West coast salmon recovery

[atlas]

https://alaskafish.news/03/2024/dea...mc-on-trawl-chum-cap-is-march-29-at-midnight/

If you're quick you can sneak a comment in.
https://meetings.npfmc.org/Meeting/Details/3039 at section c2

Contentious Chum cap enters “initial review” ​

There is no limit to the number of chum salmon that Bering Sea trawlers can take and toss (by law) as bycatch. At the April meeting, the NPFMC will evaluate, among other options, a trawl chum cap potentially ranging from 200,000 to 550,000 fish.

“There’s no way the pollock fleet can sit here and say we will accept these hard caps. It could shut down the Alaska pollock fleet entirely.”
-STEPHANIE MADSEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE AT-SEA PROCESSORS ASSOCIATION

 

[Irrelevant]

Done. I can't believe there was no hard cap already in place.

 

[atlas]

this is just the estimate for the Bering sea. A cap of 200,000 would help on bad year but a cap of 550,00 would be business as usual

 

[Salmonchaser]

Simple follow the money, as it leaves the state.

 

[R.K.]

View attachment 320729
this is just the estimate for the Bering sea. A cap of 200,000 would help on bad year but a cap of 550,00 would be business as usual

How many salmon were allowed for subsistence harvest the last few years? Compare that to the bycatch, and it's enough to make your blood boil. Fish sticks and fake crab for the Chinese are apparently more important than natives and US citizens feeding themselves (kings) and their sled dogs (chums).

Not to mention how criminally underreported the bycatch actually is.

 

[atlas]

Not to mention how criminally underreported the bycatch actually is.

Yeah I keep coming back to that thought.

I watched this last night. Pretty incredible film. I've heard the filmmaker, Shane Anderson, on a podcast but this is the first film of them I've seen.
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-lost-salmon-8hjf4t/

There's some amazing footage and great info. It shows the paths these different populations take in the ocean. A lot of the Columbia river and other Oregon/Washington Populations migrate north where they can get intercepted by more commercial fisheries in BC and AK, as well as trawls. It gives me a lot of of hope for the Klamath. Those populations stay off the coast of Oregon and California in the Ocean where the harvest can be easier to regulate.

 

[44hunter45]

I've been hearing more about how Pinks and Chum may be stressing available pelagic food supplies. This article mentions that Asian hatcheries are producing them.
Humpies are fun, but.....

State of the Salmon

State of the Salmon: Declining wild salmon populations is a serious concern. Explore what biologists think is happening and how you can help.

www.fishalaskamagazine.com

 

[Goodfish]

I've been hearing more about how Pinks and Chum may be stressing available pelagic food supplies. This article mentions that Asian hatcheries are producing them.
Humpies are fun, but.....

State of the Salmon

State of the Salmon: Declining wild salmon populations is a serious concern. Explore what biologists think is happening and how you can help.

www.fishalaskamagazine.com

It’s a bigger issue than anyone can figure out yet. The state of Alaska pumped out close to 2 billion fish mostly chums and humpies last year. That way they can can continue to ignore the bycatch rates on chums by the trawl fleet. Especially when they base the catch on the sustainability data from 2007.

AK hatcheries in 2022 provided 25% of salmon catches and value

Salmon that begin their lives in AK hatcheries also provide for sport, personal use and subsistence users.

alaskafish.news

 

[atlas]

New podcast "Salmon Wars" that is pretty interesting

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../salmon-wars/id1742826567
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5OSjA4yTz2d2B1iTZNitCP

 

[Bigjay73]

Canada and U.S. suspend all fishing for Canadian-origin Yukon River chinook salmon

WHITEHORSE — Canada and the United States are suspending all fishing for Canadian-origin Yukon River chinook salmon for seven years in an attempt to protect the dwindling species.

ca.finance.yahoo.com

 

[atlas]

https://alaskafish.news/05/2024/pel...psBKn4O0idAFYTyE37-qRtyQEBlsjw6TWVsHzf_afe7mT

"Midwater Trawls" have been observed contacting the bottom up 80% of the time

 

[Salmonchaser]

Canada and U.S. suspend all fishing for Canadian-origin Yukon River chinook salmon

WHITEHORSE — Canada and the United States are suspending all fishing for Canadian-origin Yukon River chinook salmon for seven years in an attempt to protect the dwindling species.

ca.finance.yahoo.com

I guess I'm glad to see this, we sent a memorandum of concern about 12 years ago to ADFG. We, Dad, got a phone call suggesting he stay retired. He had been the director of the EPA marine and freshwater ecology division.
The decline in kings has been dramatic, hope we don't have to import them from the Great Lakes to restore the runs.

 

[atlas]

https://conservefish.org/2023/12/14/the-myth-of-mid-water-in-the-alaska-pollock-fishery/

 

[SilentBirdHunter]

This week NOAA Fisheries announced a 90-day finding on a petition to list Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act .
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/acti...atened-or-endangered-under-endangered-species

I wonder if Yukon River kings and chums are next on their list?

 

[Goodfish]

https://alaskafish.news/05/2024/pel...psBKn4O0idAFYTyE37-qRtyQEBlsjw6TWVsHzf_afe7mT

"Midwater Trawls" have been observed contacting the bottom up 80% of the time

Boycott the filet o fish!

 

[Goodfish]

https://conservefish.org/2023/12/14/the-myth-of-mid-water-in-the-alaska-pollock-fishery/

Good lord it never ends. They have a fantastic marketing machine. “ They are Wild Caught”. Eat up!

 

[Salmonchaser]

I always get a kick out of the adds for Alaska sea food, adds bought and paid for by the comfish industry. Wild Caught and sustainable. Sure, at some level it’s’ sustainable……. Then there are the memos that came via the freedom of information act regarding not studying populations of some species, Like Kings or Silvers, in systems that produce some of the major sockeye runs. Those systems are managed to produce sockeye, not preserve the other runs, by design.
It appears folks at the state level are waking up but if you follow the reports it’s still all about the money. The giant trawl industry is getting more than their share and it’s impacting the rest of the commercial industry.
Regardless I hope they can turn this around, doing so is going to be painful for everyone involved, sport fishermen, guides and Com fish.

 

[Goodfish]

I always get a kick out of the adds for Alaska sea food, adds bought and paid for by the comfish industry. Wild Caught and sustainable. Sure, at some level it’s’ sustainable……. Then there are the memos that came via the freedom of information act regarding not studying populations of some species, Like Kings or Silvers, in systems that produce some of the major sockeye runs. Those systems are managed to produce sockeye, not preserve the other runs, by design.
It appears folks at the state level are waking up but if you follow the reports it’s still all about the money. The giant trawl industry is getting more than their share and it’s impacting the rest of the commercial industry.
Regardless I hope they can turn this around, doing so is going to be painful for everyone involved, sport fishermen, guides and Com fish.

In general I dislike social media but I think it is helping get the word out about the trawling industry abuses and the way that ADF&G and the State of Alaska is beholden to that money. Education of the masses will help and we need young college kids protesting McDonalds and the rest. It is interesting to watch the sportsmen and the indigenous / subsistence users end up on the same side of an argument for once.

 

[lynlan1819]

How many salmon were allowed for subsistence harvest the last few years? Compare that to the bycatch, and it's enough to make your blood boil. Fish sticks and fake crab for the Chinese are apparently more important than natives and US citizens feeding themselves (kings) and their sled dogs (chums).

Not to mention how criminally underreported the bycatch actually is.

Nobody to blame but our own no balls government that is afraid of hurting China's feelings.