Ben Fisher

Reporting from Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Ben Fisher is a Seattle-based freelance writer. Previously, he worked as night and copy editor at the Jerusalem Post, Israel’s largest English language newspaper, and as digital editor of Jewish Quarterly. He is fluent English, French, Hebrew, and Arabic.

Published on
August 14, 2019

British Columbia First Nations tribes have signed an agreement with the Canadian government to expand community-based commercial fishing for seven First Nations groups

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Published on
August 12, 2019

The sockeye salmon season in Alaska this year is booming, though pink and keta salmon are falling behind ...

Image courtesy of Max

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Published on
August 12, 2019

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency changed its position on the Pebble Mine project after Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy met with President Donald Trump, according to a CNN report

Although the EPA’s decision not to oppose the mining project was made public on 30 July, staff scientists at the agency learned of the decision a month before, soon after the meeting. Dunleavy met with Trump while Air Force One was in Alaska on 26 June

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Published on
August 12, 2019

The Trump administration’s trade war with China has resulted a 36 percent drop in the United States’ seafood sales

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Published on
August 5, 2019

Black Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada-based Cooke Aquaculture plans to transition its Washington state salmon farms to become trout farms as the state’s ban on open non-native net-pen fish-farming approaches. 

The ban on non-native finfish farming was signed by Washington Governor Jay Inslee in March of 2018 and goes into effect in 2022. 

Cooke Vice President of Public Relations Joel Richardson called the state’s permitting

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Published on
July 30, 2019

As of early last week, more than 42 million salmon (41.5 million of which are sockeye) have been harvested in Bristol Bay this season, as anglers aim to break the all-time harvest record of ...

Image courtesy of Max

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Published on
July 30, 2019

Catch 49, a program that delivers local Alaskan seafood throughout the state, has begun to move into the wholesale market as its customer base creeps towards 1,000. 

Their new clients include the Princess Holland America lodges in Denali National Park and the Muse restaurant at the Anchorage Museum. Catch 49 also begun distributing seafood through North Star Quality Meats, which supplies proteins to stores in more rural parts of the

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Published on
July 26, 2019

A rockslide on British Columbia’s Fraser River has created a five-meter waterfall, which has blocked the migration path of chinook and sockeye salmon, prompting Canadian officials to begin airlifting fish past the blockage. 

The river, which sees millions of fish annually swimming inland to spawn, was blocked in an area some 250 miles upstream near Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada. Scientists believe the slide actually occurred last

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Published on
July 26, 2019

Vancouver Island native, model, and entertainer Pamela Anderson is expected to be aboard the RV Martin Sheen “protest flotilla” this Saturday, 27 July, voicing her opposition to fish farming in British Columbia, Canada

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Published on
July 22, 2019

Last weekend’s Slow Food Nations Festival – a Denver, Colorado-based event showcasing sustainable and traceable food – was well represented by the U.S. West Coast groundfish fishery, which is exhibiting an impressive turnaround after it was decimated in the 1990’s.

The fishery, which consists predominantly of species of rockfish and flatfish, was collapsing due to overfishing about two decades ago. Thanks to conservation

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