Article Category: News

The 2023 Ocean Salmon Industry Group meeting is scheduled to take place Feb. 27 in Newport, Ore., both in person and virtually, to review the 2022 seasons and take a look at 2023 salmon forecasts. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) officials said this meeting is also to begin development of Oregon preferred recreational and commercial ocean salmon season concepts via public input to take through the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) regulation-setting process. The meeting is open to commercial salmon troll fishers, ocean sport fishing anglers and charter operators, as well as others interested in participating in development of the 2023 ocean salmon seasons. ODFW staff are expected to provide background materials and presentations, then work with attendees to develop p...

The Norton Sound Economic Development Corp. (NSEDC) will not purchase crab from the 2023 red king crab winter commercial fishery, in what the corporation has described as a difficult decision based on concerns for the long-term health of the fishery. While the stock appears to be rebounding, NSEDC believes a cautious approach to commercial harvests continues to be necessary to preserve the recovery, the corporation said in a statement issued in the second week of January. NSEDC is a private nonprofit corporation, with offices in Nome and Anchorage representing 15 member communities and nearly 8,500 people in the Bering Straits region of Northwestern Alaska. With the current mature crab stock being vital for reproduction, NSEDC officials said, a conservative harvest approach over the n...

The Seattle-based U.S. Coast Guard cutter Polar Star departed Australia on Dec. 21 to begin its journey across the Southern Ocean en route to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2023. The Polar Star ’s Hobart, Australia port call was part of the crew’s annual deployment to Antarctica to support Operation Deep Freeze, a joint military service mission to resupply the Antarctic stations of the National Science Foundation, the lead agency for the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP). The Polar Star  departed its Seattle homeport Nov. 16. The vessel’s four-day port call in Hobart was their final stop before reaching Antarctica. While in Hobart, the crew hosted a reception for guests from the Australian Antarctic Division, Australian Border Force, Tasmanian government representatives and...

After more than 18,000 nautical miles and 77 days on patrol, the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf returned to Alameda, Calif. from a trek through the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the Guard announced Dec. 3. During that time, the 418-foot Legend-class national security cutter engaged in drug enforcement, including the boardings of several suspected drug-smuggling vessels that resulted in detaining a number of suspected smugglers and seizing of more than 1,050 pounds of cocaine, according to the Coast Guard. This was done while providing enforcement off the Central and South America coasts in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South, a multiservice, multiagency effort. The Bertholf also offloaded the more than 4,000 pounds of marijuana interdicted by the crew members of Coast...

A University of Washington fisheries scientist says her research shows that fish parasites in Puget Sound have been in decline over the last century. “We all have this sense that as climate change proceeds that what we get is increased parasite outbreaks; that we are messing with Earth and that Earth is messing (with us) right back,” Associate Professor Chelsea L. Wood of the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, said. The study, titled “A reconstruction of parasite burden reveals one century of climate-associated parasite decline,” was published online in January on PNAS News, a website that releases Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Until the study was conducted, Wood said, there was little information on wildlife parasites other than the impact of parasites on h...

More than $94,000 from the Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) is expected to help fund two unique projects supporting salmon populations in British Columbia’s Skeena River estuary and its tributaries. The funds were allocated through the Port Authority’s Skeena River Salmon Enhancement Program, an initiative established in 2019 to provide $1 million in financial support to projects that increase salmon productivity and the maintenance and rehabilitation of habitat in the river’s watershed.   The Port Authority contributed $70,142 toward the Multi-Year Juvenile Salmon Habitat and Eulachon Inventory Study via its partnership with Lax Kw’alaams Fishing Enterprises Ltd. The project, according to the PRPA, aims to build the knowledge base for healthy wild runs and successful enhancement o...

The Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville, Calif. is expected to increase production of fall-run Chinook salmon in 2023 to some 9.5 million fish to combat the impacts of drought and a thiamine deficiency affecting natural spawning and in-river production. The plan, announced jointly in mid-December by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), marks the second straight year that the Feather River Fish Hatchery would exceed its typical production quota of six million fall-run Chinook salmon to help sustain the state’s commercial and recreational salmon fisheries. In 2022, the hatchery raised and released eight million fall-run Chinook salmon smolts, according to Fish and Wildlife data. The hatchery, owned by DWR and o...