Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 360
Halibut prices for Alaska fishermen for 2021 have started out significantly higher than last year, despite sluggish demand and transportation logjams in some regions. The Pacific halibut fishery opened on March 6 and two weeks later only 80 deliveries were made, 46 at Southeast ports and 34 from the Central Gulf, totaling 355,524 pounds. Most landings appeared to be small lots that were purchased on consignment. The first fish typically fetches higher prices and then drops off as the season progresses. No Alaska ports reported paying under $5...
By Patrick Wilson, retiring OBI Seafoods Petersburg plant manager and Nik Wendel, current OBI Seafoods Petersburg plant manager Petersburg Fisheries has been the cornerstone of the community since 1965 when the town pooled their resources and bought the processing plant that was about to go under. It was the partnership of members of the community and commercial fishermen that has helped keep our facility running over the past 55 years. Now under OBI Seafoods, we continue to keep this spirit as... Full story
The Pacific halibut fishery opens on March 6 and increased catch limits combined with a cautiously optimistic outlook for the near future have fanned interest in buying shares of the popular fish. In January, the International Pacific Halibut Commission boosted total halibut removals for 2021 by 6.5% to 39 million pounds for all users and as bycatch in fisheries of the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska. That is higher than the total take for the past three years. For commercial fishermen, the halibut catch limit of 25.7 million pounds is...
Seafood sales “are on fire” in America’s supermarkets and one king salmon from Southeast Alaska is worth the same as two barrels of oil. ($116.16 for a troll caught Chinook salmon averaging 11 pounds at the docks vs. $115.48 for 2 barrels of oil at $57.74/barrel on Feb.3) As more Covid-conscious customers opted in 2020 for seafood’s proven health benefits, salmon powered sales at fresh seafood counters. Frozen and “on the shelf” seafoods also set sales records, and online ordering tripled to top $1 billion. Those are some takeaways from a Nati...
Pacific halibut harvesters got some rare good news last week: increased catches in 2021 along with a longer fishing season. At its annual meeting that ended on January 25, the International Pacific Halibut Commission boosted the coastwide removals for 2021to 39 million pounds, a 6.53% increase over last year. It includes halibut taken in commercial, sport, subsistence, research, personal use and as bycatch for fisheries of the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska. A total of 278 individual Pacific halibut stakeholders attended the meeting...
The single biggest hit to fishermen from the Covid-19 virus is lower dock prices, according to Alaska and West Coast harvesters, and 98% said their businesses have been badly bashed by the pandemic. That's based on survey results compiled by Ocean Strategies, a public relations firm that focuses on fisheries that helped profile the Pacific region for a larger federal study. Nearly 400 fishermen responded to the short, confidential survey launched last November, said senior consultant Hannah...
Is it a coincidence that one of the world’s largest mineral deposits is located near the world’s largest sockeye salmon spawning grounds at Bristol Bay? And if the likes of a Pebble Mine removed the bulk of those deep deposits that also create the world’s magnetic field, could it disrupt the salmons ability to find their way home? A study, funded by Arron Kallenberg of Homer, founder/CEO of Wild Alaskan Company and a third generation Bristol Bay fisherman, aims to find out. “It’s not even been 10 years since we’ve discovered that salmon, sea...
The guideline harvest level (GHL) for the 2021 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery is 33,304 tons of mature herring; however, based on input from processors involved with the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery, it is expected that the commercial harvest in 2021 will not exceed 20,000 tons. The 2021 GHL was calculated by reducing the Age Structured Analysis (ASA) derived GHL by 21%, which approximates the harvest level available if the number of age-5 fish is 75% of that projected. This precautionary approach in determining the GHL takes into a...
This year marks the 30th year that the weekly Fish Factor column has appeared in newspapers across Alaska and nationally. Every year it features “picks and pans” for Alaska’s seafood industry - a no-holds-barred look back at some of the year’s best and worst fishing highlights, and my choice for the biggest fish story of the year. Here are the choices for 2020, in no particular order - Best little known fish fact - Alaska’s commercial fisheries division also pays for the management of subsistence and personal use fisheries. Biggest fishing t...
Alaska coastal communities will get a bit of an economic boost in 2021 from increased catches of Pacific cod. The stock, which crashed after a multi-year heat wave starting in 2014 wiped out several year classes, appears to be rebounding throughout the Gulf of Alaska. No cod fishery occurred at all this year in federally managed waters (from three to 200 miles out) where the bulk of the harvest is taken, and a catch of under six million pounds was allowed in state managed waters (out to three miles). For 2021, the North Pacific Fishery...
Frozen sockeye salmon strips bring tasty nutrition and relief to teething babies. The lightly seasoned salmon strips, made mostly from Bristol Bay reds, are the third product made by Bambino’s Baby Food of Anchorage that is aimed at getting more seafood into the mouths of babes. “I always kind of giggle because it’s not going to be just for the little ones. I’m sure mom and dad and elder brother or sister are going to be gnawing on those as well,” said Zoi Maroudas, Bambino’s founder and operator. “I also wanted to honor our indigenous fa...
The number of boots on deck in Alaska has declined and most fisheries have lost jobs over the past five years. Overall, Alaska’s harvesting sector ticked downward by 848 jobs from 2015 through 2019. A snapshot of fish harvesting jobs is featured in the November edition of Alaska Economic Trends by the state Dept. of Labor. The findings show that after hitting a peak of 8,501 harvesters in 2015, fishing jobs then fell to around 8,000 for the next two years before dropping again in 2018 to about 7,600. In 2019, average monthly fishing e...
