Alaska Archives - Page 247 of 283

Alaska: Herring jobs attract lots of workers

April 19, 2018 — Business was brisk at the Alaska Department of Labor’s Anchorage Midtown Job Center as recruiters from North Pacific Seafoods interviewed sought to hire workers for the upcoming herring season.

There just seem to be more people looking for these jobs this year, said Steve Lee, assistant plant manager at Pederson Point in Bristol Bay.

By the time North Pacific Seafoods completed its recruitment effort on April 18, Lee estimated they would have interviewed about 140 applicants for the 150 to 160 jobs at the Pederson Point plant, just north of Naknek on Bristol Bay. Half of those jobs will be filled by folks who worked the previous season and said “yes” to letters from the company inviting them to return for the 2018 season.

While the herring in the Togiak fishery were holding offshore, waiting out wind and rain hitting western Alaska, biologists at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Dillingham were hopeful that things would improve over the coming week, and Lee was sure his plant would be ready.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

Matching grants open for sustainable groundfish projects

April 17, 2018 — The New England groundish fishery is one of the priority targets of a new grants program by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation to promote innovation in sustainable fisheries. through “effective participation by fishermen and fishing communities.”

The Fisheries Innovation Fund program, funded by NOAA and three private foundations, is set to award up to $950,000 nationally. Most of the grants are anticipated to fall within the range of $50,000 to $100,000.

The program, however, noted that priority for funding will be given to projects in one of four local fisheries — New England groundfish, West Coast groundfish, Gulf of Mexico reef fish and Gulf of Alaska halibut and groundfish.

The grants will require 100 percent matching funds from recipients. The NFWF said in its announcement that eligible recipients include non-profits, state government agencies, municipal governments, educational institutions and individual businesses.

To date, according to NFWF spokesman Rob Blumenthal, the Fisheries Innovation Fund “has awarded grants totaling over $20.3 million to 127 projects across 26 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

Those awards generated more than $22.5 million in matching funds from recipients “for a total conservation impact of $42.8 million.”

The three foundations joining NOAA in providing the overall funding include two with strong ties to environmental and conservation groups — the Kingfisher Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation — as well as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of Palo Alto, California, started by the founder of Intel.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Alaska salmon permit values stall amid lackluster catch forecast

April 17, 2018 — Spring is usually the busiest time of year for brokers in the buy/sell/trade business for Alaska salmon permits. But that’s not the case this year.

Values for several salmon permits had ticked upwards after a blockbuster salmon fishery in 2017, but they have remained stagnant since last fall.

“That sort of summarizes the salmon permit market. There is not a lot of excitement about any of them,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer.

A lackluster catch forecast for the upcoming salmon season — down 34 percent — has helped dampen enthusiasm.

Even at the one big bright spot at Bristol Bay, where another big sockeye catch of more than 37 million fish is expected, the value of drift net permits has stalled in the $150,000 range.

“Sometimes before the season we see the price go up and up until the fishing begins. This year it just seems like it’s a calmer market and the price actually slipped,” Bowen said.

Also at play in the bay: Major buyers will no longer purchase salmon from “dry” boats starting this year.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Feds allowing fishermen to catch more skates

April 12, 2018 — Federal fishing regulators are allowing fishermen to harvest more skates, which are caught on both coasts for use as food and bait.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it’s increasing the per-trip possession limit for skate wing from 500 pounds to 4,100 pounds until April 30. The change went into effect on April 9.

Some states, including barndoor, thorny and smooth skates, are prohibited from commercial harvesting because of concerns about population status.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times

Alaska: Trifecta of falling fish revenues anticipated

April 9, 2018 — Alaska is expecting a reduced salmon harvest this year, setting up a trifecta of falling fish revenues for Alaska fishermen, coastal communities and state coffers.

Coming on the heels of an 80 percent crash of cod stocks in the Gulf of Alaska and a 10 percent decline in halibut catches, state fishery managers are projecting a 2018 salmon harvest at 149 million fish, down 34 percent from last season.

The shortfall stems from lower forecasts for returning pink salmon. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is forecasting a humpie harvest of just 70 million fish, down by more than half from last summer.

For sockeye salmon, a statewide catch of about 52 million is down 1.8 million fish from 2017, which was the 5th largest red salmon harvest since 1970.

By far, most of the sockeyes will come from Bristol Bay’s nine river systems where a projected harvest of 37.5 million would be down by more than a million, still well above the 10- and 20-year averages for the Bay.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

Alaska: Pebble lays out smaller mine plan

April 6, 2018 — The Pebble Limited Partnership is changing its plans and its tone as it continues its permitting process.

