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The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery closed for the season a little sooner than expected last week, without meeting the quota set by Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG). The preliminary total harvest for the season is approximately 10,000 tons, which leaves about 4,700 of the guideline harvest level (GHL) unharvested, according to a ADFG news release. The reason for the early closure on March 29 was test samples showing an increasing mix of smaller herring. The result of smaller herring is a decreased value of addition harvest. On...
JUNEAU (AP) — A House fisheries committee advanced a rewrite of Gov. Bill Walker's fisheries tax bill on Tuesday, diverting half of the potential revenue into a seafood marketing fund. The bill, one of six proposed taxes on industries from Walker, could raise an additional $18 million in revenue by adding a one percent tax increase to portions of the commercial fishing industry. The new language requires that one-half of the tax increase to be deposited into a newly created Alaska Seafood Marketing Fund. The legislature is also given the o...
Alaska’s 2016 salmon harvest will be down by 40 percent from last year’s catch, if the fish show up as predicted. The preliminary numbers released by the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game call for a total catch of 161 million salmon this year; the 2015 harvest topped 268 million fish. The shortfall stems from a projected big decrease for pink salmon. A humpie harvest forecast of 90 million would be a drop of 100 million fish from last summer. Here’s the statewide catch breakdown for the other salmon species: for sockeye, the forecast calls for a...
Herring seiners from Petersburg headed to Sitka Sound last week after the sac roe herring fishery went on two-hour notice. The notice was released last Thursday morning at 11 a.m. Prior to the notice, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) was busy sampling herring and conducting aerial surveys of the area waiting for the sac roe to reach the right maturity to open the fishery. The guideline harvest level (GHL) for the fishery this year is over 14,500 tons, which is a significantly larger target than last year’s GHL of 8,712 tons. In 2...
SITKA —The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced that the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery will be on 2-hour notice effective 11:00 a.m., Thursday, March 17. This means that a fishery could be expected with a minimum of two hours notice after the effective time. Today, two test samples were taken from a large aggregation of herring near Eastern Bay. The results of those samples were as follows: Eastern Bay: 50 tons, mature roe – 4.9%, immature roe – 2.9%, average weight – 97 grams; North Siginaka Islands: 200 tons, mature roe - 9.9%,...
Students from Petersburg High School's National Ocean Sciences Bowl team headed to Seward last weekend to compete against teams from around Alaska. The team is comprised of nine students who make up two squads, and they have been preparing for the event since the beginning of the school year. Their efforts paid off with a good team showing. The competition is very much like a sporting event. The teams pick names, they have a team captain and the event has rounds and brackets. The event features...
Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Feb. 29 the final guideline harvest level (GHL) for the 2016 Sitka Sound herring fishery will be 14,941 tons. This is based on a 20% harvest rate of a forecast mature biomass of 74,707 tons. It is expected that 200 tons will be harvested in the winter bait test fishery which will be subtracted from the GHL resulting in a target harvest of 14,741 tons for the Sitka herring sac roe fishery. Test fishery samples taken in early February showed average weight at age for all age classes were less than the...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the non-pelagic rockfish bag, possession, and the retention rules for the sport fishery during 2016 in the Southeast Outside Waters and Southeast Inside Waters. Nonresident angler annual limits of yellow-eye rockfish have also been established for the 2016 season. The following regulations are effective 12:01 a.m. March 2, 2016: All Southeast Waters: All non-pelagic rockfish caught must be retained until the bag limit is reached. Persons sport fishing from a charter vessel when releasing...
The Basic Hunter Education Course will be offered in Petersburg later this month, and hunters 12 to adult are welcome to get signed up with Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG). Brent Akers has been volunteering as an instructor for the program for around 10 years. "Normally the course is focused on students that haven't had much hunting experience," Akers says. "But it's open to everybody." The program is based on a 12-year-old reading level, but experienced hunters looking to freshen...
JUNEAU (AP) — Fishing industry and lawmakers on Thursday puzzled over the origins of a proposed one percent tax increase in fisheries business taxes and fisheryresource landing taxes. During a hearing on the bill by the House fisheries committee, fishermen testified that they did not understand the origins of the increase. It is expected to raise $18 million in new revenue for the state annually, according to the Department of Revenue. It is one of six proposed industry taxes from Gov. Bill Walker, including increases to mining, motor fuels, a...
The Sitka black-tailed deer hunting season is now closed in Southeast Alaska. All hunters who obtained deer harvest tickets, even those who did not hunt or harvest a deer, must now return completed hunt reports to Fish & Game. If you haven’t submitted your hunt report for last fall, please do so immediately. Hunt reports may be submitted by mail, in person at a Fish & Game office, or online at hunt.alaska.gov. The information provided in hunt reports helps biologists estimate changes in area-specific deer harvest and hunting effort, monitor p...
The Petersburg Science Series presented a talk on the "Steelhead of Petersburg Creek," last week at the library, drawing an audience of around 30 people to the event. Petersburg area management biologist Patrick Fowler gave a short presentation and then answered audience member questions about the unique life history and management strategies of steelhead, which includes snorkeling the creek annually to count the species. Fowler is part of the Alaska Department Fish and Game Division of Sport Fi...
A single Chinook salmon is worth more than a barrel of oil. The winter kings being caught by Southeast Alaska trollers are averaging 10 pounds each with a dock price of $7.34 a pound, according to state fish tickets. That adds up to $73.40 per fish, compared to less than $25 per barrel of oil. Those who depend on fishing for their livelihoods want to make sure that budget cuts combined with any new fishery taxes, don’t cut core services that result in missed fishing opportunities. “Not all cuts are equal, and if there are cuts that int...
