Tag Archives: Dutch Harbor
Injured F/V Patricia Lee fisherman medevac’d 200 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor, Alaska
The Coast Guard medevaced a man from a fishing boat Tuesday approximately 200 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor. A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak hoisted an injured fisherman from the 117-foot, commercial fishing vessel F/V Patricia Lee at about 11:50 p.m. He was flown to Dutch Harbor and placed in the care of LifeMed personnel. Watchstanders in the 17th District command center in Juneau received the initial request for the the medevac from the F/V Patricia Lee at about 4 p.m. Tuesday. The master reported a crew member had sustained serious injuries to his pelvic region after becoming pinned by a crab pot about 225 miles west of Dutch Harbor. >Video, click to read< 15:39
Into the ice: A crab boat’s quest for snow crab in a Bering Sea upended by climate change
Aboard the F/V Pinnacle in the Bering Sea. Through the wheelhouse window, Capt. Mark Casto spotted a white line on the horizon. The edge of an ice floe was illuminated by bow lights piercing the morning darkness of the Bering Sea. He throttled back the engines. Soon, the Seattle-based crab boat began to nose through closely packed pancake-like pieces and bigger craggy chunks, some the size of boulders, which bobbed about in the currents and clanged against the hull. Casto grabbed a microphone to relay a change in plans to the deck crew. Pull the pots up and stack them aboard. They would search for crab somewhere else. “Where the hell did that ice floe come from? … We’re retreating. It’s a hard word to say,” Casto declared. photos, video, charts and grafs, >click to read< 17:50
‘Deadliest Catch,’ a reality show with drama – and room for make-believe
This year, nine Bering Sea crab boats will appear on the Discovery Channel show’s 18th season, premiering April 19. That represents nearly a quarter of the 39 vessels registered as of March 21 to catch snow crab in the 2022 harvest, which has been greatly reduced due to conservation concerns. Some are smaller boats that may have a more difficult time operating in the cold, rough water of the northern Bering Sea, where surveys indicate most of the crab were to be found this year. But with the money paid by Discovery, their captains had plenty of added incentive to keep crabbing, and keep their crews employed, in 2022 rather than transferring small catch quotas to larger boats. Just how much “Deadliest Catch” pumps into the crab fleet is largely kept confidential. >click to read< 11:32
What Happened To Andy Hillstrand From Deadliest Catch?
Discovery Channel crab fishing reality TV series “Deadliest Catch” chronicles real-life expeditions by various boating crews in the Bering Sea, based out of a port located in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Longtime series regular Andy Hillstrand, however, left “Deadliest Catch” completely, leaving some fans wondering what happened to the former series mainstay. Initially, Andy’s departure coincided with the retirement of his brother Johnathan Hillstrand, with whom he essentially shared captain’s duties on their boat, the FV Time Bandit. >click to read< 18:11
Valuable crab populations are in a ‘very scary’ decline in warming Bering Sea
The forecast for the 2022 winter snow crab season is bleak. At best, it is expected to be considerably less than 12 million pounds. That would be down from a 2021 harvest of 45 million pounds,,, The iconic Bering Sea red king crab, which can grow up to 24 pounds with a leg-span up to 5 feet, also are in trouble. In a big blow to the commercial crabbers, many of whom are based in Washington, the October harvest for these crab has been canceled, something that has only happened three times before. Overall conservation measures are expected to wipe out most of the value of the annual Bering Sea crab harvest, worth more than $160 million during the past year, according to Jamie Goen, executive director of the Seattle-based Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. >click to read< 13:54
$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
Home in Maine, Fisherman Taylor Strout reflects on the Alaska commercial fishing industry during the pandemic
