As climate change and high costs plague Alaska’s fisheries, fewer young people take up the trade

September 27, 2023 National, North Pacific

Lane Bolich first came to work in Alaska for the freedom and excitement that comes with being a fisher. A self-described adrenaline junkie, Bolich moved from his hometown in rural Washington state because he loves being on the ocean even in cold winter weather and it gave him the chance to make more money than back home. After working as a deckhand for two years on a family friend’s boat, Harmony, he took the wheel as captain this year at just 20 years old. Bolich is a rarity in an aging industry with high barriers to entry, equipment and access rights are costly, and increasing unpredictability as human-caused climate change alters marine habitats. As some fish populations dwindle and fewer people pursue the trade, fishers and conservation groups are actively working to bring in and retain the next generation of fishers through grants and training even as the industry continues to shrink in Alaska. 19 photos, >>click to read<< 09:38

Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, Alaska Marine Conservation Council, Alaska’s fisheries, climate change, commercial fishing, fewer young people, fisherman Darren Platt, high costs, industry continues to shrink in Alaska, Lane Bolich, Linda Behnken, Marissa Wilson, Sam Stern, young fishers are in short supply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Ocean Resource Privatization

Articles Posted by Date
March 2025

M T W T F S S

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

31

« Feb

March 2025
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

Recent Posts
- Maine lobster industry braces for impact of Canada’s sweet EU deal
  
  More than 1,700 fishing boats raced out of Nova Scotia ports before first light Tuesday morning on what is known as Dumping Day – the opening Read More »
- Maine congressional delegation wants more info before whale rules released
  
  The four members of Maine’s delegation said Wednesday they want information from NOAA about how new findings will be incorporated into the draft rules. NOAA completed Read More »
- New Zealand: Regulatory approval of new innovative trawl technology
  
  Fisheries New Zealand has approved the use of the Precision Seafood Harvesting (PSH) Modular Harvest System (MHS) in North Island inshore fisheries for snapper, tarakihi, trevally, Read More »
- Hebron oil platform tow-out halted en route to Grand Banks
  
  Just two days after its long-awaited tow out of Bull Arm, the Hebron oil platform’s journey to its drilling site in Newfoundland’s Grand Banks has been delayed. Read More »
- A fisheries protest in spring? That’s normal, but this one’s quite different
  
  Earlier this week, there was an uproar in South Brook, Triton and Port aux Basques about out-of-province crab needing to be processed. The details this time Read More »
- My Father’s Hands
  
  The first time I remember being aware of my father’s hands was when I was three. I wasn’t very tall, nor powerful. Standing on a main Read More »
- Lobster dispute settled a day after fishermen defy order to remove traps
  
  A brewing battle between the federal government and lobster fishermen in northern New Brunswick appears to have come to an end. A federal closure of lobster Read More »
- Five Days Into Commercial Dungeness Season, Seafood Buyers, Fishermen Haggle Over Price
  
  Though California’s commercial Dungeness season opened five days ago, Crescent City’s commercial fleet has yet to drop pots as fishermen and buyers haggle over price. Fishermen Read More »
- The first woman captain of Argentina fishing vessel drives the fight for equality for women at sea
  
  Nancy Jaramillo became in 2017 the first woman in the country with the title of “Fishing Captain”, and from that place she became one of the Read More »
- Stone crab season to help commercial fishermen – MARATHON, Fla – WTSP.com
  
  MARATHON, Fla. (AP) – Florida’s commercial fishermen are hoping winter visitors will flock to the Sunshine State for stone crab season. Gary Graves is vice president Read More »
- Some 200,000 fish reported dead at Lower Elwha fish hatchery after a water pump failure.
  
  Hatchery staff counted roughly 200,000 dead coho salmon, spawned last fall, and about 2,000 dead yearling steelhead trout at the hatchery over the weekend, Lower Elwha Klallam tribal officials Read More »
- Global Ocean Cooling in September
  
  We have seen lots of claims about the temperature records for 2016 and 2015 proving dangerous man made warming. At least one senator stated that in a Read More »
- Video: Shop in Shallotte creates nets for fishermen from the Pamlico Sound to Keys West
  
  It’s one of the last shops of its kind, a little place in Shallotte that makes and repairs big nets fishermen use to catch shrimp. They Read More »
- Fishermen threaten to ‘stop fishing’, take legal action over massive block of offshore wind farms
  
  Fishing boat owners in the north are threatening to stop fishing, and file injunctions with Europe, over the proposed creation of a massive block of offshore Read More »
- Maine Elver fishermen report ‘horrible’ season
  
  The 2015 elver fishing season has come to a disappointing end, local fishermen say. “Horrible,” fisherman Abden Simmons described it. “I don’t think I’ve caught half Read More »
- Federal inaction drives lobster feud
  
  A Coast Guard cutter and two helicopters (one RCMP, one DFO) provided little more than backdrop scenery to the boiling tensions on the Acadian shore Monday. Read More »
- National Marine Fisheries Service deny petition from radical environmentalists to ban cod fishing
  
  A group of radical environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace petitioned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service to shut Read More »
- Water conditions causing ‘catastrophic’ season for in-shore and near-shore shrimpers
  
  The Bonnet Carre Spillway has been open for 100 days as of Friday and the influx of freshwater still pouring into the Mississippi Sound is taking Read More »
- Experts track right whale behavior in new trouble spot
  
  Scientists from the U.S. and Canada have returned from a North Atlantic right whale survey trip in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence where they found Read More »
- Shrimp sham: Investigation finds over 80% of “Gulf shrimp” sold on Mississippi Coast is imported
  
  After Mississippi Gulf Coast staple restaurant Mary Mahoney’s Old French House came under fire for fraudulent branding of seafood, a new third-party investigation has found that Read More »
- Gloucester fishermen’s leader cleared, but shocked by allegations
  
  Vito Giacalone, president of the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund, has been cleared of any wrongdoing by former attorney general L. Scott Harshbarger after a three-month investigation. Read More »
- Another Fairy Tale! – Atlantic Cod And The Human ‘Tragedy Of The Commons’
  
  He never got a high school diploma. He didn’t need one, with his dad taking him out on the side trawler to the rich Georges Bank Read More »
- Coast Guard crew rescues fisherman from surf near South Beach State Park
  
  A Coast Guardsman swam from shore to rescue a fisherman from the surf near South Beach State Park early Tuesday morning after his vessel ran aground Read More »
- From surf to turf – ‘Codfather’ Carlos Rafael nets real estate deals
  
  Carlos Rafael used to own one of the largest commercial fishing operations in the US before he was taken down in 2016 by federal agents disguised Read More »
- The Fish Wife Life – What’s the fishing life like for the wives left behind?
  
  A fisherman’s life is a wonderful life, but what about for the fisherman’s wives? Fish Radio asked some of Kodiak’s wive’s what their likes and dislikes Read More »