Alaska Waypoints | Navigating Alaska's Fishing Industry

The purse seine salmon fishermen in the PSVOA and Silver Bay Seafoods - which became the client for a new MSC assessment of Alaska salmon, have a tiger by the tail, and it just bit them.

The humble pollock, great cash fish of the north, conquered the world through the flaky bland hegemony of a fish stick. At more than $1 billion a year, there is no bigger fishery for human consumption on the planet.

Abysmal king salmon returns to the Kenai River already have fisheries managers curtailing fishing in one of Alaska's most popular fisheries -- and wondering what's next.

The establishment of a new artisanal commercial fishery in Alaska could improve food security for the state, according to authors of a newly published article in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.

This week a number of representatives from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, also known as ASMI, are in town for an annual meeting to discuss how to better market Alaska seafood around the world. ASMI has a presence in about 21 countries worldwide, with representatives on the ground promoting the state’s bounty. A handful of those individuals spoke on KMXT’s Talk of the Rock yesterday and explained exactly what their job entails, and what seafood varieties are favored in different countries.

A small handful of researchers with the University of Alaska recently published a study that tries to shed some light on why some Alaskan’s can’t get enough locally caught seafood to make themselves “Food Secure”. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the story.

Three technicians will man the towers 24/7 to help ADF&G produce an escapement estimate for the Wood River. At 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game began counting salmon escapement from towers on the Wood River. KDLG's Dave Bendinger reports on the mechanics of the operation, which has been in existence since 1956.

All indications are that the Egegik District is the 1 district in Bristol Bay that is seeing a substantial amount of sockeye and the district apparently features a very large fleet ready to fish. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the details.

Chignik Lagoon hopes to see construction started on a small hydroelectric project that, within a year or two, ought to provide 90% or more the village's electrical needs. As KDLG's Dave Bendinger reports, this is one of several alternative energy projects being studied or under development in the Lake and Peninsula Borough.

It’s back to the drawing board for halibut iTags that will soon tell us more about where the fish travels than ever before. The internal tags, which were deployed in 30 halibut two years ago, were the first to test Smart Phone geomagnetic advances to track the migrations of fish. The tags record magnetic field strength on three axes and have accelerometers and pitch and roll detectors, explained Tim Loher, a biologist with the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

Some 843,000 sockeyes and 7,200 king salmon have been harvested to date in the Copper River District and a 36-hour commercial opener was under way June 17, on the heels of an abundant catch this past week. - See more at: http://www.thecordovatimes.com/article/1325copper-river-sockeye-harvest-...

Duke Moscrip, the owner of Duke's Chowder House in Seattle, is pleased to introduce "Duke's Premium Halibut." Harvested from the cold waters near Kodiak, Alaska, Duke's Premium Halibut is "better than fresh" because it is ice chilled at the source and processed immediately after harvest, making it more consistent with a just-caught fresh flavor.

We’ve talked a lot about the excellent sockeye salmon run since the season started just over a week ago – but while the reds are running strong, the pinks are the real money fish in these parts. So what’s their outlook? “The pink salmon forecast overall, is about 17-milllion,” said James Jackson, the Fish and Game salmon management biologist in Kodiak.

The first commercial fishing effort in the Nushagak District occurred last Friday night. By all accounts those who participated had a good night of fishing. KDLG’s Mike Mason reports.

A deck hand is missing after falling overboard off a Juneau fishing vessel in southeast Alaska. KINY-radio reports the man fell Monday night from the Swift, which was working the chum salmon fishery in Icy Strait 30 miles west of Juneau. The only other person on board was the skipper. The Coast Guard says the skipper launched a dinghy to help the man in the water and he too fell in.

The Gulkana Hatchery is still standing. Floodwaters that threatened to wash away the small Richardson Highway hatchery south of Summit Lake last week have subsided and the manager is optimistic the facility will be functional by the time salmon return to the hatchery spawn in August.

Halibut scientists plan to expand the yearly stock assessments by 30% next summer, adding 390 survey stations to the existing 1,300. The stations are located coast wide from Oregon to the Bering Sea. Since 1998 the halibut surveys have been done in a depth range of 20 to 275 fathoms where most of the fishing was taking place. But that’s been changing.

