How fisheries are run in the Pacific Northeast

Alaskan Seafood: a visit to learn how fisheries are run in the Pacific northeast.
Part 2
In July I was lucky enough to visit Alaska to learn more about how they run their fisheries. After visiting some salmon processing plants, I’m now off to see some salmon purse seine fishing in action before meeting with fishery managers and visiting one of the salmon hatcheries.

Competition vs team work

 Purse seiners working a run, Sitka.

Whilst in Sitka, we were fortunate to be able to go out and watch some purse seining for salmon just a few minutes from town. I was amazed at just how close to shore the vessels were operating. Like any fishing, salmon fishing is incredibly competitive and fisheries and companies are constantly monitoring conditions and the movements of the fish to try find the busiest salmon runs. It seems difficult to predict when some spots will be working and I was surprised to see just how small an area might be targeted. The fish runs are very specific, so there isn’t much room for many boats to target a run, but in many cases the fishers actually work as a team according to unwritten rules which dictate who can fish and when. The first boat to arrive at an active run becomes the ‘warden’ and sets the rules for that site. Essentially, one boat will put a net across the run to block it and aggregate the fish, whilst other boats will then take it in turns of fishing. Using this strategy, it seems like they catch far more for less effort compared to just fishing by themselves and directly competing with each other. I was told though that when 30 boats arrive at 1 site, some argy-bargy can still take place.

Well managed
There are few other places in the world that can boast so many green rated and certified fisheries across so many different species. For example, each year Alaska catches more seafood that is certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (And also the Alaskan RFM) than what the UK catches in total (certified or not) – more than 3 times over! Certainly geography plays a big part in this, and access to some of the largest fish stocks in the world (Like the Alaskan pollock fishery), but management also plays a key part. We were able to meet with representatives from the Alaskan RFM certification programme and  Alaskan Department of Fish and Game who are responsible for managing the State’s inshore fisheries to find out a little bit more.

It was clear that Alaskan fisheries are tightly controlled with restrictions on vessels, gear and licenses, with fishing limits set according to a Total Allowable Catch (TAC); access to which is granted through a ‘rights-based’ quota system. There are also hard limits on the amount of certain bycatch species that can be caught. This means that when a predetermined amount of a prohibited species is taken, the fishery is closed, regardless of whether it has reached the TAC of the target species.

As I’d heard earlier in the trip though, these controls are built on good data collection and scientific monitoring programmes and I heard again the expression, ‘data is our ally’ from Larry Cotter, who is Chair of the Alaskan RFM programme (among other things). Larry also noted though that the data that is collected must be available and it must be utilised in order to be beneficial.

Enhanced salmon fisheries
Enhanced salmon fisheries started in the 70s in Alaska and they now contribute about 36% (by number) to the total salmon harvest, so we were of course very keen to learn more about these fisheries. I had read about these fisheries in assessments beforehand, but seeing these fisheries in the flesh was an amazing experience

A lucrative product from the salmon fisheries is salmon roe / caviar, but each year the salmon hatcheries – which are private non-profit companies - collect and keep some of the roe for themselves in order to incubate and rear their own salmon, to be released and enter the fishery later on. Once hatched, the juvenile salmon are held for between 6-9months in tanks on land before being conditioned at a very specific site and then released.

 Land based tank holding juvenile salmon. Dipac hatchery, Juneau.

Before a hatchery is developed and a site considered, a comprehensive management feasibility assessment is undertaken to establish if – among other things - the local environment should be introduced to greater numbers of salmon. Sometimes sites are actually chosen for conservation and restoration purposes. There is also a requirement to harvest the hatchery fish so as to minimise the chance of them mixing with and increasing the salmon numbers where they weren’t intended. This sounds tricky; after all, once the fish are released in the wild, how can one be sure that they will be caught again?

This is where the innate homing skills of the Pacific salmon play an incredible role. Salmon don’t just return to their approximate home rivers. In most cases, the majority of them return to the exact river and site where they were released – and in huge numbers. The photo below shows some chum salmon returning to the exact hatchery where they were released just a few years earlier. I wouldn’t have believed it unless I’d witnessed it with my own eyes. The fish were literally jumping over each other to get back into the hatchery. There was no need for a boat – the fish simply returned home. 

 

Chum salmon literally jumping over each other to return to their home hatchery. Dipac hatchery Juneau.

 

The water outside the Dipac hatchery was boiling with salmon on their return home. Juneau.

The enhanced fisheries are of course not natural, and there are some important questions to be considered with regards to potential environmental implications. In particular, could the enhanced fish weaken the genetic strength of the salmon stocks overall?
It was pleasing to hear the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game take such questions very seriously and to learn that considerable research has been and is continuing to be undertaken to establish answers to questions like these. While research has indicated that the enhanced fish may not survive as well in the wild, there is no evidence thus far to suggest this has weakened wild populations. Ongoing research will be important to keep informing regulations and improving best practices and to ensure these fisheries stay sustainable for the whole ecosystem in the long-term. Something that’s important for all creatures who enjoy Pacific salmon.

