Winter king salmon trolling was slow in Southeast Alaska for much of this past year, very slow, but the commercial catch brought sustained, record-high prices. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the fleet landed just under 26 thousand, four hundred kings during the winter season, which runs from mid-October through April. The state manages the winter fishery with a 45,000 king cap.
The Copper River salmon season began early Thursday amid windy, dreary weather. But the gray skies didn't stop Alaska's commercial fishermen from crowding the waters to participate in one of the state's most renowned wild salmon runs, a highly prized stock of kings and reds famous in Alaska and the Lower 48.
The Alaska Airlines plane arrived early this morning with Copper River king and sockeye salmon from three seafood processors: Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Trident Seafoods and Copper River Seafoods. At least four more Alaska Airlines flights today will transport salmon from Cordova, Alaska, to Anchorage, Alaska, Seattle and across the United States.
The salmon fry that resided in Margaret Lake this winter have matured and are already being placed in their new locations. The Kodiak Regional Aquiculture Association began raising the salmon in one of Kodiak’s local lakes in August of 2012.
One of the major fuel suppliers in the Bristol Bay region is looking at expanding to provide a place for large marine vessels to be stored in Dillingham. KDLG's Mike Mason has the details.
The Bristol Bay, Alaska commercial salmon fishery is the world’s most valuable wild salmon fishery and in total produces an astounding annual value of $1.5 billion, according to a new report, “The Economic Importance of the Bristol Bay Salmon Industry.” The fishery supports a significant number of jobs in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, and the total value of Bristol Bay salmon product exports in 2010 was $252.3 million, accounting for nearly 6% of the total value of all U.S. seafood exports that year.
It might still feel like winter but Alaska's 2013 salmon season will officially get underway on May 16, when the first runs of reds and kings are scheduled to arrive at Copper River.
The salmon fishery in Alaska's Bristol Bay region contributes more than $1 billion to the national economy and helps support roughly 10,000 jobs, according to a new report commissioned by opponents of the Pebble LP mining project.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is set to take final action in Juneau in June on Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon bycatch in non-pollock trawl fisheries and freezer longline sideboards for Pacific cod sideboards.
An Anchorage based Community Development Quota group wants a greater share of Alaska’s deep sea fisheries. The Coastal Villages Region Fund, which represents 20 villages in Western Alaska, has asked the state’s Congressional delegation to make changes in how the fisheries quotas are allocated, but critics call the plan “reckless” and say it could endanger the entire CDQ program.
With the opening of the Copper River wild salmon fishery less than a week away, restaurants in Seattle and Anchorage plan entrée specials and fish mongers' phones are ringing steadily with buyers wanting a taste of those succulent fish.
Anchorage - The Bristol Bay, Alaska commercial salmon fishery is the world’s most valuable wild salmon fishery and in total produces an astounding annual value of $1.5 billion, according to a new report, “The Economic Importance of the Bristol Bay Salmon Industry.” The fishery supports a significant number of jobs in the four West Coast states, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, and the total value of Bristol Bay sa
Ever since the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) updated its Bristol Bay Area Plan for land use management in 2005, there has been debate about what should and should not be considered the best use of the land. And as the proposed Pebble Mine became clearer in scope, some Bristol Bay residents became more and more concerned about what the plan's revisions were designed to accomplish.
It looks like there won’t be a Chinook subsistence fishery on the Stikine River this year. Officials this week closed the annual opening, scheduled for May 15th to June 20th. (The Stikine is a transboundary river flowing from British Columbia to the ocean near Wrangell and Petersburg.)
The start of Alaska’s 2013 commercial salmon season came into view on Thursday, eclipsing all other news for a pocket of the Alaska salmon industry that rakes in as much as $30 a pound or more for the first catches of the year — the Copper River District.
As the hours of daylight ascend and temperatures rise, Alaska’s rivers are opening back up to welcome home returning salmon. Sport and personal-use anglers are readying their gear in anticipation of the summer fishing season. While the preseason forecast for sockeye salmon is robust for the Kenai River, projections for Kenai kings are one of the lowest on record for both the early and late runs.
Last year, an unprecedented 12-day King salmon fishing closure on the Kuskokwim River devastated the subsistence harvest of the fish. Instead of taking about 75,000 Kings as usual, residents only caught 20,000. However, this year should be different.
