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  • Salmon disaster relief applications for permit-holders due August 24

    Rashah McChesney|Jul 18, 2024

    Federal disaster aid is on the way for some commercial fishing permit-holders in Haines and throughout the state, though many may be too wrapped up in the current season to apply for it right away. Applications for crew and subsistence users are currently available online. Unique applications for permit-holders and processors from the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission were mailed out on June 26 and are due August 24. The commission says those who have not received a hardcopy...

  • Task force report identifies research needs to better understand Alaska salmon problems

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Jul 18, 2024

    Fishery managers overseeing Alaska’s faltering salmon runs should be able to rely on a more comprehensive and holistic approach to science that considers all habitat, from the middle of the ocean to freshwater spawning streams far inland, according to a task force report on salmon research needs. The report was issued last week by the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force, a group established through a 2022 act of Congress to identify knowledge gaps and research needs. The task force comprises close to 20 members and includes scientists, f... Full story

  • Petersburg Sport Fishing Report

    Jeff Rice|Jul 18, 2024

    King Salmon: The majority of king salmon should have now exited saltwater and be heading further up into the freshwater systems to spawn. Still, a potential remains for catching a late spawner at the tail end of the run or a feeder king which are in our area throughout the year. The Wrangell Narrows Terminal Harvest Area (THA) near Petersburg remains open with a 1 king (any size) bag and possession limit for all anglers through July 31st. For a nonresident, this applies to your annual king salmon harvest limit. Anglers are reminded that when...

  • Trollers begin chase for Chinook on July 1

    ANNA LAFFREY, Ketchikan Daily News Staff Writer|Jul 4, 2024

    Suspense can be felt on docks throughout Southeast Alaska as commercial troll fishermen gear up to chase Chinook salmon during the first general Chinook fishing opener of the summer season. Trollers beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, July 1 can target a total of approximately 66,700 Chinook salmon in an opener that will be closed by emergency order when catch estimates approach that harvest target, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last Thursday. Fish and Game estimates that trollers will catch 66,700 Chinook in six to seven...

  • King salmon harvest limit in the Narrows reduced to one per day

    Orin Pierson|Jun 20, 2024

    Fish and Game issued an emergency order last week reducing the harvest opportunity for king salmon in the Wrangell Narrows terminal harvest area. Effective June 15, the possession limit has changed from four king salmon per day - two 28 inches or longer and two less than 28 inches in length - to one king salmon of any size per day. And nonresident annual limits will now apply in this area. Blind Slough freshwater king salmon fishing remains closed for the summer; as does commercial harvest of...

  • Southeast seine fleet preparing for uncertain season

    ANNA LAFFREY, Ketchikan Daily News|Jun 20, 2024

    Commercial purse seine fishermen in Southeast Alaska this month are preparing for an interesting summer salmon season with no confidence that they will earn a good price for the pink and chum salmon that they catch, and with seafood processing companies Silver Bay Seafoods and E.C. Phillips and Son each starting out their first year of operations in the former Trident Seafoods plants in Ketchikan and Petersburg, respectively. Southeast seine fishery openings will kick off for the 2024 season...

  • Market conditions continue to pressure seafood processors

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel writer|Jun 20, 2024

    Consumers think of seafood as a premium purchase, which is not a good image when household budgets are tight and shoppers are worried about inflation. "The problem is not the fish," said Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. "The challenge is in the global marketplace." Woodrow in February called the 2023 market for Alaska salmon "rock bottom" with low prices and weak demand, though maybe the industry was coming off that rocky bottom, he said then. Now,...

  • Petersburg Fishing Report

    Jeff Rice, Alaska Department of Fish & Game|Jun 13, 2024

    King Salmon: Last weekend represented the start of three area hatchery produced king salmon angling opportunities in the area. The Wrangell Narrows Terminal Harvest Area (THA) near Petersburg offers the chance to catch king salmon returning to Crystal Lake Hatchery. Since these are hatchery produced king salmon, not wild stock, opportunity exists for both resident and nonresident anglers to harvest bag limits of 2 kings 28 inches or greater in length and 2 kings under 28 inches in the specific area of the saltwater portion of the THA. For a...

  • Federal review will decide if king salmon should be listed as an endangered species

    Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal|Jun 6, 2024

    The Biden administration says that listing numerous Alaska king salmon populations under the Endangered Species Act could be warranted, and it now plans to launch a broader scientific study to follow its preliminary review. Citing the species’ diminished size at adulthood and spawning numbers below sustainable targets set by state managers, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced its initial conclusion in a 14-page federal notice on May 23. It said a January 2024 listing request from a Washington state-based conservation group had m...