Traditional commercial net fisheries in Southeast Alaska will kick off the season Sunday. This year’s pink salmon harvest forecast is 54 million, which is double last year’s forecast. Since 2006, Davidson says pinks have established an every-other-year cycle of strong and weak runs.

The Port Moller Test Fishery continues to produce high index numbers leading to speculation that the Bristol Bay sockeye run is either early or large. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the details.

With the summer peak season just around the corner, early June saw a number of initial openings for commercial salmon fishing in Southwest Alaska. While the major influx of Western Alaska's sockeye run is still to come, fishermen on the southside have begun to get their nets wet.

As salmon season gears up in Western Alaska, a large group of scientists have come together to encourage stronger protective measures on the other side of the state.

A barge line plans to return to service in southeast Alaska. Sitka-based Samson Tug and Barge is looking to capitalize on changes among competitors in southeast, CoastAlaska reported. Samson used to serve the timber industry, but as the industry shrank in Southeast, the company began carrying cargo to and from Seattle, Prince William Sound, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak and two ports in Aleutian Islands.

This version of the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report includes 2 stories from the recent BB-RSDA Annual Meeting and a story about a new tool to help retrofit some of the Bay's smaller driftnet vessels. The Report also includes an update on the Bristol Bay Jobs Accelerator Project and the latest information from the Port Moller Test Fishery. The host for this version of the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report is KDLG News Director Mike Mason.

The organization that represents all of the driftnet permit holders in Bristol Bay started an effort earlier this year to gauge the interest of drifters in reducing the size of the overall fleet. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the details.

Saturday's Bristol Bay Fisheries Report includes an update from the ongoing Port Moller Test Fishery and a report about the results of a survey of drifters about fleet reduction efforts. The report also includes a story about the Bristol Bay Jobs Accelerator Project and an update on the BB-RSDA's anti-mining campaign. Saturday's report was hosted by KDLG News Director Mike Mason.

The first commercial opening in the Nushagak District will occur Friday evening. As KDLG’s Mike Mason reports… fishermen will be targeting one of the healthiest king salmon runs in the state.

The purse seine salmon fishermen in the PSVOA and Silver Bay Seafoods - which became the client for a new MSC assessment of Alaska salmon, have a tiger by the tail, and it just bit them.

Abysmal king salmon returns to the Kenai River already have fisheries managers curtailing fishing in one of Alaska's most popular fisheries -- and wondering what's next.

The first commercial fishing effort in the Nushagak District occurred last Friday night. By all accounts those who participated had a good night of fishing. KDLG’s Mike Mason reports.

The Port Moller Test Fishery continues to produce high index numbers leading to speculation that the Bristol Bay sockeye run is either early or large. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the details.

As salmon season gears up in Western Alaska, a large group of scientists have come together to encourage stronger protective measures on the other side of the state.

The first commercial opening in the Nushagak District will occur Friday evening. As KDLG’s Mike Mason reports… fishermen will be targeting one of the healthiest king salmon runs in the state.

Nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington and Oregon sent a letter this week to President Obama expressing their strong support for protecting the jobs and salmon resources in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. They join five Western senators who earlier sent a letter to the White House stating their grave concerns about the vast mining proposal under review by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

From KMXT in Kodiak, it's the Alaska Fisheries Report!

June 13: Coming up this week, news of chinook and coral gardens from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting, both sides are far apart in Togiak herring prices, and listen up, mariners, some of your Marine Forecast Zones will be changing this fall. We couldn’t have done it without the help of Seafood.com’s John Sackton in Lexington, Massachusetts, APRN’s Alexandra Gutierrez in Juneau, and KUCB’s Stephanie Joyce in Unalaska.

June 06: Coming up this week, herring fishing continues up the west coast, we get an update about what’s going on out in Adak, and Senator Murkowski breaks her silence on Arne Fuglvog’s new career, and some good king crab new. We had help from KDLG’s Mike Mason and Ben Matheson in Dillingham, and KUCB’s Stephanie Joyce in Unalaska.

May 30: Coming up this week: Togiak herring wrapped up, cannery workers in Platinum will be making bank this summer, and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is set to make a final decision on Gulf King bycatch. All that, and yes, more fish-smuggling in the news – at least this time it wasn’t in their pants. The Alaska Fisheries Report came together this week through the fishy reporting of KDLG’s Dave Bendinger and Ben Matheson in Dillingham, and KFSK’s Matt Lichtenstein in Petersburg.

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