Tag Archives: Alaska
Trump admin Coronavirus task force urges Alaska to require masks for seafood plants and hot spots
The state should mandate masks, especially in seafood processing plants and places with high or rising case counts, to slow Alaska’s explosive coronavirus infection rates. That’s the recommendation of a July 26 report distributed to states by the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force,,, The update summarized the state’s largest COVID-19 outbreaks to date. The top four involve the seafood industry and together involve more than 350 people: 139 out of about 252 workers at the OBI Seafoods plant in Seward; 85 out of about 119 workers on the factory trawler American Triumph; 76 workers out of about 135 at the Copper River Seafoods plant in Anchorage; and 62 out of about 150 at the Alaska Glacier Seafoods plant in Juneau. >click to read< 09:49
Kuskokwim Bay Commercial Fishery Processing At Capacity
Seattle based E&E Foods is buying and processing the salmon on a ship anchored in Goodnews Bay. Chief Operating Officer Ken Eg says that the ship can handle 70,000 pounds of fish per day, and it’s often been buying more than that during recent openings. Eg said that about 70% of that poundage is sockeye salmon. The rest is divided between chum and kings, with coho expected to arrive by the beginning of August. The number of fishermen participating in the fishery has grown from 25 fishing the first openings, to 70. The majority are in Quinhagak, with the rest in Goodnews Bay. E&E wouldn’t disclose how much the fishermen are paid per pound of salmon, but called the price “competitive” and said that fishermen can get extra cash. >click to read< 12:05
United Fishermen of Alaska dismiss Al Gross, endorse Senator Dan Sullivan
The announcement comes as a bit of a body blow to the campaign of his opponent, Al Gross, who presents himself as a commercial fisherman from Petersburg. This is an endorsement that should have come easily for someone with an Alaska gill net permit. Many in the fishing industry are independent voters, and Gross also presents himself as an independent, although he is running on the Democrats’ ticket and with the Democrats’ resources and endorsement. Sen. Sullivan has demonstrated leadership and effectiveness in advancing the interests of Alaska’s fisheries and fishermen across the state, said UFA President Matt Alward. by Suzanne Downing, >click to read< 11:51
Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak crew medevacs an injured fisherman north of Kodiak Island
At approximately 12:45p.m., Sector Anchorage command center personnel received notification from the wife of the fishing vessel’s master requesting a medevac for an injured crew member. District 17 command center personnel directed the launch of an Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew to respond. At approximately 1:42 p.m., the aircrew landed on a nearby beach and further transported the man to local EMS. “Good communications from the boat, excellent flexibility and the captain’s expert seamanship enabled a very quick pick-up and transfer of the injured fisherman to medical care.” >click to read< 08:02
Harvesters remain resilient in facing economic challenges of Coronavirus
No one reading this needs to be reminded that we are in uncharted waters as thousands of Alaska fishermen set out to sea for the salmon season. As a fisherman with two young boys, I felt a deep sense of both privilege and responsibility as I set my nets in the glacier-fed waters of Taku Inlet in late June. Most fishing seasons the biggest questions are: Will the salmon come early or late? Will they be swimming deep or along the shoreline? This summer the questions are: Will Alaska’s independent fishermen financially survive the coronavirus? Will there be buyers willing to pay a decent price for their catch? Will fishermen get access to the personal protective equipment and testing that they need to avoid the spread of coronavirus? Will the long-fought Pebble mine be permitted while Bristol Bay’s fishing fleet is out risking their lives? By Tyson Fick >click to read< 14:47
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 13, 2020
Baywide daily harvest dropped below 2 million for the first time since July 4th. The total harvest is over halfway to the pre-season forecast swimming in at 25.2 million fish. Total escapement throughout the bay is now just over 12 million, and has now passed the pre-season escapement forecast. The total run in Bristol Bay so far this season is 38.4 million fish. Average fish per drift delivery was below 1,000 in every district of the bay yesterday. >click to read< 09:48
