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More seafood tariffs in Trump’s trade war with China are hitting Alaska coming and going. On July 6 the first 25 percent tax went into effect on more than 170 U.S. seafood products going to China. On August 23, more items were added to the list, including fish meal from Alaska. “As of right now, nearly every species and product from Alaska is on that list of tariffs,” said Garrett Evridge, a fisheries economist with the McDowell Group. Alaska produces more than 70,000 metric tons of fish meal per year (about 155 million pounds), mostly made fro...
The Petersburg Marine Mammal Center is hosting a summer science camp this week to expose middle school aged kids to the scientific jobs available in the community. "We're excited," said Sunny Rice, Petersburg Marine Mammal Center board member and marine advisory agent with the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences/Alaska Sea Grant. "It'll be fun. It's always lots fun. Lots of energy. It's good to expose them to things they might want to do later on in life." Although, the summer camp is...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that portions of an initiative aimed at protecting salmon be stricken as unconstitutional but decided that the rest of the measure can advance to the fall ballot. In a written order, the court said the problematic parts would bar the state Fish and Game commissioner from granting a permit to a project that would cause “substantial damage” or have other impacts even if it is the judgment of the commissioner or Legislature that a project’s public benefit would outweigh its eff...
WRANGELL - The coho salmon derby kicks off this weekend, and runs every weekend until September . Anyone with a fishing rod is welcome to take part in the coho derby. According to Alicia Holder, with the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, the city has done coho salmon fishing derbies in the past, but this is the first one in a long time. They were common in the 1970s, she said, but the last derby dedicated to coho salmon was sometime in the '80s. The common salmon to fish for in Wrangell in recent...
On July 25 at 9:20 P.M., the United States Coast Guard suspended their search for John Phillips, 59, who went missing when the vessel he was on capsized in Nushagak Bay, according to a release from the USCG. A Jayhawk crew searched more than 25 square nautical miles and 23 miles of coastline for approximately six hours, according to the release. "Ending a search is never easy, especially when working alongside so many people dedicated to finding the missing person,” said Lt. Stephen Nolan, District 17 Command duty officer, in a release. ...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A new project will examine ticks found in Alaska to see if they carry the pathogens that cause Lyme disease, tularemia or other illnesses. This is the first time researchers will go out looking for ticks in Alaska parks and examine whether those ticks carry diseases, the Anchorage Daily News reported . “As the climate changes and ticks are moving north, we need a baseline,” said Kimberlee Beckmen, a wildlife veterinarian with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. “It’s important to have the baseline...
Alaska appears to be an exception in terms of gender parity at all levels of its seafood industry. Women comprise roughly half of the world’s seafood industry work force, yet a report released last week revealed that 61 percent of women around the globe feel they face unfair gender biases from slime lines to businesses to company boardrooms. The women’s overall responses cited biases in recruitment and hiring, in working conditions and inflexible scheduling. The findings were based on 700 responses gathered in an online survey from Sep...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska ballot initiative that aims to strengthen state law protecting salmon habitat could be costly and delay infrastructure projects, state officials said. The officials noted the possible negative effects during the Senate State Affairs Committee meeting last week in Anchorage. The initiative would increase the number of streams that officials must assume have salmon, likely resulting in more state checks on the streams, said Ben White, the environmental program manager for the state Department of T...
Trump’s trade war now includes tariffs on seafood going to and from China. China is Alaska’s biggest seafood buyer purchasing 54 percent of Alaska seafood exports last year valued at $1.3 billion. On July 6 a 25 percent tariff went into effect on U.S. imports to China, including all Alaska salmon, pollock, cod, herring, flatfish, Dungeness crab, sablefish, geoduck clams and more. Then on July 11 Trump added a 10 percent tariff on all seafood sent from China to the US. According to market expert John Sackton of Seafoodnews.com, it includes pro...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Authorities are investigating after hundreds of fish were left rotting on a hillside near Wasilla. The fish that appear to be salmon were discarded off a hiking trail near Knik Goose Bay Road, KTUU-TV reported Sunday. The overpowering smell suggests the fish were left there for some time. “Discarding fish waste on public or private property or along roads, pull-offs, and trails can attract bears into residential areas and result in fines ranging from $300 to $1,000,” said Ken Marsh, a public information officer with...
Sockeye salmon catches often add up to half of the value of Alaska’s total salmon fishery, and the so-called reds dominate the season’s early fisheries starting in mid-May. But sockeye catches so far range from record-setting highs at Bristol Bay to record lows nearly everywhere else. For example, the Copper River sockeye harvest of just 26,000 is the lowest in 50 years. At Kodiak just 212,000 sockeyes were taken through July 6 making it the weakest harvest in 38 years. Sockeye fishing at Yakutat has been closed due to the lowest returns in...
KENAI, Alaska (AP) — A respiratory pathogen that scientists previously believed to be restricted to sheep and goats has been detected in moose and caribou in Alaska. Scientists have also recently identified Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, also known as Movi, in other animal species for the first time, including a bison in Montana, mule deer in New Mexico and white-tailed deer in the upper Midwest, the Peninsula Clarion reported last week. The pneumonia-like disease may have contributed to the death of an emaciated caribou from the Fortymile herd n...
