Tag Archives: Department of Fish & Game.
Board of Fisheries says all salmon bycatch from one pollock trawl fishery must be retained
Alaska’s Board of Fisheries considered four proposals that would have severely restricted or even shut down the pollock trawl fishery in Prince William Sound. Ultimately, though, only one was passed that didn’t go nearly that far. The amended version of Proposal 15, which was changed by Board member Tom Carpenter, was approved six to one. Proposals 14 and 16 had no action taken based on #15 passing, and proposal 17 failed with only one member in favor. The measure stipulates that all salmon bycatch must be brought back to port and surrendered to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, also referred to as mandatory retention. This would add on to the mandatory retention that is already required for rockfish and potentially address some of the salmon bycatch concerns in the trawl fishery. links, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:31
Chinook action plan a ‘question mark’ for conservation and economics
There will be a lot less fishing for king salmon in Southeast in the coming season, after the Alaska Board of Fisheries took dramatic steps to protect dwindling chinook returns to the region’s major river systems. Before wrapping up its 13-day meeting in Sitka on Tuesday, the Board of Fish passed an “action plan” intended to reverse the downward spiral in Alaska’s wild king salmon. The plan targets three primary rivers — or stocks of concern — but leaves the door open for similar conservation measures elsewhere, should they become necessary. >click here to read< 09:29
Quincy legislator Ayers pushes fish farm proposal
Four granite sewage storage tanks built more than a century ago have sat unused on Moon Island
for decades, since Boston built a treatment plant on Deer Island in the 1960s. They can each hold 50 million gallons of water and open directly onto Boston Harbor. Now, state Rep. Bruce Ayers, a Quincy Democrat, wants to see the state look into using the former vats as fish and shellfish farms – a suggestion Ayers said came from Squantum residents John Coughlin and Richard Donahue. Ayers recently met with officials from the state Department of Fish & Game and the Division of Marine Fisheries to discuss legislation he sponsored that would ask the state Department of Fish & Game to study the feasibility of such a project. Read the article here 09:23
I missed this one. AJOC EDITORIAL: State should foot the bill for salmon disaster
The first fishery management plan approved after the passage of the original Magnuson Act in 1976 was the Alaska salmon FMP delegating that responsibility to the Department of Fish & Game. After revisions to what later became the Magnuson-Stevens Act were passed in 2006, all FMPs were required to be updated within five years to meet new requirements for setting annual catch limits and accountability measures….The result was the North Pacific Fishery Management Council amending the salmon FMP in 2011 to officially remove waters near Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound and the Alaska Peninsula from federal control. The only state-managed salmon fishery that officially remains within the federal FMP is the Southeast salmon troll fishery that must be managed in accord with the Pacific Salmon Treaty between the U.S. and Canada. Read more