Last week, the Alaska Marine Highway Reshaping Group released a report it had been working on for several months throughout the pandemic. Even though this group has finished it’s task, I will continue to work to find ways to increase ferry service and reliability throughout Southeast Alaska and the rest of our state, at a level that is sustainable, functional, safe, and efficient. The Reshaping Group made several recommendations, many of which focused on the need for the ferry system and the ferry budget to focus on long-term service goals, r...
Phillip Martin Odegaard, 67, died on Oct. 6, 2020 at Providence Hospital in Anchorage. He was born Aug. 10, 1953 to Barbara and Palmer Odegaard in Petersburg, Alaska and was the middle child of three boys. When he was two years old, the family moved to Washington and at age 11 he came back to Petersburg to fish with his Grandpa Chris. It was then that he fell in love with the water and fishing. He purchased his first house in Petersburg at the age of 18 and bought into his dad's boat at the age...
Many Alaska fishermen are likely to be involved in regulatory meetings next spring instead of being out on the water. And Alaska legislators will be distracted by hearings for hundreds of unconfirmed appointments as they tackle contentious budgets and other pressing issues. New dates have been set for state Board of Fisheries meetings that were bumped from later this year due to corona virus concerns. During the same time, along with four unconfirmed seats on the fish board, the Alaska legislature also will be tasked with considering nominees...
Light-weight collapsible pots prevent whales from pirating pricey black cod from longline hooks and give a break to small boats. "Getting whaled" is so pervasive fishery managers allowed black cod (sablefish) fishermen to switch from baited lines to rigid pots in the Bering Sea in 2008 and in the Gulf of Alaska starting in 2017. (Interestingly, killer whales rob the hooks in the Bering Sea, while sperm whales are the culprits in the Gulf.) "The whale predation has just been so horrible," said...
Now that the 2020 pack of Alaska salmon has been caught and put up, stakeholders will get a better picture of how global prices may rise or fall. Nearly 75% of the value of Alaska’s salmon exports is driven by sales between July and October. And right now, lower supplies of wild Pacific salmon by the major producers are pushing up prices as the bulk of those sales are made. For sockeye salmon, global supplier and market tracker Tradex reports that frozen fillets are in high demand and supplies are hard to source for all sizes. With a catch t...
It was inaction on health care that ultimately made Dr. Al Gross of Juneau decide to challenge Republican Dan Sullivan, who is running for a second, six-year term to represent Alaska in the U.S. Senate. Gross, who has opted for the Independent ticket, has fished his whole life, his four kids have fished to pay for college, and he left a 20 year career as an orthopedic surgeon to get a degree to go to work in public health. His campaign claims Dr. Gross has the "Prescription for Change." "As a...
Alaska’s seafood industry stakeholders have a four bagger chance to provide input on policy decisions that directly affect their livelihoods: trade, relief payouts for cod and salmon, Board of Fisheries meeting plans and appointees. For several, the window of opportunity is tight. Here is the line-up according to the deadline dates for comments: 1. Trade input - By August 1 suggestions are invited for a newly-established seafood trade task force to be chaired by the U.S. Trade Representative and the Dept. of Commerce. The chance to provide i...
The global seafood industry will experience lasting impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, including reduced demand and pricing. That is the conclusion of the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report produced every two years by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the only report that tracks global fisheries and food trends. This year it included a special focus on the pandemic which has toppled seafood markets and supply chains around the world. The report forecasts that global seafood production will be down...
A traveler coming into town through the James A. Johnson Airport has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a joint statement between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center released on Wednesday afternoon. The individual is a guest at Rocky Point Resort and has been at the lodge since his arrival from out of state earlier this week, according to the press release. The lodge guest did not have symptoms of COVID-19 upon arriving in Alaska. This new case of COVID-19 brings the...
Unexpected upheavals stemming from the coronavirus have slowed the process of getting relief payments into the hands of fishermen and communities hurt by the 2018 Gulf of Alaska cod crash. In late February, the Secretary of Commerce cut loose $24,416,440 for affected stakeholders. Then in late March, Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang proposed a written timeline for developing a distribution plan and also called for input from communities and fishing groups. A draft of the initial plan was intended to compile...
All systems are go for keeping close tabs on fish and crab stocks in waters managed by the state, meaning out to three miles. While constraints from the coronavirus resulted in nearly all annual stock surveys being cut in deeper waters overseen by the federal government, it’s “closer to normal” closer to shore. “While it’s not business as usual, we are conducting business in as close to normal fashion as we can,” said Forrest Bowers, deputy director of the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. “We have kept all...
Surveys of Alaska's fish, crab and halibut stocks in the Bering Sea have been called off or reduced due to constraints and dangers posed by the coronavirus. In what they called an "unprecedented" move, NOAA Fisheries announced in late May that five Alaska surveys will be cancelled this summer "due to the uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the unique challenges those are creating for the agency." NOAA said in a statement that they found "no way to move forward with a survey plan...
Ocean Beauty Seafoods LLC and Icicle Seafoods, Inc. will be merging their wild salmon and Gulf of Alaska groundfish operations effective June 1, the two companies announced in a joint-statement on Friday, May 29. Both companies will each own a 50 percent stake in the new company, which will be called OBI Seafoods LLC. The company looks to modernize processing facilities and combine marketing product expertise. The merger has been in the works since the fall of 2018, said Mark Palmer, president a...
