Tag Archives: Alaska
The Gig Harbor fishing fleet had a bonanza season in Alaska this year
“This has been our best season in six years,” said Matt Munkres, who skippers the Gig Harbor-based Julien, a 54-foot purse seiner. “And we got good prices, so all in all, it was pretty good.” Fishermen were glad to see it, because the previous two years had been disappointing. Gregg Lovrovich, president of the Gig Harbor Commercial Fishermen’s Club, says fishing “is like farming, you take the good and the not so good, and over the years, it kind of balances out.” Lovrovich, who runs the 58-foot Sea Fury, says he was late leaving for Alaska because of a daughter’s wedding, so he was only able to fish for a month and a half. “Still, it was one of the best months I’ve ever had,” he said. >click to read< 09:52
Prince William Sound harvest tops 67M salmon
Commercial harvesters wished they could have had more fishing time at the beginning of the season, but by the end of the season it certainly wasn’t a disaster, said Chelsea Haisman, executive director of Cordova District Fishermen United. “Overall, we are very happy with the way the seine season went,” she said. “Pink catches were very high. We are grateful and hoping for a strong finish with the cohos.” Still, the same amount of fish early on in the season holds much higher value, said Haisman, echoing the refrain of gillnetters who did not get openers for the famed Copper River sockeye salmon early on in the season when prices were higher. “Especially considering we exceeded the (Alaska Department of) Fish and Game in-river goal by over 100,000 fish,” she said. “We lost economic opportunity for the community.” >click to read< 18:14
$350M Bering Sea fish fight could hinge on a miniature Canadian railroad
The quickly escalating saga involves hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, and a miniature Canadian railway,,, American Seafoods’ shipping subsidiary and an affiliate company, Kloosterboer International Forwarding, sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection in federal court Thursday,,, The Jones Act, a century-old federal law, typically requires American-flagged ships to move cargo between American ports. But the legislation contains an exception known as the “Third Proviso,” ,,Vessels flagged in countries like Singapore and the Bahamas first pick up frozen seafood products in Dutch Harbor, then travel to the Canadian port of Bayside, New Brunswick, just across the border from Maine. From Bayside, the seafood would be trucked to a Canadian train, loaded and moved 20 miles between two stations,,, >click to read< 14:10
Peter Pan Seafoods to require employees to be vaccinated
A seafood processing company with operations in Alaska and Washington state will require its employees to be vaccinated,,, The policy will be enacted in tiers. The first tier includes employees at company headquarters in Bellevue, Washington; the Seattle warehouse; Alaska processing facilities in Valdez, Port Moller, Dillingham, and Alaska support centers in Dillingham, Sand Point and Naknek. >click to read< 09:54
Dividing the baby
Alaska’s Kenai River is today a textbook example of the problems of managing mixed-stock fisheries right down to commercial set gillnetters protesting they catch comparatively few of the weak stock. The weak stock is in this case Chinook, or what Alaskans usually just call king salmon, and it just happens to be the same fish that gets caught as trawl bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. To date this year, according to National Marine Fisheries Service data, trawlers in the Bering Sea have caught about 11,000 Chinook on their way to a harvest of nearly 1 million metric tons, or about 2.2 billion pounds of pollock. >click to read< 09:04
The last in a long line of Milwaukee commercial fishermen sets course for Alaska
The men have always started their day wondering whether a load of fish is straining the nets that they set the day before. Today their compass doesn’t point them toward any nets at all. The boat’s rumbling 855 Cummins diesel pushes them down the muddy Kinnickinnic River and under the Hoan Bridge. This is the moment when their eyes normally train on the open waters ahead. But today, the 52-year-old man notices his dad, Alvin, is glancing back. I think this is probably going to be the last time I see Milwaukee from the water, 77-year-old Alvin Anderson says. Yeah, his son, Dan, replies glumly. Then Milwaukee’s last working commercial fishing tug – the Alicia Rae – glides through the north gap of the Milwaukee Harbor breakwater. And it is gone. 20 photo’s, >click to read< 08:10