June 21, 1918 Assistant District Attorney Regan visited in town while the City of Seattle was in port. He stated that he noted with pleasure the clean and orderly appearance of the town and complimented officials and citizens generally upon the fact that Petersburg furnishes the court very few cases of law violation. June 18, 1943 It was a crowd of tired, happy girls which Skipper Harry Colp brought to Petersburg on the Charles T. They were returning from a two-week camping trip at the Allens cabin in Beecher’s Pass. Weather was perfect for the...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A Juneau man could face criminal charges after one of his wolf traps mortally wounded a black bear cub, Alaska State Troopers said. A group of hikers found the cub severely injured near the Ready Bouillon Creek in late May after it stepped into the trap which was illegally left out on Douglas Island, the Juneau Empire reported . The snare caught the cub around both hind legs and cut the bear almost all the way to the bone, said Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game determined that the c...
Plastics in recycled fishing nets are being used to make an amazing array of products around the globe and Alaska plans to get in on the action. An Alaska Net Hack Challenge is being planned for September 8 and 9 that aims to identify potential opportunities for using the tons of old nets piled up in landfills and storage lots across the state and develop new items from the materials. Fishing nets can weigh from 5,000 to 20,000 pounds each. “The purpose of the program is to change how people look at fishing nets and ropes. Instead of looking a...
Districts 5, 6, 10 and most of 7 will soon reopen to sport fishermen for king salmon, according to emergency regulations put in place earlier this spring. Chinook harvest opportunity has already opened in hatchery areas at Anita Bay, Blind Slough and Petersburg’s City Creek, opening up last Friday. On June 15 the next wave of openings will take effect, following a wide scale closure to the fishery at the start of April. Most of the marine waters in the Petersburg-Wrangell area will reopen later next week, with districts 8 and a portion of 7 i...
Hagfish is the real name for what is commonly called slime eels and it could become a viable fishery with ready markets standing by. Little is known about hagfish in Alaska, although they are commonly caught elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad. In Oregon, for example, a fleet of 15 to 20 boats catches up to two million pounds each year in customized five gallon buckets or large barrels and pay fishermen up to $1.25 a pound. Now, two Alaska biologists are testing the waters for a fishery with longliner in Southeast who were given a special permit...
Forces are aligned for a nice pay day for Alaska’s salmon fishermen. There is no backlog from last season in cold storages, a lower harvest forecast is boosting demand, prices for competing farmed salmon have remained high all year, and a devalued U.S. dollar makes Alaska salmon more appealing to foreign customers. “Over the past year the dollar has weakened 11 percent against the euro, 9 percent against the British pound, 5 percent against the Japanese yen, and 7 percent against the Chinese yuan. That makes Alaska salmon and other seafood mor...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on Friday it would begin to allow subsistence and personal use salmon permit participants to access their permits online. Online availability was established as a result of user feedback, with the intention of streamlining and simplifying the permitting process. A single, regionwide permit has been created that will allow bearers the opportunity to harvest salmon through the waters of Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Permits are still free, available online at www.adfg.alaska.gov/store/. Permit...
"Don't touch!" That's a phrase worth remembering from now through early July as newborn moose calves, young bear cubs and other wildlife babies start appearing in Alaska's backyards, urban greenbelts, and along popular trails. Tug - at - your - heartstrings cute, they may appear helpless and abandoned, but a protective mother is likely nearby. According to Fairbanks Area Management Biologist, Tony Hollis, cow moose can be particularly dangerous during calving season . "Give them plenty of...
The way that fisheries are managed determines the daily tempo for fishing families’ lives. Managers set the dates and times…the when’s and where’s and who’s … and the amounts that fishermen can catch. What happens to fishing families when any of the rules change? A new federal study aims to find out. “Those things are important for fishery managers to consider and try and integrate into their decision making, because there really are universal themes as far as how management changes have affected families,” said Marysia Szymkowiak, a social sci...
Alaska’s 2018 salmon season officially gets underway this week with the first 12-hour opener on May 17 for sockeyes and kings returning to the Copper River. The catch there this year calls for 19,000 kings and 942,000 sockeye salmon targeted by a fleet of more than 500 drift gillnetters. Here’s a primer of how fishery managers project the rest of Alaska’s salmon season may play out: Statewide, the 2018 salmon harvest is projected at 149 million fish, down 34 percent from the 2017 take of 226 million salmon. The shortfall this season stems...
Wrangell — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Wednesday released the following information concerning personal use salmon fishing in the Anita Bay Terminal Harvest Area (THA) for 2018. Anita Bay THA consists of those waters of Anita Bay south and west of a line from the tip of Anita Point at 5 6°13.68 ′ N. latitude, 1 3 2°22. 48 ′ W. longitude to a point on the northern shore at 56°14.26′ N. latitude, 132°23.93 ′ W. longitude. The Anita Bay THA will open to the personal use harvest of salmon at 12:01 a.m., Tuesday, May 15, 2018. Beginni...
The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game has mapped 32 nautical miles of herring spawn through April 27, including 1.0 nmi of active spawn in Salisbury Sound. Spawn deposition surveys were conducted on April 7-11 and on April 24-25. Final results from this year's stock assessment will not be available until November 2018. However, some general information can be derived from the data collected to date. Nearly all spawning this year occurred along shorelines of Kruzof Island, Hayward Strait, and the...
