Tag Archives: Alaska Board of Fisheries
“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
Senate Resources Holds a Confirmation Hearing for Board of Fisheries Member Fritz Johnson
The Senate Resources Committee held a confirmation hearing on Friday for the man who represents the Bristol Bay region on the Alaska Board of Fisheries. KDLG’s Mike Mason listened in and filed this report. Listen to the report 18:58
Some commercial fishermen upset by Alaska fish board’s new scheme
The Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting has finished in Anchorage with a new plan for commercial fishing in Cook Inlet and commercial fishermen are angry. The board settled on a scheme to permit commercial driftnetters to fish more in the lower Inlet near Homer while restricting them in the waters off Kenai farther north. The hope is the plan will allow the driftnetters to catch just as many Kenai Peninsula sockeye salmon as in the past, but with a bycatch of fewer of the struggling silver and sockeye salmon bound for the Susitna River drainage. Read more@alaskadispatch 13:12
Alaska Board of Fisheries leaves dipnetters alone, preserves 24-hour fishing
After nearly a full day of board deliberations on 25 proposed regulatory changes, the Cook Inlet personal-use fishery remains largely unchanged in the midst of a process that has dramatically restructured commercial set and drift gillnet fishing in the same region. Read more@alaskajournal 08:18
Commercial setnetter Jim Butler says his fishery has lost 70 percent of its opportunity to catch sockeye. “It’s disappointing that the burden wasn’t shared across the board.” Read more@ktuu 07:23
Alaska Board of Fisheries changes commercial drift fishing in Cook Inlet
On Monday, the Alaska Board of Fisheries approved several changes to the Central District Drift Gillnet Fishery Management Plan outlined in a proposal submitted by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Fish & Wildlife Commission. After more than an hour of discussion, the board voted unanimously to Read more@peninsulaclarion 21:33
Alaska Board of Fisheries: Mat-Su Borough Appeals for More Attention to Susitna Salmon
The Alaska Board of Fisheries is in the midst of two weeks of meetings on potential changes to fishing regulations in the Upper Cook Inlet. The meetings have become the most recent venue for what are often referred to as the “fish wars.” Commercial, sport, and subsistence fishermen,, Read more@ktna.org 11:35
Alaska Board of Fisheries calls for shallower setnets in hopes of saving Kenai Kings
Commercial setnet fishermen on the Kenai Peninsula will be given the opportunity this summer to shift their operations to shallower nets in an attempt to save king salmon in Alaska’s renowned Kenai River if the run is as weak as predicted. The Wednesday action by the Alaska Board of Fisheries comes about a decade after shallower nets were ordered for the state’s Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Bristol Bay is the site of the world’s largest harvest of sockeye salmon. Read more@alaskadispatch 11:42
Alaska Board of Fisheries reverses decision on escapement goals – Video Report
They voted to turn down an increase in escapement goals shortly after approving the measure. The optimal escapement goal will stay the same at 15,000 to 30,000 kings in the Kenai River. Read more@ktva.com 13:47
Setnet innovation may solve war between Alaska’s commercial, sport fishermen in Cook Inlet
For decades, commercial fisheries biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game fought the idea it might be possible to pass Kenai River king salmon through Cook Inlet setnet fisheries with minimal losses. But on Saturday, a commercial setnetter offered a ray of hope. Read more@alaskadispatch 12:27
The Alaska Board of Fisheries on Friday kicks off a two-week meeting with a fish war at its center.
Sportfishing interests are asking the state to protect plummeting numbers of Kenai River king salmon by restricting commercial fishing. Setnet groups are pressing for access to healthy runs of sockeye. Read more@ADN 08:24
Local fishing organizations gear up for Cook Inlet meeting
KENAI — With more than 230 regulatory proposals, some several pages worth of suggested changes to the Cook Inlet finfish fisheries, nearly 500 written comments and several hundred pages of Alaska Department of Fish and Game opinions and reports, the seven members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries will have their work cut out for them in the coming two weeks. Read more@alaskajournal 22:36
The Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries meeting starts this Friday.
