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Want a fishing license to crew on a salmon boat this summer? Got friends or family visiting who want to wet a line for a prized Alaska catch? Don’t count on it. If the Alaska legislature continues to defy its constitutional obligation to pass a budget, those opportunities will be lost because there won’t be any state workers to issue fishing licenses. Layoff notices went out on June 1 to thousands of state employees who will be off the job at the July 1 start of the fiscal year. That’s just one of the lesser impacts of the legislative impasse,...
Home grown shellfish and kelp are gaining momentum in Alaska, spurred on by growing markets and the steadfast push by Governor Walker’s visionary mariculture task force. Applications for more than 1,000 acres of oyster and kelp farms were filed with the Department of Natural Resources by the April 30 deadline, far more than usual. Fifteen are for new farms in the Southeast, Southcentral and Westward regions of which seven plan to grow kelp exclusively. Two farms at Klawok also are adding kelp to their current oyster growing operations. ...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced that the 2017/2018 commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Southeastern Alaska will be opening as scheduled at 8 a.m. on June 15. Dungeness crab fishermen must register their vessels and applicable gear with the department. The holder of a valid 2017 Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission permit for Southeastern Alaska Dungeness crab must be onboard the vessel during fishing operations and the permit holder’s name must be listed on the vessel registration. Buoy tags must be purchased prior to f...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish announced the bag and possession limit of king salmon in the Wrangell Narrows-Blind Slough terminal harvest area, effective June 1 through July 31. Under the regulations, king salmon bag and possession limits for residents and nonresidents will be two fish for those 28 inches or greater, and two fish less than 28 inches in length. Additionally, king salmon caught by nonresident anglers in the terminal harvest area do not count toward...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Tuesday king salmon sport fishing regulations have changed for the marine waters adjacent to the Stikine River in District 8, near Petersburg and Wrangell. From May 25 through July 15, sport fishing for king salmon is closed for the Grey's Passage area. This area is defined by all waters encompassed by a line from Babbler Point to Hour Point; Point Highfield to an ADFG regulatory marker located at the eastern entrance of Blind Slough; a...
The 36th Annual Petersburg Chamber of Commerce King Salmon Derby gets underway this Friday at 7 a.m. The derby continues through the Memorial Day Weekend and ends Monday at 5 p.m. The Derby hopes to tag and release two fish worth $10,000 and $5,000 prior to the start of the Derby. The $10,000 prize is sponsored by Alaska Marine Lines and the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. The $5,000 tagged fish is sponsored by Hammer and Wikan. Volunteers fished all morning on Wednesday for the tagged fish and, weather permitting, will continue trolling on Thu...
Alaska salmon managers are hoping for the best and planning for the worst as lawmakers extend into a third special session to try and agree on a state budget. It is the third year in a row they have not finished their legislative session on time due to budget differences. The haggling, which could last up to 30 days, means pink slips could go out to all state workers in less than two weeks in advance of job layoffs. “It’s similar to what happened last year. Pink slips go out on June 1 and then we have to start getting people out because they ca...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – King salmon fishing crews in Southeast Alaska have fallen short of catching their limit for the winter season. This year’s commercial harvest total is down from the previous two winters, KFSK-FM reported Monday. Crews have caught about 43,000 king salmon this season after catching more than 45,000 in each of the past two years. The winter had been looking even bleaker four weeks ago before a late surge, said Grant Hagerman, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s troll management biologist. “So a down year,” Hagerman said. “A...
The U.S. seafood industry’s contribution to the nation’s economy sank a bit, while Alaska’s output increased slightly and dollar values held steady. An eagerly anticipated annual report released last week by NOAA Fisheries measures the economic impacts of U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries. It highlights values, jobs, and sales for 2015, along with a 10 year snapshot of comparisons. A second report provides the status of U.S. fish stocks for 2016. The Fisheries Economics Report shows that including imports, U.S. commercial fishi...
Numerous studies over the past decade have highlighted Alaska’s “graying of the fleet” (the average age of permit holders is 50), and the lack of opportunities for younger people to launch a career in commercial fishing. State data show that between 1975 and 2014, more than 2,300 limited entry permits (nearly 28 percent) migrated away from Alaska’s rural fishing communities to non-residents. A new measure gaining steam in the Alaska legislature aims to reverse that trend by creating fisheries trusts in which communities could buy permits...
PETERSBURG (AP) – A group of volunteers from five southeast Alaska communities is working to document bats as part of a program aimed at combating a deadly virus caused by the animals. Volunteers from Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, Sitka and Wrangell are participating in this year’s program, which is coordinated through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Over the last three years, the program has helped gather data to prevent White Noise Syndrome. The fungal disease has killed off more than 7 million bats in the Lower 48 since it was discover...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game released its forecast for commercial salmon harvests this year, projecting a strong run of pinks for Southeast in 2017. If panning out as projected, the news should come as a relief to the region's fishermen after a disappointing 2016 harvest. The report details last year's commercial salmon season, which had come in about 30 percent lower than forecast. Alaska fishermen caught 112,500,000 salmon in 2016, of which 52.9 million had been sockeye and 39...
