Tag Archives: Bristol Bay
Bristol Bay reds late again; late run Kenai kings start strong
It’s the second late run in a row for the state’s most valuable salmon fishery, and the late run of king salmon in the state’s most popular river are showing up early in strong numbers. Bristol Bay, the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon producing region, experienced a massive late run of sockeye salmon last year, contributing with other market forces to drop the ex-vessel price of salmon to 50 cents per pound, or about half the historic average. This year, most signs point to a similarly late run. Late doesn’t necessarily mean below forecast. Last year, the historical midpoint of July 4 came and went with only 8.87 million fish harvested, about 35 percent less than the five-year average. All signs pointed to a Bristol Bay harvest of less than 20 million fish. By the end of the season, a late burst of sockeye produced one of the largest runs on record. Read the rest here 16:19
Bristol Bay fisherman lands fishery’s 2 billionth salmon
A fisherman last week landed the 2 billionth salmon to be caught in Bristol Bay’s 133-year commercial fishing history, according to harvest statistics by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Bristol Bay’s 2 billionth salmon milestone was surpassed on Wednesday July 6. The 2 billionth salmon was among hundreds of thousands of fish caught by commercial fishing vessels in Bristol Bay that day. A symbolic salmon was selected from the multitude and awarded to longtime local fisherman Howard Knutsen, 86, who has fished Bristol Bay for decades. Knutsen, captain of the Sea Hunter 2, accepted the prestigious fish on board the Lady Helen fishing tender in the Ugashik fishing district near Pilot Point, according to local commercial fisherman Lindsey Bloom. Link 07:43
Listen to the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report July 1, 2016
Tonight a Ugashik set-netter tells us he’ll fish despite some stormy weather this weekend, Area Manager Paul Salomone updates on Egegik and Ugashik numbers, and we check-in on a Kuskokwim dilemma. The total run to Bristol Bay hit 4.5 million on Thursday – 40 million or so left to go. Fish and Game has a countdown to the two billionth salmon caught in Bristol Bay, and we’re closing in. Thursday’s catch of 475,000 brought the season total to about 3 million, and some strong Naknek-Kvichak escapements let to an opener there sooner than planned. While those eastside fisherman were busy with their nets, we heard about the nets in the Egegik and Ugashik districts, and the wind blowing at Ugashik Bay. Plus, a check on the Kuskokwim, where no buyer means no commercial fishing, despite a healthy enough run. To listen, click here 16:15
Yes, Copper River Seafoods just posted a preseason price. And yes, it’s encouraging.
Up to $1.25 for “Excelent Fish” caught this week, going out fresh to a market that is hungry for the product, says CRS. Company says it intends to post a price every Sunday for the week ahead. Copper River Seafoods Bristol Bay manager Vojtech Novak posted a price for this week’s sockeye catch, and says he intends to post a weekly price every Sunday. It’s an unusual step for one of Bristol Bay’s buyers to list a price before the catch comes in. “You know, the owner of our company was a fisherman, and he feels like he’s still a fisherman,” said Novak. “His dream was always to know the price before going fishing, and we’re trying to work on that and give our fishermen a price. Before they go fish, they know what they’re getting.” Read the rest here 13:10
Efforts to launch local processors in two Bristol Bay communities may finally be coming to fruition.
