Top photo: Linda Behnken Straight from the waters off Sitka, Alaska, Linda Behnken describes the hardships that the coronavirus pandemic has brought to America’s fishermen. 2020 has been a hard year for her and her fishermen peers, just as it has for all fishermen, coastal communities and many others across country. Fishermen provide our country […]
Photo: Fishermen in Alaska. Photo courtesy of National Fisherman, from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. What good can come of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide? I suppose it is a rhetorical question, isn’t it? The simple answer is, not much. So, as I sat down to write this, the […]
Top photo: Kodiak Harbor Waterfront, Alaska. Read Part One of this series. As we mentioned in our first post in this series, many of the small fishing- and seafood-related businesses around the country have suffered catastrophic consequences from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Many small business owners, however, have turned this economic downturn into […]
Top photo: Newport, Oregon harbor. Read Part Two of this series. When it comes to supporting the fishing and seafood industries during the coronavirus pandemic and the economic slowdown in America, Congress cannot use the same broad brush stroke it uses to paint other small businesses. Past efforts aimed at supporting small business payrolls in […]
Top photo: Harrison Ibach and his freshly caught live Dungeness crab. The COVID-19 emergency has devastated the commercial fishing industry and changed the seafood industry, perhaps forever. But one silver lining in this crisis has been seeing the revitalization of direct sales of seafood, and sharing the fish that I catch with my Northern California […]
Federal support for our fishing communities, working waterfronts & our seafood supply chain is essential to recover from COVID 19 The unprecedented economic impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on one of the essential American economic drivers – small businesses. Many Network members, including commercial fishing operators, guides, outfitters, processors, […]
Although I am not quite in the dire straits that many American families are facing in the COVID-19 crisis, things are not going all that well for the recreational sportfishing community. In 30 years of guiding, I’ve found out that it isn’t just fish that our customers need to come fishing, it’s expendable income. And […]
Photo courtesy of Linda Behnken As the COVID-19 pandemic creates a greater economic downturn with each passing day, many Alaskans are facing difficult decisions about how to cover daily needs with little or no income. With people out of work, many families are finding it increasingly difficult to put food on the table. Those who […]
