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Final price information won’t be in from processors, buyers and direct marketers until next spring, but Alaska fisheries officials are already out with a preliminary ex-vessel estimate of $603 million for the 2011 commercial salmon season.That makes the 2011 harvest the third most valuable one since 1975, behind the 1988 harvest that paid fishermen $724.6 million and 2010 harvest worth $605 million. Analysts are already expecting the 2011 harvest value to surpass that of a year ago.Geron Bruce of the state’s Division of Commercial Fisheries notes that while the 176 million salmon harvested in 2011 – ninth largest since 1960 – came in short of the 203 million fish forecast, that high prices for all species pushed the value of the harvest to an extraordinary level.The pink salmon harvest set...

Alaska Superior Court Judge John Suddock will hold a scheduling hearing on Jan. 10 in a case challenging the legality of an initiative approved by Southwest Alaska voters that could halt development of the Pebble copper, gold and molybdenum mine.Scheduling had been set for Nov. 7, but parties to the lawsuit agreed to the delay so that some of the litigation could be consolidated into one lawsuit.By a vote of 280-246, voters in the Lake and Peninsula Borough approved in October a ban on large-scale resource extraction that would have an adverse affect on salmon habitat. The Pebble Limited Partnership, which wants to develop the mine, had tried unsuccessfully to keep the initiative off of the ballot on Oct. 4, alleging that the initiative was unenforceable as a matter of law. Then on Oct. 28...

New figures released by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game show that the halibut charter industry in Southeast Alaska has stayed within its harvest allocation limit for the first time since the halibut charter guideline harvest level was implemented.In a letter to the International Pacific Halibut Commission, the state agency reported a preliminary estimate for the Southeast Alaska 2011 charter boat catch of 390,000 pounds or about half of the 790,000-pound allocation.Linda Behnken of Sitka, president of the Halibut Coalition, said in an interview with The Fishermen’s News that “it’s encouraging that management measures put in place have finally been effective after six years of quota overages.” Still the preliminary cumulative overage for the charter fleet in that area adds up to 3.12...

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Fisheries and Oceans Canada are saying their tests have found no confirmed cases of the infectious salmon anemia virus, after investigating earlier reports that the virus was found in wild Pacific salmon.A spokesperson for the CFIA said during a news conference on Nov. 8 that that agency, is continuing to investigate reports of the ISA virus in British Columbia, collaborating with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the province of British Columbia and the Atlantic Veterinary College.The Canadian spokesperson said all 48 samples received as part of the original investigation were tested and found to be negative for the virus, and that these findings were consistent with those of an independent laboratory in Norway, which also tested samples associated with ...

Alaska fisheries officials are keeping a close watch on Canadian efforts to track samples from sockeye salmon that showed exposure to infectious salmon anemia virus, or ISA. The concern stems from Canadian reports that two of 38 Pacific salmon smolt caught in the waters of British Columbia tested positive for the virus, which is lethal to farmed Atlantic salmon, but whose effect on wild Pacific salmon is unknown. The virus is not known to be harmful to humans.Jeff Regnart, director of commercial fisheries for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said Nov. 1 that fisheries scientist Ted Meyers, a pathologist, is in daily contact with his Canadian counterparts on the matter, as they await the results of further testing. “Once this second round of tests is completed, we will take appropria...

With quotas down by 47 percent and prices skyrocketing to $20 a pound delivered in Japan, this year’s Bristol Bay red king crab fishery is attracting a lot of attention.The fishery began on Oct. 15, and by Nov. 1, 82 percent of the total allowable harvest of 7.8 million pounds had been landed. That’s 7,050,600 pounds to the individual fishing quota permit holders, plus another 783,400 pounds for community development quota entities.State fisheries officials said 62 vessels were participating, down three from a year ago.Prominent crab buyer Rob George of the Law Vegas-based Crab Broker, said this year’s fishery reminds him a bit of the old pre-crab rationalization legislation derby days.George, who makes an annual foray to Dutch Harbor to watch the crab come in, said most of the boats were ...

A new forecast for pink salmon in Southeast Alaska in 2012 has the harvest coming in at some 17 million pinks, well below the recent 10-year average of 40 million pinks, but equal to the average harvest over the past three even years.In the season just past there was a record run of pink salmon in northern Southeast Alaska, with nothing much going on in the southern part of Southeast.State biologists say there are two primarily reasons to expect that the coming year’s harvest will be smaller than average. First, although biological escapement goals were met in the parent year, 2010, escapement indices were below average on inside waters north of Sumner Strait, state biologists said. Management targets for pink salmon were not met in four districts, and at a finer scale, for 7 of 24 pink sa...

State of Alaska officials have filed a constitutional challenge in Anchorage Superior Court against a Lake and Peninsula Borough ordinance recently enacted by a ballot initiative that stands to prevent development of the Pebble mine.The initiative amended borough code to preclude granting permits for mining operations of greater than 640 acres that would give rise to a significant adverse impact on any salmon streams. The Pebble Limited Partnership, which hopes to build the mine, went to court to try and stop the initiative from getting on the ballot, but the Alaska Supreme Court denied an emergency petition for review by a lower court hearing, choosing to defer a decision on the legality of the ballot measure until after the Oct. 4 election.The mine is a joint venture of Northern Dynasty ...

By Margaret Bauman November 2011 A report of the crew work group meeting at Dutch Harbor during the October meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council notes that some current crab quota shareholders have agreed to voluntarily lower lease rates. The report, prepared by Edward Poulsen, distributed on Oct. 4 to members of the working group who participated in the Sept. 29 meeting, notes several issues covered by those in attendance and via teleconference, including a Kodiak connection. It does not mention electronic data reporting, a subject on which the council will take final action at its December 5-13 meeting in Anchorage. Poulsen, former executive director and now an advisor to the Bering Sea Crabbers, said he was preparing an updated report o...

The chief pathologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says there is concern over reports that exposure to infectious salmon anemia virus was detected in sockeye salmon in British Columbia, but that people should not overreact.There’s a good chance of false positives in those test results reported by researchers from Simon Fraser University from two of 48 sockeye salmon smolts in central British Columbia, said ADF&G’s Ted Meyers. Now those initial results are being analyzed through additional testing in a second laboratory to rule out any false positives and Alaska fishery scientists are awaiting results of those tests, he said.“At this point we are concerned, but do not want to overreact as we await more definitive information from Canada,” he said.There is some concern that...