said. “Our demand volume is up significantly, which has allowed us to bring down fixed costs and pay our fishermen more than we ever have.”
And they have not hoarded their winnings. In this wildly remote and rugged terrain, the salmon can run strong in one watershed and poorly in the next. Along the Southeast panhandle, some communities that depend heavily on fisheries for subsistence have seen historically low returns. In response, Behnken and many others in the Southeast’s fleet have together donated tens of thousands of pounds of fish to help them. Community support is a feedback loop — a give and take as critical at home as it is in the sea.
HuffPost’s “Work In Progress” series focuses on the impact of business on society and the environment and is funded by Porticus. It is part of the “This New World” series. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from Porticus. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com.
Ecotrust is now accepting applications for the 2020-2022 Ag of the Middle Accelerator Program! To make this program accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic, the program will be 100% virtual! This is a two-year, hands-on, capacity-building and business development program. It is designed to help cultivate a thriving cohort of mid-sized, independent farms, ranches, and fishing operations in the region that spans from Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.
This business development program provides instruction from experts on subjects such as business structure, finance, taxation, accounting, credit, market development, food justice and more. Designed to fit the demands of the producers we serve, trainings and one-on-one technical assistance sessions are scheduled between December and March so producers can focus on their businesses during the busy growing season.
The goal is a modern-day “ag of the middle” sector that can supply regional markets with products raised in ways good for land, soil, water, people, and animals. Through this program, participants will have the opportunity to get dedicated, customized business support from an array of service providers who understand the unique needs of independent, smaller-scale producers who want to grow with integrity.
Interested in becoming a participant in the business accelerator program? Please complete the program application by October 2, 2020 and visit our website for more details.
An informational session will be held on Monday, September 14, 2020 from 9-10am to answer your questions and provide an overview of the program. To attend the info session, please register here by September 10th.
Application & Program Timeline:
August 24th - application period opens.
September 14th - program info session (Webinar).
October 2nd - application deadline.
October 16th - announcements of application acceptance will commence.
December 1st - program kickoff
If you have any questions about the program, or how to message the program to your network, please contact contact Tyson Rasor (trasor@ecotrust.org or 503-467-0783) or Yolimar Rivera Vázquez (yolimar@ecotrust.org or 503-467-0819).
August 17, 2020 — In 2019, Alaska experienced its warmest month, summer, and year on record. This year, it recorded some of the hottest average May temperatures on the globe. America’s northernmost state is warming twice as quickly as the rest of the world—and much more rapidly than the continental U.S.
Read the full story here.
https://conservefish.org/2020/08/18/fishermen-are-putting-food-on-the-table-for-those-in-need/
What good can come of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide? I suppose it is a rhetorical question, isn’t it? The simple answer is, not much. So, as I sat down to write this, the questions became; what changes will come from this, and will those changes be any good?
In the early stages of the pandemic, the uncertainty for fishermen was operational. Could they go fish? How can they keep the crew safe? Would there be people onshore to provide needed services? Can our working waterfronts keep working? As the pandemic wore on, the operational questions gave way to questions about markets. If we catch the fish, can we sell them at a price that makes sense to put to sea?
LONGLINERS, please take note! Scientific equipment is to be deployed off SE Alaska, starting August 14.
A U.S. Geological Survey is planned that involves deploying 28 ocean bottom seismometers offshore of southeastern Alaska. These are long-term instruments that will be out as long as from 08/14/20-10/14/2021. The seismometers are designed to measure seismicity in order to better characterize earthquake hazards associated with the Queen Charlotte fault.
Attached is a spreadsheet and a flyer with the proposed instrument locations. Fishing communities should be made aware so they can avoid fishing (specifically longlining) in the spots where the instruments will be deployed. You can go to the website for more information about the survey: www.qcfhazards.net
While the instruments are out over the next year, avoiding the locations with a radius of about 200 m is likely safe. Since the instruments are on the seafloor, they will be most hazardous for longliners.
These are as of right now proposed locations, so ALFA will send out updated location information later this month, once we receive it from USGS.
The Wave Food Program Delivers Economic and Food Relief to Communities Impacted by COVID-19
Food distribution event in Cascade Locks, OR brings Alaska Seafood to Tribal communities through unique regional partnerships
[Portland, OR, July 28, 2020]: The Wave Foundation (The Wave) had its first taste of what its healthy and sustainable food program means to local communities and regional food systems at a food distribution event July 15th at City Hall in Cascade Locks, Oregon. This event was a coordinated effort with the Columbia Gorge Food Bank and open to the public, with pre- event outreach focused on the area’s Tribal Nation communities. Post-event outreach included distribution to Tribal in-lieu fishing communities along the Columbia River.
