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Cora Campbell, president and CEO of Silver Bay Seafoods, returned to her hometown of Petersburg as guest speaker Saturday evening at the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet. Over the course of about 20 minutes, she drew a through-line from the town's 1897 founding to the hard lessons of the 2023 salmon crisis - and outlined an optimistic slate of value-added products she said will soon be flowing through the Petersburg plant. "As pink salmon goes, so goes the economy," Campbell told...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously Monday to formally oppose three proposals before the Alaska Board of Fisheries that would impose broad restrictions on Alaska’s private nonprofit salmon hatchery system — measures that Assembly Member Bob Martin, who brought the resolution forward, called the latest iteration of proposals that fisheries stakeholders across the region have consistently fought off. Resolution 2026-06 directs opposition to Board of Fisheries Proposals 170, 171 and 172, which are scheduled for consideration at the...
January 2025 The Petersburg Borough Assembly agreed to transfer seven parcels of borough-owned land in the Airport Addition Subdivision to Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA) in exchange for the developing road and utilities for 11 residential lots. The snowpack at the Raven's Ridge snow survey site at 1,650 ft elevation measured zero inches. One of only two years on record without snowpack in January. Rock-N-Road Construction was awarded the contract for the borough's Pump Station...
The 2025 Southeast Alaska Purse Seine Fishery closed in early September with just under 20 million pink salmon landed - well below the forecast of 29 million and marking the lowest odd-year harvest since the 1980s. "Fair to say that the season was a disappointment as far as pink salmon harvest goes," said Troy Thynes, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Region I Management Coordinator. The disappointing harvest adds pressure to an industry already facing high fuel costs, inflation, and low...
A group of volunteers searched the south end of Mitkof Island for European green crab on July 18, looking for any sign that the highly invasive species had reached central Southeast Alaska after other sightings southward. After a couple hours of scouring a rocky beach near Woodpecker Cove for crab carapaces (molted shells), there was a close call with a live green crab that the group captured. Sunny Rice, an agent of marine conservation group Alaska Sea Grant, hurried over to inspect it. After...
King Salmon: The Blind Slough/Wrangell Narrows Terminal Hatchery Fishery has been ongoing since May 15th with catches improving each day and peaking in a couple weeks. The majority of marine waters in the Petersburg / Wrangell area are open to king salmon retention by June 15. The exception to that are waters adjacent to the Stikine River which will not open until July 15. King salmon regulations have changed since last year. We have a separate set of regulations for the Blind Slough / Wrangell Narrows Terminal Harvest Area, Anita Bay, Gunnuk...
After a poor showing last year, Alaska’s statewide commercial salmon harvest appears poised for a rebound, according to projections by state biologists. This year’s total salmon harvest is expected to be more than twice as big as last year’s total, thanks primarily to stronger returns of pink salmon, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s annual statewide run forecast and commercial harvest projection. The report was released this week. The department’s projected 2025 total harvest is 214.6 million fish, above the 2000-2023... Full story
Southeast Alaska fishermen filled the Ted Ferry Civic Center in Ketchikan on Tuesday to ask the seven-member Alaska Board of Fisheries to grant them opportunities in state-managed fisheries for all "finfish" species, namely Chinook salmon and herring, that sustain communities, industries and cultural traditions regionwide. The Board on Tuesday heard more than seven hours of public testimony regarding fisheries for salmon and trout species, as well as herring, that are the subject of 87...
January 2024 A prized Mental Health Trust lot by Blind River Rapids, a popular recreation site for sport fishing, was sold at auction to a USCG family. Toler and Jessie Alexander are eager to return to Petersburg after retiring from the Coast Guard in a few years. The borough listed its top priority capital projects, and the Petersburg Medical Center replacement was first and second on the list – for the main hospital construction and the main hospital interior build out. Petersburg Indian A...
On Monday the Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution opposing a proposal coming before the Board of Fish two months from now which seeks to reduce the production of hatchery chum and hatchery pink salmon in Southeast Alaska by 25 percent. Max Worhatch, a Petersburg commercial salmon fisherman, addressed the assembly at the start of Monday’s meeting “to voice the commercial fishing industry’s support of a resolution to oppose the Board of Fish Proposal 156.” “Hatchery production has long been an important element of the vi...
State and federal fisheries managers predict that Southeast Alaska fishermen will harvest about 29 million pink salmon in 2025, making for an “average” harvest based on catch data going back to 1960. The prediction comes from a joint National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries/Alaska Department of Fish and Game 2025 Southeast Alaska Pink Salmon Harvest Forecast that ADF&G released last Tuesday. NOAA and ADF&G forecast that throughout the 2025 commercial salmon season, seine, gillnet and troll fishermen across Southeast Alaska wil...
Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) officials hear that processors have mostly cleared out their overflowing inventories of Alaska salmon from the 2022 and 2023 seasons, but the problem remains that Americans don’t buy enough seafood to sustain consistently profitable sales, particularly in years of strong salmon runs. And while last year’s problem was an oversupplied market, which pushed prices paid to fishermen to as low as 20 cents a pound for pink and chum salmon, this year’s harvest may come up short of a robust supply, Greg Smith...
