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Heavy fishing on chinook salmon by sport fishermen — including nonresident charter customers — is taking fishing opportunity from Southeast Alaska’s commercial troll fishing fleet this summer. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last Tuesday that trollers in August and September will likely lose out on the remainder of the summer troll fishery allocation for Chinook because sport fishermen across Southeast are on track to exceed their summer 2024 allocation by about 14,000 Chinook, and because of a regulation change that the depar...
The Biden administration has rejected a nominee for a key Alaska fisheries management post who could have tipped decisions toward the interests of tribes and conservation groups and away from the priorities of the large-boat, Seattle-based trawl industry. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo skipped over the top choice of Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, conservation advocate Becca Robbins Gisclair, and instead reappointed the last-ranked nominee on a slate of four candidates that Inslee offered: Anne Vanderhoeven, a trawl industry...
A cyanide spill at a major gold mine in the Yukon Territory — high in the Yukon River watershed — has sparked widespread concern in Canada. But Alaska salmon advocates say the mishap isn’t just a problem for Yukoners: The spill happened upstream of a tributary of the Yukon River. The Yukon is Alaska’s biggest transboundary waterway, and residents along its shores who have depended on salmon for generations are already suffering amid crashes of multiple species. Officials on both sides of the border say it’s too early to know the full impact of...
In closely watched oral arguments last Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals indicated that it is unlikely to grant an environmental group’s petition for an order that could halt — at least temporarily — the valuable Southeast Alaska king salmon commercial troll fishery. In May 2023, a judge in the U.S. District Court covering western Washington issued an order stating that federal officials were allowing Alaska fishermen to harvest king salmon at rates that harmed an endangered population of killer whale...
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...
Fishery managers overseeing Alaska’s faltering salmon runs should be able to rely on a more comprehensive and holistic approach to science that considers all habitat, from the middle of the ocean to freshwater spawning streams far inland, according to a task force report on salmon research needs. The report was issued last week by the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force, a group established through a 2022 act of Congress to identify knowledge gaps and research needs. The task force comprises close to 20 members and includes scientists, f... Full story
King Salmon: The majority of king salmon should have now exited saltwater and be heading further up into the freshwater systems to spawn. Still, a potential remains for catching a late spawner at the tail end of the run or a feeder king which are in our area throughout the year. The Wrangell Narrows Terminal Harvest Area (THA) near Petersburg remains open with a 1 king (any size) bag and possession limit for all anglers through July 31st. For a nonresident, this applies to your annual king salmon harvest limit. Anglers are reminded that when...
Suspense can be felt on docks throughout Southeast Alaska as commercial troll fishermen gear up to chase Chinook salmon during the first general Chinook fishing opener of the summer season. Trollers beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, July 1 can target a total of approximately 66,700 Chinook salmon in an opener that will be closed by emergency order when catch estimates approach that harvest target, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last Thursday. Fish and Game estimates that trollers will catch 66,700 Chinook in six to seven...
Fish and Game issued an emergency order last week reducing the harvest opportunity for king salmon in the Wrangell Narrows terminal harvest area. Effective June 15, the possession limit has changed from four king salmon per day - two 28 inches or longer and two less than 28 inches in length - to one king salmon of any size per day. And nonresident annual limits will now apply in this area. Blind Slough freshwater king salmon fishing remains closed for the summer; as does commercial harvest of...
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...
The Biden administration says that listing numerous Alaska king salmon populations under the Endangered Species Act could be warranted, and it now plans to launch a broader scientific study to follow its preliminary review. Citing the species’ diminished size at adulthood and spawning numbers below sustainable targets set by state managers, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced its initial conclusion in a 14-page federal notice on May 23. It said a January 2024 listing request from a Washington state-based conservation group had m...
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...
Days are long and arduous in January and February for trollers fishing Chinook salmon in rough weather conditions. But the "amazing catch rates at good prices" encountered during those months benefitted not only the resident fishermen "out there, grinding away"- but also the overall troll fishery, which harvested over the entire winter allocation of 45,000 king salmon. Grant Hagerman, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) Region I Commercial Troll Management Biologist, told the Pilot that...
