The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association stands in strong support of NOAA/NMFS's mission and commitment to sound science. Our fishermen rely on timely and accurate weather data for safety and trip planning; we rely on comprehensive resource surveys and sound science as the basis for fisheries management.
Tad was brilliant. He was also humble and kind. He could solve any problem and would drop everything to help a friend. He committed hours to research and data analysis, but took every opportunity to express gratitude to anyone else who worked for our fleet or helped in any way. Tad was an active ALFA member, always jumping in to help at every event. He was on the board of the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust and board chair of the Seafood Producers Cooperative. He gave freely of his time, expertise and incredible facility with numbers and data. No one can fill the hole he has left in our community.
John Sackton’s op-ed about climate change and fisheries, Winding Glass: Climate Change Turns Fisheries Sustainability on its Head, hit me hard, as I expect it did most fishermen.
On July 26, KSM Mining ULC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seabridge Gold, Inc. received its “substantially started” determination from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office for its Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) project. KSM is a huge proposed open-pit and underground gold-copper-silver mine targeting coastal mountains of northwestern B.C., within the headwaters of both the Nass River, which lies entirely within B.C., and the transboundary Unuk River which flows into Southeast Alaska near Ketchikan.
Why does this matter? According to B.C. regulations, an Environmental Assessment Certificate is the key overarching permit required for a reviewable development project to go forward. With the Certificate comes a stipulation that the project must be “substantially started” within 10 years, with an opportunity for a one-time five-year extension. The rationale behind the 10-year stipulation is that environmental analyses and the studies on which they are based should be relatively current. If a project is not launched in a reasonably timely way, environmental reviews, and the studies on which they are based, should be revisited to consider changing circumstances, new data, evolving environmental concerns, etc.
However, if a project is deemed “substantially started” by the specified deadline, the Environmental Assessment Certificate remains in effect for the life of the project, be it many years or even many decades. Substantially started determinations pose a significant environmental risk to downstream communities by fixing Environmental Assessment Certificates and project approvals in time, regardless of climate change, new scientific information, cumulative impacts, or significant regulatory reforms. For KSM, because of this determination, its certificate now has essentially permanent status.
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Don’t Cage Our Oceans
Casey Willson
August 1st, 2024
The Act enhances seafood processing infrastructure and capacity in coastal communities, while blocking the development of industrial finfish farms in federal waters.
On July 30, 2024, Congresswoman Mary Peltola (D-AK-At Large) and Congressman Troy Carter (D-LA-2) introduced the Domestic Seafood Production Act (DSPA), legislation aimed at supporting seafood and mariculture processing in the United States, particularly in fishing communities with a demonstrated need.
“In Alaska, so many communities rely on fish and seafood production both for subsistence and good-paying jobs,” said Rep. Peltola. “My bill would support our local fishing and maritime communities while strengthening our domestic seafood supply chain.”
Through competitive grants, the Act would fund community development projects to improve local processing of seafood from wild-capture fisheries and mariculture, defined as the cultivation of shellfish and aquatic plants. It would also prohibit federal agencies from developing offshore finfish aquaculture in United States federal waters without congressional approval.
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Alaska caught black cod is oily and delicious, and it's selling at rock bottom prices right now in part because of the devaluation of the Japanese yen.
I do not ever attempt to buy or sell individual shares of publicly traded companies — I’m too financially incompetent. Consequently, I would not ever suggest turning to Northern Journal for personal financial advice or stock tips.
However, this is a column wholly dedicated to telling you, quite assuredly, how you can personally profit from the weak Japanese yen, which recently hit its lowest value against the U.S. dollar in decades.
Run, do not walk, to your nearest fish market to buy some black cod — a species that’s being sold for cheap in U.S. markets as its Japanese customer base has eroded.
In due course over the next thousand words, I will provide you with ample scientific background and narrative justification for why you should eat more of this underrated, undervalued denizen of the deepwater Pacific. (If you are a fisherman or fishing community resident whose freezer is already full of black cod, sorry for my patronizing tone; you can skip this column.)
Such is my confidence that I will first make you an aggressive proposal:
If you have never tried black cod before, go and get some. It is selling for $9.99 a pound at Costco in Anchorage, the same as fresh silver salmon.
Read full article Here
A three-judge panel at 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower-court decision that could have temporarily halted troll fishing for salmon in Southeast Alaska.
The appellate court decision, announced Friday, clears the way for the region’s troll fishery to continue. It had been threatened by a lawsuit from the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy, an environmental group.
The group filed suit in 2020, arguing that National Marine Fisheries Service rules applied to the fishery were inadequate when it came to protecting endangered killer whales that live in Puget Sound.
A U.S. District Court judge in Washington state agreed with the group, ruling in May 2023 that the biological opinion — a document that underpins fishing rules — was inadequate. Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery would be shut down as a consequence.
Read full article here
The August king salmon season in Southeast Alaska will not happen after Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) determined there was a catch overage in the first retention period earlier this summer.
Commercial trollers caught 82,000 kings in the first season, above the target of 66,700, forcing ADF&G to end fishing on 8 July. While the agency’s 2024 preseason forecast estimated commercial fishermen would be left with 15,000 kings to catch in the second season in August, sport fishermen caught around 52,000 kings, exceeding their allocation by 14,000 fish. Following a controversial management plan approved in 2023, that total was deducted from the commercial troll allocation.
“Following this reduction, the remaining annual troll allocation does not provide a sufficient harvest target to open a competitive second summer commercial troll fishery Chinook salmon retention period,” ADF&G said in a 6 August release. “However, if there is an adequate number of Chinook salmon remaining on the all-gear treaty allocation, a limited harvest troll fishery may open. Any plans to open a limited harvest fishery would be announced later this month.”
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Permit banks and collective ownership in Alaska return individual fishing rights to the collective, harking back to the early days of fishing
More than 12,000 years ago, people on Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off British Columbia about 48 km south of Alaska, were cooking salmon. They are the earliest known humans to do so.
As with all early human societies who lived by the sea and off it, the first relationship with the ocean beyond the northwest coast was one of collective tenure. There were locally-derived systems of norms, rules and practices that evolved over time and gained social legitimacy. Men caught halibut via hook-and-line from canoes; women fileted, deboned and dried the fish. The Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian peoples of present-day southeast Alaska fashioned large, v-shaped hooks out of wood to snare fish up to 500 pounds (227 kg). Potlaches, traditional feasts that involved dancing, fed, impressed and welcomed guests. The rights of Alaska Natives to access, steward and honour relate to, safeguard and/or share (for example) elements of their coastal territories and culture that have fluctuated over time, Tribal members have continued to work hard to keep their cultural traditions alive.
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An Indigenous-led, cross-border approach has seen great successes. But it needs BC and Canada’s ongoing financial support.
The Columbia River was once the source of the greatest salmon runs in the world. Millions of life-giving sockeye and giant chinook swam upriver to spawn each year.
The beloved performing arts showcase is back this September on Granville Island.
The Columbia’s headwaters are in British Columbia. The upper 40 per cent of the river winds through the province before entering the U.S. in Washington state and emptying into the Pacific in Oregon.
An epic 2,000-kilometre journey.
But massive dams, beginning with Grand Coulee in Washington, have blocked salmon from returning to the headwaters of the Columbia River for almost a century. In the 1960s, under the Columbia River Treaty, more dams were built without consultation with our Indigenous nations on our unceded territories in B.C.
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