Tag Archives: Alaska Board of Fisheries
Members of Alaska crab industry are holding out hope for high prices and a late fishery.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries hasn’t yet decided whether to review harvest guidelines for Eastern Bering Sea Tanner crab and potentially open the season in January or earlier, or leave the fishery closed entirely for the next two years. Meanwhile, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game cut the quota for snow crab by 50 percent and for Bristol Bay red king crab by 15 percent. Despite the cuts, crab industry stakeholders say the season for Bristol Bay red king crab is moving along at more than a healthy clip. “Some good news from the grounds, the crab look good. They’re heavy. There’s a lot of small crab, females. Folks are seeing pots just plugged with crab — so full they can’t get another one in,” said Jake Jacobsen, director of the Inter-Cooperative Exchange, a crab harvesting cooperative with 188 members that together harvest 70 percent of Alaska’s crab. Jacobsen said that given the density of the fishing, he wonders why the surveys that measure abundance didn’t pick anything up.“The reports I’ve got, maybe the people who aren’t doing so well don’t say anything,” he said. “There’s a lot of very optimistic reports from the grounds. I’m not sure what happened with the survey last summer.” Read the story here 16:53
Fish Board imposter?
A former member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries facing multiple felony charges of lying about his Alaska residency to collect Permanent Fund Dividends is suggesting he might have fallen victim to an virtual imposter. The claim comes in a 19-page brief filed for Roland Maw of Kasilof in which his attorney seeks to quash the Maw indictments. Attorney Nicholas Polasky of Juneau argues that a grand jury indicted Maw without any evidence that Maw was the man actually sitting at a keyboard making online reservations to travel out-of-state and purchase resident hunting and fishing licenses in Montana. “Mr. Maw does not necessarily assert that he is not the person who made the statements or engaged in the conduct that is represented in every single exhibit,” Polasky wrote. “However, Mr Maw does not agree that he is the person who made the statements or engaged in the conduct in some of the exhibits.” For that reason, Polasky wants most of the exhibits in the Maw case tossed and the indictment along with them. His request does reveal for the first time the extensive file the state has put together on Maw, the one-time director of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association. UCIDA is the most powerful commercial fishing organization in Cook Inlet. Read the story here 13:06
Unalaska joins emergency petition on tanner crab
This season, the unpredictable tanner crab population isn’t looking so good for Aleutian fishermen. That’s what the state’s trawl survey indicated this summer. But the City of Unalaska has joined an emergency petition urging the Alaska Board of Fisheries to take another look. At a City Council meeting last week, Frank Kelty explained the survey showed low numbers for female tanners. That’s led the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to consider serious conservation measures. “The whole fishery could be shut down,” Kelty said. But the problem isn’t affecting the whole fishery. Kelty said data indicates the eastern tanner stock is struggling with low female biomass, but not the western stock. Read the rest here 10:47
Trawlers banned from Unalaska Bay
Unalaska Bay was completely shut down to trawlers by state regulators last week after a long campaign by the Unalaska Native Fisheries Association representing local small boats. The Alaska Board of Fisheries approved UNFA’s request last week while meeting in Anchorage, closing all waters of Unalaska Bay year-round to groundfish fishing with pelagic trawl gear, according to UNFA member and Unalaska resident Walter Tellman. The fish board voted 6-1 to close the bay to trawlers, he said. Opposed, Tellman said, were officials of and trawler captains. Brent Paine, the executive director of United Catcher Boats, declined to comment this week on the latest closure. Jim Paulin photo Read the article here 16:14
Board of Fish adjusts Bristol Bay set net boundaries
Months after the issue was first raised, the state Board of Fisheries made a decision on set net sites affected by erosion. In December, Bristol Bay set-netters went to the board looking for help after erosion had taken its toll on boundaries at their commercial fishing sites. And on March 11, at its statewide meeting and the final regular meeting for board members Fritz Johnson, Tom Kluberton and Bob Mumford, the board agreed to adjust the lines as requested by the affected fishermen, with some modifications. Read the rest here 08:55
