April 22, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries has denied a request for emergency action to institute a cap of zero on Chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery, which would have closed the fishery for the first half of 2024.
Group’s representing Alaska’s commercial and recreational salmon fisheries and Native Alaskan groups have clashed with the Alaska pollock sector over the cause of smaller Chinook salmon runs and actions that can be taken to reverse the decline.
April 20, 2024 — With another heavily restricted salmon fishing season just around the corner on the Kuskokwim River, state fisheries managers are not anticipating any drastic changes in terms of run strength from what was seen last year.
According to Chuck Brazil, a regional fisheries management coordinator with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game who oversees the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region, the forecast for chinook (king) salmon is in line with returns over the past decade.
“We’re looking at a near-recent average, which is about 120,000 to 140,000 fish,” Brazil said. “I would expect this upcoming season to look very similar to last season with limited openings, maybe one opening a week throughout the course of this chinook salmon season.”
The federal government, rather than the state, currently has the final say regarding when salmon fishing is allowed on the lower Kuskokwim River. This was confirmed by a recent U.S. District Court ruling in a case which calls into question management of the 180-mile portion of the river that flows through the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.
April 20, 2024 — When you’re 21, you know everything. When you’re 21 and a first-year captain of an Alaskan salmon seiner, you know even more. I was a 21-year-old captain once, and it took me all of 21 minutes to realize that I, in fact, did not know everything…
After a decade spent seining as a crewmember in perpetually progressing positions aboard my father’s high-producing salmon boat based out of Port Lions, Alaska (a picturesque pacific paradise positioned where the spruce meets the sea) in the Kodiak Island statistical salmon district, I was positive I was ready to fulfill my destiny as a salty sea-hardened highliner as the impending June 9th salmon season opener crept ever closer.
Despite my newfound status of skipper, my green as-grass crew, and my complete inability to grow a beard, morale was high. At the same time, we buttoned up boat work, and I did my downright damnedest to inspire and excite my crew about the upcoming opener with pre-season inspirational speeches during our nightly “team meetings” over barley pops and BBQ.
If my guys had any inkling, I commandeered most of my quotes from “Lord of the Rings” and “Rudy,” they kept it to themselves as we spent our last night in port preparing my newly purchased “pocket seiner” for our first trip by loading the last of the gourmet grub disguised as canned chili, a cup of noodles and store brand cereal aboard the boat in whatever nooks and crannies we could find. The borderline claustrophobic confines of the cabin were so short on space that Larry, my skiff-man, said it was “less cabin & more coffin.”
Somehow, no one seemed to mind that we’d eat like inmates, sleep like sardines, and likely smell like them for the next three months. We were boys, and to us, the ocean was just another adventure that we hoped would soon make us men.
April 20, 2024 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) have signed a seven-year agreement on rebuilding king salmon stocks in the Yukon River drainage.
Under the agreement, commercial, sport, domestic, and personal use king salmon fisheries will be suspended along the Yukon River and its Canadian tributaries for seven years – the equivalent of the king salmon life cycle.
April 17, 2024 — The Army Corps of Engineers on Monday doubled down on its decision to deny federal water permits for a controversial proposal to build a massive gold and copper mine in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay watershed.
The agency rejected an appeal from the mine’s developers, the Pebble Limited Partnership, to reconsider its decision in 2020, under the Trump administration, to deny the project a federal water permit over concerns about potential impacts to salmon fisheries in the area.
In early 2021, developers appealed to the Army Corps through an administrative process within the agency. Last year, the Army Corps said it would take a fresh lookand reconsider part of its decision. But Col. Jeff Palazzini, who commands the Army Corps’ Alaska district, concluded in a record of decision posted to the agency’s website Monday that the appeal was ultimately being denied.
April 16, 2024 — Federal fisheries regulators tasked with mediating conflicts over salmon bycatch in the groundfish fisheries between trawlers and commercial and subsistence salmon harvesters have updated their list of alternatives to be analyzed, but are a long way from resolving the problem.
In fact, it will likely be April of 2025, when the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) holds its spring meeting again in Anchorage, when final action will be voted on.
In advance of a lengthy, careful update of its initial set of alternatives, which always include status quo, the council heard testimony for three days and also received written reports from a cross section of the Alaska pollock trawl industry, commercial and subsistence salmon harvesters, economists, environmentalists and tribal entities on how to reach that “practicable solution” that federal regulations dictate be reached.
