UCN: 16 Alaska fisheries qualify for disaster relief
16 Alaska fisheries qualify for NOAA disaster relief
Unisea’s plant in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Image from company website.
By Nick Sambides Jr.
January 21, 2022
Sixteen commercial fisheries in the US state of Alaska have been declared disasters that will make harvesters in each entitled to National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration (NOAA) funding, the Department of Commerce announced on Friday (Jan. 21).
The announcement could clear the way for millions in relief to the following fisheries:
Upper Cook Inlet East Side Set Net (related to a 2018 disaster) and Upper Cook Inlet salmon fisheries (a 2020 disaster);
Copper River Chinook and sockeye salmon fisheries (2018);
Prince William Sound salmon fisheries (2020);
Copper River Chinook, sockeye, and chum salmon fisheries (2020);
Eastern Bering Sea Tanner crab (2019/2020);
Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska (2020);
Alaska Norton Sound, Yukon River, Chignik, Kuskokwim River, and Southeast Alaska salmon fisheries (2020); and
Yukon River salmon fishery (2021)
"Helping communities to bounce back from the impacts of fishery disasters is essential, and we are working to ensure there is relief coming for impacted Alaskans," US secretary of commerce Gina M. Raimondo said in a statement. "Disasters like these, which impact multiple fisheries across Alaska, illustrate how vital sustainable fisheries are to our economy at not only the local level, but for the economic health of our nation’s blue economy."
How much will be awarded still a question
The declarations are good news for the Alaska seafood industry, said Leigh Habegger, executive director of Seafood Harvesters of America, a national commercial fishing organization founded by fishermen.
"It will take a little while, but these fisheries experienced some pretty significant financial hits during these seasons so we are glad to see these fishers get this money, hopefully in a timely fashion," she told Undercurrent News.
The announcement follows a similar determination on June 29 that four US commercial fisheries suffered disasters, including the Norton Sound, Alaska, red king crab fishery, in2019. As Undercurrent has reported, the others then were: the Peconic Bay scallop fishery in New York (2019/2020); the Port Gamble S'Klallam Puget Sound coho salmon fishery in Washington (2018); and the Chehalis and Black River spring chinook salmon fishery in Washington (2019).
Exactly how much the fisheries or individual harvesters will get is unclear, and will likely take at least a year -- more likely two or three years -- to determine. Habegger said she expects that more declarations are likely in Alaska and elsewhere, as declaration paperwork submitted by the fisheries details severe losses caused by marine heatwaves, or warmer-than-average water temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.
"There will be winners and losers among fish species, but we could be staring down the road at more fish disasters," Habegger said. "If some of the species caught in Alaskan waters are on the losing end of climate change or have to move to deeper places where gear can't catch them, we will have more disasters."
As an example: a letter filed with NOAA stated that the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribeexperienced 100% and 65% losses from the 2020Fraser River sockeye fishery and Puget Sound fall 2020 chum seasons respectively.
"The 2020 Fraser River sockeye run experienced the lowest return numbers on record. In an effort to conserve the resource, the fishery was never opened. The 2020 Puget Sound fall chum fishery was closed early due to poor returns and in [an] effort to make sure enough broodstock returned to their respective hatcheries. It is assumed that warm ocean conditions and climate change are contributing to these poor returns," the letter, by tribal chairman Jeromy Sullivan, said.
The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s fishing fleet, on average, harvested around 252,000 pounds with an average income of $198,000 between 2015 and 2019. In 2020, only86,726 pounds were harvested, creating the 65% loss when compared to the previous five-year average, Sullivan wrote.
A declared fishery disaster must meet specific requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and/or the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act, the latest release from NOAA explained. For example, there must be commercial fishery economic impacts and declines in fishery access or biomass resulting from specific allowable causes due to the disaster event.
Hope that feds will see beyond disasters
As Undercurrent has reported, the delay of declarations and the aid that follows them prompted US senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat, to push for the release of relief funds and to make another pitch for the Fishery Failures: UrgentlyNeeded Disaster Declarations Act (S.2346), a bill she co-sponsored with MississippiRepublican Roger Wicker in 2020.
Cantwell, the committee's ranking member, said the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the seafood industry, resulting in a decrease of $21 million in revenue forWest coast fisheries -- a 40% decline compared to the previous five-year average.
The pandemic will likely increase the need for disaster relief, particularly in Alaska, as due to coronavirus many harvesters didn't have the opportunity to fill out disaster-aid relief requests detailing their losses, Habegger said.
Habegger said she hopes that the federal government will deepen efforts to look beyond individual disasters into problems like global warming and the impacts of disasters beyond those immediately affected, such as those who supply harvesters.
Funding "could be going towards research on the underlying causes of disasters," she said.
"I don't want to undersell the importance of helping our fishermen," Habegger added. "I think as we start to see more changes in the ocean, there will need to be a greater understanding of the underlying causes and not just putting a band-aid on the problem with this sort of funding."
Contact the author nick.sambides@undercurrentnews.com