“The recent COVID pandemic has amplified many social, health, housing, and food security disparities for our Tribal members along the Columbia River. Combining efforts among many partners has helped with some of these disparities. The recent food distribution was able to help many Tribal residents with both food and other additional resources at Cascade Locks,” said Buck Jones, with Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “Having the ability to bring food boxes and frozen cod by The Wave to residents of the Treaty Fishing Access and In-Lieu Sites helped many that were unable to attend this event. It also allowed The Wave staff to see first-hand the living conditions that Tribal members live in.”
The Wave, through its range of stakeholders, recognized early in the COVID-19 pandemic that whole segments of the Northwest’s food system were faltering because of the sudden closure of event centers, restaurants, and other public venues. Food producers, like the seafood industry, lost a massive portion of their market overnight due to these closures. And thousands of people in the Northwest found themselves out of work and facing insecurity, with no end in sight. In response, The Wave created its healthy and sustainable food program to increase local food recovery, get people back to work, feed vulnerable communities, and shift to more resilient community food systems.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a devastating toll on our region, leaving many local families struggling to access nutritious, sustainable food. At The Wave, we believe that our region’s food system is a critical way to restore health and well-being to the Northwest,” said Justin Zeulner, The Wave director. “We decided to put our attention and resources toward local Tribal Nation communities, which have been hit especially hard by the virus. Thanks to our generous partners, we were able to bring support directly to them in the form of healthy and sustainable food, services, and other items they’ve told us they need.”
The event featured seafood from Alaskans Own, a joint program of Sitka-based organizations Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust and Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, that sources seafood from small-boat, independent fishermen who are committed to sustainable fisheries and thriving fishing communities.
“Alaskans Own is deeply grateful for the opportunity to be part of The Wave’s food program. With support from Catch Together and The Wave, our fishermen are able to keep working and provide nutritious, sustainably harvested Alaska seafood to our fellow Americans,” said Linda Behnken, Founder and Director of Alaskans Own.
That fish was distributed both as frozen filets and as hot meals via Koi Fusion, a food truck from our network, who provided free teriyaki lingcod rice bowls to those facing food insecurity. The impact from the day’s events included:
157 households representing 611 individuals fed during the distribution event
600 additional families served with The Wave Foundation’s truck deliveries direct to Tribal Nation Columbia River Basin communities
140 food boxes distributed by The Wave Foundation truck from the Columbia Gorge Food Bank to Tribal Nation fishing communities
More than 400 hot meals served using the lingcod and prepared by Koi Fusion’s food truck
150 pounds of fish served in hot meals and 850 pounds served via delivery direct to Tribal Nation communities
Additional distribution events are planned throughout the year and feature collaborations that focus on BIPOC communities, including with Feed the Mass and Equitable Giving Circle in Portland, OR. These collaborations are ongoing, as needed, and provide both hot meals and frozen fish distribution.
About The Wave Foundation & The Wave
To learn more about The Wave and its food program visit: thewavenw.org/food-program.
Current supporting partners of the Food Program include: Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI), Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association (ALFA), Alaskans Own, Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, Alpine Foods, B-Line, Catch Together, Charlie’s Produce, Climate Solutions, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC), Ecotrust, Fare Start, Fish People, Food Fleet, Forever Wild Seafood, Lineage Logistics, Marine Fish Conservation Network, ReFED, Salmon-Safe, Seafood Producers Cooperative (SPC), nutritionist Dr. Bethany Tennant, local chefs and restaurants, and more.
The Wave is a coalition of the most culturally significant and iconic stakeholders collaborating to accelerate environmental programs that address climate change, environmental justice, and youth engagement. Our partnerships with community leaders allow us to rely on their support and knowledge of local needs. Our food program is designed to transition to sourcing and producing food in a manner that is healthier for people and the long-term health of the planet. Learn more at thewavenw.org
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, common government actions have been geared towards increasing social distancing, which has had consequent effects on businesses and livelihoods. In the US, the seafood sector has been hit hard by responses to COVID-19. Under normal conditions, most seafood expenditure is in restaurants, which influences seafood prices and the choice of species targeted in fisheries.
https://civileats.com/2020/06/25/fishermen-hope-for-change-as-the-seafood-industry-faces-a-crisis/
June 26, 2020 update: The CDC today published new guidance designed to protect workers in seafood processing facilities and on fishing vessels offshore from the coronavirus. For fishermen, the guidance suggests that employers consider quarantining fishermen for two weeks prior to sailing, to identify potential COVID-19 cases before they leave the dock.
