Fishermen’s News Online – Page 2

Chinook Salmon an Increasingly Popular Food Choice of Sharks

5Feb

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Chinook Salmon an Increasingly Popular Food Choice of Sharks

Wild Chinook salmon, a perennial favorite of seafood aficionados at upscale restaurants, is also becoming increasingly popular with a tough and hungry predator found in ocean waters from the Central Bering Sea to the coast of Oregon. “Predation by salmon sharks is on the increase,” Andrew Seitz, a researcher at the University of Alaska College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, in Fairbanks, Alaska, said. “We don't know how long because we haven't been doing this long enough, but signs are (that) there are a lot of them out there in the ocean.” Seitz presented his research findings on the decline of Chinook salmon abundance in the North Pacific Ocean during the Gulf of Alaska plenary session of 2025 Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage on Jan. 28. “The ocean is a dangero...

5Feb

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ODFW Issues Fleet Advisory to Avoid Whale Entanglement

Oregon fisheries officials faced with another humpback whale entangled in multiple sets of commercial crab gear have issued a fleet advisory for the Dungeness crab fishery in all waters off the Oregon coast to avoid setting gear where whales are transiting or foraging. The advisory, issued Jan. 30, became effective immediately. The latest entanglement comes in the wake of a record four entanglements, involving three humpback whales and one fin whale, attributed to Oregon commercial crab gear in 2024. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials reminded the fleet of crab fishing best practices to help reduce the risk of entanglements at all times, but especially when entanglement risk is elevated during times of higher crabbing effort or when higher numbers of humpback wha...

IPHC Cuts Coastwide Commercial Halibut Catch By 18%

5Feb

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IPHC Cuts Coastwide Commercial Halibut Catch By 18%

In a somber and tense meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission in Vancouver, British Columbia, stakeholders faced with the lowest spawning biomass in 40 years opted to cut the commercial catch limits for the 2025 season by just over 18%. The 2025 quotas were announced Jan. 31. The fishery has been scheduled to open at 6 a.m. on March 20 and run through 11:50 p.m. on Dec. 7. “The halibut spawning biomass is at historic low levels,” Linda Behnken, a veteran commercial harvester and executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, said. “Stock productivity is low with no obvious strong year classes on the horizon,” she continued. “Reductions in catch limits are necessary, but would be less painful if Canada’s harvest was proportional to the abu...

Juvenile Salmon Face Competition for Food in Northwest Waters

5Feb

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Juvenile Salmon Face Competition for Food in Northwest Waters

Juvenile sablefish in increasing numbers off the coastal waters from Central Oregon north to northern Washington are competing with juvenile salmon for food, according to NOAA Fisheries research recently published in the journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries. The report, released Jan. 7, shows the influence of warming ocean temperatures off the West Coast. It matches reports of fishing boats catching smaller sablefish closer to shore. Researchers said their findings mean that salmon may face new competition from sablefish at a critical time in their life cycle, which is already threatened by climate change. Adult sablefish live for many years in deep offshore waters along the ocean floor. Juvenile sablefish, like young salmon, first feed and grow along the highest layers of th...

Salmon Troller Advocacy Group to Attend Wild Seafood Connection

5Feb

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Salmon Troller Advocacy Group to Attend Wild Seafood Connection

ALFA to highlight challenges to the independent commercial fishing fleet Around the U.S., commercial fishermen of all kinds are being targeted by lawsuits and misinformation campaigns orchestrated by competing special interest groups posing as environmentalists. Among other sustainably managed commercial fisheries, Southeast Alaska’s salmon troll fisheries have been the target of aggressive lawsuits and misleading rhetoric trying to frame small-boat salmon fishermen as the cause for declining Chinook salmon and Southern Resident Killer Whales in the Pacific Northwest. In a coordinated effort to correct misinformation, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) has implemented an initiative to educate chefs and seafood buyers with well-documented science to promote salm...

