Issue: August 2022

With commercial fisheries underway and a forecast of a record sockeye salmon harvest of 74 million fish, harvesters had already delivered over three million salmon by mid-June as hundreds of fishermen and processor workers headed west to Bristol Bay to await the anticipated red salmon surge. Of the 3.3 million salmon listed in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s 2022 Preliminary Alaska Commercial Salmon Harvest blue sheet report more than 2.4 million of them were from the state’s western region, including 1.8 million sockeyes, 386,000 pink, 182,000 chum and about 1,000 each of Chinook and coho salmon, the bulk of them from the Alaska Peninsula. Kodiak area fisheries were also starting up, with some 218,000 salmon, including 169,000 sockeyes and 42,000 chum salmon delivered to proce...

A new brochure produced by the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network details the impact of ocean acidification on all life stages of red king crab. Lab studies have shown juveniles are in the most sensitive stage and that the overall response of the red king crab to ocean acidification will likely be determined by how well that group fares. The brochure, which is available at https://tinyurl.com/yus58kv8, notes that when king crab sensitivities are combined with predicted future acidification levels based on current carbon emissions, negative effects emerge in Bristol Bay red king crab in about 20-30 years. Still, scenarios including strong global emissions reductions show that conditions for crab remain favorable in Alaska longer into the future. Network officials also noted that resea...

A major promoter of wild Alaska Pollock plans to announce by mid-September matching grants for its latest round of partnership funding in a competition to expand markets for wild Alaska Pollock products worldwide. All proposals are due to Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) by Aug. 12. “The global food sector is now, perhaps more than ever, ripe for disruptive innovation and break-through promotions,” GAPP Chief Executive Officer Craig Morris said. GAPP’s research has identified key growth areas for wild Alaska Pollock that are of particular interest in this round of funding. Specifically, the organization has said that it will give particular emphasis to programs that take place in “favorable” or “very favorable” conditions as identified by Wild Alaska Pollock 2040 research. GAP...

U.S. Coast Guard cutter Douglas Denman, the 24th Fast Response Cutter built by Bollinger Shipyards in Key West, Fla., will be homeported in Ketchikan, Alaska. The 154-foot-long cutter will have a crew of 24, according to the USCG. Coast Guard officials accepted the vessel in Key West in late May, at a ceremony attended by Denman’s son, Doug Jr., daughter Karen and the elder Denman’s grandchildren and their families. The Coast Guard is in the midst of a Fast Response Cutter (FRC) acquisition program to replace aging Island-class 110-foot patrol boats. The vessels feature advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance equipment and an over-the-horizon cutter boat. Douglas Denman is designed for multiple missions, including law enforcemen...

Bob Desautel, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Global Seas and Nina Fisheries, has been selected to serve as chairman of the board for the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP), replacing outgoing chair Mikel Durham of American Seafoods. GAPP CEO Craig Morris said Desautel has plans to redouble previous efforts to increase industry investment in the nonprofit focused on promoting wild Alaska Pollock in major whitefish markets worldwide. Desautel was an active harvester in the North Pacific from 1978 to 2000. In 1994, he co-founded Nina Fisheries, which expanded globally to Chile and Argentina four years later. In 2001, Desautel co-founded Global Seas, a subsidiary of Nina Fisheries, which became one of the West Coast’s premier vessel management comp...

The Bristol Bay Fishermen’s Association, which represents some 300 commercial drift gillnetters and setnetters, have come out in opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest proposed action on the Pebble mine, saying it would not protect the Bristol Bay watershed. In a statement issued on the eve of the fishery’s 2022 opener, which is one of the world’s largest runs of wild sockeye salmon, BBFA spokesman David Harsila said the association cannot support the EPA’s “weak and watered down 2022 proposed determination on Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act. “The watershed will not be protected, and a large-scale mining operation could still be permitted,” Harsila said. “We demand that EPA do more to protect the Bristol Bay drainages.” The Seattle-based BBFA, which describes...

An accomplished artist from the Czech Republic who has spent years in the maritime industry at Unalaska plans to erect a life-sized Fishermen Memorial at the Carl Moses Boat Harbor in 2023, honoring lives lost in pursuit of the Bering Sea’s bounty. The memorial would include life-sized statues of long-line, crab and cod harvesters, on an octagon shaped, five-foot high base constructed of a stainless steel frame, adorned with stainless steel sea-life figures. The names of vessels and lives lost are planned to be displayed on the memorial on plaques and in other creative ways, according to the artist, Karel Machalek. Machalek was born and raised in the former Czechoslovakia, which is now the Czech Republic. There he learned to weld and worked as a tradesman. The city of Unalaska has alr...

A 42-foot trawler caught fire off the coast of Mansanita Beach, Oregon, near Nehalem Bay State Park, on June 18 and burned to the waterline, but the only person on board, who was rescued by a nearly fishing vessel, escaped injury, U.S Coast Guard officials  said. The survivor, the captain and owner of the vessel, was transferred to a Coast Guard response boat and brought to shore, according to the USCG. The incident was first reported by the publication The Maritime Executive, which quoted BM1 Aaron Harris of the Coast Guard Tillamook station as saying “the captain was very, very lucky that there was another boat on scene to assist him; otherwise he would’ve been in a lot of trouble.” “More than likely if that other boat hadn’t been there, he would’ve been forced to enter the water an...

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced May 27 that his office, working with California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), would pursue a civil prosecution of a commercial fisherman for unlawfully fishing in the North Farallon Islands State Marine Reserve, a highly protected Marine Protected Area. California Fish & Game Code section 12012.5 makes it a misdemeanor to fish in a Marine Protected Area and imposes fines ranging from $5,000 to $40,000 for the first offense. Marine Protected Areas are discrete geographic marine or estuarine areas designed to protect or conserve marine life and habitat. Taking any fish from them is unlawful. “Protecting the environment is a key part of promoting public safety for our community,” Boudin said. “The State Marine Reserve...