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As Alaska lawmakers continue their struggle to keep the state afloat, commercial fisheries dodged a bullet that would have removed millions of dollars from its budget. An obscure procedural action within the capital budget called a 'reverse sweep' prevents dozens of program-specific pots of money from being automatically drained into the budget reserve, as Governor Dunleavy aimed to do. "The sweep is money that is not spent in a single year. In this case, it comes from certain sources, such as...
Wrangell District Ranger Clint Kolarich, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, is closing the June 21 – July 31, 2019 Federal subsistence Sockeye Salmon fishery in the Stikine River. The closure will be effective Sunday, July 21, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. and will remain in effect through the rest of the 2019 season which ends July 31. The 2019 preseason forecast for the Stikine River is 90,000 Sockeye Salmon which is below the average 153,000 fish. The forecast includes 66,000 T...
Sea otters are considered by many people to be an adorable animal, an important part of the ecosystem, and also a nuisance that is threatening other marine life populations in Southeast Alaska. In Wrangell, many people have talked about the need for better population control when it comes to otters. The Wrangell Borough Assembly talked about loosening restrictions on hunting the creatures last September with Sebastian O'Kelly, a federal lobbyist. Back in May, fifth-grade student Brody Knecht...
Fisheries fare better than most people in terms of Governor Mike Dunleavy’s budget cuts. Just under one million dollars was cut from the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, leaving it with an $85 million budget, half from state general funds. “To give the governor credit, he recognized the return on investment,” said Doug Vincent-Lang, ADF&G Commissioner. “It’s a theme I had all the way through the legislature that we take a $200 million budget of which about $50 million is unrestricted general funds and...
For this season, about 532,000 salmon have been commercially harvested in the Southeast Alaska region, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Blue Sheet that is updated daily. Chum salmon make up a major portion of that number at 205,000 harvested. About 163,000 pink salmon have been harvested so far, with 80,000 Chinook salmon harvested. Coho and sockeye salmon have the lowest numbers at 31,000 and 53,000 harvested this season respectively. The gillnet fisheries began opening up...
One fisheries item that appears to have escaped Governor Mike Dunleavy’s veto pen so far is his desire to divert local fish taxes from coastal communities into state coffers. Dunleavy’s initial budget in February aimed to repeal the sharing of fisheries business and landing taxes that towns and boroughs split 50/50 with the state. Instead, all of the tax revenues would go to the state’s general fund – a loss of $28 million in FY 2020 to fishing communities. “There is a recognition that these are viewed as shared resources, and they should be...
The biggest fish story for Alaska’s salmon season so far is the early plug of pinks at the South Alaska Peninsula. By June 28, over 8 million pink salmon were taken there out of a statewide catch of just over 8.5 million. Previously, a catch of 2.5 million pinks at the South Peninsula in 2016 was the record for June and last year’s catch was just 1.7 million Managers at the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game at Sand Point said at this pace, this month’s catch could near 10 million pinks. “It’s unheard of, really,” ADF&G’s Elisabeth Fox told KDLG...
Alaska Fish and Game biologist Troy Thynes has accepted the role of regional management coordinator for commercial fisheries, which is the first time the position has been held in Petersburg. Thynes has been with the Petersburg Fish and Game office since 2000 when he took a job as a fish and wildlife technician. After a year, he transferred to the area management department as an assistant. In 2009, he took over as area management biologist for the Petersburg and Wrangell area. Now he oversees...
Last Thursday, June 20, members of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the Forest Service, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and local volunteers all converged on the beach of east Wrangell, near Channel Island, to dissect a dead gray whale that had washed ashore. Kate Savage, once a veterinarian in Wrangell but now working with NOAA, said that an Unusual Mortality Event is occurring all along the Pacific Coast, from Alaska to Mexico. There...
Salmon dominates the summer fishing headlines but it’s among many other fisheries going on throughout the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. Alaska’s salmon season has gotten off to a mixed start, with strong catches in some regions over the past month and dismal hauls in others. Good harvests have continued at the Copper River and more recently throughout Prince William Sound. That’s not been the case at Kodiak, Cook Inlet and Chignik where fishing is off to a very slow start. Trollers are targeting Chinook salmon in Southeast, and other salmo...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game have announced sport fishing regulations for king salmon in the areas near Petersburg, Wrangell, and Kake that are opening to the harvest of king salmon after being closed for Southeast Alaska wild king salmon conservation. In the waters adjacent to the Stikine River (District 8 and a portion of Eastern Passage near Wrangell; see attached Map No. 1): July 15 - December 31: Alaska resident: The bag and possession limit is two king salmon, 28 inches or...
Alaska fishermen are still awaiting disaster relief funds for the 2016 pink salmon run failure, which was the worst in 40 years. Congress approved $56 million that year for Alaska fishermen, processors and communities hurt by the fishery flop at three Alaska regions: Kodiak, Prince William Sound and Lower Cook Inlet. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and NOAA Fisheries finalized plans and procedures for payouts last August. Since then, the paper push has stalled on various federal agency desks. NOAA Fisheries missed a promised June 1 sign...
In her 100 years on the water, the Charles T has only had three owners: Earl Ohmer with Alaskan Glacier Seafoods, Chuck Harris and James Eastwood. The Charles T was built in Bellingham, Washington in 1919 and was purchased by Earl Ohmer as a shrimper and a tender for his Alaskan Glacier Seafoods fleet. He purchased the Charles T in the early 1920s and brought her to Petersburg. He named her Charles T after his father Charles Thomas Ohmer. She stayed with Alaskan Glacier Seafoods until the 1980s...
