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Bering Sea crabbers are again facing the possibility of a delayed fishery as Congressional Republicans threaten to shut down the government, this time over federal funding of Planned Parenthood. A shutdown two years ago stalled the crab opener by two days, costing the fleet more than $5 million in food, fuel and other fees as the boats stood idly by for a week or more awaiting an outcome. “It was a huge mess last time,” said Mark Gleason, executive director of the trade group, Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. “We have a very tight time frame – whe...
Catches for Alaska’s premier crab fisheries in the Bering Sea could take a dip this year based on results from the annual summer surveys. The annual report by NOAA Fisheries called “The Eastern Bering Sea Continental Shelf Bottom Trawl Survey: Results from Commercial Crab Species” (long dubbed the ‘crab map’) shows tables reflecting big drops over the past year in abundance of legal sized males for both snow crab and red king crab at Bristol Bay. (Only legal males are allowed to be retained for sale.) But there is a bright side -- both stoc...
Alaska’s fishing industry was dismayed last week by the sudden news that Jeff Regnart, Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division, will leave the job on October 2. “I’m resigning due to family reasons, aging parents…I just can’t be in the state full time like this job demands,” Regnart explained. Jeff Regnart started as an Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game field tech in high school, and over 30 years worked his way to management positions at Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet and Bristol Bay. He took over as director of the commercial fi...
Alaska’s pink salmon catch is pushing 180 million fish, making it the second largest harvest ever (219 million pinks was the previous record set in 2013). The humpie haul has been pushed by record production in three regions – over 15 million pinks were taken at the Alaska Peninsula, compared to under one million last year. Kodiak’s record pink catch was nearing 30 million, triple last year’s take; and Prince William Sound’s harvest so far had topped a whopping 97 million pink salmon. All that fish goes into a competitive global market an...
Fish deaths, drought in California, tropical creatures appearing in cold waters – those freakish happenings and more are being blamed on a giant splotch of warm water that for two years has been pushing against coastlines on the West Coast, Canada and into Alaska. “They call it the Blob because of its original circular shape on the sea surface,” explained Dr. Carol Janzen, an oceanographer and Operations Director at the Alaska Ocean Observing System in Anchorage. “However, this feature is not static, it’s constantly reshaping itself in circul...
While the pink salmon harvest is coming in below expectations for price and quantity, the commercial halibut fishery is going strong for Area 2C, which includes Petersburg and other Southeast communities. A quota share update from the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) released Aug. 19 showed that almost 2.8 million pounds of halibut have been landed in the district. That’s three-quarters of the quota for the district— just under 3.7 million pounds—and almost the equivalent of the total 2013 catch limit. Local longliners have...
FAIRBANKS (AP) — Despite a below-average overall run, the Yukon River king salmon population had the highest number of Chinooks make it across the border toward their Canadian spawning grounds in 10 years. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that about 83,000 fish went across the border this year. An international treaty mandates that at least 42,500 Chinooks must get to Canada, but Alaska fishery managers have only managed that goal in two of the past four years. Between 118,000 and 140,000 Chinooks were projected to enter the Yukon this y...
One of the casualties of this year’s budget cuts was funds for a program aimed at discovering why Alaska’s Chinook salmon stocks have been declining since 2007. A five year, $30 million Chinook Salmon Research Initiative launched in 2013 included more than 100 researchers focused on three dozen projects in 12 major river systems from Southeast to the Yukon. Now the ambitious effort has been cut to just over one dozen projects. “When we saw we weren’t going to get a third appropriation this fiscal year, we had to step back and narrow the focus,...
Alaska’s salmon season so far has been characterized by ups and downs, and it will be a stretch for the total catch to make the forecasted 221 million fish. “It just depends on how these late returning pink salmon at Prince William Sound performs, and whether or not pinks pick up at Southeast. It’s possible, but we would still have to harvest around 30 million more salmon,” mused Forrest Bowers, Deputy Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division. One of the biggest fish stories of the season, of course, was the surprising double ru...
Two hearings this month could change the face of Alaska’s salmon fisheries forever. On August 21, the Department of Natural Resources will hear both sides on competing claims to water rights for salmon streams at Upper Cook Inlet’s Chuitna River or to a proposed coal mine. If DNR opts for the mine, the decision would set a state precedent. “It would be the first time in Alaska’s state history that we would allow an Outside corporation to mine completely through a salmon stream,” said Bob Shavelson, a director at Cook Inlet Keeper. “And the sole...
The first seagoing electric powered passenger vessel in the U.S. is set to launch next summer in Juneau. The E/V Tongass Rain is a 50 foot, 47 passenger catamaran designed for eco-education and whale watching tours. Its primary fuel source will be rain, delivered to the boat via Juneau’s hydroelectric power grid and stored in a bank of lithium batteries. The more modern batteries are less than half the weight of a traditional lead acid battery, and they provide three times the power and charge three times as fast, said Bob Varness, president a...