In a devastating blow to California’s fishing industry, federal fishery managers unanimously voted on Wednesday to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California for the second year in a row. The decision is designed to protect California’s dwindling salmon populations after drought and water diversions left river flows too warm and sluggish for the state’s iconic Chinook salmon to thrive. Salmon abundance forecasts for the year “are just too low,” Marci Yaremko, the California Department of Fish and Wildl... Full story
Silver Bay Seafoods will acquire the Peter Pan Seafoods plant in Valdez, and operate Peter Pan plants in Port Moller and Dillingham for the 2024 salmon season, the two companies announced last week. The deal with Peter Pan is the second major acquisition Silver Bay has announced in recent days. The company announced its purchase of Trident Seafood’s Ketchikan processing plant in March. A joint news release by SBS and Peter Pan said, “Shifting operations of the two facilities to SBS is a component of a larger restructuring, still being fin...
Silver Bay Seafoods will acquire the Peter Pan Seafoods plant in Valdez, and operate Peter Pan plants in Port Moller and Dillingham for the 2024 salmon season, the two companies announced today. The deal with Peter Pan is the second major acquisition Silver Bay has announced in recent days. The company announced its purchase of Trident Seafood’s Ketchikan processing plant in March. A joint news release by SBS and Peter Pan said, “Shifting operations of the two facilities to SBS is a component of a larger restructuring, still being fin...
The 2024 golden king crab fishery for the East Central management area -which includes the waters around Petersburg- closed after only four days when area fishermen caught more crab than the season's total guideline harvest level set for all of Southeast. Last year, fishermen reportedly observed a golden king crab population boom in parts of Southeast, but the ability to harvest crab was constrained by harvest levels based on earlier years when the population was very low. Meetings in 2023...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery continued Tuesday, with purse seine boats making sets in Neva Straight and Salisbury Sound to the north, and in Deep Inlet, Redoubt Bay and a stretch of outside waters to the south, the Department of Fish and Game said. Until Fish and Game closes it, the commercial fishery will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in those areas, which include a stretch of the outer coast south of Povorotni Point and north of Cape Aspid, but excluding Whale and Necker bays....
The cruise ship summer season is just weeks away - and for Alaska's Little Norway, the harbor is expecting 104 stops from 12 vessels. The first cruise ship is scheduled to arrive in Petersburg on April 27; consistent cruise ship traffic can be expected from May 6 to Sept. 22, with as many as seven port-calls, or stops, in a given week. The cruise ships coming to Petersburg this year are about the same size as recent years - most with a capacity of about 40 to 100 passengers. However, the total...
Emergency federal government assessments are being sought for a spill of more than 105,000 gallons of tailings slurry at the Kensington Mine that occurred Jan. 31, although officials with mine owner Coeur Alaska say no damage to nearby salmon habitats occurred and there are “no long-term effects from this spill.” The spill occurred at a welded joint in a pipeline that likely started as a “pinhole” and increased in size due to pressure from the slurry flow, resulting in a leak that lasted 23 hours, according to a report of the incident published...
Money to purchase an icebreaker for the U.S. Coast Guard to be based in Juneau is in a pending federal defense bill more than a year after similar funding was dropped at the last minute from another budget bill, members of Alaska’s congressional delegation said on Thursday. The pending Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which is part of a broader federal budget bill, includes $125 million to buy an icebreaker to add to the Coast Guard’s meager fleet, the delegation members said. “This is really good news for Alaska, good news for Ameri... Full story
The Department of Fish and Game placed the Sitka Sound sac roe fishery on two-hours notice as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, signaling seiners will have two hours to get ready for the first fishing period in this year’s commercial herring harvest. F&G said surveys continue in the process of locating schools of marketable fish in areas suitable for an opening. Though aerial surveys conducted Tuesday detected no fish, the department spotted large numbers of predators, such as humpback whales and sea lions, along the eastern shore of Kruzof Island, the a...