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 11, 2020
The run in Bristol Bay is over 30 million fish, 30.8 million to be exact. Total harvest baywide was 2.1 million yesterday, bringing the season’s harvest in Bristol Bay to 20.9 million fish. Total escapement so far this season across the bay is 8.8 million. Fish per drift delivery saw a bit of a swing yesterday. Ugashik fishers averaged over 2,500 fish per delivery, the Naknek-Kvichak saw an average of over 1,000 fish per drift delivery, but other districts were between 180 and 700 fish per delivery. audio report, Messages to the fleet, >click to read< 17:26
More uncertainty for Alaskan fishermen, ‘Devastating,’ meager chum salmon returns worry the fishing industry
“I have 35 years of experience and I’ve never seen a year this poor since 1988,” said Lars Strangeland, a gillnetter based in Juneau. “The market is extremely poor. We were looking at terrible prices wherever it goes.” The shutdown of restaurants and changes in international markets, all complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, is leading to less demand for chum salmon and roe. Strangeland is on the Board of Directors of United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters, and he said chum returns this year have been, “devastating.” “It’s unprecedented and staggeringly poor as well,” he said. >click to read< 13:07
1 dead, 2 rescued after boat capsizes near China Poot Bay
One person is dead and another two were rescued Wednesday from the waters of Kachemak Bay by commercial fishermen and a surfer when their boat capsized near the mouth of China Poot Bay.,, The crew of the Casino took two males on board, including the one being given CPR by Tillion. The Casino is faster and was able to get them back to the harbor more quickly, Hollis said. “Everybody responded very well,” Hollis said of Tillion, Linegar and his deckhand. Crew from the F/V Captain Cook, captained by Malcom Milne, brought the third person back to the harbor. >click to read< 09:23
New Co-Op Allows Fishermen From Four Villages To Participate In Kuskokwim Bay Commercial Fishery
A group of fishermen in Quinhagak has formed an organization to revitalize commercial salmon fishing in Kuskokwim Bay. Their group is called the Independent Fishermen of Quinhagak Cooperative. On Monday, June 29, there will be a 12-hour commercial opening in Kuskokwim Bay from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fishermen are limited to six-inch mesh or less. It’s the area’s first commercial opening in five years.,, The board has approved 70 fishermen to participate and has limited the co-operative’s eligibility to fishermen residing in four nearby villages—Quinhagak, Goodnews Bay, Platinum, and Eek. >click to read< >click to read< 11:22
Salmon harvest coming in below forecast
Commercial harvests of Alaska’s iconic salmon are generally below expectation so far this season, particularly in the Copper River, where the preliminary catch to date includes 81,228 reds, 5,815 Chinooks and 1,296 chums. And overall for the drift gillnet harvesters and purse seiners in Prince William Sound, so far it is a smaller run that forecast, with a preliminary collective harvest of some 736,453 fish. That’s according to statewide data compiled by biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who update their preliminary harvest report daily and post. >click to read< 09:42
How Coronavirus Is Threatening Alaska’s Wild Salmon Fishing Season
A Brooklyn winemaker travels north to Bristol Bay each summer to net the red salmon that support his family. This year he’s faced with a tough ethical and economic choice. Mr. Nicolson, 45, spends much of the year working at Red Hook Winery in Brooklyn, where he is the managing winemaker, but his main income is drawn from Iliamna Fish Company. The business, which he and two cousins own, sells Alaska red salmon directly to thousands of shareholders, most of them in New York and Portland, Ore., as well as to a few high-end restaurants and stores, including the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn. >click to read< 19:25
Alaska: Commercial fishermen struggle in coronavirus pandemic
“We tied the boat up, hoping and waiting for things to stabilize a little bit,” said Jim Hubbard, who has been commercial fishing for nearly 50 years. Hubbard’s vessel, Kruzof, has been docked for two months during the coronavirus pandemic. With many restaurants shut down or operating at a limited capacity, it wasn’t worth it to fish. “We learned that about 80% of our seafood goes to the restaurant trade and the species we target, more the commodity-based fish species. It’s really basically gutted our markets,” Hubbard said. “We’re not making money, tourist people aren’t making money, the restaurants aren’t making money, and it just keeps going down,” said Cory Harris. Harris owns the F/V Tribute and just returned to Seward from a recent fishing venture. He wants to make whatever money he can even if the prices aren’t great. >click to read< 11:05
