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Crab harvests in southeast Alaska this year won’t feature the state’s historic cash crops of Red King Crabs, as historically low population levels persist in the region, according to Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game, which announced the pre-emptive closure of the 2014/2015 fishing season on Oct. 3. The Southeast Alaska Red King Crab Management Plan directs the department to manage the Southeast Alaska red king crab fishery in accordance with the Alaska Board of Fisheries’ “Policy on King and Tanner Crab Resource Management” if the departmen...
Alaska’s conservative management combined with the grace of Mother Nature are swelling the abundance of two of the state’s largest and most important fisheries. Bering Sea crab scientists and stakeholder met last week to discuss the outlook for Alaska’s biggest crab fisheries that open October 15th. The take away was that the stocks of red king crab, bairdi Tanners and snow crab all showed big increases in mature size classes, based on data from the annual summer surveys. (Only mature male crabs cans be retained in Alaska’s crab fisheries.) Tha...
Alaska’s seafood industry worked hard again in 2013 to ramp up its message to policy makers, most of whom still tend to overlook the industry’s economic significance to the state and beyond. What is that message? That “the industry” is made up of thousands of small businesses – the fishing boats that each supports one or several families. That the seafood companies in coastal towns provide one of the state’s biggest tax bases. And together, fishing and processing provide more jobs in Alaska than oil/gas, mining, tourism and timber combined. S...
It comes as no surprise that the recommendations for next year’s halibut catches are down again for all regions except Southeast Alaska. Fishery scientists with the International Pacific Halibut Commission have recommended a 2014 coast wide commercial catch total of 24.45 million pounds, a 21% decrease from the 31 million pounds allowed for this year. That includes catches in Alaska, British Columbia and the Pacific Coast states. In a summation at a meeting in Seattle last week, the IPHC said: “The results of the 2013 stock assessment ind...
Golden king crab harvests are slightly down this season but prices for the shellfish are well above average. According to Alaska Department of Fish and Game data, the current golden crab price average is $10.10 per pound. That’s more than $2 more per pound compared to last season and nearly double the previous five-year average. This season’s preliminary golden crab harvest is 510,743 pounds compared to last season’s 599,234 pounds. Joe Stratman, ADF&G Region 1 Lead Crab Biologist, said the Southeast openings and closures are based solely on fi... Full story
October 11, 1913 – The progressive Sons of Norway have decided to carry into execution a plan which can result only to the benefit of all the residents of our little town. It is planned to open their hall to all the local lodges as a “Club Room.” To that end, it is proposed that every member of any lodge will have the privilege of joining the club by paying an initiation fee of one dollar, and fifty cents per month thereafter. This will entitle the members to all the privileges afforded by the spacious hall and all the amusements there...
If a picture is worth a thousand words, get ready for millions of undersea images - brought to you by a handmade, high definition undersea camera. “Alaska Cam Sled is a towed imaging system that takes a lot of high resolution pictures of the bottom of the ocean,” said Gregg Rosenkranz, a state scallop biometrician based in Kodiak. Rosenkranz and his colleague Rick Shepherd built the cam sled, which lets them experience a live stream of the sea floor while onboard a research vessel. They hail it as a non-invasive way to observe and collect dat...
Amidst the salmon fisheries starting up all across the state, several Alaska crab seasons also get underway each summer. In mid-June, the summer Dungeness crab fishery opens in the Panhandle, as does red king crab at Norton Sound. Those are followed in August by golden kings along the far flung Aleutian Islands, which might soon take the title as Alaska’s largest king crab fishery. Unlike other Bering Sea crab stocks, surveys on golden kings have been limited due to distance and high costs. The deep water stocks have sustained a fishery for 3...
Salmon set net families were streaming out of Kodiak all week, heading to their summer sites to get ready for the June 9 season opener. Their departure wrapped up a busy week of Memorial Day festivities on “the rock,” including festivals, fleet blessings, a landslide on Cannery Row and visits by both of Alaska’s US Senators. I caught up with Sen. Lisa Murkowski over a beer at Kodiak Island Brewery; she spoke candidly on several hot button fisheries related topics. It’s well known that Murkowski and the rest of Alaska’s congressional delegatio...
Did you know that red king crabs are cannibals and eat their babies, but blue king crabs do not? Or that deep water golden king crabs along the Aleutian Islands are almost indestructible and appear to resist the effects of ocean acidification? Those are just a few of the secrets being revealed at the nation’s top king crab research lab in Kodiak. Scientists at the Near Island center handle the yearly Bering Sea king crab surveys and use samples to study their biology and breeding. They hope to find clues about why king crab stocks are not retur...
Alaska’s seafood industry worked hard this year to ramp up its message to policy makers, especially those from rail belt regions who tend to overlook the industry’s economic significance. How important is the seafood industry to Alaska and the nation? At a glance: nearly 60% of all U.S. seafood landings come from Alaska and 96% of all wild- caught salmon. Seafood is by far Alaska’s #1 export, valued $2.4 billion last year. Alaska ranks 9th in the world in terms of global seafood production. The seafood industry is second only to Big Oil in re...
Dutch Harbor-Unalaska held onto the title of the nation’s top fishing port for the 15th year in a row, with over 700 million pounds of fish and crab crossing the docks there last year, a 36% increase from 2010. New Bedford, Massachusetts remained as the priciest port with landings, mostly scallops, worth nearly $370 million at the docks. Dutch Harbor ranked second again for seafood value at $207 million, an increase of $44 million The numbers come from the annual Fisheries of the United States Report just released by NOAA Fisheries. Overall, t...
The OceansAlaska Marine Science Center has barely opened its doors and tiny oysters are already growing out at the new floating facility at George Inlet in Ketchikan. The 28-acre site was granted to the non-profit by the state and Ketchikan borough in 2006. The Center houses the first home grown source of oyster ‘seed’ for Alaska growers, and aims to be the go to place for mariculture research and training. There are 29 shellfish farms producing in Alaska so far in Southcentral and Southeast regions. The main crop is oysters, with sales val...