Bumble Bee Seafoods welcomes Andrew Choe to the company as Chief Executive Officer. Seafood industry veteran Andrew Choe has joined Bumble Bee Seafoods as the San Diego-based company’s chief executive officer. His appointment, effective April 1, was announced by Bumble Bee Board of Directors Chair Jerry Chou. In his statement, Chou said that Choe “has priceless knowledge and expertise in our complex industry and is a people-focused leader with a history of helping talented teams succeed.” For eight years, Choe was CEO of StarKist Co., highly engaged in all aspects of the business, including su ..read more

Image: ComFish Alaska. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, says his first priority in dealing with the economic woes facing the state’s seafood industry is sounding the alarm in Congress and the Alaska Legislature. Sullivan told participants at the state fisheries meeting ComFish Alaska on April 13 in Kodiak that he has told every member of the Legislature that this is a big deal, and that he’s also sounding the alarm with the federal government. “The executive branch of the federal government can do a lot more,” Sullivan said. “If this was a crisis impacting Wall Street or American farmers, they wou ..read more

Image: North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. A workshop on salmon abundance and distribution trends has been scheduled by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) for June 4-5 in Richmond, B.C., with both in-person and virtual accessibility. The tentative program and abstracts, which were announced April 12, are available on the NPAFC’s website, https://workshop.npafc.org/. While the workshop is free, space is limited, and registrations are being accepted on a first come, first served basis. Details on how to register and make hotel reservations by the cut-off date, May 9 are a ..read more

Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture. Final changes to the new food packages for women, infants and children (WIC) approved by the Department of Agriculture include six ounces of canned fish to food packages for children ages 1-4 and allow canned light tuna, chub mackerel, salmon, sardines and Atlantic mackerel for children. The final changes announced April 9 also include the addition of 10 ounces of canned fish to food packages for pregnant and postpartum participants, and 15 ounces for partially breastfeeding participants. Amounts for fully breastfeeding participants has been adjusted from ..read more

A map of the proposed Pebble Mine site. Image: National Parks Conservation Association. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is continuing the state’s legal pursuit for the permitting of the proposed Pebble mine by asking the U.S. District Court in Alaska to find the Environmental Protection Agency’s order on state land in Bristol Bay unlawful. A complaint filed April 11 argues that the state is protecting its interests as the landowner from unlawful federal actions, including being dispossessed of its right to manage its own property. The Pebble prospect abuts the Bristol Bay watershed, home of the worl ..read more

Chinook salmon on the Lower Tuolumne River in the Central Valley of California. Photo: Dan Cook (USFWS), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. California isn’t within the commercial fishing industry’s epicenter, but it is a notable component of the industry as a whole. And currently the state, particularly the northern half, is experiencing a challenge that is literally an existential threat: struggling salmon populations. Salmon once thrived in the rivers that run throughout the state, but due to the construction of dams, they’ve been blocked from reaching many of the cold mountain streams wh ..read more

Image: Peter Pan Seafoods.Image: Silver Bay Seafoods. Silver Bay Seafoods has acquired Peter Pan Seafoods’ Valdez, Alaska, processing facilities and also plans to operate Peter Pan’s facilities in Port Moller and Dillingham for the 2024 salmon season, the two processors said in an April 4 joint announcement. Shifting operations of these facilities to Silver Bay Seafoods is a component of a larger restructuring effort, which is still being finalized, the two seafood giants said. The larger restricting plan would have Silver Bay acquiring Peter Pan’s’ processing facilities and support sites afte ..read more

Image: State of Alaska. Alaska legislators have boosted from $10,000 to $15,000 the maximum payout allowed for crew injuries and disablement via the state’s Fishermen’s Fund. The fund, which predates statehood, is administered by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. It’s considered an emergency fund payer of last resort. The $5,000 upgrade to the fund was contained in Senate Bill 92, which was approved by legislators on April 4. Clay Bezenek, a commercial salmon and herring gillnetter in Ketchikan, who serves on the board, said that demands on the fund are fewer than they ..read more

Ryan Bigelow, Director of Projects for the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions (with microphone) speaking during a panel session at the Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit 2023. A global entity of non-government organizations, seafood businesses and others representing over 150 organizations in 30 countries is calling for more environmentally responsible global seafood production, with safeguards in place to ensure social responsibility. The Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions on April 8 that it would release new guidelines on April 11 urging supermarkets, restaurants and other bu ..read more

Image: North Pacific Fishery Management Council. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) on April 8 approved a lengthy revised list of alternatives for staff to analyze as part of a process where final action is still a year away. As council member Andy Mezirow noted during the meeting, the analyzed document is expected to come back before the council in the fall and final action is expected in April 2025. “This is not an action we are taking that will change anything,” said Mezirow, a charter vessel operator from Homer whose last council meeting before leaving office is set for J ..read more