Still slow going for Copper River opener, remains closed at least through Monday, May 25
Opening harvests of the 2020 Copper River commercial fishery, complicated by effort to keep the COVID-19 pandemic at bay, got off to a slow start for the first two 12-hour openers. The overall catch of Chinook and sockeye salmon came in way below forecast. The first two 12-hour periods brought processors an estimated 6,025 sockeyes and 3,255 king salmon, Copper River commercial fishery biologists said. The 372 deliveries from the first opener on May 14 included just 1,473 sockeyes and 1,552 Chinooks. Then on May 18, there were 412 deliveries, with 4,552 sockeyes and 1,703 Chinooks. The projected harvest for the second period alone had included 28,590 reds. >click to read< 16:16
‘We’re open’: Alaska businesses can operate at full capacity Friday, Dunleavy says
Alaska businesses can open at full capacity on Friday and sports can resume, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced Tuesday evening. “Friday, we’re open for business across the state of Alaska,” Dunleavy said at a news conference. Alaska will enter phase three and four of the government’s five-phase reopening plan at 8 a.m. Friday. That means restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses can fully open. All churches, libraries and museums can too. Sports and recreational activities can resume, Dunleavy said. It’s the governor’s latest major lift of coronavirus-related restrictions. Previously, certain businesses could only operate at 25% to 50% capacity. “It’ll all be open, just like it was prior to the virus,” Dunleavy said. >click to read< 10:29
Slow going for the Copper River opener
A 12-hour opener marking the start of the 2020 Copper River commercial salmon season proved slow going, with a catch of 1,650 Chinook and 1,500 sockeye salmon, down from 2,300 kings and 20,400 reds in the 2019 opener. Prices for the catch were also down, due to lack of demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, with upscale restaurants that normally feature Copper River entrees following the start of the fishery still closed. Even with fewer fishermen on the grounds, it was tough going. One veteran harvester said his 12-hour effort produced a total of five fish. Worries over a potential low price for the prized fish, coupled with concerns that the novel coronavirus pandemic might stop the fishery lowered the competition for the fish, said Cordova Mayor Clay Koplin, who calculated that as much of one fourth of the fleet never left the harbor. >click to read< 08:34
Trident seafood worker the first positive COVID-19 case in Dillingham
Dillingham has its first case of COVID-19. According to state data, the person is an out-of-state resident who works in the seafood industry. It’s the ninth case of an out-of-state resident testing positive for the disease, and it’s the fourth instance of someone testing positive who works in that industry. The state said in a news release that the individual is a seasonal worker for Trident Seafoods. Trident is arranging for that worker to leave the community today. That person is doing well and does not require hospitalization. Public health nurses have completed a contact investigation and report that no one at that quarantine site had any outside contacts. “They haven’t exposed the community because they haven’t been out in the community,” public health nurse Gina Carpenter said in the state’s news release. >click to read< 18:51
An Alaska commercial fishing season unlike any other kicked off in Cordova on Thursday
Normally, the Copper River gillnet season, the first salmon fishery to open in the state, is known for high-priced fish and celebrity-level fanfare: One of the first fish to be caught is flown to Seattle via Alaska Airlines jet, and greeted with a red carpet photo opportunity. In this pandemic year, things are different all around: The Alaska Airlines first fish photo op will still happen, but the festivities have been tamped down and six-foot distancing and masks are now required. Instead of a cooking contest pitting Seattle chefs against each other, a salmon bake for workers at Swedish Hospital in Ballard is planned. And this year, Cordova’s first-in-the-state salmon fishery will be a high stakes test,,, >click here< 10:15
The 30th annual Blessing of the Fleet has been done differently this year in Juneau
