Sorted by date Results 776 - 800 of 855
Southeast Alaska received a new Coast Guard cutter last week. Coast Guard Sector Juneau personnel welcomed the crew of the USCG Cutter Chandeleur during a ceremony at the Buoy Deck in Juneau on Friday, Oct. 12. The 110-foot Island Class patrol boat, which can accommodate a crew of 18 personnel, was moved from Miami, Fla., to Alaska to help support the regional response capabilities of the service in Southeast Alaska. “We welcome the crew of the Chandeleur to Alaska,” said Capt. Scott Bor...
October is National Seafood Month – and it also marks the start of one of the busiest months for Alaska’s fishing industry. The state’s biggest crab fisheries get underway in the Bering Sea on October 15 – the Bristol Bay red king crab catch will hold steady at 7.8 million pounds, while the snow crab harvest has taken a dip to 66.3 million pounds, down from about 80 million pounds last season. The St. Matthew Island blue king crab fishery is also down a bit to 1.6 million pounds. Hundreds of divers in Southeast Alaska are plying the depths...
At least 1.5 million tons of debris from Japan’s 2011 tsunami is still afloat, and at least half of it is expected to hit Alaska’s coastline. The region from Yakutat to Gore Point off the Kenai Peninsula will likely see the heaviest debris piles, but Southeast Alaska and other areas will see chunks of junk as well. Those are conclusions of a fascinating new report by Washington Sea Grant titled Debris Accumulation Scenarios in Washington State from the March 2011 Tohoku Tsunami. The Sea Grant report, authored by Ian Miller and Jim Brennan, says...
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...
JUNEAU (AP) — The heated battle over the proposed Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska is shifting to science, with panels weighing in on different reports that have only added more fuel to the fight. The Pebble Limited Partnership, the company proposing the massive gold and copper mine near the headwaters of the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, plans to have an independent panel of experts review its scientific data. The effort is intended, in part, to point out any shortcomings, but it's also aimed at helping people understand what t...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Coast Guard will host a southeast Alaska petroleum spill exercise Wednesday at the Ted Ferry Civic Center in Ketchikan. The exercise will be a tabletop oil spill response based on a scenario of a vessel collision near Sitka. The Coast Guard says the exercise is designed to test the Southeast Subarea Contingency Plan. The document was written for the planning of responses to large oil or hazardous substance releases. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Alaska Marine Highway System, Kirby Offshore Marine, S...
Dave Ohmer presented his annual end of the season fishing report to the Petersburg Rotary Club last week and his comments mirrored statewide reports and comments made by Gunnar Knapp, longtime fishing economist at the University of Alaska. Ohmer, like Knapp cited that huge volumes of cheaper farmed salmon has driven prices for salmon, halibut and black cod lower. Chile, the world’s number two producer of salmon had to get back into the market after killing off their farmed fish stocks due to d... Full story
The Southeast Alaska 2012 season’s pink salmon catch was less than half of last year’s but a little higher than expected. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game predicted an all year harvest of 17 million and came in at around 20 million, 19 million of which were caught by the seine fleet. According to Fish and Game Commercial Fisheries Coordinator Biologist Bill Davidson, the runs have been coming in weak in the even years and strong in the odd since 2006 and this year is no exception to the historical rule. “We are a little above forec...
Alaska fishermen are feeling the squeeze of lower prices at the same time that their operating costs continue to spiral upwards. For halibut, in a reversal of trend and fortune, prices have dropped by 70 cents a pound in recent weeks. Dock prices usually peak from September until the halibut fishery closes in November, but that is not the case this year -- overstocked freezers and resistance from buyers have put a downward press on fish prices. “Buyers simply aren’t buying,” said several Alaska fish processors. Prior to the start of the seaso...
As Alaska’s salmon season winds down, selling the bulk of the harvest gears up for seafood companies that purchased the pack. “This is the season for negotiations, you might say,” said salmon guru Gunnar Knapp, longtime fisheries economist at the University of Alaska/Anchorage. “You never know the price until the product is actually sold.” The salmon season runs on different tracks starting with sockeye, and fish sales have varying schedules and market patterns throughout the year. Plus, salmon markets depend on the species and how they are...
SITKA, (AP) — A southeast Alaska fisherman who spent a night adrift in a 4-by-4 foot plastic fish bin after his boat sank says he survived by giving himself pep talks and singing ``Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ``Row, Row, Row Your Boat.'' His fellow crew member managed to struggle into a survival suit and washed ashore safely on a beach. The Daily Sitka Sentinel (http://is.gd/bgoPcT) reports that a Coast Guard helicopter hoisted 19-year-old Ryan Harris of Sitka from his plastic ``lifeboat'' on Saturday afternoon, more than 24 hours a...
(Sitka) — The brown bear hunting season in Game Management Unit 4 (GMU 4) opens September 15, 2012. The season is scheduled to run through December 31, 2012. Hunters must obtain a locking big game tag, valid hunting license, and current registration permit (RB077) before hunting. The registration permit is valid for taking one (1) brown bear in GMU 4 which includes Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof Islands. In order to minimize the potential for closures by emergency order or a significant reduction in the 2013 spring hunts, the fall hunt w...
