Tag: salmon

Alaska Statewide Salmon Harvest Now Tops 5M Fish
28Jun By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Alaska Statewide Salmon Harvest Now Tops 5M Fish

Commercial fisheries harvests are increasing from Bristol Bay to the westward region fisheries of the Alaska Peninsula and the Kodiak area, with over five million salmon already delivered to processors. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game put the preliminary harvest totals through Monday, June 26 at 2.8 million sockeye, more than two million chum, 182,000 pink and 29,000 Chinook salmon. The total preliminary catch for the central region, including Bristol Bay, Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, stood at nearly 3.6 million fish. Prince William Sound had 2.7 million fish, including 1.8 million chum, 833,000 sockeye, 19,000 pink and 7,000 Chinook, mostly from the Copper River drift district. Bristol Bay, where commercial fishing officially opened on June 1, had some 819,000 ...
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Copper River Reds Still in High Demand
14Jun By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Copper River Reds Still in High Demand

Demand for Copper River sockeye salmon fillets remains high, with some shoppers ordering on average 12-15 pounds of the succulent fish at $12.95 a pound, as salmon aficionados remain mindful that when they’re gone, they’re gone. The celebrated red salmon fillets, in what is well known as the season opener for commercial salmon fishing in Alaska, was selling in mid-June for $11.95 a pound at Costco stores, $12.95 a pound at 10th & M Seafoods, $13.99 a pound at New Sagaya, all in Anchorage, and $29.99 a pound at the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle.   Fishmongers at 10th & M Seafoods in Anchorage said sockeye fillet orders were averaging 12-15 pounds, while at Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market orders were averaging three-to-five pounds.  The online seafood market FishEx in Ancho...
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BBRSDA Offers Updated 2023 Retail Plan for Summer of Sockeye
14Jun By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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BBRSDA Offers Updated 2023 Retail Plan for Summer of Sockeye

The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association laid out its 2023 marketing tool kit in late May in advance of another robust harvest of millions of wild Alaska sockeye salmon. The tool kit, designed for the BBRSDA by Rising Tide Communications in Anchorage, includes grilling instructions, sockeye recipes for salads, burgers, tacos and curried red salmon, detailed harvester profiles, sustainability information and more. The kits also include posters, recipe cards, Bristol Bay salmon informational cards, retail posters of Bristol Bay harvesters and Bristol Bay sockeye salmon stickers which retailers can order online.   The kits are free to everyone selling Bristol Bay salmon, and can be ordered online at https://marketing.bristolbaysockeye.org/point-of-sale-form or by emailing...
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Application Period Opens for Pacific Salmon Commission Grants
31May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Application Period Opens for Pacific Salmon Commission Grants

Applications for four grant fund programs offered through the Pacific Salmon Commission are being accepted for projects to enhance wild salmon stocks and their habitat, with deadlines ranging from Sept. 6 through Nov. 1. The call for proposals for the Southern Endowment Fund, for southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Idaho’s Snake River Basin, as well as the Northern Endowment Funds for the area from Cape Suckling, Alaska, to Cape Caution, British Columbia, is Sept. 6. The annual grant programs support projects related to salmon stocks in the United States and Canada, within the respective geographic areas covered by each endowment fund. These funds are earmarked to support projects aligned with specific goals, objectives and priorities, including improving resource manage...
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Alaska Files New Appeal in Litigation over Southeast Alaska Chinook Salmon Fishery
31May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Alaska Files New Appeal in Litigation over Southeast Alaska Chinook Salmon Fishery

Alaska officials have filed a new motion with the Ninth Circuit Court for a stay of the district court’s vacatur order of the incidental take statement (ITS) for the Southeast Alaska winter and summer commercial Chinook salmon troll fishery. That action this past week (May 26) came on the heels of U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones’s decision denying the state’s request for a stay of his May 2 order vacating the ITS for the fisheries. That order has the practical effect of closing those two fisheries, which are vital to the Southeast Alaska economy, until a new ITS is in place. The litigation began when the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) in Seattle sued National Marine Fisheries Service, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act. The prim...
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NPAFC: North Pacific 2022 Salmon Catch Was Second Lowest of 21st Century
31May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NPAFC: North Pacific 2022 Salmon Catch Was Second Lowest of 21st Century