“Oiled: A Fisherman’s Journey”
Derrell Short, a former fisherman, has released his memoir, covering everything from the Exxon Valdez oil spill to his adventures at sea in Kodiak Island, Alaska. Short covers not just the mishaps of working on a crab boat, but also how he worked on the Exxon Corporation oil spill in 1989. An Exxon tanker had run aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, an inlet in the Gulf of Alaska, Alaska. The tankard had been transporting crude oil from Valsez, Alaska, to California. Short covers the spill in his memoir and criticizes Exxon on the cleaning up of the oil spill.,, Other sections of the memoir focus on Short’s building his remote cabin, hunting, his many encounters with bears and his time as a fisherman. >click to read< 10:28
Net migration: Young commercial fishermen ship out of Cook Inlet
The Cook Inlet salmon fishery was once an economic engine for Kenai. But the fishing there is no longer lucrative. Many fishermen with deep ties to the inlet are retiring, or moving elsewhere. The F/V Nedra E is smaller than the other boats bobbing at the dock in Naknek. Thor Evenson didn’t have Bristol Bay in mind when he designed the boat for his parents, Nikiski homesteaders Jim and Nedra Evenson. Until last year, she’s been a Cook Inlet boat, captained by Jim, then his nephew, and now his grandson, 32-year-old Taylor Evenson. Last year, Taylor couldn’t put it off any longer. So with the help of the boat’s original builder, Kevin Morin of Kasilof, he gutted everything behind the cabin, chopped several inches off bow and stern, and installed a brand new deck, to bring the Nedra E in line with Bristol Bay standards. >click to read< 07:50
Earthquake may have triggered sunken F/V Saint Patrick to spill diesel off Kodiak Island
A shipwreck from decades ago has begun leaking diesel fuel off Kodiak Island. “We know that this is a vessel that sank in 1989 in Women’s Bay and it’s been resting there since,” Jade Gamble, the state’s on-scene spill coordinator,,, “It started leaking after the earthquake.” She says it’s not clear how much diesel and other contaminants are on the former fishing vessel F/V Saint Patrick. The former scallop boat was hit by a rogue wave during a stormy November night in 1981 near Marmot Island. The captain ordered the crew to abandon ship; only two of its 12 crew members survived the frigid waters. >click to read< 09:18
Humpy harvest pushes Prince William Sound catch to 39.8M
Purse seine fishing for pink salmon continues in earnest in Prince William Sound, with the humpy catch alone through Wednesday, Aug. 11 reaching nearly 36 million fish and an overall commercial salmon harvest at 39.8 million fish. That’s up from 31.9 million pinks and an overall Prince William Sound harvest of 35.7 million fish as of a week earlier. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials noted that the purse seine fishery in the eastern section of Prince William Sound alone had harvested over 21 million humpies, while in the northern section the humpy catch was 4.9 million fish. >click to read<08:49
Chinook catch falls short in first Southeast troll opening. Fleet gets a another shot.
Southeast’s commercial troll catch of king salmon fell short of its target in the first summer opening in July. The fleet gets another shot at those chinook in a second fishing period that starts Friday, Aug. 13. The region’s king salmon catch is managed under the Pacific Salmon Treaty between the U.S. and Canada. Commercial trollers had 119,300 fish remaining on this year’s allocation under that agreement going into the summer season. That leaves a target of 53,000 for the second opening. Fish and Game expects it could take seven to 10 days for the fleet to hit that mark. >click to read< 13:33
Prince William Sound catch jumps to 35.7M fish
Commercial harvests in Prince William Sound have reached over 35.7 million fish, including nearly 32 million pink salmon, up by over 5 million fish from a week earlier, according to the state’s latest preliminary commercial harvest reports. As of Wednesday, Aug. 4, that report showed harvesters delivering to processors in Prince William Sound 31.9 million pink salmon, 2.5 million chums, 1.3 million sockeye, 11,000 cohos and 7,000 Chinooks. The biggest overall contributor to the harvest to date is the Prince William Sound general seine fishery, >click to read< 09:12
Clayton Wyatt Smalley, in Coffman Cove, Alaska – “The man John Wayne wanted to be.”
