Alaska Archives - Page 263 of 298

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

Criticized fish board nominee withdraws from consideration

March 30, 2018 — JUNEAU, Alaska — An Alaska Board of Fisheries nominee, who was criticized by sport fishing groups, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the post.

Gov. Bill Walker’s office says Duncan Fields withdrew his name so that Alan Cain would have an opportunity to serve a second term.

Walker had nominated Fields to succeed Cain, a retired Alaska Wildlife Trooper from Anchorage. But sport fishing groups saw the pick as an attempt by Walker to break an unwritten rule about the balance of power between commercial and sports fishing interests.

Fields is from Kodiak and has worked in commercial fishing and fisheries policy.

Walker’s office says Cain had planned to leave the board when his term ended this summer, but now wants to seek re-appointment.

Read the full story at KTUU

Terms Extended for U.S. IPHC Commissioners While Commerce, State, and White House Weigh Appointments

March 30, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Yesterday Linda Behnken and Bob Alverson, current U.S. Commissioners on the International Pacific Halibut Commission, both received emails from the Department of State extending their current terms to August 31, 2018.

“This appointment is effective immediately and expires on August 31, 2018, or whenever another Alternate or presidentially-appointed Commissioner is appointed to fulfill the relevant duties, whichever occurs first,” wrote Judith Garber, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the State Department.

Although the appointment is a presidential decision, it’s not unusual for reappointments, or extensions of terms as in this case, to be made by the State Department, the agency that oversees international commissions.

Both Behnken and Alverson’s terms ended March 31, 2018. Both are preparing for a meeting with the Canadian commissioners in mid-April to work on issues within the Commission’s harvest policy that resulted in not reaching an agreement on catch limits at the group’s annual meeting in January.

The federal agencies are currently considering six names for the two seats. Besides Behnken’s and Alverson’s nominations, Andy Mezirow, Richard Yamada, and Duane Edelman were nominated for Behnken’s Alaska seat and Steve Joner was nominated for Alverson’s seat. Mezirow and Yamada are recreational charter operators, Edelman is a fisherman, and Joner is a fisheries manager for the Makah Tribe.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.