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Seafood is by far Alaska’s top export and as it heads overseas, global politics play a big role in making sales sink or swim. That dynamic took center stage last week when Russia banned imports of foods for one year from the US, Canada, Europe, Norway and Australia in retaliation for sanctions imposed due to its aggressive actions in Ukraine. It is a direct hit to Alaska, which last year exported nearly 20 million pounds of seafood to Russia, valued at more than $60 million. The primary product it hurts is pink and chum salmon roe; Russia is a...
Fishermen won’t need special permits to hose off their decks thanks to a bill moving through the US Senate. That’s garnered a big sigh of relief from harvesters across the nation and kudos to a rare show of bipartisanship by coastal lawmakers, notably Senators Begich of Alaska and Marco Rubio of Florida. “The Vessel Incidental Discharge Act extends a moratorium that was already granted to the commercial fishing industry from 2008, and it’s been up every couple of years. It would extend this moratorium indefinitely so commercial fishing vessels...
July 3 Jessica Cummins appeared before Magistrate Judge Burrell on a charge of Driving Under the Influence. The defendant entered a not guilty plea. The court set a $500 bond and ordered Cummins not to consume or be present in a place where alcohol is sold among other conditions. July 7 Victor Torres appeared before Magistrate Judge Burrell on a charge of Unlawful Contact. The defendant entered a plea of not guilty. The court issued a $500 cash-only bond and ordered he make no contact with the victim of the related case. July 8 Craig Verne...
Salmon takes center stage in Alaska every summer, but many more fisheries also are going on all across the state. The world’s biggest sockeye salmon run is expected to surge into Bristol Bay any day, where a catch of about 17 million reds is projected. Elsewhere, the annual summer troll fishery in Southeast Alaska kicks off on July first with a target of just over 166,000 Chinook salmon. Lots of crab fisheries are underway each summer— Dungeness fishing began on June 15 in Southeast where a harvest of 2.25 million pounds is expected. The reg...
Salmon prices at wholesale show marked seasonal variations for both wild and farmed fish. It’s a pattern that has been tracked for decades by Urner Barry, the nation’s oldest commodity market watcher in business since 1895. The prices tend to decline through June, July, August and September and they begin rising again from November through the following April or May. Two things drive the well-established pattern, said market expert John Sackton who publishes Seafood.com, an Urner-Barry partner. “There’s a growth cycle for farmed salmon when th...
Salmon will always be the heart of Alaska’s fisheries. That’s why many people think of summer as “the fishing season.” But that’s not the case. The deep of winter is when Alaska’s largest fisheries get underway each year. On January first, hundreds of boats with hook and line gear or big pots will begin plying the waters of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska for Pacific cod, rockfish and other groundfish. Then on January 20th trawlers take to the seas to target Alaska pollock, the world’s largest food fishery with harvests near three billion...
Alaska’s seafood industry worked hard again in 2013 to ramp up its message to policy makers, most of whom still tend to overlook the industry’s economic significance to the state and beyond. What is that message? That “the industry” is made up of thousands of small businesses – the fishing boats that each supports one or several families. That the seafood companies in coastal towns provide one of the state’s biggest tax bases. And together, fishing and processing provide more jobs in Alaska than oil/gas, mining, tourism and timber combined. S...
Juneau — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announces that the season for the commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Registration Area A (Southeast) will close in most areas by regulation at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, November 30, 2013, consistent with 5 AAC 32.110. Districts 1 and 2, and Section 13-B outside of the Sitka Sound Special Use Area [5 AAC 32.150(10)] will remain open until February 28, 2014. For those areas that close at 11:59 p.m. on November 30, all Dungeness pots must be removed from the water except that pots may be stored on t...
Kodiak’s waterfront is bedecked with hundreds of “7 by’s” as boats stack their pots and gear up for the big crab fisheries in the Bering Sea. The Bristol Bay red king crab season is set to open on October 15, with a harvest of 8.6 million pounds, similar to last year. A reopened Tanner crab fishery will produce a three million pound catch; the numbers for Bering Sea snow crab, Alaska’s largest crab fishery, will be out next week. The fisheries are set to open on schedule, said Heather Fitch, regional manager for ADF&G at Dutch Harbor. However,...
News that mining giant Anglo-American plans to withdraw from the Pebble Mine project was greeted with joy by opponents who hailed it as a victory for the people of Bristol Bay and for the region’s resources. Pebble would be the largest gold and copper mine in North America, and its location looms over the world’s biggest sockeye salmon fishery at Bristol Bay. But even though London-based Anglo has pulled out of the Pebble Partnership, Northern Dynasty Minerals of Canada still remains. And they insist the project is still very much alive. “Th...
September 13, 1913 – While patroling the beach a short time ago, a life saver by the name of Blackbery of Mansfield, Or., came across a lump of peculiar substance weighing about 85 pounds, but paid no attention at the time and went on his way. After he got home he remembered the material he had been so careless with resembled a picture he had seen of ambergris, which brings $1000 a pound. Blackbery rushed back to the beach and took the substance home. He sent a piece to David Starr Jordan of California, who declared, after an examination, t...
September 10 Harlan Freeman appeared before Magistrate Burrell on a charge of Unlawful Retention of Undersized King Salmon. The defendant entered a guilty plea. The court sentenced Freeman to pay a $500 fine, $150 restitution, $10 in surcharges and to forfeit the fish. September 9 The court issued a 20-day stalking order against Lisa Wallen on behalf of Julia Brusell. The court denied the same order against Shirley Lee on behalf of Brussell. September 4 In the case involving State v Kate Einerson, Einerson appeared before Judge Carey on charges...