Brown bear in a bear sanctuary, Sitka. Bears are one of many native species that rely on the wild salmon populations for food.

Sam Stone, MCS Head of Fisheries and Aquaculture

How fisheries are run in the Pacific northeast

Alaskan Seafood: a visit to learn how fisheries are run in the Pacific northeast.

Part 1

In July this year, I took an amazing opportunity to learn more about the Alaskan seafood industry and travelled with a team of UK and European commercial seafood representatives to visit some key fishing ports in the region.

We at the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) assess a number of fisheries from this region within our Good Fish Guide so we are familiar with these fisheries on paper, but nothing beats talking to those in the industry and fishery managers in the flesh to get a better understanding of how these fisheries are run - the products of which are increasingly being consumed in the UK. 

Ever eaten tinned salmon? How about fish fingers or pollock or wild caught fresh salmon from the supermarket?  If you have, then there’s a very good chance it was caught in Alaska. 

Seafood is a big deal in Alaska

We first arrived in Seattle where many of the Alaskan seafood companies have offices, and one of my first observations was that seafood is a big deal over here. It’s not just the cars that are big over here, their fisheries are amongst the largest in the world.

Our first meetings were with some of the largest seafood companies in the country, several of which are vertically integrated and own large (30-60m), modern vessels which catch and process their seafood at sea. These large scale operations can sound concerning, but the scale of operation has actually meant that these fleets are able to invest in technologies and develop practices which are industry leading in terms of sustainability. Some years ago for example, the O’Hara Corporation took the initiative of deploying their own scientific observers on board their vessels at their own cost to collect better data. Not the first time I would hear it during the trip, but the view of the company was very much that ‘data was their ally’. Whilst the observers are now Federal Government fisheries observers on-board, they are  still paid for by the industry, a stark contrast to the situation in the UK.  

Whilst in Seattle we also managed a visit to the famous Pike Place Fish Market (Photo below). 

It seems this place is as much a tourist attraction as other parts of Seattle eg. the birth place of Jimi Hendrix or the very first Starbucks, which our ‘cab’ driver proudly showed us.  As you might be able to see in the photo below, the market has made a name for itself for not only the produce it sells, but the uniquely skilled staff who accurately throw / lob / football pass fish from the ice to the sales staff to weigh when purchased. This combined with a fun and vocal comradery usually only seen and heard at sporting events, made this fish market really stand out. It was great to see so many staff enjoying their jobs and proud of their workplace.  

The famous fish throw caught on camera in Pike place Fish Market, Seattle

From Seattle, we made our way north into Alaska through the many islands and peninsulas of southwest Alaska   visiting the regional fishing ports of Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau and Excursion Inlet (essentially a town based around a large salmon factory) which all receive and process a huge amount of wild caught Pacific salmon, in addition to other species like Pacific halibut and sablefish (otherwise known as black cod or ‘black gold’) and king crab. In these regional towns, it was clear there was another vibrant and progressive side to Alaska’s fisheries to the large scale ‘processing at sea’ vessels we’d been introduced to in Seattle. That is the smaller scale sector. A huge amount of the fish was being caught by much smaller vessels which were often family-run businesses. We were able to chat with a few families on their boats whilst in port (or at the local pub after hours) who were more than happy to talk about their work in these beautiful surroundings.  I was surprised at just how approachable the people were. 

A lot of towns and communities are entirely dependent on the salmon fisheries, with everything revolving around when the fish show up. It was easy to see why when I  learnt that the total salmon catch is roughly the same size as half of the UK total annual catch of fish across all species.  

The salmon season

I hadn’t fully appreciated the true seasonal nature of the salmon fisheries here and the marked differences between the various salmon species. There are five different salmon species that are caught in the region:

•  King
• Coho
• Sockeye
• Pink
• Chum

These species migrate at slightly different times throughout the season to return to their home river to spawn. All the salmon species undergo quite a large physical transformation as they move from saltwater into ever fresher water. The salmon migration occurs between March and November with various peaks throughout this period depending on the species and year.

The influx of salmon at peak times during the season is so large that the seafood companies need to process the fish very quickly into a format which can be either readily sold fresh or stored for later consumption eg. tinned, smoked or frozen. This is what has driven the hugely popular tinned Pacific salmon products which you can find in supermarkets the world over.

Chum salmon freshly unloaded and ready to be processed. Their mottled purple colouring is part of their physical transformation as they approach fresh water.

Handline caught fresh king salmon caught further out to sea before their physical transformation.

I next head out to see some salmon purse seine fishing in action and then on to meet the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game to learn more about how these fisheries are managed, and then on to see a salmon hatchery to better understand the enhanced salmon fishery.  

I am fast becoming a salmon aficionado...

Sam Stone, MCS Head of Fisheries and Aquaculture