News

With the January issue we are happy to welcome our newest contributor, Terry Dillman, who will be reporting on commercial fisheries issues in Oregon and Northern California. Terry is a seasoned writer, editor and photographer with 34 years of newspaper and magazine experience. He is the assistant editor and business editor of the News-Times, a twice-weekly newspaper in Newport, Oregon, where he writes about ocean issues, including commercial fishing.His first contribution, on the delay of the Dungeness crab season due to meat quality issues, ran last month. This month he reports on Oregon’s pink shrimp fishery (page 1), the Pacific Seafood Antitrust suit (page 8) and marine reserve restrictions in Oregon (Page 18).We are also happy to announce the promotion of veteran Alaska correspondent ...

Trident Seafoods, bracing for an exceptionally large amount of snow crab in the Bering Sea, has hired on an additional 60 workers for its processing facilities at St. Paul Island.Joe Plesha, chief legal counsel for the Seattle based seafood company, said yesterday that the last of those workers was arriving this week, making a full crew of some 320 workers. “We’re doing this because of a larger quota, substantially larger this year than last year,” Plesha said.Trident facilities at St. Paul Island have the greatest capacity in the northern region of the Bering Sea for crab processing. Only one other company has processing facilities in that region.The total allowable catch aside, the harvest will be dictated somewhat by weather conditions, which can be particularly harsh in winter months i...

Alaska Superior Court Judge John Suddock on Jan. 10 consolidated two lawsuits aimed at halting enforcement of an initiative to forbid permitting large-scale mines that could significantly impact on salmon streams, and set a trial date for Feb. 11, 2013.Suddock made his decision after hearing comments in the Anchorage courtroom from all parties involved in the litigation. Both the Pebble Limited Partnership, which wants to develop the prospect, and the state of Alaska are challenging the legality of the initiative.The case could be resolved on motions before the actual trial date.Voters in Southwest Alaska’s Lake and Peninsula Borough approved during a general election last November an initiative aimed at blocking development of the massive Pebble mine prospect at the headwaters of Bristol ...

Copper River Seafoods has begun assessment of damage from heavy snowfall to the roof of one of its buildings in Cordova, which houses 20 boats and associated fishermen’s lockers, valued at more than $2 million.The roof of the two-story building collapsed on Jan. 6, in the wake of a snowstorm so severe that the Alaska National Guard is now on the scene helping residents shovel out.Although Cordova residents are used to heavy snowfall, so much snow fell in early January that residents say they are running out of places to put it.Copper River Seafoods officials say they have not yet determined the extent of damages, or whether there was impact to the first floor, where boats are stored.“Our first concern, is, of course, the safety of those in our community of Cordova”, said Scott Blake, compa...

The Alaska Board of Fisheries is accepting proposed regulation changes through 5 p.m. on April 10 for fisheries in the Bristol Bay, Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim and Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Islands management areas. Proposals may be for commercial, subsistence, personal use, sport, guide sport and guided sport ecotourism finfish regulations. Finfish include salmon, herring, trout, groundfish, char, burbot, northern pike, whitefish, Pacific cod, sablefish, shark, and Pollock, but not halibut.Examples of “statewide finfish” regulations can be found in Title 5 of the Alaska Administrative Code and include, but are not limited to, policy for the management of sustainable salmon fisheries, policy for the management of mixed stock fisheries, policy for statewide salmon escapement goals, possession of...

By Terry DillmanA class action antitrust lawsuit filed in June 2010 against Clackamas, Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group (PSG) is still tacking toward a requested court showdown, despite some legal course changes along the way.Initially filed by Portland law firm Haglund Kelley Horngren Jones & Wilder LLP for Brookings-based fishermen Lloyd Whaley and Todd Whaley and as many as 3,000 other “similarly situated fishermen and fishing vessel owners,” the lawsuit alleges monopolization of the Dungeness crab, Oregon coldwater (pink) shrimp, groundfish, and whiting seafood markets along the West Coast by PSG and its owner Frank Dulcich. Prices paid to fishermen are the central issue. The complaint alleges that PSG uses its market share of 50 to 70 percent in each of those four critical fishe...

Alaska’s seafood exports to China for the first 10 months of 2011 were valued at $762,795,549, out of the state’s total seafood exports of $2,242,202,197 for that period. Those are the preliminary figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, which values all commodities by the commercial invoices that accompany shipments, usually the first wholesale value, says Patricia Eckert of the Alaska Office of International Trade.Seafood, in fact, led all other exports from Alaska in value for those months in 2009 through 2011. Final export figures for 2011 are due out this coming spring.Those purchases by China are a jump up from $484,895,187 for the same months in 2010 and $400,543,908 in 2009.Seafood exports to Japan for the same months in those years were $527,392,711 in 2011, $464,830,703 in 2010 and $...

The size of the plant’s work force and product forms for pink salmon have not been determined yet, but Ocean Beauty Seafoods does plan to process wild Alaska pink, chum, coho and sockeye salmon this summer at its plant in Petersburg in Southeast Alaska.The pace may be somewhat slowed in anticipation of a lower pink salmon run. Tom Sunderland, vice president of marketing for Ocean Beauty, said the company has to make preparations based on the current forecast, but that on the other hand, maybe there will be more fish than the current forecast anticipates. Back in 2010, the company shuttered its Petersburg plant due to the low run of pink salmon.This season, “we will be buying salmon and putting it into some form,” Sunderland said. “I will know more as the winter goes on.”The highest pink sa...

An international 2000-mile personal watercraft (PWC) race proposed to attract 1,000 riders for a route from Whittier to Iliamna Alaska in May of 2013 is drawing interest and some concern in fishing communities that the race and its entourage would pass through.Planning for the Alaskan Wet Dog Race (www.wetdograce.com) has been in the works for several years and the deadline for commenting to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (at candice.snow@alaska.gov) for the land use permits race organizers are seeking is Jan. 26.Promoter John Lang, an Anchorage project engineer and former operator of a watercraft tour company at Whittier, said there have been hits on the race website from more than 100 countries. He said the race would bring $35 million into Alaska annually, including approxim...

The Alaska Board of Fisheries will meet Jan. 15-21 at the Sons of Norway facilities in Petersburg on proposals involving Southeast and Yakutat crab, shrimp and miscellaneous shellfish, including Dungeness, king and tanner crab. Then from Feb. 24 to March 4, the Board of Fisheries will be at the Ted Ferry Civic Center in Ketchikan for action on proposals offered on Southeast and Yakutat finfish, including salmon, herring and groundfish.The proposal package for Petersburg includes several dozen items on related to topics ranging from revising the Southeast red king crab management plan and revising the management plan for Southeast pot shrimp fisheries to a variable harvest strategy for sea cucumbers, and harvest strategies for geoducks.Nearly 150 proposals will be up for consideration at th...