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
December 14, 2020

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has dropped the total allowable catch for Alaska’s Eastern Bering Sea pollock by 50,000 metric tons (MT) from this season’s 1.425 million MT to 1.375 million MT ... 

Photo courtesy of Genuine Alaska Pollock

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Published on
December 10, 2020

Alaska’s winter groundfish fishery was hit with a second COVID-19 outbreak after nine of 28 people on board a trawler owned by the O’Hara Corporation tested positive for coronavirus this week.

According to the City of Unalaska, O’Hara’s F/T Enterprise arrived in Dutch Harbor on Saturday, 5 December, when two crew members were found to have COVID-19. A local clinic tested the rest of the crew and found another seven

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Published on
December 9, 2020

The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council voted this week to close down a large area in Alaska’s Upper Cook Inlet to commercial fishing, a move that stands to damage an already struggling fishery.

The unanimous NPFMC vote closes Upper Cook Inlet’s gillnet fishery’s federal waters, which begin three miles offshore and make up a productive chunk that sits in the middle of the grounds. The federal waters were managed by state

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Published on
December 7, 2020

United States Seafoods had navigated the coronavirus pandemic with no cases on their vessels until last Thursday, 3 December, its last day of the season. The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based company’s Legacy trawler pulled into Unalaska to wrap up perch fishing for the season when two people on board tested positive. Further testing by a local clinic found that 24 of the 25 people on the vessel had COVID-19.

A news release from the City

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Published on
December 7, 2020

Researchers have identified a chemical found in car tires they say is causing the deaths of salmon in urban streams in Washington state.

In a study published in the journal Science last week, University of Washington researchers said they found 6PPD-quinone, an antioxidant used to slow degradation in car tires, is lethal to coho salmon.

The mortality baffled researchers for years until testing finally turned up chemicals related to tire

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Published on
December 3, 2020

Ascent Global Logistics announced this week it has acquired Alaska’s Hageland Aviation Services and will be launching a new service called Rambler Air.

Headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A., Rambler

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Published on
November 30, 2020

Fall fishing in Washington state’s Puget Sound did little to alleviate a market shortage of chum salmon after Alaska’s summer salmon season turned in abysmal numbers.

In Alaska, fishermen caught just …

Photo courtesy of The Old

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Published on
November 26, 2020

Earlier this month, conservation groups lost a lawsuit to block Cooke Aquaculture from raising domesticated steelhead in net-pens in Washington’s Puget Sound, but the groups announced on 23 November they will file a second appeal to the state’s Supreme Court.

In January, authorities from Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) granted Cooke a five-year permit to farm steelhead in Puget Sound, and Cooke received

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Published on
November 20, 2020

The Oregon pink shrimp fishery wrapped up 2020 with a robust catch of 42.3 million pounds on a season blighted only by low prices at markets were battered by the pandemic …

Photo courtesy of the Oregon Department of Fish and

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Published on
November 18, 2020

Dizzying swings in markets and consumer trends touched off by the coronavirus pandemic have forced the Alaska seafood industry to rethink its entire business model, from marketing to distribution to product mix.

Last week, professionals from across the industry and around the world convened on Zoom for a virtual installation of All Hands on Deck, an annual conference hosted by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI). Experts discussed the

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