Clayton died suddenly in his home of 45+ years in Coffman Cove, Alaska. He was born in Santa Barbara, CA, and shortly after birth moved to Alaska when his mother, Marcella Smalley “Opheim,” returned home. While not born in Alaska he was the essence of an Alaskan man, hardy, handy, possessing the inner strength and will to conquer whatever came his way. He was raised in a fishing family, spending summers at the family fish camp on Prince of Wales Island with his siblings and grandparents, Roy and Maude Opheim, while mom worked at the Waterfall cannery near Hydaburg. Each of us had our own skate and enjoyed the challenge of going alone to set and pull our gear. Camping on the beach every night, up before dawn to troll, gillnet or check our skate engrained a strong work ethic that few folk sleeping in a warm cozy bed can understand.,,, I know this is long but I hope you understand how hard it is to put the life a a man who lived like he was invincible and could do anything on one page. >click to read< 07:48
Commercial salmon fishers reeling from sweeping closures
Fourth-generation fisherman Jordan Belveal of Nanaimo was ready to head north on his boat Blue Bayou to catch coho July 1 in Dixon Entrance, between B.C. and Alaska, when he heard about the widespread closures. Although he says he doesn’t mind keeping his boat tied to the dock if it means preserving some runs, Belveal opposed the closures, saying some fisheries with a good abundance of salmon have been cancelled. Losing the 
coho fishery has had a “major effect on us,” said Belveal, who operates Island Wild Seafoods with wife Catlin, selling hook-and-line caught sustainable wild seafood to Vancouver Island customers. Belveal is now counting on the Aug. 12 chinook fishery off Haida Gwaii, which would normally have opened in June but was delayed to allow fish to head to their home rivers on Vancouver Island and to the Fraser River, >click to read< 09:56
Alaska Supreme Court upholds $20,000 fine for Metlakatla fisherman in fishing rights case
The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a Metlakatla fisherman who was fined for fishing without the proper permits. The case is part of a long-running dispute over tribal sovereignty. In 2014, U.S. Coast Guard officers reported a Metlakatla tribal member fishing in a closed area without a state commercial fishing permit. When they boarded the boat they found a few dozen coho salmon, which the skipper reportedly said he intended to sell. Metlakatla resident John Scudero Jr. was cited for three commercial fishing violations and fined $20,000 after a one-day trial the following year. >click to read< 08:27
Will Interior Secretary Haaland see more than ducks and eel grass at King Cove?
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is slated to visit with residents of King Cove during a visit to Alaska in September. During her confirmation meetings, she reportedly promised U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan she would meet with villagers to talk about a short, one-lane gravel road,,, The Aleut fishing village of about 950 has fought for decades to get such a road to the Cold Bay all-weather runway for medical evacuations in poor weather, but without success. The roadway would be routed along the edge of the 330,000-acre Izembek refuge.,, The 11-mile stretch would complete a 30-mile road that would provide a reliable ground link to Cold Bay’s all-weather runway when the area’s notoriously fierce weather grounds small planes. >click to read< 14:11
Crew escapes with their lives after F/V Mount Pavlof sinks near Ketchikan
Four fishermen escaped with their lives over the weekend after a seine vessel sank south of Ketchikan. Crewmembers from another fishing boat heard their distress call over the radio and arrived in time to rescue them. Around 3 a.m. Sunday, Pete Feenstra says he and a three-person crew were readying themselves for a salmon opener south of Ketchikan. Then he heard a mayday call from the radio. The Mount Pavlof, a fellow seiner, needed help. Feenstra says he looked at the navigation system aboard his 56-foot seiner, the Noble Provider, and saw that the vessel in distress was less than a mile away. And he knew what he had to do. Audio report, >click to listen/read< 08:09
Southeast commercial salmon season off to slow start
Commercial net fishing for salmon in Southeast is off to a poor start in much of the region. Returns for most species are not meeting forecasts, which weren’t very high in the first place. With some exceptions, it hasn’t been a very encouraging start to the salmon season. “I guess for both net fisheries, gillnet and seine, we’re looking at poor chum salmon catches and poor sockeye catches and yet to be determined for pink salmon,” said Troy Thynes, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s management coordinator for commercial fisheries in the region. >click to read< 18:21