Instead of the annual ceremony at the Fishermen’s Memorial on Saturday, the Alaska Commercial Fishermen’s Memorial Board posted videos online you can view from their website. President Carl Brodersen said four new names will be engraved on the memorial this year, James Lewis, Bob Bennett, Philip Daniel, and James Beaton. The 2019 names now engraved include Michael Walker, Ross Soboleff, Larry Painter, Lester Cole, William Larsen, John Pasquan, Robert Savikko, Joseph Hyde, Robert Becker, and Patrick Peterson. >click to read< with a link to watch the 2020 Video Ceremony @ http://www.akcfmemorial.org/12:37
Alaska: Reopening of state economy begins
Restaurants, shops and hair salons around Alaska are beginning a cautious reopening under strict state mandates as Alaska works to inhibit the spread of COVID-19, while the economic reopening remains on hold in Cordova. Emergency order 2020-05, issued by City Manager Helen Howarth, reinstates business restrictions lifted by the state on April 24 until May 20. Independent commercial fishermen meanwhile now have their COVID-19 marching orders from state officials, a list of protective measures, procedures, travel and access measures they must abide by, as the influx of seafood workers begins in Cordova. >click to read< 10:25
Strict new pandemic rules are in place for Alaska fishermen and their vessels – >click to read<
What’s that? Alaska fishing boats to fly quarantine flag
The “Lima flag” is not something most of them have probably ever seen in person. And the requirement is only if they or their crew members are coming from out of state. If they have a crew member who needs to self-quarantine on board for any reason, that yellow and black flag (or maybe a Pittsburgh Steeler’s sweatshirt, if no quarantine flag is to be found) has to go up the mast to warn people to stay away for 14 days. The details of how independent fishing vessels will have to protect coastal communities from incoming coronavirus contamination are laid out in Health Mandate 17,,, >click to read< 08:50
Commercial fishing vessels get COVID-19 mandates – Independent commercial fishermen got their COVID-19 marching orders from state officials Thursday, April 23, a list of protective measures, procedures, travel and access measures they must abide to protect themselves and coastal communities. >click to read< 10:48
Seafood industry visa fix in question after Coronavirus outbreak
With the aid of lawmakers, seafood businesses in Maryland, Virginia, Alaska and North Carolina last month won federal approval of an additional 35,000 visas for non-immigrant workers, but the timing couldn’t have been worse. Within days, the coronavirus pandemic began shutting down businesses, including restaurants and retail outlets the seafood industry supplies. Some seafood operations let employees go, while others have hired fewer people than they would in a more typical season. Jack Brooks, president of J.M. Clayton Seafood Co. in Cambridge, Maryland, explained that the seafood industry is a seasonal business and the coronavirus has hit the hardest during the industry’s prime time. >click to read< 13:16
Coronavirus: Specter of overescapement shouldn’t influence fisheries decisions
The management of sustainable salmon fisheries in Alaska is based on a ‘fixed escapement policy’ where the goal is to allow enough salmon into our rivers and lakes to fill the spawning habitat, and on average produce maximum or optimum long-term fishery yield. When more fish enter streams than targeted by escapement goals, this is referred to as ‘overescapement’ by fishery scientists and managers. So then, if salmon fisheries are restricted in the summer of 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, will the resulting ‘overescapement’ cause damage this year, or in future years, to salmon or their ecosystems? >click to read< 07:52
Coronavirus: Togiak herring fishery’s only processor says it aims for “zero impact” to communities
In early March, Icicle Seafoods locked down operations and stopped bringing on new crew members due to the pandemic. It says the workers on board its floating processor haven’t had contact with anyone off the vessel since then.,,, “Our plan is to bring the Gordon Jensen up to Togiak here at the end of the month. We’ll anchor off off shore, and we’ll keep our crew and staff on board the vessel for the duration of the fishery,” he said, adding that Icicle plans to have “zero impact” on the communities.,, Two seine boats and three gillnetters are expected to tap the 80-million pound quota in Togiak this spring. Tim Sands, an area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the shrinking participation from processors and fishermen is due to the lack of market for herring. >click to read< 18:33