For decades, many of the processors in Bristol Bay have been large companies, with offices in Washington and parent companies in foreign countries. But two small communities are developing locally-owned processing plants. Bristol Bay’s fishing communities have long been dependent on the companies that turn raw fish into a sell-able product and get it shipped out of the bay. The communities of Port Heiden and Levelock want to take on that role themselves and – hopefully – keep more of the decisions, and the benefits, local. “We wanted to start a locally tribally owned processing plant so that we could create a longer season for our fishermen, also to have our fishermen fish closer to home so they don’t have to go all the way up to Ugashik to fish, and to provide them with a higher price for their fish because we’ll be doing direct marketing and have a higher quality product,” she said. “That will mean more jobs and more pay for the fishermen.” Audio, read the rest here 19:38
Bristol Bay Fishermen prep for 2016 reg changes
The Bristol Bay salmon fishery will see some changes this year, from when fishermen have to declare a district and how tenders accept deliveries from d-boats, to when the Wood River Special Harvest Area can be used. Among the changes made by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the State Board of Fisheries is one that will affect most fishermen early in the season, no matter their district. This year, drifters must register in the district in which they intend to fish right from the get go. Gone is the time to test the waters in different areas before committing to one. Once a fishermen is committed, there’s mandatory wait before they can switch. That change was made by the state Board of Fisheries in December, and was widely supported by public testimony and the Bristol Bay area advisory committees. But Dillingham drift fisherman Bronson Brito was one of few who opposed the change this winter, and said in mid-May that it’ll effect how he starts his season. Audio, Read the rest here 16:46
Bristol Bay commercial halibut fishery opens Sunday
Halibut management throughout Alaska relies on a mix of state, federal and international rules, and Bristol Bay is no different, with sport, subsistence and commercial fisheries here. The Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation oversees the local small boat halibut fishery, which opens May 1 this year. More than two dozen fishermen are eligible to participate, and they’ll have access to 115,000 pounds of halibut. That’s a significant increase from last year’s 74,000 pounds. Audio report, Read the rest here 09:31
ADF&G Releases Bristol Bay Update
A new forecast for the 2016 sockeye salmon fishing season in Bristol Bay says the fishery, which opens by regulation on June 1, is expected to have a run of some 46.6 million fish, with 29.5 million potentially available for commercial harvest. The figures were released on April 4 by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. For the eastside districts, fishing will be allowed using a weekly schedule that will vary by district, to balance fishing opportunity with escapement in the early part of the season, particularly for Chinook salmon. In the Nushagak District, management of the king salmon fishery will govern fishing time in the early part of the season, followed by directed sockeye salmon management as abundance dictates. Read the rest here 10:01
Bristol Bay buyers say they can handle full 2016 sockeye run
A survey of the 12 primary processors in Bristol Bay says that they should be able to handle more sockeye than are forecast to be caught this summer. But that’s not a guarantee that fishermen won’t be placed on limits. Each winter, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game surveys the main Bristol Bay processors to get a sense of how many fish they can handle. This year, the major processors, which operate 16 facilities, said they can process 35.5 million fish. That’s more than the 29.5 million harvest forecast. Read the article, Click here 12:50
A new report is a reminder of what many Alaskans already know: seafood is a big industry in the state.
ASMI Communications Director Tyson Fick said his organization commissioned the McDowell group to update a study on the role seafood plays in Alaska, and America’s, economy. “There’s more labor income from seafood than from tourism and mining combined, which is pretty substantial, and certainly very, very important in places where seafood is primary, like Bristol Bay,” Fick said. The report says the 60,000 workers in Alaska’s seafood industry earn $1.6 billion per year. That includes the equivalent of about 4,650 full time jobs in Bristol Bay. Audio, read the article here 11:49
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
Bristol Bay sockeye earnings hit decade low
For the first time in a decade, ex-vessel earnings for sockeye salmon coming out of Bristol Bay, Alaska, have fallen below $100 million, despite a “massive” return of 58m fish, according to a sockeye bi-annual market analysis prepared for the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association by McDowell Group. According to the report, 2014 marked the fourth consecutive year that base ex-vessel prices –the price paid to fishermen by a processor for whole fish — were above $1.00/lb, “Bristol Bay seemed to be on a roll; firing on all cylinders and producing strong earnings”. Value fell sharply, however, in 2015,,, Read the rest here 14:00
Bristol Bay fishermen to land 2 billionth salmon in 2016
Next July, a commercial fisherman will land the 2 billionth salmon caught in Bristol Bay’s 133-year fishing history. Since the inception of Bristol Bay’s canned salmon industry in 1884, its fishermen have landed 1.99 billion salmon, 93 percent of which were sockeye. Fishermen will achieve the 2-billion-salmon milestone when they catch another 9.5 million. This will happen next season, based on the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s recently released forecast for a harvest of almost 30 million sockeye in 2016. Read the rest here 13:58
Bristol Bay fishermen petition the State to intervene regarding sockeye salmon prices.
An online petition that went live Nov. 3 had more than 821 signatures from fishermen and other supporters as of Nov. 10, asking the State of Alaska to intervene regarding sockeye salmon prices. Erick Sabo started the. He wrote it up this summer, but waited to open it up for signatures until fall had come, and nothing had changed about the summer’s low prices. “I hate to see fifty cents, I can’t believe it,” he said. “I’ve been in a state of shock and depression since I put the boat up. And even though we’re at this terrible level, I think it is bringing people together.” Read the rest here 15:06
Halibut fishermen in Bristol Bay had their best season in several years this summer.