NIOSH: Work-Related Deaths in Alaska Remain High After 15 Years
NIOSH investigators reviewed work-related deaths from 2004 to 2018 as recorded in the Alaska Occupational Injury Surveillance System, which tracks workplace deaths and injuries, and found 517 work-related deaths had occurred over the 15-year period. Most deaths were among white men working in the commercial fishing industry, with the average age of 42 for fatally injured workers. Commercial fishing is one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States, with a fatality rate 29 times higher than the national average, according to NIOSH. The leading cause of work-related death over the 15 years studied was water vehicle incidents,,, The institute also announced the availability of commercial fishing safety research and training grants. >click to read< 16:15
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 11, 2021
Messages to the fleet, – Hey Pooh Bear. Did your satin pillowcase arrive OK? Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve checked in. You know that guy from last summer I thought was your brother? But then he turned out not to be your brother? He’s visiting again. I guess he’s a massage therapist, and is back in town for an internship. I’ve been more relaxed lately, so have been keeping busy and bedazzled your Carhartt coveralls and will work on snowmachine bibs next. Is Chartreuse still your favorite color? Miss you! Montana Chick (PS. Tell Matt Hakela that I couldn’t find that pumpkin spice beard oil he likes. Will look for alternative.) The Numbers! >click to read< 09:50
Opinion: Columbia Basin Collaborative anything but collaborative
The Columbia Basin Collaborative was introduced last year by the governors of the four Northwest states to help move the region past unending litigation around endangered salmon species. Our initial feedback was that the collaborative should expand beyond the four Northwest states, recognizing that salmon in Canada, Alaska, and Northern California have seen similar Chinook salmon declines the past 50 years by a shocking 65%. This finding was recently confirmed by the region’s Independent Science Advisory Board. Unfortunately, recent developments within the collaborative are causing concern. Instead of looking for new solutions, it seems the collaborative is essentially a recall effort aimed at removing the lower Snake River dams. >click to read< 10:22
Book Release – “Two Tales of Old Kodiak”: The “Wreck of the Rustler” and “Confessions of a Seal Hunter”
Steve Descloux, a US Navy veteran who has worked in the commercial fishing, construction, and aviation industries in a myriad of roles such as welder, fabricator, equipment operator, small-plane mechanic, and airline instructor and resides in Starbuck, Washington with Diane, his wife of forty-eight years and a calico cat named Brindle, has completed his new book “Two Tales of Old Kodiak”,,, Let this author take you back with a couple memories to an earlier, wilder Kodiak, Alaska, when the seafood industry was booming and the town never went to sleep, when trappers were popular and often sold most of their prime furs to the locals and tourists, when the churches and the bars ran neck and neck in number and the congregation was always greatest in the latter. >click to read< 10:42
Survivor: Salmon Edition
In 2020, COSEWIC designated seven chinook populations in southern British Columbia as either endangered or threatened. Much the same is true in the Columbia River watershed in the northwestern United States, where chinook populations may have lost more than one-third of their genetic diversity. More worrying still, the rate of young salmon returning as adults to rivers from California to Alaska over the past half-century has plummeted to one-third of earlier levels. It’s a picture that puzzles many researchers. A myriad of variables impact salmon survival and it takes time and research to untangle them. Land use, from mining to damming and irrigation, for example, has affected chinook stocks in the Pacific Northwest at critical life stages, but it can’t be blamed for what’s happening in the northern latitudes. >click to read< 09:05
Captain dead, 2 crewmen survive sinking of F/V Pneuma in Nushagak Bay