  • Petersburg Sport Fishing Report

    Jeff Rice, Area Management Biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game|May 16, 2024

    Steelhead: The steelhead fishing season has now peaked and is beginning to wind down. Opportunity still exists and should continue through the next few weeks. The rain that began this week is exactly what the fish needed. Steelhead are now dispersed throughout the systems instead of being held up in only the deep holes. The month of May can on occasion offer that beautiful balance of finding the remaining steelhead while fishing in warmer weather than the colder month of April. Dolly Varden and Trout: Dolly Varden and trout are now abundant...

  • State issues 2024 salmon harvest forecasts; summarizes 2023 season

    May 2, 2024

    The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported last week that commercial fishermen caught a total of 66.6 million salmon in Southeast Alaska during 2023, including both naturally returning and hatchery-produced salmon of all five species. Last April, Fish and Game estimated that Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen would take just about 31.6 million fish in 2023. The actual commercial harvest more than doubled that projection; fishermen's 2023 catch topped the department's estimate by 35 million fish. The high 2023 catch beat out 2021, the...

  • Winter troll fishery: 'amazing catch rates at good prices'

    Olivia Rose|Apr 18, 2024

    Days are long and arduous in January and February for trollers fishing Chinook salmon in rough weather conditions. But the "amazing catch rates at good prices" encountered during those months benefitted not only the resident fishermen "out there, grinding away"- but also the overall troll fishery, which harvested over the entire winter allocation of 45,000 king salmon. Grant Hagerman, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) Region I Commercial Troll Management Biologist, told the Pilot that...

  • California salmon fishing banned for second year in row

    Rachel Becker, Alaska Beacon|Apr 18, 2024

    In a devastating blow to California’s fishing industry, federal fishery managers unanimously voted on Wednesday to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California for the second year in a row. The decision is designed to protect California’s dwindling salmon populations after drought and water diversions left river flows too warm and sluggish for the state’s iconic Chinook salmon to thrive. Salmon abundance forecasts for the year “are just too low,” Marci Yaremko, the California Department of Fish and Wildl... Full story

  • Silver Bay Seafoods buys Valdez fish plant

    Sitka Sentinel Staff|Apr 18, 2024

    Silver Bay Seafoods will acquire the Peter Pan Seafoods plant in Valdez, and operate Peter Pan plants in Port Moller and Dillingham for the 2024 salmon season, the two companies announced last week. The deal with Peter Pan is the second major acquisition Silver Bay has announced in recent days. The company announced its purchase of Trident Seafood’s Ketchikan processing plant in March. A joint news release by SBS and Peter Pan said, “Shifting operations of the two facilities to SBS is a component of a larger restructuring, still being fin...

  • Silver Bay Seafoods to acquire Peter Pan plant in Valdez

    Sitka Sentinel Staff|Apr 11, 2024

    Silver Bay Seafoods will acquire the Peter Pan Seafoods plant in Valdez, and operate Peter Pan plants in Port Moller and Dillingham for the 2024 salmon season, the two companies announced today. The deal with Peter Pan is the second major acquisition Silver Bay has announced in recent days. The company announced its purchase of Trident Seafood’s Ketchikan processing plant in March. A joint news release by SBS and Peter Pan said, “Shifting operations of the two facilities to SBS is a component of a larger restructuring, still being fin...

  • 2024 Golden King Crab fishery 'did extremely well'

    Olivia Rose|Apr 4, 2024

    The 2024 golden king crab fishery for the East Central management area -which includes the waters around Petersburg- closed after only four days when area fishermen caught more crab than the season's total guideline harvest level set for all of Southeast. Last year, fishermen reportedly observed a golden king crab population boom in parts of Southeast, but the ability to harvest crab was constrained by harvest levels based on earlier years when the population was very low. Meetings in 2023...

  • Herring seine fishery continues north, south of Sitka Sound

    Sitka Sentinel Staff|Apr 4, 2024

    The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery continued Tuesday, with purse seine boats making sets in Neva Straight and Salisbury Sound to the north, and in Deep Inlet, Redoubt Bay and a stretch of outside waters to the south, the Department of Fish and Game said. Until Fish and Game closes it, the commercial fishery will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in those areas, which include a stretch of the outer coast south of Povorotni Point and north of Cape Aspid, but excluding Whale and Necker bays....

