Fishermen’s News – Page 94

1May

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Processors Bracing for Unusual Salmon Season

One by one in the early spring of 2020, processors bracing for Alaska’s famed annual runs of wild salmon made clear to their fishermen that no novel coronavirus pandemic was going to come between them and that lucrative harvest. “Some people have asked if we’ll actually be able to process salmon this season,” said Mark Palmer, president and chief executive officer of Ocean Beauty Seafoods. “Our answer to this question is that we have been in business since 1910 and have never missed a salmon season in time of war, pandemic, or for any other reason,” Palmer said. “The salmon business is our core business and is in our DNA.” Palmer assured his fleet that Ocean Beauty was already purchasing supplies and would be processing salmon this season “if it is humanly possible.” To be sure, ...

1May

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Vessel Profile

Vessel Profile: F/V Haldrada

Hal Cook has been fishing in Bristol Bay since 1979. He started in the marine industry in 1976 building fishing equipment at Marco Shipyard in Seattle, and later started Go2marine, an online marine chandlery. When the time came that he needed a new Bristol Bay gillnetter, Cook’s years of experience in boatbuilding and fishing led him to North River Boats, in Roseburg, Oregon. A well-established builder of recreational boats and high-speed commercial and government vessels such as patrol craft and fireboats, in 2016 North River Boats partnered with respected Bristol Bay fisherman and boat builder, Dick Smitha, to build Bristol Bay gillnetters. The first in the series, F/V Nobody, was delivered in April of 2018. That 32-foot boat is 14.5 feet wide, and is motivated by a 575-hp John Deere ...

1Apr

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Say it with King Crab

Forget the chocolates and flowers. Dozens of Alaskans celebrated Valentine’s Day with colossal size sweet, succulent wild Bristol Bay red king crab legs like these held by Tito Marquez, general manager of 10th & M Seafoods in Anchorage during the shop’s holiday promotion. Marquez said it took four to seven colossal legs or nine to 12 jumbo legs to make up the popular 10-pound gift packages. Photo by Margaret Bauman.

1Apr

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Sponsons Keep Northwest Yards Busy

By Peter Marsh The F/V Collier Brothers is one of many boats that began life on the Gulf Coast in the 1970s as a shrimper and were brought out to the Pacific Northwest after the Magnuson Act became law in 1977. It was built in Bayou La Batre, Alabama by Gulf Coast Marine Builders in 1978 and was their thirteenth newbuild. It had a typical shrimper-type bow with a long overhang that gave it a L.O.A. of 84 feet on a beam of 24.5 feet and a draft of 12 feet. It was powered by a 1,000 hp Caterpillar turning a five-bladed 72-inch propeller in a nozzle. The two fish holds held approximately 290,000 pounds, but it never fished in the gulf, because a Portland, Oregon fisherman was in the area looking for a well-built boat at a fair price to take back to the West Coast. His son who is now the...

1Apr

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Allowable Harvest of Treaty Salmon Rises

A robust abundance of treaty Chinook salmon means a boost in the harvest allocation for 2020 under management provisions of the 2019-2028 Pacific Salmon Treaty Agreement, Alaska state fisheries biologists say. “What is being forecast looks to be a higher abundance of those treaty stocks and we have more fish to catch this year because abundance of treaty stocks is up,” said Grant Hagerman, commercial troll management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Juneau. ADF&G announced in mid-February that the annual all-gear allowable catch limit for Southeast Alaska/Yakutat would be 201,100 treaty Chinook. Any kings not of Alaska hatchery origin are considered treaty fish. This year’s all-gear catch limit includes a 2 percent reduction to serve as a buffer to avoid...

IPHC Cuts Pacific Halibut Catch Limit 7 Percent

1Apr

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IPHC Cuts Pacific Halibut Catch Limit 7 Percent

Commissioners of the International Pacific Halibut Commission, grappling with a decline in stocks, have set the 2020 catch limit for the fishery at 23.10 million pounds, down 7.08 percent from the 2019 quota, for a fishery to run from March 14 through Nov. 15. The commission adopted a coastwide mortality limit, also known as the TCEY, of 36.6 million pounds. The TCEY, or total constant exploitation yield, is the amount of removals of halibut over 26 inches in length for commercial, recreational, sport charter, subsistence and bycatch in other fisheries. For 2019, that coastwide TCEY was 38.61 million pounds. The 2020 commercial catch limits in millions of pounds for each regulatory area, the 2019 catch limits, and percentage change were as follows: Area 4CDE took the largest cut p...

Relief Coming for 2018 P-Cod Fishery Disaster

1Apr

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Relief Coming for 2018 P-Cod Fishery Disaster

Federal officials have allocated $65 million for communities in six states for fishery disasters that occurred between 2017 and 2019, including the 2018 Pacific cod and sockeye salmon losses in Alaska in 2018. Word of the allocation came in late February from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who said these funds would help the communities recover from a disaster beyond their control and make them more resilient to challenges in the future. The package includes $24.4 million for the 2018 economic disasters created in Alaska for loss of Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska and $10.3 million for the sockeye salmon failures at Chignik. The allocated funds will be administered by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, in Portland Oregon, which works collaboratively with National Mar...

UFA Takes Issue with BOF Allocative Decisions

1Apr

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UFA Takes Issue with BOF Allocative Decisions

State of Alaska officials are siding strongly with recreational and subsistence fish harvesters in allocation issues, drawing sharp criticism from United Fishermen of Alaska, the statewide umbrella group representing the state’s commercial fishing industry. Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang made clear, in a video posted on the social media website Facebook that the Alaska Board of Fisheries had an allocative preference for sport and personal use harvesters over commercial fishermen during its February meeting on Upper Cook Inlet finfish issues. “The board took a couple of key actions that really are of significance to Alaskans and people who are trying to put fish in their freezer to feed their families,” Vincent-Lang said. “All and all it was a win...

Bullwhip Hot Sauce is a Triple Winner at Alaska Symphony of Seafood

1Apr

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Bullwhip Hot Sauce is a Triple Winner at Alaska Symphony of Seafood

Bullwhip Hot Sauce, featuring Alaska bull kelp as its number one ingredient, swept top honors in the 2020 Alaska Symphony of Seafoods, to take home the grand prize, first place in retail competition and the Juneau People’s Choice award. “We have been amazed by people’s response since its release, owners of the Juneau-based company said after winning the awards. “When kelp is paired with piri pepper, tomatoes and fresh garlic, the delicious flavor makes you want to put this sauce on everything. The Alaska kelp industry is on an exciting trajectory and these awards showcase that we can make really delicious foods out of kelp.” The sauce itself is described as imparting a deep umami flavor, a savory or meaty taste. Four of the 20 products entered in the 2020 symphony competition, in ...

1Apr

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Ocean Bottom Temperatures are Key to Pacific Cod Numbers

A federal fisheries study focused on the influence of water temperature on egg hatching success concludes that the dramatic loss of Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska in 2019 was due to lack of optimal spawning habitat on the ocean bottom. The NOAA Fisheries study, led by biologist Benjamin Laurel, connected low numbers of Pacific cod larvae, juveniles and adults to loss of spawning habitat in the 2013 – 2016 marine heatwave, known as “the Blob” – the largest warm anomaly ever recorded in the North Pacific. Loss of optimal habitat for the Pacific cod eggs occurred during and immediately following the heat wave, causing a significant ecological as well as a significant economic impact on the second most valuable commercial fishery in Alaska. Also worth noting, researchers said, is t...