Brian Hagenbuch

Contributing Editor reporting from Seattle, USA

Brian Hagenbuch spent a decade in South America, where he was a journalist for Reuters and Time Out in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. He now lives in Seattle and works as a freelance writer and translator, as well as a commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay. 


Author Archive

Published on
February 8, 2021

The federal government of Canada and the provincial government of British Columbia are pumping some CAD 4 million (USD 3.1 million, EUR 2.5 million) into a handful of different projects to combat declining wild salmon populations.

Canada announced last week the funds from the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF) will go to four different salmon restoration projects in B.C., and will serve to help a number of different

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Published on
February 5, 2021

Retail prices for sockeye salmon have been at historical highs for the past three months, largely driven by a 25 percent drop in global supply in 2020.

For Q1 up through 27 January, wild sockeye salmon fillets averaged USD 12.07 (EU 10.05), the highest quarterly average since 2012, according to figures cited by the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA).

BBRSDA Executive Director Andy Wink said sockeye prices have spiked

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Published on
February 3, 2021

Sockeye salmon forecasts for both the Copper River and the Upper Cook Inlet came in well below historical averages for the upcoming season, a blow to fisheries already reeling from poor runs and pandemic-related losses last season.

For the Copper River, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) predicted a total run of nearly 1.3 million sockeye salmon. That number would be 37.4 percent short of the most recent 10-year average of around 2.1

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Published on
January 27, 2021

The Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod fishery has recovered its Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification following its suspenion due to declining stocks.

The recertification was announced on Friday, 22 January, by MRAG Americas, an independent organization that conducts annual audits to assess the state of fisheries.

“The decision to lift the suspension comes as a result of an expedited audit that was announced on 22 December, 2020. The

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Published on
January 19, 2021

Trident Seafoods is scrambling to contain a coronavirus outbreak at a plant on the Aleutian Islands on the eve of the pollock A season.

The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based company announced on Monday, 18 January, that four roommates had tested positive at Trident’s plant in Akutan, Alaska, a processing center that takes in crab and cod as well as pollock from the Bering Sea fisheries.

One of the infected employees had difficulty

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Published on
January 18, 2021

A new study aims to research how salmon use magnetic fields for navigation and determine whether mineral stores like the Pebble deposit in Bristol Bay, Alaska might help guide the fish back to their spawning grounds ... 

Photo courtesy of

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Published on
January 13, 2021

After two winters of alarmingly scarce sea ice over Alaska’s Bering Sea, a NOAA ecosystem report showed qualified improvement last winter, which could bode for well for pollock, crab, and other fish stocks in one of the world’s most productive seafood regions ...

Photo courtesy of

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Published on
January 13, 2021

The coronavirus pandemic nearly folded Taylor Shellfish, one of the largest producers of farmed shellfish in the country.

Last March, as the virus began spreading across the United States, foodservice shutdowns and plummeting exports had Taylor on the ropes. Sales plummeted to around one-quarter of normal and over two-thirds of the 700 employees working for the Shelton, Washington, U.S.A.-based company were either laid off or placed on

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Published on
December 31, 2020

A recent study says that environmental DNA (eDNA) has the potential to be a far cheaper and less environmentally destructive alternative to traditional bottom trawl surveys. 

The study, published recently in ICES Journal of Marine Science, found large-scale comparisons of eDNA testing results and traditional bottom-trawl surveys yielded similar stock assessment data.

Last year, researchers from the Rockefeller University, Monmouth

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Published on
December 24, 2020

The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council set an incremental hike in total allowable catch (TAC) for Alaska sablefish amidst controversy over large sablefish bycatch at the hands of trawlers in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska …

Photo courtesy of

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