Alaska salmon catches are poised to blow past the pre-season forecast of 179 million fish due to a plug of pinks that is coming in stronger than expected. “We are going to be short on sockeyes by five million or so, and we’re probably not going to make the chum salmon numbers either. So we’ll have to go over with pinks, but at the rate things are going that is entirely possible,” said Geron Bruce, deputy director of Fish and Game's Commercial Fisheries division. As of Friday the total pink salmon catch had surged to nearly 114 million (the fo...
If a picture is worth a thousand words, get ready for millions of undersea images - brought to you by a handmade, high definition undersea camera. “Alaska Cam Sled is a towed imaging system that takes a lot of high resolution pictures of the bottom of the ocean,” said Gregg Rosenkranz, a state scallop biometrician based in Kodiak. Rosenkranz and his colleague Rick Shepherd built the cam sled, which lets them experience a live stream of the sea floor while onboard a research vessel. They hail it as a non-invasive way to observe and collect dat...
July 11 — Alaska Wildlife Troopers cited Alan Mooney, of Petersburg, for having Unlawful Buoy Markings on his personal use Dungeness gear. Bail is set at $110 with an optional appearance in Petersburg District Court....
The rules that govern our nation’s fisheries are being retooled so it’s reassuring that Congress isn’t traveling in uncharted seas. Over 80 percent of Alaska’s fish landings hail come from federally managed waters, and the Magnuson-(Ted) Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is the primary law ruling US fisheries. The Act is undergoing reauthorization for the first time in seven years. First enacted in 1976, the MSA “Americanized” the fisheries by booting out foreign fleets to beyond 200 miles from our shores. It created the nation...
June 21, 1913 – From far Alabama: The Herald is in receipt of a newspaper from the far away city of Petersburg, Alaska. This paper was found in our mail of Wednesday and presents quite a neat appearance. It is a four page, five column folio, printed on a good quality of paper and shows a good business, judging from the amount of advertising that appear in its columns. The name of the paper is “The Progressive.” It is published weekly and one very noticeable feature about it is the subscription price, which is $2.50 per anum, payable in advan...
Amidst the salmon fisheries starting up all across the state, several Alaska crab seasons also get underway each summer. In mid-June, the summer Dungeness crab fishery opens in the Panhandle, as does red king crab at Norton Sound. Those are followed in August by golden kings along the far flung Aleutian Islands, which might soon take the title as Alaska’s largest king crab fishery. Unlike other Bering Sea crab stocks, surveys on golden kings have been limited due to distance and high costs. The deep water stocks have sustained a fishery for 3...
Salmon set net families were streaming out of Kodiak all week, heading to their summer sites to get ready for the June 9 season opener. Their departure wrapped up a busy week of Memorial Day festivities on “the rock,” including festivals, fleet blessings, a landslide on Cannery Row and visits by both of Alaska’s US Senators. I caught up with Sen. Lisa Murkowski over a beer at Kodiak Island Brewery; she spoke candidly on several hot button fisheries related topics. It’s well known that Murkowski and the rest of Alaska’s congressional delegatio...
Stikine River mineral development To the Editor: This letter is to inform Petersburg residents of an important presentation coming to our community next week. On Wednesday, May 22, Guy Archibald of SEACC and Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders will be giving a very informative power point presentation on the proposed mineral development up the Stikine River. The following night there will be an informal question and answer gathering. Both events will be at the Council Chambers, starting at 7...
April 16 Jeb Phillips, age 25, of Petersburg, pled no contest to a violation of one count of Possession of Undersized Golden King Crab. Phillips, the commercial permit holder on the F/V Lone Fisherman, was cited by Alaska Wildlife Troopers on March 17 when undersized Golden King Crab were observed in his delivery to a fish processor. Phillips was fined $3,000 with $2,250 suspended and placed on one year of probation. April 16 Kevin Hess, age 40, of Petersburg, was cited by Alaska Wildlife Troopers Petersburg Post for retaining undersized...
A new plan is being crafted by federal managers for Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries that will reduce bycatch by trawlers, and it will very likely result in a catch share plan. Now is the time for fishing residents to make sure the new program protects their access to local resources and sustains, instead of drains, their coastal communities. Currently, the plan includes trawlers in the Central Gulf and both trawl and pot cod gear in the Western Gulf. “Catch share programs certainly can benefit the long term viability of the resource in a f...
Several Petersburg fishermen came out to support Senate Bill 60, implementing a $100 bounty on all sea otters taken legally under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Monday evening during the regular meeting of the Petersburg Borough Assembly. The resolution that was proposed by the Assembly at the March 4 meeting was brought back to the table for discussion due to the interest of the residents and fishermen of the area. Local commercial fisherman Max Worhatch was the first to step to the microphone. “On the surface, this may seem like a bill t... Full story
January 23 Gina R. Stafford, 43, was arrested on the charge of violation of conditions of release. January 24 A truck was driven without permission on Sandy Beach Road. January 25 A break-in was reported on S. Nordic Drive. City vehicles were reported running a stop sign at Fourth and Fram Street. Individuals were shooting deer with BB guns on the 500 block of Haugen Drive. A warning was issued for driving without headlights illuminated at First Street and Haugen Drive. January 26 A vehicle window was forced open on Fram Street. A gun was...