The captain of a commercial fishing vessel died and two other crew members apparently escaped uninjured when it sank in southwest Alaska, authorities said. Lance Eric Norby, 45, of Texas, was identified as the captain, Alaska State Troopers said Friday. His remains were being sent to the State Medical Examiner in Anchorage. Two other people on board survived the incident, said the online dispatch report. The two survivors declined medical attention after being saved by Alaska Wildlife Troopers patrolling the area. >click to read< 14:14
1 fatality, 2 survive sinking of a commercial fishing boat in Nushagak Bay
Alaska State Troopers said one person is dead after a commercial fishing vessel sank toward the south side of Nushagak Bay on Thursday morning. Two additional people on board survived the incident, according to an online dispatch report,>click here<, and declined medical attention after being saved by Alaska Wildlife Troopers patrolling the area.,,, Troopers arrived and helped one person out of the water, while two commercial fishing vessels at the scene pulled the other two mariners out. “The Alaska Wildlife Troopers would like to thank the F/V Fortress and F/V Last Frontier for their assistance during the rescue operation,” >click to read< 18:26
More of the same a good thing as Bristol Bay gets underway
Early indicators are pointing to yet another strong year in the massive Bristol Bay sockeye fishery, which is contrasted against the continued struggles in many of the state’s other large salmon fisheries. Just more than 3.2 million sockeye had been harvested through June 27, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game figures, with the Nushagak District accounting for more than half of the catch so far at nearly 1.7 million fish. The 3.2 million-fish harvest to-date this year is between the comparable totals for recent years; 1.2 million sockeye were harvested through June 27 last year, while more than 4.4 million were caught by the same day in 2019. With sockeye harvests of more than 40 million fish and total runs greater than 56 million sockeye, both of the last two years have been among the most productive in the history of the Bristol Bay fishery. >click to read< 19:54
Copper River set for 24-hour opener on June 28
Commercial fishing on the Copper River begins an eighth opener on Monday, June 28, for a 24-hour drift gillnet fishery. The announcement on Saturday, June 26, from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Cordova office,,, All the Monday openers begin at 8 a.m.,, Preliminary harvest estimates for Prince William Sound, including the Copper River, as of Saturday, June 26, included 7,548 Chinook, 333,667 sockeye, 489 coho, 588,533 chum and 2,166 pink salmon. >click to read< 08:40
State government shutdown could close Alaska fisheries – “And with that, that summer fishery does not commence.”
If Alaska state leaders can’t resolve an impasse over the budget, large swaths of state government will shut down in July. That could include Alaska’s lucrative summer salmon fisheries, which is causing concern across coastal communities. Southeast Alaska’s summer salmon troll fishery opens July 1. That’s the same day nearly 15,000 state workers could be out of work. Among those is Grant Hagerman, a state fisheries biologist managing the fishery from Sitka. “We’re planning not to be here on July 1 unless we hear differently,” Hagerman said. “And with that, that summer fishery does not commence.” >click to read< 08:37
What do Deckhands earn and get paid on ‘Deadliest Catch’ and in the commercial crab industry?
There’s definitely money to be made in crab fishing, more if you star in a popular show about crab fishing. And the crab fishing industry is lucrative. While this is just a snapshot, it’s a pretty eye-opening one. According to a 2006 report, 505 commercial fishermen brought in over $127 million worth in crab loot. If that was evenly divided, it’d be $250,000 per person, but of course, things don’t work out that way. “Wages are often based on a share or percentage of harvest earnings. Newcomer deckhand earnings range from 1.5% to 10% of the adjusted gross catch, depending on location and type of fishery and the skills the worker possesses.” And it’s also situational: some crab fishers can make $50 to $100 a day as a flat rate if they want to play it safe. >click to read< 15:45
Halibut fisherman encounters freak storm on trip back from Togiak
“At some point I’m thinking my arm’s failing, my body’s cramping and I’m losing control in my dexterity,” recalled Kaleb Westfall, captain of the F/V Peter. “Those thoughts creep into your head that you can’t do this forever. You are going to fail and it’s hard to multitask and disallow those thoughts and I had to put it to one wave at a time.” >click to read< 10:55
