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. 

Published on
April 7, 2021

Alaskan fishing organizations are urging the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to listen to coastal communities and fishermen while crafting an ecosystem-based approach to climate change and fisheries policy.

The message from Alaska fishing communities came through recent public comments hearing by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the new administration’s executive order on climate

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Published on
March 30, 2021

Alaska’s pollock A season looks to be at least partially back on track after a chaotic early season stunted by COVID-19 shutdowns and rough weather …

Photo courtesy of Global

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Published on
March 23, 2021

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) is forecasting a robust all-species salmon harvest of over 190 million fish for the 2021 season …

Photo courtesy of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development

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Published on
March 22, 2021

A new report estimates that Bristol Bay, Alaska’s salmon fishery generated more than USD 2.2 billion (EUR 1.9 billion) in economic benefits during the banner 2019 season ... 

Photo courtesy of Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development

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Published on
March 11, 2021

Like so many companies in the seafood industry, Canada-based Tradex Foods Inc. had its business model put to the test roughly a year ago when the pandemic slashed foodservice industry sales by around 70 percent

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Published on
March 5, 2021

Domoic acid, price-haggling, and potential whale entanglement held up the Dungeness crab fishing up and down the West Coast this winter, further complicating a fishery already turned upside down by the pandemic.

Fishermen usually drop their pots from California to Washington in December, but did not start until January or February this season, depending on the state.

According to seafood distributor Tradex Food Inc, winter supply was met with

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Published on
February 26, 2021

An analysis by the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) indicates that U.S. consumers are increasingly looking to buy pollock caught in Alaska ... 

Photo courtesy of Genuine Alaska Pollock

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Published on
February 25, 2021

The Hilborn Lab at the University of Washington and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) have released an updated version of their Fishery Improvement Projects Database (FIP-DB). UW and SFP, which released the update on Wednesday, 24 February, are calling the database the “world’s most comprehensive resource for current and historical information on fishery improvement projects (FIPs),” with data from all the

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Published on
February 17, 2021

A report on Washington state’s dwindling wild salmon populations offers a warning to Alaska, where several stocks have registered concerning declines over the past years.

Washington's 2020 State of the Salmon in Watersheds report chronicled a bleak panorama, with 14 of the state’s species listed as endangered. While conversation efforts have succeeded in revitalizing some salmon runs in Washington, the report said fish stocks in

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Published on
February 16, 2021

A court in the state of Washington ruled in favor of a lawsuit to revoke the Clean Water Act general permit for the state's shellfish farmers last week, shooting down an appeal by Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association (PCSGA).

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) and the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers last year, and in October of 2019 a federal court upheld the lawsuit, ruling the

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