Tag Archives: salmon season
The Gig Harbor fishing fleet had a bonanza season in Alaska this year
“This has been our best season in six years,” said Matt Munkres, who skippers the Gig Harbor-based Julien, a 54-foot purse seiner. “And we got good prices, so all in all, it was pretty good.” Fishermen were glad to see it, because the previous two years had been disappointing. Gregg Lovrovich, president of the Gig Harbor Commercial Fishermen’s Club, says fishing “is like farming, you take the good and the not so good, and over the years, it kind of balances out.” Lovrovich, who runs the 58-foot Sea Fury, says he was late leaving for Alaska because of a daughter’s wedding, so he was only able to fish for a month and a half. “Still, it was one of the best months I’ve ever had,” he said. >click to read< 09:52
The world’s finest salmon season is now under way
Today officially inaugurates Alaska’s summer salmon season with the opening of the first Copper River salmon fishing period of the 2021 season. Beginning at 7 am, the Copper River fishing fleet, comprised of 540 small-boat, independent commercial fishing permit holders will have the opportunity to harvest highly-prized Copper River king and sockeye salmon during a short 12-hour window. Today’s catch will be delivered to Cordova’s shore-based seafood processors and flown fresh to companies and individuals across the country who have reserved exclusive rights to the season’s first fish. >click to read< 21:19
Salmon season delayed for Half Moon Bay fishermen
Fishermen are facing a shortened commercial salmon season,, “This is the least amount of fishing time that I can remember for California fishermen since the closures of 2008 and 2009,” said Half Moon Bay fisherman Don Marshall.,, Pacific Fishery Management Council made the season restrictions recommendation,, Fisherman Scott Edson said the shortened season would be tough when he fishes out of Half Moon Bay, but it could have been worse given the circumstances. He struggled during crab season and knows this will be an important few months to make a living this year. “I have to produce for salmon. Crab didn’t do anyone any favors,” Edson said. >click to read< 17:10
California salmon season delayed and shortened, angering North Bay fishermen. Closest start may be May 1
Expected to be decided within the next few weeks, there are three proposals on the table, all shorten the season considerably. The closest start may be May 1, instead of April. Association President John McManus predicted a 40% loss in the season for sports fishermen, while Crescent City commercial fisherman George Bradshaw predicted the industry’s take would be down by two thirds. The bad news for a delayed and restricted salmon fishing season comes on the heels of a slow, sputtering start for crab fishing fleets, which were stalled while fishery officials waited for migrating whales to leave the coastal region. >click to read< 08:05
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 13, 2020
Baywide daily harvest dropped below 2 million for the first time since July 4th. The total harvest is over halfway to the pre-season forecast swimming in at 25.2 million fish. Total escapement throughout the bay is now just over 12 million, and has now passed the pre-season escapement forecast. The total run in Bristol Bay so far this season is 38.4 million fish. Average fish per drift delivery was below 1,000 in every district of the bay yesterday. >click to read< 09:48
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 7, 2020
We have the first million-fish catch day in the bay! Egegik harvested 1 million and 30 thousand fish, and the Naknek-Kvichak district and the Nushagak both had harvests over 950,000. The total run across the bay jumped by 4 million fish yesterday, to 15.5 million fish. With respect to Egegik’s big catch yesterday, Egegik management biologist Aaron Tiernan had this to say in an email, “Wow! That was impressive. Based on Port Moller, there is still a good amount of fish to come.”,, A boat sinks in the Nushagak district.,, “I have never picked so much fish in my life in one opener” – Nushagak drifter describes a big opener. >click to read< 14:13
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 4, 2020
A big bump of fish hit the Naknek-Kvichak and Egegik yesterday — those fleets caught most of the bay’s daily harvest of nearly 1.2 million. Total harvest around the bay is now approaching 5 million. Escapement yesterday was 140,000, and 1.8 million fish have escaped around the bay this season. The total run is at around 6.8 million. The Nushagak district’s daily harvest was 60,000 yesterday, bringing the season’s harvest to,,, Breaking that down by river system, audio report, >click to read< 07:25
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 2, 2020