SITKA - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced April 10 that under Chinook salmon management provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty the 2017 abundance index for Southeast Alaska has been calculated to be 1.27, which results in an all-gear harvest limit of 209,700 treaty Chinook (non-Alaska hatchery-produced Chinook). The preseason troll treaty harvest allocation for 2017 is 154,880 Chinook or 108,320 fish lower than the preseason limit available in 2016. While there is no ceiling on the number of Chinook salmon harvested in the...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The state of Alaska’s toolkit for increasing moose and caribou numbers includes killing wolf pups in dens, shooting wolf packs from helicopters, and adopting liberal hunting regulations that allow sportsmen to shoot grizzlies over bait. But when state officials wanted to extend “predator control” to federal wildlife refuges, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said no. And after years of saying no, the agency late last year adopted a rule to make the denial permanent. Alaska’s elected officials called that an outrage a...
Seafood sales at American retail stores are on an upswing and should remain that way for the foreseeable future. Better yet - demand for fish captured wild in the USA showed the biggest gains of all. That’s good news for Alaska, which provides nearly 65 percent of wild-caught seafood to our nation’s supermarkets (95 percent for salmon!). A new survey by trade magazine Progressive Grocer showed that retail seafood sales rose nearly 40 percent over the past year, and 56 percent predicted an upturn in seafood sales this year. U.S. wild caught seaf...
JUNEAU (AP) – Researchers have found high levels of paralytic shellfish toxin in mollusks at a Juneau recreation area. Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research is recommending against the harvest of shellfish from Auke Recreation Area until further notice, The Juneau Empire reported Monday. Ingesting shellfish with the toxin can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning, an illness that can result in tingling in the lips, tongue, fingers and toes as well as difficulty breathing. The illness can also eventually lead to death from paralysis of the b...
WRANGELL – Wrangell’s district representative for the State Legislature teleconferenced in late last week to update constituents on what’s going on in Juneau. Rep. Dan Ortiz (I-District 36) called in to Legislative Information Office locations in Ketchikan and Wrangell to explain ongoing bills and field questions on March 23. Likely the biggest issue on Alaska’s collective mind is its budget deficit, which by various measures is set to drain billions from the state’s savings this year. With spending left as is, the Legislative Finance Div...
The required permits are not yet in hand, but the U.S. Navy is moving full steam ahead on its plans to conduct war training exercises in the Gulf of Alaska for two weeks in early May. Meanwhile, nine coastal communities have so far signed resolutions asking the Navy to instead conduct its training between September and mid-March, times that are less sensitive to migrating salmon, birds and marine mammals. Several more communities have indicated they will do the same by month’s end. “It’s not that we don’t want the Navy to do their training – it...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on Monday the bag, possession and retention regulations for this year’s nonpelagic rockfish sport season. For all Southeast waters, Alaska residents have no size limit, with a bag and possession limit of one nonpelagic rockfish. Nonresidents enjoy the same, with the additional limitation of one yelloweye rockfish per year. This must be recorded in ink on the back of an angler’s sport fishing license or harvest record card at the time of harvest. All nonpelagic rockfish that are caught must be...
Alaska salmon fishermen could haul in a harvest that nearly doubles last year’s catch, due to a projected uptick in the number of pinks. An Alaska Department of Fish and Game report on 2017 salmon run forecasts and harvest projections pegs the total catch at 204 million fish. That compares to just over 112 million salmon taken by fishermen in 2016. The catch last season included 53 million sockeye salmon—the fifth largest harvest since 1970—but only 39 million pink salmon, the smallest harvest since 1977. For this year, the forecast calls for a...
March 16, 1917 – A letter from J. L. McPherson, manager of the Alaska Bureau of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, gives details of the big excursion tour of Alaska being organized by the bureau-in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the territory as a United States posession. The steamers will be accompanied as far as v by boats and yachts of the Seattle Carnival Committee. “The greater interest of the visiting party,” Mr. McPherson says, “during the stop in Petersburg will undoubtedly be in sight-seeing and in viewing and learnin...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today that the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery will be on 2-hour notice effective 8:00 a.m., Friday, March 17, 2017. This means that a fishery could be expected with a minimum of two hours notice after the effective time. One test sample was taken near Kamano Point on Kruzof Island. The results of the sample are as follows: Kamano Point: 0.5 tons, mature roe – 8.9%, immature roe – 2.7%, average weight – 133 grams. Although this set size is not very large, we believe it is repre...
Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) announced regulations for the king salmon sport fishing season this summer would be on the conservative side. Issued Monday, the order applies to marine waters adjacent to the Stikine River in District 8, near Petersburg and Wrangell. Beginning May 1 and lasting until July 15, the king salmon bag and possession limit for all anglers will be set at one fish, 28 inches or greater in length. Anglers will also have to abide by rod restrictions in place when fishing for king salmon after March 31, 2017, li...
The spring troll fishery in Southeast Alaska (SEAK) is designed to target Alaska hatchery-produced Chinook salmon. However, with similar migration corridors and return timing, wild stock, SEAK originating Chinook are also harvested. The overall 2016 run to the 11 systems monitored for SEAK wild Chinook salmon is one of the lowest on record in 42 years of documented Chinook escapements. With arguably the poorest overall run on record in 2016, recurrent failures to meet lower bounds of escapement goal ranges in several systems, and with the 2017...
State Senator Bert Stedman predicts the legislature will be in session for a full 120 days with an additional 30 day session if they are to complete their work this session. “There’s a lot of talk of the 90 day session but the constitution calls for 121 days. “We’ve only finished in 90 days one time,” Stedman noted. Stedman was in Petersburg this past weekend to attend the Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet along with his wife Lureen. Stedman said there is a “near zero chance of a 90 day session with any quality work being accomplishe...