Abundant returns, sustained yields testify that Alaska Board of Fisheries isn’t broken
Starting in 2014, and continuing into 2016, members of United Cook Inlet Drift Association (UCIDA), a commercial fishing organization, and two former employees of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game who have since became advocates for Cook Inlet commercial fisheries, have claimed the Alaska Board of Fisheries is broken and needs reform. These are serious accusations and should be examined to determine whether there is evidence to support them. Read the rest here 08:29
Native Fishermen’s Group Seeks To Close Unalaska Bay To Commercial Trawl Fishing
A proposal to permanently close Unalaska Bay to commercial trawl fishing is up for discussion at an upcoming Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting. The statewide meeting takes place the second week of March in Anchorage, and Qawalangin tribal president Tom Robinson will be there to testify. He will be speaking on behalf of the (UNFA). Robinson says this is UNFA’s third attempt since 2008 to get the proposal – numbered 194 – passed by the Board. In 2013, the Unalaska City Council passed a resolution supporting the plan to close Unalaska Bay to groundfish fishing with trawl gear year-round. Read the rest here 08:29
Bristol Bay backlash after Walker taps Ruffner to replace Johnson on Fish Board
Governor Bill Walker announced five nominations to the state board of Fish and Game on Tuesday. On the list again this year for a Fish Board seat is Robert Ruffner of Kenai, who would replace Fritz Johnson, a commercial fisherman from Dillingham. If confirmed, it will be the first time the Fish Board would not have a member from Bristol Bay. When Governor Bill Walker announced five appointments to the state boards of fish and game on Feb. 2, he named a Soldotna scientist for the seat currently held by Dillingham’s Fritz Johnson. That was a surprise for many in the Bay,,, Audio, Read the rest here 11:02
Former Alaska Fish Board appointee Roland Maw charged with PFD fraud
Gov. Bill Walker’s controversial one-time appointee to the Alaska Board of Fisheries was charged Wednesday with 17 counts of theft and unsworn falsification over his applications for six years of Permanent Fund dividends and for commercial fishing permits. Roland Maw is accused of illegally collecting $7,422 in dividends between 2009 and 2014. The charging documents show he did not disclose that he left Alaska for more than 90 days during each of the qualifying calendar years, a requirement. Read the article here 15:16
It’s expensive for fishermen to participate in BOF meets
After 18-plus years of holding Alaska Board of Fisheries meetings involving mostly Kenai and Kasilof River salmon fishing issues anywhere but near the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers, the BOF has once again voted to hold the next round of meetings, which will be held in early 2017, in Anchorage. Gov. Walker campaigned with Upper Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishermen before the election with assurances that he would do all he could to ensure the next meeting would be held on the Kenai Peninsula. Read the article here 15:09
Alaska Board of Fisheries won’t meet on peninsula
The board made the call by a 5-2 vote at the tail end of its Bristol Bay finfish meeting, also in Anchorage. Only two board members, commercial fishermen Sue Jeffrey and Fritz Johnson, voted in favor of a proposal moving the meeting from Anchorage to Kenai Peninsula, where the board hasn’t held an Upper Cook Inlet meeting since the last millennium. “Maybe next time,” said member John Jensen of Petersburg, drawing an outraged cry from the audience. “Why maybe?” called John McCombs, a peninsula fisherman and board member of United Cook Inlet Drift Association. Read the article here 09:51
One permit, One person – Alaska Board of Fisheries rejects Bristol Bay permit stacking
“There’ll be fewer people able to participate,” said board member Fritz Johnson, a Dillingham resident and commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay. “It’s a rational business decision, but I think the board needs to take a view of this…based on what’s best for coastal communities and what’s best for the resource.” Bristol Bay fishermen in attendance were evenly divided on permit stacking, which the board allowed in the area in 2009 but with a sunset clause for 2012. Opponents said permit stacking would consolidate the fishery into fewer hands, echoing concerns over crab fishery rationalization a decade prior. Read the article here 08:17
