Tag: alaska

Annual Wild Alaska Pollock Meeting Slated for Sept. 26 in Seattle
4Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Annual Wild Alaska Pollock Meeting Slated for Sept. 26 in Seattle

Global seafood market issues including roe and surimi will be up for discussion when the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) holds its sixth annual meeting at the W Hotel Seattle in Seattle on Sept. 26. Speakers from major global surimi manufacturers, as well as food and menu innovation professionals, are on the agenda to discuss the state of global markets for wild Alaska pollock surimi and roe, to challenge attendees to think differently about the future for these products. “It’s no secret that the surimi and roe markets have been challenged in recent years,” GAPP Chief Executive Officer Craig Morris said. With conditions continuing to evolve globally and this year’s meeting theme centered around harvesting opportunity, Morris said this is the time to brin...
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Alaska Commercial Salmon Harvest Reaches Nearly 92 Million Fish
28Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Alaska Commercial Salmon Harvest Reaches Nearly 92 Million Fish

Fishermen from the Alaska Peninsula to Southeast Alaska delivered more wild salmon to commercial fishing tenders during the past week, bringing the preliminary statewide commercial salmon catch to nearly 92 million fish. That included some 41 million sockeye, 35 million pink, 14.8 million chum, 745,000 coho and 217,000 Chinook salmon. Earlier this year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game had forecast a potential harvest of 135.7 million fish, including 39.5 million sockeye, 69 million pink, 24.3 million chum and 2.6 million coho salmon. In the westward region, deliveries to Kodiak of 8.6 million fish included nearly 7 million pink, 1.2 million sockeye, 482,000 chum, 42,000 coho and 1,000 kings, while from the Alaska Peninsula the catch reached a new total of 4.8 million fi...
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Appeals Court Decision Allows SEAK Trollers to Keep Harvesting
21Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Appeals Court Decision Allows SEAK Trollers to Keep Harvesting

Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen facing a potential shutdown of a lucrative salmon fishery are currently free to fish while NOAA Fisheries revises a biological opinion dotted with procedure errors, according to an Aug. 16 ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court gives the fisheries service until Dec. 1 to produce a new biological opinion, a decision that brought relief to harvesters, but dismay to the Wild Fish Conservancy in Seattle. However, Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game Doug Vincent-Lang said that once the new biological opinion is released it's “fresh for litigation” again. Amy Daugherty, executive director of the Alaska Trollers Association in Juneau, said her organization of some 400 fishermen was very relieved “that the district cour...
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Congressional Delegation Voices Renewed Concern Over Transboundary Mines
21Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Congressional Delegation Voices Renewed Concern Over Transboundary Mines

Alaska’s congressional delegation is raising renewed concern with the Biden administration over environmental pollution issues from existing and planned British Columbia mines along the Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers flowing into Southeast Alaska and Tongass National Forest. In an Aug. 16 letter to President Joe Biden, the delegation renewed its plea for action in the wake of the recent heap leach pad failure at the Eagle Gold Mine in central Yukon. The facility uses a cyanide solution to percolate through ore to dissolve the gold. The delegation, consisting of Republican U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, noted that it has been advocating for years for binding protections and financial assurances to protect these salmon rich rivers. With...
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American Seafoods Launches Western Alaska Community Partnership Program
7Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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American Seafoods Launches Western Alaska Community Partnership Program

American Seafoods has announced a community partnership program to aid Western Alaska communities through annual donations to select entities to fund community projects that address food security and other pressing social needs. The program, rebranded as American Seafoods Community Partnership, involves an increase from $90,000 to $150,000 annually, with $75,000 total to be awarded every six months. Since 1997, American Seafoods has granted over $2 million to organizations and programs in Alaska. American Seafoods CEO Einar Gustafsson said the program began in 1997 out of a desire to help Alaskan communities. “Over the years, American Seafoods’ contributions have made a significant impact, and we look forward to continuing forward as we sustainably harvest wild Alaska pollock,...
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Alaska’s Overall Commercial Salmon Harvests Climb to Nearly 50M Fish
24Jul By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Alaska’s Overall Commercial Salmon Harvests Climb to Nearly 50M Fish