From Maine, it takes him a good 24 hours and four airports to get where he is going. Taylor Strout is a mate aboard the Fishing Vessel F/V Northern Defender which was tied up at the dock in Dutch Harbor. As the crow flies, he is more than 4000 miles away from home. What is the draw? “It’s kind of a different level of fishing out here. And it was something that I’ve always wanted to do and try back when I first got into it. I had the opportunity to do it, and to try it, and I didn’t just try it, I ended up kind of falling in love with it. And continue to do it since. I love the rotation of it. You know, you go to work, you work hard, you put it in there, and then when it’s time to go home and focus on your family you get to come home and just be Dad and take care of the family that way too,” says Taylor. >Video, click to read< 12:50
New Bedford is America’s number 1 fishing port for 20th straight year
The National Marine Fisheries Service released its annual report on the health of the nation’s fishing industry on Thursday,,, New Bedford ranked No. 1 for the value of seafood landed at its port for the 20th consecutive year in 2019, with $451 million worth of fish hauled in by its boats. That was up by $20 million compared with the year before, and far outpaced the second-ranked Port of Naknek, Alaska, which had $289 million worth of landings. NOAA officials said New Bedford’s dominance remains driven by sea scallops, which account for 84% of the value of all landings there. >click to read< 14:21
Coronavirus: Bering Sea Crabbers Push For Extended Season
A group of Bering Sea crabbers say the Coronavirus pandemic has slowed their fishing season, and they want more time to catch their quota before the state shuts down their season next week. For the few boats fishing bairdi crab this year, there could be a lot at stake if they don’t have time to catch their full quota. “I’m thinking they don’t quite understand what we’re going through out here,” said Oystein Lone, captain of the 98-foot crab boat Pacific Sounder, which is based out of Dutch Harbor. >click to read< 07:55
Deadliest Catch season 17 – What a Time to be Alive!
In season 17, Discovery says that “half the crab boats of the Bering Sea fleet are tied up in Seattle” while “an existential threat faces the fishermen who make the long-haul trip to Dutch Harbor, Alaska,” because they face “a potential closure of the entire fishery” for the 2021 season. The crab survey conducted during the summer by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game didn’t happen because of C0VID-19, and that means “the captains will be fishing blind with no charts or guidance on where to find crab on the grounds, making an already challenging season even more difficult,” short trailer, >click to read< 10:03
Video Interview: Life for a Mainer fishing in the Bering Sea
Taylor Strout is the son of a fisherman; fishing simply runs in his blood. He is on a boat that fishes out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska,,, Taylor is a mate aboard the Fishing Vessel Northern Defender which, when we talked, was tied up at the dock in Dutch Harbor. The Aleutian Islands split the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, and they fish the Bering Sea. As the crow flies, he is more than 4000 miles away from home. “It’s kind of a different level of 
fishing out here.,, “You’re basically towing a football field behind you. You’re taking everything up to a bigger scale when you’re on some of these boats. Bigger weather, there’s bigger seas, sometimes we fish in 15 foot waves to 25 foot waves.” >click to read< 14:44
20 crew members on vessel in Dutch Harbor test positive for COVID-19 in latest seafood industry outbreak
A factory trawler joined a growing list of seafood processors and vessels in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands that have experienced COVID-19 outbreaks recently. Twenty members of the 40-member crew on the factory trawler Araho, owned by the O’Hara Corp., tested positive for the virus, the City of Unalaska said Friday. Upon arrival in Unalaska from Seattle on Wednesday night, a couple of crew members reported symptoms of COVID-19, according to Unalaska city manager Erin Reinders, who said testing began when the vessel arrived. >click to read< 19:46
Coast Guard medevacs an injured fisherman 80 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor, Alaska
An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew based out of Air Station Kodiak and deployed aboard Cutter Alex Haley, hoisted the man from the vessel Magnus Martens after he suffered a severe leg injury. He was flown to Cold Bay and placed in the care of awaiting Guardian Flight Alaska personnel for further transport to Anchorage. The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley, also based out of Kodiak, received initial notification about the injured man while on patrol in the Bering Sea in the vicinity of Unimak Island. >click to read< 09:09
Behind the scenes with Seattle’s crab experts