Fisheries board member cited for violating fishery closure
A member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries was cited by wildlife troopers in the commercial fishing hotbed of Dillingham last week for continuing to fish in an area after it had been closed. Frederick “Fritz” Johnson was fishing for salmon using a drift gillnet with Gust McCarr, his fishing partner of six years, when he was cited. The two men thought fishing closed at 6:30 p.m., when the actual closure happened at 6 p.m., Johnson told Alaska Dispatch News on Monday. They noticed an Alaska Wildlife Troopers plane circling overhead shortly after 6. Read the rest here 08:06
Gillis resignation was over board appointment, say’s Walker undermined her credibility as Boards and Commissions director
Gillis said in an interview on Wednesday that she quit her position on May 13 after learning that Walker had decided to appoint Roberta “Bobbi” Quintavell to a vacant seat on the Alaska Board of Fisheries. The appointment rumors surfaced in a May 15 letter from commercial fishing organization United Fishermen of Alaska urging its members to contact the governor’s office to object to Quintavell’s possible appointment based on her close ties to the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, or KRSA, which led the fight that sunk Walker’s previous choice for the board seat, Robert Ruffner. Read the rest here 08:55
Former Fish Board appointee Roland Maw fined $7k in Montana charges
Roland Maw, Gov. Bill Walker’s controversial appointee to the Alaska Board of Fisheries, pleaded no contest last week to illegally obtaining resident hunting and fishing licenses in Montana. As first reported by the Peninsula Clarion, Maw pleaded no contest to seven counts of license violations that he faced in Montana. According to the court order filed May 14 by Beaverhead County, Montana, Justice of the Peace Candy Hoerning, Maw purchased Montana resident licenses every year from 2008 to 2014. He claimed Alaska residency during those same years. Read the rest here 13:39
Senate committee questions Fish Board appointee over sportfishing support
Robert Ruffner, director of the conservation group Kenai Watershed Forum, has faced criticism from some personal-use dipnetters and sportfishermen from Copper River, the Kenai and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. They’ve accused him of supporting commercial fishing interests instead, and have opposed his appointment to the seven-member board that sets and revises fishing regulations in Alaska. Read the rest here 11:00
Gov. Walker makes another unorthodox pick for Fish Board, Meanwhile in Montana, former Fish Board appointee charged!
Gov. Bill Walker has made a second try at filling a vacant seat on the Alaska Board of Fisheries, this time picking Robert Ruffner, the director of a Kenai Peninsula conservation group for a position traditionally held by members sympathetic to sportfishing interests. Read the rest here Meanwhile, Montana law enforcement officials have charged Gov. Bill Walker’s one-time fish board appointee, Roland Maw, with seven misdemeanor counts of applying for and buying Montana resident licenses while he was not a resident of the state. Read the rest here 15:54
At Board of Fish, a preview of pot vs. longline conflict
The Alaska Board of Fisheries on Friday (2-27-15) took no action on a set of proposals to allow pots in the Southeast black cod fishery. The fishery is now open only to longliners, with some exceptions. But the debate was a preview of a larger fight brewing later this spring — over what kind of gear will be allowed across the entire Gulf of Alaska. Audio, Read the rest here 21:09
Story off base in characterization of Alaska fisheries board appointee
I have concerns about the recent article of Feb. 4 in the Alaska Dispatch News, “Did Alaska Fish Board appointee really discover an endangered species?” I am Professor James Butler from the University of Alberta, and I was quoted in this article that is critical of the recent appointment by Gov. Bill Walker of Dr. Roland Maw to the state of Alaska Board of Fisheries. Read the rest here 07:33
Did Alaska Fish Board appointee really discover an endangered species?
Kenai Peninsula fisherman Roland Maw, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s controversial appointee to the Alaska Board of Fisheries, claims in his resume to have been responsible for a significant scientific achievement, the first identification of a new, endangered species in North America. Maw was unable to direct Alaska Dispatch News (Medred) to any such reference, however, and an independent search could find none. Read the rest here 11:19
Alaska Board of Fisheries Chairman Karl Johnstone has resigned.
