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Alaska Sea Grant will provide $1 million during the next two years to support marine research that includes projects to assess the potential impact of the growing sea otter population in Southeast; develop better pollock fishery management models; and determine the genetic stock structure of red and blue king crab.Alaska Sea Grant is a partnership between the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that conducts marine research, education, communication, and Marine Advisory Program extension throughout coastal Alaska. The program is based at the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.Alaska Sea Grant also will fund a host of other studies, including a study of the abundance of plankton species that are an important food source for j...

Freshly caught wild salmon, direct from the pristine waters of Bristol Bay, Alaska, will arrive in restaurants and seafood cases in Portland and Seattle early next month as part of Trout Unlimited Alaska’s Savor Bristol Bay campaign.Nearly 40 restaurants and markets in Washington and Oregon will feature Bristol Bay sockeye salmon from July 4 to 10 and encourage consumers to “Vote with Their Forks” for this sustainable, carefully managed Alaska fishery that faces threats from proposed large-scale mining.“Bristol Bay’s sockeye fishery is a model for what defines a truly sustainable, wild salmon fishery, from the size of the nets to the number of fish allowed to be harvested each year. I hadn’t planned on serving salmon on my menu anymore because of declining wild salmon runs on the West Coas...

By John HurwitzMidsummer, somewhere off Northern California’s lost coast, I’d been salmon fishing around Shelter Cove. The fog hung halfway up the mountains, the sky was missing, replaced by a grey blanket stretching as far west as I could see. Mountains rise straight up from the sea with innumerable creeks springing from every crevice and gorge. The waterfalls and rivulets trip and flow down the cliffs, grow into creeks as they meet the beach and then race across the sand to join the sea. A magical place to be sure and once there, a place you’ll never forget. Off some of these creeks there’s some good holding ground for boaters who don’t mind anchoring just outside the breaker line facing the open sea. In this setting I stretched out on the deck one evening and contemplated where to end m...

The Alaska Fishing Industry Relief Mission (AFIRM) is sending a $10,600 donation to Louisiana to help the Gulf Coast fishing industry. The money will underwrite an industry effort to create a citizen advisory committee to help oversee the Gulf of Mexico oil industry.If adopted by Congress, the Louisiana committee would be similar to those which already operate in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, where Regional Citizens’ Advisory Committees (RCACs) were established after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Those committees monitor terminal and tanker operations, conduct research and provide advice to ensure industry operations are in accordance with environmentally sound practices. The Gulf fishing and oil industries have coexisted for many years, but the continuing disaster created ...

Kvichak Marine Industries, known for its aluminum fishing and work vessels is currently constructing a run of approximately 30 each 30-foot Rapid Response Oil Skimmers fitted with Marco Pollution Control CL-1 Filterbelt oil recovery modules for customers who are responding to the current Gulf spill. The Kvichak/Marco Filterbelt is proving to be one of the most effective oil recovery systems now operating in the Gulf, and is ideally suited for high volume recovery of the oil types encountered in this spill. The company expects to have more than 100 skimming vessels utilizing the Filterbelt to be in operation on this spill in the coming weeks. The Filterbelt system is adaptable to a variety of marine spill scenarios and is able to recover a very wide range of spills, from light sheens to th...

The 2010 commercial salmon season is set to open the 1st of July after two years of being closed. In anticipation of this opening, US Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary personnel will be walking the docks on the 22nd and 23rd June offering free no-fault exams and safety checks. Examiners are scheduled to be present at Moss Landing, Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, San Francisco, Bodega Bay and Fort Bragg from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Actual times may vary based response from fishermen for exams.Vessels that pass the dockside exam receive a Coast Guard Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Decal. The benefit of obtaining a safety decal is a lower probability of getting boarded at sea. In the event a fishing vessel with a decal does get boarded at sea it may be an abbreviated inspection. Fishing vess...

By David RowlandTier 2? Tier 3? Interim Tier 4? Tier 4? To many of us, the aforementioned are meaningless terms. Thanks to EPA, these terms will haunt main engine, generator set and auxiliary power unit purchasers in future years, along with acronyms such as EGR, SCR, DOC, DPF, and a multitude not mentioned.In the past, there’s been a lot of confusion, and sometimes misinformation about how diesel engines are affected by the EPA tier system. Going to the EPA website only furthers, in my opinion, the confusion. After trying to decipher the language the website used, which I strongly suspect deviates from US English, I determined their postings were only decipherable with the assistance of a couple of attorneys and a cadre of engineers. Continued pondering of these websites might, in my opin...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are taking additional steps to enhance inspection measures designed to ensure that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico reaching America’s tables is safe to eat.The federal government, in conjunction with Gulf states regulatory agencies, is playing an active role in ensuring the safety of seafood harvested from federal and state waters. The federal government, led by FDA and NOAA, is taking a multi-pronged approach to ensure that seafood from Gulf waters is not contaminated by oil. The strategy includes precautionary closures, increased seafood testing inspections and a re-opening protocol. “Closing harvest waters that could be exposed to oil protects the public from potentially contaminated se...

A month after being awarded an international environmental certification, Alaska flatfish species are receiving new attention from seafood buyers and restaurateurs. After a three-year comprehensive evaluation, the fisheries earned Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. Their products are now eligible to bear the MSC ecolabel recognizing that the seafood is harvested from a sustainable and well-managed fishery."The Alaska Seafood Cooperative (AKSC) recognized what a strong story there was to tell about stewardship and sustainability in the management of Alaska's flatfish fisheries. MSC certification allows us to better distinguish our products from others while also positioning us as a model for flatfish fishery management around the world," said John Gauvin, fisheries science proj...

The Seattle Times reported this week on word from the Washington State Fish and Wildlife office in Vancouver about some huge sockeye numbers being seen in the Lower Columbia River.The 25,011 sockeye counted at Bonneville Dam on Sunday, June 20 was the second highest single-day count since at least 1938. The record is 27,112 fish on July 7, 1955.The total number of sockeye that have passed up Bonneville Dam so far this summer is 82,055. The count at The Dalles Dam is 38,830; at the John Day Dam it is 21,354; at McNary Dam it is 9,199.This summer the preseason forecast calls for 125,200 sockeye back to the Columbia River. Of that the majority of are destined for the Okanogan River with a smolt-based forecast of 110,300.The rest of that 14,300 will be heading back to the Wenatchee River and t...