Fish expo set for Nov. 19-21

Discussions on rebuilding global fisheries, safety issues and marketing seafood in a competitive world marketplace are on tap for Pacific Marine Expo, an event scheduled for Nov. 19-21 at Seattle's Qwest Field Event Center.

The annual event is the largest commercial marine tradeshow on the West Coast.

Trevor Branch, a research scientist at the University of Washington, will give the keynote address Nov. 19 on a new study on rebuilding of global fisheries, billed as the most comprehensive current look at fisheries stocks around the world.

The study found the healthiest fish populations are in Alaska and New Zealand. Other ecosystems had been seriously overfished in the past, but stricter rules have reduced harvests and are leading to recovery in five areas, including the Northeastern United States, Iceland and Southern Australia.

A discussion on safety implications of fisheries management, also on Nov. 19, will be led by U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Chris Woodley, chief of external affairs for District 13, and Jennifer Lincoln of the National Institute for Occupational Safety Health, Alaska Pacific regional office.

Many fisheries management policies are crafted with the intent of responsible stewardship of a natural resource, but these policies may have both positive and negative effects on the safety of fishermen. The discussion will focus on recently examples of some fisheries management policies and their effect on the fishing fleets.

The agenda for Nov. 20 includes a discussion of regional seafood development associations, with panel members discussing their experiences in their own RSDAs, including Chris McDowell, an economist with the Bristol Bay RSDA. McDowell, a commercial fisherman, is also the lead seafood industry analyst for McDowell Group Inc. Since 1998, he has also served as project manager of the Salmon Market Information Service.

Another panel discussion on Nov. 20 will focus on marketing and selling seafood products. Panelists include Bill Webber, president of Gulkana Seafood Direct. Webber has been a commercial drift gillnetter on the Copper River Delta for 41 years.

Fish council to decide on cod

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has earmarked 14 hours at its Dec. 9-15 meeting in Anchorage for final action on Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod allocations.

Proposed action calls for allocating the western and central Gulf of Alaska cod harvests among various gear and operation types.

Currently separate harvest limits are identified for Pacific cod in the western, central and eastern Gulf of Alaska management sub-areas, but the total allowable harvest is not divided among gear or operation types.

The council said this results in a derby-style race for fish and competition among the sectors for shares of that catch. Sector allocations may provide stability to long-term participants in the fishery by reducing competition among sectors for access to the gulf's Pacific cod resource, the council said.

Also on the agenda are groundfish final catch specifications for 2010-2011, salmon bycatch and Bering Sea crab issues.

Alaska still tops fish-related deaths

A recently completed study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that from 2000 to 2008, some 126 commercial fishermen died while working off the coast of Alaska, an average of 14 fatalities a year.

Of the five U.S. fishing regions analyzed, Alaska had the highest total number of fatalities, the study found.

Some 53 percent of the deaths were caused by a vessel disaster requiring crew to abandon ship, consistent with the percentage for the whole U.S. fishing industry, where 52 percent of fatalities were due to a vessel disaster.

The next largest category of incident type, falls overboard, caused 27 percent of fatalities. Remaining deaths were due to injuries on deck, on shore and while diving.

Most of the fatalities occurred in the salmon fishery, due almost equally to vessel disasters, falls overboard and other causes such as fatal deck injuries.

The cod and sole fisheries had the next highest number of fatalities, followed by crab fisheries. All 11 of the crab fishery fatalities occurred in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.