Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 125
Cuts affecting Alaska’s fisheries will be spread across all regions and species, depending on the final budget that is approved by state legislators. As it stands now, the total commercial fisheries budget for FY 2017 from all state and federal funding sources is about $64 million, a drop of $10 million over two years. “With cuts of that magnitude, everything is on the table,” said Scott Kelley, director of the Commercial Fisheries Division at the Dept. of Fish and Game. Last year 109 fishery projects were axed, and another 65 are on the cut l...
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...
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
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
Icicle Seafoods' The Gordon Jensen struck rocks on Saturday and the U.S. Coast Guard had to escort the damaged vessel to Ketchikan for repairs. Coast Guard public relations Petty Officer Meredith Manning said Tuesday the cause of the incident is still under investigation and no injuries were reported. Manning said the vessel ran aground near Bella Bella, 172 miles southeast of Prince Rupert. The Canadian Coast Guard responded to the incident and the U.S. Coast Guard was later involved. Manning... Full story
William Bergmann won both first and second place in the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Canned Salmon Classic according to a news release from the chamber. The total can pack in Petersburg was12,516,654 for the 2015 season. Bergmann’s guesses were12,502,814 and 12,522,814. This is the second time the contest had a double winner. Bergmann’s daughter Tessa won both first and second place in 2011. 700 guesses were submitted in this year’s classic. Proceeds benefit a $2,000 AML/Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Scholarship. Major sponsors of the event...
Icicle Seafoods owner Paine & Partners announced Sept. 4 that the sale of the company to buyers Dominion Catchers, LLC and Convergence Holdings, Inc. has been cancelled. The sale was anticipated to close in August and was announced in late June. Company representatives declined to comment further on the reasons for the cancellation. Some online industry sources have speculated that a provision in the American Fisheries Act which requires U.S. citizens to have 75 percent ownership and control of commercial fishing vessels 100 feet or greater in... Full story
“Upcycling” seafood byproducts is the business model for Tidal Vision, a Juneau-based company of five entrepreneurs who are making waves with their line of aquatic leather and performance textiles. The start-up is making wallets, belts and other products from sheets of salmon skins using an all-natural, proprietary tanning formula from vegetable oils and other eco-friendly ingredients. “We can produce the same quality and durability products with no formaldehyde, no chrome based tanning chemicals or EPA regulated chemicals to dispose of. And we...
Owner Paine & Partners, LLC of San Francisco has entered into agreements with two different groups to sell Icicle Seafoods. According to the press release issued, Convergence Holdings, Inc. will acquire Icicle's land-based wild seafood processing and farmed salmon activities while Dominion Catchers, LLC will acquire the company’s harvesting and processing vessels, as well as associated fishing rights. Dominion Catchers is a limited liability company licensed by the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. C... Full story
Paine & Partners, LLC of San Francisco announced Friday that it’s entered into agreements to sell Icicle Seafoods to two groups. According to the press release, Convergence Holdings, Inc. will acquire Icicle’s land-based wild seafood processing and farmed salmon activities while Dominion Catchers, LLC will acquire the company’s harvesting and processing vessels, as well as associated fishing rights. Paine & Partners bought Icicle in 2007. The seafood company began in 1965 when a group of employees and fishermen in Petersburg bought the Pacif...
One of Alaska’s largest seafood processing companies, Icicle Seafoods, Inc. has named a new Chief Executive Officer. CEO Chris Ruettgers began May 1, according to an Icicle press release, while former CEO Amy Humphreys will remain with the company in some capacity. Humphreys, who resigned to join Seattle-based dairy company Darigold, will now serve as Icicle’s Board of Directors chairman. Icicle’s shift in leadership will also include Chief Financial Officer LaDon Johnson’s move to president. Ruettgers has served as the company’s executive...
Of all the global fish news sites, London-based Undercur-rent News has risen to the top when it comes to scoops on sales of Alaska seafood companies. The latest - Icicle Seafood owners Paine and Partners of San Francisco are having a tough go selling their wild salmon assets in the face of a tight market and another big wild harvest on the horizon. Icicle produces fresh, frozen and canned salmon at plants in Petersburg, Seward, Egegik/Bristol Bay, Larsen Bay/Kodiak Island; and near Dillingham. “Final bids are in and news on if Icicle will be b...
Those looking to work at Petersburg’s fish processors will have a good chance to jump onboard with this summer’s pink salmon season predicted to be a big one. “The 2015 harvest forecast of 58 million pink salmon is well above the recent 10-year average harvest of 41 million pink salmon, and a harvest of that magnitude would be in the top ten harvests since 1960,” according to a guide put out by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Andy Piston, pink and chum salmon project leader in Ketchikan, and Steve Heinl, Ketchikan regional research...