Alaska Board of Fisheries to Meet in Anchorage, January 31–February 13, 2014 on Upper Cook Inlet Finfish information here 17:42
Chinook Conservation, Trawling and Permit-Stacking Addressed by Alaska Board of Fisheries
The Alaska Board of Fisheries wrapped up its Kodiak area meetings on Friday afternoon at the Harbor Convention Center. KMXT’s Jay Barrett spoke with board Chairman Karl Johnstone about some of the decisions that came out of the meeting, and how the meeting schedule may change in the future. Johnstone cited the closure of trawling in the Shelikof Strait as one of the biggest decisions the board made, as well as turning down a proposal to reinstate permit stacking for setnetters in the district. Listen @kmxt 17:49
Alaska Board of Fisheries focus will be on Pacific cod Oct.18-22
Thirty-six proposals related to Pacific cod will be up for consideration when the Alaska Board of Fisheries meets Oct. 18-22 in Anchorage. In addition to submitting written public comments, the board is inviting the public to offer oral testimony during the meeting, beginning Oct. 18. Any person intending to testify in person must sign up at the meeting site at the Anchorage Hilton by 2 p.m. on Oct. 18. The testimony will continue until everyone who has signed up and is present have had an opportunity to speak, the board said in an announcement issued in late September. more@cordobatimes Board of Fisheries website Agenda 13:08
Compass: Setnetters share burden, stake in sustaining Kenai kings
Dan Coffey’s recent compass piece, “Act now or we will lose the Kenai River kings (July 24)” once again illustrates this former Alaska Board of Fisheries chairman’s bias toward he commercialized sport fisheries on the Kenai River, as well as his willingness to twist/omit facts in pursuit of marginalizing the historic setnet fishery on the Kenai Peninsula to maximize in-river participation. Coffey lists: ocean survival, high-seas trawlers, setnetters, marginal productivity, and “there may be others” as reasons for the decline of Kenai River kings. @adn.com
Fritz Johnson Selected to Serve on the Alaska Board of Fisheries
Commercial driftnet fishermen Fritz Johnson from Dillingham has been selected by Alaska Governor Sean Parnell to fill a vacancy on the Alaska Board of Fisheries. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the story.
Fish board seat back up for grabs – Appointment is expected to go to a Bristol Bay resident
Cordova Times – Seven people have applied to date for a seat on the Alaska Board of Fisheries to which Gov. Sean Parnell must make an appointment by July 1, a spokesman in the governor’s office said April 29. Parnell had reappointed veteran commercial fisherman Vince Webster of King Salmon to a third term, but legislators in early April failed to approve the reappointment, after the Kenai River Sportfishing Association urged legislators to turn down Webster. The vote was 30-29. continued
Board of Fish does not act on task force proposals
The Alaska Board of Fisheries met last week to look at statewide finfish issues, and took up a proposal submitted by the Upper Cook Inlet Task Force that would have provided new guidelines for the management of Kenai River chinook salmon for the upcoming season. also, The 2013 halibut season opened Saturday to decidedly wintery weather, with gale and storm warnings coupled with heavy freezing spray warnings for most of the Gulf of Alaska. continue reading
Alaska Board of Fisheries okays 1/3 trawl ban
Unalaska Bay trawl ban supporters won a partial victory, when the state fish board voted last weekend to close the bay to trawling in August, while keeping it open in September and October. Read more
Fairbanks fishing guide lands on fisheries board
FAIRBANKS — An Arctic grayling fishing guide from Fairbanks has landed a spot on the Alaska Board of Fisheries. Reed Morisky was named to the seven-member board by Gov. Sean Parnell. Morisky will replace Bill Brown of Juneau, who resigned in January with 18 months left on his three-year term. Read more here
Alaska Board of Fisheries to Meet in Anchorage
All portions of the meeting are open to the public and a live audio stream is intended to be available on the Board of Fisheries’ website at www.boardoffisheries.adfg.alaska.gov. Documents submitted to the board are intended to be p
osted online throughout the meeting. Copies of advanced meeting materials including the agenda and roadmap can be obtained by contacting Boards Support Section at 907-465-4110 or viewed online at: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fisheriesboard.meetinginfo. Read more here
Regulation prohibits fishing for first-pulse kings on lower Yukon River
FAIRBANKS — There will be no question whether subsistence fishermen on the Yukon River will be able to fish for early-run king salmon this summer. In an attempt to rebuild what has been a dwindling chinook run in recent years, the Alaska Board of Fisheries adopted a new regulation last week that will prohibit king salmon fishing on the first big pulse of fish that hit the Yukon River in early June. Read more
Task force members named to study Kenai’s late run of kings
The Alaska Board of Fisheries members in charge of filling seats on a task force to recommend adjustments to the Kenai River Late-Run King Salmon Management Plan have announced their choices. http://homernews.com/stories/110712/seawatch_kings.shtml#.UJvHsM1siEM
Time to talk fish – Mary Lochner – Anchorage Press News
Some of the issues at question: Are there unknown reasons for the crash related to the ocean environment, or is salmon bycatch from pollock fisheries to blame? If harvests have to be restricted, who should get first priority for catching the available fish? Which is the best management strategy for maintaining a healthy fishery, and who should get to decide what that is?……Read More.