Fishing issues will take a back seat to budget cutting when the Alaska legislature convenes on January 19 for its 90-day session, but two early fish bills (and one hold-over) already are getting attention. One new measure aims to stop the migration of fishing permits outside of the state. We lost over 50 percent of our permits over the 1973 original issuance of permits,” said Robin Samuelsen of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation (BBEDC), speaking at a two day Alaska Sea Grant workshop last week in Anchorage titled Fisheries Access...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced Wednesday that the District 8 commercial beam trawl shrimp fishery will be closed effective 11:59 p.m., Saturday, January 23, 2016. Effort levels and harvest data obtained from fish tickets and call in information indicate that the upper bound of the 25,000 - 250,000 pound guideline harvest range for the fourth fishing period in District 8 will be reached at the time of the closure. Shrimp tickets must be submitted to an ADF&G office within seven days of the closure. The District 8...
WRANGELL — On Jan. 4 a federal judge imposed fines on two Wrangell fishermen for falsifying Individual Fishing Quota records over a three-year period. Charles Petticrew Sr., 70, and son Charles Petticrew Jr., 42, had on Oct. 16, 2015 pleaded guilty to charges brought against them by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Alaska, and agreed to pay fines totaling $100,000. The two admitted to submitting IFQ reports falsely specifying statistical areas in the Gulf of Alaska where they caught nearly 4,000 pounds of halibut, valued at $23,375. The rep...
Alaska’s mariculture industry has passed some big milestones, and is getting set to head into the weeds. Aquatic farming, which was Ok’d by Alaska lawmakers in 1988, topped $1 million in shellfish sales for the first time ever in 2014, coming in at $1.2 million. “This is the highest sales we’ve had since the inception of the program which is pretty exciting,” said Cynthia Pring-Ham, Director of Mariculture for the state Dept. of Fish and Game, adding that shellfish production increased 27 percent. That’s an average of $7,049 in sales per a...
July Paine & Partners, LLC of San Francisco entered into agreements with two different groups to sell Icicle Seafoods. The Petersburg Public Library expanded its collection by 1.7 million titles after it joined a consortium of libraries across the state called the Joint Library Catalogue. U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Peter Vermeer took command of the USCGG Anacapa, replacing Lt. Kathryn Cry. The Alaska Department of Transportation cancelled the scheduled summer sailings of the M/V LeConte that would hav... Full story
PETERSBURG (AP) — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is predicting a return of about 34,000 king salmon to the Stikine River next year in southeast Alaska. The estimated return is large enough to allow commercial fishing in the area and a catch up of to 1,000 Chinook. Catches of Stikine kings are managed under the Pacific Salmon Treaty between the U.S. and Canada, KFSK-FM reported. The department's announcement means trollers and gillnetters could have the opportunity to fish for the kings in early May, which would be a first since 201...
9 marks a quarter of a century for this weekly column that targets Alaska’s seafood industry. At the end of every year, I proffer my ‘no holds barred’ look back at the best and worst fish stories, and select the biggest story of the year. The list is in no particular order and I’m sure to be missing a few, but here are the Fishing Picks and Pans for 2015: • Most eco-friendly fish feat: The massive airlift/barge project led by the Dept. of Environmental Conservation that removed more than 800,000 pounds of marine debris from remote Alaska be...
January-June January Petersburg School Superintendent Lisa Stroh resigned from her position citing family medical issues as her reason for leaving although communication between borough staff and student letters indicated turmoil between Stroh and school staff. Two third and fourth grade elementary students published their own class newspapers. Former Petersburg School District Maintenance Director Tye Petersen was sentenced to 12 years in prison for Distribution, Receipt and Possession of... Full story
PETERSBURG — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Dec. 18 that seasons for the 2015/2016 commercial Tanner and golden king crab fisheries in Southeast Alaska will open by regulation at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, February 17, 2016. The season start date for the Tanner and golden king crab fisheries is based on the date with the smallest Juneau tidal range between February 10 and February 17. Any delay to the start of the 2015/2016 Tanner and golden king crab fisheries due to weather will be announced 24 hours before the start of the f...
Alaska crab shells are fueling an eco-revolution that will drive new income streams for fabrics to pharmaceuticals to water filters. And for the first time, it is happening in the USA and not overseas. The entrepreneurs at Tidal Vision in October made the leap from their labs in Juneau to a pilot plant outside of Seattle to test an earth-friendly method that extracts chitin, the structural element in the exoskeletons of shellfish and insects. Their first big run a few weeks ago was tested on a 60,000 pound batch of crab shells delivered by...
There are many positive and negative aspects to hunting moose in Petersburg, and one of the most notable negatives is dealing with the strict antler restrictions imposed on hunters. At times, it seems like hunters afield are literally rolling the dice when they pull the trigger. If the moose is legal, there is celebration, but if the animal is illegal it leads to a $300 fine. Thirteen moose were killed in the region this season that failed to meet the antler restrictions, and their meat was distributed to charity organizations and those in... Full story
Commercial sea cucumber divers harvested more than 1.4 million pounds of sea cucumbers this fall, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game preliminary harvest estimates. With an average price of $3.50 per pound, that's $5.1 million worth of sea cucumbers. Snow Pass yielded the most harvest weight with 327,454 pounds of cucumbers coming out of the waters and saw 58 divers fish the area on October 26, the most out of any area time this season. The cucumber dive fishery is a rotational...