Alaska’s Commercial Harvesters Listed as ‘Critical Infrastructure’
Plans are in progress to conduct the multi-million dollar Bristol Bay salmon fishery this summer in a manner that keeps harvesters, processors and the seafood itself safe in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. “Everyone is working on it on a regular basis,” said Norm Van Vactor of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. in Dillingham, Alaska. “It is literally a plan in progress. We are moving forward with a positive attitude (but) nobody is in La La Land.” Commercial fishermen are now officially identified as “critical infrastructure” by the state of Alaska. >click to read< 08:19
Coronavirus: It’s not business as usual for fishing industry
For Alaska’s commercial fisheries industry in 2020, things will hardly be business as usual. Reports of the first case of novel coronavirus in the state prompted processors to get to work developing plant and vessel response plans in consultation with medical experts to assure the health and safety of employees, harvesters, communities they work in and the fish they will process by the ton. “Everyone is working on it on a regular basis,” said Norm Van Vactor, president and chief executive officer of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. in Dillingham. “It is literally a plan in progress. We are moving forward with a positive attitude (but) nobody is in La La Land.” >click to read< 18:15
Coast Guard, good Samaritan assist vessel taking on water near Sitka, Alaska
The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan assist a vessel taking on water near Sitka, Alaska, Saturday. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Sitka delivered a dewatering pump to the fishing vessel Tamarack, which was taking on water approximately 35 miles west of Sitka Saturday. The crew of Tamarack utilized the dewatering pump to prevent additional flooding. The good Samaritan vessel Pacific Bounty responded to the urgent marine information broadcast, arrived on scene and assisted in dewatering the vessel. Video, >click to read< 06:49
Coronavirus: Bristol Bay fishermen urged to delay travel to the region until at least May 1
On Thursday, the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, which represents the Bristol Bay drift gillnet fleet, issued its first COVID-19 advisory to the fleet asking that non-local Bristol Bay Fishermen delay travel to the region until at least May 1 and listed the state mandated quarantine protocol for anyone who does travel to Alaska from out of state.,, Since Alaska enacted a limited entry permit system, the share of permits held locally by Bristol Bay residents has declined by more than 50 percent, according to a 2017 University of Alaska Fairbanks analysis. Many drift fishermen make the trip each summer from Washington, Oregon or California. >click to read< 07:49
Fishing industry grapples with fallout from coronavirus response
Like almost all industries and institutions across Alaska, the novel coronavirus pandemic is shaking up the fishing industry. With restrictions changing almost daily and cases spreading across the United States, fishermen are still fishing, but the normal seasonal progression of the industry is likely to hit some rough waters. Travel in and out of Alaska has dropped after federal and state advisories against it, and questions are hovering about how seafood processors and fishing vessels will find the employees they need for upcoming seasons.,, Adding to that, the workers in the seafood industry are often seasonal and come from outside the communities where they work, from elsewhere in Alaska, the Lower 48 or international. That’s something the processing industry is working hard to figure out. >click to read< 17:23
‘Codfish Fever’ – Hungry Gold Miners Craved the Salted Fish, so a Ragtag Fleet Set Off for Alaska
Codfish fever got its start in the years following the discovery of gold in central California in 1848, when San Francisco grew quickly from a sleepy hamlet into a thriving commercial center. Many of those who migrated to California during the Gold Rush were from western Europe. For them, salted cod was a dietary staple.,, Initially, East Coast merchants supplied Californians with salted Atlantic cod shipped via the Isthmus of Panama or Cape Horn. But this was a long, expensive journey for the fish, and California entrepreneurs recognized an opportunity to replace Atlantic cod with Pacific cod. It was one Captain Mathew Turner, an opportunistic merchant, who pioneered the U.S. Pacific cod fishery. >click to read< 08:43