It’s king crab season in the Bering Sea. That means around 300 people, including many from Fishermen’s Terminal in Seattle, the home port to the North Pacific Fishing Fleet, fly into Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for the harvest. And when king crab season is over, many of these fishermen and women switch to bairdi crab and snow crab. Which means they’ll be busy for four to five months and there will be a lot more crab on the market. As the executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, a nonprofit trade association that represents the crab industry, Jamie Goen knows a lot about the work that brings crab from the bottom of the sea to our tables. >click to read< 09:19
Corey Arnold’s best shot: a horse and a cat go fishing for crab
Everyone looks forward to Halloween. You get a bunch of crabbers in a bar and it gets pretty crazy. I’d bought this horse-head costume in advance and, as we were cruising in to Dutch Harbor, my friend Matthew and I were trying out costumes. I took some pictures of him wearing the mask, then my cat came walking by and Matthew grabbed her. Kitty was seven months old. The captain had cats on the boat and I had decided to get one myself. I had gone to the pound looking for one with a mellow temperament, because I knew that, what with all the pots banging around and storms at sea, I didn’t want a pet who would be scared and hiding all the time. Corey Arnold, >click to read< 19:48
Alaska’s Coronavirus plans for fishing communities are now being put to the test
In a normal fishing season, Dan Martin would fly straight from the Pacific Northwest to the Aleutian Islands, where his pollock trawler, the Commodore, would be waiting for him to take the wheel. But this year, the veteran skipper is stepping onboard in Seattle, where he, four crew and two federal fisheries observers are taking COVID-19 tests and hoisting a quarantine flag. Then they’ll squeeze onto the vessel for a week-long voyage to Alaska’s biggest fishing port, Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. “We might have to eat in shifts,” Martin quipped. “Because I don’t know that we can fit that many people at our galley table.” >click to read< 09:41
Coast Guard suspends search for possible person in water near Dutch Harbor, Alaska
The Coast Guard has suspended its search Thursday for a possible person in the water near Dutch Harbor. Missing is 33-year-old Steven Mencer, last seen wearing a neon green pullover rain jacket with orange and black pants. Mencer was reported missing after failing to report to crew check-in while the Alaska Mist, a 164-foot fishing vessel, was moored at Coastal Transportation Northern Dock, Thursday. includes original alert. >click to read< 09:23
‘Deadliest Catch’ Camera Crew: Inside the gear, skill, physical endurance needed for 30-foot swells, 20 hour days, and shooting at night
For 15 seasons Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch” has been documenting the journey of fishing ships to one of the most remote places in the world, the Bering Sea, to catch king crab and snow crab. In an environment where severe weather and high swells are frequent, it is one of the most difficult and dangerous places imaginable to film. It is also one of the most demanding jobs in all of television, requiring a set of skills not normally asked of a Hollywood camera department. Here’s eight ways the camera team survives the hardest job in television, and still gets astounding images. Video’s, >click to read< 20:02
As the Bering Sea warms, this skipper is chasing pollock to new places
The pollock fishing in the Bering Sea was “about as good as it gets,” skipper Dan Martin said as he steered his 133-foot trawler, the Commodore, over a dense school of the fish last month. From the bridge, Martin watched as his sonar showed the fish streaming into his net – so thick that his instruments couldn’t distinguish the pollock from the ocean floor. After just a few hours of fishing, Martin had filled the Commodore with more than 200 tons of pollock. As the wind and waves picked up, he started the nine-hour run back to Dutch Harbor,,, >click to read<15:20
Crew member stabbed on Dutch Harbor commercial fishing boat
A 28-year-old fisherman was arrested after stabbing another crew member on a commercial fishing boat in the Aleutian fishing hub of Dutch Harbor Friday, Unalaska police said. Police in Unalaska received a report that a crew member aboard the F/V Aleutian Sable had been “badly injured” in a knife attack early Friday, Jennifer Shockley of the Unalaska Police Department wrote in a statement. >click to read< 00:15
One Year After The Sinking, Crab Fishermen Remember The F/V Destination — And Take Extra Precautions