The Sitka sac roe herring fishery will be done cooperatively this year, with processing completed in Sitka alone, meaning no fish tax for Petersburg. "This is an industry initiated cooperative," Dave Gordon, area management biologist at the Department of Fish and Game, said of the co-op. He added that the sac roe herring market is "very poor right now," and that the decision was made to eliminate competition and risk - to lower costs to "make it worthwhile to go after the product." "The quota this year is quite small," said Patrick Wilson,... Full story
These ordinances, resolutions and requests came before the Petersburg Borough Assembly at Monday’s regular meeting. Approved by the assembly •The assembly approved a bid award for landscaping at the Petersburg Public Library. Of two bidders, Reid Brothers Construction won the bid for an amount not to exceed $199,332 to do hardscape and rock work at the library along with drainage improvements. Funds for the landscaping project will come from a 2012 State Legislative Grant allocated for the construction of the new facility as well as from pri...
Paine & Partners of San Francisco has announced the sale of Icicle Seafoods according to multiple news sources including Undercurrent.com and other seafood industry news sites. According to Laine Welch of the Fish Factor, Pacific Seafoods is seen as a frontrunner for buying Icicle. Other sources theorize that Icicle is a “mini-conglomerate” that would make the company attractive to multiple buyers if broken up. The Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group is a family owned operation that has operations spanning the west coast from Mexico to Ala... Full story
Alaska seafood marketers are ramping up promotions and bankrolling a global $1 million media blitz to counteract a tough sockeye salmon market. Sockeyes are by far the most valuable salmon catch, often worth two-thirds of the value of Alaska’s entire salmon fishery, but last summer’s unexpected surge of reds left lots of inventory in freezers, and record US imports of competing farmed salmon from Chile and Norway combined with the prospect of another big run at Bristol Bay make for a sockeye sales squeeze. Alaska’s approach will be patte...
January More than 600 Petersburg residents signed up for the borough's recycling program. The Petersburg Land Selection Committee requested the borough pursue legislative action regarding the State's calculation of land entitlement for the Petersburg Borough after the committee's determination that the State's selection of land was inadequate. The Petersburg School Board approved a $2.3 million exterior wall renovation project for the Rae C. Stedman Elementary School. Petersburg School District... Full story
More than 100 researchers and three dozen projects are underway to find clues as to why Alaska’s Chinook salmon production has declined since 2007. The ambitious effort marks the start of a state-backed five year, $30 million Chinook Salmon Research Initiative that includes 12 major river systems from Southeast Alaska to the Yukon. And while it will be years before the project yields definitive data, the scientists have pinned down some early findings. “It’s not the fresh water production of the juvenile Chinook that is the reason this decli...
Forty-five Petersburg High School seniors graduated Tuesday evening in the high school gym in front of a packed house. PHS Principal Rick Dormer gave the welcome speech and offered a piece of advice to a graduating class he described as quiet performers. "As you go forward class of 2014 I would encourage you to continue the tradition of accomplishing a lot, while speaking a little. My father-in-law often reminds me that the good lord gave us all two ears and one mouth and that conversations... Full story
May 30, 1914 – The construction of a water system for the town has actually been started. The new council has taken hold of the work with energy born of a sense of duty that promises to supply the town with a dire necessity. For the last three years, the construction of a plant has been the subject of discussion and irritation, but not much of anything else until the present council, fired with an enterprising spirit started the work. May 31, 1974 Celebrating the Pilot's 40th Year– George Rice's seventh grade capped a year-end class on avi...
Kodiak’s roe herring fishery began on April 15 with little notice and rumors of fire sale prices. The fleet of 22 seiners was down a bit; they are competing for a harvest of 5,800 short tons, similar to the past five years. No gillnetters had signed up for the herring fishery. Test fishing from the east side of the island were showing nice roe counts, said James Jackson, herring manager at ADF&G in Kodiak. “We are fishing a predominantly older age class of mostly nine year olds and it looks like we are hitting those fish right now. They are...
December 20, 1913 – It is reported that the miners in the Forty-Mile river country witnessed pass the largest caribou herd in the history of the camp. It is said that it took the largest part of the herd four days and four nights to pass the mining camp on Chicken Creek. 3The moving of this extra large herd, estimated at hundreds of thousands, is believed to be a sure sign of a heavy snow fall the coming winter. December 15, 1983 – A few years ago a group of Petersburg fishermen and Petersburg Fisheries Inc. (Icicle Seafoods) reportedly exp...
December 13, 1913 – In the line of fish, Alaska has brought out almost every kind and has always found a ready market for its products, Petersburg has taken part to a large extent in furnishing a great deal of the supply. Now comes the news that W.H. Royden, the well known and experienced fisherman across the bay has started, on a small scale, putting up clams. Whether Mr. Royden has discovered a new process or whether it is the quality of the clams, the fact is that they are found by connoisseurs to be delicious. It is claimed by those who hav...
December 6, 1913 – Excitement ran high a day or two ago down the Company's landing float. Men were seen running back and forth for a few minutes. An inquiry made of the cause revealed the fact that one of the fishermen had, without hook or line, caught the largest sucker anyone had ever seen in these waters. The fishermen, when telling about his catch, remarked that the funny part of the happening was the sucker hadn't a hair on his head. This statement was followed by more inquiry resulting in the discovery that the “sucker” was no fish at all...