The Pebble Mine, a gold, copper and molybdenum mine proposed for the Bristol Bay region in southwestern Alaska, has been one of the most controversial resource development projects in the state. Bristol Bay fishermen and environmental activists statewide have raised concerns about the mine’s potential impacts on the salmon streams in the region, one of the most productive wild sockeye salmon fisheries in the world. Proponents have argued that it would bring jobs to a rural area without many other economic development projects and revenue to the state as well as provide metals for products like electronics and hardware.

At first, Pebble was proposing an open-pit mine stretched over several waterways near Lake Iliamna and Lake Clark, with a trucking road around the north end of Lake Iliamna to a deep water shipping terminal on Cook Inlet. Opponents objected to the size of the mine, plans to dam streams and potential contamination to downstream fish stocks.

Read the full story at Peninsula Clarion

Alaska: Salmon harvests, halibut prices take sharp turn down

April 5, 2018 — Alaska is expecting a reduced salmon harvest this year, setting up a trifecta of falling fish revenues for Alaska fishermen, coastal communities and state coffers.

For sockeye salmon, a statewide catch of about 52 million is down 1.8 million fish from 2017, which was the fifth-largest red salmon harvest since 1970.

By far, most of the sockeyes will come from Bristol Bay’s nine river systems where a projected harvest of 37.5 million would be down by more than a million, but still well above the 10- and 20-year averages for the Bay.

Alaska’s chum salmon catch last year of 25 million also was the largest haul since 1970. This year’s statewide catch is expected to produce 21 million chums, down by nearly four million.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

NPFMC plans final action on halibut sport fishing limits, permits

April 5, 2018 — Federal fisheries managers plan final action in April on proposals that would require annual renewal of charter halibut permits and for new restrictions to limit guided sport halibut harvests.

The two issues are scheduled for several hours of discussion and a vote of decision on April 5, during the spring meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Anchorage.

The council’s preliminary preferred alternative for an annual renewal process for charter halibut permits includes a requirement for charter halibut permit holders to renew those permits annually through an application to the Restricted Access Management Program of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Permit holders would have to include on the application their permit number, along with the permit holder’s name, address, phone number, and or email address and the holder’s ownership structure.

During its initial consideration of the permit renewal options last October the Council added another option for consideration that would include a question on the application on the permit holder’s use and leasing behavior. At the time the council neither adopted or rejected that option, leaving it on the table for further consideration.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

Will Alaska learn from salmon’s history?

April 5, 2018 — Fifteen years ago when I researched and wrote the book “King of Fish: The Thousand Year Run of Salmon,” I spent a lot of time looking at where societies got it wrong on salmon. That has made it all the more refreshing every time I have come to Alaska to enjoy a place that has gotten it right — so far. More than anywhere else in the world, Alaska has enabled its people to enjoy the rich and varied benefits that come with healthy salmon runs.

But it’s also clear to me that Alaska is at a crossroads in its salmon history. While many Alaskans can still depend on strong fisheries, the first serious signs of decline in locales across the state raise critical questions about the long-term health of Alaskan salmon. And if there’s anything to learn from the history of places where people have lived with salmon, it is to beware another “death by a thousand cuts” playing out in a blind march toward degraded habitat and dwindling runs.

Over the last 1,000 years, humans inadvertently conducted several full-scale experiments on how salmon fare when people make big changes to rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. The takeaway? A slow-motion train wreck with grim results for salmon in Great Britain and across Europe, then New England, and finally California and the Pacific Northwest.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

Alaska: Finding local seafood is getting easier at America’s top fishing port

April 2, 2018 — Unalaska is America’s fish capital. More seafood is hauled into Dutch Harbor than anywhere in the country, but for residents it’s not easy to find fresh fish unless they catch it themselves.

At the local grocery stores even seafood caught in the Aleutians is exported before landing in freezer cases. But it’s getting a little easier to get locally caught seafood on the dinner table.

It doesn’t happen often in Unalaska, but fishermen can sell their catch directly to customers. If you’re imagining a fish market, wipe away that image.

Buying fresh seafood means going directly to a boat like Roger Rowland’s. On a weekday in January people like Rubi Warden are crowding onto the dock to pick out tanner crab.

“Can you help me to carry it to my truck?” Warden asked.” “I’m buying $400 worth for three families.”

Warden and her daughter Pia are buying 48 crab. She’ll serve some of it to her parents when they visit from Hawaii.

Local crab hasn’t been sold on the dock in two years.

This is Rowland’s second time selling crab this season. The first time they took pre-orders, but today anyone can buy. It’s $12 a crab or 12 for $100.

“This year they’re very nice, very big,” Rowland said. “It’s really encouraging to see the really nice product.”

Selling fish off a boat doesn’t involve too much paperwork. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game requires a catcher seller permit to be completed along with a $25 processing fee.

Read the full story at KTOO