Daily Archives: January 21, 2021
Trident Seafoods to close Alaska plant for three weeks after COVID-19 outbreak
Seattle based Trident Seafoods is shutting down its largest Alaska seafood plant for three weeks after a COVID-19 outbreak, a difficult decision that points to a renewed assault by the coronavirus on the ranks of workers in a key part of the nation’s food-processing industry. Trident is suspending operation at its Akutan facility just at the start of major winter harvests for pollock, North America’s biggest single-species seafood harvest, as well as cod and crab. At Akutan, some 700 employees have stopped working amid a new round of testing, and a fleet of boats that would normally be delivering their catch is now tied to docks. >click to read< 16:39
Massachusetts Launches ‘Ropeless’ Fishing Feasibility Study
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) has launched a comprehensive scoping project to assess ‘ropeless’ fishing gear in the New England lobster fishery. A first of its kind on an accelerated timeline, the project will interview dozens of fishermen, technologists, policy experts, and scientists to fully evaluate the challenges and opportunities of the new gear type. The twelve-month project will evaluate fishing, legal, regulatory, technological challenges and opportunities of alternative lobster gear, which could reduce whale entanglements. >click to read< 12:47
Commercial Fisherman Scott Landis has passed away
Scott grew up in Saratoga, California. After attending college at Chico State and having a life-altering experience in Mexico, he headed north to Alaska in 1973. He wanted to get a mining claim and become a gold miner, but with a baby on the way and the cohos running, he quickly changed career paths and became a commercial fisherman, something he had great passion for. Scott and his partner, Amy Limber, settled in the small fishing village of Port Alexander and had two children, Lael and Sasha. Scott quickly outgrew his 16-foot Poulsbo skiff and upgraded to larger boats. >click to read< 08:34
Kenai Peninsula Borough to ask feds for fishery disaster declaration
The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted Tuesday to ask the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to declare a sockeye salmon fisheries failure and economic disaster in the Upper Subdistrict of the Central District of Cook Inlet in response to a year that saw fewer and smaller fish, as well as lower-priced fish. >click to read< 07:55
Biden signs executive orders on first day as president
Several executive actions will make changes to the U.S. response to COVID-19 and try to ease some of the financial strain on Americans resulting from the pandemic. Other executive actions directly target and undo Mr. Trump’s actions on the environment, immigration, the U.S. census, and regulatory changes. Mr. Biden signed three executive orders in the presence of reporters, implementing a mask mandate on federal property, increasing support for underserved communities and rejoining the Paris climate accord. Mr. Biden also will reverse the 2020 decision by the Trump administration to allow land development at the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah and at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine national monuments in New England,,, >click to read< 07:00
