Features – Page 8 – Fishermens News

Coast Guard Cutter Cuttyhunk Decommissioned

One of the U.S. Coast Guard’s remaining 110-foot Island-class patrol vessels, the cutter Cuttyhunk, was decommissioned May 5 in a ceremony at Air Station Port Angeles in Washington. Cuttyhunk, one of 37 remaining such Island-class patrol boats in service, was the 22nd of 49 of the vessels built. A fleet of 154-foot Sentinel-class cutters will replace the Island-class vessels, according to the USCG. The Cuttyhunk was commissioned in 1988 to support various USCG operations, including search and rescue, drug and fisheries enforcement and maritime homeland security. During its 34-year tenure, the vessel’s crew has accomplished more than 1,000 operations ranging from responding to searches and rescues in the Pacific Northwest to helping in various submarine escorts. Commanding Officer and ...

Offshore Wind Towers Make for Dangerous Seas

Operators of commercial fishing boats and other maritime vessels need to be aware of new and heightened concerns about how offshore wind (OSW) towers can interfere with and degrade radar systems. Mariners can be impacted on at least two fronts, including interference with marine vessel radar. According to a report released earlier this year by the National Academy of Sciences, wind towers undercut a radar’s central purpose: safety. The steel towers can distort information about a vessel’s relative location, a degradation that affects all vessel classes. Turbine blades clutter a radar’s display, resulting in an ambiguous and confusing picture for the operator. Correcting for these effects may make smaller vessels “disappear” completely. The other impact is interference with high freque...

Refrigeration Trends Focus on Efficiency, Eco-Friendly Systems, Preserving Catch Quality

Modern, eco-friendly and consumer-focused solutions are making their way into the marine refrigeration industry, while old processes are on the chopping block. Industry insiders say they’re seeing trends aimed at automated efficiency, reducing environmental impact and systems that better preserve catch quality. It’s important to keep up with technology and trends, said Lars Matthiesen, president and mechanical engineer for Highland Refrigeration, a Seattle-based company that designs and manufactures marine and industrial refrigeration systems. At Highland Refrigeration—a small company of about 25 people, including a handful of refrigeration engineers—they utilize worldwide connections to stay current with the latest industrial and technical developments, including safety and energy-eff...

Optimism Grows for Strong Bristol Bay Sockeye, Wild Alaska Pollock Markets

Markets are on the upswing, with potential for continuing growth, for Bristol Bay sockeye salmon and Alaska Pollock harvested in the Bering Sea. The two versatile, sustainable, protein packed wild-caught fish are popular with retail shoppers and diners from fast-food to fine dining restaurants. Industry economists and marketers credit a combination of influences for the growth, ranging from the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic to increased consumer understanding of how both species can easily be prepared at home, for a variety of hot and cold, simple and elegant meals. This is due to an ongoing educational campaign to bring more wild Alaska seafood to the center of the plate. At the same time, more people dining out as the pandemic wanes in some areas of the country are choosing ...

Passion for Wild-Caught Seafood Drives Wild Alaskan Company

Growing up on the back deck of his family’s commercial fishing boat in Southwest Alaska, Arron Kallenberg ate a lot of wild salmon and halibut and tended his family’s subsistence set net. His passion for wild-caught seafood dates back three generations, to when his grandfather, Robert C. Kallenberg, moved from New Jersey to Alaska in 1926 and began fishing on a wooden sailboard. Since then, he said, his family has always fished Bristol Bay, home of the world’s largest run of wild sockeye salmon. Later in life, his grandfather returned to the East Coast to earn a master’s degree in 1952 from Cornell University, an Ivy League school in Ithaca, NY. His thesis, according to Arron Kallenberg, was on “a study of the red salmon of Bristol Bay with particular reference to teacher its conservat...

Deck Machinery in 2022

The West Coast commercial fishing fleet is blessed with many dynamic deck machinery manufacturers of both independent-family owned and multinational-corporate varieties. New products are regularly announced and legacy products improved. Shop expansions move forward, increasing field-service capabilities, and bestselling trends shift. Companies rise and fall. For those in the commercial fishing industry, tracking the pulse of the region’s deck machinery scene is part of the lifestyle. Herein are a few notable highlights from the industry to help you stay informed. La Conner Maritime: La Conner and Mount Vernon, Wash. La Conner Maritime was founded by Ed Oczkewicz in 1978 to make deck gear for commercial fishing boats. The company started providing field service in Bristol Bay aroun...

IUU Fishing: An Ongoing Global Issue

For second-generation fisherman Dane Chauvel, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing goes against the very reason why he co-founded seafood delivery service Organic Ocean Seafood Inc. 14 years ago. Chauvel’s company in British Columbia was built on offering not only sustainably-harvested premium products to high-end restaurants and buyers, but also supporting responsible fishermen regionally and all over the world. IUU fishing undermines it. “Most people look at (IUU fishing) as being either a high seas or a developing nations issue,” Chauvel remarked. “And they think in the developed world … you wouldn’t have those issues. And sadly, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.” For decades, IUU fishing has been an ongoing issue globally, affecting all regions along multiple ...

Polar Star Goes Into Dry Dock After 147-Day Antarctic Deployment

Polar Star, the nation’s only heavy icebreaker, returned from its 147-day mission in support of the U.S Antarctic Program, and went directly into dry dock at Vallejo, California, rather than to its Seattle homeport. Work began on phase two of a five-year, $75-million Service Life Extension Program for the Polar Star in early April. The Coast Guard is replacing antiquated technology to ensure the longevity of the operational heavy icebreaker while in dry dock this year, updates that support the Coast Guard’s enduring commitment to Antarctic operations. The 140-member Polar Star crew departed Seattle on Nov. 13, 2021 for the cutter’s 25th Operation Deep Freeze deployment and traveled 24,300 nautical miles to Antarctica and back. Coast Guard officials said that the cutter made several in...

USCG Cutter Alex Haley Returns to Kodiak After Bering Sea Patrol

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley is back in port in Kodiak, Alaska after a 35-day winter Bering Sea patrol during which it engaged in domestic fisheries enforcement, responded to search and rescue incidents and performed at-sea medical evacuations from the Bering Sea fishing fleet. The cutter returned March 29. During the patrol, five search and rescue cases resulted in crew members saving five lives, according to the USCG, including an individual who experienced chest pain at Akutan and a 20-month-old child at King Cove suffering from respiratory distress. The crew maintained a law enforcement presence throughout the Aleutian Islands chain to prevent the illegal harvesting of U.S. fish stocks. They conducted seven fisheries boardings, investigated reports of two fis...

Spill Response and Resiliency Profile: Resolve Marine

The word ‘resolve’ has multiple definitions, but two of the more commonly used meanings are ‘to settle or find a solution to a problem’ and ‘firm determination to do something.’ Both definitions fully apply to Resolve Marine, a global maritime solutions provider with a large presence on the West Coast. Resolve, which has particularly large operations in Alaska, offers a range of services for commercial fishing boats, container ships and other types of vessels. They include emergency response, marine salvage and fire response, wreck removal, diving and underwater surveying, vessel stability modeling and remediation, coastal erosion control and recovery, wreck deposition, lightering, towing and damage-assessment services. In an exclusive interview with Fishermen’s News, Todd Duke, the co...