In the Spring 2009 issue of Edible Portland, we published a piece on surimi seafood and how it’s breathing new life into Oregon’s Pacific whiting industry (whiting pictured at right). That’s great news for Oregon’s fishing communities.

But the modern fishing industry is always murkier than it seems. The whiting industry has significant salmon bycatch, or species that are inadvertently caught in trawling nets. The Oregonian published a story in June 2008 about the number of salmon caught as bycatch by whiting fishermen while salmon fishermen were under severe restrictions.

“This summer, commercial salmon trollers and sport anglers in California and along most of Oregon’s coast won’t be allowed to pluck a single chinook salmon from the ocean, an unprecedented shutdown.

“But the boats that chase whiting — the codlike fish used mostly in imitation crabmeat and other processed fish products — will be allowed to haul in 11,000 or more chinook along the West Coast without penalty, as part of the fishery’s inadvertent ‘bycatch.’”

Read the whole Oregonian article here.

Hungry for more information on surimi seafood and Pacific whiting? The Marine Stewardship Council is a great resource for information on fisheries.