Author: Fishermens News Online

News

Commercial Halibut Season Opens on West Coast

The first three-day commercial halibut fishing season of 2021 got underway in federal waters off the West Coast on Tuesday, June 22 and will run through Thursday, June 24 at 6 p.m. NOAA Fisheries said it will conduct patrols throughout the short season along with its partners, with a focus on ensuring compliance with rules and regulations governing the fishery, including proper marking of fishing gear, permitting and vessel documentation and adhering to minimum size and possession restrictions. All setline or skate marker buoys on board or used by U.S. vessels for halibut fishing must be marked with either the vessel’s state license number or registration number. These markings must be legible characters at least four inches high and one0half inch wide in a contrasting color visible abov...
News

Peter Pan Offers $1.10/lb. Base Price for Bristol Bay Sockeyes

Peter Pan Seafoods Co. LLC is continuing to boost prices to harvesters in Alaska, this time with its announcement of a base price of $1.10 a pound for Bristol Bay sockeye salmon. Response to the announcement at a fleet picnic in Dillingham on June 19 was “overwhelmingly happy,” said Jon Hickman, vice president of operations for Peter Pan, a vertically integrated seafood firm which since January is under new ownership in Alaska. “They are extremely pleased to have a number before they go out fishing,” Hickman said, adding that quality incentives for chilling and bleeding the salmon also remain in place. Peter Pan said that the company posted the price early “to put the fleet at ease that they will receive a fair price for the long hours and hard work they are about to endure participatin...
News

Spinrad Confirmed as 11th NOAA Administrator

Richard “Rick” W. Spinrad, who served as chief scientist of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under the Obama administration, is back at the federal agency as Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and 11th NOAA administrator. NOAA Fisheries has also announced the appointment of Janet Coit as NOAA Fisheries assistant administrator. Spinrad is tasked with leading the agency’s strategic direction and oversight of $7 billion in proposed FY22 annual spending to tackle challenges ranging from weather modeling and prediction, and the climate crisis to leveraging non-governmental and private partnerships and promoting a sustainable blue economy. His appointment was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 17. Spinrad also previously served as NOAA’s assistant administr...
News

NPFMC Plans Return to In-Person Meetings in October

Members of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council are planning to transition back to in-person meetings in October. The council’s October and December meetings are scheduled to be held at the Anchorage Hilton Hotel. Final action on the Bering Sea/ Aleutian Islands Pacific Cod catcher vessel trawl cooperative program is on the agenda for the October meeting. The draft schedule for both meetings is online at https://www.npfmc.org/3meeting/ During the staff tasking section of the council’s virtual meeting which concluded in mid-June, the council decided that all plan team and committee meetings would be held virtually through September, and that the advisory panel and the scientific and statistics committee would also meet virtually for the October meeting. Council members said they ...
News

Additional Relief Anticipated for California Fishing Industry

California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is working on a revised spending plan for California funds provided under the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CARES II) that is to be submitted to NOAA Fisheries for approval. The money is part of the additional $255 million in fisheries assistance funding provided under CARES earlier this year, to aid coastal and marine fishery participants who were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. CDFW officials said fishery participants eligible to receive these funds include commercial fishing businesses, charter/for hire fishing businesses, and qualified aquaculture operations, as well as processors and dealers participating in marine and anadromous fisheries. Those with a CDFW license or permit in a qualifying sector who plan to appl...
News

CDC Ends Mask Requirement Aboard Maritime Vessels as Salmon Harvest Begins

A health and safety requirement for masking on board in the maritime transportation system to prevent the spread of the global pandemic of novel coronavirus has ended. The rule was lifted this week by U.S. Coast Guard officials, who said mask wear in outdoor areas of maritime transportation conveyances and hubs is no longer required. The change reflected updated enforcement of the mask requirement for commercial vessels and maritime transportation hubs. While the CDC is no longer requiring mask wear in outdoor areas, masks may still be required in outdoor areas at the discretion of operators of conveyances and transportation hubs. Coast Guard officials said the updated guidelines do not supersede any federal, state, local, tribal or territorial laws, rules and regulations that still requ...
News

Plan to Restore Roadless Rule to Tongass National Forest Sparks Kudos, Criticism

A Biden administration decision to repeal or replace a U.S. Forest Service rule allowing road construction and industrial old-growth logging in Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is getting kudos from fishermen and criticism from the region’s economic development entity. Responses for and against a U.S. Department of Agriculture plan, which was prompted by the administration’s concerns about climate change, ranged from relief from commercial fish harvesters and conservationists to concerns from the state’s Southeast Conference over potential loss of jobs and economic development. “This fisherman sure feels this is welcome news and most every fisherman in the region would welcome this news,” said Tyson Fick, a Southeast Alaska gillnetter, owner of Yakobi Fisheries and captain of ...
News, Vessel Profile

Coast Guard Cutter Stratton Returns to San Diego

Mission accomplished. After a 105-day deployment to Alaska, plus biannual shipboard training off the coast of San Diego, the Coast Guard Cutter Stratton has returned to its homeport at Alameda, California. During the deployment Stratton's crew, along with an MH-65 helicopter aircrew from Air Station Kodiak, patrolled the Bering Sea up to the ice edge of the Arctic, where they conducted search and rescue missions in the Bering Sea. With support from the ship’s unmanned aircraft system, the crew helped to safeguard Alaska’s multi-billion-dollar fishing industry with 15 fisheries law enforcement boardings, to ensure compliance with maritime laws. Their mission aided in protecting the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone by patrolling the maritime boundary line to prevent illegal harvest in U.S. wate...
News

Ocean Wise Launches Great American Shoreline Cleanup

Vancouver, British Columbia-based global conservation non-profit Ocean Wise is launching a new program aimed at cleaning up trash along America’s shoreline, with pilot programs in California and Texas coming this autumn. Ocean Wise engages in research, education, direct-action conservation and field projects, with a focus on tackling overfishing, ocean pollution and climate change. Its program will be built on the successful Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup program, which began in 1994, through which almost one million volunteers have participated in over 28,000 cleanups that kept over two million kilograms of trash out of Canada’s oceans, lakes and rivers. Plans are for the official launch of the new shoreline cleanup on International Coastal Cleanup Day, Sept. 18. With a combined popul...
News

Effort Increases to Protect Transboundary Rivers from Adverse Impact of Mining

British Columbia Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation Bruce Ralston is moving to boost communications with Alaska to collaborate further on protect habitat in the salmon-rich Stikine Unuk and Taku rivers flowing into Southeast Alaska. Ralston said in correspondence on June 11 to the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) that the province is committed to ensuring that the effect of mining projects proposed within British Columbia are appropriately assessed in environmental assessment and permitting processes, including appropriate consideration of downstream and cumulative effects. They also agreed to enhance engagement on the issue with indigenous nations in BC and Alaska Native tribes. Ralston told the SEITC that his staff would connect with the com...