BBEDC Regional Fisheries Director Gary Cline said some would consider this summer a surprisingly good one for halibut, given the decline in quota seen in much of the state in recent years. “It was nice to see the halibut fishery start to rebuild, comparing the last several seasons, and this year the ex-vessel value came about to be approximately $226,205 dollars,” Cline said. That estimate is for the nearshore fishery in Area 4E, prosecuted by local fishermen who access the quota through BBEDC. “So we had 17 fishermen and they delivered 45,000 pounds, roughly, which was the biggest volume since 2007,” Cline said. Listen, Read the rest here 18:31
Bristol Bay 2015 season summary: 3rd-largest run ever
The Department of Fish and Game released a summary of the Bristol Bay 2015 fishing season, now noting a total inshore run of 58 million sockeye salmon. That makes 2015 a near-record-setting year, says Fish and Game area biologist Tim Sands. “It’s second out of the last 20 years – the only one that beat it was 1995 – and it’s the third-largest run of all time,” said Sands. This year’s harvest was counted at 37.6 million sockeye, which Sands say is the fourth largest ever, using records going back to the 1880s. Read the rest here 20:52
Battle Over Alaska’s Bristol Bay Pits Salmon Against Gold
Commercial fisherman, native Alaskans and environmentalist in Bristol Bay have banded together to fight the building of the mine. Bristol Bay provides 40% of America’s wild caught seafood and $2 billion dollars in commercial fishing. It’s also the single greatest sockeye salmon fishery in the world. Right now, much of the land is protected by either the federal or state governments, but not the one piece where the potential mine would sit. Read the rest here 09:44
Bristol Bay fisherman’s lot: Either too few sockeye, or too many
“Lots of cotton, lots of fish!” That’s the old Bristol Bay, residents say. We could scoff at these old sayings, thinking “What in the world is the relationship of Alaska wild cotton to the sockeye run?” There should be no kinship between these two, but I still felt a little unease upon departing the jet in King Salmon and seeing almost no cotton on the drive to Naknek. The wild cotton never materialized this season. The red salmon did, though they were late enough to make even the most seasoned fishermen a little nervous. Read the rest here 15:51
Bristol Bay fishery Tuesday July 28 update – The fish may have outlasted the fleet this year, returns are still continuing but effort is winding down.
Through Monday, the total Bristol Bay sockeye run was estimated at 51,935,000, according to Area Management Biologist Tim Sands. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has stopped sending out daily run summaries, but managers are still tracking the activity. “It looks like we’ll break 52 million in the total run here today,” Sands said Tuesday. Although fish are still returning to Bristol Bay, buyers are shutting down. Sands said Tuesday that there were only two buyers in the Nushagak District. Read the rest here 16:52
Bristol Bay fishermen aghast at 50-cents-a-pound price for sockeye
Most Bristol Bay fishermen were shocked and dismayed when they heard last week that major buyers would pay 50 cents a pound for . That’s a throwback to the dock prices paid from 2002 to 2004, and is far below the $1.20 or more paid last year. A late surge of reds produced catches of nearly 13 million fish in the final week of this year’s run, bringing the total by July 23 to 34.5 million fish. Fish were still trickling in, and state managers, who called the season an anomaly, said the final tally should reach the projected harvest of 37.6 million sockeye. Read the rest here 15:35
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report July 17, 2015
The fishery is usually winding down this time of year, but folks on the east side say catches – and the wind – is going strong. Area Managers Travis Elison and Paul Salomone talk about fishing in the Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik and Ugashik Districts, the port in Naknek is busy, and fishermen talk about the wind and their limits. Listen to the report here 08:15
SOCKEYE BLITZ! Sockeyes surge into Bristol Bay fishermen’s nets
After a lackluster beginning, Bristol Bay red salmon have roared to life well past their normal timing, with a July 14 total commercial harvest of just less than 23 million. The new outlook predicts the harvest will be around 30 million, which is still short of the initial forecast but far greater than the 20-year average harvest. Processors warned against the “schizoid” nature of the area early in the season, and the notoriety has proven well-earned. Read the rest here 11:49
Wait period to fish Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik districts waived, strong catches continue in much of Bristol Bay.