The U.S. Forest Service and Alaska Department of Fish & Game remind Southeast Alaskans to use extra caution when recreating outdoors at this time of year. A decrease in natural food sources leads to a greater likelihood of encounters between bears and humans. Rarely, these encounters can be aggressive. When in bear country, always be aware of your surroundings and keep pets under control. Avoid surprising a bear by being bear aware: be observant of bear sign and consider limited sight distances on trails. Remember to make noise while traveling...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Commercial fishing vessels operating more than three miles from the territorial sea baseline will have to complete a mandatory Coast Guard dockside safety examination by Oct. 16. The Coast Guard says the free exams are a regulatory change stemming from the passage by Congress of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010. The Coast Guard says if discrepancies are found, vessel owners will be issued a work list and a deadline to correct them....
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Mat-Su Borough's fast ferry is going up for sale. The $80 million ferry was supposed to transport commuters from Anchorage to the Valley, but that never happened. In fact, the Anchorage Daily News says the ferry has never docked at the borough or sailed in Cook Inlet. And, Anchorage and the borough do not have the special docks needed for a ferry that could carry vehicles. In the meantime, the borough has been responsible for the cost of maintaining the ferry at $88,000 a month. Borough planner Emerson Krueger is working w...
Salmon season is winding down and it’s still a guess if the statewide catch will reach the 132 million fish forecast. Achieving that all comes down to those hard to predict pinks, whose catch makes up more than half of the total harvest. “I think it’s going to be close. It all depends on what happens with the pink salmon runs in the three major producing areas: Prince William Sound, Kodiak and Southeast,” said Geron Bruce, assistant director of the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game’s commercial fisheries division. This summer a catch of 70.2 mill...
Jobs are being put on the fast track in Bristol Bay, with a focus on careers that go hand in hand with the region’s culture and economy: commercial fishing and seafood processing. “The fishery is our largest industry; it’s the backbone of the economy here,” said Patty Heyano, Program Development Director for the Bristol Bay Native Association in Dillingham. “So it made a whole lot of sense to concentrate on that. It seemed like we could make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time because the industry is already here.” Heyano is r...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A vessel suspected of illegal driftnet fishing on the high seas was transferred to China by the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday. A Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter assigned to Alaska encountered the 177-foot (54-meter) fishing ship in late July about 850 miles (1,369 kilometers) east of Tokyo. Coast Guard personnel boarded the ship and found 30 metric tons — more than 66,000 pounds — of albacore tuna. They also found 6 metric tons of shark bodies and fins on board. Coast Guard officials said Chinese citizens were operating the v...
Alaska has more coastline than all of the other US states combined, but unlike all those other states, Alaskans have no say in how their coasts are managed or developed. If Outside and foreign corporations have their way, that’s how it will remain. A successful coastal zone management program has been in place since the 1970s, but the program expired last year when lawmakers and Governor Parnell failed to agree on its extension. Despite constant criticism of “the feds” always trying to butt into Alaska’s business, the state surrendered authori...
Kodiak fishermen are a happy lot, but they are also anxious about the future of their industry. Those are some of the early findings of an ongoing survey that focuses on the social and cultural perceptions of the fishing life in Kodiak and how things have changed over two decades. The survey is part of a multiyear project titled Social Transitions and Wellbeing in Kodiak Fisheries and Communities by Courtney Carothers, an assistant professor UAF’s School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Carothers lived for more than a year in Kodiak villages to...
Water ways - With 82% of Alaska’s communities unreachable by roads, water is the way to go. Businesses that serve the marine industry, including ports and harbors, are a lifeline for coastal communities. State economic specialists want to highlight the importance of the marine trade sector, and the jobs it provides, which are often overlooked. In March they launched an online Business Retention and Expansion questionnaire hoping to get feedback from coastal residents on how their marine businesses are faring. “Ship building and repair bus...
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...
The red salmon catch at Bristol Bay is on its way to 20 million fish and will very likely go higher, due to a strong run of more than 30 million fish. The reds were still surging into the region’s five big rivers and should serve to boost the harvest beyond the forecast of nearly 22 million fish. With all the salmon fisheries going on every summer all across Alaska, you might wonder why so much attention is focused on Bristol Bay? The answer can be summed up in two words: sockeye salmon. Bristol Bay’s rivers are home to the largest red sal...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish announced July 11, a closure to sport fishing in Blind Slough to ensure adequate brood stock collection at the Crystal Lake Hatchery (CLH) necessary for future releases of king salmon in the Petersburg area. The closure includes all waters of Blind Slough upstream of a line between Blind Point and Anchor Point, from Friday July 13 through Sunday August 5th, 2012. The king salmon regulations for the marine waters of the Wrangell Narrows Terminal Harvest Area (THA), will be the same...
Marine debris trackers are taking to the air any day to get a better idea of where and what is washing ashore from last year’s devastating tsunami in Japan. Best ‘guesstimates’ claim at least 1.5 million tons of debris are afloat on and under the current driven waters that routinely cover Alaska coastlines. The State has funded a $200,000 systematic aerial survey by Airborne Technologies, Inc. of Virginia that will span waters and beaches from Cold Bay to Ketchikan to get a more complete view of the debris problem. “That should give a good pi...