WRANGELL - A brown bear has been killed by Wildlife Troopers and Forest Service personnel after a run-in with a group of Alaska Crossings campers just north of Berg Bay, across the narrows on the mainland near Wrangell. According to information provided by Public Information Officer Ken Marsh, with the Alaska State Troopers, the encounter occurred on Sunday, May 26, around 3 a.m. A brown bear wandered into the Crossings camp and began rummaging through the group's food. The group had a bear...
SITKA - Aaron Phillips of Petersburg was the $1,000 Sablefish tag recovery drawing winner. Other drawing winners of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game 2019 annual tag recovery incentive drawing for stable fish tag returns are: 1. Dick Curran, Sitka, $500 2. Stephen Rhoads, Sitka, $500 3. Jason Hammer, Port Townsend, WA, $250 4. James Hubbard, Seward, $250 5. Frank Balovich, Sitka, $250 6. Michael Erb, Anchorage, $250 All persons who return an ADF&G sablefish tag receive a tag reward (i.e....
Shrimp shines in the Panhandle - Southeast Alaska is the state’s biggest producer of America’s #1 seafood favorite: shrimp. And much of it is enjoyed right where it’s landed. Four varieties of shrimp are taken at various times throughout the year by permit holders, with recent catches topping 1.5 million pounds, worth $3 million at the docks. “We have 19 different areas around Southeast and each has its own appropriate harvest level for sustainability,” said Dave Harris, area manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Juneau. C...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced May 23, sport fishing regulations for Alaska hatchery-produced king salmon in areas near Petersburg and Wrangell. Wrangell Narrows/Blind Slough Terminal Harvest Area Described as that portion of Wrangell Narrows south of 56° 46' N. latitude (Martinsens's dock) and north and east of the northern tip of Woewodski Island and includes the freshwaters of Blind Slough upstream of a line between Blind Point and Anchor Point. The following regulations...
In his 46 years as Alaska’s lone representative in Congress, Don Young helped toss out foreign fishing fleets from Alaska’s waters with the onset of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) in 1976, and today he is intent on doing the same with offshore fish farms. The MSA established an ‘exclusive economic zone’ (EEZ) for U.S. fleets fishing from three to 200 miles from shore. Now, a bill introduced by Young aims to stop the Trump Administration’s push to use those waters for industrialized fish farming operation...
Nearly all Alaska salmon permits have gone up in value since last fall and buying/selling/trading action is brisk. “We’re as busy as we’ve ever been in the last 20 years,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. “Boat sales are doing well and between IFQs and permit sales, we’ve got a busy year going.” The salmon permit interest is fueled by a forecast this year of over 213 million fish, an 85 percent increase over 2018. Also, salmon prices are expected to be higher. For the bellwether drift permit at Bristol Bay, the value has in...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Health and wildlife officials are taking steps to prepare for potentially dangerous parasites that could gain a foothold because of Alaska’s warming climate. Non-native ticks represent a threat to wildlife and people because they can carry and transmit pathogens, said Micah Hahn, an assistant professor of environmental health with the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage. “Things are changing really rapidly in Alaska,” she said. “It’s really important for us to establish a...
Between 2013 and 2016, the deer population on Mitkof Island was on an upward trend, according to Stephen Bethune, Unit 4 area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game based in Sitka. It is difficult for ADF&G to survey the exact number of deer on Mitkof Island, so it tracks population trends over a several year period, according to Bethune. To determine the trends, ADF&G uses deer pellet surveys, hunter harvest rates and aerial surveys. Between 2004 and 2008, the deer...
The Panhandle plans to be the next Alaska region to give new life to old fishing gear by sending it to plastic recycling centers. The tons of nets and lines piled up in local lots and landfills will become the raw material for soda bottles, cell phone cases, sunglasses, skateboards, swimsuits and more. Juneau, Haines, Petersburg and possibly Sitka have partnered with Net Your Problem to launch an effort this year to send old or derelict seine and gillnets to a recycler in Richmond, British Columbia. “We’re going to be working in a new loc...
Alaska fishermen could catch 85 percent more salmon this year (nearly a hundred million more) if state forecasts hold true. That’s good news for fishermen in many Gulf of Alaska regions who in 2018 suffered some of the worst catches in 50 years. The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game is predicting a total salmon catch of 213.2 million fish for 2019, compared to about 116 million salmon last year. The increase comes from expectations of another big haul of sockeyes, increases in pinks and a possible record catch of chum salmon. The harvest b...
Juneau - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the 2019 sport fishing regulations for king salmon in Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. These regulations will be effective 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, April 2, 2019 through 11:59 p.m. Friday, May 1, 2020. The regulations are: • Alaskan Resident o The resident bag and possession limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length. • Nonresident o The nonresident bag and possession limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length; o Fro...
So disgusted To the Editor: I am so disgusted with the arrogant attitude to "balance the budget in one year" going on. We have all worked for years together to make Alaska a better place for our families. Yes, we have all worked together and no one expected to not pay taxes. We have not worked for PF Dividend, other than to live in Alaska (believe me, that is abused too) I firmly believe we need to reintroduce Income Tax and have "Skin In The Game" as the saying goes. Many of us campaigned to...
