Sorted by date Results 451 - 463 of 463
The value of Alaska fishing permits has see-sawed over the past year with Cook Inlet prices heading upwards and Bristol Bay on the down side. “Cook Inlet had a really good year last year, and they’re expecting another strong fishery this summer. Salmon drift permits have taken off with sales made at $80,000 compared to around $50,000 last year,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer Prices have headed the other way in Bristol Bay. The Bay permits, are not so hot. They ran way up last year on expectations of good fish numbe...
Soccer balls…motorcycles… reminders of the massive tsunami in Japan a year ago are now appearing along Alaska’s coastlines. “It’s safe to say that tsunami debris is here,” said Merrick Burden, director of the Juneau-based Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation. Since January the MCA has been tracking where and the kinds of debris that is coming ashore, and whether it is radioactive (none so far), at Kodiak, Yakutat, Sitka and Craig where the wreckage was first likely to hit. “What we’re finding are wind driven objects like buoys, Styrofoa...
It has taken a quarter of a century, but fishery managers are finally poised to take action to reduce the five million pounds of halibut allowed to be taken as bycatch in Gulf of Alaska (GOA) fisheries. Industry watchers are hoping that public comments will sway them to make the largest cuts under consideration. Currently, 2,300 metric tons of halibut bycatch is allowed in the GOA groundfish fisheries. That is further broken down to 2,000mt for the trawl sector and 300mt for hook and line fisheries, primarily the cod fleet. Those are the two fi...
A resurgence of farmed fish and shifting world currencies could shake up salmon markets this year. “There are two trends going into the current salmon season that we haven’t seen for several years,” said Gunnar Knapp, a fisheries economist at the University of Alaska at Anchorage. “Exchange rates look to be weaker, not stronger, and perhaps more importantly, farmed salmon prices, rather than rising or holding steady, have fallen significantly. So we will be selling into a market where there is a lot more competing product available at a lot c...
Fishermen in the world’s largest salmon fishery at Bristol Bay are getting good grades for improving the quality of their salmon, and it’s boosting their bottom line. Starting in 2008, two projects have tracked fish quality based on specific handling practices, and given individual fishermen scores on their improvements (or not). “The two studies go hand in glove. First you get a score and understand where you are, and secondly, if you wish to improve, then you can start changing the way you handle your fish out on the water to bring your...
Home grown salmon are Alaska’s largest crop – but don’t ever refer to it as farming. Whereas farmed fish are crammed into closed pens or cages until they’re ready for market, Alaska salmon begin their lives in one of 35 hatcheries and are released as fingerlings to the sea. When the fish return home, they make up a huge part of Alaska’s total salmon catch. The state’s annual report on its fisheries enhancement programs show that last year, hatchery returns and harvests were down by more than half from 2010, when a record 77 million hatchery sa...
It’s a mixed bag in America in terms of bankrolling ‘the best available science’ for our nation’s fisheries. Based on the preliminary federal budget released last week, funds for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration went from $4.7 billion to $5.5 billion, an increase of about $750 million. Within the NOAA budget, funding for the National Marine Fisheries Service comes in at $1 billion - a drop of $15 million from its actual budget for the last fiscal year. Out of NMFS’ FY13 budget, $174 million will fund science and managemen...
Over half of all fishing fatalities are due to vessels going down, and most of the boats sink because of flooding. The sinkings of the Alaska Ranger and Katmai in 2008, for example, in which 12 men died, both stemmed from flooding through open hatches. Those and other sinkings highlighted the need for an alert that provides immediate status of all openings aboard fishing boats. To the rescue: a simple electronic monitoring system on doors and hatches that sends signals to the wheelhouse. It’s not new technology, said Chelsea Woodward, an e...
Alaskans were surprised to learn (from the Anchorage Daily News’ Alaska Ear, of all places) that there is a new and very different mission statement posted by the Department of Natural Resources on the State of Alaska website. The old ‘statement of policy’: “To develop, conserve and enhance natural resources for present and future generations.” The new mission statement: “To responsibly develop Alaska‘s resources by making them available for maximum use and benefit consistent with the public interest.” Questions about the mission shift d...
As expected there will be less halibut available for fishermen to catch this year – an 18% drop to 33 million pounds, to be split among fisheries along the west coast, British Columbia and Alaska. That follows a 19% cut to the catch last year. The announcement was made at the International Pacific Halibut Commission’s annual meeting last week in Anchorage. Alaska always gets the lion’s share of the catch, which this year will be 25.5 million pounds. Driving the fishing decreases: Pacific halibut stocks continue a decade long decline, there...
An array of 19 new seafood products will compete for top honors at the annual Symphony of Seafood contest, and the crowd will choose the popular People’s Choice award. The Symphony began nearly two decades ago as a way to celebrate innovation and introduce new Alaska seafood products. The event provides an even playing field for Alaska’s major seafood companies and small ‘mom and pops, such as Tustamena Smokehouse in Kasilof with its salmon bacon. “It is the most wonderful stuff. It doesn’t taste fishy; it just tastes like wonderful low fat b...
Most people don’t know that 40 years ago Alaska pioneered the use of sonar to track salmon runs, or that state fishery managers operate 15 sonar sites on 13 rivers from Southeast to the Yukon. The goal of making Alaskans more aware of one of Alaska’s most important fish counting tools has been accomplished with the launch of new web based project that lets visitors see three types of sonar in action. The site explains that traditional tools such as weirs and counting towers can be used to count salmon in clear, narrow streams, but not in wide,...
The Bering Sea snow crab fishery is picking up steam earlier than usual as the fleet scrambles to get the catch before rapidly encroaching sea ice shuts them down. About 25 boats are out on the water so far, soon to be joined by 60 or so more as the forecast calls for continued frigid weather and high winds. Although the fishery opens by regulation October 15, most crabbers usually wait until mid-January to begin dropping pots. The snow crab catch was boosted 64% this season to nearly 80 million pounds. Boats left without settling on a price,...