July 19 James Vick and Julie Ruhle were cited by Alaska Wildlife Troopers for Dungeness Crab Marking Requirements. Vick and Ruhle are the registered permit holders on the F/V Midnight Ryder. They were documented fishing with crab gear marked with tags that were previously reported as lost and therefore voided. Arraignment is set for Sept. 1 in the Petersburg District Court. July 22 Ila Marie Cantrell, 60, of Petersburg, was cited by Alaska Wildlife Troopers for making a false statement on her 2015 resident sport license application. Cantrell...
Shock and dismay were heard from Bristol Bay fishermen when they finally got word last week that major buyers would pay 50 cents a pound for their sockeye salmon. That’s a throwback to the dock prices paid from 2002 through 2004, and compares to $1.20 advanced last year ($1.33 on average after price adjustments). A late surge of reds produced catches of nearly 13 million in its final week, bringing the total by July 23 to 34.5 million fish. The fish were still trickling in, and state managers, who called the season an ‘anomaly,’ said the final...
The world’s biggest sockeye salmon run at Bristol Bay went from “bust” to “unbelievable” in one week. Landings last week broke records every day for five days for that time frame, bringing the total sockeye catch to nearly 28 million fish on an unusually long-tailed run - and the reds were still coming on strong. That had overloaded processors scurrying to replace workers they’d sent home the previous week when the big forecasted run was deemed a no show. The late surge of sockeyes also left many fishermen frustrated with limits to their catch...
On July 9, Thomas A. Stammer, 71, of Port Townsend, Wash. was cited by an Alaska Wildlife trooper (AWT) for sport fishing for Dungeness crab without a license near Duncan Canal. Bail is set at $210 with an optional appearance in the Petersburg District Court. On July 3 a Prince of Wales AWT contacted Charles Davis, 41, about a sport fishing incident in the fresh waters of Neck Creek. Davis was issued a citation for attempting to snag coho salmon in fresh waters and bail was set at $110 with an optional appearance in the District Court of...
Kodiak volunteers were scrambling with front end loaders and dump trucks to ready 200,000 pounds of super sacks for the first pick up of a massive marine debris removal project that begins in Alaska this week. The month long cleanup, which is backed by a who’s who of state and federal agencies, non-profits and private businesses, will deploy a 300 foot barge and helicopters to remove thousands of tons of marine debris from some of the world’s harshest and most remote coastlines. “This is a really big deal for Alaska. We have one of the world...
“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...
As Alaska’s salmon season heads into high gear, a few bright spots are surfacing in an otherwise bleak global sales market. Sales and prices for all salmon (especially sockeye) have been in a slump all year. And amidst an overall glut of wild and farmed fish, Alaska is poised for another huge salmon haul, with the largest run of sockeye salmon in 20 years predicted along with a mega-pack of pinks. Meanwhile, the single toughest thing stacked against Alaska’s sales to traditional overseas customers is the strong US dollar. “Overall, the dolla...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — A Sitka company is paying $75,000 for improperly disposing fish waste in the Valdez harbor. KCAW reports a 2014 dive survey showed a Silver Bay Seafoods pipe was discharging waste at a depth of three feet, above the 60-foot requirement. Department of Environmental Conservation compliance manager Mike Solter says waste released in shallow water can pile up and smother the sea floor. Silver Bay CEO Rich Riggs said in statement that the company takes responsibility for the incident and has taken steps to prevent future o...
A one handed clap best describes the reaction to the 43,000 signature drop off by anti-salmon setnet advocates at the Division of Elections last week. It means enough signatures were gathered to include the question on the 2016 primary election ballot, and let Alaska voters decide whether to ban setnets at Cook Inlet, Mat-Su, Anchorage, Juneau, Valdez, Ketchikan, and any communities designated as “urban” and “non-subsistence” in the future. The ban is being pushed one-handed by the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance (AFCA), whose board o...
JUNEAU (AP) — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is asking pollock and cod trawlers in the Bering Sea to cut halibut bycatch by a fourth. The Juneau Empire reports Sunday afternoon's 6-3 vote didn't give halibut fisherman the 41-percent reduction they wanted and frustrated trawlers targeting other fish who say they've voluntarily put measures in place to avoid bycatch. Two council members recused themselves from the vote because of their jobs in the fishing industry....
Salmon fisheries are opening up this month from one end of Alaska to the other. Total catches so far of mostly sockeye, were under one million fish, but will add up fast from here on. A total haul for all Alaska salmon this season is pegged at 221 million fish. A highlight so far is a 40 percent increase in troll action at Southeast regions, where nearly 300 fishermen are targeting king salmon. That’s likely due to a boosted price averaging $7.54 a pound, up $1.88 from last year. Speaking of high prices – Alaska halibut fishermen are fet...
Two men were rescued south of Petersburg in Sumner Strait last week after the boat they were in capsized. Alaska Wildlife Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters said police received the call at 3:29 p.m. on Thursday, June 4. Joseph Hedlund, 57, of Petersburg, and Richard Shepson, 61, of Tacoma, Wash., were pulled from the water by troopers in the patrol vessel Moen, U.S. Forest Service and National Marine Fisheries Service personnel. Peters said the men were fishing when their boat capsized and they signaled for help. Neither were wearing their...
