seafood Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Take A Fresh Look At Frozen Seafood And Prepare To Be Surprised

By Tom Banse November 6, 2019

If you ask American consumers whether fresh seafood or previously frozen tastes better, you are bound to get "fresh" as the answer. But blind taste tests conducted by Oregon State University found that fish caught and quickly frozen at sea rated as good or better than supposedly "fresh" fish bought at the supermarket.Read More

Don’t Want Plastic With Your Seafood? Neither Do Otters And Orcas In Northwest Waters

By Tom Banse October 2, 2019

OSU masters student Katherine Lasdin separates the innards of a donated rockfish at the Port of Newport, Oregon, for later analysis to see if it ingested microplastics. CREDIT: TOM BANSE/N3

Plastics in the ocean food chain has become a hot topic for local scientists, for similar reasons city and state policy makers and activists are debating plastic bag bans and how to reduce plastic straw and bottled water usage. All are concerned that the world's oceans are awash in plastic trash and fibers.Read More

Willapa Bay Oyster Farmers Struggle As Shrimp Population Booms

By Molly Solomon June 18, 2019

Kathleen Nisbet Moncy is a second generation oyster farmer. Her family has been farming in Willapa Bay for the past four decades. CREDIT: KAYLEE DOMZALSKI/OPB

Of the 70,000 acres of mudflats in Willapa Bay, less than 10,000 acres are used for shellfish cultivation. Researchers estimate about a quarter of that farmable land has already been taken over by burrowing shrimp. But the battle over land between shellfish growers and the shrimp is not entirely new. Read More

West Coast Fishing And Crabbing Groups Sue Fossil Fuel Companies For Role In Climate Change

By NPR News December 9, 2018

Dungeness crab like these, caught off the coast of Alaska, have been affected by the neurotoxin domoic acid because of algae blooms in recent years, which makes them unsafe to eat. CREDIT: Michael Melford/Getty Images

Fishing groups in California and Oregon joined the legal fray by filing suit against 30 companies, mainly oil producers. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, the plaintiff, contends that the fossil fuel industry is at fault for recent warming-related damages to the West Coast's prized Dungeness crab fishery.Read More

The Sea Cucumber Scandal: Pierce County Seafood Processor Pleads Guilty

By Austin Jenkins April 16, 2018

A Washington-based seafood processor pleaded guilty to illegally over-harvesting sea cucumbers, a delicacy protected by federal law. CREDIT: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

The owner of a seafood processing company in Pierce County, Wash., has pleaded guilty in a case involving the illegal sale of sea cucumbers, leathery creatures that are considered a delicacy to eat in some cultures.Read More

How This Washington Family Brought Oysters Back From The Brink

By Ruby de Luna March 7, 2018

Jerry Yamashita stands with his mother, Masako, and father, Masahide, in 1927. Courtesy of Patrick Yamashita

Oysters are a cornerstone of Pacific Northwest cuisine. But there was a time when our region’s oysters were in trouble, all but obliterated by over-harvesting and pollution. Then a Japanese immigrant helped turn things around.Read More