PSPA adds an Oregon heavyweight

The Pacific Seafood Processors Association today announced it has taken on a major new member — Pacific Seafood Group, based in Clackamas, Oregon.

Juneau-based PSPA, based in Juneau, is "a nonprofit trade association representing seafood processing companies in the policy, regulatory and legislative arenas since 1914," its website says. Its corporate members include many of the top processors operating in Alaska including Silver Bay Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, UniSea, and units of Canfisco and Maruha Nichiro.

Pacific Seafood has a considerable processing presence in Alaska, including Seward and Wrangell. Last year, it completed a big expansion in the state, acquiring Trident's Kodiak processing operations.

Washington watch

Here are two notes of interest from the nation's capital.

• U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and colleagues have introduced legislation to help seafood processors meet labor needs.

• U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, is cosponsoring a bill to establish "a dedicated secretary of the Coast Guard, providing the service with the same level of leadership and representation as the Army, Navy and Air Force."

A fishy fundraiser

Here's something interesting we spotted on social media.

No on Ballot Measure 1, says PSPA

The Pacific Seafood Processors Association is opposing Ballot Measure 1 and explains why here.

The seafood industry fishes for help

Efforts in Juneau to create a Joint Legislative Seafood Industry Task Force suggest serious difficulty in the fishing business as the new salmon season approaches.

The Senate resolution establishing the task force says "considerable changes in the global salmon market in recent years have placed the state's seafood industry in economic peril."

In recent months, we've received numerous signals of industry distress not only on the salmon side but in other fisheries as well. And we've seen extraordinary actions such as companies publicly putting assets up for sale.

All these signs portend a potential price crash for commercial fishermen this year.

The task force resolution is set for a hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday in the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

Deckboss understands the task force idea has the backing of the state's two flagship industry organizations — United Fishermen of Alaska and the Pacific Seafood Processors Association.

Such a task force is reminiscent of the Joint Legislative Salmon Industry Task Force that operated from 2002 to 2004.

What is the industry looking to get out of this latest task force?

A PSPA position paper currently making the rounds suggests a number of state actions including low-interest loans and loan guarantees for seafood processors via the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. It also suggests loan concessions for fishermen and hatcheries.

A new point person for processors

The Pacific Seafood Processors Association has named Julie Decker as its new president.

Decker, of Wrangell, currently is executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation.

She succeeds Chris Barrows as president of PSPA. Barrows left the organization last December and joined Golden Alaska Seafoods.

Some significant MSC news

Alaska's salmon fishery — with one big exception — is certified as well-managed and sustainable under the Marine Stewardship Council program.

The exception is Prince William Sound, a top salmon-producing region. The region lacks MSC certification due at least in part to questions about the impact of the Sound's large salmon hatcheries on wild fish stocks.

Now comes hope that Prince William Sound might soon achieve certification, joining the rest of the state's salmon fishery.

MRAG Americas, the company that certifies the Alaska salmon fishery to the MSC standard, recently issued an announcement that an MSC assessment of Prince William Sound salmon has begun.

The assessment, if favorable, could result in certification of the Prince William Sound salmon fishery in March 2017.

An assessment team is meeting in Juneau this week and will take up Prince William Sound on Wednesday, Amanda Stern-Pirlot, team leader for the assessment, tells Deckboss.

MSC certification is regarded as important for marketing Alaska salmon, particularly in Europe. Certification allows producers to label their product with the blue MSC ecolabel.

The Prince William Sound assessment comes at the request of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, the Seattle-based trade group that holds the MSC certificate for the Alaska salmon fishery.

Processors association announces new addition

Looks like another regulator is joining the ranks of the regulated.

Here's the press release.

Back in the MSC fold

The return of Alaska's major salmon processors to the Marine Stewardship Council program is now official with the signing of this certificate of conformity.

The document lists all of the companies eligible to use the blue MSC ecolabel, which evidently is quite important in certain markets.

Unfortunately, the certification picture remains muddled as Prince William Sound, one of Alaska's top salmon-producing regions, remains excluded from the certificate. This stems from questions about the impact of the area's large hatcheries on wild salmon and herring populations.

Ecopeace

Rival processor groups have reached a deal to end their conflict over Marine Stewardship Council certification of Alaska salmon.

PSPA weighs in on Pebble

The Pacific Seafood Processors Association has updated its stance on the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska.

PSPA now concludes that "the level of risk posed by the Pebble mine is simply too high."

Read the organization's two-page statement here.

Deckboss snagged the statement off the website of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, which also opposes the mine.

Pacific powers unite

A friend gave me a little tip, so I navigated to the Web site of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association to check it out.

Sure enough, I found Trident Seafoods Corp. listed there as a member.

Trident used to be a PSPA member and rejoined only recently, I'm told.

PSPA is a big fish in the North Pacific seafood industry. It's a venerable nonprofit trade association, established in 1914 and based in Seattle with satellite offices in Juneau and near Washington, D.C.

PSPA lobbies for what's good for the companies that pack much of the pollock, crab, salmon and other seafood caught each year in Alaska.

Trident rejoining the PSPA fold seems significant in that it adds an American company — a very large and important one — to a membership roster that previously was comprised almost exclusively of Japanese-owned firms such as UniSea, Westward and Peter Pan.