A preliminary report issued May 19 during the annual meeting of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) in South Korea, says the Pacific salmon harvest in the North Pacific Ocean in 2022 was the second lowest catch of the 21st century. Despite a growth in total catch compared to 2020, even-year pink salmon catch continued to decline to a level last seen from 1988 through 1992. The last time the pink salmon portion of total catch weight equaled 36% was in 1994 and 1996.   The report was compiled using data provided by member countries Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Individual country totals reported were 50% by the United States (352.1 thousand metric tons, of which 342.3 thousand metric tons was caught in Alaska), 37% b...
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2023 Copper River Salmon Fishery Harvest Begins
17May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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2023 Copper River Salmon Fishery Harvest Begins

An above average run of salmon was forecast for the 2023 Copper River commercial salmon opener, which began on May 15, with processors planning to move much of the first catch via Alaska Airlines to the annual ceremonial welcome mat at SeaTac Airport in Seattle. OBI Seafoods and Copper River Seafoods, along with Trident Seafoods, which is marking 50 years in the industry in 2023, were slated to have Chinook and sockeye salmon on the flight to Seattle, arriving on May 16. Trident Seafoods chief executive officer Joe Bundrant said his company is grateful to all the independent fishermen who continue to partner with Trident and deliver the fresh, high quality fish. “Our history of partnership with Copper River goes back many years and we look forward to continuing working together in res...
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Biden Salutes Defense of Bristol Bay Salmon Fishery
17May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Biden Salutes Defense of Bristol Bay Salmon Fishery

President Joe Biden celebrated his administration’s defense of the Bristol Bay watershed and other environmental achievements during a mid-May gathering at the White House’s Rose Garden with Alaska guests including tribal leaders and conservationists. “Bristol Bay is an extraordinary place, unlike anywhere in the world,” Biden said. “Six rivers meet there, traveling through 40,000 miles of tundra, wetlands and lakes, collecting freshwater and salmon along the way … making this the largest sockeye salmon fishery on all the earth.” The president spoke also of a number of other conservation achievements in ceremonies in the Rose Garden on May 11, while concentrating on the importance of the Southwest Alaska watershed where millions of sockeye salmon are harvested every summer by commercia...
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Copper River Commercial Salmon Fishery to Open May 15
10May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Copper River Commercial Salmon Fishery to Open May 15

Commercial fishing for Alaska’s famed Copper River sockeye and Chinook salmon is now set to open May 15 in the state’s Copper River and Bering River districts. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials announced this past week (Friday, May 5) that the two districts’ 12-hour openers would begin at 7 a.m. Alaska time. For the Copper River District, waters within the expanded Chinook salmon inside closure area will be closed for that initial opener.  During the commercial fishing season, subsistence harvest may occur in the Copper River District concurrently in time and area with commercial fishing periods until the Copper River District is closed at the end of the season. “Everyone is excited about it,” Cathy Renfeldt, executive director of the Cordova Chamber of Commerce, said. “Th...
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NMFS, Others to Appeal Decision Halting SE Alaska Salmon Troll Fishery
10May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NMFS, Others to Appeal Decision Halting SE Alaska Salmon Troll Fishery

A commercial salmon troll fishery in Southeast Alaska that contributes millions of dollars to the regional economy is uncertain, with federal fisheries managers and harvesters pitted against an environmental group that contends endangered orca whales need those fish more. The state of Alaska on May 3 served notice of its intent to appeal a two-page ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Jones to close the salmon troll fishery to provide more food for endangered Southern Resident killer whales in Puget Sound. A day earlier, the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff, the Washington State-based Wild Fish Conservancy, in its three-year-old battle to secure more Chinook salmon for the Southern Resident killer whales in Puget Sound. Emma Helverson, executive director of the Wild Fis...
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