Tag Archives: F/V Silver Spray
Another Bering Sea snow crab season closure brings more financial hardships for fishermen
“This is something that’s in our blood,” said Gabriel Prout, the owner and a deckhand of the 116-foot F/V Silver Spray. However, now his passion and family tradition is in jeopardy. On Oct. 6, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced it was closing the 2023-24 Bering Sea snow crab season for the second season in a row. “The stock is currently at all-time low levels from the survey time series,” said Ethan Nichols, the ADF&G acting area management biologist for the Bering Sea & Aleutian Islands region. “So, the threshold for opening is that total mature male biomass has to be at least 25% of long-term average. And in 2023 total mature male biomass is estimated to be between 15 and 19% of the long-term average.” The news felt like a punch to the gut for Prout, whose family relies on the season for 80 to 90% of its revenue. Video, >>click to read<< 11:40
10 billion snow crabs disappeared from the Bering Sea. Scientists and fishermen are working together to understand why
The snow crabs’ population in the Bering Sea off the western coast of Alaska has fluctuated for decades. An increase in young crabs back in 2018 gave way to optimism that fishing would be good for years to come, but the hope was short-lived. Gabriel Prout and his family own the fishing vessel Silver Spray in Kodiak, Alaska. He said it was obvious something was wrong the last few years. The Bering Sea fishing grounds are usually covered in sea ice in the winter. But there wasn’t much ice, and they fished further north than usual. Finding snow crabs was still difficult. “It was just very poor fishing,” said Prout. “We searched for miles and miles and miles and really didn’t see anything.” >click to read< 10:15
Understanding the Bering Sea snow crab collapse
The Bering Sea snow crab season was canceled this year after billions of crabs disappeared – devastating a commercial fishing industry worth $200 million dollars and the livelihoods of those who depend on it. Now, fishermen and researchers are working to figure out what happened. On this Alaska Insight, host Lori Townsend is joined by Gabriel Prout, a crab fisherman and owner of the F/V Silver Spray, and Erin Fedewa, a fisheries biologist with the federal government, to discuss the impacts and potential causes of the crash. Video, >click to watch< 10:56
Disaster requests for Bering Sea crabbers highlight difficulty of getting financial relief to fishermen
The current process of getting financial relief to fishermen is cumbersome and takes a long time, but Bering Sea crabbers are hoping the plight of the snow crab population might change the way financial relief is delivered to fishermen. Gabriel Prout is a second-generation Bering Sea crab fisherman from Kodiak; he owns the F/V Silver Spray with his dad and brothers. He said there’s one big problem with the current process for handing out fishery disaster funding. “If you’re going to have a fishery disaster request program, you should be able to make it so the money is getting into the hands of those affected very quickly,” said Prout. Right now, it takes years for money to reach skippers and their crews. >click to read< 13:44
Fishermen fear going out of business after Alaska cancels snow and king crab harvest
For the first time ever, the Bering Sea snow crab harvest is closed, and for the second consecutive year, the Bristol Bay red king crab harvest is as well. The closure will result in fewer King and Snow crabs showing up on the menu, but the biggest impact is being felt by fishermen. “My husband is a 5th generation fisherman. His mom grew up in Ketchikan,” said Bri Dwyer who is a Commercial Fishing Industry photographer and storyteller. Her husband Captain Sean Dwyer is featured on the TV show Deadliest Catch. The family found out with everyone else this week that their crabbing season in the Bering Sea could be nonexistent. Video, >click to read< 08:48
Bering Sea king and snow crab seasons canceled amid population declines – Gabriel Prout co-owns the F/V Silver Spray with his dad and brothers. The Silver Spray is a 116-foot steel crabber that’s homeported in Kodiak. “The real shocking part is the total and complete collapse of the snow crab fishery which no one expected last year when it happened, and a complete closure this year was equally as shocking,” Prout said. >click to read<
Crab crash: Effects of collapsed Bering Sea crab stocks are being felt far beyond the fleet