The48-hour waiting period to transfer into the Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik, Ugashik and Nushagak Districts ends by regulation July 17, but it’s waived as of Tuesday for the Naknek-Kvichak and Egegik District. Fishermen can’t transfer into the Togiak District after fishing any other district until July 27. Catches declined slightly on Monday, but are still among the highest of the season with 1.8 million fish caught that day, bringing the baywide catch to about 22.8 million, with the total sockeye run estimated at 33.7 million fish. From aboard the F/V Crimson Hunter,,, Read the rest here 19:10
Bristol Bay fishery Sunday update – catches climbing, processors plugging up.
Saturday’s bay-wide catch was 2.1 million sockeye, bringing the season total to 18.7 million. The total run is estimated at 27.7 million fish so far this summer, still below the pre-season forecast of 54 million – but not a total bust according to some fishermen. Lower combine setnetter Jonah Golden said it seemed like most people were catching their quota with time to spare. “We caught our quota and got to come in and take a little nap,” he said Sunday morning. Read the rest here 21:08
Bristol Bay fishery Saturday update – Naknek-Kvichak netted 1.1 million yesterday, it’s biggest catch to date.
The Bristol Bay fishery continues to show signs of building towards either a peak or a long tail end with another day of big catches Friday. Naknek-Kvichak netted 1.1 million yesterday, it’s biggest catch to date. KDLG reports that some processors had already started letting people go because of the smaller-than-forecast run. Activity at the Bristol Bay Port is ramping up, though. “In the last 24 hours we’ve taken in 98 reefers of salmon,” said Robert “Herk” McDermott, the port manager, speaking Friday. For context, he said 139 was the most they had ever moved in a 24-hour period. Read the rest here 10:38
Summer at Graveyard Point – In a seemingly abandoned corner of Bristol Bay, a new economic model emerges and a family adapts
Last summer, after all the other fishermen had home at the end of the Bristol Bay salmon season, Corey Arnold stuck around Graveyard Point. A photographer and commercial fisherman, Arnold described the scene at the old cannery as eerie and empty. When the people went home, grizzly bears showed up, a sure sign that it was time for Arnold to leave. The bears just added to the run down, barren feel of Graveyard Point, the abandoned salmon cannery that serves as home base for about 120 fishermen for six short weeks each summer. They spend six long weeks catching hundreds of sockeye, or red, salmon near the banks. Read the rest here 16:48
Bristol Bay run nears 20 million sockeye
Yesterday fishermen in Bristol Bay hauled in their biggest catch to date – landing about 1.7 million sockeye, including 1 million harvested out of the Naknek-Kvichak district. The total run to Bristol Bay now stands at about 20 million sockeye, which is still well below the forecast … but Port Moller’s test fishery says catches the last two days are near the highest of the season. Listen, Read the rest here 17:26
Bristol Bay forecast goes bust
Bristol Bay needed volume to make up for a soft market, but state biologists say there’s no reason to expect that it’s going to happen now that the season’s unofficial point of no return has passed. Not only will the run come in far less than forecast, but likely come in well less than the 20-year average harvest. Travis Elison, the management biologist for the ADFG Dillingham office, said a low run is a foregone conclusion. “My perspective is that the run is below forecast,” said Elison. “That’s pretty obvious to me.” Read the rest here 22:28
Bristol Bay fishermen hit the 2 million mark June 29 ,sockeye catch still climbing!
Bristol Bay fishermen hit the 2 million mark June 29. Baywide, the total catch was about 2.6 million sockeye as of June 29. If the projections are correct, that means there’s about 35 million sockeye still to be caught, and researchers have said they still expect the pre-season forecast to come to fruition. The Egegik harvest through June 29 was about 1.1 million reds, and the Nushagak catch was about 914,000. But fishermen in those districts said that fishing still felt slow. Read the rest here 09:17
Trident’s new fishmeal plant to go online soon in Naknek
The newest processing plant in Bristol Bay is about to go online this month. Trident Seafood’s multi-million dollar fishmeal plant should get a test run with Togiak herring. Trident agreed to build the plant as part of a 2011 settlement over alleged EPA Clean Water Act violations, and now the company, and residents, should get to see (and smell) it if works as intended. As they’re putting the finishing touches on the new plant, Trident offered KDLG’s Matt Martin in inside plant tour, and he has this report. Audio, Read the rest here 13:04