Saint Paul Crab Harvest to be Processed at Unalaska

29Jan

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Saint Paul Crab Harvest to be Processed at Unalaska

A processing agreement forged between the cities of Saint Paul and Unalaska, thanks to an annual exemption approved by National Marine Fisheries Service, will allow for processing of 1.5 million pounds of snow crab at Unalaska, with tax benefits going to Saint Paul. “Under the circumstances, it's a win-win for both communities,” Saint Paul City Manager Phillip Zavadil said when the deal was announced Jan. 21. Zavadil also said that the low north region snow crab total allowable catch (TAC) of 1,576,624 pounds and capacity issues associated with processing low amounts of crab at the Trident Seafoods plant on Saint Paul Island had made processing and custom processing of snow crab in the northern region non-viable. “After careful consultation with crab industry partners and cons...

Once-Prized Togiak Herring Has No Buyers

29Jan

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Once-Prized Togiak Herring Has No Buyers

Back in the late 1990s, herring caught commercially off of Togiak, an Inuit village in the Dillingham Census Area of Southwestern Alaska, was worth over $1,000 a ton. And with an allowable catch of 20,000 tons, it would fetch fishermen $20 million. “In the heyday of the 1990s there were 300 seine boats and 500 gillnetters,” Tim Sands, area management biologist at Dillingham for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said. An ADF&G announcement released on Jan. 13 put the total allowable 2025 harvest at 45,761, but as of Jan. 27, there were no buyers, Sands said. With no buyers to purchase the commercial harvest, a ton of herring has no value, he said, adding that the last Togiak commercial herring fishery to have buyers was in 2022. The historic size of Togiak herring ...

Wild Alaska Pollock Season Faces Economic Competition from Russia

29Jan

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Wild Alaska Pollock Season Faces Economic Competition from Russia

Harvests are underway in the lucrative wild Alaska pollock A season, with an overall 1.5 million metric ton total allowable catch (TAC) in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The fishery survived a potential domestic trawling ban, but still faces stiff economic competition from Russia. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council in December set the TAC at 1.375 million metric tons for the Bering Sea and 171,000 metric tons in the Gulf of Alaska. That decision came after the Alaska Board of Fisheries rejected proposed trawling bans in Prince William Sound. The volume of the TAC and the Alaska pollock biomass, which refers to the total weight of the pollock in a specific area, has remained relatively consistent over the years, clear evidence of the sustainable, responsible, science...

Aleuts, NMFS Reach Agreement on Joint Management of Federal Waters

29Jan

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Aleuts, NMFS Reach Agreement on Joint Management of Federal Waters

Agreement has been reached between the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for joint management of federal waters off of the Pribilof Islands fishing community. The economy of Saint Paul Island is dependent primarily on commercial fisheries. The memorandum of agreement was signed Jan 16 by ACSPI President John Wayne Melovidov and Janet L. Coit, NMFS’ assistant administrator for fisheries. The MOA establishes a government-to-government relationship that recognizes each party's roles in stewarding the marine waters surrounding the Pribilof Islands, and notes the link of the Aleut people to the marine ecosystem surrounding their ancestral home, as well as NMFS's responsibility for stewardship of the nation’s ocean resources ...

Strong Runs Forecast for Copper River Sockeye, PWS Pink Salmon

29Jan

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Strong Runs Forecast for Copper River Sockeye, PWS Pink Salmon

State fisheries biologists are predicting strong runs of sockeye salmon into the Copper River and wild pink and chum salmon into Prince William Sound for the upcoming 2025 commercial salmon fisheries in Alaska. An Alaska Department of Fish and Game forecast released Jan. 23 estimated the run of wild sockeye salmon into the Copper River fishery, which is scheduled to open in late May, as having a forecast range of 2.2 million to 2.9 million fish, or 55% above the total run 10-year average of 1.6 million fish. The Chinook salmon run into the Copper River, by comparison, is forecast with a range of 25,000 to 51,000 fish, or 25% below the total run 10-year average of 48,000 kings. For the odd-year run of pink salmon into Prince William Sound, biologists forecast a range of 8.5 mil...