Tag Archives: Lower Cook Inlet
After tough salmon season, Lower Cook Inlet fishermen say it will be a struggle to stay afloat
Alaska’s salmon season is largely over. However, commercial fishermen on the southern Kenai Peninsula are reflecting on a year marked by declining catches and higher costs. That includes first-year tender captain Theodore “Teddy” Handley, who took on the role of running his own vessel, the Julia Starr, this season. As a tender captain, he collects fish from fishing boats and delivers them to processing plants. Handley said the sheer pink salmon volume typically boosts the late-season harvest “Even though you’re paid maybe a sixth of what you get for sockeyes per pound, just the volume more that shows up in a pink run is how a lot of the fishermen make their money, and that’s how a lot of the canneries make their money too,” Handley said. Homer’s fishing community comprises generations of families who harvest salmon, halibut and other species from the waters of Lower Cook Inlet. The city is also made up of people and businesses that rely on the commercial fishing industry for income. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:40
FISH FACTOR: First checks finally set for 2016 pink salmon disaster
It’s been a long time coming but payments should soon be in hand for Alaska fishermen, processors and coastal communities hurt by the 2016 pink salmon run failure, the worst in 40 years. Congress OK’d more than $56 million in federal relief in 2017, but the authorization to cut the money loose languished on NOAA desks in D.C. for more than two years. The payouts got delayed again last October,,, >click to read< 17:18
2019 salmon season fell short in some areas
As nearly every commercial salmon fisherman in Upper Cook Inlet can tell you, the 2019 season fell far short in every department. The commercial harvest came in at about 2.1 million sockeye, 37% below the most recent 10-year average, and the total run, forecast for 6 million sockeye, fell 13% short,,, Lower Cook Inlet, meanwhile, had a better season with a commercial harvest of 2.4 million fish of all species. >click to read< 18:07
Commercial cod fishermen get more space in Kachemak Bay
Commercial groundfish fishermen in Kachemak Bay will get more space to operate after the Board of Fisheries redefined the closed waters in the area. In Lower Cook Inlet, commercial fishermen are allowed to use pots to fish for Pacific cod and have been allowed inside Kachemak Bay west of the Homer Spit and along the southern shore of the bay near Seldovia. However, the main section and a swath extending westward in the center of the bay have been closed by regulation because of concerns for the Tanner crab population, which has dropped off significantly in Kachemak Bay in the last two decades or so. The fishery is mostly small boats, and because the fishery takes place in the fall on the edges of Kachemak Bay, they run the risk of bad weather, so to avoid the poor weather, they have limited area, said AlRay Carroll, the proposer, during his public comments during the Board of Fisheries’ meeting in Homer on Wednesday. Read the article here 10:28
Strong sockeye run for Upper Cook Inlet, weaker run for Lower Cook Inlet
The Upper Cook Inlet commercial fishing industry will see a spike in sockeye salmon harvest this year, if the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s forecast holds true. Fish & Game forecast a total of 7.1 million sockeye salmon to return to the Upper Cook Inlet streams and rivers, with 4.1 million allocated to commercial harvest. That number is about 1.1 million more than the 20-year average and about 1 million more than the total commercial harvest in 2015. Most of the increase will be fish headed for the Kenai River, which will see approximately one million more sockeye salmon than the 20-year average, according to Fish & Game’s forecast. Read the rest here 08:27