They heard from industry harvesters about efforts to avoid hot spots where salmon were spotted in the midst of the lucrative Alaska pollock fishery and researchers working to upgrade fishing gear to keep pollock going into their nets and salmon out. They heard from residents of Yukon River villages, whose families have relied on salmon for their economy, sustenance and culture for thousands of years, who haven’t been able to fish for depleted returning runs of salmon. They heard from economists and conservationists about changes in the global economy and warming climate conditions.
April 16, 2024 — The Yukon River Panel, a joint Alaska-Canada salmon advisory organization held a multi-day pre-season meeting last week in Anchorage. Panel members heard presentations and public comments on a range of salmon issues, including a recent Alaska Canada agreement to close chinook salmon fishing for 7 years.
Wednesday’s agenda (April 10) included presentations by biologists on 2024 salmon run forecasts. Deena Jallen with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said another weak return of Yukon River Chinook is anticipated.
“We have a forecast of 45,000 to 68,000 fish, with a median value of 56,000 fish, and as a reminder the 2023 drainage-wide run size for chinook salmon was 58,000 fish, and no escapement goals were met in Alaska or Canada, so we’re anticipating a very low run, similar to last year, or smaller,” Jallen said.
About 40 percent of Yukon River chinook are Canadian origin, and Jallen said the outlook for those stocks is similarly bleak.
“Nineteen thousand to 28,000 fish with median value of 23,000 fish,” she said. “And that’s below the border passage objective of 71,000 fish, and the projected border passage could be as low as 9- to 19,000 fish.”
April 15, 2024 — Tribes, fisheries, and individual fishing companies shared their concerns and ideas about the declining salmon population in an April 6 meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) has been gathering feedback to help shape a possible federally-backed bycatch rule for the future.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) reviewed the preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) for the proposed management measures to reduce chum salmon Prohibited Species Catch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. A letter issued by the United States Department of Commerce to NPFMC states that NMFS advises the council to broaden the range of alternatives by including a lower overall chum salmon limit to provide additional contrast and ensure compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.
The Department of Commerce stated that the EIS process evaluates a wide range of alternatives, disclosing the advantages and disadvantages to help decision-makers and the public weigh the costs against the potential benefits.
April 15, 2024 — The Pacific sleeper shark is the largest shark in Alaska, and possibly the largest predatory fish in the ocean. It is also one of the most vulnerable of all managed fish stocks in Alaska waters.
“Yet we still know little about even its most basic biology,” said Beth Matta, research fisheries biologist at the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
A new collaborative NOAA Fisheries study takes an important step toward better understanding and managing the Pacific sleeper shark. Researchers compiled knowledge from a wide variety of sources to provide important new insights into its biology and ecology. They identified and prioritized research needs to better assess and manage this species.
“We can’t manage what we don’t understand,” said Matta, who led the study. “We wanted to create a one-stop shop for information on Pacific sleeper sharks—a resource that others can use.”
The Pacific sleeper shark, named for its sluggish nature, lives throughout the Pacific Ocean. It has been found in shallow intertidal zones, and sighted by submersibles at depths beyond a mile underwater. It is encountered by humans most often as unwanted bycatch on commercial fishing vessels.
Like many other sharks, the Pacific sleeper shark likely grows slowly, matures late, and has a long lifespan and low productivity. These qualities make it highly susceptible to overfishing.
“Sustainable fishing rates for long-lived sharks are very low. For example, the spiny dogfish, a Pacific sleeper shark relative with a lifespan of 100 years, can tolerate harvest rates of only about 3 percent,” said study coauthor Cindy Tribuzio, NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “Pacific sleeper sharks potentially take that to extremes.”
In Alaska waters, the majority of Pacific sleeper shark mortality is due to fisheries bycatch. Observed declines in certain parts of its range, coupled with its low productivity, have led to conservation concerns. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council highlighted conservation concerns in its most recent stock assessment review.
April 14, 2024 — Alaska sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday seeking to overturn an agency decision that it said effectively blocked development of one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits.
The complaint filed in an Anchorage federal court challenges the EPA’s 2023 final determination that prohibited the discharge of mining waste from the so-called Pebble deposit into the state’s Bristol Bay.