September 2, 1949 – Convicted on three out of six counts brought against him by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Frank Richardson, 72, was sentenced Wednesday by U. S. Commissioner Dale H. Hirt to thirty days in federal jail and fined a total of $750.* Richardson was apprehended on August 19 in Blind Slough by FWS Enforcement Agent L. J. Dugger. On that occasion the 45-year resident of West Petersburg was charged with fishing above the markers, using more than one net, using a gillnet, and fishing without a license or boat registration. On...
Lifted on a yellow forklift, Jeff Randrup pulls the chord of the steam whistle at the OBI plant to signal the milestone achievement of processing 100,000 cases of pink salmon this season. The whistle bellowed throughout downtown just past noon on Monday, Aug. 12....
August 1, 1924 – Petersburg claims to have the best postmaster in Alaska. No matter what hour a boat comes in, Sunday or any other holiday, it is soon in the boxes after being received in the post office. In any other employment, save that of the government, such faithful service would bring its own reward. Measuring the pay they get, postmasters can hardly be blamed sometimes for not working except as required by the regulations. Postmaster Otness, however, has the old fashioned idea that he is here to serve the public. Such public servants a...
Federal disaster aid is on the way for some commercial fishing permit-holders in Haines and throughout the state, though many may be too wrapped up in the current season to apply for it right away. Applications for crew and subsistence users are currently available online. Unique applications for permit-holders and processors from the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission were mailed out on June 26 and are due August 24. The commission says those who have not received a hardcopy...
An emerging seafood company is preparing to purchase its first loads of pink and chum salmon from a handful of seine boats in Metlakatla this summer while also building a high-tech floating freezer barge at a Washington shipyard that the company plans to operate in Southeast Alaska next year. Circle Seafoods, which was founded by Pat Glaab, Charlie Campbell and Eren Shultz, is renting out a portion of the Metlakatla Indian Community’s Annette Island Packing Co. plant this year while starting up a statewide operation that’s geared at buying and...
Earlier this month the Alaska Department of Fish and Game notified the public of the verified expansion of invasive European green crab distribution in Alaska waters after finding 11 molted carapaces on the shore of Bostwick Inlet, Gravina Island on June 13. First found in Alaskan waters in July 2022, green crab are considered one of the top 100 worst invasive species globally by the International Union for Conservation and Nature due to their predatory tendencies and their rampant destruction...
Commercial purse seine fishermen in Southeast Alaska this month are preparing for an interesting summer salmon season with no confidence that they will earn a good price for the pink and chum salmon that they catch, and with seafood processing companies Silver Bay Seafoods and E.C. Phillips and Son each starting out their first year of operations in the former Trident Seafoods plants in Ketchikan and Petersburg, respectively. Southeast seine fishery openings will kick off for the 2024 season...
Consumers think of seafood as a premium purchase, which is not a good image when household budgets are tight and shoppers are worried about inflation. "The problem is not the fish," said Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. "The challenge is in the global marketplace." Woodrow in February called the 2023 market for Alaska salmon "rock bottom" with low prices and weak demand, though maybe the industry was coming off that rocky bottom, he said then. Now,...
King Salmon: Last weekend represented the start of three area hatchery produced king salmon angling opportunities in the area. The Wrangell Narrows Terminal Harvest Area (THA) near Petersburg offers the chance to catch king salmon returning to Crystal Lake Hatchery. Since these are hatchery produced king salmon, not wild stock, opportunity exists for both resident and nonresident anglers to harvest bag limits of 2 kings 28 inches or greater in length and 2 kings under 28 inches in the specific area of the saltwater portion of the THA. For a...
Steelhead: The steelhead fishing season has now peaked and is beginning to wind down. Opportunity still exists and should continue through the next few weeks. The rain that began this week is exactly what the fish needed. Steelhead are now dispersed throughout the systems instead of being held up in only the deep holes. The month of May can on occasion offer that beautiful balance of finding the remaining steelhead while fishing in warmer weather than the colder month of April. Dolly Varden and Trout: Dolly Varden and trout are now abundant...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported last week that commercial fishermen caught a total of 66.6 million salmon in Southeast Alaska during 2023, including both naturally returning and hatchery-produced salmon of all five species. Last April, Fish and Game estimated that Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen would take just about 31.6 million fish in 2023. The actual commercial harvest more than doubled that projection; fishermen's 2023 catch topped the department's estimate by 35 million fish. The high 2023 catch beat out 2021, the...
E.C. Phillips & Son Inc. is taking ownership of Trident Seafood's plant in Petersburg. The sale will be completely finalized in April. Trident announced on March 15 that the Ketchikan-based seafood processing company is buying the Petersburg plant along with its main bunkhouse, cookhouse, and two housing units. A spokesperson from Trident told the Pilot in an email that Trident and E.C. Phillips are "fully focused on completing due diligence and finalizing the transaction." Trident and E.C....
Trident Seafoods reported last Friday it was “entering the final stages of closing deals for three of its Alaska shoreside plants,” including its operations in Ketchikan and Petersburg. On Wednesday, Trident announced that an agreement has been reached “in principle” for Silver Bay Seafoods to acquire the Trident processing plant in Ketchikan. A buyer for Petersburg’s plant has not yet been officially named, but rumors are circulating that an announcement to that effect is expected to happen this Friday. Seattle-based Trident Seafoods...