Fish are picking up around the bay. The run leapt past the 4 million fish mark and is approaching 5 million, and the runs in the Naknek-Kvichak and Egegik both passed 1 million yesterday. Egegik had the largest daily harvest. In the Nushagak, the total run passed 2 million. Coronavirus update (Covid-19), U.S. House and Senate extend application deadline for PPP,Audio report, >click to read< 14:02
Start of salmon season gives hope to fishing industry crushed by Coronavirus pandemic
The Bay Area’s fishing industry has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. But, local fishing companies are hoping salmon season will help change their fortunes. The fishing industry says the closure of restaurants has been devastating. Now, they’re hoping they’ve weathered the brunt of the economic storms. The fishing industry’s fates have always been ruled by nature, but long time fishermen and distributors say there’s no way they could have seen the economic blow the coronavirus pandemic would land on their industry. video, >click to read< 14:02
West Coast salmon season taking shape – Feds Look at Protections for Oregon Spring-Run Chinook Salmon
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that provide recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the Pacific coast and achieve conservation goals for the numerous individual salmon stocks on the West Coast. >click to read< 17:25
Feds Look at Protections for Oregon Spring-Run Chinook Salmon -A petition seeking to extend federal wildlife protections to spring-run Chinook salmon found along Oregon’s coast has merit and could warrant listing the fish under the Endangered Species Act, Conservation groups Native Fish Society, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Umpqua Watersheds submitted a new petition in September 2019 specifically for spring-run salmon. >click you< 17:33
Coronavirus: Fishing community takes precautions as it readies for salmon season
“We know the fish are coming regardless of COVID-19 or not and we can’t ask them to stay home.” Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink made the comment during a March 30 press briefing, adding that the state has a specific fisheries work group trying to figure out ways small communities can handle an influx of fishermen and processing workers while also adhering to important health guidelines that run counter to the realities of a traditional fishing season. While Alaska’s diverse fisheries continue year-round, the famed Copper River sockeye and king fishery that unofficially kicks off the salmon harvest in mid-May each year will be one of the first testing grounds for trying to find that balance. >click to read< 16:51
How Alaskan Fishermen Are Dealing With The Coronavirus
While the pandemic is crippling every industry, the seafood supply chain is at a standstill. Producing more by volume than all other states combined, Alaskan fisheries are exceptionally important to seafood markets. The outbreak could disrupt the start of salmon season for Alaskan fishers this year, and there is currently little understanding of how the seafood industry will be affected now and in the future. The salmon season in Alaska runs from May through September. In this time, many fishers pull in a majority of their annual income. >click to read< 17:44
Alaska: Seafood industry faces more uncertainty
As another year draws to a close, the seafood industry seems to be facing even more uncertainty than usual, with some groundfish stocks cratering, salmon runs behaving in historically strange ways, trade wars with China imposing some tariffs on a variety of products, and the state being on the forefront of climate change. The year started out with a Pacific cod quota cut of 80 percent in the Gulf of Alaska, an unexpected drop after a strong year class from 2012 suffered unusually high mortality due to a warm period from 2014 to 2016.,, Bering Sea crabbers started the year with a 19.5 million-pound opilio quota that proved difficult for some boats, >click to read<09:30
Impasse between fishery and tribal leaders puts Puget Sound salmon season in jeopardy
State fishery managers announced late Tuesday they had reached an impasse with tribal leaders over a salmon season this summer. It will now be in the hands of the federal government to make the final decision that will affect the livelihoods thousands of people connected to the salmon fishery. Officials with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are uncertain if a permit will be issued in time to hold recreational and non-tribal commercial fisheries in Puget sound. “This isn’t the outcome we had hoped for, but we will do our best to obtain a federal permit as quickly as possible,” said Ron Warren, head of WDFW’s Fish Program said in a statement Read the rest here 11:56