  • Petersburg expects 104 visits in upcoming cruise ship season

    Olivia Rose|Apr 4, 2024

    The cruise ship summer season is just weeks away - and for Alaska's Little Norway, the harbor is expecting 104 stops from 12 vessels. The first cruise ship is scheduled to arrive in Petersburg on April 27; consistent cruise ship traffic can be expected from May 6 to Sept. 22, with as many as seven port-calls, or stops, in a given week. The cruise ships coming to Petersburg this year are about the same size as recent years - most with a capacity of about 40 to 100 passengers. However, the total...

  • Emergency fisheries assessments sought after 105,000-gallon tailings spill at Kensington Mine

    Mark Sabbatini, Juneau Empire|Mar 28, 2024

    Emergency federal government assessments are being sought for a spill of more than 105,000 gallons of tailings slurry at the Kensington Mine that occurred Jan. 31, although officials with mine owner Coeur Alaska say no damage to nearby salmon habitats occurred and there are “no long-term effects from this spill.” The spill occurred at a welded joint in a pipeline that likely started as a “pinhole” and increased in size due to pressure from the slurry flow, resulting in a leak that lasted 23 hours, according to a report of the incident published...

  • Federal budget bill includes money to buy a Coast Guard icebreaker to be based in Alaska

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Mar 28, 2024

    Money to purchase an icebreaker for the U.S. Coast Guard to be based in Juneau is in a pending federal defense bill more than a year after similar funding was dropped at the last minute from another budget bill, members of Alaska’s congressional delegation said on Thursday. The pending Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which is part of a broader federal budget bill, includes $125 million to buy an icebreaker to add to the Coast Guard’s meager fleet, the delegation members said. “This is really good news for Alaska, good news for Ameri... Full story

  • Sitka Herring Fishery on 2-Hour Notice

    Garland Kennedy, Sitka Sentinel staff writer|Mar 21, 2024

    The Department of Fish and Game placed the Sitka Sound sac roe fishery on two-hours notice as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, signaling seiners will have two hours to get ready for the first fishing period in this year’s commercial herring harvest. F&G said surveys continue in the process of locating schools of marketable fish in areas suitable for an opening. Though aerial surveys conducted Tuesday detected no fish, the department spotted large numbers of predators, such as humpback whales and sea lions, along the eastern shore of Kruzof Island, the a...

  • Guideline harvest level for Sitka Sound Herring Sac Roe Fishery at record high, amidst declining market conditions

    Olivia Rose|Mar 14, 2024

    Herring roe ripens as the fish get ready to spawn; their small, white, hard eggs become golden, larger and more desirable. The herring sac roe fishery is a careful waiting game in order to harvest maximum quality mature roe, before the herring spawn. Prior to and during fishing periods, herring distribution, abundance, and quality of roe are monitored by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) via aerial survey, test fishing and vessel sonar surveys to check on the herring biomass. "We've...

  • Southeast golden king crab fishery to open with much higher harvest level

    Olivia Rose|Jan 11, 2024

    The 2024 commercial Tanner crab and golden king crab season in Southeast opens Feb. 17 at noon, and the registration deadline for both fisheries is Jan. 18. For the 2024 golden king crab season, fishermen will be required to call-in to the department every single day. Mandatory call-ins the day before to state what management area they plan to fish in is new this year, beginning Feb. 16. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced the guideline harvest level (GHL) in Registration...

  • Executive order bars imports of Russian fish that is processed in other countries

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Dec 28, 2023

    Russian seafood will no longer be legally allowed in U.S. markets after it is processed in China, under an executive order issued Friday by President Joe Biden. The action seeks to close a loophole that the Russian seafood industry was able to use to skirt import sanctions put in place in 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The ban is now extended to any seafood caught in Russian waters or by Russian-flagged vessels, "notwithstanding whether such products have been incorporated or...

  • Alaska fishermen will be allowed to harvest lucrative red king crab in the Bering Sea

    MARK THIESSEN AND JOSHUA A. BICKEL, Associated Press|Oct 19, 2023

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska fishermen will be able to harvest red king crab for the first time in two years, offering a slight reprieve to the beleaguered fishery beset by low numbers likely exacerbated by climate change. There was no such rebound for snow crab, however, and that fishery will remain closed for a second straight year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced earlier this month. “The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery for the prior two seasons were closed based on low abundance and particularly low abundance of mat...

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