The chairman, whose term was set to be up in June of 2015, confirmed in an email Tuesday that he had resigned his position after being told by Gov. Bill Walker that his name would not be submitted to the Legislature for reappointment. “I offered to step down if it would assist him in getting someone else in place and up to speed,” Johnstone wrote. Read the rest here 21:18
Alaska Board of Fisheries spurns Central Peninsula – stigma that this area is dangerous to board members
By the time the Alaska Board of Fisheries holds its next meeting on Upper Cook Inlet fisheries, it will have been nearly 20 years since its members have chosen to do so on the Kenai Peninsula. Many of the public comments on holding the meeting away from the Peninsula referred to Anchorage as a “neutral” area between the Mat-Su region and the central Kenai Peninsula. Read the rest here 18:05
Fish and Game rescinds Cook Inlet season summary to correct ‘nomenclature’
A work session that began Wednesday in Juneau started with one member asking the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to amend its commercial salmon season summary in Upper Cook Inlet due to issues with “nomenclature.” At issue is a portion of the summary that lists the number of sockeye estimated to have passed into their spawning beds on several rivers, lakes and creeks in the Cook Inlet. Read the rest here 08:35
Kenai Peninsula hopes to host Board of Fisheries meetings
Municipalities across the Kenai Peninsula are slated to consider asking the Alaska Board of Fisheries hold the 2017 Upper Cook Inlet Finfish meetings on the Kenai Peninsula. “It would make sense since 80 percent of the discussions are peninsula based,” he said. “Peninsula residents are involved from every facet whether they are sport fishermen, setnetters or drifters.” Read more here 09:30
Judge requires Cook Inlet Fisherman’s Fund to reimburse state for lawsuit costs
ANCHORAGE — A judge ruled Wednesday that a commercial fishing group should pay part of the State’s cost for the lawsuit regarding management of the Cook Inlet salmon fisheries in 2013. Read more here 09:34
Managers meet, tackle state waters Gulf issues
Currently, the council is considering a rationalization program for trawlers targeting pollock, Pacific cod, and several other target and secondary species in the central Gulf of Alaska, western Gulf of Alaska and west Yakutat management areas. The most recent council motion asked for a discussion paper that looks at using cooperatives to help manage the fisheries, by allocating the quota to cooperatives, rather than individuals, with an option for fishers to remain outside of the cooperative structure, but not receive a direct allocation of quota. Read more here 19:20
State, federal managers hear about Gulf of Alaska changes
Members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council met today in Anchorage to discuss the issues of mutual concern, including how to address changes coming for the Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries. Read more here 13:09
Alaska Board of Fisheries will meet Friday – discuss possible emergency regulation change – Kuskokwim River subsistence fishers.
The Kuskokwim Salmon Management Working Group submitted an emergency petition asking the board to limit subsistence setnets to four-inch mesh or smaller as a way to protect king salmon while fishers are targeting other species. The working group has also asked Alaska Department of Fish and Game not to allow drift nets during times of king conservation, according to the emergency petition. Read more here 15:52
The Alaska Board of Fisheries to take up Inlet setnetter petition – Molly Dischner
The Alaska Board of Fisheries will consider one of three emergency petitions regarding Upper Cook Inlet salmon management in an emergency teleconference tomorrow at 10 a.m. Read more here 20:29
“Bullshit!” – Golden king crab fleet loses bid for quota increase
The Aleutian Islands golden king crab fleet came away empty-handed last week, after the Alaska Board of Fisheries decided against a quota increase, rejecting both the initial request of 15 percent, and the compromise proposal of 5 percent. The vote was loudly greeted with a barnyard epithet from a veteran fisheries lobbyist seated near the front of the audience. “Bullshit!” exclaimed Clem Tillion. “You just screwed the fleet for no reason whatsoever.” He said the decision means a “surplus” of crab will go unharvested. Read more here bristolbaytimes 12:24