Alaska Department of Fish and Game's 2024 preliminary commercial salmon harvest total rose to nearly 50 million fish over the past week, as the harvest of all five species of Pacific salmon were counted. As of Monday, July 22, the ADF&G Blue Sheet showed a harvest of 49.7 million salmon overall, including 36.8 million sockeye, 5 million pink, 7.6 million chum 167,000 Chinook and 72,000 coho. The bulk of the harvest -- nearly 40 million fish -- is in the Central Region, and includes nearly 30 million Bristol Bay salmon, 8.6 million salmon in Prince William Sound and 1.2 million salmon in Cook Inlet. Bristol Bay fishermen in the Nushagak District have delivered to processors nearly 12 million sockeyes, plus 197,000 chum, 2,000 Chinook and 1,000 pink salmon. In the Naknek-Kvi...
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Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Issues Final Report
17Jul By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Issues Final Report

A final report detailing research needs for Alaska salmon recommends applied research on seven matters related to salmon productivity, from climate warming and extreme events to predators and freshwater habitat changes. and marine harvest. The report was released July 12 by NOAA Fisheries. Under climate and extreme events, for example, the task force recommended research to understand and quantify the effects of natural environmental variability and warming climate on Alaska salmon distribution and abundance. Under marine harvest, it recommends research to better understand the frequency of occurrence and mortality rate of direct and discards attributed to unobserved fishing mortality, including illegal, unreported and unregulated harvest. An Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim working ...
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Nushagak District Leads Bristol Bay Harvest, Where Overall Catch Reaches Nearly 25M Fish
17Jul By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Nushagak District Leads Bristol Bay Harvest, Where Overall Catch Reaches Nearly 25M Fish

Commercial harvesters in Bristol Bay's Nushagak District have brought in nearly 11 million salmon to date in the 2024 fishery, and with the other bay districts have delivered a total of more than 24 million pounds of salmon to processors. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game notes that the statewide catch estimate for the commercial salmon fishery reached 38.2 million pounds as of July 1, up from 25 million salmon on July 9. It's been a tough season for commercial fishermen in the Naknek-Kvichak district, however. ADF&G biologist Travis Elison, in Dillingham, says the anticipated run forecast of 5.5 million salmon is likely to end up being below two million fish, and what happened to the rest of the forecasted run is unknown. Elison said the last time the Naknek-Kvichak ...
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Commercial Alaska Salmon Catch Reaches 23M Fish
9Jul By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Commercial Alaska Salmon Catch Reaches 23M Fish

Commercial harvester catches in Alaska’s statewide salmon fishery are off to a slow start this season, but have reached in excess of 23 million fish, say officials with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The catch includes over 15 million sockeyes from Bristol Bay, with over eight million sockeyes from the Nushagak District. The Egegik and Naknek-Kvichak districts each also contributed nearly three million red salmon. Egegik/Ugashik area biologist Aaron Tiernan said while the surge is yet to come, harvesters have been bringing in well over one million salmon a day for the last week. They delivered about 1.6 million fish to processors on July 3, 2.5 million fish July 4, 2.5 million fish on July 5, 1.9 million fish on July 6, and 1.5 million fish on July 7, he said. Elsewhere in th...
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Commercial Catch of Alaska Salmon Climbs to 9M Fish
3Jul By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Commercial Catch of Alaska Salmon Climbs to 9M Fish

Commercial salmon gillnetters, seiners and setnet harvesters delivered upward of 9.2 million salmon to processors through the eve of Independence Day in fisheries from Southeast, Central and Westward regions of Alaska. Through July 1, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s estimated statewide harvest included 6.8 million sockeyes, 1.9 million chums, 278,000 pinks and 76,000 Chinook salmon. ADF&G earlier had forecasted harvest of all commercial species of salmon at about 135.7 million fish. In Bristol Bay, home of the world's largest run of wild sockeye salmon, ADF&G predicted a total run of 39 million fish and a maximum daily harvest capacity of 2.36 million fish a day, sustainable for about 18 days. The preseason survey showed that total intended purchases were l...
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