The crash in Bering Sea crab stocks is translating to serious impacts for fishermen and communities across the Western Alaska coast. From the top, the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery is closed entirely this season for the first time since the 1990s, while the Bering Sea snow crab total allowable catch was reduced by nearly 90 percent. In the meantime, fishermen who depend on crab are dealing with the fallout of those cuts this year. Gabriel Prout of Kodiak was waiting out a storm in the Akutan harbor last week, after finishing up his snow crab season. The F/V Silver Spray, the vessel he owns with his father and brothers, was only able to go out for 100,000 pounds of snow crab. Of that, they only caught about 75,000 pounds because the fishing was so slow; they traded the rest of the quota for bairdi and headed south. >click to read< 17:39
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
Bering Sea red king crab in high demand
Gabriel Prout, owner of Alibi Seafoods and part-owner of the F/V Silver Spray, brought 175 king crab totaling 1,000 pounds to the docks last week, which he and his crew had caught in the Bering Sea. After the F/V Silver Spray delivered their 28,000-pound quota of crab to a seafood processor, they were free to deliver the extra unblocked quota to whomever they wanted. Cars lined up for the next six hours until the crab sold out. Prout, who owns and operates the Silver Spray with his family and a friend, brought back triple the amount of crab as last year to sell at the docks. >click to read< 09:43
Life on an Alaska Crab Boat
I grabbed the rails and prepared to vomit. My half-digested bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats would soon be fish food.,,, With a mix of curiosity and stupidity, I said yes to a week on the F/V Silver Spray, one of just 60 boats that harvest crab in the Bering Sea in the dead of winter. Preparing for the worst, I packed a backpack full of warm layers and wool socks, and emptied the local pharmacy of seasickness medications. The weather report for the week ahead was best described as bleak to downright grim. photo’s, >click to read< 06:34
The Boat at the Bottom of the Sea
Captain William Prout was up early. Or was it late? During crabbing season it was sometimes hard to tell the difference. The day before, Friday, February 10, 2017, Prout and his crew had offloaded a batch of snow crab on the remote Bering Sea island of St. Paul. Then they’d turned the Silver Spray around and motored back out to the fishing grounds to collect their remaining crab pots. At 5am on Saturday, Prout pulled his anchor and pointed his bow southeast. Hours of darkness still remained—dawn came late on the Bering Sea in February. Captain Prout stayed in the wheelhouse, drinking coffee with his son and looking out at the icy night, as the Silver Spray churned along. >click to read<20:06
Coast Guard searching for fishing vessel near St. George, Alaska
A U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak HC-130 Hercules airplane crew and two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews are responding to an electronic position indicating radio beacon alert from fishing vessel Destination approximately two miles northwest of St. George, Alaska, Saturday. Coast Guard 17th District watchstanders in Juneau received the alert this morning and launched the aircraft crews. Six people were aboard the vessel, which is based in Seattle and often moors at Sand Point, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Lauren Steenson, U.S. Coast Guard 17th District Alaska. Sand Point is a community of about 975 people in the Aleutians East Borough.The HC-130 Hercules crew arrived on scene to commence search patterns at approximately 10:13 a.m. Two MH-60 Jayhawk crews arrived early Saturday afternoon to assist with the search. Two good Samaritan vessels, fishing vessels Silver Spray and Bering Rose, are assisting with the search. Citizens in St. George have assembled a search party to patrol the shoreline for any signs of the crew or vessel. The EPIRB has been recovered among a debris field containing buoys, a life ring from fishing vessel Destination and an oil sheen. “We are saturating the area with Coast Guard and good Samaritan assets and hoping for the best,” said Chief Petty Officer Joshua Ryan, Coast Guard 17th District watchstander. Weather on scene is reported as 30-mph winds, five to eight-foot seas and snowing. Air temperature is 20 degrees and sea temperature is 30 degrees. Link 22:36