This Sunday, Feb. 11 marks the one-year anniversary of the loss of the F/V Destination. Its sinking ranks as the Bering Sea crab fleet’s deadliest accident in more than a decade. While the cause remains a mystery, memories of the crew are inspiring fishermen to stay extra safe this winter.,, Almost a year later, the tragedy is still fresh in the minds of many fishermen, especially crabbers who are out dropping pots in the same area the Destination went down. “Do I think about it?” asked Captain Rip Carlton of the F/V Patricia Lee. “Yes.” >click to read< 13:58
Unalaska gets new pollock plant
The city of Unalaska has a big new fish processor, but it’s not new to Unalaska Island. The Northern Victor, owned by Icicle Seafoods, is now inside city limits, on Ballyhoo Road, docked permanently in Dutch Harbor, the famous body of water within the municipal boundaries of Unalaska. Until late last year, the 380-foot-long vessel was located across the mountains, in Beaver Inlet, a bay on the south side of Unalaska Island. >click to read< 18:05 
Beyond Deadliest Catch: The Fisherman in Pursuit of One of the World’s Great Delicacies
Dan Jansen had been awake for about a day and a half on his first-ever trip as captain of a crab-fishing boat way back in 1986. When there was finally a lull, Jansen left the wheelhouse to get some rest. His eyes hadn’t been shut for more than 15 minutes when he heard what sounded like an explosion. In the time it took for his feet to swivel from his bunk to the floor, Jansen’s stateroom had filled up with more than a foot of water. click here to read the story 10:46
Alaska tops nation in total fishing volume for 20th year
The annual report detailing national and regional economic impacts of U.S. fisheries totaled $9.6 billion in value in 2016 with Alaska as usual producing more than the rest of the nation combined. Alaska produced 58 percent of all landings and for the 20th straight year brought in the highest volume, according to the 2016 Fisheries of the United States report by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The top spot for all ports in the nation went to Dutch Harbor, which brought in 770 million pounds with Alaska pollock accounting for 89 percent of that volume. click here to read the story 16:43
Dirty Birds – What it’s like to live with a national symbol
Dutch Harbor is a small town on a small island far out in Alaska’s Aleutian chain, nearly 1,200 miles from Anchorage at the edge of the Bering Sea. It’s the most productive fishing port in the United States. Every winter the tiny population swells with thousands of people who come to work in the fish processing plants, on the crab boats, or out on the big cod and pollack trawlers. But they’re not the only ones trying their fortunes in town or out on the boats. People in town call them Dutch Harbor pigeons. The rest of us call them bald eagles. In a community of just over 4,700 permanent residents, there live an estimated 500 to 800 eagles. They stare judgily down from light posts, peer intently into people’s windows, eat foxes and seagulls while perched in the trees next to the high school, and sit on rooflines like living weather vanes. Down at the docks, they swarm every boat that comes into port like some sort of Hitchcockian nightmare, fighting for scraps of bait, elbowing one another for prime positions, crowding together on top of crab pots, and squawk-cheeping their opinions. View more images, read the story here 11:01
Bering Select Opens First Ever Omega-3 Plant in Dutch Harbor
Bering Select, a new manufacturing facility began producing premium quality omega-3 ingredients in Dutch Harbor this week. The plant produces the rich omega-3 oils of locally caught Alaska cod and other fish species. “The Bering Sea cod fisheries are robust and produce vast amounts of a high quality omega-3, a resource not utilized until now.,, Read the rest here 08:12
For Seafood Landings, Port of Dutch Harbor Retains First Place – Fishermen’s News
Unalaska – America’s Top Port Sees Streak Tweaked
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just issued its fisheries report card for 2011, and Alaska is on the honor roll. Last year, 2.3 billion pounds of seafood worth $1.3 billion crossed the state’s docks.
About a third of that fish came through Unalaska. The city has long been proud of its reputation as America’s number #1 fishing port. But as KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez reports, Unalaska got a bit of bad news in an otherwise rosy assessment of Alaska’s fisheries. http://kucb.org/news/article/americas-top-port-sees-streak-tweaked/
