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Legislation to restore and increase the state licensing fee on sportfishing guides and operators ran into problems in the Senate Finance Committee last week, as lawmakers questioned why out-of-state boat owners who bring up guests are not required to get a license and pay the fee. “My district has got to be one of the top guided areas in the state,” said Committee Co-Chair Sen. Bert Stedman, whose district stretches from Sitka to Prince of Wales Island, including Petersburg. And while that means a lot of non-residents pay local operators for...
April 20 – A citizen reported an attempted phone scam. Officers responded to a report of trespass on private property on 14th Street. April 21 – An officer responded to a report of a disturbance on Harbor Way. It was non-criminal. An individual completed their annual sex offender registration. An individual reported lost property on North Nordic. Police are investigating a report of an individual tampering with vehicle gas caps and the theft of gasoline. An officer assisted with a medical emergency on Mitkof Highway. April 22 – An officer conta...
After a strong return of pink salmon to Southeast last year, state fisheries managers are forecasting a commercial harvest of just over 16 million fish this summer, one-third the level of last year’s catch of 48.5 million pinks. “During recent decades, Alaska-wide pink salmon returns have tended to be larger” during odd-numbered years than even-numbered years, the Department of Fish and Game noted in its annual forecast released April 19. Last summer’s pink harvest was on track with the 10-year average for odd-numbered years (2010-2...
The sport fishing regulations for Alaska hatchery-produced king salmon in areas near Petersburg were announced by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on April 19. From June 1 to July 31, residents and nonresidents will have a bag and possession limit of two king salmon greater than 28 inches and two less than 28 inches in the Wrangell Narrows and Blind Slough terminal harvest area. The king salmon caught in that area will also not count toward the nonresident annual limit. From June 15 to...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery closed Sunday with a final tally of approximately 26,350 tons harvested according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The number harvested was just over half of the 45,164-ton guideline harvest level (GHL) and over 10,000 tons more than what was harvested last year. Between the first opening on March 26 and the final opening on April 10, the fishery opened each day except for April 3. In the final five days of daily openings, approximately 6,990...
The state Board of Fisheries' decision last month to move the Southeast commercial shrimp pot fishery from a fall start to spring means there will be no harvest this year. The Department of Fish and Game told the board that a spring harvest could help build up the region's shrimp stocks, which are in decline, by taking fewer egg-laden shrimp than in the fall. Wrangell shrimpers, however, are questioning the wisdom of the switch, which they said could hurt marketing efforts and reduce the value...
After days of deliberation and a contentious set of proposals targeting the Southeast Alaska herring fisheries, the Alaska Board of Fisheries ultimately declined to make any major changes last month. The Board of Fisheries met March 10-22 in Anchorage to deliberate proposals related to a large number of Southeast fisheries. The meeting was originally schedule for January, but due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in Ketchikan — where it was supposed to take place — around the original dates of the meeting, the board chose to postpone and move the...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Tuesday that the sac roe herring fishery in the Sitka Sound will continue with daily openings from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in waters off the western shore of Baranof Island to the south of Sitka until closed by a field or advisory announcement. As of Tuesday, an estimated 19,400 tons of herring have been harvested so far which is still less than half of the record 45,164 guideline harvest level. The openings on last Thursday through Saturday occurred in...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries adopted a revised king salmon management plan during its March meeting in a compromise which will see sport fishery limits set prior to the start of the season based on a tier system instead of changing in-season. The hope is that the 80/20 split between the commercial troll and sport fisheries will be maintained while allowing all non-residents who travel to Alaska to catch king salmon the opportunity to do so. "In this plan the caveat there is when we're at those...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery has seen multiple openings over the past week which have resulted in approximately 7,300 tons of herring harvested as of Tuesday according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. After four days of two-hour notice, the first fishery opening was held on March 26. Though there was no herring spawn observed in the aerial survey that day, department and industry vessels observed herring in the sound. The opening occurred from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and...
WRANGELL-The hooligan are back. When the eagles disappear from town and the sea lions start hauling out on the beach at Lesnoi Island, it's a pretty sure bet hooligan season is upon the Stikine River, said David Rak, forester at the U.S. Forest Service in Wrangell. If you go to the north side of Wrangell Island, Rak said, you can hear the sea lions barking from a spot where hundreds haul out on the beach at Lesnoi Island. "When the eagles all disappear from town, they're over there," Rak said...
The arrival of herring signals the start of Alaska’s spring fisheries and this year’s commercial catch limits from each of the three main areas are record breakers. But much of the catch will go unharvested — there is no market. Combined harvests from three prime producing areas total 118,346 tons, or nearly 237 million pounds. The limit for the Sitka Sound harvest in late March is set at over 45,164 tons, followed the first days of April at Kodiak where a harvest of 8,075 tons is allowed. Alaska’s largest roe herring fishery at Togiak in Brist...
The tugboat Western Mariner ran aground Monday morning while towing the barge Chichagof Provider through the Neva Strait according to the U.S. Coast Guard. At 2:55 a.m. watchstanders in the Sector Juneau command center received a radio call from the Western Mariner stating that the 286-foot containerized barge in tow had collided with the tug, causing the tug to run aground. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, a temporary steering failure onboard the tugboat caused...
