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Alaska’s salmon season officially got underway on May 16 with the arrival of thousands of sockeye and king salmon at the Copper River near Cordova, and high prices were the talk of the town. The first opener produced a catch of 25,000 sockeye and about 1,500 kings. “It was pretty slow to start. Small fish, not too many of them,” said Kelsey Appleton with Cordova District Fishermen United. Following a trend seen over the past couple of years across Alaska, the salmon were healthy but much smaller. Weights taken on several hundred samples after...
Alaska’s salmon season has gotten underway with lots of optimism, a far cry from the bleak feelings of a year ago. Last year’s fishery was blown asunder by a perfect storm of depressed currencies, salmon backlogs and global markets awash with farmed fish. Prices to fishermen fell by nearly 41 percent between 2013 and 2015, years which produced the two largest Alaska salmon harvest volumes on record. But in the past six months, those trends have turned around. “Based on current market conditions and harvest expectations, it appears proba...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last week limits for the year’s lingcod sport fishing season, which for Southeast Alaska began on Monday. Running through to Nov. 30, licensed residents will be limited to bagging one lingcod a day, with two in possession, and no size limitation. During the season nonresident anglers will likewise have a bag limit of one per day, though with only one in possession. In addition, nonresidents may only keep lingcod which are between 30 and 45 inches or else are 55 inches or greater in length. N...
Alaska salmon fishermen can get rebates on pingers aimed at keeping baleen whales away from their gear. The six inch, battery operated tubes are tied into fishing nets and transmit animal-specific signals every five seconds to alert the animals to keep their distance. “Pingers can be really helpful to alert the whales to something in front of them so you have less entanglements,” said Kathy Hansen, director of the Southeast Alaska Fisheries Alliance. SEAFA received a $25,000 Hollings Grant from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation to fund t...
AMSEA will offer a 10-hour Fishing Vessel Drill Conductor Refresher workshop on Monday, May 23, from 8:00 am – 7:00 pm at the Tides Inn. This is for commercial fishermen that have previously completed a Fishing Vessel Drill Conductor workshop and want to update their skills. Register online at www.amsea.org or call (907) 747-3287....
AMSEA will offer its “Upright & Watertight: Vessel Stability Awareness” workshop Tuesday, May 24 from 8:00 am – 2:00 pm at the Tides Inn. Register online atwww.amsea.org or call (907) 747-3287....
In the face of Alaska’s multi-billion dollar budget shortfalls, state policy makers are putting the onus on fishermen to cover the costs of going fishing. “One of the sources we have to offset general fund decreases is increased test fishing. We don’t like to catch fish or crab or anything just to raise money, but in this climate we’re having to look at that long and hard,” said Scott Kelley, director of the Commercial Fisheries for the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. Test fishing is typically done by department chartered vessels to assess st...
In a news brief released April 28, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced additional sport fishing opportunities for king salmon would be available to Wrangell and Petersburg’s District 8. Sport fishing for king salmon in the district may be conducted with the use of two rods per angler, with no more than six lines fished from a vessel. Resident anglers have a bag limit of three king salmon 28 inches or greater in length, with a limit of six in possession. Nonresidents have a bag and possession limit of two, up to six for the year. Ch...
Sitka — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced the results from the 2016 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery and spawn observations. This season the target harvest level was set at 14,741. The final harvest was 9,758 tons with overall mature roe recovery of 10.7% based on fish ticket information. The harvest and roe recovery by date was as follows: There were two spawning events in the Sitka Sound area this season. The first spawn occurred from March 18 until March 28. The total shoreline mapped with spawn during this initial e...
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...
Marine boat anglers returning to ports where and when on-site ADF&G creel surveys are conducted will be prohibited from filleting, mutilating, and de-heading sport caught lingcod, nonpelagic rockfish, and king and coho salmon at-sea. Marine boat anglers returning to any port on the road system of the communities listed below, during the times designated, may not fillet, mutilate, or de-head these fish until the fish have been brought to shore and offloaded, unless the fish have been consumed or preserved on board: Petersburg: 12:01 a.m....
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game earlier this month released this year’s regulations regarding sport and commercial King salmon regulations. The resident bag and possession limit is three King salmon, 28 inches or greater and the non-resident limit is one King, 28 inches or greater except during May and June when non-residents are allowed two King’s 28 inches or greater. The non-resident annual limit is six Kings at those same length restrictions. Those regulations are in effect from 12:01 a.m. April 12, 2016 through 11:59 p.m. May 1,...
Increasingly corrosive oceans are raising more red flags for Bering Sea crab stocks. Results from a first ever, two year project on baby Tanner crabs show that higher ocean acidity (pH) affects both their shell production and the immune systems. Bairdi Tanner crab, the larger cousins of snow crab, are growing into one of Alaska’s largest crab fisheries with a nearly 20 million pound harvest this season. “We put mom crabs from the Bering Sea in a tank, and allowed her embryos to grow and hatch in an acidified treatment,” explained project leade...
The 2016 sport fishing regulations for king salmon in Southeast Alaska and Yakutat will be effective 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, April 12, 2016 – 11:59 p.m. Monday, May 1, 2017. Alaska resident: The resident bag and possession limit is three king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length. Nonresident: The nonresident bag and possession limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length, except during May and June the bag and possession limit is two king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length; the nonresident annual limit is six king salmon, 28 i...
Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan has scored seats on nearly every Congressional committee that deal with issues on, over and under the oceans. That fulfills a commitment he made to Kodiak when he ran for office two years ago, he said at a ComFish town meeting during a two day stay on “the Rock.” Sullivan ticked off a list of fishery related actions he’s had a hand in getting accomplished over the past year: passage of an enforcement act that combats global fish pirating and seafood fraud; adding language to bills that lifts pricey class...
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...
Alaska fishermen can send an SOS call directly to the Coast Guard, but many are not hooking up to the new lifeline. Digital Selective Calling (DSC) instantly signals a distress call over VHF radios to other vessels, and the feature has been a required part of the hand-held units since 1996. In Alaska, the ability for mariners to hook up with the Coast Guard was acquired just last year when transceiver and antenna ‘high sites’ in Southeast and South Central regions came on line (more are scheduled soon). “There was a lot of rumor going aroun...
If a fisherman gets 50-cents a pound for his reds, how can the fish fetch $10, $15 or more at retail counters? “It’s all the other stuff that happens after he sells the fish. A lot of costs, margins and profits are included in that retail price,” said Andy Wink, a Fisheries Economist with the McDowell Group in Juneau. It’s an ‘apples and oranges’ comparison when it comes to using weights paid for the raw goods and the end product. A lot of weight is lost going from a whole fish, which fishermen are paid on, to a fillet at retail counters. ...
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...
Fire sale salmon prices last year and a dim outlook for the upcoming season have caused the value of Alaska fishing permits to plummet. To another extreme – the prices for halibut catch shares have soared to “unheard of levels.” Starting with salmon permits: “A lot of people had disastrous seasons last year, whether it was drift gillnet or seine permits, and the values have declined dramatically,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. At Alaska’s bellwether fishery at Bristol Bay, a base sockeye prices of 50 cents a pound helpe...
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%,...
Fish stomachs could help solve the mystery of why Alaska halibut are so small for their age. Halibut weights are about one-third of what they were 30 years ago, meaning a halibut weighing 120 pounds in the late 1980s is closer to 40 pounds nowadays. One culprit could be arrowtooth flounders, whose numbers have increased 500 percent over the same time to outnumber the most abundant species in the Gulf: pollock. Fishermen for decades have claimed the toothy flounders, which grow to about three feet in length, are blanketing the bottom of the...
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...
