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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...
The Federal Subsistence Board announced on Monday it will be closing its Chinook salmon subsistence fishery in the Stikine River this year due to low expected returns. Under the authority delegated him by the board, Ranger Bob Dalrymple of Wrangell's Forest Service district made the decision to close down the fishery. Preseason forecasts made by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game informed the decision, with 6,900 king salmon greater than 28 inches in length expected to return. Management...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced this week that the lingcod sport fishing seasons, bag and possession limits, annual limits, and size limits have been established for the Northern Southeast Area (see attached map). In this area the following regulations apply: Northern Southeast Area Season: May 16 – November 30. Limits: o Residents – 1 daily, 2 in possession, no size limit. o Nonresidents – 1 daily, 1 in possession, size limit: 30 inches or greater in length and less than 35 in...
A shuffle in some funding leaves Alaska’s commercial fisheries division in good shape to manage the resources and target important projects across the state. At first glance, the $69 million operating budget for FY19 appears to be down slightly from last year’s $72.3 million but that’s not the case. “Most of that difference is a sort of ‘cleanup’ in authority we no longer had funding for, such as the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund, test fishing and some interagency items. The rest is due to $1.1 million shortfall in Commercial Fisheries E...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A ballot initiative that aims to strengthen a state law that protects salmon habitat has made its way before the Alaska Supreme Court. The court heard arguments Thursday on whether the initiative dubbed Yes for Salmon can appear on the November ballot, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. State attorney Joanne Grace argued that the ballot initiative would ban large development projects like mines, which cannot avoid disturbing salmon habitat. By the initiative enacting such a ban, the state claimed the L...
Two commercial fisheries open each spring at Upper Cook Inlet that attract little notice and few participants, but each pays big bucks to fishermen. The first is a food and bait herring fishery that runs from April 20 through the end of May. The 150 ton catch quota is small compared to most of Alaska’s other herring fisheries, but the payout is far higher than all others. “They get $1.00 to $1.50 a pound, or $2,000 to $3,000 for a short ton, and the herring goes primarily into the halibut commercial bait fishery or the sport bait fis...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — This season’s salmon harvest in Bristol Bay is looking to be a sizable one. Alaska officials project the sockeye salmon run to be 51.3 million fish, not far off from last season’s return of 56.5 million. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game expects 37.6 million fish to be potentially available for commercial harvest when the bay’s salmon season begins on June 1, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported Thursday. The bay’s harvest of sockeye salmon last season was 37.7 million. In 2016, the catch was lower with 37.3 million and r...
The state Department of Fish and Game has announced its 2018 preseason estimates for Chinook salmon, and its all-gear harvest limit for Southeast Alaska under provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. In its release last week, the department set the year’s limit at 130,000 “treaty fish,” nearly 80,000 fish lower than the preseason limit available in 2017. This also includes a 10-percent reduction in response to conservation needs for the king salmon stocks in Southeast, northern British Columbia, and their transboundary rivers. The annual all-g...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A man was injured north of Anchorage after a moose that he had just kicked stomped his foot in return, state officials said. KTVA-TV reported the man escaped major injuries in the encounter Thursday with the moose and her calf. “It sounds like the moose were on a trail and in this case, it sounds like the guy was trying to go through them,” State Department of Fish and Game spokesman Ken Marsh said. “That’s never a good idea.” The two moose left the area after the man had his foot stomped, said Alaska Troopers sp...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery closed Tuesday for the remainder of the 2018 season after two days and about 8,300 tons short of guideline harvest level. The Alaska Department Fish and Game closed the Sitka fishery after the roughly 30 boats hauled in 2,800 tons of fish. “The last fishery occurred on March 26,” read a Tuesday press release from Eric Coonradt, area marine biologist with the Alaska Department Fish and Game Division of Commercial Fisheries. “And since then the department has not been able to identify a body of good quali...
WRANGELL — The Chamber of Commerce’s annual king salmon derby has been cancelled, it announced last week, following emergency management orders issued by the Department of Fish and Game (see king salmon story). A tradition for over 60 years, initially the month-long fishing derby was to be pared down to weekends this year, given restrictions ADFG had at first countenanced that would have centered around the Stikine River’s mouth in District 8. The eventual orders released last Thursday were far more expansive, encompassing nearly all inner...
WRANGELL - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced late last week the extent of its expected king salmon sport fishing restrictions for this season. The region wide closure to retention of Chinook began on Sunday, April 1, to last through the first half of the summer for some waters. Citing a poor preseason forecast, ADFG has decided to close the majority of marine waters within the Petersburg-Wrangell area, not only in District 8 but also in 6, 7 and 10. (see map) The lengthiest...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said it has been overestimating how many Chinook and sockeye salmon make it up the Taku River. Department officials said the statistical bias is being corrected by new state-of-the-art studies, the Juneau Empire reported Sunday. The department said it had been overestimating the salmon numbers by 30 to 40 percent. The estimates were conducted using a decades-old “mark-recapture” system. Department coordinator Ed Jones said seal predation and the old system have caused much of the prob...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Thursday the extent of its king salmon sport fishing restrictions this season. Citing a poor preseason forecast, the department has decided to close the majority of marine waters within the Petersburg-Wrangell area, not only in District 8 but also in 6, 7 and 10. (See map) In the waters adjacent to the Stikine River, which include District 8 and a portion of the Back Channel in District 7, the retention of king salmon will be prohibited starting... Full story
Daily aerial surveys by the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game continue as the Sitka Sound Herring Fishery was placed on two-hour notice on Tuesday, March 20. During the past week herring have been located in deeper waters of Sitka Sound, but test samples continued to show immature roe. On Wednesday, herring predators such as whales and sea lions continued to be seen in the area northwest of Bieli Rock, according to an ADF&G release. A vessel survey conducted by the R/V Kestrel showed a large...
“It’s what’s on the inside that counts” is the message Alaska crab marketers are pushing to their customers, encouraging them to put appearances aside. “We’re telling them to Get Ugly,” said Tyson Fick, executive director of the trade group, Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, speaking of the new campaign launched last week in partnership with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute at the big Seafood Expo in Boston. The promotion showcases Alaska crabs with darker, discolored or scarred shells or adorned with barnacles, that may be less appealing to...
Mike Bangs, who helped pioneer commercial diving in Alaska and was chair of a regional advisory council and Petersburg harbor board, died last week at 62. About 250 people filled the Sons of Norway Hall for the Celebration of Life program on Sunday. Nearly 20 friends and family members told stories about their time with Mr. Bangs. "For many of us here today, the world is already a different place without our friend Mike Bangs," said Glo Wollen, giving remarks at the program. "He passed far too y...