Vessels have been flocking to the Sitka Sound in preparation for the sac roe herring fishery which went on two hour notice Tuesday morning. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, no herring spawn have been observed during aerial surveys but the R/V Kestrel, which has been surveying the sound since Tuesday, has recorded sightings. On Wednesday, the Kestrel spotted large biomasses northwest of Bieli Rocks, north of Middle Island, and southwest of the Siginaka Islands. During...
Salmon returning home to Alaska hatcheries again accounted for nearly one-third of the 2021 statewide catch for commercial fishermen at 64 million fish. It was the 8th largest hatchery home-coming since 1977 and at a payout of $142 million, the salmon produced 25% of the overall value at the Alaska docks. An additional 220-thousand salmon that got their start in a hatchery also were caught in Alaska sport, personal use and subsistence fisheries. Nearly 70 million adult hatchery salmon returned...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game started performing aerial herring surveys in the Sitka Sound last week in preparation for the upcoming sac roe herring fishery. Aerial surveys are conducted by Fish and Game to search for herring spawn and, if spotted, map their location and take aerial photographs. Though no groups of herring spawn have been recorded yet, surveyors have recorded sightings of herring predators in the area. On Tuesday, 65 sea lions were spotted off of Inner Point while a...
Gotta give the Dunleavy Administration credit for being the first to try and get to the bottom of one of Alaska’s most troubling fishing issues: bycatch. The governor in November 2021 created an Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force (ABRT) “to help better understand unintended bycatch of high value fishery resources in State and federal waters.” He defined bycatch as “fish which are harvested in a fishery but are not sold or kept.” The 13-member group will issue a final report based on those better understandings in November 2022. “Once the structur...
Haines-Lynn Canal fishermen might have an opportunity to diversify if a Juneau-based fishing charter and lodge owner is right about his hunch that a viable commercial squid fishery could exist in Southeast. Richard Yamada, who's been operating fishing charters for 40 years, has been looking for ways to reduce the impacts on his business from king salmon declines. He speculates that an observed influx of magister squid in the northern inside passage might be one factor in salmon survival. About 1...
The 2022 sport fishing regulations for king salmon in Southeast Alaska and the modifications for the Petersburg and Wrangell area were released by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game earlier this month. According to the announcement, Alaska residents have a bag and possession limit of two king salmon that measure 28 inches or more in length. Resident anglers may use two rods from February 3 to March 31, 2022 and October 1 to March 31, 2023 but can only retain salmon. Non-residents have a bag...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the start of the 2022 Southeast Alaska commercial Tanner crab fishery which opened on February 11 at noon after registration for the season closed. According to the announcement, core areas will be open until February 18 at noon for a total of seven fishing days, non-core areas will be open until February 23 at noon for a total of 12 fishing days, and exploratory area will be open until March 9 at noon for a total of 26 fishing days. All three are...
The 2022 commercial Tanner crab fishery is set to open Friday at noon with this season's mature male abundance biomass predicted to be 5.81 million pounds in Registration Area A according to Joe Stratman, the lead shellfish biologist for Southeast Alaska with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. That prediction comes from a 2021 survey which uses stratified sampling to estimate mature male Tanner crab abundance spanning from the Dixon Entrance to Cape Fairweather. This year's prediction is...
Frigid February fishing in Alaska features crabbing from the Panhandle to the Bering Sea, followed in March by halibut, black cod and herring. Southeast crabbers will drop pots for Tanners on Friday, and they’re expecting one of the best seasons ever. Fishery managers said they are seeing “historically high levels” of Tanners with good recruitment coming up from behind. The catch limit won’t be set until the fishery is underway but last year’s take was 1.27 million pounds (504,369 crabs), which weighed 2.5 pounds on average. Crabbers know they...
This year's mature herring biomass in the Sitka Sound is expected to be the largest ever with a forecasted 225,820 tons according to Sitka Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The high forecast has also resulted in the highest guideline harvest level (GHL) ever set for the annual sac roe herring fishery of 45,164 tons or 20% of the sound's total mature herring biomass. Dupuis said the biggest factor impacting the forecast is the "very large" class of...
Kodiak fishermen are getting an advance price of $8.10 per pound for Tanner crab in the fishery that opened Jan. 15. High crab prices have led all other seafoods during the COVID-19 pandemic as buyers grab all they can to fill demand at buffet tables, restaurants and retail counters around the world. “Our strategy was to get a price before the season even started. It’s simply bad business to go fishing without a price,” said Peter Longrich, secretary of the 74-member Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative which negotiated the deal with local processo...
Wow, there is a lot of fishing going on across Alaska! Salmon is the heart of Alaska’s seafood industry but winter is when the fishing action really begins. Hundreds of boats are out on the water on the first day of each new year, beginning a predictable rhythm for the seafood industry as millions of pounds of fish begin to cross the docks around the clock at Alaska’s working waterfronts. Here’s a sampler: Starting January 1 boats drop pots and baited lines for cod, rockfish and other whitefish in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. Alask...
